The Maser Monitoring Organisation is a collection of researchers exploring the use of time-variable maser emission in the investigation of astrophysical phenomena. The forward directed aspects of research primarily involve using maser emission as a tool to investigate star formation. Simultaneously, these activities have deepened knowledge of maser emission itself in addition to uncovering previously unknown maser transitions. Thus a feedback loop is created where both the knowledge of astrophysical phenomena and the utilised tools of investigation themselves are iteratively sharpened. The project goals are open-ended and constantly evolving, however, the reliance on radio observatory maser monitoring campaigns persists as the fundamental enabler of research activities within the group.

Recently, remarkable progress has been made in understanding the formation of high mass stars. Observations provided direct evidence that massive young stellar objects (MYSOs), analogously to low-mass ones, form via disk-mediated accretion accompanied by episodic accretion bursts, possibly caused by disk fragmentation. In the case of MYSOs, the mechanism theoretically provides a means to overcome radiation pressure, but in practice it is poorly studied - only three accretion bursts in MYSOs have been caught in action to date. A significant contribution to the development of the theory has been made with the study of masers, which have proven to be a powerful tool for locating “bursting” MYSOs. This overview focuses on the exceptional role that masers play in the search and study of accretion bursts in massive protostars.

We present our past and current long-term monitoring program of water masers in the circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars, augmented by occasional interferometric observations. Using as example the Mira-variable U Her, we identify three types of variability: periodic (following the optical variation), long-term (years-decades) and short-term irregular (weeks-months). We show there are regions in the maser shell where excitation conditions are favourable, which remain stable for many years. Lifetimes of maser clouds in the wind-acceleration zone are of the order of up to a few years. Much longer lifetimes are found for the peculiar case of a maser cloud outside that zone (as in RT Vir), or in some cases where the motion of spectral features can be followed for the entire 2 decade monitoring period (as in red supergiant VX Sgr).

Since the beginning of 2020, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically influenced almost every aspect of human life. Activities requiring human gatherings have either been postponed, canceled, or held completely virtually. To supplement lack of in-person contact, people have increasingly turned to virtual settings online, advantages of which include increased inclusivity and accessibility and a reduced carbon footprint. However, emerging online technologies cannot fully replace in-person scientific events. In-person meetings are not susceptible to poor Internet connectivity problems, and they provide novel opportunities for socialization, creating new collaborations and sharing ideas. To continue such activities, a hybrid model for scientific events could be a solution offering both in-person and virtual components. While participants can freely choose the mode of their participation, virtual meetings would most benefit those who cannot attend in-person due to the limitations. In-person portions of meetings should be organized with full consideration of prevention and safety strategies, including risk assessment and mitigation, venue and environmental sanitation, participant protection and disease prevention, and promoting the hybrid model. This new way of interaction between scholars can be considered as a part of a resilience system, which was neglected previously and should become a part of routine practice in the scientific community.

For several decades (1987-2015) we have been carrying out observations of water masers in the circumstellar envelopes (CSE’s) of Mira variables, Red Supergiants (RSG’s) and Semi-Regular Variables (SRV’s) with the Medicina 32-m and Effelsberg 100-m antennas. The single-dish monitoring observations provide evidence for strong H2O maser profile variations, which likely are connected to structural changes in the maser shells. Such variations include strong flares in intensity lasting several (tens of) months and systemic velocity gradients of maser components developing over years, as well as other secular variations which are superimposed on periodic variations following the stellar light variations.

When complemented with interferometric observations, it is possible to derive the 3-D distribution of the maser spots, and their lifetime, as we have done for RX Boo (Winnberg et al. 2008) and U Her (Winnberg et al. 2011; Brand et al. in prep.).

