Treatment of realistic tidal field in Monte Carlo simulations of star clusters

We present a new implementation of the Monte Carlo method to simulate the evolution of star clusters. The major improvement with respect to the previously developed codes is the treatment of the external tidal field taking into account for both the loss of stars from the cluster boundary and the disk/bulge shocks. We provide recipes to handle with eccentric orbits in complex galactic potentials. The first calculations for stellar systems containing 21000 and 42000 equal-mass particles show good agreement with direct N-body simulations in terms of the evolution of both the enclosed mass and the Lagrangian radii provided that the mass-loss rate does not exceed a critical value.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication by MNRA

Mitigation technologies for counteracting the UHI effects and for improving outdoor thermal comfort in mediterranean urban open spaces: a study of vegetation and cool materials effects on pedestrian comfort in Rome

The present study investigates the influence of building materials, traditional as well as innovative, and vegetated urban surfaces on the urban microclimate and on pedestrian outdoor thermal comfort in a typical Mediterranean city: Rome. It focuses the attention on selected mitigation technologies aiming to increase the albedo of cities: high reflective materials called cool colored materials, and the use of vegetative surfaces: green roofs, green walls and trees, with the main purpose to test, verify and quantify the overall microclimate mitigation and thermal performance of the aforementioned strategies, The study proposes and analyses, through CFD calculations (ENVImet v.4.0), five renovations scenarios: applying cool materials and vegetation on roofs, walls and pavements of the selected square. In order to support planning authorities and researches by going beyond the traditional way of urban heat island studies, the present study aims to highlight the multiple effects of cool colored materials on human comfort and to investigates which could be the best combination materials in terms of mitigation of ambient temperatures and pedestrian thermal stress. Therefore, air temperature as well as the physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) were applied to take into account the effect of the variations of urban materials on human comfort, the studies focuses the attention and draw its conclusions through the comparison of the Envimet thermal maps and the values of the different scenarios in terms of deltas variations. The results show the negative effect of cool colored materials on human thermal comfort when applied isolated to surfaces in direct contact with pedestrians, such as pavements and urban façades, nevertheless it underlines the benefit associated with a mixed combination of cool materials and trees, setting the path for further research in this direction

A total evidence phylogeny for the processionary moths of the genus Thaumetopoea (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae: Thaumetopoeinae)

open5noProcessionary moths belong to a group of about 100 species well known for their social behaviour and their urticating systems. The genus Thaumetopoea s.l. includes about 15 species and has been divided into three genera (Helianthocampa, Thaumetopoea s.s., and Traumatocampa) in the last revision, based on key morphological features of the adults and on the host plants of the larvae. We performed a total evidence approach to resolve the phylogeny of the genus Thaumetopoea s.l., analysing all valid taxa included in this group, plus a broad array of close relatives. Thaumetopoea was monophyletic and supported by several apomorphies. Further subclades corroborated by synapomorphies were identified. Our phylogeny suggests that Thaumetopoea must be regarded as a single genus. The mapping of key life history traits on the total evidence tree allowed us to sketch a plausible identikit of the Thaumetopoea ancestor and to track the evolution of the genus. The ancestor originated in the eastern Mediterranean area, and used broadleaved host plants. Subsequently, a switch to conifers occurred, just once, in a large subclade. The ancestor pupated in the soil, like several current species, but in a few taxa this trait was lost, together with the related morphological adaptations.embargoed_20190305Basso, A; Negrisolo, E; Zilli, A; Battisti, A; Cerretti, PBasso, Andrea; Negrisolo, ENRICO MASSIMILIANO; Zilli, A; Battisti, Andrea; Cerretti, P

Aggregative oviposition varies with density in processionary moths-Implications for insect outbreak propensity

In gregarious insects, groups commonly originate from females laying eggs in masses and feeding groups are established as soon as larvae hatch. Some group-living insect species may aggregate beyond the individual parent level, such that offspring from two or more egg masses develop within a common resource. Here we show that aggregative oviposition can vary with population density at oviposition and possibly be an important factor in outbreak dynamics of phytophagous insects. We analysed density data with respect to egg mass aggregation for two species of pine processionary moths, Thaumetopoea pinivora (in Sweden 2005-2019) and T. pityocampa (in Spain 1973-1991). Both species lay their eggs in egg masses and feed in groups. During the study periods, insect population density for both species varied by at least an order of magnitude. The two species showed strikingly similar patterns of egg mass aggregation. Egg masses were overdispersed at high population density, with few trees showing a high load of egg masses. Our data suggest that aggregative oviposition can be important in explaining the previously documented higher propensity for outbreaks in insects laying eggs in clusters, compared with those laying individual eggs

Metastatic Uterine Leiomyosarcoma in the Upper Buccal Gingiva Misdiagnosed as an Epulis

Uterine leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is a rare tumor constituting 1% of all uterine malignancies. This sarcoma demonstrates an aggressive growth pattern with an high rate of recurrence with hematologic dissemination; the most common sites are lung, liver, and peritoneal cavity, head and neck district being rarely interested. Only other four cases of metastasis in the oral cavity have been previously described. The treatment of choice is surgery and the use of adjuvant chemotherapy and radiation has limited impact on clinical outcome. In case of metastases, surgical excision can be performed considering extent of disease, number and type of distant lesions, disease free interval from the initial diagnosis to the time of metastases, and expected life span. We illustrate a case of uterine LMS metastasis in the upper buccal gingiva that occurred during chemotherapy in a 63-year-old woman that underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy for a diagnosis of LMS staged as pT2bN0 and that developed lung metastases eight months after primary treatment. Surgical excision of the oral mass (previously misdiagnosed as epulis at a dental center) and contemporary reconstruction with pedicled temporalis muscle flap was performed in order to improve quality of life. Even if resection was achieved in free margins, "local" relapse was observed 5 months after surgery

