New Chinese Facilities for Short-Range Correlation Physics

This article explores the significant advancements in Short-Range Correlation (SRC) research enabled by the latest Chinese nuclear physics facilities- CSR at HIRFL, HIAF, SHINE, and the upcoming EicC. These facilities introduce cutting-edge technologies and methodologies, addressing existing challenges and broadening the scope for SRC studies. By providing detailed insights into the capabilities and expected contributions of each facility, the paper highlights China's emerging role in the global nuclear physics landscape. The collaborative potential, alongside complementary global efforts, positions these facilities to deeply influence our understanding of nuclear matter's fundamental properties and interactions.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, to be submitted to EPJA Topical Collection: Short-Range Correlations and the EMC Effec

Antheraea pernyi Silk Fiber: A Potential Resource for Artificially Biospinning Spider Dragline Silk

The outstanding properties of spider dragline silk are likely to be determined by a combination of the primary sequences and the secondary structure of the silk proteins. Antheraea pernyi silk has more similar sequences to spider dragline silk than the silk from its domestic counterpart, Bombyx mori. This makes it much potential as a resource for biospinning spider dragline silk. This paper further verified its possibility as the resource from the mechanical properties and the structures of the A. pernyi silks prepared by forcible reeling. It is surprising that the stress-strain curves of the A. pernyi fibers show similar sigmoidal shape to those of spider dragline silk. Under a controlled reeling speed of 95 mm/s, the breaking energy was 1.04 × 105 J/kg, the tensile strength was 639 MPa and the initial modulus was 9.9 GPa. It should be noted that this breaking energy of the A. pernyi silk approaches that of spider dragline silk. The tensile properties, the optical orientation and the β-sheet structure contents of the silk fibers are remarkably increased by raising the spinning speeds up to 95 mm/s

Verteporfin mitigates sepsis-induced liver injury by blocking macrophage-derived inflammation

Purpose: To study the role of yes-associated protein (YAP) inhibition by verteporfin (VTF) in LPSinduced acute liver injury (ALI) after sepsis.Methods: In vitro, VTF was used to treat LPS-stimulated RAW 267.4 cells. In vivo, LPS was injected to induce sepsis in mice, followed by treatment with VTF. The inflammatory mediators were determined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), immunofluorescence spectroscopy (IF) and immunohistochemical staining (IHC), and the levels of YAP, P53 and ERK were measured by qRT-PCR, WB and IHC. Moreover, liver histology and liver function were examined using HE staining and ELISA respectively.Results: The results showed that VTF reduced YAP expression and inhibited LPS-induced cell activation and inflammatory cytokine production such as IL-6 and IL-1β, by attenuating the expressions of p53 and ERK pathway in macrophages. The levels of AST, AIL and TBiL remarkably decreased in ALI mice after VTF treatment (p < 0.05). Moreover, it was observed that inflammatory mediators, including inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), IL-6 and IL-1β, decreased significantly in VTF treated mice (P < 0.05).Conclusion: VTF plays an antagonistic role in LPS-induced inflammatory response after ALI. Therefore, VTF is a potential medicinal agent for preventing infectious acute liver injury

Fiber diameters and parallel patterns: proliferation and osteogenesis of stem cells

Due to the innate extracellular matrix mimicking features, fibrous materials exhibited great application potential in biomedicine. In developing excellent fibrous biomaterial, it is essential to reveal the corresponding inherent fiber featuresâ effects on cell behaviors. Due to the inevitable â interferenceâ cell adhesions to the background or between adjacent fibers, it is difficult to precisely reveal the inherent fiber diameter effect on cell behaviors by using a traditional fiber mat. A single-layer and parallel-arranged polycaprolactone fiber pattern platform with an excellent non-fouling background is designed and constructed herein. In this unique material platform, the â interferenceâ cell adhesions through interspace between fibers to the environment could be effectively ruled out by the non-fouling background. The â interferenceâ cell adhesions between adjacent fibers could also be excluded from the sparsely arranged (SA) fiber patterns. The influence of fiber diameter on stem cell behaviors is precisely and comprehensively investigated based on eliminating the undesired â interferenceâ cell adhesions in a controllable way. On the SA fiber patterns, small diameter fiber (SA-D1, D1 means 1 μm in diameter) may seriously restrict cell proliferation and osteogenesis when compared to the middle (SA-D8) and large (SA-D56) ones and SA-D8 shows the optimal osteogenesis enhancement effect. At the same time, the cells present similar proliferation ability and even the highest osteogenic ability on the densely arranged (DA) fiber patterns with small diameter fiber (DA-D1) when compared to the middle (DA-D8) and large (DA-D56) ones. The â interferenceâ cell adhesion between adjacent fibers under dense fiber arrangement may be the main reason for inducing these different cell behavior trends along with fiber diameters. Related results and comparisons have illustrated the effects of fiber diameter on stem cell behaviors more precisely and objectively, thus providing valuable reference and guidance for developing effective fibrous biomaterials.This work was sponsored by the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (20ZR1402400), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2232020D-04), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52273125, 52173031 and 51903045), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (20XD1400100, 22520711900 and 21JC1400100), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2232019A3-06 and 2232019D3-02)

