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A haloscope of the QUAX--$a\ensuremath{\gamma}$ experiment composed of an oxygen-free high thermal conductivity-Cu cavity inside an 8.1 T magnet and cooled to $\ensuremath{\sim}200\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mK}$ is put in operation for the search of galactic axion with mass ${m}_{a}\ensuremath{\simeq}43\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{eV}$. The power emitted by the resonant cavity is amplified with a Josephson parametric amplifier whose noise fluctuations are at the standard quantum limit. With the data collected in about 1 h at the cavity frequency ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{c}=10.40176\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GHz}$, the experiment reaches the sensitivity necessary for the detection of galactic QCD-axion, setting the 90% confidence level limit to the axion-photon coupling ${g}_{a\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\gamma}}l0.766\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}13}\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques are widely used in food science, mainly because they are non-invasive techniques. MRI, as a non-destructive technique, allows the study of intact samples and without any preparation of the samples before analysis. In food processing, the monitoring of distribution and water content is a consolidated analysis technique, frequently used on the market in order to preserve appropriate nutritional and health characteristics of food according to quality standards. In a food matrix, the variation of the water content is related to the changes in the internal structure and in the physico-chemical properties that occur during the transformation process. In this study MRI technique is used to evaluate the variation of the water content as a function of the drying time. Pumpkin samples are analyzed at four different drying temperatures of 50, 60, 65, and 70°C. The transverse relaxation time, T2, is used to assess the hydration level of the samples by comparing the information extracted from MR images with the drying kinetics measured by gravimetric method. Moreover, T2 maps are used to correlate the change in water distribution with the change in T2 values. The results show that the global weight loss curves obtained with the standard gravimetric method and with the MRI data are in excellent agreement. This work indicates that monitoring changes in the T2 profile of food (i.e., pumpkin) is a useful method for evaluating moisture profiles and changes induced on the sample during the drying process.

The realization and characterization of a high quality factor resonator composed of two hollow-dielectric cylinders with its pseudo-TM030 mode resonating at 10.9 GHz frequency is discussed. The quality factor was measured at the temperatures 300 K and 4 K obtaining Q 300 K = ( 150 , 000 ± 2 , 000 ) and Q 4 K = ( 720 , 000 ± 10 , 000 ) respectively, the latter corresponding to a gain of one order of magnitude with respect to a traditional copper cylindrical-cavity with the corresponding TM010 mode resonating at the same frequency. The implications to dark-matter axion-searches with cavity experiments are discussed showing that the gain in quality factor is not spoiled by a reduced geometrical coupling C 030 of the cavity mode to the axion field. This reduction effect is estimated to be at most 20%. Numerical simulations show that frequency tuning of several hundreds MHz is feasible.

A ferromagnetic axion haloscope searches for Dark Matter in the form of axions by exploiting their interaction with electronic spins. It is composed of an axion-to-electromagnetic field transducer coupled to a sensitive rf detector. The former is a photon-magnon hybrid system, and the latter is based on a quantum-limited Josephson parametric amplifier. The hybrid system consists of ten 2.1 mm diameter YIG spheres coupled to a single microwave cavity mode by means of a static magnetic field. Our setup is the most sensitive rf spin-magnetometer ever realized. The minimum detectable field is $5.5\times10^{-19}\,$T with 9 h integration time, corresponding to a limit on the axion-electron coupling constant $g_{aee}\le1.7\times10^{-11}$ at 95% CL. The scientific run of our haloscope resulted in the best limit on DM-axions to electron coupling constant in a frequency span of about 120 MHz, corresponding to the axion mass range $42.4$-$43.1\,\mu$eV. This is also the first apparatus to perform an axion mass scanning by changing the static magnetic field., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

Nowadays, users’ privacy on the Internet is highly at risk, due to the monetization by advertising companies that support many of the so-called “free” services such as searching or social networking. In fact, several mechanisms are used to monitor users and build detailed profiles to tailor behavioral advertising. Given the increasing use of mobile devices and the increasing revenues from behavioral advertising, large advertising companies are present in this market as well. The increasing use of mobile devices for interacting with the Web and using mobile applications has been also drawing attention to their energy consumption. Several studies have addressed this issue from different point of views, i.e., hardware, software, as well as by analyzing the energy drained by different mobile applications. Our goal in this work is to measure the effectiveness of a methodology that exploits a hardware-based instrumentation to study whether privacy-preserving mechanisms are also able to efficiently reduce communication and computation overhead and, thus, save the battery life of mobile phones with the overall aim of a more sustainable Internet.

