1,902 research outputs found
EUROMEDITERRANEAN BIOMEDICAL JOURNAL: THE RENEWED MANUSCRIPT LAYOUT AND WEB RENDERING FORESHADOW FURTHER JOURNAL IMPROVEMENT
In January 2006, a new journal, Capsula Eburnea, was born into the Italian scientific publishing scene with the initial goal of creating, at the same time, \u201can open scientific forum and a blog\u201d, based on the premise that \u201cin medicine, nothing should be considered stable, immutable or unsusceptible to critical review at any time, by any scientist\u201d. The Editorial Team progressively sought to improve the quality of the manuscripts published, introducing the requirement for all articles to be written in English, and changed the Journal\u2019s name to EuroMediterranean Biomedical Journal in 2012. Over the last five years, approximately 125 articles by young doctors (including original articles, reviews, commentaries, notes, and abstract books) have been published. The editorial board are confident that the new publishing layout and the renewed web-portal of the journal, introduced in this editorial, represent an essential upgrade after over 10 years of editorial activity, and that these improvements will be appreciated by our authors and, especially, our readers
ELVIS - ELectromagnetic Vector Information Sensor
The ELVIS instrument was recently proposed by the authors for the Indian
Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon and is presently under consideration by the
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The scientific objective of ELVIS is
to explore the electromagnetic environment of the moon. ELVIS samples the full
three-dimensional (3D) electric field vector, E(x,t), up to 18 MHz, with
selective Nyqvist frequency bandwidths down to 5 kHz, and one component of the
magnetic field vector, B(x,t), from a few Hz up to 100 kHz.As a transient
detector, ELVIS is capable of detecting pulses with a minimum pulse width of 5
ns. The instrument comprises three orthogonal electric dipole antennas, one
magnetic search coil antenna and a four-channel digital sampling system,
utilising flexible digital down conversion and filtering together with
state-of-the-art onboard digital signal processing.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to the DGLR Int. Symposium "To Moon and
Beyond", Bremen, Germany, 2005. Companion paper to arXiv:astro-ph/050921
Born with a solitary kidney : at risk of hypertension
Background: Subjects with a congenital solitary kidney (CSK) are believed to be at risk of hypertension due to their low number of nephrons. However, as CSK is a congenital abnormality of the kidney or urinary tract (CAKUT), subtle dysplastic changes contributing to hypertension cannot be excluded. Methods: We retrospectively compared office blood pressure (OBP) and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) between two groups of children with CAKUT, aged 6\u201318 years: Group A with a CSK and Group B with two kidneys. All had normal renal parenchyma on scintigraphy and normal renal function. OBP and mean systolic and diastolic 24-h, daytime and nighttime ambulatory BP records were analyzed. The distribution of OBP and APBM as continuous values and the prevalence of hypertension (ambulatory/severe ambulatory or masked hypertension) in the two groups were compared. Results: There were 81 patients in Group A and 45 in Group B. Median OBP standard deviation scores were normal in both groups, without significant differences. Median ABPM standard deviation scores, although normal, were significantly higher in Group A and the prevalence of hypertension was higher (ambulatory/severe ambulatory or masked) (33.3 vs. 13.3%, p = 0.019), mainly because of the greater occurrence of masked hypertension. Conclusions: Our data show that a CSK per se can be associated with an increased risk of hypertension from the pediatric age. Therefore, ABPM, which has proved valuable in the screening of hypertension, is warranted in children with a CSK, even if laboratory and imaging assessment is otherwise normal
Laura ++ : a Dalitz plot fitter
The Dalitz plot analysis technique has become an increasingly important method in heavy flavour physics. The Laura fitter has been developed as a flexible tool that can be used for Dalitz plot analyses in different experimental environments. Explicitly designed for three-body decays of heavy-flavoured mesons to spinless final state particles, it is optimised in order to describe all possible resonant or nonresonant contributions, and to accommodate possible violation effects
Post-transplant recurrence of steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome in children: the Italian experience
Background: Steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) is a frequent cause of end stage renal disease in children and post-transplant disease recurrence is a major cause of graft loss. Methods: We identified all children with SRNS who underwent renal transplantation in Italy, between 2005 and 2017. Data were retrospectively collected for the presence of a causative gene mutation, sex, histology, duration of pre-transplant dialysis, age at onset and transplant, HLA matching, recurrence, therapy for recurrence, and graft survival. Results: 101 patients underwent a first and 22 a second renal transplant. After a median follow-up of 58.5 months, the disease recurred on the first renal transplant in 53.3% of patients with a non-genetic and none with a genetic SRNS. Age at transplant > 9 years and the presence of at least one HLA-AB match were independent risk factors for recurrence. Duration of dialysis was longer in children with relapse, but did not reach statistical significance. Overall, 24% of patients lost the first graft, with recurrence representing the commonest cause. Among 22 patients who underwent a second transplant, 5 suffered of SRNS recurrence. SRNS relapsed in 5/9 (55%) patients with disease recurrence in their first transplant and 2 of them lost the second graft. Conclusions: Absence of a causative mutation represents the major risk factor for post-transplant recurrence in children with SRNS, while transplant can be curative in genetic SRNS. A prolonged time spent on dialysis before transplantation has no protective effect on the risk of relapse and should not be encouraged. Retransplantation represents a second chance after graft loss for recurrence
Rilevazione nazionale in tema di formazione specifica di medicina generale in Italia
Physicians have to get a \u201cspecific\u201d diploma attending a threeyear training course provided by each regional health
service in order to practice as General Practitioners in Italy. In the last years, there has been an ongoing debate
about the need to evolve the specific regional courses into integrated specialization training courses, organized and
managed by universities with the contribution of regional health services. The Italian Junior Doctors Association and
the Giotto Movement carried out a national survey with the aim to identify strengths and weaknesses of the specific
regional training courses. Three-hundred-two junior General Practitioners in training (61,2% females) answered to a
web administered questionnaire. Only about half of the recruited trainees has defined as at least \u201csufficient\u201d the
training provided by the regional courses. The survey documented in the Italian General Practitioners trainees the
need to satisfy an educational demand in order to implement their primary care and general practice skills. In
conclusion, this cross-sectional study provided sufficient evidences supporting the evolution of the regional training
courses into general practice and primary care specialization schools
Motivational aspects and level of satisfaction of Italian junior doctors with regard to knowledge and skills acquired attending specific general practice training courses. A national web survey
The demographic and epidemiological transitions resulted in a pressing need to reformulate the health workforce demand and to revise pre-and post-graduate training to prepare the medical profiles to meet the new health needs focused on chronic diseases. The Italian Junior Doctors Association and the Giotto Movement carried out a web survey to identify the motivational aspects and the level of satisfaction of Italian junior doctors regarding knowledge and skills acquired after attending the General Practitioners\u2019 specific training (GP-ST). Three-hundred-forty-seven General Practitioners (GPs), 302 trainees and 45 newly qualified trainees answered a web questionnaire. Significant differences (p-value= 0.018) were documented between the two groups regarding the level of satisfaction on the GP-ST. The analysis by geographic macro-areas of the answers given by the 302 trainees showed a heterogeneous level of overall satisfaction (p-value= 0.005). In conclusion, the evidence provided by this cross-sectional study support the proposal to evolve the GP-ST regional courses into general practice and primary care specialization schools
Measurement of ISR-FSR interference in the processes e+ e- --> mu+ mu- gamma and e+ e- --> pi+ pi- gamma
Charge asymmetry in processes e+ e- --> mu+ mu- gamma and e+ e- --> pi+ pi-
gamma is measured using 232 fb-1 of data collected with the BABAR detector at
center-of-mass energies near 10.58 GeV. An observable is introduced and shown
to be very robust against detector asymmetries while keeping a large
sensitivity to the physical charge asymmetry that results from the interference
between initial and final state radiation. The asymmetry is determined as
afunction of the invariant mass of the final-state tracks from production
threshold to a few GeV/c2. It is compared to the expectation from QED for e+ e-
--> mu+ mu- gamma and from theoretical models for e+ e- --> pi+ pi- gamma. A
clear interference pattern is observed in e+ e- --> pi+ pi- gamma, particularly
in the vicinity of the f_2(1270) resonance. The inferred rate of lowest order
FSR production is consistent with the QED expectation for e+ e- --> mu+ mu-
gamma, and is negligibly small for e+ e- --> pi+ pi- gamma.Comment: 32 pages,29 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.
Measurement of CP Asymmetries and Branching Fractions in Charmless Two-Body B-Meson Decays to Pions and Kaons
We present improved measurements of CP-violation parameters in the decays
, , and , and of
the branching fractions for and . The
results are obtained with the full data set collected at the
resonance by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy factory
at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, corresponding to
million pairs. We find the CP-violation parameter values and
branching fractions where in each case, the first uncertainties are statistical
and the second are systematic. We observe CP violation with a significance of
6.7 standard deviations for and 6.1 standard deviations for
, including systematic uncertainties. Constraints on the
Unitarity Triangle angle are determined from the isospin relations
among the rates and asymmetries. Considering only the solution
preferred by the Standard Model, we find to be in the range
at the 68% confidence level.Comment: 18 pages, 11 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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