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Abstract Quantum Chromodynamics predicts a phase transition from hadronic matter to quark–gluon plasma (QGP) at high temperatures and energy densities, where quarks and gluons (partons) are no longer confined within hadrons. The QGP forms in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. Anisotropic flow coefficients, quantifying the azimuthal expansion of produced matter, probe QGP properties. Flow measurements in high-energy heavy-ion collisions show a distinctive grouping of anisotropic flow for baryons and mesons at intermediate transverse momentum – a feature associated with flow imparted at the quark level, confirming QGP existence. The observation of QGP-like features in proton–proton and proton–ion collisions has sparked debate about QGP formation in smaller systems. For the first time, we demonstrate the distinctive grouping of anisotropic flow for baryons and mesons in high-multiplicity proton–lead and proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These results are described by a model including hydrodynamic flow followed by hadron formation via quark coalescence, consistent with the formation of partonic flowing systems in these collisions. 

NKX3.1’s downregulation is strongly associated with prostate cancer (PCa) initiation, progression, and CRPC development. Nevertheless, a clear disagreement exists between NKX3.1 protein and mRNA levels in PCa tissues, indicating that its regulation at a post-translational level plays a vital role. This study identified a strong negative relationship between NKX3.1 and LIMK2, which is critical in CRPC pathogenesis. We identified that NKX3.1 degradation by direct phosphorylation by LIMK2 is crucial for promoting oncogenicity in CRPC cells and in vivo. LIMK2 also downregulates NKX3.1 mRNA levels. In return, NKX3.1 promotes LIMK2’s ubiquitylation. Thus, the negative crosstalk between LIMK2-NKX3.1 regulates AR, ARv7, and AKT signaling, promoting aggressive phenotypes. We also provide a new link between NKX3.1 and PTEN, both of which are downregulated by LIMK2. PTEN loss is strongly linked with NKX3.1 downregulation. As NKX3.1 is a prostate-specific tumor suppressor, preserving its levels by LIMK2 inhibition provides a tremendous opportunity for developing targeted therapy in CRPC. Further, as NKX3.1 downregulates AR transcription and inhibits AKT signaling, restoring its levels by inhibiting LIMK2 is expected to be especially beneficial by co-targeting two driver pathways in tandem, a highly desirable requisite for developing effective PCa therapeutics. 

We report the first observation of the radiative decay $D_{s0}^{*}(2317{)}^{+}\to D_s^{*+}\gamma$ with a statistical significance exceeding 10 standard deviations. The signal is observed in the continuum $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to c\overline{c}$ process, using combined data samples of $980.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ from Belle and $427.9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ from Belle II, collected at the KEKB and SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ colliders, respectively. The branching fraction ratio $\mathcal{B}\left[D_{s0}^{*}\right(2317{)}^{+}\to D_s^{*+}\gamma ]/\mathcal{B}[D_{s0}^{*}(2317{)}^{+}\to D_s^{+}{\pi }^0]$ is measured to be $[7.13\pm 0.70(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.26(\mathrm{syst}\left)\right]\%$ . This result provides crucial discrimination between theoretical models of the $D_{s0}^{*}(2317{)}^{+}$ structure. 

Using a data sample of $427.9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ collected by the Belle II detector at or near the $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(4S\right)$ and $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(10753\right)$ resonances, the cross sections for $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to h^{+}{h}^{-}J/\psi (h=\pi /K/p)$ at center-of-mass energies ranging from 3.8 GeV or the production threshold to $5.5/6.0/7.0\mathrm{GeV}$ have been measured via initial-state radiation. The cross sections for the processes $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}J/\psi$ and $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to K^{+}{K}^{-}J/\psi$ are consistent with previously published results. The cross sections for these channels obtained by combining with previous Belle results are also given. The process $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to p\overline{p}J/\psi$ is investigated for the first time. The yields are small and no significant structure is observed in the cross section versus energy. Searches for vector charmoniumlike states in the $h^{+}{h}^{-}J/\psi$ systems, and for associated intermediate states in the $h^{\pm }J/\psi$ systems, are also presented. 

We report a measurement of the branching fraction for the leptonic decay $B^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }$ . This work presents the first $B^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }$ result using Belle II data, an updated Belle measurement that supersedes the previous result, and their combination, which yields the most precise search to date. The analysis is based on $1076{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV with the Belle and Belle II detectors at the KEKB and SuperKEKB colliders, respectively. We measure $\mathcal{B}(B^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu })=(4.4\pm 1.9\pm 1.0)\times {10}^{-7}$ , where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The observed significance relative to the background-only hypothesis is 2.4 standard deviations. We set a 90% confidence level upper limit of $\mathcal{B}(B^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu })<6.7\times {10}^{-7}$ using a frequentist approach and a 90% credibility level upper limit of $\mathcal{B}(B^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu })<7.2\times {10}^{-7}$ using a Bayesian approach. These are the most stringent limits to date. The result is interpreted as an exclusion region in the parameter space of type II and type III two-Higgs-doublet models. We search for stable sterile neutrinos with masses $m_N\in [0,1.5]\mathrm{GeV}$ . No signal is observed, and the resulting exclusion on the squared mixing parameter $|U_{\mu N}{|}^2$ provides improvement over previous limits. We report a measurement of the partial branching fraction of semileptonic $B\to X_u\ell {\nu }_{\ell }$ decays with $p_{\mu }^B>2.2\mathrm{GeV}$ , obtaining $\mathrm{\Delta }\mathcal{B}(B\to X_u\ell {\nu }_{\ell })=(2.72\pm 0.05\pm 0.29)\times {10}^{-4}$ . We present a model-dependent study of weak annihilation decays using the muon momentum spectrum. We observe a signal of 2.4 standard deviations above the background-only hypothesis in regions where the distribution resembles that of $B\to X_u\ell {\nu }_{\ell }$ decays. 

We report the first search for the flavor-changing neutral-current decays $B\to X_s\nu \overline{\nu }$ , where $X_s$ is a hadronic system with strangeness equal to 1, in data collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collider. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $365{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ collected at the $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(4S\right)$ resonance and $43{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ collected at a center-of-mass energy 60 MeV below resonance for estimation of $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to q\overline{q}$ continuum background. One of the $B$ mesons from the $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(4S\right)\to B\overline{B}$ decay is fully reconstructed in a hadronic decay mode. The $B\to X_s\nu \overline{\nu }$ decay is reconstructed with a sum-of-exclusives approach that uses 30 $X_s$ decay modes. This approach provides high sensitivity to the inclusive decay, despite the presence of two undetected neutrinos. The search is performed in three regions of the $X_s$ mass, $M_{X_s}^{\mathrm{true}}$ , chosen to separate contributions from $K$ , $K^{*}\left(892\right)$ , and heavier strange final states. We do not observe a significant signal and set upper limits at 90% confidence level on the partial branching fractions for the regions $0.0<M_{X_s}^{\mathrm{true}}<0.6\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ , $0.6<M_{X_s}^{\mathrm{true}}<1.0\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ , and $1.0\mathrm{GeV}/c^2<M_{X_s}^{\mathrm{true}}$ of $2.2\times {10}^{-5}$ , $9.3\times {10}^{-5}$ , and $30.9\times {10}^{-5}$ , respectively. Combining the three mass regions, we obtain the upper limit on the branching fraction, $B(B\to X_s\nu \overline{\nu })<3.3\times {10}^{-4}$ . 

A<sc>bstract</sc> The yields of prompt and non-prompt J/ψand the fraction of non-prompt J/ψare measured at midrapidity (|y| < 0.9) via the dielectron decay channel as a function of the midrapidity charged-particle multiplicity (|η| < 0.9) in pp collisions at$$\sqrt{s}=13$$TeV. The J/ψyields and the multiplicity are normalized by their average value in inelastic collisions. The multiplicity-dependent yield ratio between prompt J/ψand D⁰is reported. The multiplicity is further divided into three azimuthal regions with respect to the J/ψmomentum: toward the J/ψemission direction, transverse, or opposite to it. A stronger-than-linear increase of the self-normalized yields is observed for both prompt and non-prompt J/ψproduction, with similar trends. This behaviour is also observed in the toward region, while a weaker increase is observed in the transverse and away regions.