1,616 research outputs found
Modeling of Immunosenescence and Risk of Death from Respiratory Infections: Evaluation of the Role of Antigenic Load and Population Heterogeneity
It is well known that efficacy of immune functions declines with age. It results in an increase of severity and duration of respiratory infections and also in dramatic growth of risk of death due to these diseases after age 65. The goal of this work is to describe and investigate the mechanism underlying the age pattern of the mortality rate caused by infectious diseases and to determine the cause-specific hazard rate as a function of immune system characteristics. For these purposes we develop a three-compartment model explaining observed risk-of-death. The model incorporates up-to-date knowledge about cellular mechanisms of aging, disease dynamics, population heterogeneity in resistance to infections, and intrinsic aging rate. The results of modeling show that the age-trajectory of mortality caused by respiratory infections may be explained by the value of antigenic load, frequency of infections and the rate of aging of the stem cell population (i.e. the population of T-lymphocyte progenitor cells). The deceleration of infection-induced mortality at advanced age can be explained by selection of individuals with a slower rate of stem cell aging. Parameter estimates derived from fitting mortality data indicate that infection burden was monotonically decreasing during the twentieth century, and changes in total antigenic load were gender-specific: it experienced periodic fluctuations in males and increased approximately two-fold in females
H_2D^+ in the High-mass Star-forming Region Cygnus X
H_2D^+ is a primary ion that dominates the gas-phase chemistry of cold dense gas. Therefore, it is hailed as a unique tool in probing the earliest, prestellar phase of star formation. Observationally, its abundance and distribution is, however, just beginning to be understood in low-mass prestellar and cluster-forming cores. In high-mass star-forming regions, H_2D^+ has been detected only in two cores, and its spatial distribution remains unknown. Here, we present the first map of the ortho-H_2D^+J_(k^+,k^-) = 1_(1,0) → 1_(1,1) and N_2H^+ 4-3 transition in the DR21 filament of Cygnus X with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, and N_2D^+ 3-2 and dust continuum with the Submillimeter Array. We have discovered five very extended (≤34, 000 AU diameter) weak structures in H2D+ in the vicinity of, but distinctly offset from, embedded protostars. More surprisingly, the H_2D^+ peak is not associated with either a dust continuum or N_2D^+ peak. We have therefore uncovered extended massive cold dense gas that was undetected with previous molecular line and dust continuum surveys of the region. This work also shows that our picture of the structure of cores is too simplistic for cluster-forming cores and needs to be refined: neither dust continuum with existing capabilities nor emission in tracers like N_2D^+ can provide a complete census of the total prestellar gas in such regions. Sensitive H_2D^+ mapping of the entire DR21 filament is likely to discover more of such cold quiescent gas reservoirs in an otherwise active high-mass star-forming region
First ALMA maps of HCO, an important precursor of complex organic molecules, towards IRAS 16293-2422
The formyl radical HCO has been proposed as the basic precursor of many
complex organic molecules such as methanol (CHOH) or glycolaldehyde
(CHOHCHO). Using ALMA, we have mapped, for the first time at high angular
resolution (1, 140 au), HCO towards the Solar-type
protostellar binary IRAS 162932422, where numerous complex organic molecules
have been previously detected. We also detected several lines of the chemically
related species HCO, CHOH and CHOHCHO. The observations revealed
compact HCO emission arising from the two protostars. The line profiles also
show redshifted absorption produced by foreground material of the circumbinary
envelope that is infalling towards the protostars. Additionally, IRAM 30m
single-dish data revealed a more extended HCO component arising from the common
circumbinary envelope. The comparison between the observed molecular abundances
and our chemical model suggests that whereas the extended HCO from the envelope
can be formed via gas-phase reactions during the cold collapse of the natal
core, the HCO in the hot corinos surrounding the protostars is predominantly
formed by the hydrogenation of CO on the surface of dust grains and subsequent
thermal desorption during the protostellar phase. The derived abundance of HCO
in the dust grains is high enough to produce efficiently more complex species
such as HCO, CHOH, and CHOHCHO by surface chemistry. We found that
the main formation route of CHOHCHO is the reaction between HCO and
CHOH.Comment: Accepted in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; 19
pages, 12 figures, 7 table
Simulated Observations of Young Gravitationally Unstable Protoplanetary Discs
The formation and earliest stages of protoplanetary discs remain poorly
constrained by observations. ALMA will soon revolutionise this field.
Therefore, it is important to provide predictions which will be valuable for
the interpretation of future high sensitivity and high angular resolution
observations. Here we present simulated ALMA observations based on radiative
transfer modelling of a relatively massive (0.39 M_solar) self-gravitating disc
embedded in a 10 M_solar dense core, with structure similar to the pre-stellar
core L1544. We focus on simple species and conclude that C17O 3-2, HCO+ 3-2,
OCS 26-25 and H2CO 404-303 lines can be used to probe the disc structure and
kinematics at all scales.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, Accepted by MNRA
Upper limit for the D2H+ ortho-to-para ratio in the prestellar core 16293E (CHESS)
The H3+ ion plays a key role in the chemistry of dense interstellar gas
clouds where stars and planets are forming. The low temperatures and high
extinctions of such clouds make direct observations of H3+ impossible, but lead
to large abundances of H2D+ and D2H+, which are very useful probes of the early
stages of star and planet formation. The ground-state rotational ortho-D2H+
111-000 transition at 1476.6 GHz in the prestellar core 16293E has been
searched for with the Herschel/HIFI instrument, within the CHESS (Chemical
HErschel Surveys of Star forming regions) Key Program. The line has not been
detected at the 21 mK km/s level (3 sigma integrated line intensity). We used
the ortho-H2D+ 110-111 transition and para-D2H+ 110-101 transition detected in
this source to determine an upper limit on the ortho-to-para D2H+ ratio as well
as the para-D2H+/ortho-H2D+ ratio from a non-LTE analysis. The comparison
between our chemical modeling and the observations suggests that the CO
depletion must be high (larger than 100), with a density between 5e5 and 1e6
cm-3. Also the upper limit on the ortho-D2H+ line is consistent with a low gas
temperature (~ 11 K) with a ortho-to-para ratio of 6 to 9, i.e. 2 to 3 times
higher than the value estimated from the chemical modeling, making it
impossible to detect this high frequency transition with the present state of
the art receivers.Comment: Accepted in A&
The hot core towards the intermediate mass protostar NGC7129 FIRS 2: Chemical similarities with Orion KL
NGC 7129 FIRS 2 (hereafter FIRS 2) is an intermediate-mass (2 to 8 Msun)
protostar located at a distance of 1250 pc. High spatial resolution
observations are required to resolve the hot core at its center. We present a
molecular survey from 218200 MHz to 221800 MHz carried out with the IRAM
Plateau de Bure Interferometer. These observations were complemented with a
long integration single-dish spectrum taken with the IRAM 30m telescope. We
used a Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE) single temperature code to model
the whole dataset. The interferometric spectrum is crowded with a total of ~300
lines from which a few dozens remain unidentified yet. The spectrum has been
modeled with a total of 20 species and their isomers, isotopologues and
deuterated compounds. Complex molecules like methyl formate (CH3OCHO), ethanol
(CH3CH2OH), glycolaldehyde (CH2OHCHO), acetone (CH3COCH3), dimethyl ether
(CH3OCH3), ethyl cyanide (CH3CH2CN) and the aGg' conformer of ethylene glycol
(aGg'-(CH2OH)_2) are among the detected species. The detection of vibrationally
excited lines of CH3CN, CH3OCHO, CH3OH, OCS, HC3N and CH3CHO proves the
existence of gas and dust at high temperatures. In fact, the gas kinetic
temperature estimated from the vibrational lines of CH3CN, ~405 K, is similar
to that measured in massive hot cores. Our data allow an extensive comparison
of the chemistry in FIRS~2 and the Orion hot core. We find a quite similar
chemistry in FIRS 2 and Orion. Most of the studied fractional molecular
abundances agree within a factor of 5. Larger differences are only found for
the deuterated compounds D2CO and CH2DOH and a few molecules (CH3CH2CN, SO2,
HNCO and CH3CHO). Since the physical conditions are similar in both hot cores,
only different initial conditions (warmer pre-collapse phase in the case of
Orion) and/or different crossing time of the gas in the hot core can explain
this behavior.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figure
The Initial Conditions of Clustered Star Formation III. The Deuterium Fractionation of the Ophiuchus B2 Core
We present N2D+ 3-2 (IRAM) and H2D+ 1_11 - 1_10 and N2H+ 4-3 (JCMT) maps of
the small cluster-forming Ophiuchus B2 core in the nearby Ophiuchus molecular
cloud. In conjunction with previously published N2H+ 1-0 observations, the N2D+
data reveal the deuterium fractionation in the high density gas across Oph B2.
The average deuterium fractionation R_D = N(N2D+)/N(N2H+) ~ 0.03 over Oph B2,
with several small scale R_D peaks and a maximum R_D = 0.1. The mean R_D is
consistent with previous results in isolated starless and protostellar cores.
The column density distributions of both H2D+ and N2D+ show no correlation with
total H2 column density. We find, however, an anticorrelation in deuterium
fractionation with proximity to the embedded protostars in Oph B2 to distances
>= 0.04 pc. Destruction mechanisms for deuterated molecules require gas
temperatures greater than those previously determined through NH3 observations
of Oph B2 to proceed. We present temperatures calculated for the dense core gas
through the equating of non-thermal line widths for molecules (i.e., N2D+ and
H2D+) expected to trace the same core regions, but the observed complex line
structures in B2 preclude finding a reasonable result in many locations. This
method may, however, work well in isolated cores with less complicated velocity
structures. Finally, we use R_D and the H2D+ column density across Oph B2 to
set a lower limit on the ionization fraction across the core, finding a mean
x_e, lim >= few x 10^{-8}. Our results show that care must be taken when using
deuterated species as a probe of the physical conditions of dense gas in
star-forming regions.Comment: ApJ accepte
Application in asymmetric cyclopropanation of new chiral macrocycles
Our group has been focusing for years on the synthesis and on the study of chiral macrocyclic ligand. Their complexes with metal ions \u2013 specially copper(I) and silver(I) \u2013 are competent catalysts in various organic reactions.
The synthesis of this class of compounds is simple and fast (scheme 1). It does not involve either complex procedures nor expensive reagents, since the macrocycles can be obtained from enantiomerically pure and naturally available aminoacids in good yields (overall 40-50%).
In this presentation, we reported the synthesis of three new chiral ligands bearing different chiral arms on the macrocyclic backbone.
We also report the studies of complexation of these ligands by Ag(I) and Cu(I) ions and the good applicative results of the latter complexes as catalysts for the cyclopropanation reaction of \u3b1-methylstyrene
A diachronic Italian corpus based on “L’Unità”
In this paper, we describe the creation of a diachronic corpus for Italian by exploiting the digital archive of the newspaper “L’Unità”. We automatically clean and annotate the corpus with PoS tags, lemmas, named entities and syntactic dependencies. Moreover, we compute frequency-based time series for tokens, lemmas and entities. We show some interesting corpus statistics taking into account the temporal dimension and describe some examples of usage of time series
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