Remarks on Limits on String Scale from Proton Decay and Low-Energy amplitudes in Braneworld Scenario

We discuss IR limit of four-fermion scattering amplitudes in braneworld models including intersecting-branes and SUSY SU(5) GUT version of it. With certain compactification where instanton effect is negligible, grand unification condition in D6-D6 intersecting-branes scenario subject to experimental constraint on proton decay provides possibility for upper limit on the string scale, $M_S$, through relationship between the string coupling, $g_s$, and the string scale. We discuss how IR divergence is related to number of twisted fields we have to introduce into intersection region and how it can change IR behaviour of tree-level amplitudes in various intersecting-branes models. Using number of twisted fields, we identify some intersecting-branes models whose tree-level amplitudes are purely stringy in nature and automatically proportional to $g_s/M^2_{S}$ at low energy. They are consequently suppressed by the string scale. For comparison, we also derive limit on the lower bound of the string scale from experimental constraint on proton decay induced from purely stringy contribution in the coincident-branes model, the limit is about $10^5$ TeV.Comment: 14 page

Efficient GRASP+VND and GRASP+VNS metaheuristics for the traveling repairman problem

The traveling repairman problem is a customer-centric routing problem, in which the total waiting time of the customers is minimized, rather than the total travel time of a vehicle. To date, research on this problem has focused on exact algorithms and approximation methods. This paper presents the first metaheuristic approach for the traveling repairman problem

Quark mixing from softly broken symmetries

Quark flavor mixing may originate in the soft breaking of horizontal symmetries. Those symmetries, which in the simplest case are three family U(1) groups, are obeyed only by the dimension-4 Yukawa couplings and lead, when unbroken, to the absence of mixing. Their breaking may arise from the dimension-3 mass terms of SU(2)-singlet vector-like quarks. Those gauge-singlet mass terms break the horizontal symmetries at a scale much higher than the Fermi scale, yet softly, leading to quark mixing while the quark masses remain unsuppressed.Comment: 9 pages, plain Latex, no figure

Generation of integration-free neural progenitor cells from cells in human urine

Human neural stem cells hold great promise for research and therapy in neural disease. We describe the generation of integration-free and expandable human neural progenitor cells (NPCs). We combined an episomal system to deliver reprogramming factors with a chemically defined culture medium to reprogram epithelial-like cells from human urine into NPCs (hUiNPCs). These transgene-free hUiNPCs can self-renew and can differentiate into multiple functional neuronal subtypes and glial cells in vitro. Although functional in vivo analysis is still needed, we report that the cells survive and differentiate upon transplant into newborn rat brain.postprin

A case of rabies outbreak in a bull-calf from Nigeria

This paper describes a rabies outbreak in a bull-calf which led to euthanasia following manifestation of clinical signs of the disease. Infection was confirmed using a rapid immunochromatographic test of the homogenates from brain tissues (the brain stem, hippocampus and cerebellum) sample. Exposure to rabies virus (RABV) had resulted due to an attack by a free-roaming dog (FRD). Mass vaccination campaigns against rabies and improving biosecurity measures to limit access of free-roaming dogs to farms can prevent the occurrence of RABV in dogs, livestock animals and personnel at risk in Nigeria

Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and mortality of HIV, 1980–2017, and forecasts to 2030, for 195 countries and territories: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017

Background Understanding the patterns of HIV/AIDS epidemics is crucial to tracking and monitoring the progress of prevention and control efforts in countries. We provide a comprehensive assessment of the levels and trends of HIV/AIDS incidence, prevalence, mortality, and coverage of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for 1980–2017 and forecast these estimates to 2030 for 195 countries and territories. Methods We determined a modelling strategy for each country on the basis of the availability and quality of data. For countries and territories with data from population-based seroprevalence surveys or antenatal care clinics, we estimated prevalence and incidence using an open-source version of the Estimation and Projection Package—a natural history model originally developed by the UNAIDS Reference Group on Estimates, Modelling, and Projections. For countries with cause-specific vital registration data, we corrected data for garbage coding (ie, deaths coded to an intermediate, immediate, or poorly defined cause) and HIV misclassification. We developed a process of cohort incidence bias adjustment to use information on survival and deaths recorded in vital registration to back-calculate HIV incidence. For countries without any representative data on HIV, we produced incidence estimates by pulling information from observed bias in the geographical region. We used a re-coded version of the Spectrum model (a cohort component model that uses rates of disease progression and HIV mortality on and off ART) to produce age-sex-specific incidence, prevalence, and mortality, and treatment coverage results for all countries, and forecast these measures to 2030 using Spectrum with inputs that were extended on the basis of past trends in treatment scale-up and new infections. Findings Global HIV mortality peaked in 2006 with 1·95 million deaths (95% uncertainty interval 1·87–2·04) and has since decreased to 0·95 million deaths (0·91–1·01) in 2017. New cases of HIV globally peaked in 1999 (3·16 million, 2·79–3·67) and since then have gradually decreased to 1·94 million (1·63–2·29) in 2017. These trends, along with ART scale-up, have globally resulted in increased prevalence, with 36·8 million (34·8–39·2) people living with HIV in 2017. Prevalence of HIV was highest in southern sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, and countries in the region had ART coverage ranging from 65·7% in Lesotho to 85·7% in eSwatini. Our forecasts showed that 54 countries will meet the UNAIDS target of 81% ART coverage by 2020 and 12 countries are on track to meet 90% ART coverage by 2030. Forecasted results estimate that few countries will meet the UNAIDS 2020 and 2030 mortality and incidence targets. Interpretation Despite progress in reducing HIV-related mortality over the past decade, slow decreases in incidence, combined with the current context of stagnated funding for related interventions, mean that many countries are not on track to reach the 2020 and 2030 global targets for reduction in incidence and mortality. With a growing population of people living with HIV, it will continue to be a major threat to public health for years to come. The pace of progress needs to be hastened by continuing to expand access to ART and increasing investments in proven HIV prevention initiatives that can be scaled up to have population-level impact

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

The Effects of Type 2 Diabetes on Postoperative Pneumonia in Patients with Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Xue-e Su,1 Yu-Shen Yang,1 Shan-Hu Wu,1 Hai-Jun Weng,1 He-Fan He,1 Bao-Yuan Xie2 1Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, 362000, People’s Republic of China; 2Nursing Department, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, 362000, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: He-Fan He, Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, No.34 North Zhongshan Road, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, 362000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 15860905262, Email [email protected] Bao-Yuan Xie, Nursing Department, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, No.34 North Zhongshan Road, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, 362000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 18174689901, Email [email protected]: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and postoperative pneumonia (POP) after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, and explore the risk factors involved in the prediction of postoperative pneumonia in patients with T2DM.Patients and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 476 inpatients with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) in The Second Hospital of Fujian Medical University between January 2019 and December 2023. Demographic information, clinical variables including surgical data and preoperative laboratory indices that potentially impact POP were included. Subgroup and logistic analysis were performed to demonstrate risk factors for POP in patients with T2DM.Results: The incidences of POP were higher in patients with T2DM than patients without this condition (T2DM 23.08% vs non-diabetes 10.54%, P< 0.001). Logistic analysis further demonstrated that T2DM [odds ratio (OR), 2.07, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.13– 3.83] is an independent risk of POP after adjusting for sex, age, hospital stay, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, and tumor location. Thereafter, the subgroup analysis demonstrated that patients with T2DM in the setting of male gender, positive P53 and chemoradiotherapy displayed a higher incidence rate of POP. Subsequent logistic analysis indicated that sex and tumor location were independently associated with POP in patients with T2DM.Conclusion: Patients with T2DM who underwent VATS display a higher incidence of POP than those without this disease. Additionally, male gender and tumor location were independent risk factor for POP in patients with T2DM. Thus, male patients with T2DM, perioperative management should be improved and optimized for patient safety.Keywords: type 2 diabetes, postoperative pneumonia, video-assisted thoracoscopic surger

Advanced Catalyst Design and Reactor Configuration Upgrade in Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Conversion

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) driven by renewable energy shows great promise in mitigating and potentially reversing the devastating effects of anthropogenic climate change and environmental degradation. The simultaneous synthesis of energy-dense chemicals can meet global energy demand while decoupling emissions from economic growth. However, the development of CO2RR technology faces challenges in catalyst discovery and device optimization that hinder their industrial implementation. In this contribution, a comprehensive overview of the current state of CO2RR research is provided, starting with the background and motivation for this technology, followed by the fundamentals and evaluated metrics. Then the underlying design principles of electrocatalysts are discussed, emphasizing their structure–performance correlations and advanced electrochemical assembly cells that can increase CO2RR selectivity and throughput. Finally, the review looks to the future and identifies opportunities for innovation in mechanism discovery, material screening strategies, and device assemblies to move toward a carbon-neutral society

Functional Diversification of Paralogous Transcription Factors via Divergence in DNA Binding Site Motif and in Expression

BACKGROUND: Gene duplication is a major driver of evolutionary innovation as it allows for an organism to elaborate its existing biological functions via specialization or diversification of initially redundant gene paralogs. Gene function can diversify in several ways. Transcription factor gene paralogs in particular, can diversify either by changes in their tissue-specific expression pattern or by changes in the DNA binding site motif recognized by their protein product, which in turn alters their gene targets. The relationship between these two modes of functional diversification of transcription factor paralogs has not been previously investigated, and is essential for understanding adaptive evolution of transcription factor gene families. FINDINGS: Based on a large set of human paralogous transcription factor pairs, we show that when the DNA binding site motifs of transcription factor paralogs are similar, the expressions of the genes that encode the paralogs have diverged, so in general, at most one of the paralogs is highly expressed in a tissue. Moreover, paralogs with diverged DNA binding site motifs tend to be diverged in their function. Conversely, two paralogs that are highly expressed in a tissue tend to have dissimilar DNA binding site motifs. We have also found that in general, within a paralogous family, tissue-specific decrease in gene expression is more frequent than what is expected by chance. CONCLUSIONS: While previous investigations of paralogous gene diversification have only considered coding sequence divergence, by explicitly quantifying divergence in DNA binding site motif, our work presents a new paradigm for investigating functional diversification. Consistent with evolutionary expectation, our quantitative analysis suggests that paralogous transcription factors have survived extinction in part, either through diversification of their DNA binding site motifs or through alterations in their tissue-specific expression levels