Spitzer Observations of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 5.5-4.3 AU From the Sun

We report Spitzer Space Telescope observations of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 5.5 and 4.3 AU from the Sun, post-aphelion. Comet 67P is the primary target of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. The Rosetta spacecraft will rendezvous with the nucleus at heliocentric distances similar to our observations. Rotationally resolved observations at 8 and 24 microns (at a heliocentric distance, rh, of 4.8 AU) that sample the size and color-temperature of the nucleus are combined with aphelion R-band light curves observed at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and yield a mean effective radius of 2.04 +/- 0.11 km, and an R-band geometric albedo of 0.054 +/- 0.006. The amplitudes of the R-band and mid-infrared light curves agree, which suggests that the variability is dominated by the shape of the nucleus. We also detect the dust trail of the comet at 4.8 and 5.5 AU, constrain the grain sizes to be less than or similar to 6 mm, and estimate the impact hazard to Rosetta. We find no evidence for recently ejected dust in our images. If the activity of 67P is consistent from orbit to orbit, then we may expect the Rosetta spacecraft will return images of an inactive or weakly active nucleus as it rendezvous with the comet at rh = 4 AU in 2014.Comment: 19 pages, 2 tables, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

51. Biological concepts of breast cancer: implications for therapy

The data from over 3000 breast cancer patients treated without adjuvant chemotherapy and followed-up for over 15 years were studied with two aims:1)to analyze the relationship between tumor diameter and incidence of distant metastases during the 25 years after initial treatment. The threshold volume at which dissemination occurs can be estimated in each subset of patients and varies widely; it is inversely correlated with the histologic grade and the number of involved axillary nodes.2)to investigate the impact of a residual tumor on distant dissemination. In patients with local recurrence, the incidence of distant dissemination is elevated. The analysis of the delay between the initial treatment and clinical emergence of the metastases shows that the excess of metastases corresponds to disseminations which are initiated after initial treatment and therefore originated from the residual tumor.This conclusion was supported by the update of s controlled clinical trial comparing two adjuvant treatments: A) a chemotherapy by CMF or B) post-operative radiotherapy (RT) followed by immunothcrapy with poly A – poly U. At 15 years the cumulative incidence of local recurrence and of distant metastases is significantly lower in the B group (42% metastasis-free survival in the RT group and 29% in the CT group p=0.03). This result seems to be due mostly to lower incidence of local recurrence

Tutorial on Neutron Physics in Dosimetry

Almost since the time of the discovery of the neutron more than 70 years ago, efforts have been made to understand the effects of neutron radiation on tissue and, eventually, to use neutrons for cancer treatment. In contrast to charged particle or photon radiations which directly lead to release of electrons, neutrons interact with the nucleus and induce emission of several different types of charged particles such as protons, alpha particles or heavier ions. Therefore, a fundamental understanding of the neutron-nucleus interaction is necessary for dose calculations and treatment planning with the needed accuracy. We will discuss the concepts of dose and kerma, neutron-nucleus interactions and have a brief look at nuclear data needs and experimental facilities and set-ups where such data are measured.Comment: Invited talk at the 11th Neutron and Ion Dosimetry Symposium NEUDOS-11, October 11-16, 2009, Cape Town, South Africa. 14 pages, 8 figures; submitted to Radiation Measurement

Long-Term Survival in Adult Neuroblastoma with Multiple Recurrences

Neuroblastoma (NB) rarely occurs in adults, and less than 10% of the cases occur in patients older than 10 years. Currently, there are no standard treatment guidelines for adult NB patients. We report the case of a young man suffering from NB in adulthood with multiple recurrences. Treatment included multiple resections, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. This patient remains free of clinical disease more than 7 years after diagnosis

Polarimetry and photometry of the peculiar main-belt object 7968 = 133P/Elst-Pizarro

