P02-187 Assessing initial patient's affective disposition towards the hospitalization and the treatment: A validation study

The present work shows some preliminary results of a longitudinal study aimed at validating a psychometric instrument - the Subjective Distance Scale (SDS) - developed to assess the patient's affective nearness/remoteness towards/from the psychiatric treatment in a Day Hospital program. 55 day hospital patients were assessed at different moments of the treatment: At admission they were evaluated by means of the SDS, the SCL-90-R (patient's psychiatric symptoms) and the GAS (patient's mental health level). Institutional therapeutic alliance was assessed one week from admission (IWAI-p) and finally, patient's psychiatric symptoms were retested (SCL-90-R) at the end of the treatment and 3 months from discharge. The main results reveal good psychometric properties of the SDS: its factorial structure partially confirms the dimensions theoretically hypothesised; its internal consistency - total and most of its subscales - reach adequate reliability levels; and related to its predicted validity, the scale correlates with some important aspects of the treatment, like the quality of the early institutional alliance, the symptomatic improvement and the stability of the improvements in time. New studies with larger samples and conducted in additional psychiatric settings are necessary to guarantee the validity and reliability of the scale before it could be used as a clinical screening instrument

A capacitor voltage balancing approach based on mapping strategy for MMC applications

This paper proposes a new strategy to achieve balanced capacitor voltages in modular multilevel converters. Among the possible solutions, centralized arm control approaches are often adopted. These methods require a balancing technique based on a sorted list of the sub-modules according to their capacitor voltages. In order to achieve the aforementioned sorted list, different algorithms have been proposed in literature, such as: Sorting algorithms, max/min approaches, etc. However, the sorting algorithms require a long execution time, while the max/min approaches affect the converter dynamic response during faults. To overcome these issues, a new mapping strategy providing a quasi-sorted list is proposed in this paper. The suggested method is compared in simulation with both the classical bubble sorting algorithm, and the max/min method during both normal and faulty conditions. Moreover, the three methods have been implemented in a Xilinx Zynq-7000 System-on-Chip (SoC) device, in order to analyze the corresponding execution time and the required computational effort. Hardware-in-the-loop results are presented for demonstrating the superior performance of the proposed balancing strategy

Transport and Boundary Scattering in Confined Geometries: Analytical Results

We utilize a geometric argument to determine the effects of boundary scattering on the carrier mean-free path in samples of various cross sections. Analytic expressions for samples with rectangular and circular cross sections are obtained. We also outline a method for incorporating these results into calculations of the thermal conductivity.Comment: 35 pages, Late

Overview on the phenomenon of two-qubit entanglement revivals in classical environments

The occurrence of revivals of quantum entanglement between separated open quantum systems has been shown not only for dissipative non-Markovian quantum environments but also for classical environments in absence of back-action. While the phenomenon is well understood in the first case, the possibility to retrieve entanglement when the composite quantum system is subject to local classical noise has generated a debate regarding its interpretation. This dynamical property of open quantum systems assumes an important role in quantum information theory from both fundamental and practical perspectives. Hybrid quantum-classical systems are in fact promising candidates to investigate the interplay among quantum and classical features and to look for possible control strategies of a quantum system by means of a classical device. Here we present an overview on this topic, reporting the most recent theoretical and experimental results about the revivals of entanglement between two qubits locally interacting with classical environments. We also review and discuss the interpretations provided so far to explain this phenomenon, suggesting that they can be cast under a unified viewpoint.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. Chapter written for the upcoming book "Lectures on general quantum correlations and their applications

Planet Hunters. VI: An Independent Characterization of KOI-351 and Several Long Period Planet Candidates from the Kepler Archival Data

