An optimized k₀-standardized neutron activation analysis method incorporating cyclic irradiations (k₀-CNAA) for short-lived radionuclides (SLRNs) has been developed at the Dalat research reactor. This paper highlights precise reactor parameter characterization using a cyclic irradiation system, simple sample preparation, and advanced calibration of HPGe detector-based gamma-ray spectrometry for SLRNs’ rapid multielement determination. By targeting SLRNs such as ^77mSe, ¹¹⁰Ag, ²⁰F, ^179mHf, ⁵²V, and ^46mSc, with half-lives from seconds to minutes, the method enables quantification of elements essential for biological and environmental research. The in-house developed “k0-Dalat” software, featuring high automation, supports complete analysis. Method accuracy was validated using certified reference materials (SMELS-I, NIST-SRM-1566b, NIST-SRM-2711a), achieving deviations under 8% from certified values. Detection limits ranged from 0.1 to 1.9 mg/kg for target elements in biological samples, confirming the method’s high sensitivity and suitability for similar matrices.

With the emergence of the FLASH irradiation method in proton therapy, the need for high-current accelerators has grown significantly. Addressing this demand, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) has initiated the development of the MSC230, a compact isochronous cyclotron designed to produce high-intensity proton beams at 230 MeV for advanced biomedical research. Currently, the technical design of the cyclotron is in progress at D. V. Efremov Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus. Modifications during this phase often necessitate additional calculations, resulting in updates to the magnetic field configuration and beam dynamics. This article details the design methodologies and computational tools employed in the MSC230 project.

In the framework of the extended Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model, the processes τ → ππη(η′)ν_τ and τ → πηη(η′)ν_τ are considered taking into account mesons in the ground and first radially excited intermediate states. It is shown that in the processes τ → ππη(η′)ν_τ the vector channel is dominant, and in the processes τ → πηη(η′)ν_τ the main contribution is given by the axial-vector channel. The scalar meson a₀ plays a dominant role in processes with two η mesons in the final state. The significance of the relative phase between the ground and first radially excited states for these processes is shown. The obtained results for the τ → ππην_τ process are in satisfactory agreement with the recent experimental data from BaBar and CMD-3, which differ from the averaged values given in the PDG tables.

General Relativity (GR) was created in November 1915, and since its creation this theory has undergone many tests. The first realistic cosmological models were proposed in the works of Friedmann, written in the 1920s. For a long time, Friedmann’s cosmological works were actually banned in the Soviet Union due to philosophical reasons, since the models where the birth and evolution of the Universe occurs were considered ideologically unacceptable. Due to great achievements in relativity and cosmology and due to increasing interest in these branches of science in the last decades, we recall the development of relativistic astrophysics and contribution of Russian researchers to these studies. Since one of the world leaders in physical cosmology A. A. Friedmann passed away in September 1925, it is reasonable to outline the main achievements of physical cosmology over the past 100 years. We also discuss observational and theoretical achievements in confirmations of relativistic observational predictions for black holes, including the closest supermassive black hole in our Galactic Center. We outline the evolution of black hole shadow from the purely theoretical concept to observable quantities for supermassive black holes in Sgr A* and M87*.

This study provides a comparative analysis of various components of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) conditioned media (CM) obtained using serum-containing and serum-free culture methods, revealing significant differences in their composition and potential clinical applicability. Serum-containing CM exhibits significantly higher levels of total protein, non-vesicular RNA, exosomes, and nanoparticles compared to serum-free CM, reflecting the contribution of both the MSC secretome and residual fetal bovine serum components. Ultrafiltration-based fractionation (0.2 µm–50 kDa) allows the isolation of fraction enriched in exosomes and proteins, preserving the functionally significant components of the MSC secretome. This strategy effectively captures small vesicles and mid-sized proteins while excluding larger or smaller biomolecules, enhancing utility for targeted analyses. The presented data underscore the need for context-driven CM selection and provide information for choosing the optimal strategy for obtaining the MSC secretome balancing yield, purity, and regulatory demands in MSC research and therapy.

The work is devoted to the development of a conceptual design for a gradient spin flipper — neutron decelerator, which is the main component of a designed UCN source for a pulsed reactor. In close cooperation between the JINR group and SuperOx, a preliminary design of a stationary gradient magnet for the adiabatic spin flipper has been developed. A thorough calculation of the magnetic field configuration has been performed. The movement of neutrons in the magnetic field generated by the designed magnetic system has been simulated, and the deceleration time of neutrons in the spin flipper has been analyzed. 
 
