Omid Ghaemmaghami, Encounters with the Hidden Imam in Early and Pre-Modern Twelver Shīʿī Islam. Islamic History and Civilization. Studies and Texts. Volume 167. Brill: 2020, 1‒276 pp., ISBN: 978-90-04-34048-0 (hardback)

Review of academic monograph

A fussy revisitation of antiprotons as a tool for Dark Matter searches

Antiprotons are regarded as a powerful probe for Dark Matter (DM) indirect detection and indeed current data from PAMELA have been shown to lead to stringent constraints. However, in order to exploit their constraining/discovery power properly and especially in anticipation of the exquisite accuracy of upcoming data from AMS, great attention must be put into effects (linked to their propagation in the Galaxy) which may be perceived as subleasing but actually prove to be quite relevant. We revisit the computation of the astrophysical background and of the DM antiproton fluxes fully including the effects of: diffusive reacceleration, energy losses including tertiary component and solar modulation (in a force field approximation). We show that their inclusion can somewhat modify the current bounds, even at large DM masses, and that a wrong interpretation of the data may arise if they are not taken into account. The numerical results for the astrophysical background are provided in terms of fit functions; the results for Dark Matter are incorporated in the new release of the PPPC4DMID.Comment: v3: small comments and references added, matches journal versio

Alla Mecca e Oltre. Una selezione di contratti di viaggio registrati presso il tribunale ottomano di Aleppo (secoli XVI-XVIII).

This short essay presents a number of unpublished 16th to 18th-century documents from the qāḍī-court records of Aleppo related to contracts and arrangements of travel and transport. These documents mirror the importance of Aleppo as a centre of regional and international trade and as a chief halting place on the Anatolian- Syrian pilgrimage route in the classic Ottoman era. The bustling urban and rural world of travelling pilgrims, merchants, high dignitaries, travel agents, camel breeders, camel drivers, and porters returns the image of a society where mobility, despite its hardships, dangers and costs, was a constant and essential feature

Mariti assenti e casalinghe disperate? Un rimedio legale dalla scuola shāfiʿita nella Aleppo ottomana ḥanafita, ovvero una lezione sulla flessibilità della Legge islamica (non musulmani inclusi)

This short essay presents a number of unpublished 17th century documents from the Sharīʿa court records of Aleppo pertaining to the rather sensitive, both morally and socially, issue of how to deal with cases of legally married women permanently deserted and abandoned by their absent husbands. In Aleppo, as elsewhere in the Ottoman realm, this frequently occurring phenomenon had its causes in widespread regional and interregional mobility patterns. For once, the Ottoman judiciary found itself incapable to come up with a practical solution and had to look for answers outside of the officially recognized Ḥanafite school. The Shāfiʿite madhhab, the leading juridical school in Syria up until the arrival of the Ottomans in early 16th century, could and did in fact offer a much more pragmatic way out to the predicament of a relevant number of married women (including non-Muslim ones) who were allegedly experiencing hardship and privation

AMS-02 antiprotons, at last! Secondary astrophysical component and immediate implications for Dark Matter

Using the updated proton and helium fluxes just released by the AMS-02 experiment we reevaluate the secondary astrophysical antiproton to proton ratio and its uncertainties, and compare it with the ratio preliminarly reported by AMS-02. We find no unambiguous evidence for a significant excess with respect to expectations. Yet, some preference for a flatter energy dependence of the diffusion coefficient starts to emerge. Also, we provide a first assessment of the room left for exotic components such as Galactic Dark Matter annihilation or decay, deriving new stringent constraints.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures; Comments and clarifications added (including an appendix), matches version published on JCA

Pharmaceutical approaches to normal tension glaucoma

Normal tension glaucoma (NTG) is defined as a subtype of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in which the intraocular pressure (IOP) values are constantly within the statistically normal range without treatment and represents approximately the 30-40% of all glaucomatous cases. The pathophysiology of this condition is multifactorial and is still not completely well known. Several theories have been proposed to explain the onset and progression of this disease, which can be divided into IOP-dependent and IOP-independent factors, suggesting different therapeutic strategies. The current literature strongly supports the fundamental role of IOP in NTG. The gold standard treatment for NTG tends to be based on the lowering IOP even if "statistically normal". Numerous studies have shown, however, that the IOP reduction alone is not enough to slow down or stop the disease progression in all cases, suggesting that other IOP-independent risk factors may contribute to the NTG pathogenesis. In addition to IOP-lowering strategies, several different therapeutic approaches for NTG have been proposed, based on vaso-active, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and/or neuroprotective substances. To date, unfortunately, there are no standardized or proven treatment alternatives for NTG when compared to traditional IOP reduction treatment regimes. The efficacy of the IOP-independent strategies in decreasing the risk or treating NTG still remains inconclusive. The aim of this review is to highlight strategies reported in the current literature to treat NTG. The paper also describes the challenges in finding appropriate and pertinent treatments for this potentially vision-threatening disease. Further comprehension of NTG pathophysiology can help clinicians determine when to use IOP-lowering treatments alone and when to consider additional or alternatively individualized therapies focused on particular risk factors, on a case-by-case basis

AMS-02 antiprotons and dark matter: Trimmed hints and robust bounds

Based on 4 yr AMS-02 antiproton data, we present bounds on the dark matter (DM) annihilation cross section vs. mass for some representative final state channels. We use recent cosmic-ray propagation models, a realistic treatment of experimental and theoretical errors, and an updated calculation of input antiproton spectra based on a recent release of the PYTHIA code. We find that reported hints of a DM signal are statistically insignificant; an adequate treatment of errors is crucial for credible conclusions. Antiproton bounds on DM annihilation are among the most stringent ones, probing thermal DM up to the TeV scale. The dependence of the bounds upon propagation models and the DM halo profile is also quantified. A preliminary estimate reaches similar conclusions when applied to the 7 years AMS-02 dataset, but also suggests extra caution as for possible future claims of DM excesses.Comment: v2: 33 pages, 6 figures (two of which in two panels); clarifications and a couple of references added, conclusions unchange

On the Importance of Electroweak Corrections for Majorana Dark Matter Indirect Detection

Recent analyses have shown that the inclusion of electroweak corrections can alter significantly the energy spectra of Standard Model particles originated from dark matter annihilations. We investigate the important situation where the radiation of electroweak gauge bosons has a substantial influence: a Majorana dark matter particle annihilating into two light fermions. This process is in p-wave and hence suppressed by the small value of the relative velocity of the annihilating particles. The inclusion of electroweak radiation eludes this suppression and opens up a potentially sizeable s-wave contribution to the annihilation cross section. We study this effect in detail and explore its impact on the fluxes of stable particles resulting from the dark matter annihilations, which are relevant for dark matter indirect searches. We also discuss the effective field theory approach, pointing out that the opening of the s-wave is missed at the level of dimension-six operators and only encoded by higher orders.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures. Minor corrections to match version published in JCA

A Wedding Gone Wrong The Rather Worldly Woes of a Rather Wealthy Qādirī Sufi Shaykh. Two 18th Century Documents from the Ottoman Court Records of Ḥamā and Aleppo

A rather intricate legal case took place first in Ḥamā’s and then in Aleppo’s Ottoman Islamic courts around the middle of the 18th century. The setting, the social standing of the individuals involved, and the alleged circumstances of the case all contribute to make clear that this was not just another routine court case. Altogether, the two documents are a good example of the scope and quality of the information preserved in the archives of local courts and they both demonstrate the extent and modes of implementation of Islamic law in a specific Ottoman milieu. The long inventory of personal property in the Aleppo document gives us a good idea of the social status and affluence enjoyed by the plaintiff – a member of the Jīlānī/Qādirī family - and an interesting insight into material culture and what constituted wealth and affluence at the time.

The Impact of Locoregional Treatment on Response to Nivolumab in Advanced Platinum Refractory Head and Neck Cancer: The Need Trial

Background: Previous locoregional treatment could affect the response to nivolumab in platinum-refractory recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC). The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of the clinicopathological characteristics and previous treatment in predicting early progression to nivolumab in a real-world population. Methods: This is an observational, multicenter retrospective/prospective study including patients (pts) with platinum refractory R/M HNSCC who received nivolumab 240 mg every 2 weeks from October 2018 to October 2019. We analyzed the association between previous treatment, clinicopathological characteristics, and early progression (within 3 months). Results: Data from 61 pts were reviewed. Median age was 67 years (30–82). Forty-two pts (69%) received previous locoregional treatment. Early progression to nivolumab occurred in 36 pts (59%), while clinical benefit (stable disease and partial response) was achieved in 25 pts (41%). Early progression to nivolumab was significantly associated to previous locoregional treatment both at univariate and multivariate analysis (p = 0.005 and p = 0.048, respectively). Conclusion: nivolumab in R/M HNSCC is burdened with a high early progression rate. Previous wide neck dissection and high dose radiotherapy may compromise the efficacy of nivolumab, distorting the anatomy of the local lymphatic system and hindering the priming of immune response