Bis(4-fluoro­benz­yl)bis­(4-phenyl-5-sulfanyl­idene-4,5-dihydro-1,3,4-thio­diazole-2-thiol­ato)tin(IV)

In the title complex, [Sn(C7H6F)2(C8H5N2S3)2], including the weak Sn—N inter­actions, the SnIV atom is situated in a distorted trans-octa­hedral geometry, and the equatorial plane is defined by two chelating 4-phenyl-5-sulfanyl­idene-4,5-dihydro-1,3,4-thio­diazole-2-thiol­ate ligands. The apical positions are occupied by two C atoms of 4-fluoro­benzyl groups

Dilation theorem via Schr\"odingerisation, with applications to the quantum simulation of differential equations

Nagy's unitary dilation theorem in operator theory asserts the possibility of dilating a contraction into a unitary operator. When used in quantum computing, its practical implementation primarily relies on block-encoding techniques, based on finite-dimensional scenarios. In this study, we delve into the recently devised Schr\"odingerisation approach and demonstrate its viability as an alternative dilation technique. This approach is applicable to operators in the form of $V(t)=\exp(-At)$, which arises in wide-ranging applications, particularly in solving linear ordinary and partial differential equations. Importantly, the Schr\"odingerisation approach is adaptable to both finite and infinite-dimensional cases, in both countable and uncountable domains. For quantum systems lying in infinite dimensional Hilbert space, the dilation involves adding a single infinite dimensional mode, and this is the continuous-variable version of the Schr\"odingerisation procedure which makes it suitable for analog quantum computing. Furthermore, by discretising continuous variables, the Schr\"odingerisation method can also be effectively employed in finite-dimensional scenarios suitable for qubit-based quantum computing

Origin of purple asparagus cultivar ‘Pacific Purple’ based on the sequence of sex determination gene

Garden asparagus is one of the most important crops worldwide. Since this crop is dioecious and male plants generally have higher yields compared to female plants, several DNA markers for sex identification have been developed for acceleration of asparagus breeding. Among these markers, Asp1-T7sp and MSSTS710 were found to be effective in sex determination for many asparagus cultivars. However, we previously found that these markers were not completely suitable for sex identification in the purple asparagus cultivar ‘Pacific Purple’. There are two types of male individuals in this cultivar: One type is PP-m, which is identified the sex type by Asp1-T7sp and MSSTS710 markers, while the other type is PP-m* whose sex type is not identified by these markers. Since the sex identification markers are located on the non-recombining Y region, it was expected that the sequence around this region might be different between PP-m and PP-m*. In this study, the sequence of one of the sex-determining genes, MSE1/AoMYB35/AspTDF1, was analyzed, and a comparative analysis was conducted among PP-m and PP-m* of ‘Pacific Purple’, A. officinalis and related species A. maritimus. The results revealed that PP-m and PP-m* has the similar sequence of MSE1/AoMYB35/AspTDF1 gene from A. officinalis and A. maritimus, respectively. ‘Pacific Purple’ is a cultivar developed through polycross hybrid from Italian landrace ‘Violetto d’Albenga’ (VA), suggesting that VA originated from an interspecific crossing between A. officinalis and A. maritimus and that the pollen parent used in ‘Pacific Purple’ breeding contained two types of male individuals with different MSE1/AoMYB35/AspTDF1 sequence. As a result, PP-m and PP-m* of ‘Pacific Purple’ harbors the similar sequences of the MSE1/AoMYB35/AspTDF1 gene from A. officinalis and A. maritimus, respectively

Cost-effectiveness analysis of serplulimab plus chemotherapy in the first-line treatment for PD-L1-positive esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in China

ObjectiveThe ASTRUM-007 trial (NCT03958890) demonstrated that serplulimab plus chemotherapy administered every 2-week significantly improved progression-free and overall survival in patients with previously untreated, programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) positive advanced esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (ESCC). This study was aimed to investigate the cost-effectiveness of serplulimab plus chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of PD-L1-positive advanced ESCC.MethodsA partitioned survival model with a 2-week cycle and a 10-year time horizon was constructed from the Chinese healthcare system perspective. The survival data, direct medical costs and utilities were derived from the ASTRUM-007 trial, YAOZHI database and published sources. Total costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were calculated. Scenario, one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the uncertainty around model parameters.ResultsCompared with chemotherapy, serplulimab plus chemotherapy provided additional 0.27 QALYs with an incremental cost of $33,460.86, which had an ICER of$124,483.07 per QALY. The subgroup analyses revealed that the ICERs of serplulimab plus chemotherapy were $134,637.42 and$105,589.71 in advanced ESCC patients with 1 ≤ CPS < 10 and CPS ≥ 10, respectively. The price of serplulimab, patient weight, utility values and discount rate were the most influential parameters on base-case results. At a willingness-to-pay threshold of three times per capita GDP ($40,587.59) in 2022, the probability of serplulimab plus chemotherapy being cost-effective was 0% compared with chemotherapy. When the price of serplulimab decreased by 70%, the probabilities of serplulimab plus chemotherapy being cost-effective were 81.42%, 67.74% and 96.75% in advanced ESCC patients with PD-L1-positive, PD-L1 1≤CPS<10 and CPS≥10, respectively.ConclusionSerplulimab plus chemotherapy in the first-line treatment for PD-L1-positive advanced ESCC might not be cost-effective in China

Negative flat band magnetism in a spin-orbit coupled correlated kagome magnet

It has long been speculated that electronic flat band systems can be a fertile ground for hosting novel emergent phenomena including unconventional magnetism and superconductivity. Although flat bands are known to exist in a few systems such as heavy fermion materials and twisted bilayer graphene, their microscopic roles and underlying mechanisms in generating emergent behavior remain elusive. Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy to elucidate the atomically resolved electronic states and their magnetic response in the kagome magnet Co3Sn2S2. We observe a pronounced peak at the Fermi level, which is identified to arise from the kinetically frustrated kagome flat band. Increasing magnetic field up to +-8T, this state exhibits an anomalous magnetization-polarized Zeeman shift, dominated by an orbital moment in opposite to the field direction. Such negative magnetism can be understood as spin-orbit coupling induced quantum phase effects tied to non-trivial flat band systems. We image the flat band peak, resolve the associated negative magnetism, and provide its connection to the Berry curvature field, showing that Co3Sn2S2 is a rare example of kagome magnet where the low energy physics can be dominated by the spin-orbit coupled flat band. Our methodology of probing band-resolved ordering phenomena such as spin-orbit magnetism can also be applied in future experiments to elucidate other exotic phenomena including flat band superconductivity and anomalous quantum transport.Comment: Nature Physics onlin

Optimizing Rectangle Attacks: A Unified and Generic Framework for Key Recovery

The rectangle attack has shown to be a very powerful form of cryptanalysis against block ciphers. Given a rectangle distinguisher, one expects to mount key recovery attacks as efficiently as possible. In the literature, there have been four algorithms for rectangle key recovery attacks. However, their performance vary from case to case. Besides, numerous are the applications where the attacks lack optimality. In this paper, we investigate the rectangle key recovery in depth and propose a unified and generic key recovery algorithm, which supports any possible attacking parameters. Notably, it not only covers the four previous rectangle key recovery algorithms, but also unveils five types of new attacks which were missed previously. Along with the new key recovery algorithm, we propose a framework for automatically finding the best attacking parameters, with which the time complexity of the rectangle attack will be minimized using the new algorithm. To demonstrate the efficiency of the new key recovery algorithm, we apply it to Serpent, CRAFT, SKINNY and Deoxys-BC-256 based on existing distinguishers and obtain a series of improved rectangle attacks