Transplanckian Dispersion Relation and Entanglement Entropy of Blackhole

The quantum correction to the entanglement entropy of the event horizon is plagued by the UV divergence due to the infinitely blue-shifted near horizon modes. The resolution of this UV divergence provides an excellent window to a better understanding and control of the quantum gravity effects. We claim that the key to resolve this UV puzzle is the transplanckian dispersion relation. We calculate the entanglement entropy using a very general type of transplanckian dispersion relation such that high energy modes above a certain scale are cutoff, and show that the entropy is rendered UV finite. We argue that modified dispersion relation is a generic feature of string theory, and this boundedness nature of the dispersion relation is a general consequence of the existence of a minimal distance in string theory.Comment: 7 pages. To appear in the proceedings of 36th International Symposium Ahrenshoop on the theory of Elementary Particles: Recent Developments in String/M Theory and Field Theory, Berlin, Germany, 26-30 Aug 200

Non-local Matching Condition and Scale-invariant Spectrum in Bouncing Cosmology

In cosmological scenarios such as the pre-big bang scenario or the ekpyrotic scenario, a matching condition between the metric perturbations in the pre-big bang phase and those in the post big-bang phase is often assumed. Various matching conditions have been considered in the literature. Nevertheless obtaining a scale invariant CMB spectrum via a concrete mechanism remains impossible. In this paper, we examine this problem from the point of view of local causality. We begin with introducing the notion of local causality and explain how it constrains the form of the matching condition. We then prove a no-go theorem: independent of the details of the matching condition, a scale invariant spectrum is impossible as long as the local causality condition is satisfied. In our framework, it is easy to show that a violation of local causality around the bounce is needed in order to give a scale invariant spectrum. We study a specific scenario of this possibility by considering a nonlocal effective theory inspired by noncommutative geometry around the bounce and show that a scale invariant spectrum is possible. Moreover we demonstrate that the magnitude of the spectrum is compatible with observations if the bounce is assumed to occur at an energy scale which is a few orders of magnitude below the Planckian energy scale.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures; v3: clarifications added, changes in references, version to appear in PR

Structural studies of O-acetylglucuronoxylans and their modifications in plant cell walls

