Third moments of conserved charges as probes of QCD phase structure

The third moments of conserved charges, the baryon and electric charge numbers, and energy, as well as their mixed moments, carry more information on the state around the QCD phase boundary than previously proposed fluctuation observables and higher order moments. In particular, their signs give plenty of information on the location of the state created in relativistic heavy ion collisions in the temperature and baryon chemical potential plane. We demonstrate this with an effective model.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Minor changes. To be published in Physical Review Letter

Third moments of conserved charges in QCD phase diagram

We point out that the third moments of conserved charges, the baryon and electric charge numbers, and energy, as well as their mixed moments, change their signs around the QCD phase boundary in the temperature and baryon chemical potential plane. These signs can be measured in relativistic heavy ion collisions, and will give clear information on the phase structure of QCD and the state of the system in the early stage of relativistic heavy ion collisions. The behaviors of these moments on the temperature axis and at small quark chemical potential can be analyzed in lattice QCD simulations. We emphasize that the third moments obtained on the lattice, together with the experimental results, will provide a deep understanding about the QCD phase diagram and the location of the state created in heavy ion collisions.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, Contribution to the "XXVII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory", July 26-31, 2009, Peking University, Beijing, Chin

Critical endpoint in the Polyakov-loop extended NJL model

The critical endpoint (CEP) and the phase structure are studied in the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model in which the scalar type eight-quark (\sigma^4) interaction and the vector type four-quark interaction are newly added. The \sigma^4 interaction largely shifts the CEP toward higher temperature and lower chemical potential, while the vector type interaction does oppositely. At zero chemical potential, the \sigma^4 interaction moves the pseudo-critical temperature of the chiral phase transition to the vicinity of that of the deconfinement phase transition.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures embedded, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

Possible Protective Effect of Remote Ischemic Preconditioning on Acute Kidney Injury Following Elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Secondary Analysis of a Multicenter, Randomized Study

Remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) is a promising strategy for protecting against ischemic reperfusion injury. This study is a secondary analysis of a randomized study that aimed to evaluate the effect of RIPC on the early increase in serum creatinine (SCr) following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), which is associ-ated with contrast-induced acute kidney injury. Patients with stable angina undergoing elective PCI were assigned to control, RIPC, and continuous infusion of nicorandil (nicorandil) groups. The endpoint of this study was the incidence of the early increase in SCr, a predictor of contrast-induced acute kidney injury, which was defined as either a > 20% or absolute increase by 0.3 mg/dl of SCr levels after 24 h of PCI. This study included 220 patients for whom a dataset of SCr values was available. The incidence of the early increase in SCr was significantly lower in the RIPC than in the control (1.3% vs 10.8%, p = 0.03) group, but was not significantly different between the nicorandil and control groups. In multivariate analysis, RIPC remained a significant fac-tor associated with a reduction in the incidence of early increase in SCr. RIPC reduces the incidence of early increase in SCr in patients with stable angina following elective PCI

Development and application of a ray-tracing code integrating with 3D equilibrium mapping in LHD ECH experiments

The central electron temperature has successfully reached up to 7.5 keV in large helical device(LHD) plasmas with a central high-ion temperature of 5 keV and a central electron density of1.3×1019 m−3. This result was obtained by heating with a newly-installed 154 GHz gyrotronand also the optimisation of injection geometry in electron cyclotron heating (ECH). Theoptimisation was carried out by using the ray-tracing code ‘LHDGauss’, which was upgradedto include the rapid post-processing three-dimensional (3D) equilibrium mapping obtainedfrom experiments. For ray-tracing calculations, LHDGauss can automatically read the relevantdata registered in the LHD database after a discharge, such as ECH injection settings (e.g.Gaussian beam parameters, target positions, polarisation and ECH power) and Thomsonscattering diagnostic data along with the 3D equilibrium mapping data. The equilibrium mapof the electron density and temperature profiles are then extrapolated into the region outsidethe last closed flux surface. Mode purity, or the ratio between the ordinary mode and theextraordinary mode, is obtained by calculating the 1D full-wave equation along the directionof the rays from the antenna to the absorption target point. Using the virtual magnetic fluxsurfaces, the effects of the modelled density profiles and the magnetic shear at the peripheralregion with a given polarisation are taken into account. Power deposition profiles calculatedfor each Thomson scattering measurement timing are registered in the LHD database. Theadjustment of the injection settings for the desired deposition profile from the feedbackprovided on a shot-by-shot basis resulted in an effective experimental procedure

Extension of the operational regime of the LHD towards a deuterium experiment

As the finalization of a hydrogen experiment towards the deuterium phase, the exploration of the best performance of hydrogen plasma was intensively performed in the large helical device. High ion and electron temperatures, Ti and Te, of more than 6 keV were simultaneously achieved by superimposing high-power electron cyclotron resonance heating onneutral beam injection (NBI) heated plasma. Although flattening of the ion temperature profile in the core region was observed during the discharges, one could avoid degradation by increasing the electron density. Another key parameter to present plasma performance is an averaged beta value $\left\langle \beta \right\rangle$ . The high $\left\langle \beta \right\rangle$ regime around 4% was extended to an order of magnitude lower than the earlier collisional regime. Impurity behaviour in hydrogen discharges with NBI heating was also classified with a wide range of edge plasma parameters. The existence of a no impurity accumulation regime, where the high performance plasma is maintained with high power heating  >10 MW, was identified. Wide parameter scan experiments suggest that the toroidal rotation and the turbulence are the candidates for expelling impurities from the core region

Importance of third moments of fluctuations of conserved charges in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We discuss the importance of third moments of conserved charges around their averages in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Synergistic Effects of Venetoclax and Daratumumab on Antibody-Dependent Cell-Mediated Natural Killer Cytotoxicity in Multiple Myeloma

The prognosis of multiple myeloma (MM) has drastically improved owing to the development of new drugs, such as proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs. Nevertheless, MM is an extremely challenging disease, and many patients are still refractory to the existing therapies, thus requiring new treatment alternatives. Venetoclax is a selective, orally bioavailable inhibitor of BCL-2 that shows efficacy in MM not only as a single agent but also in combination therapy, especially for MM patients with translocation t(11;14). However, many patients are refractory to this drug. Here, we treated the MM cell lines KMS12PE and KMS27 with a combination treatment of venetoclax targeting BCL-2 and daratumumab targeting CD38 to evaluate the synergistic cytotoxicity of these drugs in vitro. MM cell lines were co-cultured with natural killer (NK) cells at an effector:target ratio of 0.3:1 in the presence of serial concentrations of daratumumab and venetoclax, and the resulting apoptotic MM cells were detected by flow cytometry using annexin V. These results indicated that the antibody-dependent cell-mediated NK cytotoxicity was enhanced in KMS12PE and KMS27 cells harboring t(11;14) with a high BCL-2 expression, suggesting that the combination treatment of venetoclax and daratumumab should be especially effective in patients with these characteristics