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Background The high incidence of diverticulitis and hemorrhoidal proctitis episodes in the population imposes an important healthcare and economic burden. Aim To determine the association between intake of certain plant foods and diverticulitis and hemorrhoidal proctitis episodes. Methods Case-control study with quantitative food frequency questionnaire focusing on selected plant foods and derived products. These were grouped by main chemical components into: ethanol, caffeine/theine/theobromine, capsaicin, alliin, acids, eugenol, and miscellaneous foods like curcumin. We quantified intake according to 24-h recall, either on a 1-4 scale (no intake, low, moderate, high intake) or as the number of units consumed (e.g. cups of tea/coffee, n of oranges or lemons); this value was multiplied by the number of reported intake days per week (1-7). Overall intake was expressed as a continuous variable obtained by successively multiplying the score for each food category, and the result was transformed into a common logarithm (range 0.3 to 27.7). Cases and controls were compared using the chi-squared test, student’s t test, odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI), and predictive analysis (multiple logistic regression). Results The sample included 410 cases and 401 controls, who were similar in mean age and gender distribution. The mean score for overall intake of included plant foods was 6.3 points (standard deviation [SD] 4.5), and this was significantly higher in cases (8.5 points, SD 5.3) than in controls (4.1 points, SD 1.2; p < 0.001). Overall intake was similar in cases presenting diverticulitis or hemorrhoidal proctitis. Cases had 13 times the odds of being in the upper quartile for overall intake (> 7 points) compared to controls (OR 13.2, 95% CI 8.3 to 20.8, p < 0.001). Predictive logistic regression models showed that the chemical food group most closely associated with diverticulitis and hemorrhoidal proctitis was capsaicin, followed by ethanol, eugenol, caffeine/theine/theobromine, and acids. The OR for age was near the null value. Neither alliin nor miscellaneous food groups showed any association. Conclusions High, frequent consumption of some plant foods and derived products increases the risk of presenting symptoms of diverticulitis and hemorrhoidal proctitis.

Diverticulitis and hemorrhoidal proctitis in the population are significant public health problems. We studied the potential association between the intake of certain plant foods and diverticulitis or hemorrhoidal episodes through a case-control study including 410 cases and 401 controls. We used a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. The intake was additionally quantified according to a 24 h recall. The plant foods or derived food products were categorized by their main chemical components into ethanol, caffeine/theine/theobromine, capsaicin, alliin, acids, eugenol, and miscellaneous foods such as curcumin. The mean score for overall intake of plant foods under consideration was 6.3 points, and this was significantly higher in cases (8.5) than in controls (4.1). Overall intake was similar in cases presenting with diverticulitis or hemorrhoidal proctitis. Cases had 13 times the odds of being in the upper quartile for overall intake (>7 points), compared to controls. Explanatory logistic regression models showed that the strongest association with diverticulitis and hemorrhoidal proctitis was shown by the chemical food group of capsaicin, followed by ethanol, eugenol, caffeine/theine/theobromine, and acids. Neither alliin nor miscellaneous food groups showed any association. High, frequent consumption of capsaicin, followed by ethanol, eugenol, caffeine/theine/theobromine, and acids increase the risk of diverticulitis and hemorrhoidal proctitis.

Diverticulitis and hemorrhoidal proctitis in the population are significant public health problems. We studied the potential association between the intake of certain plant foods and diverticulitis or hemorrhoidal episodes through a case-control study including 410 cases and 401 controls. We used a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. The intake was additionally quantified according to a 24 h recall. The plant foods or derived food products were categorized by their main chemical components into ethanol, caffeine/theine/theobromine, capsaicin, alliin, acids, eugenol, and miscellaneous foods such as curcumin. The mean score for overall intake of plant foods under consideration was 6.3 points, and this was significantly higher in cases (8.5) than in controls (4.1). Overall intake was similar in cases presenting with diverticulitis or hemorrhoidal proctitis. Cases had 13 times the odds of being in the upper quartile for overall intake (>7 points), compared to controls. Explanatory logistic regression models showed that the strongest association with diverticulitis and hemorrhoidal proctitis was shown by the chemical food group of capsaicin, followed by ethanol, eugenol, caffeine/theine/theobromine, and acids. Neither alliin nor miscellaneous food groups showed any association. High, frequent consumption of capsaicin, followed by ethanol, eugenol, caffeine/theine/theobromine, and acids increase the risk of diverticulitis and hemorrhoidal proctitis.

OBJECTIVES: Compare the accuracy of PSI, CURB-65, MuLBSTA and COVID-GRAM prognostic scores to predict mortality, the need for invasive mechanical ventilation in patients with pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 and assess the coexistence of bacterial respiratory tract infection during admission. METHODS: Retrospective observational study that included hospitalized adults with pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 from 15/03 to 15/05/2020. We excluded immunocompromised patients, nursing home residents and those admitted in the previous 14 days for another reasons. Analysis of ROC curves was performed, calculating the area under the curve for the different scales, as well as sensitivity, specificity and predictive values. RESULTS: A total of 208 patients were enrolled, aged 63±17 years, 57,7% were men; 38 patients were admitted to ICU (23,5%), of these patients 33 required invasive mechanical ventilation (86,8%), with an overall mortality of 12,5%. Area under the ROC curves for mortality of the scores were: PSI 0,82 (95% CI: 0,73-0,91), CURB-65 0,82 (0,73-0,91), MuLBSTA 0,72 (0,62-0,81) and COVID-GRAM 0,86 (0,70-1). Area under the curve for needing invasive mechanical ventilation was: PSI 0,73 (95% CI: 0,64-0,82), CURB-65 0,66 (0,55-0,77), MuLBSTA 0,78 (0,69-0,86) and COVID-GRAM 0,76 (0,67-0,85), respectively. Patients with bacterial co-infections of the respiratory tract were 20 (9,6%), the most frequent strains being Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. CONCLUSIONS: In our study, the COVID-GRAM score was the most accurate to identify patients with higher mortality with pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2; however, none of these scores accurately predicts the need for invasive mechanical ventilation with ICU admission. The 10% of patients admitted presented bacterial respiratory co-infection.

Aims: Main aim: To determine the Spanish intensive care units (ICU) that assess and record pain levels, sedation/agitation, delirium and the use of physical restraint (PR) as standard practice. Secondary aims: To determine the use of validated assessment tools and to explore patients' levels of pain and sedation/agitation, the prevalence of delirium, and the use of PR. Method: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, prospective and multicentre study using an ad hoc survey with online access that consisted of 2 blocks. Block I: with questions on the unit's characteristics and routine practice; Block II: aspects of direct care and direct assessments of patients admitted to participating units. Results: One hundred and fifty-eight units and 1574 patients participated. The pain of communicative patients (CP) was assessed and recorded as standard in 109 units (69%), the pain of non-communicative patients (NCP) in 84 (53%), sedation/agitation in 111 (70%), and delirium in 39 units (25%). There was recorded use of PR in 39 units (25%). Validated scales were used to assess the pain of CP in 139 units (88%), of NCP in 102 (65%), sedation/agitation in 145 (92%), delirium in 53 units (34%). In 33 units (21%) pain, sedation/agitation and delirium of PC and NPC was assessed, and in 8 of these units there was a specific PR protocol and register. Among the patients who could be assessed, an absence of pain was reported in 57%, moderate pain in 27%; 48% were calm and collaborative, and 10% agitated; 21% had PR, and 12.6% of the patients had delirium. Conclusions: The assessment of pain, sedation and delirium is demonstrated, and low percentages of agitation and delirium achieved. We observed a high percentage of patients with pain, and moderate use of PC. We should generalise the use of protocols to assess, prevent and treat pain and delirium by appropriately managing analgesia, sedation, and individual and well-considered use of PC. (C) 2019 Sociedad Espanola de Enfermeria Intensiva y Unidades Coronarias (SEEIUC). Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Esta comunicación se encuentra disponible en la siguiente URL: https://www.fortunejournals.com/articles/can-we-set-quality-standards-for-the-centers-minimally-invasive-surgery-vs-open-surgery-in-colorectal-cancer-resection.pdf Background: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is the standard method for resection of colorectal cancer, but its indications have limitations that are constantly debated. In our study, the center had to meet the following four factors: surgeons should have considerable experience, there should be a high percentage of MIS, a low conversion rate, and good results in the intervention. Methods: Retrospective observational study of a cohort of 948 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent scheduled open surgery (OS) and MIS between 2011-2016. Results: There were no differences based on sex, body mass index, or location of the tumor, but OS was related to older age, higher ASA, a higher stage, previous surgery, and operative adverse events. The location of the primary tumor and the existence of synchronous tumors were related to variability in the technique. The implementation of MIS increased from 36.2% in 2011 to 89.6% in 2016. The surgeon's experience decreased the conversion rate from 6.5% in 2011 to 3.1% in 2016, with 2% in T0-2 tumors. In logistic regression, the factor that most increased the possibility of choosing MIS was the pT grade of the tumor, and the factors that most contraindicated MIS were stages 2-4, ASA 4, stage 1, previous surgery, and advanced age. Conclusions: In hospitals where surgeons have long experience, minimally invasive surgery could be implemented in up to 90% of cases, with low conversion rates (3-4%) and good results for patients.

In this contribution, vector analyzing powers are presented for the proton-deuteron break-up reaction studied using a polarised-proton beam at 135 MeV. For the experiment, we used the Big Instrument for Nuclear-polarisation Analysis (BINA) at KVI, the Netherlands. With this setup, we determined, for the first time, (formula presented) for a large range in the kinematical S, polar and azimuthal angles of the two outgoing protons. Our data are reasonably well described by Faddeev calculations for kinematical configurations at which the three-nucleon force effect is predicted to be small. However, striking discrepancies are observed at specific configurations, for which the relative azimuthal angle between the two protons becomes small. In this contribution, some of these configurations along with the analysis techniques are presented.

Background: We aimed to examine whether using a high fraction of inspired oxygen (FIO2) in the context of an individualised intra- and postoperative open-lung ventilation approach could decrease surgical site infection (SSI) in patients scheduled for abdominal surgery. Methods: We performed a multicentre, randomised controlled clinical trial in a network of 21 university hospitals from June 6, 2017 to July 19, 2018. Patients undergoing abdominal surgery were randomly assigned to receive a high (0.80) or conventional (0.3) FIO2 during the intraoperative period and during the first 3 postoperative hours. All patients were mechanically ventilated with an open-lung strategy, which included recruitment manoeuvres and individualised positive end-expiratory pressure for the best respiratory-system compliance, and individualised continuous postoperative airway pressure for adequate peripheral oxyhaemoglobin saturation. The primary outcome was the prevalence of SSI within the first 7 postoperative days. The secondary outcomes were composites of systemic complications, length of intensive care and hospital stay, and 6-month mortality. Results: We enrolled 740 subjects: 371 in the high FIO2 group and 369 in the low FIO2 group. Data from 717 subjects were available for final analysis. The rate of SSI during the first postoperative week did not differ between high (8.9%) and low (9.4%) FIO2 groups (relative risk [RR]: 0.94; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.59-1.50; P=0.90]). Secondary outcomes, such as atelectasis (7.7% vs 9.8%; RR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.48-1.25; P=0.38) and myocardial ischaemia (0.6% [n=2] vs 0% [n=0]; P=0.47) did not differ between groups. Conclusions: An oxygenation strategy using high FIO2 compared with conventional FIO2 did not reduce postoperative SSIs in abdominal surgery. No differences in secondary outcomes or adverse events were found.

The piriform cortex is involved in olfactory information processing, that is altered in Down Syndrome. Moreover, piriform cortex has a crucial involvement in epilepsy generation and is one of the first regions affected in Alzheimer's Disease, both maladies being prevalent among Down Syndrome individuals. In this work, we studied the alterations in neuronal morphology, synaptology and structural plasticity in the piriform cortex of the Ts65Dn mouse model, which is the most used model for the study of this syndrome and mimics some of their alterations. We have observed that Ts65Dn piriform cortex displays: a reduction in dendritic arborisation, a higher density of inhibitory synapses (GAD67), a lower density of excitatory synapses (vGLUT1) and a higher density of inhibitory postsynaptic puncta (gephyrin). Under electron microscopy the excitatory presynaptic and postsynaptic elements were larger in trisomic mice than in controls. Similar results were obtained using confocal microscopy. There were less immature neurons in piriform cortex layer II in addition to a reduction in the expression of PSA-NCAM in the neuropil that subsequently can reflect impairment in structural plasticity. These data support the idea of an impaired environment with altered ratio of inhibition and excitation that involves a reduction in plasticity and dendritic atrophy, providing a possible substrate for the olfactory processing impairment observed in DS individuals.

BACKGROUND: The knowledge of hereditary predisposition has changed our understanding of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Genetic testing has been widely extended and the application of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension specific gene panels has allowed its inclusion in the diagnostic workup and increase the diagnostic ratio compared to the traditional sequencing techniques. This is particularly important in the differential diagnosis between Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Pulmonary Venoocclusive Disease. METHODS: Since November 2011, genetic testing is offered to all patients with idiopathic, hereditable and associated forms of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension or Pulmonary Venoocclusive Disease included in the Spanish Registry of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Herein, we present the clinical phenotype and prognosis of all Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension patients with disease-associated variants in TBX4. RESULTS: Out of 579 adults and 45 children, we found in eight patients from seven families, disease-causing associated variants in TBX4. All adult patients had a moderate-severe reduction in diffusion capacity. However, we observed a wide spectrum of clinical presentations, including Pulmonary Venoocclusive Disease suspicion, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary vascular abnormalities and congenital heart disease. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic testing is now essential for a correct diagnosis work-up in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. TBX4-associated Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension has marked clinical heterogeneity. In this regard, a genetic study is extremely useful to obtain an accurate diagnosis and provide appropriate management.

Background: We aimed to examine whether using a high fraction of inspired oxygen (FIO2) in the context of an individualised intra- and postoperative open-lung ventilation approach could decrease surgical site infection (SSI) in patients scheduled for abdominal surgery. Methods: We performed a multicentre, randomised controlled clinical trial in a network of 21 university hospitals from June 6, 2017 to July 19, 2018. Patients undergoing abdominal surgery were randomly assigned to receive a high (0.80) or conventional (0.3) FIO2 during the intraoperative period and during the first 3 postoperative hours. All patients were mechanically ventilated with an open-lung strategy, which included recruitment manoeuvres and individualised positive end-expiratory pressure for the best respiratory-system compliance, and individualised continuous postoperative airway pressure for adequate peripheral oxyhaemoglobin saturation. The primary outcome was the prevalence of SSI within the first 7 postoperative days. The secondary outcomes were composites of systemic complications, length of intensive care and hospital stay, and 6-month mortality. Results: We enrolled 740 subjects: 371 in the high FIO2 group and 369 in the low FIO2 group. Data from 717 subjects were available for final analysis. The rate of SSI during the first postoperative week did not differ between high (8.9%) and low (9.4%) FIO2 groups (relative risk [RR]: 0.94; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.59-1.50; P=0.90]). Secondary outcomes, such as atelectasis (7.7% vs 9.8%; RR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.48-1.25; P=0.38) and myocardial ischaemia (0.6% [n=2] vs 0% [n=0]; P=0.47) did not differ between groups. Conclusions: An oxygenation strategy using high FIO2 compared with conventional FIO2 did not reduce postoperative SSIs in abdominal surgery. No differences in secondary outcomes or adverse events were found.

Antiprotons as a probe to study short-lived isotopes remain unexploited despite past pioneering works with stable nuclei. In particular, low-energy antiprotons offer a very unique sensitivity to the neutron and proton densities at the annihilation site, i.e. in the tail of the nuclear density. Such studies with short-lived nuclei and low-energy antiprotons are the first motivation of the proposed antiProton Unstable Matter Annihilation (PUMA) experiment. Today, no facility provides a collider of low-energy radioactive ions and low-energy antiprotons: PUMA aims at transporting one billion antiprotons from CERN/ELENA to CERN/ISOLDE to perform the capture of low-energy antiprotons by short-lived nuclei, and probe in this way the so-far unexplored isospin composition of the nuclear-radial-density tail of radioactive nuclei.