O-acetylglucuronoxylans (AcGX) are the major hemicelluloses found in the secondary cell wall of dicotyledon species. The backbone is formed by β(1→4)-linked xylopyranosyl (Xylp) residues, which are substituted by α(1→2)-linked (4-O-methyl)glucopyranosyluronic acid ((Me)GlcpA). The AcGX are also highly acetylated on the 2-O or 3-O; or both positions of Xylp units. Notably, acetylation patterns in AcGX are not well understood since they are typically destroyed during the alkaline isolation. Accurate quantitation of MeGlcpA is also challenged by the lack of commercially available MeGlcpA sources, thus the accuracy of MeGlcpA content determined with the GlcpA standard is unknown. The current thesis established new procedures of detailed characterization of AcGX. The xylan OLIgosaccharide Mass Profiling (OLIMP) method encompassed endoxylanase hydrolysis and mass spectrometry detection. The endoxylanase cleaves the xylan backbone into acetylated xylooligosaccharides (AcXOS). As the action is hindered by the side groups, endoxylanase can be a selective tool to liberate AcXOS from plant tissues for fingerprinting the acetylation pattern in AcGX. Additionally, mass fragmentation analyses were performed to elucidate the spatial distribution of acetyl residues. The accuracy of MeGlcpA quantitation using the GlcpA standard was examined by comparing it to the in-house purified MeGlcpA in acid methanolysis and gas chromatography (GC) analysis. Several of the genes responsible for the biosynthesis of AcGX were previously identified using Arabidopsis thaliana as the model plant. Herein, the structures of AcGX in Arabidopsis wild-type and biosynthetic mutant plants that are defective in reducing end tetrasaccharide sequence or backbone synthesis, irx7, irx9, irx10 and irx14; and (Me)GlcpA addition, gux1gux2 were analyzed using methods established for structural characterization of AcGX. Mono-acetylations (2-O or 3-O position) were reduced in irx7, irx9 and irx14, whereas 2-O acetylation was elevated in the (Me)GlcpA deficient mutant, gux1gux2, indicating that the addition of (Me)GlcpA residues is taking place before acetylation of xylans. Structural elucidation on the major AcXOS liberated from wild-type plant suggests that the acetyl residues are added in every other Xylp residue in AcGX. Interestingly, a novel pentose substitution on the GlcpA side group in AcGX was identified. In acid methanolysis, the GlcpA standard was partially lactonized, thus yielding six derivatives in GC chromatogram. When all six GlcpA derivatives were used in the calibration curve, the MeGlcpA content was underestimated by nearly 30%. The MeGlcpA content can be closely estimated by choosing the appropriate GlcpA derivatives in the calibration curve. The method was used to investigate the impact of Schizophyllum commune glycoside hydrolase family 115 α-glucuronidase (AGU) transgene expressed in Arabidopsis. The (Me)GlcpA content in the ScAGU115 expressing plants was surprisingly unchanged despite the active recombinant enzyme present within the cell walls. In this work, the acetylation pattern in the AcGX of Arabidopsis wild-type and mutant plants was studied in detail. The methods developed herein revealed that the acetylation of AcGX was reduced in Arabidopsis lines that encode a defective biosynthetic gene related to backbone or reducing end sequence synthesis, suggesting pleiotropic effect of a single gene mutation in xylan biosynthesis. The MeGlcA substituents in AcGX can be effectively reduced by disruption of the glucoronyltrasnferases; however, the substitution in the AcGX of gux1gux2 was compensated by acetylation. On the other hand, constitutive transgenic expression of ScAGU115 α-glucuronidase did not remove the (Me)GlcpA substituents in planta. The reason may be ascribed to the shielding by neighbouring acetyl substituents, or limited accessibility of the recombinant enzyme to cell wall substrates. Therefore, a viable approach for the effective tailoring of AcGX substituents in planta could be co-expression with an acetyl xylan esterase to obtain synergism between these side-group removing enzymes.Plant biomass represents a plentiful source of carbon on Earth that can be exploited as a renewable raw material for producing fuels, chemicals and materials. However, harnessing the greatest benefits from the structurally complex plant cell walls remains a major challenge. Secondary cell walls, the major component of plant biomass, are mainly formed by complex polysaccharides and polyphenols. These biomolecules are interacting to strengthen wall support, and also contributes to recalcitrance against extraction or decomposition by enzymatic hydrolysis. Cell wall modification via in planta engineering can be utilized to design the constituents of plant cell walls, to thereby improve the extractability of sugars and polymers, or tailor the cell wall properties. This goal is approachable either by manipulating biosynthetic genes or by expressing microbial polysaccharides-modifying enzymes in plants. O-acetylglucuronoxylans (AcGX) are the second most abundant polysaccharides found in the secondary cell wall of dicotyledon species. The model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana has been utilized for the studies of AcGX biosynthesis and modifications. Detailed studies on the compositions and structures of AcGX are needed to detect the outcomes resulted from cell wall modification. Therefore, the current thesis established new procedures of detailed characterization of AcGX. Using the established methods, AcGX in Arabidopsis wild-type and mutant plants were examined. The results showed that the mutation of single gene involved in AcGX biosynthesis could cause multiple effects to the AcGX structures. Additionally, expressing single side group removing enzyme was ineffective to modify the substituents in AcGX. The findings contribute to the understanding of AcGX biosynthesis and modification that will help to improve the strategies devised for plant improvements

Flow Injection Chemiluminescent Immunoassay for Carcinoembryonic Antigen Using Boronic Immunoaffinity Column

A flow injection chemiluminescence immunoassay for rapid and sensitive detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) by using a phenylboronic acid-based immunoaffinity column as a glycoprotein collector was proposed in this paper. The column was prepared by coupling of 3-aminophenylboronic acid on the glass beads through a γ-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPMS) linkage. Based on an indirect competitive immunoreaction, the mixture of CEA sample and enzyme conjugated CEA antibody (HRP-anti-CEA) was incubated in advance, followed by direct injection to the column to capture free HRP-labeled CEA antibody in the column. The trapped HRP-labeled antibody was detected by flow inject chemiluminescence in the presence of luminol and hydrogen peroxide. The decreased chemiluminescent signal was proportional to the concentration of CEA in the range of 3.0–30.0 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient of 0.998. The column showed an acceptable reproducibility and stability and is potentially used for practical clinical detection of the serum CEA level

Ergodic Achievable Rate Analysis and Optimization of RIS-assisted Millimeter-Wave MIMO Communication Systems

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have emerged as a prospective technology for next-generation wireless networks due to their potential in coverage and capacity enhancement. Previous works on achievable rate analysis of RIS-assisted communication systems have mainly focused on the rich-scattering environment where Rayleigh and Rician channel models can be applied. This work studies the ergodic achievable rate of RIS-assisted multiple-input multiple-output communication systems in millimeter-wave band with limited scattering under the Saleh-Valenzuela channel model. Firstly, we derive an upper bound of the ergodic achievable rate by means of majorization theory and Jensen's inequality. The upper bound shows that the ergodic achievable rate increases logarithmically with the number of antennas at the base station (BS) and user, the number of the reflection units at the RIS, and the eigenvalues of the steering matrices associated with the BS, user and RIS. Then, we aim to maximize the ergodic achievable rate by jointly optimizing the transmit covariance matrix at the BS and the reflection coefficients at the RIS. Specifically, the transmit covariance matrix is optimized by the water-filling algorithm and the reflection coefficients are optimized using the Riemannian conjugate gradient algorithm. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed optimization algorithms.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figure

Development of a Verification Technique for On-wafer Noise Figure Measurement Systems

We present the development of a verification technique for on-wafer noise figure (NF) measurement systems. As the key element of the technique, a verification device consisting of a mismatched attenuator and a low noise amplifier (LNA) has been developed. The attenuator and the LNA are fabricated on two separate chips but joined with a bondwire. The verification procedure based on the device has also been developed and tested on an on-wafer vector network analyzer system with a noise measurement option across the frequency range from 2 GHz to 20 GHz. It has also been found that the bondwire contributes to negligible effect on the system when NF is high e.g. 3 dB but slightly higher when NF is smaller e.g. 1 dB

Optimal Hemoglobin Extinction Coefficient Data Set for Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Extinction coefficient (ε) is a critical parameter for quantification of oxy-, deoxy-, and total-hemoglobin concentrations (Δ[HbO2], Δ[Hb], Δ[tHb]) from optical measurements of Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). There are several different ε data sets which were frequently used in NIRS quantification. A previous study reported that even a small variation in ε could cause a significant difference in hemodynamic measurements. Apparently the selection of an optimal ε data set is important for NIRS. We conducted oxygen-state-varied and blood-concentration-varied model experiments with 57 human blood samples to mimic tissue hemodynamic variations. Seven reported ε data sets were evaluated by comparisons between quantifications and assumed values. We found that the Moaveni et al (1970)’ ε data set was the optimal one, the NIRS quantification varied significantly among different ε data sets and parameter Δ[tHb] was most sensitive to ε data sets selection

Matrix Theory in a Constant C Field Background

D0-branes moving in a constant antisymmetric C field are found to be described by quantum mechanics of the supersymmetric matrix model with a similarity transformation. Sometimes this similarity transformation is singular or ill-defined and cannot be ignored. As an example, when there are non-vanishing C_{-ij} components, we obtain the theory for Dp-branes which is effectively the noncommutative super Yang-Mills theory. We also briefly discuss the effects of other non-vanishing components such as C_{+ij} and C_{ijk}.Comment: harvmac, 17 pages, references adde