The Distribution of X-ray Dips with Orbital Phase in Cygnus X-1

We present results of a comprehensive study of the distribution of absorption dips with orbital phase in Cygnus X-1. Firstly, the distribution was obtained using archival data from all major X-ray observatories and corrected for the selection effect that phase zero (superior conjunction of the black hole) has been preferentially observed. Dip occurrence was seen to vary strongly with orbital phase \phi, with a peak at \phi ~ 0.95, i.e. was not symmetric about phase zero. Secondly, the RXTE ASM has provided continuous coverage of the Low State of Cygnus X-1 since Sept. 1996, and we have selected dip data based on increases in hardness ratio. The distribution, with much increased numbers of dip events, confirms that the peak is at \phi ~ 0.95, and we report the discovery of a second peak at \phi ~ 0.6. We attribute this peak to absorption in an accretion stream from the companion star HDE 226868. We have estimated the ionization parameter at different positions showing that radiative acceleration of the wind is suppressed by photoionization in particular regions in the binary system. To obtain the variation of column density with phase, we make estimates of neutral wind density for the extreme cases that acceleration of the wind is totally suppressed, or not suppressed at all. An accurate description will lie between these extremes. In each case, a strong variation of column density with orbital phase resulted, similar to the variation of dip occurrence. This provides evidence that formation of the blobs in the wind which lead to absorption dips depends on the density of the neutral component in the wind, suggesting possible mechanisms for blob growth.Comment: 9 pages, Latex, 7 ps figures. accepted by MNRA

An Exploratory Study of Adult Baby-Diaper Lovers’ Characteristics in an Italian Online Sample

Background: Knowledge of the Adult Baby-Diaper Lovers (ABDL) phenomena is quite recent and there are, of yet, few studies on this phenomenon. Aim: This study was conceived to investigate the functions of ABDL behaviours and the characteristics of ABDL in an online Italian community sample. We hypothesized that ABDL phenomena were associated with general psychological maladjustment and with an experience of parental rejection during childhood. It was also assumed that there would be differences in ABDL profiles based on the age of appearance of their first Adult Baby-Diaper Lover (ABDL) fantasies. Method: An internet-based study was conducted and it involved 38 adults aged between 18 and 74 years (M = 34.95; SD = 12.25). Participants were first given an ad hoc questionnaire, which was devised to obtain information about the anamnestic variables related to ABDL. Then, the participants filled out the Cognitive Behaviour Assessment 2.0 battery to obtain anamnestic information regarding their psychological, medical, and personal history and to evaluate primary psychological dimensions in clinical practice. Finally, they filled out the Adult Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire, to evaluate their recollections of parental perceived rejection, and the Personality Assessment Questionnaire, to evaluate the primary psychological aspects related to parental rejection. Results: The data indicated that adults with ABDL showed the presence of anxious traits and recollections of parental rejection during childhood. Moreover, associations were observed between current or previous ABDL phenomena enuresis and negative mood states. Conclusion: Specific kinds of parental modes, anxiety traits, and enuresis seem to be the source of ABDL interests. Moreover, ADBL behaviours seem to assume different functions and meanings

The Role of Family Interactions in HIV Risk for Gay and Bisexual Male Youth: A Pilot Study

Despite ongoing prevention efforts, young gay and bisexual males continue to engage in sexual behaviors that place them at disproportionately high risk for HIV infection. Parental monitoring and parent-child communication have been found to be associated with low-risk sexual behavior among heterosexual youth, but the role of family interactions for gay and bisexual male youth remains largely unexplored. To help address this gap, an exploratory study of recorded and coded interactions among 35 gay and bisexual youth and their parents was done to begin to identify which types of family interactions were associated with youth high-risk sexual behavior. Parent-son communication that was mutual and low in conflict was found to be most prevalent among youth with the fewest reported high-risk sexual behaviors. These preliminary findings, along with a case example, demonstrate how social workers can coach families to engage in productive and potentially influential interactions that reduce HIV-related sexual behaviors among young gay and bisexual males

Petrological and chronological considerations on the hercynian granitic rocks from Galicia (NW Spain)

