Significance of borderline hemoglobin A2 values in an Italian population with a high prevalence of -thalassemia

n/

Radioactive ion beam opportunities at the new FRAISE facility of INFN-LNS

At the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud of INFN (INFN-LNS) in Catania, the construction of the new Radioactive Ion Beams (RIBs) facility FRAISE (FRAgment In-flight SEparator) has reached its ending phase. The facility uses the in-flight technique based on a primary beam fragmentation impinging on light Be or C targets. FRAISE makes use of light and medium mass primary beams, having power up to asymptotic to 2-3 kW, leading to RIBs, whose intensities vary in the range of asymptotic to 10(3)-10(7) pps, for nuclei far from and close to the stability valley, respectively. FRAISE aims at providing high-intensity and high-quality RIBs for nuclear physics experiments, also serving to interdisciplinary research areas, such as medical physics. Critical aspects for high-quality beams are the tuning and transport, representing time-consuming processes and requiring dedicated diagnostics and tagging devices measuring many features of RIBs. Some of these devices should be capable to operate in radioactively activated environments because of the expected 2 kW beam lost in the dipole after the production target. Due to its peculiar robustness to radioactive damage, Silicon Carbide (SiC) technology has been considered for the detection layer. In this view, an R & D campaign has been started aiming at developing the FRAISE facility, the new diagnostics system, and a new tagging device, the latter of which will be useful for the CHIMERA multidetector beamline. In this paper, we discuss the status and the perspectives of the facility with a focus on the RIBs opportunities

Ten new insights in climate science 2020 – a horizon scan

Non-technical summary We summarize some of the past year's most important findings within climate change-related research. New research has improved our understanding of Earth's sensitivity to carbon dioxide, finds that permafrost thaw could release more carbon emissions than expected and that the uptake of carbon in tropical ecosystems is weakening. Adverse impacts on human society include increasing water shortages and impacts on mental health. Options for solutions emerge from rethinking economic models, rights-based litigation, strengthened governance systems and a new social contract. The disruption caused by COVID-19 could be seized as an opportunity for positive change, directing economic stimulus towards sustainable investments. Technical summary A synthesis is made of ten fields within climate science where there have been significant advances since mid-2019, through an expert elicitation process with broad disciplinary scope. Findings include: (1) a better understanding of equilibrium climate sensitivity; (2) abrupt thaw as an accelerator of carbon release from permafrost; (3) changes to global and regional land carbon sinks; (4) impacts of climate change on water crises, including equity perspectives; (5) adverse effects on mental health from climate change; (6) immediate effects on climate of the COVID-19 pandemic and requirements for recovery packages to deliver on the Paris Agreement; (7) suggested long-term changes to governance and a social contract to address climate change, learning from the current pandemic, (8) updated positive cost–benefit ratio and new perspectives on the potential for green growth in the short- and long-term perspective; (9) urban electrification as a strategy to move towards low-carbon energy systems and (10) rights-based litigation as an increasingly important method to address climate change, with recent clarifications on the legal standing and representation of future generations. Social media summary Stronger permafrost thaw, COVID-19 effects and growing mental health impacts among highlights of latest climate science

The Onik method of automated percutaneous lumbar diskectomy (A.P.L.D.). Criteria of selection, techinque and evaluation of results.

The Onik method of automated percutaneous lumbar diskectomy is a new type of percutaneous surgery for the treatment of herniated lumbar disk. Candidates for this procedure should be carefully evaluated on the basis of precise clinical criteria and instrumental diagnosis. The goal is to select patients in whom excellent results can be achieved, recognizing the limitations as well as the merits of the technique. The surgical approach is described and the potential difficulties are discussed, since this technique must be performed with precision and without trauma in order to obtain good results. The clinical results of 500 patients treated by the Onik method of automated percutaneous lumbar diskectomy are reported. The follow-up period ranged from 6 months to 2 1/2 years. The patients were divided into three groups according to the strength of the indication for A.P.L.D.; the quality of the result is reported for each group

The Casal de' Pazzi archaic parietal: comparative analysis of new fossil evidence from the late Middle Pleistocene of Rome

A fossilized fragment of human parietal bone has been recently recovered from the lowest layer of the Casal de' Pazzi fluvial deposit (stratigraphically dated at about 200-250 ky BP). The fossil presents characters-i.e., thickness, degree and development of curvature, type of endocranial vascularization-which distinguish it from the corresponding cranial regions of both Homo erectus and anatomically modern Homo sapiens. While a morphological orientation towards Neanderthal characters can be considered, the affinities of the Casal de' Pazzi parietal are primarily with other late Middle Pleistocene specimens. The authors conclude that the Casal de' Pazzi human find can be assigned to the "archaic Homo sapiens" group falling within the European pre-Neanderthal range. Its particular morphology constitutes new evidence of human evolution from the geographical area of Rome. © 1990

Fast proton conduction in hydrogen bonded microheterogeneous systems: Bis(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid/N-methyl formamide liquid mixtures

Structural and dynamical properties of bis(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (HDEHP)/N-methyl formamide (NMF) liquid mixtures in the whole composition range have been investigated by Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-rays Diffraction (XRD), and AC complex impedance spectroscopy. Driven by hydrogen bond interactions among HDEHP PO4H group and NMF CO and NH groups, and also by steric effects among the HDEHP alkyl chains, the system microstructure is mainly characterized by the coexistence of spatially separated hydrophilic and hydrophobic nanodomains showing local organization and short-range order. The evolution of this structural feature with system composition has been highlighted by FT-IR and XRD. On the other hand, the thermally activated proton mobility within these hydrophilic domains, as pointed out by AC complex impedance measurements, emphasizes the occurrence of a percolating behaviour characterized by percolation threshold at zero. Due to fast proton conduction across the interconnected network formed by the polar groups, some samples showed very high room-temperature conductivity up to 10 3 S cm 1

Simultaneous modeling of VLE, LLE and VLLE of CO2 and 1, 2, 3 and 4 alkanol containing mixtures using GC-PPC-SAFT EOS

International audienceA polar version of the group contribution PC-SAFT equation of state (GC-PPC-SAFT; Tamouza et al., 2004; NguyenHuynh et al., 2008) combined with a method for correlation/prediction of binary interaction parameters kij (NguyenHuynh et al., 2008) is here applied to model vapor–liquid, liquid–liquid and vapor–liquid–liquid phase equilibria of CO2 + alkanol mixtures simultaneously.A cross-association interaction between CO2 and alkanol had to be taken into account to model/predict the mixtures equilibria accurately. The cross-association parameters were evaluated using the so-called CR1 mixing rules supported by ab initio computations.Extensive prediction tests on CO2 + alkanol mixtures involving linear and branched alkanols are carried out. The results obtained showed that in most cases, the correlation and prediction calculations are qualitatively and quantitatively satisfactory: the overall deviations on liquid phase and vapor phase are respectively ΔX = 3–4% and ΔY = 1–2%