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Background Bone scintigraphy with labeled diphosphonates allows for the non–invasive diagnosis of transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis, in case of high cardiac uptake of the radiotracer and concomitant absence of serum monoclonal component (Gillmore algorithm). Objective The aim of this study was to establish the prevalence of transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis in a population of patients hospitalized for heart failure. Methods In this prospective observational study, patients hospitalized for heart failure at the Cardiology Unit of Castelsangiovanni Hospital were evaluated in the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 July 2022. Twenty–five of them, who presented with echocardiographic moderate to severe left ventricular hypertrophy (i.e. maximum end–diastolic thickness of the interventricular septum ≥ 15 mm), were included in the study. All patients underwent anamnesis, physical examination, 12–lead electrocardiogram and transthoracic echocardiogram. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to the presence or absence of the following clinical, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic diagnostic red flags: history of carpal tunnel syndrome and/or rupture of the long head of the brachial biceps, low voltage QRS, granular sparkling of the ventricular myocardium, apical sparing pattern of the global longitudinal strain. Results Fifteen patients with heart failure, left ventricular hypertrophy and at least one diagnostic red flag were screened for cardiac amyloidosis by: a) search for a serum monoclonal component; b) bone scintigraphy with labeled diphosphonates. In thirteen patients, an high cardiac uptake of the radiotracer was found on bone scintigraphy. One patient with high cardiac uptake also presented a serum monoclonal component and was referred for tissue biopsy. In the remaining twelve patients (85% of the cases studied) a non–invasive diagnosis of transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis was made. In six patients affected by transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis, a salivary genetic test was also performed to search for mutations in the transthyretin gene, which resulted negative in all cases examined. Conclusions In this study of patients hospitalized for decompensated heart failure, rigorous application of Gillmore‘s algorithm in suspected cases led to non–invasive diagnosis of cardiac transthyretin amyloidosis in 85% of cases, without wasting healthcare resources.

Extant animal and human data suggest endogenous ovarian hormones increase risk for binge eating in females, possibly via gene × hormone interactions and hormonally induced increases in genetic influences. Approximately 85 % of women will take combined oral contraceptives (COCs) that mimic the riskiest hormonal milieu for binge eating (i.e., post-ovulation when both estrogen and progesterone are present). The purpose of this narrative review is to synthesize findings of binge eating risk in COC users. Few studies have been conducted, but results suggest that COCs may increase risk for binge eating and related phenotypes (e.g., craving for sweets), particularly in genetically vulnerable women. Larger, more systematic human and animal studies of COCs and binge eating are needed. The goal of this work should be to advance personalized medicine by identifying the extent of COC risk as well as the role of gene × hormone interactions in susceptibility.

Hypercoagulability is a common complication of the systemic inflammation related to coronavirus disease 2019 creating debate within the critical care community on the therapeutic utility of Low Molecular Weight Heparin (LMWH). We collected data on consecutive patients with COVID-19 admitted to the Emergency Department of Castel San Giovanni Hospital, between February 29th and April 7th, 2020. Exclusion criteria were age

Purpose Assessment of longue term follow-up after surgical repair of Complete Atrioventricular Septal Defect (cAVSD). Evaluation of 3D versus standard 2D echocardiographic accuracy during the last follow-up. Methods 43 patients were included in this study. Mean age at surgical repair was 7 months, 48.8% of patients were male; 67.4% had Down Syndrome. Mean time follow-up was 13 ± 6 years. During the last follow-up 2D and 3D echo evaluation were performed. Results All patients were alive and had a NYHA class I at the last follow-up. Survival free from new cardiac surgery at 13 years was 86%. During follow-up a progressive moderate to severe/severe mitral regurgitation (MR) was observed in 6 patients (16.3%) while 4 patients developed a progressive left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO); overall 5 patients underwent new cardiac surgery (3 for MR and 2 for LVOTO). Echocardiographic evaluation showed: LV end diastolic volume 55.7 ± 13.0ml/m2, LV ejection fraction 64 ± 5%, left atrium volume 24.9 ± 13.9ml/m2, right ventricle systolic pression 21.0 ± 2.0 and a LVOT gradient 14.6 ± 16.4 mmHg. Mitral valve evaluation is evidenced in Table 1. Predictor factors of severe MR during follow-up were the cleft area and depth and the presence of anterior leaflet prolapse. Cohen’s kappa evidenced a good correlation between 2D and 3D VC evaluation with a higher sensibility of 3D evaluation to identify severe MR, data confirmed by the ROC curve analysis (Figure A and B). Conclusions Clinical outcome after cAVSD surgical repair is excellent with a low rate of reintervention. 3D echo evaluation is more sensitive to identify both predictors and severity of MR ì. LAST Follow-up echocardiography 2D evaluation 3D evaluation Mitral Valve evaluation Vena contracta, mm 4.8 ± 2.5 5.3 ± 2.5 Regurgitant volume, ml 25 ± 20 ERO, cm2 0.17 ± 0.13 Mean gradient, mmHg 4 ± 2.4 Residual cleft, n(%) A1 A2 A3 30 (90.7) 4 (9.3) 33 (76.8) 6 (13.9) Cleft area,cm2 0.19 ± 0.21 Cleft depth, mm 5 .0 ± 2.9 Valve thickening, n(%) 14 (13.6) Leaflet Prolapse, n (%) Anterior Leaflet Prolapse, n (%) Posterior Leaflet Prolapse, n (%) 30 (69.7) 25 (58.1) 10 (23.2) Single papilary, n(%) 10 (23.2) Abstract P1599 Figure.

Plastic is probably the fraction of the waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) most challenging to manage and the market of recycled plastics from WEEE is limited to few cases. In this study, twenty WEEE plastic samples collected in two material recovery facilities (MRFs) from manually sorted housings and components and among some discarded devices stored in Casaccia Research Center were analysed through infrared identification and chemical-physical characterization. The analyses were carried out in order to select the suitable samples for mechanical recycling in 3D printer filaments. Eleven different polymers or blends were found in the WEEE samples and the majority of those collected in the MRFs resulted as mixtures of different plastics, although often of styrene-based nature. On the other hand, many WEEE samples showed a good similarity to the corresponding virgin polymers with a content of halogens and inorganic fillers less than 0.2 and 5 wt%, respectively. The thirteen selected WEEE plastic samples were washed, reduced to

We consider a two leg bosonic ladder in a $U(1)$ gauge field with both interleg hopping and interleg repulsion. As a function of the flux, the interleg interaction converts the commensurate-incommensurate transition from the Meissner to a Vortex phase, into an Ising-type of transition towards a density wave phase. A disorder point is also found after which the correlation functions develop a damped sinusoid behavior signaling a melting of the vortex phase. We discuss the differences on the phase diagram for attractive and repulsive interleg interaction. In particular, we show how repulsion favors the Meissner phase at low-flux and a phase with a second incommensuration in the correlation functions for intermediate flux, leading to a richer phase diagram than in the case of interleg attraction. The effect of the temperature on the chiral current is also discussed., 14 pages, 8 figures

International audience; We consider a two-leg boson ladder in artificial gauge field with hard-core intraleg and negligible interleg interactions. Using numerical simulations based on the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) algorithm, combined with a bosonization approach, we study its commensurate-incommensurate transition to a vortex phase at a critical flux. We discuss the finite-size scaling behavior of the longitudinal current near the transition. For weak interchain bo-son hopping, the finite size scaling is in agreement with the predictions from bosonization.

