Implications of the Little Higgs Dark Matter and T-odd Fermions

We study the phenomenology of dark matter in the Littlest Higgs model with T-parity after the discovery of Higgs boson. We analyze the relic abundance of dark matter, focusing on the effects of coannihilaitons with T-odd fermions. After determining the parameter space that predicts the correct relic abundance measured by WMAP and Planck collaborations, we evaluate the elastic scattering cross section between dark matter and nucleon. In comparison with experimental results, we find that the lower mass of dark matter is constrained mildly by LUX 2013 while the future XENON experiment has potential to explore most of the parameter space for both T-odd lepton and T-odd quark coannihilation scenarios. We also study the collider signatures of T-odd fermion pair production at the LHC. Even though the production cross sections are large, it turns out very challenging to search for these T-odd fermions directly at the collider because the visible charged leptons or jets are very soft. Furthermore, we show that, with an extra hard jet radiated out from the initial state, the T-odd quark pair production can contribute significantly to mono-jet plus missing energy search at the LHC

Asthma Exacerbation in Children: A Practical Review

Asthma is the most common chronic lower respiratory tract disease in childhood throughout the world. Despite advances in asthma management, acute exacerbations continue to be a major problem in patients and they result in a considerable burden on direct/indirect health care providers. A severe exacerbation occurring within 1 year is an independent risk factor. Respiratory tract viruses have emerged as the most frequent triggers of exacerbations in children. It is becoming increasingly clear that interactions may exist between viruses and other triggers, increasing the likelihood of an exacerbation. In this study, we provide an overview of current knowledge about asthma exacerbations, including its definition, impact on health care providers, and associated factors. Prevention management in intermittent asthma as well as intermittent wheeze in pre-school children and those with persistent asthma are discussed. Our review findings support the importance of controlling persistent asthma, as indicated in current guidelines. In addition, we found that early episodic intervention appeared to be crucial in preventing severe attacks and future exacerbations. Besides the use of medication, timely education after an exacerbation along with a comprehensive plan in follow up is also vitally important

Differentiation of Foot-and-Mouth Disease-Infected pigs from Vaccinated Pigs Using Antibody-Detecting Sandwich ELISA

The presence of serum antibodies for nonstructural proteins of the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) can differentiate FMDV-infected animals from vaccinated animals. In this study, a sandwich ELISA was developed for rapid detection of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) antibodies; it was based on an Escherichia coli-expressed, highly conserved region of the 3ABC nonstructural protein of the FMDV O/TW/99 strain and a monoclonal antibody derived from the expressed protein. The diagnostic sensitivity of the assay was 98.4%, and the diagnostic specificity was 100% for naïve and vaccinated pigs; the detection ability of the assay was comparable those of the PrioCHECK and UBI kits. There was 97.5, 93.4 and 66.6% agreement between the results obtained from our ELISA and those obtained from the PrioCHECK, UBI and CHEKIT kits, respectively. The kappa statistics were 0.95, 0.87 and 0.37, respectively. Moreover, antibodies for nonstructural proteins of the serotypes A, C, Asia 1, SAT 1, SAT 2 and SAT 3 were also detected in bovine sera. Furthermore, the absence of cross-reactions generated by different antibody titers against the swine vesicular disease virus and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) was also highlighted in this assay's specificit

Common-mode noise reduction schemes for weakly coupled differential serpentine delay microstrip lines

This paper proposes design schemes to reduce the common mode noise from weakly coupled differential serpentine delay microstrip lines (DSDMLs). The proposed approach is twofold: we leverage strongly coupled vertical-turn-coupled traces (VTCTs) instead of weakly coupled VTCTs (conventional pattern) and add guard traces. Time- and frequency-domain analyses of the proposed schemes for reducing the common-mode noise are performed by studying the transmission waveform and the differential-to-common mode conversion using the circuit solver HSPICE and the 3-D full-wave simulator HFSS, respectively. Compared to the conventional design of the weakly coupled DSDMLs, the proposed solutions yield a reduction of about 54% of the peak-to-peak amplitude of the common-mode noise, while the differential impedance remains matched along the complete length of the DSDML. Moreover, the range of frequencies, over which the magnitude of the differential-to-common mode conversion is now significantly reduced, is very wide, i.e. about 0.3-10 GHz. Furthermore, the differential insertion and reflection loss introduced by the newly proposed designs are almost the same as the ones achieved by using the conventional design. Finally, a favorable comparison between simulated and measured results confirms the excellent common-mode noise reduction performance of the proposed schemes

Developing the Effective Method of Spectral Harmonic Energy Ratio to Analyze the Arterial Pulse Spectrum

In this article, we analyze the arterial pulse in the spectral domain. A parameter, the spectral harmonic energy ratio (SHER), is developed to assess the features of the overly decreased spectral energy in the fourth to sixth harmonic for palpitation patients. Compared with normal subjects, the statistical results reveal that the mean value of SHER in the patient group (57.7 ± 27.9) is significantly higher than that of the normal group (39.7 ± 20.9) (P-value = .0066 < .01). This means that the total energy in the fourth to sixth harmonic of palpitation patients is significantly less than it is in normal subjects. In other words, the spectral distribution of the arterial pulse gradually decreases for normal subjects while it decreases abruptly in higher-order harmonics (the fourth, fifth and sixth harmonics) for palpitation patients. Hence, SHER is an effective method to distinguish the two groups in the spectral domain. Also, we can thus know that a “gradual decrease” might mean a “balanced” state, whereas an “abrupt decrease” might mean an “unbalanced” state in blood circulation and pulse diagnosis. By SHER, we can determine the ratio of energy distribution in different harmonic bands, and this method gives us a novel viewpoint from which to comprehend and quantify the spectral harmonic distribution of circulation information conveyed by the arterial pulse. These concepts can be further applied to improve the clinical diagnosis not only in Western medicine but also in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)

Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome Caused by Enteroviral Infection

A 4-year-old boy presented with enteroviral infection complicated with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS). Enterovirus RNA was detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of both blood and kidney biopsy specimens. A survey of the complement system did not reveal a specific complement defect. Supportive therapy with blood components transfusion, plasma therapy, and immunosuppressants was administered, however, renal function did not recover. The results of this report demonstrate that the enterovirus is the cause of aHUS

Estimating Probable Maximum Precipitation and Probable Maximum Flood by Considering the Combined Effect of Typhoon and Monsoon Weather System under Climate Change

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive