Elliptic CMB Sky

The ellipticity of the anisotropy spots of the Cosmic Microwave Background measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has been studied. We find an average ellipticity of about 2, confirming with a far larger statistics similar results found first for the COBE-DMR CMB maps, and then for the BOOMERanG CMB maps. There are no preferred directions for the obliquity of the anisotropy spots. The average ellipticity is independent of temperature threshold and is present on scales both smaller and larger than the horizon at the last scattering. The measured ellipticity characteristics are consistent with being the effect of geodesics mixing occurring in an hyperbolic Universe, and can mark the emergence of CMB ellipticity as a new observable constant describing the Universe. There is no way of simulating this effect. Therefore we cannot exclude that the observed behavior of the measured ellipticity can result from a trivial topology in the popular flat $\Lambda$-CDM model, or from a non-trivial topology.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, the version to appear in Mod.Phys.Lett.

An extended hybrid magnetohydrodynamics gyrokinetic model for numerical simulation of shear Alfv\'en waves in burning plasmas

Adopting the theoretical framework for the generalized fishbonelike dispersion relation, an extended hybrid magnetohydrodynamics gyrokinetic simulation model has been derived analytically by taking into account both thermal ion compressibility and diamagnetic effects in addition to energetic particle kinetic behaviors. The extended model has been used for implementing an eXtended version of Hybrid Magnetohydrodynamics Gyrokinetic Code (XHMGC) to study thermal ion kinetic effects on Alfv\'enic modes driven by energetic particles, such as kinetic beta induced Alfv\'en eigenmodes in tokamak fusion plasmas

Ulipristal acetate before in vitro fertilization: Efficacy in infertile women with submucous fibroids

Background: The presence of submucous fibroids strongly impacts on IVF results, therefore, these patients should be considered for surgical or medical treatment. The aim of this study was to assess the role of Ulipristal acetate (UPA), a selective progesterone receptor modulator, in restoring uterine cavity deformation due to submucous fibroids, in infertile patients attempting an IVF treatment. The secondary study outcome was to evaluate the impact of preconception UPA treatment on rate of biochemical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, and live birth compared to a control group without fibroids. Methods: Infertile patients with submucosal fibroid (Type 1 and Type 2 according to FIGO classification) were enrolled in the study as fibroids group and received 1 to 3 treatment cycles of UPA, according to their response, as reflected by fibroid volume reduction and restoration of normal uterine cavity. Patients in control group were randomly selected from a general IVF cohort by a ratio of 2:1 with fibroids group, matched by age, BMI, type and cause of infertility and antral follicle count. The impact of UPA on fibroids volume reduction was evaluated. IVF outcome was compared between groups. Results: Twenty-six patients underwent UPA treatment revealed a mean volume reduction of their fibroids of 41%. A total of 15 (57.6%) biochemical pregnancy were obtained, resulting in 13 (50%) ongoing pregnancy and 9 (34.6%) healthy babies were already delivered. Similar results were obtained in control group. Conclusion: Restoration of normal uterine cavity by UPA treatment prior to IVF treatment avoids surgery and establishes a pregnancy rate comparable to a control group without fibroids

Concomitant infections with canine parvovirus type 2 and intracellular tick-borne pathogens in two puppy dogs

In this report the concomitant infection with canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2), Hepatozoon canis and Ehrlichia canis in two puppy dogs from Southern Italy is described. Dogs were referred to a veterinary university hospital for the acute onset of lethargy and gastrointestinal signs. A complete clinical and clinicopathological evaluation was carried out and the multiple infection was confirmed by microscopic detection of inclusion bodies in peripheral blood smear, rapid immunoenzymatic tests, indirect fluorescent antibody tests, and molecular assays. Sequence analysis revealed that the CPV-2 identified belonged to the 2c variant and had amino acid residues in the predicted VP2 protein typical of "Asian-like" strains widespread in Asia and occasionally reported in Romania, Nigeria and Italy, particularly in the region of Sicily. Numerous monocytes were infected by both H. canis gamonts and E. canis morulae, suggesting that this co-infection is not accidental and that E. canis preferably infects those cells parasitized by H. canis. The clinical presentation of these animals was severe but supportive cares associated with early etiological therapy allowed a good prognosis. Movement of puppies from geographic areas where vector-borne pathogens are endemic must be carefully evaluated and core vaccinations and ectoparasite prevention treatments must be rigorously adopted

Canine circovirus and Canine adenovirus type 1 and 2 in dogs with parvoviral enteritis

Canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2) is one of the most relevant pathogens associated with enteritis in dogs and is frequently reported in association with the detection of other pathogens in faeces. In this study the concomitant presence of Canine circovirus (CanineCV) and Canine adenovirus (CAdV) DNA in faecal or intestine samples of 95 dogs with parvovirus enteritis sampled in Italy (1995–2017) was investigated and the viruses identified were genetically characterised. Potential correlations with the antigenic variant of CPV-2 and with signalment data and outcome were evaluated. Twenty-eight of 95 (29.5%) CPV-2 infected dogs tested positive to other viruses: 7/28 were also positive to CanineCV, 1/28 to CAdV-1, 18/28 to CAdV-2, 1/28 to CanineCV and CAdV-2, and 1/28 to CAdV-1 and CAdV-2. The frequency of CAdV DNA detection and coinfections was significantly higher in purebred dogs compared to mixed breed ones (P = 0.002 and 0.009, respectively). The presence of coinfection was not associated with any other relevant data available, including CPV-2 variant and final outcome. The detection of CanineCV in a dog sampled in 2009 allowed to backdating its circulation in dogs. The eight CanineCV completely sequenced were phylogenetically related to the CanineCV identified in dogs, wolves and a badger from Europe, USA, Argentina and China. Nine CAdV were partially sequenced and phylogenetic analysis showed a separate branch for the oldest CAdV-2 identified (1995). From the results obtained in this study population, CanineCV and CAdV coinfections in dogs with parvoviral enteritis did not result in more severe disease

