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Recently, c -axis negative thermal expansion (NTE) was observed in a CoZr 2 superconductor and related transition-metal zirconides. Here, we investigated the structural, electronic, and superconducting properties of Co 1− x Ni x Zr 2 to achieve systematic control of c -axis NTE and switching from NTE to positive thermal expansion (PTE) by Ni substitution. At x  ≤ 0.3, c -axis NTE was observed, and the thermal expansion constant α c approached zero with increasing x . At x  = 0.4–0.6, c -axis thermal expansion close to zero thermal expansion (ZTE) was observed, and PTE appeared for x  ≥ 0.7. On the superconducting properties, we observed bulk superconductivity for x  ≤ 0.6, and bulk nature of superconductivity is suppressed by Ni heavy doping ( x  ≥ 0.7). For x  ≤ 0.6, the evolution of the electronic density of states well explains the change in the superconducting transition temperature ( T c ), which suggests conventional phonon-mediated superconductivity in the system. By analyzing the c / a ratio, we observed a possible collapsed transition in the tetragonal lattice at around x  = 0.6–0.8. The lattice collapse would be the cause of the suppression of superconductivity in Ni-rich Co 1− x Ni x Zr 2 and the switching from NTE to PTE.

We report the first observation of bulk superconductivity of a η -carbide-type oxide Zr 4 Pd 2 O. The crystal structure and the superconducting properties were studied through synchrotron X-ray diffraction, magnetization, electrical resistivity, and specific heat measurement. The superconducting transition was observed at T c  = 2.73 K. Our measurement revealed that the η -carbide-type oxide superconductor Zr 4 Pd 2 O shows an enhanced upper critical field μ 0 H c2 (0) = 6.72 T, which violates the Pauli-Clogston limit μ 0 H P  = 5.29 T. On the other hand, we found that the enhanced upper critical field is absent in a Rh analogue Zr 4 Rh 2 O. The large μ 0 H c2 (0) of Zr 4 Pd 2 O would be raised from strong spin–orbit coupling with Pd-4 d electrons. The discovery of new superconducting properties for Zr 4 Pd 2 O would shed light on the further development of η -carbide-type oxide superconductors.

Text-guided image editing has been highlighted in the fields of computer vision and natural language processing in recent years. The approach takes an image and text prompt as input and aims to edit the image in accordance with the text prompt while preserving text-unrelated regions. The results of text-guided image editing differ depending on the way the text prompt is represented, even if it has the same meaning. It is up to the user to decide which result best matches the intended use of the edited image. This paper assumes a situation in which edited images are posted to social media and proposes a novel text-guided image editing method to help the edited images gain attention from a greater audience. In the proposed method, we apply the pre-trained text-guided image editing method and obtain multiple edited images from the multiple text prompts generated from a large language model. The proposed method leverages the novel model that predicts post scores representing engagement rates and selects one image that will gain the most attention from the audience on social media among these edited images. Subject experiments on a dataset of real Instagram posts demonstrate that the edited images of the proposed method accurately reflect the content of the text prompts and provide a positive impression to the audience on social media compared to those of previous text-guided image editing methods.

This multicenter study aimed to assess the short-term effectiveness and safety of faricimab in treatment-naïve patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) in Japan. We retrospectively reviewed 63 eyes of 61 patients with wAMD, including types 1, 2, and 3 macular neovascularization as well as polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV). Patients received three consecutive monthly intravitreal injections of faricimab as loading therapy. Over these 3 months, visual acuity improved gradually compared to baseline. Moreover, the central foveal thickness decreased significantly at 1, 2, and 3 months compared to baseline ( p  < 0.0001). At 3 months after initiation of faricimab therapy, a dry macula (defined as absence of intraretinal or subretinal fluid) was achieved in 82% of the eyes. Complete regression of polypoidal lesions was observed in 52% of eyes with PCV. Subfoveal choroidal thickness also decreased significantly at 1, 2, and 3 months compared to baseline ( p  < 0.0001). Although retinal pigment epithelium tears developed in two eyes, there were no other ocular or systemic complications observed during the 3 months of loading therapy. In conclusion, loading therapy using faricimab resulted in improved visual acuity and retinal morphology in Japanese patients with wAMD without particular safety issues.

 Background/Objectives: This study aimed to elucidate the effect of rhythm jump training on the rhythm and motor abilities of elementary school students to provide insights into its potential benefits for their physical performance and coordination. Methods: A non-randomized controlled trial was conducted involving 101 elementary school students (grades 1–6) attending a soccer school. Participants were divided into a rhythm jump group (n = 51, age: 7.5 years, height: 126.0 cm, weight: 25.7 kg) and a control group (n = 39, age: 8.0 years, height: 128.8 cm, weight: 26.5 kg) based on their practice venue. The rhythm jump group engaged in 10 min of rhythm jump at the beginning of soccer practice once a week over 8 weeks (intervention period), while the control group continued regular soccer training. Measurements included rhythmic reproduction ability during jumps, Pro Agility Test (PAT) values, and Reactive Strength Index (RSI) scores, assessed before and after the intervention period. Rhythmic reproduction ability was measured by comparing the data of the timing of jumps to 4- and 8-beat audio tracks. These were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance, with significance set at p < 0.05. Results: Significant interactions were observed between 8-beat rhythmic reproduction ability and PAT values. In 8-beat rhythm deviation, a significant decrease was observed in the rhythm jump group (0.048 s) compared to that in the control group (0.013 s) (p < 0.01). PAT time significantly decreased in the rhythm jump group (0.18 s) compared to the control group (−0.25 s) (p < 0.01). There was no observed interaction between 4-beat rhythmic reproduction ability and RSI. Conclusions: This study revealed that rhythm jump training can be effective even with short sessions and infrequent practice, emphasizing its efficiency. The short-term rhythm jump intervention improved the 8-beat rhythmic reproduction ability and agility of elementary school students.

At present, text-guided image manipulation is a notable subject of study in the vision and language field. Given an image and text as inputs, these methods aim to manipulate the image according to the text, while preserving text-irrelevant regions. Although there has been extensive research to improve the versatility and performance of text-guided image manipulation, research on its performance evaluation is inadequate. This study proposes Manipulation Direction (MD), a logical and robust metric, which evaluates the performance of text-guided image manipulation by focusing on changes between image and text modalities. Specifically, we define MD as the consistency of changes between images and texts occurring before and after manipulation. By using MD to evaluate the performance of text-guided image manipulation, we can comprehensively evaluate how an image has changed before and after the image manipulation and whether this change agrees with the text. Extensive experiments on Multi-Modal-CelebA-HQ and Caltech-UCSD Birds confirmed that there was an impressive correlation between our calculated MD scores and subjective scores for the manipulated images compared to the existing metrics.

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a highly malignant bone tumor and the prognosis for non‐responders to chemotherapy remains poor. Previous studies have shown that human sarcomas contain sarcoma‐initiating cells (SIC), which have the characteristics of high tumorigenesis and resistance to chemotherapy. In the present study, we characterized SIC of a novel OS cell line, screened for SIC‐related genes, and tried to regulate the proliferation of OS by metabolic interference. Initially, we established a new human OS cell line (OS13) and isolated clones showing higher tumorigenesis as SIC (OSHIGH) and counterpart clones. OSHIGH cells showed chemoresistance and their metabolism highly depended on aerobic glycolysis and suppressed oxidative phosphorylation. Using RNA‐sequencing, we identified LIN28B as a SIC‐related gene highly expressed in OSHIGH cells. mRNA of LIN28B was expressed in sarcoma cell lines including OS13, but its expression was not detectable in normal organs other than the testis and placenta. LIN28B protein was also detected in various sarcoma tissues. Knockdown of LIN28B in OS13 cells reduced tumorigenesis, decreased chemoresistance, and reversed oxidative phosphorylation function. Combination therapy consisting of a glycolysis inhibitor and low‐dose chemotherapy had antitumor effects. In conclusion, manipulation of glycolysis combined with chemotherapy might be a good adjuvant treatment for OS. Development of immunotherapy targeting LIN28B, a so‐called cancer/testis antigen, might be a good approach. Osteosarcoma‐initiating cell antigen LIN28B was expressed in sarcoma tissues. ES, epithelioid sarcoma; MFS, myxofibrosarcoma; OS, osteosarcoma; SS, synovial sarcoma.

Thermal rectification is observed in jointless Pb wires at temperatures near the superconducting transition of Pb under magnetic fields. Using a different magnetic-field (H) response to the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity (κ–T) under H//J and H⊥J where J is heat flow, we fabricated a jointless thermal diode. Thermal rectification is observed with a thermal rectification ratio (TRR) of 1.5 and the difference in κ of 330 W m−1 K−1 at T = 5.11 K under H = 400 Oe for a Pb wire with a 50%-bent (H⊥J) and 50%-straight (H//J) structure. The peak temperature of TRR can be tuned by the strength of the applied magnetic field. By changing the bending ratio to 40%-bent, a higher TRR exceeding two was observed. The Pb-jointless thermal diode will be a useful material for thermal management at cryogenic temperatures.

A large uniaxial negative thermal expansion (NTE) along the c -axis has recently been observed in the transition metal ( Tr ) zirconides Tr Zr 2 with a tetragonal CuAl 2 -type structure. A recent study on FeZr₂ [M. Xu et al., Nat . Commun . 14 , 4439 (2023)] suggests that optical phonons play a critical role in inducing the NTE along the c -axis. In this study, we investigate the thermophysical properties of Tr Zr₂ compounds ( Tr  = Fe and Co 1−  x Ni x ( x  = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1)) using specific heat measurements, sound velocity data, and theoretical phonon calculations to achieve our aim of clarifying the contribution of optical phonons to the uniaxial NTE along the c -axis observed in both FeZr₂ and CoZr₂. We found that FeZr 2 shows a lattice-specific heat peak structure at 8.90 meV, which corresponds to optical phonon energy with a high population of negative Grüneisen parameter along the c -axis in the phonon dispersion curves in FeZr 2 . In an examination of a chemical substitution effect on the Co 1−  x Ni x Zr 2 , we found that the lattice-specific heat peak structure disappeared for x  ≥ 0.4 and the oscillator intensity decreased. Phonon calculations revealed the existence of low-energy optical phonon branches at the Γ point for CoZr 2 and FeZr 2 with uniaxial NTE along the c -axis. However, the low-energy phonon branches were not found in NiZr 2 with uniaxial positive thermal expansion along the c -axis. The increase in phonon density of states near the above optical phonon energy in CoZr 2 and FeZr 2 is consistent with the lattice-specific heat analyses, and we propose that low-energy optical phonons are essential for the exhibiting of uniaxial NTE along the c -axis in Tr Zr 2 .

This study proposes an automatic findings generation method that performs in-context few-shot learning of a visual language model. The automatic generation of findings can reduce the burden of creating inspection records for infrastructure facilities. However, the findings must include the opinions and judgments of engineers, in addition to what is recognized from the image; therefore, the direct generation of findings is still challenging. With this background, we introduce in-context few-short learning that focuses on image similarity and text diversity in the visual language model, which enables text output with a highly accurate understanding of both vision and language. Based on a novel in-context few-shot learning strategy, the proposed method comprehensively considers the characteristics of the distress image and diverse findings and can achieve high accuracy in generating findings. In the experiments, the proposed method outperformed the comparative methods in generating findings for distress images captured during bridge inspections.