[Resumen] Se realiza un estudio sobre más de 600 análisis químicos correspondientes a los diversos grupos de granitoides hercínicos de Galicia, y se establecen valores medios representativos para la composición química mayoritaria de estos grupos. La comparación con las medias previamente establecidas para el N. O. de Galicia, permite observar un desplazamiento hacia términos composicionales más ácidospara el conjunto de los granitoides sincinemáticos más profundos, que resulta notablemente más acentuado en el grupo de los granitoides sincinemáticos predominantemente biotíticos. Para los granitoides postcinemáticos, las desviaciones observadas son en cambio poco significativas. El examen de los datos normativos medios, pone en evidencia un carácter peralumínico generalizado para todo el conjunto, apreciándose no obstante un drástico descenso en el contenido en corindón para los granitoides postcinemáticos, que marca una distribución bimodal para este componente normativo. La clasificación petrológica con base en la mineralogía normativa pone de manifiesto un espectro composicional que fluctúa esencialmente entre granitos y monzogranitos, con muy escasa representación de los términos granodior1ticos. La variabilidad observada para los elementos mayores más signiflcativos presenta pautas poco dispersivas. Los espectros de tierras raras tienen una configuración muy similar para los granitoides precoces predominantemente biotíticos, los granitos de dos micas sincinemáticos y los granitoides inhomogéneos, con anomalías negativas de Eu poco acentuadas. Por el contrario, los granitoides tardicinemáticos someros y los granitoides post-cinemáticos, presentan también espectros bastante similares entre sí, con anomalís negativas de Eu que pueden ser considerables. Las dataciones cronológicas efectuadas por el método de Rb-Sr en roca total en algunos de los plutones post-cinemáticos se encuentran en un intervalo aproximado de 275-287 m. a., mientras que la mayoría de las dataciones sobre unidades sincinemáticas de dos micas y predominantemente biotíticas fluctúan entre 295 y 323 m. a., aunque se encuentran algunos datos fuera de este entorno, que precisan futuras verificaciones..[Abstract] A survey over more than 600 chemical analysis of Hercynian granitic rocks from Galicia is presented, and a new set of representative mean compositional values of the main groups is calculated. In general, these new mean values are richer in Si02 than the previously available ones. This difference is more conspicous in the biotite rich synkinematic group, and is minium in the postkynematic granitoids. The average normative compostion, shows a systematic peraluminous character for aH the granitoids. However, the group of postkynematic granitoids, are poorer in normative corundum than the other groups, which results in a bimodal distribution of this normative component. The normative petrological c1assification shows a compositional spectrúm ranging mainly from granites to monzogranites. The Granodioritic rocks are very scarce. The variation trends for the main mayor elements display patterns with little dispersion. The REE spectra for the biotite rich synkinematic granites, two mica synkinematic granites and inhomogenous granites are very similar, and show negligible Eu anomalies. By contrast, the shaHow level intrusion late-kynematic and postkynematic granites, display conspicous Eu anomalies and have similar spectra patterns, but different from the previously referred ones. Whole-rock-Rb-Sr ages for the postkynematic plutons range from 287 to 275 M. y. The majority of the data the synkinematic units range from 323 to 295 M. y. However, sorne chronological data faH out of these intervals, showing the need of further studies

Estudio de la flora muscinal del hayedo de Montejo de la Sierra (provincia de Madrid)

Sin resume

Petrological and geochronological study of the postkinematic pluton of Neira (Lugo, Spain)

[Resumen] El plutón granítico de Neira intruye discordantemente en metasedimentos precámbricos y cámbricos y en granitoides sincinemáticos de dos micas, con posterioridad al desarrollo de las fases deformativas hercínicas principales. En este macizo plutónico se distinguen dos unidades intrusivas principales y el espectro litológico fundamental fluctua entre granodioritas biotíticas y leucogranitos moscovíticos-biotíticos, con predominio de las variedades graníticas (adamellíticas). Estos términos petrol6gicos están relacionados entre sí a través de un proceso evolutivo controlado fundamentalmente por cristalización fraccionada, desempeñando un importante papel los minerales accesorios. La datación de esta unidad plutónica por el procedimiento Rb-Sr en roca total, proporciona una edad de 287 ± 5 Ma, con una relaci6n inicial 87 Sr /86 Sr de 0.7074 ± 0.0004, que corresponde a un episodio intrusivo Estefaniense[Abstract] Neira granitic pluton intrudes in cambrian and precambrian metasediments and in synkinematic two mica granites after the development of the two main hercynian tectonic phases. Two intrusive units are distinguished in this pluton and its petrological composition ranges from biotitic granodiorites to two mica leucogranites, predominating biotitic adamellites. This suite of rocks is related by an evolution process mainly ruled by crystal fractionation. The accesory minerals play an important role in this process. Rb-Sr dating of this plutonic unit gives and age of 287 ± 5 M y and an initial 87 Sr/86 Sr = 0.7074 ± 0.0004

Both 3,3′,5-triiodothyronine and 3,5-diodo-L-thyronine are able to repair mitochondrial DNA damage but by different mechanisms

