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Neutron-gamma discrimination is a tough and significative in experimental neutrons measurements procedure, especially for low-energy neutrons signal discrimination. In this work, based on the Pulse Shape Discrimination (PSD) and Back-Propagation (BP) artificial neural networks, a neutron-gamma discrimination method is developed to broaden the lower limit of energy threshold with the hidden layer of 20 neurons. Compared with neutron-gamma discrimination method based on PSD only, the developed neutron-gamma discrimination method based on the PSD and BP-ANN can discriminate neutron and gamma-ray signals with low energy threshold, which can discriminate signals up to 99.93%. Moreover, this work can reduce the energy threshold from 350 keV to 70 keV, as well as the acquired data utilization increased from 60% to more than 99.9%, which overcome the hardware limitations and distinguish neutron and gamma-ray signals, effectively. The developed neutron-gamma discrimination method and the trained neural network can be directly used to other experimental neutrons measurements., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate the value of platelet count in predicting the efficacy of rituximab treatment in chronic primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in 103 chronic ITP patients hospitalized in our medical center between January 2011 and December 2014. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) of platelet count in different time points were analyzed for the predictor of treatment response. Optimal cutoff values were established using ROC analysis. Results: A total of 103 patients were included in the study. There were 46 males and 57 females, with a median age of 30 (18-67) years. At day 1, 3 and 7 after the first dose of rituximab, there was no significant difference in platelet counts between the success group (PLT≥50×10(9)/L after treatment) and the failure group (PLT≤50×10(9)/L after treatment) ( P >0.05). At day 14 after rituximab treatment (PTD 14), platelet counts became significantly different in the success and failure groups[41(8-384)×10(9)/L vs 23(0-106)×10(9)/L, P =0.003], and remained different thereafter, with increasing significance in the subsequent follow-ups. Patients were divided further using an optimal cut-off platelet count of 50×10(9)/L on PTD 14, PTD 30, and PTD 60, and PPV and NPV values were calculated for predicting eventual success and failure. Conclusion: Response can be predicted by obtaining platelet counts at 14, 30 and 60 days after rituximab treatment. The study proposed a protocol that guides patient monitoring and management planning.

Objective: To analyze the difference of bleeding frequency, plain radiographic (X-ray) , risk factors in hemophilic arthropathy progression and the Arnold-Hilgartner classification. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in 211 hemophilia patients hospitalized in our medical center between January 2007 and December 2010, some patients with hemarthrosis were followed up for 5 years. Results: All patients were male, including 150 hemophilia A (HA) and 61 hemophilia B (HB) . The HA patients bled more frequently than HB patients with annualized total bleeding rate 20.5 (0-48) vs 13 (1-40) ; annualized joint bleeding rate 13.5 (0-38) vs 8 (0-33) , especially in moderate hemophilia [26 (1-48) vs 12 (1-36) , P <0.001; 18 (0-36) vs 7.5 (0-26) , P =0.001], but severe hemophilia had no difference in bleeding frequency [33 (1-41) vs 26 (1-40) , P =0.702; 22 (0-36) vs 18 (0-33) , P =0.429]. The condition of the affected joints of 108 HA and 54 HB was evaluated on roentgenography. In HA patients, the Arnold-Hilgartner classification increased with the severity ratings ( r =0.063, P =0.004) . However, similar associations were not found in HB patients ( r =0.045, P =0.082) . Five years later, 36 HA and 19 HB patients received the same joint X-ray, there were no significant differences in joints radiographic progression between the total HA and HB groups ( z =1.941, P =0.052) . However, significant difference between moderate HA and HB was observed ( z =0.076, P =0.002) . Multivariate unconditioned Logistic analysis showed that annualized joint bleeding rate [ P <0.001, OR =1.166 (95% CI 1.097-1.239) ] and articular structural injuries [ P= 0.018, OR =2.842 (95% CI 1.196-6.755) ] were independent risk factors for the joints radiographic progression. Conclusion: The study suggests that there was a difference in bleeding phenotype between HA and HB, especially in moderate hemophilia. HB patients showed mild but progressive development over time, compared with HA patients. Annualized joint bleeding rate and articular structural injuries were independent risk factors for the joints radiographic progression.

The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has measured a nonzero value for the neutrino mixing angle θ(13) with a significance of 5.2 standard deviations. Antineutrinos from six 2.9 GWth reactors were detected in six antineutrino detectors deployed in two near (flux-weighted baseline 470 m and 576 m) and one far (1648 m) underground experimental halls. With a 43,000 ton-GWth-day live-time exposure in 55 days, 10,416 (80,376) electron-antineutrino candidates were detected at the far hall (near halls). The ratio of the observed to expected number of antineutrinos at the far hall is R=0.940±0.011(stat.)±0.004(syst.). A rate-only analysis finds sin(2)2θ(13)=0.092±0.016(stat.)±0.005(syst.) in a three-neutrino framework.