Experiencing the External Press: Insights Gained during the Development of a Creativity Website

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Interplay of the elastic and inelastic channels in the 16O+27Al scattering at Elab = 280 MeV

Recent data indicated a nuclear rainbow-like pattern in the elastic scattering of 16O + 27Al at Elab = 100 MeV that arises from couplings of the ground to the low-lying states of the 27Al nucleus. Similar effect was identified in the elastic angular distribution of 16O + 12C at Elab = 281 and 330 MeV. These experiments show a crucial role of microscopic details of nuclear structure in the elastic scattering of heavy ions at energies well above the Coulomb barrier. In this work we investigate the 16O + 27Al system at Elab = 280 MeV for which a coupled channel calculation predicts a pronounced nuclear rainbow-like structure. Obtained experimental data show evidences of an important coupling of the elastic channel to the inelastic. Coupled channel calculations reproduce the experimental angular distributions when a re-normalization factor on the real part of the optical potential is introduced. A proper theoretical approach still requires a high degree of accuracy for the nuclear structure models and new tools to deal with collective excitations

cytokines for the induction of antitumor effectors the paradigm of cytokine induced killer cik cells

Abstract Cytokine-Induced killer (CIK) cells are raising growing interest in cellular antitumor therapy, as they can be easily expanded with a straightforward and inexpensive protocol, and are safe requiring only GMP-grade cytokines to obtain very high amounts of cytotoxic cells. CIK cells do not need antigen-specific stimuli to be activated and proliferate, as they recognize and destroy tumor cells in an HLA-independent fashion through the engagement of NKG2D. In several preclinical studies and clinical trials, CIK cells showed a reduced alloreactivity compared to conventional T cells, even when challenged across HLA-barriers; only in a few patients, a mild GVHD occurred after treatment with allogeneic CIK cells. Additionally, their antitumor activity can be redirected and further improved with chimeric antigen receptors, clinical-grade monoclonal antibodies or immune checkpoint inhibitors. The evidence obtained from a growing body of literature support CIK cells as a very promising cell population for adoptive immunotherapy. In this review, all these aspects will be addressed with a particular emphasis on the role of the cytokines involved in CIK cell generation, expansion and functionalization

The MAGNEX spectrometer: results and perspectives

This article discusses the main achievements and future perspectives of theMAGNEX spectrometer at the INFN-LNS laboratory in Catania (Italy). MAGNEX is alarge acceptance magnetic spectrometer for the detection of the ions emitted innuclear collisions below Fermi energy. In the first part of the paper anoverview of the MAGNEX features is presented. The successful application to theprecise reconstruction of the momentum vector, to the identification of the ionmasses and to the determination of the transport efficiency is demonstrated byin-beam tests. In the second part, an overview of the most relevant scientificachievements is given. Results from nuclear elastic and inelastic scattering aswell as from transfer and charge exchange reactions in a wide range of massesof the colliding systems and incident energies are shown. The role of MAGNEX insolving old and new puzzles in nuclear structure and direct reaction mechanismsis emphasized. One example is the recently observed signature of the longsearched Giant Pairing Vibration. Finally, the new challenging opportunities touse MAGNEX for future experiments are briefly reported. In particular, the useof double charge exchange reactions toward the determination of the nuclearmatrix elements entering in the expression of the half-life of neutrinolessdouble beta decay is discussed. The new NUMEN project of INFN, aiming at theseinvestigations, is introduced. The challenges connected to the major technicalupgrade required by the project in order to investigate rare processes underhigh fluxes of detected heavy ions are outlined

A view of recent results and perspectives on nuclear structure with MAGNEX at the INFN-LNS laboratory

An intense activity in the field of experimental, as well as theoretical, nuclear structure is ongoing at the INFN-LNS laboratory in Catania. A short overview of the main recent results is reported

Retargeting cytokine-induced killer cell activity by CD16 engagement with clinical-grade antibodies

Cytokine-induced Killer (CIK) cells are a heterogeneous population of ex vivo expanded T lymphocytes capable of MHC-unrestricted antitumor activity, which share phenotypic and functional features with both NK and T cells. Preclinical data and initial clinical studies demonstrated their high tolerability in vivo, supporting CIK cells as a promising cell population for adoptive cell immunotherapy. In this study, we report for the first time that CIK cells display a donor-dependent expression of CD16, which can be engaged by trastuzumab or cetuximab to exert a potent antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) against ovarian and breast cancer cell lines, leading to an increased lytic activity in vitro, and an enhanced therapeutic efficacy in vivo. Thus, an efficient tumor antigen-specific retargeting can be achieved by a combination therapy with clinical-grade monoclonal antibodies already widely used in cancer therapy, and CIK cell populations that are easily expandable in very large numbers, inexpensive, safe and do not require genetic manipulations. Overall, these data provide a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of Her2 and EGFR expressing tumors by adoptive cell therapy, which could find wide implementation and application, and could also be expanded to the use of additional therapeutic antibodies

Microscopic cluster model for the description of (18O,16O) two-neutron transfer reactions

Excitation energy spectra and absolute cross-section angular distributions were measured for the 13C(18O,16O)15C two-neutron transfer reaction at 84 MeV incident energy. Exact finite-range coupled reaction channel calculations are used to analyse the data considering both the direct two-neutron transfer and the two-step sequential mechanism. For the direct calculations, two approaches are discussed: The extreme cluster and the newly introduced microscopic cluster. The latter makes use of spectroscopic amplitudes in the centre-of-mass reference frame, derived from shell-model calculations. The results describe well the experimental cross sections

Microscopic cluster model for the description of new experimental results on the C 13 (O 18, O 16) C 15 two-neutron transfer at 84 MeV incident energy

The C13(O18,O16)C15 reaction is studied at 84 MeV incident energy. Excitation energy spectra and absolute cross-section angular distributions for the strongest transitions are measured with good energy and angular resolutions. Strong selectivity for two-neutron configurations in the states of the residual nucleus is found. The measured cross-section angular distributions are analyzed by exact finite-range coupled reaction channel calculations. The two-particle wave functions are extracted using the extreme cluster and the independent coordinate scheme with shell-model derived coupling strengths. A new approach also is introduced, the microscopic cluster, in which the spectroscopic amplitudes in the center-of-mass reference frame are derived from shell-model calculations using the Moshinsky transformation brackets. This new model is able to describe well the experimental cross section and to highlight cluster configurations in the involved wave functions