Gynecomastia and hormones

Gynecomastia-the enlargement of male breast tissue in men-is a common finding, frequently observed in newborns, adolescents, and old men. Physiological gynecomastia, occurring in almost 25 % of cases, is benign and self-limited; on the other hand, several conditions and drugs may induce proliferation of male breast tissue. True gynecomastia is a common feature often related to estrogen excess and/or androgen deficiency as a consequence of different endocrine disorders. Biochemical evaluation should be performed once physiological or iatrogenic gynecomastia has been ruled out. Non-endocrine illnesses, including liver failure and chronic kidney disease, are another cause of gynecomastia which should be considered. Treating the underlying disease or discontinuing medications might resolve gynecomastia, although the psychosocial burden of this condition might require different and careful consideration

Supersolid phase with cold polar molecules on a triangular lattice

We study a system of heteronuclear molecules on a triangular lattice and analyze the potential of this system for the experimental realization of a supersolid phase. The ground state phase diagram contains superfluid, solid and supersolid phases. At finite temperatures and strong interactions there is an additional emulsion region, in contrast to similar models with short-range interactions. We derive the maximal critical temperature $T_c$ and the corresponding entropy $S/N = 0.04(1)$ for supersolidity and find feasible experimental conditions for its realization.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Quasi-Lie schemes and Emden--Fowler equations

The recently developed theory of quasi-Lie schemes is studied and applied to investigate several equations of Emden type and a scheme to deal with them and some of their generalisations is given. As a first result we obtain t-dependent constants of the motion for particular instances of Emden equations by means of some of their particular solutions. Previously known results are recovered from this new perspective. Finally some t-dependent constants of the motion for equations of Emden type satisfying certain conditions are recovered

Sport, doping and male fertility

It is universally accepted that lifestyle interventions are the first step towards a good overall, reproductive and sexual health. Cessation of unhealthy habits, such as tobacco, alcohol and drug use, poor nutrition and sedentary behavior, is suggested in order to preserve/improve fertility in humans. However, the possible risks of physical exercise per se or sports on male fertility are less known. Being fit does not only improve the sense of well-being, but also has beneficial effects on general health: in fact physical exercise is by all means a low-cost, high-efficacy method for preventing or treating several conditions, ranging from purely physical (diabetes and obesity) to psychological (depression and anxiety), highly influencing male reproduction. If male sexual and reproductive health could be positively affected by a proper physical activity, inadequate bouts of strength - both excessive intensity and duration of exercise training - are more likely to have detrimental effects. In addition, the illicit use of prohibited drugs (i.e. doping) has reached pandemic proportions, and their actions, unfortunately very often underestimated by both amateur and professional athletes, are known to disrupt at different levels and throughout various mechanisms the male hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, resulting in hypogonadism and infertility

Attosecond Streaking in the Water Window: A New Regime of Attosecond Pulse Characterization

We report on the first streaking measurement of water-window attosecond pulses generated via high harmonic generation, driven by sub-2-cycle, CEP-stable, 1850 nm laser pulses. Both the central photon energy and the energy bandwidth far exceed what has been demonstrated thus far, warranting the investigation of the attosecond streaking technique for the soft X-ray regime and the limits of the FROGCRAB retrieval algorithm under such conditions. We also discuss the problem of attochirp compensation and issues regarding much lower photo-ionization cross sections compared with the XUV in addition to the fact that several shells of target gases are accessed simultaneously. Based on our investigation, we caution that the vastly different conditions in the soft X-ray regime warrant a diligent examination of the fidelity of the measurement and the retrieval procedure.Comment: 14 Pages, 12 figure

Fingerprint Adversarial Presentation Attack in the Physical Domain

With the advent of the deep learning era, Fingerprint-based Authentication Systems (FAS) equipped with Fingerprint Presentation Attack Detection (FPAD) modules managed to avoid attacks on the sensor through artificial replicas of fingerprints. Previous works highlighted the vulnerability of FPADs to digital adversarial attacks. However, in a realistic scenario, the attackers may not have the possibility to directly feed a digitally perturbed image to the deep learning based FPAD, since the channel between the sensor and the FPAD is usually protected. In this paper we thus investigate the threat level associated with adversarial attacks against FPADs in the physical domain. By materially realising fakes from the adversarial images we were able to insert them into the system directly from the “exposed” part, the sensor. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first proof-of-concept of a fingerprint adversarial presentation attack. We evaluated how much liveness score changed by feeding the system with the attacks using digital and printed adversarial images. To measure what portion of this increase is due to the printing itself, we also re-printed the original spoof images, without injecting any perturbation. Experiments conducted on the LivDet 2015 dataset demonstrate that the printed adversarial images achieve ∼ 100% attack success rate against an FPAD if the attacker has the ability to make multiple attacks on the sensor (10) and a fairly good result (∼ 28%) in a one-shot scenario. Despite this work must be considered as a proof-of-concept, it constitutes a promising pioneering attempt confirming that an adversarial presentation attack is feasible and dangerous

Traditional landscape and rural development: comparative study in three terraced areas in northern, central and southern Italy to evaluate the efficacy of GAEC standard 4.4 of cross compliance

The recent National Strategic Plan 2007-2013 has introduced landscape as a strategic objective of the rural sector. This represents a minor revolution in the way of visualizing the role of the landscape, together with that of agriculture and the rural territory as a whole, and demonstrates the importance of treating the landscape with a systematic point of view. As part of the Efficond project, three sample areas have been identified, each of about 800-1000 hectares, in zones with important historical - cultural landscapes that are included in the National Catalogue of Historical Rural Landscapes. For each sample area a methodology has been applied, defined Historical Cultural Evaluation Approach, developed as part of a project for the monitoring of the Tuscan landscape that we have simplified and adapted. This methodology is based on the consideration that the landscape is the result of the centuries-old interaction between man and the environment, and so to define an element of the landscape as characteristic it is necessary to evaluate the land use dynamics and landscape changes that took place in the past, identifying those that have persisted for a long time, are slowly evolving or stabilized. The study of the historical landscape, which in the proposed methodology refers to the 50’s, has been done through the interpretation and analysis of aerial photographs taken on the GAI flight in 1954, and has allowed the characteristic, traditional and historical elements of that landscape to be identified and an insight to be gained into the cultural identity of the area. Through the creation of specific indices of density and intensity of the terracing obtained by photo-interpretation, field surveys and GIS elaborations, it was possible to classify the sample areas for this specific and important landscape element, compare the results in two periods and evaluate their frequency in the territory. Multi-temporal comparative analysis is being used increasingly often, especially for the study of territories of value, and in our case has been accompanied both by mapping of the landscape dynamics, which identifies the areas subject to transformations in the considered period, and by tables and figures that allow the evolution of a unit of land use to be followed, observing how this has evolved over time. The evaluation of these evolutionary dynamics has then been integrated with a set of indices, in part borrowed from landscape ecology, and in part specifically developed for areas historically shaped by man, which demonstrate that the landscape has become less fragmented and that the layout of fields has been adapted to a different agricultural model that has profoundly changed the structure of the traditional landscape. The efficacy of the laws protecting the characteristic elements of the landscape is strictly linked to the maintenance of its diversity and typicality and conservation of the complexity of the landscape mosaic. Its evaluation necessitates a historical analysis of the evolutionary dynamics conducted at a purely local level

Quantum magnetism and counterflow supersolidity of up-down bosonic dipoles

We study a gas of dipolar Bosons confined in a two-dimensional optical lattice. Dipoles are considered to point freely in both up and down directions perpendicular to the lattice plane. This results in a nearest neighbor repulsive (attractive) interaction for aligned (anti-aligned) dipoles. We find regions of parameters where the ground state of the system exhibits insulating phases with ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic ordering, as well as with rational values of the average magnetization. Evidence for the existence of a novel counterflow supersolid quantum phase is also presented.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

The role of antioxidant therapy in the treatment of male infertility: An overview

In recent years, many studies have focused on the effect of oxidative stress, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants on the male eproductive system. Under physiological conditions, sperm produces small amounts of ROS, which are needed for fertilisation, acrosome reaction and capacitation. However, if an increased production of ROS is not associated with a similar increase in scavenging systems, peroxidative damage of the sperm plasma membrane and loss of DNA integrity typically occur, which leads to cell death and reduced fertility. Furthermore, since there is no linear correlation between sperm quality and pregnancy rates, an improvement in semen parameters should not be the sole outcome considered in studies of antioxidant therapies. A definitive conclusion regarding the benefit of these therapies is difficult to obtain, as most of the previous studies lacked control groups, considered different antioxidants in different combinations and doses, or did not evaluate pregnancy rates in previously infertile couples. Even if beneficial effects were reported in a few cases of male infertility, more multicentre, double-blind studies performed with the same criteria are necessary for an increased understanding of the effects of various antioxidants on fertility. Asian Journal of Andrology (2011) 13, 690-697; doi:10.1038/aja.2010.183; published online 20 June 201