Increased Pituitary Fluorine-18-Fluorodeoxyglucose Uptake in Patients with Differentiated Thyroid Cancer in Hypothyroidism versus under Recombinant Human Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone Stimulation.

The incidental pituitary hypermetabolism on 18F-FDG PET/CT should be further evaluated for discriminating between pathologic and physiologic uptake, but a recent study suggests that pituitary hypermetabolism is common in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) undergoing thyroid hormone withdrawal (THW). The aim of this retrospective study was to compare pituitary metabolism in patients with DTC undergoing 18F-FDG PET/CT under THW versus recombinant human thyroid-stimulating hormone (rhTSH) stimulation. We confirmed a higher pituitary SUVmax and SUVratio with a higher prevalence of pituitary hypermetabolism in the THW group compared to the rhTSH group. A positive correlation between serum TSH levels and pituitary SUVmax was observed only in the THW group. The present findings support the hypothesis that pituitary hypermetabolism on 18F-FDG PET/CT in patients with DTC undergoing THW is a common physiological response to hypothyroidism. Awareness of this physiological hypermetabolism is important to avoid potential pitfalls in image interpretation that could trigger unnecessary investigations

Increasing eigenstructure assignment design degree of freedom using lifting

This paper presents the exposition of an output-lifting eigenstructure assignment (EA) design framework, wherein the available EA design degrees of freedom (DoF) is significantly increased, and the desired eigenstructure of a single-rate full state feedback solution can be achieved within an output feedback system. A structural mapping is introduced to release the output-lifting causality constraint. Additionally, the available design DoF can be further enlarged via involving the input-lifting into the output-lifting EA framework. The newly induced design DoF can be utilised to calculate a structurally constrained, causal gain matrix which will maintain the same assignment capability. In this paper, the robustification of the output-lifting EA is also proposed, which allows a trade-off between performance and robustness in the presence of structured model uncertainties to be established. A lateral flight control benchmark in the EA literature and a numerical example are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the design framework

Quantum information processing using Josephson junctions coupled through cavities

Josephson junctions have been shown to be a promising solid-state system for implementation of quantum computation. The significant two-qubit gates are generally realized by the capacitive coupling between the nearest neighbour qubits. We propose an effective Hamiltonian to describe charge qubits coupled through the cavity. We find that nontrivial two-qubit gates may be achieved by this coupling. The ability to interconvert localized charge qubits and flying qubits in the proposed scheme implies that quantum network can be constructed using this large scalable solid-state system.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in Phys Rev A; typos corrected, solutions in last eqs. correcte

Evaluation of the possibility of using diatomite natural mineral as a composite agent in acrylic coating

WOS: 000427736200014In the present study the possibility of the commercially available acryl and diatomite earth (DE) mineral as a composite coating for corrosion protection of Mg alloys has been evaluated. The acrylic coating is used as a top coating in a wide field of applications like automotive, aerospace, medicine and electronics where it shows beneficial properties. Diatomite-dispersed acrylic paint was applied over the substrate by conventional spray technique with an air pressure of 3 kg cm(-2). Firstly the acryl was mixed with hardener and then the DE was added to the mixture. Four types of coating with 0, 2, 4, 8 g/L DE have been prepared. The results show that adding up to 4 g/L of the DE improved the corrosion resistance and produced a coating with acceptable surface roughness

Partial Wave Analysis of J/ψ→γ(K+K−π+π−)J/\psi \to \gamma (K^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-)

BES data on $J/\psi \to \gamma (K^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-)$ are presented. The $K^*\bar K^*$ contribution peaks strongly near threshold. It is fitted with a broad $0^{-+}$ resonance with mass $M = 1800 \pm 100$ MeV, width $\Gamma = 500 \pm 200$ MeV. A broad $2^{++}$ resonance peaking at 2020 MeV is also required with width $\sim 500$ MeV. There is further evidence for a $2^{-+}$ component peaking at 2.55 GeV. The non-$K^*\bar K^*$ contribution is close to phase space; it peaks at 2.6 GeV and is very different from $K^{*}\bar{K^{*}}$.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, Submitted to PL

Colossal dielectric constants in transition-metal oxides

Many transition-metal oxides show very large ("colossal") magnitudes of the dielectric constant and thus have immense potential for applications in modern microelectronics and for the development of new capacitance-based energy-storage devices. In the present work, we thoroughly discuss the mechanisms that can lead to colossal values of the dielectric constant, especially emphasising effects generated by external and internal interfaces, including electronic phase separation. In addition, we provide a detailed overview and discussion of the dielectric properties of CaCu3Ti4O12 and related systems, which is today's most investigated material with colossal dielectric constant. Also a variety of further transition-metal oxides with large dielectric constants are treated in detail, among them the system La2-xSrxNiO4 where electronic phase separation may play a role in the generation of a colossal dielectric constant.Comment: 31 pages, 18 figures, submitted to Eur. Phys. J. for publication in the Special Topics volume "Cooperative Phenomena in Solids: Metal-Insulator Transitions and Ordering of Microscopic Degrees of Freedom

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters