Electroweak Model Independent Tests for SU(3) Symmetry in Hadronic B Decays

We study effects of new physics beyond the Standard Model on SU(3) symmetry in charmless hadronic two body B decays. It is found that several equalities for some of the decay amplitudes, such as $A(B_d (B_u) \to \pi^+\pi^-,\pi^+ K^- (\pi^- \bar K^0)) =A(B_s \to K^+ \pi^-, K^- K^+ (K^0 \bar K^0))$, $A(B_d \to \pi^+\rho^-, \pi^- \rho^+, K^-\rho^+, \pi^+ K^{*-}) = A(B_s \to K^+ \rho^-, \pi^- K^{*+}, K^- K^{*+}, K^+ K^{*-})$, $A(B_d (B_u) \to \rho^+\rho^-, \rho^+ K^{*-}(\rho^- \bar K^{*0})) =A(B_s \to K^{*+} \rho^-, K^{*-} K^{*+} (K^{*0} \bar K^{*0}))$, predicted by SU(3) symmetry in the SM are not affected by new physics. These relations provide important electroweak model independent tests for SU(3) symmetry in B decays.Comment: 4 pages, revte

The electric vehicle in smart homes: a review and future perspectives

The electric mobility dissemination is forcing the adoption of new technologies and operation paradigms, not only focusing on smart grids, but also on smart homes. In fact, the emerging technologies for smart homes are also altering the conventional grids toward smart grids. By combining the key pillars of electric mobility and smart homes, this paper characterizes the paradigms of the electric vehicle (EV) in smart homes, presenting a review about the state of the art and establishing a relation with future perspectives. Since the smart home must be prepared to deal with the necessities of the EV, the analysis of both on board and off board battery charging systems are considered in the paper. Moreover, the in-clusion of renewable energy sources, energy storage systems, and dc electrical appliances in smart homes towards sustainability is also considered in this paper, but framed in the perspective of an EV off board battery charging system. As a pertinent contribution, this paper offers future perspectives for the EV in smart homes, including the possibility of ac, dc, and hybrid smart homes. Covering all of these aspects, exemplificative and key results are presented based on numerical simulations and experimental results obtained with a proof of concept prototype.FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019. This work has been supported by the FCT Project newERA4GRIDs PTDC/EEI-EEE/30283/2017, and by the FCT Project DAIPESEV PTDC/EEI-EEE/30382/2017. Tiago Sousa is supported by the doctoral scholarship SFRH/BD/134353/2017 granted by FC

The role of off-board EV battery chargers in smart homes and smart grids: operation with renewables and energy storage systems

Concerns about climate changes and environmental air pollution are leading to the adoption of new technologies for transportation, mainly based on vehicle electrification and the interaction with smart grids, and also with the introduction of renewable energy sources (RES) accompanied by energy storage systems (ESS). For these three fundamental pillars, new power electronics technologies are emerging to transform the electrical power grid, targeting a flexible and collaborative operation. As a distinctive factor, the vehicle electrification has stimulated the presence of new technologies in terms of power management, both for smart homes and smart grids. As the title indicates, this book chapter focuses on the role of off-board EV battery chargers in terms of operation modes and contextualization for smart homes and smart grids in terms of opportunities. Based on a review of on-board and off-board EV battery charging systems (EV-BCS), this chapter focus on the off-board EV-BCS framed with RES and ESS as a dominant system in future smart homes. Contextualizing these aspects, three distinct cases are considered: (1) An ac smart home using separate power converters, according to the considered technologies; (2) A hybrid ac and dc smart home with an off-board EV-BCS interfacing RES and ESS, and with the electrical appliances plugged-in to the ac power grid; (3) A dc smart home using a unified 2 off-board EV-BCS with a single interface for the electrical power grid, and with multiple dc interfaces (RES, ESS, and electrical appliances). The results for each case are obtained in terms of efficiency and power quality, demonstrating that the off-board EV-BCS, as a unified structure for smart homes, presents better results. Besides, the off-board EV-BCS can also be used as an important asset for the smart grid, even when the EV is not plugged-in at the smart home.(undefined

Constraints on SUSY Gluonic Dipole Interaction from B\to K\pi Decays

In low energy SUSY theories exchange of gluino and squark with left-right mixing can produce a large gluonic dipole interaction. In this paper we study the effects of this interaction on $B\to K \pi$ using QCD improved factorization method. The Standard Model predicts a smaller branching ratio for $B^0 \to \bar K^0 \pi^0$ than experimental measured one. We find that within the parameter space allowed from $B\to \gamma X_s$ constraint, the SUSY dipole interaction can enhance this branching ratio to agree with the experimental measurement. Combining recent data for all the four $\bar B^0 \to K^- \pi^+, \bar K^0 \pi^0$ and $B^- \to K^- \pi^0, \bar K^0 \pi^-$ decay modes, we find that the allowed parameter space is reduced significantly compared with that using $B\to X_s \gamma$ data alone. It is found that even with these constraints, the predictions for CP violation in these modes can be dramatically different from those of the SM predictions.Comment: 22 pages, 22 figures. Major revise for B to K pi correctio

The role of the dentate gyrus and adult neurogenesis in hippocampal-basal ganglia associated behaviour

The ability of the brain to continually generate new neurons throughout life is one of the most intensely researched areas of modern neuroscience. While great advancements in understanding the biochemical mechanisms of adult neurogenesis have been made, there remain significant obstacles and gaps in connecting neurogenesis with behavioural and cognitive processes such as learning and memory. The purpose of the thesis was to examine by review and laboratory experimentation the role of the dentate gyrus and of adult neurogenesis within the hippocampus in the performance of cognitive tasks dependent on the hippocampal formation and hippocampal-basal ganglia interactions. Advancement in understanding the role of neurogenesis in these processes may assist in improving treatments for common brain injury and cognitive diseases that affect this region of the brain. Mild chronic stress reduced the acquisition rate of a stimulus-response task (p=0.043), but facilitated the acquisition of a discrimination between a small and a large reward (p=0.027). In locomotor activity assays, chronic stress did not shift the dose-response to methamphetamine. Analysis of 2,5-bromodeoxyuridine incorporation showed that, overall, chronic mild stress did not effect survival of neuronal progenitors . However, learning of the tasks had a positive influence on cell survival in stressed animals (p=0.038). Microinjections of colchicine produced significant lesions of the dentate gyrus and surrounding CA1-CA3 and neocortex. Damage to these regions impaired hippocampal-dependent reference memory (p=0.054) while preserving hippocampal independent simple discrimination learning. In a delay discounting procedure, the lesions did not induce impulsive-like behaviour when delay associated with a large reward was introduced. The experiments uphold a current theory that learning acts as a buffer to mitigate the negative effects of stress on neurogenesis