Biomarkers in emergency medicine

Researchers navigate the ocean of biomarkers searching for proper targets and optimal utilization of them. Emergency medicine builds up the front line to maximize the utility of clinically validated biomarkers and is the cutting edge field to test the applicability of promising biomarkers emerging from thorough translational researches. The role of biomarkers in clinical decision making would be of greater significance for identification, risk stratification, monitoring, and prognostication of the patients in the critical- and acute-care settings. No doubt basic research to explore novel biomarkers in relation to the pathogenesis is as important as its clinical counterpart. This special issue includes five selected research papers that cover a variety of biomarker- and disease-related topics

Torsional Capacity of R/C beams

The torsional capacity of R/C beams is considered in this paper. On the basis of Batti and Almughrabi theory, a new general formula is proposed. Accordingly to their theory, this formula takes into account that stirrups influence the concrete torsional capacity because of their involvement in the aggregate interlock. A large number of previous test results, available in the literature (87 beams), has been considered to determine a few coefficients, by minimizing the coefficient of variation of the experimental-to-theoretical torsional capacity ratio. The obtained contributions of concrete and reinforcement on torsional capacity have both a sound physical meaning, which was not the case of the original Batti and Almughrabi\u2019s expressions. The theoretical results obtained with the proposed formula have been compared with the torsional capacities provided by other already available formulae and by some design codes. It is shown that the proposed formula is very efficient, since the computed capacities are very close to the test results and - on the whole - much closer than other well known formulae

Efficient solvability of Hamiltonians and limits on the power of some quantum computational models

We consider quantum computational models defined via a Lie-algebraic theory. In these models, specified initial states are acted on by Lie-algebraic quantum gates and the expectation values of Lie algebra elements are measured at the end. We show that these models can be efficiently simulated on a classical computer in time polynomial in the dimension of the algebra, regardless of the dimension of the Hilbert space where the algebra acts. Similar results hold for the computation of the expectation value of operators implemented by a gate-sequence. We introduce a Lie-algebraic notion of generalized mean-field Hamiltonians and show that they are efficiently ("exactly") solvable by means of a Jacobi-like diagonalization method. Our results generalize earlier ones on fermionic linear optics computation and provide insight into the source of the power of the conventional model of quantum computation.Comment: 6 pages; no figure

Impairment of the autophagic flux in astrocytes intoxicated by trimethyltin

Autophagy is a lysosomal catabolic route for protein aggregates and damaged organelles which in different stress conditions, such as starvation, generally improves cell survival. An impairment of this degradation pathway has been reported to occur in many neurodegenerative processes. Trimethyltin (TMT) is a potent neurotoxin present as an environmental contaminant causing tremors, seizures and learning impairment in intoxicated subjects. The present data show that in rat primary astrocytes autophagic vesicles (AVs) appeared after few hours of TMT treatment. The analysis of the autophagic flux in TMT-treated astrocytes was consistent with a block of the late stages of autophagy and was accompanied by a progressive accumulation of the microtubule associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) and of p62/SQSTM1. Interestingly, an increased immunoreactivity for p62/SQSTM1 was also observed in hippocampal astrocytes detected in brain slices of TMT-intoxicated rats. The time-lapse recordings of AVs in EGFP-mCherry-LC3B transfected astrocytes demonstrated a reduced mobility of autophagosomes after TMT exposure respect to control cells. The observed block of the autophagic flux cannot be overcome by known autophagy inducers such as rapamycin or 0.5mM lithium. Although ineffective when used at 0.5mM, lithium at higher concentrations (2mM) was able to protect astrocyte cultures from TMT toxicity. This effect correlated well with its ability to determine the phosphorylation/inactivation of glycogen kinase synthase-3β (GSK-3β)

Thinking about assessment: Further evidence of the validity of the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition as a measure of mentalistic abilities

The present study aimed to evaluate the nomological network validity of the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) in its Italian translation, addressing distinct research questions in three independent samples of Italian participants comprising adolescent nonclinical participants (N = 393), adult nonclinical participants (N = 193), and adult outpatients with a Personality Disorder (PD) diagnosis who sought psychotherapy treatment (N = 59). In all three samples the MASC proved to be a reliable measure of mentalizing ability, with Cronbach’s α values ranging from .70 to .78. In both nonclinical adolescents and nonclinical adults, the MASC scores correlated significantly and meaningfully with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test scores. In nonclinical adults, the MASC scores showed significant (albeit modest) correlations with self-reported measures of attachment styles. Finally, in adult outpatients, the MASC “no ToM” scores, that are specific errors that indicating non mentalistic responses, correlated significantly with interview-based measures (Spearman r = .41, p < .01) and self-reported measures (Spearman r = .37, p < .01) of borderline personality disorder (BPD), as well as with measures of emotion dysregulation, (Spearman r = .37, p <.01). As a whole, these findings highlight the validity of the MASC as a measure of mentalization and are consistent with Fonagy and colleagues’ (i.e., Bateman & Fonagy, 2004b; Fonagy, 1991) model of mentalization and its role in personality pathology

Extraseasonal production in a soilless system and characterisation of landraces of carosello and barattiere (Cucumis melo l.)

