Young star clusters in circumnuclear starburst rings

We analyse the cluster luminosity functions (CLFs) of the youngest star clusters in three galaxies exhibiting prominent circumnuclear starburst rings. We focus specifically on NGC 1512 and NGC 6951, for which we have access to H$\alpha$ data that allow us to unambiguously identify the youngest sample clusters. To place our results on a firm statistical footing, we first explore in detail a number of important technical issues affecting the process from converting the observational data into the spectral-energy distributions of the objects in our final catalogues. The CLFs of the young clusters in both galaxies exhibit approximate power-law behaviour down to the 90 per cent observational completeness limits, thus showing that star cluster formation in the violent environments of starburst rings appears to proceed similarly as that elsewhere in the local Universe. We discuss this result in the context of the density of the interstellar medium in our starburst-ring galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, incl. 12 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

The lifetime cost estimation of human papillomavirus-related diseases in China : a modeling study

Objectives: To estimate the lifetime treatment costs of patients with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection-related diseases in China and to provide cost estimates for the economic evaluation of HPV intervention strategies. Methods: We extracted real-world hospital data from 2012 to 2019 and screened for subjects who met the criteria of clinical diagnosis of HPV-related diseases to obtain country-specific inputs into a Markov decision model. The model simulated lifetime treatment costs for HPV from the perspective of a national payer. A 5% discount rate was applied. Costs were converted and inflated to 2020 US dollars (USD) Results: Using 2021 as the base year, the lifetime costs per patient for carcinoma in situ, local metastasis, and distant metastasis cervical cancer are $24,208 (95$19,562 (95%CI: 14,456-25,567), and $17,599 (95$17,593 (95%CI: 14,962-23,596), $17,120 (95$22,411 (95%CI: 12,172-22,249), respectively. The base-case lifetime cost per patient for different stages of vulvar cancer/penile cancer/anal cancer/oral cancer/oropharyngeal cancer/laryngeal cancer falls within $17,120-$58,236. Conclusions: Using real-world data, we calculated lifetime treatment costs of HPV-related cancer in China and found that the lifetime cost for patients exceeded $17,000 for various stages of disease. The national burden of HPV-related disease could be significantly reduced by eliminating HPV infection

An electron microscopy study of the effect of Ce on plasma sprayed bronze coatings

The Cu-Al eutectoid alloy is an excellent material for mould due to its superior low friction. The conventional sand casting technique, however, is not feasible to fabricate high Al bronze because of high hardness and brittleness. Plasma arc spray has been used to produce high Al/Fe bronze coatings for mould. The inherent impurities such as H, O, N, S during the spray, however, may affect the coating's mechanical strength. One approach is to utilise the active rare earth Ce to clean up these impurities. The study is to investigate the effect of Ce on the microstructure, which has few reported in the literature<br/

The meson BcB_c annihilation to leptons and inclusive light hadrons

The annihilation of the $B_c$ meson to leptons and inclusive light hadrons is analyzed in the framework of nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD) factorization. We find that the decay mode, which escapes from the helicity suppression, contributes a sizable fraction width. According to the analysis, the branching ratio due to the contribution from the color-singlet component of the meson $B_c$ can be of order (10^{-2}). We also estimate the contributions from the color-octet components. With the velocity scaling rule of NRQCD, we find that the color-octet contributions are sizable too, especially, in certain phase space of the annihilation they are greater than (or comparative to) the color-singlet component. A few observables relevant to the spectrum of charged lepton are suggested, that may be used as measurements on the color-octet and color-singlet components in the future $B_c$ experiments. A typical long distance contribution in the annihilation is estimated too.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures (6 eps-files), submitted to Phys. Rev.

Expression of Inwardly Rectifying Potassium Channels by an Inducible Adenoviral Vector Reduced the Neuronal Hyperexcitability and Hyperalgesia Produced by Chronic Compression of the Spinal Ganglion

BACKGROUND: A chronic compressed dorsal root ganglion (CCD) in rat produces pain behavior and an enhanced excitability of neurons within the compressed ganglion. Kir2.1 is an inwardly rectifying potassium channel that acts to stabilize the resting potential of certain cell types. We hypothesized that an inducible expression of Kir2.1 channels in CCD neurons might suppress neuronal excitability in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and reduce the associated pain behavior. RESULTS: We delivered, by microinjection into the fourth lumbar (L4) DRG, an adenoviral vector containing a reporter gene encoding the enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) and a Kir2.1 channel (AdKir). At the same time the ganglion was compressed by implantation of a rod through the intervertebral foramen (CCD). The in vivo expression of the transferred gene was controlled by an ecdysone analog via an ecdysone-inducible promoter in the viral vector. In comparison with the effects of vehicle or a control vector containing only the GFP gene, AdKir significantly reduced the neuronal hyperexcitability after CCD. Electrophysiological recordings, in vivo, from nociceptive and non-nociceptive DRG neurons expressing the virally produced Kir2.1 channels revealed a hyperpolarized resting membrane potential, an increased rheobase, and lack of spontaneous activity. Inducing the Kir2.1 gene at the beginning of CCD surgery partially prevented the development of mechanical hyperalgesia. However, a delayed induction of the Kir2.1 gene (3 days after CCD surgery) produced no significant effect on the pain behavior. CONCLUSIONS: We found that an inducible expression of Kir2.1 channels in chronically compressed DRG neurons can effectively suppress the neuronal excitability and, if induced at the beginning of CCD injury, prevent the development of hyperalgesia. We hypothesize that a higher level of neuronal hyperexcitability in the DRG is required to initiate than to maintain the hyperalgesia and that the hyperexcitability contributing to neuropathic pain is best inhibited as soon as possible after injury

On Two-Body Decays of A Scalar Glueball

We study two body decays of a scalar glueball. We show that in QCD a spin-0 pure glueball (a state only with gluons) cannot decay into a pair of light quarks if chiral symmetry holds exactly, i.e., the decay amplitude is chirally suppressed. However, this chiral suppression does not materialize itself at the hadron level such as in decays into $\pi^+\pi^-$ and $K^+K^-$, because in perturbative QCD the glueball couples to two (but not one) light quark pairs that hadronize to two mesons. Using QCD factorization based on an effective Lagrangian, we show that the difference of hadronization into $\pi\pi$ and $KK$ already leads to a large difference between ${\rm Br} (\pi^+\pi^-)$ and ${\rm Br}(K^+K^-)$, even the decay amplitude is not chirally suppressed. Moreover, the small ratio of $R={\rm Br}(\pi\pi)/{\rm Br}(K\bar K)$ of $f_0(1710)$ measured in experiment does not imply $f_0(1710)$ to be a pure glueball. With our results it is helpful to understand the partonic contents if ${\rm Br}(\pi\pi)$ or ${\rm Br}(K\bar K)$ is measured reliably.Comment: revised versio

The Structure and Morphology of Galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization Revealed by JWST

We analyze 347 galaxies at redshift $4<z<9.5$ using JWST observations from the CEERS program by fitting a two-dimensional parametric model simultaneously to the seven-filter NIRCam images to measure the overall structural parameters and quantify the global properties of the galaxies in the rest-frame optical band. Particular attention is devoted to deriving robust uncertainties that include, among other factors, the influence of cosmological surface brightness dimming and resolution effects. Using the global S\'ersic index ($n < 1.5$) and observed axial ratio ($q < 0.6$) as a guide, we place a conservative lower limit of $\sim 45\%$ on the incidence of galactic disks. Galaxies follow a relation between rest-frame optical luminosity and effective radius in the redshift range $4<z<9.5$, as well as separately over the intervals $4 < z < 5$ and $5 \leq z < 9.5$, with a very similar slope but a marginally lower zero point in the higher redshift bin ($R_e = 0.49 \pm 0.07$ kpc) compared to the lower redshift bin ($R_e = 0.65 \pm 0.12$ kpc). Within the limitations of the current sample size, we find no significant redshift evolution of $n$ or $R_e$ at these early epochs.Comment: 23 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa