Pentaquark la nuova particella esotica venuta dall’impossibile

 

Pentaquark la nuova particella esotica venuta dall’impossibile, grazie all’esperimento Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) del Cern di Ginevra, promette meraviglie. È composta da quattro Quark e un Antiquark, ossia due Quark up, un Quark down, un Quark charm e un Anti-Quark charm. Notevoli le implicazioni sulla struttura interna di oggetti celesti superdensi come le Stelle di Neutroni. Il Pentaquark è un nuovo stato della materia. “È la scoperta più eccitante nel campo della Cromodinamica Quantistica che potessi immaginare”, rivela Frank Wilczek del Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), tra i principali esponenti della Teoria. L’esistenza dei Pentaquark è una logica conseguenza dell’esistenza dei Tetraquark. I Pentaquark decadono in un Mesone Charm-Anticharm e in un Protone. L’importanza cruciale di questa scoperta è ben spiegata da Guy Wilkinson, portavoce dell’esperimento LHCb: “il Pentaquark osservato non è soltanto una nuova particella, ma anche un nuovo modo in cui i Quark, che rappresentano i costituenti fondamentali di Neutroni e Protoni, possono combinarsi tra loro, in uno schema mai osservato prima in oltre cinquant’anni di ricerche sperimentali. Ulteriori studi sulle proprietà dei Pentaquark ci permetteranno di comprendere meglio la natura di Neutroni e Protoni, i costituenti della materia di cui siamo fatti noi e tutto ciò che ci circonda”. È un evento memorabile nella storia della Fisica delle particelle. E i Quark liberi? Se esistessero, da qualche parte, nascosti in un luogo diverso da quello in cui si è cercato?

(di Nicola Facciolini)

Sri Lanka: Pompei e il Ministro Franceschini dovrebbero imparare

Quando uno acquista il biglietto di ingresso all'area monumentale di Anaradhapuraya, citta' simbolo dello Sri Lanka, ex Ceylon, si vede consgnare anche un DVD realizzato dal ministero degli affari culturali. Un modo diretto per seminare nel mondo un'immagine positiva e concreta di luoghi famosi, culla del Buddismo. Il costo del biglietto, DVD compreso, e' pari a 24 dollari. Ma nessun turista si lamenta.

Ai nostri tempi non ci succedeva...

Erectile Dysfunction Is Actually Pretty Common In Younger Guys. Here's Why

By Yahoo Health | Yahoo Lifestyle 

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  Yahoo Lifestyle -  Erectile Dysfunction Is Actually Pretty Common In Younger Guys. Here's Why

The commercials for Viagra may make it seem like erectile dysfunction is an issue reserved for older men (after all, it affects nearly half of men over 40). And while this diagnosis — which is defined as being unable to achieve and maintain an erection — does increase with age, it can affect young men, too. In fact, erectile dysfunction is found in about 26 percent of men under the age of 40, according to a study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine..

“We used to think that psychological disorders were the only cause of ED in this age group, but now we know that’s not the case,” Michael Eisenberg, MD, director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at Stanford Medical Center, tells Yahoo Health. “The same risk factors that apply to older men can also affect younger men,” including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking, as well as anatomic factors.

If you’re young and experiencing problems with your erection, there are some common culprits you might want to consider taking a look at:

Stress and anxiety: For men in their teens, 20s, and 30s, most cases of ED are psychological. There’s a lot of anxiety that comes with sex for a man: trying to impress their partner, making the right moves, concerns about size.  This agony can lead to performance anxiety. “Some men with erectile dysfunction point to one specific instance where they lost their erection during sex as the reason for later impotence,” Joseph Harryhill, MD, FACS, an assistant clinical professor of urology at the University of Pennsylvania, tells Yahoo Health. This buildup of anxiety causes an influx of adrenaline, or epinephrine, which can inhibit an erection.

Excessive bicycle riding: Let’s be clear: if you’re an avid biker, that doesn’t mean you’re going to have ED now, or when you’re older. But if you experience numbness as you ride, within the first few miles, or after biking marathons, you may be causing long-term damage. “The nerves that supply the penis are below the prostate and rest on the bicycle’s seat,” Harry Fisch, MD, FACS, a clinical professor of urology and reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College/New York Presbyterian Hospital, tells Yahoo Health. “If you are riding a bicycle and are numb, you may be damaging these nerves. Either get fitted for a better seat, or get off the bike.”

Related:  Can Bike-Riding Cause Erection Problems?

Taking cold medication, such as Sudafed: Pseudoephedrine acts as epinephrine in your body and will decrease your ability to get it up. Epinephrine increases your body’s natural fight or flight reaction. “It makes your body think you’re scared,” Fisch explains. “If you are being chased by a lion, you can’t get an erection. That’s what too much epinephrine is like.” But don’t worry — the effects aren’t permanent. As the drug wears off, so will your ED.

Drinking and recreational drug use: Sure, alcohol may serve as a form of “liquid courage” if you’re trying to flirt, but it won’t help with much else. “Alcohol acts as a depressant so it relaxes you, but it can cause an inability to have sex,” Fisch says. The illicit drug cocaine, he adds, acts like pseudoephedrine and will lower your testosterone levels and cause ED as well.

Cancer treatments: Chemotherapy and radiation can cause ED. Chemotherapy may lower testosterone levels, which affect blood flow to the penis. Radiation, on the other hand, can directly damage the lining of the blood vessels or cause nerve damage. Doctors who specialize in oncofertility, the preservation of fertility during treatments such as chemotherapy, can recommend treatments options, according to Harryhill.

Diabetes and high blood pressure: Diabetes mellitus is one of the predominant causes of ED because diabetes impacts the body’s production of nitric oxide, Fisch explains. Nitric oxide provides the penis with the blood it needs to raise to attention in the moment. “If you are hypertensive and have high blood pressure, then you are going to have trouble getting it up in your 20s and 30s because your body is acting like you’re in your 60s,” Fisch says.

Obesity or overweight: Anything that’s bad for your heart is bad for your penis. “Blood vessels are tiny in the penis and if they are clogged, the blood won’t flow there,” says Paul Nelson, a clinical sexuality educator for Maze Men’s Sexual and Reproductive Health. A good diet, exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight can make everything work better. “Men don’t realize how complicated erections are,” Nelson said. “We should be amazed when a guy does get an erection. Instead we are amazed when they don’t."

India will have the world’s largest population earlier than expected, U.N. says

India will have the world’s largest population earlier than expected, U.N. says

By Andrew Katz 

India is poised to become the world's most populous country six years earlier than expected, according to revised population projections released Wednesday by the United Nations.
A new report by the population division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs says China and India have about 1.38 billion and 1.31 billion people, respectively. After 2022, when both are expected to have about 1.4 billion, India's population will continue rising and China's will "remain fairly constant" until the 2030s, at which point it will begin to "slightly decrease."
That will occur six years earlier than the organization projected two years ago, when it acknowledged 2028 as the year India would likely pass China. India, which accounts for 18 percent of the world's population, is projected to reach 1.5 billion people in 2030 and 1.7 billion in 2050.
The global population, currently at 7.3 billion, is predicted to hit 9.7 billion by 2050. Much of that growth is projected to occur in high-fertility nations, mostly throughout Africa, or ones with large populations.
Between 2015 and 2050, the report notes, nine nations are expected to account for more than half of the world's projected growth: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the United States, Indonesia and Uganda.
Also highlighted in the report is a rise in global life expectancy at birth, from 67 years between 2000-2005 to 70 years in 2010-2015. That trend is expected to continue, reaching 77 years in 2045-2050 and then 83 years in 2095-2100.
By the end of the century, Africa's life expectancy of about 60 years is predicted to rise by nearly 19 years. That increase, the report says, is dependent on further reducing the spread of HIV and other infectious or non-communicable diseases.

Mysterious plane wreckage sparks MH370 speculation

(The Times of India)
SAINT-ANDRE, France: A mysterious piece of plane debris washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion on Wednesday, prompting speculation it could be part of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The two-metre (six-foot) long piece of wreckage, which seemed to be part of a wing, was found by people cleaning up a beach.
"It was covered in shells, so one would say it had been in the water a long time," said one witness.
French air transport officials have opened a probe into where the wreckage came from and Australian investigators are also reportedly working with manufacturer Boeing to identify if it is from MH370.
"We've received some pictures of the item and we are having them assessed by the manufacturers as to what they may be," a spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau told the AAP news agency.
Xavier Tytelman, an expert in aviation security, said it could not be ruled out that the wreckage belonged to MH370, which vanished without trace in March last year.
No part of the wreckage has ever been found in one of aviation's great mysteries and Malaysian authorities in January declared that all on board were presumed dead.
The plane vanished at night over the South China Sea after turning away from its north-bound route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
Tytelman noted that local media photos showed "incredible similarities between a #B777 flaperon and the debris found," referring to a Boeing 777 -- the type of plane that disappeared.
He also noted a reference on the wreckage: BB670.
"This code is not a plane's registration number, nor serial number. However... it's clear that this reference would allow a quick identification. In a few days, we will have a definitive answer," Tytelman said.
Boeing said in a statement it remained "committed to supporting the MH370 investigation and the search for the airplane".
"We continue to share our technical expertise and analysis. Our goal, along with the entire global aviation industry, continues to be not only to find the airplane, but also to determine what happened -- and why," said the US aviation giant.
- Wild theories - An Australian-led operation has scoured more than 50,000 square kilometres (19,000 square miles) of the seafloor, about 60 percent of a search zone in the Indian Ocean determined via expert analysis of signals from MH370 that were detected by a satellite.
But the four search vessels towing 10-kilometre (6-mile) cables fitted with sophisticated sonar systems that scan the seabed have turned up little except shipping containers and a previously uncharted shipwreck.
Rough weather, the pitch-black extreme depths of up to 4,000 metres, and the rugged nature of the previously unmapped seafloor have made for a slow, frustrating search.
Angry next of kin have criticised Malaysia's handling of the plane's disappearance, and have questioned the choice to focus the search on the southern Indian Ocean.
With the search proving fruitless, speculation on the fate of the plane remains focused primarily on a possible mechanical or structural failure, a hijacking or terror plot, or rogue pilot action.
However, nothing has emerged to substantiate any of these scenarios.
The lack of solid information has sustained a flow of conspiracy theories, with books, documentaries and a thriving online debate positing a range of possibilities.
These include suggestions that the plane was commandeered to be used as a "flying bomb" headed for US military installations on the Diego Garcia atoll, and was shot down by the Americans. The United States has dismissed this.
US aviation expert Jeff Wise has suggested MH370 was commandeered to a Russian facility in Kazakhstan, possibly an effort by President Vladimir Putin to intimidate the West during the Ukraine crisis, or to gain access to a certain passenger or item.

ISIS preparing to attack India: Report

(The Times of India)

The ISIS is preparing to attack India to provoke an Armageddon-like confrontation with the US, according to an internal recruitment document of the feared group which also seeks to unite the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban into a single army of terror.

An investigative story published on Tuesday by the USA Today and reported by American Media Institute refers to a 32-page Urdu document obtained from a Pakistani citizen with connections inside the Pakistani Taliban.

"The document warns that 'preparations' for an attack in India are underway and predicts that an attack will provoke an apocalyptic confrontation with America," the report said.

"Even if the US tries to attack with all its allies, which undoubtedly it will, the ummah (Muslims) will be united, resulting in the final battle," it added.

The document, according to the report, was independently translated into English by a Harvard scholar and verified by several serving and retired intelligence official.

Bruce Riedel, a retired CIA official and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said striking in India would magnify the ISIS' stature and threaten the stability of the region.

"Attacking in India is the Holy Grail of South Asian jihadists," he was quoted as saying.

The undated document is titled 'A Brief History of the Islamic State Caliphate, The Caliphate According to the Prophet.'

It seeks to unite dozens of factions of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban into a single army of terror, the daily said.

"It includes a never-before-seen history of the Islamic State, details chilling future battle plans, urges al-Qaida to join the group and says the Islamic State's leader should be recognized as the sole ruler of the world's 1 billion Muslims under a religious empire called a 'caliphate'," it said.

Aware of the ISIS' presence in Afghanistan, the White House said it is closely monitoring the situation.

ISIS' presence and its threat perception was also discussed in the past two months between senior officials of US and Pakistan.

"Instead of wasting energy in a direct confrontation with the US, we should focus on an armed uprising in the Arab world for the establishment of the caliphate," the document said.

The document was reviewed by three US intelligence officials, who said they believe the document is authentic based on its unique markings and the fact that language used to describe leaders, the writing style and religious wording match other documents from the ISIS, USA Today added.

Amazon details its plan for how drones can fly safely over U.S. skies

 Matt McFarland  (The Washington Post)

The dark blue section would be a highway for drones delivering packages; the green area would be for local traffic. (Amazon)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Amazon sparked interest in drones more than a year and a half ago when it revealed on “60 Minutes” a program to use drones to deliver packages within 30 minutes. Since then the Amazon Prime Air engineers have largely kept a low profile as they test their technology overseas.
But at a conference Tuesday attended by leading players in the burgeoning drone world, Gur Kimchi, vice president of Amazon Prime Air, shared the company’s proposal for how drones could operate safely in cities, suburbs and beyond around the world.
“Imagine the Internet without HTTP and TCP/IP,” Kimchi said. “That’s basically where we are now. So we’re putting our foot down, and we’d like everybody to feel an urgent need to come together and create these standards and adapt them.”
He spoke at the NASA Ames Research Center, which is hosting hundreds of guests for a three-day conference to discuss an air traffic management system for drones.
Amazon suggests divvying up airspace access based on a drone’s mission and capabilities. Drones would connect to an online network that manages their flights in real time to prevent any trouble. Amazon believes this approach will ensure safe and efficient drone flights.
Kimchi is calling for airspace under 200 feet to be designated for low-speed localized traffic. Drones in this space might be surveying, shooting videos or conducting inspections. Drones without the best collision-avoid technology would also be restricted to this level.
While that airspace would be like a local service road, between 200 and 400 feet would serve as a highway for drones. Most of these drones would be flying autonomously. A drone making a long commute to conduct a mapping operation or package delivery could speed along in airspace populated by drones only with the most sophisticated sense-and-avoid technologies. These drones would communicate with each other and be able to detect hazards not on the drone network, such as birds. The airspace between 400 and 500 feet would be left empty as a buffer between drones and planes.
Only drones with the best capabilities — such as technology capable of detecting and avoiding birds — would be allowed to fly in urban areas. Sense-and-avoid technology is critical as companies such as Amazon want their drones to fly autonomously, so a human won’t be present to avert a collision with a pigeon, skyscraper or helicopters.
Kimchi sketched out one potentially dangerous situation, and how a network like the one Amazon envisions would prevent a mishap: What if a homeowner happens to be having a package delivered at the same time their real estate agent had planned to shoot a sales video of the home with a drone?
“The ground control station will present an alert. Maybe — it depends on the software — it will tell the operator what they can do: land, create a geofence so you stay on this side not the other side, remain under an altitude, whatever,” Kimchi said. “They accept the alert. They do the right thing; we can complete the mission. We take off again. The alert clears; both networks notify each other, and then they can complete the real estate photography.”
Kimchi also laid out his thinking on how autonomous drones could safely fly in the same locations as helicopters. Helicopters are much more problematic than planes for drones because of low-altitude flying.
“The helicopter can talk to air traffic control, which can then maybe draw a little rectangle around where they’re flying and then say, ‘Hey this is a new no-fly zone; all drones please get away.’ Because the system is all real time, this will be sent to all drones as an alert,” Kimchi said. “Even if the pilot doesn’t do anything they still have sense-and-avoid. They’ll see the pilot from a long time away and still disperse.”
Amazon thinks drones can fly safely in urban areas, provided they have an array of cutting-edge technologies, which are still being developed and tested by Amazon and others. It believes drones flying over cities should have geospatial data to avoid known hazards such as buildings; online flight planning and management; an Internet connection; sense-and-avoid that communicates with other drones, plus sense-and-avoid that uses sensors to detect unexpected obstacles such as birds.
Delivering packages via drones could be a boon for Amazon if it cuts its shipping costs and speeds up deliveries for customers.
Amazon expects that in the next 10 years the number of drone flights under 400 feet will dwarf the roughly 85,000 commercial, military, cargo and general aviation flights that happen every day in the United States. Given this projected growth, Amazon believes responsibility for traditional air services such as navigation and air traffic control must be delegated. It imagines a civil aviation authority having underlying authority, yet much of the air navigation being handled in a distributed fashion as drone operators manage their fleets. Amazon sees such a model working provided that all parties follow the same protocols.
Its vision is more ambitious than the FAA’s proposed rules for commercial drone flight, which do not allow operation outside of a pilot’s line of sight. Those rules are expected to be finalized within a year. Now we’ll see if drone operators such as Amazon can demonstrate to the FAA and others that autonomous drones can safely fly in a range of environments. If that happens, the full potential of drones could be realized.

Amazon splits drones into four categories based on their abilities. It believes each tier should have different airspace rights. (Amazon)

Fucilieri di Marina: ne vedremo delle belle

Marò, Mattarella: «Continueremo a batterci per farli tornare»

 

«Confermo l’impegno del Governo per difendere le ragioni dei Marò, Massimiliano Latorre e Salvatore Girone, nelle sedi internazionali che abbiamo deciso di attivare», ha aggiunto anche il ministro degli esteri Gentiloni. 

Dichiarazioni doverose che sconfinano nel Monsieur De La Palisse. Che avrebbero dovuto dire? Che all'Italia dei due fucilieri di marina non importa nulla?

Ma se si passa dalle dichiarazioni di facciata alla realta' la storia di questi due nostri connazionali si scontra con un elemento decisivo: la volonta' dell'India di non perdere la faccia. 

"Perche', come sostengono apertamente alcune fonti locali, siamo di fronte ad un crimine commesso in acque territoriali indiane (tesi controversa) con l'uccisione di due pescatori del Kerala. E' gia' tanto, aggiungono queste fonti che chiedono di restare anonime, se i due marines non hanno fatto un solo giorno nelle galere indiane. Dei due, sappiamo che uno presentera'  nuovi certificati che attesteranno che non puo' rientrare in India per il processo. L'altro e' il vero ostaggio, ma un ostaggio di lusso, affermano con cattiveria, perche' ci risulta che vive in ambasciata con tennis e piscina a disposizione, puo' girare in una metropoli di 22 milioni di abitanti, riceve spesso visite di familiari che viaggiano in business class e sono alloggiati in alberghi a quattro stelle. Si comprendono le ragoni emotive e psicologiche ma non e' come stare in zona di guerra" concludono.

Abbiamo telefonato a Londra ad un nostro conoscente, avvocato, esperto di diritto internazionale. Ecco quanto ci ha detto: 

"In queste cose, se prevale la dimensione politica, non c'è diritto che tenga. E' puramente un problema di reputazione: se un grande paese democratico come l'India piscia sul diritto internazionale, o gli fai la guerra, oppure la comunita' degli investitori internazionali lo reputa inaffidabile e gli investimenti crollano.  Tanto la guerra quanto la caduta degli investimenti mi sembrano improbabili, l'India si sara' fatta i suoi calcoli. In fondo, sono due marò, non due marines americani, nel qual caso li avrebbero restituiti all'USA su un vassoio di argento rimettendosi alla affidabilissima giustizia americana. (anzi nemmeno, perché i soldati americani impegnati in missioni internazionali hanno l'immunità piena). Quanto alla lentezza della giustizia indiana noi italiani ci abbiamo messo quaranta anni per andare a sentenza sull'eccidio di Piazza Della Loggia. Ricorda che i due tossici che erano andati con un amico a Varanasi, India, ed erano stati accusati dell'uccisione di questo, si sono fatti cinque anni di galera indiana ed alla fine rispediti in Italia. Conclusione: gli italiani non si rendono conto che l'India e' una potenza mondiale e che vive ancora nella paranoia dell'ex colonia britannica..Ciao e stammi bene."