Investigating the NCQ scaling of elliptic flow at LHC with a multiphase transport model

The number of constituent quark (NCQ) scaling behavior of elliptic flow has been systematically studied at the LHC energy within the framework of a multiphase transport model (AMPT) in this work. We find that the parameters used to generate the initial states and the collision centrality are important for the existence of NCQ scaling even when hadronic rescattering contribution is off in Pb-Pb collisions of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV. By turning on the hadron rescattering process, the hadronic evolution impacts are also found to be significant. Extending the analysis to Pb-Pb collsions of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV, one would observe similar qualitative features

The universal scaling of kinetic freeze-out parameters across different collision systems at the LHC energy

In this paper, we perform the Tsallis Blast-Wave analysis on the transverse momentum spectra of identified hadrons produced in a wide range of collision systems at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) including pp, pPb, XeXe and PbPb collisions. The kinetic freeze-out properties are investigated across these systems varying with the event multiplicity. We find that the extracted kinetic freeze-out temperature, radial flow velocity and the non-extensive parameter exhibit a universal scaling behavior for these systems with very different geometric size, especially when the independent baryon Tsallis non-extensive parameter is considered. This universality may indicate the existence of a unified partonic evolution stage in different collision systems at the LHC energies.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Chinese Physics

Structural Stability of Lexical Semantic Spaces: Nouns in Chinese and French

Many studies in the neurosciences have dealt with the semantic processing of words or categories, but few have looked into the semantic organization of the lexicon thought as a system. The present study was designed to try to move towards this goal, using both electrophysiological and corpus-based data, and to compare two languages from different families: French and Mandarin Chinese. We conducted an EEG-based semantic-decision experiment using 240 words from eight categories (clothing, parts of a house, tools, vehicles, fruits/vegetables, animals, body parts, and people) as the material. A data-analysis method (correspondence analysis) commonly used in computational linguistics was applied to the electrophysiological signals. The present cross-language comparison indicated stability for the following aspects of the languages' lexical semantic organizations: (1) the living/nonliving distinction, which showed up as a main factor for both languages; (2) greater dispersion of the living categories as compared to the nonliving ones; (3) prototypicality of the \emph{animals} category within the living categories, and with respect to the living/nonliving distinction; and (4) the existence of a person-centered reference gradient. Our electrophysiological analysis indicated stability of the networks at play in each of these processes. Stability was also observed in the data taken from word usage in the languages (synonyms and associated words obtained from textual corpora).Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Cigarette Smoking Is Significantly Linked to Sexual Dissatisfaction in Chinese Heroin-Dependent Patients Receiving Methadone Maintenance Treatment

Background: Cigarette smoking is associated with sexual dysfunction in the general population. Both smoking and sexual dysfunction are common in heroin-dependent patients (HDPs) receiving methadone maintenance treatment (MMT), but their association in MMT HDPs is rarely studied. This study examined the association between smoking and sexual dissatisfaction in Chinese HDPs receiving MMT.Methods: In total, 480 Chinese HDPs, who had sex with their regular or irregular sex partners within one month prior to the study, were included from three MMT clinics in Wuhan, China. Sexual dissatisfaction was assessed with one single question. Socio-demographic and clinical data and smoking characteristics were collected with a standardized questionnaire. Multiple binary logistic regression was used to analyze the association between smoking and sexual dissatisfaction, as well as the associations between levels of smoking and nicotine dependence and sexual dissatisfaction.Results: The prevalence of current smoking was 95.6% in HDPs receiving MMT. Rates of sexual dissatisfaction were higher in current smokers than non-smokers (32.9% vs. 14.3%) with a borderline significant P value of 0.074. After adjusting potential socio-demographic and clinical confounders, current smoking was significantly linked to sexual dissatisfaction (OR = 1.95, P = 0.026), and heavy smoking and severe nicotine dependence were significantly linked to sexual dissatisfaction (OR = 1.80, P = 0.025; OR = 3.27, P < 0.001).Conclusion: Smoking is significantly associated with sexual dysfunction in HDPs receiving MMT. It deserves further investigation as to whether quitting smoking can improve the sexual function of methadone-maintained patients

3,4-O-Isopropyl­idene-2,7-di-O-p-tolyl­sulfonyl-α-l-xylo-3-heptulo-3,6-furan­osononitrile

In the title compound, C24H27NO10S2, derived from l-sorbofuran­ose, the fused five-membered rings display envelope conformations. The two tosyl­ate branches are in equatorial positions with respect to the furan­ose ring, while the hydr­oxy group is in the axial position. In the crystal structure, the hydr­oxy group is involved in inter­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, linking mol­ecules in chains along [100]

Prevalence of Deliberate Self-harm Among Chinese Patients With Heroin Dependence: A Meta-Analysis

Background: There is paucity of data regarding the prevalence and methods of deliberate self-harm (DSH) in patients with heroin dependence in international literature. In China, there have been a few studies investigating the prevalence of DSH in heroin-dependent patients (HDPs), but their rates varied widely. We thus conducted a meta-analysis of studies assessing the prevalence of DSH among Chinese HDPs.Methods: Relevant studies were retrieved from major Chinese databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang data, and SinoMed) and western databases (PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycInfo). Two authors independently identified eligible studies and extracted data. Studies that included a representative sample of Chinese HDPs and ascertained DSH caseness in a reliable way were considered as high quality. Statistical analysis was performed using R software.Results: In total, 15 eligible studies with a total of 37,243 Chinese HDPs were included. All included studies were conducted in heroin detoxification settings. Only two studies were rated as high quality. The pooled prevalence of DSH in Chinese HDPs was 4.4% (95%CI: 2.9, 6.2%), but the heterogeneity of prevalence rates across studies was significant (I2 = 98%, P < 0.001). Studies rated as high quality had significantly higher prevalence of DSH than those rated as low quality (13.2 vs. 3.4%, P < 0.001). Swallowing foreign objects was the most common method of DSH, with a combined prevalence of 2.7% (95%CI: 1.6, 4.4%). Extreme DSH methods such as cutting off fingers and jumping from height were also not uncommon in this patient population.Conclusion: Due to methodological problems in available studies, we find a relatively low prevalence of DSH among Chinese HDPs receiving detoxification treatment. Nevertheless, the self-harmers of Chinese HDPs are more likely to harm themselves in a dangerous or life-threatening way. Restricting the availability of DSH methods may be an effective way to prevent or reduce DSH in China's detoxification treatment settings

Investigating high energy proton proton collisions with a multi-phase transport model approach based on PYTHIA8 initial conditions

The striking resemblance of high multiplicity proton-proton (pp) collisions at the LHC to heavy ion collisions challenges our conventional wisdom on the formation of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). A consistent explanation of the collectivity phenomena in pp will help us to understand the mechanism that leads to the QGP-like signals in small systems. In this study, we introduce a transport model approach connecting the initial conditions provided by PYTHIA8 with subsequent AMPT rescatterings to study the collective behavior in high energy pp collisions. The multiplicity dependence of light hadron productions from this model is in reasonable agreement with the pp $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV experimental data. It is found in the comparisons that both the partonic and hadronic final state interactions are important for the generation of the radial flow feature of the pp transverse momentum spectra. The study also shows that the long range two particle azimuthal correlation in high multiplicity pp events is sensitive to the proton sub-nucleon spatial fluctuations