Forbidden Channels and SIMP Dark Matter

In this review, we focus on dark matter production from thermal freeze-out with forbidden channels and SIMP processes. We show that forbidden channels can be dominant to produce dark matter depending on the dark photon and / or dark Higgs mass compared to SIMP.Comment: 5 pages, Prepared for the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Gravitation, 3-7 July 201

On thermal production of self-interacting dark matter

We consider thermal production mechanisms of self-interacting dark matter in models with gauged $Z_3$ symmetry. A complex scalar dark matter is stabilized by the $Z_3$, that is the remnant of a local dark $U(1)_d$. Light dark matter with large self-interaction can be produced from thermal freeze-out in the presence of SM-annihilation, SIMP and/or forbidden channels. We show that dark photon and/or dark Higgs should be relatively light for unitarity and then assist the thermal freeze-out. We identify the constraints on the parameter space of dark matter self-interaction and mass in cases that one or some of the channels are important in determining the relic density.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, Version to appear in Journal of High Energy Physic

Taste in appearance: self, cultivated dispositions, and cultural capital

The purpose of the study is to develop a theory about taste in appearance and to investigate if cultural capital, proposed by Bourdieu (1984), is a relevant concept in explaining appearance-related consumption. Taste has been studied in two disciplines. Philosophers defined taste as an aesthetic aptitude or capacity to discover beauty from works of art. Sociologists conceptualized taste as a cultivated disposition in the guise of an innate disposition in a broad range of cultural products. While philosophers endeavored to conceptualized taste in relation to beauty, sociologists associated taste with social acceptance or attractiveness.;Phenomenological interviews were conducted with 16 participants from upper-middle and middle class backgrounds who lived in three Midwestern cities. Information about participants\u27 demographic and family backgrounds was also collected. Participants were selected through a snowball sampling procedure to have varied background characteristics. A constant comparative approach to qualitative data analysis was conducted to find important themes and explore differences among participants related to their backgrounds (Strauss, 1987).;The content of the interviews indicated that taste in appearance is a cultivated disposition to direct consumption activities. Taste included preferences for putting together outfits as well as for particular aesthetic elements. Participants described taste in terms of how they related particular things to themselves (self-concept) and why they liked particular things (motives). Participants\u27 preferences indicated their struggle with ambivalence about how much they wanted to fit in but remain somewhat different from others and how much they wanted to keep their appearance up-to-date and in fashion. Taste was actualized through the exercise of appearance-specific motives and efficient appearance management strategies, including optimizing the use of given resources and negotiating conflicts among preferences and resources.;With respect to evaluation of taste, participants evaluated taste as a sum of the appearance and the consumption skills of a person, because taste was communicated through presentation of one\u27s appearance. Evaluation included judging how well appearance embodies an actor, how motives in clothing practice were successfully pursued and how an actor successfully managed constraints and balanced ambivalent factors.;Level of cultural capital possessed by the participants differentially shaped social actors\u27 experiences of appearance consumption. The resources of cultural capital, including upbringing, education, and occupation (Bourdieu, 1984), provided participants with an aptitude for involvement in appearance consumption, including sensitivity to dressing appropriately, capacity to construct and communicate meanings, and opportunities and refinement of dressing practices. Among the participants, about half had background characteristics indicating fairly high level of cultural capital, and the other half had a middle range of cultural capital. For those with higher level of cultural capital, manifested taste was constructed with a higher degree of complexity than among participants with a middle level of cultural capital. High cultural capital individuals showed greater evidence of aesthetic involvement through clothing practices.;The findings have practical implications for apparel marketers. Knowledge of levels of cultural capital of target customers will help define strategies for advertising, store layout and merchandise display. The findings have useful implications for marketing of products other than clothing

Development Of Pancreatic Cancer Organoid Model For Studying Immune Response In Pancreatic Cancer

The importance of immune system in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) pathogenesis and therapy remains poorly understood largely due to the lack of effective model systems. Cell lines are not physiologic as they cannot recapitulate the cancer stroma and lose genetic heterogeneity over time. Genetically engineered mouse models of PDAC are more physiologic than cell lines but lack neoantigens needed to mount T cell responses against tumor. Organoid models of PDAC offer unique opportunity to study immune mechanisms in PDAC since organoids can model complex layering of multiple cell types, creating a physiologically relevant system that is highly tractable for genetic manipulation, co-cultures, and high throughput assays. In this study, we sought to establish murine and human organoid models of PDAC to investigate the biology of PDAC immune response, with the specific aims of developing transplantable immunogenic murine PDAC organoid models for the study of antigen-specific anti-tumor T cell responses and assembling a library of experimentally validated, patient-derived PDAC organoid lines for pancreatic cancer precision medicine research. To generate immunogenic murine organoid models of PDAC, pancreatic organoids were isolated from “KP-NINJA” (KrasLox-STOP-Lox-G12D; P53flox/flox; inversion induced joined neoantigen) mouse model that has been genetically engineered to express GFP-tagged T cell neoantigens derived from lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus in an inducible fashion. Isolated organoids were transformed in vitro using a lentiviral construct encoding Cre recombinase and RFP reporter for expression of oncogenic KRAS and deletion of P53. A subset of transformed organoids was additionally treated with an adenoviral construct encoding FLPo recombinase to turn on neoantigen expression. Transformed organoids were combined with T cells in both in vivo and in vitro setting to assess for impact on tumor growth. Patient-derived PDAC organoids were generated using endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle biopsy (EUS-FNB) specimens, surgical resection specimens, and tissues from patient-derived xenograft mouse models of PDAC. Established human organoid lines were validated by Sanger sequencing, tumor formation in vivo and immunohistochemistry of organoid-derived tumors. Subcutaneous injection of transformed murine PDAC organoids formed tumors in mouse that are histologically similar to early lesions found in human PDAC. Serial in vivo transfer of these organoids by performing sequential rounds of organoid generation from tumors derived from organoids formed progressively more advanced tumors. High level of neoantigen expression in 100% of cells comprising murine PDAC organoids resulted in rejection of tumor growth in mouse, while a low level of neoantigen expression restricted to 10% of cells permitted tumor growth with increased immune infiltration. Expression of neoantigens in T cell-PDAC organoid co-culture model systems promoted T cell infiltration of basement membrane matrix. Additionally, we generated 30+ patient-derived PDAC organoid lines using EUS-FNB and surgical specimens at Yale from 10/2017 to 5/2018. We have successfully established murine and human organoid models of PDAC from various tissues capturing discrete stages of PDAC progression. Our murine organoid models are uniquely equipped to study antigen-specific T cell responses against tumor. Ongoing work includes using CRISPR/Cas9-based lentiviral systems to define genes that impact anti-tumor T cell responses and using patient-derived organoids for precision medicine research

Vulnerability discovery in multiple version software systems: open source and commercial software systems

Department Head: L. Darrell Whitley.2007 Summer.Includes bibliographical references (pages 80-83).The vulnerability discovery process for a program describes the rate at which the vulnerabilities are discovered. A model of the discovery process can be used to estimate the number of vulnerabilities likely to be discovered in the near future. Past studies have considered vulnerability discovery only for individual software versions, without considering the impact of shared code among successive versions and the evolution of source code. These affecting factors in vulnerability discovery process need to be taken into account estimate the future software vulnerability discovery trend more accurately. This thesis examines possible approaches for taking these factors into account in the previous works. We implemented these factors on vulnerability discovery process. We examine a new approach for quantitatively vulnerability discovery process, based on shared source code measurements among multiple version software system. The applicability of the approach is examined using Apache HTTP Web server and Mysql DataBase Management System (DBMS). The result of this approach shows better goodness of fit than fitting result in the previous researches. Using this revised software vulnerability discovery process, the superposition effect which is an unexpected vulnerability discovery in the previous researches could be determined by software discovery model. The multiple software vulnerability discovery model (MVDM) shows that vulnerability discovery rate is different with single vulnerability discovery model's (SVDM) discovery rate because of newly considered factors. From these result, we create and applied new SVDM for open source and commercial software. This single vulnerability process is examined, and the model testing result shows that SVDM can be an alternative modeling. The modified vulnerability discovery model will be presented for supporting previous researches' weakness, and the theoretical modeling will be discuss for more accurate explanation

Linking Science and Technology with Industry

In recent years, as the development of science and technology rapidly accelerated, science- and technology-based industries have emerged. Representative examples are the Information and Telecommunications (IT) industry in the late 20th century and more recently the BioTechnology (BT) and NanoTechnology (NT) industries. However, despite the emergence of science- and technology- based industries, industrial policy-makers have suffered difficulties in grasping exactly what kinds of science and technology they should manage. Therefore, in this research, I propose a method of linking science and technology with industry, by adopting the media wherethrough they are delivered. As the media for conveying science and technology, I make use of the scientific articles administered by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) and the patents registered in the US Patent Office (USPTO). In this way, I identified 750 journals and 84 US patent classes corresponding to the IT industry, 1779 journals and 7 patent classes corresponding to the BT industry and 483 journals and 16 patent classes corresponding to the NT industry. This research is meaningful in that it emphasized the importance and convenience of scientific articles and patents in formulating today’s industrial policies and showed how to link science and technology with industry, by using the subject categories of the ISI and the patent classes of the USPTO.En años recientes, como el desarrollo científico y tecnológico ha sido rápidamente acelerado, han emergido industrias basadas en ciencia y tecnología. Ejemplos representativos son la de la Información y Telecomunicación (IT) industria del final del siglo XX y más recientemente las industrias de Biotecnología (BT) y Nanotecnología (NT). Sin embargo, en desmedro de la emergencia de las industrias basadas en ciencia y tecnología, los encargados de hacer políticas industriales han sufrido dificultades en llegar a tiempo con que tipo de ciencia y tecnología deben gestionar. De ésta manera, en ésta investigación, se propone un método de vinculación de ciencia-tecnología con la industria, por la adopción de un medio común. Como medio de convección de ciencia y tecnología, se realizó un estudio de artículos científicos administrados por el Instituto de Información Científica (ISI) y patentes registradas en la Oficina de Patentes de Estados Unidos (USPTO). De ésta manera se identificaron 750 revistas y 84 clases de patentes correspondientes a la industria IT, 1779 revistas y 7 tipos de patentes correspondientes a BT y 483 revistas y 16 clases de patentes de NT. Esta investigación es significativa en el sentido del énfasis de la importancia y la política de conveniencia con respecto a los artículos científicos y las patentes formuladas hoy en día formuladas, y muestra como es el vínculo ciencia-tecnología con la industria, mediante el empleo de categorías de temas ISI y clases de patentes de USPTOIn recent years, as the development of science and technology rapidly accelerated, science- and technology-based industries have emerged. Representative examples are the Information and Telecommunications (IT) industry in the late 20th century and more recently the BioTechnology (BT) and NanoTechnology (NT) industries. However, despite the emergence of science- and technology- based industries, industrial policy-makers have suffered difficulties in grasping exactly what kinds of science and technology they should manage. Therefore, in this research, I propose a method of linking science and technology with industry, by adopting the media wherethrough they are delivered. As the media for conveying science and technology, I make use of the scientific articles administered by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) and the patents registered in the US Patent Office (USPTO). In this way, I identified 750 journals and 84 US patent classes corresponding to the IT industry, 1779 journals and 7 patent classes corresponding to the BT industry and 483 journals and 16 patent classes corresponding to the NT industry. This research is meaningful in that it emphasized the importance and convenience of scientific articles and patents in formulating today’s industrial policies and showed how to link science and technology with industry, by using the subject categories of the ISI and the patent classes of the USPTO

Unitary inflaton as decaying dark matter

We consider the inflation model of a singlet scalar field (sigma field) with both quadratic and linear non-minimal couplings where unitarity is ensured up to the Planck scale. We assume that a $Z_2$ symmetry for the sigma field is respected by the scalar potential in Jordan frame but it is broken explicitly by the linear non-minimal coupling due to quantum gravity. We discuss the impacts of the linear non-minimal coupling on various dynamics from inflation to low energy, such as a sizable tensor-to-scalar ratio, a novel reheating process with quartic potential dominance, and suppressed physical parameters in the low energy, etc. In particular, the linear non-minimal coupling leads to the linear couplings of the sigma field to the Standard Model through the trace of the energy-momentum tensor in Einstein frame. Thus, regarding the sigma field as a decaying dark matter, we consider the non-thermal production mechanisms for dark matter from the decays of Higgs and inflaton condensate and show the parameter space that is compatible with the correct relic density and cosmological constraints.Comment: 36 pages, 7 figures, v2: minor corrections made and references added, v3: discussion on preheating added, accepted for Journal of High Energy Physics, v4: Lyman-alpha bound included and inflationary predictions refined for perturbative reheatin