The ionizing sources of luminous compact HII regions in the RCW106 and RCW122 clouds

Given the rarity of young O star candidates, compact HII regions embedded in dense molecular cores continue to serve as potential sites to peer into the details of high-mass star formation. To uncover the ionizing sources of the most luminous and compact HII regions embedded in the RCW106 and RCW122 giant molecular clouds, known to be relatively nearby (2-4 kpc) and isolated, thus providing an opportunity to examine spatial scales of a few hundred to a thousand AU in size. High spatial resolution (0.3"), mid-infrared spectra (R=350), including the fine structure lines [ArIII] and [NeII], were obtained for four luminous compact HII regions, embedded inside the dense cores within the RCW106 and RCW122 molecular cloud complexes. At this resolution, these targets reveal point-like sources surrounded by nebulosity of different morphologies, uncovering details at spatial dimensions of <1000AU. The point-like sources display [ArIII] and [NeII] lines - the ratios of which are used to estimate the temperature of the embedded sources. The derived temperatures are indicative of mid-late O type objects for all the sources with [ArIII] emission. Previously known characteristics of these targets from the literature, including evidence of disk or accretion suggest that the identified sources may grow more to become early-type O stars by the end of the star formation process

La variación en los cuartetos de Haydn

Es una traducción de: Floy Grave y Margaret Grave: “Variation”, del libro de los mismos autores titulado The String Quartets of Joseph Haydn, cap. 6, pp. 96-115, Nueva York/ Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006.Juan Carlos Lores Gil (traductor).La técnica de la variación ocupa un lugar de primer orden entre los procedimientos compositivos de Haydn. En particular, los movimientos en forma de variación se encuentran en toda su producción cuartetística e incluso a veces tuvieron una influencia importante en su evolución. Lejos de limitarse a explotar las formas de variación de manera convencional, Haydn las combinó, enriqueció y modificó e incluso llegó a desarrollar estructuras de variación originales de gran complejidad. En el artículo se pasa revista a cada una de las cuatro formas de variación principales –de repetición variada, estróficas, ternarias y en alternancia– y se estudia su evolución y su papel en los cuartetos

The social determinants of polymorphous prejudice against lesbian and gay individuals: the case of Portugal

In the present article, we analyze polymorphous prejudice against lesbians and gays according to a sample of Portuguese heterosexual individuals. We tested the differential importance of demographic-, ideological-, and psychological-level variables to predicting this phenomenon. Our results show that male, Catholic, right-wing respondents with fewer lesbian and gay (LG) friends prove the group exhibiting the highest levels of polymorphous prejudice. Furthermore, the introduction of psychological-level variables into the regression models increased the explained variance in polymorphous prejudice, above and beyond the remaining predictors. Additionally, we report different patterns of results when deploying regression analyses at the level of the sub-scales of polymorphous prejudice. We discuss our results within the light of contemporary sexual prejudice frameworks before reviewing the utility of results to interventions targeting discriminated LG individuals.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Prevention and Treatment of Sarcopenic Obesity in Women

Sarcopenic obesity (SO) is referred to as the combination of obesity with low skeletal muscle mass and function. However, its definition and diagnosis is debated. SO represents a sizable risk factor for the development of disability, possibly with a worse prognosis in women. The present narrative review summarizes the current evidence on pharmacological, nutrition and exercise strategies on the prevention and/or treatment of SO in middle-aged and older-aged women. A literature search was carried out in Medline and Google Scholar between 29th January and 14th March 2019. Only controlled intervention studies on mid-age and older women whose focus was on the prevention and/or treatment of sarcopenia associated with obesity were included. Resistance training (RT) appears effective in the prevention of all components of SO in women, resulting in significant improvements in muscular mass, strength, and functional capacity plus loss of fat mass, especially when coupled with hypocaloric diets containing at least 0.8 g/kg body weight protein. Correction of vitamin D deficit has a favorable effect on muscle mass. Treatment of SO already established is yet unsatisfactory, although intense and prolonged RT, diets with higher (1.2 g/kg body weight) protein content, and soy isoflavones all look promising. However, further confirmatory research and trials combining different approaches are required

Assessing the spatio-temporal spread of COVID-19 via compartmental models with diffusion in Italy, USA, and Brazil

The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 has led to a surge in interest in the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases. Such models are usually defined as compartmental models, in which the population under study is divided into compartments based on qualitative characteristics, with different assumptions about the nature and rate of transfer across compartments. Though most commonly formulated as ordinary differential equation (ODE) models, in which the compartments depend only on time, recent works have also focused on partial differential equation (PDE) models, incorporating the variation of an epidemic in space. Such research on PDE models within a Susceptible, Infected, Exposed, Recovered, and Deceased (SEIRD) framework has led to promising results in reproducing COVID-19 contagion dynamics. In this paper, we assess the robustness of this modeling framework by considering different geometries over more extended periods than in other similar studies. We first validate our code by reproducing previously shown results for Lombardy, Italy. We then focus on the U.S. state of Georgia and on the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, one of the most impacted areas in the world. Our results show good agreement with real-world epidemiological data in both time and space for all regions across major areas and across three different continents, suggesting that the modeling approach is both valid and robust.Comment: 23 pages, 19 figure

