The Pure State Space of Quantum Mechanics as Hermitian Symmetric Space

The pure state space of Quantum Mechanics is investigated as Hermitian Symmetric Kaehler manifold. The classical principles of Quantum Mechanics (Quantum Superposition Principle, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, Quantum Probability Principle) and Spectral Theory of observables are discussed in this non linear geometrical context.Comment: 18 pages, no figure

Early anti IL-1 treatment replaces steroids in refractory Kawasaki disease: clinical experience from two case reports

Refractory Kawasaki disease (KD) is related to a major risk of coronary arteries abnormalities and its treatment is not standardized. In this regard, anakinra (ANA), an interleukin (IL)-1 receptor antagonist, represents an emerging therapeutic option. We report two cases of children, diagnosed with KD, nonresponsive to two doses of intravenous immunoglobulins, successfully treated with ANA, without a prior use of steroids. Patient 2 developed a coronary dilatation, that improved significantly after ANA therapy. Our experience highlights IL-1 blockade effectiveness in reducing KD inflammation and suggests ANA adoption as second-line therapy, with a timesaving and steroid-sparing strategy. Our results, combined with the evidence of the IL-1 key role in KD and coronary arteritis pathogenesis and to the recent clinical evidence reported by the KAWAKINRA trial, encourage an earlier recourse to ANA in patients with refractory KD, in order to fight inflammation, and to treat and prevent the development of coronary artery aneurysms. Further studies are needed to better define the place of IL-1 blockade in KD step-up treatment

The Geometric Phase and Ray Space Isometries

We study the behaviour of the geometric phase under isometries of the ray space. This leads to a better understanding of a theorem first proved by Wigner: isometries of the ray space can always be realised as projections of unitary or anti-unitary transformations on the Hilbert space. We suggest that the construction involved in Wigner's proof is best viewed as an use of the Pancharatnam connection to ``lift'' a ray space isometry to the Hilbert space.Comment: 17 pages, Latex file, no figures, To appear in Pramana J. Phy

Spin dynamics in molecular ring nanomagnets: Significant effect of acoustic phonons and magnetic anisotropies

The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T_1_ is calculated for magnetic ring clusters by fully diagonalizing their microscopic spin Hamiltonians. Whether the nearest-neighbor exchange interaction J is ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic, 1/T_1_ versus temperature T in ring nanomagnets may be peaked at around k_B_T=|J| provided the lifetime broadening of discrete energy levels is in proportion to T^3^. Experimental findings for ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic Cu^II^ rings are reproduced with crucial contributions of magnetic anisotropies as well as acoustic phonons.Comment: 5 pages with 5 figures embedded, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 75, No. 10 (2006

CEA and CYFRA 21-1 as prognostic biomarker and as a tool for treatment monitoring in advanced NSCLC treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors

Aims: To assess prognostic value of pre-therapy carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cytokeratin-19 fragments (CYFRA 21-1) blood levels in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and their early change as predictor of benefit. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective cohort study including patients with stage IIIB–IV NSCLC who received anti PD-1/PD-L1 in first or advanced lines of therapy in two institutions. A control cohort of patients treated only with chemotherapy has been enrolled as well. Results: A total of 133 patients treated with nivolumab or atezolizumab were included in the test set, 74 treated with pembrolizumab first line in the validation set and 89 in the chemotherapy only cohort. CYFRA 21-1 >8 ng/mL was correlated with overall survival (OS) in the test set, validation set and in univariate and multivariate analysis (pooled cohort hazard ratio (HR) 1.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.24–2.93, p 0.003). Early 20% reduction after the third cycle was correlated with OS for CEA (HR 0.12; 95% CI 0.04–0.33; p < 0.001), and for CYFRA 21-1 (HR 0.19; 95% CI 0.07–0.55; p 0.002) Conclusions: CYFRA 21-1 pre-therapy assessment provides clinicians with relevant prognostic information about patients treated with ICI. CEA and CYFRA 21-1 repeated measures could be useful as an early marker of benefit

Rotational modes in molecular magnets with antiferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange

In an effort to understand the low temperature behavior of recently synthesized molecular magnets we present numerical evidence for the existence of a rotational band in systems of quantum spins interacting with nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange. While this result has previously been noted for ring arrays with an even number of spin sites, we find that it also applies for rings with an odd number of sites as well as for all of the polytope configurations we have investigated (tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, icosahedron, triangular prism, and axially truncated icosahedron). It is demonstrated how the rotational band levels can in many cases be accurately predicted using the underlying sublattice structure of the spin array. We illustrate how the characteristics of the rotational band can provide valuable estimates for the low temperature magnetic susceptibility.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Model Exact Low-Lying States and Spin Dynamics in Ferric Wheels; Fe6_6 to Fe12_{12}

Using an efficient numerical scheme that exploits spatial symmetries and spin-parity, we have obtained the exact low-lying eigenstates of exchange Hamiltonians for ferric wheels up to Fe$_{12}$. The largest calculation involves the Fe$_{12}$ ring which spans a Hilbert space dimension of about 145 million for M$_s$=0 subspace. Our calculated gaps from the singlet ground state to the excited triplet state agrees well with the experimentally measured values. Study of the static structure factor shows that the ground state is spontaneously dimerized for ferric wheels. Spin states of ferric wheels can be viewed as quantized states of a rigid rotor with the gap between the ground and the first excited state defining the inverse of moment of inertia. We have studied the quantum dynamics of Fe$_{10}$ as a representative of ferric wheels. We use the low-lying states of Fe$_{10}$ to solve exactly the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation and find the magnetization of the molecule in the presence of an alternating magnetic field at zero temperature. We observe a nontrivial oscillation of magnetization which is dependent on the amplitude of the {\it ac} field. We have also studied the torque response of Fe$_{12}$ as a function of magnetic field, which clearly shows spin-state crossover.Comment: Revtex, 24 pages, 8 eps figure

INTRAHEPATIC CHOLANGIOCARCINOMA DEVELOPMENT IN A PATIENT WITH A NOVEL BAP1 GERMLINE MUTATION AND LOW EXPOSURE TO ASBESTOS

BRCA1 associated protein-1 (BAP1) germline mutations define a novel hereditary cancer syndrome, namely BAP1 tumor predisposition syndrome (BAP1-TPDS), characterized by an increased susceptibility to develop different cancer types, including mesothelioma, uveal and cutaneous melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma. Currently, the role of BAP1 germline mutations in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) pathogenesis is less known. Here we report the first clinical case of a female patient who developed an iCCA when she was 47-years-old and was found to carry a novel germline mutation at a splicing site of exon 4 in BAP1 gene (NM_004656.4: c.255_255+6del). An accurate anamnesis revealed the absence of risk factors linked to iCCA development, except for a low occupational exposure to asbestos. In tumor tissue, BAP1 sequencing, multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification and immunoistochemistry showed the loss of heterozygosity and lack of nuclear expression, suggesting that BAP1 wild-type allele and functional protein were lost in cancer cells, in line with the classical two-hit model of tumor suppressor genes. Further studies are needed to confirm whether iCCA may be included into BAP1-TPDS cancer phenotypes and whether minimal asbestos exposure may facilitate the development of this malignancy in individuals carrying BAP1 germline mutations

Geometrization of Quantum Mechanics

We show that it is possible to represent various descriptions of Quantum Mechanics in geometrical terms. In particular we start with the space of observables and use the momentum map associated with the unitary group to provide an unified geometrical description for the different pictures of Quantum Mechanics. This construction provides an alternative to the usual GNS construction for pure states.Comment: 16 pages. To appear in Theor. Math. Phys. Some typos corrected. Definition 2 in page 5 rewritte

Trend of incidence, subsite distribution and staging of colorectal neoplasms in the 15-year experience of a specialised cancer registry

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