We consider the theoretical possibility to generate a narrow resonance in the four neutron system as suggested by a recent experimental result. To that end, a phenomenological $T=3/2$ three neutron force is introduced, in addition to a realistic $NN$ interaction. We inquire what should be the strength of the $3n$ force in order to generate such a resonance. The reliability of the three-neutron force in the $T=3/2$ channel is exmined, by analyzing its consistency with the low-lying $T=1$ states of $^4$H, $^4$He and $^4$Li and the $^3{\rm H} + n$ scattering. The {\it ab initio} solution of the $4n$ Schr\"{o}dinger equation is obtained using the complex scaling method with boundary conditions appropiate to the four-body resonances. We find that in order to generate narrow $4n$ resonant states a remarkably attractive $3N$ force in the $T=3/2$ channel is required., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, minor change, published version, to be published in Physical Review C

Background: Less-invasive and easy to install monitoring systems for continuous estimation of cardiac index (CI) have gained increasing interest, especially in cardiac surgery patients who often exhibit abrupt haemodynamic changes. The aim of the present study was to compare the accuracy of CI by a new semi-invasive monitoring system with transpulmonary thermodilution before and after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Methods: Sixty-five patients (41 Germany, 24 Spain) scheduled for elective coronary surgery were studied before and after CPB, respectively. Measurements included CI obtained by transpulmonary thermodilution (CITPTD) and autocalibrated semi-invasive pulse contour analysis (CIPFX). Percentage changes of CI were also calculated. Results: There was only a poor correlation between CITPTD and CIPFX both before (r(2) = 0.34, p < 0.0001) and after (r(2) = 0.31, p < 0.0001) CPB, with a percentage error (PE) of 62 and 49 %, respectively. Four quadrant plots revealed a concordance rate over 90 % indicating an acceptable correlation of trends between CITPTD and CIPFX before (concordance: 93 %) and after (concordance: 94 %) CPB. In contrast, polar plot analysis showed poor trending before and an acceptable trending ability of changes in CI after CPB. Conclusions: Semi-invasive CI by autocalibrated pulse contour analysis showed a poor ability to estimate CI compared with transpulmonary thermodilution. Furthermore, the new semi-invasive device revealed an acceptable trending ability for haemodynamic changes only after CPB.

20 pages, 7 figures, 1 tableSeries on Knots and Everything: Volume 54; International audience; When a two-body system is bound by a zero-range interaction, the corresponding three-body system -- considered in a non-relativistic framework -- collapses, that is its binding energy is unbounded from below. In a paper by J.V. Lindesay and H.P. Noyes it was shown that the relativistic effects result in an effective repulsion in such a way that three-body binding energy remains also finite, thus preventing the three-body system from collapse. Later, this property was confirmed in other works based on different versions of relativistic approaches. However, the three-body system exists only for a limited range of two-body binding energy values. For stronger two-body interaction, the relativistic three-body system still collapses. A similar phenomenon was found in a two-body systems themselves: a two-fermion system with one-boson exchange interaction in a state with zero angular momentum J=0 exists if the coupling constant does not exceed some critical value but it also collapses for larger coupling constant. For a J=1 state, it collapses for any coupling constant value. These properties are called "critical stability". This contribution aims to be a brief review of this field pioneered by H.P. Noyes.

When a two-body system is bound by a zero-range interaction, the corresponding three-body system -- considered in a non-relativistic framework -- collapses, that is its binding energy is unbounded from below. In a paper by J.V. Lindesay and H.P. Noyes it was shown that the relativistic effects result in an effective repulsion in such a way that three-body binding energy remains also finite, thus preventing the three-body system from collapse. Later, this property was confirmed in other works based on different versions of relativistic approaches. However, the three-body system exists only for a limited range of two-body binding energy values. For stronger two-body interaction, the relativistic three-body system still collapses. A similar phenomenon was found in a two-body systems themselves: a two-fermion system with one-boson exchange interaction in a state with zero angular momentum J=0 exists if the coupling constant does not exceed some critical value but it also collapses for larger coupling constant. For a J=1 state, it collapses for any coupling constant value. These properties are called "critical stability". This contribution aims to be a brief review of this field pioneered by H.P. Noyes., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

Summary Classifying biological data is a common task in the biomedical context. Predicting the class of new, unknown information allows researchers to gain insight and make decisions based on the available data. Also, using classification methods often implies choosing the best parameters to obtain optimal class separation, and the number of parameters might be large in biological datasets.Support Vector Machines provide a well-established and powerful classification method to analyse data and find the minimal-risk separation between different classes. Finding that separation strongly depends on the available feature set and the tuning of hyper-parameters. Techniques for feature selection and SVM parameters optimization are known to improve classification accuracy, and its literature is extensive.In this paper we review the strategies that are used to improve the classification performance of SVMs and perform our own experimentation to study the influence of features and hyper-parameters in the optimization process, using several known kernels.

En los últimos años, el uso de marcadores moleculares que identifican cambios polimórficos a nivel del ADN, está jugando un papel cada vez mayor en las aplicaciones biotecnológicas de todo tipo así como en los estudios básicos de genética. Sin embargo, todos los esfuerzos realizados hasta la fecha para discriminar variedades de cítricos próximas y, en particular, variedades derivadas por mutaciones espontáneas e inducidas, han resultado infructuosos. En este contexto, el consorcio CITRUSEQ formado por 3 instituciones públicas, el Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias, el IRNASE del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas y la Fundación Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe y 6 entidades privadas: Eurosemillas, S.L., Investigación Citrícola Castellón S.A., Anecoop, Special Newfruit Licensing Mediterraneo S.L., GMC Variedades Vegetales A.I.E y Fundación Ruralcaja está desarrollando un número considerable de aplicaciones biotecnológicas basadas en el conocimiento del genoma de los cítricos entre las que se incluyen protocolos y procedimientos de identificación inequívoca de especies y variedades de agrios. En este artículo describimos la estrategia de detección y validación de marcadores de ADN derivados de la comparación genómica que permiten mediante análisis de PCR la discriminación rápida, eficaz y asequible de variedades comerciales generadas por mutaciones espontáneas e inducidas.

The unpolarised differential cross section and the two deuteron tensor analysing powers A_{xx} and A_{yy} of the pol{d}p -> (pp)n charge-exchange reaction have been measured with the ANKE spectrometer at the COSY storage ring. Using deuteron beams with energies 1.2, 1.6, 1.8, and 2.27 GeV, data were obtained for small momentum transfers to a (pp) system with low excitation energy. The results at the three lower energies are consistent with impulse approximation predictions based upon the current knowledge of the neutron-proton amplitudes. However, at 2.27GeV, where these amplitudes are far more uncertain, agreement requires a reduction in the overall double-spin-flip contribution, with an especially significant effect in the longitudinal direction. These conclusions are supported by measurements of the deuteron-proton spin-correlation parameters C_{x,x} and C_{y,y} that were carried out in the pol{d}pol{p} -> (pp)n reaction at 1.2 and 2.27GeV. The values obtained for the proton analysing power also suggest the need for a radical re-evaluation of the neutron-proton elastic scattering amplitudes at the higher energy. It is therefore clear that such measurements can provide a valuable addition to the neutron-proton database in the charge-exchange region., 13 pages with 13 figures

The n-3H and p-3He elastic phase-shifts below the trinucleon disintegration thresholds are calculated by solving the 4-nucleon problem with three different realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions (the I-N3LO model by Entem and Machleidt, the Argonne v18 potential model, and a low-k model derived from the CD-Bonn potential). Three different methods -- Alt, Grassberger and Sandhas, Hyperspherical Harmonics, and Faddeev-Yakubovsky -- have been used and their respective results are compared. For both n-3H and p-3He we observe a rather good agreement between the three different theoretical methods. We also compare the theoretical predictions with the available experimental data, confirming the large underprediction of the p-3He analyzing power., Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures

We present results on the nucleon electromagnetic form factors within lattice QCD using two flavors of degenerate twisted mass fermions. Volume effects are examined using simulations at two volumes of spatial length L=2.1 fm and L=2.8 fm. Cut-off effects are investigated using three different values of the lattice spacings, namely a=0.089 fm, a=0.070 and a=0.056 fm. The nucleon magnetic moment, Dirac and Pauli radii are obtained in the continuum limit and chirally extrapolated to the physical pion mass allowing for a comparison with experiment., Comment: ETM Collaboration, 14 pages, 15 Figures

The method of solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation in Minkowski space, developed previously for spinless particles, is extended to a system of two fermions. The method is based on the Nakanishi integral representation of the amplitude and on projecting the equation on the light-front plane. The singularities in the projected two-fermion kernel are regularized without modifying the original BS amplitudes. The numerical solutions for the J=0 bound state with the scalar, pseudoscalar and massless vector exchange kernels are found. Binding energies are in close agreement with the Euclidean results. Corresponding amplitudes in Minkowski space are obtained., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the Workshop: Light-Cone 2010, "Relativistic Hadronic and Particle Physics", June 14-18, 2010, Valencia, Spain. To be published in the online journal "Proceedings of Science" - PoS

