Development of the opto-mechanical design for ICE-T

ICE-T (International Concordia Explorer Telescope) is a double 60 cm f/1.1 photometric robotic telescope, on a parallactic mount, which will operate at Dome C, in the long Antarctic night, aiming to investigate exoplanets and activity of the hosting stars. Antarctic Plateau site is well known to be one of the best in the world for observations because of sky transparency in all wavelengths and low scintillation noise. Due to the extremely harsh environmental conditions (the lowest average temperature is -80$^\circ$C) the criteria adopted for an optimal design are really challenging. Here we present the strategies we have adopted so far to fulfill the mechanical and optical requirements.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, contributed talk at 'An astronomical Observatory at Concordia (Dome C, Antarctica) for the next decade', 11-15 May, Rome (Italy

Granulomatous fasciitis followed by morphea profunda: Is granulomatous fasciitis part of a spectrum of deep morphea? A case report and review of the literature.

Although eosinophilic fasciitis is known to be part of the deep morphea spectrum, this first report of the coexistence of granulomatous fasciitis and morphea profunda suggests that granulomatous fasciitis may also be a part of the spectrum of deep morphea

The Tangled Nature model as an evolving quasi-species model

We show that the Tangled Nature model can be interpreted as a general formulation of the quasi-species model by Eigen et al. in a frequency dependent fitness landscape. We present a detailed theoretical derivation of the mutation threshold, consistent with the simulation results, that provides a valuable insight into how the microscopic dynamics of the model determine the observed macroscopic phenomena published previously. The dynamics of the Tangled Nature model is defined on the microevolutionary time scale via reproduction, with heredity, variation, and natural selection. Each organism reproduces with a rate that is linked to the individuals' genetic sequence and depends on the composition of the population in genotype space. Thus the microevolutionary dynamics of the fitness landscape is regulated by, and regulates, the evolution of the species by means of the mutual interactions. At low mutation rate, the macro evolutionary pattern mimics the fossil data: periods of stasis, where the population is concentrated in a network of coexisting species, is interrupted by bursts of activity. As the mutation rate increases, the duration and the frequency of bursts increases. Eventually, when the mutation rate reaches a certain threshold, the population is spread evenly throughout the genotype space showing that natural selection only leads to multiple distinct species if adaptation is allowed time to cause fixation.Comment: Paper submitted to Journal of Physics A. 13 pages, 4 figure

Solar-like oscillations in the G8 V star tau Ceti

We used HARPS to measure oscillations in the low-mass star tau Cet. Although the data were compromised by instrumental noise, we have been able to extract the main features of the oscillations. We found tau Cet to oscillate with an amplitude that is about half that of the Sun, and with a mode lifetime that is slightly shorter than solar. The large frequency separation is 169 muHz, and we have identified modes with degrees 0, 1, 2, and 3. We used the frequencies to estimate the mean density of the star to an accuracy of 0.45% which, combined with the interferometric radius, gives a mass of 0.783 +/- 0.012 M_sun (1.6%).Comment: accepted for publication in A&

Milk temperature influences esophageal motility in the newborn lamb

Esophageal dysmotility is common in infants. We aimed to evaluate the influence of milk temperature on esophageal motility using multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH monitoring (MII-pH). Five healthy lambs, ages 2 to 3 days, underwent a MII-pH whereas bottle-fed randomly with 50 mL of ewe milk at 26 °C, 38.5 °C, and 41.5 °C. Impedance motility parameters were studied on 5 swallows at each temperature. At 38.5 °C we noted a higher total propagation velocity and a shorter total bolus transit time (TBTT) (P < 0.05). These unique results suggest a potential role of milk temperature alterations in improving oral feeding in infants with esophageal dysmotility

Extended Lyman alpha emission around bright quasars

Quasars trace the most massive structures at high redshifts and their presence may influence the evolution of the massive host galaxies. We study the extended Lyman alpha emission line regions (EELRs) around seven bright, mostly radio-quiet quasars (QSOs) at 2.7<z<4.5, and compare luminosities with EELRs around radio-loud QSOs reported in the literature. Using integral field spectroscopy, we analyse the morphology and kinematics of the quiescent Lya EELRs around the QSOs. We find evidence for the presence of EELRs around four radio-quiet and one radio-loud QSO. All EELRs appear asymmetric and the optically brightest QSOs also have the brightest Lya nebulae. For the two brightest nebulae we find velocities between ~600 km s^-1 at the QSO position to ~200 km s^-1 at a distance of 3-4 arcsec from the QSO and surface flux densities up to 2-3*10^{-16} erg cm^-2 s^-1 arcsec^-2. The five EELRs have total Lya luminosities which correspond to ~0.5% of the luminosities from the QSOs broad Lya emission lines. This fraction is an order of magnitude smaller than found for EELRs around radio-loud, steep spectrum QSOs reported in the literature. While the nebulae luminosities are correlated with the QSO Lya luminosities, we find that nebulae luminosities are not correlated with the central QSO ionising fluxes. The presence of gas in the EELRs can be interpreted based on two competing scenarios: either from quasar feedback mechanisms, or from infalling matter. Apart from these two effects, the Lya flux around radio-loud objects can be enhanced due to interactions with the radio jets. The relatively fainter nebulae around radio-quiet QSOs compared to lobe-dominated radio-loud QSOs can be ascribed to this effect, or to significant differences in the environments between the two classes.Comment: 15 pages, A&A accepted. Section 4 revise

High-frequency modes in solar-like stars

p-mode oscillations in solar-like stars are excited by the outer convection zone in these stars and reflected close to the surface. The p-modes are trapped inside an acoustic cavity, but the modes only stay trapped up to a given frequency (known as the acoustic cut-off frequency) as modes with larger frequencies are generally not reflected at the surface. This means that modes with frequency larger than the acoustic cut-off frequency must be traveling waves. The high-frequency modes may provide information about the physics in the outer layers of the stars and the excitation source and are therefore highly interesting as it is the estimation of these two phenomena that causes some of the largest uncertainties when calculating stellar oscillations. High-frequency modes have been detected in the Sun, beta Hydri and in alpha Cen A & B by smoothing the so-called echelle diagram and the large frequency separation as a function of frequency have been estimated. The large frequency separation has been compared with a simple model of the acoustic cavity which suggests that the reflectivity of the photosphere is larger at high frequency than predicted by standard models of the solar atmosphere and that the depth of the excitation source is larger than what has been estimated by other models and might depend on the order n and degree l of the modes.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

A Lattice Study of Spectator Effects in Inclusive Decays of B-Mesons

We compute the matrix elements of the operators which contribute to spectator effects in inclusive decays of $B$-mesons. The results agree well with estimates based on the vacuum saturation (factorization) hypothesis. For the ratio of lifetimes of charged and neutral mesons we find $\tau(B^-)/\tau(B_d)=1.03\pm 0.02\pm 0.03$, where the first error represents the uncertainty in our evaluation of the matrix elements, and the second is an estimate of the uncertainty due to the fact that the Wilson coefficient functions have only been evaluated at tree-level in perturbation theory. This result is in agreement with the experimental measurement. We also discuss the implications of our results for the semileptonic branching ratio and the charm yield.Comment: 25 pages (figures are included). Revised version (some numerical integrals have been recomputed