Organic matter (OM) and suspended sediment are abundant, and interact with each other, in rivers and lakes. OM is usually adsorbed by suspended sediment and causes either particle stabilization or flocculation. In this study, the OM composition and suspended sediment flocculation potential of river water were regularly measured throughout the year 2016. The OM composition of the river water samples was measured with a liquid chromatography‐organic carbon detection system and fluorescence excitation‐emission matrix spectroscopy, and the flocculation potential was measured in a standard jar test experiment. Results from the OM analyses and flocculation potential tests, in association with a multivariate data analysis, demonstrated that the OM composition and flocculation potential of the river water were dynamic under different meteorological, hydrological, ecological, and anthropogenic conditions and closely correlated with each other. Dry seasons with low rainfall and water discharge induced a lacustrine condition and led to the OM composition being more aquagenic and flocculation‐favorable. The most favorable condition for the enhancement of flocculation was during algae bloom and associated with the production of biopolymers from algae. In contrast, rainy seasons were advantageous for stabilization of suspended sediment because of excessive transport of terrigenous humic substances from catchment areas into the river. Such terrigenous humic substances enhanced stabilization by creating enhanced electrostatic repulsion via adsorption onto the sediment surface. Findings from this research provide a better insight into the highly complex behaviors of and interactions between OM and suspended sediment in natural water environments.

The phenomenology of the explicit CP violation in the Higgs sector of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) is investigated, with emphasis on the charged Higgs boson. The radiative corrections due to both quarks and scalar-quarks of the third generation are taken into account, and the negative result of the search for the Higgs bosons at CERN LEP2, with the discovery limit of 0.1 pb, is imposed as a constraint. It is found that there are parameter regions of the NMSSM where the lightest neutral Higgs boson may even be massless, without being detected at LEP2. This implies that the LEP2 data do not contradict the existence of a massless neutral Higgs boson in the NMSSM. For the charged Higgs boson, the radiative corrections to its mass may be negative in some parameter regions of the NMSSM. The phenomenological lower bound on the radiatively corrected mass of the charged Higgs boson is increased as the CP violation becomes maximal, i.e., as the CP violating phase becomes π/2. At the maximal CP violation, its lower bound is about 110 GeV for 5 tan β 40. The vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the neutral Higgs singlet is shown to be no smaller than 16 GeV for any parameter values of the NMSSM with explicit CP violation. This value of the lower limit is found to increase up to about 45 GeV as the ratio (tan β) of the VEVs of the two Higgs doublets decreases to smaller values (∼ 2). The discovery limit of the Higgs boson search at LEP2 is found to cover about a half of the kinematically allowed part of the whole parameter space of the NMSSM, and the portion is roughly stable against the CP violating phase.1

A search is presented for new particles produced at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV, using events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb−1, collected in 2017–2018 with the CMS detector. Machine learning techniques are used to define separate categories for events with narrow jets from initial-state radiation and events with large-radius jets consistent with a hadronic decay of a W or Z boson. A statistical combination is made with an earlier search based on a data sample of 36 fb−1, collected in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the standard model background expectation determined from control samples in data. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on the branching fraction of an invisible decay of the Higgs boson, as well as constraints on simplified models of dark matter, on first-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to quarks and neutrinos, and on models with large extra dimensions. Several of the new limits, specifically for spin-1 dark matter mediators, pseudoscalar mediators, colored mediators, and leptoquarks, are the most restrictive to date.

Measurements of Higgs boson production cross sections and couplings in events where the Higgs boson decays into a pair of photons are reported. Events are selected from a sample of proton-proton collisions at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV collected by the CMS detector at the LHC from 2016 to 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb−1. Analysis categories enriched in Higgs boson events produced via gluon fusion, vector boson fusion, vector boson associated production, and production associated with top quarks are constructed. The total Higgs boson signal strength, relative to the standard model (SM) prediction, is measured to be 1.12±0.09. Other properties of the Higgs boson are measured, including SM signal strength modifiers, production cross sections, and its couplings to other particles. These include the most precise measurements of gluon fusion and vector boson fusion Higgs boson production in several different kinematic regions, the first measurement of Higgs boson production in association with a top quark pair in five regions of the Higgs boson transverse momentum, and an upper limit on the rate of Higgs boson production in association with a single top quark. All results are found to be in agreement with the SM expectations.

Biomimetic remineralization is potentially useful for remineralizing incompletely resin-infiltrated collagen matrices created by etch-and-rinse adhesives. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that structurally-altered dentin collagen cannot be remineralized to the same hierarchical order and dimension that are seen in structurally-intact dentin collagen The remineralization medium consisted of a set Portland cement/simulated body fluid system containing polycarboxylic acid and polyvinylphosphonic acid as biomimetic analogs. Remineralization of air-dried, collapsed hybrid layers was apparent after one month, with hybrid layers remineralized to 80–90% of their thickness after 2–4 months. A hypermineralized layer was seen on the hybrid layer surface and tubular orifices were occluded with apatite deposits that resembled those present in noncarious cervical dentin. Structurally-altered collagen is unlikely to be remineralized to the same hierarchical order and dimension that are seen in intact dentin. The aggressively air-dried acid-etched dentin remineralization model also sheds light on the mechanism of sclerotic dentin formation.