An Hα_\alpha Catalogue of Galaxies in Hickson Compact Groups. I. The Sample

We present H$_\alpha$ photometry for a sample of 95 galaxies in Hickson Compact Groups obtained from observations of 31 groups. The Catalogue lists isophotal and adaptive aperture (Kron aperture) flux measurements for about 75% of the accordant galaxies inside the observed HCGs, 22 out of which are upper limits. Non standard data reduction procedures have been used to obtain the continuum subtracted H$_\alpha$ images for each HCG of the target sample. Flux calibration has also been performed in order to obtain H$_\alpha$ luminosities for the whole sample. Both the data reduction and calibration procedures are carefully described in this paper. The new data listed in this Catalogue are of great importance in understanding the star formation rate inside HCG galaxies and in giving new insights on its dependence on galaxy interactions.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&AS, 22 pages, including 23 figure

Assessment of total annual effective doses to representative person, for authorised and accidental releases from the Nuclear Medicine Department at Cattinara Hospital (Trieste, Italy)

Purpose: Clinical procedures in a Nuclear Medicine Department produce radioactive liquid and solid waste. Regarding waste release into the environment from an authorised hospital, it is mandatory to verify the compliance with European Directive 2013/59/EURATOM, adopted by the Italian Government via the Legislative Decree 101/2020.Methods: Different activity release pathways into the environment from Trieste Nuclear Medicine Department have been analysed: liquid waste from patients' excreta discharged by sewage treatment system into the sea, and atmospheric releases following solid waste incineration. Reference models, provided by NCRP and IAEA guidelines, have been implemented to assess the impact of the discharged radioactivity for coastal waters and atmospheric transport conditions. Finally, an accidental fire event occurring in Radiopharmacy Laboratories has been simulated by HotSpot software.Results: Advanced screening models give an effective dose to population of 5.3 . 10-3 mu Sv/y and 1.4 . 10-4 mu Sv/y for introduction by sewage system into coastal waters and atmospheric releases by the incinerator, respectively. Workers involved in the maintenance of the sewage treatment plant receive a total annual effective dose of 3.8 mu Sv/y, while for incinerator staff the total annual exposure is 5.9 . 10-8 mu Sv/y. For the accidental fire event the maximum total effective dose to an individual results 3.8 . 10-8 Sv with mild wind, and 4.1 . 10-7 Sv with strong wind.Conclusions: The total annual effective doses estimated to representative person, due to both Nuclear Medicine authorised clinical practices and in case of an accidental fire event, are in compliance with regulatory stipula-tions provided by Directives

Genome sequencing of Prototheca zopfii genotypes 1 and 2 provides evidence of a severe reduction in organellar genomes

Abstract Prototheca zopfii (P. zopfii, class Trebouxiophyceae, order Chlorellales, family Chlorellaceae), a non-photosynthetic predominantly free-living unicellular alga, is one of the few pathogens belonging to the plant kingdom. This alga can affect many vertebrate hosts, sustaining systemic infections and diseases such as mastitis in cows. The aim of our work was to sequence and assemble the P. zopfii genotype 1 and genotype 2 mitochondrial and plastid genomes. Remarkably, the P. zopfii mitochondrial (38 Kb) and plastid (28 Kb) genomes are models of compaction and the smallest known in the Trebouxiophyceae. As expected, the P. zopfii genotype 1 and 2 plastid genomes lack all the genes involved in photosynthesis, but, surprisingly, they also lack those coding for RNA polymerases. Our results showed that plastid genes are actively transcribed in P. zopfii, which suggests that the missing RNA polymerases are substituted by nuclear-encoded paralogs. The simplified architecture and highly-reduced gene complement of the P. zopfii mitochondrial and plastid genomes are closer to those of P. stagnora and the achlorophyllous obligate parasite Helicosporidium than to those of P. wickerhamii or P. cutis. This similarity is also supported by maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses inferences. Overall, the P. zopfii sequences reported here, which include nuclear genome drafts for both genotypes, will help provide both a deeper understanding of the evolution of Prototheca spp. and insights into the corresponding host/pathogen interactions

Elucidating the global distribution of reprocessing gas in NGC 1194

A joint XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observation was conducted for the bright, local Seyfert 1.9 galaxy, NGC 1194. The hard spectral form of this AGN was modeled using the toroidal reprocessor MYTORUS. The decoupled model form provides a good description of the spectrum, with reflection arising from gas with a global average column density > 4 x 10^24 cm^-2 and transmission of the continuum through an order-of-magnitude lower column. In this model, the reflection strength is a factor ~3 higher than expected from a simple torus. Such a result may indicate that much of the intrinsic X-ray continuum is hidden from view. An alternative model is that of a patchy torus, where 85% of sight-lines are obscured by Compton-thick gas and the remaining 15% by Compton-thin gas. The patchy torus model is based on a solar abundance of Fe and is consistent with X-ray partial-covering results found in other AGN. That a patchy torus model would relieve the issue with the strength of the reflection signature is not an intuitive result: such an insight regarding the geometry of the global reprocessing gas could not have been obtained using ad hoc model components to describe the spectral form.Comment: 10 pages, accepted by MNRA

Short-term reproducibility of nocturnal non-dipping pattern in recently diagnosed essential hypertensives.

Objective: To investigate in a selected population of patients with a recently diagnosed essential hypertension the short-term intrasubject variability of diurnal changes in blood pressure (BP). Methods: Two hundred and eight consecutive, recently diagnosed, never treated essential hypertensives (119 men, 89 women, 46 ± 12 years) underwent 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) twice within 3 weeks. Dipping pattern was defined as a reduction in average systolic and diastolic BP at night greater than 10% compared to average daytime values. Results: 177 subjects (85%) showed no change in their diurnal variations in BP. Of the 159 subjects who had a dipping pattern on first ABPM, 134 (90.6%) confirmed this type of profile on the second ABPM, while 15 (9.4%) showed a non-dipping pattern. Of the 59 subjects who had a non-dipping pattern on the first ABPM, 43 (72.2%) confirmed their initial profile on the second ABPM, while 16 (28.8%) did not. Conclusion: These findings indicate that short-term reproducibility of diurnal changes in BP in early phases of untreated essential hypertension, characterized by a large prevalence of dipping pattern, is overall satisfactory. However, our study underlines that also in this particularly selected population of hypertensives the definition of non-dipping status on the basis of a single ABPM remains unreliable in about one-third of patients

Left ventricular concentric remodelling and extracardiac target organ damage in essential hypertension

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Diversity of vaginal microbiome and metabolome during genital infections

We characterized the vaginal ecosystem during common infections of the female genital tract, as vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC, n\u2009=\u200918) and Chlamydia trachomatis infection (CT, n\u2009=\u200920), recruiting healthy (HC, n\u2009=\u200921) and bacterial vaginosis-affected (BV, n\u2009=\u200920) women as references of eubiosis and dysbiosis. The profiles of the vaginal microbiome and metabolome were studied in 79 reproductive-aged women, by means of next generation sequencing and proton based-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Lactobacillus genus was profoundly depleted in all the genital infections herein considered, and species-level analysis revealed that healthy vaginal microbiome was dominated by L. crispatus. In the shift from HC to CT, VVC, and BV, L. crispatus was progressively replaced by L. iners. CT infection and VVC, as well as BV condition, were mainly characterised by anaerobe genera, e.g. Gardnerella, Prevotella, Megasphaera, Roseburia and Atopobium. The changes in the bacterial communities occurring during the genital infections resulted in significant alterations in the vaginal metabolites composition, being the decrease of lactate a common marker of all the pathological conditions. In conclusion, according to the taxonomic and metabolomics analysis, we found that each of the four conditions is characterized by a peculiar vaginal microbiome/metabolome fingerprint

A sensitive APEX and ALMA CO(1-0), CO(2-1), CO(3-2), and [CI](1-0) spectral survey of 40 local (U)LIRGs

We present a high sensitivity spectral line survey of CO(1-0), CO(2-1), CO(3-2) and [CI](1-0) in 40 local (ultra) luminous infrared galaxies ((U)LIRGs), all with previous Herschel OH119 $\mu$m observations. We use single-dish observations (PI and archival) conducted with APEX, complemented with ALMA and ACA data. We study the total emission and pay special attention to the extended low-surface brightness components. We find a tight correlation between low-J CO and [CI] line luminosities suggesting their emission arise from similar regions, at least when averaged over galactic scales. We estimate a median CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor of $1.7\pm 0.5$ M$_{\odot}$ (K km s$^{-1}$ pc$^2)^{-1}$ for ULIRGs, using [CI] as an independent tracer. We derive median galaxy-integrated CO line ratios ($r_{21}$, $r_{31}$ and $r_{32}$), as well as $r_{CICO}$, significantly higher than normal star forming galaxies, confirming the exceptional molecular gas properties of ULIRGs. We find that $r_{21}$ and $r_{32}$ are poor tracers of CO excitation in ULIRGs, while $r_{31}$ shows a positive trend with $L_{IR}$ and SFR, and a negative trend with the H$_2$ gas depletion timescales ($\tau_{dep}$). When studying CO line ratios as a function of gas kinematics, we find a positive relation between $r_{21}$ and $\sigma_v$, which can be explained by CO opacity effects. We find that the linewidths of [CI] lines are ~10% narrower than CO lines, which may suggest that the low optical depth of [CI] can challenge its detection in diffuse, low-surface brightness outflows, and so its use as a tracer of CO-dark H$_2$ gas in these components. Finally, we find that higher $L_{AGN}$ are associated to longer $\tau_{dep}$, consistent with the hypothesis that AGN feedback may reduce the efficiency of star formation.Comment: Accepted for publication by A&A. 42 pages, 22 figures. Abstract summarised for arXiv submissio

Multimodal approach to predict neurological outcome after cardiac arrest: A single-center experience

Introduction: The aims of this study were to assess the concordance of different tools and to describe the accuracy of a multimodal approach to predict unfavorable neurological outcome (UO) in cardiac arrest patients. Methods: Retrospective study of adult (>18 years) cardiac arrest patients who underwent multimodal monitoring; UO was defined as cerebral performance category 3-5 at 3 months. Predictors of UO were neurological pupillary index (NPi) 64 2 at 24 h; highly malignant patterns on EEG (HMp) within 48 h; bilateral absence of N20 waves on somato-sensory evoked potentials; and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) > 75 \u3bcg/L. Time-dependent decisional tree (i.e., NPi on day 1; HMp on day 1-2; absent N20 on day 2-3; highest NSE) and classification and regression tree (CART) analysis were used to assess the prediction of UO. Results: Of 137 patients, 104 (73%) had UO. Abnormal NPi, HMp on day 1 or 2, the bilateral absence of N20 or NSE >75 mcg/L had a specificity of 100% to predict UO. The presence of abnormal NPi was highly concordant with HMp and high NSE, and absence of N20 or high NSE with HMp. However, HMp had weak to moderate concordance with other predictors. The time-dependent decisional tree approach identified 73/103 patients (70%) with UO, showing a sensitivity of 71% and a specificity of 100%. Using the CART approach, HMp on EEG was the only variable significantly associated with UO. Conclusions: This study suggests that patients with UO had often at least two predictors of UO, except for HMp. A multimodal time-dependent approach may be helpful in the prediction of UO after CA. EEG should be included in all multimodal prognostic models