Total pancreatectomy for ampullary adenocarcinoma in a 74-year-old patient. Case report and literature review

Primary ampullary neoplasms have origin in the ampulla of Vater, an anatomical structure where the common bile duct and the pancreatic duct join together as a common channel. It represents <0.5% of all gastrointestinal cancers and approximately 7% of all periampullary cancers. The adenocarcinomas arising in this region originate from different epithelial cellular constituents present at the site, the histopathological classification encompass: intestinal type, pancreaticobiliary type, and mixed type. Pancreaticoduodenectomy is the treatment of choice when there is an overt or highly suspicious malignant behaviour. We present here the case of a 74-year-old male patient who presented to our department for further investigation of obstructive jaundice and a pancreatic mass associated with a six-month history of significant weight loss and mild epigastric pain. Eventually, a total splenopancreatectomy was performed given the extension of structural anomalies of the organ secondary to an ampullary adenocarcinoma

The ATLAS RPC ROD for Super LHC

The number of interactions per bunch crossing for the upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider is expected to be ten times greater than the actual one. As a consequence, the ATLAS detector for SLHC foresees the use of a larger number of readout channels and also a new trigger level is under development. In order to face with such issue, we developed a new architecture for the Read Out Driver (ROD) for the ATLAS RPC Muon Spectrometer in the barrel region. Presently, each ROD board receives ATLAS RPC Muon readout data and arranges all the data fragments of a sector of the spectrometer in a unique event, sending it to the next acquisition systems. Our new design is based on the new generation Xilinx Virtex5 FPGA and it works with a clock frequency six times greater than the actual bunch crossing rate of the LHC. We also implemented the output channel of the ROD, presently based on S-Link protocol, by using the GTP transceivers inside the FPGA. We present an overview of our design, focusing on the newly added hardware features

Anticancer activity of cationic porphyrins in melanoma tumour-bearing mice and mechanistic in vitro studies

Background Porphyrin TMPyP4 (P4) and its C14H28-alkyl derivative (C14) are G-quadruplex binders and singlet oxygen (1O2) generators. In contrast, TMPyP2 (P2) produces 1O2 but it is not a G-quadruplex binder. As their photosensitizing activity is currently undefined, we report in this study their efficacy against a melanoma skin tumour and describe an in vitro mechanistic study which gives insights into their anticancer activity. Methods Uptake and antiproliferative activity of photoactivated P2, P4 and C14 have been investigated in murine melanoma B78-H1 cells by FACS, clonogenic and migration assays. Apoptosis was investigated by PARP-1 cleavage and annexin-propidium iodide assays. Biodistribution and in vivo anticancer activity were tested in melanoma tumour-bearing mice. Porphyrin binding and photocleavage of G-rich mRNA regions were investigated by electrophoresis and RT-PCR. Porphyrin effect on ERK pathway was explored by Western blots. Results Thanks to its higher lipophylicity C14 was taken up by murine melanoma B78-H1 cells up to 30-fold more efficiently than P4. When photoactivated (7.2 J/cm2) in B78-H1 melanoma cells, P4 and C14, but not control P2, caused a strong inhibition of metabolic activity, clonogenic growth and cell migration. Biodistribution studies on melanoma tumour-bearing mice showed that P4 and C14 localize in the tumour. Upon irradiation (660 nm, 193 J/cm2), P4 and C14 retarded tumour growth and increased the median survival time of the treated mice by ~50% (P <0.01 by ANOVA), whereas porphyrin P2 did not. The light-dependent mechanism mediated by P4 and C14 is likely due to the binding to and photocleavage of G-rich quadruplex-forming sequences within the 5\u2032-untranslated regions of the mitogenic ras genes. This causes a decrease of RAS protein and inhibition of downstream ERK pathway, which stimulates proliferation. Annexin V/propidium iodide and PARP-1 cleavage assays showed that the porphyrins arrested tumour growth by apoptosis and necrosis. C14 also showed an intrinsic light-independent anticancer activity, as recently reported for G4-RNA binders. Conclusions Porphyrins P4 and C14 impair the clonogenic growth and migration of B78-H1 melanoma cells and inhibit melanoma tumour growth in vivo. Evidence is provided that C14 acts through light-dependent (mRNA photocleavage) and light-independent (translation inhibition) mechanisms. Keywords: Melanoma B78-H1 cells; Cationic porphyrins; Biodistribution; C57/BL6 mice; Ras genes; G4-RNA; ERK pathwa

Analysing the performance of MCECs over a wide range of operating temperatures

Hydrogen production through water electrolysis has gained significant attention in the past years as a means of tackling the problem of the imbalance between the intermittent rate of electricity production from renewable sources and the continuous electricity demand from end users. Recently, much of the effort has been shifted toward the electrolysis of steam rather than water, for example in solid oxide cells, which operate at temperatures around 800°C. In this manner, part of the energy required for the conversion to hydrogen is provided as heat rather than electricity. At the same time, the high temperature levels require the use of highly resistant materials, which increase the overall cost of the process. An interesting alternative is represented by molten carbonate electrolysis cells (MCECs), operating at temperatures well below 700°C. In the present work, a molten carbonate cell was operated in a lower temperature range (490-550°C) by changing the composition of the electrolyte mixture. The data obtained, along with experimental results at higher temperature (570-650°C) available in the literature, was analyzed using a 0D model accounting for Ohmic and activation overpotentials to determine the correlation between current and potential. It was found that, while the dependence of Ohmic losses on temperatures is discontinuous when cell operation is switched from the lower to the higher temperature range, activation losses vary with continuity. This result provides important insight on the performance of MCECs that can serve as a basis for future studies

Experimental investigation of SO2 poisoning in a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell operating in CCS configuration

[EN] One of the most interesting innovations in the CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) field is the use of MCFCs as carbon dioxide concentrators, feeding their cathode side (or air side) with the exhaust gas of a traditional power plant. The feasibility of this kind of application depends on the resistance of the MCFC to air-side contaminants, with particular attention to SO2. The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of poisoning when sulphur dioxide is added to the cathodic stream in various concentrations and in different operating conditions. This study was carried out operating single cells (80 cm(2)) with a cathodic feeding composition simulating typical flue gas conditions, i.e. N-2, H2O, O-2 and CO2 in 73:9:12:6 mol ratio as reference mixture. On the anodic side a base composition was chosen with H-2, CO2 and H2O in 64:16:20 mol ratio. Starting from these reference mixtures, the effect of single species on cell poisoning was experimentally investigated considering, as main parameters chosen for the sensitivity analysis, SO2 (0-24 ppm) and CO2 (4-12%) content in the cathodic feeding mixture, H-2 (40-64%) content in the anodic stream as well as the operating temperature (620-680 degrees C). Results showed that degradation caused by SO2 poisoning is strongly affected by the operating conditions. Data gathered during this experimental campaign will be used in a future work to model the poisoning mechanisms through the definition of MCFC electrochemical kinetics which take into account the SO2 effects. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The work was partly supported by H2FC European Infrastructure Project (Integrating European Infrastructure to support science and development of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies towards European Strategy for Sustain-able Competitive and Secure Energy) Theme [INFRA-2011-1.1.16.], Grant agreement 284522.Della Pietra, M.; Discepoli, G.; Bosio, B.; Mcphail, S.; Barelli, L.; Bidini, G.; Ribes-Greus, A. (2016). Experimental investigation of SO2 poisoning in a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell operating in CCS configuration. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 41(41):18822-18836. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.05.147S1882218836414

GNAM and OHP: Monitoring Tools for ATLAS experiment at LHC.

ATLAS is one of the four experiments under construction along the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ring at CERN. The LHC will produce interactions at a center-of-mass energy equal to âs = 14 TeV at 40 MHz rate. The detector consists of more than 140 million electronic channels. The challenging experimental environment and the extreme detector complexity impose the necessity of a common scalable distributed monitoring framework, which can be tuned for the optimal use by different ATLAS sub-detectors at the various levels of the ATLAS data flow. This note presents two monitoring tools that have been developed for this aim within the architecture ATLAS Monitoring Framework and the Data Acquisition System: GNAM and OHP. The first one is a framework for online histogram production; the second one is graphical application for histogram presentation. This tools are now widely used during the ATLAS commissioning and their performances are reported in this not

Study of Chinese Insurance Company’s Risk Estimation Index System

自从1990年以来，日本多家保险公司因资不抵债相继破产，不仅在国际社会造成了极大的震动，也给我国保险业敲响了警钟：保险公司在经营风险产品的同时，应加强对自身风险的评估。自从我国加入WTO后，保险业受到了巨大的冲击，加强对我国保险公司风险评估指标体系的研究便具有十分重要的意义。首先，对保险公司风险评估指标体系的研究，能为量化保险公司经营风险提供依据。其次，对保险公司风险评估指标体系的研究，有利于保险公司加强风险管理。 本文选择保险公司风险评估指标作为研究的重点，详细介绍了保险公司风险评估指标体系的内容、评价及在我国保险市场上的应用，并选取了四家保险公司近年来的数据，用IRIS指标体系做实证研究...Since 1990, some insurance companies of Japanese have been bankrupted. It made a big ring to the international financial market and Chinese insurance market: Insurance companies should pay more attention to its risk evaluation. After China’s entry into the WTO, some industries fell under big impact, especially the insurance industry. So the study of risk evaluation became more and more important t...学位：经济学硕士院系专业：经济学院财政金融系_金融学(含保险学)学号：20044202

The IBMAP approach for Markov networks structure learning

In this work we consider the problem of learning the structure of Markov networks from data. We present an approach for tackling this problem called IBMAP, together with an efficient instantiation of the approach: the IBMAP-HC algorithm, designed for avoiding important limitations of existing independence-based algorithms. These algorithms proceed by performing statistical independence tests on data, trusting completely the outcome of each test. In practice tests may be incorrect, resulting in potential cascading errors and the consequent reduction in the quality of the structures learned. IBMAP contemplates this uncertainty in the outcome of the tests through a probabilistic maximum-a-posteriori approach. The approach is instantiated in the IBMAP-HC algorithm, a structure selection strategy that performs a polynomial heuristic local search in the space of possible structures. We present an extensive empirical evaluation on synthetic and real data, showing that our algorithm outperforms significantly the current independence-based algorithms, in terms of data efficiency and quality of learned structures, with equivalent computational complexities. We also show the performance of IBMAP-HC in a real-world application of knowledge discovery: EDAs, which are evolutionary algorithms that use structure learning on each generation for modeling the distribution of populations. The experiments show that when IBMAP-HC is used to learn the structure, EDAs improve the convergence to the optimum

Ageing test of the ATLAS RPCs at X5-GIF

An ageing test of three ATLAS production RPC stations is in course at X5-GIF, the CERN irradiation facility. The chamber efficiencies are monitored using cosmic rays triggered by a scintillator hodoscope. Higher statistics measurements are made when the X5 muon beam is available. We report here the measurements of the efficiency versus operating voltage at different source intensities, up to a maximum counting rate of about 700Hz/cm^2. We describe the performance of the chambers during the test up to an overall ageing of 4 ATLAS equivalent years corresponding to an integrated charge of 0.12C/cm^2, including a safety factor of 5.Comment: 4 pages. Presented at the VII Workshop on Resistive Plate Chambers and Related Detectors; Clermont-Ferrand October 20th-22nd, 200