The redshift and broad band spectral energy distribution of NRAO 150

Context. NRAO 150 is one of the brightest radio and mm AGN sources on the northern sky. It has been revealed as an interesting source where to study extreme relativistic jet phenomena. However, its cosmological distance has not been reported so far, because of its optical faintness produced by strong Galactic extinction. Aims. Aiming at measuring the redshift of NRAO 150, and hence to start making possible quantitative studies from the source. Methods. We have conducted spectroscopic and photometric observations of the source in the near-IR, as well as in the optical. Results. All such observations have been successful in detecting the source. The near-IR spectroscopic observations reveal strong H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ emission lines from which the cosmological redshift of NRAO 150 ($z=1.517\pm0.002$) has been determined for the first time. We classify the source as a flat-spectrum radio-loud quasar, for which we estimate a large super-massive black-hole mass $\sim5\times 10^{9} \mathrm{M_\odot}$. After extinction correction, the new near-IR and optical data have revealed a high-luminosity continuum-emission excess in the optical (peaking at $\sim2000$\,\AA, rest frame) that we attribute to thermal emission from the accretion disk for which we estimate a high accretion rate, $\sim30$\,% of the Eddington limit. Conclusions. Comparison of these source properties, and its broad-band spectral-energy distribution, with those of Fermi blazars allow us to predict that NRAO 150 is among the most powerful blazars, and hence a high luminosity -although not detected yet- $\gamma$-ray emitter.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Mean field study of structural changes in Pt isotopes with the Gogny interaction

The evolution of the nuclear shapes along the triaxial landscape is studied in the Pt isotopic chain using the selfconsistent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approximation based on the Gogny interaction. In addition to the parametrization D1S, the new incarnations D1N and D1M of this force are also included in our analysis to asses to which extent the predictions are independent of details of the effective interaction. The considered range of neutron numbers 88<N<26 includes prolate, triaxial, oblate and spherical ground state shapes and serves for a detailed comparison of the predictions obtained with the new sets D1N and D1M against the ones provided by the standard parametrization Gogny-D1S in a region of the nuclear landscape for which experimental and theoretical fingerprints of shape transitions have been found. Structural evolution along the Pt chain is discussed in terms of the deformation dependence of single particle energies.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Herbage Mass and \u3cem\u3ein Situ\u3c/em\u3e Dry Matter Ruminal Degradation Kinetics of \u3cem\u3eBrachiaria\u3c/em\u3e spp

In Puerto Rico, Brachiaria decumbens cv. Basilisk has been promoted as a potential forage for acid soils and humid areas, but with limited success. Recently, B. brizantha cv. Marandú and a hybrid (B. brizantha x B. Ruziziensis) cv. Mulato were introduced for evaluation on acid soils and as a potential replacement for cv. Basilisk, but little information is available on yield performance under grazing or nutritive value. The objective of this study was to assess herbage mass and nutritive value of grazed pastures consisting of Basilisk, Marandú, and Mulato and determine the rate of in situ dry matter degradation

High spatial resolution optical imaging of the multiple T Tauri system LkH{\alpha} 262/LkH{\alpha} 263

We report high spatial resolution i' band imaging of the multiple T Tauri system LkH$\alpha$ 262/LkH$\alpha$ 263 obtained during the first commissioning period of the Adaptive Optics Lucky Imager (AOLI) at the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope, using its Lucky Imaging mode. AOLI images have provided photometry for each of the two components LkH$\alpha$ 263 A and B (0.41 arcsec separation) and marginal evidence for an unresolved binary or a disc in LkH$\alpha$ 262. The AOLI data combined with previously available and newly obtained optical and infrared imaging show that the three components of LkH$\alpha$ 263 are co-moving, that there is orbital motion in the AB pair, and, remarkably, that LkH$\alpha$ 262-263 is a common proper motion system with less than 1 mas/yr relative motion. We argue that this is a likely five-component gravitationally bounded system. According to BT-settl models the mass of each of the five components is close to 0.4 M$_{\odot}$ and the age is in the range 1-2 Myr. The presence of discs in some of the components offers an interesting opportunity to investigate the formation and evolution of discs in the early stages of multiple very low-mass systems. In particular, we provide tentative evidence that the disc in 263C could be coplanar with the orbit of 263AB.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, Accepted 2016 May

Laser-Induced Periodic Surface Structures on Conjugated Polymers: Poly(3-hexylthiophene)

8 pags.; 11 figs.© 2015 American Chemical Society. In this work, we report on the surface patterning of semiconducting poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) thin films by means of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS). Two different laser wavelengths, 266 and 532 nm, and a broad range of fluences and number of pulses have been used in order to optimize the LIPSS morphology. Ripples period and depth can be tuned by laser parameters. In particular, the high optical absorption of P3HT at 532 nm enables the formation of well-ordered nanostructures with periodicities around 460 nm. Near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and Raman spectroscopy reveal a good chemical stability of P3HT thin films during LIPSS formation. Conducting atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) performed on the LIPSS reveals a higher electrical conduction in the trenches than in the ridge regions. Resonance Raman spectroscopy and grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) indicate a loss of crystallinity of P3HT thin films during LIPSS formation, suggesting melting of the outer polymer surface. This effect produces ridges with molecular order lower than that of the original thin film. As a consequence of this transformation, the electrical conduction in the ridges becomes lower than that in the trenches.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through Projects MAT 2011-23455, MAT 2012-33517 and CTQ 2013-43086-P. A.R.-R. and E.R. are indebted to MINECO for a FPI (BES-2013-062620) and Ramon y Cajal (RYC-2011-08069) contracts, respectively. We thank the Swiss Light Source for beamtime at PolLux, where the NEXAFS experiments were performed. We also thank the ESRF for beamtime at BM26 where in situ GISAXS and GIWAXS experiments were carried out. We thank B. Watts for assistance in using beamline PolLux and G. Portale and W. Bras for beamline support at BM26. P. Müller-Buschbaum and S. Guo are thanked for seminal comments at the beginning of this workPeer Reviewe

Testing the Unification Model for AGN in the Infrared: are the obscuring tori of Type 1 and 2 Seyferts different?

We present new mid-infrared (MIR) imaging data for three Type-1 Seyfert galaxies obtained with T-ReCS on the Gemini-South Telescope at subarcsecond resolution. Our aim is to enlarge the sample studied in a previous work to compare the properties of Type-1 and Type-2 Seyfert tori using clumpy torus models and a Bayesian approach to fit the infrared nuclear spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Thus, the sample considered here comprises 7 Type-1, 11 Type-2, and 3 intermediate-type Seyferts. The unresolved IR emission of the Seyfert 1 galaxies can be reproduced by a combination of dust heated by the central engine and direct AGN emission, while for the Seyfert 2 nuclei only dust emission is considered. These dusty tori have physical sizes smaller than 6 pc radius, as derived from our fits. Unification schemes of AGN account for a variety of observational differences in terms of viewing geometry. However, we find evidence that strong unification may not hold, and that the immediate dusty surroundings of Type-1 and Type-2 Seyfert nuclei are intrinsically different. The Type-2 tori studied here are broader, have more clumps, and these clumps have lower optical depths than those of Type-1 tori. The larger the covering factor of the torus, the smaller the probability of having direct view of the AGN, and vice-versa. In our sample, Seyfert 2 tori have larger covering factors and smaller escape probabilities than those of Seyfert 1. All the previous differences are significant according to the Kullback-Leibler divergence. Thus, on the basis of the results presented here, the classification of a Seyfert galaxy as a Type-1 or Type-2 depends more on the intrinsic properties of the torus rather than on its mere inclination towards us, in contradiction with the simplest unification model.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures, Appendix including supplementary figures. Accepted by Ap

On the processing time for detection of Skype traffic

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. [P. M. Santiago del Río. J. Ramos, J. L. García-Dorado, J. Aracil, A. Cuadra-Sánchez, and M. Cutanda-Rodríguez, "On the processing time for detection of Skype traffic", in 7th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference, IWCMC 2011, p. 1784 - 1788The last few years have witnessed VoIP applications gaining a tremendous popularity and Skype, in particular, is leading this continuous expansion. Unfortunately, Skype follows a closed source and proprietary design, and typically uses encryption mechanisms, making it very difficult to identify its presence from a traffic aggregate. Several algorithms and approaches have been proposed to perform such task with promising results in terms of accuracy. However, such approaches typically require significant computation resources and it is unlikely that they can be deployed in nowadays high-speed networks. In this light, this paper focuses on cutting the processing cost of algorithms to detect Skype traffic. We have conveniently tuned a previous well-validated algorithm and we have assessed its performance. To this end, we have used real traces from public repositories, from a Spanish 3G operator, and synthetic traces. Our results show that a single process can detect Skype traffic at 1 Gbps rates reading replayed real traces directly from a NIC. Even more, 3.7 Gbps are achieved reading from traces previously allocated in memory using a single process and 45 Gbps using 16 concurrent processes. This fact paves the way for 10 Gbps processing in commodity hardware

Anaplasmosis outbreak in lambs: First report causing carcass condemnation

In spring and summer 2020, six outbreaks of condemnation of jaundiced lamb carcasses were diagnosed in different farms in Aragón region, Spain. Anaplasma ovis was identified in all affected farms. Four hundred and ninety-two lambs from two affected farms were more closely examined. Clinical examination, haematologies, biochemistries, histopathology and microbiological and molecular analyses were performed. After slaughter, 34.84% of the lambs showed jaundiced carcasses and 79.64% presented splenomegaly at the abattoir. All tested lambs with icteric carcasses showed positive A. ovis PCR, although 72.72% of the unaffected lambs also tested positive. However, the bacterial load was significantly higher in the animals that showed jaundiced carcasses (Cq: 25.00 vs 26.16; p = 0.004). Moreover, all the tested lambs that showed severe anaemia were PCR positive. On the contrary, the PCR negative lambs did not show anaemia. Lambs that presented icteric carcasses displayed severe regenerative anaemia with significantly lower erythrocyte count (7.18 vs. 11.97), haematocrit (26.89 vs. 34.82) and haemoglobin (8.50 vs. 11.10) than unaffected lambs. Reticulocyte count (18.80 vs. 5.65) was also significantly increased in affected animals. This article describes a new disorder caused by Anaplasma ovis that is producing significant economic losses associated with the carcass condemnation of apparently healthy lamb

Phenotypic, molecular characterization, antimicrobial susceptibility and draft genome sequence of Corynebacterium argentoratense strains isolated from clinical samples

During a 12-year period we isolated five Corynebacterium argentoratense strains identified by phenotypic methods, including the use of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF) and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. In addition, antimicrobial susceptibility was determined, and genome sequencing for the detection of antibiotic resistance genes was performed. The organisms were isolated from blood and throat cultures and could be identified by all methods used. All strains were resistant to cotrimoxazole, and resistance to β-lactams was partly present. Two strains were resistant to erythromycin and clindamycin. The draft genome sequences of theses isolates revealed the presence of the erm(X) resistance gene that is embedded in the genetic structure of the transposable element Tn5423. Although rarely reported as a human pathogen, C. argentoratense can be involved in bacteraemia and probably in other infections. Our results also show that horizontal transfer of genes responsible for antibiotic resistance is occurring in this species.Supported in part by the Gerencia Regional de Salud, Junta de Castilla y León, Spain (research project GRS 698/A/2011