1,596 research outputs found
Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients uncovered by the EXTraS project: flares reveal the development of magnetospheric instability in accreting neutron stars
The low luminosity, X-ray flaring activity, of the sub-class of high mass
X-ray binaries called Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients, has been investigated
using XMM-Newton public observations, taking advantage of the products made
publicly available by the EXTraS project. One of the goals of EXTraS was to
extract from the XMM-Newton public archive information on the aperiodic
variability of all sources observed in the soft X-ray range with EPIC (0.2-12
keV). Adopting a Bayesian block decomposition of the X-ray light curves of a
sample of SFXTs, we picked out 144 X-ray flares, covering a large range of soft
X-ray luminosities (1e32-1e36 erg/s). We measured temporal quantities, like the
rise time to and the decay time from the peak of the flares, their duration and
the time interval between adjacent flares. We also estimated the peak
luminosity, average accretion rate and energy release in the flares. The
observed soft X-ray properties of low-luminosity flaring activity from SFXTs is
in qualitative agreement with what is expected by the application of the
Rayleigh-Taylor instability model in accreting plasma near the neutron star
magnetosphere. In the case of rapidly rotating neutron stars, sporadic
accretion from temporary discs cannot be excluded.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (accepted 2019 May 1; received 2019
April 30; in original form 2019 February 25). 22 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables
Searching for Very High Energy Emission from Pulsars Using the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory
There are currently over 160 known gamma-ray pulsars. While most of them are
detected only from space, at least two are now seen also from the ground. MAGIC
and VERITAS have measured the gamma ray pulsed emission of the Crab pulsar up
to hundreds of GeV and more recently MAGIC has reported emission at
TeV. Furthermore, in the Southern Hemisphere, H.E.S.S. has detected the Vela
pulsar above 30 GeV. In addition, non-pulsed TeV emission coincident with
pulsars has been detected by many groups, including the Milagro Collaboration.
These GeV-TeV observations open the possibility of searching for
very-high-energy (VHE, > 100GeV) pulsations from gamma-rays pulsars in the HAWC
field of view.Comment: Presented at the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015),
The Hague, The Netherlands. See arXiv:1508.03327 for all HAWC contribution
Algebraic lattice Codes achieve the capacity of the compound block-fading channel
We propose a lattice coding scheme that achieves the capacity of the compound block-fading channel. Our lattice construction exploits the multiplicative structure of number fields and their group of units to absorb ill-conditioned channel realizations. To shape the constellation, a discrete Gaussian distribution over the lattice points is applied. A by-product of our results is a refined analysis of the probability of error of the lattice Gaussian distribution in the AWGN channel
IoT in healthcare: A scientometric analysis
This paper reviews scientific articles and patents about Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare. The aim is to explore both the domain of research and the one of practice simultaneously. We compare the annual growth, the country production, and the trend topics of publications and patents, by focusing on the most relevant themes concerning the IoT in the healthcare industry. The analysis started with the selection of the publications and patents for the period 2015–2020. Since this comparative analysis between scientometric data in healthcare is new, the findings of this study can represent the basis for future studies to determine novel research opportunities on IoT. The study provides scholars with a better understanding of IoT research in healthcare and simultaneously extends knowledge of entrepreneurship in this field. Practitioners may benefit from this review to understand new and underexplored opportunities
PPAR-γ Agonists and Their Effects on IGF-I Receptor Signaling: Implications for Cancer
It is now well established that the development and progression of a variety of human malignancies are associated with dysregulated activity of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system. In this regard, promising drugs have been developed to target the IGF-I receptor or its ligands. These therapies are limited by the development of insulin resistance and compensatory hyperinsulinemia, which in turn, may stimulate cancer growth. Novel therapeutic approaches are, therefore, required. Synthetic PPAR-γ agonists, such as thiazolidinediones (TZDs), are drugs universally used as antidiabetic agents in patients with type 2 diabetes. In addition of acting as insulin sensitizers, PPAR-γ agonists mediate in vitro and in vivo pleiotropic anticancer effects. At least some of these effects appear to be linked with the downregulation of the IGF system, which is induced by the cross-talk of PPAR-γ agonists with multiple components of the IGF system signaling. As hyperinsulinemia is an emerging cancer risk factor, the insulin lowering action of PPAR-γ agonists may be expected to be also beneficial to reduce cancer development and/or progression.
In light of these evidences, TZDs or other PPAR-γ agonists may be exploited in those tumors “addicted” to the IGF signaling and/or in tumors occurring in hyperinsulinemic patients
A candidate optical counterpart to the middle-aged gamma-ray pulsar PSR J1741-2054
We carried out deep optical observations of the middle-aged -ray
pulsar PSR J1741-2054 with the Very Large Telescope (VLT). We identified two
objects, of magnitudes and , at positions
consistent with the very accurate Chandra coordinates of the pulsar, the
faintest of which is more likely to be its counterpart. From the VLT images we
also detected the known bow-shock nebula around PSR J1741-2054. The nebula is
displaced by \sim 0\farcs9 (at the confidence level) with respect
to its position measured in archival data, showing that the shock propagates in
the interstellar medium consistently with the pulsar proper motion. Finally, we
could not find evidence of large-scale extended optical emission associated
with the pulsar wind nebula detected by Chandra, down to a surface brightness
limit of magnitudes arcsec. Future observations are needed
to confirm the optical identification of PSR J1741-2054 and characterise the
spectrum of its counterpart.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Astrophysical Journal, in pres
Discovery of periodic dips in the brightest hard X-ray source of M31 with EXTraS
We performed a search for eclipsing and dipping sources in the archive of the
EXTraS project - a systematic characterization of the temporal behaviour of
XMM-Newton point sources. We discovered dips in the X-ray light curve of 3XMM
J004232.1+411314, which has been recently associated with the hard X-ray source
dominating the emission of M31. A systematic analysis of XMM-Newton
observations revealed 13 dips in 40 observations (total exposure time 0.8
Ms). Among them, four observations show two dips, separated by 4.01 hr.
Dip depths and durations are variable. The dips occur only during
low-luminosity states (L erg s), while the
source reaches L erg s. We propose this
system to be a new dipping Low-Mass X-ray Binary in M31 seen at high
inclination (60-80), the observed dipping periodicity is
the orbital period of the system. A blue HST source within the Chandra error
circle is the most likely optical counterpart of the accretion disk. The high
luminosity of the system makes it the most luminous dipper known to date.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ
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