Model-independent constraints on the CKM matrix elements ∣Vtb∣|V_{tb}|, ∣Vts∣|V_{ts}| and ∣Vtd∣|V_{td}|

Single top quark production cross sections at hadron colliders are traditionally used to extract the modulus of the $V_{tb}$ element of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix under the following assumption: $|V_{tb}| \gg |V_{td}|, |V_{ts}|$. For the first time, direct limits on $|V_{td}|$ and $|V_{ts}|$ are obtained using experimental data without the assumption of the unitarity of the CKM matrix. Limits on the $|V_{td}|$, $|V_{ts}|$ and $|V_{tb}|$ are extracted from differential measurements of single top quark cross sections in $t$-channel as a function of the rapidity and transverse momentum of the top quark and the light jet recoiling against the top quark. We have shown that the pseudorapidity of the forward jet in the single top production is one of the most powerful observables for discriminating between the $|V_{td}|$ and $|V_{tb}|$ events. We perform a global fit of top quark related CKM elements to experimental data from the LHC Runs I and II and Tevatron. Experimental data include inclusive and differential single top cross sections in $t$-channel, inclusive tW production cross section, and top quark branching ratio to b quark and W boson. We present bounds on $|V_{tb}|$, $|V_{ts}|$ and $|V_{td}|$ using current data and project the results for future LHC data sets corresponding to luminosities of 300 and 3000 \fb

A Data-driven dE/dx Simulation with Normalizing Flow

In high-energy physics, precise measurements rely on highly reliable detector simulations. Traditionally, these simulations involve incorporating experiment data to model detector responses and fine-tuning them. However, due to the complexity of the experiment data, tuning the simulation can be challenging. One crucial aspect for charged particle identification is the measurement of energy deposition per unit length (referred to as dE/dx). This paper proposes a data-driven dE/dx simulation method using the Normalizing Flow technique, which can learn the dE/dx distribution directly from experiment data. By employing this method, not only can the need for manual tuning of the dE/dx simulation be eliminated, but also high-precision simulation can be achieved

Effects of Personalized Aerobic-Exercise and Resistance-Training Prescriptions on College Students with Anxiety During the COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously increased anxiety prevalence among the public, including Chinese college students. However, many exercises cannot be performed as usual under the stay-at-home order. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effect of personalized individual aerobic-exercise and resistance-training prescriptions on anxiety in college students during the COVID-19. This was a 12-week three-arm randomized control trial using the intention-to-treat principle. Sixty-six college students with anxiety were recruited and randomized into aerobic-exercise (AE), resistance-training (RT), and health-education group (HE). AE and RT groups also received health education. Measures on anxiety and physical activity included Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Chinese College Students Mental Health Scale - Anxiety Subscale (CCSMHS-AS) and International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF). All data were collected at the baseline, 4, 8, 12 weeks and 4-week post-intervention. All participants completed the intervention and measurements. The mean (SD) of SAS, CCSMHS-AS score and physical activity was 56.36 (5.63), 19.27 (4.56), 1306.57 (1421.19) (met-min/week). After the intervention, 78.79% of anxiety participants improved from anxiety to “normal”. Participants in all groups showed a statistically and clinically significant improvement after 12-week intervention (p \u3c 0.001). Moreover, such improvement was well-maintained in RT and HE group as there were no significant differences in SAS and CCSMHS-AS at 4-week post-intervention compared to 12 weeks (p \u3e 0.05). However, the SAS score of participants in AE group showed a significant increase during the 4 weeks after intervention (p \u3c 0.05). No significant differences were observed in the effect of AE and RT on anxiety at each time-point (p \u3e 0.05). PA of participants in AE and RT group represented a significant improvement at 4-week post-intervention compared to baseline (p \u3c 0.01). Personalized individual aerobic-exercise and resistance-training combined with health-education resulted in a similar effect on reducing anxiety and improving physical activity, and the effect was better than health education alone. Furthermore, the effect of resistance-training and health-education on reducing anxiety was more stable than that of aerobic-exercise. We recommended 45- to 60-minute home-based individual exercise (including 30- to 40-minute main exercise) with progressive moderate-to-high intensity, 3 times/week for at least 12 weeks for those students with anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic

Electronic specific heat and low energy quasiparticle excitations in superconducting state of La2−xSrxCuO4La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 single crystals

Low temperature specific heat has been measured and extensively analyzed on a series of $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4$ single crystals from underdoped to overdoped regime. From these data the quasiparticle density of states (DOS) in the mixed state is derived and compared to the predicted scaling law $C_{vol}/T\sqrt{H}=f(T/\sqrt{H})$ of d-wave superconductivity. It is found that the scaling law can be nicely followed by the optimally doped sample (x=0.15) in quite wide region of ($T/\sqrt{H} \leq 8 K /\sqrt{T}$). However, the region for this scaling becomes smaller and smaller towards more underdoped region: a clear trend can be seen for samples from x=0.15 to 0.069. Therefore, generally speaking, the scaling quality becomes worse on the underdoped samples in terms of scalable region of $T/\sqrt{H}$. This feature in the underdoped region is explained as due to the low energy excitations from a second order (for example, anti-ferromagnetic correlation, d-density wave, spin density wave or charge density wave order) that may co-exist or compete with superconductivity. Surprisingly, deviations from the d-wave scaling law have also been found for the overdoped sample (x=0.22). While the scaling law is reconciled for the overdoped sample when the core size effect is taken into account. An important discovery of present work is that the zero-temperature data follow the Volovik's relation $\Delta \gamma(T=0)=A\sqrt{H}$ quite well for all samples investigated here although the applicability of the d-wave scaling law to the data at finite temperatures varies with doped hole concentration. Finally we present the doping dependence of some parameters, such as, the residual linear term $\gamma_0$, the $\alpha$ value, etc. ...Comment: 15 pages, 24 figure

