Clinical practice: Coeliac disease

Coeliac disease (CD) is an immune-mediated systemic condition elicited by gluten and related prolamines in genetically predisposed individuals and characterised by gluten-induced symptoms and signs, specific antibodies, a specific human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type and enteropathy. The risk of coeliac disease is increased in first-degree relatives, certain syndromes including Down syndrome and autoimmune disorders. It is thought to occur in 1 in 100–200 individuals, but still only one in four cases is diagnosed. Small-bowel biopsy is no longer deemed necessary in a subgroup of patients, i.e. when all of the following are present: typical symptoms or signs, high titres of and transglutaminase antibodies, endomysial antibodies, and HLA-type DQ2 or DQ8. In all other cases, small-bowel biopsy remains mandatory for a correct diagnosis. Therapy consists of a strictly gluten-free diet. This should result in complete disappearance of symptoms and of serological markers. Adequate follow-up is considered essential. Conclusion: Although small-bowel biopsy may be omitted in a minority of patients, small-bowel biopsy is essential for a correct diagnosis of CD in all other cases. Diagnostic work-up should be completed before treatment with gluten-free diet instituted

Eicosapentaenoic acid free fatty acid prevents and suppresses colonic neoplasia in colitis-associated colorectal cancer acting on Notch signaling and gut microbiota

Inflammatory bowel diseases are associated with increased risk of developing colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC). Epidemiological data show that the consumption of ¿-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (¿-3 PUFAs) decreases the risk of sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC). Importantly, recent data have shown that eicosapentaenoic acid-free fatty acid (EPA-FFA) reduces polyp formation and growth in models of familial adenomatous polyposis. However, the effects of dietary EPA-FFA are unknown in CAC. We tested the effectiveness of substituting EPA-FFA, for other dietary fats, in preventing inflammation and cancer in the AOM-DSS model of CAC. The AOM-DSS protocols were designed to evaluate the effect of EPA-FFA on both initiation and promotion of carcinogenesis. We found that EPA-FFA diet strongly decreased tumor multiplicity, incidence and maximum tumor size in the promotion and initiation arms. Moreover EPA–FFA, in particular in the initiation arm, led to reduced cell proliferation and nuclear ß-catenin expression, whilst it increased apoptosis. In both arms, EPA-FFA treatment led to increased membrane switch from ¿-6 to ¿-3 PUFAs and a concomitant reduction in PGE2 production. We observed no significant changes in intestinal inflammation between EPA-FFA treated arms and AOM-DSS controls. Importantly, we found that EPA-FFA treatment restored the loss of Notch signaling found in the AOM-DSS control and resulted in the enrichment of Lactobacillus species in the gut microbiota. Taken together, our data suggest that EPA-FFA is an excellent candidate for CRC chemoprevention in CAC

Investigation of very low and low frequency (VLF/LF) electromagnetic waves propagation over seismogenic zones using the improved Romanian radio monitoring system

A new VLF/LF INFREP radio receiver was installed in Romania, in the summer of 2017 at the seismic station Barlad, Vaslui county. In the same site with the magnetic antennas and radio receiver, were added a Boltek electrometer, a lightning detector and a Conrad meteo station, to monitor the local atmospheric contitions that might affect the signal reception. The same monitoring configuration is also installed at Dobrogea Seismological Obervatory (Dob-Ro), from Eforie Nord, Constanta County Romania. In the present study, is presented the new monitoring system and the data recorded by the two Elettronika receivers are processed and anomalies are correlated with the preparation stage of the last earthquakes with ML larger than 5.0, occurred in Vrancea zone, and felt on the extra-Carpathian area. Barlad receiver was inside the Dobrovolsky preparation area of the analyzed shocks, and the 5th Fresnel zones of three radio paths monitored by the Dob-Ro receiver crossed the epicentral area. During the last 12 months, five largely felt earthquakes occurred in Vrancea seismogenic zone (September and December 2016 and February, May and August 2017), but only the last one occurred after the installation of the Barlad receiver. The paper is presenting some preliminary results from two new VLF radio receivers designed and installed in Romania. The Ionospheric TEC (Total Electron Content) variations are also analyzed using observations from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) aiming to detect potential ionospheric anomalies related to these events and describe their characteristics

