604 research outputs found
EP-1581: PTW Starcheck 2D array for Quality Control in IOERT: an evaluation of accuracy and dose consumption
An integrated approach to prevent and treat respiratory failure in brain-injured patients
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Brain-injured patients are at increased risk of extracerebral organ dysfunction, in particular ventilator-associated pneumonia. The purpose of this review is to discuss functional abnormalities, clinical treatment, and possible prevention of respiratory function abnormalities in brain-injured patients.
RECENT FINDINGS: Ventilator-associated pneumonia worsens the neurologic outcome and increases the intensive care unit and hospital stay, costs, and risk of death. The respiratory dysfunction can be due to several causes, but atelectasis and/or consolidation of the lower lobes predominates in the most severe cases. Strategies should be implemented to prevent lung infections and accelerate weaning from mechanical ventilation to reduce the incidence of respiratory dysfunction and ventilator-associated pneumonia.
SUMMARY: An integrated approach including appropriate ventilatory, antibiotic, and fluid management could be extremely useful, not only to prevent and more rapidly treat respiratory failure but also to improve neurologic outcome and reduce hospital stay. Further studies are warranted to better elucidate the pathophysiology and clinical treatment of respiratory dysfunction in brain-injured patients
EP-1770: New RGB algorithm for dose measurements with EBT3 films tested in 6 MV x-ray beams up to 90 Gy doses
The work investigates the dose-response of EBT3 films in 6MV x-ray beams up to high-dose levels, 90Gy, with a fit function able to provide more precise dose measurements in the whole range by weighing the three RGB (Red-Green-Blue) color channels together, comparing also results with two different scanners.
A consistent dose response was observed, no deviation from the known response curves is shown, only some difference in the recorded pixel values was detected using different scanners.
The absorbed dose of unknown films was found to be within 1-1.5% of the true absorbed dose, with a precision of about 2.5%
The Kormendy relation of massive elliptical galaxies at z~1.5. Evidence for size evolution ?
We present the morphological analysis based on HST-NIC2 (0.075 arcsec/pixel)
images in the F160W filter of a sample of 9 massive field (> 10^{11} M_\odot)
galaxies spectroscopically classified as early-types at 1.2<z<1.7. Our analysis
shows that all of them are bulge dominated systems. In particular, 6 of them
are well fitted by a de Vaucouleurs profile (n=4) suggesting that they can be
considered pure elliptical galaxies. The remaining 3 galaxies are better fitted
by a Sersic profile with index 1.9<n<2.3 suggesting that a disk-like component
could contribute up to 30% to the total light of these galaxies. We derived the
effective radius R_e and the mean surface brightness within R_e of our
galaxies and we compared them with those of early-types at lower redshifts. We
find that the surface brightness of our galaxies should get fainter by
2.5 mag from z~1.5 to z~0 to match the surface brightness of the local
ellipticals with comparable R_e, i.e. the local Kormendy relation. Luminosity
evolution without morphological changes can only explain half of this effect,
as the maximum dimming expected for an elliptical galaxy is ~1.6 mag in this
redshift range. Thus, other parameters, possibly structural, may undergo
evolution and play an important role in reconciling models and observations.
Hypothesizing an evolution of the effective radius of galaxies we find that R_e
should increase by a factor 1.5 from z~1.5 to z~0.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 15 pages, 8 figure
A Hard Medium Survey with ASCA. IV: the Radio-Loud Type 2 QSO AXJ0843+294 2
We discuss the X-ray, optical and radio properties of AX J0843+2942, a high
luminosity Type 2 AGN found in the ASCA Hard Serendipitous Survey. The X-ray
spectrum is best described by an absorbed power-law model with photon index of
Gamma = 1.72 (+0.3 -0.6) and intrinsic absorbing column density of NH = 1.44
(+0.33 -0.52) x 10E23 cm-2. The intrinsic luminosity in the 0.5-10 keV energy
band is ~ 3x10E45 erg s-1, well within the range of quasar luminosities. AX
J0843+2942, positionally coincident with the core of a triple and strong (S_1.4
GHz ~ 1 Jy; P_1.4 GHz ~ 9 x 10E33 erg s-1 Hz-1) radio source, is
spectroscopically identified with a Narrow Line object (intrinsic FWHM of all
the permitted emission lines <= 1200 km s-1) at z=0.398, having line features
and ratios typical of Seyfert-2 like objects. The high X-ray luminosity,
coupled with the high intrinsic absorption, the optical spectral properties and
the radio power, allow us to propose AX J0843+2942 as a Radio-Loud "Type 2
QSO". A discussion of the SED of this object is presented here together with a
comparison with the SED of Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxies, other "Type 2 QSO"
candidates from the literature, and "normal" Radio-Quiet and Radio-Loud QSOs.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Latex manuscript, Accepted for publication in
Ast ronomy and Astrophysic
XMM-Newton observations of ULIRGs I: A Compton-thick AGN in IRAS19254-7245
We present the XMM-Newton observation of the merging system IRAS 19254-7245,
also known as The Superantennae, whose southern nucleus is classified as a
Seyfert 2 galaxy. The XMM-Newton data have allowed us to perform a detailed
X-ray imaging and spectral analysis of this system. We clearly detect, for the
first time in this system, a strong EW ~ 1.4 keV Fe emission line at 6.49+/-0.1
keV (rest-frame). The X-ray spectrum requires a soft thermal component (kT~0.9
keV; L(0.5-2) ~ 4E41 cgs), likely associated with the starburst, and a hard
power-law continuum above 2 keV (observed L(2-10) ~ 4E42 cgs). We confirm the
flatness of this latter component, already noted in previous ASCA data. This
flatness, together with the detection of the strong Fe-Kalpha line and other
broad band indicators, suggest the presence of a Compton-thick AGN with
intrinsic luminosity > 1E44 cgs. We show that a Compton-thick model can
perfectly reproduce the X-ray spectral properties of this object.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Latex manuscript, Accepted for publication in
Astronomy and Astrophysic
NuSTAR reveals that the heavily obscured nucleus of NGC 2785 was the contaminant of IRAS 09104+4109 in the BeppoSAX/PDS hard X-rays
The search for heavily obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) has been
revitalized in the last five years by NuSTAR, which has provided a good census
and spectral characterization of a population of such objects, mostly at low
redshift, thanks to its enhanced sensitivity above 10 keV compared to previous
X-ray facilities, and its hard X-ray imaging capabilities. We aim at
demonstrating how NGC2785, a local (z=0.009) star-forming galaxy, is
responsible, in virtue of its heavily obscured active nucleus, for significant
contamination in the non-imaging BeppoSAX/PDS data of the relatively nearby
(~17 arcmin) quasar IRAS 09104+4109 (z=0.44), which was originally
mis-classified as Compton thick. We analyzed ~71 ks NuSTAR data of NGC2785
using the MYTorus model and provided a physical description of the X-ray
properties of the source for the first time. We found that NGC2785 hosts a
heavily obscured (NH~3*10^{24} cm^{-2}) nucleus. The intrinsic X-ray luminosity
of the source, once corrected for the measured obscuration (L(2-10 keV)~10^{42}
erg/s), is consistent within a factor of a few with predictions based on the
source mid-infrared flux using widely adopted correlations from the literature.
Based on NuSTAR data and previous indications from the Neil Gehrels Swift
Observatory (BAT instrument), we confirm that NGC2785, because of its hard
X-ray emission and spectral shape, was responsible for at least one third of
the 20-100 keV emission observed using the PDS instrument onboard BeppoSAX,
originally completely associated with IRAS 09104+4109. Such emission led to the
erroneous classification of this source as a Compton-thick quasar, while it is
now recognized as Compton thin.Comment: Six pages, 3 figures, A&A, in pres
Dust in active nuclei. I. Evidence for "anomalous" properties
We present observational evidences that dust in the circumnuclear region of
AGNs has different properties than in the Galactic diffuse interstellar medium.
By comparing the reddening of optical and infrared broad lines and the X-ray
absorbing column density we find that the E(B-V)/N_H ratio is nearly always
lower than Galactic by a factor ranging from ~3 up to ~100. Other observational
results indicate that the Av/N_H ratio is significantly lower than Galactic in
various classes of AGNs including intermediate type 1.8-1.9 Seyferts, hard
X-ray selected and radio selected quasars, broad absorption line QSOs and grism
selected QSOs. The lack of prominent absorption features at 9.7um (silicates)
and at 2175A (carbon dip) in the spectra of Seyfert 2s and of reddened Seyfert
1s, respectively, add further evidence for dust in the circumnuclear region of
AGNs being different from Galactic.
These observational results indicate that the dust composition in the
circumnuclear region of AGNs could be dominated by large grains, which make the
extinction curve flatter, featureless and are responsible for the reduction of
the E(B-V)/N_H and Av/N_H ratios.
Regardless of the physical origin of these phenomena, the reduced dust
absorption with respect to what expected from the gaseous column density should
warn about a mismatch between the optical and the X-ray classification of the
active galactic nuclei in terms of their obscuration.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&
WISE colours and star-formation in the host galaxies of radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1
We investigate the mid-infrared properties of the largest (42 objects) sample
of radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 (RL NLS1) collected to date, using data
from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). We analyse the mid-IR
colours of these objects and compare them to what is expected from different
combinations of AGN and galaxy templates. We find that, in general, the
host-galaxy emission gives an importan contribution to the observed mid-IR flux
in particular at the longest wavelengths (W3, at 12micron, and W4, at
22micron). In about half of the sources (22 objects) we observe a very red
mid-IR colour (W4-W3>2.5) that can be explained only using a starburst galaxy
template (M82). Using the 22micron luminosities, corrected for the AGN
contribution, we have then estimated the star-formation rate for 20 of these
"red" RL NLS1, finding values ranging from 10 to 500 Msun/y. For the RL NLS1
showing bluer colours, instead, we cannot exclude the presence of a
star-forming host galaxy although, on average, we expect a lower star-formation
rate. Studying the radio (1.4GHz) to mid-IR (22micron) flux ratios of the RL
NLS1 in the sample we found that in ~10 objects the star-forming activity could
represent the most important component also at radio frequencies, in addition
(or in alternative) to the relativistic jet. We conclude that both the mid-IR
and the radio emission of RL NLS1 are a mixture of different components,
including the relativistic jet, the dusty torus and an intense star-forming
activity.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 11 pages, 7 figures, 2 table
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