Zinc levels of patients with a moderate to severe COVID-19 infection at hospital admission and after 4th days of ward hospitalization and their clinical outcome.

Background: Previous studies associate the disturbance of the Zinc (Zn) status with the severity of the disease and the inflammatory process in the critically ill patient. This decrease in Zn concentrations is an indicator of poor prognosis. Our aim was to evaluate Zn levels at admission and after four days, and to study if lower Zn levels at those days were related to a worse clinical outcome.

Same-day SARS-CoV-2 antigen test screening in an indoor mass-gathering live music event: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: The banning of mass-gathering indoor events to prevent SARS-CoV-2 spread has had an important effect on local economies. Despite growing evidence on the suitability of antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDT) for mass screening at the event entry, this strategy has not been assessed under controlled conditions. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a prevention strategy during a live indoor concert.

High-dose-rate brachytherapy boost effect on local tumor control in young women with breast cancer.

Purpose: To evaluate the local control rate and complications of a single fraction of high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDR BT) boost in women aged 45 yeas and younger after breast-conserving therapy.

Methods And Materials: Between 1999 and 2007, 167 patients between the ages of 26 and 45 years old (72 were 40 years old or younger), with stages T1 to T2 invasive breast cancer with disease-free margin status of at least 5 mm after breast-conserving surgery received 46 to 50 Gy whole-breast irradiation plus a 7-Gy HDR-BT boost ("fast boost"). An axillary dissection was performed in 72.

Probing hidden sectors with Stückelberg U(1) gauge fields.

We propose a framework in which visible matter interacts with matter from a hidden sector through mass mixings of Stückelberg U(1) gauge fields. In contrast to other Z(') mediation scenarios, our setup has the added appealing features that (i) the choice of Z(')'s can be significantly broadened without necessarily introducing unwanted exotic matter and (ii) there can be sizable tree-level interactions between the visible and hidden sectors. String theory embeddings of this scenario and their phenomenological features are briefly discussed.

Millicharged dark matter in quantum gravity and string theory.

We examine the millicharged dark matter scenario from a string theory perspective. In this scenario, kinetic and mass mixings of the photon with extra U(1) bosons are claimed to give rise to small electric charges, carried by dark matter particles, whose values are determined by continuous parameters of the theory. This seems to contradict folk theorems of quantum gravity that forbid the existence of irrational charges in theories with a single massless gauge field.

Ten-year results of a phase II study with a single fraction of high-dose-rate brachytherapy (FAST-boost) after whole breast irradiation in invasive breast carcinoma.

Purpose: We present the results of a prospective ten-year follow-up study to prove the effectiveness of a single fraction of 192-Ir high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy (BT) as a boost.

Patients And Methods: Between 1999 and 2000, 84 consecutive patients with invasive breast carcinoma, with over 4 mm free margins after conservative surgery, were treated. All cases were stages T1-2, except for one case, a stage T3, 81% pN0, 19% pN1-2.