6,168 research outputs found
On the Possibility of Measuring the Gravitomagnetic Clock Effect in an Earth Space-Based Experiment
In this paper the effect of the post-Newtonian gravitomagnetic force on the
mean longitudes of a pair of counter-rotating Earth artificial satellites
following almost identical circular equatorial orbits is investigated. The
possibility of measuring it is examined. The observable is the difference of
the times required to in passing from 0 to 2 for both senses of
motion. Such gravitomagnetic time shift, which is independent of the orbital
parameters of the satellites, amounts to 5 s for Earth; it is
cumulative and should be measured after a sufficiently high number of
revolutions. The major limiting factors are the unavoidable imperfect
cancellation of the Keplerian periods, which yields a constraint of 10
cm in knowing the difference between the semimajor axes of the satellites,
and the difference of the inclinations of the orbital planes which, for
, should be less than . A pair of spacecrafts
endowed with a sophisticated intersatellite tracking apparatus and drag-free
control down to 10 cm s Hz level might allow to meet
the stringent requirements posed by such a mission.Comment: LaTex2e, 22 pages, no tables, 1 figure, 38 references. Final version
accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Phenomenology of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Solar System
Recent years have seen increasing efforts to directly measure some aspects of
the general relativistic gravitomagnetic interaction in several astronomical
scenarios in the solar system. After briefly overviewing the concept of
gravitomagnetism from a theoretical point of view, we review the performed or
proposed attempts to detect the Lense-Thirring effect affecting the orbital
motions of natural and artificial bodies in the gravitational fields of the
Sun, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. In particular, we will focus on the evaluation of
the impact of several sources of systematic uncertainties of dynamical origin
to realistically elucidate the present and future perspectives in directly
measuring such an elusive relativistic effect.Comment: LaTex, 51 pages, 14 figures, 22 tables. Invited review, to appear in
Astrophysics and Space Science (ApSS). Some uncited references in the text
now correctly quoted. One reference added. A footnote adde
Gravitomagnetism and Relative Observer Clock Effects
The gravitomagnetic clock effect and the Sagnac effect for circularly
rotating orbits in stationary axisymmetric spacetimes are studied from a
relative observer point of view, clarifying their relationships and the roles
played by special observer families. In particular Semer\'ak's recent
characterization of extremely accelerated observers in terms of the two-clock
clock effect is shown to be complemented by a similarly special property of the
single-clock clock effect.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, IOP macros with package epsf and 1 eps figure, to
appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity, slight revisio
The impact of the oblateness of Regulus on the motion of its companion
The fast spinning B-star Regulus has recently been found to be orbited by a
fainter companion in a close circular path with orbital period P_b = 40.11(2)
d. Being its equatorial radius R_e 32% larger than the polar one R_p, Regulus
possesses a remarkable quadrupole mass moment Q. We investigate the effects of
Q on the orbital period P_b of its companion in order to see if they are
measurable, given the present-day level of accuracy in measuring P_b.
Conversely, we will look for deviations from the third Kepler law, attributed
to the quadrupole mass moment Q of Regulus, to constrain the ratio \gamma=m/M
of the system's masses.Comment: LaTex, 6 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Accepted by Astrophysics and
Space Scienc
Emergency Department as an epidemiological observatory of Human Mobility: the experience of the Moroccan population
We conducted a retrospective study of the accesses to the Emergency Department registered from January 2000 to December 2014 in 5 major hospitals in the Metropolitan Area of Rome. We extrapolated data relating to patients of Moroccan origin from about 5 million total accesses, so we compared with Italians data which, in the same period, came to ED.
The Moroccan population is distinguished by a larger number of diagnoses belonging to the ICD-9 code of Infectious Diseases and, more precisely, to Respiratory Infectious Diseases. There are also no differences in the assignment of such diagnoses to Moroccans with Italian citizenship, and this led to think that this could play an important role in the use of the ED and moreover that enrollment to the National Health Service may reduce its inappropriate use.
Regarding to Degenerative Disorders, the result of our analysis is quite emblematic, showing that the accesses to the ED is due to Cardiovascular Diseases: 6.33% of Italians' accesses against 1.81% of Moroccans and 2.36% of Moroccans with Italian citizenship. The main explanation for this difference is, obviously, due to the age of the population: about 60% of Moroccans who accessed to ED was less than 40 years old.
It is interesting how, in the field of Cardiovascular Diseases, Moroccans have a lower percentage of diagnosis compared to Italians for acute diseases and a greater percentage of diagnoses for chronic diseases, suggesting once again that accesses to ED for migrants often is due to the inability to use the general services of the National Health Service.
In conclusion, from the point of view of the Emergency Department, Migration Medicine still has Infectious Diseases as the main reason for access. Degenerative Disorders remain a prerogative of the Italians, but we could certainly assume that the Moroccan population would develop at some point with the aging
Detecting young, slow‐slipping active faults by geologic and multidisciplinary high‐resolution geophysical investigations: A case study from the Apennine seismic belt, Italy.
The Southern Apennines range of Italy presents significant challenges for active fault detection due to the complex structural setting inherited from previous contractional tectonics, coupled to very recent (Middle Pleistocene) onset and slow slip rates of active normal faults. As shown by the Irpinia Fault, source of a M6.9 earthquake in 1980, major faults might have small cumulative deformation and subtle geomorphic expression. A multidisciplinary study including morphological-tectonic, paleoseismological, and geophysical investigations has been carried out across the extensional Monte Aquila Fault, a poorly known structure that, similarly to the Irpinia Fault, runs across a ridge and is weakly expressed at the surface by small scarps/warps. The joint application of shallow reflection profiling, seismic and electrical resistivity tomography, and physical logging of cored sediments has proved crucial for proper fault detection because performance of each technique was markedly different and very dependent on local geologic conditions. Geophysical data clearly (1) image a fault zone beneath suspected warps, (2) constrain the cumulative vertical slip to only 25–30 m, (3) delineate colluvial packages suggesting coseismic surface faulting episodes. Paleoseismological investigations document at least three deformation events during the very Late Pleistocene (<20 ka) and Holocene. The clue to surface-rupturing episodes, together with the fault dimension inferred by geological mapping and microseismicity distribution, suggest a seismogenic potential of M6.3. Our study provides the second documentation of a major active fault in southern Italy that, as the Irpinia Fault, does not bound a large intermontane basin, but it is nested within the mountain range, weakly modifying the landscape. This demonstrates that standard geomorphological approaches are insufficient to define a proper framework of active faults in this region. More in general, our applications have wide methodological implications for shallow imaging in complex terrains because they clearly illustrate the benefits of combining electrical resistivity and seismic techniques. The proposed multidisciplinary methodology can be effective in regions characterized by young and/or slow slipping active faults.PublishedB113073.2. Tettonica attivaJCR Journalpartially_ope
Application of Time Transfer Function to McVittie Spacetime: Gravitational Time Delay and Secular Increase in Astronomical Unit
We attempt to calculate the gravitational time delay in a time-dependent
gravitational field, especially in McVittie spacetime, which can be considered
as the spacetime around a gravitating body such as the Sun, embedded in the
FLRW (Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker) cosmological background metric. To
this end, we adopt the time transfer function method proposed by Le
Poncin-Lafitte {\it et al.} (Class. Quant. Grav. 21:4463, 2004) and Teyssandier
and Le Poncin-Lafitte (Class. Quant. Grav. 25:145020, 2008), which is
originally related to Synge's world function and enables to
circumvent the integration of the null geodesic equation. We re-examine the
global cosmological effect on light propagation in the solar system. The
round-trip time of a light ray/signal is given by the functions of not only the
spacial coordinates but also the emission time or reception time of light
ray/signal, which characterize the time-dependency of solutions. We also apply
the obtained results to the secular increase in the astronomical unit, reported
by Krasinsky and Brumberg (Celest. Mech. Dyn. Astron. 90:267, 2004), and we
show that the leading order terms of the time-dependent component due to
cosmological expansion is 9 orders of magnitude smaller than the observed value
of , i.e., ~[m/century]. Therefore, it is not possible
to explain the secular increase in the astronomical unit in terms of
cosmological expansion.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in General Relativity
and Gravitatio
Mass Screening in Modified Gravity
Models of modified gravity introduce extra degrees of freedom, which for
consistency with the data, should be suppressed at observable scales. In the
models that share properties of massive gravity such a suppression is due to
nonlinear interactions: An isolated massive astrophysical object creates a halo
of a nonzero curvature around it, shielding its vicinity from the influence of
the extra degrees of freedom. We emphasize that the very same halo leads to a
screening of the gravitational mass of the object, as seen by an observer
beyond the halo. We discuss the case when the screening could be very
significant and may rule out, or render the models observationally interesting.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, A contribution to the Proceedings of the
International Workshop on Cosmology and Gravitation, Peyresq 12, June 16-22,
2007, Peyresq, Franc
Biodisponibilidad de plomo y cadmio en sedimentos dragados del río Matanza y evaluación de métodos geoquímicos para su estimación
p.49-55En este trabajo se determinó la biodisponibilidad de cadmio y plomo en sedimentos dragados del río Matanza midiendo la acumulación de estos metales en los tejidos de la lombriz Eisenia foetida. Se evaluó la aplicación de métodos simples de extracción de cadmio y plomo, como medidas indirectas de su biodisponibilidad. La concentración de ambos metales aumentó en los tejidos de Eisenia fetida acorde con las mayores concentraciones en el sedimento; sin embargo, los coeficientes de bioacumulación sólo fueron mayores que la unidad para los tratamientos con adición de 5, 10 y 25 mg de Cd/kg de sedimento. El fraccionamiento de los metales por el método de Tessier mostró que la principal forma de cadmio presente en el sedimento fue la intercambiable para todos los tratamientos, mientras que las formas de plomo, variaron según la dosis del metal agregada. Las concentraciones de los metales extractados del sedimento con MgCi2, EDTA y DTPA se relacionaron con la bioacumulación en los tejidos de Eisenia ferida, indicando que pueden utilizarse como indicadores de la fracción biodisponible de Cd y Pb en los sedimentos
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