Plasma harmonics Lissajous measurements

June 17-21 200

Suspension of mandatory vaccination and public health preserving: Rovigo Local Health Unit experience after appliance of Veneto regional law 7/2007

The burden of infectious diseases preventable by vaccination decreased considerably over last decades in all countries pro- vided with effective immunization schedules. Implementation of these programs with new vaccines has started discussion on dual- ity between mandatory and recommended vaccinations. Regional autonomy has allowed the Veneto Region, with introduction of Law 7/2007, to experience suspension of all mandatory childhood vaccinations, replaced by an active and free offer of all vaccines recognized as safe and effective. Coverage?s trends and accept- ance of invitation are carefully monitored to avoid loss of com- pliance and reduction of immunized children. The evaluation, performed on population of Rovigo ULSS18 for 2002-2008 birth cohorts (2008 is the first concerned by the change), revealed no fall for previously mandatory vaccinations, but rather a slight increase. Percentage of non-vaccinated children was negligible. The leading cause of non-vaccination to polio was inability to deliver the letter of invitation due to wrong address. An informed dissent was expressed only by a minority (0.9% in 2008 birth cohort). Compliance to immunization offer was elevated both for previ- ously compulsory and recommended vaccinations. Experience of Rovigo ULSS 18 showed that, in a context of already high levels of coverage for recommended vaccinations with optimal organization of immunization services, coverage rates for ex- mandatory vaccines remain unchanged. Further research and reports are required to carefully assess the effect on coverage rates in next birth cohorts, but available data are encourag- ing. Similar legislative measures can be successfully adopted by other Regions with starting conditions comparable to Veneto Region

Transglutaminases in inflammation and fibrosis of the gastrointestinal tract and the liver

n/

Coherent imaging of extended objects

When used with coherent light, optical imaging systems, even diffraction-limited, are inherently unable to reproduce both the amplitude and the phase of a two-dimensional field distribution because their impulse response function varies slowly from point to point (a property known as non-isoplanatism). For sufficiently small objects, this usually results in a phase distortion and has no impact on the measured intensity. Here, we show that the intensity distribution can also be dramatically distorted when objects of large extension or of special shapes are imaged. We illustrate the problem using two simple examples: the pinhole camera and the aberration-free thin lens. The effects predicted by our theorical analysis are also confirmed by experimental observations.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Optics Communication

Sublattice addressing and spin-dependent motion of atoms in a double-well lattice

We load atoms into every site of an optical lattice and selectively spin flip atoms in a sublattice consisting of every other site. These selected atoms are separated from their unselected neighbors by less than an optical wavelength. We also show spin-dependent transport, where atomic wave packets are coherently separated into adjacent sites according to their internal state. These tools should be useful for quantum information processing and quantum simulation of lattice models with neutral atoms

Bose-Einstein condensation in dark power-law laser traps

We investigate theoretically an original route to achieve Bose-Einstein condensation using dark power-law laser traps. We propose to create such traps with two crossing blue-detuned Laguerre-Gaussian optical beams. Controlling their azimuthal order $\ell$ allows for the exploration of a multitude of power-law trapping situations in one, two and three dimensions, ranging from the usual harmonic trap to an almost square-well potential, in which a quasi-homogeneous Bose gas can be formed. The usual cigar-shaped and disk-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates obtained in a 1D or 2D harmonic trap take the generic form of a "finger" or of a "hockey puck" in such Laguerre-Gaussian traps. In addition, for a fixed atom number, higher transition temperatures are obtained in such configurations when compared with a harmonic trap of same volume. This effect, which results in a substantial acceleration of the condensation dynamics, requires a better but still reasonable focusing of the Laguerre-Gaussian beams

Treatment of HER2+ metastatic salivary ductal carcinoma in a pregnant woman: a case report

Salivary duct carcinoma (SDC) is a rare and aggressive malignancy with a high mortality and poor response to treatment in the advanced setting. Human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) can be amplified in a fraction of SDC. We describe the case of HER2+ metastatic SDC of the submandibular gland in a young pregnant woman treated by multimodal treatment (chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted therapy). During pregnancy, a 27-year-old woman developed SDC of the left submandibular gland with lung and bone metastases. Given the HER2 overexpression, she was treated with trastuzumab, paclitaxel and cisplatin. Since the tumor had arisen during pregnancy, triptorelin was administered after delivery. A complete remission was observed, and after eight cycles of chemotherapy, radiotherapy was started in association with trastuzumab and triptorelin. A prolonged disease control and complete visceral remission were observed. Multimodal therapy based on patient's tumor characteristics showed good clinical efficacy in the treatment of metastatic SDC

Cold atom confinement in an all-optical dark ring trap

We demonstrate confinement of $^{85}$Rb atoms in a dark, toroidal optical trap. We use a spatial light modulator to convert a single blue-detuned Gaussian laser beam to a superposition of Laguerre-Gaussian modes that forms a ring-shaped intensity null bounded harmonically in all directions. We measure a 1/e spin-relaxation lifetime of ~1.5 seconds for a trap detuning of 4.0 nm. For smaller detunings, a time-dependent relaxation rate is observed. We use these relaxation rate measurements and imaging diagnostics to optimize trap alignment in a programmable manner with the modulator. The results are compared with numerical simulations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure