Looking for black-holes in X-ray binaries with XMM-Newton: XTE J1817-330 and XTE J1856+053

The X-ray binary XTE J1817-330 was discovered in outburst on 26 January 2006 with RXTE/ASM. One year later, another X-ray transient discovered in 1996, XTE J1856+053, was detected by RXTE during a new outburst on 28 February 2007. We triggered XMM-Newton target of opportunity observations on these two objects to constrain their parameters and search for a stellar black holes. We summarize the properties of these two X-ray transients and show that the soft X-ray spectra indicate indeed the presence of an accreting stellar black hole in each of the two systems.Comment: to appear in the proceedings of the Second Kolkata Conference on Observational Evidence for Black Holes in the Universe, Feb. 2008, Editor Sandip Chakrabarti, AI

Reduction of internal friction in silica glass with high OH content

The aim of this article is to investigate processes occurring during annealing of silica glass classified as being of type III1. This is an inexpensive silica glass produced by many manufacturers across the globe. However, it can be successfully used for fabrication of high-Q mechanical resonators. The relationship between residual internal stress and internal friction is elucidated. Quantitative analysis of the structural relaxation kinetics is presented. The influence of the cooling process for structural transformation is also discussed. Based on our results, we suggest optimal annealing conditions for minimizing internal friction type III silica glass. The results will be useful for further improvement of the Q-factor of mechanical resonators, including the test masses of the next generation of gravitational wave detectors. Our approach might, in addition, be used for studying the modification of atomic structure in multicomponent glasses

VARIANCE OF BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF OPPORTUNISTIC STAPHYLOCOCCUS UNDER NEGATIVE AERO IONS INFLUENCE

The aim. of this research was to study some changes of staphylococcus biological properties under negative aero ions influence and lactobacillus. We applied a disco-diffuse method for detection of bacterial sensitivity to antimicrobials and. evaluated of the minimal inhibitory concentration by bacteriologic analyzer. Then we studied impact of negative aeroions flow on both isolated staphylococcus culture and. mixed with lactobacilli. Aeroions flow inhibits staphylococcal growth, decrease its sensitivity to antibiotics in vitro both in isolated culture, and. mixed with lactobacilli. Combined application of probiotics and. negative aeroions could be a new approach for changes of antimicrobial sensitivity

Interaction of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond with a Dense Ensemble of Carbon-13

The nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond attracts a lot of attention in sensing applications, mainly for temperature, magnetic field, and rotation measurements. Nuclear spins of carbon-13 surrounding the nitrogen-vacancy center can be used as a memory or sensing element. In the current work, a diamond plate with a relatively large concentration of carbon-13 was synthesized and examined. The spectrum of optically detected magnetic resonance was recorded and analyzed in a magnetic field range of 5-200 G. A strain-independent measurement technique of carbon-13 isotope concentration based on the analysis of magnetic resonance spectra was developed. Additionally, narrow features in the spectrum were detected and understood

Tuberculosis in HIV-infected children in Europe, Thailand and Brazil: paediatric TB-HIV EuroCoord study

SETTING: Centres participating in the Paediatric European Network for Treatment of AIDS (PENTA), including Thailand and Brazil. OBJECTIVE: To describe the incidence, presentation, treatment and treatment outcomes of tuberculosis (TB) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected children. DESIGN: Observational study of TB diagnosed in HIV-infected children in 2011–2013. RESULTS: Of 4265 children aged <16 years, 127 (3%) were diagnosed with TB: 6 (5%) in Western Europe, 80 (63%) in Eastern Europe, 27 (21%) in Thailand and 14 (11%) in Brazil, with estimated TB incidence rates of respectively 239, 982, 1633 and 2551 per 100 000 person-years (py). The majority (94%) had acquired HIV perinatally. The median age at TB diagnosis was 6.8 years (interquartile range 3.0–11.5). Over half (52%) had advanced/severe World Health Organization stage immunodeficiency; 67 (53%) were not on antiretroviral therapy (ART) at TB diagnosis. Preventive anti-tuberculosis treatment was given to 23% (n = 23) of 102 children diagnosed with HIV before TB. Eleven children had unfavourable TB outcomes: 4 died, 5 did not complete treatment, 1 had recurrent TB and 1 had an unknown outcome. In univariable analysis, previous diagnosis of acquired immune-deficiency syndrome, not being virologically suppressed on ART at TB diagnosis and region (Brazil) were significantly associated with unfavourable TB outcomes. CONCLUSION: Most TB cases were from countries with high TB prevalence. The majority (91%) had favourable outcomes. Universal ART and TB prophylaxis may reduce missed opportunities for TB prevention

The 2175 A dust feature in a Gamma Ray Burst afterglow at redshift 2.45

We present optical and near-infrared photometry of the afterglow of the long Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 070802 at redshift 2.45 obtained with the ESO/MPI 2.2 m telescope equipped with the multi-channel imager GROND. Follow-up observations in g'r'i'z' and JHK_S bands started ~17 min and extended up to 28 h post burst. We find an increase in brightness of the afterglow at early times, which can be explained by the superposition of reverse and forward shock (FS) emission or the onset of the afterglow FS. Additionally, we detect a strong broad-band absorption feature in the i' band, which we interpret as extinction from the redshifted 2175 A bump in the GRB host galaxy. This is one of the first and clearest detections of the 2175 A feature at high redshift. It is strong evidence for a carbon rich environment, indicating that Milky Way or Large Magellanic Cloud like dust was already formed in substantial amounts in a galaxy at z=2.45.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication by Ap

Self-healing capacity of nuclear glass observed by NMR spectroscopy

Safe management of high level nuclear waste is a worldwide significant issue for which vitrification has been selected by many countries. There exists a crucial need for improving our understanding of the ageing of the glass under irradiation. While external irradiation by ions provides a rapid simulation of damage induced by alpha decays, short lived actinide doping is more representative of the reality. Here, we report radiological NMR experiments to compare the damage in International Simplified Glass (ISG) when irradiated by these two methods. In the 0.1 mole percent 244Cm doped glass, accumulation of high alpha decay only shows small modifications of the local structure, in sharp contrast to heavy ion irradiation. These results reveal the ability of the alpha particle to partially repair the damage generated by the heavy recoil nuclei highlighting the radiation resistance of nuclear glass and the difficulty to accurately simulate its behaviour by single ion beam irradiations

Markov Properties of Electrical Discharge Current Fluctuations in Plasma

Using the Markovian method, we study the stochastic nature of electrical discharge current fluctuations in the Helium plasma. Sinusoidal trends are extracted from the data set by the Fourier-Detrended Fluctuation analysis and consequently cleaned data is retrieved. We determine the Markov time scale of the detrended data set by using likelihood analysis. We also estimate the Kramers-Moyal's coefficients of the discharge current fluctuations and derive the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation. In addition, the obtained Langevin equation enables us to reconstruct discharge time series with similar statistical properties compared with the observed in the experiment. We also provide an exact decomposition of temporal correlation function by using Kramers-Moyal's coefficients. We show that for the stationary time series, the two point temporal correlation function has an exponential decaying behavior with a characteristic correlation time scale. Our results confirm that, there is no definite relation between correlation and Markov time scales. However both of them behave as monotonic increasing function of discharge current intensity. Finally to complete our analysis, the multifractal behavior of reconstructed time series using its Keramers-Moyal's coefficients and original data set are investigated. Extended self similarity analysis demonstrates that fluctuations in our experimental setup deviates from Kolmogorov (K41) theory for fully developed turbulence regime.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures and 4 tables. V3: Added comments, references, figures and major correction

How Chaotic is the Stadium Billiard? A Semiclassical Analysis

The impression gained from the literature published to date is that the spectrum of the stadium billiard can be adequately described, semiclassically, by the Gutzwiller periodic orbit trace formula together with a modified treatment of the marginally stable family of bouncing ball orbits. I show that this belief is erroneous. The Gutzwiller trace formula is not applicable for the phase space dynamics near the bouncing ball orbits. Unstable periodic orbits close to the marginally stable family in phase space cannot be treated as isolated stationary phase points when approximating the trace of the Green function. Semiclassical contributions to the trace show an $\hbar$ - dependent transition from hard chaos to integrable behavior for trajectories approaching the bouncing ball orbits. A whole region in phase space surrounding the marginal stable family acts, semiclassically, like a stable island with boundaries being explicitly $\hbar$-dependent. The localized bouncing ball states found in the billiard derive from this semiclassically stable island. The bouncing ball orbits themselves, however, do not contribute to individual eigenvalues in the spectrum. An EBK-like quantization of the regular bouncing ball eigenstates in the stadium can be derived. The stadium billiard is thus an ideal model for studying the influence of almost regular dynamics near marginally stable boundaries on quantum mechanics.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures, submitted to J. Phys.