434 research outputs found
Perspective of monochromatic gamma-ray line detection with the High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility onboard China's Space Station
HERD is the High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection instrument proposed to
operate onboard China's space station in the 2020s. It is designed to detect
energetic cosmic ray nuclei, leptons and photons with a high energy resolution
( for electrons and photons and for nuclei) and a large
geometry factor ( for electrons and diffuse photons and for nuclei). In this work we discuss the capability of HERD to detect
monochromatic -ray lines, based on simulations of the detector
performance. It is shown that HERD will be one of the most sensitive
instruments for monochromatic -ray searches at energies between
to a few hundred GeV. Above hundreds of GeV, Cherenkov telescopes will
be more sensitive due to their large effective area. As a specific example, we
show that a good portion of the parameter space of a supersymmetric dark matter
model can be probed with HERD.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, matches version published in Astropart.Phy
The flavor-changing bottom-strange quark production in the littlest Higgs model with T parity at the ILC
In the littlest Higgs model with T-parity (LHT) the mirror quarks induce the
special flavor structures and some new flavor-changing (FC) couplings which
could greatly enhance the production rates of the FC processes. We in this
paper study some bottom and anti-strange production processes in the LHT model
at the International Linear Collider (ILC), i.e.,
and . The results show that the production
rates of these processes are sizeable for the favorable values of the
parameters. Therefore, it is quite possible to test the LHT model or make some
constrains on the relevant parameters of the LHT through the detection of these
processes at the ILC.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
A general model for collaboration networks
In this paper, we propose a general model for collaboration networks.
Depending on a single free parameter "{\bf preferential exponent}", this model
interpolates between networks with a scale-free and an exponential degree
distribution. The degree distribution in the present networks can be roughly
classified into four patterns, all of which are observed in empirical data. And
this model exhibits small-world effect, which means the corresponding networks
are of very short average distance and highly large clustering coefficient.
More interesting, we find a peak distribution of act-size from empirical data
which has not been emphasized before of some collaboration networks. Our model
can produce the peak act-size distribution naturally that agrees with the
empirical data well.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
A balanced homodyne detector for high-rate Gaussian-modulated coherent-state quantum key distribution
We discuss excess noise contributions of a practical balanced homodyne
detector in Gaussian-modulated coherent-state (GMCS) quantum key distribution
(QKD). We point out the key generated from the original realistic model of GMCS
QKD may not be secure. In our refined realistic model, we take into account
excess noise due to the finite bandwidth of the homodyne detector and the
fluctuation of the local oscillator. A high speed balanced homodyne detector
suitable for GMCS QKD in the telecommunication wavelength region is built and
experimentally tested. The 3dB bandwidth of the balanced homodyne detector is
found to be 104MHz and its electronic noise level is 13dB below the shot noise
at a local oscillator level of 8.5*10^8 photon per pulse. The secure key rate
of a GMCS QKD experiment with this homodyne detector is expected to reach
Mbits/s over a few kilometers.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure
Single top quark production as a probe of R-parity-violating SUSY at pp and p\bar p colliders
We investigate the ability of single top quark production via qq'->
squark->tb and q \bar q'->slepton->t\bar b at the LHC and Tevatron to probe the
strength of R-parity violating couplings in the minimal supersymmetric model.
We found that given the existing bounds on R-parity violating couplings, single
top quark production may be greatly enhanced over that predicted by the
standard model, and that both colliders can either discover R-parity violating
SUSY or set strong constraints on the relevant R-parity violating couplings. We
further found that the LHC is much more powerful than the Tevatron in probing
the squark couplings, but the two colliders have comparable sensitivity for the
slepton couplings.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
An Updated Search of Steady TeV Ray Point Sources in Northern Hemisphere Using the Tibet Air Shower Array
Using the data taken from Tibet II High Density (HD) Array (1997
February-1999 September) and Tibet-III array (1999 November-2005 November), our
previous northern sky survey for TeV ray point sources has now been
updated by a factor of 2.8 improved statistics. From to
in declination (Dec) range, no new TeV ray point
sources with sufficiently high significance were identified while the
well-known Crab Nebula and Mrk421 remain to be the brightest TeV ray
sources within the field of view of the Tibet air shower array. Based on the
currently available data and at the 90% confidence level (C.L.), the flux upper
limits for different power law index assumption are re-derived, which are
approximately improved by 1.7 times as compared with our previous reported
limits.Comment: This paper has been accepted by hepn
Clusters of Sudden Unexplained Death Associated with the Mushroom, Trogia venenata, in Rural Yunnan Province, China
INTRODUCTION: Since the late 1970's, time-space clusters of sudden unexplained death (SUD) in northwest Yunnan, China have alarmed the public and health authorities. From 2006-2009, we initiated enhanced surveillance for SUD to identify a cause, and we warned villagers to avoid eating unfamiliar mushrooms. METHODS: We established surveillance for SUD, defined as follows: sudden onset of serious, unexplained physical impairment followed by death in <24 hours. A mild case was onset of any illness in a member of the family or close socially related group of a SUD victim within 1 week of a SUD. We interviewed witnesses of SUD and mild case-persons to identify exposures to potentially toxic substances. We tested blood from mild cases, villagers, and for standard biochemical, enzyme, and electrolyte markers of disease. RESULTS: We identified 33 SUD, a 73% decline from 2002-2005, distributed among 21 villages of 11 counties. We found a previously undescribed mushroom, Trogia venenata, was eaten by 5 of 7 families with SUD clusters compared to 0 of 31 other control-families from the same villages. In T. venenata-exposed persons SUD was characterized by sudden loss of consciousness during normal activities. This mushroom grew nearby 75% of 61 villages that had time-space SUD clusters from 1975 to 2009 compared to 17% of 18 villages with only single SUD (p<0.001, Fisher's exact test). DISCUSSION: Epidemiologic data has implicated T. venenata as a probable cause of clusters of SUD in northwestern Yunnan Province. Warnings to villagers about eating this mushroom should continue
Hedgehog-Regulated Ubiquitination Controls Smoothened Trafficking and Cell Surface Expression in Drosophila
Hedgehog transduces signal by promoting cell surface expression of the seven-transmembrane protein Smoothened (Smo) in Drosophila, but the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that Smo is downregulated by ubiquitin-mediated endocytosis and degradation, and that Hh increases Smo cell surface expression by inhibiting its ubiquitination. We find that Smo is ubiquitinated at multiple Lysine residues including those in its autoinhibitory domain (SAID), leading to endocytosis and degradation of Smo by both lysosome- and proteasome-dependent mechanisms. Hh inhibits Smo ubiquitination via PKA/CK1-mediated phosphorylation of SAID, leading to Smo cell surface accumulation. Inactivation of the ubiquitin activating enzyme Uba1 or perturbation of multiple components of the endocytic machinery leads to Smo accumulation and Hh pathway activation. In addition, we find that the non-visual β-arrestin Kurtz (Krz) interacts with Smo and acts in parallel with ubiquitination to downregulate Smo. Finally, we show that Smo ubiquitination is counteracted by the deubiquitinating enzyme UBPY/USP8. Gain and loss of UBPY lead to reciprocal changes in Smo cell surface expression. Taken together, our results suggest that ubiquitination plays a key role in the downregulation of Smo to keep Hh pathway activity off in the absence of the ligand, and that Hh-induced phosphorylation promotes Smo cell surface accumulation by inhibiting its ubiquitination, which contributes to Hh pathway activation
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