Direct constraints on the top-Higgs coupling from the 8 TeV LHC data

The LHC experiments have analyzed the 7 and 8 TeV LHC data in the main Higgs production and decay modes. Current analyses only loosely constrain an anomalous top-Higgs coupling in a direct way. In order to strongly constrain this coupling, the Higgs-top associated production is reanalyzed. Thanks to the strong destructive interference in the t-channel for standard model couplings, this process can be very sensitive to both the magnitude and the sign of a non-standard top-Higgs coupling. We project the sensitivity to anomalous couplings to the integrated luminosity of 50 fb^{-1}, corresponding to the data collected by the ATLAS and CMS experiments in 7 and 8 TeV collisions, as of 2012. We show that the combination of di-photon and multi-lepton signatures, originating from different combinations of the top and Higgs decay modes, can be a potential probe to constrain a large portion of the negative top-Higgs coupling space presently allowed by the ATLAS and CMS global fits.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures; a few reducible backgrounds included, final results unchanged, to appear in JHE

Conceptual Study of a Thermal Storage Module for Solar Power Plants with Parabolic Trough Concentrators

The thermal storage technology (TSE) has a relevant strategic importance for the success of solar plants devoted to electric energy and heat production. The major benefits in the use of storage include higher efficiency and reduction in the mean levelled cost of the electric energy unit (LEC). Sensible heat storage systems within solid media have been identified, both technically and economically, as a very promising solution. The development of such a storage technology, adopting concrete, could reduce the specific cost to less than 20\u20ac per kWh of thermal capacity; additionally, such a solution is suitable for small-medium size plants with a power ranging from 1 MW to 5 MW, to be easily introduced in the Italian territory and with reduced operational and maintenance needs. In large size CSP systems, as the ARCHIMEDE plant built by ENEL with ENEA technology, a high temperature fluid storage (between 400 and 500\ub0C) is required. Such a temperature seems at present not adequate to allow for adopting concrete, whereas the production of concrete able to sustain 250-300\ub0C appears as a reachable objective. It is supposed to study a storage system characterised by a parallelepiped structure with appropriate section, selfbearing and supported on its major axis, as well as by a piping system directing the thermovector fluid within the cemented matrix

Fe-rich ferropericlase and magnesiow\ufcstite inclusions reflecting diamond formation rather than ambient mantle

At the core of many Earth-scale processes is the question of what the deep mantle is made of. The only direct samples from such extreme depths are diamonds and their inclusions. It is commonly assumed that these inclusions reflect ambient mantle or are syngenetic with diamond, but these assumptions are rarely tested. We have studied inclusion\u2013host growth relationships in two potentially superdeep diamonds from Juina (Brazil) containing nine inclusions of Fe-rich (XFe 480.33 to 650.64) ferropericlase-magnesiow\ufcstite (FM) by X-ray diffractometry, X-ray tomography, cathodoluminescence, electron backscatter diffraction, and electron microprobe analysis. The inclusions share a common [112] zone axis with their diamonds and have their major crystallographic axes within 3\ub0\u20138\ub0 of those of their hosts. This suggests a specific crystallographic orientation relationship (COR) resulting from interfacial energy minimization, disturbed by minor post-entrapment rotation around [112] due to plastic deformation. The observed COR and the relationships between inclusions and diamond growth zones imply that FM nucleated during the growth history of the diamond. Therefore, these inclusions may not provide direct information on the ambient mantle prior to diamond formation. Consequently, a \u201cnon-pyrolitic\u201d composition of the lower mantle is not required to explain the occurrence of Fe-rich FM inclusions in diamonds. By identifying examples of mineral inclusions that reflect the local environment of diamond formation and not ambient mantle, we provide both a cautionary tale and a means to test diamond-inclusion time relationships for proper application of inclusion studies to whole-mantle questions

An Individual Based Model of Wound Closure in Plant Stems

Wound closure in plant stems (after either fire or mechanical damage) is a complex, multi-scale process that involves the formation of a callous tissue (callus lips) responsible for cell proliferation and overgrowth at the injury edges, resulting in coverage of the scarred tissue. Investigating such phenomena, it is difficult to discriminate between cell-specific growth responses, associated with physiological adaptations, and cell proliferation reactions emerging from specific cambium dynamics due to changes in mechanical constrains. In particular, the effects of cell–cell mechanical interactions on the wound closure process have never been investigated. To understand to what extent callus lip formation depends on the intra-tissue mechanical balance of forces, we built a simplified individual-based model (IBM) of cell division and differentiation in a generic woody tissue. Despite its simplified physiological assumptions, the model was capable to simulate callus hyperproliferation and wound healing as an emergent property of the mechanical interactions between individual cells. The model output suggests that the existence of a scar alone does constrain the growth trajectories of the remaining proliferating cells around the injury, thus resulting in the wound closure, ultimately engulfing the damaged tissue in the growing stem

Mechanisms by which autophagy regulates memory capacity in ageing

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