140 research outputs found
Guidelines for the establishment of microbiological criteria for foods
O Grupo de Trabalho Ocorrência Microbiológica na Cadeia Alimentar
(GTOMCA) do Programa PortFIR considerou de grande importância o desenvolvimento
de um documento que compilasse uma seleção de legislação
e de informações relativas a Critérios Microbiológicos (CM), visando apoiar
e facilitar, aos operadores e entidades do setor alimentar, a sua aplicação
na validação do processo de produção, na segurança e/ou higiene dos géneros
alimentícios, na adesão a boas práticas de fabrico dos mesmos, e/ou,
ainda, na manutenção da sua qualidade durante o seu tempo de vida útil.
Deste modo, o GTOMCA desenvolveu o Guia para o estabelecimento de
critérios microbiológicos em géneros alimentícios, que foi publicado em
abril de 2017, contemplando a identificação, caraterísticas e propósito dos
CM, os fatores a considerar para a sua definição, nomeadamente: a categoria
do alimento, o microrganismo e/ou as suas toxinas, os metabolitos e
a virulência, os valores limite, o plano de amostragem, o tipo de utilização
e consumo assim como o método de análise laboratorial, o ponto da cadeia
alimentar onde se aplica, as medidas a tomar no caso de resultados não satisfatórios
e a necessidade de revisão e atualização dos CM.The Working Group on Microbiological Occurrence on the Food Chain
(GTOMCA) of Por tFIR Program considered unanimously, as an important
need, the existence of a document with a selection and compilation
of existing legislation and information concerning microbiological
criteria (CM) as a tool to suppor t and facilitate its application by operators
and entities in the food sector to validate the acceptability of
the production process or the food safety or hygiene, the obser vance
to good manufacturing practices or the maintenance of the food
quality during its lifetime. So, GTOMCA developed a Guide for the establishment
of microbiological criteria in foodstuf fs, which was published
in April 2017, regarding the identification, characteristics and
purpose of microbiological criteria, the factors to consider for its definition,
identification, characteristics and purpose of CM and, as impor
tant factors to consider the food categor y, the micro-organism
and its metabolites, toxins and virulence factors, the limit values, the
sampling plan, the type of food consumption as well as the analy tical
method for testing the food, the point of the food chain where it is applied,
the measures to be taken in the event of unsatisfactor y results
and the need to review and update of the CM.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
A reassessment of the discrepancies in the annual variation of δD-H₂O in the tropical lower stratosphere between the MIPAS and ACE-FTS satellite data sets
The annual variation of δD in the tropical lower stratosphere is a critical indicator for the relative importance of different processes contributing to the transport of water vapour through the cold tropical tropopause region into the stratosphere. Distinct observational discrepancies of the δD annual variation were visible in the works of Steinwagner et al. (2010) and Randel et al. (2012). Steinwagner et al. (2010) analysed MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding) observations retrieved with the IMK/IAA (Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung in Karlsruhe, Germany, in collaboration with the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Granada, Spain) processor, while Randel et al. (2012) focused on ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer) observations. Here we reassess the discrepancies based on newer MIPAS (IMK/IAA) and ACE-FTS data sets, also showing for completeness results from SMR (Sub-Millimetre Radiometer) observations and a ECHAM/MESSy (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Hamburg and Modular Earth Submodel System) Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) simulation (Eichinger et al., 2015b). Similar to the old analyses, the MIPAS data set yields a pronounced annual variation (maximum about 75 ‰), while that derived from the ACE-FTS data set is rather weak (maximum about 25 ‰). While all data sets exhibit the phase progression typical for the tape recorder, the annual maximum in the ACE-FTS data set precedes that in the MIPAS data set by 2 to 3 months. We critically consider several possible reasons for the observed discrepancies, focusing primarily on the MIPAS data set. We show that the δD annual variation in the MIPAS data up to an altitude of 40 hPa is substantially impacted by a “start altitude effect”, i.e. dependency between the lowermost altitude where MIPAS retrievals are possible and retrieved data at higher altitudes. In itself this effect does not explain the differences with the ACE-FTS data. In addition, there is a mismatch in the vertical resolution of the MIPAS HDO and H2O data (being consistently better for HDO), which actually results in an artificial tape-recorder-like signal in δD. Considering these MIPAS characteristics largely removes any discrepancies between the MIPAS and ACE-FTS data sets and shows that the MIPAS data are consistent with a δD tape recorder signal with an amplitude of about 25 ‰ in the lowermost stratosphere
Comparison of HDO measurements from Envisat/MIPAS with observations by Odin/SMR and SCISAT/ACE-FTS
Euclid preparation. XXXI. The effect of the variations in photometric passbands on photometric-redshift accuracy
The technique of photometric redshifts has become essential for the
exploitation of multi-band extragalactic surveys. While the requirements on
photo-zs for the study of galaxy evolution mostly pertain to the precision and
to the fraction of outliers, the most stringent requirement in their use in
cosmology is on the accuracy, with a level of bias at the sub-percent level for
the Euclid cosmology mission. A separate, and challenging, calibration process
is needed to control the bias at this level of accuracy. The bias in photo-zs
has several distinct origins that may not always be easily overcome. We
identify here one source of bias linked to the spatial or time variability of
the passbands used to determine the photometric colours of galaxies. We first
quantified the effect as observed on several well-known photometric cameras,
and found in particular that, due to the properties of optical filters, the
redshifts of off-axis sources are usually overestimated. We show using simple
simulations that the detailed and complex changes in the shape can be mostly
ignored and that it is sufficient to know the mean wavelength of the passbands
of each photometric observation to correct almost exactly for this bias; the
key point is that this mean wavelength is independent of the spectral energy
distribution of the source}. We use this property to propose a correction that
can be computationally efficiently implemented in some photo-z algorithms, in
particular template-fitting. We verified that our algorithm, implemented in the
new photo-z code Phosphoros, can effectively reduce the bias in photo-zs on
real data using the CFHTLS T007 survey, with an average measured bias Delta z
over the redshift range 0.4<z<0.7 decreasing by about 0.02, specifically from
Delta z~0.04 to Delta z~0.02 around z=0.5. Our algorithm is also able to
produce corrected photometry for other applications.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures; Accepted for publication in A&
Euclid Preparation. XXVIII. Forecasts for ten different higher-order weak lensing statistics
Recent cosmic shear studies have shown that higher-order statistics (HOS)
developed by independent teams now outperform standard two-point estimators in
terms of statistical precision thanks to their sensitivity to the non-Gaussian
features of large-scale structure. The aim of the Higher-Order Weak Lensing
Statistics (HOWLS) project is to assess, compare, and combine the constraining
power of ten different HOS on a common set of -like mocks, derived from
N-body simulations. In this first paper of the HOWLS series, we computed the
nontomographic (, ) Fisher information for the
one-point probability distribution function, peak counts, Minkowski
functionals, Betti numbers, persistent homology Betti numbers and heatmap, and
scattering transform coefficients, and we compare them to the shear and
convergence two-point correlation functions in the absence of any systematic
bias. We also include forecasts for three implementations of higher-order
moments, but these cannot be robustly interpreted as the Gaussian likelihood
assumption breaks down for these statistics. Taken individually, we find that
each HOS outperforms the two-point statistics by a factor of around two in the
precision of the forecasts with some variations across statistics and
cosmological parameters. When combining all the HOS, this increases to a
times improvement, highlighting the immense potential of HOS for cosmic shear
cosmological analyses with . The data used in this analysis are
publicly released with the paper.Comment: 33 pages, 24 figures, main results in Fig. 19 & Table 5, version
published in A&
Euclid preparation. TBD. Forecast impact of super-sample covariance on 3x2pt analysis with Euclid
Deviations from Gaussianity in the distribution of the fields probed by
large-scale structure surveys generate additional terms in the data covariance
matrix, increasing the uncertainties in the measurement of the cosmological
parameters. Super-sample covariance (SSC) is among the largest of these
non-Gaussian contributions, with the potential to significantly degrade
constraints on some of the parameters of the cosmological model under study --
especially for weak lensing cosmic shear. We compute and validate the impact of
SSC on the forecast uncertainties on the cosmological parameters for the Euclid
photometric survey, obtained with a Fisher matrix analysis, both considering
the Gaussian covariance alone and adding the SSC term -- computed through the
public code PySSC. The photometric probes are considered in isolation and
combined in the `32pt' analysis. We find the SSC impact to be
non-negligible -- halving the Figure of Merit of the dark energy parameters
(, ) in the 32pt case and substantially increasing the
uncertainties on , and for cosmic shear;
photometric galaxy clustering, on the other hand, is less affected due to the
lower probe response. The relative impact of SSC does not show significant
changes under variations of the redshift binning scheme, while it is smaller
for weak lensing when marginalising over the multiplicative shear bias nuisance
parameters, which also leads to poorer constraints on the cosmological
parameters. Finally, we explore how the use of prior information on the shear
and galaxy bias changes the SSC impact. Improving shear bias priors does not
have a significant impact, while galaxy bias must be calibrated to sub-percent
level to increase the Figure of Merit by the large amount needed to achieve the
value when SSC is not included.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figure
Euclid preparation. XXIX. Water ice in spacecraft part I: The physics of ice formation and contamination
Molecular contamination is a well-known problem in space flight. Water is the
most common contaminant and alters numerous properties of a cryogenic optical
system. Too much ice means that Euclid's calibration requirements and science
goals cannot be met. Euclid must then be thermally decontaminated, a long and
risky process. We need to understand how iced optics affect the data and when a
decontamination is required. This is essential to build adequate calibration
and survey plans, yet a comprehensive analysis in the context of an
astrophysical space survey has not been done before.
In this paper we look at other spacecraft with well-documented outgassing
records, and we review the formation of thin ice films. A mix of amorphous and
crystalline ices is expected for Euclid. Their surface topography depends on
the competing energetic needs of the substrate-water and the water-water
interfaces, and is hard to predict with current theories. We illustrate that
with scanning-tunnelling and atomic-force microscope images.
Industrial tools exist to estimate contamination, and we must understand
their uncertainties. We find considerable knowledge errors on the diffusion and
sublimation coefficients, limiting the accuracy of these tools. We developed a
water transport model to compute contamination rates in Euclid, and find
general agreement with industry estimates. Tests of the Euclid flight hardware
in space simulators did not pick up contamination signals; our in-flight
calibrations observations will be much more sensitive.
We must understand the link between the amount of ice on the optics and its
effect on Euclid's data. Little research is available about this link, possibly
because other spacecraft can decontaminate easily, quenching the need for a
deeper understanding. In our second paper we quantify the various effects of
iced optics on spectrophotometric data.Comment: 35 pages, 22 figures, A&A in press. Changes to previous version:
language edits, added Z. Bolag as author in the arxiv PDF (was listed in the
ASCII author list and in the journal PDF, but not in the arxiv PDF). This
version is identical to the journal versio
Euclid preparation. TBD. The effect of linear redshift-space distortions in photometric galaxy clustering and its cross-correlation with cosmic shear
Cosmological surveys planned for the current decade will provide us with
unparalleled observations of the distribution of galaxies on cosmic scales, by
means of which we can probe the underlying large-scale structure (LSS) of the
Universe. This will allow us to test the concordance cosmological model and its
extensions. However, precision pushes us to high levels of accuracy in the
theoretical modelling of the LSS observables, in order not to introduce biases
in the estimation of cosmological parameters. In particular, effects such as
redshift-space distortions (RSD) can become relevant in the computation of
harmonic-space power spectra even for the clustering of the photometrically
selected galaxies, as it has been previously shown in literature studies. In
this work, we investigate the contribution of linear RSD, as formulated in the
Limber approximation by arXiv:1902.07226, in forecast cosmological analyses
with the photometric galaxy sample of the Euclid survey, in order to assess
their impact and quantify the bias on the measurement of cosmological
parameters that neglecting such an effect would cause. We perform this task by
producing mock power spectra for photometric galaxy clustering and weak
lensing, as expected to be obtained from the Euclid survey. We then use a
Markov chain Monte Carlo approach to obtain the posterior distributions of
cosmological parameters from such simulated observations. We find that
neglecting the linear RSD leads to significant biases both when using galaxy
correlations alone and when these are combined with cosmic shear, in the
so-called 32pt approach. Such biases can be as large as
-equivalent when assuming an underlying CDM cosmology. When
extending the cosmological model to include the equation-of-state parameters of
dark energy, we find that the extension parameters can be shifted by more than
.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. To be submitted in A&
Euclid preparation TBD. The effect of baryons on the Halo Mass Function
The Euclid photometric survey of galaxy clusters stands as a powerful
cosmological tool, with the capacity to significantly propel our understanding
of the Universe. Despite being sub-dominant to dark matter and dark energy, the
baryonic component in our Universe holds substantial influence over the
structure and mass of galaxy clusters. This paper presents a novel model to
precisely quantify the impact of baryons on galaxy cluster virial halo masses,
using the baryon fraction within a cluster as proxy for their effect.
Constructed on the premise of quasi-adiabaticity, the model includes two
parameters calibrated using non-radiative cosmological hydrodynamical
simulations and a single large-scale simulation from the Magneticum set, which
includes the physical processes driving galaxy formation. As a main result of
our analysis, we demonstrate that this model delivers a remarkable one percent
relative accuracy in determining the virial dark matter-only equivalent mass of
galaxy clusters, starting from the corresponding total cluster mass and baryon
fraction measured in hydrodynamical simulations. Furthermore, we demonstrate
that this result is robust against changes in cosmological parameters and
against varying the numerical implementation of the sub-resolution physical
processes included in the simulations. Our work substantiates previous claims
about the impact of baryons on cluster cosmology studies. In particular, we
show how neglecting these effects would lead to biased cosmological constraints
for a Euclid-like cluster abundance analysis. Importantly, we demonstrate that
uncertainties associated with our model, arising from baryonic corrections to
cluster masses, are sub-dominant when compared to the precision with which
mass-observable relations will be calibrated using Euclid, as well as our
current understanding of the baryon fraction within galaxy clusters.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables, 1 appendix, abstract abridged for
arXiv submissio
Euclid preparation. XXXI. Performance assessment of the NISP Red-Grism through spectroscopic simulations for the Wide and Deep surveys
This work focuses on the pilot run of a simulation campaign aimed at
investigating the spectroscopic capabilities of the Euclid Near-Infrared
Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP), in terms of continuum and emission line
detection in the context of galaxy evolutionary studies. To this purpose we
constructed, emulated, and analysed the spectra of 4992 star-forming galaxies
at using the NISP pixel-level simulator. We built the
spectral library starting from public multi-wavelength galaxy catalogues, with
value-added information on spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting results,
and from Bruzual and Charlot (2003) stellar population templates. Rest-frame
optical and near-IR nebular emission lines were included using empirical and
theoretical relations. We inferred the 3.5 NISP red grism spectroscopic
detection limit of the continuum measured in the band for star-forming
galaxies with a median disk half-light radius of \ang{;;0.4} at magnitude ABmag for the Euclid Wide Survey and at ABmag for the Euclid Deep Survey. We found a very good
agreement with the red grism emission line detection limit requirement for the
Wide and Deep surveys. We characterised the effect of the galaxy shape on the
detection capability of the red grism and highlighted the degradation of the
quality of the extracted spectra as the disk size increases. In particular, we
found that the extracted emission line signal to noise ratio (SNR) drops by
45 when the disk size ranges from \ang{;;0.25} to \ang{;;1}. These
trends lead to a correlation between the emission line SNR and the stellar mass
of the galaxy and we demonstrate the effect in a stacking analysis unveiling
emission lines otherwise too faint to detect.Comment: 23 pages, 21 figure
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