Explosive Nucleosynthesis: What we learned and what we still do not understand

This review touches on historical aspects, going back to the early days of nuclear astrophysics, initiated by B$^2$FH and Cameron, discusses (i) the required nuclear input from reaction rates and decay properties up to the nuclear equation of state, continues (ii) with the tools to perform nucleosynthesis calculations and (iii) early parametrized nucleosynthesis studies, before (iv) reliable stellar models became available for the late stages of stellar evolution. It passes then through (v) explosive environments from core-collapse supernovae to explosive events in binary systems (including type Ia supernovae and compact binary mergers), and finally (vi) discusses the role of all these nucleosynthesis production sites in the evolution of galaxies. The focus is put on the comparison of early ideas and present, very recent, understanding.Comment: 11 pages, to appear in Springer Proceedings in Physics (Proc. of Intl. Conf. "Nuclei in the Cosmos XV", LNGS Assergi, Italy, June 2018

Benefit of early commencement of growth hormone therapy in children with Prader-Willi syndrome

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a chromosomal disorder and growth failure is a common presentation. Growth hormone (GH) treatment is beneficial in PWS although the optimal age for starting GH is unknown. We investigated whether GH response in PWS was associated with the age of GH commencement by comparing 16 children who commenced GH before 3 years of age (early group) with 40 children who commenced GH after 3 years of age (late group) from the Ozgrow database. Height SDS, body mass index (BMI) SDS, bone age (BA)-chronological age (CA) ratio, change in height (Delta Ht) SDS and change in BMI during 4 years of GH treatment were compared between the groups. The early group had better height SDS and Delta Ht SIDS. BA delay was more pronounced in the early group but BA did not mature beyond CA with GH therapy in either group. Although the initial GH dose for the early group was lower than that of the late group, the former had better height outcome. The starting GH dose seen in the database is lower than the dose used by international centres

High Levels of Diversity Uncovered in a Widespread Nominal Taxon: Continental Phylogeography of the Neotropical Tree Frog

Species distributed across vast continental areas and across major biomes provide unique model systems for studies of biotic diversification, yet also constitute daunting financial, logistic and political challenges for data collection across such regions. The tree frog Dendropsophus minutus (Anura: Hylidae) is a nominal species, continentally distributed in South America, that may represent a complex of multiple species, each with a more limited distribution. To understand the spatial pattern of molecular diversity throughout the range of this species complex, we obtained DNA sequence data from two mitochondrial genes, cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and the 16S rhibosomal gene (16S) for 407 samples of D. minutus and closely related species distributed across eleven countries, effectively comprising the entire range of the group. We performed phylogenetic and spatially explicit phylogeographic analyses to assess the genetic structure of lineages and infer ancestral areas. We found 43 statistically supported, deep mitochondrial lineages, several of which may represent currently unrecognized distinct species. One major clade, containing 25 divergent lineages, includes samples from the type locality of D. minutus. We defined that clade as the D. minutus complex. The remaining lineages together with the D. minutus complex constitute the D. minutus species group. Historical analyses support an Amazonian origin for the D. minutus species group with a subsequent dispersal to eastern Brazil where the D. minutus complex originated. According to our dataset, a total of eight mtDNA lineages have ranges >100,000 km2. One of them occupies an area of almost one million km2 encompassing multiple biomes. Our results, at a spatial scale and resolution unprecedented for a Neotropical vertebrate, confirm that widespread amphibian species occur in lowland South America, yet at the same time a large proportion of cryptic diversity still remains to be discovered

Effectiveness of habitat management in the recovery of low-density populations of wild rabbit.

Understanding the relationship between spatial patterns of landscape attributes and population presence and abundance is essential for understanding population processes as well as supporting management and conservation strategies. This study evaluates the influence of three factors: environment, habitat management, and season on the presence and abundance of the wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), an important prey species for Mediterranean endangered predator species. To address this issue, we estimated wild rabbit presence and abundance by latrine counting in transects located in 45 plots within a 250×250 m grid from June 2007 until June 2009 in a 1,200 ha hunting area in southern Portugal.We then analyzed how wild rabbit presence and abundance correlatewith the aforementioned factors. Our results showed that the main variable influencing wild rabbit presence and abundance was the distance to the artificial warrens. North and northeast slope directions were negatively related to wild rabbit presence. Conversely, rabbit presence was positively correlated with short distances to ecotone, artificial warrens, and spring. Regarding rabbit abundance, in addition to artificial warrens, soft soils, bushes, and season also had a positive effect. We found that environmental variables, management practices, and season each affect wild rabbit presence and abundance differently at a home range scale in low-density population. Thus, our major recommendations are reducing the distance to artificial warrens and ecotone, ideally to less than 100 m, and promoting habitat quality improvement on slopes with plenty of sun exposure

Adaptation of the difficulty level in an infant-robot movement contingency study

19th International Workshop of Physical Agents (WAF). Madrid (22-23 Noviembre 2018)ABSTRACT: This paper presents a personalized contingency feedback adaptation system that aims to encourage infants aged 6 to 8 months to gradually increase the peak acceleration of their leg movements. The ultimate challenge is to determine if a socially assistive humanoid robot can guide infant learning using contingent rewards, where the reward threshold is personalized for each infant using a reinforcement learning algorithm. The model learned from the data captured by wearable inertial sensors measuring infant leg movement accelerations in an earlier study. Each infant generated a unique model that determined the behavior of the robot. The presented results were obtained from the distributions of the participants' acceleration peaks and demonstrate that the resulting model is sensitive to the degree of differentiation among the participants; each participant (infant) should have his/her own learned policy.This work was supported by NSF award 1706964 (PI: Smith, Co-PI: Matarić). In addition, this work was developed during an international mobility program at the University of Southern California being also partially funded by the European Union ECHORD++ project (FP7-ICT-601116), the LifeBots project (TIN2015-65686-C5) and THERAPIST project (TIN2012-38079)

Outcomes of surgical treatment for upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma: Comparison of retroperitoneoscopic and open nephroureterectomy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>To determine the surgical and oncologic outcomes in patients who underwent retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy (RNU) in comparison to standard open nephroureterectomy (ONU) for upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma (TCC).</p> <p>Patients and methods</p> <p>From April 2001 to January 2007, 60 total nephroureterectomy were performed for upper tract TCC at Siriraj Hospital. Of the 60 patients, thirty-one were treated with RNU and open bladder cuff excision, and twenty-nine with ONU. Our data were reviewed and analyzed retrospectively. The recorded data included sex, age, history of bladder cancer, type of surgery, tumor characteristics, postoperative course, disease recurrence and progression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean operative time was longer in the RNU group than in the ONU group (258.8 versus 190.6 min; p = 0. < 001). On the other hand, the mean blood loss and the dose of parenteral analgesia (morphine sulphate) were lower in the RNU group (289.3 versus 313.7 ml and 2.05 versus 6.72 mg; p = 0.868 and p = 0.018, respectively). There were two complications in each group. No significant difference in p stage and grade in both-groups (p = 0.951, p = 0.077). One patient with RNU had lymph node involvement, three in ONU. Mean follow up was 26.4 months (range 3–72) for RNU and 27.9 months (range 3–63) for ONU. No port metastasis occurred during follow up in RNU group. Tumor recurrence developed in 11 patients (bladder recurrence in 9 patients, local recurrence in 2 patients) in the RNU group and 14 patients (bladder recurrence in 13 patients, local recurrence in 1 patient) in the ONU group. No significant difference was detected in the tumor recurrence rate between the two procedures (p = 0.2716). Distant metastases developed in 3 patients (9.7%) after RNU and 2 patients (6.9%) after ONU. The 2 year disease specific survival rate after RNU and ONU was 86.3% and 92.5%, respectively (p = 0.8227).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy is less invasive than open surgery and is an oncological feasible operation. Thus, the results of our study supported the continued development of laparoscopic technique in the management of upper tract TCC.</p

Interferon-γ-producing immature myeloid cells confer protection against severe invasive group A Streptococcus infections

Cytokine-activated neutrophils are known to be essential for protection against group A Streptococcus infections. However, during severe invasive group A Streptococcus infections that are accompanied by neutropenia, it remains unclear which factors are protective against such infections, and which cell population is the source of them. Here we show that mice infected with severe invasive group A Streptococcus isolates, but not with non-invasive group A Streptococcus isolates, exhibit high concentrations of plasma interferon-γ during the early stage of infection. Interferon-γ is necessary to protect mice, and is produced by a novel population of granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor-dependent immature myeloid cells with ring-shaped nuclei. These interferon-γ-producing immature myeloid cells express monocyte and granulocyte markers, and also produce nitric oxide. The adoptive transfer of interferon-γ-producing immature myeloid cells ameliorates infection in wild-type and interferon-γ-deficient mice. Our results indicate that interferon-γ-producing immature myeloid cells have a protective role during the early stage of severe invasive group A Streptococcus infections