1,854 research outputs found
Superfluid and magnetic states of an ultracold Bose gas with synthetic three-dimensional spin-orbit coupling in an optical lattice
We study ultracold bosonic atoms with the synthetic three-dimensional
spin-orbit (SO) coupling in a cubic optical lattice. In the superfluidity
phase, the lowest energy band exhibits one, two or four pairs of degenerate
single-particle ground states depending on the SO-coupling strengths, which can
give rise to the condensate states with spin-stripes for the weak atomic
interactions. In the deep Mott-insulator regime, the effective spin Hamiltonian
of the system combines three-dimensional Heisenberg exchange interactions,
anisotropy interactions and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. Based on Monte
Carlo simulations, we numerically demonstrate that the resulting Hamiltonian
with an additional Zeeman field has a rich phase diagram with spiral, stripe,
vortex crystal, and especially Skyrmion crystal spin-textures in each xy-plane
layer. The obtained Skyrmion crystals can be tunable with square and hexagonal
symmetries in a columnar manner along the z axis, and moreover are stable
against the inter-layer spin-spin interactions in a large parameter region.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; title modified, references and discussions added;
accepted by PR
Lentinan relieves hepatitis B surface antigen induced functional impairment of monocytes/macrophages
Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of lentinan in relieving hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)- induced functional impairment of monocytes/macrophages.Methods: Monocytic cell line THP-1 was incubated with lentinan and HBsAg for 24 h and then stimulated with LPS (Lipopolysaccharide). The expression levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-12 and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) assays and quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR (q-PCR). Protein levels of IkB-α, phospho-ERK, and phospho-p38 were measured by western blotting.Results: THP-1 cells treated with lentinan and HBsAg showed higher IL-1β, IL-12, and TNF-α levels than cells treated with HBsAg alone. The underlying mechanisms were associated with NF-kB and MAPK signal pathways. Decreased expression of IkB-α and phospho-ERK and increased expression of phospho-JNK and phospho-p38 were observed in cells treated with lentinan and HBsAg when compared with cells treated with HBsAg alone (p < 0.001). THP-1 cells incubated with 500 μg/mL lentinan secreted lower levels of cytokines than did control cells after LPS stimulation, suggesting an anti-inflammatory effect for lentinan.Conclusion: Lentinan shows both pro- and anti-inflammatory functions and may be a promising candidate for hepatitis B virus (HBV) treatment.Keywords: Hepatitis B surface antigen, Lentinan, Immuno-suppression, Pro-inflammatory, Antiinflammator
Klippel–Trénaunay syndrome with profound abdominal lymphatic-venous malformation in a three-day-old newborn: a case report and literature review
BackgroundKlippel–Trénaunay syndrome, a kind of congenital limb-length-discrepancy disorder, is commonly associated with a variety of vascular anomalies.Case presentationWe present the case of a three-day-old newborn with a profound abdominal mass lesion during prenatal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination. After delivery, physical examination revealed mild hemihypertrophy of the left lower extremity and red lesions on the left thigh. MRI of the abdomen showed a cyst-like lesion measuring 6.3 cm × 2.7 cm × 5.5 cm in the upper abdomen. Within the mass, there were also some possible calcified spots exhibiting high T1WI signals and low T2WI signals. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen was consistent with an ill-defined cystic tumor with small calcifications and encasement of mesenteric vessels. A MRI of the left lower extremity showed a tubular structure with a signal void and homogeneous strong enhancement located in the anterior subcutis of the left lower limb. The CT scan confirmed that the tubular structure was consistent with a venous malformation. This patient had features of Klippel–Trénaunay syndrome, including port-wine stains, a profound abdominal mass, and vascular malformations of the left lower extremity.ConclusionsIn this article, we presented a case of Klippel–Trénaunay syndrome, emphasizing both prenatal and confirmatory postnatal cross-sectional imaging findings. The rare presentation of an abdominal lymphatic-venous formation played a pivotal role as a crucial indicator for an early diagnosis of Klippel–Trénaunay syndrome
PanoGRF: Generalizable Spherical Radiance Fields for Wide-baseline Panoramas
Achieving an immersive experience enabling users to explore virtual
environments with six degrees of freedom (6DoF) is essential for various
applications such as virtual reality (VR). Wide-baseline panoramas are commonly
used in these applications to reduce network bandwidth and storage
requirements. However, synthesizing novel views from these panoramas remains a
key challenge. Although existing neural radiance field methods can produce
photorealistic views under narrow-baseline and dense image captures, they tend
to overfit the training views when dealing with \emph{wide-baseline} panoramas
due to the difficulty in learning accurate geometry from sparse
views. To address this problem, we propose PanoGRF, Generalizable Spherical
Radiance Fields for Wide-baseline Panoramas, which construct spherical radiance
fields incorporating scene priors. Unlike generalizable radiance
fields trained on perspective images, PanoGRF avoids the information loss from
panorama-to-perspective conversion and directly aggregates geometry and
appearance features of 3D sample points from each panoramic view based on
spherical projection. Moreover, as some regions of the panorama are only
visible from one view while invisible from others under wide baseline settings,
PanoGRF incorporates monocular depth priors into spherical depth
estimation to improve the geometry features. Experimental results on multiple
panoramic datasets demonstrate that PanoGRF significantly outperforms
state-of-the-art generalizable view synthesis methods for wide-baseline
panoramas (e.g., OmniSyn) and perspective images (e.g., IBRNet, NeuRay)
Rural–urban disparities in the incidence and treatment intensity of periodontal disease among patients with diabetes
BackgroundDiabetes threatens population health, especially in rural areas. Diabetes and periodontal diseases have a bidirectional relationship. A persistence of rural–urban disparities in diabetes may indicate a rural–urban difference in periodontal disease among patients with diabetes; however, the evidence is lacking. This retrospective study aimed to investigate rural–urban discrepancies in the incidence and treatment intensity of periodontal disease among patients who were newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the year 2010.MethodsThe present study was a retrospective cohort design, with two study samples: patients with type 2 diabetes and those who were further diagnosed with periodontal disease. The data sources included the 2010 Diabetes Mellitus Health Database at the patient level, the National Geographic Information Standardization Platform and the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan at the township level. Two dependent variables were a time-to-event outcome for periodontal disease among patients with type 2 diabetes and the treatment intensity measured for patients who were further diagnosed with periodontal disease. The key independent variables are two dummy variables, representing rural and suburban areas, with urban areas as the reference group. The Cox and Poisson regression models were applied for analyses.ResultsOf 68,365 qualified patients, 49% of them had periodontal disease within 10 years after patients were diagnosed with diabetes. Compared to urban patients with diabetes, rural (HR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.75–0.91) and suburban patients (HR = 0.86, 95% CI: 0.83–0.89) had a lower incidence of periodontal disease. Among 33,612 patients with periodontal disease, rural patients received less treatment intensity of dental care (Rural: RR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.83, 0.92; suburban: RR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.92, 0.95) than urban patients.ConclusionGiven the underutilization of dental care among rural patients with diabetes, a low incidence of periodontal disease indicates potentially undiagnosed periodontal disease, and low treatment intensity signals potentially unmet dental needs. Our findings provide a potential explanation for the persistence of rural–urban disparities in poor diabetes outcomes. Policy interventions to enhance the likelihood of identifying periodontal disease at the early stage for proper treatment would ease the burden of diabetes care and narrow rural–urban discrepancies in diabetes outcomes
Interpersonal Relationships among University Safety Professionals: The Impact of a Safety Departmentf
PresentationForming strong interpersonal relationships enables an organization or individual to achieve more favorable outcomes. The objectives of this study were to examine the frequency of interpersonal interactions among safety professionals (SPs) employed at Taiwanese universities and the factors that affected this frequency. To accomplish these objectives, we mailed questionnaires to a simple random sampling of 200 university SPs. Moreover, an interpersonal relationship scale was developed in this study; exploratory factor and internal consistency analyses revealed that the scale was valid and reliable. Results derived from the questionnaire revealed that in SP interpersonal relationships, general affairs department personnel, laboratory or internship unit supervisors, and teaching staff ranked highest in frequency of interactions. Multivariate analysis of variance results showed that establishing a safety department exerted a statistically significant effect on SP interpersonal relationships. SPs employed by universities with safety departments interacted more frequently with both internal and external relationships. Therefore, we suggest that universities without a safety department establish such a department to strengthen the labor safety and health structure, thereby benefitting SPs in fulfilling responsibilities to promote safety and health management
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