Interpreting the possible break in the Black Hole - Bulge mass relation

Recent inspections of local available data suggest that the almost linear relation between the stellar mass of spheroids ($M_{\rm sph}$) and the mass of the super massive Black Holes (BHs) residing at their centres, shows a break below $M_{\rm sph} \sim 10^{10}\ {\rm M}_\odot$, with a steeper, about quadratic relation at smaller masses. We investigate the physical mechanisms responsible for the change in slope of this relation, by comparing data with the results of the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation MORGANA, which already predicted such a break in its original formulation. We find that the change of slope is mostly induced by effective stellar feedback in star-forming bulges. The shape of the relation is instead quite insensitive to other physical mechanisms connected to BH accretion such as disc instabilities, galaxy mergers, Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) feedback, or even the exact modelling of accretion onto the BH, direct or through a reservoir of low angular momentum gas. Our results support a scenario where most stars form in the disc component of galaxies and are carried to bulges through mergers and disc instabilities, while accretion onto BHs is connected to star formation in the spheroidal component. Therefore, a model of stellar feedback that produces stronger outflows in star-forming bulges than in discs will naturally produce a break in the scaling relation. Our results point to a form of co-evolution especially at lower masses, below the putative break, mainly driven by stellar feedback rather than AGN feedback.Comment: MNRAS accepted, 10 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

CXCR4 pos circulating progenitor cells coexpressing monocytic and endothelial markers correlating with fibrotic clinical features are present in the peripheral blood of patients affected by systemic sclerosis

There is still controversy regarding the role of circulating endothelial and progenitor cells (CECs/CEPs) in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Using a sequential Boolean gating strategy based on a 4-color flow cytometric protocol, an increased number of CD31(pos)/CD184(pos)(CXCR4)/CD34(pos)/CD45(pos) and CD31(pos)/CD117(pos) (c-kit-R) /CD34(pos)/ CD45(pos) hematopoietic circulating progenitor cells (HCPCs) was detected in SSc patients compared with healthy subjects. In SSc, no circulating mature and progenitor endothelial cells were observed, while an enhanced generation of erythroid progenitor cells was found to be correlated with the presence of CD117+ HCPCs. The presence of freshly detected CXCR4posHCPC was correlated either to the in vitro cultured spindle-shaped endothelial like cells (SELC) with an endo/myelomonocytic profile or to SDF-1 and VEGF serum level. These data are related to more fibrotic clinical features of the disease, thus supporting a possible role of these cells in fibrosis

Distributed control in virtualized networks

The increasing number of the Internet connected devices requires novel solutions to control the next generation network resources. The cooperation between the Software Defined Network (SDN) and the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) seems to be a promising technology paradigm. The bottleneck of current SDN/NFV implementations is the use of a centralized controller. In this paper, different scenarios to identify the pro and cons of a distributed control-plane were investigated. We implemented a prototypal framework to benchmark different centralized and distributed approaches. The test results have been critically analyzed and related considerations and recommendations have been reported. The outcome of our research influenced the control plane design of the following European R&D projects: PLATINO, FI-WARE and T-NOVA

(E)-3-Heteroarylidenechroman-4-ones as potent and selective monoamine oxidase-B inhibitors

A series of (E)-3-heteroarylidenechroman-4-ones (1a-r) was designed, synthesized and investigated in vitro for their ability to inhibit the enzymatic activity of both human monoamine oxidase (hMAO) isoforms, hMAO-A and hMAO-B. All the compounds were found to be selective hMAO-B inhibitors showing IC50 values in the nanomolar or micromolar range. (E)-5,7-Dichloro-3-{[(2-(dimethylamino) pyrimidin-5-yl]methylene}chroman-4-one (1c) was the most interesting compound identified in this study, endowed with higher hMAO-B potency (IC50 ¼ 10.58 nM) and selectivity (SI > 9452) with respect to the reference selective inhibitor selegiline (IC50 ¼ 19.60 nM, IC50 > 3431). Molecular modelling studies were performed for rationalizing at molecular level the target selective inhibition of our compounds, revealing a remarkable contribution of hydrogen bond network and water solvent

The orientation of the Mithraea in Ostia Antica

We conducted an investigation on the orientations and geometrical content of the Mithraea of Ostia Antica. A geometrical CAD study based on the most reliable plans from the Archives of the Sovrintendenza Speciale per il Colosseo, il MNR e l’Area Archeologica di Roma – Ostia Antica, aside with the identification of geometrical and numerical schemes and associated length units, allowed us to identify the axes of the Mithraea. Then the orientations of the axes were measured on field by means of a professional compass with ± 0.5° uncertainty. The distribution of these measured azimuths follows the topography of the city. On the contrary, the Decumanus, the main street of the town, presents an indubitable orientation toward the Winter Solstice Sunset. This was ascertained by measuring the coordinates of four significant points along the street with the help of a palmar Trimble GPS which averages 100 measures per point. The exceptional density of Mithraea in Ostia led us to suppose that a symbolic cosmic-solar value is to be searched in the orientation as a whole of the town itself, founded half a millennium before the first presence of Mithraism in Rome. The Decumanus could be considered the very holder of this symbolic value with its orientation toward the Winter Solstice Sunset, possibly making of Ostia a very special place for Mithraicism

Decomposition of Molecular Integrals into Atomic Contributions via Becke Partitioning Scheme: a Caveat

Decomposition of molecular integrals into physically meaningful atomic contributions by means of the Becke integration scheme requires some care with respect to the choice of suitable atomic size adjustments. Using a simple illustrative example, it is shown that the adjustment of cell boundaries, as originally proposed by considering Bragg-Slater atomic radii, does not provide reliable results. Alternatively, the positions of the bond critical points of the electron density can be adopted to define heteronuclear cutoff profiles which allow for a more reasonable atomic partition of the molecular electron density. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Rocking of a rigid block freestanding on a flat pedestal

The seismic protection of objects contained within Museums is a topic of great interest, especially with reference to how they are displayed or stored. This problem is the same as that of a large class of non-structural components, such as mechanical and electrical hospital and laboratory equipment that could lose their functionality because of earthquakes. Statues and ceramics simply supported on the floor represent a significant set of case. In some cases, like the Bronzes of Riace, isolation systems have been developed. However, in general museum exhibits are not equipped with devices capable of mitigating the oscillations induced by possible earthquakes. The case study of a marble statue placed on a freestanding squat rigid pedestal is examined. The system of algebraic differential equations governing the problem has been derived and included in an ad-hoc numerical procedure. It is shown that the insertion of a squat rigid body with low frictional resistance at the lower interface with the floor, and high frictional resistance at the upper interface with the artifact significantly reduces the amplitude of the rocking response. As a result the artifact rocks without sliding on the rigid base that slides without rocking with respect to the floor. The numerical analysis performed can be a tool to help in the choice of the optimal friction values in the surfaces of the flat block, designed as a simple isolation system

Multi-agent quality of experience control

In the framework of the Future Internet, the aim of the Quality of Experience (QoE) Control functionalities is to track the personalized desired QoE level of the applications. The paper proposes to perform such a task by dynamically selecting the most appropriate Classes of Service (among the ones supported by the network), this selection being driven by a novel heuristic Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) algorithm. The paper shows that such an approach offers the opportunity to cope with some practical implementation problems: in particular, it allows to face the so-called “curse of dimensionality” of MARL algorithms, thus achieving satisfactory performance results even in the presence of several hundreds of Agents

On the relaxation of the Maxwell-Stefan system to linear diffusion

Versão dos autores para esta publicação.In this note, we rigorously prove the relaxation limit of the Maxwell–Stefan system to a system of heat equations when all binary diffusion coefficients tend to the same positive value.ANR project Kimega (ANR-14-ACHN-0030-01). PHC/FCT Pessoa project 7854WM, Ref. 406/4/4/2017/Sinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio