University of Udine

About: University of Udine is a education organization based out in Udine, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 6745 authors who have published 20530 publications receiving 669088 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli Studi di Udine & Universita degli Studi di Udine.

Pattern of metastasis and outcome in patients with breast cancer

Abstract: There is growing evidence about differences in metastatic spread among breast cancer (BC) biologic subtypes (BS). Aim of this study was to analyze the pattern of metastasization according to BS and to explore the corresponding prognosis. A series of 544 consecutive patients receiving anticancer therapy for metastatic BC from 2004 to 2013, was analyzed. BS were defined by immunohistochemistry according to St Gallen 2013 criteria. Association between BS and the different distant localizations was analyzed. Prognosis was described in terms of overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS) and post progression survival (PPS). Results were reported taking luminal A BC as reference. Triple negative BC showed a higher tropism for lung (OR 4.30 95% CI 1.41-13.1), while non luminal HER2 subtype was associated with a higher rate of liver metastases (OR 3.61 95% CI 1.36-9.58). All subtypes were associated with a lower risk of bone-only localization. Central nervous system (CNS) involvement was more common in HER2 positive BC (OR 6.3, 95% CI 1.08-36.66). Liver, lung and CNS involvement influenced negatively OS (HR 1.64, 95% CI 1.29-2.07; HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.18-1.90; HR 2.891, 95% CI 1.85-4.51, respectively) and PFS (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.13-1.71; HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.02-1.55; HR 1.75, 95% CI 1.12-2.71, respectively). Multivariate analysis confirmed liver involvement as independent predictor of worse OS (HR 1.64, 95% CI 1.15-2.34). Stratification by metastatic pattern showed significant differences in terms of PPS but not in terms of PFS. The study suggests that BS may be characterized by typical patterns of metastatic spread and have different impact on clinical outcome.

Relief of pruritus and decreases in plasma histamine concentrations during erythropoietin therapy in patients with uremia

Abstract: Background. The pathophysiologic aspects of pruritus in patients with chronic renal insufficiency are poorly understood, and there is no universally effective treatment. The improvement of pruritus in several patients receiving erythropoietin therapy raised the possibility that erythropoietin affects uremic pruritus directly. Methods. We undertook a 10-week placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover study in a group of patients receiving hemodialysis who had severe pruritus, to investigate the effects of recombinant human erythropoietin on their pruritus and plasma histamine levels. Twenty patients with uremia, of whom 10 had severe pruritus and 10 did not, received erythropoietin (36 units per kilogram of body weight three times weekly) and placebo in random order, each for five weeks. The severity of pruritus was scored weekly, and plasma histamine levels were measured at the beginning and end of each five-week period. Results. Eight of the 10 patients with pruritus had marked reductions in th...

How fins affect the economy and efficiency of human swimming.

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to quantify the improvements in the economy and efficiency of surface swimming brought about by the use of fins over a range of speeds (v) that could be sustained aerobically. At comparable speeds, the energy cost (C) when swimming with fins was about 40 % lower than when swimming without them; when compared at the same metabolic power, the decrease in C allowed an increase in v of about 0.2 ms(-1). Fins only slightly decrease the amplitude of the kick (by about 10 %) but cause a large reduction (about 40 %) in the kick frequency. The decrease in kick frequency leads to a parallel decrease of the internal work rate ((int), about 75 % at comparable speeds) and of the power wasted to impart kinetic energy to the water ((k), about 40 %). These two components of total power expenditure were calculated from video analysis ((int)) and from measurements of Froude efficiency ((k)). Froude efficiency (eta(F)) was calculated by computing the speed of the bending waves moving along the body in a caudal direction (as proposed for the undulating movements of slender fish); eta(F) was found to be 0.70 when swimming with fins and 0.61 when swimming without them. No difference in the power to overcome frictional forces ((d)) was observed between the two conditions at comparable speeds. Mechanical efficiency [(tot)/(Cv), where (tot)=(k)+(int)+(d)] was found to be about 10 % larger when swimming with fins, i.e. 0.13+/-0.02 with and 0.11+/-0.02 without fins (average for all subjects at comparable speeds).

Performance of jet substructure techniques for large-R jets in proton-proton collisions at √s=7 TeV using the ATLAS detector

Abstract: This paper presents the application of a variety of techniques to study jet substructure. The performance of various modified jet algorithms, or jet grooming techniques, for several jet types and event topologies is investigated for jets with transverse momentum larger than 300 GeV. Properties of jets subjected to the mass-drop filtering, trimming, and pruning algorithms are found to have a reduced sensitivity to multiple proton-proton interactions, are more stable at high luminosity and improve the physics potential of searches for heavy boosted objects. Studies of the expected discrimination power of jet mass and jet substructure observables in searches for new physics are also presented. Event samples enriched in boosted W and Z bosons and top-quark pairs are used to study both the individual jet invariant mass scales and the efficacy of algorithms to tag boosted hadronic objects. The analyses presented use the full 2011 ATLAS dataset, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 +/- 0.1 fb(-1) from proton-proton collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 7 TeV.