Status of the KLOE-2 experiment

The KLOE-2 experiment at the Frascati National Laboratory of the INFN is undergoing commis- sioning, together with the e + e − collider DAΦNE. The KLOE apparatus, consisting of a huge Drift Chamber and an Electromagnetic Colorimeter working in a 0.5 T axial magnetic field, has been upgraded with the insertion of an Inner Tracker, two low-angle calorimeters (CCALT and QCALT) and low-angle taggers (LET and HET) for γγ−physics. Cosmic-ray muon and collision data are being acquired in order to optimize the sub-detectors operation in view of the new data taking campaign. The first results from the ongoing commissioning of the KLOE-2 detector will be shown

The potential of eupraxia@sparc_lab for radiation based techniques

A proposal for building a Free Electron Laser, EuPRAXIA@SPARC_LAB, at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, is at present under consideration. This FEL facility will provide a unique combination of a high brightness GeV-range electron beam generated in a X-band RF linac, a 0.5 PW-class laser system and the first FEL source driven by a plasma accelerator. The FEL will produce ultra-bright pulses, with up to 1012 photons/pulse, femtosecond timescale and wavelength down to 3 nm, which lies in the so called “water window”. The experimental activity will be focused on the realization of a plasma driven short wavelength FEL able to provide high-quality photons for a user beamline. In this paper, we describe the main classes of experiments that will be performed at the facility, including coherent diffraction imaging, soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering and photofragmentation measurements. These techniques will allow studying a variety of samples, both biological and inorganic, providing information about their structure and dynamical behavior. In this context, the possibility of inducing changes in samples via pump pulses leading to the stimulation of chemical reactions or the generation of coherent excitations would tremendously benefit from pulses in the soft X-ray region. High power synchronized optical lasers and a TeraHertz radiation source will indeed be made available for THz and pump–probe experiments and a split-and-delay station will allow performing XUV-XUV pump–probe experiments.Fil: Balerna, Antonella. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; ItaliaFil: Bartocci, Samanta. Università degli studi di Sassari; ItaliaFil: Batignani, Giovanni. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; ItaliaFil: Cianchi, Alessandro. Universita Tor Vergata; Italia. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; ItaliaFil: Chiadroni, Enrica. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; ItaliaFil: Coreno, Marcello. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; Italia. Istituto di Struttura della Materia; ItaliaFil: Cricenti, Antonio. Istituto di Struttura della Materia; ItaliaFil: Dabagov, Sultan. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; Italia. National Research Nuclear University; Rusia. Lebedev Physical Institute; RusiaFil: Di Cicco, Andrea. Universita Degli Di Camerino; ItaliaFil: Faiferri, Massimo. Università degli studi di Sassari; ItaliaFil: Ferrante, Carino. Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza”; Italia. Center for Life Nano Science @Sapienza; ItaliaFil: Ferrario, Massimo. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; ItaliaFil: Fumero, Giuseppe. Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza”; ItaliaFil: Giannessi, Luca. Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste; Italia. ENEA C.R. Frascati; ItaliaFil: Gunnella, Roberto. Universita Degli Di Camerino; ItaliaFil: Leani, Juan Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; ArgentinaFil: Lupi, Stefano. Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza”; Italia. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) Sezione di Roma La Sapienza; ItaliaFil: Macis, Salvatore. Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata; Italia. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) Sezione di Roma Tor Vergata; ItaliaFil: Manca, Rosa. Università degli studi di Sassari; ItaliaFil: Marcelli, Augusto. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; Italia. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ItaliaFil: Masciovecchio, Claudio. Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste; ItaliaFil: Minicucci, Marco. Universita Degli Di Camerino; ItaliaFil: Morante, Silvia. Universita Tor Vergata; Italia. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; ItaliaFil: Perfetto, Enrico. Universita Tor Vergata; Italia. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ItaliaFil: Petrarca, Massimo. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Italia. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; ItaliaFil: Pusceddu, Fabrizio. Università degli studi di Sassari; ItaliaFil: Rezvani, Javad. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; ItaliaFil: Robledo, José Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; ArgentinaFil: Rossi, Giancarlo. Centro Fermi—Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche “Enrico Fermi”; Italia. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; Italia. Universita Tor Vergata; ItaliaFil: Sanchez, Hector Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; ArgentinaFil: Scopigno, Tullio. Center for Life Nano Science @Sapienza; Italia. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; ItaliaFil: Stefanucci, Gianluca. Universita Tor Vergata; Italia. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; ItaliaFil: Stellato, Francesco. Universita Tor Vergata; Italia. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; ItaliaFil: Trapananti, Angela. Universita Degli Di Camerino; ItaliaFil: Villa, Fabio. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; Itali

Butyrate Attenuates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammation in Intestinal Cells and Crohn's Mucosa through Modulation of Antioxidant Defense Machinery

Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease (CrD). High levels of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) induce the activation of the redox-sensitive nuclear transcription factor kappa-B (NF-κB), which in turn triggers the inflammatory mediators. Butyrate decreases pro-inflammatory cytokine expression by the lamina propria mononuclear cells in CrD patients via inhibition of NF-κB activation, but how it reduces inflammation is still unclear. We suggest that butyrate controls ROS mediated NF-κB activation and thus mucosal inflammation in intestinal epithelial cells and in CrD colonic mucosa by triggering intracellular antioxidant defense systems. Intestinal epithelial Caco-2 cells and colonic mucosa from 14 patients with CrD and 12 controls were challenged with or without lipopolysaccaride from Escherichia Coli (EC-LPS) in presence or absence of butyrate for 4 and 24 h. The effects of butyrate on oxidative stress, p42/44 MAP kinase phosphorylation, p65-NF-κB activation and mucosal inflammation were investigated by real time PCR, western blot and confocal microscopy. Our results suggest that EC-LPS challenge induces a decrease in Gluthation-S-Transferase-alpha (GSTA1/A2) mRNA levels, protein expression and catalytic activity; enhanced levels of ROS induced by EC-LPS challenge mediates p65-NF-κB activation and inflammatory response in Caco-2 cells and in CrD colonic mucosa. Furthermore butyrate treatment was seen to restore GSTA1/A2 mRNA levels, protein expression and catalytic activity and to control NF-κB activation, COX-2, ICAM-1 and the release of pro-inflammatory cytokine. In conclusion, butyrate rescues the redox machinery and controls the intracellular ROS balance thus switching off EC-LPS induced inflammatory response in intestinal epithelial cells and in CrD colonic mucosa

Serum Albumin Is Inversely Associated With Portal Vein Thrombosis in Cirrhosis

We analyzed whether serum albumin is independently associated with portal vein thrombosis (PVT) in liver cirrhosis (LC) and if a biologic plausibility exists. This study was divided into three parts. In part 1 (retrospective analysis), 753 consecutive patients with LC with ultrasound-detected PVT were retrospectively analyzed. In part 2, 112 patients with LC and 56 matched controls were entered in the cross-sectional study. In part 3, 5 patients with cirrhosis were entered in the in vivo study and 4 healthy subjects (HSs) were entered in the in vitro study to explore if albumin may affect platelet activation by modulating oxidative stress. In the 753 patients with LC, the prevalence of PVT was 16.7%; logistic analysis showed that only age (odds ratio [OR], 1.024; P = 0.012) and serum albumin (OR, -0.422; P = 0.0001) significantly predicted patients with PVT. Analyzing the 112 patients with LC and controls, soluble clusters of differentiation (CD)40-ligand (P = 0.0238), soluble Nox2-derived peptide (sNox2-dp; P < 0.0001), and urinary excretion of isoprostanes (P = 0.0078) were higher in patients with LC. In LC, albumin was correlated with sCD4OL (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient [r(s)], -0.33; P < 0.001), sNox2-dp (r(s), -0.57; P < 0.0001), and urinary excretion of isoprostanes (r(s), -0.48; P < 0.0001) levels. The in vivo study showed a progressive decrease in platelet aggregation, sNox2-dp, and urinary 8-iso prostaglandin F2 alpha-III formation 2 hours and 3 days after albumin infusion. Finally, platelet aggregation, sNox2-dp, and isoprostane formation significantly decreased in platelets from HSs incubated with scalar concentrations of albumin. Conclusion: Low serum albumin in LC is associated with PVT, suggesting that albumin could be a modulator of the hemostatic system through interference with mechanisms regulating platelet activation

Recent results on Kaon Physics at KLOE-2

KLOE-2 extends the physics program of the forerunner KLOE experiment, especially in the field of discrete symmetries tests with neutral kaons. KLOE and KLOE-2 have collected together the largest sample of electron-positron collisions at an energy equal to the φ-meson mass, corresponding to about 2.4×1010 produced φ mesons. The latest results on neutral kaon physics at KLOE will be reviewed, together with the status and prospects of the analyses of KLOE-2 data. A new measurement of the charge asymmetry in KS semileptonic decays with 1.7 fb−1 of KLOE data, which improves the sensitivity of previous measurements of about a factor two, will be presented. Furthermore, the status of the analysis devoted to directly test T and CPT symmetries in neutral kaons transitions, as well as the search of the pure CP-violating KS → 3π0 decay using part of the recently acquired KLOE-2 dataset, will be presented

Search for light vector boson production in e+e− → μ+μ−γ interactions with the KLOE experiment

We have searched for a light vector boson U , the possible carrier of a “dark force”, with the KLOE detector at the DAΦNE e+e− collider, motivated by astrophysical evidence for the presence of dark matter in the Universe. Using e+e− collisions collected with an integrated luminosity of 239.3 pb −1 , we look for a dimuon mass peak in the reaction e+e−→μ+μ−γ , corresponding to the decay U→μ+μ− . We find no evidence for a U vector boson signal. We set a 90% CL upper limit for the mixing parameter squared between the photon and the U boson of 1.6×10−5 to 8.6×10−7 for the mass region 520<mU<980 MeV

Comparison of captive lifespan, age-associated liver neoplasias and age-dependent gene expression between two annual fish species: Nothobranchius furzeri and Nothobranchius korthause

Nothobranchius is a genus of annual fish broadly distributed in South-Eastern Africa and found into temporary ponds generated during the rain seasons and their lifespan is limited by the duration of their habitats. Here we compared two Nothobranchius species from radically different environments: N. furzeri and N. korthausae. We found a large difference in life expectancy (29- against 71-weeks of median life span, 40- against 80-weeks of maximum lifespan, respectively), which correlates with a diverse timing in the onset of several age dependent processes: our data show that N. korthause longer lifespan is associated to retarded onset of age-dependent liver-neoplasia and slower down-regulation of collagen 1 alpha 2 (COL1A2) expression in the skin. On the other hand, the expression of cyclin B1 (CCNB1) in the brain was strongly age-regulated, but with similar profiles in N. furzeri and N. korthausae. In conclusion, our data suggest that the different ageing rate of two species of the same genus could be used as novel tool to investigate and better understand the genetic bases of some general mechanism leading to the complex ageing process, providing a strategy to unravel some of the genetic mechanisms regulating longevity and age-associate pathologies including neoplasias

I composti organici volatili nel condensato dell'aria esalata nella Discinesia Ciliare Primaria

La discinesia ciliare primaria (DCP) è una malattia rara, clinicamente e geneticamente eterogenea, che si caratterizza per un’alterata motilità delle ciglia dell’epitelio respiratorio, che è alla base della elevata morbilità di tipo infettivo. La diagnosi della malattia si avvale di indagini molto complesse e costose. Scopo di questo studio è di verificare il possibile impiego della valutazione dei composti organici volatili (VOCs) nel condensato dell’aria esalata (EBC) nella diagnosi della malattia e nella individuazione delle riacutizzazioni infettive