Linguistic and social constraints on the variable palatalization of alveolar stops by derived [i] in a variety of Brazilian Portuguese

In this paper we analyze the variable regressive palatalization of /t, d/ in a variety of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) in contact with Italian dialects. We fol-low Coetzee’s (2016) assumptions regarding the distinctive effects of gram-matical and non-grammatical factors on the grammar. The aim of the study is to test such claims with Noisy-HG (BOERSMA; PATER, 2008; COETZEE, 2012; 2016; COETZEE; KAWAHARA, 2013). Palatalization in BP affects /t, d/ and it is triggered by a following underived /i/ (t/i/jolo‘brick’, d/i/nheiro‘money’) or derived [i] from /e/ in unstressed word positions (t/e/atro →t[i]atro‘theater’, nád/e/ga →nád[i]ga‘buttock’). We focus on palatalization triggered by derived [i]. Besides tokens of non-palatalized consonant plus non-raised vowel ([te]atro, ná[de]ga) and of palatalized consonant plus raised vowel ([ʧi]atro, ná[ʤi]ga), the data set comprises tokens of non-pala-talized consonant plus raised vowel ([ti]atro, ná[di]ga), an innovation of the analysis regarding prior studies (BATTISTI; DORNELLES FILHO, 2010; GUTIERRES; BATTISTI; DORNELLES FILHO, 2018). The data were extracted from sociolinguistic interviews by Battisti et al.(2007). The linguistic con-straints interacting in the grammar of palatalization come from Battisti and Dornelles Filho (2010). The analysis demonstrates that a non-grammatical factor as ‘place of residence’ works as a scaling factor on faithfulness con-straints, moving their weights up or down and so affecting the variable rais-ing of /e/, a process that feeds palatalization.Neste artigo, analisamos a palatalização regressiva variável de /t, d/ em uma variedade de português brasileiro (PB) em contato com dialetos italia-nos. Seguimos a proposta de Coetzee (2016) de que restrições linguísticas e sociais operam sobre a gramática, porém com efeitos distintos. O obje-tivo do artigo é testar tal proposta com o algoritmo Noisy-HG (BOERSMA; PATER, 2008; COETZEE, 2012; 2016; COETZEE; KAWAHARA, 2013). A pala-talização em PB afeta /t, d/ e é desencadeada por vogal /i/ não derivada (t/i/jolo, d/i/nheiro) ou [i] derivada de /e/ em posições átonas (t/e/atro→t[i]atro, nád/e/ga →nád[i]ga). Nosso foco é a palatalização desencade-ada por vogal [i] derivada. Além de ocorrências de consoante não palatali-zada mais vogal não elevada ([te]atro, ná[de]ga) e de consoante palatali-zada mais vogal elevada ([ʧi]atro, ná[ʤi]ga), o conjunto de dados compre-ende ocorrências de consoante não palatalizada mais vogal elevada ([ti]atro, ná[di]ga), uma inovação da análise em relação a estudos anterio-res (BATTISTI; DORNELLES FILHO, 2010; GUTIERRES; BATTISTI; DOR-NELLES FILHO, 2018). Os dados foram extraídos de entrevistas sociolin-guísticas por Battisti et al. (2007). As restrições linguísticas em interação na gramática de palatalização vêm de Battisti e Dornelles Filho (2010). A análise mostra que um fator não gramatical como ‘local de residência’ opera como um fator escalar sobre restrições de fidelidade, movimen-tando seus pesos para cima e para baixo e assim afetando a elevação variá-vel de /e/, processo cujo resultado alimenta a palatalização

Characterizing Dust Attenuation in Local Star-Forming Galaxies: Near-Infrared Reddening and Normalization

We characterize the near-infrared (NIR) dust attenuation for a sample of ~5500 local (z<0.1) star-forming galaxies and obtain an estimate of their average total-to-selective attenuation $k(\lambda)$. We utilize data from the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) and the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), which is combined with previously measured UV-optical data for these galaxies. The average attenuation curve is slightly lower in the far-UV than local starburst galaxies, by roughly 15%, but appears similar at longer wavelengths with a total-to-selective normalization at V-band of $R_V=3.67\substack{+0.44 \\ -0.35}$. Under the assumption of energy balance, the total attenuated energy inferred from this curve is found to be broadly consistent with the observed infrared dust emission ($L_{\rm{TIR}}$) in a small sample of local galaxies for which far-IR measurements are available. However, the significant scatter in this quantity among the sample may reflect large variations in the attenuation properties of individual galaxies. We also derive the attenuation curve for sub-populations of the main sample, separated according to mean stellar population age (via $D_n4000$), specific star formation rate, stellar mass, and metallicity, and find that they show only tentative trends with low significance, at least over the range which is probed by our sample. These results indicate that a single curve is reasonable for applications seeking to broadly characterize large samples of galaxies in the local Universe, while applications to individual galaxies would yield large uncertainties and is not recommended.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Ap