145 research outputs found
Vitamin D status of inmates. The experience of penitentiaries prisons in the province of Salerno in Southern Italy
Introduction: Prisoners are at risk of developing vitamin D deficiency due to their lacking exposure to sunlight. So far, there are no published studies evaluating blood levels of vitamin D in relation to the health status of inmates and the quality of the Italian prison system.
Aim: To investigate vitamin D status and its determinants in a cohort of prisoners.
Subject and methods: One hundred and seventy-two (172) pri-son inmates (males, n=159, age 47± 11.3 years; females, n=13, age 43.91±12.18 years) of three penitentiaries in the province of Salerno. Vitamin D deficiency, insufficiency and sufficiency were respectively defined as a 25(OH)D level <20 ng/mL; from 20 to 30 ng/mL, >30 ng/mL.
Results: In our group, Vitamin D deficiency occurs in 77.32% of the prisoners with 32.55% of the cases having severe insufficiency. Prisoners with higher BMI show lower circulating vitamin D levels (p<0.001). No significant relationship was found with the duration of detention (Pearson R: 0.01).
Conclusion: In this cohort of inmates the vitamin D status is determined by BMI, but not by the duration of the detention
The Degree of Judicial Enforcement and Credit Markets: Evidence from Japanese Household Panel Data
Parton distributions with small-x resummation:evidence for BFKL dynamics in HERA data
We present a determination of the parton distribution functions of the proton
in which NLO and NNLO fixed-order calculations are supplemented by NLLx small-x
resummation. Deep inelastic structure functions are computed consistently at
NLO+NLLx or NNLO+NLLx, while for hadronic processes small-x resummation is
included only in the PDF evolution, with kinematic cuts introduced to ensure
the fitted data lie in a region where the fixed-order calculation of the hard
cross-sections is reliable. In all other respects, the fits use the same
methodology and are based on the same global dataset as the recent NNPDF3.1
analysis. We demonstrate that the inclusion of small-x resummation leads to a
quantitative improvement in the perturbative description of the HERA inclusive
and charm-production reduced cross-sections in the small x region. The impact
of the resummation in our fits is greater at NNLO than at NLO, because
fixed-order calculations have a perturbative instability at small x due to
large logarithms that can be cured by resummation. We explore the
phenomenological implications of PDF sets with small-x resummation for the
longitudinal structure function at HERA, for parton luminosities and LHC
benchmark cross-sections, for ultra-high energy neutrino-nucleus
cross-sections, and for future high-energy lepton-proton colliders such as the
LHeC.Comment: 70 pages, many figures. Discussion on uncertainties due to subleading
logarithmic contributions. Discussion on fits with pseudodata from future
high-energy lepton-proton colliders. Updated references. Version to be
published in EPJ
Key mutations in the C-terminus of the HBV surface glycoprotein correlate with lower HBsAg levels in vivo, hinder HBsAg secretion in vitro and reduce HBsAg structural stability in the setting of HBeAg-negative chronic HBV genotype-D infection
The Structure of n-Point One-Loop Open Superstring Amplitudes
In this article we present the worldsheet integrand for one-loop amplitudes
in maximally supersymmetric superstring theory involving any number n of
massless open string states. The polarization dependence is organized into the
same BRST invariant kinematic combinations which also govern the leading string
correction to tree level amplitudes. The dimensions of the bases for both the
kinematics and the associated worldsheet integrals is found to be the unsigned
Stirling number S_3^{n-1} of first kind. We explain why the same combinatorial
structures govern on the one hand finite one-loop amplitudes of equal helicity
states in pure Yang Mills theory and on the other hand the color tensors at
quadratic alpha prime order of the color dressed tree amplitude.Comment: 75 pp, 8 figs, harvmac TeX, v2: published versio
Effect of boron doping in the microwave surface resistance of neutron irradiated melt-textured Y_1.6Ba_2.3Cu_3.3O_7-x samples
We report on the microwave surface resistance of melt-textured
Y_1.6Ba_2.3Cu_3.3O_7-x samples, doped with different amount of B_2O_3 and,
subsequently, irradiated by thermal neutrons at the fluence of 1.476 \times
10^17 cm^-2. The microwave surface resistance has been measured as a function
of temperature and DC magnetic field. The experimental results are
quantitatively discussed in the framework of the Coffey and Clem theory,
properly adapted to take into account the d-wave nature of cuprate
superconductors. By fitting the experimental data at zero DC field, we have
highlighted the effects of the induced defects in the general properties of the
samples, including the intergranular region. The analysis of the results
obtained at high DC fields allowed us to investigate the fluxon dynamics and
deduce the depinning frequency; in particular, we have shown that the addition
of B_2O_3 up to 0.1 wt% increases the effectiveness of the defects to hinder
the fluxon motion induced by the microwave current.Comment: 9 pages, 8 embedded figures, accepted for publication in Physica
In vitro irradiation of basement membrane enhances the invasiveness of breast cancer cells
Following removal of the primary breast tumour by conservative surgery, patients may still have additional malignant foci scattered throughout the breast. Radiation treatments are not designed to eliminate all these residual cancer cells. Rather, the radiation dose is calculated to optimise long-term results with minimal complications. In a tumour, cancer cells are surrounded by a basement membrane, which plays an important role in the regulation of gene expression. Using an invasion chamber, we have shown that irradiation before cell plating of a reconstituted basement membrane (Matrigel; Becton Dickinson, Bedford, MA, USA) increased the invasiveness of the breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231. This radiation enhancement of invasion was associated with the upregulation of the pro-invasive gene matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2. The expression of membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 (TIMP), which are required to activate the MMP-2, were also increased. Confirming the role of MMP-2 and MT1-MMP, radiation enhancement of cancer cell invasion was prevented by an MMP-2 inhibitor and an anti-MT1-MMP antibody. This study also demonstrated that radiation can potentially enhance the invasion ability by inducing the release of pro-invasive factors stored in the Matrigel. Conversely, no enhancement of invasiveness was observed with the low metastatic cell line MCF-7. This lack of invasiveness correlated with the absence of the MMP-2 activator MT1-MMP in the MCF-7 cells. Radiotherapy is an efficient modality to treat breast cancer which could be further improved by inhibiting the pro-invasive gene upregulated by radiation
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