Diagonal Kaluza-Klein expansion under brane localized potential

We clarify and study our previous observation that, under a compactification with boundaries or orbifolding, vacuum expectation value of a bulk scalar field can have different extra-dimensional wave-function profile from that of the lowest Kaluza-Klein mode of its quantum fluctuation, under presence of boundary-localized potentials which would be necessarily generated through renormalization group running. For concreteness, we analyze the Universal Extra Dimension model compactified on orbifold $S^1/Z_2$, with brane-localized Higgs potentials at the orbifold fixed points. We compute the Kaluza-Klein expansion of the Higgs and gauge bosons in an $R_\xi$-like gauge by treating the brane-localized potential as a small perturbation. We also check that the $\rho$ parameter is not altered by the brane localized potential.Comment: 22 pages, published versio

Phenomenological Aspects of Dirichlet Higgs Model from Extra-Dimension

We study a simple five-dimensional extension of the Standard Model, compactified on a flat line segment in which there propagate Higgs and gauge bosons of the Standard Model. We impose a Dirichlet boundary condition on the Higgs field to realize its vacuum expectation value. Since a flat Nambu-Goldstone zero-mode of the bulk Higgs is eliminated by the Dirichlet boundary condition, a superposition of the Higgs Kaluza-Klein modes play the role of the Nambu-Goldstone boson except at the boundaries. We discuss phenomenology of our model at the LHC, namely the top Yukawa deviation and the production and decay of the physical Higgs field, as well as the constraints from the electroweak precision measurements.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, title changed, phenomenological consequences substantially modifie

Dirichlet Higgs in extra-dimension, consistent with electroweak data

We propose a simple five-dimensional extension of the Standard Model (SM) without any Higgs potential nor any extra fields. A Higgs doublet lives in the bulk of a flat line segment and its boundary condition is Dirichlet at the ends of the line, which causes the electroweak symmetry breaking without Higgs potential. The vacuum expectation value of the Higgs is induced from the Dirichlet boundary condition which is generally allowed in higher dimensional theories. The lightest physical Higgs has non-flat profile in the extra dimension even though the vacuum expectation value is flat. As a consequence, we predict a maximal top Yukawa deviation (no coupling between top and Higgs) for the Brane-Localized Fermion and a small deviation, a multiplication of 2\sqrt{2}/\pi\simeq0.9 to the Yukawa coupling, for the Bulk Fermion. The latter is consistent with the electroweak precision data within 90% CL for 430GeV\lesssim m_{KK}\lesssim 500GeV.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, title changed, phenomenological consequences substantially modifie

Reciprocity as Social Capital and Self-Rated Health in Japanese Community-Dwelling Adults

This study examined the relationship between reciprocity among community dwelling adults and self-rated health by analyzing data from a survey conducted every 5 years between 1991 and 2011 in Japan. The results revealed a downward trend in reciprocity at the group level over the 20-year survey period, but little change in reciprocity at the individual level. A comparison of different surveyed cohorts showed that the younger the generation, the lower the group-level reciprocity. A multi-level analysis controlling for age, gender, educational status and marital status showed that both at the individual and group levels, higher reciprocity was associated with higher self-rated health. However, there was an interaction effect involving reciprocity at two levels: a stronger correlation between individual reciprocity and self-rated health was observed for individuals from a recent cohort with a low level of group reciprocity. This paper concludes by discussing the factors to consider when examining the influence of reciprocity on self-rated health

Application of a Burkholderia cepacia lipase-immobilized silica monolith to batch and continuous biodiesel production with a stoichiometric mixture of methanol and crude Jatropha oil

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The enzymatic production of biodiesel through alcoholysis of triglycerides has become more attractive because it shows potential in overcoming the drawbacks of chemical processes. In this study, we investigate the production of biodiesel from crude, non-edible Jatropha oil and methanol to characterize <it>Burkholderia cepacia </it>lipase immobilized in an <it>n</it>-butyl-substituted hydrophobic silica monolith. We also evaluate the performance of a lipase-immobilized silica monolith bioreactor in the continuous production of biodiesel.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The Jatropha oil used contained 18% free fatty acids, which is problematic in a base-catalyzed process. In the lipase-catalyzed reaction, the presence of free fatty acids made the reaction mixture homogeneous and allowed bioconversion to proceed to 90% biodiesel yield after a 12 hour reaction time. The optimal molar ratio of methanol to oil was 3.3 to 3.5 parts methanol to one part oil, with water content of 0.6% (w/w). Further experiments revealed that <it>B. cepacia </it>lipase immobilized in hydrophobic silicates was sufficiently tolerant to methanol, and glycerol adsorbed on the support disturbed the reaction to some extent in the present reaction system. The continuous production of biodiesel was performed at steady state using a lipase-immobilized silica monolith bioreactor loaded with 1.67 g of lipase. The yield of 95% was reached at a flow rate of 0.6 mL/h, although the performance of the continuous bioreactor was somewhat below that predicted from the batch reactor. The bioreactor was operated successfully for almost 50 days with 80% retention of the initial yield.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The presence of free fatty acids originally contained in Jatropha oil improved the reaction efficiency of the biodiesel production. A combination of <it>B. cepacia </it>lipase and its immobilization support, <it>n</it>-butyl-substituted silica monolith, was effective in the production of biodiesel. This procedure is easily applicable to the design of a continuous flow-through bioreactor system.</p

Suramin prevents the development of diabetic kidney disease by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation in KK-Ay mice

Aims/Introduction Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes produce IL-18 upon being activated by various stimuli via the P2 receptors. Previously, we showed that serum and urine IL-18 levels are positively associated with albuminuria in patients with type 2 diabetes, indicating the involvement of inflammasome activation in the pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). In the present study, we investigated whether the administration of suramin, a nonselective antagonist of the P2 receptors, protects diabetic KK.Cg-A(y)/TaJcl (KK-Ay) mice against DKD progression. Materials and Methods Suramin or saline was administered i.p. to KK-Ay and C57BL/6J mice once every 2 weeks for a period of 8 weeks. Mouse mesangial cells (MMCs) were stimulated with ATP in the presence or absence of suramin. Results Suramin treatment significantly suppressed the increase in the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio, glomerular hypertrophy, mesangial matrix expansion, and glomerular fibrosis in KK-Ay mice. Suramin also suppressed the upregulation of NLRP3 inflammasome-related genes and proteins in the renal cortex of KK-Ay mice. P2X4 and P2X7 receptors were significantly upregulated in the isolated glomeruli of KK-Ay mice and mainly distributed in the glomerular mesangial cells of KK-Ay mice. Although neither ATP nor suramin affected NLRP3 expression in MMCs, suramin inhibited ATP-induced NLRP3 complex formation and the downstream expression of caspase-1 and IL-18 in MMCs. Conclusions These results suggest that the NLRP3 inflammasome is activated in a diabetic kidney and that inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome with suramin protects against the progression of early stage DKD

Graphical Evaluation Method for Void Distribution in Direct Energy Deposition

AbstractDirect energy deposition (DED) process attracts attention from industries because of its applicability to production of complex shape parts. However, technical challenges still remain in DED, such as void evolution inside of the produced object. This paper provides a new graphical evaluation method of void distribution. Binarizing a cross-sectional image of the cladded object and applying a 2-dimensional Gaussian window, the void distribution rate is separately evaluated in each local area on the cross section. To clarify the relation between void evolution and deposition condition in Inconel 625, the void distribution is experimentally evaluated through the various tests