We report the discovery of 14 new transiting planet candidates in the Kepler field from the Planet Hunters citizen science program. None of these candidates overlapped with Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) at the time of submission. We report the discovery of one more addition to the six planet candidate system around KOI-351, making it the only seven planet candidate system from Kepler. Additionally, KOI-351 bears some resemblance to our own solar system, with the inner five planets ranging from Earth to mini-Neptune radii and the outer planets being gas giants; however, this system is very compact, with all seven planet candidates orbiting $\lesssim 1$ AU from their host star. A Hill stability test and an orbital integration of the system shows that the system is stable. Furthermore, we significantly add to the population of long period transiting planets; periods range from 124-904 days, eight of them more than one Earth year long. Seven of these 14 candidates reside in their host star's habitable zone.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables, Accepted to AJ (in press) (updated title from original astro-ph submission

Dynamic SU(2) Structure from Seven-branes

We obtain a family of supersymmetric solutions of type IIB supergravity with dynamic SU(2) structure, which describe the local geometry near a stack of four D7-branes and one O7-plane wrapping a rigid four-cycle. The deformation to a generalized complex geometry is interpreted as a consequence of nonperturbative effects in the seven-brane gauge theory. We formulate the problem for seven-branes wrapping the base of an appropriate del Pezzo cone, and in the near-stack limit in which the four-cycle is flat, we obtain an exact solution in closed form. Our solutions serve to characterize the local geometry of nonperturbatively-stabilized flux compactifications.Comment: 49 pages, 2 figures; v2: minor corrections, references adde

Flowers from Kalanchoe pinnata are a Rich Source of T Cell-Suppressive Flavonoids:

The chemical composition and immunosuppressive potential of the flowers from Kalanchoe pinnata (Crassulaceae) were investigated. We found that the aqueous flower extract was more active than the leaf extract in inhibiting murine T cell mitogenesis in vitro. Flavonoids isolated from the flower extract were identified and quantitated based on NMR and HPLC-DAD-MS analysis, respectively. Along with quercetin, four quercetin glycosyl conjugates were obtained, including quercetin 3-O-β-D-glucuronopyranoside and quercetin 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, which are described for the first time in K. pinnata. All flavonoids inhibited murine T cell mitogenesis and IL-2 and IL-4 production without cell toxicity. This is the first report on the pharmacological activity of flowers of a Kalanchoe species, which are not used for curative purposes. Our findings show that K. pinnata flowers are a rich source of T-suppressive flavonoids that may be therapeutically useful against inflammatory diseases

The role of liquid based cytology and ancillary techniques in the peritoneal washing analysis: our institutional experience

Background The cytological analysis of peritoneal effusions serves as a diagnostic and prognostic aid for either primary or metastatic diseases. Among the different cytological preparations, liquid based cytology (LBC) represents a feasible and reliable method ensuring also the application of ancillary techniques (i.e immunocytochemistry-ICC and molecular testing). Methods We recorded 10348 LBC peritoneal effusions between January 2000 and December 2014. They were classified as non-diagnostic (ND), negative for malignancy-NM, atypical-suspicious for malignancy-SM and positive for malignancy-PM. Results The cytological diagnosis included 218 ND, 9.035 NM, 213 SM and 882 PM. A total of 8048 (7228 NM, 115SM, 705 PM) cases with histological follow-up were included. Our NM included 21 malignant and 7207 benign histological diagnoses. Our 820 SMs+PMs were diagnosed as 107 unknown malignancies (30SM and 77PM), 691 metastatic lesions (81SM and 610PM), 9 lymphomas (2SM and 7PM), 9 mesotheliomas (1SM and 8SM), 4 sarcomas (1SM and 3PM). Primary gynecological cancers contributed with 64% of the cases. We documented 97.4% sensitivity, 99.9% specificity, 98% diagnostic accuracy, 99.7% negative predictive value (NPV) and 99.7% positive predictive value (PPV). Furthermore, the morphological diagnoses were supported by either 173 conclusive ICC results or 50 molecular analyses. Specifically the molecular testing was performed for the EGFR and KRAS mutational analysis based on the previous or contemporary diagnoses of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and colon carcinomas. We identified 10 EGFR in NSCCL and 7 KRAS mutations on LBC stored material. Conclusions Peritoneal cytology is an adjunctive tool in the surgical management of tumors mostly gynecological cancers. LBC maximizes the application of ancillary techniques such as ICC and molecular analysis with feasible diagnostic and predictive yields also in controversial cases.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio