Clinical Outcome of Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Infusion via Hepatic Artery or Portal Vein in Patients with End-stage Liver Diseases

Objective To investigate the efficacy of hematopoietic stem cell(HSC) transplantation via the hepatic artery vs.the portal vein for end-stage liver disease(ESLD).Methods Patients with hepatic decompensation were prospectively recruited from September 2010 to September 2012 to receive HSC transplantation via the hepatic artery or the portal vein.Liver function was examined at 3,6,and 12 months after transplantation.Liver biopsy results were analyzed using the Knodell score.Results Eighty patients(58 males and 22 females) were enrolled in the study.The Child-Pugh score was grade B in 69 cases,and grade C in the remaining 11 cases.HSC transplantation was performed via the portal vein in 36 patients and via the hepatic artery in 44 patients.ALT levels decreased while serum albumin levels increased significantly in both groups at 6 and 12 months after HSC transplantation(P<0.05 compared with pre-transplantation levels).Total bilirubin levels decreased significantly in both groups at 3,6,and 12 months after HSC transplantation(P<0.05 compared with pre-transplantation levels).Additionally,prothrombin time decreased in both groups at 12 months after HSC transplantation(P<0.05 compared with pre-transplantation level).There were no significant differences in ALT,total bilirubin and prothrombin time between the two groups either before or after transplantation.Moreover,Knodell score decreased significantly at 6 and 12 months.Histological examination showed that liver cell edema,degeneration,necrosis,and inflammation were significantly relieved at 3,6,and 12 months after transplantation.The incidence of portal vein thrombosis,upper gastrointestinal bleeding,and hepatic encephalopathy were 1.25%,3.75%,and 2.5% respectively.The one-year survival rate was 100%.Conclusions Autologous HSC transplantation improves liver function and histology in ESLD patients.The administration route of HSC has no significant impact on the efficacy of transplantation.

Prospective study of light dark matter search with a newly proposed DarkSHINE experiment

Dark photons have been well motivated as strong candidates for dark force carriers and light dark matter in the sub-GeV mass range.Compared with collider experiments,fixed-target experiments provide a complementary approach to searching for dark photons,particularly in the lower mass range.We have studied the physics potential of the electron-on-target experiment based on the Shanghai SHINE facility,which provides 10 MHz single electron beam at 8 GeV energy.This analysis focuses on dark photons being produced via electron and nucleon interaction and then decays to dark matter candidates,which escape detection as missing momentum in the detector.This experiment takes advantage of using missing momentum to enhance signal versus background separation power.In this study,signal samples as a function of dark photon mass and an inclusive background sample with 2.5 billion events are simulated with GEANT4.For better background estimates,major rare background processes have also been simulated.This paper presents the experiment and detector design,signal and background simulations,analysis strategy,and the prospective study of the experiment sensitivity.With 9×10^(14) electron-on-target events(about three years running),this experiment is expected to rule out most of the sensitive regions predicted by popular dark photon models.

Ultrathin Acoustic Parity-Time Symmetric Metasurface Cloak

Invisibility or unhearability cloaks have been made possible by using metamaterials enabling light or sound to fow around obstacle without the trace of refections or shadows.Metamaterials are known for being fexible building units that can mimic a host of unusual and extreme material responses,which are essential when engineering artifcial material properties to realize a coordinate transforming cloak.Bending and stretching the coordinate grid in space require stringent material parameters;therefore,small inaccuracies and inevitable material losses become sources for unwanted scattering that are decremental to the desired efect.Tese obstacles further limit the possibility of achieving a robust concealment of sizeable objects from either radar or sonar detection.By using an elaborate arrangement of gain and lossy acoustic media respecting parity-time symmetry,we built a one-way unhearability cloak able to hide objects seven times larger than the acoustic wavelength.Generally speaking,our approach has no limits in terms of working frequency,shape,or size,specifcally though we demonstrate how,in principle,an object of the size of a human can be hidden from audible sound.

Science Letters:Three-dimensional conceptual model for service-oriented simulation

In this letter,we propose a novel three-dimensional conceptual model for an emerging service-oriented simulation paradigm. The model can be used as a guideline or an analytic means to find the potential and possible future directions of the current simulation frameworks. In particular, the model inspects the crossover between the disciplines of modeling and simulation, service-orientation,and software/systems engineering. Finally, two specific simulation frameworks are studied as examples.

Waveguide-coupled deterministic quantum light sources and post-growth engineering methods for integrated quantum photonics

Integrated photonic quantum circuits(IPQCs)have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their widespread applications in quantum information science.While the most envisioned quantum technologies such as quantum communications,quantum computer and quantum simulations have placed a strict constraint on the scalability of chip-integrated quantum light sources.By introducing sizeconfined nanostructures or crystal imperfections,low-dimensional semiconductors have been broadly explored as chip-scale deterministic single-photon sources(SPSs).Thus far a variety of chip-integrated deterministic SPSs have been investigated across both monolithic and hybrid photonic platforms,including molecules,quantum dots,color centers and two-dimensional materials.With the rapid development of the chip-scale generation of single photons with deterministic quantum emitters,the field of IPQCs has raised new challenges and opportunities.In this paper,we highlight recent progress in the development of waveguide-coupled deterministic SPSs towards scalable IPQCs,and review the post-growth tuning techniques that are specifically developed to engineer the optical properties of these WG-coupled SPSs.Future prospects on stringent requirement for the quantum engineering toolbox in the burgeoning field of integrated photonics are also discussed.