A continuous Flaring- to Normal-branch transition in Sco X-1

We report the first resolved rapid transition from a Flaring Branch Oscillation to a Normal Branch Oscillation in the RXTE data of the Z source Sco X-1. The transition took place on a time scale of ~100 seconds and was clearly associated to the Normal Branch-Flaring Branch vertex in the color-color diagram. We discuss the results in the context of the possible association of the Normal Branch Oscillation with other oscillations known both in Neutron-Star and Black-Hole systems, concentrating on the similarities with the narrow 4-6 Hz oscillations observed at high flux in Black-Hole Candidates.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Serotonin Trasporter Tracks Similarities Between Sids And Idiopathic Alte

Polymorphisms in the serotonin transporter (5HTT) (SLC6A4 encoding 5HTT) as a predisposing factor in infant death. Considering stric corrispondence between 5HTT and MAOA genotypic and allelic data inIALTE and SIDS, we hypothesize that the two syndromes are different expression of a common ethiopathogenesis

The Poetic Knowledge of Shizuki Tadao Traces of Dutch Poet Jacob Cats in Early Nineteenth-Century Japan

In the history of the Dutch-Japanese relations, Shizuki Tadao is recognised as an extraordinary scholar. However, his translations of European books from Dutch into Japanese only paint a partial picture of his research. In fact, he also developed valuable theories on language that allowed the Japanese to better grasp Dutch. Furthermore, he introduced European grammatical concepts and terminology in Japan. A lesser-known interest of Shizuki was poetry, evidenced by three citations from the Dutch poet Jacob Cats (1577‑1660), found in Shizuki’s works on language, by two Dutch poems attributed to him, and by an additional indirect reference to Shizuki’s knowledge on the theory of poetry. The present article aims at better understanding the figure of Shizuki as a scholar of Dutch and to add a piece to the research on the spreading of Cats’ emblems

Growth hormone therapy and respiratory disorders: Long-term follow-up in PWS children

Context: Adenotonsillar tissue hypertrophy and obstructive sleep apnea have been reported during short-term GH treatment in children with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). Objective: We conducted an observational study to evaluate the effects of long-term GH therapy on sleep-disordered breathing and adenotonsillar hypertrophy in children with PWS. Design: This was a longitudinal observational study. PatientsandMethods:Weevaluated 75 children with genetically confirmedPWS,ofwhom50 fulfilled the criteria and were admitted to our study. The patients were evaluated before treatment (t0), after 6 weeks (t1), after 6 months (t2), after 12 months (t3), and yearly (t4-t6) thereafter, for up to 4 years of GH therapy. The central apnea index, obstructive apnea hypopnea index (OAHI), respiratory disturbance index, and minimal blood oxygen saturation were evaluated overnight using polysomnography. We evaluated the adenotonsillar size using a flexible fiberoptic endoscope. Results: The percentage of patients with an OAHI of 1 increased from 3 to 22, 36, and 38 at t1, t4, and t6, respectively (2 12.2; P .05). We observed a decrease in the respiratory disturbance indexfrom1.4 (t0) to 0.8 (t3) (P.05)andthe centralapneaindexfrom1.2 (t0) to 0.1 (t4) (P.0001). We had to temporarily suspend treatment for 3 patients at t1, t4, and t5 because of severe obstructive sleep apnea. The percentage of patients with severe adenotonsillar hypertrophy was significantly higher at t4 and t5 than at t0. The OAHI directly correlated with the adenoid size (adjusted for age) (P .01) but not with the tonsil size and IGF-1 levels. Conclusion: Long-termGHtreatment in patients withPWSis safe; however,werecommend annual polysomnography and adenotonsillar evaluation

XMM-Newton observations of IGRJ18410-0535: The ingestion of a clump by a supergiant fast X-ray transient

IGRJ18410-0535 is a supergiant fast X-ray transients. This subclass of supergiant X-ray binaries typically undergoes few- hour-long outbursts reaching luminosities of 10^(36)-10^(37) erg/s, the occurrence of which has been ascribed to the combined effect of the intense magnetic field and rotation of the compact object hosted in them and/or the presence of dense structures ("clumps") in the wind of their supergiant companion. IGR J18410-0535 was observed for 45 ks by XMM-Newton as part of a program designed to study the quiescent emission of supergiant fast X-ray transients and clarify the origin of their peculiar X-ray variability. We carried out an in-depth spectral and timing analysis of these XMM-Newton data. IGR J18410-0535 underwent a bright X-ray flare that started about 5 ks after the beginning of the observation and lasted for \sim15 ks. Thanks to the capabilities of the instruments on-board XMM-Newton, the whole event could be followed in great detail. The results of our analysis provide strong convincing evidence that the flare was produced by the accretion of matter from a massive clump onto the compact object hosted in this system. By assuming that the clump is spherical and moves at the same velocity as the homogeneous stellar wind, we estimate a mass and radius of Mcl \simeq1.4\times10^(22) g and Rcl \simeq8\times10^(11) cm. These are in qualitative agreement with values expected from theoretical calculations. We found no evidence of pulsations at \sim4.7 s after investigating coherent modulations in the range 3.5 ms-100 s. A reanalysis of the archival ASCA and Swift data of IGR J18410-0535, for which these pulsations were previously detected, revealed that they were likely to be due to a statistical fluctuation and an instrumental effect, respectively.Comment: Accepted for publication on A&A. V2: Inserted correct version of Fig.1

Chandra localisation and optical/NIR follow-up of Galactic X-ray sources

We investigate a sample of eleven Galactic X-ray sources recently discovered with INTEGRAL or RXTE with the goal of identifying their optical and/or near-infrared (NIR) counterpart. For this purpose new Chandra positions of nine objects are presented together with follow-up observations of all the targets in the optical and NIR. For the four sources IGR J16194-2810, IGRJ 16479-4514, IGR J16500-3307 and IGR J19308+530, the Chandra position confirms an existing association with an optical/NIR object, while for two sources (XTE J1716-389 and 18490-0000) it rules out previously proposed counterparts indicating new ones. In the case of IGR J17597-220, a counterpart is selected out of the several possibilities proposed in the literature and we present the first association with an optical/NIR source for J16293-4603 and XTE J1743-363. Moreover, optical/NIR observations are reported for XTE J1710-281 and IGR J17254-3257: we investigate the counterpart to the X-ray sources based on their XMM-Newton positions. We discuss the nature of each system considering its optical/NIR and X-ray properties.Comment: 15 pages,14 figures. Accepted for publication on MNRA

Dutch grammar in Japanese words: reception and representation of European theory of grammar in the manuscripts of Shizuki Tadao (1760 – 1806)

The book analyzes the manuscript on the Dutch language attributed to the Japanese scholar of Dutch Shizuki Tadao (1760 – 1806). It is often argued that the Japanese scholars’ knowledge of Dutch was not particularly advanced, as they were mostly limited by their broken understanding of the contents of Dutch grammatical handbooks and dictionaries. The present book questions and investigates this claim with the goal of understanding the actual role played by Dutch sources in the learning of Dutch grammar.Shizuki can be considered as the first Japanese who studied the European theory of grammar. His representation of it is highly relevant within the history of linguistic thought. In the analysis of Shizuki’s manuscripts, this book concentrates on the representation of the categories of the parts of speech and of morphosyntactic phenomena related to verbs. While describing Dutch grammar, Shizuki often mentions other Japanese authors, like Ogyū Sorai and Motoori Norinaga. This book analyzes their works in relation to Shizuki’s manuscripts and his Dutch sources, contextualizing Shizuki’s theories and demonstrating their relationship to his sources. The book argues in favor of a new positioning of Shizuki and the other rangakusha within the scholarly environment of Early Modern Japan.Language Use in Past and Presen

X-ray Pulsations from the region of the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient IGR J17544-2619

Phase-targeted RXTE observations have allowed us to detect a transient 71.49 \pm 0.02 s signal that is most likely to be originating from the supergiant fast X-ray transient IGR J17544-2619. The phase-folded light curve shows a possible double-peaked structure with a pulsed flux of ~4.8*10^-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (3-10 keV). Assuming the signal to indicate the spin period of the neutron star in the system, the provisional location of IGR J17544-2619 on the Corbet diagram places the system within the classical wind-fed supergiant XRB region. Such a result illustrates the growing trend of supergiant fast X-ray transients to span across both of the original classes of HMXB in Porb - Pspin space.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics main journa

Acetic Acid Bacteria (AAB) as versatile whole-cell biocatalysts for intensified bioprocesses

Acetic acid bacteria (AAB) are aerobic, Gram-negative microorganisms able to oxidise a wide variety of sugars, alcohols, and polyols with outstanding stereo- and regio- specificity, thanks to the action of their membrane and periplasmic space located dehydrogenases. Our research group kept an all-round view on the synthetic potentialities of such biocatalyst, particularly focusing on their oxidative metabolism and on the widening of the obtainable molecules through genetic engineering approaches. We observed good conversion in the oxidation of aliphatic, aryl-aliphatic and benzyl alcohols to their corresponding acids. The transient aldehydic intermediate have been collected using a two-liquid phase extraction or by their conversion into oximes, further enlarging the possible achievable products. By the heterologous expression of a terminal monooxygenase, unfunctionalized hydrocarbons can be used by these bacteria as starting material; as a proof of concept, the conversion of limonene into perillartine (a natural sweetener) was studied. AAB are particularly suitable for intensification processes since they can be immobilised in alginate beads and used in packed bed reactors to increase the STY, thus allowing to obtain high value products in a continuous-flow mode. Moreover, we studied several strains able to grow on various agri-food waste and produce high quantity of bacterial cellulose, which has been further employed, once chemically functionalised, as efficient immobilisation support for esterases and glycosidases, retaining good residual activity

Accretion and ejection in black-hole X-ray transients

Aims: We summarize the current observational picture of the outbursts of black-hole X-ray transients (BHTs), based on the evolution traced in a hardness-luminosity diagram (HLD), and we offer a physical interpretation. Methods: The basic ingredient in our interpretation is the Poynting-Robertson Cosmic Battery (PRCB, Contopoulos & Kazanas 1998), which provides locally the poloidal magnetic field needed for the ejection of the jet. In addition, we make two assumptions, easily justifiable. The first is that the mass-accretion rate to the black hole in a BHT outburst has a generic bell-shaped form. This is guaranteed by the observational fact that all BHTs start their outburst and end it at the quiescent state. The second assumption is that at low accretion rates the accretion flow is geometrically thick, ADAF-like, while at high accretion rates it is geometrically thin. Results: Both, at the beginning and the end of an outburst, the PRCB establishes a strong poloidal magnetic field in the ADAF-like part of the accretion flow, and this explains naturally why a jet is always present in the right part of the HLD. In the left part of the HLD, the accretion flow is in the form of a thin disk, and such a disk cannot sustain a strong poloidal magnetic filed. Thus, no jet is expected in this part of the HLD. The counterclockwise traversal of the HLD is explained as follows: the poloidal magnetic field in the ADAF forces the flow to remain ADAF and the source to move upwards in the HLD rather than to turn left. Thus, the history of the system determines the counterclockwise traversal of the HLD. As a result, no BHT is expected to ever traverse the entire HLD curve in the clockwise direction. Conclusions: We offer a physical interpretation of accretion and ejection in BHTs with only one parameter, the mass transfer rate.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&