A procedure, dedicated to superconductivity, is extended to study the properties of interacting electrons in normal metals in the thermodynamic limit. Each independent-electron band is shown to split into two correlated-electron bands. Excellent agreement is achieved with Bethe's wave-function for the one-dimensional Hubbard model. The groundstate energy, reckoned for the two-dimensional Hubbard Hamiltonian, is found to be lower than values, obtained thanks to the numerical methods. This analysis applies for any spatial dimension and temperature.

We study the electron spin resonance (ESR) line width for localized moments within the framework of the Kondo lattice model. An ESR signal for an impurity can only be observed if the Kondo temperature is sufficiently small. On the other hand, for the Kondo lattice, short-range ferromagnetic correlations (FM) between the localized spins are necessary to obtain an observable signal. The spin relaxation rate (line width) is inversely proportional to the static magnetic susceptibility. The FM enhance the susceptibility and hence reduce the line width. For most of the heavy fermion systems displaying an ESR signal the FM arise in the ab-plane from the strong lattice anisotropy. An ESR signal was observed in the cubic heavy fermion compound CeB₆ which has a Γ₈ ground-quartet. The orbital content of the Γ₈-quartet gives rise to an antiferro-quadrupolar ordered (AFQ) phase below 4 K. Single ions with a Γ₈ ground-multiplet are expected to display four transitions, however, only one has been observed. We address the effects of the interplay of AFQ and FM on the phase diagram and the ESR line width. While for anisotropic Ce and Yb compounds with ESR-signal it is difficult to distinguish if the resonance is due to localized spins or conducting heavy electron spins, an itinerant picture within the AFQ phase is necessary to explain the electron spin resonances for CeB₆. The longitudinal magnetic susceptibility has a quasi-elastic central peak of line width 1/T₁ and inelastic peaks for the absorption/emission of excitation. The latter are measured via inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and provide insights into the magnetic order. We briefly summarize some of the INS results for CeB₆ in the context of the picture that emerged from the ESR experiments.

Highly-correlated electrons – electrons that engage in strong electron-electron interactions – have been observed in transition metal oxides and quantum dots and can create unusual material behavior that is difficult to model, such as switching between a low resistance metal state and a high resistance Mott insulator state. Tests of devices using a layer-by-layer deposition process for forming multilayer arrays of ferritin (a transition metal (iron) oxide storage protein) have been previously reported that indicate that highly-correlated electron transport is occurring, consistent with models of electron transport in quantum dots. This paper reports the results of the effect of various degrees of structural homogeneity on the electrical characteristics of these ferritin arrays, as well as demonstrating that these structures can provide a switching function associated with the circuit that they are contained within, consistent with the observed behavior of highly-correlated electrons.

We study strong optical coupling of metal nanoparticle arrays with dielectric substrates. Based on the Fermi Golden Rule, the particle-substrate coupling is derived in terms of the photon absorption probability assuming a local dipole field. An increase in photocurrent gain is achieved through the optical coupling. In addition, we describe light-induced, mesoscopic electron dynamics via the nonlocal hydrodynamic theory of charges. At small nanoparticle size (<20nm), the impact of this type of spatial dispersion becomes sizable. Both absorption and scattering cross section of the nanoparticle are significantly increased through the contribution of additional nonlocal modes. We observe a splitting of local optical modes spanning several tenths of nanometers. This is a signature of semi-classical, strong optical coupling via the dynamic Stark effect, known as Autler-Townes splitting. The photocurrent generated in this description is increased by up to 2%, which agrees better with recent experiments than compared to identical classical setups with up to 6%. Both, the expressions derived for the particle-substrate coupling and the additional hydrodynamic equation for electrons are integrated into COMSOL for our simulations.

The present work investigates primarily the morphology evolution of the body-centered-cubic (BCC)/B2 phases in AlxNiCoFeCr high-entropy alloys (HEAs) with increasing Al content, which has been neglected so far. There exist two types of microscopic morphologies of BCC and B2 phases in this HEA series: one is the weave-like morphology induced by the spinodal decomposition, and the other is the microstructure of a spherical disordered BCC precipitation on the ordered B2 matrix that appears in HEAs with a much higher Al content. The shape of coherent precipitates is found to be closely related to the lattice misfit between BCC and B2 phases, which is sensitive to Al. The mechanical properties, including the compressive yielding strength and microhardness of the AlxNiCoFeCr HEAs, are also discussed in light of the concept of the valence electron concentration (VEC).

The up-to-date challenge towards clean road transport are non-exhaust emissions. Important advances regarding measurement systems, including well defined characterisation techniques, as well as regulation, will happen in the next few years. In this work we present detailed results of particle emissions from a test bed for wheel suspension and brakes, consisting of aerosol (size distribution, particle number (PN) and mass (PM)) and electron microscopy measurements (EM) under different load conditions. Standard tyres and brakes from series production were tested with a high-load driving cycle while particle measurements were conducted by gravimetric measurements and with a TSI SMPS, a TSI APS and a GRIMM OPS. Furthermore, samples were analyzed by electron microscopy. A bimodal particle size distribution (PSD) was obtained with the SMPS, with peaks at 20nm and around 400nm. EM analysis of &gt;1400 single particles from the electrostatic sampler matches the PSD results. EM analysis also showed ultrafine particles, mainly from O, Fe, Si, Ba, Mg and S and also fractal particles with high C fractions. Our results suggest, in agreement with previously published literature, that particulate emissions are related to brake disc temperature and occur in significant amounts above a threshold temperature.

In this paper, some characterizations of fuzzifying strong compactness are given, including characterizations in terms of nets and pre -subbases. Several characterizations of locally strong compactness in the framework of fuzzifying topology are introduced and the mapping theorems are obtained.

Cryptococcus neoformans is a facultative intracellular fungal pathogen. Ten-generation-old (10GEN) C. neoformans cells are more resistant to phagocytosis and killing by macrophages than younger daughter cells. However, mechanisms that mediate this resistance and intracellular parasitism are poorly understood. Here, we identified factors important for the intracellular survival of 10GEN C. neoformans, such as urease activity, capsule synthesis, and DNA content using flow cytometry and fluorescent microscopy techniques. Real-time visualization of time-lapse imaging was applied to determine the phagosomal acidity, membrane permeability, and vomocytosis (non-lytic exocytosis) rate in J774 macrophages that phagocytosed C. neoformans of different generational ages. Our results showed that old C. neoformans exhibited higher urease activity, and enhanced capsule formation, which was supported by an increased Golgi complex. In addition, old C. neoformans were more likely to be arrested in the G2 phase, resulting in the occasional formation of aberrant trimera-like cells. To finish, the advanced generational age of the yeast cells slightly reduced vomocytosis events within host cells, which might be associated with increased phagolysosomal pH and membrane permeability. Altogether our results contribute to a better understanding of the strategies used by old C. neoformans to resist phagosomal killing and suggest that old generation C. neoformans intracellular behavior may be driving cryptococcosis pathogenesis.

We define the notions of strong and strict recurrency for actions of countable ordered groups on $\sigma$-finite non atomic measure spaces with quasi-invariant measures. We show that strong recurrency is equivalent to non existence of weakly wandering sets of positive measure. We also show that for certain p.m.p ergodic actions the system is not strictly recurrent, which shows that strong and strict recurrency are not equivalent.

Abstract: Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) is a rare disorder of glucose metabolism and is the most common cause of severe and persistent hypoglycemia (hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia, HH) in the neonatal period and childhood. Most cases are caused by mutations in the ABCC8 and KCNJ11 genes that encode the ATP-sensitive potassium channel (KATP). We present the correlation between genetic heterogeneity and the variable phenotype in patients with early-onset hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia caused by ABCC8 gene mutations. In the first patients, which presented persistent severe hypoglycemia since the first day of life, molecular genetic testing revealed the presence of a homozygous mutation in the ABCC8 gene [deletion in the ABCC8 gene c.(2390+1_2391-1)_(3329+1_3330- 1)del] correlated with a diffuse form of hyperinsulinism (the parents being healthy heterozygous carriers). In the second patient, the onset was on the third day of life with severe hypoglycemia, and genetic testing identified a heterozygous mutation in the ABCC8 gene c.1792C&gt;T (p.Arg598*) inherited on the paternal line, which led to the diagnosis of focal form of hyperinsulinism. To locate the focal lesions, (18)F-DOPA (3,4-dihydroxy-6-[18F]fluoro-L-phenylalanine) PET/CT was recommended (an investigation that cannot be carried out in the country), but the parents refused to carry out the investigation abroad. In this case, early surgical treatment could have been curative. In addition, the second child also presented secondary adrenal insufficiency requiring replacement therapy. At the same time, she developed early recurrent seizures that required antiepileptic treatment. We emphasize the importance and of molecular genetic testing for diagnosis, management and genetic counseling in patients with HH.

Leishmaniasis is the third most common vector-borne disease and a very important protozoan infection. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of the most common types of leishmaniasis infectious diseases with up to 2 million occurrences of new cases each year worldwide. A dynamic transmission multivariate time series model was applied to the data to account for overdispersion and evaluate the effects of three environmental layers as well as seasonality in the data. Furthermore, ecological niche modeling was used to investigate the geographical suitable conditions for cutaneous leishmaniasis using temperature, precipitation and altitude as environmental layers, together with the leishmaniasis presence data. A retrospective analysis of the cutaneous leishmaniasis spatial data in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2009 indicates a steady increase from 2003 to 2007, a small decrease in 2008, then another increase in 2009. An upward trend and regularly repeating patterns of highs and lows was observed related to the months of the year which suggests seasonality effect in the data. Two peaks were observed in the disease occurrence-- January to March and September to December -- which coincide with the cold period. Ecological niche modelling indicates that precipitation has the greatest contribution to the potential distribution of leishmaniasis.

In this work, we designed a MEMS device which allows simultaneous direct measurement of mechanical properties during deformation under external stress and characterization of the evolution of microstructure of nanomaterials within a transmission electron microscope. This MEMS device makes it easy to establish the correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties of nanomaterials. The device uses piezoresistive sensors to qualitatively measure the force and displacement of nanomaterials, e.g., in wire and thin plate forms. The device has a theoretical displacement resolution of 0.19 nm and a force resolution of 2.1 μN. The device has a theoretical displacement range limit of 2.74 μm and a load range limit of 27.75 mN.

The human landscape transforming activity contributes to the global change of vegetation in different forms. Hunting is one of the most ancient human landscape-shaping activities. Feeders for hunting are particularly disruptive to vegetation. In the present study, we conducted a vegetation survey in these highly disturbed places. We are investigating the vegetation dynamics over several years in in the turkey oak–sessile oak zone, in two areas with different moisture and shade conditions (forest and clearing). One important background factor is changes in precipitation and temperature. The novelty of our present study lies in the fact that the observation takes place with continuous disturbance, where the human influence is very large. Our results confirm that the weed infestation be detectable at bait sites over a long period, and the interannual changes were typical in every year, according to the fact that in August, more weed species are usually present with a greater cover at the bait sites. The main meteorological factors played a role in the degree of weed infestation in each year. There was a higher proportion of vegetation regeneration in wetter years, while dry periods do not favor successional processes. With the drying of the climate, the disturbed areas are constantly losing their natural value, but wetter weather is not an automatic solution either. A more precise understanding of vulnerable systems and careful planning of treatment interventions is necessary.

Biohydrogen is a versatile energy carrier for the generation of electric energy from renewable sources. Hydrogenases can be used in enzymatic fuel cells to oxidize dihydrogen. The rate of electron transfer (ET) at the anodic side between the [NiFe]-hydrogenase enzyme distal iron-sulfur cluster and the electrode surface can be described by the Marcus equation. All parameters for the Marcus equation are accessible from DFT calculations. The distal cubane FeS-cluster has a three cysteine and one histidine coordination [Fe₄S₄](His)(Cys)₃ first ligation sphere. The reorganization energy (inner- and outer-sphere) is almost unchanged upon a histidine-to-cysteine substitution. Differences in rates of electron transfer between the wild-type enzyme and the all-cysteine mutant can be rationalized by a diminished electronic coupling between the donor and acceptor molecules in the [Fe₄S₄](Cys)₄ case. The fast and efficient electron transfer from the distal iron-sulfur cluster is realized by a fine-tuned protein environment which facilitates the flow of electrons. This study enables the design and control of electron transfer rates and pathways by protein engineering.

In this paper, we present a new concept of the generalized core orthogonality (called the C-S orthogonality) for two generalized core invertible matrices $A$ and $B$. $A$ is said to be C-S orthogonal to $B$ if $A^{\tiny\textcircled{S}}B=0$ and $BA^{\tiny\textcircled{S}}=0$, where $A^{\tiny\textcircled{S}}$ is the generalized core inverse of $A$. The characterizations of C-S orthogonal matries and the C-S additivity are also provided. And the connection between the C-S orthogonality and C-S partial order has been given using their canonical form. Moreover, the concept of the strongly C-S orthogonality is defined and characterized.

A technique devised some years ago permits to study a theory in a regime of strong perturbations. This translate into a gradient expansion that, at the leading order, can recover the BKL solution. We solve exactly the leading order equations in a spherical symmetric case and we show that the 4-velocity in such a case is multiplied by an exponential warp factor when the perturbation is properly applied. This factor is always greater than one. We will give a closed form solution of this factor for a simple case. Some numerical examples are also given.

The quiet-time solar wind electrons feature non-thermal characteristics when viewed from the perspective of their velocity distribution functions. They typically have an appearance of being composed of a denser thermal “core” population plus a tenuous energetic “halo” population. At first, such a feature was empirically fitted with the Kappa velocity space distribution function, but ever since the ground-breaking work by Tsallis, the space physics community has embraced the potential implication of the Kappa distribution as reflecting the non-extensive nature of the space plasma. From the viewpoint of microscopic plasma theory, the formation of non-thermal electron velocity distribution function can be interpreted in terms of the plasma being in a state of turbulent quasi equilibrium. Such a finding brings forth the possible existence of a profound inter-relationship between the non-extensive statistical state and the turbulent quasi-equilibrium state. The present paper further develops the idea of solar wind electrons being in the turbulent equilibrium, but unlike the previous model, which involves the electrostatic turbulence near the plasma oscillation frequency (i.e., Langmuir turbulence), the present paper considers the impact of transverse electromagnetic turbulence, particularly, the turbulence in the whistler-mode frequency range. It is found that the coupling of spontaneously-emitted thermal fluctuations and the background turbulence leads to the formation of non-thermal electron velocity distribution function of the type observed in the solar wind during quiet times. This demonstrates that the whistler-range turbulence represents an alternative mechanism for producing the Kappa-like non-thermal distribution, especially close to the Sun and in the near-Earth space environment.

Background: Periodontitis is a disease that leads to serious functional and aesthetic dysfunctions resulting in impairment of life quality; it exists in different forms and its etiology is related with multiple component causes. Angiogenesis, together with inflammatory infiltrate, are two key processes in the evolution of inflammatory processes involving gingival tissues. The aim of this study was to evaluate their alterations in relation to some important periodontal diseases-associated factors (i.e. smoke, sex, age, plaque, pus, probing pocket depth) in patients with diagnosis of Generalized Aggressive Periodontitis (GAP). Methods: Eighteen subjects with GAP were enrolled for this study. Percentage of inflammatory cells and vascular area were measured and evaluated in relation with each periodontal diseases-associated factor. Results: The results showed a significant decrease of the percentage of vascular area in association with almost all the periodontal diseases-related factors (smoke, age, PPD, plaque) and not significant differences in the percentage of inflammatory cells. Conclusions: Data suggest that, even if these factors are often commonly related to worsening of periodontal status, they did not affect inflammatory and vascular pattern, as we can assume. For the future, additional studies, aimed to evaluated each singular factor in a wider sample size, should be planned.

We introduce a novel stochastically correlated two-factor (i.e., bivariate) diffusion process under the square-root format, for which we obtained, analytically, the corresponding solutions for the conditional moment generating functions and conditional characteristic functions. Such solutions recover verbatim those of the uncorrelated case. We believe that the The aforementioned model encompasses a range of processes similar to that produced by a bivariate square-root process in which entries are correlated in the standard way, i.e., via a constant correlation coefficient. Note that, for the latter, closed-form solutions for the conditional characteristic functions are not available. We focus on the financial scenario of obtaining closed-form expressions for the exact price of a zero-coupon bond and Asian option prices via a Fourier cosine series method.

The nucleation and dynamics of Josephson and Abrikosov vortices determine the critical currents of layered high-T_c superconducting (HTS) thin films, grain boundaries, and coated conductors, so understanding their mechanisms is of crucial importance. Here we treat pair creation of Josephson and Abrikosov vortices in layered superconductors as a secondary Josephson effect, in which each full vortex is viewed as a composite fluid of micro-vortices, such as pancake vortices, which tunnel coherently via a tunneling matrix element. We introduce a two-terminal magnetic (Weber) blockade effect that blocks tunneling below a threshold current, and simulate time-correlated vortex tunneling above threshold. The model shows nearly precise agreement with voltage-current (V-I) characteristics of HTS cuprate grain boundary junctions, which becomes more concave rounded as temperature decreases, and also explains the piecewise linear V-I behavior observed in iron-pnictide bicrystal junctions and other HTS devices. When applied to either Abrikosov or Josephson pair creation, the model explains a plateau seen in plots of critical current vs. thickness of HTS coated conductors. The observed correlation between theory and experiment strongly supports the proposed quantum picture of vortex nucleation and dynamics in layered superconductors.

This article develops a multi-perspective view on motivations and methods for tobamovirus purification through the ages, and presents a novel efficient, easy-to-use approach that can be well-adapted to different species of native and functionalized virions. We survey the various driving forces prompting researchers to enrich tobamoviruses: from the search for the causative agents of mosaic diseases in plants to their increasing recognition as versatile nanocarriers in biomedical and engineering applications. Best practice and also rarely applied options for the serial processing steps required for successful isolation of tobamoviruses are then reviewed. Adaptations for distinct particle species, pitfalls and 'forgotten' or underrepresented technologies are considered as well. The article is topped off with our own development of a method for virion preparation, rooted in historical protocols. It combines selective re-solubilization of polyethylene glycol (PEG) virion raw precipitates with density step gradient centrifugation in biocompatible iodixanol formulations, yielding ready-to-use particle suspensions. This newly established protocol and some considerations for perhaps worthwile further developments could serve as putative stepping stones towards preparation procedures appropriate for routine practical uses of the multivalent soft-matter nanorods.

A time-sequential working, spatially multiplexed autostereoscopic 3D display design consisting of a fast switchable RGB-color filter array is presented. The wavelength-selective filter barrier emits the light from a display over a larger active area than common autostereoscopic barrier displays. An optical modelling of wavelength-selective barriers has been used for instance to calculate the light ray distribution properties of that arrangement. To find well working display designs, automated searches by simulation and computational evaluation has been proceeded. Wavelength-selective filter barrier arrangements exhibit characteristics different from common barrier displays with similar barrier pitch and ascent. In particular, these constructions show strong angular luminance dependency under barrier inclination specified by correspondent slant angle. In time-sequential implementation it is important to avoid that quick eye or eyelid movement lead to visible color artifacts. In the millisecond regime tunable liquid crystal Fabry-Pérot color filters for the colors red, green and blue are presented. They consist of a sub-micrometer thick nematic layer sandwiched between dielectric mirrors and ITO-electrodes. These cells shall switch narrow-banding light of red, green or blue. An array for a glasses-free 3D display has to be equipped with several thousand switchable filter elements having different color apertures. The newly introduced design is usable as a multi user display as well as a single user system with user adaptive control.

The rationalization and modeling of an electric discharge in a fluid require the knowledge of electron swarm parameters. In this work, transport coefficients of alcohols, including methanol, ethanol, propanol, and butanol are reported. The electron energy distribution function, mean energy, reduced mobility, and diffusion coefficient, are calculated using the two-term expansion of the electron Boltzmann equation in the frame of BOLSIG+ and the Monte Carlo collision code METHES. For such, experimental and theoretical values of the electron-alcohol collision cross-section, covering a range of electron impact energy from 1 eV to 1000 eV, are employed. A temperature of 300K, reduced fields E/N between $1-10^4$ Td (1Td = $10^{-21}~\rm Vm^2$), and Plasma density of $10^{19}~\rm m^{-3}$ were used in simulations. The calculated coefficients are compared with data available from previous studies.

Objective: To examine the associations between menstruation features and symptoms and hormone-immune-metabolic biomarkers. Methods: Forty-one women completed questionnaires assessing characteristic menstruation symptoms, duration of menstrual cycle and number of pads used/day and completed the Daily Record of Severity of Problems (DRSP) during the consecutive days of their menstrual cycle. Menses-related symptoms (MsRS) were computed from the sum of 10 pre- and post-menses symptoms and the menstruation blood and duration index (MBDI) was computed based on the daily number of pads and duration of menses. We assayed serum levels of various biomarkers at days 7, 14, 21, and 28 of the subjects’ menstrual cycle. Results: MBDI was significantly associated with a) MsRS including low abdominal cramps, and gastro-intestinal (GI) and pain symptoms (positively); b) plasma levels of haptoglobin (Hp), CCL5, insulin growth factor (IGF)-1, and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)1 (all positively); and c) estradiol and paraoxonase (PON)1 arylesterase activity (both inversely). MsRS were significantly predicted by CCL5 and IGF-1 (both positively) and progesterone (inversely). Low-abdominal cramps, and gastro-intestinal and pain symptoms were associated with lower progesterone levels. The MBDI+MsRS score was significantly predicted by the cumulative effects of (in descending order of importance): Hp, IGF-1, PON1 arylesterase, estradiol and PAI. Conclusion: Menstruation-related features including estimated blood loss, duration of menses, cramps, pain and GI symptoms are associated with hormone-immune-metabolic biomarkers, which mechanistically may explain those features. Women with an increased MBDI+MsRS index ≥ 0.666 percentile may be considered to have menstruation-related distress, including dysmenorrhea symptoms.

In order to study the effects of irradiation on the physicochemical properties and digestion behavior of chickpea protein, chickpea protein concentrate (CPC) was treated with electron beam irradiation (EBI) at doses of 5, 10, 15 and 20 kGy, respectively. After irradiation, protein solubility first increased at 10 kGy and 15 kGy, and then decreased at higher dose of 20 kGy. This was supported by SDS-PAGE where the intensity of major protein bands first increased and then decreased. Increased does of EBI generally led to greater oxidative modification of proteins in CPC, indicated by reduced sulfhydryls and increased carbonyls. In addition, protein structure was modified by EBI shown by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis where α-helix generally decreased and β-sheet increased. Although the protein digestibility was not significantly affected by EBI, the peptidomic analysis of the digests revealed significant difference among CPC irradiated with varying doses. A total of 337 peptides were identified from CPC irradiated with 0 kGy, 10 kGy and 20 kGy, respectively, with 18 overlapping peptides and 60, 29 and 40 peptides specific to the groups of 0, 10 and 20 kGy respectively. Theoretical calculation showed that the distribution of peptide length, hydrophobicity, net charge, and C-terminal residues were affected by irradiation. The 2, 2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging activity showed a marginal decrease with increasing dose of irradiation. In conclusion, EBI led to oxidative modification and structural changes of the chickpea protein, which subsequently affected the physicochemical properties of peptides obtained from in-vitro digestion of CPC despite of similar digestibility.

COPD is currently the fourth leading cause of death in the world. Globally, due to continued exposure to COPD risk factors and an aging population, the burden of COPD is expected to increase in the coming decades. The BODE (body mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea, and exercise capacity) index is a practical and multidimensional predictor for prognosis of COPD, and better than FEV1.We used the database of Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital medical center, Taiwan to analyze the correlation between BODE index, healthcare resource utilization, and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI). This retrospective study to collect COPD patients with complete BODE index data who had undergone a 6-minute walk examination in our hospital from January 2015 to December 2016. The medical cost and comorbidities database were analyzed from January 1, 2015, to August 31, 2017. Of 396 patients, 382 (96.5%) were male, with an average age of 71.3 ± 8.4 years. There was a significant association between the BODE index and the CCI of COPD patients (p < 0.001). Healthcare resource utilization was positively correlated with the BODE index during the 32 months of retrospective clinical outcomes: positively correlated with the number of hospitalizations (p<0.001), hospitalization days (p<0.001), hospitalization expenses (p=0.005), and total medical expenses (p=0.024), respectively. Our findings provide the crucial information for clinician to predict medical burden and comorbidities in patients with COPD by using BODE index.

A statistical analysis of semantic memory should reflect the complex, multifactorial structure of the relations among its items. Still, a dominant paradigm in the study of semantic memory has been the idea that the mental representation of concepts is structured along a simple branching tree spanned by superordinate and subordinate categories. We propose a generative model of item representation with correlations that overcomes the limitations of a tree structure. The items are generated through "factors" that represent semantic features or real-world attributes. The correlation between items has its source in the extent to which items share such factors and the strength of such factors: if many factors are balanced, correlations are overall low; whereas if a few factors dominate, they become strong. Our model allows for correlations that are neither trivial nor hierarchical, but may reproduce the general spectrum of correlations present in a data-set of nouns. We provide an estimate of the number of concepts that can be stored and retrieved by a large-scale cortical network, the Potts network, which is perhaps approximately 10⁷ with human cortical parameters. When this storage capacity is exceeded, however, retrieval fails completely only for balanced factors; above a critical degree of imbalance, a phase transition leads to a regime where the network still extracts considerable information about the cued item, even if not recovering its detailed representation: partial categorization seems to emerge spontaneously as a consequence of the dominance of particular factors, rather than being imposed ad hoc. We argue this to be a relevant model of semantic memory resilience in Tulving’s remember/know paradigms.

We have repeated the experiment performed recently by Krasznahorkay et al., (Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 042501 (2016)), which may indicate a new particle called X17 in the literature. In order to get a reliable, and independent result, we used a different type of electron-positron pair spectrometer which have a more simple acceptance/efficiency as a function of the correlation angle, but the other conditions of the experiment were very similar to the published ones. We could confirm the presence of the anomaly measured at the Ex=18.15 MeV resonance, and also confirm their absence at the Ex=17.6 MeV resonance, and at Ep= 800 keV off resonance energies.

For many disciplines of science, all conceivable collisional cross sections and reactions must be precisely known. Although the recent decades were a trial of large-scale research to give these data, many essential atomic and molecular cross section data still missing, and the reliability of the existing cross sections has to be validated. In this paper, we present electron stripping, electron capture, and system breakdown cross sections in carbon (C5+) ions and lithium (Li2+) ions collisions with atomic hydrogen based on the Monte Carlo models of classical and quasi-classical trajectories. According to our expectation, the QCTMC results show higher results in comparison to standard CTMC data, emphasizing the role of Heisenberg correction constraint, especially in the low energy regime. On the Other hand, at high energy, the Heisenberg correction term has less influence as a projectile momentum increase. We present the total cross sections of electron stripping, electron capture, and system breakdown in C5+ ions and Li2+ ions collisions with atomic hydrogen in the impact energy range from 10 keV to 160 keV, which is of interest in astrophysical plasmas, atmospheric sciences, plasma laboratories, and fusion research.

In the article, by applied the concept of strongly convex function and one known identity, we establish several Ostrowski type inequalities involving conformable fractional integrals. As applications, some new error estimations for the midpoint formula are provided as well.

Previous studies show that women with a history of high-grade CIN have a greater risk of subsequent high-grade anogenital intraepithelial neoplasia or cancer, and the risk is greater for vaginal cancer than for anal and vulvar cancers. It is hypothesized that the laparoscopic hysterectomy procedure may cause a higher incidence of VaIN in hysterectomized women. There are few studies addressing this issue and they show mixed results. This study aimed to investigate the incidence of high-grade or worse VaIN in the population of women undergoing hysterectomy for CIN3 or benign uterine disease, illustrate treatment options and follow-up. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on 170 women who underwent laparoscopic hysterectomy for high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN3) or benign gynecological disease. The follow-up strategy included performing a cotest and colposcopy with biopsy if necessary. The median time between primary treatment and diagnosis of high-grade VaIN was 18 months. Results: High grade or worse VaIN was found in 8 patients after hysterectomy (4.7%). All cases of high-grade VaIN occurred in women with persistent HPV infection. The most frequent genotype was 16. Women hysterectomized for CIN3 showed an 8-fold greater risk than women hysterectomized for benign disease of developing high-grade VaIN. The risk of VaIN is low in women hysterectomized for benign disease. The risk of developing VaIN is greater in women with viral persistence Conclusion. All these elements suggest that it is the history of HPV-related disease of the lower genital tract and viral persistence, rather than hysterectomy itself, that should be considered a risk factor for the development of high-grade VaIN. After hysterectomy, patients with a history of CIN should undergo annual screening with vaginal dome cytology and HPV testing.

Optical conductivity of an interacting polaron gas is calculated within an extended random phase approximation which takes into account mixing of collective excitations of the electron gas with LO phonons. This mixing is important for the optical response of strongly polar crystals where the static dielectric constant is rather high, as in the case of strontium titanate. The present calculation sheds light on unexplained features of experimentally observed optical conductivity spectra in $n$-doped SrTiO$_{3}$. These features appear to be due to dynamic screening of the electron-electron interaction by polar optical phonons and hence do not require additional mechanisms for their explanation.

In this paper, we propose an assumption of which the relation between electron and phonon is discussed and investigated based on the experiment of γ photon and electric interconverting with each other. We calculated the charge of a particular standing wave topology with Maxwell’s equation rotated in accordance space with the SO3 transformation. The derived charge value is 1.6035 × 10E−19C around 0.0826% different from the experimental data, indicating the proposal is a promising theory to explain the origin of charge and spin of electron particle. Electron spin angular momentum comes from the orbital angular momentum of photon rotation (electromagnetic field rotation), and electron charge comes from photon, that is, the space-time rotation effect of electromagnetic wave.

The mechanisms of formation of induced intrinsic and impurity radiative states, which consist of intrinsic and impurity electron-hole trapping centers in irradiated Ca2P2O7-Mn and Ca2P2O7 phosphates, were investigated using thermoactivation and vacuum-ultraviolet spectroscopy methods. These centers are excited at photon energies of 4.0 eV and 4.5 eV, which are within the matrix's transparency region. New radiative induced states at 3.06 eV and 2.92 eV are demonstrated to be generated upon the excitation of anions by photons with energies of 5.0 and 5.64 eV. This process is due to charge transfer from the ion to the impurities, specifically Mn^2+ O^2- Mn^2+ and the neighboring ion O^2- (P2O7)^4-. Furthermore, upon the excitation of matrix anions with photon energies exceeding the band gap (8.0 - 8.25 eV), electron trapping by impurities such as Mn^2+ and (P2O7)^4- ions results.

Background: Neonatal sepsis associated with severe morbidity and mortality defines the systemic condition arising from the bacterial, viral, fungal origin associated with hemodynamic and clinical alterations. Symptomatology can be different, from subclinical to severe, focal or systemic disease. The causal agent comes from maternal flora or can be of community/hospital origin. Material and method: Our retrospective study evaluated 121 newborns (both preterm and term), divided into three groups: early onset sepsis (35), late onset sepsis (39), and control group (47), from 0 to 28 days old. Blood samples and cultures were collected at admission, after 24 hours, and 72 hours. Results: The two-sample Wilcoxon signed rank test revealed a statistically significant difference between the initial and final measures of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and ferritin within the early onset sepsis (EOS) and late onset sepsis (LOS) groups. No significant differences were observed for those two variables within the control group. There were significant differences for first and last measurements of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) (p = 0.029), leukocyte count (p = 0.002), and platelets (TR) (p = 0.00001). Conclusions: Ferritin is a potential biomarker that can be associated with systemic response and sepsis in both cases of early and late onset sepsis.

We consider a specific holographic model in the limit where the gauge field does not couple to the rest of of the holographic fields (gravity and scalar sector) and investigate a phase of matter at zero charge density, a realistic feature that may have implications for disordered strange metals. We then pick a specific form of the gauge coupling $Z(\alpha)$ with a certain disorder realization and argue that this provides a hard-gapped insulator with exponentially-suppressed conductivity by holographic methods. The limit is non-trivial: as there is backreaction at zero density amount, surviving in the coupled case.

Potassium inwardly-rectifying channel, subfamily J, member 12 (KCNJ12) gene is one promising candidate for economic traits because of its crucial roles in myoblast development. Here, a missense mutation (Cys>Arg), was firstly detected to locate in exon 3 of KCNJ12 from three Chinese cattle breeds by DNA-pool sequencing. Then, we performed the association analysis of this SNP with stature in three Chinese cattle populations (n = 820). Significantly positive correlation was revealed by reduced animal general linear model and the genotype of CC is the most excellent genotype in three breeds. Further, we measured the expression profiling of the KCNJ12 gene in various cattle tissues and primary bovine skeletal muscle cells. Ubiquitous expression with high abundance in muscle was observed. Further, in primary bovine skeletal muscle cells, the KCNJ12 mRNA expression was gradually up-regulated in differentiation medium (DM) compared with that in growth medium (GM), suggesting that KCNJ12 gene is involved in bovine myocyte differentiation. Conclusively, KCNJ12 gene is a functional candidate gene which can be used as molecular marker for beef cattle breeding.

The apparent metal-insulator transition (MIT) in two-dimension (2D) was discovered by Kravchenko et al. [1] more than two decades ago in strongly interacting 2D electrons residing in a Si-metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (Si-MOSFET). Its origin remains unresolved. Recently, low magnetic field reentrant insulating phases (RIPs), which dwell between the zero-field (B=0) metallic state and the integer quantum Hall (QH) states where the Landau-level filling factor υ > 1, have been observed in strongly correlated 2D GaAs hole systems with large interaction parameter rs (~20-40) and high purity. A new complex phase diagram was proposed, which includes zero field MIT, low magnetic field RIPs, integer QH states, fractional QH states, high field RIPs and insulating phases (HFIPs) with υ < 1 in which the insulating phases are explained by the formation of Wigner crystal. Furthermore, evidences of new intermediate phases were reported. All contribute to the further understandings of the puzzle. This review article serves the purpose of summarizing those recent experimental findings and theoretical endeavors, to foster future research efforts.

Our knowledge of electricity is based on two parallel lines of research: one focusing on ‘charge’, the other on ‘electron’. The distinction is blurred. The difficulty is that the fundamental nature of elementary charge is unknown. Here I present evidence that charge is a resting electron and electron is a moving charge – one physical entity two behavioural identities. That is, charge is nonrelativistic electron and electron is relativistic charge. Charges obey the laws of static electricity (electrostatics); electrons obey the laws of moving electricity (electrodynamics). Whether positive or negative, a charge is ejected from the atom at tremendous speed, losing the characteristics of ‘a charge’ and gaining those of ‘an electron’. I conclude that an atom, hence nature in general, contains an equal number of positive and negative electrons, recognised at rest as opposite charges. This solves the mystery of the electron-positron numerical asymmetry. It means that static positions and negatrons (charges) play equivalent roles as subatomic building blocks of matter, revealing a new atomic structure.

Alterations in microRNA (miRNA) expression have been reported in different cancers. We assessed the expression of 754 oncology-related miRNAs in esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and evaluated their correlations with clinical parameters. We found that miR-221 and 483-3p were consistently upregulated in EAC cases vs. controls (Wilcoxon signed rank test: miR-221 P<0.0001; miR-483-3p P<0.0001). Kaplan‒Meier analysis showed worse cancer-related survival in patients expressing high miR-221 or miR-483-3p levels in all EACs (log-rank P=0.0025 and P=0.0235, respectively). Higher miR-221 or miR-483-3p levels also correlated with advanced tumor stages (Mann‒Whitney P=0.0195 and P=0.0085, respectively). Moreover, we found that overexpression of miR-221 was associated with worse survival in the low-risk EAC group. A significantly worse outcome was associated with the combined overexpression of miR-221 and miR-483-3p (log-rank P=0.0410). To identify target genes modified by miRNAs, we evaluatedtheir expression in different EAC cell lines, we transfected the corresponding mimic RNA (miRVANA) for either miR-221 or miR-483-3p and performed RNA-seq analysis. We found converging dysregulated genes involved in cancer progression, apoptosis, ATP synthesis and angiogenesis in miRNA-overexpressing cell lines, including a long non-coding RNA associated with oncogenesis, i.e., MALAT1. In conclusion, miR-221 and 483-3p overexpression in EAC correlated with low cancer-related survival, indicating that they might be considered new biomarkers for patient stratification.

We investigate the shear quasinormal modes (QNMs) in the context of electron stars, focusing on the Lifshitz geometry and exploring the behavior in the small star limit. The study begins by analyzing the shear sector modes in the infrared (IR) Lifshitz limit, where the geometry approaches that of a pure Lifshitz space. We derive and solve the differential equations governing the shear modes, revealing the asymptotic behavior in terms of the Lifshitz exponent. In the special case of integer values of the exponent, we obtain analytic corrections to the solutions to extract hydrodynamical QNMs. We then explore the cases with a Lifshitz exponent equal to or greater than three, providing analytical corrections to the Lifshitz IR solutions. A special case with an exponent of two is also considered, leading to modified solutions. The study extends to finding hydrodynamical QNMs, emphasizing the role of the Lifshitz geometry. Further investigations involve the flux with real and complex frequencies, considering the off-shell Lagrangian and deriving conserved flux expressions. Our analysis focuses on the exterior of the star, modeled by the Reissner-Nordström-AdS geometry. The small star limit is examined, revealing interesting features in the behavior of fermionic excitations. In summary, we provide a detailed exploration of shear quasinormal modes in electron stars, shedding light on their behavior in Lifshitz geometry, small star limits, and the interplay between real and complex frequencies. Our findings contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of electron stars and their gravitational properties.

The energies of spin singlet and triplet bound electron pairs are reckoned for electrons interacting through the Coulomb interaction, while sitting on neigbouring lattice sites. It is concluded that triplet pairs are unlikely to be observed due to screening. The interplay of inter-electron couplings of different spatial range is investigated. High-pressure induced superconductivity is analysed and qualitative agreement is achieved with observed results by working out the dependence of the critical temperature on the microscopic parameters, characterising the electron motion. This approach can be applied to other kinds of inter-electron interactions.

A numerical approach for generating a limited number of water demand scenarios and estimating their occurrence probabilities in a Water Distribution Network (WDN) is proposed. This approach makes use of the demand scaling laws in order to consider the natural variability and spatial correlation of nodal consumptions. The scaling laws are employed to determine the statistics of nodal consumption as a function of the number of users and the main statistical features of the unitary user's demand. Besides, consumption at each node is considered to follow a Gamma probability distribution. A high number of groups of cross-correlated demands, i.e., scenarios, for the entire network were generated using Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) and the numerical procedure proposed by Iman and Conover. The Kantorovich distance is used to reduce the number of scenarios and estimate their corresponding probabilities, while keeping the statistical information on nodal consumptions. By hydraulic simulation, the whole number of generated demand scenarios was used to obtain a corresponding number of pressure scenarios on which the same reduction procedure was applied. The probabilities of the reduced scenarios of pressure were compared with the corresponding probabilities of demand.

This paper introduces a novel ensemble adjustment Kalman filter (EAKF) that integrates a machine-learning approach. The approach employs nonlinear variable relationships established by a deep neural network (DNN) during the analysis stage of the EAKF. This process nonlinearly projects observation increments into the state variable space. The newly developed DNN-EAKF algorithm can be applied to coupled data assimilation using coupled ocean-atmosphere models. It enhances cross-component updates in strongly coupled data assimilation (SCDA) by diminishing errors in estimating cross-component error covariance arising from insufficient ensemble members, thereby improving the SCDA analysis. This paper employs a conceptual model to conduct twin experiments, validating the DNN-EAKF’s capability to utilize cross-component observation information in SCDA effectively. The approach is anticipated to offer insights for future methodological integrations of machine learning and data assimilation and provide methods for SCDA applications in coupled general circulation models.

Truffles contribute to crucial dynamics in the soil systems, being involved in plentiful ecological functions important for ecosystems. Despite this, the interactions between truffles and surrounding mycobiota remain unknown. Here, we aimed to shed light on how much truffle species could affect its surrounding soil mycobiota. Using traditional chemical analysis and Illumina ITS amplicon sequencing, we compared soil nutrients and mycobiota surrounding two truffle species: Tuber indicum (Ti) and T. pseudohimalayense (Tp) inhabit in the same Pinus armandii forest in southwestern China. Tp soil was more acidic and had higher nutrients (total C, N, P contents) than Ti soil. Fungal richness and diversity of truffle ascomata and surrounding soils were significantly higher in Tp than in Ti. Redundancy analysis showed relationships between soil fungal taxa and soil properties had changed from negative (Tp) to positive (Ti) and shifted from a moisture-driving (Tp) to a total N-driving (Ti). Overall, our results showed that the interactions between truffle and soil system had been altered with species variation, although the causative peculiarity of these associations needs to be further studied.

Background Late-onset hypogonadism (LOH) is a condition caused by the decline of testosterone with aging, and is associated with various symptoms, including lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Although some reports have shown that testosterone replacement treatment for LOH improved LUTS, no large study has revealed a correlation between LUTS and LOH. This study investigated the correlation between the severity of LOH and LUTS in Asian Japanese males of >40 years of age using a web-based questionnaire. Methods We asked a total of 2,000 Japanese male individuals to answer both the AMS and IPSS/QOL questionnaires using a web-based survey. Among these 2,000 individuals, 500 individuals were assigned to each of the following age groups: 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and ≥70 years. LOH symptoms were assessed by AMS score as no/little (17-26 points), mild (27-36 points), moderate (37-49 points), and severe (≥50 points). To compare the risk of voiding and storage dysfunction according to the severity of AMS, voiding dysfunction was assessed by the sum of IPSS Q1, Q3, Q5, and Q6, while storage dysfunction was assessed by the sum of IPSS Q2, Q4, and Q7. Results The IPSS total score was positively correlated with the severity of AMS (shown as median [mean±SD]): no/little group, 2 (3.67±5.36); mild group, 6 (7.98±6.91); moderate group, 11 (12.49±8.63); and severe group, 16 (14.83±9.24) (p<0.0001). The prevalence of an IPSS total score of ≥8 in the AMS severity groups was as follows: no/little group, 13.3% (111 of 834); mild group, 38.3% (225 of 587); moderate group, 64.2% (244 of 380); severe group, 72.4% (144/199). The prevalence of nocturia in the AMS severity groups was as follows: no/little group, 19.8% (165 of 834); mild group, 31.5% (185 of 587); moderate group, 43.9% (167 of 380); and severe group, 50.8% (101 of 199). Conclusions Individuals with higher AMS values, which represents severe LOH symptoms, showed a higher risk of nocturia and LUTS.

It is already well known that infants and children infected with COVID-19 develop mild to mod-erate forms of the disease, with fever and oropharyngeal congestion being the most common symptoms. Nevertheless, there are cases in which the patients accuse respiratory symptoms. These cases need lung evaluation, which can be done using lung ultrasound (LUS), because it is a non-irradiating and repeatable imaging technique. 19 children with COVID-19 pneumonia were eval-uated using LUS. The LUS score (LUSS) for each patient varied between 1 to 8 points from a max-imum of 36 points. The arithmetic mean was 4.47 ± 2.36 (S.D), while 95% CI for the Arithmetic mean was 3.33 to 5.61. The lung changes were correlated with their biomarkers, specifically in-flammatory markers. The correlation between LUSS and LDH, D-dimers and IL-6 was a strong positive one with r=0.66 (p=0.01, 95% CI 0.147 to 0.896) between the LUSS and LDH level at symptomatic infants and children (with cough present) and r=0.66 (p=0.01, 95% CI 0.140 to 0.895) between LUSS and D-dimers level at symptomatic infants and children (with cough pre-sent). The results suggest that LUS could be a good imaging technique that can be used both in ini-tial evaluation of children with respiratory diseases, and, also in their follow-up, correlated with symptoms and biomarkers.

Then the purposes of this study were to compare and correlate the aerobic threshold (TH_aer) and anaerobic threshold (TH_anaer) measured during a new single judo specific incremental test and Treadmill Test for aerobic demand evaluation. Eight well-trained male competitive judo players (24.3±7.9 years; height of 169.3±6.7cm; fat mass of 12.7±3.9%) performed a maximal incremental specific test for judo mimicking the UchiKomi drills and on treadmill in different days. There was difference between specific and general TH_aer (P=0.0006) as well as weak correlation for TH_aer (r=0.32; R²=0.1; P=0.2) and TH_anaer (rs=-0.31; R²=0.1; P=0.12). When correlation was applied with normalized data (percentage of peak load) we observed moderate correlation for TH_aer (r=0.76; R²=0.58; P=0.027), but the same was not observed for TH_anaer. We conclude that there is a need of TH_aer and TH_anaer evaluation through a specific test for Judo.

In a previous paper we defined the Black-and-White SAT problem which has exactly two solutions, where each variable is either true or false. We showed that Black-and-White $2$-SAT problems represent strongly connected directed graphs. We presented also the strong model of communication graphs. In this work we introduce two new models, the weak model, and the Balatonbogl\'{a}r model of communication graphs. A communication graph is a directed graph, where no self loops are allowed. In this work we show that the weak model of a strongly connected communication graph is a Black-and-White SAT problem. We prove a powerful theorem, the so called Transitions Theorem. This theorem states that for any model which is between the strong and the weak model, we have that this model represents strongly connected communication graphs as Blask-and-White SAT problems. We show that the Balatonbogl\'{a}r model is between the strong and the weak model, and it generates $3$-SAT problems, so the Balatonbogl\'{a}r model represents strongly connected communication graphs as Black-and-White $3$-SAT problems. Our motivation to study these models is the following: The strong model generates a $2$-SAT problem from the input directed graph, so it does not give us a deep insight how to convert a general SAT problem into a directed graph. The weak model generates huge models, because it represents all cycles, even non-simple cycles, of the input directed graph. We need something between them to gain more experience. From the Balatonbogl\'{a}r model we learned that it is enough to have a subset of a clause, which represents a cycle in the weak model, to make the Balatonbogl\'{a}r model more compact. We still do not know how to represent a SAT problem as a directed graph, but this work gives a strong link between two prominent fields of formal methods: SAT problem and directed graphs.

In this paper, a kind of single-walled carbon nanotube nonlinear model is developed, and the strongly nonlinear dynamic characteristics of such carbon nanotubes subjected to random magnetic field are studied. The nonlocal effect of microstructure is considered based on the theory of nonlocal elasticity. The natural frequency of the strongly nonlinear dynamic system is obtained by the energy function method, the drift coefficient and the diffusion coefficient are verified. The stationary probability density function of the system dynamic response is given and the fractal boundary of the safe basin is provided. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation show that stochastic resonance occurs when varying the random magnetic field intensity. The boundary of safe basin has fractal characteristics and the area of safe basin decreases when the intensity of the magnetic field permeability increases.

Electrons moving at slow speeds much lower that the speed of light are described by a wave function which is a solution of Pauli’s equation. This is a low velocity limit of the relativistic Dirac equation. Here we compare two approaches, one which is the more conservative Copenhagen’s interpretation denying a trajectory of the electron but allowing a trajectory to the electron expectation value through Ehrenfest theorem. The said expectation value is of course calculated using a solution of Pauli’s equation. A less orthodox approach is championed by Bohm, and attributes a velocity field to the electron also derived from the Pauli wave function. It is thus interesting to compare the trajectory followed by the electron according to Bohm and its expectation value according to Ehrenfest. Both similarities and differences will be considered.

We report the electronic, magnetic and transport properties of a prototypical antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronic device. We chose Cr as the active layer because it is the only room-temperature AFM elemental metal. We sandwiched Cr between two non-magnetic metals (Pt or Au) with large spin-orbit coupling. We also inserted a buffer layer of insulating MgO to mimic the structure and finite resistivity of a real device. We found that, while spin-orbit has a negligible effect on the current flowing through the device, the MgO layer plays a crucial role. Its effect is to decouple the Cr magnetic moment from Pt (or Au) and to develop an overall spin magnetization. We have also calculated the spin-polarized ballistic conductance of the device within the Büttiker-Landauer framework, and we have found that for small applied bias our Pt/Cr/MgO/Pt device presents a spin polarization of the current amounting to ~25%.

Background. Psoriasis (PS) is a common immune-mediated disease of the skin with pos-sible extension to joints, aorta and eye. Myocardial inflammation has been rarely sug-gested. Aims: Report of PS-related myocarditis Methods and Results: One hundred consecutive patients with PS were screened for car-diac involvement. Among them, five male patients (aged 56 ± 9.5 years) with moder-ate-severe form showed a dilated cardiomyopathy (LVEF <35%) with normal coronary ar-teries and valves. They underwent a left ventricular endomyocardial biopsy for evaluation of myocardial substrate. Endomyocardial samples were processed for histology and im-munohistochemistry, including myocardial expression of Toll-Like Receptor 4 (TLR4) and interleukin-17A (IL-17A), which plays a major role in psoriasis pathogenesis; real-time PCR for cardiotropic viruses and Western blot analysis for myocardial expression of IL-17A. Patients’ sera were tested for anti-heart autoantibodies.An active lymphocytic myocarditis was revealed in all 5 patients, characterized by absence of viral genomes at PCR, positive anti-heart autoantibodies, overexpression of TLR-4 and enhancement of IL-17-A at western blot analysis showing a 2,48-fold increase in psoriatic myocarditis compared with no psoriatic myocarditis and a 6-fold increase compared to myocardial controls. Treatment included combination of prednisone (1 mg/Kg daily for 4 weeks, ta-pered to 0.33 mg/Kg) + azathioprine (2 mg/Kg, daily) in 3 pts or secukinumab (SK, 100 mg/monthly) in 2 pts for 6 months. LVEDD and LVEF improved in the first 3 pts (-14% and + 118%, respectively) while completely recovered (LVEF> 50%) in the last 2 pts on SK. Conclusion. IL-17A-related myocarditis can occur in up-to 5% of patients with psoriasis. It manifests as a progressive dilated cardiomyopathy. It may completely recover following SK administration.

We report morpho-structural properties and charge conduction mechanisms of a foamy “graphene sponge”, having a density as low as ≈ 0.07 kg/m3 and a carbon to oxygen ratio C:O ≃ 13:1. The spongy texture analysed by scanning electron microscopy is made of irregularly-shaped millimetres-sized small flakes, containing small crystallites with a typical size of ≃ 16.3 nm. A defect density as high as ≃ 2.6×1011 cm−2 has been estimated by the Raman intensity of D and G peaks, dominating the spectrum from room temperature down to ≃ 153 K. Despite the high C:O ratio, the graphene sponge exhibits an insulating electrical behavior, with a raise of the resistance value at ≃ 6 K up to 5 orders of magnitude with respect to the room temperature value. A variable range hopping (VRH) conduction, with a strong 2D character, dominates the charge carriers transport, from 300 K down to 20 K. At T&lt; 20 K, graphene sponge resistance tends to saturate, suggesting a temperature-independent quantum tunnelling. The 2D-VRH conduction originates from structural disorder and is consistent with hopping of charge carriers between sp2 defects in the plane, where sp3 clusters related to oxygen functional groups act as potential barriers.

We experimentally demonstrate enhanced self-phase modulation (SPM) in silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) waveguides integrated with 2D graphene oxide (GO) films. GO films are integrated onto Si₃N₄ waveguides using a solution-based, transfer-free coating method that enables precise control of the film thickness. Detailed SPM measurements are carried out using both picosecond and femtosecond optical pulses. Owing to the high Kerr nonlinearity of GO, the hybrid waveguides show significantly improved spectral broadening compared to the uncoated waveguide, achieving a broadening factor of up to ~3.4 for a device with 2 layers of GO. By fitting the experimental results with theory, we obtain an improvement in the waveguide nonlinear parameter by a factor of up to 18.4 and a Kerr coefficient (n₂) of GO that is about 5 orders of magnitude higher than Si₃N₄. Finally, we provide a theoretical analysis for the influence of GO film length, coating position, and its saturable absorption on the SPM performance. These results verify the effectiveness of on-chip integrating 2D GO films to enhance the nonlinear optical performance of Si₃N₄ devices.

A subset of patients with schizophrenia experience physio-somatic symptoms reminiscent of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. In schizophrenia, these symptoms contribute to impaired quality of life, and are strongly related to neuro-cognitive deficits, and increased IgA responses to tryptophan catabolites. Negative and PHEM (psychosis, hostility, excitation, mannerism) symptoms, psychomotor retardation (PMR) and formal thought disorders, appear to be manifestations of a single trait reflecting overall severity of schizophrenia (OSOS). In this study, 120 patients with deficit schizophrenia (DEFSCZ) and 54 healthy subjects were assessed with the FibroFatigue (FF) rating scale, and the above-mentioned symptom domains as well as neuro-cognitive tests and biomarkers were measured. In DEFSCZ, there were robust associations between the FF score and all above-mentioned symptom domains, and impairments in semantic and episodic memory and executive functions. Furthermore, the FF score loaded highly on an OSOS latent vector (LV), which showed adequate convergent validity, internal consistency reliability and predictive relevance and fitted a reflective model. Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) showed that the FF items discriminated DEFSCZ from controls with an overall accuracy of 100%. Interleukin IL-1β, IL-1 receptor antagonist (sIL-1RA), tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α and CCL-11 (eotaxin) explained 66.8% of the variance in the FF score and 59.4% of the variance in OSOS. In conclusion, these data show that physio-somatic symptoms are a core component of the phenomenology of DEFSCZ and are largely mediated by neurotoxic effects of activated immune pathways, including aberrations in CCL-11, IL-1β and TNF-α signalling.

The redefined vacuum approach, which is frequently employed in the many-body perturbation theory, proved to be a powerful tool for formula derivation. Here, we elaborate this approach within the bound-state QED perturbation theory. In addition to general formulation, we consider the particular example of a single particle (electron or vacancy) excitation with respect to the redefined vacuum. Starting with simple one-electron QED diagrams, we deduce first- and second-order many-electron contributions: screened self-energy, screened vacuum polarization, one-photon exchange, and two-photon exchange. The redefined vacuum approach provides a straightforward and streamlined derivation and facilitates its application to any electronic configuration. Moreover, based on the gauge invariance of the one-electron diagrams, we can identify various gauge-invariant subsets within derived many-electron QED contributions.

With forty years of developments, bio-macromolecule cryo-electron microscopy has met its revolution of resolution and is playing a very important role in structural biology study. According to different specimen states, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) involves three specific techniques, single particle analysis (SPA), electron tomography and sub-tomogram averaging, and electron diffraction. All these three techniques have not realized their full potentials of solving structures of bio-macromolecules and therefore need to be developed in the future. In this review, the current existing bottlenecks of cryo-EM SPA are discussed with theoretical analysis, which includes air-water interface during specimen cryo-vitrification, bio-macromolecular conformational heterogeneity, focus gradient within thick specimen, and electron radiation damage. Besides, potential solutions of these bottlenecks are proposed and discussed, which are worthy of further investigations in the future.

Collisions of low energy electrons with molecules are important for understanding many aspects of the environment and technologies. Understanding the processes that occur in these types of collisions can give insights into plasma etching processes, edge effects in fusion plasmas, radiation damage to biological tissues and more. A radical update of the previous expert system for computing observables relevant to these processes, Quantemol-N, is presented. The new Quantemol Electron Collision (QEC) expert system simplifyies the user experience, improving reliability and implements new features. The QEC GUI interfaces the Molpro quantum chemistry package for molecular target setups and to the sophisticated UKRmol+ codes to generate accurate and reliable cross-sections. These include elastic cross-sections, super elastic cross-sections between excited states, electron impact dissociation, scattering reaction rates, dissociative electron attachment, differential cross-sections, momentum transfer cross-sections, ionization cross sections and high energy electron scattering cross-sections. With this new interface we will be implementing dissociative recombination estimations, vibrational excitations for neutrals and ions, and effective core potentials in the near future.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the preoperative modeling of fluid-structure interaction in the treatment of cerebral aneurysms. In this study, we investigate two cases involving laminar incompressible fluid flow interacting with hyperelastic materials (a vertical flap and aneurysm walls) under the effect of fluid flow. We present a finite element method (FEM) for these prototypical two-dimensional ($2D$) configurations, taking into account the complex flows and deformation of the variant's structure models. We use an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation in a continuum, fully monolithic coupled way, and discretize the fluid and solid domains using the quadratic LBB stable $P_2P_1$ finite element pair to approximate the displacement, velocity, and pressure spaces independently. The resulting discretized form of the nonlinear algebraic system is linearized using a variant of Newton's procedure, and the Jacobian matrices are approximated via the divided difference method. The resulting linear systems are solved using a direct solver MUMPS. We evaluate hydrodynamic forces such as drag and lift coefficients for nonlinear elastic material models, including Saint-Venant Kirchoff, Neo-Hookean, and Mooney-Rivlin (2 parameters) separately. To gain more physical insight into the problem, we verify the computed results by comparing the velocity, viscosity, and pressure fields. Our aim is to qualitatively analyze the changes in the mechanics of the wall behavior of the elasticity of the flap vs. the complexity of deformation, interface, details for prototypical flow situations, corresponding displacement, and deformation. We also provide a physical interpretation of blood flow magnitude and basic hemodynamic phenomena of wall shear stresses (WSS) in aneurysma and the range of deformation. Overall, this study presents a comprehensive approach to modeling fluid-structure interaction in cerebral aneurysms, which could help in the development of more effective treatment strategies.

Friction and wear take place on two solid surfaces in sliding contact as a result of the mechanical, thermal and chemical interactions with the participation of environmental species. Electron microscopy and the associated spectroscopic analyses are powerful in probing these mechanisms in spatial resolutions from micro to atomic scale. This article provides a review of the author’s work in the wear and friction mechanisms of PVD hard coatings in which various SEM- and TEM-based microscopic and spectroscopic techniques were employed. Understanding on the failure mechanisms and the origin of self-adaptive friction has been improved to nano-scale. Other related issues are also discussed, such as sample preparation techniques for cross-sectional electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy.

We describe cosmic expansion from the standpoint of an observer’s comoving horizon. When the Universe is small, the observer detects a large amount of the total cosmic bits, which number is fixed. Indeed, information, such as energy, cannot be created or destroyed in our Universe, i.e., the total number of cosmic bits must be kept constant, despite the black hole paradox. When the Universe expands, the information gets ergodically “diluted” in our isotopic and homogeneous Cosmos. This means that the observer can perceive just a lower number of the total bits, due the decreased density of information in the cosmic volume (or its surrounding surface, according to the holographic principle) in which she is trapped by speed light’s constraints. Here we ask: how does the second law of thermodynamics enter in this framework? Could it be correlated with cosmic expansion? The correlation is at least partially feasible, because the decrease in the information detected by a local observer in an expanding Universe leads to an increase in detected cosmic thermodynamic entropy, via the Bekenstein bound and the Laudauer principle. Reversing the classical scheme from thermodynamic entropy to information entropy, we suggest that the quantum vacuum’s cosmological constant, that causes cosmic expansion, could be one of the sources of the increases in thermodynamic entropy detected by local observers.

The superconductivity of CaC6 as a function of pressure and of abundant Ca isotopes is revisited using DFT calculations on a 2c – double hexagonal superlattice. The introduction of superlattices is motivated by previous synchrotron absorption and Raman spectroscopy results on other superconductors that show evidence of superlattice vibrations at low (THz) frequencies. A 2c superlattice for CaC6 is illustrative of atomic orbital symmetry and periodicity, including bonding and antibonding s-orbital character implied by cosine modulated electronic bands. Inspection of the cosine band reveals that the cosine function has a small (meV) energy difference between bonding and antibonding regions relative to a midpoint non-bonding energy. Fermi surface nesting is apparent in an appropriately folded Fermi surface using a superlattice construct. Nesting relationships identify phonon vectors for conservation of energy and for phase coherency between coupled electrons at opposite sides of the Fermi surface. Detailed analysis of this Fermi surface nesting provides accurate estimates of the superconducting gaps for CaC6 with change in applied pressure. Recognition of superlattices within a rhombohedral or hexagonal representation provides consistent mechanistic insight on superconductivity and electron−phonon coupling in CaC6.

We propose a description of the electromagnetic field in the form of a four-component complex spinor, from which a vector of electromagnetic potential with two degrees of freedom, calibrated by two conditions - zero length and zero component along the y-axis - is obtained by using Pauli matrices. A similar approach is applied to the field of a fermion, in particular, the electron. It is known that the quantum field of the electron and the electron itself is a four-component complex spinor, so, existing in the Minkowski vector space, we cannot observe it directly. But with the help of Pauli matrices a vector is formed from the electron spinor, which is known to us as an electric current vector, and this current vector describes exactly a single particle. As a vector, it is available to us for observation in our vector space. Similarly, the electromagnetic field and its photon particle is also a four-component spinor, from which the universal formula using Pauli matrices produces a vector, it is known to us as the electromagnetic potential vector, and it too describes even a single photon. All the differences in the properties of the current vector and the electromagnetic potential vector, and hence the electron and the electromagnetic field, are due only to a slight difference in the structures of their four-component spinors and inextricable linked to them momentum spinors and coordinate spinors. Expressions for the electric and magnetic fields of a photon during its interaction with an electron.Thus, a unified way to describe bosons and fermions in spinor space is proposed. Each spinor using the same formula corresponds to a vector, in the case of a fermion it is a current vector, in the case of a boson it is a vector, for example, of the electromagnetic potential. Each spinor of a field is matched with a spinor of coordinates and a spinor of momentum, which are transformed by the same Lorentz transformations and which have the same structure as their corresponding field spinor, that is, the momentum and coordinates of boson have a bosonic spinor structure, while momentum and coordinates of fermion are a spinor with a fermionic structure. Field, coordinates and momentum vectors of boson automatically have a zero length, while in the case of fermion they all have a nonzero length, so the fermion, in contrast to the boson, has a nonzero mass, nonzero charge and moves with a sub light speed.While quantum mechanics treats probability as a real number, quantum field theory deals with probability as a four-dimensional real vector. The place of the probability amplitude, which in quantum mechanics is a complex number, in quantum field theory is taken by a complex spinor.In the same way as in quantum mechanics the processes of propagation and interaction are described at the level of complex probability amplitudes, and the final result is translated into a real probability value, so in quantum field theory all processes should be described in terms of complex spinor space, and the result is translated into the form of a real vector in Minkowski space.The presented approach, at its proper development, makes it possible to carry out calculations of the interaction of particles in two-dimensional spinor space, and to interpret in terms of the Minkowski vector space only the final results.

A topological quantum interplay between the magnetic flux and the mass has been investigated, for the case of an electron, by evaluating a gauge-invariant phase factor (a Wilson loop) linked to the electromagnetic gauge field of the particle. In particular, from this phase factor and the quantization of the magnetic flux variations, a relationship between the mass at rest of the electron and its self-energy , arising from radiative corrections, has been obtained also within a QED approach. Besides, a formulation of an energy scale comparable to the energy at rest of an electron-positron pair is proposed. Remarkably, a reckoning of the Bohr energy of a W⁺ W^- pair is compatible with constants and parameters usually employed within the electroweak theory and comparable to the energy at rest of an electron-positron pair.

We propose that the coexistence of gapless Fermi arcs with the metal-insulator crossover of in-plane resistivity in strongly underdoped cuprates can be explained by the FL* fractionalized Fermi liquid nature of these systems and it is not due simply to disorder effects. The particle excitations of this FL* system derived from variants of the t-J model are: the gapless holon carrying charge with small Fermi momentum proportional to the doping, the gapful spinon carrying spin 1/2, gauge fluctuations coupling them and the hole as a spinon-holon bound state or resonance due to gauge binding with a Fermi surface respecting the topological Luttinger theorem. In our proposal Fermi arcs are determined by the hole resonance, whereas the metal-insulator crossover is dominated by spinon-spinon (with subleading holon-holon) gauge interactions and this dichotomy is able to explain their coexistence.

The main objective of this work was to evaluate the application of individual and ensemble machine learning models to classify malignant and benign breast masses using features from two-dimensional (2D) correlated spectroscopy spectra extracted from five-dimensional Echo Planar-Correlated Spectroscopic Imaging (5D EP-COSI) and Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Twenty-four different metabolite and lipid ratios with respect to 2D diagonal peaks at 1.4ppm and 5.4ppm, and water from one-dimensional non-water-suppressed (NWS) spectra were used as the features. Additionally, water fraction, fat fraction and water-to-fat ratios from NWS spectra and apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) from DWI were included. Nine most important features were identified using recursive feature elimination. XGBoost (AUC:93.0%, Accuracy:85.7%, F1-score:87.6%), GradientBoost (AUC:94.4%, Accuracy:87.0%, F1-score:89.4%), CatBoost (AUC:95.2%, Accuracy:86.9%, F1-score:88.4%) and RandomForest (AUC:92.2%, Accuracy:85.3%, F1-score:87.6%) were the best performing models. While the conventional biomarkers like choline, myo-Inositol, and glycine were statistically significant predictors, the key features contributing to the classification were ADC, 2D diagonal peaks at 0.9ppm, 2.1ppm and 2.3ppm, cross peaks between 1.4 and 0.9ppm, 4.3 and 4.1ppm, 2.1 and 1.4ppm and the triglyceryl-fat cross peak. The results highlight the contribution of the 2D spectral peaks to the model, and they demonstrate the potential of 5D EP-COSI for early breast cancer detection.

Background: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality and morbidity among Indonesian women. Identification of biological pathways leading into therapeutic resistance through in vitro model is an important step to develop alternative effective therapy in breast cancer. Loss of PTEN expression has been associated with resistance to chemotherapy by involving PI3K/PTEN- dependent apoptosis pathway. We conducted in vitro experiment to investigate the association of hsa-miR-21 and PTEN expression in Doxorubicin-resistant MCF-7 cell line. Methods: Parental MCF-7 cells were periodically incubated with Doxorubicin to obtain specific Dox-resistant variant determined by IC50 using MTT assay. PTEN protein expression was analyzed using immunocytochemistry. Expression of mature has-miR-21 was measured using qRT-PCR. Results: The IC50 of Doxorubicin in parental MCF-7 and Doxorubicin-resistant MCF-7 cells (MCF-7/Dox) was 0.68 and 5.78 µg/ml, respectively. Hsa-miR-21 was significantly overexpressed in MCF-7/Dox cells compared to parental MCF cells (7.94 fold changes). Conclusion: PTEN and hsa-miR-21 expression levels were negatively correlated in Doxorubicin resistant-MCF cells. Further study to confirm the causal relationship of miR-21 overexpression and PTEN downregulation in MCF-7/Dox is required.

The aim of this study is to investigate, by means of experimental measurements and full-wave simulations, the dominant factors for the very high-resolution (VHR) radar image speckles from exponential correlated rough surfaces. A Ka-band radar system was used to collect the return signal from such a surface sample fabricated by 3D printing, and that signal was further processed into images at different resolution scales, where the image samples were obtained by horizontally turning around the surface sample. To cross-validate the results and to further discuss the VHR speckle properties, full wave simulations by full 3D Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method were conducted with 1600 realizations for the speckle analysis. At the considered very high resolution, speckle statistics show divergence from the fully developed Rayleigh distribution. The factors that impact on the high-resolution speckle properties from exponential correlated rough surface, are analyzed in views of the equivalent number of scatterers theory and scattering scales, respectively. From the data results and extended discussions, it is evident that both of the above factors matter for VHR speckle of backscattering, from the exponential correlated rough surface as a good representative for the ground surface.

Background: Early identification and prevention of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) may reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity. Objective: We aimed to correlate between urinary Activin-A and MRI (conventional and Diffusion-weighted) and the severity of HIE in full-term neonates. Methods: Forty-five full-term neonates with HIE admitted to NICU and 15 normal neonates were enrolled into the study. The concentration of urinary Activin-A was determined using enzyme immunoassay kits and MRI were done. Correlations between urinary Activin-A and MRI with the degree of HIE were done. Results: Urinary Activin-A levels were significantly higher in neonates with HIE than controls (P<0.001). It was positively correlated with the clinical grading of HIE and a cutoff value of 0.08µg/l on day-1 after birth had a sensitivity of 98.6% and specificity of 97.1% for prediction of HIE. DW-MRI detected HIE with a high sensitivity (85%) compared to the low sensitivity of conventional MRI (35%). An ADC value of ≤ 0.8 was the best sensitivity-specificity cutoff point for detecting severe ischemic injury. DW-MRI imaging was positively correlated with Urinary Activin-A and both of them were positively correlated with the clinical grades of HIE (P < 0.001). Conclusions: DW-MRI imaging is correlated well with urinary Activin-A in full-term neonates with HIE and both of them are correlated with the degree of HIE. Early determination of urinary Activin-A combined with DW-MRI imaging can early detect HIE and its severity in full-term neonates with HIE.

Background: The genetic variants identified by three large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of educational attainment were used to test a polygenic selection model. Methods: Average frequencies of alleles with positive effect (polygenic scores or PS) were compared across populations (N=26) using data from 1000 Genomes. A null model was created using frequencies of random SNPs. Results: Polygenic selection signal of educational attainment GWAS hits is high among a handful of SNPs within genomic regions replicated across GWAS publications. A polygenic score comprising 9 SNPs predicts population IQ (r=0.88), outperforming 99% of the polygenic scores obtained from sets of random SNPs (Monte Carlo p= 0.011). Its predictive power remains unaffected after controlling for spatial autocorrelation (Beta= 0.83). The largest polygenic score (161 SNPs) exhibits similar predictive power (Beta=0.8). Random polygenic scores are moderate predictors of population IQ (thanks to spatial autocorrelation), and their predictive power increases logarithmically with the number of SNPs, indicating an exponential reduction in noise. Conclusion: This study provides guidance for using GWAS hits together with random SNPs for testing polygenic selection using Monte Carlo simulations.

We explores the hydrodynamical limit of a homogeneous electron gas, considering the interplay between the infrared limit and phenomenological hydrodynamics. Our study involves interactions generated by non-linear coordinate transformations. The focus begins with an analysis of non-linear coordinate transformations and their impact on normal modes in a harmonic system. The Lagrangian for a harmonic oscillator is used as an illustrative example, highlighting the role of position-dependent effective mass in preventing certain coordinate values. Moving beyond single degrees of freedom, we extend the discussion to a system with several harmonic degrees of freedom, introducing a collective variable. The effective dynamics of this collective variable are defined through a Lagrange multiplier term, emphasizing linearity in the description. Our study extends to the Current Two-Point function (CTP) formalism, introducing matrices and their inverses, such as $\hD$ and $\hD^{-1}$. Further, we delve into the dynamics of current in a homogeneous electron gas at finite density and zero temperature. Green's functions are generated using a functional integral approach, and the effective action is constructed via functional Legendre transformation. The quadratic part of the generator functional is expanded to derive the effective action, leading to the Maxwell equation and the subsequent elimination of the photon field. The resulting effective action for current dynamics is expressed in terms of the Current Two-Point function, paving the way for further exploration of the hydrodynamical aspects of the electron gas. Our study combines theoretical developments and mathematical formalism to provide insights into the hydrodynamical behavior of homogeneous electron gases.

Electron can tunnel between cofactor molecules positioned along biological electron transport chains up to the distance of ≃20 Å on the millisecond time scale of enzymatic turnover. This tunneling range mostly determines the design of biological energy chains facilitating cross-membrane transport of electrons. Tunneling distance and cofactors’ redox potentials become main physical parameters of this design. The protein identity, flexibility, or dynamics are missing from this picture assigning universal charge-transport properties to all proteins. This paradigm is challenged by dynamical models of electron transfer showing that the hopping rate is constant within the crossover distance R*≃12 Å, followed with an exponential tunneling falloff at longer distances. In this view, energy chains for electron transport are best designed by placing redox cofactors near the crossover distance R*. Protein flexibility and dynamics affect the magnitude of the maximum hopping rate within the crossover radius. Protein charge transport is not driven by universal parameters anymore and protein identity matters.

In this review, photoinduced electron transfer processes in specifically designed assembled ar-chitectures have been investigated on the basis of recent results reported from our laboratories. A convenient and useful way to study these kinds of systems has been described in order to under-stand the rules that drive to a light induced charge separation and its subsequent decay to the ground state, also with the aim of offering a tutorial for young researchers. Assembled systems of covalent or supramolecular nature have been presented and some functional multicomponent systems for the conversion of light energy into chemical energy have been discussed.

Classical k-ratio models, e.g. ZAF and phi(rho z), used in electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) assume a homogeneous or multi-layered material structure, which essentially limits the spatial resolution of EPMA to the size of the interaction volume where characteristic x-rays are produced. We present a new model for characteristic x-ray emission that avoids assumptions on the material structure to not restrict the resolution of EPMA a-priori. Our model bases on the spherical harmonic (PN) approximation of the Boltzmann equation for electron transport in continuous slowing down approximation. PN models have a simple structure, are hierarchical in accuracy and well-suited for efficient adjoint-based gradient computation, which makes our model a promising alternative to classical models in terms of improving the resolution of EPMA in the future. We present results of various test cases including a comparison of the PN model to a minimum entropy moment model as well as Monte-Carlo (MC) trajectory sampling, a comparison of PN-based k-ratios to k-ratios obtained with MC, a comparison with experimental data of electron backscattering yields as well as a comparison of PN and Monte-Carlo based on characteristic X-ray generation in a three-dimensional material probe with fine structures.

In particle physics, spin is an intrinsic form of angular momentum carried by the elementary particles. It is believed that spin is a solely quantum-mechanical phenomenon, which does not have a counterpart in classical mechanics. We have derived the simplest equations of spin and magnetic moment of a charged elementary particle. These formulas enable us to understand the physical nature of the spin and the structure of elementary particles. It is shown that the electron and muon are in the shape of a thin ring with a circular cross section (torus), and the proton is in the form of a ring with a non-circular cross section (toroid). The connection between the photon’s spin of and the propagation of electromagnetic waves is considered.

In this paper, we introduce a new formulation based on Floquet (Fourier) spectral analysis combined with a spectral modulation technique (and its spatial form) to study strongly coupled sublattices predefined in the infinite and large finite extent of almost periodic antenna arrays (e.g metasurfaces). This analysis is very relevant for dense massive MIMO, intelligent surfaces, 5G, and 6G applications (used for very small areas with a large number of elements such as millimeter and terahertz waves applications). The numerical method that is adopted to model the structure is the method of moments simplified by equivalent circuits MoM GEC. Other numerical methods (as the ASM array scanning method and windowing Fourier method) used this analysis in their kernel that to treat periodic and pseudo-periodic (or quasi-periodic) arrays.

The centralized fusion estimation problem for discrete-time vectorial tessarine signals in multiple sensor stochastic systems with random one-step delays and correlated noises is analyzed under different T-properness conditions. Based on Tk, k=1,2, linear processing, new centralized fusion filtering, prediction, and fixed-point smoothing algorithms are devised. These algorithms have the advantage of providing optimal estimators with a significant reduction in computational cost compared to that obtained through a real or widely linear processing approach. Simulation examples illustrate the effectiveness and applicability of the algorithms proposed, in which the superiority of the Tk linear estimators over their counterparts in the quaternion domain is apparent.

The underlying physical concept of computing out-of-time-ordered correlation (OTOC) is a significant new tool within the framework of quantum field theory, which now-a-days is treated as a measure of random fluctuations. In this paper, by following the canonical quantization technique we demonstrate a computational method to quantify the two different types of Cosmological auto-correlated OTO functions during the epoch when the non-equilibrium features dominates in Primordial Cosmology. In this formulation, two distinct dynamical time scales are involved to define the quantum mechanical operators arising from cosmological perturbation scenario. We have provided detailed explanation regarding the necessity of this new formalism to quantify any random events generated from quantum fluctuations in Primordial Cosmology. We have performed an elaborative computation for the two types of two-point and four-point auto-correlated OTO functions in terms of the cosmological perturbation field variables and its canonically conjugate momenta to quantify random auto-correlations in the non-equilibrium regime. For both the cases we found significantly distinguishable non-chaotic, but random behaviour in the OTO auto-correlations, which was not pointed before in this type of studies. Finally, we have also demonstrated the classical limiting behaviour of the mentioned two types of auto-correlated OTOC functions from the thermally weighted phase space averaged Poisson Brackets, which we found exactly matches with the large time limiting behaviour of the auto-correlations in the super-horizon regime of the cosmological scalar mode fluctuation.

By introducing a suitable renormalization process the charge carrier and phonon dynamics of a double-stranded helical DNA molecule is expressed in terms of an effective Hamitonian describing a linear chain, where the renormalized transfer integrals explicitly depend on the relative orientations of the Watson-Crick base pairs, and the renormalized on-site energies are related to the electronic parameters of consecutive base pairs along the helix axis, as well as to the low-frequency phonons dispersion relation. The existence of synchronized collective oscillations enhancing the π-π orbital overlapping among different base pairs is disclosed from the study of the obtained analytical dynamical equations. The role of these phonon-correlated, long-range oscillation effects on the charge transfer properties of double standed DNA homopolymers is discussed in terms of the resulting band structure.

SAA is an acute phase protein that elevates under inflammatory circumstance. The serum level of SAA was associated with the progression of inflammation in numerous diseases. However, little attention was paid to the correlation between SAA and ONFH. In this study, SAA was found risen in the femoral head of osteonecrosis patients through proteomics analysis and further confirmed by ELISA. Furthermore, SAA was proven affecting bone metabolism in rBMSCs. It facilitated the proliferation of rBMSCs whereas it suppressed the osteogenic differentiation of rBMSCs and accelerated the adipogenic differentiation of rBMSCs. Thus, we deem that serum amyloid A, which is a vital acute phase protein in inflammation, affected bone metabolis and plays an imperative role in the pathophysiological process of ONFH.

We discuss the implementation of a suite of virtual diagnostics at the FACET-II facility currently under commissioning at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The diagnostics will be used for prediction of the longitudinal phase space along the linac, spectral reconstruction of the bunch profile and non-destructive inference of transverse beam quality (emittance) using edge radiation at the injector dogleg and bunch compressor locations. These measurements will be folded in to adaptive feedbacks and ML-based reinforcement learning controls to improve the stability and optimize the performance of the machine for different experimental configurations. In this paper we describe each of these diagnostics with expected measurement results based on simulation data and discuss progress towards implementation in regular operations.

Some contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) are known to survive conventional wastewater treatment plants, which introduce them back to the environment and can potentially cycle up in drinking water supplies. This is especially concerning because of the inherent ability of some CECs to induce physiological effects in humans at very low doses. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) such as TiO2 based photocatalysis are of prominent interest for addressing CECs in aqueous environments. Natural water resources often contain dissolved metal cations concentrations in excess of targeted CEC concentrations. These cations may significantly, adversely impact degradation of CECs by scavenging TiO2 surface generated electrons. Consequently, simple pseudo first order or Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics are not sufficient for reactor design and process analysis in some scenarios. Rhodamine B dye and dissolved copper cations were studied as reaction surrogates to demonstrate that TiO₂ catalyzed degradation for very dilute solutions is very nearly completely due to homogeneous reaction with hydroxyl radicals and that in this scenario the hole trapping pathway has negligible impact. Chemical reaction kinetic studies were then carried out to develop a robust model for RB/metal reactions that is exact in the electron pathways for hydroxyl radical production and metal scavenging.

With the increasing pace of global warming, it is important to understand the role of meteorological factors in influenza virus (IV) epidemics. In this study, we investigated the impact of temperature, UV index, humidity, wind speed, atmospheric pressure, and precipitation on IV activity in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania during 2010-2018. Both correlation and machine learning analyses revealed that low temperature and low UV indexes were the most predictive meteorological factors for IV epidemics in the Northern European countries. Our in vitro experiments confirmed that low temperature and UV radiation preserved IV infectivity. Associations between these meteorological factors and IV activity could improve surveillance and promote development of accurate predictive models for future influenza outbreaks in Northern Europe.

The critical role of global electron density transfer (GEDT) in increasing the reaction rate of polar organic reactions has been studied within the framework of Molecular Electron Density Theory (MEDT). To this end, the series of the polar Diels-Alder (P-DA) reactions of cyclopentadiene with cyanoethylene derivatives, for which experimental kinetic data are available, have been chosen. A complete linear correlation between the computed activation Gibbs free energies and the GEDT taking place at the polar transition state structures (TSs) is found; the higher the GEDT at the TS, the lower the activation Gibbs free energy. An interacting quantum atoms (IQA) energy partitioning analysis allows establishing a complete linear correlation between the electronic stabilization of the electrophilic ethylene frameworks and the GEDT taking place at the polar TSs. This finding supports Parr’s proposal for the definition of the electrophilicity  index (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1999, 121, 1922). The present MEDT study allows establishing the critical role of the GEDT in the acceleration of polar reactions, since the electronic stabilization of the electrophilic framework with the electron density gain is greater than the destabilization of the nucleophilic one, making a net favorable electronic contribution to the decrease of the activation energy.

This research focuses on exploring generalized electron emissions in one-dimensional conducting materials, specifically examining field emission and thermionic emission. Additionally, the study investigates one-dimensional thermal radiation. The current density is derived for both one-dimensional thermionic emission and one-dimensional field emission. A generalized current density in one dimension is devised, taking into account arbitrary accelerating fields and temperature conditions. The formula for the one-dimensional current density is depicted with accelerating field and temperature across various work function materials. The current is also represented as a function of both temperature and electric field for various temperatures.

Over the past two decades, covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have become the most widely studied porous crystalline materials. Its specific physical and chemical properties are determined by the arrangement of atoms (crystal structure). Therefore, the determination of its structure is arguably the most important characterization step for COFs. Although single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) is the most widely used method for structure determination, the size of COF crystals is too small, or their crystal quality is so poor that confirmation of their structure is limited to lattice fringes by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). At present, many 2D-COFs have clear PXRD patterns, but not all 2D-COFs can obtain specific lattice fringes. This severely hinders the development of the COF field. Here, we discover the lattice shrinkage behavior of COFs under electron beam irradiation by comparing the lattice fringes of 2D-COFs under different conditions. By comparing the lattice fringes of TAPT-TFPT COF at room temperature and under liquid nitrogen freezing conditions, we found that the lattice fringes are in good agreement with the Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and theoretical values of COF (2.213 nm) under freezing conditions, however, the lattice fringe spacing is only 1.656 nm at room temperature. The discovery not only provides new insights into the TEM characterization of COFs, but also further expands the range of crystalline COF materials.

Electroactive microorganisms have received a lot of interest in the field of environmental engineering and biotechnology because of their extracellular electron transfer (EET) capability of energy recovery and environmental remediation. However, the low efficiency of EET remains a barrier to its practical implementation. This review presents an introduction to EET, followed by addressing strategies for enhancing EET through different approaches including enhancing EET by mediator materials, external electricity, photo, and magnetism as well as integrated strategies, that is, the combination of multiple means to promote extracellular electron transport and improve the performance of microbial electrochemical systems. Finally, the challenges, perspectives, and new directions for EET enhancement will be discussed.

The generalized dual-kinetic-balance approach for axially symmetric systems is employed to solve the two-center Dirac problem. The spectra of one-electron homonuclear quasimolecules are calculated and compared with the previous calculations. The analysis of the monopole approximation with two different choices of the origin is performed. Special attention is paid to the lead and xenon dimers, Pb82+–Pb82+–e− and Xe54+–Xe54+–e−, where the energies of the ground and several excited σ-states are presented in the wide range of internuclear distances. The developed method provides the quasicomplete finite basis set and allows for construction of the perturbation theory, including within the bound-state QED.

In the Standard Model of elementary particles, the rest mass, magnetic moment and electric charge of the electron are considered to be natural constants. In this article it is proposed that these properties can be calculated in a simple way from the corresponding Planck units using the well-known period doubling phenomenon in nonlinear dynamical systems. Periods corresponding to the values of the electron and positron properties belong to a subset of stable periods. The periodic structures of the rest energy and magnetic moment consist of three internal degrees of freedom, whereas the Coulomb energy of the electric charge consists of four. The number of period doublings for the elementary charge determines the value of the fine structure constant alpha.

An analysis is presented of the possible existence of a second anomalous dipole moment of Dirac’s particle next to the angular one. It includes a discussion why, in spite of his own derivation, Dirac has doubted about its relevancy. It is shown why since then it has been overlooked and why it has vanished from leading textbooks. A critical survey is given on the reasons of its reject, including the failure of attempts to measure and the perceived violations of time reversal symmetry and chargeparity symmetry. It is emphasized that the anomalous electric dipole moment of the pointlike electron (AEDM) is fundamentally different from the quantum field type electric dipole moment of an electron (eEDM) as defined in the standard model of particle physics and that its measurement requires different instrumentation. A proposal has been described how to prove or disprove its existence by experiment. Moreover, by reference from literature, the possible impact is discussed in the nuclear domain and in the gravitational domain.

A rigorous model for the electron is presented by generalizing the Coulomb's Law or Gauss's Law of electrostatics, using a unified theory of electricity and gravity. The permittivity of the free-space is allowed to be variable, dependent on the energy density associated with the electric field at a given location, employing generalized concepts of gravity and mass/energy density. The electric field becomes a non-linear function of the source charge, where concept of the energy density needs to be properly defined. Stable solutions are derived for a spherically symmetric, surface-charge distribution of an elementary charge. This is implemented by assuming that the gravitational field and its equivalent permittivity function is proportional to the energy density, as a simple first-order approximation, with the constant of proportionality referred to as the Unifield Electro-Gravity (UEG) constant. The stable solution with the lowest mass/energy is assumed to represent a ``static'' electron without any spin. Further, assuming that the mass/energy of a static electron is half of the total mass/energy of an electron including its spin contribution, the required UEG constant is estimated. More fundamentally, the lowest stable mass of a static elementary charged particle, its associated classical radius, and the UEG constant are related to each other by a dimensionless constant, independent of any specific value of the charge or mass of the particle. This dimensionless constant is numerologically found to be closely related to the the fine structure constant. This possible origin of the fine structure constant is further strengthened by applying the proposed theory to successfully model the Casimir effect, from which approximately the same above relationship between the UEG constant, electron's mass and classical radius, and the fine structure constant, emerges.

Real-time evolution of the electron densities under excitations in La₂CuO₄ was calculated by the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). The author found, for the first time, under excitations, the electron cloud of Cu²⁺ changes obviously and the characteristic frequencies are 83 meV and 36 meV, respectively, for two different modes. The results are unexpected and close to that of lattice vibrations. The results show that the electron cloud of Cu²⁺ (just like the lattice) can be the electron-pairing medium in high temperature copper oxide superconductors.

This work communicates results from optical emission spectroscopy following laser-induced optical breakdown at or near nanomaterial. Selected atomic lines of silver are evaluated for consistent determination of electron density. Comparisons are presented with Balmer series hydrogen results. Of particular interest are measurements free of self-absorption effects. For several silver lines, asymmetries are observed in the recorded line profiles. Electron densities of interest range from 0.5 to 3 × 10¹⁷ cm^-3, for 5 nanosecond Q-switched Nd:YAG radiation at wavelengths of 1064, 532, and 355 nm, and for selected silver emission lines including 328.0, 338.2, 768.7, and 827.3 nm, and the hydrogen alpha Balmer series line at 656.3 nm. Line asymmetries are presented for the 328.0 nm Ag I line that is measured following generation of the plasma due to multiple photon absorption. This work explores electron density variations for different irradiance levels, and reports spectral line asymmetry of resonance lines for different laser fluence levels.

Nanoparticles -- regularly patterned or randomly dispersed -- are a key ingredient for emerging technologies in photonics. Of particular interest are scattering and field enhancement effects of metal nanoparticles for energy harvesting and converting systems. An often neglected aspect in the modeling of nanoparticles are light interaction effects beyond classical electrodynamics stemming from electron dynamics in confined and accelerated systems. We give a detailed account on free electron phenomena in metal nanoparticles and discuss analytic expressions, stemming from microscopic and semi-classical theories. These can improve standard computational schemes to produce more reliable results on the optical properties of metal nanoparticles. We combine these solutions into a single framework and study their joint impact on isolated Au, Ag, and Al nanoparticles as well as dimer structures.

Background: We aimed to determine the splenic stiffness (SS) values in healthy individuals as measured by 3 Tesla magnetic resonance elastography (3T MRE) and to investigate the possible effects of parameters such as age, sex, spleen volume, diameter, and parenchyma thickness on SS.Methods: A total of 54 healthy volunteers were included in this cross-sectional study. Participants' age and sex information were recorded, in addition to spleen craniocaudal and anteroposterior diameter, cortical thickness, spleen volume, and SS, which were measured using 3T magnetic resonance imaging and MRE. Results: Twenty-nine male and 25 female subjects with a mean age of 54.78±15.40 years were included in the study. Mean cradiocaudal diameter was 10.46±1.16 cm, anteroposterior diameter was 9.88±1.29 cm, parenchyma thickness was 4.08±0.67 cm, SS was 3721.94±709.69 Pascal (Pa), and median spleen volume was 292.54 (239.40-311.00) cm³. A significant positive correlation was observed between age and SS (r=0.779, p<0.001). The SS values were not associated with sex, craniocaudal diameter, anteroposterior diameter, parenchymal thickness, or volume.Conclusion:Age should be considered when using SS in the diagnosis and staging of relevant diseases such as portal hypertension and esophageal varices. Our results should be confirmed by future studies using 3T MRE in larger populations.

Background: We aimed to determine the splenic stiffness (SS) values in healthy individuals as measured by 3 Tesla magnetic resonance elastography (3T MRE) and to investigate the possible effects of parameters such as age, sex, spleen volume, diameter, and parenchyma thickness on SS. Methods: A total of 54 healthy volunteers were included in this cross-sectional study. Participants' age and sex information were recorded, in addition to spleen craniocaudal and anteroposterior diameter, cortical thickness, spleen volume, and SS, which were measured using 3T magnetic resonance imaging and MRE. Results: Twenty-nine male and 25 female subjects with a mean age of 54.78±15.40 years were included in the study. Mean cradiocaudal diameter was 10.46±1.16 cm, anteroposterior diameter was 9.88±1.29 cm, parenchyma thickness was 4.08±0.67 cm, SS was 3721.94±709.69 Pascal (Pa), and median spleen volume was 292.54 (239.40-311.00) cm3. A significant positive correlation was observed between age and SS (r=0.779, p<0.001). The SS values were not associated with sex, craniocaudal diameter, anteroposterior diameter, parenchymal thickness, or volume Conclusion:Age should be considered when using SS in the diagnosis and staging of relevant diseases such as portal hypertension and esophageal varices. Our results should be confirmed by future studies using 3T MRE in larger populations.

GNSS time series prediction plays a significant role in monitoring crustal plate motion, landslide detection, and maintenance of the global coordinate framework. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), a deep learning model has been widely applied in the field of high-precision time series prediction especially when combined with Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD) to form the VMD-LSTM hybrid model. To further improve the prediction accuracy of the VMD-LSTM model, this paper proposes a dual variational modal decomposition long short-term memory (DVMD-LSTM) model to effectively handle the noise in GNSS time series prediction. This model extracts fluctuation features from the residual terms obtained after VMD decomposition to reduce the prediction errors associated with residual terms in the VMD-LSTM model. Daily E, N, and U coordinate data recorded at multiple GNSS stations between 2000 and 2022 are used to validate the performance of the proposed DVMD-LSTM model. The experimental results demonstrate that compared to the VMD-LSTM model, the DVMD-LSTM model achieves significant improvements in prediction performance across all measurement stations. The average RMSE is reduced by 9.86%, and the average MAE is reduced by 9.44%. Furthermore, the average accuracy of the optimal noise model for the predicted results is improved by 36.50%, and the average speed accuracy of the predicted results is enhanced by 33.02%. These findings collectively attest to the superior predictive capabilities of the DVMD-LSTM model, thereby enhancing the reliability of the predicted results.

The incorporation of unmanned aircraft terminal operations into the scope of Detect and Avoid systems necessitates analysis of the safety performance of those systems—principally, an assessment of how well those systems prevent loss of well clear from and collision with other aircraft. This type of analysis has typically been conducted by Monte Carlo simulation with synthetic, statistically representative encounters between aircraft drawn from an appropriate encounter model. While existing encounter models include terminal airspace classes, none explicitly represents the structure expected while engaged in terminal operations, e.g., aircraft in a traffic pattern. The work described herein is an initial model of such operations, scoped at this time specifically for assessment of unmanned aircraft landings and encounters with other aircraft either landing or taking off. The model shares the Bayesian network foundation of other MIT Lincoln Laboratory encounter models but tailors those networks to address structured terminal operations, i.e., correlations between trajectories and the airfield and each other. This initial model release is intended to elicit feedback from the standards-writing community.

High intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi), the ratio of leaf photosynthesis to stomatal conductance, may be a useful trait in adapting crops to water-limited environments. Carbon isotope ratios can be a useful indicator of WUEi, but might not be well correlated with it if the plants compared differ substantially in mesophyll conductance. In this study, six cultivars of soybeans previously shown to differ in WUEi in indoor experiments were grown in the field in Beltsville, Maryland, and mid-day WUEi was measured on nine clear days during mid-seasons of two years. Measurement dates were chosen for diverse temperatures, and air temperatures ranged from 21 to 34 oC on the different dates. Corrected carbon isotope delta values for 13C (CID) were determined on mature, upper canopy leaves harvested during early pod filling each year. WUEi differed among cultivars both years and the differences were consistent across measurement dates. Correlations between mean WUEi and CID were not significant in either year. It is concluded that consistent cultivar differences in WUEi exist in these soybean cultivars under field conditions, but that carbon isotope ratios may not be useful in identifying them.