Reconnection of Stable/Unstable Manifolds of the Harper Map

The Harper map is one of the simplest chaotic systems exhibiting reconnection of invariant manifolds. The method of asymptotics beyond all orders (ABAO) is used to construct stable/unstable manifolds of the Harper map. When the parameter changes to the reconnection threshold, the stable/unstable manifolds are shown to acquire new oscillatory portion corresponding to the heteroclinic tangle after the reconnection.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figure

Estimating the hourly electricity profile of Japanese households – Coupling of engineering and statistical methods

AbstractUnderstanding the hourly electricity profile and the electricity consumption by each appliance is essential for encouraging energy-saving measures in the household sector. There are two methods for identifying energy consumption for households in existing studies: the engineering and the statistical methods. Both methods have strengths and limitations. In this study, we developed a hybrid method based on the statistical method by combining following three steps using knowledge of the engineering method; externalizing the electricity consumption for the refrigerator, adding the number of at-home-and-awake members as explanatory variables, and restricting appliance usage hours. The proposed hybrid method could adequately reproduce the total hourly electricity consumption and seasonal variation compared to the engineering method, and could decompose major appliances, some of which that were not disaggregated by the statistical method. For the quantitative analysis of the model improvement, we calculated Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) for each method with direct metering data. For most of appliances, RMSE and MAE of hybrid model were improved from 11% to 71% compared to the existing methods. The collection of more samples to increase the accuracy of the estimation and application to areas of low statistical data availability are future steps

Pre-DECIGO can get the smoking gun to decide the astrophysical or cosmological origin of GW150914-like binary black holes

Pre-DECIGO consists of three spacecraft arranged in an equilateral triangle with 100km arm lengths orbiting 2000km above the surface of the earth. It is hoped that the launch date will be in the late 2020s. Pre-DECIGO has one clear target: binary black holes (BBHs) like GW150914 and GW151226. Pre-DECIGO can detect $\sim 30M_\odot-30M_\odot$ BBH mergers up to redshift $z\sim 30$. The cumulative event rate is $\sim 1.8\times 10^{5}\,{\rm events~yr^{-1}}$ in the Pop III origin model of BBHs like GW150914, and it saturates at $z\sim 10$, while in the primordial BBH (PBBH) model, the cumulative event rate is $\sim 3\times 10^{4}\,{\rm events~ yr^{-1}}$ at $z=30$ even if only $0.1\%$ of the dark matter consists of PBHs, and it is still increasing at $z=30$. In the Pop I/II model of BBHs, the cumulative event rate is $(3-10)\times10^{5}\,{\rm events~ yr^{-1}}$ and it saturates at $z \sim 6$. We present the requirements on orbit accuracy, drag free techniques, laser power, frequency stability, and interferometer test mass. For BBHs like GW150914 at 1Gpc, SNR$\sim 90$ is achieved with the definition of Pre-DECIGO in the $0.01-100$Hz band. Pre-DECIGO can measure the mass spectrum and the $z$-dependence of the merger rate to distinguish various models of BBHs like GW150914. Pre-DECIGO can also predict the direction of BBHs at $z=0.1$ with an accuracy of $\sim 0.3\,{\rm deg}^2$ and a merging time accuracy of $\sim 1$s at about a day before the merger so that ground-based GW detectors further developed at that time as well as electromagnetic follow-up observations can prepare for the detection of merger in advance. For intermediate mass BBHs at a large redshift $z > 10$, the QNM frequency after the merger can be within the Pre-DECIGO band so that the ringing tail can also be detectable to confirm the Einstein theory of general relativity with SNR$\sim 35$. [abridged]Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, added some references, modifications to match the published version in PTE

Eribulin sensitizes oral squamous cell carcinoma cells to cetuximab via induction of mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition

Inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signalling has emerged as a new treatment strategy for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Previously, we found that loss of EGFR expression in OSCC was associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and may have functional implications with regard to resistance to cetuximab, a monoclonal anti-EGFR antibody. Eribulin (a microtubule inhibitor) reportedly renders breast cancer less aggressive, and less likely to metastasise, by triggering mesenchymal-to-epithelial (MET) transition. In the present study we evaluated whether eribulin-induced MET was associated with re-sensitization of resistant OSCC cell lines to cetuximab. In vitro antiproliferative activities were determined in three human OSCC lines (OSC-20, OSC-19 and HOC313) treated with eribulin. These three human OSCC represented different EMT/MET states. Interestingly, HOC313 cells (mesenchymal phenotype) were highly sensitive to eribulin in comparison with other cell lines, and significantly enhanced the anti-proliferative effect of cetuximab in response to the drug. Eribulin also underwent a MET-associated gene switch that resulted in morphological changes and high EGFR expression in HOC313 cells, and abrogated a TGF-β-induced EMT gene expression signature. Eribulin-dependent sensitization of OSCC to cetuximab is likely due to induction of MET. Combination therapies based on eribulin and cetuximab have potential as a novel treatment regimen in OSCC

Comparison between alkali heat treatment and sprayed hydroxyapatite coating on thermally-sprayed rough Ti surface in rabbit model: Effects on bone-bonding ability and osteoconductivity.

In this study, we investigated the effect of different surface treatments (hydroxyapatite (HA) coating, alkali heat treatment, and no treatment) on the ability of bone to bond to a rough arc-sprayed Ti metal surface, using rabbit models. The bone-to-implant contacts for untreated, HA-coated, and alkali heat-treated implants were 21.2%, 72.1%, and 33.8% at 4 weeks, 21.8%, 70.9%, and 30.0% at 8 weeks, and 16.3%, 70.2%, and 29.9% at 16 weeks, respectively (n = 8). HA -coated implants showed significantly higher bone-to-implant contacts than the untreated and alkali heat-treated implants at all the time point, whereas alkali heat-treated implants showed significantly higher bone-to-implant contacts than untreated implants at 4 and 16 weeks. The failure loads in a mechanical test for untreated, HA coated, alkali heat-treated plates were 65.4 N, 70.7 N, and 90.8 N at 4 weeks, 76.1 N, 64.7 N, and 104.8 N at 8 weeks and 88.7 N, 92.6 N, and 118.5 N at 16 weeks, respectively (n = 8). The alkali heat-treated plates showed significantly higher failure loads than HA-coated plates at 8 and 16 weeks. The difference between HA-coated plates and untreated plates were not statistically significant at any time point. Thus HA coating, although it enables high bone-to-implant contact, may not enhance the bone-bonding properties of thermally-sprayed rough Ti metal surfaces. In contrast, alkali heat treatment can be successfully applied to thermally-sprayed Ti metal to enhance both bone-to-implant contact and bone-bonding strength

Deep Investigations of Outer-Rise Tsunami Characteristics Using Well-Mapped Normal Faults Along the Japan Trench

To assess the risk of tsunamis from outer-rise earthquakes, we carried out tsunami simulations using 33 simple rectangular fault models with 60° dip angles based on marine seismic observations and surveys of the Japan Trench. The largest tsunami resulting from these models, produced by a Mw 8.7 normal-faulting event on a fault 332 km long, had a maximum height of 27.0 m. We tested variations of the predictions due to the uncertainties in the assumed parameters. Because the actual dip angles of the Japan Trench outer-rise faults range from 45° to 75°, we calculated tsunamis from earthquakes on fault models with 45°, 60°, and 75° dip angles. We also tested a compound fault model with 75° dip in the upper half and 45° dip in the lower half. Rake angles were varied by ±15°. We also tested models consisting of small subfaults with dimensions of about 60 km, models using other earthquake scaling laws, models with heterogeneous slips, and models incorporating dispersive tsunami effects. Predicted tsunami heights changed by 10–15% for heterogeneous slips, up to 10% for varying dip angles, about 5–10% from considering tsunami dispersion, about 2% from varying rake angles, and about 1% from using the model with small subfaults. The use of different earthquake scaling laws changed predicted tsunami heights by about 50% on average for the 33 fault models. We emphasize that the earthquake scaling law used in tsunami predictions for outer-rise earthquakes should be chosen with great care