Search

JSNS 2 (J-PARC Sterile Neutrino Search at J-PARC Spallation Neutron Source) is an experiment that searches for sterile neutrinos via the observation of ν ¯ μ → ν ¯ e appearance oscillations using muon decay-at-rest neutrinos. The JSNS 2 experiment performed data taking from 2021. In this manuscript, a study of the accidental background is presented. The rate of the accidental background is ( 9.29 ± 0.39) × 10 - 8 /spill with 0.75 MW beam power and comparable to the expected number of signal events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we report urine-derived cell (UDC) culture and subsequent use for cloning which resulted in the successful development of cloned canine pups, which have remained healthy into adulthood. Bovine UDCs were used in vitro to establish comparative differences between cell sources. UDCs were chosen as a readily available and noninvasive source for obtaining cells. We analyzed the viability of cells stored in urine over time and could consistently culture cells which had remained in urine for 48hrs. Cells were shown to be viable and capable of being transfected with plasmids. Although primarily of epithelial origin, cells were found from multiple lineages, indicating that they enter the urine from more than one source. Held in urine, at 4°C, the majority of cells maintained their membrane integrity for several days. When compared to in vitro fertilization (IVF) derived embryos or those from traditional SCNT, UDC derived embryos did not differ in total cell number or in the number of DNA breaks, measured by TUNEL stain. These results indicate that viable cells can be obtained from multiple species' urine, capable of being used to produce live offspring at a comparable rate to other cell sources, evidenced by a 25% pregnancy rate and 2 live births with no losses in the canine UDC cloning trial. This represents a noninvasive means to recover the breeding capacity of genetically important or infertile animals. Obtaining cells in this way may provide source material for human and animal studies where cells are utilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FOURTH GENERATION HUCART19-IL18 PRODUCES DURABLE RESPONSES IN LYMPHOMA PATIENTS PREVIOUSLY RELAPSED/REFRACTORY TO ANTI-CD19 CAR T-CELL THERAPY B Introduction: b Lymphoma (NHL) patients (pts) relapsing/refractory (R/R) to anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CART) represent a challenging group in need of effective therapies. B Conclusions: b HuCART19-IL18 therapy results in durable responses in pts with CD19+ NHL who are R/R to prior 2 SP nd sp generation anti-CD19 CART. [Extracted from the article]

JSNS 2 (J-PARC Sterile Neutrino Search at J-PARC Spallation Neutron Source) is an experiment that is searching for sterile neutrinos via the observation of ν ¯ μ → ν ¯ e appearance oscillations using muon decay-at-rest neutrinos. Before dedicated data taking in the first-half of 2021, we performed a commissioning run for 10 days in June 2020. Using the data obtained in this commissioning run, in this paper, we present an estimate of the correlated background which imitates the ν ¯ e signal in a sterile neutrino search. In addition, in order to demonstrate future prospects of the JSNS 2 experiment, possible pulse shape discrimination improvements towards reducing cosmic ray induced fast neutron background are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between structure and function is a major constituent of the rules of life. Structures and functions occur across all levels of biological organization. Current efforts to integrate conceptual frameworks and approaches to address new and old questions promise to allow a more holistic and robust understanding of how different biological functions are achieved across levels of biological organization. Here, we provide unifying and generalizable definitions of both structure and function that can be applied across all levels of biological organization. However, we find differences in the nature of structures at the organismal level and below as compared to above the level of the organism. We term these intrinsic and emergent structures, respectively. Intrinsic structures are directly under selection, contributing to the overall performance (fitness) of the individual organism. Emergent structures involve interactions among aggregations of organisms and are not directly under selection. Given this distinction, we argue that while the functions of many intrinsic structures remain unknown, functions of emergent structures are the result of the aggregate of processes of individual organisms. We then provide a detailed and unified framework of the