Recommendations for Medical Education in Taiwan

The purpose of the new project presented in these pages is to offer an innovative approach to the study of the evolution of Coptic literature and, more specifically, to the corpus of writings produced in Egypt between the third and the late eleventh centuries, and expressed in the different dialects of the Coptic language. Its aim is to provide a new perspective on the cultural landscape of Christian Egypt by interweaving literary, historical, codicological and archaeological data, and producing a series of scholarly tools, till now unavailable, in a digital environment, including an archaeological Atlas of late antique and early mediaeval Coptic literature that will be searchable at different chronological, regional and thematic levels. As part of the above-described research activities and goals, a complete catalogue of the Coptic papyrus codices preserved in the Museo Egizio will be produced, as well as an edition of their titles and scribal subscriptions. The fragmentary codices in question, purchased in Egypt by Bernardino Drovetti in the 1820s, are a unique example of an entire well-preserved late antique institutional library – very likely originally belonging to the cathedral of This/Thinis – reflecting the literary tastes and dogmatic orientations before what can be defined as the ninth-century Coptic book revolution, which significantly changed bookmaking in Christian Egypt. The library of Thi(ni)s is a crucial and transitional instance in the history of Coptic books, which saw on the one hand the creation of new codicological and palaeographical features and on the other the progressive emergence of multiple-text codices

Semiclassical Shor's Algorithm

We propose a semiclassical version of Shor's quantum algorithm to factorize integer numbers, based on spin-1/2 SU(2) generalized coherent states. Surprisingly, we find evidences that the algorithm's success probability is not too severely modified by our semiclassical approximation. This suggests that it is worth pursuing practical implementations of the algorithm on semiclassical devices.Comment: 19 pages (RevTex) + 10 Figures (in a separate ps file). Widened version: analytical discussion of the impact on the period-finding power added; scaling behaviour of the semiclassical probability addressed; two new appendices; other minor changes. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Optimal estimation of entanglement

Entanglement does not correspond to any observable and its evaluation always corresponds to an estimation procedure where the amount of entanglement is inferred from the measurements of one or more proper observables. Here we address optimal estimation of entanglement in the framework of local quantum estimation theory and derive the optimal observable in terms of the symmetric logarithmic derivative. We evaluate the quantum Fisher information and, in turn, the ultimate bound to precision for several families of bipartite states, either for qubits or continuous variable systems, and for different measures of entanglement. We found that for discrete variables, entanglement may be efficiently estimated when it is large, whereas the estimation of weakly entangled states is an inherently inefficient procedure. For continuous variable Gaussian systems the effectiveness of entanglement estimation strongly depends on the chosen entanglement measure. Our analysis makes an important point of principle and may be relevant in the design of quantum information protocols based on the entanglement content of quantum states.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, v2: minor correction

From early stress to 12-month development in very preterm infants: Preliminary findings on epigenetic mechanisms and brain growth

Very preterm (VPT) infants admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are at risk for altered brain growth and less-than-optimal socio-emotional development. Recent research suggests that early NICU-related stress contributes to socio-emotional impairments in VPT infants at 3 months through epigenetic regulation (i.e., DNA methylation) of the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4). In the present longitudinal study we assessed: (a) the effects of NICU-related stress and SLC6A4 methylation variations from birth to discharge on brain development at term equivalent age (TEA); (b) the association between brain volume at TEA and socio-emotional development (i.e., Personal-Social scale of Griffith Mental Development Scales, GMDS) at 12 months corrected age (CA). Twenty-four infants had complete data at 12-month-age. SLC6A4 methylation was measured at a specific CpG previously associated with NICU-related stress and socio-emotional stress. Findings confirmed that higher NICU-related stress associated with greater increase of SLC6A4 methylation at NICU discharge. Moreover, higher SLC6A4 discharge methylation was associated with reduced anterior temporal lobe (ATL) volume at TEA, which in turn was significantly associated with less-than-optimal GMDS Personal-Social scale score at 12 months CA. The reduced ATL volume at TEA mediated the pathway linking stress-related increase in SLC6A4 methylation at NICU discharge and socio-emotional development at 12 months CA. These findings suggest that early adversity-related epigenetic changes might contribute to the long-lasting programming of socio-emotional development in VPT infants through epigenetic regulation and structural modifications of the developing brain

Experimental estimation of entanglement at the quantum limit

Entanglement is the central resource of quantum information processing and the precise characterization of entangled states is a crucial issue for the development of quantum technologies. This leads to the necessity of a precise, experimental feasible measure of entanglement. Nevertheless, such measurements are limited both from experimental uncertainties and intrinsic quantum bounds. Here we present an experiment where the amount of entanglement of a family of two-qubit mixed photon states is estimated with the ultimate precision allowed by quantum mechanics.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Malignant struma ovarii harboring a unique NRAS mutation: case report and review of the literature

Struma ovarii (SO), a rare tumor containing at least 50% of thyroid tissue, represents approximately 5% of all ovarian teratomas; its malignant transformation rate is reported to occur in up to 10% of cases and metastases occur in about 5-6% of them. We describe a 36-year old woman who underwent laparoscopic left annessectomy two years earlier because of an ovarian cyst. Follow-up imaging revealed a right adnexal mass, ascitis and peritoneal nodes that were diagnosed as comprising a malignant SO with peritoneal secondary localizations at histopathology performed after intervention. Restaging with F-18-FDG-PE T/CT scan, abdominal CT and ultrasonography showed abnormalities in the perihepatic region and presacral space and left hypochondrium localizations. The patient underwent thyroidectomy, hepatic nodulectomy and cytoreductive peritonectomy: histopathological examination did not show any malignant disease in the thyroid and confirmed the presence of peritoneal localizations due to malignant SO; molecular analysis detected NRAS Q61K mutation in exon 3, whereas no mutations were identified on the BRAF gene. The patient underwent radioiodine treatment: serum Tg was decreased at first follow-up after three months of I-131-therapy. We believe that our case raises some interesting considerations. First, pathologists should be aware of this entity and should check for the presence of point mutations suggesting an aggressive disease behavior, which could be beneficial for an optimal therapeutic approach. Second, although most of the knowledge in this field comes from case reports, efforts should be made to standardize the management of patients affected by malignant SO, including use of practice guidelines

Natural history and risk factors for diabetic kidney disease in patients with T2D: lessons from the AMD-annals

The Associazione Medici Diabetologi (AMD) annals initiative is an ongoing observational survey promoted by AMD. It is based on a public network of about 700 Italian diabetes clinics, run by specialists who provide diagnostic confirmation and prevention and treatment of diabetes and its complications. Over the last few years, analysis of the AMD annals dataset has contributed several important insights on the clinical features of type-2 diabetes kidney disease and their prognostic and therapeutic implications. First, non-albuminuric renal impairment is the predominant clinical phenotype. Even though associated to a lower risk of progression compared to overt albuminuria, it contributes significantly to the burden of end-stage renal disease morbidity. Second, optimal blood pressure control provides significant but incomplete renal protection. It reduces albuminuria but there may be a J curve phenomenon with eGFR at very low blood pressure values. Third, hyperuricemia and diabetic hyperlipidemia, namely elevated triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol, are strong independent predictors of chronic kidney disease (CKD) onset in diabetes, although the pathogenetic mechanisms underlying these associations remain uncertain. Fourth, the long-term intra-individual variability in HbA1c, lipid parameters, uric acid and blood pressure plays a greater role in the appearance and progression of CKD than the absolute value of each single variable. These data help clarify the natural history of CKD in patients with type 2 diabetes and provide important clues for designing future interventional studies