Charge exchange in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Elastic charge-exchange in relativistic heavy ion collisions is responsible for the non-disruptive change of the charge state of the nuclei. We show that it can be reliably calculated within the eikonal approximation for the reaction part. The formalism is applied to the charge-pickup cross sections of 158 GeV/nucleon Pb projectiles on several targets. The relative contributions of pion- and rho-exchange are determined, using a single-particle model for the internal structure of the nuclei. The calculated cross sections are non-negligible for heavy targets. It is shown that these cross sections can be useful to obtain information on the Gamow-Teller transition strengths of the nuclei.Comment: 12 pages, 4 postscript figure

The Effect of Omega-3 Supplementation on Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage

Exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) results in transient muscle inflammation, strength loss, muscle soreness (Damas et al., 2016) and can result in subsequent exercise avoidance. Omega-3 (n-3) supplementation has been proposed to minimise EIMD via its anti-inflammatory properties (Jakeman et al., 2017), however its action remains unclear. We aimed to examine the effects of n-3 supplementation on exercise-induced inflammatory response following muscle-damaging exercise. Physically active, healthy Caucasian males (n = 14, 25.07 ± 4.05 years) provided written informed consent, then were single-blind randomised to either receive 3 g/day n-3 supplementation (N-3, n = 7) or placebo (PLA, n = 7). Following 4 weeks n-3 supplementation, a downhill running protocol (60 minutes at 65% V̇O2max, -10% gradient) was performed. Before supplementation (baseline), prior to EIMD, immediately after EIMD, and at 24, 48, and 72 hours post-EIMD, venous plasma was collected for creatine kinase (CK), interleukin (IL)-6 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-a, and maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC), peak power (PP) and perceived muscle soreness were also quantified. Results are presented here as ‘median and interquartile range’ for CK, IL-6, TNF-a and perceived muscle soreness, and as ‘mean ± SD’ for MVIC and PP. Significant difference in CK activity was found between N-3 and PLA (p = 0.048) at 24 h post-EIMD, with PLA showing a larger increase in serum CK (baseline- vs 24h post-EIMD) compared to N-3 (677.4% vs 459.6%, respectively). PLA showed a larger increase in plasma IL-6 compared to N-3 immediately post-EIMD (143.9% vs 131.1%, respectively), however, there was no significant difference between groups at any time point (p > 0.05). TNF-a showed a smaller increase for the N-3 group compared to the PLA, again, there were no significant differences between groups at any time point (p > 0.05). Significant difference in muscle soreness was found between N-3 and PLA at 24 h post-EIMD (p = 0.034), with PLA showing a higher muscle soreness compared to N-3. A significant main effect for time was observed for MVIC with both groups showing a significant reduction in leg strength immediately post-EIMD. However, there were no significant differences between groups (p = 0.26) nor any group by time interactions (p = 0.90). A significant main effect for time was observed for PP, again, with PLA showing a larger reduction in PP at 24 h post-EIMD (pre- vs 24 h post-EIMD) compared to the N-3 (>96.6% vs N-3). However, there were no significant differences between groups (p = 0.31) nor any group by time interactions (p = 0.51). N-3 supplementation may attenuate EIMD, however, n-3 supplementation had no impact on muscle function nor power output. Even though we recorded some reduction in the inflammatory markers for the N-3 group, there was no statistically significant decrease to allow us to draw any definitive conclusions about the n-3 supplementation on exercise-induced muscle inflammation. Future studies might compare the dosage and duration of n-3 supplementation on muscle function or examine the effect of n-3 supplementation on EIMD during ageing-associated muscle function loss, where increased basal inflammation is seen

The sutures in dentistry

In oral surgery, the last phase of a surgical operation is represented by the tissues suture, that allows the wound lips edges approximation and their stabilization, to promote haemostasis, to avoid the alimentary residues accumulation on the incision line and allow the first intention healing. A good suture avoids that the displacing forces generated by the muscular insertions, functional movements and by the external agents destabilize or cause the surgical wound deiscence. The purpose of this study was to re-examine the suture threads characteristics, properties and biological interactions evaluating the different studies published in literature results and conclusions. In conclusion, the authors recommended the use of the different suture threads on the dependence of the oral surgery operation type that must be performed, of the patient compliance and of the various suture materials physical and biocompatibility characteristics

Resonant plasma excitation by single-cycle THz pulses

In this paper, an alternative perspective for the generation of millimetric high-gradient resonant plasma waves is discussed. This method is based on the plasma-wave excitation by energetic single-cycle THz pulses whose temporal length is comparable to the plasma wavelength. The excitation regime discussed in this paper is the quasi-nonlinear regime that can be achieved when the normalized vector potential of the driving THz pulse is on the order of unity. To investigate this regime and determine the strength of the excited electric elds, a Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code has been used. It has been found that by exploiting THz pulses with characteristics currently available in laboratory, longitudinal electron plasma waves with electric gradients up to hundreds MV/m can be obtained. The mm-size nature of the resonant plasma wave can be of great utility for an acceleration scheme in which high-brightness electron bunches are injected into the wave to undergo a strong acceleration. The long-size nature of the acceleration bucket with respect to the short length of the electron bunches can be handled in a more robust manner in comparison with the case when micrometric waves are employed

Solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura: surgery and clinical course in 18 cases

Solitary fibrous tumors of the pleura are very rare neoplasms that can sometimes present with malignant features. Between 1984 and 2007, 18 cases were treated in our institution. There were 7 men and 11 women, with a median age of 56 years (range, 33-77 years). All patients underwent surgical treatment. Except for one case with hemangiopericytic features, all tumors were histologically the fibrous type of pleural mesothelioma. Resections were radical and there were no recurrences. There was no perioperative mortality. The outcome was excellent, and all patients have been followed up continuously. Survival rates at 3, 5, and 10 years were calculated as 86.7%, 75%, and 66.7%. One patient died after 18 months (malignant type of solitary fibrous tumor), and 2 died of unrelated disease after 24 and 53 months. Surgery is the treatment of choice, and careful long-term clinical follow-up is required

The Potential of Omega-3 Supplementation to Reduce Muscle-Inflammation after Muscle-Damaging Exercise

Muscle Damaging exercise (EIMD) induces inflammation and relates to strength loss, muscle-soreness and impaired recovery. Overall, this means a performance impairment which might be relevant for those who engages in competitions or strenuous physical activities. It remains unclear whether Omega-3 fatty acids (O-3) supplementation blunts the exercise-induced inflammation associated with EIMD and therefore prevents performance impairment. PURPOSE: Following a three-week supplementation with O-3, indirect markers of muscle damage were examined after a bout of EIMD to determine if supplementation had any beneficial effect in maintaining leg-strength levels. METHODS: Eight healthy, recreationally active caucasian males (28.13 ± 3.4 yr) were randomly allocated to a supplementation group (SUP, n = 4) to receive 2.85g/day O-3 supplementation or a control group (CON, n = 4) for three weeks. Following supplementation, participants performed a bout of EIMD, which consisted of performing 10 sets of 15 repetitions of leg extension at a self-assessed intensity of 7/10 on the Rate of Perceived Exertion scale. Creatine Kinase (CK) from venous blood samples, isometric right-leg strength, squat-jump test and perceived soreness were determined, as indirect markers of muscle-damage at Baseline, immediately after EIMD (POST) and 48 hours after EIMD to coincide with the delayed muscle inflammatory response. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were found between Baseline and POST. There was a trend for smaller increase of CK levels (pre vs 48-h post EIMD) on the SUP group (38.8% increase) compared with the CON group (105.6% increase; P = 0.051). There was no significant effect (baseline vs. 48-h post EIMD) on muscle strength between SUP and CON group (P > 0.05), however, CON showed a larger decrease in strength compared to SUP (> 6.3% vs SUP). No differences in jump height were found between SUP and CON (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference in muscle soreness at 48-h post EIMD between SUP and CON group (P = 0.171). CONCLUSION: Three weeks of O-3 supplementation might decrease exercise-induced muscle inflammation after eccentric exercise. The lack of statistical significance may be adduced to the limitations of the study design and sample size. Supplementation with O-3 can be beneficial in athletes undergoing heavy exercise regimes and in sedentary individuals restarting physical activity, decreasing the exercise related muscle inflammation. The encouraging results from this pilot study have led to designing further work related to this topic

Self-Consistent Separable Rpa Approach for Skyrme Forces: Axial Nuclei

The self-consistent separable RPA (random phase approximation) method is formulated for Skyrme forces with pairing. The method is based on a general self-consistent procedure for factorization of the two-body interaction. It is relevant for various density- and current-dependent functionals. The contributions of the time-even and time-odd Skyrme terms as well as of the Coulomb and pairing terms to the residual interaction are taken self-consistently into account. Most of the expression have a transparent analytical form, which makes the method convenient for the treatment and analysis. The separable character of the residual interaction allows to avoid diagonalization of high-rank RPA matrices and thus to minimize the calculation effort. The previous studies have demonstrated high numerical accuracy and efficiency of the method for spherical nuclei. In this contribution, the method is specified for axial nuclei. We provide systematic and detailed presentation of formalism and discuss different aspects of the model.Comment: 42 page

Discovery of the heavily obscured supernova 2002cv

On the 13th of May 2002, supernova 2002cv was discovered using a near-infrared camera working at the AZT-24 1.1m telescope at Campo Imperatore (AQ-Italy). After the infrared detection a simultaneous photometric follow-up was started at optical wavelengths. The preliminary results confirm a heavily obscured object with a V-K color not lower than 6 magnitudes, making SN 2002cv the most reddened supernova ever observed. This finding, along with the recent discovery of another obscured supernova, suggests a critical revision of the rates known to date. The estimate of the visual extinction and the light curves are provided here. These latter indicate that our SN 2002cv observations are the earliest available for a type-Ia supernova at IR wavelengths.Comment: 4 page

Transcriptome analysis of differentiating spermatogonia stimulated with kit ligand

Kit ligand (KL) is a survival factor and a mitogenic stimulus for differentiating spermatogonia. However, it is not known whether KL also plays a role in the differentiative events that lead to meiotic entry of these cells. We performed a wide genome analysis of difference in gene expression induced by treatment with KL of spermatogonia from 7-day-old mice, using gene chips spanning the whole mouse genome. The analysis revealed that the pattern of RNA expression induced by KL is compatible with the qualitative changes of the cell cycle that occur during the subsequent cell divisions in type A and B spermatogonia, i.e. the progressive lengthening of the S phase and the shortening of the G2/M transition. Moreover, KL up-regulates in differentiating spermatogonia the expression of early meiotic genes (for instance: Lhx8, Nek1, Rnf141, Xrcc3, Tpo1, Tbca, Xrcc2, Mesp1, Phf7, Rtel1), whereas it down-regulates typical spermatogonial markers (for instance: Pole, Ptgs2, Zfpm2, Egr2, Egr3, Gsk3b, Hnrpa1, Fst, Ptch2). Since KL modifies the expression of several genes known to be up-regulated or down-regulated in spermatogonia during the transition from the mitotic to the meiotic cell cycle, these results are consistent with a role of the KL/kit interaction in the induction of their meiotic differentiation