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Fang Wang,1,* Shu-Jing An,2,* Yirong Yin,1,* Juan-Juan Li,1 Chun-Hui Sun,3 Jie Lan,1 Wen-Juan Zhao,1 Cheng-Qian Li1 1Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266003, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Oral Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266003, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Endocrinology, The Third People’s Hospital of Qingdao Affiliated to Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266003, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Wen-Juan Zhao; Cheng-Qian LiDepartment of Endocrinology and Metabolism, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, No. 16 Jiangsu Road, Qingdao, 266003, Shandong Province, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail 18661807103@163.com; lichengqian5213@qdu.edu.cnIntroduction: Thyroid cancer is a familiar kind of cancer. Natural products are promising therapeutic approaches in treating thyroid cancer. Triptolide is a diterpenoid epoxide extracted from Tripterygium wilfordii. The mechanism of triptolide in the treatment of thyroid cancer has not been investigated clearly.Methods: We evaluated triptolide targets and thyroid cancer targets with related databases. The protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks of the triptolide targets and thyroid cancer targets were constructed with Cytoscape software. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses of the core PPI network were obtained. Molecular docking analysis was used to evaluated the binding of triptolide with core targets. Furthermore, apoptosis assays, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting were used to evaluate the anticancer functions of triptolide.Results: Triptolide had 34 targets, and thyroid cancer had 210 targets. The core PPI network of merged PPI networks had 164 nodes and 4513 edges. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses showed that triptolide were related to the cell cycle, apoptosis, and inflammatory signaling pathways. Molecular docking analysis showed that triptolide directly reacted with four core targets: cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (CDKN1A), c-JUN, RELA, and tumor protein p53 (TP53). CB-Dock analysis indicated that triptolide could stably bind to core targets. Triptolide inhibited the growth but induced apoptosis of thyroid cancer cells. Triptolide increased the mRNA expression of CDKN1A and TP53 but reduced the mRNA expression of c-JUN and RELA, as shown by RT-PCR. Triptolide increased the protein levels of CDKN1A and phospho-p53 but reduced those of phospho-c-JUN and phospho-NF-κB p65, as shown by Western blotting.Discussion: We considered that triptolide could treat thyroid cancer by inhibiting cell proliferation, inducing apoptosis and inhibiting inflammatory pathways such as the NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways. CDKN1A, c-JUN, RELA, and TP53 were involved in the antithyroid cancer mechanism of triptolide.Keywords: triptolide, thyroid cancer, molecular docking, apoptosis, inflammation

Xiang Li,1,2,* Shu-Jie An,3,* Xiao-Ling Liu,1,* Ai-Ling Ji,4 Yi Cao,5 Ying Xiang,1 Xiang-Yu Ma,1 Qin Hu,1 Zhi-Quan Yuan,1 Ya-Fei Li,1 Yuan-Gang Lu,2 Tong-Jian Cai1 1Department of Epidemiology, College of Preventive Medicine, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; 3Medical Department, Xijing Hospital, Air Force Medical University (Fourth Military Medical University), Xi’an, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Preventive Medicine & Chongqing Engineering Research Center of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chongqing Medical and Pharmaceutical College, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Health Economics Management, Xijing Hospital, Air Force Medical University (Fourth Military Medical University), Xi’an, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yuan-Gang LuDepartment of Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University, 10 Changjiang Branch Road, Daping, Chongqing, 400042, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-23-68757597Fax +86-23-68757596Email skin515@163.comTong-Jian Cai Email ctjcsl@fmmu.edu.cnBackground: Post-adolescent acne is a common skin disease faced by adults. However, whether air pollution (AP) serves as a risk factor for post-adolescent acne remains elusive.Aim: To determine the relationship between short-term AP exposure (within 7 days) and outpatient visits for post-adolescent acne.Methods: Daily outpatient visit data for post-adolescent acne and routinely AP data between 2010 and 2013 were collected from Xi’an, China. A generalized additive regression model was used to analyze the relationship between outpatient visits for post-adolescent acne and short-term ambient AP exposure. The gender-specific analyses were conducted as well.Results: Totally, 27,190 outpatient visits for post-adolescent acne were included. The results revealed that a 10 μg/m3 increase in PM10, SO2, and NO2 at lag 0– 7 day was associated with the increase of outpatient visits for post-adolescent acne at 0.84% (95% CI: 0.53%, 1.16%), 1.61% (95% CI: 0.12%, 3.10%), and 3.50% (95% CI: 1.60%, 5.40%), respectively. The significant positive associations of PM10, SO2, and NO2 were found at both single-lag models and moving average models. The gender-specific analyses showed that the effect estimates of PM10 was stronger for females than for males, while there was no observed gender difference in the effects of SO2 and NO2.Conclusion: Short-term exposure to AP was associated with increased outpatient visits for post-adolescent acne, especially for females in the effects of PM10.Keywords: short-term, air pollution, post-adolescent acne, adult acne, time-series analysis

