Optimal encoding of interval timing in expert percussionists

We measured temporal reproduction in expert drummers, string-musicians and non-musical subjects. While duration reproduction of the controls showed a characteristic regression to the mean, drummers responded veridically. This behavior is well explained by a model that combines optimally the sensory estimate for duration (more precise in drummers) with a prior, given by the average of the past few trials. These results highlight the efficiency and adaptability of sensori-motor mechanisms estimating temporal duration

Radiative corrections to decay amplitudes in lattice QCD

The precision of lattice QCD computations of many quantities has reached such a precision that isospin-breaking corrections, including electromagnetism, must be included if further progress is to be made in extracting fundamental information, such as the values of Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements, from experimental measurements. We discuss the framework for including radiative corrections in leptonic and semileptonic decays of hadrons, including the treatment of infrared divergences. We briefly review isospin breaking in leptonic decays and present the first numerical results for the ratio $\Gamma(K_{\mu2})/\Gamma(\pi_{\mu2})$ in which these corrections have been included. We also discuss the additional theoretical issues which arise when including electromagnetic corrections to semileptonic decays, such as $K_{\ell3}$ decays. The separate definition of strong isospin-breaking effects and those due to electromagnetism requires a convention. We define and advocate conventions based on hadronic schemes, in which a chosen set of hadronic quantities, hadronic masses for example, are set equal in QCD and in QCD+QED. This is in contrast with schemes which have been largely used to date, in which the renormalised $\alpha_s(\mu)$ and quark masses are set equal in QCD and in QCD+QED in some renormalisation scheme and at some scale $\mu$.Comment: Presented at the 36th Annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice2018), Michigan State University, July 22nd - 28th 201

Trends of intervention for paediatric stone disease over the last two decades (2000–2015): A systematic review of literature

Objective: To ascertain the publication trends of interventions for paediatric kidney stone disease (KSD) we conducted a systematic review of literature over the last 16 years. Patients and methods: With a rise of paediatric KSD and related interventions, a systematic review using PubMed was done over the last 16 years for all published papers on ‘Paediatric stone disease intervention – ureteroscopy (URS), shockwave lithotripsy (SWL), percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), open stone surgery, and laparoscopic stone surgery’. The search was limited to English language articles with a published abstract, whilst case reports, animal and laboratory studies, were excluded. We also analysed the data in two time periods, period-1 (2000–2007) and period-2 (2008–2015). Results: During the last 16-years, 339 papers were published on paediatric stone disease intervention on PubMed. This included papers on URS (95), PCNL (97), SWL (102), open stone surgery (34) and laparoscopic stone surgery (11). During period-1 and period-2 there were 30 and 65 papers on URS, 16 and 81 papers on PCNL, 33 and 60 papers on SWL, nine and 25 papers on open surgery, respectively. When comparing the two periods, there were 92 published papers for all interventions in period-1 and this had risen almost threefold to 247 papers in period-2. Conclusions: Our systematic review shows that intervention for KSD in the paediatric age group has risen over the last 8 years. Whilst URS, SWL, open surgery and laparoscopic surgery have all doubled, PCNL has risen fivefold reflecting an increase in the new minimally invasive PCNL techniques

A new open-source system for strategic freight logistics planning: the SYNCHRO-NET optimization tools

Globalization and e-commerce facilities have yielded in the recent years an incredibly huge increment of freight movements. Consequently, the underlying supply chains have become more and more complex to manage for the shipping companies, in terms of costs, distances, times, and environmental sustainability. SYNCHRO-NET, a H2020 European research project, aims to de-stress the international supply chains by fostering cost-effective and greener transportation alternatives. Besides other important actions, the SYNCHRO-NET framework provides an optimization and simulation toolset to support decision-making in freight logistics planning at a strategic level. The synchronized use of different transportation modes and the exploitation of smart steaming strategies for ship movements are the two main aspects considered in this innovative optimization system. In this paper, we present the optimization toolset developed, its contribution with respect to the existing platforms, and the experimental set-up implemented to evaluate its performance, usability, and effectiveness. The system is, in fact, currently under evaluation by several world-wide leading companies in freight logistics and transportation. However, the toolset potentialities go beyond the SYNCHRO-NET context, being the system an open-source project that makes use of open data formats and technologies

Isospin-breaking corrections to the muon magnetic anomaly in Lattice QCD

In this contribution we present a lattice calculation of the leading-order electromagnetic and strong isospin-breaking (IB) corrections to the quark-connected hadronic-vacuum-polarization (HVP) contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. The results are obtained adopting the RM123 approach in the quenched-QED approximation and using the QCD gauge configurations generated by the ETM Collaboration with $N_f = 2+1+1$ dynamical quarks, at three values of the lattice spacing ($a \simeq 0.062, 0.082, 0.089$ fm), at several lattice volumes and with pion masses between $\simeq 210$ and $\simeq 450$ MeV. After the extrapolations to the physical pion mass and to the continuum and infinite-volume limits the contributions of the light, strange and charm quarks are respectively equal to $\delta a_\mu^{\rm HVP}(ud) = 7.1 ~ (2.5) \cdot 10^{-10}$, $\delta a_\mu^{\rm HVP}(s) = -0.0053 ~ (33) \cdot 10^{-10}$ and $\delta a_\mu^{\rm HVP}(c) = 0.0182 ~ (36) \cdot 10^{-10}$. At leading order in $\alpha_{em}$ and $(m_d - m_u) / \Lambda_{QCD}$ we obtain $\delta a_\mu^{\rm HVP}(udsc) = 7.1 ~ (2.9) \cdot 10^{-10}$, which is currently the most accurate determination of the IB corrections to $a_\mu^{\rm HVP}$.Comment: Invited talk at the 9th International Workshop on Chiral Dynamics (CD18), Durham, North Carolina (USA), 17-21 September 2018. 11 pages, 4 figure

