Full one-loop electroweak corrections to e+e−→ZHγe^+e^- \to ZH\gamma at a Higgs factory

Motivated by the future precision test of the Higgs boson at an $e^+e^-$ Higgs factory, we calculate the production $e^+e^- \to ZH\gamma$ in the Standard Model with complete next-to-leading order electroweak corrections. We find that for $\sqrt{s}=240$ (350) GeV the cross section of this production is sizably reduced by the electroweak corrections, which is $1.03$ (5.32) fb at leading order and 0.72 (4.79) fb at next-to-leading order. The transverse momentum distribution of the photon in the final states is also presented.Comment: discussions added, version accepted by JHE

Database, Features, and Machine Learning Model to Identify Thermally Driven Metal-Insulator Transition Compounds

Metal-insulator transition (MIT) compounds are materials that may exhibit insulating or metallic behavior, depending on the physical conditions, and are of immense fundamental interest owing to their potential applications in emerging microelectronics. There is a dearth of thermally-driven MIT materials, however, which makes delineating these compounds from those that are exclusively insulating or metallic challenging. Here we report a material database comprising temperature-controlled MITs (and metals and insulators with similar chemical composition and stoichiometries to the MIT compounds) from high quality experimental literature, built through a combination of materials-domain knowledge and natural language processing. We featurize the dataset using compositional, structural, and energetic descriptors, including two MIT relevant energy scales, an estimated Hubbard interaction and the charge transfer energy, as well as the structure-bond-stress metric referred to as the global-instability index (GII). We then perform supervised classification, constructing three electronic-state classifiers: metal vs non-metal (M), insulator vs non-insulator (I), and MIT vs non-MIT (T). We identify two important descriptors that separate metals, insulators, and MIT materials in a 2D feature space: the average deviation of the covalent radius and the range of the Mendeleev number. We further elaborate on other important features (GII and Ewald energy), and examine how they affect classification of binary vanadium and titanium oxides. We discuss the relationship of these atomic features to the physical interactions underlying MITs in the rare-earth nickelate family. Last, we implement an online version of the classifiers, enabling quick probabilistic class predictions by uploading a crystallographic structure file

A comprehensive insight into the effects of acidification on varied-sized pores in different rank coals

Elucidating the evolution law of coal pore structure under acidification is crucial for guiding the practical application of acidizing technology and improving the production of coalbed methane. To comprehensively investigate the influence of acidification on varied-sized pores in different rank coals, in this study, fat coal, meagre coal and anthracite coal were collected and acidified with a mixed solution composed of hydrochloric acid (9 wt%) and hydrofluoric acid (3 wt%). An approach integrating low-pressure CO2 adsorption (LPGA-CO2), low-temperature N2 adsorption (LTGA-N2) and Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) was adopted to fully characterize the varied-sized pore structure before and after acidification to eliminate the limitations of single method. The results demonstrated that acid treatment improved the pore opening degree and connectivity in coal, but had essentially no effect on the pore shape. After acidification, all the coal samples showed significant increases in the porosity and total pore volume, which was mainly contributed by the numerous newly formed large mesopores and macropores, especially the macropores (with an average contribution rate of 74.59%). Taken as a whole, acid treatment had the largest impact on macropores, followed by mesopores, and the smallest impact on micropores. In addition, the variation trend of total specific surface area (SSA) under acidification was primarily determined by micropores. For the three different rank coals selected in this study, the total SSA of fat coal (PM) was more easily affected by acidification and had the largest percentage increase after acid treatment, followed by anthracite coal (YM), while that of meagre coal (LA) decreased slightly. This difference was driven primarily by the different variation trend of micropore SSA in different rank coals. After acidification, the SSA of ultra-micropores and super-micropores all increased in fat coal (PM) and anthracite coal (YM), whereas for meagre coal (LA), although ultra-micropores SSA increased, super-micropores SSA decreased, which ultimately led to the slight decrease of its micropore SSA. Moreover, the total pore volume increment of coal was closely related to the macropore volume increment under acidification, but not significantly related to the coal maturity,which might indicate that, compared with coal rank, the mineral content in coal might be a more important consideration when measuring the applicability of acidification technology

Negative regulation of Smad1 pathway and collagen IV expression by store-operated Ca^(2+) entry in glomerular mesangial cells

Collagen IV (Col IV) is a major component of expanded glomerular extracellular matrix in diabetic nephropathy and Smad1 is a key molecule regulating Col IV expression in mesangial cells (MCs). The present study was conducted to determine if Smad1 pathway and Col IV protein abundance were regulated by store-operated Ca^(2+) entry (SOCE). In cultured human MCs, pharmacological inhibition of SOCE significantly increased the total amount of Smad1 protein. Activation of SOCE blunted high-glucose-increased Smad1 protein content. Treatment of human MCs with ANG II at 1 µM for 15 min, high glucose for 3 days, or TGF-β1 at 5 ng/ml for 30 min increased the level of phosphorylated Smad1. However, the phosphorylation of Smad1 by those stimuli was significantly attenuated by activation of SOCE. Knocking down Smad1 reduced, but expressing Smad1 increased, the amount of Col IV protein. Furthermore, activation of SOCE significantly attenuated high-glucose-induced Col IV protein production, and blockade of SOCE substantially increased the abundance of Col IV. To further verify those in vitro findings, we downregulated SOCE specifically in MCs in mice using small-interfering RNA (siRNA) against Orai1 (the channel protein mediating SOCE) delivered by the targeted nanoparticle delivery system. Immunohistochemical examinations showed that expression of both Smad1 and Col IV proteins was significantly greater in the glomeruli with positively transfected Orai1 siRNA compared with the glomeruli from the mice without Orai1 siRNA treatment. Taken together, our results indicate that SOCE negatively regulates the Smad1 signaling pathway and inhibits Col IV protein production in MCs

Reemerging superconductivity at 48 K across quantum criticality in iron chalcogenides

Pressure plays an essential role in the induction1 and control2,3 of superconductivity in iron-based superconductors. Substitution of a smaller rare-earth ion for the bigger one to simulate the pressure effects has surprisingly raised the superconducting transition temperature Tc to the record high 55 K in these materials4,5. However, Tc always goes down after passing through a maximum at some pressure and the superconductivity eventually tends to disappear at sufficiently high pressures1-3. Here we show that the superconductivity can reemerge with a much higher Tc after its destruction upon compression from the ambient-condition value of around 31 K in newly discovered iron chalcogenide superconductors. We find that in the second superconducting phase the maximum Tc is as high as 48.7 K for K0.8Fe1.70Se2 and 48 K for (Tl0.6Rb0.4)Fe1.67Se2, setting the new Tc record in chalcogenide superconductors. The presence of the second superconducting phase is proposed to be related to pressure-induced quantum criticality. Our findings point to the potential route to the further achievement of high-Tc superconductivity in iron-based and other superconductors.Comment: 20 pages and 7 figure

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival