University of Milano-Bicocca

About: University of Milano-Bicocca is a education organization based out in Milan, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Blood pressure. The organization has 8972 authors who have published 22322 publications receiving 620484 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca & Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca.

Timing of India‐Asia collision: Geological, biostratigraphic, and palaeomagnetic constraints

Abstract: [1] A range of ages have been proposed for the timing of India-Asia collision; the range to some extent reflects different definitions of collision and methods used to date it. In this paper we discuss three approaches that have been used to constrain the time of collision: the time of cessation of marine facies, the time of the first arrival of Asian detritus on the Indian plate, and the determination of the relative positions of India and Asia through time. In the Qumiba sedimentary section located south of the Yarlung Tsangpo suture in Tibet, a previous work has dated marine facies at middle to late Eocene, by far the youngest marine sediments recorded in the region. By contrast, our biostratigraphic data indicate the youngest marine facies preserved at this locality are 50.6–52.8 Ma, in broad agreement with the timing of cessation of marine facies elsewhere throughout the region. Double dating of detrital zircons from this formation, by U-Pb and fission track methods, indicates an Asian contribution to the rocks thus documenting the time of arrival of Asian material onto the Indian plate at this time and hence constraining the time of India-Asia collision. Our reconstruction of the positions of India and Asia by using a compilation of published palaeomagnetic data indicates initial contact between the continents in the early Eocene. We conclude the paper with a discussion on the viability of a recent assertion that collision between India and Asia could not have occurred prior to ∼35 Ma.

Human 3D vascularized organotypic microfluidic assays to study breast cancer cell extravasation

Abstract: A key aspect of cancer metastases is the tendency for specific cancer cells to home to defined subsets of secondary organs. Despite these known tendencies, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here we develop a microfluidic 3D in vitro model to analyze organ-specific human breast cancer cell extravasation into bone- and muscle-mimicking microenvironments through a microvascular network concentrically wrapped with mural cells. Extravasation rates and microvasculature permeabilities were significantly different in the bone-mimicking microenvironment compared with unconditioned or myoblast containing matrices. Blocking breast cancer cell A3 adenosine receptors resulted in higher extravasation rates of cancer cells into the myoblast-containing matrices compared with untreated cells, suggesting a role for adenosine in reducing extravasation. These results demonstrate the efficacy of our model as a drug screening platform and a promising tool to investigate specific molecular pathways involved in cancer biology, with potential applications to personalized medicine.

Test of lepton universality with B 0 → K *0 ℓ + ℓ − decays

Abstract: A test of lepton universality, performed by measuring the ratio of the branching fractions of the B$^{0}$ → K$^{*0}$ μ$^{+}$ μ$^{−}$ and B$^{0}$ → K$^{*0}$ e$^{+}$ e$^{−}$ decays, $ {R}_{K^{*0}} $ , is presented. The K$^{*0}$ meson is reconstructed in the final state K$^{+}$ π$^{−}$, which is required to have an invariant mass within 100 MeV/c$^{2}$ of the known K$^{*}$(892)$^{0}$ mass. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 3 fb$^{−1}$, collected by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The ratio is measured in two regions of the dilepton invariant mass squared, q$^{2}$, to be $ {R}_{K^{*0}}=\left\{\begin{array}{l}{0.66_{-}^{+}}_{0.07}^{0.11}\left(\mathrm{stat}\right)\pm 0.03\left(\mathrm{syst}\right)\kern1em \mathrm{f}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{r}\kern1em 0.045<{q}^2<1.1\kern0.5em {\mathrm{GeV}}^2/{c}^4,\hfill \\ {}{0.69_{-}^{+}}_{0.07}^{0.11}\left(\mathrm{stat}\right)\pm 0.05\left(\mathrm{syst}\right)\kern1em \mathrm{f}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{r}\kern1em 1.1<{q}^2<6.0\kern0.5em {\mathrm{GeV}}^2/{c}^4.\hfill \end{array}\right. $

Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 11 new loci for anthropometric traits and provides insights into genetic architecture

Abstract: Approaches exploiting trait distribution extremes may be used to identify loci associated with common traits, but it is unknown whether these loci are generalizable to the broader population. In a genome-wide search for loci associated with the upper versus the lower 5th percentiles of body mass index, height and waist-to-hip ratio, as well as clinical classes of obesity, including up to 263,407 individuals of European ancestry, we identified 4 new loci (IGFBP4, H6PD, RSRC1 and PPP2R2A) influencing height detected in the distribution tails and 7 new loci (HNF4G, RPTOR, GNAT2, MRPS33P4, ADCY9, HS6ST3 and ZZZ3) for clinical classes of obesity. Further, we find a large overlap in genetic structure and the distribution of variants between traits based on extremes and the general population and little etiological heterogeneity between obesity subgroups.