Current-driven skyrmionium in a frustrated magnetic system

Magnetic skyrmionium can be used as a nanometer-scale non-volatile information carrier, which shows no skyrmion Hall effect due to its special structure carrying zero topological charge. Here, we report the static and dynamic properties of an isolated nanoscale skyrmionium in a frustrated magnetic monolayer, where the skyrmionium is stabilized by competing interactions. The frustrated skyrmionium has a size of about $10$ nm, which can be further reduced by tuning perpendicular magnetic anisotropy or magnetic field. It is found that the nanoscale skyrmionium driven by the damping-like spin-orbit torque shows directional motion with a favored Bloch-type helicity. A small driving current or magnetic field can lead to the transformation of an unstable N\'eel-type skyrmionium to a metastable Bloch-type skyrmionium. A large driving current may result in the distortion and collapse of the Bloch-type skyrmionium. Our results are useful for the understanding of frustrated skyrmionium physics, which also provide guidelines for the design of spintronic devices based on topological spin textures.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Blocking interaction between SHP2 and PD‐1 denotes a novel opportunity for developing PD‐1 inhibitors

Small molecular PD‐1 inhibitors are lacking in current immuno‐oncology clinic. PD‐1/PD‐L1 antibody inhibitors currently approved for clinical usage block interaction between PD‐L1 and PD‐1 to enhance cytotoxicity of CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL). Whether other steps along the PD‐1 signaling pathway can be targeted remains to be determined. Here, we report that methylene blue (MB), an FDA‐approved chemical for treating methemoglobinemia, potently inhibits PD‐1 signaling. MB enhances the cytotoxicity, activation, cell proliferation, and cytokine‐secreting activity of CTL inhibited by PD‐1. Mechanistically, MB blocks interaction between Y248‐phosphorylated immunoreceptor tyrosine‐based switch motif (ITSM) of human PD‐1 and SHP2. MB enables activated CTL to shrink PD‐L1 expressing tumor allografts and autochthonous lung cancers in a transgenic mouse model. MB also effectively counteracts the PD‐1 signaling on human T cells isolated from peripheral blood of healthy donors. Thus, we identify an FDA‐approved chemical capable of potently inhibiting the function of PD‐1. Equally important, our work sheds light on a novel strategy to develop inhibitors targeting PD‐1 signaling axis

Pedagogical Conditions for Learning to Play the Saxophone in The Distance Learning Format

The article is devoted to topical issues of creating pedagogical conditions for learning to play the saxophone in distant format. The relevance of the research topic is due to the fact that during the period of quarantine on COVID-19 pandemic, education in music universities required new teaching methods and new pedagogical conditions. The research materials were the valuation results of pedagogical observation in two groups of 1st year students of the music university. The general sample of students was 150 people. The representative sample was 50 people selected by mechanical sampling. Two groups of 15 students, participated in the experimental sessions, and one control group were selected. The material was collected with author’s methodology, conditioned by the research logic and objectives. The empirical study was carried out in three stages. The research methodology was based on a systematic approach and includes the methods of the general scientific group (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction); as well as special methods: content analysis of scientific literature, the method of included pedagogical observation, statistical analysis. As a result of the study, the author came to the following conclusions: in order to improve the level of professional skills of playing the saxophone among 1st year students, it is important to create special pedagogical conditions in the distance learning format (the use of multimedia, digital and communication technologies, collective music-making online and individual work based on online classes)

A083: Effects of Muscle Energy Technique on Neuromuscular Function in Patients with Non-Specific Lower Back Pain

Background/Purpose: Non-specific lower back pain (NLBP) is one of the most common causes of disability worldwide. In patients with NLBP, reduced lumbar flexion-relaxation and reduced variability of muscle activity distribution are reported as abnormal muscle activity. Muscle energy technique (MET) is used to be a conservative, non-pharmacological treatment method for somatic dysfunctions of the musculoskeletal system. However, the effect of MET approach on the flexion-relaxation phenomena (FRP) is unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of MET on pain, lumbar function, and FRP in patients with NLBP. Methods/Design: Thirty patients with NLBP were randomized into the MET group (21.9±2.0 yrs, 1.72±0.09 m, 67.3±14.0 kg) and control group (20.9±1.2 yrs., 1.73±0.09 m, 65.0±9.6 kg). They received MET intervention and health lecture series for 4-weeks, respectively. Pain scores (Visual Analogue Scale, VAS), the lumbar dysfunction index (Oswestry Disability Index, ODI), and FRR of the erector spinae (FRR-ES) and multifidus (FRR-M) during trunk flexion-relaxation tests were assessed before and after the intervention. Two-way analysis of variance tests with repeated measures was used to evaluate MET effects. Results: Significant interactions were detected in VAS (P=0.001, η2=0.308) and ODI (P=0.005, η2=0.244). The VAS (from 5.07±1.39 to 2.20±1.32, P \u3c 0.001) and ODI (from 18.53±5.83 to 10.00±8.45, P \u3c 0.001) were decreased at week 5 compared to week 0, respectively. Additionally, the VAS ( P \u3c 0.001) and ODI (P \u3c 0.001) were lower in the MET group compared to the control group at week 5, respectively. Similarly, significant interactions were detected in FRR-ES (P=0.009, η2=0.244) and FRR-M (P=0.047, η2=0.148). The FRR-M (from 11.72±5.73 to 14.79±6.52, P=0.028) was increased in the MET group, while the FRR-ES (from 17.30±4.19 to 14.92±4.47, P=0.009) was decreased in the control group at week 5 compared to week 0, respectively. No significant differences were detected for both FRR-ES (P=0.328) and FRR-M (P=0.864) between the MET group and the control group at week 5. Conclusion: MET could be recommended as one of the clinical treatments for NLBP to relieve pain and improve lumbar function

Development of Space-Time-Controlled Multi-Stage Pulsed Magnetic Field Forming and Manufacturing Technology at the WHMFC*

In November 2011, the Project of Basic Research of Forming by Space-Time-Controlled Multi-Stage Pulsed Magnetic Field (Stic-Must-PMF) was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Project, 2011.11-2016.08). It is aimed at achieving breakthroughs in manufacturing technology to solve current problems in forming largescale and complex sheet and tube parts and components, imposed by the limitations of existing equipment and materials forming properties. The objective of our research group focuses on the design principles and structural layout optimization of Stic-Must-PMF facility. And this paper will report the development of Stic-Must-PMF forming and manufacturing technology at the Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center (WHMFC) including numerical modeling, experimental setup and experimental studies

Aesthetically Relevant Image Captioning

Image aesthetic quality assessment (AQA) aims to assign numerical aesthetic ratings to images whilst image aesthetic captioning (IAC) aims to generate textual descriptions of the aesthetic aspects of images. In this paper, we study image AQA and IAC together and present a new IAC method termed Aesthetically Relevant Image Captioning (ARIC). Based on the observation that most textual comments of an image are about objects and their interactions rather than aspects of aesthetics, we first introduce the concept of Aesthetic Relevance Score (ARS) of a sentence and have developed a model to automatically label a sentence with its ARS. We then use the ARS to design the ARIC model which includes an ARS weighted IAC loss function and an ARS based diverse aesthetic caption selector (DACS). We present extensive experimental results to show the soundness of the ARS concept and the effectiveness of the ARIC model by demonstrating that texts with higher ARS's can predict the aesthetic ratings more accurately and that the new ARIC model can generate more accurate, aesthetically more relevant and more diverse image captions. Furthermore, a large new research database containing 510K images with over 5 million comments and 350K aesthetic scores, and code for implementing ARIC are available at https://github.com/PengZai/ARIC.Comment: Aceepted by AAAI2023. Code and results available at https://github.com/PengZai/ARI