The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a 20 kton multipurpose liquid scintillator detector with an unprecedented energy resolution of 3% at 1 MeV being built in a dedicated ...underground laboratory in China and expected to start data taking in 2021. The main physics goal of the experiment is the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy with a significance of 3-4 σ within six years of running using electron antineutrinos coming from two nuclear power plants at a baseline of about 53 km. Beyond this fundamental question, JUNO will also have a very rich physics program including the precise measurement at a sub-percent level of the solar neutrino oscillation parameters, the detection of low-energy neutrinos coming from galactic core-collapse supernova, diffuse supernova background, the Sun and the Earth (geo-neutrinos). This manuscript will give an overview on the JUNO physics potential and the current status of the project.
Approximately one-quarter of adnexal masses detected at ultrasonography are indeterminate for benignity or malignancy, posing a substantial clinical dilemma.
To validate the accuracy of a 5-point ...Ovarian-Adnexal Reporting Data System Magnetic Resonance Imaging (O-RADS MRI) score for risk stratification of adnexal masses.
This multicenter cohort study was conducted between March 1, 2013, and March 31, 2016. Among patients undergoing expectant management, 2-year follow-up data were completed by March 31, 2018. A routine pelvic MRI was performed among consecutive patients referred to characterize a sonographically indeterminate adnexal mass according to routine diagnostic practice at 15 referral centers. The MRI score was prospectively applied by 2 onsite readers and by 1 reader masked to clinical and ultrasonographic data. Data analysis was conducted between April and November 2018.
The primary end point was the joint analysis of true-negative and false-negative rates according to the MRI score compared with the reference standard (ie, histology or 2-year follow-up).
A total of 1340 women (mean range age, 49 18-96 years) were enrolled. Of 1194 evaluable women, 1130 (94.6%) had a pelvic mass on MRI with a reference standard (surgery, 768 67.9%; 2-year follow-up, 362 32.1%). A total of 203 patients (18.0%) had at least 1 malignant adnexal or nonadnexal pelvic mass. No invasive cancer was assigned a score of 2. Positive likelihood ratios were 0.01 for score 2, 0.27 for score 3, 4.42 for score 4, and 38.81 for score 5. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.961 (95% CI, 0.948-0.971) among experienced readers, with a sensitivity of 0.93 (95% CI, 0.89-0.96; 189 of 203 patients) and a specificity of 0.91 (95% CI, 0.89-0.93; 848 of 927 patients). There was good interrater agreement among both experienced and junior readers (κ = 0.784; 95% CI, 0.743-0824). Of 580 of 1130 women (51.3%) with a mass on MRI and no specific gynecological symptoms, 362 (62.4%) underwent surgery. Of them, 244 (67.4%) had benign lesions and a score of 3 or less. The MRI score correctly reclassified the mass origin as nonadnexal with a sensitivity of 0.99 (95% CI, 0.98-0.99; 1360 of 1372 patients) and a specificity of 0.78 (95% CI, 0.71-0.85; 102 of 130 patients).
In this study, the O-RADS MRI score was accurate when stratifying the risk of malignancy in adnexal masses.
Collation of published data for the four described
Sulfobacillus species failed to generate a clear account of their relative bioleaching capabilities. The two main goals of this work were therefore ...to generate comparable data for the four described species and to incorporate the data into an evaluation of their contribution to metals extraction in bioleaching environments, summarised as follows: The sulfobacilli are moderately thermophilic acidophiles that grow in sulfurous and sulfidic environments with broad geographical distribution, across a range of temperatures and solution pH relevant to bioleaching. They attach to mineral sulfide surfaces, which may promote faster sulfide oxidation and they enhance to different degrees the leaching of mineral sulfides. In general, their tolerances to soluble metals tend to be low in comparison with the concentrations they may experience in leaching reactors. However, their presence in both heaps (low grade sulfide ores) and agitated tanks (high grade sulfide concentrates) demonstrates a strong ability to adapt to high metal ion concentrations in leachates. Their ability to form spores confers the ability to survive hostile environments and resume active growth when favourable conditions are restored. This last characteristic may counter their sensitivity to soluble base metals.
•Distinct microbial communities dominate solids and liquids from heap.•Cell numbers decline rapidly when Fe3+ and (SO4)2− exceed 25 and 75gL−1 respectively.•Leptospirillum – the primary iron(II) ...oxidiser in solution and residue samples from the heap.
Three largely-independent studies were undertaken on the same heap leach system during the period of transition from processing oxidised ores to sulfide ores: monitoring of heap solutions for microorganisms, analysis of samples from a spent heap, and column tests. Microbial cell numbers and diversity were monitored in process water samples from the transition heap over a four-year period. Cell numbers remained low throughout, 1–30×104cells mL−1, possibly reflecting growth inhibition by the high element concentrations in process water. High iron, magnesium and aluminium concentrations in spent heap pregnant leach solution (PLS) are attributed to siderite and clinochlore dissolution and would be expected to impact on microbial growth. Planktonic cell numbers in a column leachate declined rapidly by two orders of magnitude when concentrations of ferric ion and sulfate exceeded 30 and 75gL−1, respectively. Nevertheless, a variety of bacterial strains closely related to Acidithiobacillus (At.) ferrooxidans, At. caldus, Leptospirillum (L.) ferriphilum, Acidimicrobium (Am.) ferrooxidans, Acidiphilium (Ap.) cryptum, an Alicyclobacillus-related strain and Sulfobacillus (S.) thermosulfidooxidans, and the archaeon Ferroplasma (F.) acidiphilum were isolated, mainly from the more acidic intermediate leach solutions (ILS). Overall, the results obtained from the use of culture-dependent and culture-independent methods of community analysis were complementary and consistent. The majority of identified genera and species were present in both the process water samples from the operating heap and the solutions and ore samples from the spent heap. In the spent heap, distinct populations dominated different sample types. Leptospirillum- and Acidithiobacillus-like strains dominated PLS samples and Leptospirillum also dominated seven of eight spent ore samples and all of the heap sediment samples, making it the primary iron(II) oxidising species.
Selective enrichments enabled the recovery of moderately thermophilic isolates with copper bioleaching ability from a spent copper sulfide heap. Phylogenetic and physiological characterization ...revealed that the isolates were closely related to Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans, Acidithiobacillus caldus and Acidimicrobium ferrooxidans. While isolates exhibited similar physiological characteristics to their corresponding type strains, in general they displayed similar or greater tolerance of high copper, zinc, nickel and cobalt concentrations. Considerable variation was found between species and between several strains related to S. thermosulfidooxidans. It is concluded that adaptation to metals present in the bioleaching heap from which they were isolated contributed to but did not entirely explain high metals tolerances. Higher metals tolerance did not confer stronger bioleaching performance, suggesting that a physical, mineralogical or chemical process is rate limiting for a specific ore or concentrate.
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