We present results on the nucleon form factors using two degenerate flavors of twisted mass fermions on 243×48 and 32×64 lattices with pion masses in the range 290÷485MeV. © 2010 American Institute of Physics. 1261 141 146 Sponsors: Univ. Adelaide, Cent. Subatomic Struct. Matter Jefferson Lab Conference code: 82660

We present results on the mass of the nucleon and the Delta using two dynamical degenerate twisted mass quarks and the tree-level Symanzik improved gauge action. The evaluation is performed at four quark masses corresponding to a pion mass in the range of about 300-600 MeV on lattices of 2.1-2.7 fm. We check for cut-off effects by evaluating these baryon masses on lattices of spatial size 2.1 fm at beta=3.9 and beta=4.05 and on a lattice of 2.4 fm at beta=3.8. The values we find are compatible within our statistical errors. Lattice results are extrapolated to the physical limit using continuum chiral perturbation theory. Performing a combined fit to our lattice data at beta=3.9 and beta=4.05 we find a nucleon mass of 964\pm 28 (stat.) \pm 8 (syst.) MeV. The nucleon mass at the physical point provides an independent determination of the lattice spacing. Using heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory at O(p^3) we find a_{\beta=3.9}=0.0890\pm 0.0039(stat.) \pm 0.0014(syst.) fm, and a_{\beta=4.05}= 0.0691\pm 0.0034(stat.) \pm 0.0010(syst.) fm, in good agreement with the values determined from the pion decay constant. Isospin violating lattice artifacts in the Delta-system are found to be compatible with zero for the values of the lattice spacings used in this work. Performing a combined fit to our lattice data at beta=3.9 and beta=4.05 we find for the masses of the Delta^{++,-} and Delta^{+,0} 1316 \pm 60 (stat.) MeV and 1330 \pm 74 (stat.) MeV respectively. We confirm that in the continuum limit they are also degenerate., Comment: 19 pages, 18 figures, Version as accepted in Phys. Rev. D, Discussion on nucleon sigma-term extended, typos corrected

We present our preliminary results on the lowest moment of quark distribution functions of the pion using two flavor dynamical simulations with Wilson twisted mass fermions at maximal twist. The calculation is done in a range of pion masses from 300 to 500 MeV. A stochastic source method is used to reduce inversions in calculating propagators. Finite volume effects at the lowest quark mass are examined by using two different lattice volumes. Our results show that we achieve statistical errors of only a few percent. We plan to compute renormalization constants non-perturbatively and extend the calculation to two more lattice spacings and to the nucleons., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Talk given at the XXV International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 30 - August 4 2007, Regensburg, Germany

PTH; Faddeev-Yakubovski equations are solved numerically for 4He tetramer and trimer states using realistic helium-helium interaction models. We describe the properties of ground and excited states, and we discuss with a special emphasis the 4He-4He3 low energy scattering.

El priapismo de alto flujo representa una patología infrecuente en el campo de la urología y mucho más los casos de larga evolución como el que presentamos. La bibliografía es escasa y los métodos de diagnóstico y tratamiento no han evolucionado en muchos años. Presentamos un caso de priapismo de alto flujo de 30 años de evolución, bien tolerado, y hasta deseado por el "paciente" y proponemos un nuevo algoritmo de diagnóstico y tratamiento.

The Faddeev-Yakubovski equations are solved in configuration space for low energy four-nucleon continuum states. Coulomb interaction was included into the formalism permitting an exact description of the scattering states in p+$^{3}$He and p+$^{3}$H systems.

Relativistic and QED corrections to the recently discovered first vibrational $2p��_u$ state are presented. This state has an extremely small nonrelativistic binding energy $E_B=1.085045252(1)\times10^{-9}$ a.u. Its wave functions has a maximum at $R\approx100$ a.u. and extends up to several hundreds. It is shown that this state does not disappear if higher order relativistic and QED corrections, including the Casimir--Polder effect, are taken into account.

