Electronic setup for fluorescence emission measurements and long-time constant-temperature maintenance of Single-Walled Carbon Nano-Tubes in water solutions

In our previous research we have observed that the fluorescence emission from water solutions of Single-Walled Carbon Nano-Tubes (SWCNT), excited by a laser with a wavelength of 830nm, diminishes with the time. We have already proved that such a fading is a function of the storage time and the storage temperature. In order to study the emission of the SWCNT as a function of these two parameters we have designed and realized a special measurement compartment with a cuvette holder where the SWCNT solutions can be measured and stored at a fixed constant temperature for periods of time as long as several weeks. To maintain the measurement setup under a constant temperature we have designed special experimental setup based on two Peltier cells with electronic temperature control

Psychological Distress in Breast Cancer Patients during the Italian COVID-19 Pandemic

Background. The emergency caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic exacerbated psychological distress. Our aim was to investigate the impact of breast cancer on patients' lives during the Italian lockdown. Methods. Sixty-five female breast cancer patients were studied, assessing the level of psychological distress with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the impact of the cancer diagnosis (Impact of Event Scale-Revised-IES-R). In addition, we compared these data with a matched group of breast cancer patients enrolled in 2019. Results. Patients enrolled in 2020 had statistically higher levels of anxious symptomatology and higher levels of traumatic symptomatology due to the cancer diagnosis. A mediation analysis was performed to determine how the experience of distress due to COVID-19 negatively impacted the level of anxiety and amplified the impact of the diagnosis with a significant increase in traumatic symptoms. Conclusions. Considering the vulnerability of these patients and the serious and novel situation that the healthcare system is currently facing, we would like to point out the importance of structured and organised psychological support for these patients

Correlated response to selection for litter size environmental variability in rabbits' resilience

[EN] Resilience is the ability of an animal to return soon to its initial productivity after facing diverse environmental challenges. This trait is directly related to animal welfare and it plays a key role in fluctuations of livestock productivity. A divergent selection experiment for environmental variance of litter size has been performed successfully in rabbits over ten generations. The objective of this study was to analyse resilience indicators of stress and disease in the divergent lines of this experiment. The high line showed a lower survival rate at birth than the low line (-4.1%). After correcting by litter size, the difference was -3.2%. Involuntary culling rate was higher in the high than in the low line (+12.4%). Before vaccination against viral haemorrhagic disease or myxomatosis, concentration of lymphocytes, C-reactive protein (CRP), complement C3, serum bilirubin, triglycerides and cholesterol were higher in the high line than in the low line (difference between lines +4.5%, +5.6 mu g/ml, +4.6 mg/ml, +7.9 mmol/l, +0.3 mmol/l and +0.4 mmol/l). Immunological and biochemical responses to the two vaccines were similar. After vaccination, the percentage of lymphocytes and CRP concentration were higher in the low line than in the high one (difference between lines +4.0% and +13.1 mu g/ml). The low line also showed a higher increment in bilirubin and triglycerides than the high line (+14.2 v. +8.7 mmol/l for bilirubin and +0.11 v. +0.01 mmol/l for triglycerides); these results would agree with the protective role of bilirubin and triglycerides against the larger inflammatory response found in this line. In relation to stress, the high line had higher basal concentration of cortisol than the low line (+0.2ng/ml); the difference between lines increased more than threefold after the injection of ACTH 1 to 24, the increase being greater in the high line (+0.9 ng/ml) than in the low line (+0.4 ng/ml). Selection for divergent environmental variability of litter size leads to dams with different culling rate for reproductive causes and different kits' neonatal survival. These associations suggest that the observed fitness differences are related to differences in the inflammatory response and the corticotrope response to stress, which are two important components of physiological adaptation to environmental aggressions.This study is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) with the Projects AGL2014-55921, C2-1-P and C2-2-P, and AGL2017-86083, C2-1-P and C2-2-P.Argente, M.; Garcia, M.; Zbynovska, K.; Petruska, P.; Capcarova, M.; Blasco Mateu, A. (2019). 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Genetics of adaptation in domestic farm animals: A review. Livestock Science, 132(1-3), 1-12. doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2010.05.003García, M. L., Blasco, A., & Argente, M. J. (2016). Embryologic changes in rabbit lines selected for litter size variability. Theriogenology, 86(5), 1247-1250. doi:10.1016/j.theriogenology.2016.04.065Feingold KR and Grunfeld C 2015. The effect of inflammation and infection on lipids and lipoproteins. In: De Groot LJ, Chrousos G, Dungan K, Feingold KR, Grossman A, Hershman JM, Koch C, Korbonits M, McLachlan R, New M, Purnell J, Rebar R, Singer F and Vinik A. Endotext, South Dartmouth, MA, USA. Retrieved on 7 June 2018 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK326741/.Minemura, M. (2014). Liver involvement in systemic infection. World Journal of Hepatology, 6(9), 632. doi:10.4254/wjh.v6.i9.632Knap, P. W. (2005). Breeding robust pigs. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 45(8), 763. doi:10.1071/ea05041Barcia, A. M., & Harris, H. W. (2005). Triglyceride-Rich Lipoproteins as Agents of Innate Immunity. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 41(Supplement_7), S498-S503. doi:10.1086/432005Webster, J. I., Tonelli, L., & Sternberg, E. M. (2002). NEUROENDOCRINEREGULATION OFIMMUNITY. Annual Review of Immunology, 20(1), 125-163. doi:10.1146/annurev.immunol.20.082401.104914Fortun-Lamothe, L. (2006). Energy balance and reproductive performance in rabbit does. Animal Reproduction Science, 93(1-2), 1-15. doi:10.1016/j.anireprosci.2005.06.009Cabezas, S., Blas, J., Marchant, T. A., & Moreno, S. (2007). Physiological stress levels predict survival probabilities in wild rabbits. Hormones and Behavior, 51(3), 313-320. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2006.11.004De Nardo, D., Labzin, L. I., Kono, H., Seki, R., Schmidt, S. V., Beyer, M., … Latz, E. (2013). High-density lipoprotein mediates anti-inflammatory reprogramming of macrophages via the transcriptional regulator ATF3. Nature Immunology, 15(2), 152-160. doi:10.1038/ni.2784BURKUŠ, J., KAČMAROVÁ, M., KUBANDOVÁ, J., KOKOŠOVÁ, N., FABIANOVÁ, K., FABIAN, D., … ČIKOŠ, Š. (2015). Stress exposure during the preimplantation period affects blastocyst lineages and offspring development. Journal of Reproduction and Development, 61(4), 325-331. doi:10.1262/jrd.2015-012Posthouwer, D., Voorbij, H. A. M., Grobbee, D. E., Numans, M. E., & van der Bom, J. G. (2004). Influenza and pneumococcal vaccination as a model to assess C-reactive protein response to mild inflammation. Vaccine, 23(3), 362-365. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2004.05.035Ibáñez-Escriche, N., Sorensen, D., Waagepetersen, R., & Blasco, A. (2008). Selection for Environmental Variation: A Statistical Analysis and Power Calculations to Detect Response. Genetics, 180(4), 2209-2226. doi:10.1534/genetics.108.091678Colditz, I. G., & Hine, B. C. (2016). Resilience in farm animals: biology, management, breeding and implications for animal welfare. 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Effect of synbiotic supplementation in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis: a randomized controlled clinical trial

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by excessive activation of immune processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of synbiotic supplementation on the inflammatory response in children/adolescents with CF. SUBJECTS/METHODS:A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, clinical-trial was conducted with control group (CG, n = 17), placebo-CF-group (PCFG, n = 19), synbiotic CF-group (SCFG, n = 22), PCFG negative (n = 8) and positive (n = 11) bacteriology, and SCFG negative (n = 12) and positive (n = 10) bacteriology. Markers of lung function (FEV1), nutritional status [body mass index-for age (BMI/A), height-for-age (H/A), weight-for-age (W/A), upper-arm fat area (UFA), upper-arm muscle area (UMA), body fat (%BF)], and inflammation [interleukin (IL)-12, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), IL-10, IL-6, IL-1β, IL-8, myeloperoxidase (MPO), nitric oxide metabolites (NOx)] were evaluated before and after 90-day of supplementation with a synbiotic. RESULTS:No significance difference was found between the baseline and end evaluations of FEV1 and nutricional status markers. A significant interaction (time vs. group) was found for IL-12 (p = 0.010) and myeloperoxidase (p = 0.036) between PCFG and SCFG, however, the difference was not maintained after assessing the groups individually. NOx diminished significantly after supplementation in the SCFG (p = 0.030). In the SCFG with positive bacteriology, reductions were found in IL-6 (p = 0.033) and IL-8 (p = 0.009) after supplementation. CONCLUSIONS: Synbiotic supplementation shown promise at diminishing the pro-inflammatory markers IL-6, IL-8 in the SCFG with positive bacteriology and NOx in the SCFG in children/adolescents with CF

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Measurement of the cross-section of high transverse momentum vector bosons reconstructed as single jets and studies of jet substructure in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of the cross-section for high transverse momentum W and Z bosons produced in pp collisions and decaying to all-hadronic final states. The data used in the analysis were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7 TeV;{\rm Te}{\rm V}$and correspond to an integrated luminosity of$4.6\;{\rm f}{{{\rm b}}^{-1}}$. The measurement is performed by reconstructing the boosted W or Z bosons in single jets. The reconstructed jet mass is used to identify the W and Z bosons, and a jet substructure method based on energy cluster information in the jet centre-of-mass frame is used to suppress the large multi-jet background. The cross-section for events with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson, with transverse momentum${{p}_{{\rm T}}}\gt 320\;{\rm Ge}{\rm V}$and pseudorapidity$|\eta |\lt 1.9$, is measured to be${{\sigma }_{W+Z}}=8.5\pm 1.7$ pb and is compared to next-to-leading-order calculations. The selected events are further used to study jet grooming techniques