Flux tubes and string breaking in three dimensional SU(2) Yang-Mills theory

We consider the three dimensional SU(2) Yang-Mills theory with adjoint static color sources, studying by lattice simulations how the shape of the flux tube changes when increasing the distance between them. The disappearance of the flux tube at string breaking is quite abrupt, but precursors of this phenomenon are present already when the separation between the sources is smaller than its critical value, a fact that influences also some details of the static potential

A new solution suggesting the need for a new equation

When Victoria Hale first came up with the notion of starting the Institute for OneWorld Health (iOWH), some cautioned that the idea of a non-profit pharmaceutical company developing drugs to treat neglected diseases was a proven loser. The more direct among them might also have inquired why a successful scientist, trained in being analytic, consistent and logical, would undertake such an evidently hopeless project. Yet a few years later, iOWH has not only achieved its first drug approval (i.e. Paramomycin for the treatment of leishmaniasis or ‘black fever’, approved for use in India), it has also seen that same drug included in WHO’s Essential Medicines list, and has research results in the New England Journal of Medicine. This turnaround raises a question: Did skeptics fail to grasp Hale’s clever insights, misjudge the depth of her commitment, or underestimate the extent of her potential good fortune? Put more simply, is Hale’s a story of smarts, guts, and luck

Bronchoalveolar Lavage-microRNAs Are Potential Novel Biomarkers of Outcome after Lung Transplantation

Background. Primary graft dysfunction, infections, and acute rejection (AR) worsen lung transplantation (LTx) outcome and patient survival. Despite significant efforts, reliable biomarkers of acute lung allograft dysfunction are lacking. To address this issue, we profiled the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) miRNome in LTx patients. Methods. BAL-microRNAs (miRNAs) from 16 patients were collected 7 days (T0), 15 days (T1), and 3 months (T2) after bilateral LTx and profiled on low-density array. Unsupervised and supervised analyses were used to identify miRNAs associated with clinical features, pneumonia, or AR. Prognostic markers were identified using the Cox model. Targeted signaling pathways were predicted in silico. A second series of 11 patients were used to validate AR-associated miRNAs. Results. Variation in BAL-miRNAs was associated with acute lung allograft dysfunction. Increased levels of miR-23b-3p at T2 were detected in patients with pneumonia, whereas let-7f-5p, miR-146b-3p, miR-22-5p, miR-29c-5p, miR-362-5p, and miR-452-5p were upregulated at T2 in patients with AR. miR-148b-5p and miR-744-3p distinguished LTx patients with AR in both cohorts. Low miR-148b-5p and high miR-744-3p expression levels were significantly associated with a shorter time to AR either within the first year after LTx or during follow-up. Combination of the 2 miRNAs identified LTx patients with higher AR risk independently of clinical variables. Conclusions. Our data provide new insights into the roles of BAL-miRNAs in regulating the pulmonary environment after transplantation and suggest that these miRNAs could serve as biomarkers of early- or mid-stage events. If validated, these findings could pave the way to a personalized clinical approach in LTx patients

A New Idea for Stroke Rehabilitation : Bilateral Transfer Analysis from Healthy Hand to the Paretic One with a Randomized and Controlled Trial

Background: Bilateral transfer of a motor skill is a phenomenon according to which, one hand can "teach" a skill to the other hand. In this research, controlled and randomized, we tested the ability of bilateral transfer (BT) to improve the coordination of the paretic hand in patients that suffered a stroke, with the aim of restricting the field for further research on the impact of BT in rehabilitation, we analyzed the differences in the expression of BT phenomenon among sexes and side of hemyparesis. Methods: 34 right-handed patients, at the end of the rehabilitation period, were randomly divided into two groups: test and control. They all had a stroke in a single hemisphere in the previous six months and they were selected by a physical examination, the time elapsed from the stroke and cognitive requirements. The experiment consisted in training the healthy hand of each patient from the test group to execute the nine hole peg test (NHPT) 10 times a day, for 3 consecutive days, and then test the paretic hand with the same test and with bimanual tasks. The control group was not trained but went through the same analysis. Results: In the test group we found that the execution speed of NHPT with the paretic hand, after training the healthy hand, was on average 22.6% faster than the value recorded at baseline. Meanwhile, no significant difference was found in the control group. The analysis showed a greater impact of BT among male patients, who were in average 31% faster than controls, and in non dominant paretic hands, that were 30% faster after training. Conclusions: BT was present in hemiparethic patients with moderate stroke after a short time span, it was more evident among male subjects, and from the dominant hand to the paretic non-dominant one

Trapianto di polmone e disordini linfoproliferativi post trapianto (PTLD) ebv-correlati

I disordini linfoproliferativi post trapianto sono un\u2019importate causa di morbidit\ue0 soprattuto nel primo anno dal trapianto. Tale possibilit\ue0 diagnostica andrebbe sempre tenuta in considerazione in casi di lesioni polmonari di difficile interpretazione. Essendoci una stretta correlazione con Ebstein-Barr virus si ritiene mandatorio il monitoraggio di EBV-DNA nel siero nel follow up post trapianto. Introduzione: I trapianti di organo solido, a causa dell\u2019immunosoppressione, comportano un alto rischio di sviluppo di malattie linfoproliferative. Spesso questi disordini sono correlati ad Ebstein-Barr Virus. Pochi studi sono attualmente disponibili nell\u2019ambito dell\u2019incidenza nel trapianto di polmone. Metodologia: \uc8 stata condotta una analisi retrospettiva sui pazienti sottoposti a trapianto polmonare presso il nostro centro che abbiano sviluppato un linfoma EBV-correlato. Risultati: Dal Gennaio 2009 al Gennaio 2017 sono stati eseguiti 100 trapianti polmonari. Di questi, 2 pazienti hanno sviluppato PTLD EBV correlata. Entrambi i pazienti sono stati trapiantati in regime di urgenza per Fibrosi Cistica, con necessit\ue0 di supporto respiratorio extracorporeo. La diagnosi \ue8 stata effettuata nei primi mesi post trapianto mediante biopsia di lesioni polmonari, in quadro infettivo non responsivo alla terapia antibiotica ad ampio spettro, in presenza di elevata carica di EBV-DNA su siero. La malattia ha interessato prevalentemente il parenchima e linfonodi polmonari in un caso mentre nel secondo caso si \ue8 resa evidente un\u2019estensione anche extrapolmonare (epatica e linfonodale). I pazienti sono stati sottoposti a chemioterapia secondo schema specifico. Entrambi i pazienti sono vivi a 24 e 14 mesi dal trapianto, in remissione completa (1\ub0 caso) e parziale (2\ub0 caso). Conclusioni: I disordini linfoproliferativi post trapianto sono un\u2019importate causa di morbidit\ue0 soprattuto nel primo anno dal trapianto. Tale possibilit\ue0 diagnostica andrebbe sempre tenuta in considerazione in casi di lesioni polmonari di difficile interpretazione. Essendoci una stretta correlazione con Ebstein-Barr virus si ritiene mandatorio il monitoraggio di EBV-DNA nel siero nel follow up post trapianto

Modelling the impact of atherosclerosis on drug release and distribution from coronary stents

Although drug-eluting stents (DES) are now widely used for the treatment of coronary heart disease, there remains considerable scope for the development of enhanced designs which address some of the limitations of existing devices. The drug release profile is a key element governing the overall performance of DES. The use of in vitro, in vivo, ex vivo, in silico and mathematical models has enhanced understanding of the factors which govern drug uptake and distribution from DES. Such work has identified the physical phenomena determining the transport of drug from the stent and through tissue, and has highlighted the importance of stent coatings and drug physical properties to this process. However, there is limited information regarding the precise role that the atherosclerotic lesion has in determining the uptake and distribution of drug. In this review, we start by discussing the various models that have been used in this research area, highlighting the different types of information they can provide. We then go on to describe more recent methods that incorporate the impact of atherosclerotic lesions

The Unreasonable effectiveness of effective string theory: The case of the 3D SU(2) Higgs model

We study string breaking in the three-dimensional SU(2) Higgs model, using values of the gauge coupling for which the confinementlike and Higgs-like regions of the phase diagram are separated just by a smooth crossover. We show that even in the presence of string breaking, the confining part of the interquark potential is well described by the effective string theory and that also the fine details of the effective string, like the higher order terms of the Nambu-Goto action or the boundary correction, can be precisely extracted from the fits and agree with the effective string predictions. We comment on the implications of these results for QCD simulations with dynamical quarks

Come scrivere un articolo scientifico = How to write a scientific paper

The present paper is meant to provide a checklist to write a good scientific manuscript. Before writing, you need to carefully think about the message you are trying to convey: that is exactly what the reader will focus on and the reason why he/she will keep on reading your paper. For the same reason, the title should both describe your study and raise interest. Start with a general outline, collecting ideas and considerations. Then, you can focus on the paper itself, which has to be divided into different sections, following the IMRaD format. The Introduction concerns the background, the problem and the aim of your study; in the Material and Methods section you will describe how you have performed your research; the Results section will report the data, while you will discuss how your results answer and support your research question in the Discussion section. Publishing your manuscript means you can share your research and your results: that is why you must pay so much attention to produce a well-conceived article