Historical Review about Research on “Bonghan System” in China

The meridian-collateral theory is the theoretical basis of acupuncture-moxibustion therapy. Professor Bonghan Kim, a professor of the Pyongyang Medical University of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, claimed that he found the anatomical structure of meridian-collaterals, named Bonghan corpuscles (BHCs) and Bonghan ducts (BHDs) system or primo vascular system (PVS), in 1962. From 1963 to 1965, researchers from our institute conducted a series of comparative anatomical experiments, trying to reproduce the so-called BHC- and BHD-like structures in different strains of animals. In the present paper, the authors introduced their research findings about BHC- and BHD-like structures in the young rabbit’s umbilicus including its external appearance, ectoplasm and endoplasm, and about strip-like and node-like objects in the blood vessels and lymph vessels near the larger abdominal and cervical blood vessels and chromaffin tissue in the back wall of the rabbit’s abdominal cavity and between the bilateral kidneys. In spite of existence of the BHC- and BHD-like structures in the rabbit, there has been no proved evidence for their association with the meridian-collateral system described in acupuncture medicine. In the present historical review, the authors also make a discussion about the significance of those findings

AMOS: A Large-Scale Abdominal Multi-Organ Benchmark for Versatile Medical Image Segmentation

Despite the considerable progress in automatic abdominal multi-organ segmentation from CT/MRI scans in recent years, a comprehensive evaluation of the models' capabilities is hampered by the lack of a large-scale benchmark from diverse clinical scenarios. Constraint by the high cost of collecting and labeling 3D medical data, most of the deep learning models to date are driven by datasets with a limited number of organs of interest or samples, which still limits the power of modern deep models and makes it difficult to provide a fully comprehensive and fair estimate of various methods. To mitigate the limitations, we present AMOS, a large-scale, diverse, clinical dataset for abdominal organ segmentation. AMOS provides 500 CT and 100 MRI scans collected from multi-center, multi-vendor, multi-modality, multi-phase, multi-disease patients, each with voxel-level annotations of 15 abdominal organs, providing challenging examples and test-bed for studying robust segmentation algorithms under diverse targets and scenarios. We further benchmark several state-of-the-art medical segmentation models to evaluate the status of the existing methods on this new challenging dataset. We have made our datasets, benchmark servers, and baselines publicly available, and hope to inspire future research. Information can be found at https://amos22.grand-challenge.org

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted mutation of the E1 decreases photoperiod sensitivity, alters stem growth habits, and decreases branch number in soybean

The distribution of elite soybean (Glycine max) cultivars is limited due to their highly sensitive to photoperiod, which affects the flowering time and plant architecture. The recent emergence of CRISPR/Cas9 technology has uncovered new opportunities for genetic manipulation of soybean. The major maturity gene E1 of soybean plays a critical role in soybean photoperiod response. Here, we performed CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted mutation of E1 gene in soybean cultivar Tianlong1 carrying the dominant E1 to investigate its precise function in photoperiod regulation, especially in plant architecture regulation. Four types of mutations in the E1 coding region were generated. No off-target effects were observed, and homozygous trans-clean mutants without T-DNA were obtained. The photoperiod sensitivity of e1 mutants decreased relative to the wild type plants; however, e1 mutants still responded to photoperiod. Further analysis revealed that the homologs of E1, E1-La, and E1-Lb, were up-regulated in the e1 mutants, indicating a genetic compensation response of E1 and its homologs. The e1 mutants exhibited significant changes in the architecture, including initiation of terminal flowering, formation of determinate stems, and decreased branch numbers. To identify E1-regulated genes related to plant architecture, transcriptome deep sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to compare the gene expression profiles in the stem tip of the wild-type soybean cultivar and the e1 mutants. The expression of shoot identity gene Dt1 was significantly decreased, while Dt2 was significantly upregulated. Also, a set of MADS-box genes was up-regulated in the stem tip of e1 mutants which might contribute to the determinate stem growth habit

Measurements of the observed cross sections for e+e−→e^+e^-\to exclusive light hadrons containing π0π0\pi^0\pi^0 at s=3.773\sqrt s= 3.773, 3.650 and 3.6648 GeV

By analyzing the data sets of 17.3, 6.5 and 1.0 pb$^{-1}$ taken, respectively, at $\sqrt s= 3.773$, 3.650 and 3.6648 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider, we measure the observed cross sections for $e^+e^-\to \pi^+\pi^-\pi^0\pi^0$, $K^+K^-\pi^0\pi^0$, $2(\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0)$, $K^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0\pi^0$ and $3(\pi^+\pi^-)\pi^0\pi^0$ at the three energy points. Based on these cross sections we set the upper limits on the observed cross sections and the branching fractions for $\psi(3770)$ decay into these final states at 90% C.L..Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

A study of charged kappa in J/ψ→K±Ksπ∓π0J/\psi \to K^{\pm} K_s \pi^{\mp} \pi^0

Based on $58 \times 10^6$ $J/\psi$ events collected by BESII, the decay $J/\psi \to K^{\pm} K_s \pi^{\mp} \pi^0$ is studied. In the invariant mass spectrum recoiling against the charged $K^*(892)^{\pm}$, the charged $\kappa$ particle is found as a low mass enhancement. If a Breit-Wigner function of constant width is used to parameterize the kappa, its pole locates at $(849 \pm 77 ^{+18}_{-14}) -i (256 \pm 40 ^{+46}_{-22})$ MeV/$c^2$. Also in this channel, the decay $J/\psi \to K^*(892)^+ K^*(892)^-$ is observed for the first time. Its branching ratio is $(1.00 \pm 0.19 ^{+0.11}_{-0.32}) \times 10^{-3}$.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Partial wave analysis of J/\psi \to \gamma \phi \phi

Using $5.8 \times 10^7 J/\psi$ events collected in the BESII detector, the radiative decay $J/\psi \to \gamma \phi \phi \to \gamma K^+ K^- K^0_S K^0_L$ is studied. The $\phi\phi$ invariant mass distribution exhibits a near-threshold enhancement that peaks around 2.24 GeV/$c^{2}$. A partial wave analysis shows that the structure is dominated by a $0^{-+}$ state ($\eta(2225)$) with a mass of $2.24^{+0.03}_{-0.02}{}^{+0.03}_{-0.02}$ GeV/$c^{2}$ and a width of $0.19 \pm 0.03^{+0.06}_{-0.04}$ GeV/$c^{2}$. The product branching fraction is: $Br(J/\psi \to \gamma \eta(2225))\cdot Br(\eta(2225)\to \phi\phi) = (4.4 \pm 0.4 \pm 0.8)\times 10^{-4}$.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. corrected proof for journa

Penile prosthesis implantation in Chinese patients with severe erectile dysfunction: 10-year experience

We retrospectively evaluated the clinical outcome of penile prosthesis implantation (PPI) in Chinese patients with severe erectile dysfunction (SED). From July 2000 to December 2011, 224 patients (mean age: 35.9±11.8 years, range: 20–75 years) with SED underwent PPI by experienced surgeon according to standard PPI procedure at our centre. A malleable prosthesis (AMS 650) was implanted in 45 cases (20.1%), and a three-piece inflatable prosthesis (AMS 700 CXM or AMS 700 CXR) was implanted in 179 cases (79.9%). Surgical outcomes, including postoperative complications, clinical efficacy and couple satisfaction, were evaluated over than 6 months postoperatively using medical record abstraction, IIEF-5, quality of life (QoL) scores, and the patient/partner sexual satisfaction score proposed by Bhojwani et al. Of the 224 patients eligible for the study, 201 subjects (89.7%) completed follow-up. All of patients could perform sexual intercourse post PPI with the mean postoperative IIEF-5 and QoL scores were 20.02±2.32 and 5.28±0.76, respectively, which were significantly improved compared with the preoperative scores (6.29±1.5 and 2.13±0.84, P<0.01). Of the 201 men, mechanical malfunction occurred in four cases (2.0%) and three cases were re-implanted new device, and two cases (1.0%) developed a mild curvature of the penis. Scrotal erosion with infection occurred in one case with diabetes mellitus (0.5%) and required complete removal of the implanted AMS 700 CXM. Satisfactory sexual intercourse at least twice per month was reported by 178 men (88.6%), and overall satisfaction with the PPI surgery was reported by 89.0% of men and 82.5% of partners. Patient satisfaction in the three-piece inflatable prosthesis group was higher than in the malleable prosthesis group (P<0.05). Satisfaction, however, between the types of prostheses, did not differ in the partner survey. PPI is a safe and effective treatment option for Chinese patients with SED and experienced surgeon perform PPI according to standard PPI procedure could reduce the postoperative complications of PPI and could improve patient satisfaction ratio and QoL

Direct Measurements of Absolute Branching Fractions for D0 and D+ Inclusive Semimuonic Decays

By analyzing about 33 $\rm pb^{-1}$ data sample collected at and around 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider, we directly measure the branching fractions for the neutral and charged $D$ inclusive semimuonic decays to be $BF(D^0 \to \mu^+ X) =(6.8\pm 1.5\pm 0.7)$ and $BF(D^+ \to \mu^+ X) =(17.6 \pm 2.7 \pm 1.8)$, and determine the ratio of the two branching fractions to be $\frac{BF(D^+ \to \mu^+ X)}{BF(D^0 \to \mu^+ X)}=2.59\pm 0.70 \pm 0.25$

Partial wave analysis of J/psi to p pbar pi0

Using a sample of 58 million $J/\psi$ events collected with the BESII detector at the BEPC, more than 100,000 $J/\psi \to p\bar p \pi^0$ events are selected, and a detailed partial wave analysis is performed. The branching fraction is determined to be $Br(J/\psi \to p \bar p \pi^0)=(1.33 \pm 0.02 \pm 0.11) \times 10^{-3}$. A long-sought `missing' $N^*$, first observed in $J/\psi \to p \bar n \pi^-$, is observed in this decay too, with mass and width of $2040_{-4}^{+3}\pm 25$ MeV/c$^2$ and $230_{-8}^{+8}\pm 52$ MeV/c$^2$, respectively. Its spin-parity favors ${3/2}^+$. The masses, widths, and spin-parities of other $N^*$ states are obtained as well.Comment: Add one author nam