Particle and light fragment emission in peripheral heavy ion collisions at Fermi energies

A systematic investigation of the average multiplicities of light charged particles and intermediate mass fragments emitted in peripheral and semiperipheral collisions is presented as a function of the beam energy, violence of the collision and mass of the system. The data have been collected with the "Fiasco" setup in the reactions 93Nb+93Nb at 17, 23, 30, 38AMeV and 116Sn+116Sn at 30, 38AMeV. The midvelocity emission has been separated from the emission of the projectile-like fragment. This last component appears to be compatible with an evaporation from an equilibrated source at normal density, as described by the statistical code Gemini at the appropriate excitation energy. On the contrary, the midvelocity emission presents remarkable differences for what concerns both the dependence of the multiplicities on the energy deposited in the midvelocity region and the isotopic composition of the emitted light charged particles.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, Revtex

Secondary and primary metabolites reveal putative resistance-associated biomarkers against Erysiphe necator in resistant grapevine genotypes

Numerous fungicide applications are required to control Erysiphe necator, the causative agent of powdery mildew. This increased demand for cultivars with strong and long-lasting field resistance to diseases and pests. In comparison to the susceptible cultivar ‘Teroldego’, the current study provides information on some promising disease-resistant varieties (mono-locus) carrying one E. necator-resistant locus: BC4 and ‘Kishmish vatkana’, as well as resistant genotypes carrying several E. necator resistant loci (pyramided): ‘Bianca’, F26P92, F13P71, and NY42. A clear picture of the metabolites’ alterations in response to the pathogen is shown by profiling the main and secondary metabolism: primary compounds and lipids; volatile organic compounds and phenolic compounds at 0, 12, and 48 hours after pathogen inoculation. We identified several compounds whose metabolic modulation indicated that resistant plants initiate defense upon pathogen inoculation, which, while similar to the susceptible genotype in some cases, did not imply that the plants were not resistant, but rather that their resistance was modulated at different percentages of metabolite accumulation and with different effect sizes. As a result, we discovered ten up-accumulated metabolites that distinguished resistant from susceptible varieties in response to powdery mildew inoculation, three of which have already been proposed as resistance biomarkers due to their role in activating the plant defense response

Osteosarcopenia in NAFLD/MAFLD: An Underappreciated Clinical Problem in Chronic Liver Disease

Chronic liver disease (CLD), including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its advanced form, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), affects a significant portion of the population worldwide. NAFLD is characterised by fat accumulation in the liver, while NASH is associated with inflammation and liver damage. Osteosarcopenia, which combines muscle and bone mass loss, is an emerging clinical problem in chronic liver disease that is often underappreciated. The reductions in muscle and bone mass share several common pathophysiological pathways; insulin resistance and chronic systemic inflammation are the most crucial predisposing factors and are related to the presence and gravity of NAFLD and to the worsening of the outcome of liver disease. This article explores the relationship between osteosarcopenia and NAFLD/MAFLD, focusing on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of this condition in patients with CLD

The "Safari" technique to perform difficult subintimal infragenicular vessels

The purpose of this study was to describe the efficacy of planned combined subintimal arterial flossing with antegrade– retrograde intervention (SAFARI) to obtain the precise recanalization of the patent portion of a distal runoff vessel in critical limb ischemia (CLI) patients presenting long occlusions involving the popliteal trifurcation. Four patients at risk of limb loss due to long occlusions involving the leg vessel tree and not suitable for a surgical bypass were treated by the subintimal antegrade and retrograde (posterior tibial or anterior tibial artery) approach. The patent portion of the runoff vessel was previously assessed by magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and directly punctured under Doppler ultrasound (US) guidance. A subintimal channel rendezvous was performed to allow snaring of the guidewires. Subsequently, a balloon dilatation was performed without stent deployment. All patients were successfully recanalized and had complete healing of the limb lesions. At the 12-month follow-up all patients showed clinical improvement with no major complications related to the procedure. This combined antegrade and retrograde subintimal approach is currently an excellent endovascular option in patients with long occlusions extending onto the leg vessels trifurcation and at risk of limb loss. Key words: Critical limb ischemia—Subintimal technique— Popliteal branches—Retrograde acces

A Computer Aided Detection system for mammographic images implemented on a GRID infrastructure

The use of an automatic system for the analysis of mammographic images has proven to be very useful to radiologists in the investigation of breast cancer, especially in the framework of mammographic-screening programs. A breast neoplasia is often marked by the presence of microcalcification clusters and massive lesions in the mammogram: hence the need for tools able to recognize such lesions at an early stage. In the framework of the GPCALMA (GRID Platform for Computer Assisted Library for MAmmography) project, the co-working of italian physicists and radiologists built a large distributed database of digitized mammographic images (about 5500 images corresponding to 1650 patients) and developed a CAD (Computer Aided Detection) system, able to make an automatic search of massive lesions and microcalcification clusters. The CAD is implemented in the GPCALMA integrated station, which can be used also for digitization, as archive and to perform statistical analyses. Some GPCALMA integrated stations have already been implemented and are currently on clinical trial in some italian hospitals. The emerging GRID technology can been used to connect the GPCALMA integrated stations operating in different medical centers. The GRID approach will support an effective tele- and co-working between radiologists, cancer specialists and epidemiology experts by allowing remote image analysis and interactive online diagnosis.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the 13th IEEE-NPSS Real Time Conference 2003, Montreal, Canada, May 18-23 200

