Study of H → WW(∗) events with the ATLAS detector

The Higgs boson decay into WW(∗) is an interesting channel in a wide Higgs mass (mH) range. In particular the high Branching Ratio (BR) allows H → WW(∗) to be one of the most important channels for all the studies related to the Higgs boson properties. The fully leptonic final state of this channel provides a clear signature and allowed the observation of a Higgs boson with mH ∼ 125GeV in the data collected by ATLAS until 2012

Distress classification measures in the banking sector

This paper investigates distress classification measures in the banking sector. The power of ten different accounting measures is tested using media coverage as the benchmark for a sample of 1,175 banks which participated in merger and acquisitions or divestiture deals over the past 22 calendar years. According to the results of the study, a bank should be defined as distressed if the ratio of its non-performing loans to total loans is in the two highest deciles of the industry, using a three-year moving average. This measure is typically favored by practitioners, who maintain that other common measures, e.g., those involving provisions for loan losses, are not as accurate as they express only a managerial forecast. Interestingly, measures that capture capital adequacy too often depict the bank as healthy even if it is de facto distressed, while measures of asset quality, though highly correlated with each other, tend to overestimate the number of distressed banks

Distress resolution strategies in the banking sector: Implications for global financial crises

This chapter investigates the effectiveness and the motivation behind the choice of different types of distress resolution strategies in the banking sector. This is a global study that analyzes key financial characteristics of distressed banks that were either acquired by other banks, divested assets, or were subject to government intervention, as well as the change in the financial profile of those distressed institutions from one year pre-deal to three years post-deal. The results show that governments intervene in the (relatively) best performers that only underperform in liquidity ratios, an indication of critical short-term flow problems. Distressed sellers, the underperformers of the three groups, enjoy much improved performance, in particular in cross-border deals. There is some evidence of foreign acquirers ‘cherry picking’ the least distressed banks, though no significant differences in target performance remain post-deal between cross-border and domestic deals. These findings provide some useful guidance for policy makers globally and for future financial crises that impact the banking sector

Identidade espectral entre cultivares de uvas viníferas em duas regiões da Campanha Gaúcha.

O uso de tecnologias de sensoriamento remoto na análise e na caracterização de assinaturas espectrais de culturas vitícolas por meio de imagens de satélite contribuem para o controle e monitoramento nas tomadas de decisões relativas à gestão da produção e qualidade dos vinhos. O presente trabalho visou separar as assinaturas espectrais de cultivares de uvas viníferas em duas regiões distintas, nos municípios de Santana do Livramento e Candiota, localizados na Campanha Gaúcha. Foram utilizados mapas georreferenciados fornecidos pelos proprietários das áreas com a localização das cultivares para delimitar as regiões de interesse a partir do produto L1B do sensor ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal and Reflection Radiometer) e coletar as informações de refletância normalizada nas faixas espectrais das bandas do VNIR (Visible Near Infrared) e SWIR (Short Wave Infrared) de 48 parcelas das cultivares Vitis vinífera Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc e Tannat. As classes de estudo compreenderam as cultivares e para teste de desempenho foi incluída a classe ?banhado? nas duas regiões. As imagens foram submetidas às correções do efeito Cross Talk, reamostragem para 15 metros das bandas do SWIR e correção atmosférica utilizando o algoritmo FLAASH (Fast Line-of-Sight Atmospheric Analysis of Spectral Hypercubes). Para verificar a separabilidade das variedades foi utilizado o algoritmo de classificação Máxima Verossimilhança e também a Análise Discriminante das médias de refletância de cada parcela nas bandas (1, 2, 3N, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 e 9). Os resultados obtidos mostraram que a Análise Discriminante (AD) distinguiu totalmente as regiões, enquanto a separabilidade das assinaturas espectrais das cultivares teve menor desempenho, com percentagens entre 37 e 75% de acurácia. O classificador de Máxima Verossimilhança, aplicado separadamente a cada região, teve desempenho de 91% de acurácia para a região de Santana do Livramento e 75% para Candiota. Os resultados indicam que dados de refletância obtidos de imagens ASTER permitem com relativo sucesso a discriminação espectral de classes de vegetação com assinaturas espectrais muito próximas entre si, como é o caso de cultivares vitícolas. A distinta separação das regiões, caracterizadas como ?terroirs? vitícolas, pode ser atribuída às diferenças físico-químicas do solo das regiões transmitidas à folhagem das videiras e em seguida às suas refletâncias. A classe ?banhado? teve assinatura espectral totalmente diferente das cultivares e, portanto, foi identificada e totalmente separada das classes como era esperado

Salmeterol, a \u3b22 Adrenergic Agonist, Promotes Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis in a Region-Specific Manner.

Neurogenesis persists in the subgranular zone of the hippocampal formation in the adult mammalian brain. In this area, neural progenitor cells (NPCs) receive both permissive and instructive signals, including neurotransmitters, that allow them to generate adult-born neurons which can be functionally integrated in the preexisting circuit. Deregulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis (ahNG) occurs in several neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, including major depression, and represents a potential therapeutic target. Of interest, several studies suggested that, both in rodents and in humans, ahNG is increased by chronic administration of classical monoaminergic antidepressant drugs, suggesting that modulation of this process may participate to their therapeutic effects. Since the established observation that noradrenergic innervations from locus coeruleus make contact with NPC in the dentate gyrus, we investigated the role of beta adrenergic receptor (\u3b2-AR) on ahNG both in vitro and in vivo. Here we report that, in vitro, activation of \u3b22-AR by norepinephrine and \u3b22-AR agonists promotes the formation of NPC-derived mature neurons, without affecting NPC survival or differentiation toward glial lineages. Additionally, we show that a selective \u3b22-AR agonist able to cross the blood-brain barrier, salmeterol, positively modulates hippocampal neuroplasticity when chronically administered in adult na\uefve mice. Indeed, salmeterol significantly increased number, maturation, and dendritic complexity of DCX+ neuroblasts. The increased number of DCX+ cells was not accompanied by a parallel increase in the percentage of BrdU+/DCX+ cells suggesting a potential prosurvival effect of the drug on neuroblasts. More importantly, compared to vehicle, salmeterol promoted ahNG, as demonstrated by an increase in the actual number of BrdU+/NeuN+ cells and in the percentage of BrdU+/NeuN+ cells over the total number of newly generated cells. Interestingly, salmeterol proneurogenic effects were restricted to the ventral hippocampus, an area related to emotional behavior and mood regulation. Since salmeterol is commonly used for asthma therapy in the clinical setting, its novel pharmacological property deserves to be further exploited with a particular focus on drug potential to counteract stress-induced deregulation of ahNG and depressive-like behavior

Short high fat diet triggers reversible and region specific effects in DCX+ hippocampal immature neurons of adolescent male mice

Adolescence represents a crucial period for maturation of brain structures involved in cognition. Early in life unhealthy dietary patterns are associated with inferior cognitive outcomes at later ages; conversely, healthy diet is associated with better cognitive results. In this study we analyzed the effects of a short period of hypercaloric diet on newborn hippocampal doublecortin+ (DCX) immature neurons in adolescent mice. Male mice received high fat diet (HFD) or control low fat diet (LFD) from the 5th week of age for 1 or 2 weeks, or 1 week HFD followed by 1 week LFD. After diet supply, mice were either perfused for immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis or their hippocampi were dissected for biochemical assays. Detailed morphometric analysis was performed in DCX+ cells that displayed features of immature neurons. We report that 1 week-HFD was sufficient to dramatically reduce dendritic tree complexity of DCX+ cells. This effect occurred specifically in dorsal and not ventral hippocampus and correlated with reduced BDNF expression levels in dorsal hippocampus. Both structural and biochemical changes were reversed by a return to LFD. Altogether these studies increase our current knowledge on potential consequences of hypercaloric diet on brain and in particular on dorsal hippocampal neuroplasticity

Demonstration of a hybrid collisional soft-x-ray laser

Includes bibliographical references (pages 033803-4-033803-5).We report on a demonstration of x-ray-ultraviolet amplification following collisional excitation in a discharge-created plasma waveguide irradiated by a picosecond optical laser pulse. A capillary discharge was used to generate a sulfur plasma column with a large concentration of Ne-like ions and a radially concave electron density profile. The intense short laser pulse rapidly heated the electrons, producing amplification in the 3p 1S0-3s 1P1 transition of Ne-like S at 60.8 nm. The integrated gain-length product obtained exciting a 3-cm-long capillary with a 0.46-J short laser pulse is 6.8. The beam divergence was observed to decrease as a function of plasma column length, reaching 2.5 mrad for 30-mm-long capillaries. This hybrid laser pumping scheme could lead to a new generation of efficient tabletop soft-x-ray lasers

Hybridly pumped collisional soft X-ray laser in Ne-like sulphur

Includes bibliographical references (page 98).We describe an experiment demonstrating XUV amplification following collisional excitation in a discharge-created plasma waveguide irradiated by a picosecond optical laser pulse. A capillary discharge was used to generate a plasma radiation pipe with a radially concave electron density profile. Temporally resolved transmission characteristics and guiding effect have been measured. An intense short laser pulse rapidly heated the electrons, producing amplification in the 3p1S0-3s 1P1 transition of Ne-like S at 60.84 nm. The integrated gain-length product obtained within a 3 cm active medium with a laser energy of 0.46 J was ~6.8. The pump energy depletion has been analysed as well. This new, hybridly pumped soft X-ray laser with the transient gain offers a new way towards efficient tabletop coherent XUV sources

Adherence to Triple Single-Pill Combination of Perindopril/Indapamide/Amlodipine: Findings from Real-World Analysis in Italy

Introduction: Single-pill combination therapy for hypertension is recognized to improve adherence to treatment. However, less is known about the benefits of triple single-pill combinations. This retrospective observational analysis aimed to assess changes in adherence when treatment was switched from perindopril (PER)/indapamide (IND) + amlodipine (AML) to PER/IND/AML single-pill combination, in Italian clinical practice. Methods: This analysis used data extracted from administrative databases of Italian healthcare entities. Adult patients receiving PER/IND/AML were selected, and the prescription date was considered as the index date. Among them, those who had a prescription for PER/IND + AML during the 12 months before the index date and a prescription of PER/IND/AML during 6 months of follow-up were included. Adherence was calculated as the proportion of days covered (PDC: PDC < 40%, non-adherent; PDC = 40-79%, partially adherent; PDC ≥ 80%, adherent). Results: Among the identified patients, 158 were exposed users and were included in the analysis. When patients were compared before and after switch to triple single-pill combination, the proportion of adherent patients was significantly higher with PER/IND/AML single-pill combination (75.3%) than with PER/IND + AML combination (44.3%) (P < 0.05). Conversely, the proportion of non-adherent patients was lower with the PER/IND/AML single-pill combination (14.6%) vs PER/IND + AML (17.7%) (P < 0.001). Conclusion: This real-world analysis showed that switching to a triple single-pill combination could offer an opportunity to improve adherence to antihypertensive treatment in real-life clinical practice