New gaugings of four dimensional N = 8 supergravity are constructed, including one which has a Minkowski space vacuum that preserves N = 2 supersymme-try and in which the gauge group is broken to SU(3) × U(1) 2. Previous gaugings used the form of the ungauged action which is invariant under a rigid SL(8, R) symmetry and promoted a 28-dimensional subgroup (SO(8), SO(p, 8 − p) or the non-semi-sim...

Employing the fermion unification model based on the intrinsic SU(8) symmetry of a generalized Dirac equation, we discuss the fundamental interactions under the SU(8)=SU(2)⊗SU(4) symmetry group. The physics involved can describe all fermions, the leptons (electron and neutrino), and the colored up and down quarks of the first generation in the standard model (SM) by a complex SU(8) octet of Dir...

Conventional SU-8 lithography process for fabricating microfluidic devices often uses silicon or glass as substrate materials. Since silicon and glass are very hard and brittle, drilling fluid access holes or dicing the substrates into individual devices are difficult. We investigated the use of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as a new substrate material. PMMA, an amorphous thermoplastic, was cho...

This paper presents a successful method for releasing high aspect ratio SU-8 micro-structures by the use of positive photoresist (AZ 4620) as sacrificial layer. The AZ 4620 photoresist sacrificial layer was dissolved by the SU-8 developer (propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate). Thus, this process reduces the need for complex microfabrication steps and equipments which are otherwise require...

BACKGROUND The benefit of sulfonylureas (SUs) to patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus receiving long-term insulin treatment is unclear. This study evaluated glycemic control and beta-cell function after SU withdrawal in these patients. METHODS In this 8-week randomized controlled study, patients with type 2 diabetes who had been treated with insulin for at least 3 years plus moderate to hig...

Cells can secrete biotherapeutic molecules that can replace or restore host function. The transplantation of such cells is a promising therapeutic modality for the treatment of several diseases including type 1 diabetes mellitus. These cellular grafts are encapsulated in semipermeable and immunoisolative membranes to protect them from the host immune system, while allowing the transport of nutr...

We study quenched SU(N) gauge theories with fermions in the two-index symmetric, antisymmetric and the adjoint representations. Our main motivation is to check whether at large number of colours those theories become non-perturbatively equivalent. We prove the equivalence assuming that the charge-conjugation symmetry is not broken in pure Yang-Mills theory. We then carry out a quenched lattice ...

We calculate the continuum value of the deconfining temperature in units of the string tension for SU(4), SU(6) and SU(8) gauge theories, and we recalculate its value for SU(2) and SU(3). We find that the N -dependence for 2 ≤ N ≤ 8 is well fitted by Tc/ √ σ = 0.596(4) + 0.453(30)/N, showing a rapid convergence to the large-N limit. We confirm our earlier result that the phase transition is fir...

Under an assumption that an S4 flavor symmetry is embedded into SU(3), a lepton mass matrix model is investigated. A Frogatt-Nielsen type model is assumed, and the flavor structures of the masses and mixing are caused by VEVs of SU(2)L-singlet scalars φu and φd which are nonets (8+1) of the SU(3) flavor symmetry, and which are broken into 2+3+3 and 1 of S4. If we require the invariance under th...