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The aim of this paper is to understand resonance production (and more generally particle production) for different collision systems, namely proton-proton (pp), proton-nucleus (pA), and nucleus-nucleus (AA) scattering at the LHC. We will investigate in particular particle yields and ratios versus multiplicity, using the same multiplicity definition for the three different systems, in order to analyse in a compact way the evolution of particle production with the system size and the origin of a very different system size dependence of the different particles.

Short lived resonances are sensitive to the properties of the medium produced in heavy ion collision, in particular the temperature, density and expansion velocity. Thermal models underpredict the yield of K(892) and Λ(1520) in Au+Au collisions which allows us to conclude that an extended hadronic interaction phase exists between chemical and thermal freeze-out. During this time the decay particles of resonances will re-scatter and coalesce to regenerate resonances. These mechanisms affect the resonance yield mostly in the low momentum region below 1 GeV/c. Therefore the nuclear suppression factor RAA of resonances with more re-scattering than regeneration will be suppressed compared to stable particles in that pT range. It is interesting to study the RAA of resonances at higher momenta where the spectra of non-resonant particles exhibit effects such as enhancement through constituent quark recombination and quenching in the dense partonic medium. In addition the RAA’s of strange particles show the effect of canonical suppression on the nuclear suppression factor which leads to a significant difference between RAA and RCP, in particular for strange baryons. Therefore the RAA and the elliptic flow v2 for strange resonances in comparison to strange particles are investigated.

Evidence for hydrodynamical flow in AA or in pA collisons is to a large extent obtained from the observation of identified hadrons, such as pions, kaons, and protons. But much more information in particular about the late stage can be obtained by also considering unstable particles, which decay during the lifetime of the expanding hadronic matter. We therefore started to use EPOS3, a unified approach for pp, pA, and AA scattering, to investigate the production of stable and unstable particles.

Background: The goals of this study were to characterize urine-derived stem cells obtained from the upper urinary tract (uUSC), induce these cells to differentiate into urothelial and smooth muscle cells, and determine whether they could serve as a potential stem cell source for bladder tissue engineering. Materials and Methods: Urine samples were collected from five patients with normal upper urinary tracts during renal pyeloplasty. Cells were isolated from this urine and extensively expanded in vitro . Results: The mean population doubling of uUSC was 46.5±7.7. The uUSC expressed surface markers associated with mesenchymal stem cells and pericytes. These cells could differentiate into smooth muscle-like cells that expressed smooth muscle-specific gene transcripts and proteins, including α-smooth muscle actin, desmin, and myosin, when exposed to TGF-β1 and PDGF-BB. In a collagen lattice assay, these myogenic-differentiated uUSC displayed contractile function that was similar to that seen in native smooth muscle cells. Urothelial-differentiated uUSC expressed urothelial-specific genes and proteins such as uroplakin-Ia and -III, cytokeratin (CK)-7, and CK-13. Conclusions: uUSC possess expansion and differentiation (urothelial and myogenic) capabilities, and can potentially be used as an alternative cell source in bladder tissue engineering for patients needing cystoplasty.

LYS006 is a novel, highly potent and selective, new‐generation leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H) inhibitor in clinical development for the treatment of neutrophil‐driven inflammatory diseases. We describe the complex pharmacokinetic to pharmacodynamic (PD) relationship in blood, plasma, and skin of LYS006‐treated nonclinical species and healthy human participants. In a randomized first in human study, participants were exposed to single ascending doses up to 100 mg and multiple ascending doses up to 80 mg b.i.d.. LYS006 showed rapid absorption, overall dose proportional plasma exposure and nonlinear blood to plasma distribution caused by saturable target binding. The compound efficiently inhibited LTB4 production in human blood and skin blister cells, leading to greater than 90% predose target inhibition from day 1 after treatment initiation at doses of 20 mg b.i.d. and above. Slow re‐distribution from target expressing cells resulted in a long terminal half‐life and a long‐lasting PD effect in ex vivo stimulated blood and skin cells despite low plasma exposures. LYS006 was well‐tolerated and demonstrated a favorable safety profile up to highest doses tested, without any dose‐limiting toxicity. This supported further clinical development in phase II studies in predominantly neutrophil‐driven inflammatory conditions, such as hidradenitis suppurativa, inflammatory acne, and ulcerative colitis.

The first measurement at midrapidity (| y | < 0 . 5) of the production yield of the strange-charm baryons$${\\Xi }_{\\text{c}}^{+}$$and$${\\Xi }_{\\text{c}}^{0}$$as a function of transverse momentum ( p T ) in different charged-particle multiplicity classes in proton-proton collisions at$$\\sqrt{s}=13$$TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC is reported. The$${\\Xi }_{\\text{c}}^{+}$$baryon is reconstructed via the$${\\Xi }_{\\text{c}}^{+}\\to {\\Xi }^{-}{\\pi }^{+}{\\pi }^{+}$$decay channel in the range 4 < p T < 12 GeV /c , while the$${\\Xi }_{\\text{c}}^{0}$$baryon is reconstructed via both the$${\\Xi}_{\\text{c}}^{0}\\to {\\Xi}^{-}{\\pi }^{+}$$and$${\\Xi}_{\\text{c}}^{0}\\to {\\Xi}^{-}{\\text{e}}^{+}{\\nu }_{\\text{e}}$$decay channels in the range 2 < p T < 12 GeV /c . The baryon-to-meson$$\\left({\\Xi}_{\\text{c}}^{0,+}/{\\text{D}}^{0}\\right)$$and the baryon-to-baryon$$\\left({\\Xi}_{\\text{c}}^{0,+}/{\\Lambda}_{\\text{c}}^{+}\\right)$$production yield ratios show no significant dependence on multiplicity. In addition, the observed yield ratios are not described by theoretical predictions that model charm-quark fragmentation based on measurements at e + e − and e − p colliders, indicating differences in the charm-baryon production mechanism in pp collisions. A comparison with different event generators and tunings, including different modelling of the hadronisation process, is also discussed. Moreover, the branching-fraction ratio of$${\\text{BR}}\\left({\\Xi}_{\\text{c}}^{0}\\to {\\Xi }^{-}{\\text{e}}^{+}{\\nu }_{\\text{e}}\\right)/{\\text{BR}}\\left({\\Xi}_{\\text{c}}^{0}\\to {\\Xi }^{-}{\\pi }^{+}\\right)$$is measured as 0.825 ± 0.094 (stat.) ± 0.081 (syst.). This value supersedes the previous ALICE measurement, improving the statistical precision by a factor of 1.6.

Ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions produce a state of hot and dense strongly interacting QCD matter called quark-gluon plasma (QGP). On an event-by-event basis, the volume of the QGP in ultracentral collisions is mostly constant, while its total entropy can vary significantly due to quantum fluctuations, leading to variations in the temperature of the system. Exploiting this unique feature of ultracentral collisions allows for the interpretation of the correlation of the mean transverse momentum$$(\\langle {p}_{\\text{T}}\\rangle )$$of produced charged hadrons and the number of charged hadrons as a measure for the speed of sound, c s . This speed is related to the rate at which compression waves travel in the QGP and is determined by fitting the relative increase in$$\\langle {p}_{\\text{T}}\\rangle $$with respect to the relative change in the average charged-particle density$$(\\langle \\text{d}{N}_{\\text{ch}}/\\text{d}\\eta \\rangle )$$measured at mid-rapidity. This study reports the event-average$$\\langle {p}_{\\text{T}}\\rangle $$of charged particles as well as the variance, skewness, and kurtosis of the event-by-event transverse momentum per charged particle$$([{p}_{\\text{T}}])$$distribution in ultracentral Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 5 . 02 TeV per nucleon pair using the ALICE detector. Different centrality estimators based on charged-particle multiplicity or the transverse energy of the event are used to select ultracentral collisions. By ensuring a pseudorapidity gap between the region used to define the centrality and the region used to perform the measurement, the influence of biases and their potential effects on the rise of the mean transverse momentum is tested. The measured$${c}_{\\text{s}}^{2}$$is found to strongly depend on the exploited centrality estimator and ranges between 0 . 1146±0 . 0028 (stat . )±0 . 0065 (syst . ) and 0 . 4374±0 . 0006 (stat . )±0 . 0184 (syst . ) in natural units. The self-normalized variance shows a steep decrease towards ultracentral collisions, while the self-normalized skewness variables show a maximum, followed by a fast decrease. These non-Gaussian features are understood in terms of the vanishing of the impact-parameter fluctuations contributing to the event-to-event [ p T ] distribution.

The first measurement of prompt D *+ -meson spin alignment in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions with respect to the direction orthogonal to the reaction plane is presented. The spin alignment is quantified by measuring the element ρ 00 of the diagonal spin-density matrix for prompt D *+ mesons with 4 < p T < 30 GeV /c in two rapidity intervals, | y | < 0 . 3 and 0 . 3 < | y | < 0 . 8, in central (0–10%) and midcentral (30–50%) Pb–Pb collisions at$$\\sqrt{{s}_{\\text{NN}}}={5}.0{2}$$TeV. Evidence of spin alignment ρ 00 > 1 / 3 has been found for p T > 15 GeV /c and 0 . 3 < | y | < 0 . 8 with a significance of 3 . 1 σ . The measured spin alignment of prompt D *+ mesons is compared with the one of inclusive J / ψ mesons measured at forward rapidity (2 . 5 < y < 4).

The momentum-differential invariant cross sections of π 0 and η mesons are reported for pp collisions at$$\\sqrt{s}$$= 13 TeV at midrapidity ( |y| < 0 . 8). The measurement is performed in a broad transverse-momentum range of 0 . 2 < p T < 200 GeV/ c and 0 . 4 < p T < 60 GeV/ c for the π 0 and η , respectively, extending the p T coverage of previous measurements. Transverse-mass-scaling violation of up to 60% at low transverse momentum has been observed, agreeing with measurements at lower collision energies. Transverse Bjorken x ( x T ) scaling of the π 0 cross sections at LHC energies is fulfilled with a power-law exponent of n = 5 . 01 ± 0 . 05, consistent with values obtained for charged pions at similar collision energies. The data are compared to predictions from next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations, where the π 0 spectrum is best described using the CT18 parton distribution function and the NNFF1.0 or BDSS fragmentation function. Expectations from PYTHIA8 and EPOS LHC overestimate the spectrum for the π 0 and are not able to describe the shape and magnitude of the η spectrum. The charged-particle multiplicity dependent π 0 and η p T spectra show the expected change of the spectral shape, characterized by a flatter slope with increasing multiplicity. This is demonstrated across a broad transverse-momentum range and up to events with a charged-particle multiplicity exceeding five times the mean value in minimum bias collisions. The η/π 0 ratio depends on the charged-particle multiplicity for p T < 4 GeV/ c . PYTHIA8 and EPOS LHC qualitatively explain this behavior with an increasing contribution from the feed-down of heavier particles to the π 0 spectrum.