545 research outputs found
DWBA analysis of the 13C(6Li,d)17O reaction at 10 MeV/nucleon and its astrophysical implications
The value of the alpha spectroscopic factor (S_alpha) of the 6.356 MeV 1/2+
state of 17O is believed to have significant astrophysical implications due to
the importance of the 13C(alpha,n)16O reaction as a possible source of neutron
production for the s process. To further study this effect, an accurate
measurement of the 13C(6Li,d)17O reaction at E_lab = 60 MeV has been performed
recently by Kubono et al., who found a new value for the spectroscopic factor
of the 6.356 MeV 1/2+ state of 17O based on a distorted wave Born approximation
(DWBA) analysis of these data. This new value, S_alpha approximately = 0.011,
is surprisingly much smaller than those used previously in astrophysical
calculations (S_alpha approximately = 0.3-0.7) and thus poses a serious
question as to the role of the 13C(alpha,n)16O reaction as a source of neutron
production. In this work we perform a detailed analysis of the same
13C(6Li,d)17O data within the DWBA as well as the coupled reaction channel
(CRC) formalism. Our analysis yields an S_alpha value of over an order of
magnitude larger than that of Kubono et al. for the 6.356 MeV 1/2+ state of
17O.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, minor changes, accepted by Nuclear Physics
Application of Absorbing Boundary Condition to Nuclear Breakup Reactions
Absorbing boundary condition approach to nuclear breakup reactions is
investigated. A key ingredient of the method is an absorbing potential outside
the physical area, which simulates the outgoing boundary condition for
scattered waves. After discretizing the radial variables, the problem results
in a linear algebraic equation with a sparse coefficient matrix, to which
efficient iterative methods can be applicable. No virtual state such as
discretized continuum channel needs to be introduced in the method. Basic
aspects of the method are discussed by considering a nuclear two-body
scattering problem described with an optical potential. We then apply the
method to the breakup reactions of deuterons described in a three-body direct
reaction model. Results employing the absorbing boundary condition are found to
accurately coincide with those of the existing method which utilizes
discretized continuum channels.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX
Porencephaly in an Italian neonate with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder: A case report
INTRODUCTION: Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is a complex malformative disease caused by the teratogenic effect of alcohol consumed during pregnancy. Mothers are frequently reluctant to admit alcohol consumption during pregnancy. During infancy and particularly during neonatal period, differential diagnosis is difficult. PATIENT CONCERNS: This case is represented by an Italian neonate boy small for gestational age, born by caesarean section at a gestational age of 37 weeks + 6 days by neglect and single-parent pregnancy. On physical examination, he presented particular facial features: microcephaly, epicanthal folds, flat midface, low nasal bridge, indistinct philtrum, and thin upper lip; moreover, examination revealed a macro-penis and recurvation without evidence of glans. DIAGNOSIS: Echocardiogram showed an inter-ventricular defect of medium-muscular type and brain magnetic resonance imaging showed asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres with hypoplasia of the left cerebral hemisphere, dilatation of the left ventricle, cerebrospinal fluid cavity, and porencephaly. INTERVENTIONS: We investigated the ethylglucuronide (EtG) concentration in the neonate's hair by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and we detected EtG in the infant's hair (normal value, 30 pg/mg), demonstrating prenatal alcohol exposure. OUTCOMES: In this neonate, EtG measure in hairs permitted the diagnosis of FASD, so allowing to exclude genetic diseases associated with similar clinical findings. After this result the mother admitted that she drunk alcohol during pregnancy (she declared 3 glasses of wine every day). At the age of 6 months, the child showed a moderate neurodevelopmental delay. CONCLUSION: This case shows that FAD should be considered in neonates with rare neurological diseases as porencephaly. In neonates and infants born to a mother who did not report alcohol use, EtG measure in hairs can significantly improve diagnosis of FASD, so allowing to exclude genetic diseases associated with similar clinical findings
Hyaluronic acid modulates growth, morphology and cytoskeleton in embryonic chick skin fibroblasts
The action that hyaluronic acid (HA) exerts on cell proliferation was investigated in embryonic chick skin fibroblasts at different ages (7-14 days) and in different cell-cycle stages evaluated by flow cytometry (cells maintained with and without serum). Proliferation was estimated by 3H- thymidine incorporation and cell counting. The results demonstrated hyaluronic acid inhibits cell multiplication in all different environmental conditions examined. The inhibitory effect of HA is more evident in 14-day than 7-day old fibroblasts. The ability of HA to modulate 3H-thymidine incorporation did not involve a change in the time required for cells entering the S phase of the replicating cycle, but is due to a smaller number of cells entering in this phase. As the relationships between components of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the cytoskeleton are known, parallel studies were carried out on some cytoskeleton proteins. Furthermore, by modifying the capacity of cells to adhere to the substrate, HA induced alterations in cell shape and in cytoskeleton components involved in these processes. We may hypothesize that HA, binding specific membrane receptors, affects cell adhesion and morphology inducing less receptivity of fibroblasts to mitogenic stimuli by transmembrane interactions with cytoskeleton
Sampling properties of directed networks
For many real-world networks only a small "sampled" version of the original
network may be investigated; those results are then used to draw conclusions
about the actual system. Variants of breadth-first search (BFS) sampling, which
are based on epidemic processes, are widely used. Although it is well
established that BFS sampling fails, in most cases, to capture the
IN-component(s) of directed networks, a description of the effects of BFS
sampling on other topological properties are all but absent from the
literature. To systematically study the effects of sampling biases on directed
networks, we compare BFS sampling to random sampling on complete large-scale
directed networks. We present new results and a thorough analysis of the
topological properties of seven different complete directed networks (prior to
sampling), including three versions of Wikipedia, three different sources of
sampled World Wide Web data, and an Internet-based social network. We detail
the differences that sampling method and coverage can make to the structural
properties of sampled versions of these seven networks. Most notably, we find
that sampling method and coverage affect both the bow-tie structure, as well as
the number and structure of strongly connected components in sampled networks.
In addition, at low sampling coverage (i.e. less than 40%), the values of
average degree, variance of out-degree, degree auto-correlation, and link
reciprocity are overestimated by 30% or more in BFS-sampled networks, and only
attain values within 10% of the corresponding values in the complete networks
when sampling coverage is in excess of 65%. These results may cause us to
rethink what we know about the structure, function, and evolution of real-world
directed networks.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure
Q-Value for the Fermi Beta-Decay of 46V
By comparing the Q-values for the 46Ti(3He,t)46V and 47Ti(3He,t)47}V
reactions to the isobaric analog states the Q-value for the superallowed
Fermi-decay of 46V has been determined as Q_{EC}(46V)=(7052.11+/-0.27) keV. The
result is compatible with the values from two recent direct mass measurements
but is at variance with the previously most precise reaction Q-value. As
additional input quantity we have determined the neutron separation energy
S_n(47Ti)=(8880.51+/-0.25) keV
On Counting Triangles through Edge Sampling in Large Dynamic Graphs
Traditional frameworks for dynamic graphs have relied on processing only the
stream of edges added into or deleted from an evolving graph, but not any
additional related information such as the degrees or neighbor lists of nodes
incident to the edges. In this paper, we propose a new edge sampling framework
for big-graph analytics in dynamic graphs which enhances the traditional model
by enabling the use of additional related information. To demonstrate the
advantages of this framework, we present a new sampling algorithm, called Edge
Sample and Discard (ESD). It generates an unbiased estimate of the total number
of triangles, which can be continuously updated in response to both edge
additions and deletions. We provide a comparative analysis of the performance
of ESD against two current state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of accuracy and
complexity. The results of the experiments performed on real graphs show that,
with the help of the neighborhood information of the sampled edges, the
accuracy achieved by our algorithm is substantially better. We also
characterize the impact of properties of the graph on the performance of our
algorithm by testing on several Barabasi-Albert graphs.Comment: A short version of this article appeared in Proceedings of the 2017
IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and
Mining (ASONAM 2017
Glycosaminoglycan profile in macrophages exposed to Candida albicans and interleukins
Glycosaminoglycans (GAG), are extracellular matrix macromolecules that affect the phagocytic properties of macrophages. In order to assess whether the interaction between macrophages and Candida albicans (iCa) provokes changes in the phenotype, we analyzed the GAG profiles in two macrophage lines, ANA-1 (from murine bone-marrow) and BV-2 (from murine brain). We also investigated GAG modulation by interleukin-1alpha (IL-1alpha) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). During iCa treatment and even after the addition of ILs, ANA-1 accumulated less total GAG compared to controls. IL-1 treatment, combined with iCa exposure, induced a decrease in heparan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate chains, and an increase in the hyaluronic acid percentage. IL-6 treatment, with or without iCa, decreased the hyaluronic acid/sulfated GAG ratio. The GAG pattern in BV-2 appears to be different to ANA-1 and iCa exposure does not induce any difference in total GAG. The inhibitory effect induced by ILs on GAG synthesis is less than that observed in ANA-1 and the GAG elution profile is modulated to a lesser extent by treatment with ILs and/or iCa compared to the ANA-1. We suggest that the observed changes in the expression of the individual GAG classes may be responsible for the macrophage functional heterogeneity
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