Anomalous Threshold as the Pivot of Feynman Amplitudes

Reduction techniques, Landau singularities and differential equations for Feynman amplitudes are briefly reviewed.Comment: Contribution to the Proceedings of the 9th DESY workshop on "Loops and Legs in Quantum Field Theory", Sondershausen, April 2008. 6 pages latex

U-CHANGE Project: a multidimensional consensus on how clinicians, patients and caregivers may approach together the new urothelial cancer scenario

IntroductionAdvanced urothelial carcinoma remains aggressive and very hard to cure, while new treatments will pose a challenge for clinicians and healthcare funding policymakers alike. The U-CHANGE Project aimed to redesign the current model of care for advanced urothelial carcinoma patients to identify limitations (“as is” scenario) and recommend future actions (“to be” scenario).MethodsTwenty-three subject-matter experts, divided into three groups, analyzed the two scenarios as part of a multidimensional consensus process, developing statements for specific domains of the disease, and a simplified Delphi methodology was used to establish consensus among the experts.ResultsRecommended actions included increasing awareness of the disease, increased training of healthcare professionals, improvement of screening strategies and care pathways, increased support for patients and caregivers and relevant recommendations from molecular tumor boards when comprehensive genomic profiling has to be provided for appropriate patient selection to ad hoc targeted therapies.DiscussionWhile the innovative new targeted agents have the potential to significantly alter the clinical approach to this highly aggressive disease, the U-CHANGE Project experience shows that the use of these new agents will require a radical shift in the entire model of care, implementing sustainable changes which anticipate the benefits of future treatments, capable of targeting the right patient with the right agent at different stages of the disease

Synergistic Properties of Arabinogalactan (AG) and Hyaluronic Acid (HA) Sodium Salt Mixtures

The properties of mixtures of two polysaccharides, arabinogalactan (AG) and hyaluronic acid (HA), were investigated in solution by the measurement of diffusion coefficients D of water protons by DOSY (Diffusion Ordered SpectroscopY), by the determination of viscosity and by the investigation of the affinity of a small molecule molecular probe versus AG/HA mixtures in the presence of bovine submaxillary mucin (BSM) by 1HNMR spectroscopy. Enhanced mucoadhesive properties, decreased mobility of water and decreased viscosity were observed at the increase of AG/HA ratio and of total concentration of AG. This unusual combination of properties can lead to more effective and long-lasting hydration of certain tissues (inflamed skin, dry eye corneal surface, etc.) and can be useful in the preparation of new formulations of cosmetics and of drug release systems, with the advantage of reducing the viscosity of the solutions

Two-loop fermionic corrections to massive Bhabha scattering.

We evaluate the two-loop corrections to Bhabha scattering from fermion loops in the context of pure Quantum Electrodynamics. The differential cross section is expressed by a small number of Master Integrals with exact dependence on the fermion masses me, mf and the Mandelstam invariants s,t,u. We determine the limit of fixed scattering angle and high energy, assuming the hierarchy of scales me^2 << mf^2 << s,t,u. The numerical result is combined with the available non-fermionic contributions. As a by-product, we provide an independent check of the known electron-loop contributions.Comment: 22 pages, 5 tables, 5 figures, eq. 4.9 correcte