By comparing respectively the interaction between 3He atoms and the neutron-neutron one, we examine the possibility for both fermionic systems to form small clusters., Comment: Contributed talk to 17th International IUPAP Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics, Durham, North Carolina, 5-10 June 2003. Published in the proceedings (Elsevier, 2004) pp. S106-S108

The light-front dynamics is an efficient approach to study of field theory and of relativistic composite systems (nuclei at relativistic relative nucleon momenta, hadrons in the quark models). The explicitly covariant version of this approach is briefly reviewed and illustrated by some applications., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures. Talk at the 21-st International Workshop on Nuclear Theory, Rila Mountains, Bulgaria, June 10-15, 2002

A current barrier for successful rational drug design is the lack of understanding of the structure space provided by the proteins in a cell that is determined by their sequence space. The protein sequences capable of folding to functional three-dimensional shapes of the proteins are clearly different for different organisms, since sequences obtained from human proteins often fail to form correct three-dimensional structures in bacterial organisms. In analogy to the question “What kind of things do people say?" we therefore need to ask the question “What kind of amino acid sequences occur in the proteins of an organism?" An understanding of the sequence space occupied by proteins in different organisms would have important applications for “translation" of proteins from the language of one organism into that of another and design of drugs that target sequences that might be unique or preferred by pathogenic organisms over those in human hosts. Here we describe the development of a biological language modeling toolkit (BLMT) for genome-wide statistical amino acid n-gram analysis and comparison across organisms (freely accessible at www.cs.cmu.edu/~blmt). Its functions were applied to 44 different bacterial, archaeal and the human genome. Amino acid n-gram distribution was found to be characteristic of organisms, as evidenced by (1) the ability of simple Markovian unigram models to distinguish organisms, (2) the marked variation in n-gram distributions across organisms above random variation, and (3) identification of organism-specific phrases in protein sequences that are greater than an order of magnitude standard deviations away from the mean. These lines of evidence suggest that different organisms utilize different “vocabularies" and “phrases", an observation that may provide novel approaches to drug development by specifically targeting these phrases. The results suggest that further detailed analysis of n-gram statistics of protein sequences from whole genomes will likely – in analogy to word n-gram analysis – result in powerful models for prediction, topic classification and information extraction of biological sequences.

The lithospheric structure and degree of isostatic compensation of the Western Iberian Margin is studied along two profiles -A and B- which run perpendicular to the margin from the deep ocean to the continental platform. The profiles cut across the Iberian and Tagus Abyssal Plains, respectively. The lithospheric modelling, which is based on finite element technique, combines elevation, heat flow, and gravity data. This together with the computation of geoid anomalies allows us to better constrain how the structure of the crust and lithospheric mantle evolves across the margin. Our model results show that the crustal transition from continent to ocean is quite gentle and occurs over distances of about 115km, resembling the crustal attitude observed in other passive continental margins. The total lithospheric thickness remains constant along Profile A (110km) whereas along Profile B the lithosphere thickens from 110km below stable Iberia to 120 below the Tagus Abyssal Plain thinning towards the Madeira Tore Rise up to 95km.

Introduction Tumours of the tectal region form, within the group of gliomas of the brain stem, a sub group with better prognosis which require a different therapeutic strategy. Objectives A retrospective review of tectal tumours in children to find the most suitable therapeutic approach and the prognosis to be expected. Patients and methods We reviewed 8 paediatric patients who, during the past 11 years, had developed tectal tumours diagnosed by means of neuro imaging techniques. We evaluated their clinical features and especially their clinico radiological progress. Results The average age at the time of diagnosis was 10 years. All cases presented with the clinical features of raised intracranial pressure secondary to obstruction of the aqueduct of Sylvius. MR was the key to visualization of the tectal lesion in all cases but one, which had already been shown on CT. The initial and only treatment given was a ventricular shunt. The average clinico radiological follow up in our series was 4 years, with good progress in all cases so that no other therapeutic measures were required. MR follow up showed that the tumours were stable in all cases but one, which had increased slightly in size but without parallel clinical signs. Conclusion In most cases tectal tumours in children follow a benign course. A ventricular shunt is usually the only treatment necessary. However, close clinical and radiological follow up should be carried out to rule out growth of the tumour which make other treatment also necessary. MR is the method of choice for initial evaluation and follow up of these tumours.