Radioisotope production using lasers:From basic science to applications

The discovery of chirped pulse amplification has led to great improvements in laser technology,enabling energetic laser beams to be compressed to pulse durations of tens of femtoseconds and focused to a few micrometers.Protons with energies of tens of MeV can be accelerated using,for instance,target normal sheath acceleration and focused on secondary targets.Under such conditions,nuclear reactions can occur,with the production of radioisotopes suitable for medical application.The use of high-repetition lasers to produce such isotopes is competitive with conventional methods mostly based on accelerators.In this paper,we study the production of^(67)Cu,^(63)Zn,^(18)F,and^(11)C,which are currently used in positron emission tomography and other applications.At the same time,we study the reactions^(10)B(p,α)^(7)Be and^(70)Zn(p,4n)^(67)Ga to put further constraints on the proton distributions at different angles,as well as the reaction^(11)B(p,α)^(8)Be relevant for energy production.The experiment was performed at the 1 PW laser facility at VegaⅢin Salamanca,Spain.Angular distributions of radioisotopes in the forward(with respect to the laser direction)and backward directions were measured using a high purity germanium detector.Our results are in reasonable agreement with numerical estimates obtained following the approach of Kimura and Bonasera[Nucl.Instrum.Methods Phys.Res.,Sect.A 637,164–170(2011)].

Algorithms to Compute the Largest Invariant Set Contained in an Algebraic Set for Continuous-Time and Discrete-Time Nonlinear Systems

In this paper, some computational tools are proposed to determine the largest invariant set, with respect to either a continuous-time or a discrete-time system, that is contained in an algebraic set. In particular, it is shown that if the vector field governing the dynamics of the system is polynomial and the considered analytic set is a variety, then algorithms from algebraic geometry can be used to solve the considered problem. Examples of applications of the method(spanning from the characterization of the stability to the computation of the zero dynamics) are given all throughout the paper.

Synthesis and Photophysical Properties of 9,10-Disubstituted Anthracenes

We report the synthesis and photophysical characterization of four 9,10-disubstituted dipheny-lanthracenes with specific modifications of the model backbone which involve both the 9,10 para substituents at the phenyl rings and the substitution with carbon-carbon triple bonds. The effects of such modifications on the photoluminescence and electroluminescence properties have been investigated on the basis of the diphenylanthracene molecular characteristics and in view of application to light-emitting devices. We have found that the substitution with the carbon-carbon triple bonds at the two 9,10-phenyls noticeably alters the electronic states of the reference molecule, also introducing a certain degree of sensitivity to the phenyl substituents, which improves the tunability of the optical emission. Differently, the 9,10 para substituents produce minor changes in the single-molecule properties, due to the lack of electronic conjugation across the 9,10-phenyls. However, even a single nitro substituent in the phenyl para position produces the formation of excimers, which appreciably reduces the optical quantum efficiency. These properties are maintained in solid-state blends and simple spin-coated bilayer electroluminescent devices have been fabricated.

Polarization Study of Swift J151857.0–572147 with IXPE Observation

We present an analysis of the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer observation from a newly discovered transient source:Swift J151857.0-572147.The obtained polarization degree(PD)and angle are 0.3%±0.3% and -24°±26°respectively in 2-8 keV within 68%confidence level errors,and polarization results are below MDP99in all energy bins,with the upper limit on PD of 0.8% in the 2-8 keV energy range.No quasi-periodic oscillations(QPOs)are detected in this observation.The polarization and QPO analyses support the hypothesis that the source was in the high soft state,and the results are consistent with predictions for a thin accretion disk model.

1253个椎体经皮成形术的治疗结果及远期疗效的单中心研究

多位研究者报道经皮椎体成形术（PVT）是一项成熟的技术，但其远期疗效仍存在争议。本研究的目的在于评价经皮椎体成形术治疗有症状而经保守治疗无效的椎体骨折病人的疗效。共624例病人的1253个压缩性骨折纳入本研究。

Development of a QCM (Quartz Crystal Microbalance) Biosensor to the Detection of Aflatoxin B1

In this study, we have used a direct immunoassay where the simple binding between antigen and an antibody is detected. Immunoassays were performed in a drop system, monitoring the frequency decrease of the quartz-crystal microbalance device because of mass increasing during immunoreaction. The QCM sensor was coated on both sides by gold electrodes, only one side of the crystal (liquid side) was in contact with the solution;the other side (contact side) was always dry. We tested a piezoelectric immunosensor for aflatoxin B1 (AFLA-B1) mycotoxin detection through the immo- bilization of DSP-anti-AFLAB1 antibody (AFLA-B1-Ab anti AFLAB1) on gold-coated quartz crystals (AT-cut/5 MHz). The DSP (3,3’-Dithiodipropionic-acid-di-N-hydroxysuccinimide ester) was used for the covalent attachment of the proteins. The piezoelectric crystal electrodes were pretreated by DSP for 15 min, rinsed with water and dried in a gentle flow of nitrogen gas. Then the DSP-coated crystals were installed in a sample holder and exposed to the anti-AFLAB1 antibody and to the AFLA-BI. Frequency and resistance shifts (Δf and ΔR) were measured simultaneously. Δf versus AFLA-BI concentrations in the range of 0.5 - 10 ppb exhibited a perfect linear correlation with a coefficient of above 0.998.

局部注射英夫利昔单抗治疗克罗恩病的术后复发

Background: Local injection of infliximab in Crohn’s disease (CD) lesions may reduce the risk of rare side effects, reduce the dose, and increase the efficacy of the drug. The objective was to prospectively assess the feasibility and the safety of local injection of infliximab for the postoperative recurrence of patients with CD who were followed for at least 1 year. Methods: In a pilot, open-label study, 8 patients with CD (3 men; median age 48 years, range 35- 82 years) undergoing ileocolonoscopy were prospectively enrolled. Inclusion criteria included the following: (1) localized (< 5 cm) recurrence, (2) inflammatory pattern, and (3) clinically inactive CD. At the first endoscopy, lesions were injected with infliximab (median, 30 mg; range, 8- 60 mg); a control endoscopy was performed at 2 weeks in 4 patients (3 received a second injection followed by a control endoscopy at 6 weeks) and at 4 weeks in 4 patients (2 received a second injection followed by a control endoscopy at 8 weeks). Observations: No patients showed side effects or clinical relapse in the short term and the long term (median follow-up, 20 months; range, 14- 21 months). Endoscopic score improved in 3/8 patients. The histologic scores were reduced in 4 patients, worsened in 3, and were unchanged in one patient with CD. Conclusions: Local injection of infliximab into patients with CD recurrence is feasible and safe, requiring a low dose. Present findings suggest the need of placebo-controlled trials to assess the efficacy of this new and safe procedure in subgroups of patients with CD.

On “Over-Sized” High-Gain Practical Observers for Nonlinear Systems

In this paper,it is shown that the performances of a class of high-gain practical observers can be improved by estimating the time derivatives of the output up to an order that is greater than the dimension of the system, which is assumed to be in observability form and, possibly, time-varying. Such an improvement is achieved without increasing the gain of the observers, thus allowing their use in a wide variety of control and identification applications.

Sex Determination in the Near Threatened Guadalupe Fur Seal: Molecular Markers and Their Potential Applications

The determination of sex by simple observation is often difficult in marine mammals, even in sexually dimorphic species. Moreover, there is often the practical necessity to determine sex in samples that have been collected without handling or observing the subjects. In these cases, a molecular assay for sex determination is required. We adapted an assay that targets the zinc-finger region and is based on a single primer pair, to the Guadalupe fur seal, a near threatened species that has a very limited breeding range. First, we validated the assay with a sample of pups in which we determined the sex by direct observation during handling;second, we compared it to a more recent assay, based on two different primer pairs and, finally, we evaluated the effect of DNA quantity on its reliability. The assay that we tested produced excellent results and was more reliable than the other one based on two primers. Reliable results were also obtained when only remarkably small quantities of DNA were amplified. These results show the potential use of this molecular assay in case of non-invasive sampling, an overly common situation when dealing with species of problematic conservation status.

Neoadjuvant treatment:A window of opportunity for nutritional prehabilitation in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Patients affected by pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma(PDAC)frequently present with advanced disease at the time of diagnosis,limiting an upfront surgical approach.Neoadjuvant treatment(NAT)has become the standard of care to downstage non-metastatic locally advanced PDAC.However,this treatment increases the risk of a nutritional status decline,which in turn,may impact therapeutic tolerance,postoperative outcomes,or even prevent the possibility of surgery.Literature on prehabilitation programs on surgical PDAC patients show a reduction of postoperative complications,length of hospital stay,and readmission rate,while data on prehabilitation in NAT patients are scarce and randomized controlled trials are still missing.Particularly,appropriate nutritional management represents an important therapeutic strategy to promote tissue healing and to enhance patient recovery after surgical trauma.In this regard,NAT may represent a new interesting window of opportunity to implement a nutritional prehabilitation program,aiming to increase the PDAC patient’s capacity to complete the planned therapy and potentially improve clinical and survival outcomes.Given these perspectives,this review attempts to provide an in-depth view of the nutritional derangements during NAT and nutritional prehabilitation program as well as their impact on PDAC patient outcomes.

颅外血栓形成激活的颈动脉斑块是缺血性卒中的危险因素

Context: Recent studies suggest that factors other than the degree of carotid stenosis are involved in ischemic stroke pathogenesis, especially modifications of plaque composition and related complications. Abstract:Objective: To examine the role of carotid plaque rupture and thrombosis in ischemic stroke pathogenesis in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy, excluding those with possible cardiac embolization or with severe stenosis of the circle of Willis. Design, Setting, and Patients: A total of 269 carotid plaques selected from an Interinstitutional Carotid Tissue Bank were studied by histology after surgical endarterectomy between January 1995 and December 2002. A total of 96 plaques were from patients with ipsilateral major stroke, 91 plaques from patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA), and 82 plaques from patients without symptoms. Main Outcome Measures: Differences in the frequency of thrombosis, cap rupture, cap erosion, inflammatory infiltrate, and major cardiovascular risk factors between study groups. Results: A thrombotically active carotid plaque associated with high inflammatory infiltrate was observed in 71 (74.0% ) of 96 patients with ipsilateral major stroke (and in all 32 plaques from patients operated within 2 months of symptom onset) compared with 32 (35.2% ) of 91 patients with TIA (P < .001) or 12 (14.6% ) of 82 patients who were without symptoms (P < .001). In addition, a fresh thrombus was observed in 53.8% of patients with stroke operated 13 to 24 months after the cerebrovascular event. An acute thrombus was associated with cap rupture in 64 (90.1% ) of 71 thrombosed plaques from patients with stroke and with cap erosion in the remaining 7 cases (9.9% ). Ruptured plaques of patients affected by stroke were characterized by the presence of a more severe inflammatory infiltrate, constituted by monocytes, macrophages, and T lymphocyte cells compared with that observed in the TIA and asymptomatic groups (P=.001). There was no significant difference between groups in major cardiovascular risk factors. Conclusion: These results demonstrate a major role of carotid thrombosis and inflammation in ischemic stroke in patients affected by carotid atherosclerotic disease.

1A型夏科-马里-图思病患者施万细胞的ErbB2和ErbB3受体过度表达

Axon-derived neuregulins (NRGs) are a family of growth factors whose binding to ErbB tyrosine kinase receptors promotes the maturation, proliferation and survival of Schwann cells (SCs). Correct NRG/ ErbB signaling is essential for the homeostasis of axonal-glial complexes and seems to play a role in peripheral nerve repair. The potential involvement of ErbB receptors in human peripheral neuropathies has not been clarified. Therefore, we assessed the immunoreactivity for EGFR(ErbB1), ErbB2, and ErbB3 in nerve biopsies from patients with different for ms of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, type 1, (CMT1), as compared to others with inflammatory neuropathies and controls. The most notable changes consisted in th e overexpression of ErbB2 and ErbB3 by SCs of nerves from CMT1A patients. These findings are consistent with an impairment of SC differentiation and expand the molecular phenotype of CMT1 A. The upregulation of these receptors may play a ro le in the inhibition of myelination or in the promotion of recurrent demyelinati on and axonal damage.

2型强直性肌营养不良的唯一表现:高肌酸激酶症

A 49-year-old man had an 8-year history of persistent, isolated elevation of serum creatine kinase (hyper-CK-emia) without muscle symptoms, and no electr omyographic evidence of myotonia; his muscle biopsy showed features reminiscent of myotonic dystrophy (DM), with morphometric findings consistent with those des cribed in DM type 2 (DM2). Genetic studies excluded mutations in the DM type 1 ( DM1) gene, but revealed a CCTG repeat expansion in the ZNF9 gene, which is assoc iated with DM2. Our data suggest that in asymptomatic patients with persistent h yper-CK-emia, DM2 should be considered in the differential diagnosis.

The HEPD particle detector of the CSES satellite mission for investigating seismo-associated perturbations of the Van Allen belts

CSES(China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite) is a mission developed by CNSA(Chinese National Space Administration) and ASI(Italian Space Agency), to investigate the near-Earth electromagnetic, plasma and particle environment, for studying the seismo-associated disturbances in the ionosphere-magnetosphere transition zone. The anthropogenic and electromagnetic noise,as well as the natural non-seismic electromagnetic emissions is mainly due to tropospheric activity. In particular, the mission aims to confirming the existence of possible temporal correlations between the occurrence of earthquakes for medium and strong magnitude and the observation in space of electromagnetic perturbations, plasma variations and precipitation of bursts with highenergy charged particles from the inner Van Allen belt. In this framework, the high energy particle detector(HEPD) of the CSES mission has been developed by the Italian LIMADOU Collaboration. HEPD is an advanced detector based on a tower of scintillators and a silicon tracker that provides good energy and angular resolution and a wide angular acceptance, for electrons of 3–100 Me V, protons of 30–200 Me V and light nuclei up to the oxygen. CSES satellite has been launched on February 2^(nd), 2018 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center(China).

