Crystal-induced joint inflammation

L'infiammazione articolare indotta dai microcristalli e tra le piu acute ed intense che e dato conoscere. A supporto di questa affermazione si possono citare le numerose ed autorevoli testimonianze ricevute nei secoli dai personaggi affetti da gotta (1, 2), la piu nota e celebrata artropatia da microcristalli. Proprio sulla particolare capacita di questa malattia di indurre un'infiammazione particolarmente intensa ed essere poi in grado di autolimitarla, almeno durante i primi attacchi, si sono riversate molte attenzioni degli studiosi moderni, i quali hanno cercato di interpretare questo fenomeno con l'ambizione principale di poterlo trasferire ad altri tipi di infiammazione articolare. In effetti, i modelli d'infiammazione indotta dai cristalli di urato monosodico (UMS), di pirofosfato di calcio diidrato (PFCD) e da altri microcristalli di natura calcica, costituiscono un ottimo terreno di applicazione per lo studio della fisiopatologia dell'infiammazione articolare, soprattutto per cio che concerne gli eventi acuti..

New horizons in osteoarthritis

Summary Osteoarthritis (OA), also known as degenerative joint disease, is the most frequent chronic musculoskeletal disease and the leading cause of disability in elderly persons. There are currently at least 27 million persons afflicted with OA in the United States, and the annual cost to society in medical care and wage loss is expected to reach nearly $100 billion dollars by 2020, with consequent increased spending on its diagnosis and treatment, side-effect prevention, and loss of productivity. Despite this enormous burden, many aspects of OA are still unknown, with implications not only in terms of diagnosis and assessment but also with regard to therapy. Awareness of this state of affairs has attracted many researchers to this field, making OA one of the most actively studied sectors of rheumatology. Although some clinicians are unaware of recent advances, there is a large body of publications indicating that much has been achieved. Major progress has been made in formulating better definitions of risk factors, in particular in indicating the responsibility of biomechanical and genetic factors, and, with regard to pathogenesis, underlining the role of subchondral bone, cytokines and proteinases. Assessment of OA activity and its progression has been improved with the advent of biomarkers and new imaging procedures, in particular sonography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but also of better clinical instruments, including more reliable patient questionnaires. Information from ongoing studies may improve the to some extent incomplete definition of OA phenotypes. Finally, promising new horizons have been opened up even with regard to the treatment of OA, which is still for the most part unsatisfactory except for surgical replacement therapy. Numerous new substances have been formulated and the findings of trials studying their effects are encouraging, although much has yet to be done

Massive motion in Brans-Dicke geometry and beyond

Gravity theories that can be viewed as dynamics for area metric manifolds, for which Brans-Dicke theory presents a recently studied example, require for their physical interpretation the identification of the distinguished curves that serve as the trajectories of light and massive matter. Complementing previous results on the propagation of light, we study effective massive point particle motion. We show that the relevant geometrical structure is a special Finsler norm determined by the area metric, and that massive point particles follow Finsler geodesics.Comment: 12 page

The artificial retina for track reconstruction at the LHC crossing rate

We present the results of an R&D study for a specialized processor capable of precisely reconstructing events with hundreds of charged-particle tracks in pixel and silicon strip detectors at $40\,\rm MHz$, thus suitable for processing LHC events at the full crossing frequency. For this purpose we design and test a massively parallel pattern-recognition algorithm, inspired to the current understanding of the mechanisms adopted by the primary visual cortex of mammals in the early stages of visual-information processing. The detailed geometry and charged-particle's activity of a large tracking detector are simulated and used to assess the performance of the artificial retina algorithm. We find that high-quality tracking in large detectors is possible with sub-microsecond latencies when the algorithm is implemented in modern, high-speed, high-bandwidth FPGA devices.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, ICHEP14. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1409.089

Simulation and performance of an artificial retina for 40 MHz track reconstruction

We present the results of a detailed simulation of the artificial retina pattern-recognition algorithm, designed to reconstruct events with hundreds of charged-particle tracks in pixel and silicon detectors at LHCb with LHC crossing frequency of $40\,\rm MHz$. Performances of the artificial retina algorithm are assessed using the official Monte Carlo samples of the LHCb experiment. We found performances for the retina pattern-recognition algorithm comparable with the full LHCb reconstruction algorithm.Comment: Final draft of WIT proceedings modified according to JINST referee's comment

