Discovery of TeV γ-ray emission from the neighbourhood of the supernova remnant G24.7+0.6 by MAGIC

SNR G24.7+0.6 is a 9.5 kyrs radio and gamma-ray supernova remnant evolving in a dense medium. In the GeV regime, SNR G24.7+0.6 (3FHL J1834.1– 0706e/FGES J1834.1–0706) shows a hard spectral index (Γ∼2) up to 200 GeV, which makes it a good candidate to be observed with Cherenkov telescopes such as MAGIC. We observed the field of view of SNR G24.7+0.6 with the MAGIC telescopes for a total of 31 hours. We detect very high energy γ-ray emission from an extended source located 0.34 degree away from the center of the radio SNR. The new source, named MAGIC J1835–069 is detected up to 5 TeV, and its spectrum is well-represented by a power-law function with spectral index of 2.74 ± 0.08. The complexity of the region makes the identification of the origin of the very-high energy emission difficult, however the spectral agreement with the LAT source and overlapping position at less than 1.5 sigma point to a common origin. We analysed 8 years of Fermi-LAT data to extend the spectrum of the source down to 60 MeV. Fermi-LAT and MAGIC spectra overlap within errors and the global broad band spectrum is described by a power-law with exponential cutoff at 1.9 ± 0.5 TeV. The detected γ-ray emission can be interpreted as the results of proton-proton interaction between the supernova and the CO-rich surrounding

Reduction of hot tears : Alloy and casting process optimization using neutron diffraction

The continued need of vehicle weight reduction provides impetus for research into the development of novel automotive casting alloys and their processing technologies. Where possible, ferrous components are being replaced by aluminum (Al) and magnesium (Mg) alloy counterparts. This transition, however, requires a systematic optimization of the alloys and their manufacturing processes to enable production of defect-free castings. In this context, prevention of hot tears remains a challenge for Al and Mg alloy thin-wall castings. Hot tears form in semi-solid alloy subjected to localized tensile stress. Classical methods of stress measurement present numerous experimental limitations. In this research, neutron diffraction (ND) was used as a novel tool to obtain stress maps of castings and to quantify the effect of two processes used to eliminate hot tears in permanent mold castings: 1) increasing of the mold temperature during casting of Mg alloys, and 2) grain refinement of Al alloys. In case of the AZ91D Mg alloy, the ND results indicate that increasing the mold temperature effectively decreased the level of tensile strain in a casting region with a geometric stress concentration, thereby preventing nucleation of hot tears. In the case of the B206 Al alloy, hot tearing was alleviated by the addition of 0.05 wt% Ti-B grain refiner and the ND mapping revealed a decrease in the stress level along with enhanced stress uniformity across the casting.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

A quantitative chemiluminescent assay for analysis of peroxide-based explosives

A quantitative chemiluminescentmethod, enabling indirect identification of the peroxide-based explosives TATP (triacetone triperoxide) and HMTD (hexamethylene triperoxide diamine) has been developed. Treatment of these compounds with acidic solutions produced peroxides, which were transformed into radical derivatives by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and then quantified by measuring the light emitted during their oxidation of luminol. The method was first developed in the microplate format and later optimized for a portable luminometer, to enable rapid application of the assay directly on site. When the portable luminometer was used each analysis took only 5\u201310 min. The method had good selectivity, sensitivity, and reproducibility; in the microplate format the limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 40 and 50 ng mL-1, respectively, for both TATP and HMTD. When the portable luminometer was used the LOD and LOQ were 50 and 100 ng mL-1, respectively, for both compounds. Introduction of light emission-enhancing compounds did not improve the analytical performance of the assay. Imprecision (CV values) was always below 10%. Recovery varied rapidly with time, with an average value of 78% after 5 min. No false-positive result was detected on measurement of a variety of samples; this is an important feature for analysis on site. The method was applied both to contaminated materials and to fortified soil samples, simulating operational conditions

Enhancing Social Life with Path Solvers: Rendezvous without Constraints on Meeting Place and Time

This paper presents a novel approach to help rendezvous between a group of people by means of their own mobile device. The group is dynamically created and consists of pedestrians who take part to a common activity, share a common context and have some kind of social relationship. When the rendezvous is called by a group member, he/she becomes the group leader and a light-weight path-solving algorithm guides all the other group members right away to their leader, who is not constrained to wait in a predefined meeting place, as he becomes the dynamic target of the path solver

Study on the accuracy and precision of the 'pure lime lumps' technique for the radiocarbon dating of old lime based materials

The recently developed \u201cpure lime lumps\u201d technique for the radiocarbon dating of old limebased mixtures has been applied with interesting results over several years. Contrary to alternative techniques, which involve physical and/or chemical pre-treatment of specimens, this technique is based on a careful selection of a specific type of lump usually embedded in old lime-based mixtures. The founding principle underlying this technique is, in fact, the use of the \u201cpure lime lumps\u201d. These are lumps of pure lime which are not mixed with the aggregate and thought to originate from imperfect mixing of the wet mix or from an incomplete slaking process of the lime. Pure lime lumps contain the same lime as that used in other parts of the mixtures but, importantly, as they are not mixed with aggregate they are free of contaminants such as sand grains or under burned pieces of limestone. For this reason this technique can dramatically reduce the errors in the radiocarbon dating. Although this technique has been used in several cases, a comprehensive study of its accuracy and precision is still missing. This paper will address this issue by showing radiocarbon results of 5 specimens of pure lime lumps coming from the same part (i.e. same stratigraphic unit in archaeological terms) and from the same depth of the external surface of a specifically chosen wall. The wall, in fact, is the fa\ue7ade of a medieval building located in the old city of Genoa (Italy) where it is based also one of the most experienced Italian research centres for the building archaeology. This wall has been dated independently from radiocarbon through the others archaeological methods commonly used in building archaeology such as mensiochronology of bricks. The lumps collected in this wall have been characterised with several techniques such as Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and thermal analysis and then sent to the AMS laboratory.The precision of the radiocarbon dating results has been determined from the scattering of the data obtained from the analysed terms while accuracy has been estimated by comparing the 14C results with those obtained by the archaeological analysis of the wall

Identification of febrile neutropenic onco-haematological pediatric patients at low risk of complication and mortality through Talcott\u2019s criteria.

retrospective results of application of Talcott criteria in pediatric hematological patient

A Smart-M3 lab course: approach and design style to support student projects

This paper reports on the lesson learned from setting up and running an entirely new 3 credits module on smart space based ambient intelligence within a \u201cpostgraduate\u201d degree in Information & Computer Science Engineering. The course is based on SMART-M3, an open source interoperability component of an open innovation platform developed within the European Project SOFIA (2009-11). Students learn about RDF smart spaces and about using semantic web technologies in maaging semantic connections in the physical world. The paper presents the design style and the application development flow specifically devised for the course, it discusses the students evaluation method together with the course results, and eventually envisages topics to be included in its syllabus in the incoming years

The sub-fossil red coral of Sciacca (Sicily Channel, Mediterranean Sea): colony size and age estimates

The Mediterranean red coral, Corallium rubrum (L.), has been a valuable economic resource for more than 2000 years. The Sicily Channel and surrounding areas are one of the most famous red coral fishing grounds of the whole region, hosting the deepest ever found living colonies and large sub-fossil red coral deposits; the so-called Sciacca banks are a unique location in the whole Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, a morphometric description of this sub-fossil population is presented for the first time from studies of colonies in the collection of several coral factories from Torre del Greco (Naples), with radiocarbon age estimations and growth rate evaluations. From the results of this study, after several thousand years Sciacca red coral colonies maintained the organic matrix structure with evident annual discontinuities, allowing estimations of the annual growth rate (about 0.3 mm/year) and the average population age (about 33.5 years). These resulting data are similar to the values determined for deep-dwelling living red coral populations. The radiocarbon dating evidenced a range of ages, from 8300 to 40 years before 1950 CE, mostly falling between 2700 and 3900 YBP, suggesting that colonies accumulated over a wide span of time. In view of the tectonically active nature of the area, several catastrophic events affected these ancient populations, maintaining them in a persistent state of early-stage, structurally similar to the those in current over-exploited areas

Costs of pediatric community-acquired rotavirus gastroenteritis in Italy (Padua county). [Costi della gastroenterite da rotavirus acquisita in comunit\ue0 in et\ue0 pediatrica a Padova in Italia]

Background: Rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) has a major impact in terms of morbidity in Italy. Comprehensive data on the economic impact are needed in order to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a Rotavirus (RV) vaccination program. Methods: As part of a prospective observational study (REVEAL) conducted in 2004-2005 in seven European countries, we calculated the average costs per case with confirmed RVGE in primary care (PC), emergency room (ER), and hospital (H) settings, from both the national health care service and societal perspectives. Results: A total of 336 children <5 years with RVGE were included in the cost analysis. The total societal cost per child was \u20ac 292 in PC, \u20ac 600 in ER, and \u20ac 1,901 in the H setting. Overall total cost of community-acquired RVGE in the Veneto Region was estimated to be around 7 million \u20ac. Extrapolating the observed data to the whole Italian country, the total cost was estimated between 67.1-80 million \u20ac according to the estimates used. About 61% of the total costs were direct non-medical and indirect costs, mostly related to loss of productivity due to work days lost by parents and other caregivers. Conclusions: RVGE in Italy causes considerable costs in all healthcare settings for the national health care payer and families. An effective childhood vaccination program would have considerable direct and indirect benefits for the Italian society. \ua9 2007 Adis Data Information B

Validation of an easy questionnaire on the assessment of salt habit: the MINISAL-SIIA Study Program

Background/objectives: The aim of the present study was to validate a short questionnaire on habitual dietary salt intake, to quickly and easily identify individuals whose salt consumption exceeds recommended levels. Subjects/methods: A total of 1131 hypertensive subjects participating in the MINISAL-SIIA study were included in the analysis. Anthropometric indexes, blood pressure, and 24-h urinary sodium excretion (NaU) were measured. A fixed-sequence questionnaire on dietary salt intake was administered. Results: NaU was significantly associated with scores, with a linear association across categories (p for trend &lt;0.0001). In addition, participants who achieved a total score above the median value (eight points) had significantly higher NaU than those whose score was below median (p &lt; 0.0001). In the total sample, the prevalence of \u201chigh NaU\u201d (NaU &gt; 85 mmol/day) and \u201cvery high NaU\u201d (NaU &gt; 170 mmol/day) was 86 and 35%, respectively. The score of the questionnaire had a significant ability to detect both \u201chigh NaU\u201d\u2014with a specificity of 95% at the score of 10 points\u2014and \u201cvery high NaU\u201d\u2014with a specificity of 99.6% at score of 13 points. Conclusions: The main results of the study indicates that a higher score of this short questionnaire is distinctive of habitual high salt consumption in hypertensive patients