Squeezed spectra and elliptic flow of bosons and anti-bosons with in-medium mass splitting

We study the impact of the in-medium mass splitting between bosons and anti-bosons on their spectra and elliptic flow. The in-medium mass splitting may cause a separation in the transverse momentum spectra, as well as a division in the elliptic flow between bosons and anti-bosons. The magnitude of this effect becomes greater as the in-medium mass splitting increases. With the increasing rapidity, the splitting effect of the spectra increases and the splitting effect of the elliptic flow decreases. These phenomena may provide a way to differentiate whether the influences on boson and anti-boson in the medium are consistent.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Investigation of the mechanism of dural arteriovenous fistula formation induced by high intracranial venous pressure in a rabbit model

BACKGROUND: The causes of dural arteriovenous fistula have not been clearly defined. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of dural arteriovenous fistula formation induced by high intracranial venous pressure using a rabbit model. RESULTS: By using rabbit model, dural arteriovenous fistula formation induced by high intracranial venous pressure could be produced by end-to-end and end-to-side anastomosis of the right side common carotid artery with the posterior facial vein plus ligation of the contralateral external jugular vein. As compared the post arteriovenous fistula formation among 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 90 days, the expression level of vascular endothelial growth factor in the 1- and 2-weeks groups was significantly higher compared with the control group, 3 weeks and 90 days groups (p ≤0.002). There was significantly higher hypoxia inducible factor-1α expression in the one week group compared with the control, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 90 days groups (p ≤0.002). The results of Western blotting showed that vascular endothelial growth factor expression level was highest in the 1 week group. The expression level of vascular endothelial growth factor was significantly different between all groups. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the experiments in our rabbit model indicate that high intracranial venous pressure is a key for dural arteriovenous fistula formation. Cerebral ischemia caused by lack of cerebral perfusion pressure plays a key role in the process that leads from high intracranial venous pressure to increased hypoxia inducible factor-1α expression and then increased vascular endothelial growth factor expression. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2202-15-101) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

1-[Bicyclo­[4.2.0]octa-1(6),2,4-trien-3-yl]-3-(but-3-en­yl)imidazolium bromide

In the title compound, C15H17N2 +·Br−, the cyclo­butene and benzene rings are coplanar. The dihedral angle between the benzene and imidazolium rings is 21.2 (3)°. In the crystal structure, the C15H17N2 + and Br− ions are linked into a zigzag chain along the b axis by C—H⋯Br hydrogen bonds, and weak C—H⋯π inter­actions involving the benzene ring of a screw-related cation

A Scoring Model Based on Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio Predicts Recurrence of HBV-Associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma after Liver Transplantation

Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been proposed to predict prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the cut-off values are empirical. We determined the optimal cut-off value to predict HCC recurrence after liver transplantation (LT) and further established a scoring model based on NLR.<0.001). Univariate analysis revealed that tumor size >5 cm, tumor number >3, macrovascular invasion, AFP≥400 µg/L, NLR≥3, and HBV-DNA level >5 log10 copies/mL were preoperative predictors of DFS. Cox regression analysis showed macrovascular invasion, tumor number, and high NLR were independent prognostic factors. We then established a preoperative prognostic score based on multivariate analysis. Each factor was given a score of 1. Area under the ROC curve of the score was 0.781. All nine patients with score 3 developed recurrence within 6 months after LT. Of 71 patients without vascular invasion, three patients with both tumor number >3 and NLR≥3 developed recurrence within 14 months after LT while the 5-year DFS and OS for patients with a score of 0 or 1 were 68.1% and 62.8%, respectively.Preoperative elevated NLR significantly increases the risk of recurrence in patients underwent LT for HCC. Patients with both NLR≥3 and tumor number >3 are not a good indication for LT. Our score model may aid in the selection of patients that would most benefit from transplantation for HCC

Effect of Baicalin on inflammatory mediator levels and microcirculation disturbance in rats with severe acute pancreatitis