Barattiere and Carosello are typical melon (Cucumis melo L.) landraces of Puglia’s (South-ern Italy) biodiversity. Their unripe fruits are locally consumed as an alternative to cucumbers (C. sativus L.) and are appreciated for their qualitative profile. Nevertheless, they are underutilized crops. For the high variability and confusing denominations, a morphological characterization is essential to discriminate and valorise landraces; additionally, it is fundamental to implement the agronomic technique to allow the cultivation outside the natural growth period (summer) by soilless cultivation. Two genotypes of Barattiere (‘Allungato’ and ‘Tondo’), two of Carosello (‘Scopatizzo’ and ‘Tomentoso’ (CAT)) and two of cucumber (‘Baby Star’ and ‘Modan’ hybrids) were vertically grown in the winter–spring period in a rockwool soilless system in a glasshouse with supplemental light. Lan-draces were characterized by morpho-physiological descriptors of melon; fruit biometrics and colour were analysed for all genotypes; productive parameters, leaf fluorescence, and chlorophyll content were measured. Genotypes varied in seeds, stem, leaf, fruit traits and they were andromonoecious; Carosello flowered earlier and produced more than Barattiere; CAT fruits were hairy and elongate, while other genotypes tended to rounder and glabrous fruits. Although landraces grew slower than cucumbers, both produced marketable fruits and the production of Carosello was comparable to cucumbers. In conclusion, Barattiere and Carosello have a productive potential and one vertically trained stem in a soilless system is appropriate for their extra-seasonal production

Quantum Speedup by Quantum Annealing

We study the glued-trees problem of Childs et. al. in the adiabatic model of quantum computing and provide an annealing schedule to solve an oracular problem exponentially faster than classically possible. The Hamiltonians involved in the quantum annealing do not suffer from the so-called sign problem. Unlike the typical scenario, our schedule is efficient even though the minimum energy gap of the Hamiltonians is exponentially small in the problem size. We discuss generalizations based on initial-state randomization to avoid some slowdowns in adiabatic quantum computing due to small gaps.Comment: 7 page

Necessary Condition for the Quantum Adiabatic Approximation

A gapped quantum system that is adiabatically perturbed remains approximately in its eigenstate after the evolution. We prove that, for constant gap, general quantum processes that approximately prepare the final eigenstate require a minimum time proportional to the ratio of the length of the eigenstate path to the gap. Thus, no rigorous adiabatic condition can yield a smaller cost. We also give a necessary condition for the adiabatic approximation that depends on local properties of the path, which is appropriate when the gap varies.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

A high sensitivity tool for geophysical applications: A geometrically locked Ring Laser Gyroscope

This work demonstrates that a middle size ring laser gyroscope (RLG) can be a very sensitive and robust instrument for rotational seismology, even if it operates in a quite noisy environment. The RLG has a square cavity, $1.60\times 1.60$ m$^2$, and it lies in a plane orthogonal to the Earth rotational axis. The Fabry-Perot optical cavities along the diagonals of the square were accessed and their lengths were locked to a reference laser. Through a quite simple locking circuit, we were able to keep the sensor fully operative for 14 days. The obtained long term stability is of the order of 3~nanorad/s and the short term sensitivity close is to 2~nanorad/s$\cdot$Hz$^{-1/2}$. These results are limited only by the noisy environment, our laboratory is located in a building downtown.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 25 reference

Efficiency of free energy calculations of spin lattices by spectral quantum algorithms

Quantum algorithms are well-suited to calculate estimates of the energy spectra for spin lattice systems. These algorithms are based on the efficient calculation of the discrete Fourier components of the density of states. The efficiency of these algorithms in calculating the free energy per spin of general spin lattices to bounded error is examined. We find that the number of Fourier components required to bound the error in the free energy due to the broadening of the density of states scales polynomially with the number of spins in the lattice. However, the precision with which the Fourier components must be calculated is found to be an exponential function of the system size.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; corrected typographical and minor mathematical error