J/psi suppression at SPS and RHIC in the comovers approach

The NA50 collaboration data on the $J/\psi$ suppression are compared with the results obtained in a comovers approach based on the Dual Parton Model (DPM). Predictions for the $J/\psi$ suppression versus the charged multiplicity - measured in the rapidity region of the dimuon trigger - are given for SPS and RHIC energies.Comment: 4 pages, contribution to QM200

Experimental characterization of the structural response of adobe arches

Earth was one of the first construction materials used by mankind and has been used as a building material since ancient times until the present days. Its qualities related to thermal comfort, low cost or simple construction techniques have contributed to such a long tradition throughout the world with several different architectural expressions, integrating the culture and history of each region. With the wide propagation of steel and concrete structures, there has been a general loss of the traditional knowledge in earth construction. This type of construction presents important structural fragilities and requires a special maintenance to preserve its qualities. In order to understand the structural behaviour of this type of structures, the associated construction methods and processes have to be considered. Aveiro University has been developing studies on adobe constructions, with research on the material mechanical characterization, experimental study of the structural behaviour of adobe masonry walls and, more recently, in the development of a detailed survey methodology for the characterization of buildings in Aveiro district. Integrated in these studies, arches with different geometries were built using adobe blocks and traditional construction methods. These arches were tested under different types of vertical loading (distributed symmetrical, distributed non-symmetrical and point load) until collapse. The experimental tests performed reproduce the typical loading conditions of these structures during construction and use. The tests conducted, the results obtained and the main conclusions attained are described in this paper

Open Descendents of U(2N) Orbifolds at Rational Radii

We construct explicitly the open descendants of some exceptional automorphism invariants of U(2N) orbifolds. We focus on the case N=pq, p and q prime, and on the automorphisms of the diagonal and charge conjugation invariants that exist for these values of N. These correspond to orbifolds of the circle with radius R^2=2p/q. For each automorphism invariant we find two consistent Klein bottles, and for each Klein bottle we find a complete (and probably unique) set of boundary states. The two Klein bottles are in each case related to each other by simple currents, but surprisingly for the automorphism of the charge conjugation invariant neither of the Klein bottle choices is the canonical (symmetric) one.Comment: Boundaries for the C+A case that were missing in the first version are added; reference added. 14 pages, Late

Enhancing Fault / Intrusion Tolerance through Design and Configuration Diversity

Fault/intrusion tolerance is usually the only viable way of improving the system dependability and security in the presence of continuously evolving threats. Many of the solutions in the literature concern a specific snapshot in the production or deployment of a fault-tolerant system and no immediate considerations are made about how the system should evolve to deal with novel threats. In this paper we outline and evaluate a set of operating systems’ and applications’ reconfiguration rules which can be used to modify the state of a system replica prior to deployment or in between recoveries, and hence increase the replicas chance of a longer intrusion-free operation

On the functional form of the metallicity-giant planet correlation

It is generally accepted that the presence of a giant planet is strongly dependent on the stellar metallicity. A stellar mass dependence has also been investigated, but this dependence does not seem as strong as the metallicity dependence. Even for metallicity, however, the exact form of the correlation has not been established. In this paper, we test several scenarios for describing the frequency of giant planets as a function of its host parameters. We perform this test on two volume-limited samples (from CORALIE and HARPS). By using a Bayesian analysis, we quantitatively compared the different scenarios. We confirm that giant planet frequency is indeed a function of metallicity. However, there is no statistical difference between a constant or an exponential function for stars with subsolar metallicities contrary to what has been previously stated in the literature. The dependence on stellar mass could neither be confirmed nor be discarded.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted in A&

We are all School

The project “We are all school” aimed to break down barriers between the school and the community, to convey the idea that we all have something to add to the school, as we are all educational agents. Our intention was to give more visibility to the activities that the school develops with the community in general. As this community is made up of people from different parts of the world, with diverse cultures and knowledge, we set out to look for  their experiences and knowledge so that the school could benefit from the richness of this diversity. We also set out to involve the whole community more actively, valuing all the knowledge that could be carried to benefit the full learning path of students, regardless of their origin or social position

Searching for solar siblings among the HARPS data

The search for the solar siblings has been particularly fruitful in the last few years. Until now, there are four plausible candidates pointed out in the literature: HIP21158, HIP87382, HIP47399, and HIP92831. In this study we conduct a search for solar siblings among the HARPS high-resolution FGK dwarfs sample, which includes precise chemical abundances and kinematics for 1111 stars. Using a new approach based on chemical abundance trends with the condensation temperature, kinematics, and ages we found one (additional) potential solar sibling candidate: HIP97507.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Accepted in A&