Geometry of lines and degeneracy loci of morphisms of vector bundles

Corrado Segre played a leading role in the foundation of line geometry. We survey some recent results on degeneracy loci of morphisms of vector bundles where he still is of profound inspiration.Comment: 10 pages. To appear in the proceedings of the conference "Homage to Corrado Segre

Congruences of lines in P5\mathbb{P}^5, quadratic normality, and completely exceptional Monge-Amp\`ere equations

The existence is proved of two new families of locally Cohen-Macaulay sextic threefolds in $\mathbb{P}^5$, which are not quadratically normal. These threefolds arise naturally in the realm of first order congruences of lines as focal loci and in the study of the completely exceptional Monge-Amp\`ere equations. One of these families comes from a smooth congruence of multidegree $(1,3,3)$ which is a smooth Fano fourfold of index two and genus 9.Comment: 16 page

Uncommon 18F-FDG-PET/CT findings in patients affected by limbic encephalitis: Hyper-hypometabolic pattern with double antibody positivity and migrating foci of hypermetabolism

Autoimmune limbic encephalitis (LE) is a rare disorder; its diagnosis can be challenging.We report two uncommon cases of LE evaluated by brain 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/ computed tomography describing themetabolic imaging patterns, which were different from those observed in previous studies: the first one presented an unprecedented 18F-FDG brain mixed pattern, involving also themidbrain, despite negative magnetic resonance imaging exams; the second one showed migrating foci of hypermetabolism, one of which turned into hypometabolism at a later examination

Rancang Bangun Sistem Basis Data Untuk Membantu Pengendalian Kualitas Bahan Baku Susu Pasteurisasi (Studi Kasus Di Kud DAU Malang)

KUD Dau merupakan salah satu unit USAha mikro dan kecil yang bergerak dalam industri pengolahan susu yang mengolah susu segar dan susu pasteurisasi. Permasalahan yang dihadapi oleh KUD Dau ini adalah sistem yang mereka gunakan untuk mendokumentasikan dan mengolah data terkait dengan pengendalian kualitas tidak optimal. Perekapan data kualitas masih dilakukan secara manual dan terbatas sehingga informasi yang lengkap tentang keadaan susu pada proses penerimaan dari peternak sapi tidak dapat diperoleh. Terlebih lagi, tenaga kerja yang digunakan dalam pengecekan kualitas susu juga terbatas sehingga pekerja dapat mengalami beban kerja berlebih dan menyebabkan terjadinya human error. Berdasarkan permasalahan tersebut, KUD Dau membutuhkan suatu sistem yang secara otomatis dapat digunakan untuk mencatat, menyimpan, dan mengolah data-data yang terkait dengan pengendalian kualitas pada proses penerimaan susu. Penelitian ini menawarkan solusi berupa sistem basis data yang diintegrasikan dengan pengendalian kualitas dengan menggunakan Microsoft Access 2007 sebagai basis data dan Borland Delphi 7.0 sebagai aplikasi interface-nya. Gabungan kedua tools ini akan menghasilkan aplikasi basis data yang lebih mudah digunakan, lebih cepat, dan lebih canggih sehingga informasi yang dihasilkan juga lebih lengkap. Sistem menghasilkan laporan pengendalian kualitas berupa peta kontrol dan diagram pareto yang berguna bagi Perusahaan untuk mengidentifikasi penyimpangan-penyimpangan yang terjadi. Perusahaan dapat mengolah data-data penerimaan sehingga menghasilkan laporan yang digunakan untuk mengetahui operator yang bertanggung jawab, status penerimaan susu, penyebab penyimpangan, dan juga solusi yang diberikan

Prediction of 2 years-survival in patients with stage I and II non-small cell lung cancer utilizing (18)F-FDG PET/CT SUV quantification.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the correlation between the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), size of primary lung lesion, disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with stage I and II non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in 2 years follow-up. PATIENTS AND METHODS. Forty-nine patients with stage I–II NSCLC were included in this study. Pre-surgical 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose positron-emission tomography ((18)F-FDG PET/CT) study was performed for all patients. The relationship between SUVmax, tumour size and clinical outcome was measured. The cut-off value for SUVmax and tumour size with the best prognostic significance, probability of DFS and the correlation between SUVmax and the response to therapy were calculated. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant correlation between SUVmax and DFS (p = 0.029). The optimal cut-offs were 9.00 for SUVmax (p = 0.0013) and 30mm for tumour size (p = 0.0028). Patients with SUVmax > 9 and primary lesion size > 30 mm had an expected 2years-DFS of 37.5%, while this rose to 90% if the tumour was <30 mm and/or SUVmax was <9. CONCLUSIONS: In stage I-II, SUVmax and tumour size might be helpful to identify the subgroup of patients with high chance for recurrence

Breeding effects on durum wheat traits detected using GWAS and haplotype block analysis

IntroductionThe recent boosting of genomic data in durum wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. durum) offers the opportunity to better understand the effects of breeding on the genetic structures that regulate the expression of traits of agronomic interest. Furthermore, the identification of DNA markers useful for marker-assisted selection could also improve the reliability of technical protocols used for variety protection and registration.MethodsWithin this motivation context, 123 durum wheat accessions, classified into three groups: landraces (LR), ancient (OC) and modern cultivars (MC), were evaluated in two locations, for 34 agronomic traits, including UPOV descriptors, to assess the impact of changes that occurred during modern breeding.ResultsThe association mapping analysis, performed with 4,241 SNP markers and six multi-locus-GWAS models, revealed 28 reliable Quantitative Trait Nucleotides (QTNs) related to plant morphology and kernel-related traits. Some important genes controlling flowering time and plant height were in linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay with QTNs identified in this study. A strong association for yellow berry was found on chromosome 6A (Q.Yb-6A) in a region containing the nadh-ubiquinone oxidoreductase subunit, a gene involved in starch metabolism. The Q.Kcp-2A harbored the PPO locus, with the associated marker (Ku_c13700_1196) in LD decay with Ppo-A1 and Ppo-A2. Interestingly, the Q.FGSGls-2B.1, identified by RAC875_c34512_685 for flag leaf glaucosity, mapped less than 1 Mb from the Epistatic inhibitors of glaucousness (Iw1), thus representing a good candidate for supporting the morphological DUS traits also with molecular markers. LD haplotype block approach revealed a higher diversity, richness and length of haploblocks in MC than OC and LR (580 in LR, 585 in OC and 612 in MC), suggesting a possible effect exerted by breeding programs on genomic regions associated with the agronomic traits.DiscussionOur findings pave new ways to support the phenotypic characterization necessary for variety registration by using a panel of cost-effectiveness SNP markers associated also to the UPOV descriptors. Moreover, the panel of associated SNPs might represent a reservoir of favourable alleles to use in durum wheat breeding and genetics

Neural processing of emotions in traumatized children treated with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy: a hdEEG study

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has been proven efficacious in restoring affective regulation in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) patients. However, its effectiveness on emotion processing in children with complex trauma has yet to be explored. High density Electroencephalography (hdEEG) was used to investigate the effects of EMDR on brain responses to adults\u27 emotions on children with histories of early maltreatment. Ten school-aged children were examined before (T0) and within one month after the conclusion of EMDR (T1). hdEEGs were recorded while children passively viewed angry, afraid, happy, and neutral faces. Clinical scales were administered at the same time. Correlation analyses were performed to detect brain regions whose activity was linked to children\u27s traumatic symptom-related and emotional-adaptive problem scores. In all four conditions, hdEEG showed similar significantly higher activity on the right medial prefrontal and fronto-temporal limbic regions at T0, shifting towards the left medial and superior temporal regions at T1. Moreover, significant correlations were found between clinical scales and the same regions whose activity significantly differed between pre- and post-treatment. These preliminary results demonstrate that, after EMDR, children suffering from complex trauma show increased activity in areas implicated in high-order cognitive processing when passively viewing pictures of emotional expressions. These changes are associated with the decrease of depressive and traumatic symptoms, and with the improvement of emotional-adaptive functioning over time

Functional pattern of Brain FDG-PET in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Objective: We investigated a large sample of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at rest in order to assess the value of 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) PET as a biomarker to discriminate patients from controls. Methods: A total of 195 patients with ALS and 40 controls underwent brain 18F-FDG-PET, most within 5 months of diagnosis. Spinal and bulbar subgroups of ALS were also investigated. Twenty-five bilateral cortical and subcortical volumes of interest and cerebellum were taken into account, and 18F-FDG uptakes were individually normalized by whole-brain values. Group analyses investigated the ALS-related metabolic changes. Discriminant analysis investigating sensitivity and specificity was performed using the 51 volumes of interest as well as age and sex. Metabolic connectivity was explored by voxel-wise interregional correlation analysis. Results: Hypometabolismwas found in frontal, motor, and occipital cortex and hypermetabolismin midbrain, temporal pole, and hippocampus in patients with ALS compared to controls. A similar metabolic pattern was also found in the 2 subgroups. Discriminant analysis showed a sensitivity of 95% and a specificity of 83% in separating patients from controls. Connectivity analysis found a highly significant positive correlation between midbrain and white matter in corticospinal tracts in patients with ALS. Conclusions: 18F-FDG distribution changes in ALS showed a clear pattern of hypometabolism in frontal and occipital cortex and hypermetabolism in midbrain. The latter might be interpreted as the neurobiological correlate of diffuse subcortical gliosis. Discriminant analysis resulted in high sensitivity and specificity in differentiating patients with ALS from controls. Once validated by diseased-control studies, the present methodology might represent a potentially useful biomarker for ALS diagnosis. Classificaton of evidence: This study provides Class III evidence that 18F-FDG-PET accurately distinguishes patients with ALS from normal controls (sensitivity 95.4%, specificity 82.5%)

Setup for human sera MALDI profiling: The case of rhEPO treatment

The implementation of high-throughput technologies based on qualitative and quantitative methodologies for the characterization of complex protein mixtures is increasingly required in clinical laboratories. MALDI profiling is a robust and sensitive technology although the serum high dynamic range imposes a major limitation hampering the identification of less abundant species decreasing the quality of MALDI profiling. A setup to improve these parameters has been performed for recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) monitoring in serum, analyzing the effects of two commercially available columns (MARS Hu7 and Hu14) for immunodepletion, and two matrices (\u3b1-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid and 2\u2032,4\u2032-dihydroxyacetophenone) for peak quality improvement. The immunodepletion capability of both columns was determined by 2-D DIGE, which precisely revealed the efficacy of Hu14 in protein removal and the serum dynamic range decrement. In addition, the type of matrix, the sample dilution, and the efficacy of optimized parameters were used for serum profiling of ten healthy subjects before and after rhEPO treatment. The principal component analysis indicates that a combination of Hu14 column and 2\u2032,4\u2032-dihydroxyacetophenone matrix increases data quality allowing the discrimination between treated and untreated samples, making serum MALDI profiling suitable for clinical monitoring of rhEP

18F-FDG-PET correlates of cognitive impairment in ALS

Objective: To identify the metabolic signature of the various levels of cognitive deficits in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose-PET (18F-FDG-PET). Methods: A total of 170 ALS cases consecutively enrolled at the ALS Center of Turin underwent brain 18F-FDG-PET and were classified as displaying normal cognition (ALS-Cn; n 5 94), full-blown frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD; n 5 20), executive or nonexecutive cognitive impairment not fulfilling FTD criteria (ALS-Ci; n 5 37), prevalent behavioral changes (n 5 9), or nonclassifiable impairment (n 5 10) according to neuropsychological testing. Group comparisons of 18F-FDG-PET pattern were carried out among the cognitive subgroups. Results: We found a significantly reduced frontal and prefrontal metabolism in ALS-FTD as compared to ALS-Cn, while ALS-Ci showed an intermediate metabolic behavior in frontal cortex, being hypometabolic as compared to ALS-Cn, and relatively hypermetabolic as compared to ALS-FTD. Hypometabolism in frontal regions was associated in all comparisons to hypermetabolism in cerebellum, midbrain, and corticospinal tracts: the more severe the cognitive decline, the larger the size of the cluster and the statistical significance of 18F-FDG uptake differences. Conclusions: This study demonstrated in a large cohort of patients with ALS a continuum of frontal lobe metabolic impairment reflecting the clinical and anatomic continuum ranging from pure ALS, through ALS with intermediate cognitive deficits, to ALS-FTD, and showing that patients with intermediate cognitive impairment display a characteristic metabolic pattern. Since 18F-FDG-PET allows us to estimate the cerebral lesion load in vivo in neurodegenerative diseases, it might be helpful to investigate in ALS its association with neuropsychological testing along the disease course to disclose the early metabolic signature of possible cognitive impairment