Asian Cities: Cultural heritage and the interplay between nation building and internationalism

It is over a decade since the volume The Disappearing Asian City (Logan 2002) was published. An edited volume bringing together a number of experts on the region, the book identified the threats facing buildings, archaeological sites and the historic character of cities, as well as the myriad of challenges of raising civic and regulatory awareness about the value of cultural heritage in times of rapid transformation. It was a set of concerns and arguments that remain as pertinent as ever. Those who have lived and worked in different parts of Asia over the past decade on cultural heritage issues, frequently use the terms \u27extraordinary\u27 or \u27bewildering\u27 to describe the scale and speed of transformation that has taken place. Indeed, for those concerned about maintaining continuities between past and present - whether they be social, spiritual or material - the development of cities, the wholesale movements of communities in and out of urban landscapes, together with the dramatic increase in industries like tourism, has often been disorienting, and in some cases deeply confronting: both professionally and emotionally. And yet, to focus on loss and destruction would miss a whole set of other fascinating, emergent and important trends. As numerous publications in the intervening period have shown, cultural heritage has become a topic of intense interest and debate in the majority of Asian societies, for a host of reasons (Askew 2010; Broudehoux 2004; Pai 2013)

Half-Life of 14^{14}O

We have measured the half-life of $^{14}$O, a superallowed $(0^{+} \to 0^{+})$ $\beta$ decay isotope. The $^{14}$O was produced by the $^{12}$C($^{3}$He,n)$^{14}$O reaction using a carbon aerogel target. A low-energy ion beam of $^{14}$O was mass separated and implanted in a thin beryllium foil. The beta particles were counted with plastic scintillator detectors. We find $t_{1/2} = 70.696\pm 0.052$ s. This result is $1.5\sigma$ higher than an average value from six earlier experiments, but agrees more closely with the most recent previous measurement.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Flight test evaluation of an RAF high altitude partial pressure protective assembly

A partial pressure suit was evaluated during tests in an F-104 and F-15 as a protective garment for emergency descents. The garment is an pressure jerkin and modified anti-g suit combined with an oronasal mask. The garment can be donned and doffed at the aircraft to minimize thermal buildup. The oronasal mask was favored by the pilots due to its immobility on the face during high g-loading. The garment was chosen to provide optimum dexterity for the pilot, which is not available in a full pressure suit, while protecting the pilot at altitudes up to 18,288 meters, during a cabin decompression, and subsequent aircraft descent. During cabin decompressions in the F-104 and F-15, cabin pressure altitude was measured at various aircraft angles of attack, Mach numbers, and altitudes to determine the effect of the aerodynamic slipstream on the cabin altitude

Random quantum codes from Gaussian ensembles and an uncertainty relation

Using random Gaussian vectors and an information-uncertainty relation, we give a proof that the coherent information is an achievable rate for entanglement transmission through a noisy quantum channel. The codes are random subspaces selected according to the Haar measure, but distorted as a function of the sender's input density operator. Using large deviations techniques, we show that classical data transmitted in either of two Fourier-conjugate bases for the coding subspace can be decoded with low probability of error. A recently discovered information-uncertainty relation then implies that the quantum mutual information for entanglement encoded into the subspace and transmitted through the channel will be high. The monogamy of quantum correlations finally implies that the environment of the channel cannot be significantly coupled to the entanglement, and concluding, which ensures the existence of a decoding by the receiver.Comment: 9 pages, two-column style. This paper is a companion to quant-ph/0702005 and quant-ph/070200

Large gauge invariant non-standard neutrino interactions

Theories beyond the Standard Model must necessarily respect its gauge symmetry. This implies strict constraints on the possible models of non-standard neutrino interactions, which we analyze. The focus is set on the effective low-energy dimension six and eight operators involving four leptons, decomposing them according to all possible tree-level mediators, as a guide for model building. The new couplings are required to have sizeable strength, while processes involving four charged leptons are required to be suppressed. For non-standard interactions in matter, only diagonal tau-neutrino interactions can escape these requirements and can be allowed to result from dimension six operators. Large non-standard neutrino interactions from dimension eight operators alone are phenomenologically allowed in all flavour channels and shown to require at least two new mediator particles. The new couplings must obey general cancellation conditions both at the dimension six and eight levels, which result from expressing the operators obtained from the mediator analysis in terms of a complete basis of operators. We illustrate with one example how to apply this information to model building.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables. Final version in PR

Spectroscopy of electron-induced fluorescence in organic liquid scintillators

Emission spectra of several organic liquid-scintillator mixtures which are relevant for the proposed LENA detector have been measured by exciting the medium with electrons of ~10keV. The results are compared with spectra resulting from ultraviolet light excitation. Good agreement between spectra measured by both methods has been found.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Fluorescence decay-time constants in organic liquid scintillators

The fluorescence decay-time constants have been measured for several scintillator mixtures based on phenyl-o-xylylethane (PXE) and linear alkylbenzene (LAB) solvents. The resulting values are of relevance for the physics performance of the proposed large-volume liquid scintillator detector LENA (Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy). In particular, the impact of the measured values to the search for proton decay via p -> K+ antineutrino is evaluated in this work.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Fat transforms ascorbic acid from inhibiting to promoting acid-catalysed N-nitrosation

<b>Background</b>: The major potential site of acid nitrosation is the proximal stomach, an anatomical site prone to a rising incidence of metaplasia and adenocarcinoma. Nitrite, a pre-carcinogen present in saliva, can be converted to nitrosating species and N-nitroso compounds by acidification at low gastric pH in the presence of thiocyanate. <b>Aims</b>: To assess the effect of lipid and ascorbic acid on the nitrosative chemistry under conditions simulating the human proximal stomach. <b>Methods</b>: The nitrosative chemistry was modelled in vitro by measuring the nitrosation of four secondary amines under conditions simulating the proximal stomach. The N-nitrosamines formed were measured by gas chromatography–ion-trap tandem mass spectrometry, while nitric oxide and oxygen levels were measured amperometrically. <b>Results</b>: In absence of lipid, nitrosative stress was inhibited by ascorbic acid through conversion of nitrosating species to nitric oxide. Addition of ascorbic acid reduced the amount of N-nitrosodimethylamine formed by fivefold, N-nitrosomorpholine by .1000-fold, and totally prevented the formation of N-nitrosodiethylamine and N-nitrosopiperidine. In contrast, when 10% lipid was present, ascorbic acid increased the amount of Nnitrosodimethylamine, N-nitrosodiethylamine and N-nitrosopiperidine formed by approximately 8-, 60- and 140-fold, respectively, compared with absence of ascorbic acid. <b>Conclusion</b>: The presence of lipid converts ascorbic acid from inhibiting to promoting acid nitrosation. This may be explained by nitric oxide, formed by ascorbic acid in the aqueous phase, being able to regenerate nitrosating species by reacting with oxygen in the lipid phase

Rokhlin Dimension for Flows

This research was supported by GIF Grant 1137/2011, SFB 878 Groups, Geometry and Actions and ERC Grant No. 267079. Part of the research was conducted at the Fields institute during the 2014 thematic program on abstract harmonic analysis, Banach and operator algebras, and at the Mittag–Leffler institute during the 2016 program on Classification of Operator Algebras: Complexity, Rigidity, and Dynamics.Peer reviewedPostprin

Anomalous Higgs Couplings at the LHC

We discuss the impact and potential discovery of physics beyond the Standard Model, coupling to the Higgs sector, at the LHC. Using a model-independent effective Lagrangian approach, pure Higgs and Higgs-gauge operators are analyzed, and their origin in terms of tree-level exchange of unknown heavy messengers is systematically derived. It is demonstrated that early signals at the LHC may result from a simultaneous modification of Higgs-fermion and Higgs-gauge boson couplings induced by those operators, pointing towards singlet scalar or a triplet vector -- barring fine-tuned options. Of course, the Higgs discovery itself will also be affected by such new couplings. With increasing statistics, the remaining options can be discriminated from each other. On the other hand, the discovery of a new scalar doublet may require technology beyond the LHC, since the Higgs self-couplings have to be measured. Our conclusions are based on the complete set of tree-level decompositions of the effective operators unbiased by a specific model.Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures, version to appear in Phys.Rev.