Mirror Energy Differences at Large Isospin Studied through Direct Two-Nucleon Knockout

The first spectroscopy of excited states in 52Ni (Tz=2) and 51Co (Tz=-3/2) has been obtained using the highly selective two-neutron knockout reaction. Mirror energy differences between isobaric analogue states in these nuclei and their mirror partners are interpreted in terms of isospin nonconserving effects. A comparison between large scale shell-model calculations and data provides the most compelling evidence to date that both electromagnetic and an additional isospin nonconserving interactions for J=2 couplings, of unknown origin, are required to obtain good agreement.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Monomeric C-reactive protein and cerebral hemorrhage: From bench to bedside

© 2018 Di Napoli, Slevin, Popa-Wagner, Singh, Lattanzi and Divani. C-reactive protein (CRP) is an important mediator and a hallmark of the acute-phase response to inflammation. High-sensitivity assays that accurately measure levels of CRP have been recommended for use in risk assessment in ischemic stroke patients. Elevation of CRP during the acute-phase response in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is also associated with the outcomes such as death and vascular complications. However, no association has been found with the increased risk of ICH. The aim of this review is to synthesize the published literature on the associations of CRP with acute ICH both as a risk biomarker and predictor of short- and long-term outcomes as well as its role as a pathogenic determinant. We believe before any clinical utility, a critical appraisal of the strengths and deficiencies of the accumulated evidence is required both to evaluate the current state of knowledge and to improve the design of future clinical studies

Carbon fragmentation measurements and validation of the GEANT4 nuclear reaction models for hadrontherapy

Nuclear fragmentation measurements are necessary when using heavy-ion beams in hadrontherapy to predict the effects of the ion nuclear interactions within the human body. Moreover, they are also fundamental to validate and improve the Monte Carlo codes for their use in planning tumor treatments. Nowadays, a very limited set of carbon fragmentation cross sections are being measured, and in particular, to our knowledge, no double-differential fragmentation cross sections at intermediate energies are available in the literature. In this work, we have measured the double-differential cross sections and the angular distributions of the secondary fragments produced in the C-12 fragmentation at 62 A MeV on a thin carbon target. The experimental data have been used to benchmark the prediction capability of the GEANT4 Monte Carlo code at intermediate energies, where it was never tested before. In particular, we have compared the experimental data with the predictions of two GEANT4 nuclear reaction models: the Binary Light Ions Cascade and the Quantum Molecular Dynamic. From the comparison, it has been observed that the Binary Light Ions Cascade approximates the angular distributions of the fragment production cross sections better than the Quantum Molecular Dynamic model. However, the discrepancies observed between the experimental data and the Monte Carlo simulations lead to the conclusion that the prediction capability of both models needs to be improved at intermediate energies

Influence of Maternal Dysmetabolic Conditions During Pregnancy on Cardiovascular Disease

Pathogenic factors associated with maternal hypercholesterolemia, obesity, and diabetic conditions during pregnancy influence fetal development and predispose offspring to cardiovascular disease. Animal models have established cause–effect relationships consistent with epidemiological findings in humans and have demonstrated, in principle, that interventions before or during pregnancy can reduce or prevent pathogenic in utero programming. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which maternal dysmetabolic conditions enhance disease susceptibility in offspring. Identification of these mechanisms is rendered more difficult by the fact that programming effects in offspring may be latent and may require conventional risk factors and inherited genetic co-factors to become clinically manifest. Given the increasing prevalence of maternal risk factors, which is expected to lead to a wave of cardiovascular disease in the coming decades, and the length of prospective studies on developmental programming in humans, greater-than-usual emphasis on experimental models and translational studies is necessary

Mirror Energy Differences at Large Isospin Studied through Direct Two-Nucleon Knockout

The first spectroscopy of excited states in 52Ni (Tz=-2) and 51Co (Tz=-3/2) has been obtained using the highly selective two-neutron knockout reaction. Mirror energy differences between isobaric analogue states in these nuclei and their mirror partners are interpreted in terms of isospin nonconserving effects. A comparison between large-scale shell-model calculations and data provides the most compelling evidence to date that both electromagnetic and an additional isospin nonconserving interactions for J=2 couplings, of unknown origin, are required to obtain good agreement

Mirrored one-nucleon knockout reactions to the Tz=± 32 A=53 mirror nuclei

Background: The study of excited states in mirror nuclei allows us to extract information on charge-dependent (i.e., isospin-nonconserving) interactions in nuclei. Purpose: To extend previous studies of mirror nuclei in the f72 region, investigating charge symmetry breaking of the strong nuclear force. Methods: γ-ray spectroscopy has been performed for the mirror (Tz=±32) pair Ni53 and Mn53, produced via mirrored one-nucleon knockout reactions. Results: Several new transitions have been identified in Ni53 from which a new level scheme has been constructed. Cross sections for knockout have been analyzed and compared with reaction model calculations where evidence is found for knockout from high-spin isomeric states. Mirror energy differences between isobaric analog states have been computed, compared to large scale shell-model calculations, and interpreted in terms of isospin-nonconserving effects. In addition, lifetimes for the long-lived Jπ=521- analog states in both Mn53 and Ni53 have been extracted through lineshape analysis, giving half-lives of t12=120(14) ps and t12=198(12) ps, respectively. Conclusions: The inclusion of a set of isovector isospin-nonconserving matrix elements to the shell-model calculations gave the best agreement with the experimental data

An Examination of Morphometric Variations in a Neotropical Toad Population (Proceratophrys cristiceps, Amphibia, Anura, Cycloramphidae)

The species Proceratophrys cristiceps belongs to the genus Proceratophrys within the family Cycloramphidae. These amphibians are found exclusively in South America in the morphoclimatic domain of the semi-arid depression zones in northeastern Brazil known as the Caatinga. We examined intrapopulational variation using univariate and multivariate statistics with traditional and geometric morphometrics, which supported the existence of two morphotypes of this species. Our results indicated significant degrees of variation in skeletal characteristics between some natural populations of this species. Careful analyses of variability levels are fundamental to avoid taxonomic errors, principally in populations that demonstrate characteristics intimately associated with their area of occurrence, as is the case of Proceratophrys cristiceps

Arginase activities and global arginine bioavailability in wild-type and ApoE-deficient mice: Responses to high fat and high cholesterol diets

Increased catabolism of arginine by arginase is increasingly viewed as an important pathophysiological factor in cardiovascular disease, including atherosclerosis induced by high cholesterol diets. Whereas previous studies have focused primarily on effects of high cholesterol diets on arginase expression and arginine metabolism in specific blood vessels, there is no information regarding the impact of lipid diets on arginase activity or arginine bioavailability at a systemic level. We, therefore, evaluated the effects of high fat (HF) and high fat-high cholesterol (HC) diets on arginase activity in plasma and tissues and on global arginine bioavailability (defined as the ratio of plasma arginine to ornithine + citrulline) in apoE-/- and wild-type C57BL/6J mice. HC and HF diets led to reduced global arginine bioavailability in both strains. The HC diet resulted in significantly elevated plasma arginase in both strains, but the HF diet increased plasma arginase only in apoE-/- mice. Elevated plasma arginase activity correlated closely with increased alanine aminotransferase levels, indicating that liver damage was primarily responsible for elevated plasma arginase. The HC diet, which promotes atherogenesis, also resulted in increased arginase activity and expression of the type II isozyme of arginase in multiple tissues of apoE-/- mice only. These results raise the possibility that systemic changes in arginase activity and global arginine bioavailability may be contributing factors in the initiation and/or progression of cardiovascular disease