0000000001135732
AUTHOR
Giammanco A
Study of the fragmentation of b quarks into B mesons at the Z peak
The fragmentation of b quarks into B mesons is studied with four million hadronic Z decays collected by the ALEPH experiment during the years 1991-1995. A semi-exclusive reconstruction of B->l nu D(*) decays is performed, by combining lepton candidates with fully reconstructed D(*) mesons while the neutrino energy is estimated from the missing energy of the event. The mean value of xewd, the energy of the weakly-decaying B meson normalised to the beam energy, is found to be mxewd = 0.716 +- 0.006 (stat) +- 0.006 (syst) using a model-independent method; the corresponding value for the energy of the leading B meson is mxel = 0.736 +- 0.006 (stat) +- 0.006 (syst). The reconstructed spectra …
The microbiota of the bilio-pancreatic system: A cohort, STROBE-compliant study
Paola Di Carlo,1 Nicola Serra,2 Francesco D’Arpa,3 Antonino Agrusa,3 Gaspare Gulotta,3 Teresa Fasciana,1 Vito Rodolico,1 Anna Giammanco,1 Consolato Sergi4,51Department of Sciences for Health Promotion, Mother & Child Care, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy; 2Statistic Unit, Department of Public Health, University of Naples ‘Federico II’, Naples, Italy; 3Department of General Surgery and Emergency, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy; 4Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; 5Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Stollery Children’s Hospital, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, CanadaBackgroun…
Anti-PCSK9 treatment: Is ultra-low LDL always good?
Anti-pcsk9 (proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9) monoclonal antibodies (Mab) are novel, potent lipid-lowering drugs. They demonstrated to improve the lipid profile in high cardiovascular risk patients. Anti-pcsk9 Mab inhibit the targeted LDL-receptor degradation induced by pcsk9 protein and are able to reduce LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) levels on top of conventional lipid-lowering therapy.Though these drugs proved to be very safe in the short term, little is known about the possible long term effects, due to the short period of their marketing. The genetic low-cholesterol syndromes (LCS) represent the natural models of the lipid-lowering anti-PCSK9 therapy, and a valuable opportunity to pr…
Search for Single Top Production in $e^{+} e^{-}$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ up to 209 GeV
Single top production via the flavour changing neutral current reactions e+e- -> \bar{t}c, \bar{t}u is searched for within the 214 pb-1 of data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies between 204 and 209 GeV. No deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed and upper limits on the single top production cross sections are derived. The combination with data collected at lower centre-of-mass energies yields an upper limit on the branching ratio BR(t -> Zc)+BR(t -> Zu) 14%, for BR(t -> ��c)+BR(t -> ��u)= 0 and mt=174 GeV/c2.
Immunity to tetanus in the 3-20 year age group in Italy
In Italy, systematic mandatory tetanus immunization of children started in 1968. In 1989, immunity against tetanus was assessed in a random sample of 758 healthy subjects aged 3-20 y, from four Italian cities. There were 257 subjects 3-5 y old all residing in Southern Italy and 501 subjects 11-20 y old from both the South and North. The overall prevalence of non-immune subjects was 19.1%, without difference by sex. The rates of subjects lacking protective antibody titres was 25.3% in children 3-5 y old (all coming from South and the islands), 11.5% in those 11 y old, and 18.9% in the 18-20 y age-group, respectively. Subjects 11-20 y old residing in the South and the islands were more likely…
Relationship between carotid intima-media thickness and non valvular atrial fibrillation type.
OBJECTIVE: Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is a surrogate marker of subclinical atherosclerosis and it is able to predict both coronary and cerebral vascular events. No data exist on the association between cIMT and non valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) type. We conduct this study with the aim to analyze the association between abnormal cIMT and NVAF type. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of the "Atrial fibrillation Registry for Ankle-brachial index Prevalence Assessment-Collaborative Italian Study (ARAPACIS)" has been performed. Among 2027 patients enrolled in the ARAPACIS, 673 patients, who underwent carotid ultrasound examination to assess cIMT, were included in the study. RESULT…