Background & Aims Aim of the study was to assess the clinical impact of conventional transarterial chemoembolization (cTACE) repeated “on demand” on HCC outcome. Outcome measures were: response rate ...to first and repeated cTACE, recurrence rates and overall survival. Methods The outcome of 151 consecutive HCC patients submitted to a first cTACE from January 2004 to December 2005 was retrospectively analyzed. Results Complete radiological response (CR) was observed in 72/151 (48%), 34/60 (52%) and 12/22 (55%) patients after first, second and third cTACE, respectively. Recurrence rates at 6 and 12 months were 37% and 61% after the first cTACE, and 40% and 59% after the second cTACE, respectively. Patients not achieving CR or with a recurrence after CR not treated with curative therapies were 94 and 84 after first and second cTACE, respectively. Of these, 60/94 (64%) and 22/84 (26%) were submitted to a second and third cTACE, respectively. Median overall survival was 32.0 months but 25.0 months excluding transplanted patients. Factors at the time of first cTACE associated with overall shorter survival at multivariate analysis were higher bilirubin, higher AFP and not achieving CR. Conclusions CR and recurrence rates after first and second cTACE were similar. About 64% of patients were submitted to second cTACE, while only few patients (26%) were submitted to third cTACE using an “on demand” policy. These figures may be also useful for planning trials for the evaluation of the efficacy of repeated TACE vs . TACE combined with adjuvant treatments or vs . systemic treatments.
The thermal transport properties of Bi2Te2Se topological insulators show a range of complex features. Large bulk resistivities coexisting with prominent Shubnikov–de Haas quantum oscillations and ...proximity to metallic states mark this p-band system as an unconventional topological quantum material. Here, using the density functional plus dynamical mean-field theory method, we show how localization–delocalization transition underpins the T-dependence of thermoelectric responses from room down to low temperatures. We present the implications of our many-particle analysis to resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity, and Lorenz number and propose that related broadband systems close to electronic transitions could be of use in thermoelectrics.
We investigate the physical properties of compressed gray phosphorus through density functional plus dynamical mean-field theory, showing self-doping and
s
-wave electronic structure reconstruction. ...At commensurate electron density, the
3
p
spectrum is shown to be almost unaffected by electronic correlations, however upon self-doping largely the normal and superconducting states. These findings provide a microscopic understanding of pressure-induced hole carrier superconductivity on the normal state coherence of
s
-wave superconductors with well-defined Bogoliubov quasiparticles at low temperatures. Upon internal thermalization, the
s
-wave superconducting state loses its phase coherence.
Graphic abstract
.
The couplings between particles and vibrations in atomic nuclei play a key role in the understanding of various nuclear properties, as it has been highlighted along several decades. In this ...contribution, after a short survey of the early discoveries of particle-phonon multiplets around the
208
Pb region, we review recent experiments and theoretical attempts to understand low-energy spectra of odd-nuclei close to magic and semi-magic cores, where particle-phonon coupling phenomena play a significant role. The focus will be on nuclei around
48
Ca ,
132
Sn ,
208
Pb and neutron-rich Ni isotopes. Special emphasis will be given to experimental techniques based on high-resolution
γ
-spectroscopy and to recent theoretical developments aimed at disentangling particle-phonon coupled states and other more hybrid configurations, using the Hybrid Configuration Mixing model that has been recently proposed by the Milano group.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe progressive muscle disease that mainly affects boys due to X-linked recessive inheritance. In most affected individuals, MLPA or sequencing-based ...techniques detect deletions, duplications, or point mutations in the dystrophin-encoding DMD gene. However, in a small subset of patients clinically diagnosed with DMD, the molecular cause is not identified with these routine methods. Evaluation of the 60 DMD patients in our center revealed three cases without a known genetic cause. DNA samples of these patients were analyzed using whole-exome sequencing (WES) and, if unconclusive, optical genome mapping (OGM). WES led to a diagnosis in two cases: one patient was found to carry a splice mutation in the DMD gene that had not been identified during previous Sanger sequencing. In the second patient, we detected two variants in the fukutin gene (FKTN) that were presumed to be disease-causing. In the third patient, WES was unremarkable, but OGM identified an inversion disrupting the DMD gene (~1.28 Mb) that was subsequently confirmed with long-read sequencing. These results highlight the importance of reanalyzing unsolved cases using WES and demonstrate that OGM is a useful method for identifying large structural variants in cases with unremarkable exome sequencing.
Layered materials with buckled structure offer a promising route to explore distinct phases of quantum matter. Using GGA + DMFT we reveal the complex interplay between perpendicular electric field ...and site-diagonal disorder in the Dirac liquid electronic state of silicene. The electronic structure we derive is promising in the sense that it leads to results that might explain why out-of-plane electric field plus moderate disorder can generate marginal Dirac valleys consistent with scanning tunneling spectroscopy of silicene on Ag substrates.
Graphic Abstract
The paper reviews the searches for shape isomers, which are “extreme” example of shape-coexistence phenomena in nuclei. They may appear when highly deformed structures, well localized in the nuclear ...Potential Energy Surface (PES) in the deformation space, undergo a significant change in shape to match the final state shape, thus leading to a substantially hindered
γ
decay. This is in sharp contrast to the vast majority of shape-coexistence phenomena, where significant mixing in the initial and final state wave functions is found. So far, the most spectacular examples of shape isomerism are known in fissioning systems in the actinides, although only scarce experimental information is available from experiments conducted more than 20 years ago. Searches in lighter mass regions, guided by theory predictions based on different approaches and experimental investigations on superdeformed systems, are also presented. They point to
64
,
66
Ni as additional examples of prolate deformed shape-isomer-like structures, although with much reduced hindrance with respect to the actinides. Their origin is strictly related to the action of the monopole component of the tensor force of the nucleon-nucleon interaction, which is expected to favor the appearance of deep secondary minima also in the PES of Sn nuclei with masses 112–118. Perspectives in current searches of shape isomerism with modern detection systems, in the actinides regions and in lighter masses, are discussed.
The excitation spectra of nuclei with one or two particles outside a doubly-magic core are expected to be dominated, at low energy, by the couplings between phonon excitations of the core and valence ...particles. A survey of the experimental situation is given for some nuclei lying in close proximity of neutron-rich doubly-magic systems, such as 47,49Ca, 133Sb and 210Bi. Data are obtained with various types of reactions (multinucleon transfer with heavy ions, cold neutron capture and neutron induced fission of 235U and 241Pu targets), with the employment of complex detection systems based on HPGe arrays. A comparison with theoretical calculations is also presented, in terms of large shell model calculations and of a phenomenological particle-phonon model. In the case of 133Sb, a new microscopic “hybrid” model is introduced: it is based on the coupling between core excitations (both collective and non-collective) of the doubly-magic core and the valence nucleon, using the Skyrme effective interaction in a consistent way.
Nuclear-structure studies using fusion reactions are reviewed in terms of prospects for advancement using the next generation of
γ
-ray tracking arrays such as AGATA. Properties discussed include ...those of light
N
=
Z
nuclei and rotational behaviour in heavy nuclei at high values of angular momentum and internal excitation energy.
Using a combination of local density approximation and dynamical mean-field theory calculations, we explore the correlated electronic structure of a member of the layered iron oxychalcogenides group, ...Na2Fe2OSe2. We find that the parent compound is a multi-orbital Mott insulator. Surprisingly, and somewhat reminiscently of the underdoped high-Tc cuprate scenario, carrier localization is found to persist upon hole doping because the chemical potential lies in a gap structure with almost vanishing density of states. On the other hand, in remarkable contrast, electron doping drives an orbital-selective metallic phase with coexisting pseudogapped (Mott-localized) and itinerant carriers. These remarkably contrasting behaviors in a single system thus stem from drastic electronic reconstruction caused by large-scale transfer of dynamical spectral weight involving states with distinct orbital character at low energies, fitting the oxychalcogenides neatly into the increasingly visible pattern for Fe-based systems of having orbital-selective Mott phases. We detail the implications that follow from our analysis, and discuss the nature and symmetries of the superconductive states that may arise upon appropriately doping or pressurizing Na2Fe2OSe2.
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