47 research outputs found
A coordinated optical and X-ray spectroscopic campaign on HD179949: searching for planet-induced chromospheric and coronal activity
HD179949 is an F8V star, orbited by a close-in giant planet with a period of
~3 days. Previous studies suggested that the planet enhances the magnetic
activity of the parent star, producing a chromospheric hot spot which rotates
in phase with the planet orbit. However, this phenomenon is intermittent since
it was observed in several but not all seasons. A long-term monitoring of the
magnetic activity of HD179949 is required to study the amplitude and time
scales of star-planet interactions. In 2009 we performed a simultaneous optical
and X-ray spectroscopic campaign to monitor the magnetic activity of HD179949
during ~5 orbital periods and ~2 stellar rotations. We analyzed the CaII H&K
lines as a proxy for chromospheric activity, and we studied the X-ray emission
in search of flux modulations and to determine basic properties of the coronal
plasma. A detailed analysis of the flux in the cores of the CaII H&K lines and
a similar study of the X-ray photometry shows evidence of source variability,
including one flare. The analysis of the the time series of chromospheric data
indicates a modulation with a ~11 days period, compatible with the stellar
rotation period at high latitudes. Instead, the X-ray light curve suggests a
signal with a period of ~4 days, consistent with the presence of two active
regions on opposite hemispheres. The observed variability can be explained,
most likely, as due to rotational modulation and to intrinsic evolution of
chromospheric and coronal activity. There is no clear signature related to the
orbital motion of the planet, but the possibility that just a fraction of the
chromospheric and coronal variability is modulated with the orbital period of
the planet, or the stellar-planet beat period, cannot be excluded. We conclude
that any effect due to the presence of the planet is difficult to disentangle
Stray-light restoration of full-disk CaII K solar observations: a case study
AIMS: We investigate whether restoration techniques, such as those developed
for application to current observations, can be used to remove stray-light
degradation effects on archive CaII K full-disk observations. We analyze to
what extent these techniques can recover homogeneous time series of data.
METHODS:We develop a restoration algorithm based on a method presented by
Walton & Preminger (1999). We apply this algorithm to data for both present-day
and archive CaII K full-disk observations, which were acquired using the PSPT
mounted at the Rome Observatory, or obtained by digitization of Mt Wilson
photographic-archive spectroheliograms. RESULTS:We show that the restoring
algorithm improves both spatial resolution and photometric contrast of the
analyzed solar observations. We find that the improvement in spatial resolution
is similar for analyzed recent and archive data. On the other hand, the
improvement of photometric contrast is quite poor for the archive data, with
respect to the one obtained for the present-day images. We show that the
quality of restored archive data depends on the photographic calibration
applied to the original observations. In particular, photometry can be
recovered with a restoring algorithm if the photographic-calibration preserves
the intensity information stored in the original data, principally outside the
solar-disk observations.Comment: 10 pages; 9 figure
Variable responses of human microbiomes to dietary supplementation with resistant starch
Abstract
Background
The fermentation of dietary fiber to various organic acids is a beneficial function provided by the microbiota in the human large intestine. In particular, butyric acid contributes to host health by facilitating maintenance of epithelial integrity, regulating inflammation, and influencing gene expression in colonocytes. We sought to increase the concentration of butyrate in 20 healthy young adults through dietary supplementation with resistant starch (unmodified potato starchâresistant starch (RS) type 2).
Methods
Fecal samples were collected from individuals to characterize butyrate concentration via liquid chromatography and composition of the microbiota via surveys of 16S rRNA-encoding gene sequences from the Illumina MiSeq platform. Random Forest and LEfSe analyses were used to associate responses in butyrate production to features of the microbiota.
Results
RS supplementation increased fecal butyrate concentrations in this cohort from 8 to 12 mmol/kg wet feces, but responses varied widely between individuals. Individuals could be categorized into three groups based upon butyrate concentrations before and during RS: enhanced, high, and low (nâ=â11, 3, and 6, respectively). Fecal butyrate increased by 67 % in the enhanced group (from 9 to 15 mmol/kg), while it remained â„11 mmol/kg in the high group and â€8 mmol/kg in the low group. Microbiota analyses revealed that the relative abundance of RS-degrading organismsâBifidobacterium adolescentis or Ruminococcus bromiiâincreased from ~2 to 9 % in the enhanced and high groups, but remained at ~1.5 % in the low group. The lack of increase in RS-degrading bacteria in the low group may explain why there was no increase in fecal butyrate in response to RS. The microbiota of individuals in the high group were characterized by an elevated abundance of the butyrogenic microbe Eubacterium rectale (~6 % in high vs. 3 % in enhanced and low groups) throughout the study.
Conclusions
We document the heterogeneous responses in butyrate concentrations upon RS supplementation and identify characteristic of the microbiota that appear to underlie this variation. This study complements and extends other studies that call for personalized approaches to manage beneficial functions provided by gut microbiomes.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134598/1/40168_2016_Article_178.pd
Amerindian Helicobacter pylori Strains Go Extinct, as European Strains Expand Their Host Range
We studied the diversity of bacteria and host in the H. pylori-human model. The human indigenous bacterium H. pylori diverged along with humans, into African, European, Asian and Amerindian groups. Of these, Amerindians have the least genetic diversity. Since niche diversity widens the sets of resources for colonizing species, we predicted that the Amerindian H. pylori strains would be the least diverse. We analyzed the multilocus sequence (7 housekeeping genes) of 131 strains: 19 cultured from Africans, 36 from Spanish, 11 from Koreans, 43 from Amerindians and 22 from South American Mestizos. We found that all strains that had been cultured from Africans were African strains (hpAfrica1), all from Spanish were European (hpEurope) and all from Koreans were hspEAsia but that Amerindians and Mestizos carried mixed strains: hspAmerind and hpEurope strains had been cultured from Amerindians and hpEurope and hpAfrica1 were cultured from Mestizos. The least genetically diverse H. pylori strains were hspAmerind. Strains hpEurope were the most diverse and showed remarkable multilocus sequence mosaicism (indicating recombination). The lower genetic structure in hpEurope strains is consistent with colonization of a diversity of hosts. If diversity is important for the success of H. pylori, then the low diversity of Amerindian strains might be linked to their apparent tendency to disappear. This suggests that Amerindian strains may lack the needed diversity to survive the diversity brought by non-Amerindian hosts
Planck intermediate results. XII: Diffuse Galactic components in the Gould Belt system
Peer reviewe
Probing invisible neutrino decay with KM3NeT-ORCA
In the era of precision measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters,
upcoming neutrino experiments will also be sensitive to physics beyond the
Standard Model. KM3NeT/ORCA is a neutrino detector optimised for measuring
atmospheric neutrinos from a few GeV to around 100 GeV. In this paper, the
sensitivity of the KM3NeT/ORCA detector to neutrino decay has been explored. A
three-flavour neutrino oscillation scenario, where the third neutrino mass
state decays into an invisible state, e.g. a sterile neutrino, is
considered. We find that KM3NeT/ORCA would be sensitive to invisible neutrino
decays with ~ at confidence
level, assuming true normal ordering. Finally, the impact of neutrino decay on
the precision of KM3NeT/ORCA measurements for ,
and mass ordering have been studied. No significant effect of neutrino decay on
the sensitivity to these measurements has been found.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures, bibliography updated, typos correcte
Planck intermediate results XV : A study of anomalous microwave emission in Galactic clouds
This article has an erratum: DOI 10.1051/0004-6361/201322612ePeer reviewe
Study of doubly strange systems using stored antiprotons
Bound nuclear systems with two units of strangeness are still poorly known despite their importance for many strong interaction phenomena. Stored antiprotons beams in the GeV range represent an unparalleled factory for various hyperon-antihyperon pairs. Their outstanding large production probability in antiproton collisions will open the floodgates for a series of new studies of systems which contain two or even more units of strangeness at the PâŸANDA experiment at FAIR. For the first time, high resolution Îł-spectroscopy of doubly strange ÎÎ-hypernuclei will be performed, thus complementing measurements of ground state decays of ÎÎ-hypernuclei at J-PARC or possible decays of particle unstable hypernuclei in heavy ion reactions. High resolution spectroscopy of multistrange Îâ-atoms will be feasible and even the production of Ωâ-atoms will be within reach. The latter might open the door to the |S|=3 world in strangeness nuclear physics, by the study of the hadronic Ωâ-nucleus interaction. For the first time it will be possible to study the behavior of ÎâŸ+ in nuclear systems under well controlled conditions