The results obtained give grounds for hope that the idea of creating a UCN source based on pulsed accumulation in a trap using non-stationary neutron deceleration is feasible.

The near neutrino detector ND280 of the long-baseline accelerator experiment T2K has been upgraded to improve the precision of measurement of the neutrino oscillation parameters. A key component of the upgrade is a novel segmented plastic scintillator detector, Super Fine Grained Detector (SuperFGD), made of approximately 2 million optically isolated 1 cm³ cubes read out by three orthogonal wavelength-shifting fibres and multi-pixel photon counters. The SuperFGD provides 3D images of neutrino interactions by tracking the final-state charged particles including protons down to a threshold of about 300 MeV/c. Due to the fine segmentation and the sub-nanosecond time resolution, the SuperFGD is able to detect neutrons from neutrino interactions and to reconstruct their kinetic energy by measuring the time of flight. In this paper, the details of the detector design, construction and performance in the T2K neutrino beam are described.

In this work, the characteristics of a prototype SPECT system based on the Timepix readout chip, with a MURA-type encoding mask, were evaluated. The setup has a small FoV and can be used in preclinical studies of drugs on small laboratory animals. Despite many existing test protocols developed and described in pertinent documents of national standard bodies and IAEA recommendations, they are not suitable for microtomographic systems based on semiconductor pixel detectors due to different detector technology, high spatial resolution and small area of interest. To measure their characteristics, special phantoms were developed, with a small “hot region”.

Such micro-SPECT parameters as spatial resolution, contrast, linearity, and system efficiency were studied using ^99mTc source. The detector calibration and data preprocessing are described.

The problem of identifying and extracting the dynamic variables associated with symmetry transformations from the full set of dynamic variables is considered. It is demonstrated that employing a boson representation of bifermion operators enables the problem to be solved using the canonical transformation of dynamic variables proposed by N. N. Bogoliubov. The results obtained justify the application of the cranking model for the description of the rotational excitations of nuclei.

We give a brief overview of the BRST approach to the gauge-invariant Lagrangian formulation for free massive higher-spin bosonic fields, focusing on two specific aspects. First, the theory is considered in four-dimensional flat space in terms of spin-tensor fields with two-component undotted and dotted indices. This leads to a significant simplification of the whole approach in comparison with the one where the fields with vector indices were used, since now there is no need to introduce a constraint responsible for the traces of the fields into the BRST charge. Second, we develop an extremely simple and clear procedure to eliminate all the auxiliary fields and prove that the BRST equations of motion identically reproduce the basic conditions for irreducible representations of the Poincáre group with a given mass and spin. Similar to the massless theory, the final Lagrangian for massive higher-spin fields is formulated in triplet form. The BRST formulation leads to a system of fields that are clearly subdivided into the basic spin s field, Zinoviev-like auxiliary fields, Singh–Hagen-like auxiliary fields, and special BRST auxiliary fields. The auxiliary fields can be partially eliminated by gauge fixing and/or using the equations of motion. This allows one to obtain formally different (with different numbers of auxiliary fields) but equivalent Lagrangian formulations.

This introductory  review is devoted to the newest section of the theory of symmetries -- the theory of quantum groups.
The principles of the theory of quantum groups are reviewed from the point of view of the possibility of their use for deformations of symmetries in physics models. The R-matrix approach to the theory of quantum groups is discussed in detail and is taken as the basis of the quantization of classical Lie groups, as well as some Lie supergroups. We start by laying out the foundations of non-commutative and non-cocommutative Hopf algebras. Much attention has been paid to Hecke and Birman-Murakami-Wenzl (BMW) R-matrices and related quantum matrix algebras. Noncommutative differential geometry on quantum groups of special types is discussed. Trigonometric solutions of the Yang-Baxter equations associated with the quantum groups GL_q(N), SO_q(N), Sp_q(2n) and supergroups GL_q(N|M), Osp_q(N|2m), as well as their rational (Yangian) limits, are presented. Rational R-matrices for exceptional Lie algebras and elliptic solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation are also considered. The basic concepts of the group algebra of the braid group and its finite dimensional quotients (such as Hecke and BMW algebras) are outlined. A sketch of the representation theories of the Hecke and BMW algebras is given, including methods for finding idempotents  (quantum Young projectors) and their quantum dimensions. Applications of the theory of quantum groups and Yang-Baxter equations in various areas of theoretical physics are briefly discussed.

This is a modified version of the review paper published in 2004 as a preprint of the Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik in Bonn.

The non-Markovian two-dimensional dynamics of charge carriers in a dissipative non-magnetic medium is studied. The possibility of observing a new classical Hall-type effect in the absence of a magnetic field is predicted.

The amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ peptide) is proposed to play a central role in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The pathology is associated with the fast accumulation of neurotoxic amyloid aggregates in brain tissues, though the fundamentals of the disease’s progression remain unsolved. It is noted that the preclinical stage of AD may play a crucial role in its further irreversible development. Namely, interactions between lipid membranes and Aβ-peptide molecules incorporated therein at relatively low concentrations should be under a close attention. In this review, we discuss recent works devoted to studying the lipid peptide interactions with a specific focus on the lipid membrane reorganizations caused by Aβ (25–35) peptide in the preclinical AD mimicking conditions. The interactions observed are believed to be important in understanding the mechanisms of the Aβ-peptide destructive effects on lipid membranes and the corresponding onset of the disease. The methods of applied nuclear physics have proven remarkably relevant in such research. The scattering methods provided instrumental information on a level of supramolecular assemblies, while spectrometry allowed obtaining information on the molecular level. Finally, molecular dynamics simulations provided details unachievable by experimental approaches, though the validation role of the latter cannot be undermined. Altogether, the recent advances in research results prove these complementary approaches the most appropriate for tackling the complex issues of biomembrane interactions.

Accurate identification of disease and correct treatment policy can save and increase yield. Different deep learning methods have emerged as an effective solution to this problem. Still, the challenges posed by limited datasets and the similarities in disease symptoms make traditional methods, such as transfer learning from models pre-trained on large-scale datasets like ImageNet, less effective. In this study, a self-collected dataset from the DoctorP project, consisting of 46 distinct classes and 2615 images, was utilized. DoctorP is a multifunctional platform for plant disease detection oriented on agricultural and ornamental crop. The platform has different interfaces like mobile applications for iOS and Android, a Telegram bot, and an API for external services. Users and services send photos of the diseased plants in to the platform and can get prediction and treatment recommendation for their case. The platform supports a wide range of disease classification models. MobileNet_v2 and a Triplet loss function were previously used to create models. Extensive increase in the number of disease classes forces new experiment with architectures and training approaches. In the current research, an effective solution based on ConvNeXt architecture and Large Margin Cosine Loss is proposed to classify 46 different plant diseases. The training is executed in limited training dataset conditions. The number of images per class ranges from a minimum of 30 to a maximum of 130. The accuracy and F1-score of the suggested architecture equal to 88.35% and 0.9 that is much better than pure transfer learning or old approach based on Triplet loss. New improved pipeline has been successfully implemented in the DoctorP platform, enhancing its ability to diagnose plant diseases with greater accuracy and reliability.

A letter dedicated to the publication of the journal's first issue.

The Spin Physics Detector Collaboration proposes to install a universal detector in the second interaction point of the NICA collider under construction (JINR, Dubna) to study the spin structure of the proton and deuteron and other spin-related phenomena using a unique possibility to operate with polarized proton and deuteron beams at a collision energy up to 27 GeV and a luminosity up to 10³² cm⁻² s⁻¹. As the main goal, the experiment aims to provide access to the gluon TMD PDFs in the proton and deuteron, as well as the gluon transversity distribution and tensor PDFs in the deuteron, via the measurement of specific single- and double-spin asymmetries using different complementary probes, such as charmonia, open charm, and prompt photon production processes. Other polarized and unpolarized physics is possible, especially at the first stage of NICA operation with reduced luminosity and collision energy of the proton and ion beams. This paper is dedicated exclusively to technical issues of the SPD setup construction.

Corrected:

5 February 2025 (the surname of one of the authors was initially misspelled (M. Bolsunovskya), the correct spelling is M. Bolsunovskaya).

23 April 2025 (the surname of one of the authors was initially misspelled (A. Seleznev), the correct spelling is A. Selezenev).

We calculate three-loop photon spectral density in QED with N different species of electrons. The obtained results were expressed in terms of iterated integrals, which can be either reduced to Goncharov’s polylogarithms or written in terms of one-fold integrals of harmonic polylogarithms and complete elliptic integrals. In addition, we provide threshold and high-energy asymptotics of the calculated spectral density. It is shown that the use of the obtained spectral density correctly reproduces separately calculated moments of corresponding photon polarization operator.

Using the generalized renormalisation group formalism, we calculate quantum corrections to the effective potential in α-attractor models describing the inflationary stage of the Universe evolution. We demonstrate that quantum corrections lead to a change in the initial classical potential, changing its value at the minimum, which can be interpreted as a manifestation of the cosmological constant or dark energy.

The accelerator complex NICA is at the stage of assembling and commissioning. A series of successful runs at the injection complex were carried out using various types of ions. It is planned to continue the linear optics measurements at booster synchrotron, for which several methods are considered. The first one is based on the analysis of turn-by-turn data of the beam orbit going from beam position monitors. The independent component analysis is used for the data processing and results to computation of betatron and synchrotron tunes, beta-functions, phase advances and dispersions. Other methods use orbit response matrix measured with alternate kicks by dipole correctors. Accuracy of optics restoration depends on the technical feasibility of betatron tunes and orbit measurements. Various methods should be firstly accommodated to the accelerator and tested using computational model in order to conclude their potentials and form requirements for future experiments with the beam. The paper describes implementation of independent component analysis to the computer model of the NICA Booster.

The decays K_S,L → invisible have never been experimentally tested. In the Standard Model (SM), their branching ratios for the decay into two neutrinos are predicted to be extremely small, Br (K_S,L → νν̄) ≲ 10⁻¹⁶. We consider several natural extensions of the SM, such as two-Higgs-doublet (2HDM), 2HDM and light scalar, and dark mirror sector models, that allow one to enhance the Br (K_S,L → invisible) up to a measurable level. We briefly discuss the possible search for K_S,L → invisible decays and K_S,L oscillations into the dark sector at the NA64 experiment at CERN with the sensitivity to Br (K_S,L → invisible) ≲ 10⁻⁷−10⁻⁵.

The article presents an overview of the work carried out at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna since the early 1970s aimed at creating superconducting (SC) magnets for charged particle accelerators. The specified studies made it possible to build the world’s first SC heavy-ion fast-cycling synchrotron — the Nuclotron; magnets for the SIS100 synchrotron of the FAIR project; magnetic systems of the SC Booster and collider of the NICA complex. It also resulted in a development of SC winding for magnet of the medical cyclotron for proton therapy MSC-230, a model magnet for the Chinese HIAF collider project with a record (up to 10 T/s) rate of magnetic field change, a 3-MJ energy storage device based on high-temperature superconductor (HTS), and a concept of magnets for the New Nuclotron made of HTS material for operation at a winding temperature of about 50 K.

Lipid–protein interactions are central to maintaining the structural and functional balance of biological membranes, influencing a wide array of cellular processes. These interactions, however, become pathological in neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs), such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases. In these disorders, the misfolding and aggregation of proteins like amyloid-beta (Aβ), alphasynuclein (α-syn), and mutant huntingtin (mHTT) disrupt the lipid bilayer, compromising membrane integrity, fluidity, and signaling. In this review we explore the critical role of lipid–protein interactions in NDDs, emphasizing how protein misfolding leads to toxic aggregates that embed into membranes, triggering neurotoxic events. Advanced spectroscopic techniques have been instrumental in studying these molecular interactions. Photon-based methods, including Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), circular dichroism (CD), and Raman spectroscopy, provide real-time insights into protein aggregation and lipid membrane dynamics. Neutron-based techniques, such as neutron reflectometry and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), further enhance the resolution of lipid–protein interactions, particularly in the context of neurodegenerative aggregation.
Moreover, the review highlights the significance of lipid microdomains, particularly cholesterol-rich lipid rafts, which act as platforms for protein aggregation, influencing disease progression. Therapeutic strategies aimed at targeting these lipid–protein interfaces are also discussed, with a focus on how spectroscopic insights have driven the development of drugs that stabilize membrane integrity or prevent toxic aggregation. Finally, the integration of spectroscopy with computational models, such as molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, is proposed as a promising approach to further unravel the complex dynamics of lipid–protein interactions, providing a more complete picture of disease mechanisms.