Objective: To investigate the effect of Bacailin on inflammatory mediator levels and microcirculation disturbance in severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) rats and explore its therapeutic mechanism on this disease. Methods: SAP model rats were randomly divided into model control group and Baicalin treated group, 45 rats in each group. The same number of normal rats were included in sham-operated group. These groups were further subdivided into 3 h, 6 h and 12 h subgroups, respectively (15 rats in each subgroup). At 3, 6 and 12 hours after operation, rats were killed to conduct the following experiments: (1) to examine the mortality rates of rats, the ascites volume and pancreatic pathological changes in each group; (2) to determine the contents of amylase, PLA~2~, TXB~2~, PGE~2~, PAF and IL-1[beta]; in blood as well as the changes in blood viscosity.Results: (1) Compared to model control group, treatment with Baicalin is able to improve the pathological damage of the pancreas, lower the contents of amylase and multiple inflammatory mediators in blood, decrease the amount of ascitic fluid and reduce the mortality rates of SAP rats; (2) at 3 hours after operation, the low-shear whole blood viscosity in Baicalin treated group was significantly lower than that in model control group;at 12 hours after operation, both the high-shear and low-shear whole blood viscosity in Baicalin treated group were also significantly lower than those in model control group.Conclusion: Baicalin, as a new drug, has good prospects in the treatment of SAP since it can exert therapeutic effects on this disease through inhibiting the production of inflammatory mediators, lowering blood viscosity, improving microcirculation and mitigating the pathological damage of the pancreas

1-[Bicyclo[4.2.0]octa-1(6),2,4-trien-3-yl]-3-[bicyclo[4.2.0]octa-1(6),2,4-trien-3-yl­methyl]imidazolium hexa­fluoro­phos­phate

In the title compound, C20H19N2 +·PF6 −, the two benzocyclo­butene units are essentially planar and they form dihedral angles of 38.0 (2) and 72.7 (2)°, with the central imidazolium ring. In the crystal structure, weak C—H⋯π and π-–π stacking inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance = 3.742 (2) Å] contribute to the stability of the crystal structure. The PF6 − ion is disordered over two positions with site occupancies of 0.869 (9) and 0.131 (9)

Modeling and control of operator functional state in a unified framework of fuzzy inference petri nets

Background and objective: In human-machine (HM) hybrid control systems, human operator and machine cooperate to achieve the control objectives. To enhance the overall HM system performance, the discrete manual control task-load by the operator must be dynamically allocated in accordance with continuous-time fluctuation of psychophysiological functional status of the operator, so-called operator functional state (OFS). The behavior of the HM system is hybrid in nature due to the co-existence of discrete task-load (control) variable and continuous operator performance (system output) variable. Methods: Petri net is an effective tool for modeling discrete event systems, but for hybrid system involving discrete dynamics, generally Petri net model has to be extended. Instead of using different tools to represent continuous and discrete components of a hybrid system, this paper proposed a method of fuzzy inference Petri nets (FIPN) to represent the HM hybrid system comprising a Mamdani-type fuzzy model of OFS and a logical switching controller in a unified framework, in which the task-load level is dynamically reallocated between the operator and machine based on the model-predicted OFS. Furthermore, this paper used a multi-model approach to predict the operator performance based on three electroencephalographic (EEG) input variables (features) via the Wang-Mendel (WM) fuzzy modeling method. The membership function parameters of fuzzy OFS model for each experimental participant were optimized using artificial bee colony (ABC) evolutionary algorithm. Three performance indices, RMSE, MRE, and EPR, were computed to evaluate the overall modeling accuracy. Results: Experiment data from six participants are analyzed. The results show that the proposed method (FIPN with adaptive task allocation) yields lower breakdown rate (from 14.8% to 3.27%) and higher human performance (from 90.30% to 91.99%). Conclusion: The simulation results of the FIPN-based adaptive HM (AHM) system on six experimental participants demonstrate that the FIPN framework provides an effective way to model and regulate/optimize the OFS in HM hybrid systems composed of continuous-time OFS model and discrete-event switching controller