Historia natural del águila <i>Geranoaetus melanoleucus</i>: una revisión

Realizamos una revisión de la literatura y condensamos la informacion de diferentes autores acerca de la historia natural del águila Geranoaetus melanoleucus. Complementamos esta información con nuestras propias observaciones de campo entre localidades a lo largo de Chile. Ellas provienen de la Reserva Nacional Las Chinchillas (300 km al norte de Santiago), de San Carlos de Apoquindo (20 km al este de Santiago) y del Parque Nacional Torres del Paine (350 km al norte de Punta Arenas). Tratamos detalladamente los siguientes tópicos: distribución y taxonomía, color del plumaje e identificación, morfometría y peso, historia de vida y reproducción, uso del hábitat, dieta, ritmos de actividad, tipos de vuelo y conductas de caza, agresión, vocalizaciones, abundancia, mortalidad y otros hábitos.Con este trabajo se actualiza el estado del conocimiento de la biología del águila y se hace accesible la información que se ha documentado en revistas de circulación local y documentos de dificil acceso a la comunidad científica interesada.Natural history of the Grey Eagle-buzzard, Geranoaetus melanolucus: a review. We reviewed and summarized the literature concerning the natural history of the Grey Eagle-buzzard Geranoaetus melanoleucus. We suplement this information with our own field records from three sites along Chile. They are the Chinchilla National Reserve (300 km north of Santiago), San Carlos de Apoquindo (20km east of Santiago), and Torres del Paine National Park (350 km north of Punta Arenas).We covered in detail the following topics: distribution and taxonomy, color and field identification, morphometry and weigth, life history and reproduction, habitat use, diet, activity, flight modes and hunting behavior, aggression, vocalizations, abundance, mortality, and other topics. With this review we update the current knowledge of the biology of the Grey Eagly-buzzard, and render more accessible the information documented in journals and books of local circulation to the interested scientific community

An Adiabatic Theorem without a Gap Condition

The basic adiabatic theorems of classical and quantum mechanics are over-viewed and an adiabatic theorem in quantum mechanics without a gap condition is described.Comment: Talk at QMath 7, Prague, 1998. 10 pages, 7 figure

Measurement and modelling of anomalous polarity pulses in a multi-electrode diamond detector

In multi-electrode detectors, the motion of excess carriers generated by ionizing radiation induces charge pulses at the electrodes, whose intensities and polarities depend on the geometrical, electrostatic and carriers transport properties of the device. The resulting charge sharing effects may lead to bipolar currents, pulse height defects and anomalous polarity signals affecting the response of the device to ionizing radiation. This latter effect has recently attracted attention in commonly used detector materials, but different interpretations have been suggested, depending on the material, the geometry of the device and the nature of the ionizing radiation. In this letter, we report on the investigation in the formation of anomalous polarity pulses in a multi-electrode diamond detector with buried graphitic electrodes. In particular, we propose a purely electrostatic model based on the Shockley-Ramo-Gunn theory, providing a satisfactory description of anomalous pulses observed in charge collection efficiency maps measured by means of Ion Beam Induced Charge (IBIC) microscopy, and suitable for a general application in multi-electrode devices and detectors.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Labour Market and Social Policy in Italy: Challenges and Changes. Bertelsmann Policy Brief #2016/02

vEight years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, Italy has still to cope with and overcome a plethora of economic and social challenges. On top of this, it faces an unfavourable demographic structure and severe disparities between its northern and southern regions. Some promising reforms have recently been enacted, specifically targeting poverty and social exclusion. However, much more remains to be done on the way towards greater economic stability and widely shared prosperity

Intermixture of extended edge and localized bulk energy levels in macroscopic Hall systems

We study the spectrum of a random Schroedinger operator for an electron submitted to a magnetic field in a finite but macroscopic two dimensional system of linear dimensions equal to L. The y direction is periodic and in the x direction the electron is confined by two smooth increasing boundary potentials. The eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian are classified according to their associated quantum mechanical current in the y direction. Here we look at an interval of energies inside the first Landau band of the random operator for the infinite plane. In this energy interval, with large probability, there exist O(L) eigenvalues with positive or negative currents of O(1). Between each of these there exist O(L^2) eigenvalues with infinitesimal current O(exp(-cB(log L)^2)). We explain what is the relevance of this analysis to the integer quantum Hall effect.Comment: 29 pages, no figure

Determination of radiation hardness of silicon diodes

In this paper, we describe an experiment aimed to measure the physical observables, which can be used for the assessment of the radiation hardness of commercially available silicon photo diodes commonly used as nuclear detectors in particle accelerator laboratories. The experiment adopted the methodology developed during the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Coordinated Research Project (CRP No. F11016) “Utilization of Ion Accelerators for Studying and Modelling Ion Induced Radiation Defects in Semiconductors and Insulators”. This methodology is based on the selective irradiation of micrometer-sized regions with different fluences of MeV ions using an ion microbeam and on the measurement of the charge collection efficiency (CCE) degradation by Ion Beam Induced Charge (IBIC) microscopy performed in full depletion condition, using different probing ions. The IBIC results are analyzed through a theoretical approach based on the Shockley-Read-Hall model for the free carrier recombination in the presence of ion-induced deep traps. This interpretative model allows the evaluation of the material radiation hardness in terms of recombination parameters for both electrons and holes. The device under study in this experiment was a commercial p-i-n photodiode, which was initially characterized by i) standard electronic characterization techniques to determine its doping and ii) the Angle-Resolved IBIC to evaluate its effective entrance window. Nine regions of (100 × 100) µm2 were irradiated with 11.25 MeV He ions up to a maximum fluence of 3·1012 ions/cm2. The CCE degradation was measured by the IBIC technique using 11.25 MeV He and 1.4 MeV He as probing ions. The model presented here proved to be effective for fitting the experimental data. The fitting parameters correspond to the recombination coefficients, which are the key parameters for the characterization of the effects of radiation damage in semiconductors.</p

Normal transport properties for a classical particle coupled to a non-Ohmic bath

We study the Hamiltonian motion of an ensemble of unconfined classical particles driven by an external field F through a translationally-invariant, thermal array of monochromatic Einstein oscillators. The system does not sustain a stationary state, because the oscillators cannot effectively absorb the energy of high speed particles. We nonetheless show that the system has at all positive temperatures a well-defined low-field mobility over macroscopic time scales of order exp(-c/F). The mobility is independent of F at low fields, and related to the zero-field diffusion constant D through the Einstein relation. The system therefore exhibits normal transport even though the bath obviously has a discrete frequency spectrum (it is simply monochromatic) and is therefore highly non-Ohmic. Such features are usually associated with anomalous transport properties

Comparison of hypofractionation and standard fractionation for post-prostatectomy salvage radiotherapy in patients with persistent PSA: single institution experience

Background: Hypofractionated post-prostatectomy radiotherapy is emerging practice, however with no randomized evidence so far to support it’s use. Additionally, patients with persistent PSA after prostatectomy may have aggressive disease and respond less well on standard salvage treatment. Herein we report outcomes for conventionally fractionated (CFR) and hypofractionated radiotherapy (HFR) in patients with persistent postprostatectomy PSA who received salvage radiotherapy to prostate bed. Methods: Single institution retrospective chart review was performed after Institutional Review Board approval. Between May 2012 and December 2016, 147 patients received salvage postprostatectomy radiotherapy. PSA failure-free and metastasis-free survival were calculated using Kaplan–Meier method. Cox regression analysis was performed to test association of fractionation regimen and other clinical factors with treatment outcomes. Early and late toxicity was assessed using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) Version 4.0. Results: Sixty-nine patients who had persistent PSA (≥ 0.1 ng/mL) after prostatectomy were identified. Median follow-up was 67 months (95% CI 58–106 months, range, 8–106 months). Thirty-six patients (52.2%) received CFR, 66 Gy in 33 fractions, 2 Gy per fraction, and 33 patients (47.8%) received HFR, 52.5 Gy in 20 fractions, 2.63 Gy per fraction. Forty-seven (68%) patients received androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). 5-year PSA failure- and metastasis-free survival rate was 56.9% and 76.9%, respectively. Thirty patients (43%) experienced biochemical failure after salvage radiotherapy and 16 patients (23%) experienced metastatic relapse. Nine patients (13%) developed metastatic castration-resistant disease and died of advanced prostate cancer. Median PSA failure-free survival was 72 months (95% CI; 41–72 months), while median metastasis-free survival was not reached. Patients in HFR group were more likely to experience shorter PSA failure-free survival when compared to CFR group (HR 2.2; 95% CI 1.0–4.6, p = 0.04). On univariate analysis, factors significantly associated with PSA failure-free survival were radiotherapy schedule (CFR vs HFR, HR 2.2, 95% CI 1.0–4.6, p = 0.04), first postoperative PSA (HR 1.02, 95% CI 1.0–1.04, p = 0.03), and concomitant ADT (HR 3.3, 95% CI 1.2–8.6, p = 0.02). On multivariate analysis, factors significantly associated with PSA failure-free survival were radiotherapy schedule (HR 3.04, 95% CI 1.37–6.74, p = 0.006) and concomitant ADT (HR 4.41, 95% CI 1.6–12.12, p = 0.004). On univariate analysis, factors significantly associated with metastasis-free survival were the first postoperative PSA (HR 1.07, 95% CI 1.03–1.12, p = 0.002), seminal vesicle involvement (HR 3.48, 95% CI 1.26–9.6,p = 0.02), extracapsular extension (HR 7.02, 95% CI 1.96–25.07, p = 0.003), and surgical margin status (HR 2.86, 95% CI 1.03–7.97, p = 0.04). The first postoperative PSA (HR 1.04, 95% CI 1.00–1.08, p = 0.02) and extracapsular extension (HR 4.24, 95% CI 1.08–16.55, p = 0.04) remained significantly associated with metastasis-free survival on multivariate analysis. Three patients in CFR arm (8%) experienced late genitourinary grade 3 toxicity. Conclusions: In our experience, commonly used hypofractionated radiotherapy regimen was associated with lower biochemical control compared to standard fractionation in patients with persistent PSA receiving salvage radiotherapy. Reason for this might be lower biological dose in HFR compared to CFR group. However, this observation is limited due to baseline imbalances in ADT use, ADT duration and Grade Group distribution between two radiotherapy cohorts. In patients with persistent PSA post-prostatectomy, the first postoperative PSA is an independent risk factor for treatment failure. Additional studies are needed to corroborate our observations

Efficient fabrication of high-density ensembles of color centers via ion implantation on a hot diamond substrate

Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are promising systems for quantum technologies, including quantum metrology and sensing. A promising strategy for the achievement of high sensitivity to external fields relies on the exploitation of large ensembles of NV centers, whose fabrication by ion implantation is upper limited by the amount of radiation damage introduced in the diamond lattice. In this works we demonstrate an approach to increase the density of NV centers upon the high-fluence implantation of MeV N2+ ions on a hot target substrate (>550 {\deg}C). Our results show that, with respect to room-temperature implantation, the high-temperature process increases the vacancy density threshold required for the irreversible conversion of diamond to a graphitic phase, thus enabling to achieve higher density ensembles. Furthermore, the formation efficiency of color centers was investigated on diamond substrates implanted at varying temperatures with MeV N2+ and Mg+ ions revealing that the formation efficiency of both NV centers and magnesium-vacancy (MgV) centers increases with the implantation temperature.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure