Ricci almost solitons

We introduce a natural extension of the concept of gradient Ricci soliton: the Ricci almost soliton. We provide existence and rigidity results, we deduce a-priori curvature estimates and isolation phenomena, and we investigate some topological properties. A number of differential identities involving the relevant geometric quantities are derived. Some basic tools from the weighted manifold theory such as general weighted volume comparisons and maximum principles at infinity for diffusion operators are discussed

Measuring the SUSY Breaking Scale at the LHC in the Slepton NLSP Scenario of GMSB Models

We report a study on the measurement of the SUSY breaking scale sqrt(F) in the framework of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB) models at the LHC. The work is focused on the GMSB scenario where a stau is the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (NLSP) and decays into a gravitino with lifetime c*tau_NLSP in the range 0.5 m to 1 km. We study the identification of long-lived sleptons using the momentum and time of flight measurements in the muon chambers of the ATLAS experiment. A realistic evaluation of the statistical and systematic uncertainties on the measurement of the slepton mass and lifetime is performed, based on a detailed simulation of the detector response. Accessible range and precision on sqrt(F) achievable with a counting method are assessed. Many features of our analysis can be extended to the study of different theoretical frameworks with similar signatures at the LHC.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures (18 eps files). Revised version v2(published in JHEP): Some important corrections and additions to v

Aspects of GMSB Phenomenology at TeV Colliders

The status of two on-going studies concerning important aspects of the phenomenology of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB) models at TeV colliders is reported. The first study deals with the characteristics of the light Higgs boson spectrum allowed by the (minimal and non-minimal) GMSB framework. Today's most accurate GMSB model generation and two-loop Feynman-diagrammatic calculation of m_h have been combined. The Higgs masses are shown in dependence of various model parameters at the messenger and electroweak scales. In the minimal model, an upper limit on m_h of about 124 GeV is found for m_t = 175 GeV. The second study is focused on the measurement of the fundamental SUSY breaking scale sqrt(F) at the LHC in the GMSB scenario where a stau is the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (NLSP) and decays into a gravitino with c*tau_NLSP in the range 0.5 m to 1 km. This implies the measurement of mass and lifetime of long lived sleptons. The identification is performed by determining the time of flight in the ATLAS muon chambers. Accessible range and precision on sqrt(F) achievable with a counting method are assessed.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures (12 eps files). Report of the GMSB SUSY Working Group, Workshop "Physics at TeV Colliders", Les Houches, 7-18 June 1999. Revised version v3: A few typos correcte

8-Amino-5,6,7,8-tetrahydroquinoline in iridium(iii) biotinylated Cp* complex as artificial imine reductase

Diamine ligands I-IV coordinated to an iridium metal complex with the biotin moiety anchored to the Cp* ring were investigated. This strategy, in contrast to the traditional biotin-streptavidin technology that uses a biotinylated ligand in the artificial imine reductase, is practical for envisaging how the enantiodiscrimination by different Streptavidin (Sav) mutants could influence the chiral environment of the metal cofactor. Only in the case of (R)-CAMPY IV did the chirality at the metal centre and the second coordination sphere environment, which was dictated by the host protein, operate in a synergistic way, producing better enantioselectivity at a S112M Sav catalyst/catalyst ratio of 1.0 : 2.5. Under these optimized conditions, the artificial imine reductase afforded a good enantiomeric excess (83%) in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of 6,7-dimethoxy-1-methyl-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline

Sustainable fish feeds with insects and probiotics positively affect freshwater and marine fish gut microbiota.

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing agricultural industry in the world. Fishmeal is an essential component of commercial fish diets, but its long-term sustainability is a concern. Therefore, it is important to find alternatives to fishmeal that have a similar nutritional value and, at the same time, are affordable and readily available. The search for high-quality alternatives to fishmeal and fish oil has interested researchers worldwide. Over the past 20 years, different insect meals have been studied as a potential alternate source of fishmeal in aquafeeds. On the other hand, probiotics—live microbial strains—are being used as dietary supplements and showing beneficial effects on fish growth and health status. Fish gut microbiota plays a significant role in nutrition metabolism, which affects a number of other physiological functions, including fish growth and development, immune regulation, and pathogen resistance. One of the key reasons for studying fish gut microbiota is the possibility to modify microbial communities that inhabit the intestine to benefit host growth and health. The development of DNA sequencing technologies and advanced bioinformatics tools has made metagenomic analysis a feasible method for researching gut microbes. In this review, we analyze and summarize the current knowledge provided by studies of our research group on using insect meal and probiotic supplements in aquafeed formulations and their effects on different fish gut microbiota. We also highlight future research directions to make insect meals a key source of proteins for sustainable aquaculture and explore the challenges associated with the use of probiotics. Insect meals and probiotics will undoubtedly have a positive effect on the long-term sustainability and profitability of aquaculture

Remarks on non-compact gradient Ricci solitons

In this paper we show how techniques coming from stochastic analysis, such as stochastic completeness (in the form of the weak maximum principle at infinity), parabolicity and $L^p$-Liouville type results for the weighted Laplacian associated to the potential may be used to obtain triviality, rigidity results, and scalar curvature estimates for gradient Ricci solitons under $L^p$ conditions on the relevant quantities.Comment: The main changes over the previous version are that Theorem 2 has been improved by removing the pointwise growth assumption on $|\nabla f|$ in the case $p=1$, and that in Theorem 3, a shrinking gradient Ricci soliton is shown to be isometric to $\R^m$ in the endpoint case $S_*=0

Chronic social isolation affects feeding behavior of juvenile zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Many organisms exhibit social behaviors and are part of some scheme of social structure. Zebrafish are highly social, shoaling fish and therefore, social isolation may have notable impacts on their physiology and behavior. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of social isolation on feed intake, monoaminergic system related gene expression, and intestinal health of juvenile zebrafish fed a high-inclusion soybean meal based diet. At 20 days post-fertilization zebrafish were randomly assigned to chronic isolation (1 fish per 1.5 L tank) or social housing (6 fish per 9 L tank) with 18 tanks per treatment group (n = 18). Dividers were placed between all tanks to prevent visual cues between fish. Zebrafish were fed a commercial fishmeal based diet until 35 days post-fertilization and then fed the experimental high-inclusion soybean meal based diet until 50 days post-fertilization. At the end of the experiment (51 days post-fertilization), the mean total length, weight, and weight gain were not significantly different between treatment groups. Feed intake and feed conversion ratio were significantly higher in chronic isolation fish than in social housing fish. Expression of monoaminergic and appetite-related genes were not significantly different between groups. The chronic isolation group showed higher expression of the inflammatory gene il-1b, however, average intestinal villi width was significantly smaller and average length-to-width ratio was significantly higher in chronic isolation fish, suggesting morphological signs of inflammation were not present at the time of sampling. These results indicate that chronic isolation positively affects feed intake of juvenile zebrafish and suggest that isolation may be useful in promoting feed intake of less-palatable diets such as those based on soybean meal

Novel platinum agents and mesenchymal stromal cells for thoracic malignancies : state of the art and future perspectives

Introduction: Non-small cell lung cancer and malignant pleural mesothelioma represent two of the most intriguing and scrutinized thoracic malignancies, presenting interesting perspectives of experimental development and clinical applications. Areas covered: In advanced non-small cell lung cancer, molecular targeted therapy is the standard firstline treatment for patients with identified driver mutations; on the other hand, chemotherapy is the standard treatment for patients without EGFR mutations or ALK rearrangement or those with unknown mutation status. Once considered an ineffective therapy in pulmonary neoplasms, immunotherapy has been now established as one of the most promising therapeutic options. Mesenchymal stromal cells are able to migrate specifically toward solid neoplasms and their metastatic localizations when injected intravenously. This peculiar cancer tropism has opened up an emerging field to use them as vectors to deliver antineoplastic drugs for targeted therapies. Expert opinion: Molecular targeted therapy and immunotherapy are the new alternatives to standard chemotherapy. Mesenchymal stromal cells are a new promising tool in oncology and\u2014although not yet utilized in the clinical practice, we think they will represent another main tool for cancer therapy and will probably play a leading role in the field of nanovectors and molecular medicine

Asymmetric Hydrogenation vs Transfer Hydrogenation in the Reduction of Cyclic Imines

A comparison between the two most common reduction approaches for obtaining chiral amines, asymmetric hydrogenation (AH) versus asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (ATH), was accomplished by using iridium complexes based on atropoisomeric diphosphines and cyclic diamines as ligands respectively. Seven substrates, different in electronic and steric properties, were screened applying both reduction methods. For AH the best results in terms of enantioselectivity (e.e. up to 64%) were obtained by using [Ir(COD)(TetraMe-BITIOP)]Cl in the presence of DCDMH as additive. ATH was carried out with [IrCp*(CAMPY)Cl]Cl as catalyst, allowing the obtainment of the products with appreciable e.e. (up to 76%)