We report results of specific heat and muon spin relaxation (μSR) measurements on a polycrystalline sample of Pr3Cr10−xN11, which shows superconducting state below Tc = 5.25 K, a large upper critical field Hc2 ~ 20 T and a residual Sommerfeld coefficient γ0. The field dependence of γ0(H) resembles γ of the U-based superconductors UTe2 and URhGe at low temperatures. The temperature-dependent superfluid density measured by transverse-field μSR experiments is consistent with a p-wave pairing symmetry. ZF-μSR experiment suggests a time-reversal symmetry broken superconducting transition, and temperature-independent spin fluctuations at low temperatures are revealed by LF-μSR experiments. These results indicate that Pr3Cr10−xN11 is a candidate of p-wave superconductor which breaks time-reversal symmetry.

We present a combined growth and transport study of superconducting single -crystalline NdO0.5F0.5BiS2. Evidence of two-dimensional superconductivity with significant phase fluctuations of preformed Cooper pairs preceding the superconducting transition is reported. This result is based on three key observations. (1) The resistive superconducting transition temperature Tc (defined by resistivity p 0) increases with increasing disorder. (2) As T Tc, the conductivity diverges significantly faster than what is expected from Gaussian fluctuations in two and three dimensions. (3) Non -Ohmic resistance behavior is observed in the superconducting state. Altogether, our observations are consistent with a temperature regime of phase -fluctuating superconductivity. The crystal structure with magnetic ordering tendencies in the NdO0.5F0.5 layers and (super)conductivity in the BiS2 layers is likely responsible for the two-dimensional phase fluctuations. As such, NdO0.5F0.5BiS2 falls into the class of unconventional "laminar" bulk superconductors that include cuprate materials and 4Hb-TaS2.

We report results of specific heat and muon spin relaxation ( μ SR) measurements on a polycrystalline sample of Pr 3 Cr 10− x N 11 , which shows superconducting state below T c = 5.25 K, a large upper critical field H c2 ~ 20 T and a residual Sommerfeld coefficient γ 0 . The field dependence of γ 0 ( H ) resembles γ of the U-based superconductors UTe 2 and URhGe at low temperatures. The temperature-dependent superfluid density measured by transverse-field μ SR experiments is consistent with a p -wave pairing symmetry. ZF- μ SR experiment suggests a time-reversal symmetry broken superconducting transition, and temperature-independent spin fluctuations at low temperatures are revealed by LF- μ SR experiments. These results indicate that Pr 3 Cr 10− x N 11 is a candidate of p -wave superconductor which breaks time-reversal symmetry.

Background: Accurate diagnosis of pneumonia is vital for effective disease management and mortality reduction, but it can be easily confused with other conditions on chest computed tomography (CT) due to an overlap in imaging features. We aimed to develop and validate a deep learning (DL) model based on chest CT for accurate classification of viral pneumonia (VP), bacterial pneumonia (BP), fungal pneumonia (FP), pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), and no pneumonia (NP) conditions.Methods: In total, 1,776 cases from five hospitals in different regions were retrospectively collected from September 2019 to June 2023. All cases were enrolled according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, and ultimately 1,611 cases were used to develop the DL model with 5-fold cross-validation, with 165 cases being used as the external test set. Five radiologists blindly reviewed the images from the internal and external test sets first without and then with DL model assistance. Precision, recall, F1-score, weighted F1-average, and area under the curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the model performance.Results: The F1-scores of the DL model on the internal and external test sets were, respectively, 0.947 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.936-0.958] and 0.933 (95% CI: 0.916-0.950) for VP, 0.511 (95% CI: 0.487-0.536) and 0.591 (95% CI: 0.557-0.624) for BP, 0.842 (95% CI: 0.824-0.860) and 0.848 (95% CI: 0.824-0.873) for FP, 0.843 (95% CI: 0.826-0.861) and 0.795 (95% CI: 0.767-0.822) for PTB, and 0.975 (95% CI: 0.968- 0.983) and 0.976 (95% CI: 0.965-0.986) for NP, with a weighted F1-average of 0.883 (95% CI: 0.867- 0.898) and 0.846 (95% CI: 0.822-0.871), respectively. The model performed well and showed comparable performance in both the internal and external test sets. The F1-score of the DL model was higher than that of radiologists, and with DL model assistance, radiologists achieved a higher F1-score. On the external test set, the F1-score of the DL model (F1-score 0.848; 95% CI: 0.824-0.873) was higher than that of the radiologists (F1-score 0.541; 95% CI: 0.507-0.575) as was its precision for the other three pneumonia conditions (all P values <0.001). With DL model assistance, the F1-score for FP (F1-score 0.541; 95% CI: 0.507-0.575) was higher than that achieved without assistance (F1-score 0.778; 95% CI: 0.750-0.807) as was its precision for the other three pneumonia conditions (all P values <0.001).Conclusions: The DL approach can effectively classify pneumonia and can help improve radiologists' performance, supporting the full integration of DL results into the routine workflow of clinicians.

