Validation of the

The cluster structure of the neutron-rich isotope ^{10}Be has been probed via the (p,pα) reaction at 150 MeV/nucleon in inverse kinematics and in quasifree conditions. The populated states of ^{6}He residues were investigated through missing mass spectroscopy. The triple differential cross section for the ground-state transition was extracted for quasifree angle pairs (θ_{p},θ_{α}) and compared to distorted-wave impulse approximation reaction calculations performed in a microscopic framework using successively the Tohsaki-Horiuchi-Schuck-Röpke product wave function and the wave function deduced from antisymmetrized molecular dynamics calculations. The remarkable agreement between calculated and measured cross sections in both shape and magnitude validates the molecular structure description of the ^{10}Be ground-state, configured as an α-α core with two valence neutrons occupying π-type molecular orbitals.

Multiple Mechanisms in Proton-Induced Nucleon Removal at ∼100 MeV/Nucleon.

We report on the first proton-induced single proton- and neutron-removal reactions from the neutron-deficient ^{14}O nucleus with large Fermi-surface asymmetry S_{n}-S_{p}=18.6 MeV at ∼100 MeV/nucleon, a widely used energy regime for rare-isotope studies. The measured inclusive cross sections and parallel momentum distributions of the ^{13}N and ^{13}O residues are compared to the state-of-the-art reaction models, with nuclear structure inputs from many-body shell-model calculations. Our results provide the first quantitative contributions of multiple reaction mechanisms including the quasifree knockout, inelastic scattering, and nucleon transfer processes. It is shown that the inelastic scattering and nucleon transfer, usually neglected at such energy regime, contribute about 50% and 30% to the loosely bound proton and deeply bound neutron removal, respectively. These multiple reaction mechanisms should be considered in analyses of inclusive one-nucleon removal cross sections measured at intermediate energies for quantitative investigation of single-particle strengths and correlations in atomic nuclei.

Sacroiliac joint dysfunction and lumbar pain. Evaluation in a Brazilian population.

The study intended to evaluate the incidence and evolution of sacroiliac joint dysfunction (SIJD). To reach 50 patients with SIJD diagnosis, 192 patients with low back pain and failure in conservative approach were consecutively examined (26% incidence). Initially patients underwent intra-articular (IA) corticosteroid sacroiliac joint (SIJ) block followed, if necessary, by cooled SIJ radiofrequency or referred to surgical intervention, in order of complexity. From the 50 patients submitted to IA SI block, 41 (82%) referred pain and quality of life improvement and lesser rescue analgesics consumption for 25 weeks. The block induced a prompt onset of pain relief and there was a drop in mean pain score from 8 to 2 cm (p < 0.001) maintained up to 25 weeks. Rescue analgesic consumption also significantly dropped (p < 0.05). However, nine patients (18%) did not refer long lasting improvement in the third week evaluation and underwent cooled radiofrequency. From this population of nine, seven were successful (78%) while two were recommended surgery. In view of the 50 patients, 82% were comfortable after IA block, 18% were submitted to radiofrequency, with a success rate of 78%. The final incidence of surgery suggestion was 4%.

El estudio pretende evaluar la incidencia y evolución de la disfunción de la articulación sacroilíaca (DASI). Para llegar a 50 pacientes con diagnóstico de DASI, se examinaron consecutivamente 192 pacientes con dolor lumbar y fracaso en el abordaje conservador (26% de incidencia). Inicialmente, los pacientes se sometieron a un bloqueo de la articulación sacroilíaca (ASI) con corticosteroides intraarticulares (IA) seguido, si era necesario, de radiofrecuencia ASI enfriada o remitidos a una intervención quirúrgica, en orden de complejidad. De los 50 pacientes sometidos al bloqueo IA SI, 41 (82%) refirieron mejoría del dolor y de la calidad de vida y menor consumo de analgésicos de rescate durante 25 semanas. El bloqueo indujo un rápido inicio del alivio del dolor y hubo una caída en la puntuación media del dolor de 8 a 2 cm (p < 0.001) mantenida hasta 25 semanas. El consumo de analgésicos de rescate también disminuyó significativamente (p < 0.05). Sin embargo, nueve pacientes (18%) no refirieron una mejoría duradera en la evaluación de la tercera semana y se sometieron a radiofrecuencia fría. De esta población de nueve, siete tuvieron éxito (78%), mientras que a dos se les recomendó cirugía. De los 50 pacientes, 82% se sintió cómodo después del bloqueo IA, 18% fue sometido a radiofrecuencia, con una tasa de éxito de 78%. La incidencia final de sugerencia de cirugía fue de 4%.

Verification of the Usefulness of an Assessment and Risk Control Sheet that Promotes Management of Cancer Drug Therapy.

