University of Milan

About: University of Milan is a education organization based out in Milan, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 58413 authors who have published 139784 publications receiving 4636354 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli Studi di Milano & Statale.

Icatibant, a new bradykinin-receptor antagonist, in hereditary angioedema

Abstract: BACKGROUND Hereditary angioedema is characterized by recurrent attacks of angioedema of the skin, larynx, and gastrointestinal tract. Bradykinin is the key mediator of symptoms. Icatibant is a selective bradykinin B2 receptor antagonist. METHODS In two double-blind, randomized, multicenter trials, we evaluated the effect of icatibant in patients with hereditary angioedema presenting with cutaneous or abdominal attacks. In the For Angioedema Subcutaneous Treatment (FAST) 1 trial, patients received either icatibant or placebo; in FAST-2, patients received either icatibant or oral tranexamic acid, at a dose of 3 g daily for 2 days. Icatibant was given once, subcutaneously, at a dose of 30 mg. The primary end point was the median time to clinically significant relief of symptoms. RESULTS A total of 56 and 74 patients underwent randomization in the FAST-1 and FAST-2 trials, respectively. The primary end point was reached in 2.5 hours with icatibant versus 4.6 hours with placebo in the FAST-1 trial (P=0.14) and in 2.0 hours with icatibant versus 12.0 hours with tranexamic acid in the FAST-2 trial (P<0.001). In the FAST-1 study, 3 recipients of icatibant and 13 recipients of placebo needed treatment with rescue medication. The median time to first improvement of symptoms, as assessed by patients and by investigators, was significantly shorter with icatibant in both trials. No icatibant-related serious adverse events were reported. CONCLUSIONS In patients with hereditary angioedema having acute attacks, we found a significant benefit of icatibant as compared with tranexamic acid in one trial and a nonsignificant benefit of icatibant as compared with placebo in the other trial with regard to the primary end point. The early use of rescue medication may have obscured the benefit of icatibant in the placebo trial. (Funded by Jerini; ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT00097695 and NCT00500656.)

Plurality of Mass Nouns and the Notion of “Semantic Parameter”

Abstract: The main thesis I would like to develop and defend in this paper is that mass nouns come out of the lexicon with plurality already built in and that that is the (only) way in which they differ from count nouns. On the basis of this hypothesis (let us dub it the Inherent Plurality Hypothesis), I will offer a new account of the distribution of mass and count quantifiers, one that takes into consideration possible crosslinguistic variations in such distribution. I will also address, in a preliminary and somewhat speculative way, the issue of languages (such as Chinese) that are said not to have count nouns. One conclusion that we will reach is that there is some limited variation in the way in which the syntactic structure of NPs is mapped onto its denotation across different languages. If crosslinguistic variation is to be accounted for in terms of parametric differences, then the mass/count distinction seems to provide evidence for a semantic parameter. In the rest of this introduction, I will first try to give in a highly informal way an idea of the main thesis to be defended. Then I will briefly review the main data to be accounted for. Looking ahead to the overall organization of the paper, in section 2 I give some background assumptions on the nature of plurality. In section 3 I will present in detail the Inherent Plurality Hypothesis and show how it accounts for the data presented below. In section 4, I will consider further empirical consequences of the Inherent Plurality Hypothesis and see how it compares to a sample of other current influential approaches. Finally, in section 5, I will tackle the issue of languages allegedly without count nouns.

Gene duplication and exon shuffling by helitron-like transposons generate intraspecies diversity in maize

Abstract: We report a whole-genome comparison of gene content in allelic BAC contigs from two maize inbred lines. Genic content polymorphisms involve as many as 10,000 sequences and are mainly generated by DNA insertions. The termini of eight of the nine genic insertions that we analyzed shared the structural hallmarks of helitron rolling-circle transposons1,2,3. DNA segments defined by helitron termini contained multiple gene-derived fragments and had a structure typical of nonautonomous helitron-like transposons. Closely related insertions were found in multiple genomic locations. Some of these produced transcripts containing segments of different genes, supporting the idea that these transposition events have a role in exon shuffling and the evolution of new proteins. We identified putative autonomous helitron elements and found evidence for their transcription. Helitrons in maize seem to continually produce new nonautonomous elements responsible for the duplicative insertion of gene segments into new locations and for the unprecedented genic diversity. The maize genome is in constant flux, as transposable elements continue to change both the genic and nongenic fractions of the genome, profoundly affecting genetic diversity.

Equivalent projectors for virtual element methods

Abstract: In the original virtual element space with degree of accuracy k, projector operators in the H^1-seminorm onto polynomials of degree @?k can be easily computed. On the other hand, projections in the L^2 norm are available only on polynomials of degree @?k-2 (directly from the degrees of freedom). Here, we present a variant of the virtual element method that allows the exact computations of the L^2 projections on all polynomials of degree @?k. The interest of this construction is illustrated with some simple examples, including the construction of three-dimensional virtual elements, the treatment of lower-order terms, the treatment of the right-hand side, and the L^2 error estimates.

Observation of a Narrow Meson State Decaying to Ds+π0 at a Mass of 2.32 GeV/c2

Abstract: We have observed a narrow state near 2.32 GeV/c(2) in the inclusive D(+)(s)pi(0) invariant mass distribution from e(+)e(-) annihilation data at energies near 10.6 GeV. The observed width is consistent with the experimental resolution. The small intrinsic width and the quantum numbers of the final state indicate that the decay violates isospin conservation. The state has natural spin-parity and the low mass suggests a J(P)=0(+) assignment. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 91 fb(-1) recorded by the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-energy e(+)e(-) storage ring.