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

Clinical development of new drug-radiotherapy combinations.

In countries with the best cancer outcomes, approximately 60% of patients receive radiotherapy as part of their treatment, which is one of the most cost-effective cancer treatments. Notably, around 40% of cancer cures include the use of radiotherapy, either as a single modality or combined with other treatments. Radiotherapy can provide enormous benefit to patients with cancer. In the past decade, significant technical advances, such as image-guided radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, stereotactic radiotherapy, and proton therapy enable higher doses of radiotherapy to be delivered to the tumour with significantly lower doses to normal surrounding tissues. However, apart from the combination of traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy with radiotherapy, little progress has been made in identifying and defining optimal targeted therapy and radiotherapy combinations to improve the efficacy of cancer treatment. The National Cancer Research Institute Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Research Working Group (CTRad) formed a Joint Working Group with representatives from academia, industry, patient groups and regulatory bodies to address this lack of progress and to publish recommendations for future clinical research. Herein, we highlight the Working Group's consensus recommendations to increase the number of novel drugs being successfully registered in combination with radiotherapy to improve clinical outcomes for patients with cancer.National Institute for Health ResearchThis is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.7

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field

Chirp based multiple access technique using Fractional Fourier Transform

In this paper we consider the use of chirp signals as signatures to identify user in multi-user communication system. We propose the use of Fractional Fourier Transform for extracting the desired signature chirp signal. We describe the complete multiple access system using this method. We show that the proposed system can support more number of users for the given bandwidth as compared to existing multiple access systems like TDMA/FDMA (GSM) and CDMA

A unified MC-DCT framework for reducing the computational complexity of frequency-domain transcoders for MPEG-2 video

In order to transmit pre-encoded digital video over heterogeneous networks, it becomes necessary to employ transcoding techniques that convert pre-encoded video streams into streams having different bit rates and quality. Video transcoders save computational overheads incurred in the IDCT and DCT operations, by performing motion compensation (MC) in the frequency (block-DCT) domain (MC-DCT). Most of the computational complexity of the frequency-domain video transcoder comes from the MC-DCT operation. MC-DCT involves pre- and post-multiplication of 8 × 8 DCT blocks with 8 × 8 matrices derived from the motion vectors of that block. The specific contribution of this work is towards developing a unified framework for handling all MC-DCT modes for MPEG-2 video input to a frequency-domain video transcoder. Use of this framework can lead to a potential saving of up to forty-eight 8 × 8 block multiplications and sixteen 8 × 8 block additions per reconstructed 16 × 16 macroblock.© IEE

A novel algorithm for reducing computational complexity of MC-DCT in frequency-domain video transcoders

In order to transmit pre-encoded digital video over heterogeneous networks, it becomes necessary to employ transcoding techniques that convert pre-encoded video streams into streams having different bit rates and quality. This process is referred to as rate shaping or rate adaptation. Such video transcoders save computational overheads incurred in the IDCT (stream decode) and DCT (stream encode) operations, by performing motion compensation (MC) in the frequency (block-DCT) domain (MC-DCT). MC-DCT involves pre- and post-multiplication of 8×8 DCT blocks with 8×8 matrices derived from motion vectors. The specific contribution of this work is towards developing a novel method for implementing the pre- and post-multiplication with minimum computational overhead. The proposed method gives time savings of up to 50% over normal block multiplication.© IEE

Rested and Restless Bandits With Constrained Arms and Hidden States: Applications in Socia: Networks and 5G Networks

The problem of rested and restless multi-armed bandits with constrained availability (RMAB-CA) of arms is considered. The states of arms evolve in Markovian manner and the exact states are hidden from the decision maker. First, some structural results on value functions are claimed. Following these results, the optimal policy turns out to be a threshold policy. Furthermore, indexability is established for both rested and restless RMAB-CAs. An index formula is derived for the rested model, while an algorithm is provided for restless case

Routing protocols for landslide prediction using wireless sensor networks

Landslide prediction and early warning system is an improtant application where sensor networks can be deployed to minimize loss of life and property. Due to the dense deployment of sensors in landslide prone areas, clustering is an efficient approach to reduce redundant communication from co-located sensors. In this paper we propose two distributed clustering and multi-hop routing protocols, CAMP and HBVR, for this problem. While CAMP is a new clustering and routing protocol, HBVR is an enhancement of BVR with HEED. We further enhance CAMP and HBVR with TEEN, a threshold based event driven protocol. TEEN is most suitable protocol for this application since different rock types can have different thresholds for stress values. Simulation results show that CAMP-TEEN gives the best performance with respect to network life time and energy consumption