We consider a two-leg boson ladder in an artificial U(1) gauge field and show that, in the presence of interleg attractive interaction, the flux induced Vortex state can be melted by dislocations. For increasing flux, instead of the Meissner to Vortex transition in the commensurate-incommensurate universality class, first an Ising transition from the Meissner state to a charge density wave takes place, then, at higher flux, the melted Vortex phase is established via a disorder point where incommensuration develops in the rung current correlation function and in momentum distribution.Finally, the quasi-long range ordered Vortex phase is recovered for sufficiently small interaction. Our predictions for the observables, such as the spin current and the static structure factor, could be tested in current experiments with cold atoms in bosonic ladders., Comment: 5 pages + 5 pages supplementary material ; 6 EPS figures

A boson two--leg ladder in the presence of a synthetic magnetic flux is investigated by means of bosonization techniques and Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG). We follow the quantum phase transition from the commensurate Meissner to the incommensurate vortex phase with increasing flux at different fillings. When the applied flux is $\rho \pi$ and close to it, where $\rho$ is the filling per rung, we find a second incommensuration in the vortex state that affects physical observables such as the momentum distribution, the rung-rung correlation function and the spin-spin and charge-charge static structure factors., Comment: 19 pages, 9 EPS figures, RevTeX 4 (v1); 20 pages, 10 EPS figures, improved section on mean-field theory (v2)

We have investigated the effect of a high magnetic field on the operation of an infrared electro-optic modulator constituted of In 0.10 Ga 0.90 As/GaAs quantum wells grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The magnetic field changes the working wavelength and the switching threshold of the device due to the diamagnetic blue-shift of the exciton ground-level energy and to the enhancement of the exciton oscillator strength, respectively. This is a consequence of the compression of the exciton wave function induced by the magnetic field.

The phase diagram of a half-filled hard core boson two-leg ladder in a flux is investigated by means of numerical simulations based on the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) algorithm and bosonization. We calculate experimentally accessible observables such as the momentum distribution, as well as rung current, density wave and bond-order wave correlation functions, allowing us to identify the Mott Meissner and Mott Vortex states. We follow the transition from commensurate Meissner to incommensurate Vortex state at increasing interchain hopping till the critical value [Piraud et al. Phys. Rev. B v. 91, p. 140406 (2015)] above which the Meissner state is stable at any flux. For flux close to $\pi$, and below the critical hopping, we observe the formation of a second incommensuration in the Mott Vortex state that could be detectable in current experiments., Comment: RevTeX 4, 5 pages + 8 pages supplemental, 6 EPS figures; (v2) references added, corrected the discussion of the Meissner state at high interchain hopping

We study the emergence of several magnetic phases in dipolar bosonic gases subject to three-body loss mechanism employing numerical simulations based on the density matrix renormalization group(DMRG) algorithm. After mapping the original Hamiltonian in spin language, we find a strong parallelism between the bosonic theory and the spin-1 Heisenberg model with single ion anisotropy and long-range interactions. A rich phase diagram, including ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic and non-local ordered phases, emerges in the half-filled one-dimensional case, and is preserved even in presence of a trapping potential., v2: 9 pages, 15 figures, extended version, new numerical calculations on the BKT transition, accepted for pubblication in PRB

We investigate the effect of dipolar interactions in one-dimensional systems in connection with the possibility of observing exotic many-body effects with trapped atomic and molecular dipolar gases. By combining analytical and numerical methods, we show how the competition between short- and long-range interactions gives rise to frustrating effects which lead to the stabilization of spontaneously dimerized phases characterized by a bond-ordering. This genuine quantum order is sharply distinguished from Mott and spin-density wave phases, and can be unambiguously probed by measuring non local order parameters in-situ imaging techniques., 8 pages, 6 figures; version as published: Text added to improve readability; added extensive numerical data to support results already present in v1; section on the dipolar two-leg ladder removed for clarity; new plots and references added. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

The exciton dynamics in Zn1 − xCdxSe/ZnSe multiple quantum wells have been investigated by temperature-dependent time-resolved photoluminescence experiments. A polariton effect (leading to a linearT-dependence of the decay time τPL) and thermal escape of carriers from the quantum well at relatively high temperature (resulting in a decrease of τPLwith the temperature) are observed in samples of different stoichiometry and well.

Undoped and modulated-doped ${\mathrm{Zn}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{x}}$${\mathrm{Cd}}_{\mathrm{x}}$Se/ZnSe multiple quantum wells have been investigated in order to elucidate the role of biexcitons in the physical mechanism responsible for stimulated emission. Though biexcitons are clearly observed in undoped samples at 10 K, the temperature and density dependence of the intensity of the biexcitonic features clearly shows that in the normal operating conditions of quantum-well lasers biexcitons are not stable. Comparison of the energy of the stimulated emission in undoped versus modulation-doped samples allowed us to attribute the origin of lasing to the recombination of localized excitons.

We investigated the role of excitons, biexcitons and free-carriers in Zn 1–x Cd x Se/ZnSe multiple quantum well structures. By using stimulated emission measurements, pump and probe absorption spectroscopy, and magnetoluminescence we determined the threshold for exciton bleaching and lasing. The threshold for lasing resulted to be less than 10~kW~ cm –2 regardless of sample structure and composition, whereas the threshold for exciton bleaching was found to be larger or smaller than this value, depending on the exciton binding energy and localization effects. The competition between excitons, biexcitons and free-carriers in the stimulated emission processes is thus discussed in terms of a phase diagram model.

Few people realize that in 1792 the New York Stock Exchange was established in lower New York City to service the financial investment needs of the insurance industry.' In time, however, the wealth generated by Wall Street far surpassed that of the insurance industry. Regrettably, until only recently the insurance industry lost sight of the fact that insurance risks can support the creation of financial capital in a global economy. Not surprisingly the wake up call for the insurance industry came from a string of natural catastrophes occurring over the last six years, whose costs dwarfed those previously incurred by insurers. In fact, as the accompanying graphs at the end of this article illustrate, the number of property catastrophes has fallen since the late 1970's from about 230 to 160, but the average industry insured loss per catastrophe has soared since 1980 from $28 million to $250 million. Consequently, the total insured catastrophe losses from hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural perils for the five year period ending 1995 have amounted to a staggering $4 billion, compared to $11 billion over the previous five year period.2 Moreover, predictions about the rising costs of property catastrophe losses are being given greater credibility primarily because of (i) the rising values of insured risks; (ii) higher population densities in catastrophe prone areas; and most importantly (iii) the new and sophisticated catastrophe loss modelling techniques, which vary somewhat in approach, but provide insurers and reinsurers with better estimates of the amount of the insured property loss they might sustain arising out of a specific catastrophic event.3

We investigated optical nonlinearities and stimulated emission in Zn 1− x Cd x Se/ZnSe multiple quantum well structures by using pump and probe transmission and high intensity photoluminescence (PL) measurements with or without magnetic field. We found that the origin of stimulated emission in the investigated samples depends on the exciton stability which can be increased by localization due to compositional and structural parameters. Exciton localization is directly demonstrated by time resolved PL measurements. A complex dynamics between excitons and free-carriers governs the physical mechanisms responsible for stimulated emission. This has been elucidated in detail by a many body theoretical model which has been used to analyze the experimental data based on an equilibrium phase diagram between excitons and free-carriers. Evidence of biexciton recombination is also given, and the stability of such excitonic molecules is investigated in modulation-doped quantum well structures.

Forward and reverse current-voltage ( I - V ) characteristics of Ti GaAs diodes prepared by ion beam sputtering (IBS) have been measured in the temperature range from 100 to 360 K. The correlation between the different sputtering preparation conditions and current transport mechanism is discussed. The analysis indicates that the thermionic emission is the main transport mechanism for all the samples. However at low temperature the diodes show a deviation from this behaviour. The departure from ideal conditions is interpreted as a direct effect of barrier height inhomogeneities at the metal-semiconductor interface.