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Background Cysticercosis, a parasitic infection caused by the larval stages of the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium , predominantly affects cerebral and ocular tissues. The subcutaneous manifestation of this disease is a relatively uncommon clinical occurrence. Previously very few or no cases of cysticercosis presenting as subcutaneous solitary painful swelling have been reported in the literature. In previous reports, the swelling was described as painless and not solitary. Case presentation We present a rare case of subcutaneous cysticercosis in an Indian female in her forties, localized over the left scapular region, exhibiting gradual enlargement over 4 weeks. The patient experienced pain and intense itching without neurological or ocular involvement. Physical examination revealed a well-defined nodular swelling measuring approximately 3.5 cm × 3 cm, painful, nonfluctuating, nonreducible, soft to firm consistency, with no attachment to the underlying muscle, observed at the inferior angle of the left scapula. The overlying skin was tense, glossy, erythematous, and indurated, with mild superficial scaling at a few places and excoriation marks around the swelling. No similar swelling was found elsewhere on the body. The rest of the systemic and physical examination was unremarkable. The clinical diagnosis included an abscess, infected sebaceous cyst, lipoma with inflamed overlying skin, and a remote possibility of subcutaneous cysticercosis. Stool examination for ova, cysts, and parasites was unremarkable. Cysticercus IgG antibody by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was negative. A chest X-ray and radiograph of the left scapular region were normal. Fine needle aspiration biopsy of the lesion was planned but could not be completed as the patient did not consent. Local part ultrasonography revealed a well-defined cystic area of 1.9 × 1.1 × 1.6 cm 3 (anteroposterior × transverse × craniocaudal) with peripheral calcified streaks (scolex) and surrounding edema suggestive of subcutaneous cysticercosis. The diagnosis was established by the ultrasonography of the lesion suggesting features consistent with cysticercus, and later established by complete resolution after a course of albendazole. Management involved a 3-week course of albendazole and 5 days of paracetamol for pain, leading to the full resolution of swelling and symptoms. On follow-up at 1 month, the swelling had disappeared with no new swelling or symptoms. Conclusion Subcutaneous cysticercosis is an unusual presentation of Taenia solium infestation that requires a high index of suspicion for accurate diagnosis. This case report emphasizes the importance of considering parasitic infections in the differential diagnosis of subcutaneous nodules. Early diagnosis and appropriate management are crucial for preventing complications and improving patient outcomes.

This study presents new insights and experimental results for the use of ears as a non-invasive biometric for human identification. To determine the uniqueness of the external ear pattern two methods were employed: The Weighted Scoring System and Pattern Recognition by Neural Networks. A total of 10 external ear features classified into 37 sub-features for both right and left ears of 400 Indians of Goan origin were studied after acquiring standardized side profile digital photographs. These features were then converted to numeric scores by the ‘Weighted Scoring System’ which were then compared to ascertain the uniqueness of ear pattern in same and different individuals. Apart from this feature-wise comparison, the initially acquired photographs of 800 individual ears were scrutinized and 80 visually similar ear patterns were found. After appropriate pre-processing of five train and five test images of each of these 80 visually similar ear patterns, the images were analyzed by a specially designed software and 360 feature vectors which were the distances from the centroid to the outer edge of the ear were extracted and saved. The feature vectors of train and test images were employed to train and test the Neural Networks. The result revealed that none of the individuals in the study sample had identical weighted scores when both right and left ear scores were considered in combination or when bilateral comparison was made in the same individual. The digital analysis of visually similar ear images by Neural Networks revealed a recognition rate of 94% with an Equal Error Rate at threshold value of 0.225. The inter-individual match score among train images were found to be less than the intra-individual match scores between train and test images or the differences found in former were more than that in the latter. Also, all intra-individual scores were above the system threshold (0.225) hence accepted as match, while all inter-individual scores were below it and hence rejected as a match. An independent t-test applied to the intra- and inter-individual match scores indicated that the two distributions were significantly different (p<0.0001). Thus, this study has been successful in determining the uniqueness of ear pattern for person identification and in designing and testing software for recognition of ear patterns from side profile photographs.

The interaction of K - with protons is characterised by the presence of several coupled channels, systems like K ¯ 0 n and π Σ with a similar mass and the same quantum numbers as the K - p state. The strengths of these couplings to the K - p system are of crucial importance for the understanding of the nature of the Λ ( 1405 ) resonance and of the attractive K - p strong interaction. In this article, we present measurements of the K - p correlation functions in relative momentum space obtained in pp collisions at s = 13  Te, in p–Pb collisions at s NN = 5.02  Te, and (semi)peripheral Pb–Pb collisions at s NN = 5.02  Te. The emitting source size, composed of a core radius anchored to the K + p correlation and of a resonance halo specific to each particle pair, varies between 1 and 2 fm in these collision systems. The strength and the effects of the K ¯ 0 n and π Σ inelastic channels on the measured K - p correlation function are investigated in the different colliding systems by comparing the data with state-of-the-art models of chiral potentials. A novel approach to determine the conversion weights ω , necessary to quantify the amount of produced inelastic channels in the correlation function, is presented. In this method, particle yields are estimated from thermal model predictions, and their kinematic distribution from blast-wave fits to measured data. The comparison of chiral potentials to the measured K - p interaction indicates that, while the π Σ – K - p dynamics is well reproduced by the model, the coupling to the K ¯ 0 n channel in the model is currently underestimated.

