514 research outputs found
The serum zinc concentration as a potential biological marker in patients with major depressive disorder
Despite many clinical trials assessing the role of zinc in major depressive disorder (MDD), the conclusions still remain ambiguous. The aim of the present clinical study was to determine and comparison the zinc concentration in the blood of MDD patients (active stage or remission) and healthy volunteers (controls), as well as to discuss its potential clinical usefulness as a biomarker of the disease. In this study 69 patients with current depressive episode, 45 patients in remission and 50 controls were enrolled. The zinc concentration was measured by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ET AAS). The obtained results revealed, that the zinc concentration in depressed phase were statistically lower than in the healthy volunteers [0.89 vs. 1.06 mg/L, respectively], while the zinc level in patients achieve remission was not significantly different from the controls [1.07 vs. 1.06 mg/L, respectively]. Additionally, among the patients achieve remission a significant differences in zinc concentration between group with and without presence of drug-resistance in the previous episode of depression were observed. Also, patients in remission demonstrated correlation between zinc level and the average number of depressive episodes in the last year. Serum zinc concentration was not dependent on atypical features of depression, presence of psychotic symptoms or melancholic syndrome, age, age of onset or duration of disease, number of episodes in the life time, duration of the episode/remission and severity of depression measured by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HDRS), and the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Concluding, our findings confirm the correlation between zinc deficit present in the depressive episode, and are consistent with the majority of previous studies. These results may also indicate that serum zinc concentration might be considered as a potential biological marker of MDD
Application of Information Theory in Nuclear Liquid Gas Phase Transition
Information entropy and Zipf's law in the field of information theory have
been used for studying the disassembly of nuclei in the framework of the
isospin dependent lattice gas model and molecular dynamical model. We found
that the information entropy in the event space is maximum at the phase
transition point and the mass of the cluster show exactly inversely to its
rank, i.e. Zipf's law appears. Both novel criteria are useful in searching the
nuclear liquid gas phase transition experimentally and theoretically.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Cross Section Limits for the Pb(Kr,n)118 Reaction
In April-May, 2001, the previously reported experiment to synthesize element
118 using the Pb(Kr,n)118 reaction was repeated. No
events corresponding to the synthesis of element 118 were observed with a total
beam dose of 2.6 x 10 ions. The simple upper limit cross sections (1
event) were 0.9 and 0.6 pb for evaporation residue magnetic rigidities of 2.00
and 2.12 , respectively. A more detailed cross section calculation,
accounting for an assumed narrow excitation function, the energy loss of the
beam in traversing the target and the uncertainty in the magnetic rigidity of
the Z=118 recoils is also presented. Re-analysis of the primary data files from
the 1999 experiment showed the reported element 118 events are not in the
original data. The current results put constraints on the production cross
section for synthesis of very heavy nuclei in cold fusion reactions.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to EPJ
Two-proton small-angle correlations in central heavy-ion collisions: a beam-energy and system-size dependent study
Small-angle correlations of pairs of protons emitted in central collisions of
Ca + Ca, Ru + Ru and Au + Au at beam energies from 400 to 1500 MeV per nucleon
are investigated with the FOPI detector system at SIS/GSI Darmstadt.
Dependences on system size and beam energy are presented which extend the
experimental data basis of pp correlations in the SIS energy range
substantially. The size of the proton-emitting source is estimated by comparing
the experimental data with the output of a final-state interaction model which
utilizes either static Gaussian sources or the one-body phase-space
distribution of protons provided by the BUU transport approach. The trends in
the experimental data, i.e. system-size and beam energy dependences, are well
reproduced by this hybrid model. However, the pp correlation function is found
rather insensitive to the stiffness of the equation of state entering the
transport model calculations.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, accepted at Eur. Phys. Journ.
Differential directed flow in Au+Au collisions
We present experimental data on directed flow in semi-central Au+Au
collisions at incident energies from 90 to 400 A MeV. For the first time for
this energy domain, the data are presented in a transverse momentum
differential way. We study the first order Fourier coefficient v1 for different
particle species and establish a gradual change of its patterns as a function
of incident energy and for different regions in rapidity.Comment: 5 pages, Latex, 5 eps figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
C (Rapid Communications). Data files available at
http://www-linux.gsi.de/~andronic/fopi/v1.htm
Isospin dependence of relative yields of and mesons at 1.528 AGeV
Results on and meson production in Ru +
Ru and Zr + Zr collisions at a beam kinetic
energy of 1.528 GeV, measured with the FOPI detector at GSI-Darmstadt, are
investigated as a possible probe of isospin effects in high density nuclear
matter. The measured double ratio ()/() is
compared to the predictions of a thermal model and a Relativistic Mean Field
transport model using two different collision scenarios and under different
assumptions on the stiffness of the symmetry energy. We find a good agreement
with the thermal model prediction and the assumption of a soft symmetry energy
for infinite nuclear matter while more realistic transport simulations of the
collisions show a similar agreement with the data but also exhibit a reduced
sensitivity to the symmetry term.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
First analysis of anisotropic flow with Lee--Yang zeroes
We report on the first analysis of directed and elliptic flow with the new
method of Lee--Yang zeroes. Experimental data are presented for Ru+Ru reactions
at 1.69 AGeV measured with the FOPI detector at SIS/GSI. The results obtained
with several methods, based on the event-plane reconstruction, on Lee--Yang
zeroes, and on multi-particle cumulants (up to 5th order) applied for the first
time at SIS energies, are compared. They show conclusive evidence that
azimuthal correlations between nucleons and composite particles at this energy
are largely dominated by anisotropic flow.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. C Rapid Co
Charged pion production in Ru+Ru collisions at 400A and 1528A MeV
We present transverse momentum and rapidity spectra of charged pions in
central Ru + Ru collisions at 400 and 1528 MeV. The data exhibit enhanced
production at low transverse momenta compared to the expectations from the
thermal model that includes the decay of -resonances and thermal
pions. Modification of the -spectral function and the Coulomb
interaction are necessary to describe the detailed shape of the transverse
momentum spectra. Within the framework of the thermal model, the freeze-out
radii of pions are similar at both beam energies. The IQMD model reproduces the
shapes of the transverse momentum and rapidity spectra of pions, but the
predicted absolute yields are larger than in the measurements, especially at
lower beam energy.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure
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