Cold-electron bolometers for future mm and sub-mm sky surveys

Future sky surveys in the mm/sub-mm range, like the forthcoming balloon-borne missions LSPE, OLIMPO, SPIDER etc., will need detectors insensitive to cosmic rays (CRs) and with a NEP of the order of $10^{-17} \div 10^{-18}\,$W/sqrt(Hz). The Cold-Electron Bolometers (CEBs) technology is promising, having the required properties, since the absorber volume is extremely small and the electron system of the absorber is thermally insulated from the phonon system. We have developed an experimental setup to test the optical performance and the CRs insensitivity of CEBs, with the target of integrating them in the OLIMPO and LSPE focal planes.Comment: 6 figure

Noise-induced macroscopic bifurcations in globally-coupled chaotic units

Large populations of globally-coupled identical maps subjected to independent additive noise are shown to undergo qualitative changes as the features of the stochastic process are varied. We show that for strong coupling, the collective dynamics can be described in terms of a few effective macroscopic degrees of freedom, whose deterministic equations of motion are systematically derived through an order parameter expansion.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett., accepte

Matrix Assisted Formation of Ferrihydrite Nanoparticles in a Siloxane/Poly(Oxyethylene) Nanohybrid

Matrix-assisted formation of ferrihydrite, an iron oxide hydroxide analogue of the protein ferritin-core, in a sol-gel derived organic-inorganic hybrid is reported. The hybrid network (named di-ureasil) is composed of poly(oxyethylene) chains of different average polymer molecular weights grafted to siloxane domains by means of urea cross-linkages and accommodates ferrihydrite nanoparticles. Magnetic measurements, Fourier transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy reveal that the controlled modification of the polymer molecular weight allows the fine-tuning of the ability of the hybrid matrix to assist and promote iron coordination at the organic-inorganic interface and subsequent nucleation and growth of the ferrihydrite nanoparticles whose core size (2-4 nm) is tuned by the amount of iron incorporated. The polymer chain length, its arrangement and crystallinity, are key factors on the anchoring and formation of the ferrihydrite particles.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. To be published in J. Mater. Che

Life histories stories of homeless people, social exclusion situations and transforming encounters

Este trabalho apresenta, a partir de histórias de vida, características do processo de "encontro transformador" entre dois moradores de rua e uma professora, que foi "ponto de apoio" positivo em suas vidas. O "encontro transformador" é interação entre os seres humanos que possibilita a transformação dos envolvidos, no sentido de despertar suas potencialidades, a retomada do sentido da vida, promovendo-lhes a resiliência, que é a capacidade humana de fazer frente às adversidades da vida, superá-las e sair delas fortalecidos e, inclusive, transformados. O estudo longitudinal realizado envolveu o resgate de histórias de vida, através de entrevistas abertas, fotografias, registros em Diário de Campo e desenhos feitos pelos sujeitos de observação. Na interpretação dos dados contemplou-se o emprego de conceitos de determinadas teorias de: Psicologia, Geografia, Sociologia, Direito, Ciências da Educação, Complexidade e Sistêmica, em diálogo entre diferentes disciplinas. A análise do fenômeno - em que o morar na rua surgiu como situação existencial excludente - revelou nova configuração nas psiques dos moradores de rua, em movimento de transformação. No fenômeno observado - complexo - desvelou-se a dificuldade dos moradores de rua estudados de se manterem no processo resiliente sem o apoio efetivo da Sociedade Civil e do Estado, a partir de políticas públicas voltadas para esse tipo de população. Conclui-se pela importância dos resultados deste trabalho como contribuição para a ampliação de processos de formação, não só de profissionais que atuam com moradores de rua como de integrantes da sociedade em geral, norteados por uma visão solidária de busca de cidadania para todos.This work presents, based on life histories Stories, characteristics of a "transforming encounter" that took place between two homeless people and oneA teacher. and that was It was a positive "point of support" in their lives. "Transforming encounter" is an interaction between human beings that enables the transformation of the people involved, in the sense that their potentialities are awoken, they recover their direction of life, and their resilience is promoted. Resilience is the human capacity to deal with life's adversities, overcome them;so, and become stronger and even transformed. The longitudinal study that was conducted involved the obtention of life histories stories through open interviews, photographs, registers in a Field Diary and drawings made by the observation subjects. In the data interpretation, concepts from certain theories were used, p.from the following areas (e.g.: Psychology, Geography, Sociology, Law, Education Sciences, Complexity and Systemic Theory), in a dialog among different disciplines. The analysis of the phenomenon analysis - in which living on the street emerged as an excluding existential situation - revealed a new configuration in the homeless' psyches, which were undergoing a transformation movement. The observed phenomenon - awhich was complex one - showed the difficulty that the studied homeless individuals have into maintaining themselves in the resilient process without the effective support of the CCivil Society's and of the State's support, through public policies targeted at this kind of population. The conclusion is that the results of this work are important as a contribution to the amplification of education processes amplification, not only of professionals who work with the homeless people, but also of members of society in general, guided by solidarity and by the will to search - for citizenship - conditions for all.Fundação da Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP

Challenges in Chagas Disease Drug Discovery: a review

Chagas disease or American trypanosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Although the number of infected individuals has decreased, about 6-7 million people are infected worldwide. The chemotherapy drugs currently used are limited to benznidazole and nifurtimox. They are effective in acute phase, congenital transmission and children with chronic infection; however, recent clinical trials have shown limitations in adults with chronic infection, presenting drawbacks during the treatment. Thus, there is an urgent need for new effective, safe and affordable drugs to fight against this complex disease. There were high expectations for azole derivatives as they appeared to be the most promising drugs for the treatment of Chagas disease during the last decade; however, the disappointing results obtained so far in clinical trials evidenced the lack of correlation between preclinical and clinical development. Therefore, the feedback obtained from these studies should define the starting point for addressing a roadmap for the drug discovery process in the fight against this disease. To tackle this challenge, it is important to keep in mind the drug target profile, already defined by panels of experts, and the coordinated work involving multi-disciplinary networks focusing not only on the discovery of new drugs but also on the standardization of the protocols that would allow acceleration in the Chagas disease drug discovery process

MeV sterile neutrinos in low reheating temperature cosmological scenarios

It is commonly assumed that the cosmological and astrophysical bounds on the mixings of sterile with active neutrinos are much more stringent than those obtained from laboratory measurements. We point out that in scenarios with a very low reheating temperature T_RH << 100 MeV at the end of (the last episode of) inflation or entropy creation, the abundance of sterile neutrinos becomes largely suppressed with respect to that obtained within the standard framework. Thus, in this case cosmological bounds become much less stringent than usually assumed, allowing sterile neutrinos to be ``visible'' in future experiments. Here, we concentrate on massive (mostly sterile) neutrinos heavier than 1 MeV.Comment: 14 pp, 7 fig

The minimal inhibitory concentration for sulbactam was not associated with the outcome of infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter sp. treated with ampicillin/sulbactam

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the outcomes of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter infections treated with ampicillin/sulbactam were associated with the in vitro susceptibility profiles. METHODS: Twenty-two infections were treated with ampicillin/sulbactam. The median treatment duration was 14 days (range: 3-19 days), and the median daily dose was 9 g (range: 1.5-12 g). The median time between Acinetobacter isolation and treatment was 4 days (range: 0-11 days). RESULTS: The sulbactam minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranged from 2.0 to 32.0 mg/L, and the MIC was not associated with patient outcome, as 4 of 5 (80%) patients with a resistant infection (MIC≥16), 5 of 10 (50%) patients with intermediate isolates (MIC of 8) and only 1 of 7 (14%) patients with susceptible isolates (MIC ≤4) survived hospitalization. CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the need to improve the correlation between in vitro susceptibility tests and clinical outcome

Предрогнозна оцінка структури майна і капіталу промислового підприємства

Однією зі складових управління фінансами підприємства є прогнозування фінансового стану, яке дозволяє виявити здатність підприємства до стійкого функціонування і розвитку в умовах зміни зовнішнього і внутрішнього середовища господарювання. Сьогодні неможна недооцінювати роль прогнозування, оскільки функціонування підприємства завжди пов'язане з невизначеністю майбутніх наслідків дій того або іншого управлінського рішення. Однією із дисциплінуючих умов прогнозування фінансового стану промислових підприємств виступає оцінка їх фінансового стану у динаміці взагалі та предпрогнозна оцінка структури майна і капіталу зокрема.Одной из составляющих управления финансами предприятия является прогнозирование финансового состояния, которое позволяет выявить способность предприятия к стойкому функционированию и развитию в условиях изменения внешней и внутренней среды ведения хозяйства. Сегодня невозможно недооценивать роль прогнозирования, поскольку функционирование предприятия всегда связано с неопределенностью будущих последствий действий того или другого управленческого решения. Одним из дисциплинирующих условий прогнозирования финансового состояния промышленных предприятий выступает оценка их финансового состояния в динамике вообще и предпрогнозируемая оценка структуры имущества и капитала в частности