A
bstract
Charged lepton flavor violation is forbidden in the Standard Model but possible in several new physics scenarios. In many of these models, the radiative decays
τ
±
→
ℓ
±
γ
(
ℓ
=
e, μ
) are ...predicted to have a sizeable probability, making them particularly interesting channels to search at various experiments. An updated search via
τ
±
→
ℓ
±
γ
using full data of the Belle experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 988 fb
−
1
, is reported for charged lepton flavor violation. No significant excess over background predictions from the Standard Model is observed, and the upper limits on the branching fractions,
B
(
τ
±
→
μ
±
γ
) ≤ 4
.
2 × 10
−
8
and
B
(
τ
±
→
e
±
γ
) ≤ 5
.
6 × 10
−
8
, are set at 90% confidence level.
We report measurements of the production cross sections of charged pions, kaons, and protons as a function of fractional energy, the event-shape variable called thrust, and the transverse momentum ...with respect to the thrust axis. These measurements access the transverse momenta created in the fragmentation process, which are of critical importance to the understanding of any transverse-momentum-dependent distribution and fragmentation functions. The low transverse-momentum part of the cross sections can be well described by Gaussians in transverse momentum as is generally assumed but the fractional-energy dependence is nontrivial and different hadron types have varying Gaussian widths. The width of these Gaussians decreases with thrust and shows an initially rising, then decreasing fractional-energy dependence. The widths for pions and kaons are comparable within uncertainties, while those for protons are significantly narrower. These single-hadron cross sections and Gaussian widths are obtained from a 558 fb−1 data sample collected at the ϒ(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e− collider.
We report detailed susceptibility profiling of asexual blood stages of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum to clinical and experimental antimalarials, combined with metabolomic fingerprinting. ...Results revealed a variety of stage-specific and metabolic profiles that differentiated the modes of action of clinical antimalarials including chloroquine, piperaquine, lumefantrine, and mefloquine, and identified late trophozoite-specific peak activity and stage-specific biphasic dose-responses for the mitochondrial inhibitors DSM265 and atovaquone. We also identified experimental antimalarials hitting previously unexplored druggable pathways as reflected by their unique stage specificity and/or metabolic profiles. These included several ring-active compounds, ones affecting hemoglobin catabolism through distinct pathways, and mitochondrial inhibitors with lower propensities for resistance than either DSM265 or atovaquone. This approach, also applicable to other microbes that undergo multiple differentiation steps, provides an effective tool to prioritize compounds for further development within the context of combination therapies.
•Timing of peak activity during life cycle informs on mode of action of antimalarials•Results differentiated modes of action of piperaquine, lumefantrine, and atovaquone•Experimental compounds targeted previously unexplored druggable pathways•Characterized ring-active compounds and new heme or mitochondrial inhibitors
Murithi et al. designed a high-throughput assay to profile the Plasmodium falciparum asexual blood stage parasites against which antimalarial candidates are maximally active. These data combined with metabolomics fingerprinting provide valuable insights into the mode of action of clinical and experimental antimalarials, and helped prioritize compounds for further development.
•Laser textured surfaces to improve pool boiling and flow boiling.•Role of laser parameters on surface characteristics of metallic surfaces.•Effect of laser processed surface features on boiling ...characteristics.•Discussion of boiling mechanisms in surfaces with micro/nanostructures.•Future recommendations to direct research in this aspect.
Laser texturing can effectively obtain the desired surface features on metals through melting and solidification, or through laser-based additive manufacturing techniques. In phase-change heat transfer applications, such modified surfaces can be both beneficial and durable. Surface modification by ultrafast processing lasers alters the heat transfer performances of boiling systems. This review summarizes the work leading to these technologies and their role in influencing the performance of boiling systems. It first discusses the types and material processing mechanism of lasers. Then, the applications of laser-textured surfaces in pool boiling and flow boiling are discussed in detail. Different types of surface patterns can be fabricated on boiling surfaces depending on experimental requirements. It is clearly evident that the design parameters and surface characteristics like surface roughness, surface wettability, and porosity can be easily controlled by controlling the laser parameters. Also, heat transfer performance of the textured surfaces changes as compared to the surfaces without any texturing. As surface features generated as a result of laser texturing are permanent, the durability of the structures can be increased with prolonged boiling performance. The review concludes with future recommendations for identifying the research gaps and improving the heat transfer processes by laser-textured surfaces.
A
bstract
The disagreement between the standard model prediction and the experimental measurement of muon anomalous magnetic moment can be alleviated by invoking an additional particle which is ...either a vector boson (
X
1
) or a scalar (
X
0
). This new particle, with the mass
m
X
≲ 2
m
μ
, can be searched for in the decay
J
/
ψ → μ
−
μ
+
X
, where
X
is missing. Our numerical study shows that the search is quite feasible at the BESIII experiment in the parameter space allowed by muon
g −
2 measurements.
Aim
To conduct an open‐label study to provide UK real‐world evidence regarding the use of insulin glargine 300 units/ml (U300) in people with Type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Methods
People with Type 1 ...diabetes who had been prescribed U300 ≥6 months before data collection and had HbA1c levels recorded within 3 months prior to U300 (baseline) were included. The primary endpoint was change in HbA1c from baseline to month 6 after U300 initiation. Other endpoints included number of documented hypoglycaemic and diabetic ketoacidosis episodes, and change in daily basal insulin dose.
Results
A total of 298 people with Type 1 diabetes were included mean age 42.1 years, mean HbA1c 79 mmol/mol (9.4%). After U300 initiation, the mean reduction in HbA1c from baseline to month 6 was –4 mmol/mol (–0.4%; P<0.001; n=188). The total daily basal insulin dose at 6 months was 1.3 units higher than at the time of U300 initiation (P<0.001; n=275) but was not significantly different from the prior basal insulin dose. There was no clinically significant difference in weight between baseline and month 6 mean difference +0.7 kg, 95% CI –0.1, 1.5; P=0.084; n=115). During the 6 months before and after U300 initiation, severe hypoglycaemic episodes were documented for 6/298 and 4/298 participants. Diabetic ketoacidosis episodes requiring Accident and Emergency department visits or hospitalization were documented for 4/298 and 6/298 participants, before and after U300 initiation, respectively.
Conclusions
In people with Type 1 diabetes, a change in basal insulin to U300 was associated with clinically and statistically significant HbA1c improvements, without significant changes in basal insulin dose and weight. Documented severe hypoglycaemia episodes and diabetic ketoacidosis requiring Accident and Emergency department visits or hospitalization were low and similar before and after U300 initiation.
What's new?
This descriptive, retrospective study provides real‐world data on the use of a second‐generation basal insulin, insulin glargine 300 units/ml (U300), in Type 1 diabetes across the UK.
Overall, participants who switched to U300 demonstrated improvements in HbA1c without significant changes in basal insulin dose and weight from baseline.
The number of participants with documented severe hypoglycaemia and ketoacidosis requiring Accident and Emergency department visits or hospitalization was low and similar prior to and after U300 initiation.
Results from this real‐world study show that observations made in randomized controlled trials translate to people with Type 1 diabetes treated with U300 in clinical practice in the UK.
Simple rule-based robot behaviours, such as those utilised for swarming robots, typically excel in only the niche conditions for which they were designed. Behaviour selection allows robots to switch ...between these specialised behaviours in accordance with the observed conditions. This paper explores the use of a novel form of Hierarchical Graph Neurons (HGN) for such behaviour selection within a swarm of robotic agents. This new HGN is called Robotic-HGN (R-HGN) as it allows pattern matching of mixed datasets of robot observations. R-HGN matches said patterns to labelled environments and allows appropriate robot behaviours to be utilised throughout an operation in a ‘society of mind’ approach to task flexibility in robots. This approach is novel to the HGN field as it expands the application beyond discrete categorical data inputs. Additionally, this research is novel to the field of robotic swarming as it explores a new method to temporal agent diversity for overcoming localised environment challenges. This R-HGN for behaviour selection is validated against individual behaviour implementations and a random behaviour selection. The comparison is made via statistical distribution of swarm fitnesses in multiple instances of a non-trivial swarming task. From this comparison R-HGN is found to enable appropriate behaviour selection in both environments known and unknown a priori, resulting in a median swarm performance improvement of up to 389%. Finally, in environments prior observed, the R-HGN environment prediction one-versus-all accuracy is up to 99.1% and F1 scores reach a maximum of 97.15%.
•Hierarchical graph neurons can be altered for robot observation patterns.•Robotics can use patterns to identify environment and select optimal behaviour.•Environment matched in 92.4-98.5% of pre-seen cases.•Optimal behaviour utilised in 78% of environments prior unseen.
Abstract Current studies have shown that living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) for hepatocelluar carcinoma (HCC) satisfying the Milan criteria does not compromise patient survival or increase HCC ...recurrence compared with deceased-donor liver transplantation (DDLT). For patients with HCC beyond the Milan criteria, however, worse outcomes are expected after LDLT than after DDLT, despite insufficient data to reach a conclusion. Regarding operative technique, LDLT might be a less optimal cancer operation for HCC located at the hepatic vein confluence and/or paracaval portion. The closeness to the wall of the retrohepatic inferior vena cava (IVC) is greater than in conventional DDLT, rendering it difficult to perform a no-touch en bloc total hepatectomy. An LDLT, which must preserve the native IVC for the piggyback technique during engraftment, may lead to tumor remnants. To reduce recurrences after LDLT, we successfully performed a no-touch en bloc total hepatectomy including the retrohepatic IVC and all 3 hepatic veins. IVC replacement with an artificial vascular graft together with a modified right-lobe LDLT was performed for a patient having advanced HCC close to the hepatic vein confluence and paracaval portion. There was no artificial vascular graft-related complication, such as thrombosis or infection. Despite the limitations of LDLT, requiring the piggyback technique for graft implantation, IVC replacement using an artificial graft led us to perform a no-touch en bloc total hepatectomy as with a conventional DDLT.
The transcriptional regulator c-MYC is abnormally overexpressed in many human cancers. Evasion from apoptosis is critical for cancer development, particularly c-MYC-driven cancers. We explored which ...anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family member (expressed under endogenous regulation) is essential to sustain c-MYC-driven lymphoma growth to reveal which should be targeted for cancer therapy. Remarkably, inducible Cre-mediated deletion of even a single Mcl-1 allele substantially impaired the growth of c-MYC-driven mouse lymphomas. Mutations in p53 could diminish but not obviate the dependency of c-MYC-driven mouse lymphomas on MCL-1. Importantly, targeting of MCL-1 killed c-MYC-driven human Burkitt lymphoma cells, even those bearing mutations in p53. Given that loss of one allele of Mcl-1 is well tolerated in healthy tissues, our results suggest that therapeutic targeting of MCL-1 would be an attractive therapeutic strategy for MYC-driven cancers.
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to determine whether intranasal administration of Lactobacillus sp. could prevent horizontal transmission of H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) in ...specific-pathogen-free chickens. Three-week-old chickens received 500 μL of 1.5 × 109 cfu of Lactobacillus fermentum CJL-112 strain (CJL) intranasally for 7 d before and 14 d after a challenge. Challenged chickens, each inoculated with H9N2 AIV, were kept in either direct or indirect contact with naive chickens, and morbidity and viral shedding were monitored. We demonstrated that the intranasal administration of CJL significantly decreased the number of chickens with viral shedding from the gastrointestinal tract in the indirect contact chickens (P < 0.001) and also significantly reduced viral shedding from the respiratory tract in the challenged (P < 0.05) and the direct contact chickens (P < 0.001) than those in the control group. Hence, the use of this lactobacilli strain may constitute a novel and effectively plausible alternative to prevent and control H9N2 AIV infection in chickens.
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