Supernova neutrino oscillations: A simple analytical approach

Analyses of observable supernova neutrino oscillation effects require the calculation of the electron (anti)neutrino survival probability P_ee along a given supernova matter density profile. We propose a simple analytical prescription for P_ee, based on a double-exponential form for the crossing probability and on the concept of maximum violation of adiabaticity. In the case of two-flavor transitions, the prescription is shown to reproduce accurately, in the whole neutrino oscillation parameter space, the results of exact numerical calculations for generic (realistic or power-law) profiles. The analytical approach is then generalized to cover three-flavor transitions with (direct or inverse) mass spectrum hierarchy, and to incorporate Earth matter effects. Compact analytical expressions, explicitly showing the symmetry properties of P_ee, are provided for practical calculations.Comment: 22 pages (RevTeX) + 5 figures (PostScript

Quasi-energy-independent solar neutrino transitions

Current solar, atmospheric, and reactor neutrino data still allow oscillation scenarios where the squared mass differences are all close to 10^-3 eV^2, rather than being hierarchically separated. For solar neutrinos, this situation (realized in the upper part of the so-called large-mixing angle solution) implies adiabatic transitions which depend weakly on the neutrino energy and on the matter density, as well as on the ``atmospheric'' squared mass difference. In such a regime of ``quasi-energy-independent'' (QEI) transitions, intermediate between the more familiar ``Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein'' (MSW) and energy-independent (EI) regimes, we first perform analytical calculations of the solar nu_e survival probability at first order in the matter density, beyond the usual hierarchical approximations. We then provide accurate, generalized expressions for the solar neutrino mixing angles in matter, which reduce to those valid in the MSW, QEI and EI regimes in appropriate limits. Finally, a representative QEI scenario is discussed in some detail.Comment: Title changed; text and acronyms revised; results unchanged. To appear in PR

Successful Treatment with Patisiran in Amyloid Polyneuropathy Harboring His90Asn Mutation in the TTR Gene

Hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (hATTR) is a multisystemic, rare, inherited, progressive and adult-onset disease, affecting the sensory-motor nerves, heart, autonomic function, and other organs. There are over 130 mutations known in the TTR gene. The His90Asn mutation has been previously reported in several reports, but its pathogenetic role is still debated. We report two sporadic cases of adult women with a heterozygous His90Asn mutation in TTR gene and neurological involvement extensively investigated. A typical Congo red-positive pathologic deposition of amyloid fibrils in the salivary glands was documented in one subject. Patients were successfully treated with patisiran with a good clinical outcome. These data support a pathogenetic role of His90Asn mutation in hATTR, and suggest early treatment in symptomatic carriers of His90Asn mutation

Mastectomy rates are decreasing in the era of service screening: a population-based study in Italy (1997-2001)

We enrolled all 2162 in situ and 21 148 invasive cases of breast cancer in 17 areas of Italy, diagnosed in 1997-2001. Rates of early cancer increased by 13.7% in the screening age group (50-69 years), and breast conserving surgery by 24.6%. Advanced cancer rates decreased by 19.4%, and mastectomy rates by 24.2%. Service screening did not increase mastectomy rates in the study population

Accelerator and Reactor Neutrino Oscillation Experiments in a Simple Three-Generation Framework

We present a new approach to the analysis of neutrino oscillation experiments, in the one mass-scale limit of the three-generation scheme. In this framework we reanalyze and recombine the most constraining accelerator and reactor data, in order to draw precise bounds in the new parameter space. We consider our graphical representations as particularly suited to show the interplay among the different oscillation channels. Within the same framework, the discovery potential of future short and long baseline experiments is also investigated, in the light of both the recent signal from the LSND experiment and the atmospheric neutrino anomaly.Comment: uuencoded compressed tar file. Figures (13) available by ftp to ftp://eku.sns.ias.edu/pub/lisi/ (192.16.204.30). Submitted to Physical Review

Global Analysis with SNO: Toward the Solution of the Solar Neutrino Problem

We perform a global analysis of the latest solar neutrino data including the SNO result on the CC-event rate. This result further favors the LMA solution of the solar neutrino problem. The best fit values of parameters we find are: \Delta m^2 = (4.8 - 5.0)10^{-5} eV^2, tan^2 \theta = 0.35 - 0.38, f_B = 1.08 - 1.12, and f_{hep} = 1 - 4. With respect to this best fit the LOW solution is accepted at 90% C.L.. The Vacuum oscillation solution with \Delta m^2 = 1.4 10^{-10} eV^2, gives good fit of the data provided that the boron neutrino flux is substantially smaller than the SSM flux (f_B \sim 0.5). The SMA solution is accepted only at 3\sigma level. We find that vacuum oscillations to sterile neutrino, VAC(sterile), with f_B \sim 0.5 also give rather good global fit of the data. All other sterile solutions are strongly disfavored. We check the quality of the fit by constructing the pull-off diagrams of observables. Predictions for the day-night asymmetry, spectrum distortion and NC/CC ratio at SNO are calculated. In the best fit points of the global solutions we find: A_{DN}^{CC} \approx (7 - 8)% for LMA, \sim 3% for LOW, and (2 - 3)% for SMA. It will be difficult to see the distortion of the spectrum expected for LMA as well as LOW solutions. However, future SNO spectral data can significantly affect the VAC and SMA solutions. We also calculate expectations for the BOREXINO rate.Comment: 35 pages, latex, 9 figures; results of analysis slightly changed due to different treatment of the hep neutrino flux; predictions for NC/CC ratio and Borexino rate adde

Analytical description of quasivacuum oscillations of solar neutrinos

We propose a simple prescription to calculate the solar neutrino survival probability P_{ee} in the quasivacuum oscillation (QVO) regime. Such prescription is obtained by matching perturbative and exact analytical results, which effectively take into account the density distribution in the Sun as provided by the standard solar model. The resulting analytical recipe for the calculation of P_{ee} is shown to reach its highest accuracy |\Delta P_{ee}| < 2.6 x 10^{-2} in the whole QVO range) when the familiar prescription of choosing the solar density scale parameter r_0 at the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) resonance point is replaced by a new one, namely, when r_0 is chosen at the point of ``maximal violation of adiabaticity'' (MVA) along the neutrino trajectory in the Sun. The MVA prescription admits a smooth transition from the QVO regime to the MSW transition one. We discuss in detail the phase acquired by neutrinos in the Sun, and show that it might be of relevance for the studies of relatively short timescale variations of the fluxes of the solar \nu lines in the future real-time solar neutrino experiments. Finally, we elucidate the role of matter effects in the convective zone of the Sun.Comment: 25 pages (RevTeX) + 11 figures (postscript

Cross-cultural validation of health literacy measurement tools in Italian oncology patients

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric characteristics of four Health Literacy (HL) measurement tools, viz. Newest Vital Sign (NVS), Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (STOFHLA), Single Item Literacy Screener (SILS) and Single question on Self-rated Reading Ability (SrRA) among Italian oncology patients. Methods: The original version of the tools were translated from the English language into Italian using a standard forward-backward procedure and according to internationally recognized good practices. Their internal consistency (reliability) and validity (construct, convergent and discriminative) were tested in a sample of 245 consecutive cancer patients recruited from seven Italian health care centers. Results: The internal consistency of the STOFHLA-I was Chronbach's α=0.96 and that of NVS-I was α=0.74. The STOFHLA-I, NVS-I, SILS-I and SrRA-I scores were in a good relative correlation and in all tools the discriminative known-group validity was confirmed. The reliability and validity values were similar to those obtained from other cultural context studies. Conclusion: The psychometric characteristics of the Italian version of NVS, STHOFLA, SILS and SrRA were found to be good, with satisfactory reliability and validity. This indicates that they could be used as a screening tool in Italian patients. Moreover, the use of the same cross-cultural tools, validated in different languages, is essential for implementing multicenter studies to measure and compare the functional HL levels across countries

Constraining neutrino oscillation parameters with current solar and atmospheric data

We analyze the impact of recent solar, atmospheric and reactor data in the determination of the neutrino oscillation parameters, taking into account that both the solar nu_e and the atmospheric nu_mu may convert to a mixture of active and sterile neutrinos. We use the most recent global solar neutrino data, including the 1496-day Super-K neutrino data sample, and we investigate in detail the impact of the SNO neutral current, spectral and day/night data by performing also an analysis using only the charged current rate from SNO. The implications of the first 145.1 days of KamLAND data on the determination of the solar neutrino parameters are also discussed in detail. We confirm the clear preference of solar+reactor data for the pure active LMA-MSW solution of the solar neutrino problem, and obtain that the LOW, VAC, SMA and Just-So^2 solutions are disfavored with a Delta_chi^2 = 22, 22, 36, 44, respectively. Furthermore, we find that the global solar data constrains the admixture of a sterile neutrino to be less than 43% at 99% CL. By performing an improved fit of the atmospheric data, we also update the corresponding regions of oscillation parameters. We find that the recent atmospheric Super-K (1489-day) and MACRO data have a strong impact on constraining a sterile component in atmospheric oscillations: if the nu_mu is restricted to the atmospheric mass states only a sterile admixture of 16% is allowed at 99% CL, while a bound of 35% is obtained in the unconstrained case. Pure sterile oscillations are disfavored with a Delta_chi^2 = 34.6 compared to the pure active case.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX file using RevTEX4, 12 figures and 3 tables included. Improved version including the new KamLAND dat