A Faddeev-Niemi Solution that Does Not Satisfy Gauss' Law

Faddeev and Niemi have proposed a reformulation of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in terms of a U(1) gauge theory with 8 off-shell degrees of freedom. We present a solution to Faddeev and Niemi's formulation which does not solve the SU(2) Yang-Mills Gauss constraints. This demonstrates that the proposed reformulation is inequivalent to Yang-Mills, but instead describes Yang-Mills coupled to a particular choice of external charge.Comment: 10 pages, no figure

Dynamin Is Functionally Coupled to Insulin Granule Exocytosis

The insulin granule integral membrane protein marker phogrin-green fluorescent protein was co-localized with insulin in Min6B1 beta-cell secretory granules but did not undergo plasma membrane translocation following glucose stimulation. Surprisingly, although expression of a dominant-interfering dynamin mutant (Dyn/K44A) inhibited transferrin receptor endocytosis, it had no effect on phogringreen fluorescent protein localization in the basal or secretagogue-stimulated state. By contrast, co-expression of Dyn/K44A with human growth hormone as an insulin secretory marker resulted in a marked inhibition of human growth hormone release by glucose, KCl, and a combination of multiple secretagogues. Moreover, serial pulse depolarization stimulated an increase in cell surface capacitance that was also blocked in cells expressing Dyn/K44A. Similarly, small interference RNA-mediated knockdown of dynamin resulted in marked inhibition of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Together, these data suggest the presence of a selective kiss and run mechanism of insulin release. Moreover, these data indicate a coupling between endocytosis and exocytosis in the regulation of beta-cell insulin secretion

Investment in carbon dioxide capture and storage combined with enhanced water recovery

Carbon dioxide capture and storage combined with enhanced deep saline water recovery (CCS-EWR) is a potential approach to mitigate climate change. However, its investment has been a dilemma due to high costs and various uncertainties. In this study, a trinomial tree modelling-based real options approach is constructed to assess the investment in CCS-EWR retrofitting for direct coal liquefaction in China from the investor perspective. In this approach, the uncertainties in CO2 prices, capital subsidies, water resource fees, the residual lifetime of direct coal liquefaction plants, electricity prices, CO2 and freshwater transport distance, and the amount of certified emission reductions (CERs) are considered. The results show that the critical CER price for CCS-EWR retrofits is 7.15 Chinese yuan per ton (CNY/ton) higher than that (141.95 CNY/ton) for CCS retrofits. However, the exemption from water resource fees for freshwater recovered from saline water and a subsidy of 26% of the capital cost are sufficient to eliminate the negative impact of enhanced deep saline water recovery (EWR) on the investment economy of CCS-EWR. In addition, when the residual lifetime is less than 14 years, CCS-EWR projects are still unable to achieve profitability, even with flexible management and decision making; therefore, investors should abandon CCS-EWR investments. On the whole, the investment feasibility for CCS-EWR technology is not optimistic despite access to preferential policies from the government. It is necessary to establish a carbon market with a high and stable CER price

Nonabelian Faddeev-Niemi Decomposition of the SU(3) Yang-Mills Theory

Faddeev and Niemi (FN) have introduced an abelian gauge theory which simulates dynamical abelianization in Yang-Mills theory (YM). It contains both YM instantons and Wu-Yang monopoles and appears to be able to describe the confining phase. Motivated by the meson degeneracy problem in dynamical abelianization models, in this note we present a generalization of the FN theory. We first generalize the Cho connection to dynamical symmetry breaking pattern SU(N+1) -> U(N), and subsequently try to complete the Faddeev-Niemi decomposition by keeping the missing degrees of freedom. While it is not possible to write an on-shell complete FN decomposition, in the case of SU(3) theory of physical interest we find an off-shell complete decomposition for SU(3) -> U(2) which amounts to partial gauge fixing, generalizing naturally the result found by Faddeev and Niemi for the abelian scenario SU(N+1) -> U(1)^N. We discuss general topological aspects of these breakings, demonstrating for example that the FN knot solitons never exist when the unbroken gauge symmetry is nonabelian, and recovering the usual no-go theorems for colored dyons.Comment: Latex 30 page

Flexible options to provide energy for capturing carbon dioxide in coal-fired power plants under the Clean Development Mechanism

Operators of coal-fired power plants with carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) can provide energy for carbon dioxide (CO_{2}) capture by increasing coal input (option i) or reducing electricity output (option ii). Under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), does a flexible option exist in the future to provide energy for capturing CO_{2}? In this study, we use a representative coal-fired power plant in China (600 MW) as a case study to assess the options to be implemented and the corresponding economic performance and emission reductions of coal-fired power plants with CCS. Both Monte Carlo simulation and the net present value (NPV) methods are used in this study. The results show that the flexible options yield an average NPV that is 57.36 and 48.07 million Chinese Yuan more than the net present values of option i and option ii, respectively, during three crediting periods. Additionally, the implementation of flexible options can improve the emission reduction effect in coal-fired power plants with CCS and promote the optimization of power systems. The priority for expanding the positive effects of flexible options is for international climate change policy negotiators and policymakers to formulate stricter international emission reduction policies with a high certified emission reduction price. In addition, a good communication and coordination mechanism between the coal-fired power plants and the administration of the power system are required to ensure the efficient implementation of flexible options

Developing an interatomic potential for martensitic phase transformations in zirconium by machine learning

Interatomic potentials: predicting phase transformations in zirconium Machine learning leads to a new interatomic potential for zirconium that can predict phase transformations. A team led by Hongxian Zong at Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, and Turab Lookman at Los Alamos National Laboratory, U.S.A, used a Gaussian-type machine learning approach to produce an interatomic potential that predicted phase transformations in zirconium. They expressed each atomic energy contribution via changes in the local atomic environment, such as bond length, shape, and volume. The resulting machine-learning potential successfully described pure zirconium’s physical properties. When used in molecular dynamics simulations, it predicted a zirconium phase diagram as a function of both temperature and pressure that agreed well with previous experiments and simulations. Developing learnt interatomic potentials in phase-transforming systems could help us better simulate complex systems

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

A Plant Kavalactone Desmethoxyyangonin PreventsInflammation and Fulminant Hepatitis in Mice

Alpinia pricei Hayata is a Formosan plant which has been popularly used as nutraceutical or folk medicine for inflammation and various disorders. An active compound of the plant rhizomes, desmethoxyyangonin (DMY), was identified in this study for its novel effect against endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated inflammation in murine macrophages and LPS/D-galactosamine (LPS/D-GalN)-induced fulminant hepatitis in mice. DMY was observed to significantly inhibit proliferation and activation of T cells ex vivo and the activity of several pro-inflammatory mediators in vitro. DMY also protected LPS/D-GalN−induced acute hepatic damages in mice through inhibiting aminotransferases activities and infiltrations of inflammatory macrophages, neutrophils and pathogenic T cells into the liver tissues. In addition, pretreatment with DMY significantly improved the survival rate of LPS/D-GalN−treated mice to 90% (9/10), compared to LPS/D-GalN−treated group (40%, 4/10). UPLC/MS platform-based comparative metabolomics approach was used to explore the serum metabolic profile in fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) mice with or without the DMY pretreatment. The results showed that LPS/D-GalN−induced hepatic damage is likely through perturbing amino acid metabolism, which leads to decreased pyruvate formation via catalysis of aminotransferases, and DMY treatment can prevent to a certain degree of these alterations in metabolic network in mouse caused by LPS/D-GalN. Mechanistic investigation demonstrated that DMY protects LPS or LPS/D-GalN−induced damages in cell or liver tissues mainly through de-regulating IKK/NFκB and Jak2/STAT3 signaling pathways. This report provides evidence-based knowledge to support the rationale for the use of A. pricei root extract in anti-inflammation and also its new function as hepatoprotetive agent against fulminant hepatitis

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO