A Large Mass of H_2 in the Brightest Cluster Galaxy in Zwicky 3146

We present the Spitzer/IRS mid-infrared spectrum of the infrared-luminous (L_(IR) = 4 × 10^(11) L_☉) brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the X-ray-luminous cluster Zwicky 3146 (Z3146; z = 0.29). The spectrum shows strong aromatic emission features, indicating that the dominant source of the infrared luminosity is star formation. The most striking feature of the spectrum, however, is the exceptionally strong molecular hydrogen (H_2) emission lines, which seem to be shock-excited. The line luminosities and inferred warm H_2 gas mass (~10^(10) M_☉) are 6 times larger than those of NGC 6240, the most H_2-luminous galaxy at z ≲ 0.05. Together with the large amount of cold H_2 detected previously (~10^(11) M_☉), this indicates that the Z3146 BCG contains disproportionately large amounts of both warm and cold H_2 gas for its infrared luminosity, which may be related to the intracluster gas cooling process in the cluster core

Matching Seeds to Needs - female farmers adapt to a changing climate in Ethiopia

Between 2010 and 2012 Bioversity International worked with partners and stakeholders in Ethiopia to develop an innovative low-cost strategy for managing risks to agricultural systems posed by the adverse effects of climate change. The objective, which the project indeed achieved, was to decrease vulnerability and enhance adaptive capacity in smallholder farming communities by increasing the intraspecific diversity of important food security crops using barley and durum wheat

Lyapunov Central Limit Theorem: Theoretical Properties and Applications in Big-Data-Populated Smart City Settings

Central Limit Theorems have a fundamental role in statistics and in a wide range of practical applications. The most famous formulation was proposed by Lindeberg–Lévy and it requires the variables to be independent and identically distributed. In the real setting these conditions are rarely matched, though. The Lyapunov Central Limit Theorem overcomes this limitation, since it does not require the same distribution of the random variables. However, the cost of this generalization is an increased complexity, moderately limiting its effective applicability. In this paper, we resume the main results on the Lyapunov Central Limit Theorem, providing an easy-to-prove condition to put in practice, and demonstrating its uniform convergence. These theoretical results are supported by some relevant applications in the field of big data in smart city settings

How to locate services optimizing redundancy: A comparative analysis of K-Covering Facility Location models

Redundancy aspects related to covering facility location problems are of extreme importance for many applications, in particular those regarding critical services. For example, in the healthcare sector, facilities such as ambulances or first-aid centers must be located robustly against unpredictable events causing disruption or congestion. In this paper, we propose different modeling tools that explicitly address coverage redundancy for the underlying service. We also evaluate, both theoretically and experimentally, the properties and behavior of the models, and compare them from a computational and managerial point of view. More precisely, by starting from three classical double-covering models from the literature (BACOP1, BACOP2, and DSM), we define three parametric families of models (namely, K-BACOP1, K-BACOP2, and K-DSM) which generalize the former to any possible Kth coverage level of interest. The study of such generalizations allows us to derive interesting managerial insights on location decisions at the strategic level. The CPU performance and the quality of the solutions returned are assessed through ad-hoc KPIs collected over many representative instances with different sizes and topological characteristics, and also by dynamically simulating scenarios involving possible disruption for the located facilities. Finally, a real case study concerning ambulance service in Morocco is analyzed. The results show that, in general, K-BACOP1 performs very well, even if intrinsic feasibility issues limit its broad applicability. Instead, K-DSM achieves the best coverage and equity performances for lower levels of redundancy, while K-BACOP2 seems the most robust choice when high redundancy is required, showing smoother and more predictable trends

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and cancer in man.

Various substances and industrial processes, surrogates of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are currently classified as human carcinogens. This paper reviews recent epidemiological studies reporting direct evidence of the carcinogenic effects of PAHs in occupationally exposed subjects. Risks of lung and bladder cancer were dose dependent when PAHs were measured quantitatively and truly nonexposed groups were chosen for comparison. These new findings suggest that the current threshold limit value of 0.2 mg/m3 of benzene soluble matter (which indicates PAH exposure) is unacceptable because, after 40 years of exposure, it involves a relative risk of 1.2-1.4 for lung cancer and 2.2 for bladder cancer

Deep u*- and g-band Imaging of the Spitzer Space Telescope First Look Survey Field : Observations and Source Catalogs

We present deep u*-, and g-band images taken with the MegaCam on the 3.6 m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) to support the extragalactic component of the Spitzer First Look Survey (hereafter, FLS). In this paper we outline the observations, present source catalogs and characterize the completeness, reliability, astrometric accuracy and number counts of this dataset. In the central 1 deg2 region of the FLS, we reach depths of g~26.5 mag, and u*~26.2 mag (AB magnitude, 5$\sigma$ detection over a 3" aperture) with ~4 hours of exposure time for each filter. For the entire FLS region (~5 deg2 coverage), we obtained u*-band images to the shallower depth of u*=25.0--25.4 mag (5$\sigma$, 3" aperture). The average seeing of the observations is 0.85" for the central field, and ~1.00" for the other fields. Astrometric calibration of the fields yields an absolute astrometric accuracy of 0.15" when matched with the SDSS point sources between 18<g<22. Source catalogs have been created using SExtractor. The catalogs are 50% complete and greater than 99.3% reliable down to g~26.5 mag and u*~26.2 mag for the central 1 deg2 field. In the shallower u*-band images, the catalogs are 50% complete and 98.2% reliable down to 24.8--25.4 mag. These images and source catalogs will serve as a useful resource for studying the galaxy evolution using the FLS data.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figure

The Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS): Overview

The Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS) will conduct deep PACS and SPIRE imaging of ∼40 massive clusters of galaxies. The strong gravitational lensing power of these clusters will enable us to penetrate through the confusion noise, which sets the ultimate limit on our ability to probe the Universe with Herschel. Here we present an overview of our survey and a summary of the major results from our science demonstration phase (SDP) observations of the Bullet cluster (z = 0.297). The SDP data are rich and allow us to study not only the background high-redshift galaxies (e.g., strongly lensed and distorted galaxies at z = 2.8 and 3.2) but also the properties of cluster-member galaxies. Our preliminary analysis shows a great diversity of far-infrared/submillimeter spectral energy distributions (SEDs), indicating that we have much to learn with Herschel about the properties of galaxy SEDs. We have also detected the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect increment with the SPIRE data. The success of this SDP program demonstrates the great potential of the Herschel Lensing Survey to produce exciting results in a variety of science areas

Quality of Government and Well-being: An Empirical Analysis of 158 European Regions

The aim of the study is twofold: on the one hand, it assesses the association between well-being and the quality of government, on the other it evaluates the impact exerted on the same well-being by the different components into which the quality of government can be broken down. The analysis is conducted at the regional level. A composite indicator derived from OECD data on regional well-being is used to assess its association with the quality of government. The latter is measured using the European Quality of Government Survey Index (EQI) data. The EQI breaks down the quality of government into three key elements: the impartiality of administration, the quality of services provided and the degree of corruption. The association between well-being and quality of government is verified considering, at first, the EQI index as a whole, being the product of the three different components, and then separately considering its key elements.The results confirmed the existence of a strong positive association between well-being and the overall quality of government, as between the former and the single components of the EQI index. Furthermore, the same association is observed when the assessment is made on the whole sample, but also when subsamples are made, considering the geographical macro-area to which the regions belong

Specific immunoassays confirm association of <i>Mycobacterium avium</i> subsp. <i>paratuberculosis</i> with type-1 but not type-2 diabetes mellitus

Background Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is a versatile pathogen with a broad host range. Its association with type-1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) has been recently proposed. Rapid identification of infectious agents such as MAP in diabetic patients at the level of clinics might be helpful in deciphering the role of chronic bacterial infection in the development of autoimmune diseases such as T1DM. Methodology/Principal Findings We describe use of an ELISA method to identify live circulating MAP through the detection of a cell envelope protein, MptD by a specific M13 phage – fMptD. We also used another ELISA format to detect immune response to MptD peptide. Both the methods were tested with blood plasma obtained from T1DM, type-2 diabetes (T2DM) patients and non-diabetic controls. Our results demonstrate MptD and fMptD ELISA assays to be accurate and sensitive to detect MAP bacilli in a large fraction (47.3%) of T1DM patients as compared to non-diabetic controls (12.6%) and those with confirmed T2DM (7.7%). Comparative analysis of ELISA assays performed here with 3 other MAP antigen preparations, namely HbHA, Gsd and whole cell MAP lysates confirmed comparable sensitivity of the MptD peptide and the fMptD based ELISA assays. Moreover, we were successful in demonstrating positive bacterial culture in two of the clinical specimen derived from T1DM patients. Conclusions and Significance The MptD peptide/fMptD based ELISA or similar tests could be suggested as rapid and specific field level diagnostic tests for the identification of MAP in diabetic patients and for finding the explanations towards the occurrence of type-1 or type-2 diabetes in the light of an active infectious trigger