183 research outputs found
Radiations and female fertility
Hundreds of thousands of young women are diagnosed with cancer each year, and due to recent advances in screening programs, diagnostic methods and treatment options, survival rates have significantly improved. Radiation therapy plays an important role in cancer treatment and in some cases it constitutes the first therapy proposed to the patient. However, ionizing radiations have a gonadotoxic action with long-term effects that include ovarian insufficiency, pubertal arrest and subsequent infertility. Cranial irradiation may lead to disruption of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, with consequent dysregulation of the normal hormonal secretion. The uterus might be damaged by radiotherapy, as well. In fact, exposure to radiation during childhood leads to altered uterine vascularization, decreased uterine volume and elasticity, myometrial fibrosis and necrosis, endometrial atrophy and insufficiency. As radiations have a relevant impact on reproductive potential, fertility preservation procedures should be carried out before and/or during anticancer treatments. Fertility preservation strategies have been employed for some years now and have recently been diversified thanks to advances in reproductive biology. Aim of this paper is to give an overview of the various effects of radiotherapy on female reproductive function and to describe the current fertility preservation options
On the Yang-Lee and Langer singularities in the O(n) loop model
We use the method of `coupling to 2d QG' to study the analytic properties of
the universal specific free energy of the O(n) loop model in complex magnetic
field. We compute the specific free energy on a dynamical lattice using the
correspondence with a matrix model. The free energy has a pair of Yang-Lee
edges on the high-temperature sheet and a Langer type branch cut on the
low-temperature sheet. Our result confirms a conjecture by A. and Al.
Zamolodchikov about the decay rate of the metastable vacuum in presence of
Liouville gravity and gives strong evidence about the existence of a weakly
metastable state and a Langer branch cut in the O(n) loop model on a flat
lattice. Our results are compatible with the Fonseca-Zamolodchikov conjecture
that the Yang-Lee edge appears as the nearest singularity under the Langer cut.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figure
Coastal ocean forecasting with an unstructured grid model in the southern Adriatic and northern Ionian seas
SANIFS (Southern Adriatic Northern Ionian coastal Forecasting System) is a
coastal-ocean operational system based on the unstructured grid
finite-element three-dimensional hydrodynamic SHYFEM model, providing
short-term forecasts. The operational chain is based on a downscaling
approach starting from the large-scale system for the entire Mediterranean
Basin (MFS, Mediterranean Forecasting System), which provides initial and
boundary condition fields to the nested system.
The model is configured to provide hydrodynamics and active tracer forecasts
both in open ocean and coastal waters of southeastern Italy using a variable
horizontal resolution from the open sea (3–4 km) to coastal areas (50–500 m).
Given that the coastal fields are driven by a combination of both local (also known as coastal) and deep-ocean
forcings propagating along the shelf, the performance of SANIFS was verified both in forecast and simulation
mode, first (i)Â on the large and shelf-coastal scales by comparing with a large-scale survey
CTD (conductivity–temperature–depth)
in the Gulf of Taranto and then (ii)Â on the coastal-harbour scale (Mar Grande of Taranto) by
comparison with CTD, ADCP (acoustic doppler current profiler) and tide gauge data.
Sensitivity tests were performed on initialization conditions (mainly focused on spin-up procedures)
and on surface boundary conditions by assessing the reliability of two alternative datasets at
different horizontal resolution (12.5 and 6.5 km).
The SANIFS forecasts at a lead time of 1Â day were compared with the MFS
forecasts, highlighting that SANIFS is able to retain the large-scale dynamics
of MFS. The large-scale dynamics of MFS are correctly propagated to the shelf-coastal scale, improving
the forecast accuracy (+17 % for temperature and +6 % for
salinity compared to MFS). Moreover, the added value of SANIFS was assessed
on the coastal-harbour scale, which is not covered by the coarse resolution of
MFS, where the fields forecasted by SANIFS reproduced the observations well
(temperature RMSE equal to 0.11 °C).
Furthermore, SANIFS simulations were compared with hourly time series of
temperature, sea level and velocity measured on the coastal-harbour scale,
showing a good agreement. Simulations in the Gulf of Taranto described a
circulation mainly characterized by an anticyclonic gyre with the presence of
cyclonic vortexes in shelf-coastal areas. A surface water inflow from the open
sea to Mar Grande characterizes the coastal-harbour scale
Potential Energy Landscape Equation of State
Depth, number, and shape of the basins of the potential energy landscape are
the key ingredients of the inherent structure thermodynamic formalism
introduced by Stillinger and Weber [F. H. Stillinger and T. A. Weber, Phys.
Rev. A 25, 978 (1982)]. Within this formalism, an equation of state based only
on the volume dependence of these landscape properties is derived. Vibrational
and configurational contributions to pressure are sorted out in a transparent
way. Predictions are successfully compared with data from extensive molecular
dynamics simulations of a simple model for the fragile liquid orthoterphenyl.Comment: RevTeX4, 4 pages, 5 figure
Hepatic follicular lymphoma in an old patient with Crohn’s disease: a rare case and review of the literature
OBJECTIVE: Crohn’s Disease (CD) has been associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Follicular Lymphoma (FL) limited to the liver is extremely rare, accounting for 1% to 4.4% of all Primary Hepatic Lymphoma (PHL). CASE PRESENTATION: In 2018, an 85-years old male patient with post-operative recurrence of ileal CD referred rare episodes of fever and mild diffuse abdominal pain. Since cholecystectomy in 2001, clinical history was characterized by recurrent episodes of cholangitis and common bile duct stones. In 2018, ultrasonography and MRI showed a solid focal hepatic lesion (FHL)(4.5 cm x 2.5 cm) in the IV hepatic segment. The radiographic aspect of the lesion was unusual. Initially, focal nodular hyperplasia was suspected. Clinical history of cholangitis and radiological findings subsequently suggested a diagnosis of Hepatic Abscess (HA). A progressive enlargement of the FHL (7.3 cm x 5.8 cm) despite antibiotic treatments, led to perform a liver biopsy. Histological and immunophenotypi-cal analysis of the FHL (7.5 cm x 5.4 cm) enabled a final diagnosis of FL. The “in situ” hybridization for Epstein-Barr virus (EBER) was negative. No additional lesions related to FL were initially detected, thus suggesting a very rare case of PHL in an old patient with CD never treated with thiopurines. CONCLUSIONS: This case report highlights the need to consider a rare diagnosis of FL of the liver in patients showing a challenging focal hepatic lesion of unknown origin
Interplay Between Time-Temperature-Transformation and the Liquid-Liquid Phase Transition in Water
We study the TIP5P water model proposed by Mahoney and Jorgensen, which is
closer to real water than previously-proposed classical pairwise additive
potentials. We simulate the model in a wide range of deeply supercooled states
and find (i) the existence of a non-monotonic ``nose-shaped'' temperature of
maximum density line and a non-reentrant spinodal, (ii) the presence of a low
temperature phase transition, (iii) the free evolution of bulk water to ice,
and (iv) the time-temperature-transformation curves at different densities.Comment: RevTeX4, 4 pages, 4 eps figure
The global tendency in the research of biological activity in endophytic fungi:a scientometric analysis
Large Scale Cross-Correlations in Internet Traffic
The Internet is a complex network of interconnected routers and the existence
of collective behavior such as congestion suggests that the correlations
between different connections play a crucial role. It is thus critical to
measure and quantify these correlations. We use methods of random matrix theory
(RMT) to analyze the cross-correlation matrix C of information flow changes of
650 connections between 26 routers of the French scientific network `Renater'.
We find that C has the universal properties of the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble
of random matrices: The distribution of eigenvalues--up to a rescaling which
exhibits a typical correlation time of the order 10 minutes--and the spacing
distribution follow the predictions of RMT. There are some deviations for large
eigenvalues which contain network-specific information and which identify
genuine correlations between connections. The study of the most correlated
connections reveals the existence of `active centers' which are exchanging
information with a large number of routers thereby inducing correlations
between the corresponding connections. These strong correlations could be a
reason for the observed self-similarity in the WWW traffic.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, final versio
Statistical Mechanics of Glass Formation in Molecular Liquids with OTP as an Example
We extend our statistical mechanical theory of the glass transition from
examples consisting of point particles to molecular liquids with internal
degrees of freedom. As before, the fundamental assertion is that super-cooled
liquids are ergodic, although becoming very viscous at lower temperatures, and
are therefore describable in principle by statistical mechanics. The theory is
based on analyzing the local neighborhoods of each molecule, and a statistical
mechanical weight is assigned to every possible local organization. This
results in an approximate theory that is in very good agreement with
simulations regarding both thermodynamical and dynamical properties
Novel sources of variation in grain Zinc (Zn) concentration in bread wheat germplasm derived from Watkins landraces
A diverse panel of 245 wheat genotypes, derived from crosses between landraces from the Watkins collection representing global diversity in the early 20th century and the modern wheat cultivar Paragon, was grown at two field sites in the UK in 2015–16 and the concentrations of zinc and iron determined in wholegrain using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Zinc concentrations in wholegrain varied from 24–49 mg kg-1 and were correlated with iron concentration (r = 0.64) and grain protein content (r = 0.14). However, the correlation with yield was low (r = -0.16) indicating little yield dilution. A sub-set of 24 wheat lines were selected from 245 wheat genotypes and characterised for Zn and Fe concentrations in wholegrain and white flour over two sites and years. White flours from 24 selected lines contained 8–15 mg kg-1 of zinc, which was positively correlated with the wholegrain Zn concentration (r = 0.79, averaged across sites and years). This demonstrates the potential to exploit the diversity in landraces to increase the concentration of Zn in wholegrain and flour of modern high yielding bread wheat cultivars
- …