Analysis of Y(4660) and related bound states with QCD sum rules

In this article, we take the vector charmonium-like state Y(4660) as a $\psi'f_0(980)$ bound state (irrespective of the hadro-charmonium and the molecular state) tentatively, study its mass using the QCD sum rules, the numerical value $M_Y=4.71\pm0.26 \rm{GeV}$ is consistent with the experimental data. Considering the SU(3) symmetry of the light flavor quarks and the heavy quark symmetry, we also study the bound states $\psi'\sigma(400-1200)$, $\Upsilon'"f_0(980)$ and $\Upsilon"'\sigma(400-1200)$ with the QCD sum rules, and make reasonable predictions for their masses.Comment: 18 pages, 32 figures, revised versio

Impact of Intracranial Artery Disease and Prior Cerebral Infarction on Central Nervous System Complications After Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

We tried to determine whether postoperative CNS complications after off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCABG) are related to prior cerebral infarction or intracranial artery disease. Fifty-five patients (40 men, mean age 64.59 ± 8.86 years) subjected to OPCABG underwent neurological and neuropsychological examinations 24 h before surgery. MRI was used to identify old and/or new ischemic lesions before surgery, and MRA was used to determine the presence and severity of intracranial artery disease. The patients were examined eight days after surgery; possible development of stroke or cognitive dysfunction was evaluated. Associations between postoperative stroke and potential predictors, including prior cerebral infarction and intracranial artery disease, were analyzed using univariate methods. Two of 55 (3.64%) patients had postoperative stroke, and no patient showed cognitive decline. Univariate analysis found no significant association between postoperative stroke and prior cerebral infarction detected by MRI (P = 0.378) or intracranial artery disease detected by MRA (P = 0.103). Our results suggest that intracranial artery disease and prior cerebral infarction are not independent risk factors for stroke after OPCABG. Nonetheless, further investigation of these associations is necessary.Ми намагалися встановити, чи залежать післяопераційні ускладнення в ЦНС після шунтування коронарної артерії без застосування штучного кровообігу від наявності в попередній період церебрального геморагічного інсульту або стенозу краніальних артерій. 55 пацієнтів (40 чоловіків і 15 жінок, середній вік 64.59 ± 8.86 року), котрим була призначена вказана операція, були за добу перед нею піддані неврологічному та нейропсихологічному обстеженню. Магніторезонансне сканування (MRI) було використане для ідентифікації старих та/або нових ішемічних уражень, а магніторезонансна ангіографія (MRA) застосовувалася для встановлення наявності та ступеню стенозу краніальних артерій. Пацієнти були повторно обстежені через вісім діб після операції для виявлення можливих ускладнень (розвитку інсульту або когнітивної дисфункції). Зв’язки між розвитком постопераційного інсульту та можливими предикторами (попереднім інсультом та стенозом краніальних артерій) були проаналізовані із застосуванням методів варіаційної статистики. Післяопераційний інсульт розвився у двох із 55 пацієнтів (3.64 %); зниження рівня когнітивної активності не спостерігалося в жодному випадку. Аналіз не показав вірогідного зв’язку між розвитком післяопераційного інсульту та наявністю попереднього геморагічного інсульту (дані MRI; P = 0.378) або стенозу краніальних артерій (дані MRA; P= 0.103). Наші результати дозволяють вважати, що стеноз краніальних артерій та попередній інсульт не є незалежними факторами ризику щодо інсульту після шунтування коронарної артерії, але подальші дослідження можливості таких зв’язків є необхідними

Exposure to famine in early life and the risk of obesity in adulthood in Qingdao : Evidence from the 1959-1961 Chinese famine

Background and aims: We aimed to evaluate the association between famine exposure during early life and obesity and obesity(max) (obese at the highest weight) in adulthood. Methods and results: Data were from two population-based cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2006 and 2009 in Qingdao, China. A total of 8185 subjects born between 1/1/1941 and 12/31/1971 were categorized into unexposed (born between 01/01/1962 and 12/31/1971), fetal/ infant exposed (born between 01/01/1959 and 12/31/1961), childhood exposed (born between 01/01/1949 and 12/31/1958) and adolescence exposed (born between 01/01/1941 and 12/31/1948) according to their age when exposed to the Chinese famine from 1959 to 1961. Obesity was defined as BMI (body mass index) >= 28.0 and obesitymax was defined as BMImax (BMI at the highest weight) >= 28.0. We compared fetal/ infant exposed, childhood exposed and adolescence exposed to the unexposed using logistic regression models to assess the effect of famine exposure on later obesity and obesitymax. Fetal/infant exposed (OR = 1.59, P <0.001), childhood exposed (OR = 1.42, P <0.01) and adolescence exposed (OR = 1.86, P <0.01) all had higher risks of obesity than the unexposed. Exposure groups were more likely to be obese at their highest weight than the unexposed, and ORs (95%CIs) for obesitymax in the fetal/ infant exposed, childhood exposed and adolescence exposed were 1.49(1.20e1.86), 1.24(1.02e1.49) and 1.64 (1.40 e1.93), respectively. Similar results were found in both men and women. Conclusion: Exposure to famine in early life was associated with increased risks of obesity and obesitymax in adulthood. Preventing undernutrition in early life appears beneficial to reduce the prevalence of later obesity. (C) 2016 The Italian Society of Diabetology, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition, and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

System performance and microbial community succession in a partial nitrification biofilm reactor in response to salinity stress

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd The system performance and microbial community succession in a partial nitrification biofilm reactor in response to salinity stress was conducted. It was found that the NH 4+ -N removal efficiency decreased from 98.4% to 42.0% after salinity stress increased to 20 g/L. Specific oxygen uptake rates suggested that AOB activity was more sensitive to the stress of salinity than that of NOB. Protein and polysaccharides contents showed an increasing tendency in both LB-EPS and TB-EPS after the salinity exposure. Moreover, EEM results indicated that protein-like substances were the main component in LB-EPS and TB-EPS as self-protection in response to salinity stress. Additionally, humic acid-like substances were identified as the main component in the effluent organic matter (EfOM) of partial nitrification biofilm, whereas fulvic acid-like substances were detected at 20 g/L salinity stress. Microbial community analysis found that Nitrosomonas as representative species of AOB were significantly inhibited under high salinity condition

An accretion disk model for periodic timing variations of pulsars

The long-term, highly periodic and correlated variations in both the pulse shape and the rate of slow-down of two isolated pulsars (PSRs) PSR B1828-11 and PSR B1642-03 were discovered recently. This phenomenon may provide evidence for "free precession" as suggested in the literature. Some authors presented various kinds of models to explain this phenomenon within the framework of free precession. Here we present an accretion disk model for this precession phenomenon instead. Under reasonable parameters, the observed phenomenon can be explained by an isolated pulsar with a fossil disk. This may link radio pulsars and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and present an indirect evidence for the existence of the fossil disk in nature.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in A&A Lette

A major reorganization of Asian climate by the early Miocene

The global climate system experienced a series of drastic changes during the Cenozoic. In Asia, these include the climate transformation from a zonal pattern to a &lt;i&gt;monsoon-dominated pattern&lt;/i&gt;, the disappearance of typical subtropical aridity, and the onset of &lt;i&gt;inland deserts&lt;/i&gt;. Despite major advances in the last two decades in characterizing and understanding these climate phenomena, disagreements persist relative to the timing, behaviors and underlying causes. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; This paper addresses these issues mainly based on two lines of evidence. First, we compiled newly collected data from geological indicators of the Cenozoic environment in China as paleoenvironmental maps of ten intervals. In confirming the earlier observation that a zonal climate pattern was transformed into a monsoonal one, the maps within the Miocene indicate that this change was achieved by the early Miocene, roughly consistent with the onset of loess deposition in China. Although a monsoon-like regime would have existed in the Eocene, it was restricted to tropical-subtropical regions. The latitudinal oscillations of the climate zones during the Paleogene are likely attributable to the imbalance in evolution of polar ice-sheets between the two hemispheres. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Secondly, we examine the relevant depositional and soil forming processes of the Miocene loess-soil sequences to determine the circulation characteristics with emphasis on the early Miocene. Continuous eolian deposition in the middle reaches of the Yellow River since the early Miocene firmly indicates the formation of inland deserts, which have been constantly maintained during the past 22 Ma. Grain-size gradients between loess sections indicate northerly dust-carrying winds from northern sources, a clear indication of an Asian winter monsoon system. Meanwhile, well-developed Luvisols show evidence that moisture from the oceans reached northern China. This evidence shows the coexistence of two kinds of circulations, one from the ocean carrying moisture and another from the inland deserts transporting dust. The formation of the early Miocene paleosols resulted from interactive soil forming and dust deposition processes in these two seasonally alternating monsoonal circulations. The much stronger development of the early Miocene soils compared to those in the Quaternary loess indicates that summer monsoons were either significantly stronger, more persistent through the year, or both. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; These lines of evidence indicate a joint change in circulation and inland aridity by the early Miocene and suggest a dynamic linkage of them. Our recent sensitivity tests with a general circulation model, along with relevant geological data, suggest that the onset of these contrasting wet/dry responses, as well as the change from the &quot;planetary&quot; subtropical aridity pattern to the &quot;inland&quot; aridity pattern, resulted from the combined effects of Tibetan uplift and withdrawal of the Paratethys seaway in central Asia, as suggested by earlier experiments. The spreading of South China Sea also helped to enhance the south-north contrast of humidity. The Miocene loess record provides a vital insight that these tectonic factors had evolved by the early Miocene to a threshold sufficient to cause this major climate reorganization in Asia

State estimation for discrete-time neural networks with Markov-mode-dependent lower and upper bounds on the distributed delays

Copyright @ 2012 Springer VerlagThis paper is concerned with the state estimation problem for a new class of discrete-time neural networks with Markovian jumping parameters and mixed time-delays. The parameters of the neural networks under consideration switch over time subject to a Markov chain. The networks involve both the discrete-time-varying delay and the mode-dependent distributed time-delay characterized by the upper and lower boundaries dependent on the Markov chain. By constructing novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals, sufficient conditions are firstly established to guarantee the exponential stability in mean square for the addressed discrete-time neural networks with Markovian jumping parameters and mixed time-delays. Then, the state estimation problem is coped with for the same neural network where the goal is to design a desired state estimator such that the estimation error approaches zero exponentially in mean square. The derived conditions for both the stability and the existence of desired estimators are expressed in the form of matrix inequalities that can be solved by the semi-definite programme method. A numerical simulation example is exploited to demonstrate the usefulness of the main results obtained.This work was supported in part by the Royal Society of the U.K., the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 60774073 and 61074129, and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China under Grant BK2010313

W Boson Inclusive Decays to Quarkonium at the LHC

In this paper, the production rates of quarkonia eta_c, J/psi, eta_b, Upsilon, B_c and B_c^* through W boson decay at the LHC are calculated, at the leading order in both the QCD coupling constant and in v, the typical velocity of the heavy quark inside of mesons. It shows that a sizable number of quarkonia from W boson decay will be produced at the LHC. Comparison with the predictions by using quark fragmentation mechanism is also discussed. Results show that, for the charmonium production through W decay, the difference between predictions by the fragmentation mechanism and complete leading order calculation is around 3%, and it is insensitive to the uncertainties of theoretical parameters; however, for the bottomonium and B_c^(*) productions, the difference cannot be ignored as the fragmentation mechanism is less applicable here due to the relatively large ratio mb/mw.Comment: Updated to match the published version in EPJ

Revealing the origin of improved reversible capacity of dual-shell bismuth boxes anode for potassium-Ion batteries

Nanostructured alloy anodes have been successfully used in several kinds of rocking-chair batteries. However, a full picture of the origin of their improved reversible capacity remains elusive. Here, we combine operando synchrotron-based X-ray powder diffraction and ex situ X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy to study the double-shell structured bismuth boxes as anodes in potassium-ion batteries to reveal the origin of their improved capacity. The nanostructured bismuth anode offers an enhanced capability to tolerate the volume expansion under a low current density of 0.2 C, resulting in a more complete alloy reaction. Additionally, under a high current density of 2 C, nanostructured bismuth anode with larger surface area offers more sites to electrochemically alloy with potassium and results in a lower average oxidation state of bismuth. These findings offer guidance for the rational design and engineering of electrode materials according to the current density for rocking-chair batteries.Fangxi Xie, Lei Zhang, Biao Chen, Dongliang Chao, Qinfen Gu, Bernt Johannessen, Mietek Jaroniec, and Shi-Zhang Qia