Central exclusive chi (c) meson production at the Tevatron revisited

Motivated by the recent experimental observation of exclusive c events at the Tevatron, we revisit earlier studies of central exclusive scalar c0 meson production, before generalising the existing formalism to include c1 and c2 mesons. Although c0 production was previously assumed to be dominant, we find that the c1 and c2 rates for the experimentally considered c ! J/ ! μ+μ− decay process are in fact comparable to the c0 rate. We have developed a new Monte Carlo event generator, SuperCHIC, which models the central exclusive production of the three c states via this decay chain, and have explored possible ways of distinguishing them, given that their mass differences are not resolvable within the current experimental set-up. Although we find that the severity of current experimental cuts appears to preclude this, the acceptance does not change crucially between the three states and so our conclusions regarding the overall rates remain unchanged. This therefore raises the interesting possibility that exclusive c1 and c2 production has already been observed at the Tevatron

Regularity of Local Minimizers of the Interaction Energy Via Obstacle Problems

The repulsion strength at the origin for repulsive/attractive potentials determines the regularity of local minimizers of the interaction energy. In this paper, we show that if this repulsion is like Newtonian or more singular than Newtonian (but still locally integrable), then the local minimizers must be locally bounded densities (and even continuous for more singular than Newtonian repulsion). We prove this (and some other regularity results) by first showing that the potential function associated to a local minimizer solves an obstacle problem and then by using classical regularity results for such problems

INFLUENCE OF ANKLE PASSIVE RANGE OF MOTION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE STAR EXCURSION BALANCE TEST

The purpose of this study was to measure the association between ankle passive range of motion (PROM) and the horizontal distance reached during the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT). Nineteen participants without any musculoskeletal and neurological injury performed the SEBT on eight directions proposed in the original protocol. The ankle PROM was measured with a manual goniometric device prior to the performance of the test. To determine the association between the distance reached during SEBT and the ankle PROM, we used the Pearson Correlation Coefficient Test (“r”). All directions of SEBT showed low correlation with the ankle PROM without significant differences for any variable. We concluded that the ankle PROM is not a confounding variable that should be monitored for use the SEBT for healthy individuals

Food-Borne Viruses in Shellfish: Investigation on Norovirus and HAV Presence in Apulia (SE Italy)

Shellfish are an important vehicle for transmission of food-borne pathogens including norovirus (NoV) and hepatitis A virus (HAV). The risks related with consumption of shellfish are greater if these products are eaten raw or slightly cooked. As molluscs are filter-feeding organisms, they are able to concentrate pathogens dispersed in the water. Data on shellfish viral contamination are therefore useful to obtain a background information on the presence of contamination in the environment, chiefly in shellfish production areas and to generate a picture of the epidemiology of viral pathogens in local populations. From January 2013 to July 2015, 253 samples of bivalve molluscs collected in harvesting areas from a large coastal tract (860 km) of Southern Italy were screened for HAV and NoV of genogroups GI and GII, using real-time reverse transcription qualitative PCR. The RNA of HAV was not detected in any of the analyzed samples. In contrast, the RNA of NoV was identified in 14.2% of the samples with a higher prevalence of NoVs of genogroup GII (12.2%) than genogroup GI (1.6%). Upon sequence analysis of a short diagnostic region located in capsid region, the NoV strains were characterized as GII.2, GII.4 Sydney 2012, GII.6, GII.13, GI.4, and GI.6, all which were circulating in local populations in the same time span. These data confirm that consumption of mussels can expose consumers to relevant risks of infection. Also, matching between the NoV genotypes circulating in local population and detected in molluscs confirms the diffusion in the environment of NoVs

Bio-plastic recognition by mussels hemocytes

The growing use of bio-polymers derivatives poses an increasingly pressing problem regarding their environmental sustainability. In particular, it should be still ascertained the claimed absence of direct and indirect influence on ecosystems and the health of living organisms, including humans. Our goal was about assessing the potential effects of poly-lactates and polyhydroxyalkanoates, the most widely used bio polymers classes with promising different applications for replacing conventional plastics on natural aquatic environments. We chose M. galloprovincialis as sentinel species since their extensive filter-feeding activity. When it is exposed to microparticles can bioaccumulate them in soft tissues and organs. In the immunobiological investigation, to highlight if bio-polymers can influence the marine ecosystems, in vitro exposure assays on bivalve mussel have been carried out, and their impacts have been explored, by evaluating the cellular response of hemocytes referred to their phagocytic and/or encapsulation activity. Preliminary evidences have shown that bioplastic particles behave in a very similar way to fossil plastic triggering the immuno-system and activating the elimination of non-self particles via cellular response. As future perspectives, although it is widely recognized that in vitro testing is an effective method for defining the effects of emerging pollutants, the in vitro test will be further deepened with in vivo experiments

Early bursts of diversification defined the faunal colonization of land

The colonization of land was one of the major events in Earth history, leading to the expansion of life and laying the foundations for the modern biosphere. We examined trace fossils, the record of the activities of past life, to understand how animals diversify both behaviourally and ecologically when colonizing new habitats. The faunal invasion of land was preceded by excursions of benthic animals into very shallow, marginal marine environments during the latest Ediacaran period and culminated in widespread colonization of non-marine niches by the end of the Carboniferous period. Trace fossil evidence for the colonization of new environments shows repeated early burst patterns of maximal ichnodisparity (the degree of difference among basic trace fossil architectural designs), ecospace occupation and level of ecosystem engineering prior to maximal ichnodiversity. Similarities across different environments in the types of behavioural programme employed (as represented by different trace fossils), modes of life present and the ways in which animals impacted their environments suggest constraints on behavioural and ecological diversification. The early burst patterns have the hallmark of novelty events. The underlying drivers of these events were probably the extrinsic limitation of available ecospace and intrinsic controls of genomic and developmental plasticity that enabled trace-maker morphological and behavioural novelty.Financial support for the initial part of this project was provided to N.J.M. through a Government of Canada Post-doctoral Research Fellowship under the Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship Program. Additional funding was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grants 311726-05/08/15 and 311727-05/08/13 (to L.A.B. and M.G.M., respectively). M.R.G also acknowledges funding from an NSERC Discovery Grant. This is Earth Sciences Sector contribution number 20160255 and contribution 314 of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Consortium of the National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC

The multiple potentialities of anthozoans: analyses and comparisons between animal models

Anthozoans are the richest class of species of the phylum Cnidaria. They are a candidate group for studying the evolution of mutualisms and immunity and despite their morphological simplicity exhibit a repertoire of immunological components with large genomes and gene families similar to those of the Bilateria. Like other invertebrates, anthozoans immunity is based on self/non-self recognition mechanisms and allorecognition responses, therefore, maintaining their integrity and responding actively to selection pressures. Highlight and investigate the link between innate immunity, homeostasis maintenance, inflammation, tissue remodelling and regeneration in Anthozoa could be useful to elucidate the adaptive capability features to different stress factors. We have carried out studies demonstrating that all these processes are highly conserved among the anthozoans species. We have compared the inflammatory responses and the morpho-functional aspects related to regeneration in different species of Mediterranean anthozoans using histological, cellular and molecular technical approaches on organisms, maintained in aquaria under environmental and pathogenic stressful conditions. This approach appears to be a useful tool from baseline studies in immunology and anthozoans result valid models able to respond to environmental stress conditions. Important results have been obtained with potential biotechnological transferability in pharmacology