Designing Sorting Facilities in Reverse Logistics Systems

The main aim of this paper is to propose a multi-waste mix integer lineal programming model for locating sorting facilities in a three-level (local, regional, and central) reverse logistic network. The objective of the model is to decide the location of the storage and sorting facilities across the network. The model was applied in end of life battery recycling network in Spain. As capacity is constrained, the optimal solution moves towards a combination of regional and local facilities for storage and a central facility for sorting

New transit observations for HAT-P-30 b, HAT-P-37 b, TrES-5 b, WASP-28 b, WASP-36 b, and WASP-39 b

We present new transit light curves for planets in six extrasolar planetary systems. They were acquired with 0.4-2.2 m telescopes located in west Asia, Europe, and South America. When combined with literature data, they allowed us to redetermine system parameters in a homogeneous way. Our results for individual systems are in agreement with values reported in previous studies. We refined transit ephemerides and reduced uncertainties of orbital periods by a factor between 2 and 7. No sign of any variations in transit times was detected for the planets studied.Comment: Submitted to Acta Astronomic

Qatar Exoplanet Survey : Qatar-3b, Qatar-4b and Qatar-5b

We report the discovery of Qatar-3b, Qatar-4b, and Qatar-5b, three new transiting planets identified by the Qatar Exoplanet Survey (QES). The three planets belong to the hot Jupiter family, with orbital periods of $P_{Q3b}$=2.50792 days, $P_{Q4b}$=1.80539 days, and $P_{Q5b}$=2.87923 days. Follow-up spectroscopic observations reveal the masses of the planets to be $M_{Q3b}$=4.31$\pm0.47$ $M_{\rm J}$, $M_{Q4b}$=6.10$\pm0.54$ $M_{\rm J}$, and $M_{Q5b}$ = 4.32$\pm0.18$ $M_{\rm J}$, while model fits to the transit light curves yield radii of $R_{Q3b}$ = 1.096$\pm0.14$ $R_{\rm J}$, $R_{Q4b}$ = 1.135$\pm0.11$ $R_{\rm J}$, and $R_{Q5b}$ = 1.107$\pm0.064$ $R_{\rm J}$. The host stars are low-mass main sequence stars with masses and radii $M_{Q3}$ = 1.145$\pm0.064$ $M_{\odot}$, $M_{Q4}$ = 0.896$\pm0.048$ $M_{\odot}$, $M_{Q5}$ = 1.128$\pm0.056$ $M_{\odot}$ and $R_{Q3}$ = 1.272$\pm0.14$ $R_{\odot}$, $R_{Q4}$ = 0.849$\pm0.063$ $R_{\odot}$ and $R_{Q5}$ = 1.076$\pm0.051$ $R_{\odot}$ for Qatar-3, 4 and 5 respectively. The V magnitudes of the three host stars are $V_{Q3}$=12.88, $V_{Q4}$=13.60, and $V_{Q5}$=12.82. All three new planets can be classified as heavy hot Jupiters (M > 4 $M_{J}$).Comment: 13Pages, 8Figure

Weather on the Nearest Brown Dwarfs: Resolved Simultaneous Multi-Wavelength Variability Monitoring of WISE J104915.57-531906.1AB

We present two epochs of MPG/ESO 2.2m GROND simultaneous 6-band ($r'i'z'JHK$) photometric monitoring of the closest known L/T transition brown dwarf binary WISE J104915.57-531906.1AB. We report here the first resolved variability monitoring of both the T0.5 and L7.5 components. We obtained 4 hours of focused observations on the night of UT 2013-04-22, as well as 4 hours of defocused (unresolved) observations on the night of UT 2013-04-16. We note a number of robust trends in our light curves. The $r'$ and $i'$ light curves appear to be anticorrelated with $z'$ and $H$ for the T0.5 component and in the unresolved lightcurve. In the defocused dataset, $J$ appears correlated with $z'$ and $H$ and anticorrelated with $r'$ and $i'$, while in the focused dataset we measure no variability for $J$ at the level of our photometric precision, likely due to evolving weather phenomena. In our focused T0.5 component lightcurve, the $K$ band lightcurve displays a significant phase offset relative to both $H$ and $z'$. We argue that the measured phase offsets are correlated with atmospheric pressure probed at each band, as estimated from 1D atmospheric models. We also report low-amplitude variability in $i'$ and $z'$ intrinsic to the L7.5 component.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted to ApJ Letter

Measles surveillance activities in the Metropolitan Area of Milan during 2017-2018

Introduction In Italy, the transmission of measles is still endemic, and 7,919 cases were reported to the National Surveillance System between January 2017 and December 2018. Aim of this study is to report the results of the measles surveillance activities in the Metropolitan City of Milan from March 2017 to December 2018, and to evaluate the surveillance performance WHO indicators. Methods The Local Health Units (LHUs) carried out case investigations and collected specimens to send to the EpiSoMI Lab (Subnational Reference Laboratory, SRL) of the University of Milan for cases/outbreaks confirmation and genotyping performed according to the WHO Guidelines. Results Overall, 610 suspected measles cases were reported by the surveillance system of the Metropolitan City of Milan. A total of 439 out of 540 cases with adequate specimens were laboratory-confirmed by molecular and/or serological assays. Two-hundred and thirty-six cases were notified as sporadic and 203 as related to 94 outbreaks. The most confirmed cases were aged 15\u201339 years, almost all not vaccinated. Overall, 282 cases were genotype D8 and 118 genotype B3. The evaluation of a set of indicators to monitor the quality of surveillance activities demonstrated the proficiency of the EpiSoMI Lab. Conclusions A well-done investigation of cases and outbreaks by the surveillance local system, in a timely manner, in order to notify and investigate suspected cases and to laboratory confirm or discard cases is fundamental to reduce morbidity, to prevent further virus transmission and to achieve measles elimination

Development of personalized thrombogenesis and thrombin generation assays to assess endothelial dysfunction in cardiovascular diseases

The study of endothelial dysfunction (ED) is crucial to identify the pathogenetic mechanism(s) and provide indications for patient management in cardiovascular diseases. It is currently hindered by the limited availability of patient-specific primary endothelial cells (ECs). Endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) represent an optimal non-invasive tool to overcome this issue. Therefore, we investigated the use of ECFCs as a substrate in thrombogenesis and thrombin generation assay (TGA) to assess ED. Both assays were set up on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and then tested on ECFCs obtained from healthy donors. To prove the ability of the assays to detect endothelial activation, ECs stimulated with TNFα were compared with unstimulated ECs. EC activation was confirmed by the upregulation of VCAM-1 and Tissue Factor expression. Both assays discriminated between unstimulated and activated HUVECs and ECFCs, as significantly higher platelet deposition and fibrin formation in thrombogenesis assay, and thrombin generation in TGA, were observed when TNFα-activated ECs were used as a substrate. The amount of fibrin and thrombin measured in the two assays were directly correlated. Our results support the combined use of a thrombogenesis assay and TGA performed on patient-derived ECFCs to provide a personalized global assessment of ED relevant to the patient’s hemostatic profile

Clinical characterization and whole genome sequence-based typing of two cases of endophthalmitis due to Listeria monocytogenes

Endophthalmitis due to Listeria monocytogenes is a rare form of listeriosis. Here, we report two cases that occurred in patients with different medical history, a 46-years-old woman with no comorbidities and an elderly man with several comorbidities. There was no history of trauma or surgery in either patient suggesting an endogenous origin. Despite antibiotic treatment, both patients showed poor visual acuity outcomes. Subtyping clinical isolates using whole genome sequencing could allow to characterise Listeria monocytogenes strains involved in rare clinical manifestation, such as in unusual anatomical sites, even in immunocompetent patients

The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG VIII: Observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and characterisation of the transiting planetary systems HAT-P-36 and WASP-11/HAT-P-10

We determine the true and the projected obliquity of HAT-P-36 and WASP-11/HAT-P-10 systems, respectively, which are both composed of a relatively cool star and a hot-Jupiter planet. Thanks to the high-resolution spectrograph HARPS-N, we observed the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for both the systems by acquiring precise radial-velocity measurements during planetary transit events. We also present photometric observations comprising six light curves covering five transit events, obtained using three medium-class telescopes and the telescope-defocussing technique. One transit of WASP-11/HAT-P-10 was followed simultaneously from two observatories. The three transit light curves of HAT-P-36b show anomalies that are attributable to starspot complexes on the surface of the parent star, in agreement with the analysis of its spectra that indicate a moderate activity. By analysing the complete HATNet data set of HAT-P-36, we estimated the stellar rotation period by detecting a periodic photometric modulation in the light curve caused by star spots, obtaining Prot=15.3 days, which implies that the inclination of the stellar rotational axis with respect to the line of sight is 65 degree. We used the new spectroscopic and photometric data to revise the main physical parameters and measure the sky-projected misalignment angle of the two systems. We found \lambda=-14 degree for HAT-P-36 and \lambda=7 degree for WASP-11/HAT-P-10, indicating in both cases a good spin-orbit alignment. In the case of HAT-P-36, we also measured its real obliquity, which turned out to be 25 degrees.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figure

The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N@TNG VI: The Curious Case of TrES-4b

We revisit the TrES-4 system parameters based on high-precision HARPS-N radial-velocity measurements and new photometric light curves. A combined spectroscopic and photometric analysis allows us to determine a spectroscopic orbit with an amplitude $K=51\pm3$ m s$^{-1}$. The derived mass of TrES-4b is found to be $M_{\rm p} = 0.49\pm0.04 \rm M_{Jup}$, significantly lower than previously reported. Combined with the large radius ($R_{\rm p} = 1.84_{-0.09}^{+0.08} \rm R_{Jup}$) inferred from our analysis, TrES-4b becomes the second-lowest density transiting hot Jupiter known. We discuss several scenarios to explain the puzzling discrepancy in the mass of TrES-4b in the context of the exotic class of highly inflated transiting giant planets.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Letter accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic