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Abstract Axions and dark photons are common in many extensions of the Standard Model. The dark axion portal — an axion coupling to the dark photon and photon — can significantly modify their phenomenology. We study the cosmological constraints on the dark axion portal from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) bounds on the energy density of dark radiation, ∆N eff. By computing the axion-photon-dark photon collision terms and solving the Boltzmann equations including their effects, we find that light axions are generally more constrained by ∆N eff than from supernova cooling or collider experiments. However, with dark photons at the MeV scale, a window of parameter space is opened up above the supernova limits and below the experimental exclusion, allowing for axion decay constants as low as f a ~ 104 GeV. This region also modifies indirectly the neutrino energy density, thus relaxing the cosmological upper bound on the sum of neutrino masses. Future CMB measurements could detect a signal or close this open window on the dark axion portal.

Abstract We study the electroweak dilepton production with two forward jets at the LHC, aiming to measure the anomalous triple gauge couplings in the Effective Field Theory (EFT) approach. This process exhibits a distinctive feature, namely, the interference between Standard Model (SM) and beyond the SM is resurrected in the inclusive cross section of the full amplitude, including two forward jets. As a concrete illustration, we perform the detailed analytic and numerical study of the interference using a simpler toy process, and discuss the subtlety of the effective W approximation. We propose a new kinematic variable, VBFhardness, that controls the amount of energy flowing into the dilepton subprocess. We show that an appropriate cut on VBFhardness makes the interference resurrection manifest. Finally, we use the invariant mass of the dilepton system as well as the transverse momentum, as done in the literature, to derive the sensitivity to anomalous triple gauge couplings at the LHC and the high luminosity LHC. Our result is compared with the existing limits from the experiments.

Abstract In aging and aged countries, one of the main issues is to establish sufficient nursing homes for seniors. Japan, as one of the most rapidly aged countries, has been reforming nursing homes for the elderly since the 1990s and established a long‐term care insurance system. The purpose of this scoping review is to systematically map the evolution of researches for nursing homes in Japan since the 1990s, particularly with the post‐occupancy evaluation of the introduction of private rooms and small units. Forty‐three articles concerning privatization of rooms, shared spaces, and small unitization in nursing homes were extracted and analyzed. They were published between 1994 and 2021 in Journal of Architecture and Planning, AIJ Journal of Technology, JAABE, and JAR. The results revealed an evaluation of the privatized rooms mainly from the perspectives of residents' lives and care staffing, the effects and issues of the shared spaces introduced at the same time as private rooms, and the evaluation and issues on subsequent unit‐type floor plans. This study offers significant implications to Asian countries that will have aging and aged populations in the near future by summarizing Japan's experience in dealing with realistic and practical problems over the past 20 years.

Introduction and Objectives: To identify the predictive factors for mortality at six weeks in patients with variceal bleeding. Materials and methods: A retrospective cohort study in the Department of Gastroenterology of the National Medical Center of the West, from January-December 2021. Results: Seventy patients with variceal bleeding were included (table 1). The 6-week mortality was 25.7% and the early rebleeding rate was 22.9%. The main predictors of mortality were a Child-Pugh class C score OR 7.67(95% CI, 2.25-26.15, p=0.0011), a MELD score ≥20 OR 20.0(95% CI, 5.58-94.74, p=

Hysteresis loops in mesoscopic narrow rings with cubic anisotropy have been computed. A two-step switching process is found. The first transition corresponds to vortex formation and has been studied in detail. Starting from a well defined remanent state with two opposite head-to-head walls, the vortex is created when, due to any asymmetry, one wall depins first, propagates, reaches the other and they annihilate one another. It is also found that, in this geometry, the crystallographic hard axis becomes the global easy axis due to the combined action of the magneto-crystalline anisotropy and the magnetostatic dipolar fields. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We study the effective field theory sensitivity of an LHC analysis for the τν final state with an associated b-jet. To illustrate the improvement due to the b-tagging, we first recast the recent CMS analysis in the τν channel, using an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb −1 at s $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV, and provide limits on all the dimension-six effective operators which contribute to the process. The expected limits from the b-tagged analysis are then derived and compared. We find an improvement of approximately ∼ 30% in the bounds for operators with a b quark. We also discuss in detail possible angular observables to be used as a discriminator between dimension-six operators with different Lorentz structure. Finally, we study the impact of these limits on some simplified scenarios aimed at addressing the observed deviations from the Standard Model in lepton flavor universality ratios of semileptonic B-meson decays. In particular, we compare the collider limits on those scenarios set by our analysis either with or without the b-tagging, assuming an integrated luminosity of 300 fb −1, with relevant low-energy flavor measurements.

Objectives: Ganglion cysts require a sustainable treatment that suppresses their frequent recurrence. This study aimed to explore the clinical effects of Scolopendra pharmacopuncture (SP) and electroacupuncture on ganglion cysts.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the patient records and follow-up reports for 20 patients with wrist ganglion cysts who received SP and electroacupuncture from April 2016 to March 2017. The cyst diameter, recurrence, visual analog scale (VAS) scores for pain, the Korean version of the disabilities of arm, shoulder, and hand (K-DASH) score, and the Korean version of the patientrated wrist evaluation (K-PRWE) score before and after treatment were noted.Results: After treatment, the cyst diameter decreased significantly from 13.61 ± 6.41 mm to 5.15 ± 6.18 mm (p < 0.001), and VAS score for pain decreased from 1.31 ± 1.77 to 0.41 ± 0.33 (p = 0.021). Further, the K-DASH score decreased significantly from 8.97 ± 12.66 to 2.21 ± 7.39 (p = 0.016), and score for the function subscale of K-PRWE decreased from 11.37 ± 4.48 to 9.1 ± 3.67 (p = 0.046). No recurrences were reported from the followed-up patients. Any complication related to SP or electroacupuncture was not observed, except mild rash, itching, and swelling at the injection site in four patients.Conclusion: Combination of SP and electroacupuncture may be effective in treating ganglion cysts; further prospective studies with large population are needed to clarify the effect of SP and electroacupuncture.

Abstract We consider the cosmological relaxation solution to the electroweak hierarchy problem using the fermion production as a dominant friction force. In our approach, neither super-Planckian field excursions nor a large number of e-folds arise, and scanning over thermal Higgs mass squared is avoided. The produced fermions from the relaxion source through the derivative coupling are SM-singlets, what we call dark fermions, and they can serve as the keV scale warm dark matter candidates.

Background: The diagnosis of temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) is an important part of the functional cerebrospinal technique (FCST). In addition, surface electromyography (sEMG) is an important candidate for diagnosing TMD. In FCST, despite the importance of the cranio-cervical-mandibular system, few sEMG parameters consider TMDs. Thus, this study evaluated the possibility of TMD diagnosis by sEMG. Methods: The study was conducted as an assessor-blinded cross-sectional study. Each of 35 participants were recruited for patient group and normal group separately based on the Diagnostic Criteria for TMD Symptoms Questionnaire (DC/TMD SQ). The sEMG was measured by attaching electrodes to sternocleidomastoid muscles (SCMM) and masseter muscles (MM) before and after wearing the temporomandibular joint balance appliance (TBA). Results: The percentage overlapping coefficient (POC) value of the healthy control group was increased compared with the TMD group. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that the area under the curve (AUC) value of the SCMM was greater than that of the MM. POC values before and after the SCMM also revealed significant changes compared to the MM. Conclusion: This study showed that the sEMG measurement of the SCMM is useful for TMD diagnosis in traditional Korean medicine.

Abstract We propose a universal group theoretic description of the fermion production through any type of interaction to scalar or pseudo-scalar. Our group theoretic approach relies on the group SU(2) × U(1), corresponding to the freedom in choosing representations of the gamma matrices in Clifford algebra, under which a part of the Dirac spinor function transforms like a fundamental representation. In terms of a new SO(3) (∼ SU(2)) vector constructed out of spinor functions, we show that fermion production mechanism can be analogous to the classical dynamics of a vector precessing with the angular velocity. In our group theoretic approach, the equation of motion takes a universal form for any system, and choosing a different type of interaction or a different basis amounts to selecting the corresponding angular velocity. The expression of the particle number density is greatly simplified, compared to the traditional approach, and it provides us with a simple geometric interpretation of the fermion production dynamics. For the purpose of the demonstration, we focus on the fermion production through the derivative coupling to the pseudo-scalar.

Background: Cognitive impairment is an age-dependent chronic disorder that exponentially worsens with age; however, its treatment is mostly symptomatic. Moxibustion is widely accepted in East Asia as a treatment for cognitive impairment. This systematic review aimed to verify the efficacy and underlying mechanism of moxibustion in treating cognitive impairment. Methods: Sixteen trials involving 324 animals obtained from MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, the Cochrane library, the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wan-Fang, Cqvip, the Korean Studies Information Service System, and the Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System met the inclusion criteria. We extracted the results of behavioral tests and immunohistochemical biomarkers from the included articles and evaluated the risk of bias and reporting quality. Results: The moxibustion group showed significantly decreased escape latency, increased crossing times, and prolonged dwelling times in the Morris water maze test. There was a significantly enhanced latency period and reduced error time in the step-down test and nerve behavior score. The effects of moxibustion were found to be mediated by suppression of oxidative stress and apoptosis, modulation of inflammation and Aβ genesis activation of vascular endothelial growth factor, and adjustment of metabolites in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and fatty acid metabolism. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy of moxibustion on cognitive impairment and suggested the putative mechanism. However, considering the small number of included studies, high bias risk, low reporting quality, and the limitations of animal experimentation, our results need to be confirmed by more detailed studies.

Cancer patients have a 2 times higher prevalence of insomnia than healthy populations and cancer-related insomnia has received minimal attention while insomnia can aggravate the rehabilitation of cancer patients. Cheonwangbosimdan is a Korean herbal medicine generally used to relieve sleep deprivation, however, few studies presented the effects of Cheonwangbosimdan on cancer-related insomnia. The purpose of study is to examine the feasibility of Cheonwangbosimdan treatments for cancer patients. Twenty-two participants were allocated into a Cheonwangbosimdan or cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) control group by equal number. The intervention group took Cheonwangbosimdan liquid once in a day and attend visits once a week for 4 weeks. The CBT-I group underwent individualized behavioral therapy 4 times in 4 weeks. The primary outcome is changes in the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) from baseline to the end of the trial. Responses to the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI), Euroqol-5 Dimensions-5 Levels (EQ-5D-5L), and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG-PS) were secondary outcomes used to evaluate the quality of sleep. Outcomes were measured at a follow-up visit (visit 5) in the fifth week of the trial. There is no difference between 2 groups, but both groups showed tendency to alleviate cancer insomnia symptoms. SAS-K showed significant difference between the 2 groups (P < .001), as treatment group score was highly lowered than control group score. The study can contribute to more attentive care for insomnia in cancer patients.