CMB Polarization Systematics, Cosmological Birefringence and the Gravitational Waves Background

Cosmic Microwave Background experiments must achieve very accurate calibration of their polarization reference frame to avoid biasing the cosmological parameters. In particular, a wrong or inaccurate calibration might mimic the presence of a gravitational wave background, or a signal from cosmological birefringence, a phenomenon characteristic of several non-standard, symmetry breaking theories of electrodynamics that allow for \textit{in vacuo} rotation if the polarization direction of the photon. Noteworthly, several authors have claimed that the BOOMERanG 2003 (B2K) published polarized power spectra of the CMB may hint at cosmological birefringence. Such analyses, however, do not take into account the reported calibration uncertainties of the BOOMERanG focal plane. We develop a formalism to include this effect and apply it to the BOOMERanG dataset, finding a cosmological rotation angle $\alpha=-4.3^\circ\pm4.1^\circ$. We also investigate the expected performances of future space borne experiment, finding that an overall miscalibration larger then $1^\circ$ for Planck and $0.2\circ$ for EPIC, if not properly taken into account, will produce a bias on the constraints on the cosmological parameters and could misleadingly suggest the presence of a GW background.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Images of the Early Universe from the BOOMERanG experiment

The CMB is the fundamental tool to study the properties of the early universe and of the universe at large scales. In the framework of the Hot Big Bang model, when we look to the CMB we look back in time to the end of the plasma era, at a redshift ~ 1000, when the universe was ~ 50000 times younger, ~ 1000 times hotter and ~ 10^9 times denser than today. The image of the CMB can be used to study the physical processes there, to infer what happened before, and also to study the background geometry of our Universe

ℓ-space spectroscopy of the Cosmic Microwave Background with the BOOMERanG experiment

The BOOMERanG experiment has recently produced detailed maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background, where sub-horizon structures are resolved with good signal to noise ratio. A power spectrum (spherical harmonics) analysis of the maps detects three peaks, at multipoles ℓ = (213_(-13)^(+10)),(541_(-32)^(+20))(845_(-25)^(+12)). In this paper we discuss the data analysis and the implications of these results for cosmology

Constraints on Primordial Non-Gaussianity from a Needlet Analysis of the WMAP-5 Data

We look for a non-Gaussian signal in the WMAP 5-year temperature anisotropy maps by performing a needlet-based data analysis. We use the foreground-reduced maps obtained by the WMAP team through the optimal combination of the W, V and Q channels, and perform realistic non-Gaussian simulations in order to constrain the non-linear coupling parameter \fnl. We apply a third-order estimator of the needlet coefficients skewness and compute the $\chi^2$ statistics of its distribution. We obtain -80<\fnl<120 at 95% confidence level, which is consistent with a Gaussian distribution and comparable to previous constraints on the non-linear coupling. We then develop an estimator of \fnl based on the same simulations and we find consistent constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity. We finally compute the three point correlation function in needlet space: the constraints on \fnl improve to -50<\fnl<110 at 95% confidence level.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. MNRAS in press, updated to accepted versio

The SIFIPAC/WSES/SICG/SIMEU guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of acute appendicitis in the elderly (2019 edition).

The epidemiology and the outcomes of acute appendicitis in elderly patients are very different from the younger population. Elderly patients with acute appendicitis showed higher mortality, higher perforation rate, lower diagnostic accuracy, longer delay from symptoms onset and admission, higher postoperative complication rate and higher risk of colonic and appendiceal cancer. The aim of the present work was to investigate age-related factors that could influence a different approach, compared to the 2016 WSES Jerusalem guidelines on general population, in terms of diagnosis and management of elderly patient with acute appendicitis. During the XXIX National Congress of the Italian Society of Surgical Pathophysiology (SIFIPAC) held in Cesena (Italy) in May 2019, in collaboration with the Italian Society of Geriatric Surgery (SICG), the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) and the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine (SIMEU), a panel of experts participated to a Consensus Conference where eight panelists presented a number of statements, which were developed for each of the four topics about diagnosis and management of acute appendicitis in elderly patients, formulated according to the GRADE system. The statements were then voted, eventually modified and finally approved by the participants to the Consensus Conference. The current paper is reporting the definitive guidelines statements on each of the following topics: diagnosis, non-operative management, operative management and antibiotic therapy

The SIFIPAC/WSES/SICG/SIMEU guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of acute appendicitis in the elderly (2019 edition).

The epidemiology and the outcomes of acute appendicitis in elderly patients are very different from the younger population. Elderly patients with acute appendicitis showed higher mortality, higher perforation rate, lower diagnostic accuracy, longer delay from symptoms onset and admission, higher postoperative complication rate and higher risk of colonic and appendiceal cancer. The aim of the present work was to investigate age-related factors that could influence a different approach, compared to the 2016 WSES Jerusalem guidelines on general population, in terms of diagnosis and management of elderly patient with acute appendicitis. During the XXIX National Congress of the Italian Society of Surgical Pathophysiology (SIFIPAC) held in Cesena (Italy) in May 2019, in collaboration with the Italian Society of Geriatric Surgery (SICG), the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) and the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine (SIMEU), a panel of experts participated to a Consensus Conference where eight panelists presented a number of statements, which were developed for each of the four topics about diagnosis and management of acute appendicitis in elderly patients, formulated according to the GRADE system. The statements were then voted, eventually modified and finally approved by the participants to the Consensus Conference. The current paper is reporting the definitive guidelines statements on each of the following topics: diagnosis, non-operative management, operative management and antibiotic therapy

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Kangxi yu xifang kexue: Li Leisi de Jincheng Yinglun (Kangxi and Western Science: Buglio’s “Ying Lun”)

Translations in Chinese language made by Jesuit missionaries are an important material in the field of research related to the history of cultural exchange and circulation of ideas between China and Western countries. Apart of translations of religious works, scientific books are indeed a very useful tool of investigation and can give us an insight about the exchange of scientific knowledge between Europe and China. From this point of view, the italian Jesuit missionar Buglio and his books of zoology still are worth of research. Ludovico Buglio S.I. (Mineo, 1606 – Beijing, 1682), chinese name Li Leisi 利类思, is a well-known Jesuit missionar operating in China in 17th century. Altough he wrote books both in Western and Chinese language, he is famous for his works in Chinese, three of them describing the West to the Chinese literati and the imperial court. He is the author of the famous Shizi shuo 獅子說 (1678), (On Lions), wich has been studied first by Giuliano Bertuccioli (Bertuccioli 1976), and has been, recently, object of study again in China by Zou Zhenhuan (Zou 2013). Shizi shuo has been indicated as the book which probably firstly introduced the Western zoology into China. Ludovico Buglio in 1679 also wrote the Jincheng ying shuo 進呈鷹說 (Treatise on Hawks), later renamed Ying lun 鷹論 (On Hawks) later reproduced in the Gujin tushu jicheng 古今圖書集成 in 1725, during the reign of Yongzheng. The aim of my paper is to describe in details this book and the context which saw the making of this work, giving to this book the attention and the importance that it deserves. In particular I will try to discuss some questions raised by the analysis of the zoology-related lexicon used in the book, comparing them to the terms contained in the latin edition of Aldrovandi’s Ornithologiae, the main source of the book