HVP contribution of the light quarks to the muon (g−2)(g - 2) including isospin-breaking corrections with Twisted-Mass fermions

We present a preliminary lattice calculation of the leading-order electromagnetic and strong isospin-breaking corrections to the Hadronic Vacuum Polarization (HVP) contribution of the light quarks to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. The results are obtained in the quenched-$QED$ approximation using the $QCD$ gauge configurations generated by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration (ETMC) with $N_f = 2 + 1 + 1$ dynamical quarks, at three values of the lattice spacing varying from $0.089$ to $0.062 ~ mboxfm$, at several lattice volumes and with pion masses in the range $M_pi simeq 220 div 490 ~ mboxMeV$

Radiative corrections to decay amplitudes in lattice QCD

The precision of lattice QCD computations of many quantities has reached such a precision that isospin-breaking corrections, including electromagnetism, must be included if further progress is to be made in extracting fundamental information, such as the values of Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements, from experimental measurements. We discuss the framework for including radiative corrections in leptonic and semileptonic decays of hadrons, including the treatment of infrared divergences. We briefly review isospin breaking in leptonic decays and present the first numerical results for the ratio $Gamma(K_mu2)/Gamma(pi_mu2)$ in which these corrections have been included. We also discuss the additional theoretical issues which arise when including electromagnetic corrections to semileptonic decays, such as $K_ell3$ decays. The separate definition of strong isospin-breaking effects and those due to electromagnetism requires a convention. We define and advocate conventions based on hadronic schemes, in which a chosen set of hadronic quantities, hadronic masses for example, are set equal in QCD and in QCD+QED. This is in contrast with schemes which have been largely used to date, in which the renormalised $alpha_s(mu)$ and quark masses are set equal in QCD and in QCD+QED in some renormalisation scheme and at some scale $mu$

Metabolic and cardiovascular risk in patients with a history of differentiated thyroid carcinoma: A case-controlled cohort study

Hyperthyroidism seems to increase metabolic and cardiovascular risk, while the effects of sub-clinical hyperthyroidism are controversial. We evaluated metabolic and cardiovascular parameters in differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) patients with suppressed thyrotropin (TSH) due to levo-thyroxine (L-T4) therapy. We studied DTC patients and, as a control group, patients with a history of surgery for non-malignant thyroid pathology. Significantly higher insulin and lower HDL-cholesterol levels were recorded in DTC subjects. In both groups, insulin levels were significantly related with body mass index (BMI) but not with age or L-T4 dosage. In DTC patients, a significant negative correlation was seen between HDL-cholesterol and BMI or L-T4 dosage. In both groups, intima-media thickness (IMT) correlated positively with age, BMI, glucose levels and systolic blood pressure. In DTC patients, increased IMT was significantly correlated with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), cholesterol and triglycerides. In DTC patients, C-reactive protein correlated positively with insulin, insulin resistance, triglycerides and systolic blood pressure, and negatively with HDL-cholesterol. In both DTC and control subjects, fibrinogen correlated positively with age, BMI, increased IMT, HbA1c and systolic blood pressure. In DTC subjects, plasma fibrinogen concentrations correlated positively with insulin resistance, cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol, and negatively with TSH levels. Our data confirm that the favorable evolution of DTC can be impaired by a high incidence of abnormal metabolic and cardiovascular data that are, at least in part, related to L-T4 therapy. These findings underline the need for adequate L-T4 titration

lanreotide 60 mg a new long acting formulation effectiveness in the chronic treatment of acromegaly

Lanreotide (LAN) 60 mg (LAN60), a new long-acting formulation of LAN alleged to suppress GH/IGF-I hypersecretion for 28 d in acromegalic patients, was administered in a prospective open multicenter study to 92 patients with active acromegaly (61 women and 31 men, aged 20–79 yr). LAN60 was given as adjuvant treatment (AT) in 62 patients; the other 30 patients [primary treatment (PT)] were de novo (n = 20) or previously treated only by pharmacotherapy (n = 10). After wash-out from previous treatments, LAN60 was started im every 28 d for 3 injections; the dose was then individually tailored, aiming at lowering GH to less than 2.5 μg/liter and IGF-I to the normal range. After a median follow-up of 24 months (range, 6–48 months), IGF-I normalized in 65% of patients, decreasing from 199 ± 8% (expressed as a percentage of the upper limit of normal range; mean ± se) to 87 ± 4% (P < 0.0001). GH fell to less than 2.5 μg/liter in 63% of patients and to less than 1 μg/liter in 25%, decreasing from 20 ± 3 to 3 ± 0.4 μ..

Technique for supine percutaneous nephrolithotomy

Percutaneous nephrolithotomy is the gold standard for large kidney stones. Supine approach has proved to be safe and effective. Herein we present an educational video about our stepwise technique of supine PCNL in a safe way