2,236 research outputs found
Oncoplastic conservative surgery for breast cancer: long-term outcomes of our first ten years experience
The main goal of oncoplastic breast surgery (OBS) is to optimize cosmetic outcomes and reduce patient morbidity, while still providing an oncologically-safe surgical outcome and extending the target population of conservative surgery. Although the growing number of reported experiences with oncoplastic surgery, few studies account for the long-term outcomes
Probing the statistical decay and alpha-clustering effects in 12c+12c and 14n+10b reactions
An experimental campaign has been undertaken at INFN Laboratori Nazionali di
Legnaro, Italy, in order to progress in our understanding of the statistical
properties of light nuclei at excitation energies above particle emission
threshold, by measuring exclusive data from fusion-evaporation reactions. A
first reaction 12C+12C at 7.9 AMeV beam energy has been measured, using the
GARFIELD+Ring Counter experimental setup. Fusion-evaporation events have been
exclusively selected. The comparison to a dedicated Hauser-Feshbach calculation
allows us to give constraints on the nuclear level density at high excitation
energy for light systems ranging from C up to Mg. Out-of-equilibrium emission
has been evidenced and attributed both to entrance channel effects favoured by
the cluster nature of reaction partners and, in more dissipative events, to the
persistence of cluster correlations well above the 24Mg threshold for 6 alphas
decay. The 24Mg compound nucleus has been studied with a new measurement 14N +
10B at 5.7 AMeV. The comparison between the two datasets would allow us to
further constrain the level density of light nuclei. Deviations from a
statistical behaviour can be analyzed to get information on nuclear clustering.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Contribution to conference proceedings of the
25th International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC 2013
R-charges from toric diagrams and the equivalence of a-maximization and Z-minimization
We conjecture a general formula for assigning R-charges and multiplicities
for the chiral fields of all gauge theories living on branes at toric
singularities. We check that the central charge and the dimensions of all the
chiral fields agree with the information on volumes that can be extracted from
toric geometry. We also analytically check the equivalence between the volume
minimization procedure discovered in hep-th/0503183 and a-maximization, for the
most general toric diagram. Our results can be considered as a very general
check of the AdS/CFT correspondence, valid for all superconformal theories
associated with toric singularities.Comment: 43 pages, 17 figures; minor correction
Sex differences in mortality: results from a population-based study of 12 longitudinal cohorts.
BACKGROUND: Women generally have longer life expectancy than men but have higher levels of disability and morbidity. Few studies have identified factors that explain higher mortality in men. The aim of this study was to identify potential factors contributing to sex differences in mortality at older age and to investigate variation across countries. METHODS: This study included participants age â„ 50 yr from 28 countries in 12 cohort studies of the Ageing Trajectories of Health: Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies (ATHLOS) consortium. Using a 2-step individual participant data meta-analysis framework, we applied Cox proportional hazards modelling to investigate the association between sex and mortality across different countries. We included socioeconomic (education, wealth), lifestyle (smoking, alcohol consumption), social (marital status, living alone) and health factors (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental disorders) as covariates or interaction terms with sex to test whether these factors contributed to the mortality gap between men and women. RESULTS: The study included 179 044 individuals. Men had 60% higher mortality risk than women after adjustment for age (pooled hazard ratio [HR] 1.6; 95% confidence interval 1.5-1.7), yet the effect sizes varied across countries (I2 = 71.5%, HR range 1.1-2.4). Only smoking and cardiovascular diseases substantially attenuated the effect size (by about 22%). INTERPRETATION: Lifestyle and health factors may partially account for excess mortality in men compared with women, but residual variation remains unaccounted for. Variation in the effect sizes across countries may indicate contextual factors contributing to gender inequality in specific settings
GARFIELD + RCo Digital Upgrade: a Modern Set-up for Mass and Charge Identification of Heavy Ion Reaction Products
An upgraded GARFIELD + Ring Counter (RCo) apparatus is presented with
improved performances as far as electronics and detectors are concerned. On one
side fast sampling digital read out has been extended to all detectors,
allowing for an important simplification of the signal processing chain
together with an enriched extracted information. On the other side a relevant
improvement has been made in the forward part of the setup (RCo): an increased
granularity of the CsI(Tl) crystals and a higher homogeneity in the silicon
detector resistivity. The renewed performances of the GARFIELD + RCo array make
it suitable for nuclear reaction measurements both with stable and with
Radioactive Ion Beams (RIB), like the ones foreseen for the SPES facility,
where the Physics of Isospin can be studied.Comment: 13 pages, 19 figures - paper submitted to Eur. Phys. J.