Eprosartan mesylate, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist

The title compound, eprosartan mesylate {systematic name: 2-butyl-1-(4-carb­oxy­benz­yl)-5-[(E)-2-carb­oxy-3-(thio­phen-2-yl)prop-1-en­yl]-1H-imidazol-3-ium methane­sulfonate}, C23H25N2O4S+·CH3O3S−, one of the angiotensin II-receptor antagonists, is effective in regulating hypertension, induced or exacerbated by angiotensin II, and in the treatment of congestive heart failure, renal failure and glaucoma. In the eprosartan residue, which appears in this crystal in the cationic imidazolium form, the benzene ring plane is almost orthogonal to that of the imidazole ring, making a dihedral angle of 87.89 (2)°. The thio­phene ring forms dihedral angles of 66.54 (2) and 67.12 (2)° with the benzene and imidazole rings, respectively. The imidazolium NH group and the H atom of the aromatic carboxyl group participate in hydrogen bonds with the the O atoms of the anion, thus forming centrosymmetric aggregates made up of two cations and two anions each. The second carboxyl group further links the above-mentioned aggregates through a conventional centrosymmetric hydrogen-bonding motif into infinite chains along [011]

A Specialized Processor for Track Reconstruction at the LHC Crossing Rate

We present the results of an R&D study of a specialized processor capable of precisely reconstructing events with hundreds of charged-particle tracks in pixel detectors at 40 MHz, thus suitable for processing LHC events at the full crossing frequency. For this purpose we design and test a massively parallel pattern-recognition algorithm, inspired by studies of the processing of visual images by the brain as it happens in nature. We find that high-quality tracking in large detectors is possible with sub-$\mu$s latencies when this algorithm is implemented in modern, high-speed, high-bandwidth FPGA devices. This opens a possibility of making track reconstruction happen transparently as part of the detector readout.Comment: Presented by G.Punzi at the conference on "Instrumentation for Colliding Beam Physics" (INSTR14), 24 Feb to 1 Mar 2014, Novosibirsk, Russia. Submitted to JINST proceeding

A restatement of the normal form theorem for area metrics

An area metric is a (0,4)-tensor with certain symmetries on a 4-manifold that represent a non-dissipative linear electromagnetic medium. A recent result by Schuller, Witte and Wohlfarth provides a pointwise normal form theorem for such area metrics. This result is similar to the Jordan normal form theorem for (1,1)-tensors, and the result shows that any area metric belongs to one of 23 metaclasses with explicit coordinate expressions for each metaclass. In this paper we restate and prove this result for skewon-free (2,2)-tensors and show that in general, each metaclasses has three different coordinate representations, and each of metaclasses I, II, ..., VI, VII need only one coordinate representation.Comment: Updated proof of Proposition A.2 (Claim 5). Fixed typo in Theorem 6 (Metaclass XXIII

Protection of vaccine preventable diseases in a population of hiv-infected children: A 3 years prospective study

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infected children have a 30–70% chance of being incompletely immunized and may not respond serologically with the same magnitude or durability as uninfected children. The aim of the study was to describe the rate of protective antibodies titre and the persistence of the response against four recommended vaccinations in HIV infected children and adolescents. A two-phase observational study was performed in which protective IgG antibodies to measles, mumps, rubella and hepatitis B were determined and monitored for 12 and 24 months, in 26 perinatally HIV-infected children. The rate of protection for rubella and hepatitis B was significantly lower in the HIV group compared to the control group (92% vs. 65% for rubella and 78.4% vs. 45.4% for hepatitis B; p < 0.05). Children who received primary vaccination after initiating combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) had a higher rate of response. Seronegative patients who received a booster dose of vaccine had a good immunological response. HIV infection is associated with a lower response to vaccines against rubella and hepatitis. The beginning of cART before vaccination may be associated with a better response. The evaluation of the serological response is crucial in children with HIV infection in order to evaluate the protection of vaccine preventable diseases