Oriental schistosomiasis with neurological complications: case report

We describe a case of cerebral schistosomiasis, caused by Asian (oriental) Schistosoma japonicum trematode blood flukes, in a young Chinese patient and its management. We also provide a brief update for physicians on the clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of schistosomiasis, with particular emphasis on neuroschistosomiasis, the most severe clinical outcome associated with this parasitic infection

First-principles study of O-2 activation on ligand-protected Au-32 clusters

NSFC [20873088]; Open Funds of State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces (Xiamen University) [201109]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Southwest University for Nationalities [11NZYBS07]Poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) is often used to protect active Au clusters from coalescence. The influences of PVP on the O-2 adsorption on Au-32 clusters were investigated using density functional theory calculations. Various low-lying structures of O-2:Au-32 and O-2:Au-32:PVP complexes, in which the Au-32 is either neutral or anionic and the O-2 is either molecular or dissociative, were identified. The PVP influences were evaluated in terms of the changes in geometry, adsorption energy, charge redistribution, spin density, and density of states upon PVP pre-adsorption. Our calculations reveal that PVP weakly adsorbs on the cluster surface, with rather small changes in the structural, geometrical and electronic properties that are relevant to the O-2 activation. The activity of neutral or anionic Au-32 towards O-2 is kept or slightly enhanced by PVP because of the cooperative adsorption of PVP and O-2. This is the structural basis of choosing PVP as the protective ligand for Au clusters

The energy spectrum of all-particle cosmic rays around the knee region observed with the Tibet-III air-shower array

We have already reported the first result on the all-particle spectrum around the knee region based on data from 2000 November to 2001 October observed by the Tibet-III air-shower array. In this paper, we present an updated result using data set collected in the period from 2000 November through 2004 October in a wide range over 3 decades between $10^{14}$ eV and $10^{17}$ eV, in which the position of the knee is clearly seen at around 4 PeV. The spectral index is -2.68 $\pm$ 0.02(stat.) below 1PeV, while it is -3.12 $\pm$ 0.01(stat.) above 4 PeV in the case of QGSJET+HD model, and various systematic errors are under study now.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Advances in space researc

Moon Shadow by Cosmic Rays under the Influence of Geomagnetic Field and Search for Antiprotons at Multi-TeV Energies

We have observed the shadowing of galactic cosmic ray flux in the direction of the moon, the so-called moon shadow, using the Tibet-III air shower array operating at Yangbajing (4300 m a.s.l.) in Tibet since 1999. Almost all cosmic rays are positively charged; for that reason, they are bent by the geomagnetic field, thereby shifting the moon shadow westward. The cosmic rays will also produce an additional shadow in the eastward direction of the moon if cosmic rays contain negatively charged particles, such as antiprotons, with some fraction. We selected 1.5 x10^{10} air shower events with energy beyond about 3 TeV from the dataset observed by the Tibet-III air shower array and detected the moon shadow at $\sim 40 \sigma$ level. The center of the moon was detected in the direction away from the apparent center of the moon by 0.23$^\circ$ to the west. Based on these data and a full Monte Carlo simulation, we searched for the existence of the shadow produced by antiprotons at the multi-TeV energy region. No evidence of the existence of antiprotons was found in this energy region. We obtained the 90% confidence level upper limit of the flux ratio of antiprotons to protons as 7% at multi-TeV energies.Comment: 13pages,4figures; Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

The all-particle spectrum of primary cosmic rays in the wide energy range from 10^14 eV to 10^17 eV observed with the Tibet-III air-shower array

We present an updated all-particle energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays in a wide range from 10^14 eV to 10^17 eV using 5.5 times 10^7 events collected in the period from 2000 November through 2004 October by the Tibet-III air-shower array located at 4300 m above sea level (atmospheric depth of 606 g/cm^2). The size spectrum exhibits a sharp knee at a corresponding primary energy around 4 PeV. This work uses increased statistics and new simulation calculations for the analysis. We performed extensive Monte Carlo calculations and discuss the model dependences involved in the final result assuming interaction models of QGSJET01c and SIBYLL2.1 and primary composition models of heavy dominant (HD) and proton dominant (PD) ones. Pure proton and pure iron primary models are also examined as extreme cases. The detector simulation was also made to improve the accuracy of determining the size of the air showers and the energy of the primary particle. We confirmed that the all-particle energy spectra obtained under various plausible model parameters are not significantly different from each other as expected from the characteristics of the experiment at the high altitude, where the air showers of the primary energy around the knee reaches near maximum development and their features are dominated by electromagnetic components leading to the weak dependence on the interaction model or the primary mass. This is the highest-statistical and the best systematics-controlled measurement covering the widest energy range around the knee energy region.Comment: 19 pages, 20 figures, accepted by Ap