A 3-year-old girl child presented with swelling in her right lower jaw that had started 5 days previously. History revealed the child being non-immunised. Initial-evaluation revealed proptosis and bony hard swelling over the right body of the mandible. Radiological evaluation including a CT scan indicated expansile osteolytic lesion involving the body-ramus with onion-peel periosteal reaction suggesting osteomyelitis/malignancy. Blood investigations showed raised erythrocyte sedimentation rate and eosinophilia. Family screening for tuberculosis (TB) revealed that the patient, her father and siblings were PPD positive though chest screening and sputum examinations were negative in all of them. Lesion biopsy showed acute/chronic osteomyelitis with eosinophilia, tilting diagnosis towards eosinophilic granuloma/Hand–Schuller–Christian disease. Further investigations for diabetes insipidus, histiocytosis-X, skull–pelvic–femur radiographs, abdominal ultrasonography, ophthalmic consultation and PCR-TB test were negative. Histology, radiography, purified protein derivative (PPD)-positive result and history led to the diagnosis of primary TB of the mandible. Complete resolution occurred following antitubercular therapy. The case report emphasises that diagnosis of TB can sometimes be based on circumstantial evidence and positive response to antitubercular therapy even in view of a negative PCR result.

A bstract A study of strange hadron production associated with hard scattering processes and with the underlying event is conducted to investigate the origin of the enhanced production of strange hadrons in small collision systems characterised by large charged-particle multiplicities. For this purpose, the production of the single-strange meson K S 0 and the double-strange baryon Ξ ± is measured, in each event, in the azimuthal direction of the highest- p T particle (“trigger” particle), related to hard scattering processes, and in the direction transverse to it in azimuth, associated with the underlying event, in pp collisions at s = 5.02 TeV and s = 13 TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC. The per-trigger yields of K S 0 and Ξ ± are dominated by the transverse-to-leading production (i.e., in the direction transverse to the trigger particle), whose contribution relative to the toward-leading production is observed to increase with the event charged-particle multiplicity. The transverse-to-leading and the toward-leading Ξ ± / K S 0 yield ratios increase with the multiplicity of charged particles, suggesting that strangeness enhancement with multiplicity is associated with both hard scattering processes and the underlying event. The relative production of Ξ ± with respect to K S 0 is higher in transverse-to-leading processes over the whole multiplicity interval covered by the measurement. The K S 0 and Ξ ± per-trigger yields and yield ratios are compared with predictions of three different phenomenological models, namely P ythia 8.2 with the Monash tune, P ythia 8.2 with ropes and EPOS LHC. The comparison shows that none of them can quantitatively describe either the transverse-to-leading or the toward-leading yields of K S 0 and Ξ ± .

Correlations among conserved quantum numbers, such as the net-electric charge, the net-baryon, and the net-strangeness in heavy-ion collisions, are crucial for exploring the QCD phase diagram. In this paper, these correlations are investigated using net-proton number (as a proxy for the net-baryon), net-kaon number (for the net-strangeness), and net-charged particle number in Pb-Pb collisions at $\\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector. The observed correlations deviate from the Poissonian baseline, with a more pronounced deviation at LHC energies than at RHIC. Theoretical calculations of the Thermal-FIST hadron resonance gas model, HIJING, and EPOS LHC event generators are compared with experimental results, where a significant impact of resonance decays is observed. Thermal-FIST calculations under the grand canonical and canonical ensembles highlight significant differences, underscoring the role of local charge conservation in explaining the data. Recent lattice QCD studies have demonstrated that the magnetic field generated by spectator protons in heavy-ion collisions affects susceptibility ratios, in particular those related to the net-electric charge and the net-baryon numbers. The experimental findings are in qualitative agreement with the expectations of lattice QCD.

In a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), the fundamental building blocks of matter, quarks and gluons, are under extreme conditions of temperature and density. A QGP could exist in the early stages of the Universe, and in various objects and events in the cosmos. The thermodynamic and hydrodynamic properties of the QGP are described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and can be studied in heavy-ion collisions. Despite being a key thermodynamic parameter, the QGP temperature is still poorly known. Thermal lepton pairs ( e + e − and μ + μ − ) are ideal penetrating probes of the true temperature of the emitting source, since their invariant-mass spectra suffer neither from strong final-state interactions nor from blue-shift effects due to rapid expansion. Here we measure the QGP temperature using thermal e + e − production at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The average temperature from the low-mass region (in-medium ρ 0 vector-meson dominant) is (2.01 ± 0.23) × 10 12 K, consistent with the chemical freeze-out temperature from statistical models and the phase transition temperature from Lattice QCD. The average temperature from the intermediate mass region (above the ρ 0 mass, QGP dominant) is significantly higher at (3.25 ± 0.60) × 10 12 K. This work provides essential experimental thermodynamic measurements to map out the QCD phase diagram and understand the properties of matter under extreme conditions. Thermal lepton pairs are ideal probes for the temperature of quark-gluon plasma. Here, the STAR Collaboration uses thermal electron-positron pair production to measure quark-gluon plasma average temperature at different stages of the evolution.

A bstract The production of (multi-)strange hadrons is measured at midrapidity in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV as a function of the local charged-particle multiplicity in the pseudorapidity interval | η | < 0 . 5 and of the very-forward energy measured by the ALICE Zero-Degree Calorimeters. The latter provides information on the effective energy, i.e. the energy available for particle production in the collision once subtracted from the centre-of-mass energy. The yields of K S 0 , Λ + Λ ¯ , and Ξ − + Ξ ¯ + per charged-particle increase with the effective energy. In addition, this work exploits a multi-differential approach to decouple the roles of local multiplicity and effective energy in such an enhancement. The results presented in this article provide new insights into the interplay between global properties of the collision, such as the initial available energy in the event, and the locally produced final hadronic state, connected to the charged-particle multiplicity at midrapidity. Notably, a strong increase of strange baryon production with effective energy is observed for fixed charged-particle multiplicity at midrapidity. These results are discussed within the context of existing phenomenological models of hadronisation implemented in different tunes of the PYTHIA 8 event generator.

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.