Monte Carlo simulations of soft proton flares: testing the physics with XMM-Newton

Low energy protons (<100-300 keV) in the Van Allen belt and the outer regions can enter the field of view of X-ray focusing telescopes, interact with the Wolter-I optics, and reach the focal plane. The use of special filters protects the XMM-Newton focal plane below an altitude of 70000 km, but above this limit the effect of soft protons is still present in the form of sudden flares in the count rate of the EPIC instruments, causing the loss of large amounts of observing time. We try to characterize the input proton population and the physics interaction by simulating, using the BoGEMMS framework, the proton interaction with a simplified model of the X-ray mirror module and the focal plane, and comparing the result with a real observation. The analysis of ten orbits of observations of the EPIC/pn instrument show that the detection of flares in regions far outside the radiation belt is largely influenced by the different orientation of the Earth's magnetosphere respect with XMM-Newton's orbit, confirming the solar origin of the soft proton population. The Equator-S proton spectrum at 70000 km altitude is used for the proton population entering the optics, where a combined multiple and Firsov scattering is used as physics interaction. If the thick filter is used, the soft protons in the 30-70 keV energy range are the main contributors to the simulated spectrum below 10 keV. We are able to reproduce the proton vignetting observed in real data-sets, with a 50\% decrease from the inner to the outer region, but a maximum flux of 0.01 counts cm-2 s-1 keV-1 is obtained below 10 keV, about 5 times lower than the EPIC/MOS detection and 100 times lower than the EPIC/pn one. Given the high variability of the flare intensity, we conclude that an average spectrum, based on the analysis of a full season of soft proton events is required to compare Monte Carlo simulations with real events

Costs of Parkinson's Disease and Antiparkinsonian Pharmacotherapy: An Italian Cohort Study

Objective: Antiparkinsonian pharmacotherapy is costly and the determinants of drug costs in Parkinson's disease (PD) have been poorly investigated. The objective of this study was to investigate the costs of PD and antiparkinsonian drugs in an Italian cohort of patients and identify cost-driving factors of drug therapy. Methods: Seventy outpatients with idiopathic PD were recruited in the Department of Neurology, Napoli University, Italy. Data on resource utilization were collected for 6 months using a bottom-up approach. Clinical status was evaluated using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. Direct and indirect costs were calculated from the societal perspective (figures of year 2009). Independent determinants of total costs and costs of antiparkinsonian drugs were identified using multivariate regression analysis. Results: The total costs of PD were EUR 8,640 (95% CI: EUR 6,700-11,240) per patient over a 6-month period. Direct costs accounted for 70% of the total costs. Antiparkinsonian drugs (EUR 1,450; 95% CI: EUR 1,220-1,760) were the primary component of costs paid by the health insurance (39.6%) and one of the most expensive components of the direct costs (24.0%). The highest copayments made by patients were for antiparkinsonian drugs and medical equipment (58%). Independent determinants of the increased costs of antiparkinsonian pharmacotherapy were younger age and occurrence of motor fluctuations. Conclusions: Antiparkinsonian pharmacotherapy is one of the major cost components of PD-related costs for health insurance. It imposes a considerable economic burden on patients and their families as well. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Base

Haplotype affinities resolve a major component of goat (<i>Capra hircus</i>) MtDNA D-loop diversity and reveal specific features of the Sardinian stock

Goat mtDNA haplogroup A is a poorly resolved lineage absorbing most of the overall diversity and is found in locations as distant as Eastern Asia and Southern Africa. Its phylogenetic dissection would cast light on an important portion of the spread of goat breeding. The aims of this work were 1) to provide an operational definition of meaningful mtDNA units within haplogroup A, 2) to investigate the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of diversity by considering the modes of selection operated by breeders and 3) to identify the peculiarities of Sardinian mtDNA types. We sequenced the mtDNA D-loop in a large sample of animals (1,591) which represents a non-trivial quota of the entire goat population of Sardinia. We found that Sardinia mirrors a large quota of mtDNA diversity of Western Eurasia in the number of variable sites, their mutational pattern and allele frequency. By using Bayesian analysis, a distance-based tree and a network analysis, we recognized demographically coherent groups of sequences identified by particular subsets of the variable positions. The results showed that this assignment system could be reproduced in other studies, capturing the greatest part of haplotype diversity. We identified haplotype groups overrepresented in Sardinian goats as a result of founder effects. We found that breeders maintain diversity of matrilines most likely through equalization of the reproductive potential. Moreover, the relevant amount of inter-farm mtDNA diversity found does not increase proportionally with distance. Our results illustrate the effects of breeding practices on the composition of maternal gene pool and identify mtDNA types that may be considered in projects aimed at retrieving the maternal component of the oldest breeds of Sardinia.</br

The dissipative linear Boltzmann equation for hard spheres

We prove the existence and uniqueness of an equilibrium state with unit mass to the dissipative linear Boltzmann equation with hard--spheres collision kernel describing inelastic interactions of a gas particles with a fixed background. The equilibrium state is a universal Maxwellian distribution function with the same velocity as field particles and with a non--zero temperature lower than the background one, which depends on the details of the binary collision. Thanks to the H--theorem we then prove strong convergence of the solution to the Boltzmann equation towards the equilibrium.Comment: 17 pages, submitted to Journal of Statistical Physic

An X-ray polarimeter for hard X-ray optics

Development of multi-layer optics makes feasible the use of X-ray telescope at energy up to 60-80 keV: in this paper we discuss the extension of photoelectric polarimeter based on Micro Pattern Gas Chamber to high energy X-rays. We calculated the sensitivity with Neon and Argon based mixtures at high pressure with thick absorption gap: placing the MPGC at focus of a next generation multi-layer optics, galatic and extragalactic X-ray polarimetry can be done up till 30 keV.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

POLARIX: a pathfinder mission of X-ray polarimetry

Since the birth of X-ray astronomy, spectral, spatial and timing observation improved dramatically, procuring a wealth of information on the majority of the classes of the celestial sources. Polarimetry, instead, remained basically unprobed. X-ray polarimetry promises to provide additional information procuring two new observable quantities, the degree and the angle of polarization. POLARIX is a mission dedicated to X-ray polarimetry. It exploits the polarimetric response of a Gas Pixel Detector, combined with position sensitivity, that, at the focus of a telescope, results in a huge increase of sensitivity. Three Gas Pixel Detectors are coupled with three X-ray optics which are the heritage of JET-X mission. POLARIX will measure time resolved X-ray polarization with an angular resolution of about 20 arcsec in a field of view of 15 arcmin $\times$ 15 arcmin and with an energy resolution of 20 % at 6 keV. The Minimum Detectable Polarization is 12 % for a source having a flux of 1 mCrab and 10^5 s of observing time. The satellite will be placed in an equatorial orbit of 505 km of altitude by a Vega launcher.The telemetry down-link station will be Malindi. The pointing of POLARIX satellite will be gyroless and it will perform a double pointing during the earth occultation of one source, so maximizing the scientific return. POLARIX data are for 75 % open to the community while 25 % + SVP (Science Verification Phase, 1 month of operation) is dedicated to a core program activity open to the contribution of associated scientists. The planned duration of the mission is one year plus three months of commissioning and SVP, suitable to perform most of the basic science within the reach of this instrument.Comment: 42 pages, 28 figure

Job Life Cycle Management Libraries for CMS Workflow Management Projects

Scientific analysis and simulation requires the processing and generation of millions of data samples. These processing and generation tasks are often comprised of multiple smaller tasks divided over multiple (computing) sites. This paper discusses the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) workflow infrastructure, and specifically the Python based workflow library which is used for so called task lifecycle management. The CMS workflow infrastructure consists of three layers: high level specification of the various tasks based on input/output datasets, life cycle management of task instances derived from the high level specification and execution management. The workflow library is the result of a convergence of three CMS subprojects that respectively deal with scientific analysis, simulation and real time data aggregation from the experiment

Design and advancement status of the Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility (BEaTriX)

The BEaTriX (Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility) project is an X-ray apparatus under construction at INAF/OAB to generate a broad (200́60 mm2), uniform and low-divergent X-ray beam within a small lab (6́15 m2). BEaTriX will consist of an X-ray source in the focus a grazing incidence paraboloidal mirror to obtain a parallel beam, followed by a crystal monochromation system and by an asymmetrically-cut diffracting crystal to perform the beam expansion to the desired size. Once completed, BEaTriX will be used to directly perform the quality control of focusing modules of large X-ray optics such as those for the ATHENA X-ray observatory, based on either Silicon Pore Optics (baseline) or Slumped Glass Optics (alternative), and will thereby enable a direct quality control of angular resolution and effective area on a number of mirror modules in a short time, in full X-ray illumination and without being affected by the finite distance of the X-ray source. However, since the individual mirror modules for ATHENA will have an optical quality of 3-4 arcsec HEW or better, BEaTriX is required to produce a broad beam with divergence below 1-2 arcsec, and sufficient flux to quickly characterize the PSF of the module without being significantly affected by statistical uncertainties. Therefore, the optical components of BEaTriX have to be selected and/or manufactured with excellent optical properties in order to guarantee the final performance of the system. In this paper we report the final design of the facility and a detailed performance simulation

Omic Approach in Non-Smoker Female with Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma Pinpoints to Germline Susceptibility and Personalized Medicine

Lung cancer is strongly associated to tobacco smoking. However, global statistics estimate that in females the proportion of lung cancer cases that is unrelated to tobacco smoking reaches fifty percent, making questionable the etiology of the disease