Analysis of the gene expression profile of mouse male meiotic germ cells
Wide genome analysis of difference in gene expression between spermatogonial populations from 7-day-old mice and pachytene spermatocytes from 18-day-old mice was performed using Affymetrix gene chips representing approximately 12,500 mouse known genes or EST sequences, spanning approximately 1/3rd of the mouse genome. To delineate differences in the profile of gene expression between mitotic and meiotic stages of male germ cell differentiation, expressed genes were grouped in functional clusters. The analysis confirmed the previously described pre-meiotic or meiotic expression for several genes, in particular for those involved in the regulation of the mitotic and meiotic cell cycle, and for those whose transcripts are accumulated during the meiotic stages to be translated later in post-meiotic stages. Differential expression of several additional genes was discovered. In few cases (pro-apoptotic factors Bak, Bad and Bax), data were in conflict with the previously published stage-dependent expression of genes already known to be expressed in male germ cells. Northern blot analysis of selected genes confirmed the results obtained with the microarray chips. Six of these were novel genes specifically expressed in pachytene spermatocytes: a chromatin remodeling factor (chrac1/YCL1), a homeobox gene (hmx1), a novel G-coupled receptor for an unknown ligand (Gpr19), a glycoprotein of the intestinal epithelium (mucin 3), a novel RAS activator (Ranbp9), and the A630056B21Rik gene (predicted to encode a novel zinc finger protein). These studies will help to delineate the global patterns of gene expression characterizing male germ cell differentiation for a better understanding of regulation of spermatogenesis in mammals
ISOL@: an Italian SOLAnaceae genomics resource
BACKGROUND: Present-day '-omics' technologies produce overwhelming amounts of data which include genome sequences, information on gene expression (transcripts and proteins) and on cell metabolic status. These data represent multiple aspects of a biological system and need to be investigated as a whole to shed light on the mechanisms which underpin the system functionality.The gathering and convergence of data generated by high-throughput technologies, the effective integration of different data-sources and the analysis of the information content based on comparative approaches are key methods for meaningful biological interpretations.In the frame of the International Solanaceae Genome Project, we propose here ISOLA, an Italian SOLAnaceae genomics resource. RESULTS: ISOLA (available at http://biosrv.cab.unina.it/isola) represents a trial platform and it is conceived as a multi-level computational environment.ISOLA currently consists of two main levels: the genome and the expression level. The cornerstone of the genome level is represented by the Solanum lycopersicum genome draft sequences generated by the International Tomato Genome Sequencing Consortium. Instead, the basic element of the expression level is the transcriptome information from different Solanaceae species, mainly in the form of species-specific comprehensive collections of Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs).The cross-talk between the genome and the expression levels is based on data source sharing and on tools that enhance data quality, that extract information content from the levels' under parts and produce value-added biological knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: ISOLA is the result of a bioinformatics effort that addresses the challenges of the post-genomics era. It is designed to exploit '-omics' data based on effective integration to acquire biological knowledge and to approach a systems biology view. Beyond providing experimental biologists with a preliminary annotation of the tomato genome, this effort aims to produce a trial computational environment where different aspects and details are maintained as they are relevant for the analysis of the organization, the functionality and the evolution of the Solanaceae family
The use of high aspect ratio photoresist (SU-8) for super-hydrophobic pattern prototyping
In this work we present a reliable technique for the production of large areas of high aspect-ratio patterns and describe their use as model super-hydrophobic systems. The high thickness and straight sidewalls possible with SU-8 were used to generate dense patterns of small pillars. These photoresist patterns could be used directly, without the need for micromoulding. A method is given allowing resist thickness to be varied over a wide range and a bottom antireflective layer was used to simplify patterning on reflective substrates. This patterning technique allows rapid testing of wetting theories, as pattern size and depth can be varied simply and samples can be produced in sufficient numbers for laboratory use. We show how the static contact angle of water varies with pattern height for one sample-pattern and how static and dynamic contact angles vary with dimension using high aspect-ratio patterns
Counting Chiral Operators in Quiver Gauge Theories
We discuss in detail the problem of counting BPS gauge invariant operators in
the chiral ring of quiver gauge theories living on D-branes probing generic
toric CY singularities. The computation of generating functions that include
counting of baryonic operators is based on a relation between the baryonic
charges in field theory and the Kaehler moduli of the CY singularities. A study
of the interplay between gauge theory and geometry shows that given geometrical
sectors appear more than once in the field theory, leading to a notion of
"multiplicities". We explain in detail how to decompose the generating function
for one D-brane into different sectors and how to compute their relevant
multiplicities by introducing geometric and anomalous baryonic charges. The
Plethystic Exponential remains a major tool for passing from one D-brane to
arbitrary number of D-branes. Explicit formulae are given for few examples,
including C^3/Z_3, F_0, and dP_1.Comment: 75 pages, 22 figure
Solar neutrino detection in a large volume double-phase liquid argon experiment
Precision measurements of solar neutrinos emitted by specific nuclear
reaction chains in the Sun are of great interest for developing an improved
understanding of star formation and evolution. Given the expected neutrino
fluxes and known detection reactions, such measurements require detectors
capable of collecting neutrino-electron scattering data in exposures on the
order of 1 ktonne yr, with good energy resolution and extremely low background.
Two-phase liquid argon time projection chambers (LAr TPCs) are under
development for direct Dark Matter WIMP searches, which possess very large
sensitive mass, high scintillation light yield, good energy resolution, and
good spatial resolution in all three cartesian directions. While enabling Dark
Matter searches with sensitivity extending to the "neutrino floor" (given by
the rate of nuclear recoil events from solar neutrino coherent scattering),
such detectors could also enable precision measurements of solar neutrino
fluxes using the neutrino-electron elastic scattering events. Modeling results
are presented for the cosmogenic and radiogenic backgrounds affecting solar
neutrino detection in a 300 tonne (100 tonne fiducial) LAr TPC operating at
LNGS depth (3,800 meters of water equivalent). The results show that such a
detector could measure the CNO neutrino rate with ~15% precision, and
significantly improve the precision of the 7Be and pep neutrino rates compared
to the currently available results from the Borexino organic liquid
scintillator detector.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 6 table
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