Space and Time pattern of mid-velocity IMF emission in peripheral heavy-ion collisions at Fermi energies

The emission pattern in the V_perp - V_par plane of Intermediate Mass Fragments with Z=3-7 (IMF) has been studied in the collision 116Sn + 93Nb at 29.5 AMeV as a function of the Total Kinetic Energy Loss of the reaction. This pattern shows that for peripheral reactions most of IMF's are emitted at mid-velocity. Coulomb trajectory calculations demonstrate that these IMF's are produced in the early stages of the reaction and shed light on geometrical details of these emissions, suggesting that the IMF's originate both from the neck and the surface of the interacting nuclei.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTex 3.1, submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter

Semi-Targeted Profiling of the Lipidome Changes Induced by Erysiphe Necator in Disease-Resistant and Vitis vinifera L. Varieties

The ascomycete Erysiphe necator is a serious pathogen in viticulture. Despite the fact that some grapevine genotypes exhibit mono-locus or pyramided resistance to this fungus, the lipidomics basis of these genotypes’ defense mechanisms remains unknown. Lipid molecules have critical functions in plant defenses, acting as structural barriers in the cell wall that limit pathogen access or as signaling molecules after stress responses that may regulate innate plant immunity. To unravel and better understand their involvement in plant defense, we used a novel approach of ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)-MS/MS to study how E. necator infection changes the lipid profile of genotypes with different sources of resistance, including BC4 (Run1), “Kishmish vatkhana” (Ren1), F26P92 (Ren3; Ren9), and “Teroldego” (a susceptible genotype), at 0, 24, and 48 hpi. The lipidome alterations were most visible at 24 hpi for BC4 and F26P92, and at 48 hpi for “Kishmish vatkhana”. Among the most abundant lipids in grapevine leaves were the extra-plastidial lipids: glycerophosphocholine (PCs), glycerophosphoethanolamine (PEs) and the signaling lipids: glycerophosphates (Pas) and glycerophosphoinositols (PIs), followed by the plastid lipids: glycerophosphoglycerols (PGs), monogalactosyldiacylglycerols (MGDGs), and digalactosyldiacylglycerols (DGDGs) and, in lower amounts lyso-glycerophosphocholines (LPCs), lyso-glycerophosphoglycerols (LPGs), lyso-glycerophosphoinositols (LPIs), and lyso-glycerophosphoethanolamine (LPEs). Furthermore, the three resistant genotypes had the most prevalent down-accumulated lipid classes, while the susceptible genotype had the most prevalent up-accumulated lipid classes

Angular momentum sharing in dissipative collisions

Light charged particles emitted by the projectile-like fragment were measured in the direct and reverse collision of $^{93}$Nb and $^{116}$Sn at 25 AMeV. The experimental multiplicities of Hydrogen and Helium particles as a function of the primary mass of the emitting fragment show evidence for a correlation with net mass transfer. The ratio of Hydrogen and Helium multiplicities points to a dependence of the angular momentum sharing on the net mass transfer.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

The TNG Near Infrared Camera Spectrometer

NICS (acronym for Near Infrared Camera Spectrometer) is the near-infrared cooled camera-spectrometer that has been developed by the Arcetri Infrared Group at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, in collaboration with the CAISMI-CNR for the TNG (the Italian National Telescope Galileo at La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain). As NICS is in its scientific commissioning phase, we report its observing capabilities in the near-infrared bands at the TNG, along with the measured performance and the limiting magnitudes. We also describe some technical details of the project, such as cryogenics, mechanics, and the system which executes data acquisition and control, along with the related software.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, compiled with A&A macros. A&A in pres

Charge distributions of Ra recoil ions produced in 12C+Pb fusion-evaporation reactions

Charge state distributions of the Ra recoil ions produced in the 12C+Pb fusion-evaporation reactions have been obtained by measuring their yields as a function of the high voltage applied to an electrostatic deflector. Well-defined two-humped yield curves for evaporation residues (ERs) were observed. Such observations can be explained by the different sets of charge states inherent in Ra recoil ions. These charge sets correspond to the equilibrated and nonequilibrated components, as earlier observed for evaporation residues produced in different reactions. The main parameters of the distributions (mean charge values, widths, and relative intensities) for both components have been estimated using Monte Carlo simulations of the transmission of the Ra recoil ions through the deflector. For the equilibrated component the values of the mean charge and width are close to those given by different empirical systematics. For the nonequilibrated component these parameters have been obtained for the first time. The additional nonequilibrated ionization is presumably due to the formation of inner shell vacancies produced by the internal conversion of nuclear isomeric transitions of ERs. Nonequilibrated charge parameters obtained for Ra recoil ions are compared to similar available experimental data and some theoretical predictions