Pycnogonids (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) of Portofino, Ligurian Sea (North-Western Mediterranean Sea)

Pycnogonida collected monthly from September 2017 to August 2018 in the Portofino Marine Protected Area at 0\u20135 m depth were studied. A total of 499 specimens were collected, 457 of which were identified to species level. These were classified as belonging to 10 species: Achelia echinata*, Ascorhynchus castelli, Neotrygaeus communis*, Tanystylum conirostre*, Anoplodactylus angulatus, A. petiolatus, A. pygmaeus*, A. virescens, Callipallene phantoma and C. tiberi*. For five dominant species (those marked with an asterisk) the annual phenology was outlined. Four hundred and seventeen additional specimens, collected from the same area and depth range mainly during the 1970s and 1980s were identified to species level for completeness of information, leading to the addition of Pycnogonum pusillum and Endeis spinosa

O Sole Mio (Just Like the Sunrise)

[Verse 1]Fond recollections, they are mem’ry’s trea-suresWithin my treasure chest apart from all the rest,One recollection brings a thousand pleasures,The mem-’ry of the day when I first met you. [Verse 2]Be-cause I love you, I shall always cherishThe golden past I knew so sweet because of you,Each memory of you can not fade or perish;In-to a life of dark-ness you brought sunshine [Verse 1]Che bella cosa ‘na iurnata’e soleN’aria serena doppo ‘na tempesta!Pe’llaria fresca pare già ‘nà festaChe bella cosa ‘na iurnata’e sole. Luceno e llastre d’a fenesta toia‘na la vannara canta’e se ne vanta,E petramente torce, spanne e canta,Luceno e llastre d’a fenesta toa. [Chorus]Just like the sunrise you came to me,Just like the sun - rise from out the sea,Because my road was dreary You came one day to light my way.Just like the way. Ma n’atu sole cchiù bello, ohi-ne,‘O sole mio sta nfronte a te.‘O sole, o sole mio sta nffronte a te, sta nfronteaMa n’atu te

Pair Densities in a Two-dimensional Electron Gas (Jellium) at Strong Coupling from Scattering Theory with Kukkonen-Overhauser Effective Interactions

We present a calculation of the spin-averaged and spin-resolved pair distribution functions for a homogeneous gas of electrons moving in a plane with e2/r interactions at coupling strength rs = 10. The calculation is based on the solution of a two-electron scattering problem for both parallelspin- and antiparallel-spin-pairs interacting via effective spin-dependent many-body potentials. The scattering potentials are modeled within the approach proposed by Kukkonen and Overhauser to treat exchange and correlations under close constraints imposed by sum rules. We find very good agreement with quantum MonteCarlo data for the spin-averaged pair density. We also find that short-range pairing between parallel-spin electrons is beginning to emerge in the paramagnetic fluid at this coupling strength, as a precursor of a transition to a fully spin-polarized fluid state occurring at stronger coupling

Damping of long-wavelength collective excitations in quasi-onedimensional Fermi liquids

The imaginary part of the exchange-correlation kernel in the longitudinal current-current response function of a quasi-onedimensional Fermi liquid is evaluated by an approximate decoupling in the equation of motion for the current density, which accounts for processes of excitation of two particle-hole pairs. The two-pair spectrum determines the intrinsic damping rate of long-wavelength collective density fluctuations, which is calculated and contrasted with a result previously obtained for a clean Luttinger liquid.Comment: 9 pages, no figures, Physica B in pres

Dynamic structure factor of Luttinger liquids with quadratic energy dispersion and long-range interactions

We calculate the dynamic structure factor S (omega, q) of spinless fermions in one dimension with quadratic energy dispersion k^2/2m and long range density-density interaction whose Fourier transform f_q is dominated by small momentum-transfers q << q_0 << k_F. Here q_0 is a momentum-transfer cutoff and k_F is the Fermi momentum. Using functional bosonization and the known properties of symmetrized closed fermion loops, we obtain an expansion of the inverse irreducible polarization to second order in the small parameter q_0 / k_F. In contrast to perturbation theory based on conventional bosonization, our functional bosonization approach is not plagued by mass-shell singularities. For interactions which can be expanded as f_q = f_0 + f_0^{2} q^2/2 + O (q^4) with finite f_0^{2} we show that the momentum scale q_c = 1/ | m f_0^{2} | separates two regimes characterized by a different q-dependence of the width gamma_q of the collective zero sound mode and other features of S (omega, q). For q_c << q << k_F we find that the line-shape in this regime is non-Lorentzian with an overall width gamma_q of order q^3/(m q_c) and a threshold singularity at the lower edge.Comment: 33 Revtex pages, 17 figure

Diversity of multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii population in a major hospital in Kuwait

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most important opportunistic pathogens that causes serious health care associated complications in critically ill patients. In the current study we report on the diversity of the clinical multi-drug resistant (MDR) A. baumannii in Kuwait by molecular characterization. One hundred A. baumannii were isolated from one of the largest governmental hospitals in Kuwait. Following the identification of the isolates by molecular methods, the amplified blaOXA-51-like gene product of one isolate (KO-12) recovered from blood showed the insertion of the ISAba19 at position 379 in blaOXA-78. Of the 33 MDR isolates, 28 (85%) contained blaOXA-23, 2 (6%) blaOXA-24 and 6 (18%) blaPER-1 gene. We did not detect blaOXA-58, blaV IM, blaIMP, blaGES, blaV EB, and blaNDM genes in any of the tested isolates. In three blaPER-1 positive isolates the genetic environment of blaPER-1 consisted of two copies of ISPa12 (tnpiA1) surrounding the blaPER-1 gene on a highly stable plasmid of ca. 140-kb. Multilocus-sequence typing (MLST) analysis of the 33 A. baumannii isolates identified 20 different STs, of which six (ST-607, ST-608, ST-609, ST-610, ST-611, and ST-612) were novel. Emerging STs such as ST15 (identified for the first time in the Middle East), ST78 and ST25 were also detected. The predominant clonal complex was CC2. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and MLST defined the MDR isolates as multi-clonal with diverse lineages. Our results lead us to believe that A. baumannii is diverse in clonal origins and/or is undergoing clonal expansion continuously while multiple lineages of MDR A. baumannii circulate in hospital ward simultaneously

Lewis X antigen mediates adhesion of human breast carcinoma cells to activated endothelium. Possible involvement of the endothelial scavenger receptor C-Type lectin

Lewis x (Lex, CD15), also known as SSEA-1 (stage specific embryonic antigen-1), is a trisaccharide with the structure Galβ(1–4)Fucα(1–3)GlcNAc, which is expressed on glycoconjugates in human polymorphonuclear granulocytes and various tumors such as colon and breast carcinoma. We have investigated the role of Lex in the adhesion of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells and PMN to human umbilical endothelial cells (HUVEC) and the effects of two different anti-Lex mAbs (FC-2.15 and MCS-1) on this adhesion. We also analyzed the cytolysis of Lex+-cells induced by anti-Lex mAbs and complement when cells were adhered to the endothelium, and the effect of these antibodies on HUVEC. The results indicate that MCF-7 cells can bind to HUVEC, and that MCS-1 but not FC-2.15 mAb inhibit this interaction. Both mAbs can efficiently lyse MCF-7 cells bound to HUVEC in the presence of complement without damaging endothelial cells. We also found a Lex-dependent PMN interaction with HUVEC. Although both anti-Lex mAbs lysed PMN in suspension and adhered to HUVEC, PMN aggregation was only induced by mAb FC-2.15. Blotting studies revealed that the endothelial scavenger receptor C-type lectin (SRCL), which binds Lex-trisaccharide, interacts with specific glycoproteins of Mr␣∼␣28 kD and 10 kD from MCF-7 cells. The interaction between Lex+-cancer cells and vascular endothelium is a potential target for cancer treatment.Fil: Elola, Maria Teresa. Fundación Instituto Leloir; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Capurro, Mariana Isabel. University of Toronto; CanadáFil: Barrio, Maria Marcela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Investigación, Docencia y Prevención del Cáncer; ArgentinaFil: Coombs, Peter J.. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Taylor, Maureen E.. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Drickamer, Kurt. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Mordoh, Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Investigación, Docencia y Prevención del Cáncer; Argentin

Persistent pods of the tree Acacia caven: a natural refuge for diverse insects including Bruchid beetles and the parasitoids Trichogrammatidae, Pteromalidae and Eulophidae

The persistent pods of the tree, Acacia caven, that do not fall from the tree provide opportunities for the appearance of a diverse group of insects the following season. Such pods collected during the spring of 1999 in Chile were indehiscent with highly sclerified pod walls. In contrast, persistent pods collected in Uruguay after a wet winter and spring (2002) were partially dehiscent, inducing the deterioration of the woody pods, and consequently exposing the seeds. These persistent pods are a natural refuge for insect species, namely two bruchid beetles (Pseudopachymeria spinipes, Stator furcatus), one scolytidae (Dendroctonus sp), lepidopterous larvae, ant colonies (Camponotus sp),one species of oophagous parasitoid (Uscana espinae group senex), the gregarious larval-pupae parasitoid Monoksa dorsiplana (Pteromalidae) and two species of Horismenus spp. (Eulophidae). The patriline of M. dorsiplana is frequently formed by 1 son +7 daughters.Comment: 9 page

Development of an Affimer-antibody combined immunological diagnosis kit for glypican-3

Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a promising new marker for hepatocellular carcinoma, but the reported values for serum GPC3 differ markedly between currently available kits. Here we isolated Affimer non-antibody binding proteins against GPC3 by phage display and developed a new sandwich chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) combining an Affimer with a monoclonal antibody (Affimer-MAb CLIA). The proposed CLIA assay demonstrated a wide linear range  0.03–600 ng/mL) with a good linear correlation coefficient (0.9999), a high detection limitation (0.03 ng/mL) and specificity (0–0.002%) for detection of GPC3. The accuracy, hook effect and stability were demonstrated to be satisfactory. The mean level of GPC3 in serum was higher (>8.5 fold, P < 0.001) in hepatocellular carcinoma patients compared to healthy and other liver disease individuals. A poor correlation (correlation coefficients ranged from −0.286 to 0.478) was observed through pairwise comparison within different kits. However, only this newly developed CLIA test showed high specificity and correlated with the “gold standard” GPC3-immunohistochemistry. This study indicates that Affimer-MAb CLIA can be used to generate a sensitive immunodiagnostic kit, which offers the potential for a highly specific clinically-relevant detection system

Pair distribution function in a two-dimensional electron gas

We calculate the pair distribution function, $g(r)$, in a two-dimensional electron gas and derive a simple analytical expression for its value at the origin as a function of $r_s$. Our approach is based on solving the Schr\"{o}dinger equation for the two-electron wave function in an appropriate effective potential, leading to results that are in good agreement with Quantum Monte Carlo data and with the most recent numerical calculations of $g(0)$. [C. Bulutay and B. Tanatar, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 65}, 195116 (2002)] We also show that the spin-up spin-down correlation function at the origin, $g_{\uparrow \downarrow}(0)$, is mainly independent of the degree of spin polarization of the electronic system.Comment: 5 figures, pair distribution dependence with distance is calculate