Invasive Aspergillosis in Clinical Hematology : diagnosis and impact on triazole resistance

Invasive aspergillosis is the most common invasive fungal disease in patients with acute myeloid leukemia and recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Not only does it lead to a considerable morbidity and mortality, but also to an increase in medical costs. Triazole resistance in A. fumigatus has emerged over the past decade and is posing a worrisome challenge for diagnostics and treatment. Given these facts, it is essential to optimize the management of invasive aspergillosis in this patient group. Thi

Discrete breathers in dc biased Josephson-junction arrays

We propose a method to excite and detect a rotor localized mode (rotobreather) in a Josephson-junction array biased by dc currents. In our numerical studies of the dynamics we have used experimentally realizable parameters and included self-inductances. We have uncovered two families of rotobreathers. Both types are stable under thermal fluctuations and exist for a broad range of array parameters and sizes including arrays as small as a single plaquette. We suggest a single Josephson-junction plaquette as an ideal system to experimentally investigate these solutions.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure, to appear June 1, 1999 in PR

Vector-meson contributions do not explain the rate and spectrum in K_L -> pi0 gamma gamma

We analyze the recent NA48 data for the reaction K_L -> pi0 gamma gamma with and without the assumption of vector meson dominance (VMD). We find that the data is well described by a three-parameter expression inspired by O(p^6) chiral perturbation theory. We also find that it is impossible to fit the shape of the decay distribution and the overall rate simultaneously if one imposes the VMD constraints on the three parameters. We comment on the different fits and their implications for the CP-conserving component of the decay K_L -> pi0 e+ e-.Comment: Version accepted for publication on Phys. Rev. D. 19 pages, LaTeX, 8 figures, uses epsf.st

Toward Elucidating the Human Gut Microbiota-Brain Axis: Molecules, Biochemistry, and Implications for Health and Diseases

In recent years, a substantial amount of data have supported an active role of gut microbiota in mediating mammalian brain function and health. Mining gut microbiota and their metabolites for neuroprotection is enticing but requires that the fundamental biochemical details underlying such microbiota-brain crosstalk be deciphered. While a neuronal gut-brain axis (through the vagus nerve) is not disputable, accumulating studies also point to a humoral route (via blood/lymphatic circulation) by which innumerable microbial molecular cues translocate from local gut epithelia to circulation with potentials to further cross the blood-brain barrier and reach the brain. In this Perspective, we review a realm of gut microbial molecules to evaluate their fate, function, and neuroactivities in vivo as mediated by microbiota. We turn to seminal studies of neurophysiology and neurologic disease models for the elucidation of biochemical pathways that link microbiota to gut-brain signaling. In addition, we discuss opportunities and challenges for advancing the microbiota-brain axis field while calling for high-throughput discovery of microbial molecules and studies for resolving the interspecies, interorgan, and interclass interaction among these neuroactive microbial molecules

Electroactive biofilms: new means for electrochemistry

This work demonstrates that electrochemical reactions can be catalysed by the natural biofilms that form on electrode surfaces dipping into drinking water or compost. In drinking water, oxygen reduction was monitored with stainless steel ultra-microelectrodes under constant potential electrolysis at )0.30 V/SCE for 13 days. 16 independent experiments were conducted in drinking water, either pure or with the addition of acetate or dextrose. In most cases, the current increased and reached 1.5–9.5 times the initial current. The current increase was attributed to biofilm forming on the electrode in a similar way to that has been observed in seawater. Epifluorescence microscopy showed that the bacteria size and the biofilm morphology depended on the nutrients added, but no quantitative correlation between biofilm morphology and current was established. In compost, the oxidation process was investigated using a titanium based electrode under constant polarisation in the range 0.10–0.70 V/SCE. It was demonstrated that the indigenous micro-organisms were responsible for the current increase observed after a few days, up to 60 mA m)2. Adding 10 mM acetate to the compost amplified the current density to 145 mA m)2 at 0.50 V/SCE. The study suggests that many natural environments, other than marine sediments, waste waters and seawaters that have been predominantly investigated until now, may be able to produce electrochemically active biofilm

Transition to Stochastic Synchronization in Spatially Extended Systems

Spatially extended dynamical systems, namely coupled map lattices, driven by additive spatio-temporal noise are shown to exhibit stochastic synchronization. In analogy with low-dymensional systems, synchronization can be achieved only if the maximum Lyapunov exponent becomes negative for sufficiently large noise amplitude. Moreover, noise can suppress also the non-linear mechanism of information propagation, that may be present in the spatially extended system. A first example of phase transition is observed when both the linear and the non-linear mechanisms of information production disappear at the same critical value of the noise amplitude. The corresponding critical properties can be hardly identified numerically, but some general argument suggests that they could be ascribed to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. Conversely, when the non-linear mechanism prevails on the linear one, another type of phase transition to stochastic synchronization occurs. This one is shown to belong to the universality class of directed percolation.Comment: 21 pages, Latex - 14 EPS Figs - To appear on Physical Review

Thyroid cancer in Sardinian pediatric patients: report of 63 cases and a review of the literature

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Dynamical and thermal descriptions in parton distribution functions

We suggest a duality between the standard (dynamical) and statistical distributions of partons in the nucleons. The temperature parameter entering into the statistical form for the quark distributions is estimated. It is found that this effective temperature is practically the same for the dependence on longitudinal and transverse momenta and, in turn, it is close to the freeze-out temperature in high energy heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Talk given at the 6th International Workshop on Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement (CPOD), JINR, Dubna, 23-29 August 201

K^+ -> pi^+pi^0e^+e^-: a novel short-distance probe

We study the decay K^+ -> pi^+ pi^0 e^+ e^-, currently under analysis by the NA62 Collaboration at CERN. In particular, we provide a detailed analysis of the Dalitz plot for the long-distance, gamma^*-mediated, contributions (Bremsstrahlung, direct emission and its interference). We also examine a set of asymmetries to isolate genuine short-distance effects. While we show that charge asymmetries are not required to test short distances, they provide the best environment for its detection. This constitutes by itself a strong motivation for NA62 to study K^- decays in the future. We therefore provide a detailed study of different charge asymmetries and the corresponding estimated signals. Whenever possible, we make contact with the related processes K^+ -> pi^+ pi^0 gamma and K_L -> pi^+ pi^- e^+ e^- and discuss the advantages of K^+ -> pi^+ pi^0 e^+ e^- over them.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure

Boundary condition and fuel composition effects on injection processes of high-pressure sprays at the microscopic level

Detailed imaging of n-dodecane and ethanol sprays injected in a constant-flow, high-pressure, high-temperature optically accessible chamber was per-formed. High-speed, diffused back-illuminated long-distance microscopy was used to resolve the spray structure in the near-nozzle field. The effect of injection and ambient pressures, as well as fuel temperature and composition have been studied through measurements of the spray penetration rates, hydraulic delays and spreading angles. Additional information such as transient flow velocities have been extracted from the measurements and compared to a control-volume spray model. The analysis demonstrated the influence of outlet flow on spray development with lower penetration velocities and wider spreading angles during the transients (start and end of injection) than during the quasi-steady period of the injection. The effect of fuel com-position on penetration was limited, while spreading angle measurements showed wider sprays for ethanol. In contrast, varying fuel temperature led to varying penetration velocities, while spreading angle remained constant during the quasi-steady period of the injection. Fuel temperature affected injector performance, with shorter delays as fuel temperature was increased. The comparisons between predicted and measured penetration rates showed differences suggesting that the transient behavior of the spreading angle of the sprays modified spray development significantly in the near-field. The reasonable agreement between predicted and measured flow velocity at and after the end of injection suggested that the complete mixing assumptions made by the model were valid in the near nozzle region during this period, when injected flow velocities are reduced.The authors wish to thank Chris Carlen from Sandia National Laboratories for designing and manufacturing specific ultra-fast LEDs, as well as Jose Enrique del Rey and Juan Pablo Viera from CMT-Motores Termicos for their support during the experiments. Support for the research carried out by Julien Manin at CMT-Motores Termicos was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies. Sandia is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company for the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.Manin, J.; Bardi, M.; Pickett, LM.; Payri Marín, R. (2016). Boundary condition and fuel composition effects on injection processes of high-pressure sprays at the microscopic level. International Journal of Multiphase Flow. 83:267-278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2015.12.001S2672788