Towards the minimal seesaw model via CP violation of neutrinos

We study the minimal seesaw model, where two right-handed Majorana neutrinos are introduced, focusing on the CP violating phase. In addition, we take the trimaximal mixing pattern for the neutrino flavor where the charged lepton mass matrix is diagonal. Thanks to this symmetric framework, the $3\times 2$ Dirac neutrino mass matrix is given in terms of a few parameters. Numerical studies reveal that the observation of the CP violating phase can determine the flavor structure of the Dirac neutrino mass matrix in the minimal seesaw model. In particular, new minimal Dirac neutrino mass matrices are proposed in the case of $\rm TM_1$, which is derived by the additional 2-3 family mixing to the tri-bimaximal mixing basis in the normal hierarchy of neutrino masses. Our analyses include the Littlest seesaw model by King {\it et al.}, which is one of the specific one in our results. Furthermore, it is remarked that our $3\times 2$ Dirac neutrino mass matrix is reproduced by introducing gauge singlet flavons with the specific alignments of the VEV's. These alignments suggest the residual symmetry of $S_4$ group.Comment: 27 pages, 27 figures, final versio

Neutrino CP violation and sign of baryon asymmetry in the minimal seesaw model

We discuss the correlation between the CP violating Dirac phase of the lepton mixing matrix and the cosmological baryon asymmetry based on the leptogenesis in the minimal seesaw model with two right-handed Majorana neutrinos and the trimaximal mixing for neutrino flavors. The sign of the CP violating Dirac phase at low energy is fixed by the observed cosmological baryon asymmetry since there is only one phase parameter in the model. According to the recent T2K and NO$\nu$A data of the CP violation, the Dirac neutrino mass matrix of our model is fixed only for the normal hierarchy of neutrino masses.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. 1 reference is added in this version. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1709.0213

Policy coalitions and ambitious politicians: a case study of Philippine social policy reform

The Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino administration witnessed a series of social policy reforms such as Republic Act (RA) 10533 (K-12 Law) and RA 10354 (Reproductive Health Law). The political process of this reform is full of intellectual puzzles considering the conventional knowledge on Philippine politics, which is mainly shaped by the framework of weak state. Why was the administration able to carry out the reforms despite the strong opposition from vested interests sustaining the weak state? This paper argues that ambitious politicians, i.e., those who differ in policy positions and seek to challenge the existing power structure, can work with policy advocates both in public and private sectors and create policy coalitions which result into policy reform. By tracing the political process of forming the policy coalitions, this paper aims to reveal the dynamic aspect of Philippine politics which has been neglected because of the dominance of the weak state framework.This is one of the products of the Emerging State Project under the Grant-in-Aid research projects No. 25101004 and the Leading Initiative for Excellent Young Researchers of the Japanese government.http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/takagi_yusuke

α-Smooth muscle actin expression in cancerassociated fibroblasts in canine epithelial tumors

Tumor tissues contain not only cancer cells but also other cell types including, fibroblasts, immune cells, and endothelial cells, which interact with cancer cells. In human medicine, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have been reported to promote tumor growth. CAFs are known to express α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), and this expression is correlated with poor prognosis in humans with cancer. However, the role of CAFs in canines and α-SMA expression in canine CAFs remains unknown. This study evaluated whether CAFs are present within the stroma of various types of canine epithelial tumors, for example, mammary gland tumors, squamous cell carcinoma, and anal sac adenocarcinoma, and assessed α-SMA expression in CAFs isolated from canine epithelial tumors. α-SMA analysis of tumor tissues revealed a cytoplasmic localization with variable levels of expression. α-SMA was detected in 60.9% (14/23) of epithelial tumor tissues and in 80% (8/10) of anal sac adenocarcinoma tissues. CAFs and normal fibroblasts (NFs) were isolated from tumor and skin tissues. The size of CAFs was variable, and most CAFs had large cell volume, in contrast to NFs. Most CAFs expressed α-SMA stress fibers and had higher α-SMA protein levels than NFs. Taken together, our findings provide evidence that canine CAFs express α-SMA in various canine epithelial tumors. Further studies are required to investigate the correlation between canine CAFs and clinical parameters and to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the effects of CAFs on cancer progression

EXTRACTION OF CELLULOSE NANOFIBER FROM PARENCHYMA CELLS OF AGRICULTURAL RESIDUES

Cellulose nanofiber is an environmentally friendly reinforcing phase extractable from plants, with potential application in composites. Due to the cell wall structure differences, plant parenchyma cells might be easier to nanofibrillate than sclerenchyma cells of wood pulp fibers, resulting in lower extraction costs. This study assessed the extraction of nanofibers from residues like corn husk, banana peel, cabbage leaf, and taro leaf using a kitchen blender. Fibrillation was evaluated based on the strength of paper-like sheets produced from the nanofibers. Corn husk was nanofibrillated by the shortest blending time among the sources considered, and delivered the highest sheet strength. The blending time needed was significantly shorter than that needed to fibrillate hardwood pulp fibers