We present ETER, an elastic tessellation framework for rendering large-scale NURBS models with pixel-accurate and crack-free quality at real-time frame rates. We propose a highly parallel adaptive tessellation algorithm to achieve pixel accuracy, measured by the screen space error between the exact surface and its triangulation. To resolve a bottleneck in NURBS rendering, we present a novel evaluation method based on uniform sampling grids and accelerated by GPU Tensor Cores. Compared to evaluation based on hardware tessellation, our method has achieved a significant speedup of 2.9 to 16.2 times depending on the degrees of the patches. We develop an efficient crack-filling algorithm based on conservative rasterization and visibility buffer to fill the tessellation-induced cracks while greatly reducing the jagged effect introduced by conservative rasterization. We integrate all our novel algorithms, implemented in CUDA, into a GPU NURBS rendering pipeline based on Mesh Shaders and hybrid software/hardware rasterization. Our performance data on a commodity GPU show that the rendering pipeline based on ETER is capable of rendering up to 3.7 million patches (0.25 billion tessellated triangles) in real-time (30FPS). With its advantages in performance, scalability, and visual quality in rendering large-scale NURBS models, a real-time tessellation solution based on ETER can be a powerful alternative or even a potential replacement for the existing pre-tessellation solution in CAD systems.

The intestine, often referred to as the "second brain" of the human body, houses a vast microbial community that plays a crucial role in maintaining the host's balance and directly impacting overall health. Probiotics, a type of beneficial microorganism, offer various health benefits when consumed. However, probiotics face challenges such as acidic conditions in the stomach, bile acids, enzymes, and other adverse factors before they can colonize the intestinal tissues. At present, pills, dry powder, encapsulation, chemically modified bacteria, and genetically engineered bacteria have emerged as the preferred method for the stable and targeted delivery of probiotics. In particular, the use of nanoshells on the surface of single probiotics has shown promise in regulating their growth and differentiation. These nanoshells can detach from the probiotics' surface upon reaching the intestine, facilitating direct contact between the probiotics and intestinal mucosa. In this perspective, we provide an overview of the current developments in the formation of nanoshells mediated by single probiotics. We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different nanocoating strategies and explore future trends in probiotic protection.

Elastic scattering of electrons on a finite-temperature quantum screened potential is studied by using the partial wave decomposition of scattering wavefunction. The influence of plasma temperature on the total and l = 0, 1, and 2 partial wave cross sections is systematically analyzed in the present work. It is found that when the plasma density is fixed, the screened strength does not change monotonically with temperature, which leads to different conditions for forming shape resonance in the scattering cross sections for the different temperature domains. The scattering cross sections under the environments of low temperature limit are compared with those for zero-temperature quantum plasmas.

Two kinds of novel methods, i.e., a self-consistent fully relativistic model and an analytical variational method based on the tensor expression of the Breit-Pauli Hamiltonian, are proposed to study the plasma effect on the atomic structure and photoionization dynamic process. The analytical plasma screening potential is used to reproduce a hot dense plasma environment. The self-consistent model incorporates the relativistic effect in the Dirac Hamiltonian. As to the variational method, the spin orbit splitting, relativistic mass correction and Darwin terms are included as perturbations. As an application, energy eigenvalues, transition energies, spectral line shifts, and photoionization cross sections of H-like Mg^11+ and Ni^27+ ions in a dense plasma environment are analyzed at selected temperatures and densities. A comparison between the present two sets of results is made. The present study not only helps us to understand the atomic structure and transition dynamics in plasma environments, but also provides an accurate data support for the diagnosis and analysis of plasma environments.

The total, state-selective, and angular-differential cross sections for He2++H collision system in warm dense plasmas are studied by using the two-center atomic orbital close-coupling method in the energy range 0.1–300 keV/u. The calculations are performed for plasma density and temperature ranges ne ∼1018 to ∼1021 cm−3, Te = 0.3 eV–1.2 eV, typical for the H- and He-rich white dwarfs. The plasma environments are described by a unified screened potential involving electron degeneracy, finite-temperature gradient, and exchange-correlation effects. The results for H++H cases with the same plasma parameters are also presented for comparison to elucidate the discrepancies of plasma screening effects on the electron capture dynamics for collision systems with different nuclear symmetries. Moreover, classical Debye screening results are also given for comparison to clarify the effects of quantum correlations in warm dense plasmas on the electron capture dynamics. The present work is expected to provide theoretical and data support for the astrophysical plasmas.

Relativistic photoionization processes of an exemplary highly charged H-like ion Ar17+ for 1s1/2, 2lj (l = 0, 1), and 3lj (l = 1, 2) initial states are studied in plasmas with coulomb coupling parameter 0.007 < Γ < 0.202. Photoionization cross sections for both the strongly and weakly screened cases exhibit specific properties when their plasma densities and temperatures in the vicinities of the critical values at which nlj bound states enter the continuum. The electron degeneracy, finite-temperature gradient corrections, and quantum exchange-correlations effects have been included in the interaction between charged particles by the screened potential used in the present work. It is found that these effects for the plasmas with different coupled strength are reflected in the resonant regions of photoionization cross sections by comparing with Debye cases. The present work is expected to provide theoretical and data support for the fusion plasmas.

We report results of magnetization, specific heat, and muon spin relaxation (mu SR) measurements on single crystals of disorder-free Yb3+ triangular lattice Yb(BaBO3)(3). The magnetization experiments show anisotropic magnetic properties with Curie-Weiss temperatures theta(perpendicular to) = -1.40 K (H perpendicular to c) and theta(||) = -1.16 K (H || c) determined from low-temperature data. The absence of both long-range antiferromagnetic order and spin freezing is confirmed down to 0.27 K at zero field. A two-level Schottky anomaly due to the opening of the ground-state Kramers doublet is observed from the low-temperature specific heat measurements when the applied magnetic fields mu H-0 > 0.7 T. At zero field, the increase of both C-mag/T and the muon spin relaxation rate lambda below 1 K is due to the electronic spin excitations, which often exist in quantum magnets where dipole-dipole interactions create an anisotropy of magnetic properties. The spin excitation is also supported by the unusual maximum of the field dependence of lambda due to the field-induced increase in the density of excitations. We argue that dipolar interaction is dominant and induces the spin dynamics in the quantum magnet Yb(BaBO3)(3).

Topological superconductivity is an exotic phenomenon due to the symmetry-protected topological surface state, in which a quantum system has an energy gap in the bulk but supports gapless excitations confined to its boundary. Symmetries including central and time-reversal symmetry (TRS), along with their relations with topology, are crucial for topological superconductivity. We report muon spin relaxation/rotation (μSR) experiments on a topological noncentrosymmetric superconductor PbTaSe2 to study its TRS and gap symmetry. Zero-field μSR experiments indicate the absence of internal magnetic field in the superconducting state, consistent with previous μSR results. Furthermore, transverse-field μSR measurements reveals that the superconducting gap of PbTaSe2 is an isotropic three-dimensional fully-gapped single-band. The fully-gapped results can help understand the pairing mechanism and further classify the topological superconductivity in this system.

Background: Computer-aided diagnosis based on chest X-ray (CXR) is an exponentially growing field of research owing to the development of deep learning, especially convolutional neural networks (CNNs).However, due to the intrinsic locality of convolution operations, CNNs cannot model long-range dependencies.Although vision transformers (ViTs) have recently been proposed to alleviate this limitation, those trained on patches cannot learn any dependencies for inter-patch pixels and thus, are insufficient for medical image detection.To address this problem, in this paper, we propose a CXR detection method which integrates CNN with a ViT for modeling patch-wise and inter-patch dependencies.Methods: We experimented on the ChestX-ray14 dataset and followed the official training-test set split.Because the training data only had global annotations, the detection network was weakly supervised.A DenseNet with a feature pyramid structure was designed and integrated with an adaptive ViT to model inter-patch and patch-wise long-range dependencies and obtain fine-grained feature maps.We compared the performance using our method with that of other disease detection methods.Results: For disease classification, our method achieved the best result among all the disease detection methods, with a mean area under the curve (AUC) of 0.829.For lesion localization, our method achieved significantly higher intersection of the union (IoU) scores on the test images with bounding box annotations than did the other detection methods.The visualized results showed that our predictions were more accurate and detailed.Furthermore, evaluation of our method in an external validation dataset demonstrated its generalization ability.Conclusions: Our proposed method achieves the new state of the art for thoracic disease classification and weakly supervised localization.It has potential to assist in clinical decision-making.

We report results of a muon spin relaxation study of slow magnetic fluctuations in the pseudogap phase of underdoped single-crystalline YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{y}$, $y = 6.77$ and 6.83. The dependence of the dynamic muon spin relaxation rate on applied magnetic field yields the rms magnitude~$B\mathrm{_{loc}^{rms}}$ and correlation time~$\tau_c$ of fluctuating local fields at muon sites. The observed relaxation rates do not decrease with decreasing temperature~$T$ below the pseudogap onset at $T^\ast$, as would be expected for a conventional magnetic transition; both $B\mathrm{_{loc}^{rms}}$ and $\tau_c$ are roughly constant in the pseudogap phase down to the superconducting transition. Corresponding NMR relaxation rates are estimated to be too small to be observable. Our results put strong constraints on theories of the anomalous pseudogap magnetism in YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{y}$.

In this work, visible and extreme ultraviolet spectra of W7+ are measured using the high-temperature superconducting electron-beam ion trap (EBIT) at the Shanghai EBIT Laboratory under extremely low-energy conditions (lower than the nominal electron-beam energy of 130 eV). The relevant atomic structure is calculated using the flexible atomic code package based on the relativistic configuration interaction method. The GRASP2K code, in the framework of the multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock method, is employed as well for calculating the wavelength of the M1 transition in the ground configuration of W7+. A line from the W7+ ions is observed at a little higher electron-beam energy than the ionization potential for W4+, making this line appear to be from W5+. A hypothesis for the charge-state evolution of W7+ is proposed based on our experimental and theoretical results; that is, the occurrence of W7+ ions results from indirect ionization caused by stepwise excitation between some metastable states of lower-charge-state W ions, at the nominal electron-beam energy of 59 eV.

Recently, superconductivity in potassium (K) doped p-terphenyl (C18H14) has been suggested by the possible observation of the Meissner effect and subsequent photoemission spectroscopy measurements, but the detailed lattice structure and more-direct evidence are still lacking. Here we report a low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) study on K-doped single layer p-terphenyl films grown on Au (111). We observe several ordered phases with different morphologies and electronic behaviors, in two of which a sharp and symmetric low-energy gap of about 11 meV opens below 50 K. In particular, the gap shows no obvious response to a magnetic field up to 11 Tesla, which would caution against superconductivity as an interpretation in previous reports of K-doped p-terphenyl materials. Such gapped phases are rarely (if ever) observed in single layer hydrocarbon molecular crystals. Our work also paves the way for fabricating doped two-dimensional (2D) hydrocarbon materials, which will provide a platform to search for novel emergent phenomena.