15,633 research outputs found
Novel calibrations of virial black hole mass estimators in active galaxies based on X-ray luminosity and optical/NIR emission lines
Accurately weigh the masses of SMBH in AGN is currently possible for only a
small group of local and bright broad-line AGN through reverberation mapping
(RM). Statistical demographic studies can be carried out considering the
empirical scaling relation between the size of the BLR and the AGN optical
continuum luminosity. However, there are still biases against low-luminosity or
reddened AGN, in which the rest-frame optical radiation can be severely
absorbed/diluted by the host and the BLR emission lines could be hard to
detect. Our purpose is to widen the applicability of virial-based SE relations
to reliably measure the BH masses also for low-luminosity or intermediate/type
2 AGN that are missed by current methodology. We achieve this goal by
calibrating virial relations based on unbiased quantities: the hard X-ray
luminosities, in the 2-10 keV and 14-195 keV bands, that are less sensitive to
galaxy contamination, and the FWHM of the most important rest-frame NIR and
optical BLR emission lines. We built a sample of RM AGN having both X-ray
luminosity and broad optical/NIR FWHM measurements available in order to
calibrate new virial BH mass estimators. We found that the FWHM of the
H, H and NIR lines (i.e. Pa, Pa and
HeI10830) all correlate each other having negligible or small offsets.
This result allowed us to derive virial BH mass estimators based on either the
2-10 keV or 14-195 keV luminosity. We took also into account the recent
determination of the different virial coefficients for pseudo and classical
bulges. By splitting the sample according to the bulge type and adopting
separate factors we found that our virial relations predict BH masses of
AGN hosted in pseudobulges 0.5 dex smaller than in classical bulges.
Assuming the same average factor for both populations, a difference of
0.2 dex is still found.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication on A&
Laparoscopic totally extraperitoneal inguinal hernia repair in the elderly: A prospective control study
Inguinal hernia (IH) repair can be obtained with both open and laparoscopic techniques, which are usually performed using a transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) or a totally extraperitoneal (TEP) approach. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether the results of laparoscopic TEP IH repair in the elderly ( 6565 years old) are different with respect to results obtained in younger patients. One hundred and four consecutive patients (four women and 100 men, median age of 57 years, range=21-85 years) with unilateral (N=21, 20.2%) or bilateral (N=83, 79.8%) IH were prospectively enrolled in the study. Patients were divided into two groups according to their age: group A (N=68, 65.4%) aged <65 years and group B (N=36, 34.6%) aged 6565 years. The mean operative time was not significantly different between groups (48\ub120 vs. 52\ub120 min, p=0.33). One case of increased PaCO2 was observed in each group (p=0.72) and two and one case of pneumoperitoneum (p=0.57) in groups A and B, respectively. Two (1.9%) patients (one in each group; p=0.55) required TEP conversion. Mild postoperative complications developed in four patients of each group (p=0.44). After one-year follow-up, three (2.9%) recurrences occurred (group 1=1, group 2=2, p=0.55), both in patients who had undergone direct IH repair. The overall postoperative relative risk of complications related to age was 1.08 (95% confidence interval=0.91-1.27, p=0.53). In conclusion, our results suggest that in patients with IH scheduled for TEP repair, age does not represent a contraindication to surgery in terms of complication rate and postoperative results
Development of an Active Wingtip for Aeroelastic Control
This paper presents the design of an innovative wingtip device actively actuated to control the aeroelastic loads, with a focus on the gust load alleviation. It summarizes the work carried out in the Clean Sky 2 AIRGREEN2 project, where the device was developed from scratch and reached a relevant technology readiness level with the full-scale prototype manufacturing and testing, compulsory to obtain the permit to fly. This paper describes the overall design of the devices, covering the structure, the aero-servo-elasticity characteristics of the whole aircraft, the actuation system design, the scaled wind tunnel testing, and the full-scale structural qualification tests. The paper proves how the development of a new item involves several disciplines simultaneously, remarking on the importance of an integrated approach to the new generation aircraft design
Reactor Antineutrinos Signal all over the world
We present an updated estimate of reactor antineutrino signal all over the
world, with particular attention to the sites proposed for existing and future
geo-neutrino experiment. In our calculation we take into account the most
updated data on Thermal Power for each nuclear plant, on reactor antineutrino
spectra and on three neutrino oscillation mechanism.Comment: 4 pages including 1 figur
Geoneutrinos and reactor antineutrinos at SNO+
In the heart of the Creighton Mine near Sudbury (Canada), the SNO+ detector
is foreseen to observe almost in equal proportion electron antineutrinos
produced by U and Th in the Earth and by nuclear reactors. SNO+ will be the
first long baseline experiment to measure a reactor signal dominated by CANDU
cores (55\% of the total reactor signal), which generally burn natural
uranium. Approximately 18\% of the total geoneutrino signal is generated by the
U and Th present in the rocks of the Huronian Supergroup-Sudbury Basin: the
60\% uncertainty on the signal produced by this lithologic unit plays a crucial
role on the discrimination power on the mantle signal as well as on the
geoneutrino spectral shape reconstruction, which can in principle provide a
direct measurement of the Th/U ratio in the Earth.Comment: 7 pages including 2 figures and 1 table, in XIV International
Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP 2015) IOP
Publishing , published on Journal of Physics: Conference Series 718 (2016)
06200
Comment on ``Two Time Scales and Violation of the Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem in a Finite Dimensional Model for Structural Glasses''
In cond-mat/0002074 Ricci-Tersenghi et al. find two linear regimes in the
fluctuation-dissipation relation between density-density correlations and
associated responses of the Frustrated Ising Lattice Gas. Here we show that
this result does not seem to correspond to the equilibrium quantities of the
model, by measuring the overlap distribution P(q) of the density and comparing
the FDR expected on the ground of the P(q) with the one measured in the
off-equilibrium experiments.Comment: RevTeX, 1 page, 2 eps figures, Comment on F. Ricci-Tersenghi et al.,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4473 (2000
Linear Theory of Electron-Plasma Waves at Arbitrary Collisionality
The dynamics of electron-plasma waves are described at arbitrary
collisionality by considering the full Coulomb collision operator. The
description is based on a Hermite-Laguerre decomposition of the velocity
dependence of the electron distribution function. The damping rate, frequency,
and eigenmode spectrum of electron-plasma waves are found as functions of the
collision frequency and wavelength. A comparison is made between the
collisionless Landau damping limit, the Lenard-Bernstein and Dougherty
collision operators, and the electron-ion collision operator, finding large
deviations in the damping rates and eigenmode spectra. A purely damped entropy
mode, characteristic of a plasma where pitch-angle scattering effects are
dominant with respect to collisionless effects, is shown to emerge numerically,
and its dispersion relation is analytically derived. It is shown that such a
mode is absent when simplified collision operators are used, and that
like-particle collisions strongly influence the damping rate of the entropy
mode.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication on Journal of Plasma
Physic
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