The nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in Stars : The key isotope 25Mg

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedWe have measured the radiative neutron-capture cross section and the total neutron-induced cross section of one of the most important isotopes for the s process, the 25Mg. The measurements have been carried out at the neutron time-of-flight facilities n-TOF at CERN (Switzerland) and GELINA installed at the EC-JRC-IRMM (Belgium). The cross sections as a function of neutron energy have been measured up to approximately 300 keV, covering the energy region of interest to the s process. The data analysis is ongoing and preliminary results show the potential relevance for the s process.Peer reviewe

238U(n, γ) reaction cross section measurement with C 6D6 detectors at the n-TOF CERN facility

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedThe radiative capture cross section of 238U is very important for the developing of new reactor technologies and the safety of existing ones. Here the preliminary results of the 238U(n,γ) cross section measurement performed at n-TOF with C6D6 scintillation detectors are presented, paying particular attention to data reduction and background subtraction.Peer reviewe

Interlaboratory quality control of immunometric assays of HBsAg and anti-HBs in Italian laboratories: a two-year experience

An interlaboratory quality control for the immunometric tests of HBsAg and anti-HBs has been initiated in Italy in 1985. Participants (153 laboratories at present) are periodically supplied with sets of unknown serA for each analyte. The assay results are returned as both positive/negative classification and digital response. Limitedly to a 40-laboratory group, from the latter data quantitative estimates are obtained through interpolation on a 'hidden' calibration curve included in the control sets. Periodical reports containing the results of statistical elaboration of data are distributed to participants (both total results and results subgrouped according to the commercial kits). The analysis of qualitative control data collected so far indicates that misclassifications are relatively frequent in the low-positive ranges, i.e. 18% for HBsAg tests (0.25-0.50 U PEI/ml) and 30% for anti-HBs tests (6.5 15 mU WHO/ml). A progressive decrease is observed in the higher-concentrations (0.2% for both HBsAg concentrations ≥ 2 U/ml and anti-HBs concentrations ≥ 60 mU/ml), while ca 2.5% false positives occur in both assays. Some differences emerge as for the classification ability of individual kits. The quantitative evaluation evidences in both cases a moderate variability (10-40% CV, depending on kind and concentration of analyte) and a good between-kit agreement of estimates

European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA): objectives, products and scientific highlights

Oral-facial-digital type VI syndrome (OFDVI) is a rare phenotype of Joubert syndrome (JS). Recently, C5orf42 was suggested as the major OFDVI gene, being mutated in 9 of 11 families (82 %). We sequenced C5orf42 in 313 JS probands and identified mutations in 28 (8.9 %), most with a phenotype of pure JS. Only 2 out of 17 OFDVI patients (11.7 %) were mutated. A comparison of mutated vs. non-mutated OFDVI patients showed that preaxial and mesoaxial polydactyly, hypothalamic hamartoma and other congenital defects may predict C5orf42 mutations, while tongue hamartomas are more common in negative patients