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism investigation of spin and orbital moments in Cr8 and Cr7Ni antiferromagnetic rings

We investigated the electronic and magnetic properties of thick films of molecular Cr8 and Cr7Ni antiferromagneticrings by means of x-ray absorption spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular dichroismXMCD. We determined the local symmetries, the electronic configuration, and the values of orbital and spinmoments at the Cr and Ni sites of the molecular rings. XMCD measurements show that the correlation betweenthe Cr and Ni spins in the Cr7Ni molecular ring switches from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic withincreasing temperature. Experimental data are interpreted using XMCD sum rules that allow the separateevaluation of the spin and the orbital contributions to the total magnetic moment of the ring as a function oftemperature and magnetic field. The magnetic behaviors experimentally observed are compared with the resultsof spin-Hamiltonian calculations, based on microscopic parameters derived by inelastic-neutron scattering andlow-temperature specific-heat measurements. The very good agreement between experimental data and calculationsis a clear indication of the integrity of molecules. The temperature dependence of the ion magneticmoments results from the interplay between Zeeman and isotropic-exchange contributions, and is well capturedby the theoretical model

Intrinsic limits on resolutions in muon- and electron-neutrino charged-current events in the KM3NeT/ORCA detector

Studying atmospheric neutrino oscillations in the few-GeV range with a multimegaton detector promises to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy. This is the main science goal pursued by the future KM3NeT/ORCA water Cherenkov detector in the Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, the processes that limit the obtainable resolution in both energy and direction in charged-current neutrino events in the ORCA detector are investigated. These processes include the composition of the hadronic fragmentation products, the subsequent particle propagation and the photon-sampling fraction of the detector. GEANT simulations of neutrino interactions in seawater produced by GENIE are used to study the effects in the 1-20 GeV range. It is found that fluctuations in the hadronic cascade in conjunction with the variation of the inelasticity y are most detrimental to the resolutions. The effect of limited photon sampling in the detector is of significantly less importance. These results will therefore also be applicable to similar detectors/media, such as those in ice

Letter of intent for KM3NeT 2.0

The main objectives of the KM3NeT Collaboration are (i) the discovery and subsequent observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe and (ii) the determination of the mass hierarchy of neutrinos. These objectives are strongly motivated by two recent important discoveries, namely: (1) the high-energy astrophysical neutrino signal reported by IceCube and (2) the sizable contribution of electron neutrinos to the third neutrino mass eigenstate as reported by Daya Bay, Reno and others. To meet these objectives, the KM3NeT Collaboration plans to build a new Research Infrastructure consisting of a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. A phased and distributed implementation is pursued which maximises the access to regional funds, the availability of human resources and the synergistic opportunities for the Earth and sea sciences community. Three suitable deep-sea sites are selected, namely off-shore Toulon (France), Capo Passero (Sicily, Italy) and Pylos (Peloponnese, Greece). The infrastructure will consist of three so-called building blocks. A building block comprises 115 strings, each string comprises 18 optical modules and each optical module comprises 31 photo-multiplier tubes. Each building block thus constitutes a three-dimensional array of photo sensors that can be used to detect the Cherenkov light produced by relativistic particles emerging from neutrino interactions. Two building blocks will be sparsely configured to fully explore the IceCube signal with similar instrumented volume, different methodology, improved resolution and complementary field of view, including the galactic plane. One building block will be densely configured to precisely measure atmospheric neutrino oscillations

Searching for solar KDAR with DUNE

The observation of 236 MeV muon neutrinos from kaon-decay-at-rest (KDAR) originating in the core of the Sun would provide a unique signature of dark matter annihilation. Since excellent angle and energy reconstruction are necessary to detect this monoenergetic, directional neutrino flux, DUNE with its vast volume and reconstruction capabilities, is a promising candidate for a KDAR neutrino search. In this work, we evaluate the proposed KDAR neutrino search strategies by realistically modeling both neutrino-nucleus interactions and the response of DUNE. We find that, although reconstruction of the neutrino energy and direction is difficult with current techniques in the relevant energy range, the superb energy resolution, angular resolution, and particle identification offered by DUNE can still permit great signal/background discrimination. Moreover, there are non-standard scenarios in which searches at DUNE for KDAR in the Sun can probe dark matter interactions