Nonlinear dynamics of beta induced Alfv\'en eigenmode driven by energetic particles

Nonlinear saturation of beta induced Alfv\'en eigenmode, driven by slowing down energetic particles via transit resonance, is investigated by the nonlinear hybrid magnetohyrodynamic gyro-kinetic code (XHMGC). Saturation is characterized by frequency chirping and symmetry breaking between co- and counter-passing particles, which can be understood as the the evidence of resonance-detuning. The scaling of the saturation amplitude with the growth rate is also demonstrated to be consistent with radial resonance detuning due to the radial non-uniformity and mode structure

Detection and discrimination of cosmological non-Gaussian signatures by multi-scale methods

Recent Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations indicate that the temperature anisotropies arise from quantum fluctuations in the inflationary scenario. In the simplest inflationary models, the distribution of CMB temperature fluctuations should be Gaussian. However, non-Gaussian signatures can be present. They might have different origins and thus different statistical and morphological characteristics. In this context and motivated by recent and future CMB experiments, we search for, and discriminate between, different non-Gaussian signatures. We analyse simulated maps of three cosmological sources of temperature anisotropies: Gaussian distributed CMB anisotropies from inflation, temperature fluctuations from cosmic strings and anisotropies due to the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect both showing a non-Gaussian character. We use different multi-scale methods, namely, wavelet, ridgelet and curvelet transforms. The sensitivity and the discriminating power of the methods is evaluated using simulated data sets. We find that the bi-orthogonal wavelet transform is the most powerful for the detection of non-Gaussian signatures and that the curvelet and ridgelet transforms characterise quite precisely and exclusively the cosmic strings. They allow us thus to detect them in a mixture of CMB + SZ + cosmic strings. We show that not one method only should be applied to understand non-Gaussianity but rather a set of different robust and complementary methods should be used.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. Paper with high resolution figures can be found at http://jstarck.free.fr/cmb03.pd

Staying alive on an active volcano. 80 years population dynamics of Cytisus aeolicus (Fabaceae) from Stromboli (Aeolian Islands, Italy)

Cytisus aeolicus is a narrow endemic species restricted to the Aeolian archipelago (SE Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) and it is one of the most evolutionarily isolated plants in the Mediterranean flora. Historical and literature data suggest that both metapopulations and isolated individuals of C. aeolicus are gradually shrinking. Field investigations and drone images demonstrate that the C. aeolicus metapopulation from Stromboli experienced a strikingly fast increase during the last decades. As of 2019, more than 7000 ± 3000 mature individuals occur on Stromboli, i.e. 14 to 20 times more than those counted during the last census, 25 years ago. The diachronic analysis of aerial photos concerning last 80 years and the analysis of the growth rings of some selected plants pointed out that the surface occupied, the demographic structure and the distribution pattern of the subpopulations of Stromboli has been highly fluctuating during last decades. Moreover, data issuing from field observations in permanent plots placed in a transect between two isolated mature individuals showed that, under natural conditions, the germination rate of the seedlings of C. aeolicus can be very high and their establishment rate may exceed 40%. By contrast, seedlings mortality is subject to strong annual fluctuations. Additionally, the pollen morphology of the Strombolian metapopulation of this rare and isolated species is studied here for the first time. Contrary to what is stated in recent literature, the C. aeolicus metapopulation from Stromboli is healthy and very dynamic, albeit frequently damaged by the volcanic activity. Regular and repeated field surveys carried out during 3 years (2017–2019) allowed improving our knowledge on the life cycle of C. aeolicus and a new extinction risk assessment of the species, according to IUCN criteria, is presented

High Order Correction Terms for The Peak-Peak Correlation Function in Nearly-Gaussian Models

One possible way to investigate the nature of the primordial power spectrum fluctuations is by investigating the statistical properties of the local maximum in the density fluctuation fields. In this work we present a study of the mean correlation function, $\xi_r$, and the correlation function for high amplitude fluctuations (the peak-peak correlation) in a slighlty non-Gaussian context. From the definition of the correlation excess, we compute the Gaussian two-point correlation function and, using an expansion in Generalized Hermite polynomials, we estimate the correlation of high density peaks in a non-Gaussian field with generic distribution and power spectrum. We also apply the results obtained to a scale-mixed distribution model, which correspond to a nearly Gaussian model. The results reveal that, even for a small deviation from Gaussianity, we can expect high density peaks to be much more correlated than in a Gaussian field with the same power spectrum. In addition, the calculations reveal how the amplitude of the peaks in the fluctuations field is related to the existing correlations. Our results may be used as an additional tool to investigate the behavior of the N-point correlation function, to understand how non-Gaussian correlations affect the peak-peak statistics and extract more information about the statistics of the density field.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

WMAP confirming the ellipticity in BOOMERanG and COBE CMB maps

The recent study of BOOMERanG 150 GHz Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation maps have detected ellipticity of the temperature anisotropy spots independent on the temperature threshold. The effect has been found for spots up to several degrees in size, where the biases of the ellipticity estimator and of the noise are small. To check the effect, now we have studied, with the same algorithm and in the same sky region, the WMAP maps. We find ellipticity of the same average value also in WMAP maps, despite of the different sensitivity of the two experiments to low multipoles. Large spot elongations had been detected also for the COBE-DMR maps. If this effect is due to geodesic mixing and hence due to non precisely zero curvature of the hyperbolic Universe, it can be linked to the origin of WMAP low multipoles anomaly.Comment: More explanations and two references adde