[Advances in electrowetting-on-dielectric digital microfluidics technology for disease diagnosis and prevention applications]

Rapid and accurate diagnostic technologies are crucial for early detection and diagnosis of diseases. Electrowetting-on-dielectric digital microfluidics, with its high-precision detection and high-throughput screening capabilities, significantly enhances the accuracy and efficiency in early disease diagnosis and personalized treatment, enabling swift disease detection and widespread screening. This article provides a comprehensive review of the working principles and fabrication processes of digital microfluidic chips based on electrowetting on dielectric method. It details the latest research progress in the areas of nucleic acids, proteins, and cells, organizes the commercialization of digital microfluidics technology, and finally discusses the current challenges and future directions of digital microfluidic chips.

Search for Narrow Trijet Resonances in Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV

The first search for singly produced narrow resonances decaying to three well-separated hadronic jets is presented. The search uses proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138  fb^{-1} at sqrt[s]=13  TeV, collected at the CERN LHC. No significant deviations from the background predictions are observed between 1.75 and 9.00 TeV. The results provide the first mass limits on a right-handed boson Z_{R} decaying to three gluons and on an excited quark decaying via a vector boson to three quarks, as well as updated limits on a Kaluza-Klein gluon decaying via a radion to three gluons.

Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus LRa05 alleviated liver injury in mice with alcoholic fatty liver disease by improving intestinal permeability and balancing gut microbiota

This study investigated the effect of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus LRa05 on alcoholic fatty liver disease (ALD) and its mechanism for liver protection. Mice were randomly divided into three groups: a control (CLT) group, an ALD group, and a LRa05 intervention group. The ALD mouse model was established by Lieber-DeCarli chronic alcohol feeding. Tissues staining, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to detect changes in histopathology and inflammatory cytokines, respectively. Moreover, intestinal permeability was evaluated by the level of dextran-fluorescein isothiocyanate (Dx-FITC) in serum and tight junction protein in the colon. Changes in the composition of the gut microbiota were assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing. Alcohol consumption induced liver damage in mice with significantly increased levels of triglycerides (TG), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), and inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, alcohol further induced the increase of intestinal permeability and disruption of gut microbiota in mice, with an increase in the relative abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria Enterococcus, Parabacteroides, and Alistipes. LRa05 intervention significantly attenuated alcohol-induced liver injury by reducing the contents of TG, ALT, and AST, and suppressing the inflammatory responses. Meanwhile, by stimulating the expression of ZO-1, Occludin, and Claudin in the colon tissue, LRa05 additionally strengthened the intestine barrier function. Furthermore, gut microbiota analysis suggested that LRa05 partially ameliorated gut microbiota disorders in ALD mice and up-regulated the abundance of Desulfovibrio and Akkermansia, which were negatively correlated with the indicators of ALD progression. The reconstructive effects of LRa05 on the gut microbiota might be related to the efficacy of LRa05 in improving gut permeability and further protecting against ALD.

Long-term exposure to particulate matter and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in an analysis of multiple Asian cohorts

BACKGROUND

Exposure to ambient air pollution is associated with a significant number of deaths. Much of the evidence associating air pollution with adverse effects is from North American and Europe, partially due to incomplete data in other regions limiting location specific examinations. The aim of the current paper is to leverage satellite derived air quality data to examine the relationship between ambient particulate matter and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in Asia.

METHODS

Six cohorts from the Asia Cohort Consortium provided residential information for participants, recruited between 1991 and 2008, across six countries (Bangladesh, India, Iran, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan). Ambient particulate material (PM2·5) levels for the year of enrolment (or 1998 if enrolled earlier) were assigned utilizing satellite and sensor-based maps. Cox proportional models were used to examine the association between ambient air pollution and all-cause and cause-specific mortality (all cancer, lung cancer, cardiovascular and lung disease). Models were additionally adjusted for urbanicity (representing urban and built characteristics) and stratified by smoking status in secondary analyses. Country-specific findings were pooled via random-effects meta-analysis.

FINDINGS

More than 300,000 participants across six cohorts were included, representing more than 4-million-person years. A positive relationship was observed between a 5 µg/m (Dockery et al., 1993) increase in PM2·5 and cardiovascular mortality (HR: 1·06, 95 % CI: 0.99, 1·13). The additional adjustment for urbanicity resulted in increased associations between PM2.5 and mortality outcomes, including all-cause mortality (1·04, 95 % CI: 0·97, 1·11). Results were generally similar regardless of whether one was a current, never, or ex-smoker.

INTERPRETATION

Using satellite and remote sensing technology we showed that associations between PM2.5 and all-cause and cause-specific Hazard Ratios estimated are similar to those reported for U.S. and European cohorts.

FUNDING

This project was supported by the Health Effects Institute. Grant number #4963-RFA/18-5. Specific funding support for individual cohorts is described in the Acknowledgements.

Properties of Cosmic Deuterons Measured by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

Precision measurements by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the International Space Station of the deuteron (D) flux are presented. The measurements are based on 21×10^{6} D nuclei in the rigidity range from 1.9 to 21 GV collected from May 2011 to April 2021. We observe that over the entire rigidity range the D flux exhibits nearly identical time variations with the p, ^{3}He, and ^{4}He fluxes. Above 4.5 GV, the D/^{4}He flux ratio is time independent and its rigidity dependence is well described by a single power law ∝R^{Δ} with Δ_{D/^{4}He}=-0.108±0.005. This is in contrast with the ^{3}He/^{4}He flux ratio for which we find Δ_{^{3}He/^{4}He}=-0.289±0.003. Above ∼13  GV we find a nearly identical rigidity dependence of the D and p fluxes with a D/p flux ratio of 0.027±0.001. These unexpected observations indicate that cosmic deuterons have a sizable primarylike component. With a method independent of cosmic ray propagation, we obtain the primary component of the D flux equal to 9.4±0.5% of the ^{4}He flux and the secondary component of the D flux equal to 58±5% of the ^{3}He flux.

Manipulating the hydrophilic / hydrophobic balance in novel cationic surfactants by ethoxylation: The impact on adsorption and self-assembly

HYPOTHESIS

Cationic surfactants have a wide range of applications, often associated with their affinity for a range of solid surfaces and their anti-microbial properties. Manipulating their adsorption and self-assembly properties is key to most applications, and this is commonly achieved through surfactant mixtures or manipulating their headgroup or alkyl chain structure. Achieving this through adjustments to their headgroup structure is less common in cationic surfactants than in anionic surfactants. Ethoxylation provides the ability to adjust the hydrophilic / hydrophobic balance, as extensively demonstrated in a range of anionic surfactants.

EXPERIMENTS

This same approach has been applied here to a range of ethoxylated cationic surfactants in the form of the quaternary ammonium salts, and their tertiary nonionic equivalents before quaternisation. Their adsorption and self-assembly properties are investigated using predominantly the neutron scattering techniques of neutron reflectivity, NR, and small angle neutron scattering, SANS.

FINDINGS

The trends in the adsorption at the air-water interface and the self-assembly in aqueous solution demonstrate how the hydrophilic / hydrophobic balance can be adjusted by varying the degree of ethoxylation and the alkyl chain length, and illustrate the degree of interdependence of the different structural changes. The variation in the adsorption and the micelle structure shows how the surfactant conformation / packing changes as the degree of ethoxylation and alkyl chain length increases and how the introduction of charge induces further changes.

First Search for Dark-Trident Processes Using the MicroBooNE Detector

We present a first search for dark-trident scattering in a neutrino beam using a dataset corresponding to 7.2×10^{20} protons on target taken with the MicroBooNE detector at Fermilab. Proton interactions in the neutrino target at the main injector produce π^{0} and η mesons, which could decay into dark-matter (DM) particles mediated via a dark photon A^{'}. A convolutional neural network is trained to identify interactions of the DM particles in the liquid-argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) exploiting its imagelike reconstruction capability. In the absence of a DM signal, we provide limits at the 90% confidence level on the squared kinematic mixing parameter ϵ^{2} as a function of the dark-photon mass in the range 10≤M_{A^{'}}≤400  MeV. The limits cover previously unconstrained parameter space for the production of fermion or scalar DM particles χ for two benchmark models with mass ratios M_{χ}/M_{A^{'}}=0.6 and 2 and for dark fine-structure constants 0.1≤α_{D}≤1.

Search for Baryon Number Violation in Top Quark Production and Decay Using Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV

A search is presented for baryon number violating interactions in top quark production and decay. The analysis uses data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of 138  fb^{-1}. Candidate events are selected by requiring two oppositely charged leptons (electrons or muons) and exactly one jet identified as originating from a bottom quark. Multivariate discriminants are used to separate the signal from the background. No significant deviation from the standard model prediction is observed. Upper limits are placed on the strength of baryon number violating couplings. For the first time the production of single top quarks via baryon number violating interactions is studied. This allows the search to set the most stringent constraints to date on the branching fraction of the top quark decay to a lepton, an up-type quark (u or c), and a down-type quark (d, s, or b). The results improve the previous bounds by 3 to 6 orders of magnitude based on the fermion flavor combination of the baryon number violating interactions.

[Study on the application value of portable pulse oximeter in adult patients with obstructive sleep apnea]

Objective: To evaluate the application value of portable pulse oximeter in adult obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Methods: This study prospectively enrolled adult patients who underwent polysomnography (PSG) due to snoring at the Respiratory and Sleep Medicine Department of Peking University People's Hospital from July 2022 to July 2023. During PSG monitoring, CS-WOxi was continuously used to monitor blood oxygen levels. The consistency between 3% oxygen desaturation index (ODI3) measured by portable pulse oximeter and ODI3 of polysomnography was evaluated using difference test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and Bland-altman method. Receiver operating characteristic curve was used to determine the optimal threshold for diagnosing OSA. Results: A total of 184 subjects were included, including 121 males (65.8%) and 63 females (34.2%). The mean age was 46.0 (34.3, 59.0) years, body mass index was 26.0 (23.3, 29.6) kg/m², and the apnea-hypopnea index was 18.2 (5.8, 40.8) events/h. There was a significant difference between CS-ODI3 and PSG-ODI3 [17.1(6.2, 42.7) vs. 14.0(2.9, 32.6), P<0.001], and the Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.93 (P<0.001). There was a good correlation between CS-ODI3 and PSG-AHI (r=0.92, P<0.001). Bland-Altman consistency test showed that the average difference between the two was 0.7 events/h, and the 95% consistency limit was (-17.9, 19.3 events/h). When the CS-ODI3≥5 events/h was used to identify OSA, the sensitivity was 94.4%, the specificity was 80.0%, and the accuracy was 91.3%. When PSG-AHI≥5 events/h was used as the diagnostic criteria, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.933. Conclusion: Portable pulse oximeter can monitor pulse oxygen saturation accurately and has good sensitivity and specificity for OSA high-risk patients, and is a reliable tool for OSA screening.

[Efficacy of sutureless intrascleral intraocular lens fixation with the modified Yamane technique]

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of sutureless intrascleral intraocular lens (IOL) fixation with the modified Yamane technique. Methods: It was a retrospective case series study. Patients undergoing sutureless intrascleral IOL fixation with the modified Yamane technique were included at Beijing Tongren Eye Center, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University from January 2022 to September 2023. Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), recorded as the logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR), were measured before surgery and at 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months postoperatively. Refractive error and intraocular pressure were also checked. Anterior segment examination with a slit lamp microscope, fundus examination, anterior segment and posterior segment optical coherence tomography were performed. Intraoperative and postoperative ocular complications were documented. Results: A total of 53 patients (53 eyes) were included in this study, comprising 40 males and 13 females, with a median age of 60 (49, 68) years. Among them, the proportion of a history of trauma was 22.6% (12/53). There was 1 eye with intraoperative vitreous hemorrhage (1.9%). All eyes had no obvious hypotony, no obvious inflammation in the anterior chamber, and no pupillary abnormalities at 1 week after surgery. The mean follow-up time was (8.0±3.3) months (range, 3 to 16 months). There was no iris capture, re-dislocation, or haptic exposure of the IOL during the follow-up. The corneal endothelial cell density was (2 236±704) cells/mm2 preoperatively and (1 964±628) cells/mm2 at 1 month, with significant difference (P<0.001). The UCVA (logMAR) was 1.53±0.75 preoperatively, 0.18±0.17 at 1 month, 0.15±0.14 at 3 months, and 0.14±0.13 at the final visit (P<0.001). The UCVA (logMAR) at 1 month was significantly different from that at 3 months and the final visit (both P<0.05). At 1 month, 50.9% (27/53) of the eyes had an UCVA (logMAR)≤0.1, and the rate was 56.6% (30/53) at 3 months. The BCVA (logMAR) was 0.25±0.21, 0.03±0.06, 0.02±0.06, and 0.02±0.06 before surgery, at postoperative1 month, 3 months, and the final visit, respectively (P<0.001). The BCVA (logMAR) at 1 month was not significantly different from that at 3 months and the final visit (both P>0.05). The rate of the eyes with a BCVA (logMAR)≤0 was 81.1% (43/53) at 1 month and 83.0% (44/53) at 3 months. The IOL tilt was (5.18±2.60)° at postoperative 1 month and (5.08±2.48)° at postoperative 3 months, without statistically significant difference (P>0.05). The IOL decentration was (0.35±0.24) mm at postoperative 1 month and (0.32±0.24) mm at postoperative 3 months, without statistically significant difference (P>0.05). Conclusion: Sutureless intrascleral IOL fixation with the modified Yamane technique is simpler and more minimally invasive to achieve a stable and centered IOL implantation with fewer complications and good visual prognosis.

[Association between prenatal exposure to PM2.5 and fetal growth: a prospective cohort study]

Objective: To investigate the association of exposure to PM2.5 and its constituents during pregnancy and fetal growth and to further identify critical windows of exposure for fetal growth. Methods: We included 4 089 mother-child pairs from the Jiangsu Birth Cohort Study between January 2016 and October 2019. Data of general characteristics, clinical information, daily average PM2.5 exposure, and its constituents during pregnancy were collected. Fetal growth parameters, including head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC), and femur length (FL), were measured by ultrasound after 20 weeks of gestation, and then estimated fetal weight (EFW) was calculated. Generalized linear mixed models were adopted to examine the associations of prenatal exposure to PM2.5 and its constituents with fetal growth. Distributed lag nonlinear models were used to identify critical exposure windows for each outcome. Results: A 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure during pregnancy was associated with a decrease of 0.025 (β=-0.025, 95%CI: -0.048- -0.001) in HC Z-score, 0.026 (β=-0.026, 95%CI: -0.049- -0.003) in AC Z-score, and 0.028 (β=-0.028, 95%CI:-0.052--0.004) in EFW Z-score, along with an increased risk of 8.5% (RR=1.085, 95%CI: 1.010-1.165) and 13.5% (RR=1.135, 95%CI: 1.016-1.268) for undergrowth of HC and EFW, respectively. Regarding PM2.5 constituents, prenatal exposure to black carbon, organic matter, nitrate, sulfate (SO42-) and ammonium consistently correlated with decreased HC Z-score. SO42- exposure was also associated with decreased FL Z-scores. In addition, we found that gestational weeks 2-5 were critical windows for HC, weeks 4-13 and 19-40 for AC, weeks 4-13 and 23-37 for FL, and weeks 4-12 and 20-40 for EFW. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that exposure to PM2.5 and its constituents during pregnancy could adversely affect fetal growth and the critical windows for different fetal growth parameters are not completely consistent.

[Epidemiological characteristic of viral encephalitis in children and adolescents in Henan Province, 2012-2023]

Objective: To understand the epidemiological characteristics and spatiotemporal distribution of viral encephalitis in children and adolescents in Henan Province from 2012 to 2023. Methods: The information about viral encephalitis cases from October 1, 2012 to July 26, 2023 were collected from Zhengzhou Children's Hospital (National Children's Regional Medical Center),Henan Provincial Children's Hospital for the analyses on temporal distribution the cases, the severe illness rate, age distribution, pathogen type and imaging findings of the cases. Results: A total of 6 276 cases of viral encephalitis were included in this study after excluding cases with incomplete information. The cases mainly originated from Zhengzhou (38.96%), followed by Zhoukou (9.93%), Xuchang (8.68%), Zhumadian (7.90%) and Pingdingshan (7.39%). The cases in boys accounted for 62.13% and the cases in girls accounted for 37.87%. Most cases (72.45%) occurred in age group 7-13 years. The overall rate of severe illness cases was 4.51% from 2012 to 2023. There were significant differences in severe illness cases among different areas and years (χ2=5.33,P=0.021; χ2=48.14,P<0.001). Enteroviruses were mainly detected (31.57%), in which Coxsackie virus was predominant (58.37%). Imaging findings showed that cerebral hemisphere damage was most common in children and adolescents with viral encephalitis (54.93%). Conclusions: From 2012 to 2023, more cases of viral encephalitis occurred in boys in Henan. Children and adolescents aged 7-13 years were the main affected group. The prevention of enteroviruses infection, especially Coxsackie virus, needs to be strengthened. Special attention should be paid to the prevention of cerebral hemisphere damage after viral encephalitis diagnosis.

Combination of Searches for Resonant Higgs Boson Pair Production Using pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

A combination of searches for a new resonance decaying into a Higgs boson pair is presented, using up to 139  fb^{-1} of pp collision data at sqrt[s]=13  TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The combination includes searches performed in three decay channels: bb[over ¯]bb[over ¯], bb[over ¯]τ^{+}τ^{-}, and bb[over ¯]γγ. No excess above the expected Standard Model background is observed and upper limits are set at the 95% confidence level on the production cross section of Higgs boson pairs originating from the decay of a narrow scalar resonance with mass in the range 251 GeV-5 TeV. The observed (expected) limits are in the range 0.96-600 fb (1.2-390 fb). The limits are interpreted in the type-I two-Higgs-doublet model and the minimal supersymmetric standard model, and constrain parameter space not previously excluded by other searches.

[Interpretation of Chinese guideline for the clinical management of patients with ruptured intracranial aneurysms (2024)]

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is a life-threatening neurological emergency with high mortality, and even patients receiving optimal medical care may develop long-term disability, which seriously affects their quality of life and increases the heavy medical burden on society and families. To provide comprehensive clinical management advice, the Society of Neurosurgery of the Chinese Medical Association, the Society of the Chinese Stroke Association of the National Medical Center for Neurological Diseases, and the National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases jointly formulate "Chinese Guidelines for the Clinical Management of Patients With Ruptured Intracranial Aneurysms in 2024". The evidence sources are divided into the Chinese population and other populations, using a modular format to provide recommendations, summaries of relevant opinions, and future research directions on epidemiology, clinical imaging diagnosis, prognosis evaluation, treatment strategies and choices, anesthesia management, perioperative care, and recommendations for the management of aSAH in special populations. It provides practical clinical guidance and recommendations for doctors and related professionals.

Likelihood-based inference under nonconvex boundary constraints

Likelihood-based inference under nonconvex constraints on model parameters has become increasingly common in biomedical research. In this paper, we establish large-sample properties of the maximum likelihood estimator when the true parameter value lies at the boundary of a nonconvex parameter space. We further derive the asymptotic distribution of the likelihood ratio test statistic under nonconvex constraints on model parameters. A general Monte Carlo procedure for generating the limiting distribution is provided. The theoretical results are demonstrated by five examples in Anderson's stereotype logistic regression model, genetic association studies, gene-environment interaction tests, cost-constrained linear regression and fairness-constrained linear regression.

Self-reported oral health status, edentulism and all-cause mortality risk in 12 809 Australian older adults: a prospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association between oral health status and all-cause mortality in older adults using prospective cohort study design.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

In total, 12 809 adults aged ≥70 years (54.3% females) were participants of the ASPREE Longitudinal Study of Older Persons (ALSOP).

METHODS

Participants self-reported the presence of natural teeth and oral health status. The association of self-reported oral health, edentulism and the integrative measure of the two with all-cause mortality were explored using the Cox-regression models adjusted for age, gender, socio-economic status, health-related behaviours, weight status, aspirin and polypharmacy. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were reported.

RESULTS

In total, 22.2% of participants reported edentulism and 13.8% had fair/poor oral health. After adjustment for confounders, risk of all-cause mortality was higher among those with edentulism (vs. no edentulism) HR (95% CI) 1.43 (1.18, 1.73); and those with edentulism and reporting poor/fair oral health HR (95% CI) 1.69 (1.02, 2.82), or with no edentulism but reporting poor/fair oral health HR (95% CI) 1.46 (1.19-1.80) vs. no edentulism and reporting good/very good/excellent oral health. No association was observed between self-reported oral health alone and all-cause mortality.

CONCLUSIONS

The risk of all-cause mortality was 69% higher among older adults reporting both edentulism and poor/fair oral health compared with those with teeth and more favourable self-reported oral health. © 2023 Australian Dental Association.

The role of contrast-enhanced mammography in the preoperative evaluation of invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast

AIM

To assess the performance of contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) in the preoperative staging of invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of the breast.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The present study was a multicentre, multivendor, multinational retrospective study of women with a histological diagnosis of ILC who had undergone CEM from December 2013 to December 2021. Index lesion size and multifocality were recorded for two-dimensional (2D) mammography, CEM, and when available magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Comparison with histological data was undertaken for women treated by primary surgical excision. Pearson correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman's analysis of agreement were used to assess differences with a significance level of 0.05.

RESULTS

One hundred and fifteen ILC lesions were included, 46 (40%) presented symptomatically and 69 were screening detected. CEM demonstrated superior sensitivity when compared to standard mammography. The correlation between the histological size measured on the surgical excision specimen size was greater than with standard mammography (r=0.626 and 0.295 respectively, p=0.001), with 19% of lobular carcinomas not visible without a contrast agent. The sensitivity of CEM for multifocal disease was greater than standard mammography (70% and 20% respectively, p<0.0001). CEM overestimated tumour size by an average of 1.5 times, with the size difference increasing for larger tumour. When MRI was performed (n=22), tumour size was also overestimated by an average of 1.3 times. The degree of size overestimation was similar for both techniques, with the tumour size on CEM being on average 0.5 cm larger than MRI.

CONCLUSION

CEM is a useful tool for the local staging of lobular carcinomas and could be an alternative to breast MRI.

Azimuthal Angle Correlations of Muons Produced via Heavy-Flavor Decays in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb and pp Collisions with the ATLAS Detector

Angular correlations between heavy quarks provide a unique probe of the quark-gluon plasma created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. Results are presented of a measurement of the azimuthal angle correlations between muons originating from semileptonic decays of heavy quarks produced in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb and pp collisions at the LHC. The muons are measured with transverse momenta and pseudorapidities satisfying p_{T}^{μ}>4  GeV and |η^{μ}|<2.4, respectively. The distributions of azimuthal angle separation Δϕ for muon pairs having pseudorapidity separation |Δη|>0.8, are measured in different Pb+Pb centrality intervals and compared to the same distribution measured in pp collisions at the same center-of-mass energy. Results are presented separately for muon pairs with opposite-sign charges, same-sign charges, and all pairs. A clear peak is observed in all Δϕ distributions at Δϕ∼π, consistent with the parent heavy-quark pairs being produced via hard-scattering processes. The widths of that peak, characterized using Cauchy-Lorentz fits to the Δϕ distributions, are found to not vary significantly as a function of Pb+Pb collision centrality and are similar for pp and Pb+Pb collisions. This observation will provide important constraints on theoretical descriptions of heavy-quark interactions with the quark-gluon plasma.

Search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson to a pair of pseudoscalars in the μμbb and ττbb final states

A search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson (H ) with a mass of 125Ge V to a pair of light pseudoscalars a 1 is performed in final states where one pseudoscalar decays to two b quarks and the other to a pair of muons or τ leptons. A data sample of proton-proton collisions at s = 13 Te V corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138fb - 1 recorded with the CMS detector is analyzed. No statistically significant excess is observed over the standard model backgrounds. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level (CL ) on the Higgs boson branching fraction to μ μ b b and to τ τ b b , via a pair of a 1 s. The limits depend on the pseudoscalar mass m a 1 and are observed to be in the range (0.17-3.3) × 10 - 4 and (1.7-7.7) × 10 - 2 in the μ μ b b and τ τ b b final states, respectively. In the framework of models with two Higgs doublets and a complex scalar singlet (2HDM+S), the results of the two final states are combined to determine upper limits on the branching fraction B ( H → a 1 a 1 → ℓ ℓ b b ) at 95% CL , with ℓ being a muon or a τ lepton. For different types of 2HDM+S, upper bounds on the branching fraction B ( H → a 1 a 1 ) are extracted from the combination of the two channels. In most of the Type II 2HDM+S parameter space, B ( H → a 1 a 1 ) values above 0.23 are excluded at 95% CL for m a 1 values between 15 and 60Ge V .

Single-step genome-wide association analyses for milk urea concentration in Walloon Holstein cows

The aims of this study were to conduct a single-step genome-wide association to identify genomic regions associated with milk urea (MU) and to estimate genetic correlations between MU and milk yield (MY), milk composition (calcium content [CC], fat percentage [FP], protein percentage [PP], and casein percentage [CNP]), and cheese-making properties (CMP; coagulation time [CT], curd firmness after 30 min from rennet addition [a30], and titratable acidity [TA]). The used data have been collected from 2015 to 2020 on 78,073 first-parity (485,218 test-day records) and 48,766 second-parity (284,942 test-day records) Holstein cows distributed in 671 herds in the Walloon Region of Belgium. Data of 565,533 SNP located on 29 BTA of 6,617 animals (1,712 males) were used. Random regression test-day models were used to estimate genetic parameters through the Bayesian Gibbs sampling method. The SNP solutions were estimated using a single-step genomic BLUP approach. The proportion of the total additive genetic variance explained by windows of 50 consecutive SNPs (with an average size of ∼216 kb) was calculated, and the top-3 genomic regions explaining the largest rate of the genetic variance were considered promising regions and used to identify potential candidate genes. Mean (SD) MU was 25.38 (8.02) mg/dL and 25.03 (8.06) mg/dL in the first and second lactation, respectively. Mean heritability estimates for daily MU were 0.21 and 0.23 for the first and second lactation, respectively. The genetic correlations estimated between MU and MY, milk composition, and CMP were quite low (ranged from -0.10 [CC] to 0.10 [TA] and -0.05 [CT] to 0.13 [TA] for the first and second lactations, respectively). The top-3 regions associated with MU were located from 80.61 to 80.74 Mb on BTA6, 103.26 to 103.41 Mb on BTA11, and 1.59 to 2.15 Mb on BTA14. Genes including KCNT1, MROH1, SHARPIN, TSSK5, CPSF1, HSF1, TONSL, DGAT1, SCX, and MAF1 were identified as positional candidate genes for MU. The findings of this study can be used for a better understanding of the genomic architecture underlying MU in Holstein cattle.

Beyond regulatory compliance: evaluating radiology artificial intelligence applications in deployment

The implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in routine practice, following regulatory approval, is currently limited by practical concerns around reliability, accountability, trust, safety, and governance, in addition to factors such as cost-effectiveness and institutional information technology support. When a technology is new and relatively untested in a field, professional confidence is lacking and there is a sense of the need to go above the baseline level of validation and compliance. In this article, we propose an approach that goes beyond standard regulatory compliance for AI apps that are approved for marketing, including independent benchmarking in the lab as well as clinical audit in practice, with the aims of increasing trust and preventing harm.