We have investigated magnetization cycles of a MgB2 sphere, 4 mm size, at temperatures of 25, 30, and 35 K up to an applied magnetic field μ0H strength of 3 T. Further to magnetization cycles, we also studied the shift of the magnetization peak position as a function of the maximum applied field for field values between the first penetration field and the full penetration field. In this way, we found a shift of the magnetization peak field position toward a saturation value of the applied field, above which no further shift is observed. The shift of the magnetization peak field position has been observed in YBCO thin films, and ascribed to the magnetization trapped in the granular borders of the material. The same mechanisms may be supposed acting in the MgB2 sphere, provided that the saturated peak of the magnetization curve lies in the μ0H < 0 region due to the effect of local field B on the critical current Jc(B) in the spherical geometry. This will show up the shift effect in the H < 0 region. A FEM model with H-formulation has also been implemented, in which the magnetization cycle is taken into account by the power-law E(J) characteristic for the electric field. Our experimental and numerical findings can provide a simple understanding of the observed magnetization cycle in this spherical geometry in saturated and nonsaturated conditions. © 2002-2011 IEEE.

Searches for dark matter axion involve the use of microwave resonant cavities operating in a strong magnetic field. Detector sensitivity is directly related to the cavity quality factor, which is limited, however, by the presence of the external magnetic field. In this paper we present a cavity of novel design whose quality factor is not affected by a magnetic field. It is based on a photonic structure by the use of sapphire rods. The quality factor at cryogenic temperature is in excess of $5 \times 10^5$ for a selected mode., 6 pages, 7 figures

The QUAX proposal studies the interaction of dark matter axions with electrons. As the effect of axions can be described as an effective magnetic field, the signal is a magnetization oscillation of a sample. To detect it, the material is placed in a resonant cavity and polarized with a static magnetic field. Here we describe the operation of such a device, with a resonance frequency of 14 GHz, corresponding to an axion mass ma = 58 μeV. Eventually some recent developments on the resonant cavities design and test are detailed.

To account for the dark matter content in our Universe, post-inflationary scenarios predict for the QCD axion a mass in the range $(10-10^3)\,\mu\mbox{eV}$. Searches with haloscope experiments in this mass range require the monitoring of resonant cavity modes with frequency above 5\,GHz, where several experimental limitations occur due to linear amplifiers, small volumes, and low quality factors of Cu resonant cavities. In this paper we deal with the last issue, presenting the result of a search for galactic axions using a haloscope based on a $36\,\mbox{cm}^3$ NbTi superconducting cavity. The cavity worked at $T=4\,\mbox{K}$ in a 2\,T magnetic field and exhibited a quality factor $Q_0= 4.5\times10^5$ for the TM010 mode at 9\,GHz. With such values of $Q$ the axion signal is significantly increased with respect to copper cavity haloscopes. Operating this setup we set the limit $g_{a\gamma\gamma}

In this paper we extensively analyze the magnetization of superconducting bulk cylinders in parallel and transverse magnetic field. We use analytic formulations with different Jc(B) dependencies, and compare the magnetization to 2D and 3D numerical computations for finite geometries with different aspect ratios. This subject is a basic study for understanding the hysteretic losses in a cylindrical geometry, which is the typical geometry occurring in superconducting wires and cables. The shift of the peak of the magnetization cycle is always reproduced by FEM 2D and 3D, as a consequence of considering the local field in the Jc(B). Using different Jc(B) dependencies and different cylinder aspect ratio, we have reproduced the behavior of the magnetization in parallel fields, checking simulation results versus analytical calculations. In this framework we also developed the analytic behavior of the magnetization in parallel fields using the generalized Kim model. Finally, for a cylinder in a perpendicular magnetic configuration, we found that 2D numerical simulations, once suitably scaled, are in agreement to 3D simulations.

