The study of K∗0K^{*0} meson production using a transport and a statistical hadronization model at RHIC BES energies

In this paper, we have discussed the centrality and energy dependence of $K^{*0}$ resonance production using UrQMD and thermal models. The $K^{*0}/K$ ratio obtained from the UrQMD and thermal models are compared with measurements done by the STAR experiment in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27 and 39 GeV. The $K^{*0}/K$ ratio from thermal model is consistent with data in most-peripheral collisions, however it over-predicts the ratio in central Au+Au collisions. This could be due to the fact that the thermal model does not have a hadronic rescattering phase, which is expected to be dominated in more central collisions. Furthermore, we have studied the $K^{*0}/K$ ratio from UrQMD by varying the lifetime of the hadronic medium within the range 5 to 20 fm/c. It was found that $K^{*0}/K$ ratio decreases with increasing lifetime of the hadronic medium. Comparison between data and UrQMD suggest, one needs to consider a hadronic lifetime $\sim$ 10-20 fm/c to explain data at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 7.7 - 39 GeV in Au+Au collisions. We also predict rapidity distribution of $K^{*0}$ from UrQMD which could be measured in the STAR BES-II program.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Breaking of multiplicity scaling observed in K∗0/KK^{*0}/K ratio in baryon-rich QCD matter

In this study, we investigated the influence of collision energy and system size on hadronic rescattering by analyzing the production of $K^{*0}$ mesons using the Ultra Relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (UrQMD) model. Analysis are done in Au+Au collisions at various center-of-mass energies ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, and 200 GeV), as well as in Cu+Cu and isobaric (Ru+Ru and Zr+Zr) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV at mid-rapidity. Our findings reveal that the ratio of $K^{*0}$ mesons to charged kaons ($K^{*0}/K$) decreases as the collision multiplicity increases. Moreover, at top RHIC energies, this ratio exhibits a smooth multiplicity scaling behavior. However, this scaling can be violated due to the formation of baryon-rich matter at lower beam energies, specifically $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 11.5 GeV or below. These results highlight the importance of considering the interplay between collision energy, system size, and the chemical composition of the produced matter when studying the hadronic rescattering effects in heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Production yield and azimuthal anisotropy measurements of strange hadrons from BES at STAR

We report the production and azimuthal anisotropy measurements of strange and multi-strange hadrons at STAR BES energies. The $\Lambda/K^0_s$ ratio is reported at 3 GeV and observed to increase faster with transverse momentum than that at higher energies. The number-of-constituent quark (NCQ) scaling of $v_2$ has been studied at 19.6 GeV (BES-II). The NCQ scaling holds for particles and anti-particles, which can be considered as an evidence of partonic collectivity. The production of $K^{*0}$ resonance is also reported for 7.7-39 GeV (BES-I) and the $K^{*0}/K$ ratio suggests that hadronic re-scattering dominates over regeneration in central A+A collisions. Using the $K^{*0}/K$ ratio, we also report the lower limit of hadronic phase lifetime $( t_{kin} - t_{chem} )$

Design of CSD based bi-orthogonal wavelet filter bank for medical image retrieval

Two-channel wavelet filter-banks (FBs) are universally used in many applications of signal processing. In this work, design of a bi-orthogonal wavelet FB with low complexity is suggested. The proposed design is based on canonical signed digit (CSD) implementation of the bi-orthogonal wavelet FB. CSD technique has been applied to the FB to eliminate the power consuming multipliers and to reduce the number of shifters and adders in the implementation of bi-orthogonal FB. The suggested FB design is suitable for the application of high speed signal processing applications. In addition, the proposed bi-orthogonal wavelet FB is implemented on hardware using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board Kintex-7 from Xilinx. It is found that the suggested bi-orthogonal wavelet FB attained low digital hardware requirement as compared to well-known rationalized existing bi-orthogonal wavelet FBs. The efficacy of the suggested wavelet FB is demonstrated on medical image retrieval application. NEMA, OASIS, and EXACT09, three publicly accessible medical image datasets, are utilized to measure the efficacy of image retrieval. It is shown that the suggested bi-orthogonal wavelet FB performs better than the bi-orthogonal wavelet FBs existing that are being used

Examining the influence of hadronic interactions on the directed flow of identified particles in RHIC Beam Energy Scan energies using UrQMD model

The directed flow of identified particles can serve as a sensitive tool for investigating the interactions during initial and final states in heavy ion collisions. This study examines the rapidity-odd directed flow ($v_{1}$) and its slope ($dv_{1}/dy$) for $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, p, and $\bar{\mathrm p}$ in Au+Au collisions at different collision centralities and beam energies ($\sqrt{s_{\mathrm NN}}$ = 7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, and 39 GeV) using the UrQMD model. We investigate the impact of late-stage hadronic interactions on charge dependent $v_{1}(y)$ and its slope by modifying the duration of the hadronic cascade lifetime ($\tau$). The energy dependence of $dv_{1}/dy$ for p ($\bar{\mathrm p}$) exhibits distinct pattern compared to $\pi^{\pm}$ and $K^{\pm}$. Notably, we observe a change in the sign reversal position of proton $dv_{1}/dy$ at different beam energies with varying $\tau$ in central and mid-central collisions. Moreover, the difference in $dv_{1}/dy$ between positively and negatively charged hadrons ($\Delta dv_{1}/dy$) demonstrates a stark centrality dependence for different particle species. The deuteron displays a significant increase in $dv_{1}/dy$ with increasing $\tau$ compared to p and n. This investigation underscores the importance of considering the temporal evolution and duration of the hadronic phase when interpreting the sign reversal, charge splitting of $v_{1}$ and light nuclei formation at lower RHIC energies.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Dieulafoy lesion: A rare cause of gastrointestinal bleeding

Dieulafoy lesion is characterized by exteriorization of a large pulsatile arterial vessel through a minimal mucosal tear surrounded by normal mucosa, causing massive and recurrent upper digestive bleeding in previously healthy patients. More frequently presented than diagnosed, with the increase of its knowledge among endoscopists, a large number of cases are expected in the literature. Dieulafoy lesion is a distinct nosologic entity that must be suspected in patients with massive digestive bleeding. Endoscopy became the procedure of choice for diagnosis and treatment of this disease