Study for a Real-Time Alert System for Multi-Messenger Astronomy with the KM3NeT/ARCA Neutrino Telescope

The detection of a flux of high-energy neutrinos has open a new observation window on the high-energy Universe. The KM3NeT project aims to build a network of neutrino detectors in the Mediterranean Sea: ORCA, to be installed close to the Southern French coast and dedicated mainly to study the neutrino mass hierarchy; ARCA, which represents the northern counterpart of IceCube, the largest neutrino telescope presently in data taking. In the Phase-2 configuration, ARCA will be made of 230 vertical structures, called Detection Units, each hosting 18 Digital Optical Modules, and will occupy 1 cubic kilometre. Each DOM hosts 31 PMTs for detecting the Cherenkov light emitted along the path of relativistic charged particles in sea water. The sensors are continuously stressed by light sources, such as 40K beta decay and bioluminescence, in the underwater environment, requiring the use of an on-line filtering system, called TriDAS, which is also discussed. The ARCA detector is suited to be part of a global network of observatories that perform multi-messenger astrophysical and astronomy studies. The Astrophysical Neutrino Trigger System, ANTS, presented and described in this thesis, aims to perform a very fast on-line track reconstruction to drive follow-up observations by other observatories in a multi-messenger context, for neutrino induced muons in the the energy range 10 TeV < E < 10 PeV. The capabilities of ANTS, in terms of reconstruction efficiency, purity of the reconstructed sample, angular resolution, and processing speed, are discussed

Indignation for moral violations suppresses the tongue motor cortex: preliminary TMS evidence

Abstract We commonly label moral violations in terms of 'disgust', yet it remains unclear whether metaphorical expressions linking disgust and morality are genuinely shared at the cognitive/neural level. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we provide new insights into this debate by measuring motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) from the tongue generated by TMS over the tongue primary motor area (tM1) in a small group of healthy participants presented with vignettes of moral transgressions and non-moral vignettes. We tested whether moral indignation, felt while evaluating moral vignettes, affected tM1 excitability. Vignettes exerted a variable influence on MEPs with no net effect of the moral category. However, in accordance with our recent study documenting reduced tM1 excitability during exposure to pictures of disgusting foods or facial expressions of distaste, we found that vignettes of highly disapproved moral violations reduced tM1 excitability. Moreover, tM1 excitability and moral indignation were linearly correlated: the higher the moral indignation, the lower the tM1 excitability. Respective changes in MEPs were not observed in a non-oral control muscle, suggesting a selective decrease of tM1 excitability. These preliminary findings provide neurophysiological evidence supporting the hypothesis that morality might have originated from the more primitive experience of oral distaste

Fractional exclusion statistics applied to relativistic nuclear matter

The effect of statistics of the quasiparticles in the nuclear matter at extreme conditions of density and temperature is evaluated in the relativistic mean-field model generalized to the framework of the fractional exclusion statistics (FES). In the model, the nucleons are described as quasiparticles obeying FES and the model parameters were chosen to reproduce the ground state properties of the isospin-symmetric nuclear matter. In this case, the statistics of the quasiparticles is related to the strengths of the nucleon-nucleon interaction mediated by the neutral scalar and vector meson fields. The relevant thermodynamic quantities were calculated as functions of the nucleons density, temperature and fractional exclusion statistics parameter $\alpha$. It has been shown that at high temperatures and densities the thermodynamics of the system has a strong dependence on the statistics of the particles. The scenario in which the nucleon-nucleon interaction strength is independent of the statistics of particles was also calculated, but it leads in general to unstable thermodynamics.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Retrofitting partial oxyfuel and Integrated Ca-Looping technologies to an existing cement plant: a case study

The present document describes the potential retrofit of an existing cement plant with carbon capture technologies applied in two sequential steps. The pathway proposed consists in a first retrofit through partial oxyfuel followed by the integrated calcium looping (CaL) technology. This kind of applications may represent a promising strategy for the decarbonization route in the cement sector without introducing chemical solvents or special components, in particular for existing cement kilns that may need to be revamped. The cement plant selected for this study is the 0.5 Mtcem/y Colleferro facility owned by Italcementi-HeidelbergCement. This study analyses the mass & energy balances of the partial oxyfuel, and the integrated CaL process retrofitted to the existing cement plant. The results of the two CCS technologies are then compared in terms of CO2 emission reduction and energy consumption with the reference plant without CO2 capture. The scope of this analysis is to evaluate the impact of carbon capture technologies on the cement production process. The process simulation software Aspen Plus V10.0® has been employed to develop the model for the three different plant configurations (i.e., the base case w/o carbon capture, the partial oxyfuel mode, and the integrated CaL). The base case has been validated using field measurements coming directly from the Colleferro plant. From this process flow model, the two CCS technologies have been developed according to the specific process requirements. Results show that a maximum reduction in CO2 emissions of 92.4% is possible with the integrated CaL, while the partial oxyfuel enables to capture 71.7% of the CO2 generated in the plant

Best practice for AO NIR observations with PISCES at LBT

The Adaptive Optics Scientific Working Group of the Large Binocular Telescope produced this document. It was distributed accompanying the LBT call for the Science Verification and Science Demonstration time in 2011 and 2012. It is also available following this link: https://wiki.lbto.org/AdaptiveOptics/AOGuidelinesThis document describes the best practices for imaging with PISCES+FLAO@LBT, emphasizing the main differences with common Near InfraRed (NIR) imaging. This document is based on the experience made on the first run of the PISCES+FLAO @ LBT commissioning that did not cover all the possible aspects

Toward large diffraction limited space telescopes with the Latt lightweight active primary

The design of large segmented mirrors, actively controlled both in shape and in differential piston, is one of the challenges space optics is facing, driven by the needs of the astronomical community

Common variants at 21q22.3 locus influence MX1 and TMPRSS2 gene expression and susceptibility to severe COVID-19

The established risk factors of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are advanced age, male sex and comorbidities, but they do not fully explain the wide spectrum of disease manifestations. Genetic factors implicated in the host antiviral response provide for novel insights into its pathogenesis. We performed an in-depth genetic analysis of chromosome 21 exploiting the genome-wide association study data, including 6,406 individuals hospitalized for COVID-19 and 902,088 controls with European genetic ancestry from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative. We found that five single nucleotide polymorphisms within TMPRSS2 and near MX1 gene show associations with severe COVID-19. The minor alleles of the five SNPs correlated with a reduced risk of developing severe COVID-19 and high level of MX1 expression in blood. Our findings demonstrate that host genetic factors can influence the different clinical presentations of COVID-19 and that MX1 could be a potential therapeutic target

The LATT way towards large active primaries for space telescopes

The Large Aperture Telescope Technology (LATT) goes beyond the current paradigm of future space telescopes, based on a deformable mirror in the pupil relay. Through the LATT project we demonstrated the concept of a low-weight active primary mirror, whose working principle and control strategy benefit from two decades of advances in adaptive optics for ground-based telescopes. We developed a forty centimeter spherical mirror prototype, with an areal density lower than 17 kg/m2, controlled through contactless voice coil actuators with co-located capacitive position sensors. The prototype was subjected to thermo-vacuum, vibration and optical tests, to push its technical readiness toward level 5. In this paper we present the background and the outcomes of the LATT activities under ESA contract (TRP programme), exploring the concept of a lightweight active primary mirror for space telescopes. Active primaries will open the way to very large segmented apertures, actively shaped, which can be lightweight, deployable and accurately phased once in flight