38,922 research outputs found
Extension of the C star rotation curve of the Milky Way to 24 kpc
Demers and Battinelli published, in 2007 the rotation curve of the Milky Way
based on the radial velocity of carbon stars outside the Solar circle. Since
then we have established a new list of candidates for spectroscopy. The goal of
this paper is to determine the rotation curve of the galaxy, as far as possible
from the galactic center, using N type carbon stars. The stars were selected
from their dereddened 2MASS colours, then the spectra were obtained with the
Dominion Astrophysical Observatory and Asiago 1.8 meter telescopes. This
publication adds radial velocities and Galactrocentric distances of 36 carbon
stars, from which 20 are new confirmed. The new results for stars up to 25 kpc
from the galactic center, suggest that the rotation curve shows a slight
decline beyond the Solar circle.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in
Astrophysic
Making Fanaroff-Riley I radio sources. Numerical Hydrodynamic 3D Simulations of Low Power Jets
Extragalactic radio sources have been classified into two classes,
Fanaroff-Riley I and II, which differ in morphology and radio power. Strongly
emitting sources belong to the edge-brightened FR II class, and weakly emitting
sources to the edge-darkened FR I class. The origin of this dichotomy is not
yet fully understood. Numerical simulations are successful in generating FR II
morphologies, but they fail to reproduce the diffuse structure of FR Is.
By means of hydro-dynamical 3D simulations of supersonic jets, we investigate
how the displayed morphologies depend on the jet parameters. Bow shocks and
Mach disks at the jet head, which are probably responsible for the hot spots in
the FR II sources, disappear for a jet kinetic power L_kin < 10^43 erg/s. This
threshold compares favorably with the luminosity at which the FR I/FR II
transition is observed.
The problem is addressed by numerical means carrying out 3D HD simulations of
supersonic jets that propagate in a non-homogeneous medium with the ambient
temperature that increases with distance from the jet origin, which maintains
constant pressure.
The jet energy in the lower power sources, instead of being deposited at the
terminal shock, is gradually dissipated by the turbulence. The jets spread out
while propagating, and they smoothly decelerate while mixing with the ambient
medium and produce the plumes characteristic of FR I objects.
Three-dimensionality is an essential ingredient to explore the FR I evolution
because the properties of turbulence in two and three dimensions are very
different, since there is no energy cascade to small scales in two dimensions,
and two-dimensional simulations with the same parameters lead to FRII-like
behavior.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, to appear on A&
An efficiency analysis of banking systems: a comparison of European and United States large commercial banks using different functional forms.
This paper aims at investigation the efficiency of European and U.S. commercial banks. Scale and scope economies indicators, as well as a measurement of X-efficiency are derived from three cost functions: Fourier flexible form, translog and Box-Cox. This allows checking the stability and the robustness of the evidence across the different specifications. Our results over the period 1995-98 show that overall the average cost curve is relatively flat with some evidence of scale efficiency gains. More puzzling are the results on the presence of scope economies.
Quantized vortices in two dimensional solid 4He
Diagonal and off-diagonal properties of 2D solid 4He systems doped with a
quantized vortex have been investigated via the Shadow Path Integral Ground
State method using the fixed-phase approach. The chosen approximate phase
induces the standard Onsager-Feynman flow field. In this approximation the
vortex acts as a static external potential and the resulting Hamiltonian can be
treated exactly with Quantum Monte Carlo methods. The vortex core is found to
sit in an interstitial site and a very weak relaxation of the lattice positions
away from the vortex core position has been observed. Also other properties
like Bragg peaks in the static structure factor or the behavior of vacancies
are very little affected by the presence of the vortex. We have computed also
the one-body density matrix in perfect and defected 4He crystals finding that
the vortex has no sensible effect on the off-diagonal long range tail of the
density matrix. Within the assumed Onsager Feynman phase, we find that a
quantized vortex cannot auto-sustain itself unless a condensate is already
present like when dislocations are present. It remains to be investigated if
backflow can change this conclusion.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, LT26 proceedings, accepted for publication in
Journal of Physics: Conference Serie
Morphology of galaxies with quiescent recent assembly history in a Lambda-CDM universe
The standard disc formation scenario postulates that disc forms as the gas
cools and flows into the centre of the dark matter halo, conserving the
specific angular momentum. Major mergers have been shown to be able to destroy
or highly perturb the disc components. More recently, the alignment of the
material that is accreted to form the galaxy has been pointed out as a key
ingredient to determine galaxy morphology. However, in a hierarchical scenario
galaxy formation is a complex process that combines these processes and others
in a non-linear way so that the origin of galaxy morphology remains to be fully
understood. We aim at exploring the differences in the formation histories of
galaxies with a variety of morphology, but quite recent merger histories, to
identify which mechanisms are playing a major role. We analyse when minor
mergers can be considered relevant to determine galaxy morphology. We also
study the specific angular momentum content of the disc and central spheroidal
components separately. We used cosmological hydrodynamical simulations that
include an effective, physically motivated supernova feedback that is able to
regulate the star formation in haloes of different masses. We analysed the
morphology and formation history of a sample of 15 galaxies of a cosmological
simulation. We performed a spheroid-disc decomposition of the selected galaxies
and their progenitor systems. The angular momentum orientation of the merging
systems as well as their relative masses were estimated to analyse the role
played by orientation and by minor mergers in the determination of the
morphology. We found the discs to be formed by conserving the specific angular
momentum in accordance with the classical disc formation model. The specific
angular momentum of the stellar central spheroid correlates with the dark
matter halo angular momentum and determines a power law. AbridgedComment: 10 pages, 9 figures, A&A in pres
Inhibition of nitric oxide biosynthesis by anthocyanin fraction of blackberry extract.
Anthocyanins are natural colorant belonging to the flavonoid family, widely distributed among flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Some flavonoids have been found to possess anticarcinogenic, cytotoxic, cytostatic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. Since increased nitric oxide (NO) plays a role in inflammation, we have investigated whether the pharmacological activity of the anthocyanin fraction of a blackberry extract (cyanidin-3-O-glucoside representing about 88% of the total anthocyanin content) was due to the suppression of NO synthesis. The markedly increased production of nitrites by stimulation of J774 cells with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 24 h was concentration-dependently inhibited by the anthocyanin fraction (11, 22, 45, and 90 μg/ml) of the extract. Moreover, this inhibition was dependent on a dual mechanism, since the extract attenuated iNOS protein expression and decreased the iNOS activity in lungs from LPS-stimulated rats. Inhibition of iNOS protein expression appeared to be at the transcriptional level, since the extract and similarly cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (10, 20, 40, and 80 μg/ml, amounts corresponding to the concentrations present in the extract) decreased LPS-induced NF-κB activation, through inhibition of IκBα degradation, and reduced ERK-1/2 phosphorylation in a concentration-dependent manner. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that at least some part of the anti-inflammatory activity of blackberry extract is due to the suppression of NO production by cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, which is the main anthocyanin present in the extract. The mechanism of this inhibition seems to be due to an action on the expression/activity of the enzyme. In particular, the protein expression was inhibited through the attenuation of NF-κB and/or MAPK activatio
Technical quality assessment of an optoelectronic system for movement analysis
The Optoelectronic Systems (OS) are largely used in gait analysis to evaluate the motor performances of healthy subjects and patients. The accuracy of marker trajectories reconstruction depends on several aspects: the number of cameras, the dimension and position
of the calibration volume, and the chosen calibration procedure. In this paper we propose a methodology to evaluate the eects of the mentioned sources of error on the reconstruction of marker trajectories. The novel contribution of the present work consists in the dimension of the tested calibration volumes, which is comparable with the ones normally used in gait analysis; in addition, to simulate trajectories during clinical gait analysis, we provide non-default
paths for markers as inputs. Several calibration procedures are implemented and the same trial is processed with each calibration le, also considering dierent cameras congurations.
The RMSEs between the measured trajectories and the optimal ones are calculated for each comparison. To investigate the signicant dierences between the computed indices, an ANOVA analysis is implemented. The RMSE is sensible to the variations of the considered calibration volume and the camera congurations and it is always inferior to 43 mm
A new formulation of oral viscous budesonide in treating of paediatric eosinophilic oesophagitis: a pilot study
OBJECTIVES:
Oral viscous budesonide is a recent therapeutic option for eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE) compared with dietary restriction and inhaled steroids. This single-centre, open-label, not blinded study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a new, preprepared oral viscous budesonide suspension (PVB) in children and adolescents with EoE.
METHODS:
We treated 36 children with PVB (29 boys; median age 12 years) with EoE diagnosed according to European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition guidelines. Patients <150 and >150 cm height received 2 and 4 mg PVB daily, respectively, for 12 weeks. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was performed at baseline, after 12 weeks of therapy and 24 weeks after the end of therapy. Baseline and post-treatment scores were calculated for symptoms, endoscopy, and histology. Serum cortisol was performed at baseline, 12, and 36 weeks.
RESULTS:
At the end of PVB trial, endoscopy showed macroscopic remission in 32 patients (88.9%), whereas at histology median pre- and post-treatment peak eosinophil count/high power field (HPF) markedly decreased from 42.2 (range: 15-100) to 2.9 (range: 0-30); moreover, mean symptom and histology scores impressively improved compared with baseline (P < 0.01). At 24 weeks after the end of PVB therapy, endoscopy showed oesophageal relapse in 21 patients (58.3%), whereas 15 (41.7%) were still in remission. Seven children (19.4%) with positive multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH were treated also with proton pump inhibitors. No significant difference between pre-/post-treatment morning cortisol levels occurred.
CONCLUSIONS:
The new PVB suspension presented in the present study is effective and safe for treating children with proven EoE. Larger placebo-controlled clinical trials would provide more information about dosing, efficacy, and long-term safety of this formulation, specifically designed for the oesophagus
Signatures of Klein tunneling in disordered graphene p-n-p junctions
We present a method for obtaining quantum transport properties in graphene
that uniquely combines three crucial features: microscopic treatment of charge
disorder, fully quantum mechanical analysis of transport, and the ability to
model experimentally relevant system sizes. As a pertinent application we study
the disorder dependence of Klein tunneling dominated transport in p-n-p
junctions. Both the resistance and the Fano factor show broad resonance peaks
due to the presence of quasi bound states. This feature is washed out by the
disorder when the mean free path becomes of the order of the distance between
the two p-n interfaces.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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