Heavy-ion physics studies for the Future Circular Collider

The Future Circular Collider (FCC) design study is aimed at assessing the physics potential and the technical feasibility of a new collider with centre-of-mass energies, in the hadron-hadron collision mode including proton and nucleus beams, more than seven-times larger than the nominal LHC energies. An electron-positron collider in the same tunnel is also considered as an intermediate step, which would provide the electron-hadron option in the long term. First ideas on the physics opportunities with heavy ions at the FCC are presented, covering the physics of Quark-Gluon Plasma, gluon saturation, photon-induced collisions, as well as connections with ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of Quark Matter 2014, Darmstadt, Germany, submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Malignant Hyperthermia and Heat Stroke in Calsequestrin-1 Knockout Mice

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Understanding and controlling the efficiency of Au24M(SR)18 nanoclusters as singlet-oxygen photosensitizers

Atomically precise Au24M(SR)18 clusters were used as singlet-oxygen photosensitizers. Comprehensive kinetic analysis provided insights into the mechanism and driving-force dependence of the quenching of 1O2 by gold nanoclusters

Initial Characterization of CASQ1/CASQ2 Knockout (double CASQ-Null) Mice

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When instrument location makes the difference on rainfall thresholds definition: Lessons learned at Cancia, Dolomites

Since debris flows represent one of the most dangerous natural hazard in mountain areas, Early Warning Systems (EWSs) play a crucial role in reducing the risk of these hazardous processes. Robust event pre-alert usually relies on long time series of local rainfall measures. Oftentimes regional rain gauge networks present an insufficient spatial density to grasp the highly variable spatio-temporal dynamics of debris-flow triggering events and thus relying on such networks for developing rainfall thresholds might lead to relatively low rainfall estimates. The present paper reports the development of operational rainfall thresholds for the Cancia EWS, Dolomites (NE Italy). The instrumentation configuration led to the derivation and implementation of a set of rainfall thresholds that significantly enhanced pre-alarm reliability thanks to an optimal spatial distribution of multiple rain gauges within the catchment. Notwithstanding the small number of debris flows occurred during the calibration period, rainfall thresholds were derived considering the whole population of rainfall events showcasing the statistical properties of those events that led to debris-flow initiation. Finally, the validation period served as proof of work for the proposed thresholds with no raised false alarms and with the identification of few minor, but correctly detected, debris flows

An occasional diagnosis of myasthenia gravis - a focus on thymus during cardiac surgery: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Myasthenia gravis, an uncommon autoimmune syndrome, is commonly associated with thymus abnormalities. Thymomatous myasthenia gravis is considered to have worst prognosis and thymectomy can reverse symptoms if precociously performed.</p> <p>Case report</p> <p>We describe a case of a patient who underwent mitral valve repair and was found to have an occasional thymomatous mass during the surgery. A total thymectomy was performed concomitantly to the mitral valve repair.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The diagnosis of thymomatous myasthenia gravis was confirmed postoperatively. Following the surgery this patient was strictly monitored and at 1-year follow-up a complete stable remission had been successfully achieved.</p

INFN What Next: Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

This document was prepared by the community that is active in Italy, within INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), in the field of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The experimental study of the phase diagram of strongly-interacting matter and of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) deconfined state will proceed, in the next 10-15 years, along two directions: the high-energy regime at RHIC and at the LHC, and the low-energy regime at FAIR, NICA, SPS and RHIC. The Italian community is strongly involved in the present and future programme of the ALICE experiment, the upgrade of which will open, in the 2020s, a new phase of high-precision characterisation of the QGP properties at the LHC. As a complement of this main activity, there is a growing interest in a possible future experiment at the SPS, which would target the search for the onset of deconfinement using dimuon measurements. On a longer timescale, the community looks with interest at the ongoing studies and discussions on a possible fixed-target programme using the LHC ion beams and on the Future Circular Collider.Comment: 99 pages, 56 figure

ZFP30 promotes adipogenesis through the KAP1-mediated activation of a retrotransposon-derived Pparg2 enhancer.

Krüppel-associated box zinc finger proteins (KZFPs) constitute the largest family of mammalian transcription factors, but most remain completely uncharacterized. While initially proposed to primarily repress transposable elements, recent reports have revealed that KFZPs contribute to a wide variety of other biological processes. Using murine and human in vitro and in vivo models, we demonstrate here that one poorly studied KZFP, ZFP30, promotes adipogenesis by directly targeting and activating a retrotransposon-derived Pparg2 enhancer. Through mechanistic studies, we further show that ZFP30 recruits the co-regulator KRAB-associated protein 1 (KAP1), which, surprisingly, acts as a ZFP30 co-activator in this adipogenic context. Our findings provide an understanding of both adipogenic and KZFP-KAP1 complex-mediated gene regulation, showing that the KZFP-KAP1 axis can also function in a non-repressive manner

Double vs single internal thoracic artery harvesting in diabetic patients: role in perioperative infection rate

Background: The aim of this prospective study is to evaluate the role in the onset of surgical site infections of bilateral internal thoracic arteries harvesting in patients with decompensated preoperative glycemia. Methods: 81 consecutive patients with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus underwent elective CABG harvesting single or double internal thoracic arteries. Single left ITA was harvested in 41 patients (Group 1, 50.6%), BITAs were harvested in 40 (Group 2, 49.4%). The major clinical end points analyzed in this study were infection rate, type of infection, duration of infection, infection relapse rate and total hospital length of stay. Results: Five patients developed sternal SSI in the perioperative period, 2 in group 1 and 3 in group 2 without significant difference. All sternal SSIs were superficial with no sternal dehiscence. The development of infection from the time of surgery took 18.5 ± 2.1 and 7.3 ± 3.0 days for Groups 1 and 2 respectively. The infections were treated with wound irrigation and debridement, and with VAC therapy as well as with antibiotics. The VAC system was removed after a mean of 12.8 ± 5.1 days, when sterilization was achieved. The overall survival estimate at 1 year was 98.7%. Only BMI was a significant predictor of SSI using multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis (Odds Ratio: 1.34; 95%Conficdence Interval: 1.02–1.83; p value: 0.04). In the model, the use of BITA was not an independent predictor of SSI. Conclusion: CABG with bilateral pedicled ITAs grafting could be performed safely even in diabetics with poor preoperative glycaemic control

Multiplicity dependence of jet-like two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum range 0.7 $< p_{\rm{T}, assoc} < p_{\rm{T}, trig} <$ 5.0 GeV/$c$ is examined, to include correlations induced by jets originating from low momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<0.9$. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.Comment: 23 pages, 6 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 17, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/161