Schur Q-functions and degeneracy locus formulas for morphisms with symmetries

We give closed-form formulas for the fundamental classes of degeneracy loci associated with vector bundle maps given locally by (not necessary square) matrices which are symmetric (resp. skew-symmetric) w.r.t. the main diagonal. Our description uses essentially Schur Q-polynomials of a bundle, and is based on a certain push-forward formula for these polynomials in a Grassmann bundle.Comment: 22 pages, AMSTEX, misprints corrected, exposition improved. to appear in the Proceedings of Intersection Theory Conference in Bologna, "Progress in Mathematics", Birkhause

A multi-element psychosocial intervention for early psychosis (GET UP PIANO TRIAL) conducted in a catchment area of 10 million inhabitants: study protocol for a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial

Multi-element interventions for first-episode psychosis (FEP) are promising, but have mostly been conducted in non-epidemiologically representative samples, thereby raising the risk of underestimating the complexities involved in treating FEP in 'real-world' services

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) - 2018 Summary Report

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a TeV-scale high-luminosity linear $e^+e^-$ collider under development at CERN. Following the CLIC conceptual design published in 2012, this report provides an overview of the CLIC project, its current status, and future developments. It presents the CLIC physics potential and reports on design, technology, and implementation aspects of the accelerator and the detector. CLIC is foreseen to be built and operated in stages, at centre-of-mass energies of 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV and 3 TeV, respectively. CLIC uses a two-beam acceleration scheme, in which 12 GHz accelerating structures are powered via a high-current drive beam. For the first stage, an alternative with X-band klystron powering is also considered. CLIC accelerator optimisation, technical developments and system tests have resulted in an increased energy efficiency (power around 170 MW) for the 380 GeV stage, together with a reduced cost estimate at the level of 6 billion CHF. The detector concept has been refined using improved software tools. Significant progress has been made on detector technology developments for the tracking and calorimetry systems. A wide range of CLIC physics studies has been conducted, both through full detector simulations and parametric studies, together providing a broad overview of the CLIC physics potential. Each of the three energy stages adds cornerstones of the full CLIC physics programme, such as Higgs width and couplings, top-quark properties, Higgs self-coupling, direct searches, and many precision electroweak measurements. The interpretation of the combined results gives crucial and accurate insight into new physics, largely complementary to LHC and HL-LHC. The construction of the first CLIC energy stage could start by 2026. First beams would be available by 2035, marking the beginning of a broad CLIC physics programme spanning 25-30 years

The good and evil of flare: flares in hepatitis B virus chronic hepatitis

Treatment of HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B with pegylated interferon achieves HBeAg seroconversion in about 30% of patients and retreatment of nonresponders is followed by a low rate of sustained response. Alanine aminotransferase flares occurring after the introduction of interferon are considered a positive predictor of response. Here we described a young patient with active chronic hepatitis B who underwent four different treatment courses developing lamivudine resistance and showing three elevated flares of different origin and with diverse outcome. We discuss the meaning of each flare and their role in treatment response or virus reactivation

Significato clinico della variabilit\ue0 virale : il virus dell'epatite B

Premessa e razionale: il virus HBV \ue8 caratterizzato da una elevata variabilit\ue0 genetica che si manifesta nell\u2019esistenza di 8 diversi genotipi (A-H) e di una serie di mutanti puntiformi a livello di regioni genetiche diverse, tra cui il gene dell\u2019envelope virale S, contenente diversi epitopi per linfociti T e B e la regione C/preC che codifica per la proteina del core e per l\u2019HBeAg. Numerosi studi hanno dimostrato che il genotipo virale di HBV \ue8 in grado di influenzare l\u2019evoluzione dell\u2019infezione. E\u2019 inoltre ben nota l\u2019importanza clinica ed epidemiologica dei mutanti di HBV, in particolare quelli in grado di sfuggire alle difese immuni (escape mutants) o quelli associati a epatiti cosiddette atipiche (HBeAg negative). Obiettivi principali del presente studio sono: 1.indagare la distribuzione in Italia dei genotipi di HBV ; 2. valutare la prevalenza dei mutanti escape a livello del gene S. Pazienti e Metodi: sono stati inclusi nello studio 98 pazienti con epatite cronica da HBV, positivi per HBV-DNA nel plasma, di cui 36 coinfetti con HIV-1. La ricerca del genoma virale nel DNA estratto da plasma \ue8 stata effettuata mediante nested-PCR amplificando una regione di 1182 nct comprendente i geni sovrapposti env e pol (S/P) di HBV; i prodotti di amplificazione sono stati analizzati mediante sequenziamento capillare automatico diretto e sottoposti ad analisi filogenetica. Risultati e conclusioni L\u2019analisi filogenetica ha mostrato un\u2019elevata diffusione dei genotipi D e A sia nei soggetti HIV-1+ che in quelli HIV-1-, del genotipo G nei soggetti coinfetti (11.1%) e del genotipo F in quelli con sola infezione da HBV (11.3%). La maggior parte dei mutanti S erano presenti, sia a livello nucleotidico che aminoacidico, nella regione pre-S (10%). La regione S presentava una variabilit\ue0 minore, localizzata in particolare a livello del determinante a. L\u2019elevata variabilit\ue0 riscontrata nel gene S e nel determinante a risultava in particolare associata all\u2019infezione da genotipo D, in modo statisticamente significativo rispetto ai genotipi A e G. Tre dei 4 soggetti con HBV di genotipo G mostravano positivit\ue0 sierologia per HBeAg. Data l\u2019impossibilit\ue0 del genotipo G di esprimere l\u2019antigene e per la presenza di 2 stop codon nella regione PreC, abbiamo effettuato la caratterizzazione molecolare del core virale che ha mostrato in un paziente la presenza di un\u2019infezione mista D/G, e nei rimanenti 3 casi eventi di ricombinazione A/G. Di particolare rilevanza \ue8 l\u2019associazione significativa dell\u2019infezione da genotipo D, rispetto agli altri genotipi, con una maggiore variabilit\ue0 nucleotidica e aminoacidica del gene S di HBV