133P/Elst-Pizarro is an object that has been described as either an active asteroid or a cometary object in the main asteroid belt. Here we present a photometric and polarimetric study of this object in an attempt to infer additional information about its origin. With the FORS1 instrument of the ESO VLT, we have performed during the 2007 apparition of 133P/Elst-Pizarro quasi-simultaneous photometry and polarimetry of its nucleus at nine epochs in the phase angle range 0 - 20 deg. For each observing epoch, we also combined all available frames to obtain a deep image of the object, to seek signatures of weak cometary activity. Polarimetric data were analysed by means of a novel physical interference modelling. The object brightness was found to be highly variable over timescales <1h, a result fully consistent with previous studies. Using the albedo-polarization relationships for asteroids and our photometric results, we found for our target an albedo of about 0.06-0.07 and a mean radius of about 1.6 km. Throughout the observing epochs, our deep imaging of the comet detects a tail and an anti-tail. Their temporal variations are consistent with an activity profile starting around mid May 2007 of minimum duration of four months. Our images show marginal evidence of a coma around the nucleus. The overall light scattering behaviour (photometry and polarimetry) resembles most closely that of F-type asteroids.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic

Structure and dynamics of ring polymers: entanglement effects because of solution density and ring topology

The effects of entanglement in solutions and melts of unknotted ring polymers have been addressed by several theoretical and numerical studies. The system properties have been typically profiled as a function of ring contour length at fixed solution density. Here, we use a different approach to investigate numerically the equilibrium and kinetic properties of solutions of model ring polymers. Specifically, the ring contour length is maintained fixed, while the interplay of inter- and intra-chain entanglement is modulated by varying both solution density (from infinite dilution up to \approx 40 % volume occupancy) and ring topology (by considering unknotted and trefoil-knotted chains). The equilibrium metric properties of rings with either topology are found to be only weakly affected by the increase of solution density. Even at the highest density, the average ring size, shape anisotropy and length of the knotted region differ at most by 40% from those of isolated rings. Conversely, kinetics are strongly affected by the degree of inter-chain entanglement: for both unknots and trefoils the characteristic times of ring size relaxation, reorientation and diffusion change by one order of magnitude across the considered range of concentrations. Yet, significant topology-dependent differences in kinetics are observed only for very dilute solutions (much below the ring overlap threshold). For knotted rings, the slowest kinetic process is found to correspond to the diffusion of the knotted region along the ring backbone.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figure

Rotation of Cometary Nuclei New Lightcurves and an Update of the Ensemble Properties of Jupiter-Family Comets

We report new lightcurves and phase functions for nine Jupiter-family comets (JFCs). They were observed in the period 2004-2015 with various ground telescopes as part of the Survey of Ensemble Physical Properties of Cometary Nuclei (SEPPCoN) as well as during devoted observing campaigns. We add to this a review of the properties of 35 JFCs with previously published rotation properties. The photometric time-series were obtained in Bessel R, Harris R and SDSS r' filters and were absolutely calibrated using stars from the Pan-STARRS survey. This specially-developed method allowed us to combine data sets taken at different epochs and instruments with absolute-calibration uncertainty down to 0.02 mag. We used the resulting time series to improve the rotation periods for comets 14P/Wolf, 47P/Ashbrook-Jackson, 94P/Russell, and 110P/Hartley 3 and to determine the rotation rates of comets 93P/Lovas and 162P/Siding-Spring for the first time. In addition to this, we determined the phase functions for seven of the examined comets and derived geometric albedos for eight of them. We confirm the known cut-off in bulk densities at $\sim$0.6 g $\mathrm{cm^{-3}}$ if JFCs are strengthless. Using the model of Davidsson (2001) for prolate ellipsoids with typical density and elongations, we conclude that none of the known JFCs require tensile strength larger than 10-25 Pa to remain stable against rotational instabilities. We find evidence for an increasing linear phase function coefficient with increasing geometric albedo. The median linear phase function coefficient for JFCs is 0.046 mag/deg and the median geometric albedo is 4.2 per cent.Comment: 38 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA