Ionization Yield from Nuclear Recoils in Liquid-Xenon Dark Matter Detection

The ionization yield in the two-phase liquid xenon dark-matter detector has been studied in keV nuclear-recoil energy region. The newly-obtained nuclear quenching as well as the recently-measured average energy required to produce an electron-ion pair are used to calculate the total electric charges produced. To estimate the fraction of the electron charges collected, the Thomas-Imel model is generalized to describing the field dependence for nuclear recoils in liquid xenon. With free parameters fitted to experiment measured 56.5 keV nuclear recoils, the energy dependence of ionization yield for nuclear recoils is predicted, which increases with the decreasing of the recoiling energy and reaches the maximum value at 2~3 keV. This prediction agrees well with existing data and may help to lower the energy detection threshold for nuclear recoils to ~1 keV.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Enantioselective switch on radiations of dissipative chiral molecules

Enantiodetection is an important and challenging task across natural science. Nowadays, some chiroptical methods of enantiodetection based on decoherence-free cyclic three-level models of chiral molecules can reach the ultimate limit of the enantioselectivities in the molecular responses. They are thus more efficient than traditional chiroptical methods. However, decoherence is inevitable and can severely reduce enantioselectivities in these advanced chiroptical methods, so they only work well in the weak decoherence region. Here, we propose an enantioselective switch on the radiation of dissipative chiral molecules and develop a novel chiroptical method of enantiodetection working well in all decoherence regions. In our scheme, radiation is turned on for the selected enantiomer and simultaneously turned off for its mirror image by designing the electromagnetic fields well based on dissipative cyclic three-level models. The enantiomeric excess of a chiral mixture is determined by comparing its emissions in two cases, where the radiations of two enantiomers are turned off respectively. The corresponding enantioselectivities reach the ultimate limit in all decoherence regions, offering our scheme advantages over other chiroptical methods in enantiodetection. Our work potentially constitutes the starting point for developing more efficient chiroptical techniques for enantiodection in all decoherence regions

Generalized Parton Distributions and the Spin Structure of the Nucleon

Generalized parton distributions are a new type of hadronic observables which has recently stimulated great interest among theorists and experimentalists alike. Introduced to delineate the spin structure of the nucleon, the orbital angular momentum of quarks in particular, the new distributions contain vast information about the internal structure of the nucleon, with the usual electromagnetic form factors and Feynman parton distributions as their special limits. While new perturbative QCD processes, such as deeply virtual Compton scattering and exclusive meson production, have been found to measure the distributions directly in experiments, lattice QCD offers a great promise to provide the first-principle calculations of these interesting observables.Comment: 9 pages, plenary talk given at Lattice 2002, Cambridge, MA, US

Association between triglyceride glucose index (TyG) and psychotic symptoms in patients with first-episode drug-naïve major depressive disorder

ObjectiveMajor depressive disorder (MDD) sufferers frequently have psychotic symptoms, yet the underlying triggers remain elusive. Prior research suggests a link between insulin resistance (IR) and increased occurrence of psychotic symptoms. Hence, this study sought to investigate the potential association between psychotic symptoms in Chinese patients experiencing their first-episode drug-naïve (FEDN) MDD and the triglyceride glucose (TyG) index, an alternative measure of insulin resistance (IR).MethodsBetween September 2016 and December 2018, 1,718 FEDN MDD patients with an average age of 34.9 ± 12.4 years were recruited for this cross-sectional study at the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University in China. The study collected clinical and demographic data and included assessments of anxiety, depression, and psychotic symptoms using the 14-item Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA), the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17), and the positive subscales of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), respectively. Measurements of metabolic parameters, fasting blood glucose (FBG), and thyroid hormones were also gathered. To assess the correlation between the TyG index and the likelihood of psychotic symptoms, the study used multivariable binary logistic regression analysis. Additionally, two-segmented linear regression models were employed to investigate possible threshold effects in case non-linearity relationships were identified.ResultsAmong the patients, 9.95% (171 out of 1,718) exhibited psychotic symptoms. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed a positive correlation between the TyG index and the likelihood of psychotic symptoms (OR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.21-3.74, P = 0.01) after adjusting for confounding variables. Moreover, smoothed plots revealed a nonlinear relationship with the TyG index, revealing an inflection point at 8.42. Interestingly, no significant link was observed to the left of the inflection point (OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.04-6.64, P = 0.60), whereas beyond this point, a positive correlation emerged between the TyG index and psychotic symptoms (OR = 2.42, 95% CI: 1.31-4.48, P = 0.01). Particularly, a considerable 142% rise in the probability of experiencing psychotic symptoms was found with each incremental elevation in the TyG index.ConclusionsUnderstanding the non-linear link between the TyG index and the risk of psychotic symptoms in Chinese patients with FEDN MDD highlights the potential for targeted therapeutic approaches. By acknowledging the threshold effect observed, there is an opportunity to mitigate risk factors associated with IR-related psychiatric comorbidities through tailored interventions. These preliminary results stress the need for further longitudinal research to solidify these insights and contribute to more effective therapeutic strategies

Etiologic Diagnosis of Lower Respiratory Tract Bacterial Infections Using Sputum Samples and Quantitative Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification

Etiologic diagnoses of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) have been relying primarily on bacterial cultures that often fail to return useful results in time. Although DNA-based assays are more sensitive than bacterial cultures in detecting pathogens, the molecular results are often inconsistent and challenged by doubts on false positives, such as those due to system- and environment-derived contaminations. Here we report a nationwide cohort study on 2986 suspected LRTI patients across P. R. China. We compared the performance of a DNA-based assay qLAMP (quantitative Loop-mediated isothermal AMPlification) with that of standard bacterial cultures in detecting a panel of eight common respiratory bacterial pathogens from sputum samples. Our qLAMP assay detects the panel of pathogens in 1047(69.28%) patients from 1533 qualified patients at the end. We found that the bacterial titer quantified based on qLAMP is a predictor of probability that the bacterium in the sample can be detected in culture assay. The relatedness of the two assays fits a logistic regression curve. We used a piecewise linear function to define breakpoints where latent pathogen abruptly change its competitive relationship with others in the panel. These breakpoints, where pathogens start to propagate abnormally, are used as cutoffs to eliminate the influence of contaminations from normal flora. With help of the cutoffs derived from statistical analysis, we are able to identify causative pathogens in 750 (48.92%) patients from qualified patients. In conclusion, qLAMP is a reliable method in quantifying bacterial titer. Despite the fact that there are always latent bacteria contaminated in sputum samples, we can identify causative pathogens based on cutoffs derived from statistical analysis of competitive relationship

The distribution of myeloid-derived suppressor cells subsets and up-regulation of programmed death-1/PD-L1 axis in peripheral blood of adult CAP patients.

BackgroundMyeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) have been reported to expand and have a potent ability in the expansion of regulatory T cells in malignant and infectious disease. The current study was performed to investigate the role of MDSCs and possible immune mechanisms in dampening immune responses of community acquired pneumonia (CAP).MethodsThis was a single-center cross-sectional study. The distribution of MDSCs subsets, the PD-1/PD-L1(L2) level of MDSCs subsets and Tregs in the peripheral blood of adult CAP patients and healthy control were measured by flow cytometry analysis.ResultsPeripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 63 adult CAP patients contained an elevated frequency of both G-MDSC (4.92±0.30 vs 2.25±0.21,pConclusionsIn summary, the significant expansion of circulating MDSCs subsets and the up-regulated expression of PD-1/PD-L1 level in CAP patients may suggest the possible involvement of PD-1/PD-L1axis in MDSCs mediated immune regulation on Treg at least partially in CAP patients

Confusion matrix of the LR model (left) and RF model (right).

Confusion matrix of the LR model (left) and RF model (right).</p

PDP for feature APACHE II (left) and SOFA (right).

PDP for feature APACHE II (left) and SOFA (right).</p