A numerical test of the Y-system in the small size limit of the SU(2)x SU(2) Principal Chiral Model

Recently, Kazakov, Gromov and Vieira applied the discrete Hirota dynamics to study the finite size spectra of integrable two dimensional quantum field theories. The method has been tested from large values of the size L down to moderate values using the SU(2) x SU(2) principal chiral model as a theoretical laboratory. We continue the numerical analysis of the proposed non-linear integral equations showing that the deep ultraviolet region L -> 0 is numerically accessible. To this aim, we introduce a relaxed iterative algorithm for the numerical computation of the low-lying part of the spectrum in the U(1) sector. We discuss in details the systematic errors involved in the computation. When a comparison is possible, full agreement is found with previous TBA computations.Comment: 28 pages, 24 figure

Archeologisch onderzoek in Bilzen uitgevoerd in het kader van de herinrichting van het Stadscentrum: het Camille Husmansplein, het Deken Paquayplein en de markt

Dit rapport werd ingediend bij het agentschap samen met een aantal afzonderlijke digitale bijlagen. Een aantal van deze bijlagen zijn niet inbegrepen in dit pdf document en zijn niet online beschikbaar. Sommige bijlagen (grondplannen, fotos, spoorbeschrijvingen, enz.) kunnen van belang zijn voor een betere lezing en interpretatie van dit rapport. Indien u deze bijlagen wenst te raadplegen kan u daarvoor contact opnemen met: [email protected]

Subanesthetic ketamine treatment promotes abnormal interactions between neural subsystems and alters the properties of functional brain networks

Acute treatment with subanesthetic ketamine, a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor antagonist, is widely utilized as a translational model for schizophrenia. However, how acute NMDA receptor blockade impacts on brain functioning at a systems level, to elicit translationally relevant symptomatology and behavioral deficits, has not yet been determined. Here, for the first time, we apply established and recently validated topological measures from network science to brain imaging data gained from ketamine-treated mice to elucidate how acute NMDA receptor blockade impacts on the properties of functional brain networks. We show that the effects of acute ketamine treatment on the global properties of these networks are divergent from those widely reported in schizophrenia. Where acute NMDA receptor blockade promotes hyperconnectivity in functional brain networks, pronounced dysconnectivity is found in schizophrenia. We also show that acute ketamine treatment increases the connectivity and importance of prefrontal and thalamic brain regions in brain networks, a finding also divergent to alterations seen in schizophrenia. In addition, we characterize how ketamine impacts on bipartite functional interactions between neural subsystems. A key feature includes the enhancement of prefrontal cortex (PFC)-neuromodulatory subsystem connectivity in ketamine-treated animals, a finding consistent with the known effects of ketamine on PFC neurotransmitter levels. Overall, our data suggest that, at a systems level, acute ketamine-induced alterations in brain network connectivity do not parallel those seen in chronic schizophrenia. Hence, the mechanisms through which acute ketamine treatment induces translationally relevant symptomatology may differ from those in chronic schizophrenia. Future effort should therefore be dedicated to resolve the conflicting observations between this putative translational model and schizophrenia

Naturalness Lowers the Upper Bound on the Lightest Higgs Boson Mass in Supersymmetry

We quantify the extent to which naturalness is lost as experimental lower bounds on the Higgs boson mass increase, and we compute the natural upper bound on the lightest supersymmetric Higgs boson mass. We find that it would be unnatural for the mass of the lightest supersymmetric Higgs boson to saturate it's maximal upper bound. In the absence of significant fine-tuning, the lightest Higgs boson mass should lie below $120$ GeV, and in the most natural cases it should be lighter than $108$ GeV. For modest $tan \beta$, these bounds are significantly lower. Our results imply that a failure to observe a light Higgs boson in pre-LHC experiments could provide a serious challenge to the principal motivation for weak-scale supersymmetry.Comment: 11 pages, LaTex, 3 ps.figure

Analysis of age-related left ventricular collagen remodeling in living donors: Implications in arrhythmogenesis

Age-related fibrosis in the left ventricle (LV) has been mainly studied in animals by assessing collagen content. Using second-harmonic generation microscopy and image processing, we evaluated amount, aggregation and spatial distribution of LV collagen in young to old pigs, and middle-age and elder living donors. All collagen features increased when comparing adult and old pigs with young ones, but not when comparing adult with old pigs or middle-age with elder individuals. Remarkably, all collagen parameters strongly correlated with lipofuscin, a biological age marker, in humans. By building patient-specific models of human ventricular tissue electrophysiology, we confirmed that amount and organization of fibrosis modulated arrhythmia vulnerability, and that distribution should be accounted for arrhythmia risk assessment. In conclusion, we characterize the age-associated changes in LV collagen and its potential implications for ventricular arrhythmia development. Consistency between pig and human results substantiate the pig as a relevant model of age-related LV collagen dynamics. © 2022 The Author(s

Higgs boson pair production through gauge boson fusion at linear colliders within the general 2HDM

Inclusive Higgs boson pair production through the mechanism of gauge boson fusion e^{+} e^{-} -> V* V* -> h h + X (V=W,Z) in the general Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM), with h=h^0,H^0,A^0,H^{\pm}, is analyzed at order \alpha^4_{ew} in the linear colliders ILC and CLIC. This kind of processes is highly sensitive to the trilinear Higgs (3H) boson self-interactions and hence can be a true keystone in the reconstruction of the Higgs potential. For example, in the ILC at 1 TeV, the most favorable scenarios yield cross-sections up to roughly 1 pb, thus entailing 10^5 events per 100 fb^{-1} of integrated luminosity, whilst remaining fully consistent with the perturbativity and unitarity bounds on the 3H couplings, the electroweak precision data and the constraints from BR(b->s\gamma). Comparing with other competing mechanisms, we conclude that the Higgs boson-pair events could be the dominant signature for Higgs-boson production in the TeV-class linear colliders for a wide region of the 2HDM parameter space, with no counterpart in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Owing to the extremely clean environment of these colliders, inclusive 2H events should allow a comfortable tagging and might therefore open privileged new vistas into the structure of the Higgs potential.Comment: LaTeX, 17 pages, 5 figures, 3 Tables. Extended discussion, Fig.4 corrected. Accepted in Phys. Lett.

Topography of the Chimpanzee Corpus Callosum

The corpus callosum (CC) is the largest commissural white matter tract in mammalian brains, connecting homotopic and heterotopic regions of the cerebral cortex. Knowledge of the distribution of callosal fibers projecting into specific cortical regions has important implications for understanding the evolution of lateralized structures and functions of the cerebral cortex. No comparisons of CC topography in humans and great apes have yet been conducted. We investigated the topography of the CC in 21 chimpanzees using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Tractography was conducted based on fiber assignment by continuous tracking (FACT) algorithm. We expected chimpanzees to display topographical organization similar to humans, especially concerning projections into the frontal cortical regions. Similar to recent studies in humans, tractography identified five clusters of CC fibers projecting into defined cortical regions: prefrontal; premotor and supplementary motor; motor; sensory; parietal, temporal and occipital. Significant differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) were found in callosal regions, with highest FA values in regions projecting to higher-association areas of posterior cortical (including parietal, temporal and occipital cortices) and prefrontal cortical regions (p<0.001). The lowest FA values were seen in regions projecting into motor and sensory cortical areas. Our results indicate chimpanzees display similar topography of the CC as humans, in terms of distribution of callosal projections and microstructure of fibers as determined by anisotropy measures