structure–function relationship for intrinsic structures to explore how their unknown functions can be defined. We provide examples of how these scalable definitions applied to intrinsic structures provide a framework to address questions on structure–function relationships that can be approached simultaneously from all subdisciplines of biology. We propose that this will produce a more holistic and robust understanding of how different biological functions are achieved across levels of biological organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, chloride mobility after electrochemical treatment in concrete was evaluated. Once a concrete specimen containing three steel reinforcing bars was exposed to 4M NaCl for 365 days, electrochemical chloride extraction was applied to the reinforcing bars for 8 weeks at 750 mA/m² (0.484 mA/in.²) direct current. To evaluate chloride mobility, chloride concentration at all depths was measured for total, free, and bound ones by chloride profiling. Simultaneously, the corrosion rate and potential were measured during the treatment. The removal efficiency for total chloride was significant, ranging from 26.2 to 70.2% compared to the untreated specimen. Free chlorides were mostly removed from the concrete body except for the nearer surface, and bound chloride concentration was surprisingly reduced to 0.67 to 0.74%, irrespective of the depth. Moreover, the corrosion rate and potential indicated that the risk of corrosion was mitigated. A visual examination for steel reinforcing bars confirmed that rust was dramatically reduced after the treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canine cloning is occasionally accompanied by abnormal sexual development. Some male donor cells produce cloned pups with female external genitalia and complete male gonadal dysgenesis, which is classified as an XY disorder of sex development (XY DSD). In this study, we examine the potential of 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dC), a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, to reduce the phenotypic abnormality XY DSD in somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)- derived pups. We used a 9-year-old normal male German Shepherd dog as a cell donor. Donor cells were treated with 10 nM 5-aza-dC for 4 days before being used for SCNT. At the same stage of cell development, significantly lower levels of DNA methylation of the sex-determining region Y (SRY) promoter was observed in the treated donor cells compared to that in the untreated cells (95.2% versus 53.3% on day 4 for the control and treated groups, respectively). No significant differences were observed in the control or treatment groups concerning fusion rate, pregnancy rate (30 days or entire period), the number of pups, or the incidence of XY DSD. However, more XY DSD dogs were observed in the control group (31.25%) than in the treatment group (14.29%). Hypermethylation of the SRY promoter was observed in the XY DSD cloned pups in both the treatment (84.8%) and control groups (91.1 ± 1.4%) compared to the methylation level in the phenotypically normal male pups of the treatment (23.2 ± 20.9%) and control groups (39.1 ± 20.1%). These results suggest that 5-aza-dC treatment of donor cells can reduce the methylation level of the SRY promoter in donor cells, and thus, 5-aza-dC is advantageous for reducing the incidence of XY DSD in canine cloning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surface barrier height and surface Fermi level of InA1As were investigated via photoreflectance spectra. Surface state density was then determined from the surface barrier height as a function of temperature, illumination power intensity, and intrinsic layer thickness. Results obtained from these three independent approaches all give the same conclusion, that the surface states are distributed over two separate regions within the energy band gap. Closely examining the photovoltage induced by various incident beam intensities revealed that the photovoltage effect is negligible when the illumination power intensity is below 1.0 µW/cm². [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photoreflectance is used to investigate the band gap, built-in electric field, and surface Fermi level of a series of lattice-matched In[sub 0.52]Al[sub 0.48]As surface-intrinsic n[sup +] structures having different undoped layer thicknesses. Experimental results indicate that, although the built-in electric field depends on the undoped layer thickness, there is a range of thickness within which the surface Fermi level is weakly pinned. From the dependence of electric field and surface Fermi level on the undoped layer thickness, we can determine that the surface states distribute over two separate regions within the energy band gap. The densities of the surface states are evaluated as well. Moreover, the dependence of the built-in electric field on undoped layer thickness is converted into the dependence of surface state density on the surface Fermi level in order to theoretically and exactly calculate the energy spectrum of the surface state density using a Guassian distribution function. The center and width of the distribution near the conduction band are obtained from the fitting parameters. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donor types include matched sibling donor ( I N i = 54), matched unrelated donor ( I N i = 35), Haplo-identical donors ( I N i = 23) and Cord blood ( I N i = 9). B Methods: b We evaluated 121 lymphoma patients (both non-Hodgkin (NHL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL)) from two major transplant centres in Singapore who had AlloHSCT over a 20-year period (2003-2022). B Background: b Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AlloHSCT) is a curative option for those who have high risk relapsed/refractory lymphoma in the era of novel and cellular therapies including CAR-T cell. [Extracted from the article]

B Conclusions: b In cHL patients R/R to BV and CPIs, the combination of everolimus and itacitinib was well tolerated and produced high response rates that compare favorably to historical reports of mTOR or JAK inhibitors as monotherapies. B Introduction: b Patients (pts) with classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) who have failed or are intolerant of BV and CPI have few available treatment options. [Extracted from the article]

To meet the demand of various high-speed data rate services as well as serving an exponential increment of mobile devices, millimeter-Wave (mmWave) communication in ultra-dense networks (UDNs) has been considered as a promising technology for future wireless communication systems. By deploying multiple small-cell base stations (SBSs), the dense topology combining high frequency mmWave is expected to grow not only the users (UEs) throughput but also the energy efficiency (EE) of the whole networks. Exploiting the benefits from mmWave and UDNs, in this paper, we introduce a new approach for jointly optimizing SBS-UE association and power allocation to maximize the system EE while guaranteeing the quality of service (QoS) constraints for each UE. Specifically, the throughput fairness among UEs is also taken into account by formulating UE throughput maxmin problem. Unfortunately, such SBS-UE association problem poses a new challenge since it reflects as a complex mixed-integer non-convex problem. On the other hand, the power allocation problem is in nonconvexity structure, which is impossible to handle with the association problem concurrently. Tackling those issues, an alternating descent method is proposed to separate the primal optimization problem into two subproblems and handle one-by-one at each iteration. In particular, the SBS-UE association problem is reformulated using the penalty approach. Then, successive convex programming is developed to convert non-convex problem into the simple convex quadratic functions at each iteration. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the convergence and low-complexity of our proposed schemes, where the increment of the objective function is guaranteed at each iteration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the application of the binary-encounter-Bethe model for electron-impact total ionization cross sections to molecules of interest to atmospheric science. Use of simple theoretical data for the ground state of the target molecule made readily available from molecular structure codes; Use of vertical ionization potentials (IP) rather than adiabatic IP for the lowest IP.

Presents a study which used admittance spectroscopy to measure electron traps near the conduction of the n-type electrodeposited cadmium tellurium thin films. Methodology; Results and discussion; Conclusion.

Presents information on a study which measured the barrier heights of the electrodeposited n-type cadmium tellurium thin-film metal semiconductor and metal-thin insulating layer-semiconductor devices using internal photoemission. Surface properties of the thin films; Experimental details; Results and discussion; Conclusions.

Examines the photoconductance transient response in polycrystalline silicon. Emission and capture processes at the grain-boundary traps; Formulation of photoconductance; Diagram of a bicrystal under illumination in photoconductance measurement.

A theoretical model for electron-impact ionization cross sections, which has been developed primarily for atoms and atomic ions, is applied to neutral molecules. The new model combines the binary-encounter theory and the Bethe theory for electron-impact ionization, and uses minimal theoretical data for the ground state of the target molecule, which are readily available from public-domain molecular structure codes such as GAMESS. The theory is called the binary-encounter Bethe (BEB) model, and does not, in principle, involve any adjustable parameters. Applications to 19 molecules, including H2, NO, CH2, C6H6, and SF6, are presented, demonstrating that the BEB model provides total ionization cross sections by electron impact from threshold to several keV with an average accuracy of 15% or better at the cross section peak, except for SiF3. The BEB model can be applied to stable molecules as well as to transient radicals. © 1996 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We uncovered two critical issues in earlier studies: (a) some studies have shown that mobile learning technology is not beneficial for all students due to complexity of learning environments and student prior knowledge, skills, and experience and (b) familiarity of students with the authentic environments in which they learn using mobile technology did not receive much attention in earlier studies. To address these issues, we designed three learning tasks for a class of 26 junior high school students. The students applied language skills by completing the tasks in authentic environments individually in a first task, loosely collaborating with peers in a second task, and tightly collaborating with peers in a third task. A mobile learning system was also designed in this study to support students to accomplish the tasks. The aim of this study was to explore students' learning experiences using the learning system, their perceptions towards the system, and to assess how differently the students perform on the three tasks. According to our design, in the first task, the students took pictures of objects and described them orally or in writing using the mobile learning system. In the second task, after the students completed assignments, each student received comments from a partner through the system. In comments, the partner indicated flaws in student assignments and suggested how to fix them. In the third task, the students completed assignments, shared them using the system, and then exchanged comments with their partners face to face regarding issues related to their completed assignments and suggested how to improve them. Such learning behaviours in the three tasks enabled the students to practise writing and speaking skills. Our results demonstrate that most of the students highly valued our learning system and intend to use it in the future. Furthermore, the results show that the students performed best when they collaborated; namely, student performance was enhanced the most after the third task that required tight collaboration. Based on our results, we learned that students' familiarity with authentic environments is very important and beneficial for their learning. In addition, we learned that even in complex environment, less skilled and experienced students with low prior knowledge can perform well when they tightly collaborate with more skilled and experienced students with high prior knowledge, and our learning system can facilitate such collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrophobic surgical forceps of end-effectors for laparoscopic operations or minimally invasive surgery were developed through powder injection molding (PIM) and surface treatment. Processing conditions for mixing, debinding, and sintering were investigated to produce defect-free components. An optimum solid loading was determined by torque rheometry experiments. The optimized processing conditions for debinding and sintering were designed through the measurement of weight loss and shrinkage behavior by thermogravimetric analysis and dilatometry experiments. After producing the surgical forceps based on the optimized processing conditions via PIM, surface treatment was carried out to generate the hydrophobic structure on the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, peripherally inserted central catheters ( PICC) are applied in patients with haematological malignancies. The feasibility and safety of PICC for induction chemotherapy in acute myeloid leukaemia ( AML) remain unclear. Medical records of 89 newly diagnosed adult de novo AML patients, who achieved complete remission, were retrospectively reviewed ( PICC group, n = 43; intravenous [ IV] line group, n = 46). Patients' clinical characteristics and the number of blind punctures for blood sampling were compared between these two groups, and risk factors associated with bacteraemia were identified by univariate analysis. Patients in the PICC group experienced significantly fewer blind punctures than those in the IV line group (3.3 ± 3.6 vs. 14.4 ± 6.0; p = .000); 20.9% of PICC patients had bacteraemia, compared with 23.9% in the IV line group ( p = .803). Most patients (76.7%) removed their PICC because treatment was completed. PICC increased the quality of life in AML patients undergoing chemotherapy induction by reducing the number of blind blood punctures required. Bacteraemia in PICC patients was comparable to that in IV line patients. PICC is, therefore, a feasible and safe central venous device for use in AML patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A flow field represents an interesting research area related to polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), as it is a component crucial for the distribution of gas-phase reactants. In this study, a metal foam was characterized and applied as a flow field in a PEMFC unit cell. In addition, the electrochemical performance of the metal foam was compared with that of the commonly used serpentine flow field. At a relative humidity (RH) of 100%, no significant difference in performance was observed between the metal foam and serpentine flow field. However, the performance of a single cell with the metal foam was superior to that of the common flow field under an RH of 20% under pressurized conditions. Furthermore, the factors affecting fuel cell performance by application of the flow field were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RGB-depth (RGB-D) cameras are widely used for 3D reconstruction or human--computer interaction. To simultaneously acquire colour and depth images of an object in widely separated viewpoints, multiple RGB-D cameras are required. To fuse the colour and depth information of individual RGB-D cameras in the reference frame, the RGB-D cameras need to be fully calibrated. Among many steps of extrinsic calibration between different RGB-D cameras, bundle adjustment has been either slow or error-prone in the presence of false correspondences across the views. This Letter presents an accurate and efficient bundle adjustment method based on alternating optimisation of a robust cost function. Through experiments, the authors show that the proposed method can dramatically reduce computation time while preserving state-of-the-art accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RGB‐depth (RGB‐D) cameras are widely used for 3D reconstruction or human–computer interaction. To simultaneously acquire colour and depth images of an object in widely separated viewpoints, multiple RGB‐D cameras are required. To fuse the colour and depth information of individual RGB‐D cameras in the reference frame, the RGB‐D cameras need to be fully calibrated. Among many steps of extrinsic calibration between different RGB‐D cameras, bundle adjustment has been either slow or error‐prone in the presence of false correspondences across the views. This Letter presents an accurate and efficient bundle adjustment method based on alternating optimisation of a robust cost function. Through experiments, the authors show that the proposed method can dramatically reduce computation time while preserving state‐of‐the‐art accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One major drawback of previous research on speech-to-text recognition (STR) is that most findings showing the effectiveness of STR for learning were based upon subjective evidence. Very few studies have used eye-tracking techniques to investigate visual attention of students on STR-generated text. Furthermore, not much attention was paid to learning differences, such as learning ability, learning style preferences and gender, to use STR texts. Therefore, this study carried out one experiment. Firstly, participants' visual attention on STR-generated text was investigated by employing eye-tracking technique. Secondly, how differently effective STR-generated texts can be to influence participants' learning achievement was tested. Thirdly, this study compared visual attention and learning behaviour with the different characteristics of participants, such as learning ability, learning style preferences and gender, to use STR-generated texts. Finally, this study explored students' perceptions regarding usefulness of STR-generated texts for learning. This paper discusses results, research findings and implications along with conclusions and several suggestions for future development and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular and square carbon fibre reinforced plastics members were made of eight-ply unidirectional prepreg sheets stacked at different angles based on the collapse characteristics of circular carbon fibre reinforced plastics members. In this study, the impact energy at the crosshead speeds of 5·52, 5·14 and 4·57 m s−1 were 611·52, 529·2 and 419·44 J (in circular members), and 2·16, 1·85 and 1·67 m s−1 were 372·4, 274·4 and 223·44 J (in square members). The purpose was to experimentally examine absorption behaviour and strength depending on changes in the stacking configuration when circular and square carbon fibre reinforced plastics members with different stacking configurations were exposed to separate impact velocities. The impact characteristics were also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global demand for reduction in the weight of automobiles has led many countries to focus on the development of hybrid, eco-friendly and electric cars. A reduction in the weight of materials can both increase fuel efficiency and maximise automobile performance. In this study, carbon fibre reinforced plastic members with double-hat cross-sections were manufactured. Impact crushing tests were performed with changes in the stacking conditions such as variations of stacking angles and interface numbers. The impact crushing mode and absorbed energy were quantitatively analysed according to the changes in the stacking conditions. This analysis was performed to obtain design data that can be applied in the development of optimum lightweight members for automobiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007 the WMDA responded to the publication of two manuscripts suggesting a causal link between G-CSF and myeloid malignancies in healthy donors by convening an international symposium to examine this issue. At the time, registries reviewed the long-term follow-up of their healthy donors, which suggested no excess of leukaemia in PBSC donors compared with BM donors. Although the evidence for an increased risk of malignancy in healthy donors was felt to be weak, it could not be excluded. The WMDA, therefore, issued a statement, to be included in all donor consent forms, stating that it was unknown whether G-CSF increased or decreased the risk of later developing cancer. In 2012, with 5 years of additional donor follow-up and the results of several genetic studies now available, the clinical working group of the WMDA again reviewed the data. On the basis of an assessment of a continuing lack of evidence for an increased risk of malignancy in donors receiving G-CSF, the WMDA has re-issued a more reassuring statement. The revised statement was circulated to all WMDA member registries in late 2012 to replace the existing statement in consent forms, which now conclusively states that, 'Studies following large numbers of unrelated donors have shown that the risk of developing cancer within several years after the use of G-CSF is not increased compared with donors not receiving G-CSF'. Herein we review the evidence on which this statement is based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]