H-, He-like recombination spectra III. n-changing collisions in highly-excited Rydberg states and their impact on the radio, IR and optical recombination lines

At intermediate to high densities, electron (de-)excitation collisions are the dominant process for populating or depopulating high Rydberg states. In particular, the accurate knowledge of the energy changing (n-changing) collisional rates is determinant for predicting the radio recombination spectra of gaseous nebula. The different data sets present in the literature come either from impact parameter calculations or semi-empirical fits and the rate coefficients agree within a factor of 2. We show in this paper that these uncertainties cause errors lower than 5 per cent in the emission of radio recombination lines of most ionized plasmas of typical nebulae. However, in special circumstances where the transitions between Rydberg levels are amplified by maser effects, the errors can increase up to 20 per cent. We present simulations of the optical depth and Hnα line emission of active galactic nuclei broad-line regions and the Orion Nebula Blister to showcase our findings

Validating circular performance indicators: The interface between circular economy and stakeholders

Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. The development and application of appropriate Circular Economy indicators is an issue that concerns both the scientific and the business community, as well as decision makers. The existing gap between research, policy and practice could be bridged by using a dynamic indicators selection approach that combines both expert and participatory practices. This study aims to develop such a novel approach for the selection of indicators based on views and needs of practitioners, whilst considering the complex interdependencies of the indicators and determining their importance. Twenty circularity indicators for the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems nexus are selected and ranked by different stakeholders. The interrelationships of the indicators are identified using the Interpretive Structural Model, resulting in six levels of importance. Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis further enabled the classification of the twenty indicators into four categories based on their driving and dependence power. The results indicate that seven indicators— one related to regeneration of natural environment principle, four related to keep resources in use, and two related to design out negative externalities—are the driving indicators to Circular Economy. The approach can be applied to other sets of indicators as well, enabling their prioritization and implementation with other systems.COST Action CA17133 Circular City; Horizon 2020 innovation projects HYDROUSA (grant agreement no. 776643) and HOUSEFUL (grantagreement no. 776708)

Benign prostatic hyperplasia treatment using plasmonic nanoparticles irradiated by laser in a rat model

Objective: In the current study we have stimulated the efficacy of plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) by laser hyperthermia to achieve a less invasive method for tumor photothermal therapy of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Methods: The levels of apoptosis on induced BPH in rats were assessed after treatment and revealed and recorded by various assayed. Moreover, the expression of caspases was considered to demonstrate the apoptotic pathways due to laser induced plasmonic NPs. Results: In the Laser + NPs group prostate size of induced BPH decreased. Laser + NPs also decreased prostate specific antigen in comparison with the BPH groups. Furthermore, Laser + NPs attenuated BPH histopathologic indices in the rats. Laser + NPs induced apoptosis in prostatic epithelial cells via caspase-1 pathway. Conclusions: Altogether, the approach and findings from this study can be applied to introduce the laser irritated NPs method as a novel and less invasive therapy for patients suffering from BP

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping project. XI. Disk-wind characteristics and contributions to the very broad emission lines of NGC 5548

Funding: Support for HST program number GO-13330 was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. We thank NSF (1816537, 1910687), NASA (17-ATP17-0141, 19-ATP19-0188), and STScI (HST-AR-15018, HST-AR-14556). MC acknowledges support from NASA through STScI grant HST-AR-14556.001-Aand NASA grant 19-ATP19-0188, and also support from National Science Foundation through grant AST-1910687.M.D. and G.F. and F. G. acknowledge support from the NSF (AST-1816537), NASA (ATP 17-0141), and STScI (HST-AR-13914, HST-AR-15018), and the Huffaker Scholarship. M.M. is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) through the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme Vidi grant 639.042.525. J.M.G. gratefully acknowledges support from NASA under the ADAP award 80NSSC17K0126. MV gratefully acknowledges support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark via grant number DFF 8021-00130.In 2014 the NGC 5548 Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping campaign discovered a two-month anomaly when variations in the absorption and emission lines decorrelated from continuum variations. During this time the soft X-ray part of the intrinsic spectrum had been strongly absorbed by a line-of-sight (LOS) obscurer, which was interpreted as the upper part of a disk wind. Our first paper showed that changes in the LOS obscurer produces the decorrelation between the absorption lines and the continuum. A second study showed that the base of the wind shields the broad emission-line region (BLR), leading to the emission-line decorrelation. In that study, we proposed the wind is normally transparent with no effect on the spectrum. Changes in the wind properties alter its shielding and affect the spectral energy distribution (SED) striking the BLR, producing the observed decorrelations. In this work we investigate the impact of a translucent wind on the emission lines. We simulate the obscuration using XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and Hubble Space Telescope observations to determine the physical characteristics of the wind. We find that a translucent wind can contribute a part of the He ii and Fe Kα emission. It has a modest optical depth to electron scattering, which explains the fainter far-side emission in the observed velocity-delay maps. The wind produces the very broad base seen in the UV emission lines and may also be present in the Fe Kα line. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for the effects of such winds in the analysis of the physics of the central engine.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. XII. Broad-line Region Modeling of NGC 5548

We present geometric and dynamical modeling of the broad line region (BLR) for the multi-wavelength reverberation mapping campaign focused on NGC 5548 in 2014. The data set includes photometric and spectroscopic monitoring in the optical and ultraviolet, covering the Hβ, C iv, and Ly broad emission lines. We find an extended disk-like Hβ BLR with a mixture of near-circular and outflowing gas trajectories, while the C iv and Ly BLRs are much less extended and resemble shell-like structures. There is clear radial structure in the BLR, with C iv and Ly emission arising at smaller radii than the Hβ emission. Using the three lines, we make three independent black hole mass measurements, all of which are consistent. Combining these results gives a joint inference of . We examine the effect of using the V band instead of the UV continuum light curve on the results and find a size difference that is consistent with the measured UV-optical time lag, but the other structural and kinematic parameters remain unchanged, suggesting that the V band is a suitable proxy for the ionizing continuum when exploring the BLR structure and kinematics. Finally, we compare the Hβ results to similar models of data obtained in 2008 when the active galactic nucleus was at a lower luminosity state. We find that the size of the emitting region increased during this time period, but the geometry and black hole mass remained unchanged, which confirms that the BLR kinematics suitably gauge the gravitational field of the central black hole

AGN STORM 2. IV. Swift X-ray and ultraviolet/optical monitoring of Mrk 817

The AGN STORM 2 campaign is a large, multiwavelength reverberation mapping project designed to trace out the structure of Mrk 817 from the inner accretion disk to the broad emission line region and out to the dusty torus. As part of this campaign, Swift performed daily monitoring of Mrk 817 for approximately 15 months, obtaining observations in X-rays and six UV/optical filters. The X-ray monitoring shows that Mrk 817 was in a significantly fainter state than in previous observations, with only a brief flare where it reached prior flux levels. The X-ray spectrum is heavily obscured. The UV/optical light curves show significant variability throughout the campaign and are well correlated with one another, but uncorrelated with the X-rays. Combining the Swift UV/optical light curves with Hubble UV continuum light curves, we measure interband continuum lags, $\tau(\lambda)$, that increase with increasing wavelength roughly following $\tau(\lambda) \propto \lambda^{4/3}$, the dependence expected for a geometrically thin, optically thick, centrally illuminated disk. Modeling of the light curves reveals a period at the beginning of the campaign where the response of the continuum is suppressed compared to later in the light curve - the light curves are not simple shifted and scaled versions of each other. The interval of suppressed response corresponds to a period of high UV line and X-ray absorption, and reduced emission line variability amplitudes. We suggest that this indicates a significant contribution to the continuum from the broad line region gas that sees an absorbed ionizing continuum.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. XII. broad-line region modeling of NGC 5548.

We present geometric and dynamical modeling of the broad line region (BLR) for the multi-wavelength reverberation mapping campaign focused on NGC 5548 in 2014. The data set includes photometric and spectroscopic monitoring in the optical and ultraviolet, covering the Hβ, C iv, and Lyα broad emission lines. We find an extended disk-like Hβ BLR with a mixture of near-circular and outflowing gas trajectories, while the C iv and Lyα BLRs are much less extended and resemble shell-like structures. There is clear radial structure in the BLR, with C iv and Lyα emission arising at smaller radii than the Hβ emission. Using the three lines, we make three independent black hole mass measurements, all of which are consistent. Combining these results gives a joint inference of ${\mathrm{log}}_{10}({M}_{\mathrm{BH}}/{M}_{\odot })={7.64}_{-0.18}^{+0.21}$. We examine the effect of using the V band instead of the UV continuum light curve on the results and find a size difference that is consistent with the measured UV–optical time lag, but the other structural and kinematic parameters remain unchanged, suggesting that the V band is a suitable proxy for the ionizing continuum when exploring the BLR structure and kinematics. Finally, we compare the Hβ results to similar models of data obtained in 2008 when the active galactic nucleus was at a lower luminosity state. We find that the size of the emitting region increased during this time period, but the geometry and black hole mass remained unchanged, which confirms that the BLR kinematics suitably gauge the gravitational field of the central black hole

AGN STORM 2. I. First results: A Change in the Weather of Mrk 817

We present the first results from the ongoing, intensive, multiwavelength monitoring program of the luminous Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 817. While this active galactic nucleus was, in part, selected for its historically unobscured nature, we discovered that the X-ray spectrum is highly absorbed, and there are new blueshifted, broad, and narrow UV absorption lines, which suggest that a dust-free, ionized obscurer located at the inner broad-line region partially covers the central source. Despite the obscuration, we measure UV and optical continuum reverberation lags consistent with a centrally illuminated Shakura–Sunyaev thin accretion disk, and measure reverberation lags associated with the optical broad-line region, as expected. However, in the first 55 days of the campaign, when the obscuration was becoming most extreme, we observe a de-coupling of the UV continuum and the UV broad emission-line variability. The correlation recovered in the next 42 days of the campaign, as Mrk 817 entered a less obscured state. The short C IV and Lyα lags suggest that the accretion disk extends beyond the UV broad-line region. Unified

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. IX. Velocity–Delay Maps for Broad Emission Lines in NGC 5548

In this contribution, we achieve the primary goal of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) STORM campaign by recovering velocity–delay maps for the prominent broad emission lines (Lyα, C iv, He ii, and Hβ) in the spectrum of NGC 5548. These are the most detailed velocity–delay maps ever obtained for an AGN, providing unprecedented information on the geometry, ionization structure, and kinematics of the broad-line region. Virial envelopes enclosing the emission-line responses show that the reverberating gas is bound to the black hole. A stratified ionization structure is evident. The He ii response inside 5–10 lt-day has a broad single-peaked velocity profile. The Lyα, C iv, and Hβ responses extend from inside 2 to outside 20 lt-day, with double peaks at ±2500 km s−1 in the 10–20 lt-day delay range. An incomplete ellipse in the velocity–delay plane is evident in Hβ. We interpret the maps in terms of a Keplerian disk with a well-defined outer rim at R = 20 lt-day. The far-side response is weaker than that from the near side. The line-center delay $\tau =(R/c)(1-\sin i)\approx 5$ days gives the inclination i ≈ 45°. The inferred black hole mass is MBH ≈ 7 × 107 M⊙. In addition to reverberations, the fit residuals confirm that emission-line fluxes are depressed during the "BLR Holiday" identified in previous work. Moreover, a helical "Barber-Pole" pattern, with stripes moving from red to blue across the C iv and Lyα line profiles, suggests azimuthal structure rotating with a 2 yr period that may represent precession or orbital motion of inner-disk structures casting shadows on the emission-line region farther out