A new era in radio astronomy will begin with the upcoming large-scale surveys planned at the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). ASKAP started its Early Science programme in October 2017 and several target fields were observed during the array commissioning phase. The Scorpio field was the first observed in the Galactic Plane in Band 1 (792–1 032 MHz) using 15 commissioned antennas. The achieved sensitivity and large field of view already allow to discover new sources and survey thousands of existing ones with improved precision with respect to previous surveys. Data analysis is currently ongoing to deliver the first source catalogue. Given the increased scale of the data, source extraction and characterisation, even in this Early Science phase, have to be carried out in a mostly automated way. This process presents significant challenges due to the presence of extended objects and diffuse emission close to the Galactic Plane.

In this context, we have extended and optimised a novel source finding tool, named Caesar, to allow extraction of both compact and extended sources from radio maps. A number of developments have been done driven by the analysis of the Scorpio map and in view of the future ASKAP Galactic Plane survey. The main goals are the improvement of algorithm performances and scalability as well as of software maintainability and usability within the radio community. In this paper, we present the current status of Caesar and report a first systematic characterisation of its performance for both compact and extended sources using simulated maps. Future prospects are discussed in the light of the obtained results.

We gathered a multiwavelength dataset of two well-known LBVs. We found a complex mass-loss, with evidence of variability, such as has been seen previously. In addition, our data reveal signatures of collimated stellar winds. We propose a new scenario for these two stars where the nebula shaping is influenced by the presence of a companion star and/or fast rotation.

In the lead-up to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, several next-generation radio telescopes and upgrades are already being built around the world. These include APERTIF (The Netherlands), ASKAP (Australia), e-MERLIN (UK), VLA (USA), e-EVN (based in Europe), LOFAR (The Netherlands), MeerKAT (South Africa), and the Murchison Widefield Array. Each of these new instruments has different strengths, and coordination of surveys between them can help maximise the science from each of them. A radio continuum survey is being planned on each of them with the primary science objective of understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies over cosmic time, and the cosmological parameters and large-scale structures which drive it. In pursuit of this objective, the different teams are developing a variety of new techniques, and refining existing ones. To achieve these exciting scientific goals, many technical challenges must be addressed by the survey instruments. Given the limited resources of the global radio-astronomical community, it is essential that we pool our skills and knowledge. We do not have sufficient resources to enjoy the luxury of re-inventing wheels. We face significant challenges in calibration, imaging, source extraction and measurement, classification and cross-identification, redshift determination, stacking, and data-intensive research. As these instruments extend the observational parameters, we will face further unexpected challenges in calibration, imaging, and interpretation. If we are to realise the full scientific potential of these expensive instruments, it is essential that we devote enough resources and careful study to understanding the instrumental effects and how they will affect the data. We have established an SKA Radio Continuum Survey working group, whose prime role is to maximise science from these instruments by ensuring we share resources and expertise across the projects. Here we describe these projects, their science goals, and the technical challenges which are being addressed to maximise the science return.

EMU is a wide-field radio continuum survey planned for the new Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. The primary goal of EMU is to make a deep (rms ∼ 10 μJy/beam) radio continuum survey of the entire Southern sky at 1.3 GHz, extending as far North as +30° declination, with a resolution of 10 arcsec. EMU is expected to detect and catalogue about 70 million galaxies, including typical star-forming galaxies up to z ∼ 1, powerful starbursts to even greater redshifts, and active galactic nuclei to the edge of the visible Universe. It will undoubtedly discover new classes of object. This paper defines the science goals and parameters of the survey, and describes the development of techniques necessary to maximise the science return from EMU.

We propose a modeling study on the formation and evolution of the Circumstellar Envelopes (CSEs) of a sample of selected radio-loud objects, based on an innovative interaction between two codes widely used by the scientific community, but in different fields. CLOUDY (Ferland et al. 1998) is a widely used code to model the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the several objects characterized by clouds of gas heated and ionized by a central object. CosmoMC (Lewis & Bridle 2002) instead is usually used for exploring cosmological parameter space. We investigate here on the exploitation of the sampling performance of the Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo (MCMC) engine of CosmoMC to search for a best fit model of the considered objects through the spectral synthesis capacity of CLOUDY.

A complete framework for characterization and modelling of organic semiconductor materials is here reported. Multifunctional testbeds have been developed to analyze different organic semiconductors through hybrid demonstrators.

The recent development of innovative organic materials with intriguing features such as their flexibility, lightness, low cost and easy manufacturability, has driven researchers to develop innovative smart applications based on such kind of materials. In this work, all-organic electromechanical transducers, with both sensing and acting capabilities are proposed. The actuator and sensor models have been identified by using a grey box approach, as a function of membrane geometric parameters. The obtained models have been validated through comparison among estimated and experimental data.

The records of 15 years of paediatric necropsies in the Department of Pathology of the Hospital San Ignacio in Bogota were reviewed and the results classified according to the various types of genetic pathology. It is shown that out of 1463 paediatric necropsies, 377 (25·8%) had either a congenital defect or a disease considered as genetic to some extent. Simple Mendelian diseases and chromosomal disorders account together for more than 5% of the total deaths. When the pathologies with a complex genetic contribution to the aetiology are also taken into account, the figure rises to more than 20%. Overall, the study shows that the burden of genetic pathology is also important in countries, like Colombia, where other causes of death have traditionally been the main concern of public health measures.

The formation of planetary nebulae is a poorly understood phase of stellar evolution. In particular it is still not clear what mechanism leads to the complicated morphologies observed in such sources. We have started a systematic study of objects in transition from post-AGB to planetary nebula, and in this poster we show some preliminary results.

We present a selection of our VLBI images of SN 1993J, along with our latest results on its expansion and its shell structure.

Twenty-two consecutive VLBI images of supernova 1993J in the galaxy M81 taken over 7 years show, in unprecedented detail, the dynamic evolution of the expanding radio shell of an exploded star. High precision astrometry using phase-referencing shows that the supernova expands isotropically, and that its geometric center has a formal proper motion of 190±110 km s−1 w.r.t. the core of M81. Systematic changes in the images most likely reflect a pattern of inhomogeneities in the medium left over from the progenitor star, or possibly instabilities in the expanding shell. As the shockfront sweeps up the medium, it is progressively decelerated, and after 7 years it has slowed to less than 1/2 its original expansion velocity. SN1993J is likely now entering the early stages of the adiabatic phase common in much older supernova remnants.

Twenty consecutive VLBI images of supernova 1993J in M81 from the time of explosion to the present show the dynamic evolution of the expanding radio shell of an exploded star. No clear sign of a pulsar nebula, expected to have a spectral luminosity 10 to 1,000 times larger than that of the Crab, has yet been seen. The upper limit on the brightness at 8.4 GHz in the center of the shell in one of the latest images is 0.15 mJy per beam of 0.4 mas2, corresponding to a spectral luminosity of that of the Crab. Any nebula that may have formed in the center is probably still obscured by the surrounding thermal matter with no substantial filamentation having yet occurred in the latter.

We report on phase-referenced 5 and 8.4 GHz VLBI images of supernova SN 1993J in M81, tracking the evolution of the source from 50 to 1000 days after the explosion.

We present the results of the first three years of a single dish radio monitoring of HR 1099 we are carrying out using the the 32m radiotelescope at the Noto VLBI station of the Istituto di Radioastronomia of the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (C.N.R.).

These data, together with other observations available from literature, constitute a database which shed light on the radio emission from this system.

HR 1099 tends to undergo extended periods of strong activity, interrupted by periods of low flux density level, as can be seen from the radio behaviour on a timescale of several months. The switching between flaring and quiescent periods is not random and, at the moment, it is not possible to associate a characteristic duration to each phase.

It has been widely demonstrated that chromospheric emission is dependent on rotation rate (Hartmann and Noyes, 1987, Catalano, 1990, for recent reviews). Since the rotation decays with time, the chromospheric activity of single main sequence stars is also dependent on age. Catalano and Marilli (1983) suggested that the chromospheric emission of solar mass stars decays exponentially with the square root of the time, as recently confirmed by Barry (1988). Magnetic activity depends also on the convection parameters, i.e. on the mass. Since the evolution of surface rotation is faster for lower mass stars (Catalano et al., 1988), the internal rotation distribution, and therefore the dynamo action, should change with time in a different way for different masses.

In order to get insight into the evolution of dynamo action we have studied the CaII chromospheric emission as a function of mass and age. Here we present some preliminary results of observations of late type stars in young clusters and old moving groups.

Algol-type binaries are basically known to undergo hydrodynamic processes related to mass exchange between components. Recent observations on radio, X-ray emission and flare-like events have raised the question of possible magnetic activity in the secondary component of these systems (Hall, 1989).

From a microwave emission survey we have shown that the radio emission from Algol systems cannot be accounted for by thermal emission from an hot corona (T ≥ 107K) and that their radio luminosities compare very well with those of the magnetically active RS CVn systems (Umana et al., 1990).

Radio emission from close binary systems has long been detected in Algol and other systems. RS CVn systems have been found to be the most powerful and active. The RS CVn binaries are also known to show strong chromosferic and transition region emission line fluxes, that are one or two orders of magnitude higher than those from single stars of similar spectral type. This enhanced activity seems to be connected to the rapid rotation due to the tidal interaction in the system. The Algol binaries are semi-detected close binary systems formed by an early type main sequence primary and a late type giant secondary, while in the RS CVn both components are late type stars of about the same mass, the secondary being a giant or subgiant.

The Algol binaries and RS CVn differ also in their evolutionary history. However, since the spectral type and probably the internal structure of the secondary components of Algols appear to be similar to that of the secondaries of RS CVn systems, and they both are synchronous fast rotators in close binaries, we would also expect that the secondaries of Algol systems to show some kind of activity.

Short-term variations, typically with small amplitude (Δm < 0.1 mag.), time-scales of hours or near one day and in many cases correlated with the rotation period have been found to be commonplace among Be stars (see Harmanec and Pavlovski 1983 for review and papers). Radial and non-radial pulsation modes have been proposed to explain this variability. However, the light curves are often double-peaked, at first suggesting the stars may have large organized dipole magnetic fields and spots not unlike those in the Ap or Bp stars (Harmanec 1983). These rotationally modulated variations are not stable, and seem to vary in both amplitude and period in the sense that intervals with well defined light curves alternate with intervals when variations are absent. This phenomenon is very reminiscent of formation and apparent relative movement in longitude of spots (groups) in some RS CVn binaries (Catalano 1983, Rodono 1986), but on a much more rapid time scale.