Recently the need for fast ramped superconducting magnets in new particle accelerator pushed the development of a new class of NbTi wires able to operate at magnetic ramp rates in the 1T/s range with ac losses that can be handled by ordinary cryogenic systems, e . g . few W/m in long dipoles. During the last decade INFN, in the framework of an international cooperation for the developments of fast ramped superconducting dipoles, launched a wire development program which stepped in three phases of wire design and industrial production. The aim of the program was to develop superconducting wires to be used in the construction of a full size superconducting fast ramped magnet (namely a dipole). This paper describes the main steps towards the development of a low loss superconducting multi filament wire. Three main ideas were the pillars of the development activities: the reduction of the geometrical filament size down to 2 μm, the use of CuMn resistive barriers to reduce the inter filament coupling currents, and the reduction to the minimum allowable value of the twist pitch.

The Normal Zone Propagation Velocity, NZPV, is a widely studied feature in superconducting composite tapes for its technological implications. The stability features and the NZPV values, in different operative conditions, have been investigated in different second generation high critical temperature superconductor tapes. In particular, we focused our studies on tapes, produced by the manufactures SuNAM© and Superpower©. Experimental procedures on the determination of the NZPV, related problems and peculiarities, have been presented and discussed. Data obtained with our experimental configuration, have been analyzed and compared with a phenomenological model.

The normal zone propagation velocity (NZPV) is a widely studied feature in superconducting wires and tapes for its significant technological implication. Recent investigations on 2G-HTS tapes were carried out analytically and numerically with methods able to predict the asymptotic values of the NZPV. A numerical model, based on the finite-element analysis, is presented. Our model has been found able to reproduce the asymptotical results already predicted by other models. This approach has been extensively used for the study of the quench propagation along the tape since its generation. As expected, at the beginning of the quench process, the NZPV is strongly influenced by the initial hot stimulus. As a consequence, the tape length needed by the NZPV to reach the steady value, depending on this injected energy, may be longer than expected. These results may help to explain, together with other affecting parameters, the different values of experimental NZPV obtained at the same conditions, with different experimental apparatus and method. Other advantages and extension of this method are also discussed.

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The Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics, within a larger cooperation with other partners, is setting up a new facility at University of Salerno for testing superconducting magnets for accelerators. The setup includes, further to the supercritical He 200 W@4.5 K refrigerator, and the 20 kA power converter, a suitable pair of HTS 20 kA current leads. To keep an optimized system flexibility, the current leads are designed with HTS technology, which allows for reduction of both the conduction heat leak on its cold end, and the Joule heating. In addition to match the cryogenic plant features, the current leads, at current level below 10 kA, are designed to operate with cold He flow provided by the refrigeration plant, thus avoiding LN2 flow. When running the current leads at full current we shall use an additional LN2 bath and evaporation stream to boost the He refrigeration power needed in the copper section of the current leads. This cooling scheme requires a dedicated design of the heat exchangers. In this work we report the numerical analyses of the current leads, concerning only the normal conducting section, to support this refrigeration scheme which have to match two different heat loads.

The axion is one of the main candidates of dark matter and was originally introduced to solve the strong CP problem of quantum chromodynamics. Here we present a proposal to search for QCD axions with mass in the 200 μeV range, assuming that they make a dominant component of dark matter. Since the axion can couple to the spin of a fermion, its presence can be seen as the existence of an equivalent rf field with frequency and amplitude fixed by the axion mass and coupling, respectively. This equivalent magnetic field would produce spin flips in a magnetic sample placed inside a static magnetic field, which determines the resonant interaction at the Larmor frequency. Spin flips would subsequently emit radio frequency photons that can be detected by a suitable quantum counter in an ultra-cryogenic environment. An updated report of the experimental results will be presented, together with a preliminary measurement and a projection of future improvements.

The Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics is working on the development of fast cycled dipoles for the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research SIS300 synchrotron at Gesellschaft fur Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt. In this framework the development of high current and low ac loss superconducting wires is an important step of the R&D. The main technique to attain these features is to develop fine filaments for the strands and to design suitable resistive barriers among filament islands within the strands. In this paper, we study a newly developed wire in terms of critical currents and ac losses. The critical current is obtained from magnetization cycle and direct transport current. The ac loss mechanisms caused by the interfilament electromagnetic coupling is related to the ρet, the transverse resistance between adjacent filaments. We measure ρet through ac susceptibility technique.

More than eighty quadrupole modules, especially designed and fabricated at JNIR in Dubna, will be used at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt. Prior the installation in the new accelerator SIS 100 tunnel, the modules need to be tested by an independent laboratory. The required test have to be the same for all the modules and the answer will be the benchmark for the final decision on accepting or rejecting the module. With this target in mind, a system with as much as possible automatisms will be realized. Three kinds of tests will be performed: mechanical, thermal and electrical. The mechanical test will concern on the search of vacuum leaks, if present, and on the measurement of the limit pressure reached in the vessel. The thermal test will have to check that the various thermometer, scattered inside the modules, will be correctly working and that the heaters are able to deliver the generated heat. The electrical tests will verify the insulation to ground of both the devices and the superconducting coils and bus-bars. All tests will be done in a thermal sequence: at room temperature, at the cryogenic working temperature of 4.5 K, and finally at room temperature again.

In the preceding work, Brasiello et al. (2013) developed a mathematical model for eggplant's dehydration taking into account the shrinkage effects. Although the model provided good results in predicting the total water weight loss of slices, at that time, no information was given about the capability of predicting water content profiles inside the material. This is a very important issue in order to catch some fundamental aspects of dehydration with shrinkage. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of the water content profiles inside cylindrical samples of eggplant during dehydration using a mathematical model which takes into account shrinkage effects. In particular, we show the good agreement between numerical derived spatial profiles and the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data available in Literature. Model's parameters are calculated through a suitable simplified procedure, which uses experimental data from samples of a different shape. The numerical results are compared to those derived from the same procedure applied to Fick's diffusion equation.

Recently, the study of complex networks led to the analysis of the so-called scale-free models in statistical mechanics. This study has increased its importance, thanks to the wide range of applications in numerous physical contexts; for example, one important question is to understand the behavior of various models on such networks. We start first by investigating the Ising model in the mean field approximation and on scale-free networks, studying especially the Ising model with annealed dilution and Clock model, with particular attention devoted to focusing on similarities between the mean field approximations with or without scale-free statistics. A particular emphasis is given to the possible practical applications of these results in other disciplines such as medicine and social science.

We have investigated the frequency dependence of the magnetic losses of different 2 G commercial REBCO coated-conductor tapes in the low frequency range ∼1-10 mHz of applied magnetic field at 5 and 77 K. We explored high field range, well above the penetration field, with fields applied perpendicularly to the flat surface. We found that the in-field hysteresis losses increase with increasing frequencies in all the investigated high-temperature superconductor (HTS) tapes, following a power-law dependence. An electromagnetic 2D finite element method model, based on H-formulation, has also been implemented, in which the frequency dependence of the hysteretic loss is computed taking into account the measured power-law E(J) characteristic for the electric field, and the experimental J c(B). Experimental and numerical findings are in very good agreement, so an extrapolation to higher ramp rate values is possible, thus providing a useful basis for the assessment of the hysteresis losses in fusion and accelerator HTS magnets. © 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Providing mechanisms to improve energy efficiency of mobile devices is, in the past few years, one of the important objectives in the field of green computing and energy savings. Several studies have addressed this issue from different point of views, i.e., hardware, software, as well as by analyzing the energy drained by different mobile applications. On the other hand, the energy consumption of Web browsing activities has been poorly addressed, given the lack of analysis about users’ real browsing sessions. In this paper we explore how energy savings in mobile devices can be effectively tackled by switching on/off filtering techniques offered by a privacy-enhancing technology. We present first, results about a survey that we conducted to understand the beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and expectations of mobile users towards privacy and energy issues, and their behavioral intention on what kind of countermeasures adopt to reduce their privacy leakage. Then, we present a tool, mNoTrace, that allows to protect privacy during Web Navigation and prove, by an experimental study, that, by helping users in protecting their privacy, mNoTrace also achieves a significant reduction in terms of communication and computation overhead and thus battery consumption. Conclusions, remarks and lessons learned on our experimental methodology, that employs hardware-based instrumentation, real workloads, and testing on real sites, will conclude the paper.

Bovine Somatotropin (bST) is a peptide hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary gland and its recombinant form (rbST) is used for artificially boosting milk yield in cows. Identification of rbST is difficult in that there is little difference from the pituitary bST (pbST). In this work, we further studied the possibility of immunologically discriminating between rbST and pbST. With this purpose, we produced mouse monoclonal antibodies using, as antigen, a peptide mimicking the N-terminus of rbST from Monsanto (rbST-M) conjugated to keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH) and polyclonal antibodies in rabbits immunized with the whole bST or rbST-M. Hence, we developed a sandwich ELISA with the obtained antibodies for detection and quantification of bST in serum and compared its performance on the two worldwide commercialized rbSTs: rbST-M and rbST from LG Life Science (rbST-LG). The lowest detection limit of the assay was 0·05 ng/ml for rbST-M, 0·10 ng/ml for rbST-LG and 0·15 ng/ml for pbST. Furthermore, the assay showed the capability to amplify the signal in the presence of rbSTs, recognizing more efficiently rbST-M and rbST-LG than pbST (ECn pbST/ECn rbST: 3 and 1·6 respectively). Its employment for measuring bST levels in sera from bovines administered with rbST LG allowed us to detect exceptional values due to the treatment itself and probably further increased as a consequence of the higher affinity for rbSTs of our monoclonal antibody.

To broaden the use of an adaptive resistive algorithm (ARA), we present a 3-D model able to reproduce the experimental magnetic moment loop for a finite-size superconducting strip in a perpendicular field. We also develop the same model by using H-formulation, to strengthen the ARA results. We find that 2-D models computed with the two different approaches, i.e., ARA and H-formulation, provide similar results, and both well compare to approximate analytical solutions. Then, we verify that the computed magnetic moment loop by using either 3-D numerical approaches reproduces the experimental curve, i.e., the magnetic loops of a commercial YBCO-coated conductor sample measured at 5 K. Instead, the 2-D numerical data need a scaling factor to match the experimental ones. The 3-D computations provide support to the hypotheses on the current surface profile that has been used to find the scaling factor. © 2014 IEEE.

Providing mechanisms to improve energy efficiency of mobile devices is, in the past few years, one of the important objectives in the field of green computing and energy savings. Several studies have addressed this issue from different point of views, i.e., hardware, software, as well as by analyzing the energy drained by different mobile applications. On the other hand, the energy consumption of Web browsing activities has been poorly addressed, given the lack of analysis about users' real browsing sessions. We propose in this paper a new methodology that exploits an hardware-based instrumentation to measure energy savings in mobile devices when switching on/off filtering techniques offered by a privacy-enhancing technology. We discuss an extensive experimental study that shows how privacy-preserving mechanisms can help users to protect their privacy, their personal information, and en passant efficiently reduce communication and computation overhead and thus battery consumption.

The construction of a new detector is proposed to extend the capabilities of ALICE in the high transverse momentum (pT) region. This Very High Momentum Particle Identification Detector (VHMPID) performs charged hadron identification on a track-by-track basis in the 5 GeV/c < p < 25 GeV/c momentum range and provides ALICE with new opportunities to study parton-medium interactions at LHC energies. The VHMPID covers up to 30% of the ALICE central barrel and presents sufficient acceptance for triggered- and tagged-jet studies, allowing for the first time identified charged hadron measurements in jets. This Letter of Intent summarizes the physics motivations for such a detector as well as its layout and integration into ALICE. The construction of a new detector is proposed to extend the capabilities of ALICE in the high transverse momentum (pT) region. This Very High Momentum Particle Identification Detector (VHMPID) performs charged hadron identification on a track-by-track basis in the 5 GeV/c < p < 25 GeV/c momentum range and provides ALICE with new opportunities to study parton-medium interactions at LHC energies. The VHMPID covers up to 30% of the ALICE central barrel and presents sufficient acceptance for triggered- and tagged-jet studies, allowing for the first time identified charged hadron measurements in jets. This Letter of Intent summarizes the physics motivations for such a detector as well as its layout and integration into ALICE.

The evolution of the structural properties of ${A}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{A}_{x}^{\ensuremath{'}}{\mathrm{MnO}}_{3}$ was determined as a function of temperature, average $A$-site radius $〈{r}_{A}〉,$ and applied pressure for the ``optimal'' doping range $x=0.25,$ 0.30, by using high-resolution neutron powder diffraction. The metal-insulator transition, which can be induced both as a function of temperature and of $〈{r}_{A}〉,$ was found to be accompanied by significant structural changes. Both the paramagnetic charge-localized phase, which exists at high temperatures for all values of $〈{r}_{A}〉,$ and the spin-canted ferromagnetic charge-ordered phase, which is found at low temperatures for low values of $〈{r}_{A}〉,$ are characterized by large metric distortions of the ${\mathrm{MnO}}_{6}$ octahedra. These structural distortions are mainly incoherent with respect to the space-group symmetry, with a significant coherent component only at low $〈{r}_{A}〉.$ These distortions decrease abruptly at the transition into the ferromagnetic metal phase. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that, in the insulating phases, lattice distortions of the Jahn-Teller type, in addition to spin scattering, provide a charge-localization mechanism. The evolution of the average structural parameters indicates that the variation of the electronic bandwidth is the driving force for the evolution of the insulator-to-metal transition at ${T}_{C}$ as a function of ``chemical'' and applied pressure.

This paper aims at investigating the integrated satellite/terrestrial interactive e-health system, which has been developed within the framework of the European Space Agency (ESA) project TElemedicine Services for HEALTH (TESHEALTH) in collaboration among industry, academia, and hospitals. The implementation of a secure, scalable and flexible heterogeneous network capable of providing the appropriate infrastructure, is analysed, focusing on the end to end QoS solution, that satisfies the quality level required by the telemedicine applications. Moreover the developed interactive Service Platform, which aims at sharing health information among the different applications and services (Self-Care and Assisted Services) and includes realtime audio and video interactions among patients, specialists and health service providers, is described.

In this paper we adopt a phenomenological approach in order to develop a suitable Cellular Automata (CA) model capable to satisfactory mimic city growth and urban sprawl. The use of CA in urban expansion modeling is well known since many years, but very rarely it has been related with a down-top approach which considers inhabitants' preferences as a driving tool to characterize the CA algorithm. In addition, we consider as a control mechanism of the cell conversion rate (i.e. the number of cells experiencing conversion into urban use) the logistic function. This function is tuned on the free space (cells) at disposal for the urban development. In this paper we present the basics of the model and we perform a simple simulation in the case of a generic geographic pattern.