Background: Proper management of adverse events is crucial for the safe and effective implementation of anticancer drug treatment. Showa University Hospital uses our interview sheet (assessment and risk control [ARC] sheet) for the accurate evaluation of adverse events. On the day of anticancer drug treatment, a nurse conducts a face-to-face interview. As a feature of the ARC sheet, by separately describing the symptoms the day before treatment and the day of treatment and sharing the information on the medical record, it is possible to clearly determine the status of adverse events. In this study, we hypothesized that the usefulness and points for improvement of the ARC sheet would be clarified by using and evaluating a patient questionnaire. Methods: This study included 174 patients (144 at Showa University Hospital (Hatanodai Hospital) and 30 at Showa University Koto Toyosu Hospital (Toyosu Hospital) who underwent pre-examination interviews by nurses and received cancer chemotherapy at the outpatient center of Hatanodai and Toyosu Hospital. In the questionnaire survey, the ARC sheet's content and quality, respondents' satisfaction, structural strengths, and points for improvement were evaluated on a five-point scale. Results: The patient questionnaire received responses from 160 participants, including the ARC sheet use group (132 people) and the non-use group (28 people). Unlike the ARC sheet non-use group, the ARC sheet use group recognized that the sheet was useful to understand the adverse events of aphthous ulcers (p = 0.017) and dysgeusia (p = 0.006). In the satisfaction survey questionnaire, there was a high sense of security in the pre-examination interviews by nurses using the ARC sheet. Conclusions: The ARC sheet is considered an effective tool for comprehensively evaluating adverse events. Pre-examination interviews by nurses using ARC sheets accurately determined the adverse events experienced by patients with anxiety and tension due to confrontation with physicians.

An unusual location of the ansa cervicalis.

The ansa cervicalis (AC) is part of the cervical plexus and is formed by the ventral rami of spinal nerves C1-C3. It is usually formed by two roots that run parallel to each other and then form a loop anterior to the internal jugular vein. Herein, we report a rare case where the AC was found deep to the internal carotid artery and common carotid artery and had sympathetic contributions.

Extended p_{3/2} Neutron Orbital and the N=32 Shell Closure in

The one-neutron knockout from ^{52}Ca in inverse kinematics onto a proton target was performed at ∼230 MeV/nucleon combined with prompt γ spectroscopy. Exclusive quasifree scattering cross sections to bound states in ^{51}Ca and the momentum distributions corresponding to the removal of 1f_{7/2} and 2p_{3/2} neutrons were measured. The cross sections, interpreted within the distorted-wave impulse approximation reaction framework, are consistent with a shell closure at the neutron number N=32, found as strong as at N=28 and N=34 in Ca isotopes from the same observables. The analysis of the momentum distributions leads to a difference of the root-mean-square radii of the neutron 1f_{7/2} and 2p_{3/2} orbitals of 0.61(23) fm, in agreement with the modified-shell-model prediction of 0.7 fm suggesting that the large root-mean-square radius of the 2p_{3/2} orbital in neutron-rich Ca isotopes is responsible for the unexpected linear increase of the charge radius with the neutron number.

Pairing Forces Govern Population of Doubly Magic

Direct proton-knockout reactions of ^{55}Sc at ∼220 MeV/nucleon were studied at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. Populated states of ^{54}Ca were investigated through γ-ray and invariant-mass spectroscopy. Level energies were calculated from the nuclear shell model employing a phenomenological internucleon interaction. Theoretical cross sections to states were calculated from distorted-wave impulse approximation estimates multiplied by the shell model spectroscopic factors, which describe the wave function overlap of the ^{55}Sc ground state with states in ^{54}Ca. Despite the calculations showing a significant amplitude of excited neutron configurations in the ground-state of ^{55}Sc, valence proton removals populated predominantly the ground state of ^{54}Ca. This counterintuitive result is attributed to pairing effects leading to a dominance of the ground-state spectroscopic factor. Owing to the ubiquity of the pairing interaction, this argument should be generally applicable to direct knockout reactions from odd-even to even-even nuclei.

Quasifree Neutron Knockout Reaction Reveals a Small s-Orbital Component in the Borromean Nucleus

A kinematically complete quasifree (p,pn) experiment in inverse kinematics was performed to study the structure of the Borromean nucleus ^{17}B, which had long been considered to have a neutron halo. By analyzing the momentum distributions and exclusive cross sections, we obtained the spectroscopic factors for 1s_{1/2} and 0d_{5/2} orbitals, and a surprisingly small percentage of 9(2)% was determined for 1s_{1/2}. Our finding of such a small 1s_{1/2} component and the halo features reported in prior experiments can be explained by the deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum, revealing a definite but not dominant neutron halo in ^{17}B. The present work gives the smallest s- or p-orbital component among known nuclei exhibiting halo features and implies that the dominant occupation of s or p orbitals is not a prerequisite for the occurrence of a neutron halo.

How Different is the Core of

The structure of a neutron-rich ^{25}F nucleus is investigated by a quasifree (p,2p) knockout reaction at 270A MeV in inverse kinematics. The sum of spectroscopic factors of π0d_{5/2} orbital is found to be 1.0±0.3. However, the spectroscopic factor with residual ^{24}O nucleus being in the ground state is found to be only 0.36±0.13, while those in the excited state is 0.65±0.25. The result shows that the ^{24}O core of ^{25}F nucleus significantly differs from a free ^{24}O nucleus, and the core consists of ∼35% ^{24}O_{g.s.}. and ∼65% excited ^{24}O. The result may infer that the addition of the 0d_{5/2} proton considerably changes neutron structure in ^{25}F from that in ^{24}O, which could be a possible mechanism responsible for the oxygen dripline anomaly.

Halo Structure of the Neutron-Dripline Nucleus

The heaviest bound isotope of boron ^{19}B has been investigated using exclusive measurements of its Coulomb dissociation, into ^{17}B and two neutrons, in collisions with Pb at 220 MeV/nucleon. Enhanced electric dipole (E1) strength is observed just above the two-neutron decay threshold with an integrated E1 strength of B(E1)=1.64±0.06(stat)±0.12(sys) e^{2} fm^{2} for relative energies below 6 MeV. This feature, known as a soft E1 excitation, provides the first firm evidence that ^{19}B has a prominent two-neutron halo. Three-body calculations that reproduce the energy spectrum indicate that the valence neutrons have a significant s-wave configuration and exhibit a dineutronlike correlation.

Breast cancer diagnosis based on lipid profiling by probe electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

Probe electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (PESI-MS) is an ambient ionization-based mass spectrometry method that surpasses the original electrospray ionization technique in features such as the rapidity of analysis, simplicity of the equipment and procedure, and lower cost. This study found that the PESI-MS system with machine learning has the potential to establish a lipid-based diagnosis of breast cancer with higher accuracy, using a simpler approach. Rapid mass spectrometry for breast cancer.

Surface Localization of the Dineutron in

The formation of a dineutron in the ^{11}Li nucleus is found to be localized to the surface region. The experiment measured the intrinsic momentum of the struck neutron in ^{11}Li via the (p,pn) knockout reaction at 246 MeV/nucleon. The correlation angle between the two neutrons is, for the first time, measured as a function of the intrinsic neutron momentum. A comparison with reaction calculations reveals the localization of the dineutron at r∼3.6 fm. The results also support the density dependence of dineutron formation as deduced from Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations for nuclear matter.

Quasifree Neutron Knockout from

Exclusive cross sections and momentum distributions have been measured for quasifree one-neutron knockout reactions from a ^{54}Ca beam striking on a liquid hydrogen target at ∼200 MeV/u. A significantly larger cross section to the p_{3/2} state compared to the f_{5/2} state observed in the excitation of ^{53}Ca provides direct evidence for the nature of the N=34 shell closure. This finding corroborates the arising of a new shell closure in neutron-rich calcium isotopes. The distorted-wave impulse approximation reaction formalism with shell model calculations using the effective GXPF1Bs interaction and ab initio calculations concur our experimental findings. Obtained transverse and parallel momentum distributions demonstrate the sensitivity of quasifree one-neutron knockout in inverse kinematics on a thick liquid hydrogen target with the reaction vertex reconstructed to final state spin-parity assignments.

78Ni revealed as a doubly magic stronghold against nuclear deformation.

Nuclear magic numbers correspond to fully occupied energy shells of protons or neutrons inside atomic nuclei. Doubly magic nuclei, with magic numbers for both protons and neutrons, are spherical and extremely rare across the nuclear landscape. Although the sequence of magic numbers is well established for stable nuclei, experimental evidence has revealed modifications for nuclei with a large asymmetry between proton and neutron numbers. Here we provide a spectroscopic study of the doubly magic nucleus 78Ni, which contains fourteen neutrons more than the heaviest stable nickel isotope. We provide direct evidence of its doubly magic nature, which is also predicted by ab initio calculations based on chiral effective-field theory interactions and the quasi-particle random-phase approximation. Our results also indicate the breakdown of the neutron magic number 50 and proton magic number 28 beyond this stronghold, caused by a competing deformed structure. State-of-the-art phenomenological shell-model calculations reproduce this shape coexistence, predicting a rapid transition from spherical to deformed ground states, with 78Ni as the turning point.

Evolving affinity between Coulombic reversibility and hysteretic phase transformations in nano-structured silicon-based lithium-ion batteries.

Nano-structured silicon is an attractive alternative anode material to conventional graphite in lithium-ion batteries. However, the anode designs with higher silicon concentrations remain to be commercialized despite recent remarkable progress. One of the most critical issues is the fundamental understanding of the lithium-silicon Coulombic efficiency. Particularly, this is the key to resolve subtle yet accumulatively significant alterations of Coulombic efficiency by various paths of lithium-silicon processes over cycles. Here, we provide quantitative and qualitative insight into how the irreversible behaviors are altered by the processes under amorphous volume changes and hysteretic amorphous-crystalline phase transformations. Repeated latter transformations over cycles, typically featured as a degradation factor, can govern the reversibility behaviors, improving the irreversibility and eventually minimizing cumulative irreversible lithium consumption. This is clearly different from repeated amorphous volume changes with different lithiation depths. The mechanism behind the correlations is elucidated by electrochemical and structural probing.

A novel missense mutation affecting the same amino acid as the recurrent PACS1 mutation in Schuurs-Hoeijmakers syndrome.

A novel causative variant (c.608G>A, p.Arg203Gln) in PACS1.

A case of atypical Kabuki syndrome arising from a novel missense variant in HNRNPK.

A novel causative variant (c. 464T>C, p.Leu155Pro) in the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (HNRNPK) gene.

Intraoral vertico-sagittal ramus osteotomy: modification of the L-shaped osteotomy.

The sagittal split ramus osteotomy and intraoral vertical ramus osteotomy carry the potential risk of postoperative nerve paralysis, bleeding, and fracture and dislocation of the condyle. In 1992, Choung first described the intraoral vertico-sagittal ramus osteotomy for the purpose of avoiding postoperative dislocation of the condyle. However, there is still potential for damaging the inferior alveolar nerve and maxillary artery with this technique. The authors have developed a modified technique to minimize these risks. An evaluation of surgical experience and patient outcomes with the use of this technique is presented herein. One hundred twenty-two sides in 97 Japanese patients diagnosed with a jaw deformity were analyzed. This technique includes a horizontal osteotomy that is performed at a higher position than in the original Choung procedure. Intraoperatively, there was no unexpected bleeding from the operative site. Proximal segment dislocation from the glenoid fossa was observed on one side (0.82%). Non-union of the osteotomy was not observed in any patient. Intraoperative fracture of the coronoid process occurred in 2.46%, but none necessitated treatment of the fracture. Nerve dysfunction was found in 2.46% at the 12-month postoperative follow-up. The modified technique presented herein was developed to reduce postoperative nerve dysfunction and intraoperative hemorrhage.

Patient perceptions of symptoms and concerns during cancer chemotherapy: 'affects my family' is the most important.

BACKGROUND: Cancer chemotherapy is associated with a variety of side effects/adverse events. It is very important that patients adhere to the planned chemotherapy regimen, which necessitates a minimum of side effects and that these side effects be kept under control. We have investigated patients' concerns and symptoms during chemotherapy with the aim to seek solutions that will improve patients' quality of life during chemotherapy. METHODS: Forty-nine patients with malignant diseases on parenteral antineoplastic agents were sequentially enrolled in this study. These patients completed a questionnaire consisting of 42 items related to non-physical concerns and 52 items of physical symptoms related to chemotherapy. Each patient was also asked to select the three items among these 94 items which affected him/her the most. RESULTS: The median age of the cancer patients was 62 years and the male-to-female ratio was 18:31. Among the non-physical concerns, the most frequently chosen concern was 'affects my family or partner,' followed by anxiety related to treatment. Regarding the physical symptoms, the most frequent complaints were fatigue, alopecia and constipation, while the most troublesome symptoms were nausea, poor taste and paresthesia. Overall, the most frequently expressed concerns were 'affects my family or partner' and anxiety related to treatment. Male patients suffered most from fever, fatigue and nausea, and female patients complained more of poor taste and gastrointestinal problems. CONCLUSION: Patient perceptions of adverse events associated with cancer chemotherapy apparently have changed from physical symptoms to non-physical concerns. In our patient cohort 'affects my family or partner' was the most important concern. One important point to note is that female patients often complained of poor taste because this meant they were unable to cook well.

A PLK4 mutation causing azoospermia in a man with Sertoli cell-only syndrome.

About 15% of couples wishing to have children are infertile; approximately half these cases involve a male factor. Polo-like kinase 4 (PLK-4) is a member of the polo protein family and a key regulator of centriole duplication. Male mice with a point mutation in the Plk4 gene show azoospermia associated with germ cell loss. Mutational analysis of 81 patients with azoospermia and Sertoli cell-only syndrome (SCOS) identified one man with a heterozygous 13-bp deletion in the Ser/Thr kinase domain of PLK4. Division of centrioles occurred in wild-type PLK4-transfected cells, but was hampered in PLK-4-mutant transfectants, which also showed abnormal nuclei. Thus, this PLK4 mutation might be a cause of human SCOS and nonobstructive azoospermia.