This study evaluated the effect of 3,5-diiodo-L-thyronine (T2) and 3,5,3′-triiodo-L-thyronine (T3) on rat liver mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) oxidative damage and repair and to investigate their ability to induce protective effects against oxidative stress. Control rats, rats receiving a daily injection of T2 (N+T2) for 1 week and rats receiving a daily injection of T3 (N+T3) for 1 week, were used throughout the study. In the liver, mtDNA oxidative damage [by measuring mtDNA lesion frequency and expression of DNA polymerase γ (POLG)], mtDNA copy number, mitochondrial biogenesis [by measuring amplification of mtDNA/nDNA and expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma co-activator 1-alpha (PGC-1α)], and oxidative stress [by measuring serum levels of 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG)] were detected. T2 reduces mtDNA lesion frequency and increases the expression of POLG, and it does not change the mtDNA copy number, the expression of PGC-1α, or the serum levels of 8-OHdG. Therefore, T2, by stimulating the major mtDNA repair enzyme, maintains genomic integrity. Similar to T2, T3 decreases mtDNA lesion frequency but increases the serum levels of 8-OHdG, and it decreases the expression of POLG. Moreover, as expected, T3 increases the mtDNA copy number and the expression of PGC-1α. Thus, in T3-treated rats, the increase of 8-OHdG and the decrease of POLG indicate that there is increased oxidative damage and that the decreased mtDNA lesion frequency might be a consequence of increased mitochondrial biogenesis. These data demonstrate that both T2 and T3 are able to decrease in the liver mtDNA oxidative damage, but they act via different mechanisms

High surface area mesoporous silica nanoparticles with tunable size in the sub-micrometer regime: Insights on the size and porosity control mechanisms

Mesoporous silica nanostructures (MSNs) attract high interest due to their unique and tunable physical chemical features, including high specific surface area and large pore volume, that hold a great potential in a variety of fields, i.e., adsorption, catalysis, and biomedicine. An essential feature for biomedical application of MSNs is limiting MSN size in the sub-micrometer regime to control uptake and cell viability. However, careful size tuning in such a regime remains still chal-lenging. We aim to tackling this issue by developing two synthetic procedures for MSN size mod-ulation, performed in homogenous aqueous/ethanol solution or two-phase aqueous/ethyl acetate system. Both approaches make use of tetraethyl orthosilicate as precursor, in the presence of cetyltri-methylammonium bromide, as structure-directing agent, and NaOH, as base-catalyst. NaOH catalyzed syntheses usually require high temperature (>80 °C) and large reaction medium volume to trigger MSN formation and limit aggregation. Here, a successful modulation of MSNs size from 40 up to 150 nm is demonstrated to be achieved by purposely balancing synthesis conditions, being able, in addition, to keep reaction temperature not higher than 50 °C (30 °C and 50 °C, respectively) and reaction mixture volume low. Through a comprehensive and in-depth systematic morphologi-cal and structural investigation, the mechanism and kinetics that sustain the control of MSNs size in such low dimensional regime are defined, highlighting that modulation of size and pores of the structures are mainly mediated by base concentration, reaction time and temperature and ageing, for the homogenous phase approach, and by temperature for the two-phase synthesis. Finally, an in vitro study is performed on bEnd.3 cells to investigate on the cytotoxicity of the MNSs

Psychological impact of Social Networking Sites

The preponderance of social networking sites such as Facebook, Youtube and others, have altered the way in which people interact socially in the real world. In fact, much more can be said about the impact of these modern technologies on the basic structure of human personality: the id, ego, and super-ego. The paper proposes a psychosological theory that modifies Sigmund Freud’s (1923) basic relationships and interactions of the id, ego and super-ego in his Psycho-analytic Theory. It is claimed that an individual’s engagement with virtual reality (social networking) portends a segregation of the super-ego from the id and ego. In a virtual world, social interactions are not constrained by societal norms and standards (super-ego) so that the tendency is for the id (instincts and drives) to merge with the ego (what is real) and they become indistinguishable. The sociological implications of this theory are also explored in this paper

A Combined Study on the Use of the Child Behavior Checklist 1½–5 for Identifying Autism Spectrum Disorders at 18 Months

The capacity of the Child Behavior Checklist 1½–5 (CBCL 1½–5) to identify children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at 18 months was tested on 37 children clinically referred for ASD and 46 children at elevated likelihood of developing ASD due to having an affected brother/sister. At 30 months the clinically referred children all received a confirmatory diagnosis, and 10 out of 46 siblings received a diagnosis of ASD. CBCL 1½-5 profiles were compared with a group of matched children with typical development (effect of cognitive level controlled for). The capacity of the CBCL 1½-5 DSM Oriented-Pervasive Developmental Problems scale to differentiate correctly between children diagnosed with ASD and children with typical development appeared dependent on group ascertainment methodology