The Data Acquisition System (DAQ) for the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter detector is described. The signals from 745 PMTs, distributed across three subsystems, are sampled with 100-MHz 32-channel digitizers (DDC-32s). A basic waveform analysis is carried out on the on-board Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to extract information about the observed scintillation and electroluminescence signals. This information is used to determine if the digitized waveforms should be preserved for offline analysis. The system is designed around the Kintex-7 FPGA. In addition to digitizing the PMT signals and providing basic event selection in real time, the flexibility provided by the use of FPGAs allows us to monitor the performance of the detector and the DAQ in parallel to normal data acquisition. The hardware and software/firmware of this FPGA-based Architecture for Data acquisition and Realtime monitoring (FADR) are discussed and performance measurements are described.

We present the model we developed to reconstruct the CUORE radioactive background based on the analysis of an experimental exposure of 1038.4 kg yr. The data reconstruction relies on a simultaneous Bayesian fit applied to energy spectra over a broad energy range. The high granularity of the CUORE detector, together with the large exposure and extended stable operations, allow for an in-depth exploration of both spatial and time dependence of backgrounds. We achieve high sensitivity to both bulk and surface activities of the materials of the setup, detecting levels as low as 10 nBq kg-1 and 0.1 nBq cm-2, respectively. We compare the contamination levels we extract from the background model with prior radio-assay data, which informs future background risk mitigation strategies. The results of this background model play a crucial role in constructing the background budget for the CUPID experiment as it will exploit the same CUORE infrastructure.

Sang Joon An,1 Seok Jun Hong,2 Young Uk Kim,3 Yoon Kyung Lee21Department of Neurology, Catholic Kwandong University, College of Medicine, International ST. Mary’s Hospital, Incheon, Republic of Korea; 2Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; 3Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Catholic Kwandong University, College of Medicine, International ST. Mary’s Hospital, Incheon, Republic of KoreaPurpose: One of the main factor of cervical foraminal stenosis (CFS) is the hypertrophic change of the cervical facet joint. In order to analyze the connection between CFS and the facet joint hypertrophy, we devised a new morphological parameter, called the cervical facet joint cross-sectional area (CFJA). The CFJA has not yet been investigated for its association with CFS. We hypothesized that the CFJA is an important morphologic parameter in the diagnosis of CFS.Patients and methods: All patients over 50 years of age were included. Data regarding the CFJA were collected from 160 subjects with CFS. A total of 162 control individuals underwent cervical spine magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) as part of a routine medical examination. Axial T2-weighted CMRI images were acquired from all subjects. We used a picture archiving system to analyze the cross-sectional area of the bone margin of the cervical facet joint at the level of the most stenotic cervical spine in the axial plane.Results: The average CFJA was 109.07±20.91 mm2, in the control group, and 126.75±22.59 mm2, in the CFS group. The CFS group was found to have significantly higher levels of the CFJA (p

Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) may interact with a virtual pion that is exchanged between nucleons. This interaction channel is important to consider in models where the spin-independent isoscalar channel is suppressed. Using data from the first science run of the LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter experiment, containing 60 live days of data in a 5.5 tonne fiducial mass of liquid xenon, we report the results on a search for WIMP-pion interactions. We observe no significant excess and set an upper limit of 1.5 × 10−46 cm2 at a 90% confidence level for a WIMP mass of 33 GeV/c2 for this interaction.

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a tonne-scale experiment searching for direct dark matter interactions and other rare events. It is located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, USA. The core of the LZ detector is a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC), designed with the primary goal of detecting Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their induced low energy nuclear recoils. Surrounding the TPC, two veto detectors immersed in an ultra-pure water tank enable reducing background events to enhance the discovery potential. Intricate calibration systems are purposely designed to precisely understand the responses of these three detector volumes to various types of particle interactions and to demonstrate LZ’s ability to discriminate between signals and backgrounds. In this paper, we present a comprehensive discussion of the key features, requirements, and performance of the LZ calibration systems, which play a crucial role in enabling LZ’s WIMP-search and its broad science program. The thorough description of these calibration systems, with an emphasis on their novel aspects, is valuable for future calibration efforts in direct dark matter and other rare-event search experiments.

Charge conservation and the Pauli exclusion principle result from fundamental symmetries in the standard model of particle physics, and are typically taken as axiomatic. High-precision tests for small violations of these symmetries could point to new physics. Here we consider three models for violation of these processes, which would produce detectable ionization in the high-purity germanium detectors of the Majorana Demonstrator experiment. Using a 37.5 kg yr exposure, we report a lower limit on the electron mean lifetime, improving the previous best limit for the e→νeνe¯νe decay channel by more than an order of magnitude. We also present searches for two types of violation of the Pauli exclusion principle, setting limits on the probability of an electron to be found in a symmetric quantum state.

This White Paper presents an overview of the current status and future perspective of QCD research, based on the community inputs and scientific conclusions from the 2022 Hot and Cold QCD Town Meeting. We present the progress made in the last decade toward a deep understanding of both the fundamental structure of the sub-atomic matter of nucleon and nucleus in cold QCD, and the hot QCD matter in heavy ion collisions. We identify key questions of QCD research and plausible paths to obtaining answers to those questions in the near future, hence defining priorities of our research over the coming decades.

Thermo-oxidation of biomass is an important process that occurs through a variety of reaction pathways depending on the chemical nature of the molecules and reaction conditions. These processes can be modeled using reactive molecular dynamics to study chemical reactions and the evolution of converted molecules over time. The advantage of this approach is that many molecules can be modeled, but it is challenging to use the large amount of data obtained from such a simulation to determine reaction products and pathways. In this study, we developed a tracking approach to identify the reaction pathways of the dominant reaction products from reactive molecular dynamics simulations. We demonstrated the approach for thermo-oxidation reactions of modified model lignin compounds. For two modified lignin structures, we tracked the evolving chemical species to find the most common reaction products. Subsequently, we monitored specific bonds to determine the individual steps in the reaction process. This combined approach of reactive molecular dynamics and tracking enabled us to identify the most likely thermo-oxidation pathways. The methodology can be used to investigate the thermo-oxidative pathways of a wider range of chemical compounds.

Abstract: To study the chemical evolution across cosmic epochs, we investigate Ne, S, Cl, and Ar abundance patterns in the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph Legacy Archive Spectroscopic SurveY (CLASSY). CLASSY comprises local star-forming galaxies (SFGs; 0.02 < z < 0.18) with enhanced star formation rates, making them strong analogues to high-z SFGs. With direct measurements of electron temperature, we derive accurate ionic abundances for all elements and assess ionization correction factors (ICFs) to account for unseen ions and derive total abundances. We find Ne/O, S/O, Cl/O, and Ar/O exhibit constant trends with gas-phase metallicity for 12+log(O/H) < 8.5 but significant correlation for Ne/O and Ar/O with metallicity for 12+log(O/H) > 8.5, likely due to ICFs. Thus, the applicability of the ICFs to integrated spectra of galaxies could bias results, underestimating true abundance ratios. Using CLASSY as a local reference, we assess the evolution of Ne/O, S/O, and Ar/O in galaxies at z > 3, finding no cosmic evolution of Ne/O, while the lack of direct abundance determinations for S/O and Ar/O can bias the interpretation of the evolution of these elements. We determine the fundamental metallicity relationship (FMR) for CLASSY and compare to the high-redshift FMR, finding no evolution. Finally, we perform the first mass–neon relationship analysis across cosmic epochs, finding a slight evolution to high Ne at later epochs. The robust abundance patterns of CLASSY galaxies and their broad range of physical properties provide essential benchmarks for interpreting the chemical enrichment of the early galaxies observed with the JWST.

Searches for dark matter with liquid xenon time projection chamber experiments have traditionally focused on the region of the parameter space that is characteristic of weakly interacting massive particles, ranging from a few GeV/c2 to a few TeV/c2. Models of dark matter with a mass much heavier than this are well motivated by early production mechanisms different from the standard thermal freeze-out, but they have generally been less explored experimentally. In this work, we present a reanalysis of the first science run of the LZ experiment, with an exposure of 0.9 tonne×yr, to search for ultraheavy particle dark matter. The signal topology consists of multiple energy deposits in the active region of the detector forming a straight line, from which the velocity of the incoming particle can be reconstructed on an event-by-event basis. Zero events with this topology were observed after applying the data selection calibrated on a simulated sample of signal-like events. New experimental constraints are derived, which rule out previously unexplored regions of the dark matter parameter space of spin-independent interactions beyond a mass of 1017 GeV/c2.

Sang Joon An,1 Jong-Uk Mun,2 Keum Nae Kang,3 Young Uk Kim4 1Department of Neurology, Catholic Kwandong University of Korea College of Medicine, International St Mary’s Hospital, Incheon, Korea; 2Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Changwon Gyeongsang National University Hospital, Changwon, Korea; 3Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, National Police Hospital, Seoul, Korea; 4Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Catholic Kwandong University of Korea College of Medicine, International St Mary’s Hospital, Incheon, Korea Purpose: Previous studies reported that hypertrophied superior articular process (SAP) was associated with an increased risk of lumbar foraminal stenosis. However, no study investigated the effect of SAP hypertrophy in lumbar central canal spinal stenosis (LCCSS). We hypothesized that the SAP cross-sectional area (SAPCSA) is the main morphologic feature in the diagnosis of LCCSS.Patients and methods: Data regarding the SAPCSA were collected from 109 patients with LCCSS. All patients were enrolled after the LCCSS diagnosis was confirmed by an experienced, board-certified neuroradiologist. All patients had clinical manifestations compatible with LCCSS. A total of 120 subjects in the control group underwent lumbar spine MRI as part of non-symptomatic medical examination. T2-weighted axial images were obtained from the 2 groups. Using a picture archiving and communications system, we analyzed the CSA of the bone margin of SAP at the level of L4–L5 facet joint on MRI.Results: The average SAPCSA was 96.63±13.37 mm2 in the control group, and 123.59±14.18 mm2 in the LCCSS. The LCCSS group showed significantly higher levels of the SAPCSA (P

Sang Joon An,1 Soo Il Choi,2 Keum Nae Kang,3 Syn-Hae Yoon,3 Young Uk Kim2 1Department of Neurology, Catholic Kwandong University of Korea College of Medicine, International St. Mary’s Hospital, Incheon, Republic of Korea; 2Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Catholic Kwandong University of Korea College of Medicine, International St. Mary’s Hospital, Incheon, Republic of Korea; 3Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, National Police Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea Purpose: Lumbar spinal stenosis syndrome (LSSS) is induced by factors such as ligamentum flavum hypertrophy, facet joint hypertrophy and disc degeneration. However, the role of lumbar pedicle (LP) in LSSS has yet to be evaluated. We devised a new morphological parameter called the lumbar pedicle thickness (LPT) to evaluate the connection between LSSS and the LP. We hypothesized that the LPT is a major morphological parameter in the diagnosis of LSSS. Patients and methods: The LPT data were collected from 136 patients diagnosed with LSSS. A total of 99 control subjects underwent lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as part of a detailed medical assessment. Axial T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images were acquired from all the participants. Using our picture archiving and communication system, we analyzed the thickness of the LP at the level of L5 vertebra on MRI. Results: The average LPT was 9.46±1.81 mm in the control group and 13.26±1.98 mm in the LSSS group. LSSS patients showed a significantly greater LPT (P

Abstract: Selection for resistance to plant diseases is a continuous effort on the part of plant breeders. Sources of genetic resistance are often limited, despite considerable discovery efforts. Stem rust and stripe rust are two diseases of particular importance in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) production. The present work aims to develop and deploy genotypes with resistance to these diseases that can be used in future breeding efforts. The Woodies, Woody‐1 (DH160733; Reg. no. GP‐218, PI 704479) and Woody‐2 (DH160754; Reg. no. GP‐219, PI 704480), are two doubled‐haploid genotypes produced via F1 anther culture named in honor of the late Lynn “Woody” Gallagher. These two‐row spring habit barley germplasm accessions were released by the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station in 2023. These genotypes have demonstrated resistance to both stem and stripe rust at the seedling and adult plant stage in trials conducted between 2018 and 2023. The genetic basis of this resistance appears to be a novel quantitative trait locus conferring resistance to both diseases on chromosome 5H that is different from the known rpg4/Rpg5 complex for stem rust resistance found on the same chromosome. Seed can be requested from the Oregon State University Barley Breeding Program or from the NLGRP Germplasm repository.

Following the first science results of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber operating from the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA, we report the initial limits on a model-independent nonrelativistic effective field theory describing the complete set of possible interactions of a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) with a nucleon. These results utilize the same 5.5 t fiducial mass and 60 live days of exposure collected for the LZ spin-independent and spin-dependent analyses while extending the upper limit of the energy region of interest by a factor of 7.5 to 270 keV. No significant excess in this high energy region is observed. Using a profile-likelihood ratio analysis, we report 90% confidence level exclusion limits on the coupling of each individual nonrelativistic WIMP-nucleon operator for both elastic and inelastic interactions in the isoscalar and isovector bases.

Experiments searching for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter are now detecting background events from solar neutrino-electron scattering. However, the dominant radioactive background in state-of-the-art experiments such as LZ and XENONnT is beta decays from radon contamination. In spite of careful detector material screening, radon progenitor atoms are ubiquitous and long-lived, and radon is extremely soluble in liquid xenon. We propose a change of phase and demonstrate that crystalline xenon offers more than a factor ×500 exclusion against radon ingress, compared with the liquid state. This level of radon exclusion would allow crystallized versions of existing experiments to probe spin-independent cross sections near 10-47 cm2 in roughly 11 years, as opposed to the 35 years required otherwise.

This study aimed to characterize the role of sex and pubertal markers in reward motivation behavior and neural processing in early adolescence. We used baseline and two-year follow-up data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive DevelopmentSM study (15844 observations; 52% from boys; age 9-13). Pubertal development was measured with parent-reported Pubertal Development Scale, and DHEA, testosterone, and estradiol levels. Reward motivation behavior and neural processing at anticipation and feedback stages were assessed with the Monetary Incentive Delay task. Boys had higher reward motivation than girls, demonstrating greater accuracy difference between reward and neutral trials and higher task earnings. Girls had lower neural activation during reward feedback than boys in the nucleus accumbens, caudate, rostral anterior cingulate, medial orbitofrontal cortex, superior frontal gyrus and posterior cingulate. Pubertal stage and testosterone levels were positively associated with reward motivation behavior, although these associations changed when controlling for age. There were no significant associations between pubertal development and neural activation during reward anticipation and feedback. Sex differences in reward-related processing exist in early adolescence, signaling the need to understand their impact on typical and atypical functioning as it unfolds into adulthood.

We report the first measurement of discrimination between low-energy helium recoils and electron recoils in liquid xenon. This result is relevant to proposed low-mass dark matter searches which seek to dissolve light target nuclei in the active volume of liquid-xenon time projection chambers. Low-energy helium recoils were produced by degrading α particles from ^{210}Po with a gold foil situated on the cathode of a liquid xenon time-projection chamber. The resulting population of helium recoil events is well separated from electron recoils and is also offset from the expected position of xenon nuclear recoil events.

The concept and theory of potential vorticity in drift wave turbulence are extended to the case of an inhomogeneous magnetic field. A one-field magnetic potential vorticity conserving equation is derived via the use of conservative gyrokinetics. The similarity between the corresponding systems for drift wave turbulence and shallow water theory is discussed in detail. Zonal flow physics in an inhomogeneous magnetic field is discussed. In particular, a Charney–Drazin type nonacceleration theorem is derived from the novel system, which conserves magnetic potential vorticity. Extensions of the turbulent equipartition theory to the transport of magnetic potential vorticity are proposed.

^{180m}Ta is a rare nuclear isomer whose decay has never been observed. Its remarkably long lifetime surpasses the half-lives of all other known β and electron capture decays due to the large K-spin differences and small energy differences between the isomeric and lower-energy states. Detecting its decay presents a significant experimental challenge but could shed light on neutrino-induced nucleosynthesis mechanisms, the nature of dark matter, and K-spin violation. For this study, we repurposed the Majorana Demonstrator, an experimental search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of ^{76}Ge using an array of high-purity germanium detectors, to search for the decay of ^{180m}Ta. More than 17 kg, the largest amount of tantalum metal ever used for such a search, was installed within the ultralow-background detector array. In this Letter, we present results from the first year of Ta data taking and provide an updated limit for the ^{180m}Ta half-life on the different decay channels. With new limits up to 1.5×10^{19}  yr, we improved existing limits by 1-2 orders of magnitude which are the most sensitive searches for a single β and electron capture decay ever achieved. Over all channels, the decay can be excluded for T_{1/2}

On December 5, 2022, an indirect drive fusion implosion on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved a target gain G_{target} of 1.5. This is the first laboratory demonstration of exceeding "scientific breakeven" (or G_{target}>1) where 2.05 MJ of 351 nm laser light produced 3.1 MJ of total fusion yield, a result which significantly exceeds the Lawson criterion for fusion ignition as reported in a previous NIF implosion [H. Abu-Shawareb et al. (Indirect Drive ICF Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 075001 (2022)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.129.075001]. This achievement is the culmination of more than five decades of research and gives proof that laboratory fusion, based on fundamental physics principles, is possible. This Letter reports on the target, laser, design, and experimental advancements that led to this result.

With excellent energy resolution and ultralow-level radiogenic backgrounds, the high-purity germanium detectors in the Majorana Demonstrator enable searches for several classes of exotic dark matter (DM) models. In this work, we report new experimental limits on keV-scale sterile neutrino DM via the transition magnetic moment from conversion to active neutrinos ν_{s}→ν_{a}. We report new limits on fermionic dark matter absorption (χ+A→ν+A) and sub-GeV DM-nucleus 3→2 scattering (χ+χ+A→ϕ+A), and new exclusion limits for bosonic dark matter (axionlike particles and dark photons). These searches utilize the (1-100)-keV low-energy region of a 37.5-kg y exposure collected by the Demonstrator between May 2016 and November 2019 using a set of ^{76}Ge-enriched detectors whose surface exposure time was carefully controlled, resulting in extremely low levels of cosmogenic activation.

It is widely accepted that the next lepton collider beyond a Higgs factory would require center-of-mass energy of the order of up to 15 TeV. Since, given reasonable space and cost restrictions, conventional accelerator technology reaches its limits near this energy, high-gradient advanced acceleration concepts are attractive. Advanced and novel accelerators (ANAs) are leading candidates due to their ability to produce acceleration gradients on the order of 1-100 GV/m, leading to compact acceleration facilities. However, intermediate energy facilities (IEF) are required to test the critical technology elements on the way towards multi-TeV-class collliders. Here a science case for a 20-100 GeV center-of-mass energy ANA-based lepton collider that can be a candidate for an intermediate energy facility is presented. The IEF can provide numerous opportunities for high energy physics studies including precision Quantum Chromodynamics and Beyond the Standard Model physics measurements, investigation of charged particle interactions with extreme electromagnetic fields, and exploring muon and proton beam acceleration. Possible applications of this collider include the studies of γγ and electron beam-fixed target/beamdump collider designs. Thus, the goal of the proposed IEF is to both carry out particle physics measurements in the 20-100 GeV ranges as well as to serve as an ANA demonstrator facility.

