Biomolecules responsible for the total antioxidant capacity (Tac) of human plasma in healthy and cardiopathic individuals: A chemical speciation model

(1) Background: Much effort has been expended to investigate the antioxidant capacity of human plasma, attempting to clarify the roles of both metabolic and food substances in determining defenses against oxidative stress. The relationship between the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and the concentrations of redox-active biomolecules in the human plasma of healthy and cardiopathic individuals was investigated in the present study to develop a chemical speciation model. (2) Methods: Plasma was collected from 85 blood donors and from 25 cardiovascular surgery patients. The TAC was measured using the CUPRAC-BCS (CUPric Reducing Antioxidant Capacity — Bathocuproinedisulfonic acid) method. Biomolecule concentrations were determined via visible spectrophotometry or HPLC/RP techniques. The relationship between the TAC and the concentrations was defined by applying a multiple regression analysis. The significance of the variables was first tested, and chemical models were proposed for the two datasets. The model equation is βTAC=∑iβi·Ai, where βi and [Ai] are the electronic exchange and the molar concentrations of the ith antioxidant component, respectively. (3) Results: The major contributions to the TAC, ~80%, come from endogenous compounds in both healthy and cardiopathic individuals, whereas the contributions from exogenous compounds were different between the two datasets. In particular, γ-tocopherol showed a different role in the chemical models developed for the two groups

Spinor techniques for massive fermions with arbitrary polarization

We present a new variant of the spinor techniques for calculating the amplitudes of processes involving massive fermions with arbitrary polarization. It is relatively simple and leads to basic spinor products. Our procedure is not more complex than CALCUL spinor techniques for massless fermions. We obtain spinor Chisholm identities for massive fermions. As an illustration, expressions are given for the amplitudes of electron-positron annihilation into fermions-pairs for several polarizations.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

Derivation of the particle dynamics from kinetic equations

We consider the microscopic solutions of the Boltzmann-Enskog equation discovered by Bogolyubov. The fact that the time-irreversible kinetic equation has time-reversible microscopic solutions is rather surprising. We analyze this paradox and show that the reversibility or irreversibility property of the Boltzmann-Enskog equation depends on the considered class of solutions. If the considered solutions have the form of sums of delta-functions, then the equation is reversible. If the considered solutions belong to the class of continuously differentiable functions, then the equation is irreversible. Also, we construct the so called approximate microscopic solutions. These solutions are continuously differentiable and they are reversible on bounded time intervals. This analysis suggests a way to reconcile the time-irreversible kinetic equations with the time-reversible particle dynamics. Usually one tries to derive the kinetic equations from the particle dynamics. On the contrary, we postulate the Boltzmann-Enskog equation or another kinetic equation and treat their microscopic solutions as the particle dynamics. So, instead of the derivation of the kinetic equations from the microdynamics we suggest a kind of derivation of the microdynamics from the kinetic equations.Comment: 18 pages; some misprints have been corrected, some references have been adde

Frictional quantum decoherence

The dynamics associated with a measurement-based master equation for quantum Brownian motion are investigated. A scheme for obtaining time evolution from general initial conditions is derived. This is applied to analyze dissipation and decoherence in the evolution of both a Gaussian and a Schr\"{o}dinger cat initial state. Dependence on the diffusive terms present in the master equation is discussed with reference to both the coordinate and momentum representations.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure

The use of new mobile and gaming technologies for the assessment and rehabilitation of people with ataxia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

There are no currently available disease-modifying pharmacological treatments for most of the chronic hereditary ataxias; thus, effective rehabilitative strategies are crucial to help improve symptoms and therefore the quality of life. We propose to gather all available evidence on the use of video games, exergames, and apps for tablet and smartphone for the rehabilitation, diagnosis, and assessment of people with ataxias. Relevant literature published up to June 8, 2020, was retrieved searching the databases PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and the Cochrane Database. Data were extracted using a standardized form, and their methodological quality was assessed using RoB and QUADAS-2. Six studies of 434 retrieved articles met the predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria. Two of them were diagnostic, while 4 were experimental studies. Studies included participants ranging from 9 to 28 in trials and 70 to 248 in diagnostic studies. Although we found a small number of trials and of low methodological quality, all of them reported an improvement of motor outcomes and quality of life as measured by specific scales, including the SARA, BBS, DHI, and SF-36 scores. The main reason for such low quality in trials was that most of them were small and uncontrolled, thus non-randomized and unblinded. As video games, exergames, serious games, and apps were proven to be safe, feasible, and at least as effective as traditional rehabilitation, further and more high-quality studies should be carried out on the use of these promising technologies in people with different types of ataxia

The impact of volcanic emissions on Etna’s snow cover

Volcanoes are one of the major natural sources of several trace elements to the atmosphere: They contribute to atmospheric pollution by increasing the amount of reactive and greenhouse gases and aerosols. In particular, Mt. Etna is considered to be, on long-term average, the major global atmospheric point source of many environmental harmful compounds. Their emission occurs either through continuous passive degassing from open-conduit activity or through sporadic paroxysmal eruptive activity, in the form of gases, aerosols or particulate. For several months during the year (generally December-May), the summit of Mt. Etna is under a thick blanket of snow. This huge reservoir of frozen water, interacting with the volcanic plume, accumulates a great quantity of volcanogenic elements during the winter. Samples of snow were collected at different distances from summit craters along an 8 km radial transects, in the 2006 and 2007 winters. Each snow sample was analyzed for 37 elements in the laboratory using IC, ICP-OES and ICP-MS techniques. The impact of volcanic emissions is clearly detectable considering the opposite trends of pH and TDS (total dissolved solid) measured in snow samples with increasing distance from their “source”. The pH values range from 1.7 on the rim of the summit craters up to 7.6 at a distance of about 8 km, and TDS ranges from diluted samples (few mg/l) at distal sites, up to extremely concentrated samples (500 - 3500 mg/l) close to the emission vents. The acidity in precipitation around the volcano depends mainly on the concentrations of volcanogenic acid forming ions (SO2, HCl and HF), as well as on concentrations of mainly geogenic alkaline species, which may eventually neutralize the acidity. Regarding metals concentrations, there are orders of magnitude of difference between the different sites with decreasing values from the crater’s rim up to the farthest sites (5-8 km from craters). In particular three groups of elements were extremely enriched (many orders of magnitude higher) at the summit craters with respect to the distal samples: Halogens (Br, Cl, F, I) and S ascribable to volcanic gas contribution; Al, Fe and Ti deriving from magmatic silicate particulate; and elements such as Se, Cu, As, Bi, Cd, Tl, Pb and Hg which are highly mobile in the high temperature volcanic environment

Initial correlations effects on decoherence at zero temperature

We consider a free charged particle interacting with an electromagnetic bath at zero temperature. The dipole approximation is used to treat the bath wavelengths larger than the width of the particle wave packet. The effect of these wavelengths is described then by a linear Hamiltonian whose form is analogous to phenomenological Hamiltonians previously adopted to describe the free particle-bath interaction. We study how the time dependence of decoherence evolution is related with initial particle-bath correlations. We show that decoherence is related to the time dependent dressing of the particle. Moreover because decoherence induced by the T=0 bath is very rapid, we make some considerations on the conditions under which interference may be experimentally observed.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figur

Entanglement Sudden Death in Band Gaps

Using the pseudomode method, we evaluate exactly time-dependent entanglement for two independent qubits, each coupled to a non-Markovian structured environment. Our results suggest a possible way to control entanglement sudden death by modifying the qubit-pseudomode detuning and the spectrum of the reservoirs. Particularly, in environments structured by a model of a density-of-states gap which has two poles, entanglement trapping and prevention of entanglement sudden death occur in the weak-coupling regime

Temporally stable coherent states in energy degenerate systems: The hydrogen atom

Klauder's recent generalization of the harmonic oscillator coherent states [J. Phys. A 29, L293 (1996)] is applicable only in non-degenerate systems, requiring some additional structure if applied to systems with degeneracies. The author suggests how this structure could be added, and applies the complete method to the hydrogen atom problem. To illustrate how a certain degree of freedom in the construction may be exercised, states are constructed which are initially localized and evolve semi-classically, and whose long time evolution exhibits "fractional revivals."Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure