Quantum fluctuations in high field magnetization of 2D square lattice J1-J2 antiferromagnets

The J1-J2 square lattice Heisenberg model with spin S=1/2 has three phases with long-range magnetic order and two unconventionally ordered phases depending on the ratio of exchange constants. It describes a number of recently found layered vanadium oxide compounds. A simple means of investigating the ground state is the study of the magnetization curve and high-field susceptibility. We discuss these quantities by using the spin-wave theory and the exact diagonalization in the whole J1-J2 plane. We compare both results and find good overall agreement in the sectors of the phase diagram with magnetic order. Close to the disordered regions the magnetization curve shows strong deviations from the classical linear behaviour caused by large quantum fluctuations and spin-wave approximation breaks down. On the FM side (J1<0) where one approaches the quantum gapless spin nematic ground state this region is surprisingly large. We find that inclusion of second order spin-wave corrections does not lead to fundamental improvement. Quantum corrections to the tilting angle of the ordered moments are also calculated. They may have both signs, contrary to the always negative first order quantum corrections to the magnetization. Finally we investigate the effect of the interlayer coupling and find that the quasi-2D picture remains valid up to |J_\perp/J1| ~ 0.3.Comment: 13 pages, 6figure

Probing Shadowed Nuclear Sea with Massive Gauge Bosons in the Future Heavy-Ion Collisions

The production of the massive bosons $Z^0$ and $W^{\pm}$ could provide an excellent tool to study cold nuclear matter effects and the modifications of nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) relative to parton distribution functions (PDFs) of a free proton in high energy nuclear reactions at the LHC as well as in heavy-ion collisions (HIC) with much higher center-of mass energies available in the future colliders. In this paper we calculate the rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of the vector boson and their nuclear modification factors in p+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=63$TeV and in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=39$TeV in the framework of perturbative QCD by utilizing three parametrization sets of nPDFs: EPS09, DSSZ and nCTEQ. It is found that in heavy-ion collisions at such high colliding energies, both the rapidity distribution and the transverse momentum spectrum of vector bosons are considerably suppressed in wide kinematic regions with respect to p+p reactions due to large nuclear shadowing effect. We demonstrate that in the massive vector boson productions processes with sea quarks in the initial-state may give more contributions than those with valence quarks in the initial-state, therefore in future heavy-ion collisions the isospin effect is less pronounced and the charge asymmetry of W boson will be reduced significantly as compared to that at the LHC. Large difference between results with nCTEQ and results with EPS09 and DSSZ is observed in nuclear modifications of both rapidity and $p_T$ distributions of $Z^0$ and $W$ in the future HIC.Comment: 13 pages, 21 figures, version accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.

Learning and Matching Multi-View Descriptors for Registration of Point Clouds

Critical to the registration of point clouds is the establishment of a set of accurate correspondences between points in 3D space. The correspondence problem is generally addressed by the design of discriminative 3D local descriptors on the one hand, and the development of robust matching strategies on the other hand. In this work, we first propose a multi-view local descriptor, which is learned from the images of multiple views, for the description of 3D keypoints. Then, we develop a robust matching approach, aiming at rejecting outlier matches based on the efficient inference via belief propagation on the defined graphical model. We have demonstrated the boost of our approaches to registration on the public scanning and multi-view stereo datasets. The superior performance has been verified by the intensive comparisons against a variety of descriptors and matching methods

Thermodynamical Consistent Modeling and Analysis of Nematic Liquid Crystal Flows

The general Ericksen-Leslie system for the flow of nematic liquid crystals is reconsidered in the non-isothermal case aiming for thermodynamically consistent models. The non-isothermal model is then investigated analytically. A fairly complete dynamic theory is developed by analyzing these systems as quasilinear parabolic evolution equations in an $L^p-L^q$-setting. First, the existence of a unique, local strong solution is proved. It is then shown that this solution extends to a global strong solution provided the initial data are close to an equilibrium or the solution is eventually bounded in the natural norm of the underlying state space. In these cases, the solution converges exponentially to an equilibrium in the natural state manifold

Nanoquartz in Late Permian C1 coal and the high incidence of female lung cancer in the Pearl River Origin area: a retrospective cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Pearl River Origin area, Qujing District of Yunnan Province, has one of the highest female lung cancer mortality rates in China. Smoking was excluded as a cause of the lung cancer excess because almost all women were non-smokers. Crystalline silica embedded in the soot emissions from coal combustion was found to be associated with the lung cancer risk in a geographical correlation study. Lung cancer rates tend to be higher in places where the Late Permian C1 coal is produced. Therefore, we have hypothesized the two processes: C1 coal combustion --> nanoquartz in ambient air --> lung cancer excess in non-smoking women.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>We propose to conduct a retrospective cohort study to test the hypothesis above. We will search historical records and compile an inventory of the coal mines in operation during 1930–2009. To estimate the study subjects' retrospective exposure, we will reconstruct the historical exposure scenario by burning the coal samples, collected from operating or deserted coal mines by coal geologists, in a traditional firepit of an old house. Indoor air particulate samples will be collected for nanoquartz and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) analyses. Bulk quartz content will be quantified by X-ray diffraction analysis. Size distribution of quartz will be examined by electron microscopes and by centrifugation techniques. Lifetime cumulative exposure to nanoquartz will be estimated for each subject. Using the epidemiology data, we will examine whether the use of C1 coal and the cumulative exposure to nanoquartz are associated with an elevated risk of lung cancer.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The high incidence rate of lung cancer in Xuan Wei, one of the counties in the current study area, was once attributed to high indoor air concentrations of PAHs. The research results have been cited for qualitative and quantitative cancer risk assessment of PAHs by the World Health Organization and other agencies. If nanoquartz is found to be the main underlying cause of the lung cancer epidemic in the study area, cancer potency estimates for PAHs by the international agencies based on the lung cancer data in this study setting should then be updated.</p

Tumor-derived exosomes confer antigen-specific immunosuppression in a murine delayed-type hypersensitivity model

Exosomes are endosome-derived small membrane vesicles that are secreted by most cell types including tumor cells. Tumor-derived exosomes usually contain tumor antigens and have been used as a source of tumor antigens to stimulate anti-tumor immune responses. However, many reports also suggest that tumor-derived exosomes can facilitate tumor immune evasion through different mechanisms, most of which are antigen-independent. In the present study we used a mouse model of delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) and demonstrated that local administration of tumor-derived exosomes carrying the model antigen chicken ovalbumin (OVA) resulted in the suppression of DTH response in an antigen-specific manner. Analysis of exosome trafficking demonstrated that following local injection, tumor-derived exosomes were internalized by CD11c+ cells and transported to the draining LN. Exosome-mediated DTH suppression is associated with increased mRNA levels of TGF-β1 and IL-4 in the draining LN. The tumor-derived exosomes examined were also found to inhibit DC maturation. Taken together, our results suggest a role for tumor-derived exosomes in inducing tumor antigen-specific immunosuppression, possibly by modulating the function of APCs. © 2011 Yang et al

I-Motif Structures Formed in the Human c-MYC Promoter Are Highly Dynamic–Insights into Sequence Redundancy and I-Motif Stability

The GC-rich nuclease hypersensitivity element III1 (NHE III1) of the c-MYC promoter largely controls the transcriptional activity of the c-MYC oncogene. The C-rich strand in this region can form I-motif DNA secondary structures. We determined the folding pattern of the major I-motif formed in the NHE III1, which can be formed at near-neutral pH. While we find that the I-motif formed in the four 3′ consecutive runs of cytosines appears to be the most favored, our results demonstrate that the C-rich strand of the c-MYC NHE III1 exhibits a high degree of dynamic equilibration. Using a trisubstituted oligomer of this region, we determined the formation of two equilibrating loop isomers, one of which contains a flipped-out cytosine. Our results indicate that the intercalative cytosine+–cytosine base pairs are not always necessary for an intramolecular I-motif. The dynamic character of the c-MYC I-motif is intrinsic to the NHE III1 sequence and appears to provide stability to the c-MYC I-motif

Phytoestrogens

Collectively, plants contain several different families of natural products among which are compounds with weak estrogenic or antiestrogenic activity toward mammals. These compounds, termed phytoestrogens, include certain isoflavonoids, flavonoids, stilbenes, and lignans. The best-studied dietary phytoestrogens are the soy isoflavones and the flaxseed lignans. Their perceived health beneficial properties extend beyond hormone-dependent breast and prostate cancers and osteoporosis to include cognitive function, cardiovascular disease, immunity and inflammation, and reproduction and fertility. In the future, metabolic engineering of plants could generate novel and exquisitely controlled dietary sources with which to better assess the potential health beneficial effects of phytoestrogens

LHC Discovery Potential for Non-Standard Higgs Bosons in the 3b Channel

In a variety of well motivated models, such as two Higgs Doublet Models (2HDMs) and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), there are neutral Higgs bosons that have significantly enhanced couplings to b-quarks and tau leptons in comparison to those of the SM Higgs. These so called non-standard Higgs bosons could be copiously produced at the LHC in association with b quarks, and subsequently decay into b-quark pairs. However, this production channel suffers from large irreducible QCD backgrounds. We propose a new search strategy for non-standard neutral Higgs bosons at the 7 TeV LHC in the 3b's final state topology. We perform a simulation of the signal and backgrounds, using state of the art tools and methods for different sets of selection cuts, and conclude that neutral Higgs bosons with couplings to b-quarks of about 0.3 or larger, and masses up to 400 GeV, could be seen with a luminosity of 30 fb^{-1}. In the case of the MSSM we also discuss the complementarity between the 3b channel and the inclusive tau pair channel in exploring the supersymmetric parameter space.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, references added, published versio

Quantum Black Holes from Cosmic Rays

We investigate the possibility for cosmic ray experiments to discover non-thermal small black holes with masses in the TeV range. Such black holes would result due to the impact between ultra high energy cosmic rays or neutrinos with nuclei from the upper atmosphere and decay instantaneously. They could be produced copiously if the Planck scale is in the few TeV region. As their masses are close to the Planck scale, these holes would typically decay into two particles emitted back-to-back. Depending on the angles between the emitted particles with respect to the center of mass direction of motion, it is possible for the simultaneous showers to be measured by the detectors.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure