Science with the EXTraS Project: Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky

The EXTraS project (Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky) will characterise the temporal behaviour of the largest ever sample of objects in the soft X-ray range (0.1-12 keV) with a complex, systematic and consistent analysis of all data collected by the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) instrument onboard the ESA XMM-Newton X-ray observatory since its launch. We will search for, and characterize variability (both periodic and aperiodic) in hundreds of thousands of sources spanning more than nine orders of magnitude in time scale and six orders of magnitude in flux. We will also search for fast transients, missed by standard image analysis. Our analysis will be completed by multiwavelength characterization of new discoveries and phenomenological classification of variable sources. All results and products will be made available to the community in a public archive, serving as a reference for a broad range of astrophysical investigations.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Refereed Proceeding of "The Universe of Digital Sky Surveys" conference held at the INAF - Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, on 25th-28th November 2014, to be published in the Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, edited by Longo, Napolitano, Marconi, Paolillo, Iodic

Physiological factors associated with low bone mineral density in female endurance runners

This paper details research taken to explore potential factors that could be associated with low bone mineral density (BMD) in female endurance runners. Fifty two female endurance runners (1,500 m to marathon), aged 18-44 years, took part. Body fat percentage, lumbar spine BMD, and femoral neck BMD were measured using the Hologic QDR 4,500w bone densitometer. Data on training, menstrual cycle status, osteoporosis, and health related factors were obtained by questionnaire. Dietary variables were assessed from a prospective seven day dietary record of macronutrients and micronutrients. The results suggest a negative association between endurance running distance and lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD, with a positive association between body mass and femoral neck and lumbar spine BMD. However, longitudinal studies are required to assess directly the effect of endurance running and body mass on BMD, and to see if the addition of alternative exercise that would increase lean body mass would have a positive effect on BMD and therefore help to prevent osteoporosis

Mapping the contribution of single muscles to facial movements in the rhesus macaque

The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is the most utilized primate model in the biomedical and psychological sciences. Expressive behavior is of interest to scientists studying these animals, both as a direct variable (modeling neuropsychiatric disease, where expressivity is a primary deficit), as an indirect measure of health and welfare, and also in order to understand the evolution of communication. Here, intramuscular electrical stimulation of facial muscles was conducted in the rhesus macaque in order to document the relative contribution of each muscle to the range of facial movements and to compare the expressive function of homologous muscles in humans, chimpanzees and macaques. Despite published accounts that monkeys possess less differentiated and less complex facial musculature, the majority of muscles previously identified in humans and chimpanzees were stimulated successfully in the rhesus macaque and caused similar appearance changes. These observations suggest that the facial muscular apparatus of the monkey has extensive homology to the human face. The muscles of the human face, therefore, do not represent a significant evolutionary departure from those of a monkey species. Thus, facial expressions can be compared between humans and rhesus macaques at the level of the facial musculature, facilitating the systematic investigation of comparative facial communication

Prolapse severity, symptoms and impact on quality of life among women planning sacrocolpopexy

Objectives: To explore the relationship between severity of pelvic organ prolapse (POP), symptoms of pelvic dysfunction and quality of life using validated measures. Method: Baseline data from 314 participants in the Colpopexy And Urinary Reduction Efforts (CARE) trial were analyzed. Pelvic symptoms and impact were assessed using the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory (PFDI) and the Pelvic Floor Impact Questionnaire (PFIQ). PFDI and PFIQ scores were compared by prolapse stage and history of incontinence or POP surgery. Regression analyses were performed to identify other predictors of symptoms and impact. Results: Women were predominantly (90%) Caucasian and had mean age of 61 years. Women with stage II POP, especially those with prior surgery, reported more symptoms and impact than women with more advanced POP. There were no other significant predictors of symptoms or life impact. Conclusions: Women planning sacrocolpopexy with stage II prolapse and prior pelvic surgery reported more symptoms and quality of life impact than those with more advanced prolapse.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135603/1/ijgo24.pd

TeV-scale bileptons, see-saw type II and lepton flavor violation in core-collapse supernova

Electrons and electron neutrinos in the inner core of the core-collapse supernova are highly degenerate and therefore numerous during a few seconds of explosion. In contrast, leptons of other flavors are non-degenerate and therefore relatively scarce. This is due to lepton flavor conservation. If this conservation law is broken by some non-standard interactions, electron neutrinos are converted to muon and tau-neutrinos, and electrons - to muons. This affects the supernova dynamics and the supernova neutrino signal. We consider lepton flavor violating interactions mediated by scalar bileptons, i.e. heavy scalars with lepton number 2. It is shown that in case of TeV-mass bileptons the electron fermi gas is equilibrated with non-electron species inside the inner supernova core at a time-scale of order of (1-100) ms. In particular, a scalar triplet which generates neutrino masses through the see-saw type II mechanism is considered. It is found that supernova core is sensitive to yet unprobed values of masses and couplings of the triplet.Comment: accepted to Eur.Phys.J.

LOCV calculation for Beta-stable matter at finite temperature

The method of lowest-order constrained variational, which predicts reasonably the nuclear matter semi-empirical data is used to calculate the equation of state of beta-stable matter at finite temperature. The Reid soft-core with and without the N-$\Delta$ interactions which fits the N-N scattering data as well as the $UV_{14}$ potential plus the three-nucleon interaction are considered in the nuclear many-body Hamiltonian. The electron and muon are treated relativistically in the total Hamiltonian at given temperature, to make the fluid electrically neutral and stable against beta decay. The calculation is performed for a wide range of baryon density and temperature which are of interest in the astrophysics. The free energy, entropy, proton abundance, etc. of nuclear beta-stable matter are calculated. It is shown that by increasing the temperature, the maximum proton abundance is pushed to the lower density while the maximum itself increases as we increase the temperature. The proton fraction is not enough to see any gas-liquid phase transition. Finally we get an overall agreement with other many-body techniques, which are available only at zero temperature.Comment: LaTex, 20 page

Relativistic Mass Ejecta from Phase-transition-induced Collapse of Neutron Stars

We study the dynamical evolution of a phase-transition-induced collapse neutron star to a hybrid star, which consists of a mixture of hadronic matter and strange quark matter. The collapse is triggered by a sudden change of equation of state, which result in a large amplitude stellar oscillation. The evolution of the system is simulated by using a 3D Newtonian hydrodynamic code with a high resolution shock capture scheme. We find that both the temperature and the density at the neutrinosphere are oscillating with acoustic frequency. However, they are nearly 180$^{\circ}$ out of phase. Consequently, extremely intense, pulsating neutrino/antineutrino fluxes will be emitted periodically. Since the energy and density of neutrinos at the peaks of the pulsating fluxes are much higher than the non-oscillating case, the electron/positron pair creation rate can be enhanced dramatically. Some mass layers on the stellar surface can be ejected by absorbing energy of neutrinos and pairs. These mass ejecta can be further accelerated to relativistic speeds by absorbing electron/positron pairs, created by the neutrino and antineutrino annihilation outside the stellar surface. The possible connection between this process and the cosmological Gamma-ray Bursts is discussed.Comment: 40 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in JCA

Modeling the Sources and Chemistry of Polar Tropospheric Halogens (Cl, Br, and I) Using the CAM-Chem Global Chemistry-Climate Model

31 pags., 12 figs., 6 tabs. -- Open Access funded by Creative Commons Atribution Licence 4.0. -- jame20925-sup-0001_Supporting_Information.pdfCurrent chemistry climate models do not include polar emissions and chemistry of halogens. This work presents the first implementation of an interactive polar module into the very short-lived (VSL) halogen version of the Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry (CAM-Chem) model. The polar module includes photochemical release of molecular bromine, chlorine, and interhalogens from the sea-ice surface, and brine diffusion of iodine biologically produced underneath and within porous sea-ice. It also includes heterogeneous recycling of inorganic halogen reservoirs deposited over fresh sea-ice surfaces and snow-covered regions. The polar emission of chlorine, bromine, and iodine reach approximately 32, 250, and 39 Gg/year for Antarctica and 33, 271, and 4 Gg/year for the Arctic, respectively, with a marked seasonal cycle mainly driven by sunlight and sea-ice coverage. Model results are validated against polar boundary layer measurements of ClO, BrO, and IO, and satellite BrO and IO columns. This validation includes satellite observations of IO over inner Antarctica for which an iodine “leapfrog” mechanism is proposed to transport active iodine from coastal source regions to the interior of the continent. The modeled chlorine and bromine polar sources represent up to 45% and 80% of the global biogenic VSL and VSL emissions, respectively, while the Antarctic sea-ice iodine flux is ~10 times larger than that from the Southern Ocean. We present the first estimate of the contribution of polar halogen emissions to the global tropospheric halogen budget. CAM-Chem includes now a complete representation of halogen sources and chemistry from pole-to-pole and from the Earth's surface up to the stratopause.This study has been funded by the European Research Council Executive Agency under the European Union′s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program (Project “ERC‐2016‐COG 726349 CLIMAHAL”) and supported by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) of Spain. Computing resources, support, and data storage are provided and maintained by the Computational and Information System Laboratory from the National Center of Atmospheric Research (CISL,2017). R. P. F. would like to thank CONICET, ANPCyT (PICT 2015‐0714), UNCuyo (SeCTyP M032/3853), and UTN (PID 4920‐194/2018) for the financial support. Partial funding for this work was provided by the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) project (PE18200). The contributions of the University of Bremen have been supported by the State of Bremen, the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German Aerospace (DLR), and the European Space Agency (ESA). We gratefully acknowledge the funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) —Projektnummer 268020496—TRR 172, within the Transregional Collaborative Research Center “ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes,and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)3 ” in subproject C03 as well as the support by the University of Bremen Institutional Strategy Measure M8 in the framework of the DFG Excellence Initiative

United classification of cosmic gamma-ray bursts and their counterparts

United classification of gamma-ray bursts and their counterparts is established on the basis of measured characteristics: photon energy E and emission duration T. The founded interrelation between the mentioned characteristics of events consists in that, as the energy increases, the duration decreases (and vice versa). The given interrelation reflects the nature of the phenomenon and forms the E-T diagram, which represents a natural classification of all observed events in the energy range from 10E9 to 10E-6 eV and in the corresponding interval of durations from about 10E-2 up to 10E8 s. The proposed classification results in the consequences, which are principal for the theory and practical study of the phenomenon.Comment: Keywords Gamma rays: burst

Nonextensive statistical effects in protoneutron stars

We investigate the bulk properties of protoneutron stars in the framework of a relativistic mean field theory based on nonextensive statistical mechanics, characterized by power-law quantum distributions. We study the relevance of nonextensive statistical effects on the beta-stable equation of state at fixed entropy per baryon, in presence and in absence of trapped neutrinos, for nucleonic and hyperonic matter. We show that nonextensive statistical effects could play a crucial role in the structure and in the evolution of the protoneutron stars also for small deviations from the standard Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure