BeppoSAX observations of the quasar Markarian 205

We present the first BeppoSAX observation (0.1 to 220 keV) of the quasar Mrk 205. We have searched for the unusual Fe line profile claimed in the XMM-Newton spectrum which has been widely discussed in recent literature. We find no evidence for a broad, ionized Fe line component in our data. We detect for the first time a Compton hump in this object. Besides, when this component is included in the fit, the line strength diminishes, in agreement with a recent re-analysis of the XMM-Newton data, but with better constraints on the reflection component thanks to the PDS instrument (15-220 keV). We interpret this fact as another indication for illumination of a distant and cold material rather than reprocessing in the highly ionized inner parts of an accretion disk. We cannot constrain the presence of a high energy cutoff but we confirm the existence of a variable soft excess (one year timescale).Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Beam test results of 3D fine-grained scintillator detector prototype for a T2K ND280 neutrino active target

An upgrade of the long baseline neutrino experiment T2K near detector ND280 is currently being developed with the goal to reduce systematic uncertainties in the prediction of number of events at the far detector Super-Kamiokande. The upgrade program includes the design and construction of a new highly granular fully active scintillator detector with 3D WLS fiber readout as a neutrino target. The detector of about $200\times 180\times 60~cm^3$ in size and a mass of $\sim$2.2~tons will be assembled from about $2\times10^6$ plastic scintillator cubes of $1\times1\times1~cm^3$. Each cube is read out by three orthogonal Kuraray Y11 Wave Length Shifting (WLS) fibers threaded through the detector. A detector prototype made of 125 cubes was assembled and tested in a charged particle test beam at CERN in the fall of 2017. This paper presents the results obtained on the light yield and timing as well as on the optical cross-talk between the cubes.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figure

A new ambulatory system for comparative evaluation of the three-dimensional knee kinematics, applied to anterior cruciate ligament injuries

The aim of this study was to develop an ambulatory system for the three-dimensional (3D) knee kinematics evaluation, which can be used outside a laboratory during long-term monitoring. In order to show the efficacy of this ambulatory system, knee function was analysed using this system, after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) lesion, and after reconstructive surgery. The proposed system was composed of two 3D gyroscopes, fixed on the shank and on the thigh, and a portable data logger for signal recording. The measured parameters were the 3D mean range of motion (ROM) and the healthy knee was used as control. The precision of this system was first assessed using an ultrasound reference system. The repeatability was also estimated. A clinical study was then performed on five unilateral ACL-deficient men (range: 19-36years) prior to, and a year after the surgery. The patients were evaluated with the IKDC score and the kinematics measurements were carried out on a 30m walking trial. The precision in comparison with the reference system was 4.4°, 2.7° and 4.2° for flexion-extension, internal-external rotation, and abduction-adduction, respectively. The repeatability of the results for the three directions was 0.8°, 0.7° and 1.8°. The averaged ROM of the five patients' healthy knee were 70.1° [standard deviation (SD) 5.8°], 24.0° (SD 3.0°) and 12.0° (SD 6.3°) for flexion-extension, internal-external rotation and abduction-adduction before surgery, and 76.5° (SD 4.1°), 21.7° (SD 4.9°) and 10.2° (SD 4.6°) 1year following the reconstruction. The results for the pathologic knee were 64.5° (SD 6.9°), 20.6° (SD 4.0°) and 19.7° (8.2°) during the first evaluation, and 72.3° (SD 2.4°), 25.8° (SD 6.4°) and 12.4° (SD 2.3°) during the second one. The performance of the system enabled us to detect knee function modifications in the sagittal and transverse plane. Prior to the reconstruction, the ROM of the injured knee was lower in flexion-extension and internal-external rotation in comparison with the controlateral knee. One year after the surgery, four patients were classified normal (A) and one almost normal (B), according to the IKDC score, and changes in the kinematics of the five patients remained: lower flexion-extension ROM and higher internal-external rotation ROM in comparison with the controlateral knee. The 3D kinematics was changed after an ACL lesion and remained altered one year after the surger

Patients' understanding of blood tests and attitudes to HIV screening in the emergency department of a Swiss teaching hospital: a cross-sectional observational study.

BACKGROUND: In Switzerland, patients may undergo "blood tests" without being informed what these are screening for. Inadequate doctor-patient communication may result in patient misunderstanding. We examined what patients in the emergency department (ED) believed they had been screened for and explored their attitudes to routine (non-targeted) human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening. METHODS: Between 1st October 2012 and 28th February 2013, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted among patients aged 16-70 years old presenting to the ED of Lausanne University Hospital. Patients were asked: (1) if they believed they had been screened for HIV; (2) if they agreed in principle to routine HIV screening and (3) if they agreed to be HIV tested during their current ED visit. RESULTS: Of 466 eligible patients, 411 (88%) agreed to participate. Mean age was 46 ± 16 years; 192 patients (47%) were women; 366 (89%) were Swiss or European; 113 (27%) believed they had been screened for HIV, the proportion increasing with age (p ≤0.01), 297 (72%) agreed in principle with routine HIV testing in the ED, and 138 patients (34%) agreed to be HIV tested during their current ED visit. CONCLUSION: In this ED population, 27% believed incorrectly they had been screened for HIV. Over 70% agreed in principle with routine HIV testing and 34% agreed to be tested during their current visit. These results demonstrate willingness among patients concerning routine HIV testing in the ED and highlight a need for improved doctor-patient communication about what a blood test specifically screens for

INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton Spectral Studies of NGC 4388

We present first INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton observations of a Seyfert galaxy, the type 2 AGN NGC 4388. Several INTEGRAL observations performed in 2003 allow us to study the spectrum in the 20 - 300 keV range. In addition two XMM-Newton observations give detailed insight into the 0.2 - 10 keV emission. The measurements presented here and comparison with previous observations by BeppoSAX, SIGMA and CGRO/OSSE show that the overall spectrum from soft X-rays up to the gamma-rays can be described by a highly absorbed (N_H = 2.7e23 1/cm^2) and variable non-thermal component in addition to constant non-absorbed thermal emission (T = 0.8 keV) of low abundance (7% solar), plus a constant Fe K-alpha and K-beta line. The hard X-ray component is well described by a simple power law with a mean photon index of 1.7. During the INTEGRAL observations the 20 - 100 keV flux increased by a factor of 1.4. The analysis of XMM-Newton data implies that the emission below 3 keV is decoupled from the AGN and probably due to extended emission as seen in Chandra observations. The constant iron line emission is apparently also decoupled from the direct emission of the central engine and likely to be generated in the obscuring material, e.g. in the molecular torus.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Acontecimientos e ideas que prepararon la Revolución de Mayo : bicentenario de la Revolución de Mayo

El 22 de septiembre de 2009, en el Auditorio San Francisco de Asís de la Universidad del Salvador, tuvo lugar el panel de especialistas convocados bajo el tema "Acontecimientos e ideas que prepararon la Revolución de Mayo". El encuentro organizado por la Facultad de Historia, Geografía y Turismo, a través de su Escuela de Historia y del Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas y Geográficas 'Furlong-Suetta', formó parte de las actividades que organiza la Universidad con motivo del Bicentenario del magno acontecimiento, cuyos actos centrales se celebrarán los días 26 al 28 de abril de 2010 en el marco de las Jornadas "La Revolución de Mayo en Perspectiva", que reunirá a especialistas e investigadores del país y del extranjero

Biological activity of ectodysplasin A is conditioned by its collagen and heparan sulfate proteoglycan-binding domains.

Mutations in the TNF family ligand EDA1 cause X-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (XLHED), a condition characterized by defective development of skin appendages. The EDA1 protein displays a proteolytic processing site responsible for its conversion to a soluble form, a collagen domain, and a trimeric TNF homology domain (THD) that binds the receptor EDAR. In-frame deletions in the collagen domain reduced the thermal stability of EDA1. Removal of the collagen domain decreased its activity about 100-fold, as measured with natural and engineered EDA1-responsive cell lines. The collagen domain could be functionally replaced by multimerization domains or by cross-linking antibodies, suggesting that it functions as an oligomerization unit. Surprisingly, mature soluble EDA1 containing the collagen domain was poorly active when administered in newborn, EDA-deficient (Tabby) mice. This was due to a short stretch of basic amino acids located at the N terminus of the collagen domain that confers EDA1 with proteoglycan binding ability. In contrast to wild-type EDA1, EDA1 with mutations in this basic sequence was a potent inducer of tail hair development in vivo. Thus, the collagen domain activates EDA1 by multimerization, whereas the proteoglycan-binding domain may restrict the distribution of endogeneous EDA1 in vivo

A Methodology and Tool for Rapid Prototyping of Data Warehouses using Data Mining: Application to Birds Biodiversity

International audienceData Warehouses (DWs) are large repositories of data aimed at supporting the decision-making process by enabling flexible and interactive analyses via OLAP systems. Rapid prototyping of DWs is necessary when OLAP applications are complex. Some work about the integration of Data Mining and OLAP systems has been done to enhance OLAP operators with mined indicators, and/or to define the DW schema. However, to best of our knowledge, prototyping methods for DWs do not support this kind of integration. Then, in this paper we present a new prototyping methodology for DWs, extending [3], where DM methods are used to define the DW schema. We validate our approach on a real data set concerning bird biodiversity

Semigroup evolution in Wigner Weisskopf pole approximation with Markovian spectral coupling

We establish the relation between the Wigner-Weisskopf theory for the description of an unstable system and the theory of coupling to an environment. According to the Wigner-Weisskopf general approach, even within the pole approximation (neglecting the background contribution) the evolution of a total system subspace is not an exact semigroup for the multi-channel decay, unless the projectors into eigesntates of the reduced evolution generator $W(z)$ are orthogonal. In this case these projectors must be evaluated at different pole locations $z_\alpha\neq z_\beta$. Since the orthogonality relation does not generally hold at different values of $z$, for example, when there is symmetry breaking, the semigroup evolution is a poor approximation for the multi-channel decay, even for a very weak coupling. Nevertheless, there exists a possibility not only to ensure the orthogonality of the $W(z)$ projectors regardless the number of the poles, but also to simultaneously suppress the effect of the background contribution. This possibility arises when the theory is generalized to take into account interactions with an environment. In this case $W(z)$, and hence its eigenvectors as well, are {\it independent} of $z$, which corresponds to a structure of the coupling to the continuum spectrum associated with the Markovian limit.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

A travel guide to the canonical bundle formula

We survey known results on the canonical bundle formula and its applications in algebraic geometry.Comment: 17 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of the conference Birational Geometry and Moduli Space