Finishing | Zhou Shuyi, Wangxiang
15 graduate students jointly reported the tutor!
On the evening of April 9, a 23-page report document was exposed on the Internet, and 15 master's students in the group of Zheng Feng, an associate professor at the School of Communication and Information Engineering of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, jointly reported the tutor, saying that he had problems with teacher ethics and teaching style, including insulting and threatening students, deducting student labor fees, assigning a large number of non-scientific research chores, asking students to help their daughters cheat in exams, and lack of academic guidance, etc., and many students showed depression tendencies.
On April 10, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications issued the "Notice on the Handling of Reported Information on the Improper Ethics of Teacher Zheng of our University". According to the report, it was found that Zheng Feng failed to properly perform his duties as a graduate tutor and neglected to guide students' studies, failed to care for students and asked them to engage in matters unrelated to study and scientific research, and failed to issue research assistantship allowances to students in accordance with relevant regulations of the university. The university decided to cancel Zheng Feng's qualification as a graduate tutor, stop his teaching work, and give him the administrative sanction of reducing the post level, and the post level was reduced from associate professor level 7 to lecturer level 10. Party discipline will be punished in accordance with the procedures in the future. The school will respect the wishes of students and change tutors for all students under Zheng Feng's name.
Source: Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
The 2023 Turing Award was announced, and the first Turing Award and Abel Award winner was born
On April 10, local time, the 2023 Turing Award was announced. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has honored Professor Avi Wigderson of the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at Princeton University in recognition of his foundational contributions to computational theory, reshaping the understanding of the role of randomness in computing, and his decades of leadership in theoretical computer science. The Turing Award is the most prestigious award in the field of computing, known as the "Nobel Prize in computing", with a prize of $1 million. In 2021, Wigson won the Abel Prize, one of the highest honors in mathematics, and he was the first scientist to win both the Turing Award and the Abel Prize.
艾维·维格森 | ♠:Dan Komoda
Evie Wigson was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1956. He studied at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Princeton University, and has been working at IAS since 1999. In a series of seminal studies since the 90s, Wigson and his collaborators have shown that all probabilistic polynomial time algorithms can be effectively transformed into deterministic algorithms (i.e., derandomization) under some widely accepted computational assumptions. Wigson has made outstanding contributions in the fields of computational complexity theory, randomness and cryptography, combinatorics, and graph theory, and has also had an important impact in interdisciplinary fields.
Wigson is passionate about science communication and has written a popular science book about his field of study, which is available for free on his personal homepage:
HTTPS://W.M.IS.WHAT/AVI/BOOK
The spinal cord also has a memory, and it takes 10 minutes to learn new skills
A study published April 11 in Science shows that memory is not a brain patent, and that neural circuits in the spinal cord can achieve memory and motor learning independently of the brain. The researchers identified two groups of key spinal cord neurons, one responsible for new adaptive learning and the other for recall after learning was complete.
Previous studies have shown that the spinal cord can adjust motor output through exercises, even without a brain, but the exact mechanism is unknown. In the new study, the researchers cut off brain communications in mice and applied electrical stimulation to mice when their hind limbs drooped to a certain extent. It was found that in just 10 minutes, the mice learned to elevate their hind limbs to avoid the shock. There was no cerebral intervention in the whole process, indicating that the spinal cord was able to associate electrical stimulation with hindlimb posture and adjust the motor output to avoid the discomfort caused by electric shock. Repeated experiments after 24 hours showed that the memories possessed by the spinal cord could last for a certain period of time and could affect the new learning process.
来源:KINGDOMS
Further experiments showed that the dorsal side of the spinal cord and the Ptf1a-expressing neurons were associated with spinal cord learning, and the inactivation of these neurons would make the mice no longer be able to lift their hind limbs in response to electrical stimulation, while the neurons located on the ventral side of the spinal cord expressing En1 were associated with memory arousal, and the inactivation of these neurons would cause the mice to "forget" the leg lifting behavior after 24 hours.
According to the researchers, the above results challenge the common notion that motor learning and memory are limited to brain circuits, and have the potential to lead to new therapies for sports rehabilitation after spinal cord injury.
Paper link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adf6801
Nearly half of the new anti-cancer drugs approved by the FDA at an accelerated rate have no clinical benefit
A new study counted 129 anticancer drug-indications (where one drug has multiple indications) that received accelerated approval from the FDA between 2013 and 2023. Confirmatory trials showed that of the 46 drugs followed up for more than 5 years, 19 drugs (41%) failed to improve patients' quality of life or extend overall survival, only 20 drugs (43%) showed clinical benefit, and another 7 drugs were still being validated.
Accelerated approval allows for accelerated drug approval based on surrogate or intermediate endpoints to treat certain critical illnesses and meet unmet medical needs. After obtaining accelerated approval, the company will also need to conduct mandatory confirmatory trials to confirm clinical benefit, so as to obtain full approval or withdraw from marketing. As of March 1, 2023, the FDA has approved 294 accelerated approvals, of which 180 (61%) are for oncology indications, and more than 83% of accelerated approvals are for oncology indications from 2012 to 2022.
The researchers said the above results do not oppose the use of drugs approved for accelerated approval, but rather highlight the uncertainty that the benefits of these products should be communicated to patients. They urge drugmakers to gather stronger evidence of clinical benefit during confirmatory trials to support full drug approval.
Paper Links:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2817337
"Stickers" are good for physical and mental health
A meta-analysis published April 8 in Nature Human Behaviour showed that physical contact from humans and other animals reduced pain, feelings of depression and anxiety. Touching has been suggested to improve a wide range of physical and mental health outcomes in individuals of all ages (touch is consensual).
Researchers conducted systematic reviews and meta-analyses of 212 studies involving a total of 12,966 people. It was found that touching other people or objects, including robots and even blankets, was found to have health benefits. However, the psychological benefits of "sticking" to people are greater than touching objects, newborns benefit more from parental touch than health care workers, there are no significant differences between different types of touch (e.g., massage or hugging), more frequent touches have more beneficial effects, and health outcomes of touching the head (e.g., face or scalp) are better than those of other body parts (e.g., the torso).
Link to paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01841-8
The W boson decay width has been measured with the most accuracy to date
CERN reported on April 10 that the agency's Hypertoric Instrument Experiment (ATLAS) cooperation group has carried out the most accurate measurement of W boson width so far on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for the first time. The resulting average value is 2202±47 MeV (megaelectron volts), which is basically in line with the standard model prediction of 2088±1 MeV.
来源:ATLAS/CERN
Many particles are not stable, and when the mass of these particles is measured experimentally, the result is not a definite value, but a certain distribution around a certain value. The half-peak broadening of the distribution is called the particle width. The relationship between the width Γ and the lifetime τ of the particle is as follows: Γτ=1.
The W boson is an elementary particle that transmits weak interactions. If the W boson decays into a new particle that has not yet been discovered, it will affect the measured width value. If the measured width value is significantly inconsistent with the Standard Model prediction, it is an indication that a new physical phenomenon may exist.
Previously, the researchers had measured W boson widths at CERN's Large Positron Collider and Fermilab's Megaelectron Volt Collider, and came up with an average value of 2085±42 MeV, consistent with the predicted value. In the latest study, the ATLAS team used proton-proton collision data with an energy of 7 TeV collected during the first round of the LHC operation to measure a W boson width of 2202±47 MeV on the LHC for the first time. This is the most accurate measurement ever made in a single experiment, and although it is wider, it deviates from the predicted value within 2.5 standard errors.
The ATLAS collaboration also measured the mass of the W boson at the same time and improved the measurement accuracy. The results show that the latest measurement of W boson mass is 80367±16 MeV, which is consistent with the standard model prediction.
The Queqiao-2 relay satellite completed the on-orbit alignment test
The China National Space Administration reported on April 12 that the Queqiao-2 relay satellite has completed the in-orbit communication test. After evaluation, the relay satellite platform and payload are working normally, and the functions and performance meet the mission requirements, which can provide relay communication services for the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project and the subsequent lunar exploration missions at home and abroad, and the mission has been a complete success.
On March 20, the Long March-8 launch vehicle satellite mount camera took images. The Queqiao-2 relay satellite was successfully separated from the launch vehicle, the solar wing and the parachute antenna were successfully deployed, and the Tiandu test satellite was displayed on the left side of the image. Source: China National Space Administration
After its launch on March 20, the Queqiao-2 relay satellite entered the 24-hour circumlunar elliptical mission orbit on April 2 as planned after mid-course correction, near-moon braking, and circumlunar orbit maneuvering. On April 6, the Queqiao-2 relay satellite successfully completed the communication test with Chang'e-4, which is carrying out a mission on the far side of the moon. From April 8 to 9, the Queqiao-2 relay satellite and the Chang'e-6 probe (ground state) carried out a communication test. The Tiandu-1 and Tiandu-2 communication technology test satellites, which were launched simultaneously, entered the orbit of the circumlunar mission on March 29, and successfully implemented the separation of the two satellites on April 3, and a series of communication technology verification is being carried out.
Subsequently, the Queqiao-2 relay satellite will provide relay communication services for Chang'e-4 and the upcoming Chang'e-6 mission as planned, and carry out corresponding scientific exploration at the right time.
The famous physicist Peter Higgs died
According to the University of Edinburgh, on April 8, local time, Peter Higgs, a British theoretical physicist and winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics, died peacefully at home due to illness at the age of 94.
彼得·希格斯 | 来源:Claudia Marcelloni/CERN
Higgs is best known for proposing the Higgs mechanism that bears his name in 1964, predicting the existence of the Higgs boson and revealing the origin of the masses of all elementary particles, including the W boson.
Peter Mathieson, vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, wrote in his obituary: "Peter Higgs was an extraordinary man – a gifted scientist who enriched our knowledge of the world around us with his vision and imagination. His pioneering work has inspired thousands of scientists, and his contributions will continue to inspire generations to come. ”
Related Read: Peter Higgs Dies: The Brilliant Lone Wanderer
This article is supported by the Science China Star Program
Producer: Science Popularization Department of China Association for Science and Technology
Producer: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd
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