Publications by authors named "Ciaccio A"

Introduction: Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is one of the most important biomarkers in the field of clinical neurochemistry. Several analytical methods have been developed in the last decade. Recently, Fujirebio introduced a ready-to-use assay kit for measuring NfL levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) on the fully automated LUMIPULSE G System.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Stroke is a major global health concern, with 12.2 million new cases and 6.6 million deaths reported in 2019, making it the second leading cause of death and third leading cause of disability worldwide.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

High-energy nuclear collisions create a quark-gluon plasma, whose initial condition and subsequent expansion vary from event to event, impacting the distribution of the eventwise average transverse momentum [P([p_{T}])]. Disentangling the contributions from fluctuations in the nuclear overlap size (geometrical component) and other sources at a fixed size (intrinsic component) remains a challenge. This problem is addressed by measuring the mean, variance, and skewness of P([p_{T}]) in ^{208}Pb+^{208}Pb and ^{129}Xe+^{129}Xe collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A search for the exclusive hadronic decays W^{±}→π^{±}γ, W^{±}→K^{±}γ, and W^{±}→ρ^{±}γ is performed using up to 140  fb^{-1} of proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt[s]=13  TeV. If observed, these rare processes would provide a unique test bench for the quantum chromodynamics factorization formalism used to calculate cross sections at colliders. Additionally, at future colliders, these decays could offer a new way to measure the W boson mass through fully reconstructed decay products.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The ATLAS experiment at the LHC conducted a search for long-lived particles (LLPs) using a large dataset (140 fb^{-1}) from proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, focusing on LLPs with masses from 5 to 55 GeV that decay within the inner detector.
  • - The study considered scenarios where LLPs are produced from exotic Higgs boson decays and models involving axionlike particles (ALPs).
  • - No significant findings above expected background levels were detected, leading to the establishment of upper limits on various production rates involving the Higgs boson and the top quark related to LLPs and ALPs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the associated production of Higgs and W bosons, focusing on how the relative signs of the Higgs couplings to W and Z bosons impact the process.
  • Two specific searches were conducted using large amounts of collision data from the LHC to analyze different coupling scenarios: one for opposite-sign couplings and another for same-sign (standard model-like) couplings.
  • The results significantly exclude the opposite-sign coupling hypothesis and set a strict upper limit on the production rate of this process compared to standard model predictions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is the most-used method for neurofilament light chain (NfL) quantification in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Recently, fully automated immunoassays for NfL measurement in CSF and blood have allowed high reproducibility among laboratories, making NfLs suitable for routine use in clinical practice. In this study, we compared the Uman Diagnostics NF-light ELISA with the fully automated platform Lumipulse.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This Letter presents results from a combination of searches for Higgs boson pair production using 126-140  fb^{-1} of proton-proton collision data at sqrt[s]=13  TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector. At 95% confidence level (CL), the upper limit on the production rate is 2.9 times the standard model (SM) prediction, with an expected limit of 2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This Letter presents the first study of the energy dependence of diboson polarization fractions in WZ→ℓνℓ^{'}ℓ^{'}(ℓ,ℓ^{'}=e,μ) production. The dataset used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 140  fb^{-1} of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector. Two fiducial regions with an enhanced presence of events featuring two longitudinally polarized bosons are defined.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study evaluated the effectiveness of the FLIS (Functional Liver Imaging Score) in predicting post-hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) and death in patients who had liver surgery for cancer.
  • It involved 150 patients, with a high reliability in assessment results between radiologists, indicating solid agreement in the evaluation processes used.
  • The findings suggest that FLIS, along with factors like blood transfusions and major resections, may help identify patients at risk for adverse outcomes after surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Statistical combinations of searches for charginos and neutralinos using various decay channels are performed using 139  fb^{-1} of pp collision data at sqrt[s]=13  TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Searches targeting pure-wino chargino pair production, pure-wino chargino-neutralino production, or Higgsino production decaying via standard model W, Z, or h bosons are combined to extend the mass reach to the produced supersymmetric particles by 30-100 GeV. The depth of the sensitivity of the original searches is also improved by the combinations, lowering the 95% C.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cerebrovascular diseases, especially stroke, are critical and heterogenous clinical conditions associated with high mortality and chronic disability. Genome-wide association studies reveal substantial stroke heritability, though specific genetic variants account for a minor fraction of stroke risk, suggesting an essential role for the epigenome. Epigenome-wide association studies and candidate gene approaches show that DNA methylation patterns significantly influence stroke susceptibility.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Aims: This study aims to assess the association between APOE genotype and biomarkers of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: We performed a retrospective observational study at the University Hospital "P. Giaccone" in Palermo, Italy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * The measurements utilized both semileptonic and hadronic decays of top quarks, along with events focused on single top quark production in the electroweak t channel.
  • * The combined result for the top quark mass is 172.52 GeV, with a reduced total uncertainty of 0.33 GeV, showcasing an improvement of 31% over previous measurements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) core biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD), including amyloid peptide beta-42 (Aβ42), Aβ42/40 ratio, and phosphorylated tau (pTau), are precious tools for supporting AD diagnosis. However, their use in clinical practice is limited due to the invasiveness of CSF collection. Thus, there is intensive research to find alternative, noninvasive, and widely accessible biological matrices to measure AD core biomarkers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A combination of searches for a new resonance decaying into a Higgs boson pair is presented, using up to 139  fb^{-1} of pp collision data at sqrt[s]=13  TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The combination includes searches performed in three decay channels: bb[over ¯]bb[over ¯], bb[over ¯]τ^{+}τ^{-}, and bb[over ¯]γγ. No excess above the expected Standard Model background is observed and upper limits are set at the 95% confidence level on the production cross section of Higgs boson pairs originating from the decay of a narrow scalar resonance with mass in the range 251 GeV-5 TeV.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Higgsinos with masses near the electroweak scale can solve the hierarchy problem and provide a dark matter candidate, while detecting them at the LHC remains challenging if their mass splitting is O(1  GeV). This Letter presents a novel search for nearly mass-degenerate Higgsinos in events with an energetic jet, missing transverse momentum, and a low-momentum track with a significant transverse impact parameter using 140  fb^{-1} of proton-proton collision data at sqrt[s]=13  TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment. For the first time since LEP, a range of mass splittings between the lightest charged and neutral Higgsinos from 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In this study, we explored the accuracy of two new sepsis biomarkers, monocyte distribution width (MDW) and presepsin (PSP), compared to traditional ones, C-reactive protein (CRP) and Procalcitonin (PCT), to identify sepsis and predict intra-hospital mortality by analyzing their kinetic at different time points during hospitalization stay.

Methods: We enrolled 104 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of University Hospital "Paolo Giaccone", Palermo. Among these, 30 (29%) had a clinical diagnosis of sepsis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Angular correlations between heavy quarks provide a unique probe of the quark-gluon plasma created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. Results are presented of a measurement of the azimuthal angle correlations between muons originating from semileptonic decays of heavy quarks produced in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb and pp collisions at the LHC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) represent a group of different diseases characterized by the progressive degeneration and death of the nervous system's cells. The diagnosis is challenging, especially in the early stages, due to no specific clinical signs and symptoms. In this context, laboratory medicine could support clinicians in detecting and differentiating NDs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Monocyte distribution width (MDW) is a measure of monocyte anisocytosis. In this study, we assessed the role of MDW, in comparison to C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), and lactate, as a screening and prognostic biomarker of sepsis in intensive care unit (ICU) by longitudinally measuring it in the first 5 days of hospital stay.

Methods: We considered all consecutive patients admitted to the ICU.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Non-celiac wheat sensitivity (NCWS) is an emerging clinical condition characterized by gastrointestinal and extraintestinal symptoms following the ingestion of gluten-containing foods in patients without celiac disease (CD) or wheat allergy. Despite the great interest for NCWS, the genetic risk factors still need to be fully clarified. In this study, we first assessed the possible contribution of genes and KIR haplotypes on the genetic predisposition to NCWS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This Letter presents the first study of Higgs boson production in association with a vector boson (V=W or Z) in the fully hadronic qqbb final state using data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s]=13  TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137  fb^{-1}. The vector bosons and Higgs bosons are each reconstructed as large-radius jets and tagged using jet substructure techniques. Dedicated tagging algorithms exploiting b-tagging properties are used to identify jets consistent with Higgs bosons decaying into bb[over ¯].

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

ATLAS measured the centrality dependence of the dijet yield using 165  nb^{-1} of p+Pb data collected at sqrt[s_{NN}]=8.16  TeV in 2016. The event centrality, which reflects the p+Pb impact parameter, is characterized by the total transverse energy registered in the Pb-going side of the forward calorimeter.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study uses an unsupervised anomaly-detection technique to search for new resonances in particle collision data from the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, focusing on events with electrons or muons.
  • An autoencoder is trained on the data to identify unusual patterns by analyzing the reconstruction loss, with the research examining nine invariant mass spectra involving pairs of jets and leptons or photons.
  • No significant anomalies were found, leading to the establishment of limits on potential Gaussian signals of various widths for the analyzed invariant masses in the anomalous regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF