The effect of autologous adipose derived mesenchymal stem cell therapy on juvenile osteochondritis dissecans of the patella: a case study

A prospective analysis of the effect of autologous adipose derived mesenchymal stem cell (AD-MSCs) therapy in the treatment of a juvenile osteochondritis dissecans (JOCD) of the patella. After failed conventional management of JOCD, a 13-year-old patient undergoes intra-articular MSC therapy. Repeated magnetic resonance imaging analyses showed regeneration of cartilage. In this report, the use of AD-MSCs, after unsuccessful conventional JOCD management, resulted in structural, functional and pain improvement. These results highlight the possibility to avoid surgery treatment in JOCD patella treatment

Very Fast and Accurate Procedure for the Characterization of Photovoltaic Panels from Datasheet Information

In recent years several numerical methods have been proposed to identify the five-parameter model of photovoltaic panels from manufacturer datasheets also by introducing simplification or approximation techniques. In this paper we present a fast and accurate procedure for obtaining the parameters of the five-parameter model by starting from its reduced form. The procedure allows characterizing, in few seconds, thousands of photovoltaic panels present on the standard databases. It introduces and takes advantage of further important mathematical considerations without any model simplifications or data approximations. In particular the five parameters are divided in two groups, independent and dependent parameters, in order to reduce the dimensions of the search space. The partitioning of the parameters provides a strong advantage in terms of convergence, computational costs, and execution time of the present approach. Validations on thousands of photovoltaic panels are presented that show how it is possible to make easy and efficient the extraction process of the five parameters, without taking care of choosing a specific solver algorithm but simply by using any deterministic optimization/minimization technique

Observation of J/ψpJ/\psi p resonances consistent with pentaquark states in Λb0→J/ψK−p{\Lambda_b^0\to J/\psi K^-p} decays

Observations of exotic structures in the $J/\psi p$ channel, that we refer to as pentaquark-charmonium states, in $\Lambda_b^0\to J/\psi K^- p$ decays are presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3/fb acquired with the LHCb detector from 7 and 8 TeV pp collisions. An amplitude analysis is performed on the three-body final-state that reproduces the two-body mass and angular distributions. To obtain a satisfactory fit of the structures seen in the $J/\psi p$ mass spectrum, it is necessary to include two Breit-Wigner amplitudes that each describe a resonant state. The significance of each of these resonances is more than 9 standard deviations. One has a mass of $4380\pm 8\pm 29$ MeV and a width of $205\pm 18\pm 86$ MeV, while the second is narrower, with a mass of $4449.8\pm 1.7\pm 2.5$ MeV and a width of $39\pm 5\pm 19$ MeV. The preferred $J^P$ assignments are of opposite parity, with one state having spin 3/2 and the other 5/2.Comment: 48 pages, 18 figures including the supplementary material, v2 after referee's comments, now 19 figure

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Imagery ability of elite level athletes from individual vs. team and contact vs. no-contact sports

Background In the sport context, imagery has been described as the condition in which persons imagine themselves while executing skills to deal with the upcoming task or enhance performance. Systematic reviews have shown that mental imagery improves performance in motor tasks Methods The aim of the present study was to explore whether imagery vividness (i.e., the clarity or realism of the imagery experience) and controllability (i.e., the ease and accuracy with which an image can be manipulated mentally) differ by sport types (team vs. individual and contact vs. non-contact). Participants were athletes from team contact and non-contact sports (rugby and volleyball, respectively), and individual contact and non-contact sports (karate and tennis, respectively) between the ages of 20 and 33 years (M = 24.37, SD = 2.85). The participants completed the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire, the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire-2, and the Mental Image Transformation Tasks. Results A 2 ×2 × 2 (gender × 2 contact-no-contact × 2 sport type) between groups MANOVA showed differences in imagery ability by sport type. Practical indications deriving from the findings of this study can help coaches and athletes to develop mental preparation programs using sport-specific imagery

Challenges in UV camera-based real-time SO2 flux monitoring: insights from 5 years of continuous observations at Etna ad Stromboli

The advent of UV cameras has recently paved the way to volcanic SO2 flux observations of much improved temporal and spatial resolution, and has thus contributed to expanding use and utility of SO2 fluxes in volcano monitoring. Recently, the first examples of permanent UV camera systems have appeared that are now opening the way to routine fully automated monitoring of the volcanic SO2 flux at high-rate, and continuously (daily hours only). In 2014, using funding from the FP7-ERC project “Bridge” (http://www.bridge.unipa.it/), we deployed a network of 4 permanent UV cameras at Etna and Stromboli volcanoes (Sicily) that has been operating regularly since then. Using a suite of custom-built codes, data streamed by the UV camera are automatically processed and telemetered, allowing nearly real-time visualization and analysis of SO2 fluxes. Here, we summarise the key results obtained during the last 5 years of continuous observations (2014-2018) to demonstrate potentials and challenges in real-time continuous SO2 flux monitoring with UV cameras. We show that the spatially resolved SO2 flux time-series delivered by the UV camera allow effectively tracking migration in volcanic activity from the Central to New South-East Crater (Etna), and shifts in degassing activity along the crater terrace (Stromboli). At both volcanoes, the high temporal of UV cameras allows capturing the escalation in active (strombolian) SO2 degassing that typically precedes onset of paroxysmal (Etna in 2014-2016) or effusive (Stromboli in 2014) activity, and to quantify for the first time the syn- explosive SO2 budget for larger-scale explosions, including 2 paroxysmal lava fountains (Etna) and 1 major explosion (Stromboli). We finally demonstrate the ability of our automatic camera systems to capture temporal changes in SO2 flux regime, and thus to “live” monitoring degassing and eruptive behaviors at active volcanoes.PublishedNapoli6V. Pericolosità vulcanica e contributi alla stima del rischi

Measurement of the forward Z boson production cross-section in pp collisions at s=13\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section of Z bosons in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV is presented using dimuon and dielectron final states in LHCb data. The cross-section is measured for leptons with pseudorapidities in the range $2.0 \eta 4.5$, transverse momenta $p_\text{T} 20$ GeV and dilepton invariant mass in the range $60 m(\ell\ell) 120$ GeV. The integrated cross-section from averaging the two final states is \begin{equation*}\sigma_{\text{Z}}^{\ell\ell} = 194.3 \pm 0.9 \pm 3.3 \pm 7.6\text{ pb,}\end{equation*} where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is due to systematic effects, and the third is due to the luminosity determination. In addition, differential cross-sections are measured as functions of the Z boson rapidity, transverse momentum and the angular variable $\phi^*_\eta$

Study of production and cold nuclear matter effects in pPb collisions at=5 TeV

Production of mesons in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy = 5 TeV is studied with the LHCb detector. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.6 nb(-1). The mesons of transverse momenta up to 15 GeV/c are reconstructed in the dimuon decay mode. The rapidity coverage in the centre-of-mass system is 1.5 < y < 4.0 (forward region) and -5.0 < y < -2.5 (backward region). The forward-backward production ratio and the nuclear modification factor for (1S) mesons are determined. The data are compatible with the predictions for a suppression of (1S) production with respect to proton-proton collisions in the forward region, and an enhancement in the backward region. The suppression is found to be smaller than in the case of prompt J/psi mesons