Minimum mass of galaxies from BEC or scalar field dark matter

Many problems of cold dark matter models such as the cusp problem and the missing satellite problem can be alleviated, if galactic halo dark matter particles are ultra-light scalar particles and in Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), thanks to a characteristic length scale of the particles. We show that this finite length scale of the dark matter can also explain the recently observed common central mass of the Milky Way satellites ($\sim 10^7 M_\odot$) independent of their luminosity, if the mass of the dark matter particle is about $10^{-22} eV$.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, accepted in JCA

Numerical evidence for `multi-scalar stars'

We present a class of general relativistic soliton-like solutions composed of multiple minimally coupled, massive, real scalar fields which interact only through the gravitational field. We describe a two-parameter family of solutions we call ``phase-shifted boson stars'' (parameterized by central density rho_0 and phase delta), which are obtained by solving the ordinary differential equations associated with boson stars and then altering the phase between the real and imaginary parts of the field. These solutions are similar to boson stars as well as the oscillating soliton stars found by Seidel and Suen [E. Seidel and W.M. Suen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 1659 (1991)]; in particular, long-time numerical evolutions suggest that phase-shifted boson stars are stable. Our results indicate that scalar soliton-like solutions are perhaps more generic than has been previously thought.Comment: Revtex. 4 pages with 4 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Generation of femtosecond paraxial beams with arbitrary spatial distribution

We present an approach to generate paraxial laser beams with arbitrary spatial distribution in the femtosecond time regime. The proposed technique is based upon a pair of volume phase holographic gratings working in parallel arrangement. It exploits the spatial coherence properties of the incoming laser beam in a compact and robust setup that mitigates angular and spatial chirp. The gratings were recorded in a photopolymerizable glass with a high optical damage threshold and a large optical throughput. Setup performance is studied and experimentally demonstrated by generating Laguerre-Gaussian femtosecond pulses. © 2010 Optical Society of America.We thank Fransisco del Monte for valuable advice and CAI-UCM facilities. The financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under projects TEC 2008-04105, CTQ2008-02578/BQU and Consolider SAUUL CSD2007-00013 is acknowledged. M. P. H.-G. and P. V. acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (Brazil) for financial support, respectively.Peer Reviewe

Electrochemical sensing of ecstasy with electropolymerized molecularly imprinted poly(o-phenylenediamine) polymer on the surface of disposable screen-printed carbon electrodes

This study demonstrates the ability of an electrochemical sensor based on molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) to selectively quantify 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), also known as ecstasy, in biological samples. The device was constructed using ortho-phenylenediamine (o-PD) as the MIP’s building monomer at the surface of a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE). The step-by-step construction of the SPCE-MIP sensor was characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations and modelling were performed not only to understand template-monomer interaction but also to comprehend which possible polymer structure - linear or ramified poly(o-PD) – indeed interacts with the analyte. The prepared sensor worked by directly measuring the MDMA oxidation signal through square-wave voltammetry (SWV) after an incubation period of 10 min. Several parameters were optimized, such as the monomer/template ratio, the number of electropolymerization scanning cycles, and the incubation period, to obtain the best sensing efficiency. Optimized sensors exhibited suitable selectivity, repeatability (2.6%), reproducibility (7.7%) and up to one month of stable response. A linear range up to 0.2 mmol L−1 was found with an r2 of 0.9990 and a limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of 0.79 and 2.6 μmol L−1 (0.15 and 0.51 μg mL−1), respectively. The proposed sensor was successfully applied to human blood serum and urine samples, showing its potential for application in medicine and in forensic sciences.This work received financial support from FCT/MCTES through national funds and was co-financed by FEDER, under Partnership Agreement PT2020-UID/QUI/50006/2013-POCI/01/0145/FEDER/007265. RASC wishes to acknowledge FCT for her PhD fellowship (PD/BD/127797/2016) from the PhD Programme in Medicines and Pharmaceutical Innovation (i3DU). AACB (grants 2014/25770-6 and 2015/01491-3) and LMG (grant 2018/14425-7) thank the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) for financial support. AACB (grant 309715/2017-2) also thanks the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) for financial support and fellowships. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Secondary forest fragments offer important carbon‐biodiversity co‐benefits

Tropical forests store large amounts of carbon and high biodiversity, but are being degraded at alarming rates. The emerging global Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) agenda seeks to limit global climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the growth of trees. In doing so, it may also protect biodiversity as a free co‐benefit, which is vital given the massive shortfall in funding for biodiversity conservation. We investigated whether natural forest regeneration on abandoned pastureland offers such co‐benefits, focusing for the first time on the recovery of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity of trees, including the recovery of threatened and endemic species richness, within isolated secondary forest fragments. We focused on the globally threatened Brazilian Atlantic Forest, where commitments have been made to restore one million hectares under FLR. Three decades after land abandonment, regenerating forests had recovered ~20% (72 Mg/ha−1) of the above‐ground carbon stocks of a primary forest, with cattle pasture containing just 3% of stocks relative to primary forests. Over this period, secondary forest recovered ~76% of taxonomic, 84% of phylogenetic and 96% of functional diversity found within primary forests. In addition, secondary forests had on average recovered 65% of threatened and ~30% of endemic species richness of primary Atlantic forest. Finally, we find positive relationships between carbon stock and tree diversity recovery. Our results emphasize that secondary forest fragments offer co‐benefits under FLR and other carbon‐based payments for ecosystem service schemes (e.g. carbon enhancements under REDD +). They also indicate that even isolated patches of secondary forest could help to mitigate climate change and the biodiversity extinction crisis by recovering species of high conservation concern and improving landscape connectivity

Combination of magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography and conventional magnetic resonance imaging for the diagnosis of bile duct stenosis

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) for detecting the presence of bile duct stenosis. To evaluate the ability of the MRI and MRCP to determine the site of stenosis. To evaluate the ability of MRI and MRCP to differentiate between benign and malignant bile duct stenosis

Closed circuits : kinship, neighborhood and incarceration in urban Portugal

The notion that prisons are a ‘world apart’, with their walls severing prisoners from their external relationships, and incarceration an interruption, ‘time away’ spent in a separate social universe, has provided an adequate framework for understanding the social realities of imprisonment in the past. But it has also created an analytical dead angle that prevents us from identifying the ramifying social effects of concentrated incarceration upon both the prison and heavily penalized lower-class neighborhoods. This article addresses these effects with data from an ethnographic revisit of a major women’s prison in Portugal, where the recomposition of the inmate population that has accompanied the rapid inflation of the country’s carceral population is especially pronounced and entails the activation of wide-ranging carceralized networks bringing kinship and neighborhood into the prison as well as the prison into the domestic world. The analysis focuses on the ways whereby these constellations have transformed the experience of confinement and the texture of correctional life, calling for a reconsideration of the theoretical status of the prison as a ‘total institution’ and for exploring anew the boundary that separates it (or not) from outside worlds.Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research