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are solid-state, single-photon sensitive, pixelated sensors whose usage for scintillation detection has rapidly increased over the past decade. It is known that the avalanche process within the device, which renders a single photon detectable, can also generate secondary photons which may be detected by a separate device. This effect, known as external crosstalk, could potentially degrade the science goals of future xenon dark matter experiments. In this article, we measure the effect of external crosstalk in a dual-phase, liquid xenon time projection chamber fully instrumented with SiPMs. We then consider the implications for a future xenon dark matter experiment utilizing SiPMs and discuss possible solutions.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.171801.

The generation of vascular stroma is essential for solid tumor growth and involves stimulatory and inhibiting factors as well as stromal components that regulate functions such as cellular adhesion, migration, and gene expression. In an effort to obtain a more integrated understanding of vascular stroma formation in breast carcinoma, we examined expression of the angiogenic factor vascular permeability factor (VPF)/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF); the VPF/VEGF receptors flt-1 and KDR; thrombospondin-1, which has been reported to inhibit angiogenesis; and the stromal components collagen type I, total fibronectin, ED-A+ fibronectin, versican, and decorin by mRNA in situ hybridization on frozen sections of 113 blocks of breast tissue from 68 patients including 28 sections of breast tissue without malignancy, 18 with in situ carcinomas, 56 with invasive carcinomas, and 8 with metastatic carcinomas. A characteristic expression profile emerged that was remarkably similar in invasive carcinoma, carcinoma in situ, and metastatic carcinoma, with the following characteristics: strong tumor cell expression of VPF/VEGF; strong endothelial cell expression of VPF/VEGF receptors; strong expression of thrombospondin-1 by stromal cells and occasionally by tumor cells; and strong stromal cell expression of collagen type I, total fibronectin, ED-A+ fibronectin, versican, and decorin. The formation of vascular stroma preceded invasion, raising the possibility that tumor cells invade not into normal breast stroma but rather into a richly vascular stroma that they have induced. Similarly, tumor cells at sites of metastasis appear to induce the vascular stroma in which they grow. We conclude that a distinct pattern of mRNA expression characterizes the generation of vascular stroma in breast cancer and that the formation of vascular stroma may play a role not only in growth of the primary tumor but also in invasion and metastasis.

An ultrasonic p-wave reflection imaging system is used to non-invasively image submerged soil models with embedded anomaliesand complex geometric layer contacts. The ultrasonic transducers emit compressive waves into water that subsequently transmit intothe underlying soil, and measurements of the reflections are used to construct the images. Properties of the transducers and data acquisitionhardware and software are explained. A soil model consisting of embedded high- and low-impedance anomalies, dippingsoil layer contacts, and an undulating concrete base layer was imaged using 500 kHz transducers. The geometric features of themodel are clearly visible in the images.

During earthquake ground shaking earth pressures on retaining structures can cyclically increase and decrease as a result of inertial forces applied to the walls and kinematic interactions between the stiff wall elements and surrounding soil. Limit equilibrium analysis imposes a pseudo-static inertial force to a soil wedge behind the wall (the mechanism behind the widely-used Mononobe-Okabe method), which is a poor analogy for either inertial or kinematic wall-soil interaction. Many basement walls and retaining structures are dominated by kinematic soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects arising from differences in displacement between the wall and the free-field soil. Kinematic SSI solutions are often formulated for uniform soil conditions, but the shear modulus of most soils is known to increase with mean effective stress, and therefore with depth. We examine the influence of vertical heterogeneity of shear modulus on kinematic SSI for rigid walls. An existing free-field displacement solution is presented first, followed by analysis of earth pressure increments using a Winkler assumption. Vertical heterogeneity is shown to reduce seismic earth pressures compared with a uniform soil case (for a given frequency and peak ground surface displacement) because free-field displacements are largest near the surface, where the soil is softest and Winkler stiffness is lowest. The proposed Winkler solution is then compared with an exact analytical solution for vertically heterogeneous soil over a rigid base and retained between two opposing rigid walls. The agreement is imperfect, but reasonable, with differences likely due to assumptions regarding the dynamic Winkler stiffness intensity.