Formal matched asymptotics for degenerate Ricci flow neckpinches

Gu and Zhu have shown that Type-II Ricci flow singularities develop from nongeneric rotationally symmetric Riemannian metrics on $S^m$, for all $m\geq 3$. In this paper, we describe and provide plausibility arguments for a detailed asymptotic profile and rate of curvature blow-up that we predict such solutions exhibit

Large spin expansion of the long-range Baxter equation in the sl(2) sector of N=4 SYM

Recently, several multi-loop conjectures have been proposed for the spin dependence of anomalous dimensions of twist-2 and 3 operators in the sl(2) sector of N=4 SYM. Currently, these conjectures are not proven, although several consistency checks have been performed on their large spin expansion. In this paper, we show how these expansions can be efficiently computed without resorting to any conjecture. To this aim we present in full details a method to expand at large spin the solution of the long-range Baxter equation. We treat the twist-2 and 3 cases at two loops and the twist-3 case at three loops. Several subtleties arise whose resolution leads to a simple algorithm computing the expansion.Comment: 26 page

Breath analysis for early detection of malignant pleural mesothelioma: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) determination and possible biochemical pathways

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare neoplasm, mainly caused by asbestos exposure, with a high mortality rate. The management of patients with MPM is controversial due to a long latency period between exposure and diagnosis and because of non-specific symptoms generally appearing at advanced stage of the disease. Breath analysis, aimed at the identification of diagnostic Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) pattern in exhaled breath, is believed to improve early detection of MPM. Therefore, in this study, breath samples from 14 MPM patients and 20 healthy controls (HC) were collected and analyzed by Thermal Desorption-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (TD-GC/MS). Nonparametric test allowed to identify the most weighting variables to discriminate between MPM and HC breath samples and multivariate statistics were applied. Considering that MPM is an aggressive neoplasm leading to a late diagnosis and thus the recruitment of patients is very difficult, a promising data mining approach was developed and validated in order to discriminate between MPM patients and healthy controls, even if no large population data are available. Three different machine learning algorithms were applied to perform the classification task with a leave-one-out cross-validation approach, leading to remarkable results (Area Under Curve AUC = 93%). Ten VOCs, such as ketones, alkanes and methylate derivates, as well as hydrocarbons, were able to discriminate between MPM patients and healthy controls and for each compound which resulted diagnostic for MPM, the metabolic pathway was studied in order to identify the link between VOC and the neoplasm. Moreover, five breath samples from asymptomatic asbestos-exposed persons (AEx) were exploratively analyzed, processed and tested by the validated statistical method as blinded samples in order to evaluate the performance for the early recognition of patients affected by MPM among asbestos-exposed persons. Good agreement was found between the information obtained by gold-standard diagnostic methods such as computed tomography CT and model output

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Health Sector Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean: Challenges and Opportunities

Most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are at varying stages of a reform process to improve the response capacity of health systems by upgrading the effectiveness and sustainability of programs and services. Changes promoted by the reform focus on priority health needs and underprivileged society groups. Some problems, such as sexual and reproductive health (SRH), can be tackled with cost-effective technologies. Reform projects offer a unique opportunity to reconsider policies, programs, and services aimed at facing the issues encompassed in the term SRH. Nonetheless, the formulation of a strategy and the identification of concrete measures represent a challenge, as previous experiences that could sustain such efforts are few. This report describes one of the first projects carried out in LAC to explore strategies to promote the convergence of health sector reform processes and SRH improvement. The report presents a description of the fundamental concepts related to SRH and the general situation in the region, and examples of key contributions of research, policies, and programs. It describes the general aspects of health sector reform, presents relevant cases, and includes results of three subregional meetings held in 1999

SOME ABSTRACT PROPERTIES OF SEMIGROUPS APPEARING IN SUPERCONFORMAL THEORIES

A new type of semigroups which appears while dealing with $N=1$ superconformal symmetry in superstring theories is considered. The ideal series having unusual abstract properties is constructed. Various idealisers are introduced and studied. The ideal quasicharacter is defined. Green's relations are found and their connection with the ideal quasicharacter is established.Comment: 11 page

Predictive score using clinical and blood biomarkers in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) patients treated with immunotherapy

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Peripheral blood biomarkers as prognostic factors for immunotherapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) patients

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Metastable de Sitter vacua in N=2 to N=1 truncated supergravity

We study the possibility of achieving metastable de Sitter vacua in general N=2 to N=1 truncated supergravities without vector multiplets, and compare with the situations arising in N=2 theories with only hypermultiplets and N=1 theories with only chiral multiplets. In N=2 theories based on a quaternionic manifold and a graviphoton gauging, de Sitter vacua are necessarily unstable, as a result of the peculiar properties of the geometry. In N=1 theories based on a Kahler manifold and a superpotential, de Sitter vacua can instead be metastable provided the geometry satisfies some constraint and the superpotential can be freely adjusted. In N=2 to N=1 truncations, the crucial requirement is then that the tachyon of the mother theory be projected out from the daughter theory, so that the original unstable vacuum is projected to a metastable vacuum. We study the circumstances under which this may happen and derive general constraints for metastability on the geometry and the gauging. We then study in full detail the simplest case of quaternionic manifolds of dimension four with at least one isometry, for which there exists a general parametrization, and study two types of truncations defining Kahler submanifolds of dimension two. As an application, we finally discuss the case of the universal hypermultiplet of N=2 superstrings and its truncations to the dilaton chiral multiplet of N=1 superstrings. We argue that de Sitter vacua in such theories are necessarily unstable in weakly coupled situations, while they can in principle be metastable in strongly coupled regimes.Comment: 40 pages, no figure