Ground--state energies and widths of 5^5He and 5^5Li

We extract energies and widths of the ground states of $^5$He and $^5$Li from recent single--level R--matrix fits to the spectra of the $^3$H$({\rm d},\gamma$)$^5$He and the $^3$He$({\rm d},\gamma$)$^5$Li reactions. The widths obtained differ significantly from the formal R--matrix values but they are close to those measured as full widths at half maxima of the spectra in various experiments. The energies are somewhat lower than those given by usual estimates of the peak positions. The extracted values are close to the S--matrix poles calculated previously from the multi--term analyses of the N-$^4$He elastic scattering data.Comment: 3 pages, no figures, uses revtex.sty, accepted for publication in PRC, uuencoded postscript and tex-files available at ftp://is1.kph.tuwien.ac.at/pub/ohu/fwidth.u

Isospin Effects in Nuclear Multifragmentation

We develop an improved Statistical Multifragmentation Model that provides the capability to calculate calorimetric and isotopic observables with precision. With this new model we examine the influence of nuclear isospin on the fragment elemental and isotopic distributions. We show that the proposed improvements on the model are essential for studying isospin effects in nuclear multifragmentation. In particular, these calculations show that accurate comparisons to experimental data require that the nuclear masses, free energies and secondary decay must be handled with higher precision than many current models accord.Comment: 46 pages, 16 figure

Absorption in Ultra-Peripheral Nucleus-Atom Collisions in Crystal

The Glauber theory description of particle- and nucleus-crystal Coulomb interactions at high-energy is developed. The allowance for the lattice thermal vibrations is shown to produce strong absorption effect which is of prime importance for quantitative understanding of the coherent Coulomb excitation of ultra-relativistic particles and nuclei passing through the crystal.Comment: 8 pages, LaTe

4He decay of excited states in 14C

A study of the 7Li(9Be,4He 10Be)2H reaction at E{beam}=70 MeV has been performed using resonant particle spectroscopy techniques and provides the first measurements of alpha-decaying states in 14C. Excited states are observed at 14.7, 15.5, 16.4, 18.5, 19.8, 20.6, 21.4, 22.4 and 24.0 MeV. The experimental technique was able to resolve decays to the various particle bound states in 10Be, and provides evidence for the preferential decay of the high energy excited states into states in 10Be at ~6 MeV. The decay processes are used to indicate the possible cluster structure of the 14C excited states.Comment: accepted for publication in PR

Direct radiative capture of p-wave neutrons

The neutron direct radiative capture (DRC) process is investigated, highlighting the role of incident p-wave neutrons. A set of calculations is shown for the 12-C(n,gamma) process at incoming neutron energies up to 500 keV, a crucial region for astrophysics. The cross section for neutron capture leading to loosely bound s, p and d orbits of 13-C is well reproduced by the DRC model demonstrating the feasibility of using this reaction channel to study the properties of nuclear wave functions on and outside the nuclear surface. A sensitivity analysis of the results on the neutron-nucleus interaction is performed for incident s- as well as p-waves. It turned out that the DRC cross section for p-wave neutrons is insensitive to this interaction, contrary to the case of incident s-wave neutrons. PACS number(s): 25.40Lw,21.10Gv,23.40.HcComment: 16 pages, REVTeX file, PostScript file, .dvi fil

Additional Haplogroups of Toxoplasma gondii out of Africa: Population Structure and Mouse-Virulence of Strains from Gabon

Prevalence of human toxoplasmosis in tropical African countries usually exceeds 50%. Its role as a major opportunistic infection of AIDS patients is regularly described. Due to the lack of investigation, congenital infection is certainly underestimated in Africa. Incidence of Toxoplasma ocular disease is higher in Africa and South America than in Europe. Severe cases in immunocompetent patients were described after infection acquired in Amazonia, but nothing is known about such cases in Africa. Several studies argued for a role of genotypes in the clinical expression of human toxoplasmosis, and for a geographical structuration of Toxoplasma across continents. Genetic data concerning isolates from Africa are scarce. Here, apart from the worldwide Type III, we described two main haplogroups, Africa 1 and 3. We detected genetic exchanges between urban centers favored by trade exchange and transportation. It shows how important human influence is, even in shaping the genetic structure of a zoonotic disease agent. Finding of identical haplogroups in South America suggested that these African and American strains share a common ancestor. As a higher pathogenicity in human of South American genotypes has been described, this similarity of genotypes should encourage further clinical studies with genotype analysis in Africa