Neutron electric dipole moment from gauge/string duality

We compute the electric dipole moment of nucleons in the large $N_c$ QCD model by Witten, Sakai and Sugimoto with $N_f=2$ degenerate massive flavors. Baryons in the model are instantonic solitons of an effective five-dimensional action describing the whole tower of mesonic fields. We find that the dipole electromagnetic form factor of the nucleons, induced by a finite topological $\theta$ angle, exhibits complete vector meson dominance. We are able to evaluate the contribution of each vector meson to the final result - a small number of modes are relevant to obtain an accurate estimate. Extrapolating the model parameters to real QCD data, the neutron electric dipole moment is evaluated to be $d_n = 1.8 \cdot 10^{-16}\, \theta\;e\cdot \mathrm{cm}$. The electric dipole moment of the proton is exactly the opposite.Comment: Latex, 4 pages; v2: minor corrections, few comments adde

Tertiary lymphatic organs of the female pelvis: not negligible structures

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Brainstem injury in victims of sudden intrauterine death syndrome (SIUDS) and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

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Techno-Economic Analysis for Biogas Reforming using PSWA: Case Study on Methanol Synthesis

The production of biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, from anaerobic digestion from different biowaste sources has been interesting for its application in chemical processes. Currently, it is invested in the production of thermal and electrical energy, but it has also been investigated for the production of syngas, which is usually derived from fossil fuels. A fundamental step for this application is the conditioning of biogas to produce valuable syngas, this can be achieved through a water absorption column among other technologies. This study aimed at the optimal configuration of a pressure swing water absorption (PSWA) tower for the optimal operation of a biogas reforming process. Results show how the placement of the water column has an impact on capital and operating costs, and how the level of conditioning can be useful for chemical synthesis

Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers for Dark Matter and Neutrino Experiments

This thesis illustrates the contribution of the author to experiments using liquid argon Time Projection Chambers (LAr TPCs), a technology already widely used, that is becoming the dominating detection technique in dark matter (DM) and neutrino searches

Quality of reporting on the vegetative state in Italian newspapers. The case of Eluana Englaro.

Background: Media coverage of the vegetative state (VS) includes refutations of the VS diagnosis and describes behaviors inconsistent with VS. We used a quality score to assess the reporting in articles describing the medical characteristics of VS in Italian newspapers. Methodology/Principal Findings: Our search covered a 7-month period from July 1, 2008, to February 28, 2009, using the online searchable databases of four major Italian newspapers: Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, La Stampa, and Avvenire. Medical reporting was judged as complete if three core VS characteristics were described: patient unawareness of self and the environment, preserved wakefulness (eyes open), and spontaneous respiration (artificial ventilator not needed). We retrieved 2,099 articles, and 967 were dedicated to VS. Of these, 853 (88.2%) were non-medical and mainly focused on describing the political, legal, and ethical aspects of VS. Of the 114 (11.8%) medical articles, 53 (5.5%) discussed other medical problems such as death by dehydration, artificial nutrition, neuroimaging, brain death, or uterine hemorrhage, and 61 (6.3%) described VS. Of these 61, only 18 (1.9%) reported all three CORE characteristics and were judged complete. We found no differences among the four investigated newspapers (Fisher’s exact = 0.798), and incomplete articles were equally distributed between journalistic pieces and expert opinions (x2 = 1.8854, P = 0.170). Incorrect descriptions of VS were significantly more common among incomplete articles (13 of 43 vs. 1 of 18; Fisher’s exact P = 0.047). Conclusions/Significance: Core VS characteristics are rarely reported in Italian newspaper articles, which can alter adequate comprehension of new developments and (mis)inform political, legal, and ethical decisions

Deep inside of gastric signet-ring cell carcinoma

The histology of signet-ring cell carcinoma (SRC) of the stomach has been revisited with the support of current immunohistochemical techniques in order to explain particular features of this tumor; its great capacity of local diffusion and lymph node metastasis, also through a neo-lymphoangiogenesis. An observational retrospective study on 50 cases of SRC in stage II and III has been performed with the addition of histochemical (Alcian Blue, DDD-Fast Blue B, Mercury Orange) and immunohistochemical (cytocheratin, CD3, CD4, CD8, CD10, CD56, CD68, perforin, granzyme B, podoplanin, collagen type IV) investigations for each case. The signet ring cells, typical for this tumor, show abundant content of electro-negative sialomucins and demonstrate a great capacity of diffusion through the gastric wall. They evoke production and deposition of collagen type IV in the sub-mucosa layer through the local action of fibroblasts. The immunological response to this tumor in the gastric wall and in the metastatic lymph nodes is represented by an increase of B and T-helper lymphocytes, but not of T-killers or natural killers. The neoplastic cells are curiously able to avoid these newly formed ‘lymph nodules’. An extended neo-lymphangiogenesis has been observed around the primary tumor and in metastatic lymph nodes. A careful immunohistochemical characterization has allowed a better knowledge of SRC, regarding especially the peculiar behavior of local diffusion of its cells, the associated neo-lymph angiogenesis, and poor immunological reaction

Surrogate-Based Optimization of the OPEX of a Modular Plant for Biogas Conversion to Methanol Using the MADS Algorithm

The present work studies the potential of surrogate models for the global optimization of complex chemical processes. In particular, a modular plant for the conversion of biogas to methanol is considered. The Aspen HYSYS simulation of this plant was run 480 times, which ensured the even distribution of points in the input space. The evenness of this design of experiments was evaluated using a discrepancy measurement called the Mixture Discrepancy. With the simulation data, some of the most widely used surrogate models such as regression models and the Kriging Gaussian process were trained. The most accurate model for the prediction of each output variable was selected and used for the optimization of the OPEX. The optimization complemented the trained surrogate models with the Mesh Adaptive Direct Search (MADS) algorithm. For this purpose, the openaccess computational implementation of the MADS algorithm called NOMAD was used. With the surrogate-based optimization, the computational times were reduced an 88% with respect to the simulation-based optimization. In addition, the accuracy of the surrogate model was paramount, as an average 0.75% prediction error was found. Consequently, the models proved sufficient for optimizing the studied process, resulting in a 22.2% reduction in the OPEX