1,087 research outputs found
Arrangement of Elastic Fibres in the Integument of Domesticated Mammals
The hairy skin of important domesticated mammals (12 species) was studied with scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, laser scanning microscopy, and several light microscopical methods, to obtain more information about three-dimensional elastic fibre arrangement. It was obvious that there is a basic construction scheme of the elastic fibre meshwork as present in the upper and mid-dermis, with special regard to the size, number, and grouping of hair follicles. In the densely-haired species, in particular, a typical elastic mat with horizontal fibres is formed. In many of the sparsely-haired animals, the upper and mid-dermis show a sponge-like elastic system. In the rather massive, collagen-rich skin of large species, the lower two thirds of the dermis without hair follicles only possess a loosely-structured elastic network, but thick elastic sheets are found at the border zone with the hypodermis.
Specific features appear with regard to the type of mechanical strain exerted, different body regions, varying hair follicle density, or as connected with the anchoring of the hair follicle complex, blood vessels, and nerves
Pion photoproduction on the nucleon in the quark model
We present a detailed quark-model study of pion photoproduction within the
effective Lagrangian approach. Cross sections and single-polarization
observables are investigated for the four charge channels, , , , and .
Leaving the coupling strength to be a free parameter, we obtain a
reasonably consistent description of these four channels from threshold to the
first resonance region. Within this effective Lagrangian approach, strongly
constrainted by the quark model, we consider the issue of double-counting which
may occur if additional {\it t}-channel contributions are included.Comment: Revtex, 35 pages, 16 eps figures; version to appear on PR
Leading particle effect, inelasticity and the connection between average multiplicities in {\bf } and {\bf } processes
The Regge-Mueller formalism is used to describe the inclusive spectrum of the
proton in collisions. From such a description the energy dependences of
both average inelasticity and leading proton multiplicity are calculated. These
quantities are then used to establish the connection between the average
charged particle multiplicities measured in {\bf } and {\bf } processes. The description obtained for the leading proton cross section
implies that Feynman scaling is strongly violated only at the extreme values of
, that is at the central region () and at the diffraction
region (), while it is approximately observed in the
intermediate region of the spectrum.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, to be published in Physical Review
Systematic event generator tuning for the LHC
In this article we describe Professor, a new program for tuning model
parameters of Monte Carlo event generators to experimental data by
parameterising the per-bin generator response to parameter variations and
numerically optimising the parameterised behaviour. Simulated experimental
analysis data is obtained using the Rivet analysis toolkit. This paper presents
the Professor procedure and implementation, illustrated with the application of
the method to tunes of the Pythia 6 event generator to data from the LEP/SLD
and Tevatron experiments. These tunes are substantial improvements on existing
standard choices, and are recommended as base tunes for LHC experiments, to be
themselves systematically improved upon when early LHC data is available.Comment: 28 pages. Submitted to European Physical Journal C. Program sources
and extra information are available from
http://projects.hepforge.org/professor
An SU(3) model for octet baryon and meson fragmentation
The production of the octet of baryons and mesons in e^+ e^- collisions is
analysed, based on considerations of SU(3) symmetry and a simple model for
SU(3) symmetry breaking in fragmentation functions. All fragmentation
functions, D_q^h(x, Q^2), describing the fragmentation of quarks into a member
of the baryon octet (and similarly for fragmentation into members of the meson
octet) are expressed in terms of three SU(3) symmetric functions, \alpha(x,
Q^2), \beta(x, Q^2), and \gamma(x, Q^2). With the introduction of an SU(3)
breaking parameter, \lambda, the model is successful in describing
hadroproduction data at the Z pole. The fragmentation functions are then
evolved using leading order evolution equations and good fits to currently
available data at 34 GeV and at 161 GeV are obtained.Comment: 24 pages LaTeX file including 11 postscript figure file
Anesthesia and cognitive performance in children: No evidence for a causal relationship
* Both authors contributed evenly to the manuscript Recent findings of an association between anesthesia administration in the first three years of life and later learning disabilities have created concerns that anesthesia has neurotoxic effects on synaptogenesis, causing later learning problems. An alternative hypothesis is that those children who are likely to undergo surgery early in life have significant medical problems that are associated with a vulnerability to learning disabilities. These two hypotheses were evaluated in a monozygotic concordant–discordant twin design. Data on anesthesia administration and learning abilities and disabilities were available for 1,143 monozygotic twin pairs (56 % female) from the Netherlands Twin Registry. Parents of the twins reported on anesthesia use before age 3 and again between ages 3 and 12 years. Near age 12, educational achievement and cognitive problems were assessed with standardized tests and teacher ratings. Results showed that twins who were exposed to anesthesia before age 3 had significantly lower educational achievement scores and significantly more cognitive problems than twins not exposed to anesthesia. However, there was one important exception: the unexposed co-twin from discordant pairs did not differ from their exposed cotwin. Thus, there is no evidence for a causal relationship between anesthesia administration and later learning-related outcomes in this sample. Rather, there is evidence for early anesthesia being a marker of an individual’s vulnerability for later learning problems, regardless of their exposure to anesthesia
Measurement of the forward-backward asymmetries for charm- and bottom-quark pair productions at =58GeV with electron tagging
We have measured, with electron tagging, the forward-backward asymmetries of
charm- and bottom-quark pair productions at =58.01GeV, based on
23,783 hadronic events selected from a data sample of 197pb taken with
the TOPAZ detector at TRISTAN. The measured forward-backward asymmetries are
and , which are consistent with the standard model
predictions.Comment: 19 pages, Latex format (article), 5 figures included. to be published
in Phys. Lett.
CD4 Count At Presentation For HIV Care In The United States And Canada: Are Those Over 50 Years More Likely To Have A Delayed Presentation?
We assessed CD4 count at initial presentation for HIV care among [greater than or equal to]50-year-olds from 1997-2007 in 13 US and Canadian clinical cohorts and compared to <50-year-olds. 44,491 HIV-infected individuals in the North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD) were included in our study. Trends in mean CD4 count (measured as cells/mm3) and 95% confidence intervals ([,]) were determined using linear regression stratified by age category and adjusted for gender, race/ethnicity, HIV transmission risk and cohort. From 1997-2007, the proportion of individuals presenting for HIV care who were [greater than or equal to]50-years-old increased from 17% to 27% (p-value < 0.01). The median CD4 count among [greater than or equal to]50 year-olds was consistently lower than younger adults. The interaction of age group and calendar year was significant (p-value <0.01) with both age groups experiencing modest annual improvements over time (< 50-year-olds: 5 [4 , 6] cells/mm3; [greater than or equal to]50-year-olds: 7 [5 , 9] cells/mm3), after adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, HIV transmission risk group and cohort; however, increases in the two groups were similar after 2000. A greater proportion of older individuals had an AIDS-defining diagnosis at, or within three months prior to, first presentation for HIV care compared to younger individuals (13% vs. 10%, respectively). Due to the increasing proportion, consistently lower CD4 counts, and more advanced HIV disease in adults [greater than or equal to]50-year-old at first presentation for HIV care, renewed HIV testing efforts are needed.
 
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