Model independent analysis of top quark forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron up to \mathcal{O}(\as^2/\Lambda^2)

We present the complete calculations of the forward-backward asymmetry ($A_{\rm FB}$) and the total cross section of top quark pair production induced by dimension-six four quark operators at the Tevatron up to \mathcal{O}(\as^2/\Lambda^2). Our results show that next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections can change $A_{\rm FB}$ and the total cross section by about 10%. Moreover, NLO QCD corrections reduce the dependence of $A_{\rm FB}$ and total cross section on the renormalization and factorization scales significantly. We also evaluate the total cross section and the charge asymmetry ($A_{\rm C}$) induced by these operators at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) up to \mathcal{O}(\as^2/\Lambda^2), for the parameter space allowed by the Tevatron data. We find that the value of $A_{\rm C}$ induced by these operators is much larger than SM prediction, and LHC has potential to discover these NP effects when the measurement precision increases.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures; final version in PR

The State-of-the-Art Practices of the Internet Banking in Taiwan

This paper reports an investigation into the state-of-the-art practices of Internet banking in Taiwan. Emphasis is focused on the adoption of security technology. Three kinds of security utilities—SSL, SET, and Non-SET—are compared in terms of risks and supported functions. The author also analyzes factors that influence the development of Internet banking. The Ministry of Finance of the Taiwanese government has adopted a policy that fosters the development of Internet banking. However, understanding security technologies demands in-depth expert knowledge, and goes beyond the capacity of general citizens. The authors suggest that the first priority is given to the authority’s promulgation of laws and guidelines. Second, the banking industry needs to integrate the security mechanisms of Internet banking services with the existing environment. Finally, a risk allotment policy would help to remove fear and doubt from customer’s minds

Less Invasive Mitral Valve Surgery via Right Minithoracotomy

Background/PurposeCurrent trends in cardiac surgical intervention are moving toward less invasiveness, with smaller wound or sternum-sparing, less pump time or off-pump, and beating rather than arrested heart. Data on the efficacy and safety of these newer less invasive techniques, as well as their cosmetic results, are limited. This study analyzed the results of a sternum-sparing mitral valve operation.MethodsThirty patients with mitral valve diseases, including 20 who underwent mitral valve repair and 10 mitral valve replacement, were enrolled. Cardiopulmonary bypass was established via femoral cannu-lation, and blood cardioplegic arrest was induced by using a percutaneous, transthoracic cross-clamp. The main surgical wound was made over the lateral border of the right breast. Two additional small wounds were required for the transthoracic aortic clamp and the mitral retractor.ResultsThere was no operative mortality, and all patients had an uneventful recovery. Two patients underwent redo mitral surgery. Nine associated procedures were performed including tricuspid valve annulo-plasty in six patients, tricuspid valve replacement in two patients and atrial septal defect repair in one patient. The length of the main wound was between 5.8 and 7.8 cm (mean, 7.1 cm). The mean cardiopul-monary bypass time and cross-clamp time were 91.1 and 43.7 minutes, respectively. Although the length of stay was not significantly reduced compared with traditional median sternotomy, all patients had satisfactory results with good cosmesis.ConclusionSternum-sparing mitral valve surgery appears to be a safe and effective alternative to conventional mitral valve surgery; it is less invasive and provides superior cosmetic results for patients

Optimizing Logical Execution Time Model for Both Determinism and Low Latency

The Logical Execution Time (LET) programming model has recently received considerable attention, particularly because of its timing and dataflow determinism. In LET, task computation appears always to take the same amount of time (called the task's LET interval), and the task reads (resp. writes) at the beginning (resp. end) of the interval. Compared to other communication mechanisms, such as implicit communication and Dynamic Buffer Protocol (DBP), LET performs worse on many metrics, such as end-to-end latency (including reaction time and data age) and time disparity jitter. Compared with the default LET setting, the flexible LET (fLET) model shrinks the LET interval while still guaranteeing schedulability by introducing the virtual offset to defer the read operation and using the virtual deadline to move up the write operation. Therefore, fLET has the potential to significantly improve the end-to-end timing performance while keeping the benefits of deterministic behavior on timing and dataflow. To fully realize the potential of fLET, we consider the problem of optimizing the assignments of its virtual offsets and deadlines. We propose new abstractions to describe the task communication pattern and new optimization algorithms to explore the solution space efficiently. The algorithms leverage the linearizability of communication patterns and utilize symbolic operations to achieve efficient optimization while providing a theoretical guarantee. The framework supports optimizing multiple performance metrics and guarantees bounded suboptimality when optimizing end-to-end latency. Experimental results show that our optimization algorithms improve upon the default LET and its existing extensions and significantly outperform implicit communication and DBP in terms of various metrics, such as end-to-end latency, time disparity, and its jitter

Artificial neural network based modelling and optimization of refined palm oil process

YesThe content and concentration of beta-carotene, tocopherol and free fatty acid is one of the important parameters that affect the quality of edible oil. In simulation based studies for refined palm oil process, three variables are usually used as input parameters which are feed flow rate (F), column temperature (T) and pressure (P). These parameters influence the output concentration of beta-carotene, tocopherol and free fatty acid. In this work, we develop 2 different ANN models; the first ANN model based on 3 inputs (F, T, P) and the second model based on 2 inputs (T and P). Artificial neural network (ANN) models are set up to describe the simulation. Feed forward back propagation neural networks are designed using different architecture in MATLAB toolbox. The effects of numbers for neurons and layers are examined. The correlation coefficient for this study is greater than 0.99; it is in good agreement during training and testing the models. Moreover, it is found that ANN can model the process accurately, and is able to predict the model outputs very close to those predicted by ASPEN HYSYS simulator for refined palm oil process. Optimization of the refined palm oil process is performed using ANN based model to maximize the concentration of beta-carotene and tocopherol at residue and free fatty acid at distillate

Nanocomposite SPEEK-based membranes for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells at intermediate temperatures

Novel nanocomposite membranes were prepared by infiltration of a blend of sulfonated PEEK (SPEEK) with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), using water as solvent, into electrospun nanolibers of SPEEK blended with polyvinyl butyral (PVB). The membranes were characterized for their application on Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs) operating at moderate temperatures (>80 degrees C). An important role of the solvent on the crosslinking temperature for the SPEEK-PVA system was observed. A mat of hydrated SPEEK-30%PVB nanofibers revealed higher proton conductivity in comparison with a dense membrane of similar composition. Incorporation of the nanoliber mats to the SPEEK-35%PVA matrix provided mechanical stability, methanol barrier properties and certain proton conductivity up to a crosslinking temperature of 120 degrees C. Not remarkable effect of the nanofibers was found above that crosslinking temperature. The combined effect of the nanofibers and crosslinking temperature on the properties of the membranes is discussed. DIV1FC performance experiments concluded promising results for this new low-cost type of membranes, although further optimization steps are still required.This research has been funded by the R&D Support Programmes of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (project 24761) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project SP-ENE-20120718).Mollá Romano, S.; Compañ Moreno, V. (2015). Nanocomposite SPEEK-based membranes for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells at intermediate temperatures. Journal of Membrane Science. 492:123-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2015.05.055S12313649

Methods for reducing visual discomfort in stereoscopic 3D: A review

This work was supported by the EPSRC Grant EP/M01469X/1, “Geometric Evaluation of Stereoscopic Video”

Structural insights into the electron/proton transfer pathways in the quinol:fumarate reductase from Desulfovibrio gigas

The membrane-embedded quinol:fumarate reductase (QFR) in anaerobic bacteria catalyzes the reduction of fumarate to succinate by quinol in the anaerobic respiratory chain. The electron/proton-transfer pathways in QFRs remain controversial. Here we report the crystal structure of QFR from the anaerobic sulphate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio gigas (D. gigas) at 3.6 Å resolution. The structure of the D. gigas QFR is a homo-dimer, each protomer comprising two hydrophilic subunits, A and B, and one transmembrane subunit C, together with six redox cofactors including two b-hemes. One menaquinone molecule is bound near heme b_L in the hydrophobic subunit C. This location of the menaquinone-binding site differs from the menaquinol-binding cavity proposed previously for QFR from Wolinella succinogenes. The observed bound menaquinone might serve as an additional redox cofactor to mediate the proton-coupled electron transport across the membrane. Armed with these structural insights, we propose electron/proton-transfer pathways in the quinol reduction of fumarate to succinate in the D. gigas QFR