The Multi-center Evaluation of the Accuracy of the Contrast MEdium INduced Pd/Pa RaTiO in Predicting FFR (MEMENTO-FFR) Study.

AIMS: Adenosine administration is needed for the achievement of maximal hyperaemia fractional flow reserve (FFR) assessment. The objective was to test the accuracy of Pd/Pa ratio registered during submaximal hyperaemia induced by non-ionic contrast medium (contrast FFR [cFFR]) in predicting FFR and comparing it to the performance of resting Pd/Pa in a collaborative registry of 926 patients enrolled in 10 hospitals from four European countries (Italy, Spain, France and Portugal). METHODS AND RESULTS: Resting Pd/Pa, cFFR and FFR were measured in 1,026 coronary stenoses functionally evaluated using commercially available pressure wires. cFFR was obtained after intracoronary injection of contrast medium, while FFR was measured after administration of adenosine. Resting Pd/Pa and cFFR were significantly higher than FFR (0.93±0.05 vs. 0.87±0.08 vs. 0.84±0.08, p<0.001). A strong correlation and a close agreement at Bland-Altman analysis between cFFR and FFR were observed (r=0.90, p<0.001 and 95% CI of disagreement: from -0.042 to 0.11). ROC curve analysis showed an excellent accuracy (89%) of the cFFR cut-off of ≤0.85 in predicting an FFR value ≤0.80 (AUC 0.95 [95% CI: 0.94-0.96]), significantly better than that observed using resting Pd/Pa (AUC: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.88-0.91; p<0.001). A cFFR/FFR hybrid approach showed a significantly lower number of lesions requiring adenosine than a resting Pd/Pa/FFR hybrid approach (22% vs. 44%, p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: cFFR is accurate in predicting the functional significance of coronary stenosis. This could allow limiting the use of adenosine to obtain FFR to a minority of stenoses with considerable savings of time and costs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Vision for Change in Bioscience Education: Building on Knowledge from the Past

High quality undergraduate education is central to the success of all life scientists. Several major bioscience educational issues are the targets of much debate, research, funding, publications, and reports (e.g. Vision and Change). Surprisingly, these issues are considered by modern bioscience instructors as unresolved despite historical reports that claim the contrary. Here we illustrate with evidence how, more than 50 years ago, Sam Postlethwait successfully instituted strategies to address several issues in plant biology education with his audio-­‐tutorials. These strategies succeeded in individualizing instruction of students with diverse educational backgrounds in large classes, incorporating authentic and active learning, integrating lab and lecture to teach about research, developing science competencies, and advancing curriculum and faculty change informed by empirical data. We contend that modern educators could greatly benefit by building on the historical advancements of the past, to ensure they do not waste their efforts re-­‐ inventing the wheel

Two-loop corrections to the QCD propagators within the Curci-Ferrari model

We evaluate all two-point correlation functions of the Curci-Ferrari (CF) model in four dimensions and in the presence of mass-degenerate fundamental quark flavors, as a natural extension of an earlier investigation in the quenched approximation. In principle, the proper account of chiral symmetry breaking ($\chi$SB) and the corresponding dynamical generation of a quark mass function within the CF model requires one to go beyond perturbation theory \cite{Pelaez:2020ups}. However, it is interesting to assess whether a perturbative description applies to correlation functions that are not directly sensitive to $\chi$SB, such as the gluon, ghost and quark dressing functions. We compare our two-loop results for these form factors to QCD lattice data in the two flavor case for two different values of the pion mass, one that is relatively far from the chiral limit, and one that is closer to the physical value. Our results confirm that the QCD gluon and ghost dressing functions are well described by a perturbative approach within the CF model, as already observed at one-loop order in Ref. \cite{Pelaez:2014mxa}. Our new main result is that the quark dressing function is also well captured by the perturbative approach, but only starting at two-loop order, as also anticipated in Ref. \cite{Pelaez:2014mxa}. The quark mass function predicted by the CF model at two-loop order is in good agreement with the data if the quarks are not too light but shows some clear tension with respect to the two-loop CF dressing functions in the close to physical case, as expected. Interestingly, however, we find that there is much less tension between the non-perturbative quark mass function, as it can be obtained from lattice simulations or from \cite{Pelaez:2020ups}, and the two-loop CF dressing functions, which confirms the perturbative nature of the latter.Comment: 39 pages, 13 figure

The K^*_0(800) scalar resonance from Roy-Steiner representations of pi K scattering

We discuss the existence of the light scalar meson K^*_0(800) (also called kappa) in a rigorous way, by showing the presence of a pole in the pi K --> pi K amplitude on the second Riemann sheet. For this purpose, we study the domain of validity of two classes of Roy-Steiner representations in the complex energy plane. We prove that one of them is valid in a region sufficiently broad in the imaginary direction. From this representation, we compute the l=0 partial wave in the complex plane with neither additional approximation nor model dependence, relying only on experimental data. A scalar resonance with strangeness S=1 is found with the following mass and width: E_kappa = 658 \pm 13 MeV and Gamma_kappa = 557 \pm 24 MeV.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures. Domain of validity of a Roy-Steiner representation corrected and enlarged, and features of the K^*_0(800) pole discussed in more details. Conclusions unchange

Casimir type effects for scalar fields interacting with material slabs

We study the field theoretical model of a scalar field in presence of spacial inhomogeneities in form of one and two finite width mirrors (material slabs). The interaction of the scalar field with the defect is described with position-dependent mass term. For the single layer system we develop a rigorous calculation method and derive explicitly the propagator of the theory, S-matrix elements and the Casimir self-energy of the slab. Detailed investigation of particular limits of self-energy is presented, and connection to know cases is discussed. The calculation method is found applicable to the two mirrors case as well. By means of it we derive the corresponding Casimir energy and analyze it. For particular values of the parameters of the model the obtained results recover the Lifshitz formula. We also propose a procedure to obtain unambiguously the finite Casimir \textit{self}-energy of a single slab without reference to any renormalizations. We hope that our approach can be applied to calculation of Casimir self-energies in other demanded cases (such as dielectric ball, etc.)Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, published version, significant changes in Section 4.

Cholangiocarcinoma: Epidemiology and risk factors

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a heterogeneous disease arising from a complex interaction between host-specific genetic background and multiple risk factors. Globally, CCA incidence rates exhibit geographical variation, with much higher incidence in parts of the Eastern world compared to the West. These differences are likely to reflect differences in geographical risk factors as well as genetic determinants. Of note, over the past few decades, the incidence rates of CCA appear to change and subtypes of CCA appear to show distinct epidemiological trends. These trends need to be interpreted with caution given the issues of diagnosis, recording and coding of subtypes of CCA. Epidemiological evidences suggest that in general population some risk factors are less frequent but associated with a higher CCA risk, while others are more common but associated with a lower risk. Moreover, while some risk factors are shared by intrahepatic and both extrahepatic forms, others seem more specific for one of the two forms. Currently some pathological conditions have been clearly associated with CCA development, and other conditions are emerging; however, while their impact in increasing CCA risk as single etiological factors has been provided in many studies, less is known when two or more risk factors co-occur in the same patient. Moreover, despite the advancements in the knowledge of CCA aetiology, in Western countries about 50% of cases are still diagnosed without any identifiable risk factor. It is therefore conceivable that other still undefined etiologic factors are responsible for the recent increase of CCA (especially iCCA) incidence worldwide