Electron Fabry-Perot interferometer with two entangled magnetic impurities

We consider a one-dimensional (1D) wire along which single conduction electrons can propagate in the presence of two spin-1/2 magnetic impurities. The electron may be scattered by each impurity via a contact-exchange interaction and thus a spin-flip generally occurs at each scattering event. Adopting a quantum waveguide theory approach, we derive the stationary states of the system at all orders in the electron-impurity exchange coupling constant. This allows us to investigate electron transmission for arbitrary initial states of the two impurity spins. We show that for suitable electron wave vectors, the triplet and singlet maximally entangled spin states of the impurities can respectively largely inhibit the electron transport or make the wire completely transparent for any electron spin state. In the latter case, a resonance condition can always be found, representing an anomalous behaviour compared to typical decoherence induced by magnetic impurities. We provide an explanation for these phenomena in terms of the Hamiltonian symmetries. Finally, a scheme to generate maximally entangled spin states of the two impurities via electron scattering is proposed.Comment: 19 page

Effect of Static Disorder in an Electron Fabry-Perot Interferometer with Two Quantum Scattering Centers

In a recent paper -- F. Ciccarello \emph{et al.}, New J. Phys. \textbf{8}, 214 (2006) -- we have demonstrated that the electron transmission properties of a one-dimensional (1D) wire with two identical embedded spin-1/2 impurities can be significantly affected by entanglement between the spins of the scattering centers. Such effect is of particular interest in the control of transmission of quantum information in nanostructures and can be used as a detection scheme of maximally entangled states of two localized spins. In this letter, we relax the constraint that the two magnetic impurities are equal and investigate how the main results presented in the above paper are affected by a static disorder in the exchange coupling constants of the impurities. Good robustness against deviation from impurity symmetry is found for both the entanglement dependent transmission and the maximally entangled states generation scheme.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Entanglement Controlled Single-Electron Transmittivity

We consider a system consisting of single electrons moving along a 1D wire in the presence of two magnetic impurities. Such system shows strong analogies with a Fabry - Perot interferometer in which the impurities play the role of two mirrors with a quantum degree of freedom: the spin. We have analysed the electron transmittivity of the wire in the presence of entanglement between the impurity spins. The main result of our analysis is that, for suitable values of the electron momentum, there are two maximally entangled state of the impurity spins the first of which makes the wire transparent whatever the electron spin state while the other strongly inhibits the electron transmittivity. Such predicted striking effect is experimentally observable with present day technology.Comment: Published version (6 figures

Two-dimensional hydrodynamic lattice-gas simulations of binary immiscible and ternary amphiphilic fluid flow through porous media

The behaviour of two dimensional binary and ternary amphiphilic fluids under flow conditions is investigated using a hydrodynamic lattice gas model. After the validation of the model in simple cases (Poiseuille flow, Darcy's law for single component fluids), attention is focussed on the properties of binary immiscible fluids in porous media. An extension of Darcy's law which explicitly admits a viscous coupling between the fluids is verified, and evidence of capillary effects are described. The influence of a third component, namely surfactant, is studied in the same context. Invasion simulations have also been performed. The effect of the applied force on the invasion process is reported. As the forcing level increases, the invasion process becomes faster and the residual oil saturation decreases. The introduction of surfactant in the invading phase during imbibition produces new phenomena, including emulsification and micellisation. At very low fluid forcing levels, this leads to the production of a low-resistance gel, which then slows down the progress of the invading fluid. At long times (beyond the water percolation threshold), the concentration of remaining oil within the porous medium is lowered by the action of surfactant, thus enhancing oil recovery. On the other hand, the introduction of surfactant in the invading phase during drainage simulations slows down the invasion process -- the invading fluid takes a more tortuous path to invade the porous medium -- and reduces the oil recovery (the residual oil saturation increases).Comment: 48 pages, 26 figures. Phys. Rev. E (in press

Use of a comprehensive diagnostic algorithm for Anisakis allergy in a high seroprevalence Mediterranean setting