Refined drift chamber simulation in the CEPC experiment

The Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) is a future experiment aimed at studying the properties of the Higgs boson with high precision. This requires excellent track reconstruction and particle identification (PID) performance, which is achieved in the 4th conceptual detector design of the CEPC experiments by combining a silicon tracker and a drift chamber. The drift chamber not only improves track reconstruction but also provides excellent PID with the cluster counting method. To evaluate the performance of this design accurately, a detailed simulation is necessary. In this paper, we present a refined drift chamber simulation by combining Geant4 and Garfield++. However, traditional waveform simulation using Garfield++ is extremely time-consuming, which motivates us to develop a fast waveform simulation method using a neural network. We validate the method using real data from the BESIII experiment. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach and provide valuable insights for future experiments

GENERAL ACTEOSIDE OF REHMANNIAE LEAVES IN THE TREATMENT OF PRIMARY CHRONIC GLOMERULONEPHRITIS: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

The prospective, randomised, parallel controlled trial aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine – general acteoside of Rehmanniae leaves compared with piperazine ferulate in the treatment of primary chronic glomerulonephritis. A total of 400 patients diagnosed with primary chronic glomerulonephritis were recruited from outpatient clinics and were randomly assigned to the treatment group (general acteoside of Rehmanniae leaves, two 200mg tablets, bid) or the control group (piperazine ferulate, four 50-mg tablets, bid ). The primary outcome was 24-h urinary protein. Secondary outcome measures included evaluated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), erythrocyturia, and electrolytes. After 8 weeks of treatment, the treatment group and the control group showed a mean reduction in 24-h proteinuria of 34.81% and 37.66%. The 95% CI of difference of the mean reduction in 24-h proteinuria between the two groups was [-11.50%, 5.80%]. No significant differences were found between the two groups in the erythrocyturia reduction. Neither group showed obvious changes between baseline and 8 weeks in eGFR or electrolytes. Adverse events occurred at a similarly low rate in the treatment group (1.5%) and control group (2.5%, P = 0.7238). Both general acteoside of of primary chronic glomerulonephritis

GENERAL ACTEOSIDE OF REHMANNIAE LEAVES IN THE TREATMENT OF PRIMARY CHRONIC GLOMERULONEPHRITIS: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

The prospective, randomised, parallel controlled trial aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine – general acteoside of Rehmanniae leaves compared with piperazine ferulate in the treatment of primary chronic glomerulonephritis. A total of 400 patients diagnosed with primary chronic glomerulonephritis were recruited from outpatient clinics and were randomly assigned to the treatment group (general acteoside of Rehmanniae leaves, two 200mg tablets, bid) or the control group (piperazine ferulate, four 50-mg tablets, bid ). The primary outcome was 24-h urinary protein. Secondary outcome measures included evaluated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), erythrocyturia, and electrolytes. After 8 weeks of treatment, the treatment group and the control group showed a mean reduction in 24-h proteinuria of 34.81% and 37.66%. The 95% CI of difference of the mean reduction in 24-h proteinuria between the two groups was [-11.50%, 5.80%]. No significant differences were found between the two groups in the erythrocyturia reduction. Neither group showed obvious changes between baseline and 8 weeks in eGFR or electrolytes. Adverse events occurred at a similarly low rate in the treatment group (1.5%) and control group (2.5%, P = 0.7238). Both general acteoside of of primary chronic glomerulonephritis

Screening of potentially active compounds against rheumatoid arthritis in the Juan-Bi decoction using systems pharmacology and animal experiments

Background: The Juan-Bi decoction (JBD) is a classic traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) prescription for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the active compounds of the JBD in RA treatment remain unclear.Aim: The aim of this study is to screen effective compounds in the JBD for RA treatment using systems pharmacology and experimental approaches.Method: Botanical drugs and compounds in the JBD were acquired from multiple public TCM databases. All compounds were initially screened using absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) and physicochemical properties, and then a target prediction was performed. RA pathological genes were acquired from the DisGeNet database. Potential active compounds were screened by constructing a compound–target–pathogenic gene (C-T-P) network and calculating the cumulative interaction intensity of the compounds on pathogenic genes. The effectiveness of the compounds was verified using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW.264.7 cells and collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mouse models.Results: We screened 15 potentially active compounds in the JBD for RA treatment. These compounds primarily act on multiple metabolic pathways, immune pathways, and signaling transduction pathways. Furthermore, in vivo and in vitro experiments showed that bornyl acetate (BAC) alleviated joint damage, and inflammatory cells infiltrated and facilitated a smooth cartilage surface via the suppression of the steroid hormone biosynthesis.Conclusion: We screened potential compounds in the JBD for the treatment of RA using systems pharmacology approaches. In particular, BAC had an anti-rheumatic effect, and future studies are required to elucidate the underlying mechanisms

Key4hep: Progress Report on Integrations

Detector studies for future experiments rely on advanced software tools to estimate performance and optimize their design and technology choices. The Key4hep project provides a flexible turnkey solution for the full experiment life-cycle based on established community tools such as ROOT, Geant4, DD4hep, Gaudi, podio and spack. Members of the CEPC, CLIC, EIC, FCC, and ILC communities have joined to develop this framework and have merged, or are in the progress of merging, their respective software environments into the Key4hep stack. These proceedings will give an overview over the recent progress in the Key4hep project: covering the developments towards adaptation of state-of-theart tools for simulation (DD4hep, Gaussino), track and calorimeter reconstruction (ACTS, CLUE), particle flow (PandoraPFA), analysis via RDataFrame, and visualization with Phoenix, as well as tools for testing and validation