Batalin-Vilkovisky Integrals in Finite Dimensions

The Batalin-Vilkovisky method (BV) is the most powerful method to analyze functional integrals with (infinite-dimensional) gauge symmetries presently known. It has been invented to fix gauges associated with symmetries that do not close off-shell. Homological Perturbation Theory is introduced and used to develop the integration theory behind BV and to describe the BV quantization of a Lagrangian system with symmetries. Localization (illustrated in terms of Duistermaat-Heckman localization) as well as anomalous symmetries are discussed in the framework of BV.Comment: 35 page

Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer: news from microbiota research

Recently, research has been deeply focusing on the role of the microbiota in numerous diseases, either affecting the skin or other organs. What it is well established is that its dysregulation promotes several cutaneous disorders (i.e. psoriasis and atopic dermatitis). To date, little is known about its composition, mediators and role in the genesis, progression and response to therapy of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer (NMSC). Starting from a bibliographic study, we classified the selected articles into four sections: i) normal skin microbiota; ii) in vitro study models; iii) microbiota and NMSC and iv) probiotics, antibiotics and NMSC. What has emerged is how skin microflora changes, mainly represented by increases of Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, modifications in the mutual quantity of \u3b2-Human papillomavirus genotypes, of Epstein Barr Virus and Malassezia or candidiasis, may contribute to the induction of a state of chronic self-maintaining inflammation, leading to cancer. In this context, the role of S. aureus and that of specific antimicrobial peptides look to be prominent. Moreover, although antibiotics may contribute to carcinogenesis, due to their ability to influence the microbiota balance, specific probiotics, such as Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, Lactobacillus johnsonii NCC 533 and Bifidobacteria spp., may be protective

Effect of Different Carbon and Nitrogen Inputs on Soil Chemical and Biochemical Properties in Maize-Based Forage Systems in Northern Italy

In agroecosystems, manure application and straw return affect carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling and affect soil organic matter (SOM), nutrient supply and losses to the environment. We examined effects of different organic sources on crop production, N uptake and surplus and SOM in maize systems

A long contiguous stretch of homozygosity disclosed a novel stag3 biallelic pathogenic variant causing primary ovarian insufficiency: A case report and review of the literature

Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) refers to an etiologically heterogeneous disorder characterized by hypergonadotropic hypogonadism that represents a major cause of infertility in women under 40 years of age. Most cases are apparently sporadic, but about 10–15% have an affected first-degree relative, indicating a genetic etiology. Pathogenic variations in genes involved in development, meiosis and hormonal signaling have been detected in the hereditary form of the disorder. However, most cases of POI remain unsolved even after exhaustive investigation. A 19-year-old Senegalese female affected by non-syndromic POI presented with primary amenorrhoea and answered well to the hormonal induction of puberty. In order to investigate the presence of a genetic defect, aCGH-SNP analysis was performed. A 13.5 Mb long contiguous stretch of homozygosity (LCSH) was identified on chromosome 7q21.13-q22.1 where the exome sequencing revealed a novel homozygous 4-bp deletion (c.3381_3384delAGAA) in STAG3. Pathogenic variants in this gene, encoding for a meiosis-specific protein, have been previously reported as the cause of POI in only eight families and recently as the cause of infertility in a male. The here-identified mutation leads to the truncation of the last 55 amino acids, confirming the important role in meiosis of the STAG3 C-terminal domain

Automatic Extraction of Dermatological Parameters from Nevi Using an Inexpensive Smartphone Microscope: A Proof of Concept

The evolution of smartphone technology has made their use more common in dermatological applications. Here we studied the feasibility of using an inexpensive smartphone microscope for the extraction of dermatological parameters and compared the results obtained with a portable dermoscope, commonly used in clinical practice. Forty-two skin lesions were imaged with both devices and visually analyzed by an expert dermatologist. The presence of a reticular pattern was observed in 22 dermoscopic images, but only in 10 smartphone images. The proposed paradigm segments the image and extracts texture features which are used to train and validate a neural network to classify the presence of a reticular pattern. Using 5-fold cross-validation, an accuracy of 100% and 95% was obtained with the dermoscopic and smartphone images, respectively. This approach can be useful for general practitioners and as a triage tool for skin lesion analysis

A Calculus for Orchestration of Web Services

We introduce COWS (Calculus for Orchestration of Web Services), a new foundational language for SOC whose design has been influenced by WS-BPEL, the de facto standard language for orchestration of web services. COWS combines in an original way a number of ingredients borrowed from well-known process calculi, e.g. asynchronous communication, polyadic synchronization, pattern matching, protection, delimited receiving and killing activities, while resulting different from any of them. Several examples illustrates COWS peculiarities and show its expressiveness both for modelling imperative and orchestration constructs, e.g. web services, flow graphs, fault and compensation handlers, and for encoding other process and orchestration languages

Parameterized Verification of Safety Properties in Ad Hoc Network Protocols

We summarize the main results proved in recent work on the parameterized verification of safety properties for ad hoc network protocols. We consider a model in which the communication topology of a network is represented as a graph. Nodes represent states of individual processes. Adjacent nodes represent single-hop neighbors. Processes are finite state automata that communicate via selective broadcast messages. Reception of a broadcast is restricted to single-hop neighbors. For this model we consider a decision problem that can be expressed as the verification of the existence of an initial topology in which the execution of the protocol can lead to a configuration with at least one node in a certain state. The decision problem is parametric both on the size and on the form of the communication topology of the initial configurations. We draw a complete picture of the decidability and complexity boundaries of this problem according to various assumptions on the possible topologies.Comment: In Proceedings PACO 2011, arXiv:1108.145