Le reazioni di ipersensibilità ai composti del platino

I composti del platino (cisplatino, carboplatino ed oxaliplatino) sono una categoria di chemioterapici ampiamente utilizzata nella terapia dei tumori ginecologici per la loro elevata efficacia e tollerabilità. I casi di reazioni di ipersensibilità a tali composti sono aumentati negli ultimi decenni per il loro frequente utilizzo (soprattutto del carboplatino). Nel nostro studio abbiamo valutato: 1) la frequenza di reazioni di ipersensibilità immediate e ritardate al carboplatino e cisplatino in pazienti in terapia per tumore ginecologico; 2) l’utilità dei test cutanei nella diagnosi di tali reazioni e 3) il valore dei test nell’identificazione dei pazienti sensibilizzati prima di sviluppare la reazione. Abbiamo identificato un’alta percentuale di reazioni di ipersensibilità immediate al carboplatino, incluse reazioni severe anafilattiche. I test cutanei hanno permesso di identificare un meccanismo IgE-mediato nella maggior parte delle reazioni di ipersensibilità immediate con un alto valore predittivo positivo nei pazienti valutati entro i 6 mesi dalla reazione. Abbiamo inoltre identificato le pazienti che si sono sensibilizzate ad uno dei due composti, prevenendo successive reazioni di ipersensibilità in corso di nuovo trattamento con lo stesso chemioterapico. In conclusione, questo studio dimostra come la diagnostica allergologica sia fondamentale per la corretta diagnosi delle reazioni di ipersensibilità immediata ai composti del platino e per identificare i pazienti sensibilizzati. Nelle pazienti che devono essere sottoposte a nuova terapia con platino è consigliabile eseguire i test entro i 6 mesi successivi all’ultima infusione, o in alternativa dopo 2-3 settimane dal primo ciclo della nuova chemioterapia

The ALICE Electromagnetic Calorimeter EMCAL: its Status and its Physics Capabilities

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at LHC is designed to carry out comprehensive measurements of high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions, in order to study QCD matter under extreme conditions and to explore the phase transition between confined matter and the QuarkGluon Plasma. The Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCAL), fully installed in January 2011, significantly enhances ALICE's capabilities for jet measurements. In this contribution a brief description of the EMCAL with its characteristics will be given, together with the status of EMCAL commissioning and performance. Moreover, first results from data taking will be presented and an extension of EMCAL for jet-jet and γ-jet physics will be discussed

Spinska fizika na HERMESU: nedavni rezultati

The HERMES experiment at DESY has been designed to study the spin structure of the nucleon. Impressive results have been obtained not only from inclusive processes but also for semi-inclusive and exclusive processes in deep-inelastic lepton scattering, helping to clarify the spin puzzle of the nucleon.Eksperiment HERMES u DESY bio je postavljen radi proučavanja spinske strukture nukleona. Dojmljivi rezultati postignuti su ne samo inkluzivnim procesima, već i polu-inkluzivnima i ekskluzivnima u duboko-neelastičnom raspršenju leptona, što pomaže rasvjetljavanju spinske zagonetke nukleona

SNARC-like compatibility effects for physical and phenomenal magnitudes: A study on visual illusions

Both numerical and non-numerical magnitudes elicit similar Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effects, with small magnitudes associated with left hand responses and large magnitudes associated with right hand responses (Dehaene, Bossini, Giraux, 1993). In the present study, we investigated whether the phenomenal size of visual illusions elicits the same SNARC-like effect revealed for the physical size of pictorial surfaces. Four experiments were conducted by using the Delboeuf illusion (Experiment 1) and the Kanizsa triangle illusion (Experiments 2, 3 & 4). Experiment 1 suggests the presence of a SNARC-like compatibility effect for the physical size of the inducers, while this effect was not revealed for the phenomenal size of the induced elements, possibly masked by a stronger effect of the inducers. A SNARC-like effect for the phenomenal size of the Kanizsa triangle was revealed when participants directly compared the size of the triangles (Experiment 4). Conversely, when participants performed an indirect task (orientation judgment), the SNARC-like effect was present neither for the illusory nor for the physical displays (Experiments 2 & 3). The effect revealed for the size of illusory triangles was comparable to that of real triangles with physical contours, suggesting that both phenomenal and physical magnitudes similarly elicit SNARC-like effects

HIV and SARS-CoV-2 Co-Infection: From Population Study Evidence to In Vitro Studies

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have caused two major viral outbreaks during the last century. Two major aspects of HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 co-infection have been extensively investigated and deserve attention. First, the impact of the co-infection on the progression of disease caused by HIV-1 or SARS-CoV-2. Second, the impact of the HIV-1 anti-retroviral treatment on SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this review, we aim to summarize and discuss the works produced since the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic ranging from clinical studies to in vitro experiments in the context of co-infection and drug development

Beam test of ALPIDE Sensor

The Alice Pixel Detector (ALPIDE) is developed for the upgrade of the Inner Tracking System of the ALICE experiment at CERN, which will take place during second Long Shutdown in 2019-2020. ALPIDE is a Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (MAPS), manufactured in a 180 nm CMOS Imaging Process of TowerJazz. Forecoming tracking detectors, based on this technology, will see strong advantages with the application of these sensors as they provide the highest capabilities in spatial resolution and utmost potential for being thin. In this work, the results of the ALPIDE sensor beam test, which took place at the Beam Test Facility of Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, are presented

Fast MacMillan's Imidazolidinone-Catalyzed Enantioselective Synthesis of Polyfunctionalized 4-Isoxazoline Scaffolds

The enantioselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrones and arylpropionaldehydes to generate highly functionalized scaffolds for application in drug discovery was herein investigated. The use of a second-generation MacMillan catalyst as hydrochloride salt consistently accelerated the reaction speed, allowing a decrease in the reaction time up to >100 times, still affording 4-isoxazolines with good to excellent enantiomeric ratios at room temperature. As a proof of concept, further functionalization of the isoxazoline core through Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling was performed, generating differently functionalized chemical architectures in high yield

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged jet production in root s(NN)=2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

We present measurements of the azimuthal dependence of charged jet production in central and semi-central root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the second harmonic event plane, quantified as nu(ch)(2) (jet). Jet finding is performed employing the anti-k(T) algorithm with a resolution parameter R = 0.2 using charged tracks from the ALICE tracking system. The contribution of the azimuthal anisotropy of the underlying event is taken into account event-by-event. The remaining (statistical) region-to-region fluctuations are removed on an ensemble basis by unfolding the jet spectra for different event plane orientations independently. Significant non-zero nu(ch)(2) (jet) is observed in semi-central collisions (30-50% centrality) for 20 <p(T)(ch) (jet) <90 GeV/c. The azimuthal dependence of the charged jet production is similar to the dependence observed for jets comprising both charged and neutral fragments, and compatible with measurements of the nu(2) of single charged particles at high p(T). Good agreement between the data and predictions from JEWEL, an event generator simulating parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium, is found in semi-central collisions. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe