Development of a Novel Snom Probe for in Liquid Biological Samples

This work is focused on the study and implementation of a novel method for the development of probes for Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (SNOM). The proposed approach is based on the mechanical impedance matching between the optical fiber tip and the resonating tuning fork. This methodology allowed an increase of the quality factor of the piezoelectric resonator used as atomic force transducer in the SNOM probe, thus increasing its overall sensitivity. This kind of probes are often used on biological soft samples in liquid. The presence of water medium has a strong dumping effect on probe sensitivity. Experimental validation of the proposed methodology showed an increase of robustness of SNOM probes also for in liquid samples

ANALYSIS OF THE TRADITIONAL PASSIVE SYSTEMS PERFORMANCE THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF CFD SOFTWARE

The need to reduce energy consumption is pushing the building design research to the evaluation of passive conditioning systems, since urban buildings are one of the major energy dissipater resulting in emission of CO2. This approach is not modern, but it is historically rooted in the architectural culture of the Mediterranean area and in the Middle East. The passive systems have ancient origins: they were developed to mitigate the summer heat and the winter cold. To understand the reasons that led to the development of passive systems, it should be remembered that about One-Fifth of the emerged planet surface and One-Third of the world's population live in conditions of warm-dry or hot-humid. In addition, most continental areas, even above high values of latitude (50\ub0), are characterized by climatic conditions with summer temperatures over the limit levels of comfort. Nowadays the scientific knowledge and the modern technologies allow to understand the working of passive systems in order to apply them on buildings to improve indoor comfort. This can be obtained through a new approach that involves the elaboration of design strategies based on the development of techniques and on computational and control tools. This work will show the results of a research that aims to verify the working of natural passive cooling systems employed in existing ancient buildings throughout CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamic) software application. Particularly we will define, through computational tools, models and study cases to compare and to set proposals able to actualize the original passive systems conceived and developed in an empirical way

Therapeutic effect of interleukin 12 on mouse haemangiosarcomas is not associated with an increased anti-tumour cytotoxic T-lymphocyte activity.

In syngeneic mice, the H5V polyoma middle-T oncogene-transformed endothelioma cell line induces Kaposi's sarcoma-like cavernous haemangiomas that regress transiently, probably because of an anti-tumour immune response, but eventually grow progressively and kill the host. To evaluate the generation of tumour-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), spleen cells of tumour-bearing mice were restimulated with irradiated H5V cells in mixed leucocyte-tumour cell cultures. Tumour-specific CTLs were demonstrable only when low numbers of H5V stimulator cells were used (<1 H5V cell per 50 splenocytes). We found that H5V cells secrete immunosuppressive mediators because CTL generation was blocked when H5V cells culture supernatants were added to allogeneic mixed leucocyte cultures. As numerous tumour-derived immunosuppressive mediators may interfere with interleukin 12 (IL-12) production, we tested whether IL-12 treatment of the tumour-bearing mice would augment their immune response and thus suppress tumour growth. Indeed, IL-12 inhibited tumour growth and prevented mortality, but did not increase anti-H5V CTL generation either in vitro or in vivo. Moreover, the anti-tumour activity in IL-12-treated mice was abrogated by anti-interferon (IFN)-gamma monoclonal antibody (MAb) co-administration. These results strongly suggest that the anti-tumour effect of IL-12 is principally mediated by IFN-gamma release that in turn blocks H5V cell proliferation and induces the release of factors that suppress angiogenesis

The role of clothing in thermal comfort: how people dress in a temperate and humid climate in Brazil

Abstract Thermal insulation from clothing is one of the most important input variables used to predict the thermal comfort of a building's occupants. This paper investigates the clothing pattern in buildings with different configurations located in a temperate and humid climate in Brazil. Occupants of two kinds of buildings (three offices and two university classrooms) assessed their thermal environment through 'right-here-right-now' questionnaires, while at the same time indoor climatic measurements were carried out in situ (air temperature and radiant temperature, air speed and humidity). A total of 5,036 votes from 1,161 occupants were collected. Results suggest that the clothing values adopted by occupants inside buildings were influenced by: 1) climate and seasons of the year; 2) different configurations and indoor thermal conditions; and 3) occupants' age and gender. Significant intergenerational and gender differences were found, which might be explained by differences in metabolic rates and fashion. The results also indicate that there is a great opportunity to exceed the clothing interval of the thermal comfort zones proposed by international standards such as ASHRAE 55 (2013) - 0.5 to 1.0 clo - and thereby save energy from cooling and heating systems, without compromising the occupants' indoor thermal comfort

WARP: a WIMP double phase Argon detector

The WARP programme for dark matter search with a double phase argon detector is presented. In such a detector both excitation and ionization produced by an impinging particle are evaluated by the contemporary measurement of primary scintillation and secondary (proportional) light signal, this latter being produced by extracting and accelerating ionization electrons in the gas phase. The proposed technique, verified on a 2.3 liters prototype, could be used to efficiently discriminate nuclear recoils, induced by WIMP's interactions, and measure their energy spectrum. An overview of the 2.3 liters results and of the proposed 100 liters detector is shown.Comment: Proceeding for IDM200