Background. Diagnosis of anisakis allergy (AA) is based on the skin prick test (SPT) and specific IgE (sIgE) determination. Anyway, false positivity cases are due to cross reactivity with numerous allergens. The aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability of a comprehensive diagnostic algorithm for the AA. Methods. An observational study was conducted on a sample of consecutive subjects accessing the allergology outpatient ambulatories of two hospitals located in Western Sicily. All the recruited outpatients were tested by Skin Prick Test performed using anisakis extracts by ALK-Abello (Madrid, Spain). Specific IgE dosage for anisakis extracts was then performed by using ImmunoCAP250 (Immunodiagnostics Uppsala, Sweden). Consequently, outpatients who tested positive to first line tests underwent sIgE testing for ascaris and tropomyosin. Lastly, outpatients positive to the first line were invited to be further tested by basophil activation test (BAT) by using Flow CAST kit and anisakis commercial extract (Buhlmann Laboratories AG, Schonenbuch, Switzerland), as confirmatory analysis. Results. One hundred and eleven outpatients with an anamnesis suggestive of sensitization to anisakis (AS) and 466 subjects with chronic urticaria (CU) were recruited in the study. Of these, 22 with AS and 41 with CU showed a sensitization to anisakis allergens. The diagnostic algorithm revealed that 8.8% of outpatients who tested positive to sIgE determination were affected by CU, while 82.5% of all the sIgE positivity was related to cross-reactivity. Overall, a genuine anisakis seroprevalence of 2.3% was documented. Within a sub-sample of 15 subjects with clinical symptoms related to AA, n. 8 showed a real positivity after BAT. A greater response to A. pegreffii allergens as compared to A. simplex was reported. Conclusions. Our preliminary findings support the high clinical specificity of BAT for AA diagnosis, suggesting implementing this method in a comprehensive diagnostic algorithm

Gynaecological morbidity among HIV positive pregnant women in Cameroon

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To compare the prevalence of gynaecological conditions among HIV infected and non-infected pregnant women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two thousand and eight (2008) pregnant women were screened for HIV, lower genital tract infections and lower genital tract neoplasia at booking antenatal visit.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>About 10% (198/2008) were HIV positive. All lower genital tract infections except candidiasis were more prevalent among HIV positive compared to HIV negative women: vaginal candidiasis (36.9% vs 35.4%; <it>p </it>= 0.678), Trichomoniasis (21.2% vs 10.6%; <it>p </it>< 0.001), gonorrhoea (10.1% vs 2.5%; <it>p </it>< 0.001), bacterial vaginosis (21.2% vs 15.2%; <it>p </it>= 0.026), syphilis (35.9% vs 10.6%; <it>p </it>< 0.001), and <it>Chlamydia trachomatis </it>(38.4% vs 7.1%; <it>p </it>< 0.001). Similarly, HIV positive women more likely to have preinvasive cervical lesions: low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) (18.2% vs 4.4%; <it>p </it>< 0.001) and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (12.1% vs 1.5%; <it>p </it>< 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that (i) sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are common in both HIV positive and HIV negative pregnant women in Cameroon, and (ii) STIs and preinvasive cervical lesions are more prevalent in HIV-infected pregnant women compared to their non-infected compatriots. We recommend routine screening and treatment of STIs during antenatal care in Cameroon and other countries with similar social profiles.</p

Effectiveness of service screening: a case–control study to assess breast cancer mortality reduction

The aim of this study was the evaluation of the impact of service screening programmes on breast cancer mortality in five regions of Italy. We conducted a matched case–control study with four controls for each case. Cases were defined as breast cancer deaths occurred not later than 31 December 2002. Controls were sampled from the local municipality list and matched by date of birth. Screening histories were assessed by the local, computerised, screening database and subjects were classified as either invited or not-yet-invited and as either screened or unscreened. There were a total of 1750 breast cancer deaths within the 50 to 74-year-old breast cancer cases and a total of 7000 controls. The logistic conditional estimate of the cumulative odds ratios comparing invited with not-yet-invited women was 0.75 (95% CI: 0.62–0.92). Restricting the analyses to invited women, the odds ratio of screened to never-respondent women corrected for self-selection bias was 0.55 (95% CI: 0.36–0.85). The introduction of breast cancer screening programmes in Italy is associated with a reduction in breast cancer mortality attributable to the additional impact of service screening over and above the background access to mammography

ITALIAN CANCER FIGURES - REPORT 2015: The burden of rare cancers in Italy = I TUMORI IN ITALIA - RAPPORTO 2015: I tumori rari in Italia

OBJECTIVES: This collaborative study, based on data collected by the network of Italian Cancer Registries (AIRTUM), describes the burden of rare cancers in Italy. Estimated number of new rare cancer cases yearly diagnosed (incidence), proportion of patients alive after diagnosis (survival), and estimated number of people still alive after a new cancer diagnosis (prevalence) are provided for about 200 different cancer entities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data herein presented were provided by AIRTUM population- based cancer registries (CRs), covering nowadays 52% of the Italian population. This monograph uses the AIRTUM database (January 2015), which includes all malignant cancer cases diagnosed between 1976 and 2010. All cases are coded according to the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O-3). Data underwent standard quality checks (described in the AIRTUM data management protocol) and were checked against rare-cancer specific quality indicators proposed and published by RARECARE and HAEMACARE (www.rarecarenet.eu; www.haemacare.eu). The definition and list of rare cancers proposed by the RARECAREnet "Information Network on Rare Cancers" project were adopted: rare cancers are entities (defined as a combination of topographical and morphological codes of the ICD-O-3) having an incidence rate of less than 6 per 100,000 per year in the European population. This monograph presents 198 rare cancers grouped in 14 major groups. Crude incidence rates were estimated as the number of all new cancers occurring in 2000-2010 divided by the overall population at risk, for males and females (also for gender-specific tumours).The proportion of rare cancers out of the total cancers (rare and common) by site was also calculated. Incidence rates by sex and age are reported. The expected number of new cases in 2015 in Italy was estimated assuming the incidence in Italy to be the same as in the AIRTUM area. One- and 5-year relative survival estimates of cases aged 0-99 years diagnosed between 2000 and 2008 in the AIRTUM database, and followed up to 31 December 2009, were calculated using complete cohort survival analysis. To estimate the observed prevalence in Italy, incidence and follow-up data from 11 CRs for the period 1992-2006 were used, with a prevalence index date of 1 January 2007. Observed prevalence in the general population was disentangled by time prior to the reference date (≤2 years, 2-5 years, ≤15 years). To calculate the complete prevalence proportion at 1 January 2007 in Italy, the 15-year observed prevalence was corrected by the completeness index, in order to account for those cancer survivors diagnosed before the cancer registry activity started. The completeness index by cancer and age was obtained by means of statistical regression models, using incidence and survival data available in the European RARECAREnet data. RESULTS: In total, 339,403 tumours were included in the incidence analysis. The annual incidence rate (IR) of all 198 rare cancers in the period 2000-2010 was 147 per 100,000 per year, corresponding to about 89,000 new diagnoses in Italy each year, accounting for 25% of all cancer. Five cancers, rare at European level, were not rare in Italy because their IR was higher than 6 per 100,000; these tumours were: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and squamous cell carcinoma of larynx (whose IRs in Italy were 7 per 100,000), multiple myeloma (IR: 8 per 100,000), hepatocellular carcinoma (IR: 9 per 100,000) and carcinoma of thyroid gland (IR: 14 per 100,000). Among the remaining 193 rare cancers, more than two thirds (No. 139) had an annual IR &lt;0.5 per 100,000, accounting for about 7,100 new cancers cases; for 25 cancer types, the IR ranged between 0.5 and 1 per 100,000, accounting for about 10,000 new diagnoses; while for 29 cancer types the IR was between 1 and 6 per 100,000, accounting for about 41,000 new cancer cases. Among all rare cancers diagnosed in Italy, 7% were rare haematological diseases (IR: 41 per 100,000), 18% were solid rare cancers. Among the latter, the rare epithelial tumours of the digestive system were the most common (23%, IR: 26 per 100,000), followed by epithelial tumours of head and neck (17%, IR: 19) and rare cancers of the female genital system (17%, IR: 17), endocrine tumours (13% including thyroid carcinomas and less than 1% with an IR of 0.4 excluding thyroid carcinomas), sarcomas (8%, IR: 9 per 100,000), central nervous system tumours and rare epithelial tumours of the thoracic cavity (5%with an IR equal to 6 and 5 per 100,000, respectively). The remaining (rare male genital tumours, IR: 4 per 100,000; tumours of eye, IR: 0.7 per 100,000; neuroendocrine tumours, IR: 4 per 100,000; embryonal tumours, IR: 0.4 per 100,000; rare skin tumours and malignant melanoma of mucosae, IR: 0.8 per 100,000) each constituted &lt;4% of all solid rare cancers. Patients with rare cancers were on average younger than those with common cancers. Essentially, all childhood cancers were rare, while after age 40 years, the common cancers (breast, prostate, colon, rectum, and lung) became increasingly more frequent. For 254,821 rare cancers diagnosed in 2000-2008, 5-year RS was on average 55%, lower than the corresponding figures for patients with common cancers (68%). RS was lower for rare cancers than for common cancers at 1 year and continued to diverge up to 3 years, while the gap remained constant from 3 to 5 years after diagnosis. For rare and common cancers, survival decreased with increasing age. Five-year RS was similar and high for both rare and common cancers up to 54 years; it decreased with age, especially after 54 years, with the elderly (75+ years) having a 37% and 20% lower survival than those aged 55-64 years for rare and common cancers, respectively. We estimated that about 900,000 people were alive in Italy with a previous diagnosis of a rare cancer in 2010 (prevalence). The highest prevalence was observed for rare haematological diseases (278 per 100,000) and rare tumours of the female genital system (265 per 100,000). Very low prevalence (&lt;10 prt 100,000) was observed for rare epithelial skin cancers, for rare epithelial tumours of the digestive system and rare epithelial tumours of the thoracic cavity. COMMENTS: One in four cancers cases diagnosed in Italy is a rare cancer, in agreement with estimates of 24% calculated in Europe overall. In Italy, the group of all rare cancers combined, include 5 cancer types with an IR&gt;6 per 100,000 in Italy, in particular thyroid cancer (IR: 14 per 100,000).The exclusion of thyroid carcinoma from rare cancers reduces the proportion of them in Italy in 2010 to 22%. Differences in incidence across population can be due to the different distribution of risk factors (whether environmental, lifestyle, occupational, or genetic), heterogeneous diagnostic intensity activity, as well as different diagnostic capacity; moreover heterogeneity in accuracy of registration may determine some minor differences in the account of rare cancers. Rare cancers had worse prognosis than common cancers at 1, 3, and 5 years from diagnosis. Differences between rare and common cancers were small 1 year after diagnosis, but survival for rare cancers declined more markedly thereafter, consistent with the idea that treatments for rare cancers are less effective than those for common cancers. However, differences in stage at diagnosis could not be excluded, as 1- and 3-year RS for rare cancers was lower than the corresponding figures for common cancers. Moreover, rare cancers include many cancer entities with a bad prognosis (5-year RS &lt;50%): cancer of head and neck, oesophagus, small intestine, ovary, brain, biliary tract, liver, pleura, multiple myeloma, acute myeloid and lymphatic leukaemia; in contrast, most common cancer cases are breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers, which have a good prognosis. The high prevalence observed for rare haematological diseases and rare tumours of the female genital system is due to their high incidence (the majority of haematological diseases are rare and gynaecological cancers added up to fairly high incidence rates) and relatively good prognosis. The low prevalence of rare epithelial tumours of the digestive system was due to the low survival rates of the majority of tumours included in this group (oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, and liver), regardless of the high incidence rate of rare epithelial cancers of these sites. This AIRTUM study confirms that rare cancers are a major public health problem in Italy and provides quantitative estimations, for the first time in Italy, to a problem long known to exist. This monograph provides detailed epidemiologic indicators for almost 200 rare cancers, the majority of which (72%) are very rare (IR&lt;0.5 per 100,000). These data are of major interest for different stakeholders. Health care planners can find useful information herein to properly plan and think of how to reorganise health care services. Researchers now have numbers to design clinical trials considering alternative study designs and statistical approaches. Population-based cancer registries with good quality data are the best source of information to describe the rare cancer burden in a population

Meta-analysis of pharmacogenetic interactions in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis clinical trials

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether genetic subgroups in recent amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) trials responded to treatment with lithium carbonate, but that the treatment effect was lost in a large cohort of nonresponders. METHODS: Individual participant data were obtained from 3 randomized trials investigating the efficacy of lithium carbonate. We matched clinical data with data regarding the UNC13A and C9orf72 genotype. Our primary outcome was survival at 12 months. On an exploratory basis, we assessed whether the effect of lithium depended on the genotype. RESULTS: Clinical data were available for 518 of the 606 participants. Overall, treatment with lithium carbonate did not improve 12-month survival (hazard ratio [HR] 1.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.7-1.4; p = 0.96). Both the UNC13A and C9orf72 genotype were independent predictors of survival (HR 2.4, 95% CI 1.3-4.3; p = 0.006 and HR 2.5, 95% CI 1.1-5.2; p = 0.032, respectively). The effect of lithium was different for UNC13A carriers (p = 0.027), but not for C9orf72 carriers (p = 0.22). The 12-month survival probability for UNC13A carriers treated with lithium carbonate improved from 40.1% (95% CI 23.2-69.1) to 69.7% (95% CI 50.4-96.3). CONCLUSIONS: This study incorporated genetic data into past ALS trials to determine treatment effects in a genetic post hoc analysis. Our results suggest that we should reorient our strategies toward finding treatments for ALS, start focusing on genotype-targeted treatments, and standardize genotyping in order to optimize randomization and analysis for future clinical trials

On the typology and the worship status of sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East

This article contains the reasons for the establishment of sacred trees in Israel based on a field study. It includes 97 interviews with Muslim and Druze informants. While Muslims (Arabs and Bedouins) consider sacred trees especially as an abode of righteous figures' (Wellis') souls or as having a connection to their graves, the Druze relate sacred trees especially to the events or deeds in the lives of prophets and religious leaders. A literary review shows the existence of 24 known reasons for the establishment of sacred trees worldwide, 11 of which are known in Israel one of these is reported here for the first time. We found different trends in monotheistic and polytheistic religions concerning their current worship of sacred trees