712 research outputs found
The effect of scattering on the structure and SED of protoplanetary disks
In this paper we investigate how the inclusion of scattering of the stellar
radiation into a passive flaring disk model affects its structure and spectral
energy distribution, and whether neglecting it could significantly decrease the
model reliability. In order to address these questions we construct a detailed
1+1D vertical structure model in which the scattering properties of the dust
can be varied. Models are presented with and without dust scattering, and for
different albedos and phase functions. It is found that scattering has the
effect of reducing the disk temperature at all heights, so that the disk
"shrinks", i.e., the the density at all intermediate heights decreases.
However, this effect in most cases is more than compensated by the increase of
the total extinction (absorption + scattering) cross section, so that the
surface scale height increases, and images in scattered light will see a
slightly thicker disk. The integrated infrared emission decreases as the albedo
increases, because an increasing part of the flux captured by the disk is
reflected away instead of absorbed and reprocessed. The reduction of the
infrared thermal emission of the disk is stronger at short wavelengths (near
infrared) and practically negligible at millimeter wavelengths. For relatively
low albedo (alb <~ 0.5), or for strongly forward-peaked scattering (g roughly
>0.8), the infrared flux reduction is relatively small.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
Vertical structure models of T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be disks
In this paper we present detailed models of the vertical structure
(temperature and density) of passive irradiated circumstellar disks around T
Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars. In contrast to earlier work, we use full
frequency- and angle-dependent radiative transfer instead of the usual moment
equations. We find that this improvement of the radiative transfer has strong
influence on the resulting vertical structure of the disk, with differences in
temperature as large as 70 %. However, the spectral energy distribution (SED)
is only mildly affected by this change. In fact, the SED compares reasonably
well with that of improved versions of the Chiang & Goldreich (CG) model. This
shows that the latter is a reasonable model for the SED, in spite of its
simplicity. It also shows that from the SED alone, little can be learned about
the vertical structure of a passive circumstellar disk. The molecular line
emission from these disks is more sensitive to the vertical temperature and
density structure, and we show as an example how the intensity and profiles of
various CO lines depend on the adopted disk model. The models presented in this
paper can also serve as the basis of theoretical studies of e.g. dust
coagulation and settling in disks.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Radiative transfer in very optically thick circumstellar disks
In this paper we present two efficient implementations of the diffusion
approximation to be employed in Monte Carlo computations of radiative transfer
in dusty media of massive circumstellar disks. The aim is to improve the
accuracy of the computed temperature structure and to decrease the computation
time. The accuracy, efficiency and applicability of the methods in various
corners of parameter space are investigated. The effects of using these methods
on the vertical structure of the circumstellar disk as obtained from
hydrostatic equilibrium computations are also addressed. Two methods are
presented. First, an energy diffusion approximation is used to improve the
accuracy of the temperature structure in highly obscured regions of the disk,
where photon counts are low. Second, a modified random walk approximation is
employed to decrease the computation time. This modified random walk ensures
that the photons that end up in the high-density regions can quickly escape to
the lower density regions, while the energy deposited by these photons in the
disk is still computed accurately. A new radiative transfer code, MCMax, is
presented in which both these diffusion approximations are implemented. These
can be used simultaneously to increase both computational speed and decrease
statistical noise. We conclude that the diffusion approximations allow for fast
and accurate computations of the temperature structure, vertical disk structure
and observables of very optically thick circumstellar disks.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Therapy of age-related exudative macular degeneration with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor drugs: An Italian real life study
Aim: To evaluate the real utilization of ranibizumab and aflibercept in the daily management of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) treated at the Eye Clinic of Campania University L.Vanvitelli. Background: Therapy with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor represents the gold standard in wet age-related macular degeneration. There are nonreal life italian studies of this therapy in the literature. Objective: To analyze in our sample the post-therapy variations of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT) observed at the end of a 12-month follow-up period. Methods: This real-life study analyzes 109 patients that underwent monthly checks for the first 4 months and then every 2 months until the end of the 12-month follow-up. The sample was first analyzed in its entirety, subsequently subdivided into 3 groups based on baseline BCVA, age, and the number of intravitreal injections performed, in order to identify possible predictive elements of the anti-VEGF response. Results: On average, patients underwent 4.16 ± 1.58 intravitreal anti-VEGF injections in 1 year. At the end of the 12-month follow-up, the patients’ average BCVA increased from 33.01 letters to 33.75 letters (+0.74 ± 9,4 letters), while the average CRT decreased from 346.86 µm to 265.39 µm (-81.47 ± 121 µm). Conclusion: The study shows the efficacy of anti-VEGF therapy in the stabilization of BCVA in nAMD, confirming the differences in visual outcomes compared to clinical trials, mainly for economic-organizational reasons
Emission from Water Vapor and Absorption from Other Gases at 5-7.5 Microns in Spitzer-IRS Spectra of Protoplanetary Disks
We present spectra of 13 T Tauri stars in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming
region showing emission in Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph (IRS)
5-7.5 micron spectra from water vapor and absorption from other gases in these
stars' protoplanetary disks. Seven stars' spectra show an emission feature at
6.6 microns due to the nu_2 = 1-0 bending mode of water vapor, with the shape
of the spectrum suggesting water vapor temperatures > 500 K, though some of
these spectra also show indications of an absorption band, likely from another
molecule. This water vapor emission contrasts with the absorption from warm
water vapor seen in the spectrum of the FU Orionis star V1057 Cyg. The other
six of the thirteen stars have spectra showing a strong absorption band,
peaking in strength at 5.6-5.7 microns, which for some is consistent with
gaseous formaldehyde (H2CO) and for others is consistent with gaseous formic
acid (HCOOH). There are indications that some of these six stars may also have
weak water vapor emission. Modeling of these stars' spectra suggests these
gases are present in the inner few AU of their host disks, consistent with
recent studies of infrared spectra showing gas in protoplanetary disks.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures, to appear in the 20 August, 2014, V791 - 2 issue
of the Astrophysical Journa
Spitzer observations of the Orion OB1 association: disk census in the low mass stars
We present new Spitzer Space Telescope observations of two fields in the
Orion OB1 association. We report here IRAC/MIPS observations for 115 confirmed
members and 41 photometric candidates of the ~10 Myr 25 Orionis aggregate in
the OB1a subassociation, and 106 confirmed members and 65 photometric
candidates of the 5 Myr region located in the OB1b subassociation. The 25
Orionis aggregate shows a disk frequency of 6% while the field in the OB1b
subassociation shows a disk frequency of 13%. Combining IRAC, MIPS and 2MASS
photometry we place stars bearing disks in several classes: stars with
optically thick disks (class II systems), stars with an inner transitional
disks (transitional disk candidates) and stars with "evolved disks"; the last
exhibit smaller IRAC/MIPS excesses than class II systems. In all, we identify 1
transitional disk candidate in the 25 Orionis aggregate and 3 in the OB1b
field; this represents ~10% of the disk bearing stars, indicating that the
transitional disk phase can be relatively fast. We find that the frequency of
disks is a function of the stellar mass, suggesting a maximum around stars with
spectral type M0. Comparing the infrared excess in the IRAC bands among several
stellar groups we find that inner disk emission decays with stellar age,
showing a correlation with the respective disk frequencies. The disk emission
at the IRAC and MIPS bands in several stellar groups indicates that disk
dissipation takes place faster in the inner region of the disks. Comparison
with models of irradiated accretion disks, computed with several degrees of
settling, suggests that the decrease in the overall accretion rate observed in
young stellar groups is not sufficient to explain the weak disk emission
observed in the IRAC bands for disk bearing stars with ages 5 Myr or older.Comment: Accepted in the Astrophysical Journa
Millimeter imaging of HD 163296: probing the disk structure and kinematics
We present new multi-wavelength millimeter interferometric observations of
the Herbig Ae star HD 163296 obtained with the IRAM/PBI, SMA and VLA arrays
both in continuum and in the 12CO, 13CO and C18O emission lines. Gas and dust
properties have been obtained comparing the observations with self-consistent
disk models for the dust and CO emission. The circumstellar disk is resolved
both in the continuum and in CO. We find strong evidence that the circumstellar
material is in Keplerian rotation around a central star of 2.6 Msun. The disk
inclination with respect to the line of sight is 46+-4 deg with a position
angle of 128+-4 deg. The slope of the dust opacity measured between 0.87 and 7
mm (beta=1) confirms the presence of mm/cm-size grains in the disk midplane.
The dust continuum emission is asymmetric and confined inside a radius of 200
AU while the CO emission extends up to 540 AU. The comparison between dust and
CO temperature indicates that CO is present only in the disk interior. Finally,
we obtain an increasing depletion of CO isotopomers from 12CO to 13CO and C18O.
We argue that these results support the idea that the disk of HD 163296 is
strongly evolved. In particular, we suggest that there is a strong depletion of
dust relative to gas outside 200 AU; this may be due to the inward migration of
large bodies that form in the outer disk or to clearing of a large gap in the
dust distribution by a low mass companion.Comment: Accepted for publication on A&A, 16 page
Engineered Sleeping Beauty Transposon as Efficient System to Optimize Chimp Adenoviral Production
Sleeping Beauty (SB) is the first DNA transposon employed for efficient transposition in vertebrate cells, opening new applications for genetic engineering and gene therapies. A transposon-based gene delivery system holds the favourable features of non-viral vectors and an attractive safety profile. Here, we employed SB to engineer HEK293 cells for optimizing the production of a chimpanzee Adenovector (chAd) belonging to the Human Mastadenovirus C species. To date, chAd vectors are employed in several clinical settings for infectious diseases, last but not least COVID-19. A robust, efficient and quick viral vector production could advance the clinical application of chAd vectors. To this aim, we firstly swapped the hAd5 E1 with chAd-C E1 gene by using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. We demonstrated that in the absence of human Ad5 E1, chimp Ad-C E1 gene did not support HEK293 survival. To improve chAd-C vector production, we engineered HEK293 cells to stably express the chAd-C precursor terminal protein (ch.pTP), which plays a crucial role in chimpanzee Adenoviral DNA replication. The results indicate that exogenous ch.pTP expression significantly ameliorate the packaging and amplification of recombinant chAd-C vectors thus, the engineered HEK293ch.pTP cells could represent a superior packaging cell line for the production of these vectors
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