Development, evaluation, and validation of machine learning models for COVID-19 detection based on routine blood tests

The rRT-PCR test, the current gold standard for the detection of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), presents with known shortcomings, such as long turnaround time, potential shortage of reagents, false-negative rates around 15-20%, and expensive equipment. The hematochemical values of routine blood exams could represent a faster and less expensive alternative. Three different training data set of hematochemical values from 1,624 patients (52% COVID-19 positive), admitted at San Raphael Hospital (OSR) from February to May 2020, were used for developing machine learning (ML) models: the complete OSR dataset (72 features: complete blood count (CBC), biochemical, coagulation, hemogasanalysis and CO-Oxymetry values, age, sex and specific symptoms at triage) and two sub-datasets (COVID-specific and CBC dataset, 32 and 21 features respectively). 58 cases (50% COVID-19 positive) from another hospital, and 54 negative patients collected in 2018 at OSR, were used for internal-external and external validation. We developed five ML models: for the complete OSR dataset, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for the algorithms ranged from 0.83 to 0.90; for the COVID-specific dataset from 0.83 to 0.87; and for the CBC dataset from 0.74 to 0.86. The validations also achieved good results: respectively, AUC from 0.75 to 0.78; and specificity from 0.92 to 0.96. ML can be applied to blood tests as both an adjunct and alternative method to rRT-PCR for the fast and cost-effective identification of COVID-19-positive patients. This is especially useful in developing countries, or in countries facing an increase in contagions

Performance Of A Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber Exposed To The WANF Neutrino Beam

We present the results of the first exposure of a Liquid Argon TPC to a multi-GeV neutrino beam. The data have been collected with a 50 liters ICARUS-like chamber located between the CHORUS and NOMAD experiments at the CERN West Area Neutrino Facility (WANF). We discuss both the instrumental performance of the detector and its capability to identify and reconstruct low multiplicity neutrino interactions.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures. Submitted for publication to Physical Review

Performance of the LHCb muon system

The performance of the LHCb Muon system and its stability across the full 2010 data taking with LHC running at ps = 7 TeV energy is studied. The optimization of the detector setting and the time calibration performed with the first collisions delivered by LHC is described. Particle rates, measured for the wide range of luminosities and beam operation conditions experienced during the run, are compared with the values expected from simulation. The space and time alignment of the detectors, chamber efficiency, time resolution and cluster size are evaluated. The detector performance is found to be as expected from specifications or better. Notably the overall efficiency is well above the design requirementsComment: JINST_015P_1112 201

Performance of the Muon Identification at LHCb

The performance of the muon identification in LHCb is extracted from data using muons and hadrons produced in J/\psi->\mu\mu, \Lambda->p\pi and D^{\star}->\pi D0(K\pi) decays. The muon identification procedure is based on the pattern of hits in the muon chambers. A momentum dependent binary requirement is used to reduce the probability of hadrons to be misidentified as muons to the level of 1%, keeping the muon efficiency in the range of 95-98%. As further refinement, a likelihood is built for the muon and non-muon hypotheses. Adding a requirement on this likelihood that provides a total muon efficiency at the level of 93%, the hadron misidentification rates are below 0.6%.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure

Gait abnormalities in people with Dravet syndrome: A cross-sectional multi-center study

Objective: To quantify gait abnormalities in people with Dravet syndrome (DS). Methods: Individuals with a confirmed diagnosis of DS were enrolled, and stratified according to knee flexion at initial contact (IC) and range of motion (ROM) during stance (atypical crouch: knee flexion &gt;20\ub0 at IC and knee ROM &gt;15\ub0 during stance; straight: knee flexion &lt;20\ub0 at IC). A 1D ANOVA (\u3b1 = 0.05) was used to test statistical differences among the joint kinematics and spatio\u2013temporal parameters of the cohort and an age-matched control group. Clinical (neurological and orthopaedic evaluation) and anamnestic data (seizure type, drugs, genetic mutation) were collected; distribution between the two gait phenotypes was assessed with the Fisher exact test and, for mutation, with the chi-squared test (p &lt; 0.05). Linear regression between maximum knee flexion and normalised walking speed was calculated. Results: Seventy-one subjects were enrolled and evaluated with instrumented gait analysis. Fifty-two were included in final analysis (mean age 13.8 \ub1 7.3; M 26). Two gait patterns were detected: an atypical crouch gait (34.6%) with increased ankle, knee and hip flexion during stance, and reduced walking speed and stride length not associated with muscle-tendon retractions; and a pattern resembling those of healthy age-matched controls, but still showing reduced walking speed and stride length. No differences in clinical or anamnestic data emerged between the two groups. Significance: Objectively quantified gait in DS shows two gait patterns with no clear-cut relation to clinical data. Kinematics abnormalities may be related to stabilization issues. These findings may guide rehabilitative and preventive measures