Analysis of the C2_2 (d3Πg^3\Pi_g-a3Πu^3\Pi_u) Swan bands as a thermometric probe in CO2_2 microwave plasmas

The optical emission spectra of high pressure CO$_2$ microwave plasmas are usually dominated by the C$_2$ Swan bands. In this paper, the use of the C$_2$ Swan bands for estimating the gas temperature in CO$_2$ microwave plasmas is assessed. State by state fitting is employed to check the correctness of assuming a Boltzmann distribution for the rotational and vibrational distribution functions and, within statistical and systematic uncertainties, the C$_2$ Swan band can be fitted accurately with a single temperature for rotational and vibrational levels. The processes leading to the production of the C$_2$ molecule and particularly its d$^3\Pi_g$ state are briefly reviewed as well as collisional relaxation times of the latter. It is concluded that its rotational temperature can be associated to the gas temperature of the CO$_2$ microwave plasma and the results are moreover cross-checked by adding a small amount of N$_2$ in the discharge and measuring the CN violet band system. The 2.45~GHz plasma source is analyzed in the pressure range 180-925~mbar, for input microwave powers ranging from 0.9 - 3 kW and with gas flow rates of 5-100~L/min. An intense C$_2$ Swan bands emission spectrum can be measured only when the plasma is operated in contracted regime. A unique temperature of about 6000 $\pm$ 500 K is obtained for all investigated conditions. A spectroscopic database is constructed using the recent compilation and calculations by Brooke et al. \cite{BROOKE201311} of the line strengths and molecular constants for the C$_2$ (d$^3\Pi_g$-a$^3\Pi_u$) Swan bands system and made available as Supplementary Material in a format compatible with the open source MassiveOES software

Effects of Massive Neutrinos on the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe

Cosmological neutrinos strongly affect the evolution of the largest structures in the Universe, i.e. galaxies and galaxy clusters. We use large box-size full hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the non-linear effects that massive neutrinos have on the spatial properties of cold dark matter (CDM) haloes. We quantify the difference with respect to the concordance LambdaCDM model of the halo mass function and of the halo two-point correlation function. We model the redshift-space distortions and compute the errors on the linear distortion parameter beta introduced if cosmological neutrinos are assumed to be massless. We find that, if not taken correctly into account and depending on the total neutrino mass, these effects could lead to a potentially fake signature of modified gravity. Future nearly all-sky spectroscopic galaxy surveys will be able to constrain the neutrino mass if it is larger than 0.6 eV, using beta measurements alone and independently of the value of the matter power spectrum normalisation. In combination with other cosmological probes, this will strengthen neutrino mass constraints and help breaking parameter degeneracies.Comment: Minor changes, refs added, the version to appear in MNRA

A new diamond biosensor with integrated graphitic microchannels for detecting quantal exocytic events from chromaffin cells

The quantal release of catecholamines from neuroendocrine cells is a key mechanism which has been investigated with a broad range of materials and devices, among which carbon-based materials such as carbon fibers, diamond-like carbon, carbon nanotubes and nanocrystalline diamond. In the present work we demonstrate that a MeV-ion-microbeam lithographic technique can be successfully employed for the fabrication of an all-carbon miniaturized cellular bio-sensor based on graphitic micro-channels embedded in a single-crystal diamond matrix. The device was functionally characterized for the in vitro recording of quantal exocytic events from single chromaffin cells, with high sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio, opening promising perspectives for the realization of monolithic all-carbon cellular biosensors

CardioMetabolic medicine, one more last step forward

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Big data and data sharing: opportunities for the urgent challenges in cardiovascular disease

The past half-century has witnessed unbelievable progress in cardiovascular (CV) medicine, determining a swirling reduction in mortality. Despite this progress, the decline in incidence and mortality leveled off in recent years. Age-adjusted CV mortality remained flat independently of race and ethnicity, with only few exceptions. In other words, disparity in CV health is still observed across sex, race and ethnicity. The rise of obesity, diabetes and other risk factors has been widely used to explain this trend in CV mortality

Specification and analysis of SOC systems using COWS: a finance case study

Service-oriented computing, an emerging paradigm for distributed computing based on the use of services, is calling for the development of tools and techniques to build safe and trustworthy systems, and to analyse their behaviour. Therefore many researchers have proposed to use process calculi, a cornerstone of current foundational research on specification and analysis of concurrent and distributed systems. We illustrate this approach by focussing on COWS, a process calculus expressly designed for specifying and combining services, while modelling their dynamic behaviour. We present the calculus and one of the analysis techniques it enables, that is based on the temporal logic SocL and the associated model checker CMC. We demonstrate applicability of our tools by means of a large case study, from the financial domain, which is first specified in COWS, and then analysed by using SocL to express many significant properties and CMC to verify them

Monoclonal Antibodies for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: State of the Art and Perspectives

Monoclonal antibodies have been the most successful therapeutics ever brought to cancer treatment by immune technologies. The use of monoclonal antibodies in B-cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) represents the greatest example of these advances, as the introduction of the anti-CD20 antibody rituximab has had a dramatic impact on how we treat this group of diseases today. Despite this success, several questions about how to optimize the use of monoclonal antibodies in NHL remain open. The best administration schedules, as well as the optimal duration of rituximab treatment, have yet to be determined. A deeper knowledge of the mechanisms underlying resistance to rituximab is also necessary in order to improve the activity of this and of similar therapeutics. Finally, new antibodies and biological agents are entering the scene and their advantages over rituximab will have to be assessed. We will discuss these issues and present an overview of the most significant clinical studies with monoclonal antibodies for NHL treatment carried out to date

Circulating MicroRNAs for Diagnosis of Acute Pulmonary Embolism: Still a Long Way to Go

: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) represents the third most frequent cause of acute cardiovascular syndrome. Among VTE, acute pulmonary embolism (APE) is the most life-threatening complication. Due to the low specificity of symptoms clinical diagnosis of APE may be sometimes very difficult. Accordingly, the latest European guidelines only suggest clinical prediction tests for diagnosis of APE, eventually associated with D-dimer, a biomarker burdened by a very low specificity. A growing body of evidence is highlighting the role of miRNAs in hemostasis and thrombosis. Due to their partial inheritance and susceptibility to the environmental factors, miRNAs are increasingly described as active modifiers of the classical Virchow's triad. Clinical evidence on deep venous thrombosis reported specific miRNA signatures associated to thrombosis development, organization, recanalization, and resolution. Conversely, data of miRNA profiling as a predictor/diagnostic marker of APE are still preliminary. Here, we have summarized clinical evidence on the potential role of miRNA in diagnosis of APE. Despite some intriguing insight, miRNA assay is still far from any potential clinical application. Especially, the small sample size of cohorts likely represents the major limitation of published studies, so that extensive analysis of miRNA profiles with a machine learning approach are warranted in the next future. In addition, the cost-benefit ratio of miRNA assay still has a negative impact on their clinical application and routinely test

On a generalized Central Limit Theorem and Large Deviations for Homogeneous Open Quantum Walks

We consider homogeneous open quantum random walks on a lattice with finite dimensional local Hilbert space and we study in particular the position process of the quantum trajectories of the walk. We prove that the properly rescaled position process asymptotically approaches a mixture of Gaussian measures. We can generalize the existing central limit type results and give more explicit expressions for the involved asymptotic quantities, dropping any additional condition on the walk. We use deformation and spectral techniques, together with reducibility properties of the local channel associated with the open quantum walk. Further, we can provide a large deviations' principle in the case of a fast recurrent local channel and at least lower and upper bounds in the general case.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure