Relation between climatic condition, temperature and moisture in the subsoil of Turin Plain

Unconfined aquifer, unsaturated zone, satured zone, Po River, temperatur

The Transmission Spectrum of WASP-17 b From the Optical to the Near-infrared Wavelengths: Combining STIS, WFC3, and IRAC Data Sets

We present the transmission spectrum of the inflated hot Jupiter WASP-17 b, observed with the STIS and WFC3 instruments aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, allowing for a continuous wavelength coverage from ∼0.4 to ∼1.7 μm. Observations taken with IRAC channels 1 and 2 on the Spitzer Space Telescope are also included, adding photometric measurements at 3.6 and 4.5 μm. HST spectral data were analyzed with Iraclis, a pipeline specialized in the reduction of STIS and WFC3 transit and eclipse observations. Spitzer photometric observations were reduced with the TLCD-LSTM method, utilizing recurrent neural networks. The outcome of our reduction produces incompatible results between STIS visit 1 and visit 2, which leads us to consider two scenarios for G430L. Additionally, by modeling the WFC3 data alone, we can extract atmospheric information without having to deal with the contrasting STIS data sets. We run separate retrievals on the three spectral scenarios with the aid of TauREx 3, a fully Bayesian retrieval framework. We find that, independently of the data considered, the exoplanet atmosphere displays strong water signatures and, potentially, the presence of aluminum oxide and titanium hydride. A retrieval that includes an extreme photospheric activity of the host star is the preferred model, but we recognize that such a scenario is unlikely for an F6-type star. Due to the incompleteness of all STIS spectral light curves, only further observations with this instrument would allow us to properly constrain the atmospheric limb of WASP-17 b, before the James Webb Space Telescope or Ariel will come online

Correcting Exoplanet Transmission Spectra for Stellar Activity with an Optimised Retrieval Framework

The chromatic contamination that arises from photospheric heterogeneities e.g. spots and faculae on the host star presents a significant noise source for exoplanet transmission spectra. If this contamination is not corrected for, it can introduce substantial bias in our analysis of the planetary atmosphere. We utilise two stellar models of differing complexity, StARPA and ASteRA, to explore the biases introduced by stellar contamination in retrieval under differing degrees of stellar activity. We use the retrieval framework TauREx3 and a grid of 27 synthetic, spot-contaminated transmission spectra to investigate potential biases and to determine how complex our stellar models must be in order to accurately extract the planetary parameters from transmission spectra. The input observation is generated using the more complex model (StARPA), in which the spot latitude is an additional, fixable parameter. This observation is then fed into a combined stellar-planetary retrieval which contains a simplified stellar model (ASteRA). Our results confirm that the inclusion of stellar activity parameters in retrieval minimises bias under all activity regimes considered. ASteRA performs very well under low to moderate activity conditions, retrieving the planetary parameters with a high degree of accuracy. For the most active cases, characterised by larger, higher temperature contrast spots, some minor residual bias remains due to ASteRA neglecting the interplay between the spot and the limb darkening effect. As a result of this, we find larger errors in retrieved planetary parameters for central spots (0 degrees) and those found close to the limb (60 degrees) than those at intermediate latitudes (30 degrees).Comment: 34 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Development and Metrological Characterization of a Multi-sensor Device for Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) monitoring

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), which affects people's health, comfort, well-being and productivity, combines thermal, visual, acoustic and air quality conditions. This work deals with design, development and metrological characterization of a low-cost multi-sensor device that is able to detect the quality conditions of indoor environments for IEQ purposes. The device, hereafter referred as PROMET&O (PROactive Monitoring for indoor EnvironmenTal quality & cOmfort) embeds a set of low-cost sensors that measure air temperature and relative humidity, illuminance, sound pressure level, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, formaldehyde, and nitrogen dioxide. The basic architecture of the device is described and the design criteria that are related to the measurement requirements are highlighted. Particular attention has been paid towards the traceability assurance of the measurements provided by PROMET&O by means of specifically conceived calibration procedures, which have been tailored to the requirements of each measurement quantity. The calibration is based on the comparison to reference standards following commonly employed or ad-hoc developed technical procedures. The defined calibration procedures can be applied both for the single sensors and for the set of sensors integrated in the multi-sensor case. For the latter, the effects of the percentage of permeable case surface and the sensors allocation are also investigated. A preliminary uncertainty evaluation of the proposed multi-sensor device is reported for the carbon dioxide and the illuminance sensors taking the defined calibration procedures into account

Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRISS

Transmission spectroscopy provides insight into the atmospheric properties and consequently the formation history, physics, and chemistry of transiting exoplanets. However, obtaining precise inferences of atmospheric properties from transmission spectra requires simultaneously measuring the strength and shape of multiple spectral absorption features from a wide range of chemical species. This has been challenging given the precision and wavelength coverage of previous observatories. Here, we present the transmission spectrum of the Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b obtained using the SOSS mode of the NIRISS instrument on the JWST. This spectrum spans $0.6 - 2.8 \mu$m in wavelength and reveals multiple water absorption bands, the potassium resonance doublet, as well as signatures of clouds. The precision and broad wavelength coverage of NIRISS-SOSS allows us to break model degeneracies between cloud properties and the atmospheric composition of WASP-39b, favoring a heavy element enhancement ("metallicity") of $\sim 10 - 30 \times$ the solar value, a sub-solar carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio, and a solar-to-super-solar potassium-to-oxygen (K/O) ratio. The observations are best explained by wavelength-dependent, non-gray clouds with inhomogeneous coverage of the planet's terminator.Comment: 48 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. Under review at Natur

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Erratum: Daneshgar, S., et al. Simulations and Laboratory Tests for Assessing Phosphorus Recovery Efficiency from Sewage Sludge, <em>Resources</em> 2018, <em>7</em>, 54

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...

Simulations and Laboratory Tests for Assessing Phosphorus Recovery Efficiency from Sewage Sludge

Phosphorus is a potential environmental pollutant, which could lead to the eutrophication of water bodies. For this reason, wastewater treatment plants worldwide are often designed and operated to eliminate phosphorous from effluents, at substantial cost. At the same time, phosphorus is an essential nutrient for agriculture and, consequently, human life. Data seem to suggest that the world will run out of phosphorus by around 2300, in the best case scenario, although even shorter estimates exist. This situation evokes the need for more efficient phosphorus recovery technologies, in order to meet current water quality requirements and&mdash;at the same time&mdash;critical future phosphorous needs. Chemical precipitation is the main process for achieving a phosphorus-containing mineral suitable for reuse as a fertilizer, where Struvite is an example of such a product. In this study chemical equilibrium of struvite precipitation was simulated using US Geological Survey (USGS)&rsquo; PHREEQC model, and results were compared to laboratory precipitation tests to evaluate struvite recovery efficiency under various conditions. pH had the most significant effect on the results and P recovery of &gt;90% was achieved at pH = 9.5. Simulations indicated that struvite precipitation is affected by the presence of Amorphous Calcium Phosphate (ACP) and calcite in the final product of the process. The model showed great potential for predicting equilibrium conditions, and could be very helpful for future optimization of the process