Probing the Light Pseudoscalar Window

Very light pseudoscalars can arise from the symmetry-breaking sector in many extensions of the Standard Model. If their mass is below 200 MeV, they can be long-lived and have interesting phenomenology. We discuss the experimental constraints on several models with light pseudoscalars, including one in which the pseudoscalar is naturally fermiophobic. Taking into account the stringent bounds from rare K and B decays, we find allowed parameter space in each model that may be accessible in direct production experiments. In particular, we study the photoproduction of light pseudoscalars at Jefferson Lab and conclude that a beam dump experiment could explore some of the allowed parameter space of these models.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

Non-unique factorization of polynomials over residue class rings of the integers

We investigate non-unique factorization of polynomials in Z_{p^n}[x] into irreducibles. As a Noetherian ring whose zero-divisors are contained in the Jacobson radical, Z_{p^n}[x] is atomic. We reduce the question of factoring arbitrary non-zero polynomials into irreducibles to the problem of factoring monic polynomials into monic irreducibles. The multiplicative monoid of monic polynomials of Z_{p^n}[x] is a direct sum of monoids corresponding to irreducible polynomials in Z_p[x], and we show that each of these monoids has infinite elasticity. Moreover, for every positive integer m, there exists in each of these monoids a product of 2 irreducibles that can also be represented as a product of m irreducibles.Comment: 11 page

Gold Phytomining: a New Idea for Enviromental Sustainablity in Indonesia

DOI: 10.17014/ijog.v1i1.171New technology is needed to protect the safety and health of communities and the environment at ASGM locations in Indonesia. This technology must be simple, cheap, easy to operate, and financially rewarding. A proven option that should be promoted is phytoextraction, a farming activity that could develop agriculture as an alternative livelihood in ASGM areas. This is a technology where plants are used to extract metals from waste rock, soil, or water. These metals can be recovered from the plant in its pure form, then be sold or recycled. Gold phytoextraction is a commercially available technology, while an International research has shown that phytoextraction will also work for mercury. In the context of this idea, tailings would be contained in ‘farming areas\u27 and cropped using phytoextraction technology. Gold and mercury would be extracted in the crops, with the remaining mercury burden of the tailings becoming adsorbed to soil constituents. The system would be financially rewarding to ‘gold farmers\u27. The economic value of this scenario could facilitate the clean-up and management of mercury pollution, reducing the movement of mercury from tailings into soil, water, and plants, thereby mitigating environmental and human risk in the mining areas. The goal of the described research is to promote agriculture as an alternative livelihood in ASGM areas. The gold value of the phytoremediation crop should provide a cash incentive to artisanal farmers who develop this new agricultural enterprise. The benefits will be social, environmental, and economic, as opportunities for education, employment, new business, the containment of toxic mercury, food safety and security, and revenue are all realized

Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) and Autler-Townes (AT) splitting in the Presence of Band-Limited White Gaussian Noise

We investigate the effect of band-limited white Gaussian noise (BLWGN) on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and Autler-Townes (AT) splitting, when performing atom-based continuous-wave (CW) radio-frequency (RF) electric (E) field strength measurements with Rydberg atoms in an atomic vapor. This EIT/AT-based E-field measurement approach is currently being investigated by several groups around the world as a means to develop a new SI traceable RF E-field measurement technique. For this to be a useful technique, it is important to understand the influence of BLWGN. We perform EIT/AT based E-field experiments with BLWGN centered on the RF transition frequency and for the BLWGN blue-shifted and red-shifted relative to the RF transition frequency. The EIT signal can be severely distorted for certain noise conditions (band-width, center-frequency, and noise power), hence altering the ability to accurately measure a CW RF E-field strength. We present a model to predict the changes in the EIT signal in the presence of noise. This model includes AC Stark shifts and on resonance transitions associated with the noise source. The results of this model are compared to the experimental data and we find very good agreement between the two.Comment: 14 page, 15 figures, 1 tabl

Correlation of Early Outcomes and Intradiscal Interleukin-6 Expression in Lumbar Fusion Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if there is correlation between intradiscal levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and early outcome measures in patients undergoing lumbar fusion for painful disc degeneration. METHODS: Intervertebral disc tissue was separated into annulus fibrosus/nucleus pulposus and cultured separately in vitro in serum-free medium (Opti-MEM). Conditioned media was collected after 48 hours. The concentration of IL-6 was quantified using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Pearson correlation coefficients quantified relationships between IL-6 levels and pre- and postoperative visual analogue scale (VAS) back pain and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), as well as change in VAS/ODI. RESULTS: Sixteen discs were harvested from 9 patients undergoing anterior lumbar interbody fusion (mean age, 47.4 years; range, 21-70 years). Mean preoperative and 6-month postoperative VAS were 8.1 and 3.7, respectively. Mean preoperative and postoperative ODI were 56.2 and 25.6, respectively. There were significant positive correlations between IL-6 expression and postoperative VAS (ρ = 0.38, p = 0.048) and ODI (ρ = 0.44, p = 0.02). No significant correlations were found between intradiscal IL-6 expression and preoperative VAS (ρ = -0.12, p = 0.54). Trends were seen associating IL-6 expression and change in VAS/ODI (ρ = -0.35 p = 0.067; ρ = -0.34, p = 0.08, respectively). A trend associated IL-6 and preoperative ODI (ρ = 0.36, p = 0.063). CONCLUSION: The direct association between IL-6 expression and VAS/ODI suggests patients with elevated intradiscal cytokine expression may have worse early outcomes than those with lower expression of IL-6 after surgery for symptomatic disc degeneration

Oxidative phosphorylation and lacunar stroke: Genome-wide enrichment analysis of common variants.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) abnormalities were associated with lacunar stroke, hypothesizing that these would be more strongly associated in patients with multiple lacunar infarcts and leukoaraiosis (LA). METHODS: In 1,012 MRI-confirmed lacunar stroke cases and 964 age-matched controls recruited from general practice surgeries, we investigated associations between common genetic variants within the OXPHOS pathway and lacunar stroke using a permutation-based enrichment approach. Cases were phenotyped using MRI into those with multiple infarcts or LA (MLI/LA) and those with isolated lacunar infarcts (ILI) based on the number of subcortical infarcts and degree of LA, using the Fazekas grading. Using gene-level association statistics, we tested for enrichment of genes in the OXPHOS pathway with all lacunar stroke and the 2 subtypes. RESULTS: There was a specific association with strong evidence of enrichment in the top 1% of genes in the MLI/LA (subtype p = 0.0017) but not in the ILI subtype (p = 1). Genes in the top percentile for the all lacunar stroke analysis were not significantly enriched (p = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS: Our results implicate the OXPHOS pathway in the pathogenesis of lacunar stroke, and show the association is specific to patients with the MLI/LA subtype. They show that MRI-based subtyping of lacunar stroke can provide insights into disease pathophysiology, and imply that different radiologic subtypes of lacunar stroke subtypes have distinct underlying pathophysiologic processes.Hugh Markus is supported by an NIHR Senior Investigator award. Hugh Markus and Steve Bevan are supported by the NIHR Cambridge University Hospitals Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre. Collection of the UK Young Lacunar Stroke Resource was primarily supported by a Functional Genomics grant from the Wellcome Trust with additional support from the Stroke Association. Genotyping and MT were supported by a project grant from the Stroke Association (TSA 2013/01). Dr. Anderson is supported by NIH-NINDS K23 NS086873 and a Fellowship in Therapeutic Investigation sponsored by the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Neurology and Biogen Idec, Inc.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wolters Kluwer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1212/WNL.000000000000226

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Inhibition of microbial sulfate reduction in a flow-through column system by (per)chlorate treatment.

Microbial sulfate reduction is a primary cause of oil reservoir souring. Here we show that amendment with chlorate or perchlorate [collectively (per)chlorate] potentially resolves this issue. Triplicate packed columns inoculated with marine sediment were flushed with coastal water amended with yeast extract and one of nitrate, chlorate, or perchlorate. Results showed that although sulfide production was dramatically reduced by all treatments, effluent sulfide was observed in the nitrate (10 mM) treatment after an initial inhibition period. In contrast, no effluent sulfide was observed with (per)chlorate (10 mM). Microbial community analyses indicated temporal community shifts and phylogenetic clustering by treatment. Nitrate addition stimulated Xanthomonadaceae and Rhizobiaceae growth, supporting their role in nitrate metabolism. (Per)chlorate showed distinct effects on microbial community structure compared with nitrate and resulted in a general suppression of the community relative to the untreated control combined with a significant decrease in sulfate reducing species abundance indicating specific toxicity. Furthermore, chlorate stimulated Pseudomonadaceae and Pseudoalteromonadaceae, members of which are known chlorate respirers, suggesting that chlorate may also control sulfidogenesis by biocompetitive exclusion of sulfate-reduction. Perchlorate addition stimulated Desulfobulbaceae and Desulfomonadaceae, which contain sulfide oxidizing and elemental sulfur-reducing species respectively, suggesting that effluent sulfide concentrations may be controlled through sulfur redox cycling in addition to toxicity and biocompetitive exclusion. Sulfur isotope analyses further support sulfur cycling in the columns, even when sulfide is not detected. This study indicates that (per)chlorate show great promise as inhibitors of sulfidogenesis in natural communities and provides insight into which organisms and respiratory processes are involved