An incredible number of centrality indices has been proposed to date (Todeschini & Consonni, 2009). Four of them, however, can be considered prototypical because they operationalize distinct concepts of centrality and together cover the bulk of analyses and empirical uses: degree, closeness, betweenness, and eigenvector centrality.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) is a common metabolic disorder. DM2 is associated with cognitive impairments, and with depressive symptoms, which occur in about one third of patients. In the current study we compared the cognitive profile and psychological well-being of 119 patients with DM2 (mean age: 66 ± 6; mean duration: 9 ± 6 years) with 55 age and education matched-control participants. Groups were compared on cognitive performance in five major cognitive domains, psychological wellbeing [assessed by Symptom Checklist (SCL)-90-R and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II)] and abnormalities on brain MRI. We hypothesized an interrelationship between cognition, MRI abnormalities, and psychological well-being. DM2 patients performed significantly worse than controls on cognitive tasks, especially on tasks that required more mental efficiency, although the differences were modest (effect sizes Cohen d < .6). We speculate that DM2 patients have a diminished ability to efficiently process unstructured information. Patients with DM2 had significantly higher scores on the SCL-90-R (p < .001) and on the BDI-II (p < .001) and worse MRI ratings than controls, but psychological distress did not correlate with cognition, MRI ratings or biomedical characteristics. Contrary to our hypothesis, cognitive disturbances and psychological distress thus seem independent symptoms of the same disease. (JINS, 2007, 13, 288–297.)

Brain serotonin (5-HT) synthesis is controlled by nutrients that influence the availability of plasma tryptophan (Trp) as compared with the sum of the other large neutral amino acids (LNAA; Trp:LNAA). Alcohol consumption is found to change mood and performance and this might well be due to alterations in the plasma Trp:LNAA ratio and brain 5-HT. In the present study, we tested whether whisky consumption as part of a meal may alter the plasma Trp:LNAA ratio and influence mood and performance in healthy volunteers. Twenty-four healthy male subjects participated in a within-subjects cross-over study. Subjects consumed whisky (125ml; 40g alcohol) or water (125ml) as part of a standard evening meal. Effects of whisky consumption were tested on mood and choice reaction time and blood samples were taken to measure changes in plasma amino acids, glucose and insulin. The plasma Trp:LNAA ratio showed a significant decline 2h after whisky consumption of alcohol (P<0·001). No effects were found on choice reaction time or mood as compared with the control condition. The present findings reveal that whisky consumption alters available plasma Trp for uptake into the brain, whereas there were no effects on mood and performance.

We present the current activity of the Arcetri group in the field of water masers. This is mainly represented by observations with the Medicina radiotelescope, whose main outcome has been the compilation of the Arcetri Catalog and the study of time variability of selected sources. The Arcetri Catalog update reports the results of the observations carried out from January 1993 to April 2000 on a sample of 300 sources. The global properties of the complete Arcetri Catalog (including Comoretto et al. 1990, and Brand et al. 1994) are discussed. Of the 1013 sources, 937 have an IRAS counterpart within 1 arcmin from the nominal position of the maser. We establish a classification scheme based on the IRAS flux densities which allows to distinguish between water masers associated with star forming regions and late-type stars. The time variability study shows a large variety of behaviors. Generally more luminous sources present less variable emission and spectral components over a wider velocity range.

Over the past decade we observed a sample of late-type stars (supergiants, semi-regular variables, OH/IR stars, and Mira's) 3-4 times per year in the 1.3-cm line of H2O. The observations were carried out with the Medicina 32-m and the Effelsberg 100-m telescopes. In addition, a sub-sample of these stars was observed at several epochs with the VLA. In our analysis we also use data from the literature, for instance on mass loss and optical variability. The aim is to investigate the properties of the circumstellar outflows and to elucidate the maser-pumping mechanism. In the conference poster we presented some preliminary results of a 4-star sub-set of the data base; in the small space available here, we briefly describe the monitoring program, and discuss the Mira-variable R Cas in some detail.

A sample of 14 water maser sources associated with young stellar objects (YSOs) has been monitored over 13 years with the Medicina 32-m antenna. The YSOs have been selected with bolometric luminosities from 20 L⊙ to 2 × 106 L⊙ with the aim of investigating the relationship between H2O maser variability and stellar mass. The results are presented in various graphical forms which allow to follow the variation of the different spectral components. In particular, four quantities have been considered in our analysis: the intensity of the maser lines as a function of time and velocity; the flux integrated over the observed velocity range as a function of time; the maximum flux ever observed at each velocity; and the frequency of occurrence of the maser emission at any given velocity.