We have measured critical temperatures and upper critical magnetic fields as a function of the ferromagnetic layer thickness, ${d}_{F}$, in two different superconductor(S)/ferromagnet(F)/superconductor(S) triple layers: $\text{Nb}/{\text{Cu}}_{0.41}{\text{Ni}}_{0.59}/\text{Nb}$ and $\text{Nb}/{\text{Pd}}_{0.81}{\text{Ni}}_{0.19}/\text{Nb}$. We vary ${d}_{F}$ from the 0-phase coupling to the $\ensuremath{\pi}$-phase coupling regime and find strong nonmonotonic behavior of the anisotropy coefficient ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{GL}={H}_{c2\ensuremath{\parallel}}(0)/{H}_{c2\ensuremath{\perp}}(0)$ characterized by an initial increase, a peak, and a subsequent decrease. The peak is a manifestation of the small coupling which exists around the $0\text{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\pi}$ transition and it is qualitatively in agreement with recent theoretical predictions [B. Krunavakarn and S. Yoksan, Physica C 440, 25 (2006)] which includes the effect of the different interface transparencies of the two systems. The experimental results demonstrate that the occurrence of the $\ensuremath{\pi}$ phase strongly influences the transport properties of S/F/S systems in external fields.

We investigate the effects of scale-free model on cosmology, providing, in this way, a statistical background in the framework of general relativity. In order to discuss properties and time evolution of some relevant universe dynamical parameters (cosmographic parameters), such as $H(t)$ (Hubble parameter), $q(t)$ (deceleration parameter), $j(t)$ (jerk parameter) and $s(t)$ (snap parameter), which are well re-defined in the framework of scale-free model, we analyze a comparison between WMAP data. Hence the basic purpose of the work is to consider this statistical interpretation of mass distribution of universe, in order to have a mass density $\rho$ dynamics, not inferred from Friedmann equations, via scale factor $a(t)$. This model, indeed, has been used also to explain a possible origin and a viable explanation of cosmological constant, which assumes a statistical interpretation without the presence of extended theories of gravity; hence the problem of dark energy could be revisited in the context of a classical probability distribution of mass, which is, in particular, for the scale-free model, $P(k)\sim k^{-\gamma}$, with $2, Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

DigesTip is a new device for in-solution protein digestion, based on a patent pending technology, able to immobilize enzymes (trypsin, in this case) on a solid surface, keeping their activity preserved. DigesTip is a standard pipette tip, usable both by human and by robots. Its main performances are: very short digestion time (1 min) and usability with low protein sample concentrations (5 microg/mL). DigesTip obtains a clear signal in MS measurements and its usage rules out several preparative steps.

Guidi, A., Castigliego, L., Iannone, G., Armani, A. and Gianfaldoni, D., 2007. An immunoenzymatic method to measure igf-1 in milk. Veterinary Research Communications, 31(Suppl. 1), 373–376

Electrical and magnetic properties of sputtered ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{86}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{14}$, ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{46}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{54}$, and ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{42}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{58}$ thin films have been investigated. ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{86}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{14}$ shows clear ferromagnetic properties even if magnetic clusters of $4.6{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{B}$ are observed above the Curie-Weiss temperature, ${T}_{\mathrm{CW}}$. Different magnetic properties are observed in $\mathrm{CuNi}$ alloys. Below ${T}_{\mathrm{CW}}$, the field cooling susceptibility increases quasilinearly, while very large magnetic clusters, up to $10\ensuremath{-}12{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{B}$, are observed above ${T}_{\mathrm{CW}}$. The temperature behavior of the resistivity of the thin films of the three alloys shows some common features. In particular, after a minimum the resistivity increases, probably due to the scattering of conduction electrons with Ni clusters. The temperature at which the minimum appears does not seem to depend on the host metal (Pd or Cu) and on the Ni concentration. These magnetic clusters affect the resistance behavior in the temperature range where the alloys are paramagnetic or close to their magnetic transition.

Proximity effect in $\mathrm{Nb}∕{\mathrm{Pd}}_{0.86}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{0.14}$, $\mathrm{Nb}∕{\mathrm{Cu}}_{0.46}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{0.54}$, and $\mathrm{Nb}∕{\mathrm{Cu}}_{0.42}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{0.58}$ bilayers has been studied in the presence of an external magnetic field. Upper critical field measurements, performed in parallel configuration, reveal a shift of the two-dimensional--three-dimensional crossover temperature, which we relate to the different interface transparencies of the three analyzed systems.