Boosting Medical Image Classification with Segmentation Foundation Model

The Segment Anything Model (SAM) exhibits impressive capabilities in zero-shot segmentation for natural images. Recently, SAM has gained a great deal of attention for its applications in medical image segmentation. However, to our best knowledge, no studies have shown how to harness the power of SAM for medical image classification. To fill this gap and make SAM a true ``foundation model'' for medical image analysis, it is highly desirable to customize SAM specifically for medical image classification. In this paper, we introduce SAMAug-C, an innovative augmentation method based on SAM for augmenting classification datasets by generating variants of the original images. The augmented datasets can be used to train a deep learning classification model, thereby boosting the classification performance. Furthermore, we propose a novel framework that simultaneously processes raw and SAMAug-C augmented image input, capitalizing on the complementary information that is offered by both. Experiments on three public datasets validate the effectiveness of our new approach

Comparative study regarding the stability of a proximal ulnar stump with or without distal oblique bundle reconstruction during the Sauvé‒Kapandji procedure: a finite-element analysis

BackgroundThe most common postoperative complication of the Sauvé‒Kapandji (S-K) procedure is proximal ulnar stump instability. The distal oblique bundle (DOB) is a stable tissue used to stabilize the distal radioulnar joint. This study created finite-element models of the distal oblique bundle (DOB) to determine its effect on the proximal ulnar stump instability encountered during the Sauvé‒Kapandji procedure.PurposeWe hypothesized that a proximal ulnar stump with distal oblique bundle reconstruction would provide greater stability than a proximal ulnar stump without distal oblique bundle reconstruction.MethodsDetailed CT imaging data acquired from a pathological specimen of the wrist joint were imported into a finite-element analysis software package, and the regions of interest, including bone, cartilage, ligaments and tendons, were extracted to create a 3-dimensional model. The volar/dorsal and medial/lateral displacements of the proximal ulnar stump and the stress changes exhibited by the bone and distal oblique bundle tendon were measured with and without DOB reconstruction under 60° pronation, neutrality, and 60° supination.ResultsWhen utilizing DOB reconstruction, the displacement of the radius relative to the proximal ulna stump was approximately 17.89 mm in the neutral position. The bone stress values corresponding to the neutral position, 60° pronation and 60° pronation were 1.01, 18.32 and 14.69 MPa, respectively. The stress peaks of the DOB tendon structure corresponding to the neutral position, 60° pronation and 60° pronation were 0.07 MPa, 2.21 and 1.55 MPa, respectively. Without DOB reconstruction, the displacement of the radius relative to the proximal ulna stump was approximately 18.05 mm in the neutral position. Under 60° pronation and 60° supination, the displacement values were approximately 14.62 mm and 16.89 mm, respectively. The peak bone stress values corresponding to the neutral position, 60° pronation and 60° supination were 1.02, 18.29 MPa and 14.41 MPa, respectively. The stress peaks of the tendon structure corresponding to the neutral position, 60° pronation and 60° pronation were 0.03, 0.87 and 0.85 MPa, respectively.ConclusionDOB reconstruction is capable of improving the stability of the proximal ulnar stump during the Sauvé–Kapandji procedure

Self-Assembly, Interfacial Nanostructure, and Supramolecular Chirality of the Langmuir-Blodgett Films of Some Schiff Base Derivatives without Alkyl Chain

A special naphthyl-containing Schiff base derivative, , -bis(2-hydroxy-1-naphthylidene)-1,2-phenylenediamine, was synthesized, and its coordination with various metal ions in situ at the air/water interface has been investigated. Although the ligand contains no alkyl chain, it can be spread on water surface. When metal ions existed in the subphase, an interfacial coordination between the ligand and different metal ions occurred in the spreading film, while different Nanostructures were fabricated in the monolayers. Interestingly to note that among various metal ions, only the in situ coordination-induced Cu(II)-complex film showed supramolecular chirality, although the multilayer films from the ligand or preformed complex are achiral. The chirality of the in situ Cu(II)-coordinated Langmuir film was developed due to the special distorted coordination reaction and the spatial limitation at the air/water interface. A possible organization mechanism at the air/water interface was suggested

A comparison of the accuracy of the original-mirror alignment algorithm and a landmark-independent method in constructing craniofacial midsagittal plane in patients with facial deformities

Objective To compare the accuracy of the original-mirror alignment algorithm and a landmark-independent method in constructing the midsagittal plane (MSP) of the cone beam computed tomography in patients with facial deformities, so as to provide a theoretical basis for symmetric analysis. Methods The study was approved by the hospital ethics committee. Cone beam computed tomography data of 30 patients with facial deformities were obtained, and the output was saved in DICOM format. The scan data were imported into Mimics 21.0; after segmentation, three-dimensional (3D) skull models were reconstructed. Furthermore, the 3D scan data of skulls were transformed into mirror skull models using Geomagic Studio 2014 reverse engineering software. The MSP of each skull was generated using both the original-mirror alignment algorithm and the landmark-independent method. Original-mirror alignment algorithm: the original skull model and its mirror model were combined, and the new data to calculate the MSP (S1) of the original data in Geomagic Studio 2014 were obtained. Landmark-independent method: the following anatomical landmarks were determined using Mimics 21.0: nasion (N), crista galli (CG), sella (S), basion (Ba), vomer (V), posterior nasal spine (PNS), incisive foramen (IF), and anterior nasal spine (ANS). The MSP (S2) of best fit was then found by minimizing the mean square distance of these eight anatomical landmarks to a plane in Geomagic Studio 2014. The results of the S1 and S2 models constructed using the original-mirror alignment algorithm and the landmark-independent method, respectively, were scored subjectively by five senior maxillofacial surgeons, and a paired t-test was performed for the two groups. The internal consistency analysis was performed based on secondary experiments to verify the repeatability of the expert evaluation method. Results The average scores of the S1 and S2 models were 65.73 and 75.90, respectively. The average score of the model constructed using the landmark-independent method was significantly higher than that of the model constructed using the original-mirror alignment algorithm (P<0.01). Furthermore, the results of the internal consistency analysis showed that the expert evaluation method had good reliability and validity. Conclusion In patients with facial deformities, the MSP constructed using the landmark-independent method is superior to that constructed using the original-mirror alignment algorithm. This study provides a theoretical basis for maxillofacial symmetry analysis in clinical settings and is clinically feasible

Multivisceral resection of nonfunctional pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasm with nearby organ invasion: a case report

Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (pNENs) are relatively rare epithelial malignancies originating from pancreatic neuroendocrine cells, pathologically classified into well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) and poorly-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma (pNECs). Although they also fall under the category of pNENs, the almost entirely distinct biological characteristics and survival prognosis have caused debate among surgeons when it comes to the development of surgical intervention options, particularly for locally advanced G3 pNETs and pNECs. We present a case of 66-year-old male with nonfunctional G3 pNET, invasion of five nearby pancreatic organs and type II liver metastases. The patient achieved good outcomes after undergoing multivisceral resection and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. This finding helps surgeons better understand locally advanced pNENs, formulate treatment decisions systematically and confidently, and balance patient benefits and risks of surgery

A CsI hodoscope on CSHINE for Bremsstrahlung {\gamma}-rays in Heavy Ion Reactions

Bremsstrahlung $\gamma$ production in heavy ion reactions at Fermi energies carries important physical information including the nuclear symmetry energy at supra-saturation densities. In order to detect the high energy Bremsstrahlung $\gamma$ rays, a hodoscope consisting of 15 CsI(Tl) crystal read out by photo multiplier tubes has been built, tested and operated in experiment. The resolution, efficiency and linear response of the units to $\gamma$ rays have been studied using radioactive source and $({\rm p},\gamma)$ reactions. The inherent energy resolution of $1.6\%+2\%/E_{\gamma}^{1/2}$ is obtained. Reconstruction method has been established through Geant 4 simulations, reproducing the experimental results where comparison can be made. Using the reconstruction method developed, the whole efficiency of the hodoscope is about $2.6\times 10^{-4}$ against the $4\pi$ emissions at the target position, exhibiting insignificant dependence on the energy of incident $\gamma$ rays above 20 MeV. The hodoscope is operated in the experiment of $^{86}$Kr + $^{124}$Sn at 25 MeV/u, and a full $\gamma$ energy spectrum up to 80 MeV has been obtained.Comment: 9 pages, 19 figure