A symmetry-preserving truncation of the strong-interaction bound-state equations is used to calculate the spectrum of ground-state
J
=
1
/
2
+
,
3
/
2
+
(
q
q
′
q
″
)
-baryons, where
q
,
q
′
,
q
″
∈
...{
u
,
d
,
s
,
c
,
b
}
, their first positive-parity excitations and parity partners. Using two parameters, a description of the known spectrum of 39 such states is obtained, with a mean-absolute-relative-difference between calculation and experiment of 3.6(2.7)%. From this foundation, the framework is subsequently used to predict the masses of 90 states not yet seen empirically.
Purpose
Five strategies were recommended by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists/American College of Endocrinology (AACE/ACE) guidelines for the treatment of postmenopausal ...osteoporosis (PMO) patients with a very high fracture risk. We aimed to assess their cost-effectiveness in the United States (US).
Methods
A microsimulation Markov model was created to compare the cost-effectiveness of five treatment strategies, including zoledronate, denosumab, abaloparatide, teriparatide, and romosozumab in PMO patients with a recent fracture from the healthcare perspective of the US. The data used in the model were obtained from published studies or online resources. Base-case analysis, one-way deterministic sensitivity analysis (DSA) and probability sensitivity analysis (PSA) were conducted for 65-, 70-, 75-, and 80-year-old patients.
Results
In base case, at 65 years, zoledronate was the cheapest strategy. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER, which represent incremental costs per QALY gained) of denosumab, teriparatide, abaloparatide, and romosozumab against zoledronate were $13,020/QALY (quality-adjusted years), $477,331 /QALY, $176,287/QALY, and $98,953/QALY, respectively. Under a willing-to-pay (WTP, which means the highest price a consumer will pay for one unit of a good of service) threshold of $150,000/QALY, denosumab and romosozumab were cost-effective against zoledronate. The PSA results showed that denosumab was the most cost-effective option with WTP thresholds of $50,000/QALY, $100,000/QALY and $150,000/QALY. The results were similar in other age groups. The DSA results indicated that the most common parameters that have important influence on the outcome were drug persistence, incidence of adverse events, the efficacy of drugs on hip fractures and the cost of the drug.
Conclusion and relevance
Among PMO patients with a very high fracture risk in the US, zoledronate is the cheapest strategy and denosumab is the most cost-effective choice among these five strategies.
The availability of alloyed powder feedstock and chemical inhomogeneity, which often occur when using elemental mixed powder, have been long-term concerns of selective laser melting (SLM) of metallic ...materials. In this work, a Ti–35Nb alloy (in wt.%) was manufactured using SLM from elemental mixed powder to study the microstructure, mechanical behavior, and corrosion properties of the resultant parts. Microstructural characterizations show that the SLM-produced Ti–35Nb is composed of fine near β phase dendrites and undissolved Nb particles, which produces in a relatively low Young's modulus (84.7 ± 1.2 GPa). The chemical homogeneity and microstructural homogeneity are improved by heat treatment, resulting in a more homogeneous microstructure and smaller Nb particles. The undissolved large Nb particles play an important role in the overall performance of the SLM-produced materials, because the boundaries of undissolved large Nb particles in the as-SLMed part act as initiation sites for slip bands. The compressive fracture mechanism illustrates the propagation, arrest and merge of shear bands, thereby revealing the effects on the yield strength and plasticity. The electrochemical experiments show the stable corrosion resistance of as-SLMed sample and the improved corrosion resistance of the heat-treated counterparts. This work sheds insight into the SLM of Ti–Nb powder mixtures for biomedical applications. In particular, the relatively low cost and easy manufacture of elemental powder as feedstock offer significant advantages to the additive manufacturing industry.
Display omitted
The study of skyrmion/antiskyrmion motion in magnetic materials is very important in particular for the spintronics applications. In this work, we study the dynamics of isolated skyrmions and ...antiskyrmions in frustrated magnets driven by magnetic field gradient, using the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert simulations on the frustrated classical Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice. A Hall-like motion induced by the gradient is revealed in bulk system, similar to that in the well-studied chiral magnets. More interestingly, our work suggests that the lateral confinement in nanostripes of the frustrated system can completely suppress the Hall motion and significantly speed up the motion along the gradient direction. The simulated results are well explained by Thiele theory. It is demonstrated that the acceleration of the motion is mainly determined by the Gilbert damping constant, which provides useful information for finding potential materials for skyrmion-based spintronics.
Hydrogen effect on semiconductivity and compositions of passive films formed on ferrite and austenite phases in a duplex stainless steel were investigated by current sensing atomic force microscopy ...and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is demonstrated that hydrogen significantly increases the conductivity of passive film due to the increase of OH
/O
ratio. The passive film on austenite has higher conductivity than that on ferrite after hydrogen charging due to more hydrogen in austenite. The presence of hydrogen causes an inversion of conductivity type of passive film from p-type to n-type, attributed to the chemical composition change.
The cross section for the process e^{+}e^{-}→π^{+}π^{-}J/ψ is measured precisely at center-of-mass energies from 3.77 to 4.60 GeV using 9 fb^{-1} of data collected with the BESIII detector operating ...at the BEPCII storage ring. Two resonant structures are observed in a fit to the cross section. The first resonance has a mass of (4222.0±3.1±1.4) MeV/c^{2} and a width of (44.1±4.3±2.0) MeV, while the second one has a mass of (4320.0±10.4±7.0) MeV/c^{2} and a width of (101.4_{-19.7}^{+25.3}±10.2) MeV, where the first errors are statistical and second ones are systematic. The first resonance agrees with the Y(4260) resonance reported by previous experiments. The precision of its resonant parameters is improved significantly. The second resonance is observed in e^{+}e^{-}→π^{+}π^{-}J/ψ for the first time. The statistical significance of this resonance is estimated to be larger than 7.6σ. The mass and width of the second resonance agree with the Y(4360) resonance reported by the BABAR and Belle experiments within errors. Finally, the Y(4008) resonance previously observed by the Belle experiment is not confirmed in the description of the BESIII data.