The spin temperature of high-redshift damped Lyman-α\alpha systems

We report results from a programme aimed at investigating the temperature of neutral gas in high-redshift damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs). This involved (1) HI 21cm absorption studies of a large DLA sample, (2) VLBI studies to measure the low-frequency quasar core fractions, and (3) optical/ultraviolet spectroscopy to determine DLA metallicities and velocity widths. Including literature data, our sample consists of 37 DLAs with estimates of the spin temperature $T_s$ and the covering factor. We find a strong $4\sigma$) difference between the $T_s$ distributions in high-z (z>2.4) and low-z (z<2.4) DLA samples. The high-z sample contains more systems with high $T_s$ values, $\gtrsim 1000$ K. The $T_s$ distributions in DLAs and the Galaxy are also clearly (~$6\sigma$) different, with more high-$T_s$ sightlines in DLAs than in the Milky Way. The high $T_s$ values in the high-z DLAs of our sample arise due to low fractions of the cold neutral medium. For 29 DLAs with metallicity [Z/H] estimates, we confirm the presence of an anti-correlation between $T_s$ and [Z/H], at $3.5\sigma$ significance via a non-parametric Kendall-tau test. This result was obtained with the assumption that the DLA covering factor is equal to the core fraction. Monte Carlo simulations show that the significance of the result is only marginally decreased if the covering factor and the core fraction are uncorrelated, or if there is a random error in the inferred covering factor. We also find evidence for redshift evolution in DLA $T_s$ values even for the z>1 sub-sample. Since z>1 DLAs have angular diameter distances comparable to or larger than those of the background quasars, they have similar efficiency in covering the quasars. Low covering factors in high-z DLAs thus cannot account for the observed redshift evolution in spin temperatures. (Abstract abridged.)Comment: 37 pages, 22 figures. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Molecular hydrogen jets and outflows in the Serpens south filamentary cloud

We aimed to map the jets and outflows from the Serpens South star forming region and find an empirical relationship between the magnetic field and outflow orientation. Near-infrared H2 v=1-0 S(1) 2.122{\mu}m -line imaging of the \sim 30'-long filamentary shaped Serpens South star forming region was carried out. K s broadband imaging of the same region was used for continuum subraction. Candidate driving sources of the mapped jets/outflows are identified from the list of known protostars and young stars in this region, which was derived from studies using recent Spitzer and Herschel telescope observations. 14 Molecular Hydrogen emission-line objects(MHOs) are identified using our continuum-subtracted images. They are found to constitute ten individual flows. Out of these, nine flows are located in the lower-half(southern) part of the Serpens South filament, and one flow is located at the northern tip of the filament. Four flows are driven by well-identified Class 0 protostars, while the remaining six flows are driven by candidate protostars mostly in the Class I stage, based on the Spitzer and Herschel observations. The orientation of the outflows is systematically perpendicular to the direction of the near-infrared polarization vector, recently published in the literature. No significant correlation was observed between the orientation of the flows and the axis of the filamentary cloud.Comment: Accepted by A&A for publication. 7 pages, 5 figure

Weight management, psychological distress and binge eating in obesity. A reappraisal of the problem

The psychological effects of dieting and weight loss have been an area of controversy in obesity. As part of a large multicenter study involving 1944 obese subjects seeking treatment at Italian medical centers, we investigated the effects of weight loss on psychological distress and binge eating in 500 subjects remaining in continuous treatment at different centers with slightly different strategies (78.8% females; age: M = 46.2 years, SD = 10.8; BMI: M = 37.3 kg/m2, SD = 5.6). At baseline and after 12 months all subjects were evaluated by the SymptomCheckList-90 Global Severity Index (SCL-GSI) and by the Binge Eating Scale (BES). In both males and females, weight loss was associated with improved psychometric testing. Changes in SCL-GSI were associated with changes in BMI (b = 0.13; t = 2.85; p < 0.005), after adjustment for age, gender, initial BMI and center variability. Similarly, BES changes were associated with BMI change (b = 0.15; t = 3.21; p < 0.001). We conclude that in subjects compliant to follow-up a successful management of obesity, not directly addressing psychological distress, is associated with a significant improvement of both psychological distress and binge eating, linearly related to the amount of weight loss, independently of treatment procedures