2,987 research outputs found
Spin dynamics of heterometallic Cr7M wheels (M = Mn, Zn, Ni) probed by inelastic neutron scattering
Inelastic neutron scattering has been applied to the study of the spin
dynamics of Cr-based antiferromagnetic octanuclear rings where a finite total
spin of the ground state is obtained by substituting one Cr(III) ion (s = 3/2)
with Zn (s = 0), Mn (s = 5/2) or Ni (s = 1) di-cations. Energy and intensity
measurements for several intra-multiplet and inter-multiplet magnetic
excitations allow us to determine the spin wavefunctions of the investigated
clusters. Effects due to the mixing of different spin multiplets have been
considered. Such effects proved to be important to correctly reproduce the
energy and intensity of magnetic excitations in the neutron spectra. On the
contrary to what is observed for the parent homonuclear Cr8 ring, the symmetry
of the first excited spin states is such that anticrossing conditions with the
ground state can be realized in the presence of an external magnetic field.
Heterometallic Cr7M wheels are therefore good candidates for macroscopic
observations of quantum effects.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B, corrected typos and
added references, one sentence change
Therapeutic educational robot enhancing social interactions in the management of obesity
Obesity is a chronic multifactorial pathology determined by many factors, including incorrect eating habits and a low level of physical activity. There is an urgent need to promote a persistent change in lifestyle in obese subjects, but very few individuals maintain long-term results achieved after diet therapies. Therapeutic Education (TE) has taken over an important role as a multidisciplinary intervention aimed at improving lifestyle and at acquiring new skills for the management of the disease. However, only a small portion of patients can maintain participation in such programs and fully benefit from them. Assistive technologies, and in particular assistive social robots, are powerful tools to boost independence and improve participation in educational activities. The aim of the research work described in this article is to evaluate the effect of employing a social robot as a therapeutic educational robot helping the expert therapist in the education activity. This article describes the implementation, deployment, and evaluation of a social educational robot used as a TE assistant. Although we cannot provide statistically significant results due to the limited number of people involved in the experimental protocol, all experimental results show a positive trend, indicating that the robot can enhance the social interactions between the patients and the therapist and among the patients, thus bringing to better overall results of the TE sessions, measured with standard tests for obesity management
Organic molecules in the protoplanetary disk of DG Tau revealed by ALMA
Planets form in protoplanetary disks and inherit their chemical compositions.
It is thus crucial to map the distribution and investigate the formation of
simple organics, such as formaldehyde and methanol, in protoplanetary disks. We
analyze ALMA observations of the nearby disk-jet system around the T Tauri star
DG Tau in the o-HCO and CHOH E,
A transitions at an unprecedented resolution of ,
i.e., au at a distance of 121 pc. The HCO emission originates from
a rotating ring extending from au with a peak at au, i.e., at
the edge of the 1.3mm dust continuum. CHOH emission is not detected down to
an r.m.s. of 3 mJy/beam in the 0.162 km/s channel. Assuming an ortho-to-para
ratio of 1.8-2.8 the ring- and disk-height-averaged HCO column density is
cm, while that of CHOH is
cm. In the inner au no o-HCO emission
is detected with an upper limit on its beam-averaged column density of
cm. The HCO ring in the disk of DG Tau is
located beyond the CO iceline (R au). This suggests that the
HCO abundance is enhanced in the outer disk due to formation on grain
surfaces by the hydrogenation of CO ice. The emission peak at the edge of the
mm dust continuum may be due to enhanced desorption of HCO in the gas phase
caused by increased UV penetration and/or temperature inversion. The
CHOH/HCO abundance ratio is , in agreement with disk chemistry
models. The inner edge of the HCO ring coincides with the radius where the
polarization of the dust continuum changes orientation, hinting at a tight link
between the HCO chemistry and the dust properties in the outer disk and at
the possible presence of substructures in the dust distribution.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication on A&A Letter
Reliability analysis of wireless sensor network for smart farming applications
Wireless Sensor Networks are subjected to some design constraints (e.g., processing capability, storage memory, energy consumption, fixed deployment, etc.) and to outdoor harsh conditions that deeply affect the network reliability. The aim of this work is to provide a deeper understanding about the way redundancy and node deployment affect the network reliability. In more detail, the paper analyzes the design and implementation of a wireless sensor network for low-power and low-cost applications and calculates its reliability considering the real environmental conditions and the real arrangement of the nodes deployed in the field. The reliability of the system has been evaluated by looking for both hardware failures and communication errors. A reliability prediction based on different handbooks has been carried out to estimate the failure rate of the nodes self-designed and self-developed to be used under harsh environments. Then, using the Fault Tree Analysis the real deployment of the nodes is taken into account considering the Wi-Fi coverage area and the possible communication link between nearby nodes. The findings show how different node arrangements provide significantly different reliability. The positioning is therefore essential in order to obtain maximum performance from a Wireless sensor network
Reproduction of the azooxanthellate coral Caryophyllia inornata is not affected by temperature along an 850 km gradient on the Western Italian coast
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that ocean surface
temperature will rise of 0.6–2.0◦C by 2100. Ocean warming is expected to produce
strong impacts on marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, affecting their physiological
events including reproductive processes. To date, relatively few studies have examined
the effects of climate change on the reproductive success of temperate corals
and even less in the azooxanthellate ones. This study examined the reproductive
output of the azooxanthellate Mediterranean coral Caryophyllia inornata along a wide
latitudinal gradient of seawater temperature and solar radiation. A total of 260 samples,
collected from five populations along the Western Italian coast, have been analyzed
through histological techniques. The intriguing aspects characterizing all populations
of C. inornata along the latitudinal gradient are a strong male-biased sex ratio and
the presence of embryos in all stages of development throughout the year in females,
males, and sexually inactive individuals. This peculiarity could suggest a mixed strategy
of sexual and asexual reproduction in this species as has been observed for some
anemones of the genus Actinia. Fecundity and spermary abundance (i.e., the number
of reproductive elements per body volume unit), gonadal index (i.e., the percentage of
body volume occupied by the germ cells) and fertility (i.e., the number of embryos per
body volume unit) in females, males and sexually inactive individuals were unrelated
to solar radiation and temperature along the latitudinal gradient. These results suggest
that the reproduction in C. inornata is not affected by increasing solar radiation and
temperature. The lack of zooxanthellae could make this species less dependent on
these environmental parameters, as previously hypothesized for another azooxanthellate
species, Leptopsammia pruvoti, investigated along the same gradient
Endothelial cells, endoplasmic reticulum stress and oxysterols
Oxysterols are bioactive lipids that act as regulators of lipid metabolism, inflammation, cell viability and are involved in several diseases, including atherosclerosis. Mounting evidence linked the atherosclerosis to endothelium dysfunction; in fact, the endothelium regulates the vascular system with roles in processes such as hemostasis, cell cholesterol, hormone trafficking, signal transduction and inflammation. Several papers shed light the ability of oxysterols to induce apoptosis in different cell lines including endothelial cells. Apoptotic endothelial cell and endothelial denudation may constitute a critical step in the transition to plaque erosion and vessel thrombosis, so preventing the endothelial damaged has garnered considerable attention as a novel means of treating atherosclerosis. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the site where the proteins are synthetized and folded and is necessary for most cellular activity; perturbations of ER homeostasis leads to a condition known as endoplasmic reticulum stress. This condition evokes the unfolded protein response (UPR) an adaptive pathway that aims to restore ER homeostasis. Mounting evidence suggests that chronic activation of UPR leads to cell dysfunction and death and recently has been implicated in pathogenesis of endothelial dysfunction. Autophagy is an essential catabolic mechanism that delivers misfolded proteins and damaged organelles to the lysosome for degradation, maintaining basal levels of autophagic activity it is critical for cell survival. Several evidence suggests that persistent ER stress often results in stimulation of autophagic activities, likely as a compensatory mechanism to relieve ER stress and consequently cell death. In this review, we summarize evidence for the effect of oxysterols on endothelial cells, especially focusing on oxysterols-mediated induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress
Recent activity and kinematics of the bounding faults of the Catanzaro trough (Central Calabria, italy): new morphotectonic, geodetic and seismological data
A multidisciplinary work integrating structural, geodetic and seismological data was performed in the Catanzaro Trough (central Calabria, Italy) to define the seismotectonic setting of this area. The Catanzaro Trough is a structural depression transversal to the Calabrian Arc, lying in-between two longitudinal grabens: the Crati Basin to the north and the Mesima Basin to the south. The investigated area experienced some of the strongest historical earthquakes of Italy, whose seismogenic sources are still not well defined. We investigated and mapped the major WSW–ENE to WNW–ESE trending normal-oblique Lamezia-Catanzaro Fault System, bounding to the north the Catanzaro Trough. Morphotectonic data reveal that some fault segments have recently been reactivated since they have displaced upper Pleistocene deposits showing typical geomorphic features associated with active normal fault scarps such as triangular and trapezoidal facets, and displaced alluvial fans. The analysis of instrumental seismicity indicates that some clusters of earthquakes have nucleated on the Lamezia-Catanzaro Fault System. In addition, focal mechanisms indicate the prevalence of left-lateral kinematics on E–W roughly oriented fault plains. GPS data confirm that slow left-lateral motion occurs along this fault system. Minor north-dipping normal faults were also mapped in the southern side of the Catanzaro Trough. They show eroded fault scarps along which weak seismic activity and negligible geodetic motion occur. Our study highlights that the Catanzaro Trough is a poliphased Plio-Quaternary extensional basin developed early as a half-graben in the frame of the tear-faulting occurring at the northern edge of the subducting Ionian slab. In this context, the strike-slip motion contributes to the longitudinal segmentation of the Calabrian Arc. In addition, the high number of seismic events evidenced by the instrumental seismicity, the macroseismic intensity distribution of the historical earthquakes and the scaling laws relating to earthquakes and seismogenic faults support the hypothesis that the Lamezia-Catanzaro Fault System may have been responsible for the historical earthquakes since it is capable of triggering earthquakes with magnitude up to 6.9
A New Waveform Consistency Test for Gravitational Wave Inspiral Searches
Searches for binary inspiral signals in data collected by interferometric
gravitational wave detectors utilize matched filtering techniques. Although
matched filtering is optimal in the case of stationary Gaussian noise, data
from real detectors often contains "glitches" and episodes of excess noise
which cause filter outputs to ring strongly. We review the standard \chi^2
statistic which is used to test whether the filter output has appropriate
contributions from several different frequency bands. We then propose a new
type of waveform consistency test which is based on the time history of the
filter output. We apply one such test to the data from the first LIGO science
run and show that it cleanly distinguishes between true inspiral waveforms and
large-amplitude false signals which managed to pass the standard \chi^2 test.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravity for
the proceedings of the Eighth Gravitational Wave Data Analysis Workshop
(GWDAW-8
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