Multiple Current States of Two Phase-Coupled Superconducting Rings

The states of two phase-coupled superconducting rings have been investigated. Multiple current states have been revealed in the dependence of the critical current on the magnetic field. The performed calculations of the critical currents and energy states in a magnetic field have made it possible to interpret the experiment as the measurement of energy states into which the system comes with different probabilities because of the equilibrium and non-equilibrium noises upon the transition from the resistive state to the superconducting state during the measurement of the critical currentComment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Numerical analysis of the radio-frequency single-electron transistor operation

We have analyzed numerically the response and noise-limited charge sensitivity of a radio-frequency single-electron transistor (RF-SET) in a non-superconducting state using the orthodox theory. In particular, we have studied the performance dependence on the quality factor Q of the tank circuit for Q both below and above the value corresponding to the impedance matching between the coaxial cable and SET.Comment: 14 page

Constraining the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch phase with resolved stellar populations in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Reliable models of the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase are of critical importance across astrophysics, including our interpretation of the spectral energy distribution of galaxies, cosmic dust production, and enrichment of the interstellar medium. With the aim of improving sets of stellar isochrones that include a detailed description of the TP-AGB phase, we extend our recent calibration of the AGB population in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) to the more metal-rich Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We model the LMC stellar populations with the trilegal code, using the spatially resolved star formation history derived from the VISTA survey. We characterize the efficiency of the third dredge-up by matching the star counts and the Ks-band luminosity functions of the AGB stars identified in the LMC. In line with previous findings, we confirm that, compared to the SMC, the third dredge-up in AGB stars of the LMC is somewhat less efficient, as a consequence of the higher metallicity. The predicted range of initial mass of C-rich stars is between Mi 48 1.7 and 3 M 99 at Zi = 0.008. We show how the inclusion of new opacity data in the carbon star spectra will improve the performance of our models. We discuss the predicted lifetimes, integrated luminosities, and mass-loss rate distributions of the calibrated models. The results of our calibration are included in updated stellar isochrones publicly available

Constraining the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch phase with resolved stellar populations in the Small Magellanic Cloud

The thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) experienced by low-and intermediate-mass stars is one of the most uncertain phases of stellar evolution and the models need to be calibrated with the aid of observations. To this purpose, we couple high-quality observations of resolved stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with detailed stellar population synthesis simulations computed with the TRILEGAL code. The strength of our approach relies on the detailed spatially resolved star formation history of the SMC, derived from the deep near-infrared photometry of the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds, as well as on the capability to quickly and accurately explore a wide variety of parameters and effects with the COLIBRI code for the TP-AGB evolution. Adopting a well-characterized set of observations - star counts and luminosity functions - we set up a calibration cycle along which we iteratively change a few key parameters of the TP-AGB models until we eventually reach a good fit to the observations. Our work leads to identify two best-fitting models that mainly differ in the efficiencies of the third dredge-up and mass-loss in TP-AGB stars with initial masses larger than about 3 M-circle dot. On the basis of these calibrated models, we provide a full characterization of the TP-AGB stellar population in the SMC in terms of stellar parameters (initial masses, C/O ratios, carbon excess, mass-loss rates). Extensive tables of isochrones including these improved models are publicly available

Constraining the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch phase with resolved stellar populations in the Small Magellanic Cloud

The thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) experienced by low- and intermediate-mass stars is one of the most uncertain phases of stellar evolution and the models need to be calibrated with the aid of observations. To this purpose, we couple high-quality observations of resolved stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with detailed stellar population synthesis simulations computed with the TRILEGAL code. The strength of our approach relies on the detailed spatially resolved star formation history of the SMC, derived from the deep near-infrared photometry of the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds, as well as on the capability to quickly and accurately explore a wide variety of parameters and effects with the COLIBRI code for the TP-AGB evolution. Adopting a well-characterized set of observations - star counts and luminosity functions - we set up a calibration cycle along which we iteratively change a few key parameters of the TP-AGB models until we eventually reach a good fit to the observations. Our work leads to identify two best-fitting models that mainly differ in the efficiencies of the third dredge-up and mass-loss in TP-AGB stars with initial masses larger than about 3 M⊙. On the basis of these calibrated models, we provide a full characterization of the TP-AGB stellar population in the SMC in terms of stellar parameters (initial masses, C/O ratios, carbon excess, mass-loss rates). Extensive tables of isochrones including these improved models are publicly available.This work is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant funding scheme (project STARKEY, G.A. n. 615604). We thank the entire VMC team for producing the spaceresolved SFH used in this work and J. Cummings and J. Kalirai for kindly providing us with their IFMR data. MRLC acknowledges funding from the ERC under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (G.A. n. 682115). Many thanks go to C. Maraston, S. Charlot, and G. Bruzual for providing us with their stellar population synthesis models

A new generation of Parsec-Colibri stellar isochrones including the TP-AGB phase

We introduce a new generation of PARSEC-COLIBRI stellar isochrones that includes a detailed treatment of the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase, covering a wide range of initial metallicities (0.0001. < Z(i) < 0.06). Compared to previous releases, the main novelties and improvements are use of new TP-AGB tracks and related atmosphere models and spectra for M and C-type stars; inclusion of the surface H+He +CNO abundances in the isochrone tables, accounting for the effects of diffusion, dredge-up episodes and hot-bottom burning; inclusion of complete thermal pulse cycles, with a complete description of the in-cycle changes in the stellar parameters; new pulsation models to describe the long-period variability in the fundamental and firstovertone modes; and new dust models that follow the growth of the grains during the AGB evolution, in combination with radiative transfer calculations for the reprocessing of the photospheric emission. Overall, these improvements are expected to lead to a more consistent and detailed description of properties of TP-AGB stars expected in resolved stellar populations, especially in regard to their mean photometric properties from optical to mid-infrared wavelengths. We illustrate the expected numbers of TP-AGB stars of different types in stellar populations covering a wide range of ages and initial metallicities, providing further details on the "C-star island" that appears at intermediate values of age and metallicity, and about the AGB-boosting effect that occurs at ages close to 1.6-Gyr for populations of all metallicities. The isochrones are available through a new dedicated web server

Evaluation of the implementation of a clinical pharmacy service on an acute internal medicine ward in Italy

© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Springer Nature. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Background: Successful implementation of clinical pharmacy services is associated with improvement of appropriateness of prescribing. Both high clinical significance of pharmacist interventions and their high acceptance rate mean that potential harm to patients could be avoided. Evidence shows that low acceptance rate of pharmacist interventions can be associated with lack of communication between pharmacists and the rest of the healthcare team. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a structured communication strategy on acceptance rate of interventions made by a clinical pharmacist implementing a ward-based clinical pharmacy service targeting elderly patients at high risk of drug-related problems. Characteristics of interventions made to improve appropriateness of prescribing, their clinical significance and intervention acceptance rate by doctors were recorded. Methods: A clinical pharmacy intervention study was conducted between September 2013 and December 2013 in an internal medicine ward of a teaching hospital. A trained clinical pharmacist provided pharmaceutical care to 94 patients aged over 70 years. The clinical pharmacist used the following communication and marketing tools to implement the service described: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely (SMART) goals; Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA) model. Results: A total of 740 interventions were made by the clinical pharmacist. The most common drug classes involved in interventions were: antibacterials for systemic use (11.1%) and anti-parkinson drugs (10.8%). The main drug-related problem categories triggering interventions were: no specific problem (15.9%) and prescription writing error (12.0%). A total of 93.2% of interventions were fully accepted by physicians. After assessment by an external panel 63.2% of interventions (96 interventions/ per month) were considered of moderate clinical significance and 23.4% (36 interventions/ per month) of major clinical significance. The most frequent interventions were to educate a healthcare professional (20.4%) and change dose (16.1%). Conclusions: To our knowledge this is the first study evaluating the effect of a structured communication strategy on acceptance rate of pharmacist interventions. Pharmaceutical care delivered by the clinical pharmacist is likely to have had beneficial outcomes. Clinical pharmacy services like the one described should be implemented widely to increase patient safety.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Bilinear amplitude approximation for piecewise-linear oscillators

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97069/1/AIAA2012-1793.pd