Anthropogenic-driven climate change would affect the global ecosystem and is becoming a world-wide concern. Numerous studies have been undertaken to determine the future trends of meteorological ...variables at different scales. Despite these studies, there remains significant uncertainty in the prediction of future climates. To examine the uncertainty arising from using different schemes to downscale the meteorological variables for the future horizons, projections from different statistical downscaling schemes were examined. These schemes included statistical downscaling method (SDSM), change factor incorporated with LARS-WG, and bias corrected disaggregation (BCD) method. Global circulation models (GCMs) based on CMIP3 (HadCM3) and CMIP5 (CanESM2) were utilized to perturb the changes in the future climate. Five study sites (i.e., Alice Springs, Edmonton, Frankfurt, Miami, and Singapore) with diverse climatic conditions were chosen for examining the spatial variability of applying various statistical downscaling schemes. The study results indicated that the regions experiencing heavy precipitation intensities were most likely to demonstrate the divergence between the predictions from various statistical downscaling methods. Also, the variance computed in projecting the weather extremes indicated the uncertainty derived from selection of downscaling tools and climate models. This study could help gain an improved understanding about the features of different downscaling approaches and the overall downscaling uncertainty.
This study explored an integrated framework to assess the effectiveness of adaptation measures on the water productivity (WP) of the agricultural water management (AWM) system in the Huai river basin ...of China considering climate change impact. The adaptation measures include optimization of cropping pattern (OCP) and upgradation of irrigation techniques (UIT). The delta change method was used to downscale the climate variables from RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 of general circulation models (GCMs) during 2021–2050, the water footprint theory was used to estimate the spatial distribution of blue water to calculate the WP, and the nonlinear optimization model was used to seek optimal cropping pattern aiming at maximizing the system's WP. The changes in WP due to climate change and adaptation measures (e.g. combinations of OCP and UIT) were compared. Results indicated that WP under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 would be 4.56% and 6.51% lower than those under the benchmark scenario, respectively. The mitigation rates to the negative impact of climate change on WP under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 would be (1) 3.05% and 3.37% for the combination of spay irrigation technique and OCP, and (2) 4.34% and 4.59% for the combination of drip irrigation technique and OCP, respectively. It was revealed that the combination of drip irrigation and cropping pattern optimization could largely offset the adverse effect from climate change on WP under RCP4.5. Under such a scenario, the total plant areas of wheat and maize would reduce over the basin and so would the net export of crops in the basin; this would lead to a decrease in the crop trade benefit of 7.07 × 109 $ and a relief of 7.50 × 109 m3 of blue water loss. This study results could offer strategic decision support for long-term sustainable AWM of Huai river basin in a changing environment.
An integrated framework was proposed to assess the effectiveness of adaptation measures on the water productivity (WP) of the agricultural water management (AWM) system in the Huai river basin of China considering climate change impact. The adaptation measures include optimization of cropping pattern (OCP) and upgradation of irrigation techniques (UIT). The delta change method was used to downscale the climate variables from RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 of general circulation models (GCMs) during 2021–2050, the water footprint theory was used to estimate the spatial distribution of blue water to calculate the WP, and the nonlinear optimization model was used to seek optimal cropping pattern aiming at maximizing the system's WP. It was revealed that the combination of drip irrigation and cropping pattern optimization could completely offset the adverse effect from climate change on WP under RCP4.5. Under such a scenario, the total plant areas of wheat and maize would reduce over the basin and so would the net export of crops in the basin; this would lead to a decrease in the crop trade benefit of 7.07 × 109 $ and a relief of 7.50 × 109 m3 of blue water loss. The results from this study could be used by watershed managers to adjust the irrigation technique and cropping patterns in response to changing climate in the Huai river basin. The methodology framework is also general and could be popularized into other watersheds in different climate zones.
Figure. Study area and spatial patterns of blue water footprints in the control period. Display omitted
•Adaptation measures are assessed on agro-water-productivity in Huai river basin.•Climate variables from RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios during 2021–2050 are downscaled.•Both optimization and upgradation of irrigation techniques are considered.•Water footprint theory is used to estimate the spatial distribution of blue water.•Combing drip irrigation and cropping optimization would help offset climate impact.
•SLMed Ti6Al4V was tested in static/dynamic NaCl solutions with different concentrations.•The formed oxide film on SLMed Ti-6Al-4V includes TiO2, Ti2O3 and TiO.•The overall film thickness enhances ...with the increase in the Cl− concentration.•The film formed in dynamic conditions contains more defects.•The better corrosion resistance of the sample tested in static conditions was found.
In this work, the corrosion and passivation behavior of Ti-6Al-4V produced by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) were investigated in different concentration of NaCl solutions under static and dynamic conditions. Oxide films including TiO2, Ti2O3, TiO were formed on L-PBF-produced Ti-6Al-4V. The film thickness increased under both test conditions with increasing the Cl− concentration, and the film contained more TiO2 in dynamic conditions under the same Cl− concentration. The mechanism of the corrosion behavior and film growth under different Cl− concentration and electrolyte conditions were discussed by the relevant electrochemical and surface characteristic measurements, e.g. Mott-Schottky analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
PDF
