Coexistence of 'alpha+ 208Pb' cluster structures and single-particle excitations in 212Po

Excited states in 212Po have been populated by alpha transfer using the 208Pb(18O,14C) reaction at 85MeV beam energy and studied with the EUROBALL IV gamma multidetector array. The level scheme has been extended up to ~ 3.2 MeV excitation energy from the triple gamma coincidence data. Spin and parity values of most of the observed states have been assigned from the gamma angular distributions and gamma -gamma angular correlations. Several gamma lines with E(gamma) < 1 MeV have been found to be shifted by the Doppler effect, allowing for the measurements of the associated lifetimes by the DSAM method. The values, found in the range [0.1-0.6] ps, lead to very enhanced E1 transitions. All the emitting states, which have non-natural parity values, are discussed in terms of alpha-208Pb structure. They are in the same excitation-energy range as the states issued from shell-model configurations.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, corrected typos, revised arguments in Sect. III

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

Inverse scattering designs of dispersion-engineered single-mode planar waveguides

We use an inverse-scattering (IS) approach to design single-mode waveguides with controlled linear and higher-order dispersion. The technique is based on a numerical solution to the Gelfand-Levitan-Marchenko integral equation, for the inversion of rational reflection coefficients with arbitrarily large number of leaky poles. We show that common features of dispersion-engineered waveguides such as trenches, rings and oscillations in the refractive index profile come naturally from the IS algorithm without any a priori assumptions. Increasing the leaky-pole number increases the dispersion map granularity and allows design of waveguides with identical low order and differing higher order dispersion coefficients

High Spin States in Radon-208

International audienceThe yrast decay scheme of 208Rn has been investigated up to spin ~204 and an excitation energy of ~ 6 MeV. Several different y-ray spectroscopic techniques were used to determine the properties of excited states and transitions in the nucleus. Significant changes to the previously established level scheme are proposed, based on the existence of an unobserved 3.1 keV transition. Simple empirical shell-model calculations of level energies aided in the assignment of shell-model configurations to excited states and the decay scheme is discussed in terms of these configurations. The energy level systematics for the even radon isotopes, from A = 206 to 212 are discussed, as are core polarization effects in the even radon isotopes (A = 204 to 210) and polonium isotopes (A = 202--208)

Population of high-spin states in U-234 by an incomplete-fusion reaction

Excited states in U-234 have been populated using the incomplete-fusion reaction Th-232(Be-9,alpha 3n) at 52 MeV. The emitted gamma rays were observed using the CAESAR array, while the ct particles were detected with an array of 14 plastic scintillator detectors of phoswich type. This reaction can populate U-234 at higher spin than the conventional Th-232(alpha,2n) reaction because the ''He-5'' fragment from breakup of the beam can be viewed as initiating a Th-232(He-5,3n) reaction. Similar reactions could provide a Valuable alternative technique for the study of relatively heavy, neutron-rich isotopes. In the present work, states in the ground-state band of U-234 were observed up to J(pi)=18(+) and previous tentative observations of (9(-)) and (11(-)) states in the octupole band were confirmed. A new state at 1366 keV, which is possibly the 8(+) member of the gamma band, has also been identified. [S0556-2813(99)02911-8]