A preliminary simulation study of influence of backsplash on the plastic scintillator detector design in HERD experiment

Background The plastic scintillator detector(PSD)is one of the detectors in the high energy cosmic radiation detection(HERD)facility,which is designed for gamma-ray detection and a redundant charge measurement.Backsplash will lead to a decrease in PSD’s performance of gamma-ray detection and charge measurement,which should be carefully considered.Purpose Two preliminary segmentation schemes of the PSD and two veto strategies have been proposed to suppress the backsplash effect.In this paper,we focus on the influence of the backsplash caused by gamma rays.The gamma-ray trigger efficiency and identification efficiency were studied in the case of different cell sizes and veto strategies,which can provide guidance on the PSD design.Methods A Monte Carlo simulation based on Geant4 has been performed.To simplify the simulation,the PSD is segmented into 1 cm3 cubes which can be easily aggregated into cells with different sizes during analysis.Results and conclusion Side_Veto can be used as a baseline design of veto strategy,whereas Smart_Veto can be selected as an upgraded design.Both the PSD bar cell with a width of less than 11 cm and the PSD tile cell with a width of less than 20 cm can achieve a sufficiently high gamma-ray trigger efficiency(>80%),which realizes the primary goal of the PSD.Meanwhile,both the PSD bar cell with a width of less than 3 cm and the PSD tile cell with a width of less than 20 cm can ensure a sufficiently high gamma-ray identification efficiency(>80%)for photons up to 800 GeV.

Reflecting laser-driven shocks in diamond in the megabar pressure range

In this work we present experimental results on the behavior of diamond at megabar pressure. The experiment was performed using the PHELIX facility at GSI in Germany to launch a planar shock into solid multi-layered diamond samples. The target design allows shock velocity in diamond and in two metal layers to be measured as well as the free surface velocity after shock breakout. As diagnostics, we used two velocity interferometry systems for any reflector(VISARs). Our measurements show that for the pressures obtained in diamond(between 3 and 9 Mbar),the propagation of the shock induces a reflecting state of the material. Finally, the experimental results are compared with hydrodynamical simulations in which we used different equations of state, showing compatibility with dedicated SESAME tables for diamond.

The sedimentary dynamics of Sabellaria alveolata bioconstructions (Ostia,Tyrrhenian Sea, central Italy)

Sabellaria alveolata(Linnaeus 1767)is a polychaete able to build bioconstructions of different thickness,size and patchiness,in intertidal and subtidal environments.Its biological features have been the object of numerous studies worldwide.The worm reefs are formed by millions of tubes built by sand and shells(whole or in fragments)bonded together with a strong glue produced by the worm itself.Hence,Sabellaria alveolata represents a sedimentological asset for the coastal protection,since it contributes to create natural barriers against storm waves and erosion,and supplies the beach with new sandy deposits.This work shows a multidisciplinary approach to studying a bioconstruction of Sabellaria alveolata along the Latium coast(Ostia,Tyrrhenian Sea,central Italy),proposing image analysis as a novel technique to investigate worm reefs,along with classical sedimentological/ecological tools.The Sabellaria bioconstructions have been analysed at different scales of observation,suggesting the more appropriate strategies to develop a reliable model illustrating the different growth steps of these bioconstructions.

DIFFUSIVE LIMITS OF THE BOLTZMANN EQUATION IN BOUNDED DOMAIN

The goal of this paper is to study the important diffusive expansion via an alternative mathematical approach other than that in [21].

On the classification of OADP varieties

The main purpose of this paper is to show that OADP varieties stand at an important crossroad of various main streets in different disciplines like projective geometry,birational geometry and algebra.This is a good reason for studying and classifying them.Main specific results are:(a) the classification of all OADP surfaces (regardless to their smoothness);(b) the classification of a relevant class of normal OADP varieties of any dimension,which includes interesting examples like lagrangian grassmannians.Following Pirio and Russo (Comm Math Helv,to appear),the equivalence of the classification in (b) with the one of quadro-quadric Cremona transformations and of complex,unitary,cubic Jordan algebras are explained.

Approximate finite-horizon optimal control for input-affine nonlinear systems with input constraints

The finite-horizon optimal control problem with input constraints consists in controlling the state of a dynamical system over a finite time interval(possibly unknown)minimising a cost functional,while satisfying hard constraints on the input.In this framework,the minimum-time optimal control problem and some related problems are of interest for both theory and applications.For linear systems,the solution of the problem often relies upon the use of bang-bang control signals.For nonlinear systems,the“shape”of the optimal input is in general not known.The control input can be found solving a Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman(HJB)partial differential equation(PDE):it typically consists of a combination of bang-bang controls and singular arcs.In this paper,a methodology to approximate the solution of the HJB PDE is proposed.This approximation yields a dynamic state feedback law.The theory is illustrated by means of two examples:the minimum-time optimal control problem for an industrial wastewater treatment plant and the Goddard problem,i.e.a maximum-range optimal control problem.