CPCP violation in charmed hadron decays into neutral kaons

We find a new $CP$ violating effect in charmed hadron decays into neutral kaons, which is induced by the interference between the Cabibbo-favored and doubly Cabibbo-suppressed amplitudes with the $K^{0}-\overline K^{0}$ mixing. It is estimated to be of order of $\mathcal{O}(10^{-3})$, much larger than the direct $CP$ asymmetry, but missed in the literature. To reveal this new $CP$ violation effect, we propose a new observable, the difference of the $CP$ asymmetries in the $D^{+}\to \pi^{+}K_S^0$ and $D_{s}^{+}\to K^{+} K_S^0$ modes. Once the new effect is determined by experiments, the direct $CP$ asymmetry then can be extracted and used to search for new physics.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Contribution to the proceeding of The 15th International Conference on Flavor Physics & CP Violation, 5-9 June 2017, Prague, Czech Republi

Branching ratios and direct CP asymmetries in D→PPD\to PP decays

We propose a theoretical framework for analyzing two-body nonleptonic $D$ meson decays, based on the factorization of short-distance (long-distance) dynamics into Wilson coefficients (hadronic matrix elements of four-fermion operators). The parametrization of hadronic matrix elements in terms of several nonperturbative quantities is demonstrated for the $D\to PP$ decays, $P$ denoting a pseudoscalar meson. We consider the evolution of Wilson coefficients with energy release in individual decay modes, and the Glauber strong phase associated with the pion in nonfactorizable annihilation amplitudes, that is attributed to the unique role of the pion as a Nambu-Goldstone boson and a quark-anti-quark bound state simultaneously. The above inputs improve the global fit to the branching ratios involving the $\eta'$ meson, and resolves the long-standing puzzle from the $D^0\to\pi^+\pi^-$ and $D^0\to K^+K^-$ branching ratios, respectively. Combining short-distance dynamics associated with penguin operators and the hadronic parameters determined from the global fit to branching ratios, we predict direct CP asymmetries, to which the quark loops and the scalar penguin annihilation give dominant contributions. In particular, we predict $\Delta A_{\rm CP}\equiv A_{\rm CP}(K^+K^-)-A_{\rm CP}(\pi^+\pi^-)=-1.00\times 10^{-3}$, lower than the LHCb and CDF data.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, matches published versio

Branching ratios and direct CP asymmetries in D→PVD\to PV decays

We study the two-body hadronic $D\to PV$ decays, where $P$ ($V$) denotes a pseudoscalar (vector) meson, in the factorization-assisted topological-amplitude approach proposed in our previous work. This approach is based on the factorization of short-distance and long-distance dynamics into Wilson coefficients and hadronic matrix elements of four-fermion operators, respectively, with the latter being parametrized in terms of several nonperturbative quantities. We further take into account the $\rho$-$\omega$ mixing effect, which improves the global fit to the branching ratios involving the $\rho^0$ and $\omega$ mesons. Combining short-distance dynamics associated with penguin operators and the hadronic parameters determined from the global fit to branching ratios, we predict direct $CP$ asymmetries. In particular, the direct $CP$ asymmetries in the $D^0\to K^0\overline{K}^{*0},~\overline{K}^0K^{*0}$, $D^+\to\pi^+\rho^0$, and $D_s^+\to K^+\omega,~K^+\phi$ decays are found to be of ${\cal O}(10^{-3})$, which can be observed at the LHCb or future Belle II experiment. We also predict the $CP$ asymmetry observables of some neutral $D$ meson decays.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Early-cleavage is a reliable predictor for embryo implantation in the GnRH agonist protocols but not in the GnRH antagonist protocols

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To test if early-cleavage was a strong predictor of pregnancy in patients receiving either a GnRH agonist long protocol or a GnRH antagonist protocol for in-vitro fertilization treatment (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This retrospective study included 534 patients undergoing a fresh cycle of oocyte retrieval and the day-3 embryo transfer (from 22 to 46 years old). Of the 534 patients treated, 331 received a GnRH agonist long stimulation protocol (GnRH agonist group) for ovarian stimulation and 203 patients received a GnRH antagonist protocol (GnRH antagonist group). In each group, patients who had at least one early-cleavage embryo transferred were designated as the 'early-cleavage' subgroup. Patients who had no early-cleavage embryos transferred were designated as the 'late-cleavage' subgroup.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The early cleavage rate was significantly lower in the GnRH antagonist group compared with that in the GnRH agonist group (IVF cycles: 34% versus 20%; ICSI cycles: 50% versus 37.8%, respectively, P < 0.0001). In the GnRH agonist group, the pregnancy rates were significantly higher in the early-cleavage subgroup than those in the late-cleavage subgroup (53.7% vs 33.9%, <it>P </it>< 0.0001). In the GnRH antagonist group, the pregnancy rates were not significantly different between the early-cleavage and late-cleavage subgroups (45.9% vs 43.8%, P > 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Early cleavage of zygote is not a reliable predictor for embryo implantation potential in using the GnRH antagonist protocol. Furthermore, the implantation rates between the GnRH agonist and GnRH antagonist groups were comparable.</p

Dome-Shaped Ellipsoidal Reflector Antenna for UHF-RFID Readers with Confined Near-Field Detection Region

This letter proposes and demonstrates the concept of ellipsoidal reflector antennas for radio frequency identification reader applications at UHF band. The antenna can be potentially integrated with environmental structures to confine the reader detection region. The energy bounding characteristics result from the dual-focus feature of an ellipsoidal reflector in its near-field region, as the feed located at one of the two foci can create a focused field distribution around the other focus. An axial energy focusing is, thus, formed to confine the energy in a restricted region (near-field beam focusing), also minimizing the interference effects outside of the targeted area. Both numerical simulations and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of this antenna concept

The association between tyrosine kinase inhibitors and fatal arrhythmia in patients with non-small cell lung cancer in Taiwan

ObjectiveAs a standard therapy, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) improved survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation. However, treatment-related cardiotoxicity, particularly arrhythmia, cannot be ignored. With the prevalence of EGFR mutations in Asian populations, the risk of arrhythmia among patients with NSCLC remains unclear.MethodsUsing data from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database and National Cancer Registry, we identified patients with NSCLC from 2001 to 2014. Using Cox proportional hazards models, we analyzed outcomes of death and arrhythmia, including ventricular arrhythmia (VA), sudden cardiac death (SCD), and atrial fibrillation (AF). The follow-up duration was three years.ResultsIn total, 3876 patients with NSCLC treated with TKIs were matched to 3876 patients treated with platinum analogues. After adjusting for age, sex, comorbidities, and anticancer and cardiovascular therapies, patients receiving TKIs had a significantly lower risk of death (adjusted HR: 0.767; CI: 0.729–0.807, p &lt; 0.001) than those receiving platinum analogues. Given that approximately 80% of the studied population reached the endpoint of mortality, we also adjusted for mortality as a competing risk. Notably, we observed significantly increased risks of both VA (adjusted sHR: 2.328; CI: 1.592–3.404, p &lt; 0.001) and SCD (adjusted sHR: 1.316; CI: 1.041–1.663, p = 0.022) among TKI users compared with platinum analogue users. Conversely, the risk of AF was similar between the two groups. In the subgroup analysis, the increasing risk of VA/SCD persisted regardless of sex and most cardiovascular comorbidities.ConclusionsCollectively, we highlighted a higher risk of VA/SCD in TKI users than in patients receiving platinum analogues. Further research is needed to validate these findings

WiRiS: Transformer for RIS-Assisted Device-Free Sensing for Joint People Counting and Localization using Wi-Fi CSI

Channel State Information (CSI) is widely adopted as a feature for indoor localization. Taking advantage of the abundant information from the CSI, people can be accurately sensed even without equipped devices. However, the positioning error increases severely in non-line-of-sight (NLoS) regions. Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has been introduced to improve signal coverage in NLoS areas, which can re-direct and enhance reflective signals with massive meta-material elements. In this paper, we have proposed a Transformer-based RIS-assisted device-free sensing for joint people counting and localization (WiRiS) system to precisely predict the number of people and their corresponding locations through configuring RIS. A series of predefined RIS beams is employed to create inputs of fingerprinting CSI features as sequence-to-sequence learning database for Transformer. We have evaluated the performance of proposed WiRiS system in both ray-tracing simulators and experiments. Both simulation and real-world experiments demonstrate that people counting accuracy exceeds 90%, and the localization error can achieve the centimeter-level, which outperforms the existing benchmarks without employment of RIS