Ailanthus altissima (Miller) Swingle as a cause of immunoallergic respiratory manifestations

In questo lavoro gli autori mettono in correlazione le concentrazioni aeropolliniche di Ailanthus altissima(Miller) Swingle (Simaroubaceae) rilevate nell’atmosfera della città di Cagliari (Sardegna meridionale, Italia) e del suo hinterland, con le sindromi allergiche causate, in alcuni pazienti atopici, dai pollini di questa pianta. Dalle indagini aerobiologiche è stato possibile mettere in evidenza come le più alte concentrazioni aeropolliniche di ailanto sono state riscontrate nel periodo tra aprile e giugno. Su un campione significativo di 74 pazienti, di sesso ed età diversa, ben 21 soggetti sono risultati positivi ai test allergologici

Unu idrònimu sardu

Subra a sas orìgines de su topònimu Palau sos pàrreres de sos linguistas non sun cuncordes ma tottus creen chi siat una paraula foristera. Calicunu pensat chi siat essida a pizu a sos tempos de su domìniu catalanu-ispagnolu mentres àtteros sun cumbintos chi siat unu prèstidu cadalanu ebbia e bi est finas chie creet chi si trattet de unu ligurismu. S’artìculu mustrat chi s’esàmene de sa toponimia istòrica, màssimu de sos idrònimos, nos indittat intamen chi si trattat de unu topònimu chi s’est formadu comente isviluppu derettu de una paraula latina. Paraulas crae: pàrreres; toponimia istòrica; idrònimos; isviluppu localeOn the origins of the name Palau scholars have different opinions but everyone thinks it’s a foreign word. Someone thinks it’s a thalassonim formed during the Catalan-Spanish period while others are convinced that it is a Catalan word and there are also those who believe that it is a Ligurian term. The article shows that the examination of the historical place names, and in particular of the hydronyms, indicates conversely that the name was formed as a direct local development of a Latin word. Keywords: opinions; historical place names; hydronims; local development

J/ψ production and polarization with the inclusion of transverse momentum effects

J/ψ mesons, and quarkonia in general, are remarkable objects, since they are an astonishing tool to probe both the perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of QCD, as well as their interplay. At the same time, they are also sources of uncertainties since their hadronization mechanism is not yet fully understood. Hence, the study of observables which allow to discern among different hadronization models is extremely valuable. One remarkable example is given by the analysis of J/ψ polarization states. In particular, we consider the J/ψ yield in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) processes and its subsequent decay into a lepton pair. The corresponding cross section can be parameterized in terms of polarization parameters, which may be accessible at the future Electron-Ion Collider, located in the US. Hence, in this thesis we will present their theoretical estimates in kinematic regions potentially explored by this facility, highlighting the possibility to discern between two hadronization models: the non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) approach and the Color-Singlet Model (CSM). Quite remarkably, in the small transverse momentum region these parameters are sensitive to the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) distributions of gluons inside the proton. We then propose a revised factorized formula valid for SIDIS-related observables evaluated at small transverse momentum. This involves a new TMD object related to quarkonia, called TMD shape function, which describes the transverse momentum smearing due to soft gluon interaction in their hadronization phase. In this thesis we will provide a systematic method to derive the (NLO) perturbative tail of the TMD shape function. Moreover, the potential of quarkonia as outstanding tools to access gluon TMD distributions can be shown by considering single-spin asymmetries (SSAs) in hadronic collisions for J/ψ production. Indeed, for processes like p p^↑ → J/ψ+X, this SSA is sensitive, within a phenomenological framework, to the gluon Sivers function, still poorly known. Thus, adopting the Generalized Parton Model (GPM) and its Color-Gauge Invariant extension (CGI-GPM), we will provide SSA estimates for PHENIX@RHIC and other upcoming experiments (SMOG@LHC, NICA-SPD, SpinQuest@Fermilab)

The infrared environments of masers associated with star formation

The near infrared (1-2um) and the thermal infrared (3-25um) trace many of the environments in which masers are thought to reside, including shocks, outflows, accretion disks, and the dense medium near protostars. After a number of recent surveys it has been found that there is a higher detection rate of mid-IR emission towards masers than cm radio continuum emission from UC HII regions, and that the mid-IR emission is actually more closely cospatial to the maser locations. A high percentage of water and methanol masers that are not coincident with the UC HII regions in massive star forming regions are likely to be tracing outflows and extremely young high mass stars before the onset of the UC HII region phase. After a decade of groundwork supporting the hypothesis that linarly distributed class II methanol masers may generally trace accretion disks around young massive stars, compelling evidence is mounting that these masers may generally be associated with outflows instead. Substantiation of this claim comes from recent outflow surveys and high angular resolution mid-IR imaging of the maser environments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of IAUS 242 "Astrophysical Masers and Their Environments", eds. J. Chapman & W. Baan. A version with higher resolution is available at http://www.ctio.noao.edu/~debuize