Solar and supernova neutrino physics with future NaI(Tl) dark matter search detectors

We investigate the prospects for measuring the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering of solar and supernova neutrinos in future NaI(Tl) dark matter detection experiments. Considering the reduced background and improved light yield of the recently developed NaI(Tl) crystals, more than 3$\sigma$ observation sensitivities of the supernova neutrino within the Milky Way are demonstrated. In the case of the solar neutrino, approximately 3 observations are marginal with a 1 ton NaI(Tl) experiment assuming an order of magnitude reduced background, five photoelectron thresholds, and 5-year data exposure

The avian-specific small heat shock protein HSP25 is a constitutive protector against environmental stresses during blastoderm dormancy

ArticleScientific Reports. 6: 36704 (2016).journal articl

Ionothermal Synthesis of Metal-Organic Framework

Ionothermal synthesis employs ionic liquids for synthesis of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) as solvent and template. The cations and anions of ionic liquids may be finely adjusted to produce a great variety of reaction environments and thus frameworks. Organisation of the structures synthesised from related ionic liquid combinations give rise to provocative chemical trends that may be used to predict future outcomes. Further analysis of their structures is possible by reducing the complex framework to its underlying topology, which by itself brings more precision to prediction. Through reduction, many seemingly different, but related classes of structures may be merged into larger groups and provide better understanding of the nanoscopic structures and synthesis conditions that gave rise to them. Ionothermal synthesis has promised to enable us to effectively plan the synthesis ahead for a given purpose. However, for its promise to be kept, several difficult limitations must be overcome, including the inseparable cations from the solvent that reside in the framework pore

The Influence of Tibial Positioning on the Diagnostic Accuracy of Combined Posterior Cruciate Ligament and Posterolateral Rotatory Instability of the Knee

Background: To determine if tibial positioning affects the external rotation of the tibia in a dial test for posterolateral rotatory instability combined with posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injuries. Methods: Between April 2007 and October 2007, 16 patients with a PCL tear and posterolateral rotatory instability were diagnosed using a dial test. The thigh-foot angle was measured at both 30 ° and 90 ° of knee fl exion with an external rotation stress applied to the tibia in 2 different positions (reduction and posterior subluxation). The measurements were performed twice by 2 orthopedic surgeons. Results: In posterior subluxation, the mean side-to-side difference in the thigh-foot angle was 11.56 ± 3.01 ° at 30 ° of knee fl exion and 11.88 ± 4.03 ° at 90 ° of knee flexion. In the sequential dial test performed with the tibia reduced, the mean side-to-side difference was 15.94 ± 4.17 ° (p < 0.05) at 30 ° of knee fl exion and 16.88 ± 4.42 ° (p = 0.001) at 90 ° of knee fl exion. The mean tibial external rotation was 5.31 ± 2.86 ° and 6.87 ± 3.59 ° higher in the reduced position than in the posterior subluxation at both 30° and 90 ° of knee fl exion. Conclusions: In the dial test, reducing the tibia with an anterior force increases the ability of an examiner to detect posterolateral rotary instability of the knee combined with PCL injuries

Bond Spreads, Market Integration and Contagion in the 2007-2008 Crisis

Yield spreads on sovereign bonds represent market expectations for the economic performance of issuing countries. In the international financial market, yield spreads also reflect the extent to which the issuing countries are integrated into the global market. We analyze market integration and interconnectedness for several countries by studying the characteristics of yield spreads of longterm bonds from December 1, 2006 to March 31, 2010. Our analysis is based on a latent factor model with the following factors: world factor, the regional factor, the country-specific factor, and the US shock. Our results show that there are clear contagion effects of the 2007-2008 crisis, which originated from the U.S., on all emerging economies under consideration. Stronger effects are observed on countries with relatively higher susceptibility to world factors before crisis. Mixed effects of regional factors are shown with similarities and differences across regions and countries. Relatively stronger effects of country-specific factors are shown in Korea, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S

Physiological and subjective burden when wearing fire protective boots between 3.2 and 5.3kg

This study investigated the effects of weight increase of firefighters boots on physiological and psychological strain. Seven young males (70.9 ± 4.8kg in body mass, BM) participated in the following four boot conditions while wearing standard firefighting personal protective equipment: 3.2, 3.9, 4.6, and 5.3kg (4.5, 5.5, 6.5, and 7.5%BM). The results showed that the four boot conditions resulted in no differences in rectal temperature, mean skin temperature, energy expenditure and overall thermal comfort during walking, while increments in heart rate were greater for 5.3kg than for other three conditions (P < 0.05). Subjects felt less warm and had less uncomfortable feet during exercise for the 3.2kg condition compared to the three other heavier conditions (P < 0.05). These results indicate that psychological strain due to the load carried on the feet appeared earlier (between 4.5 to 5.5%BM) than physiological strain in terms of heart rate (between 6.5 to 7.5%BM). We finally suggest a 5% body mass upper limit for boot weight because subjective strain of the feet may be a valuable preliminary alarm for the physiological strain of firefighters wearing heavy boots.This research was supported by the Fire Fighting Safety &119 Rescue Technology Research and Development Program funded by the Ministry of Public Safety and Security [MPSS-Fire Fighting Safety-2015–76 and MPSS-Fire Fighting Safety-2015–82], and Nano Material Technology Development Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (No.2016M3A7B4910)

Towards Neural Decoding of Imagined Speech based on Spoken Speech

Decoding imagined speech from human brain signals is a challenging and important issue that may enable human communication via brain signals. While imagined speech can be the paradigm for silent communication via brain signals, it is always hard to collect enough stable data to train the decoding model. Meanwhile, spoken speech data is relatively easy and to obtain, implying the significance of utilizing spoken speech brain signals to decode imagined speech. In this paper, we performed a preliminary analysis to find out whether if it would be possible to utilize spoken speech electroencephalography data to decode imagined speech, by simply applying the pre-trained model trained with spoken speech brain signals to decode imagined speech. While the classification performance of imagined speech data solely used to train and validation was 30.5 %, the transferred performance of spoken speech based classifier to imagined speech data displayed average accuracy of 26.8 % which did not have statistically significant difference compared to the imagined speech based classifier (p = 0.0983, chi-square = 4.64). For more comprehensive analysis, we compared the result with the visual imagery dataset, which would naturally be less related to spoken speech compared to the imagined speech. As a result, visual imagery have shown solely trained performance of 31.8 % and transferred performance of 26.3 % which had shown statistically significant difference between each other (p = 0.022, chi-square = 7.64). Our results imply the potential of applying spoken speech to decode imagined speech, as well as their underlying common features.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Helicobacter pylori Infection and Halitosis – Evidence, Hypothesis, and Korean Red Ginseng to Mitigate Its Effect

Halitosis is a common and ignored condition, but in some, it is a disease-associated health problem, suggestive of overt disease conditions and hasaffected about 25–30% of world’s population, bothering nonmedical social disturbance in many people. Although two kinds, pseudohalitosis and halitophobia, are also concerned, genuine halitosis originated from the oral cavity, such as gingivitis, caries, and poor oral hygiene, in 80% and the remaining 20% are extraoral sources of halitosis, which should not be ignored because of stigmata suggestive of overt tissue dysfunctions, for instance, poor nutrition and hygiene, alcohol abuse, smoking, and systemic illness such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, liver cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, and chronic renal diseases. In this chapter, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)–associated halitosis as one of the extragastric manifestations is introduced. Since diagnostics of halitosis includes subjective methods (examiner’s sense of smell) and objective methods (instrumental analysis), under the hypothesis of a possible relationship between H. pylori infection and objective halitosis, the real levels of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) in the breath showed significant correlation between VSC levels and the degree of H. pylori–associated erosive gastritis as well as gastric cancer. These findings are further validated through either measuring H2S level in gastric juices of H. pylori–infected gastritis or checking the expressions of cystathionine-γ-lyase (CSE) and cystathionine-β-synthase (CBS) responsible for H2S generation in biopsied stomach. The eradication of H. pylori significantly ameliorated halitosis, accompanied with significant reductions in gastric H2S levels (p<0.01). Korean red ginseng was very effective in either reducing H. pylori–associated H2S or alleviating halitosis in patients with H. pylori–associated chronic atrophic gastritis. Conclusively, H. pylori infection demonstrates to have an important relationship with the development of halitosis, and its eradication could possibly promote the improvement of this condition