A Cost-Effective Design for a Neutrino Factory

There have been active efforts in the U.S., Europe, and Japan on the design of a Neutrino Factory. This type of facility produces intense beams of neutrinos from the decay of muons in a high energy storage ring. In the U.S., a second detailed Feasibility Study (FS2) for a Neutrino Factory was completed in 2001. Since that report was published, new ideas in bunching, cooling and acceleration of muon beams have been developed. We have incorporated these ideas into a new facility design, which we designate as Study 2B (ST2B), that should lead to significant cost savings over the FS2 design.Comment: 46 pages, 38 figures; to be submitted to Physical Review Special Topics: Accelerators and Beam

Hafnia-rich mixed oxide ceramics of the system HfO2-ZrO2-TiO2 for heaters and heat exchangers in electrothermal thrusters: The effects of titania on selected electrical and mechanical properties of Hafnia-rich mixed oxides in the system Hafnia-Zirconia-Titania, volume 1

A study of the effects of titania on selected properties of hafnia-rich mixed oxides in the system hafnia-zirconia-titania (HZT) was made in the region 5 to 20 mol percent titania. The studied properties included electrical conductivity, thermal expansion, and fracture strength and toughness. The effects of titania on the properties were studied for the reduced state as well as the oxidized state of the sintered mixed oxides. X-ray analysis showed that the materials were not always single phase. The oxidized compositions went from being monoclinic solid solutions at low titania additions to having three phases (two monoclinic and a titanate phase) at high additions of titania. The reduced compositions showed an increasing cubic phase presence mixed with the monoclinic phase as titania was added. The electrical conductivity increased with temperature at approximately 0.1 mhos/cm at 1700 C for all compositions. The thermal expansion coefficient decreased with increasing titania as did the monoclinic to tetragonal transformation temperature. The fracture strength of the oxidized bars tended to decrease with the addition of titania owing to the presence of the second phase titania. The fracture strength of the reduced bars exhibited a minimum corresponding to a two-phase region of monoclinic and cubic phases. When the second phases were suppressed, the titania tended to increase the fracture strength slightly in both the oxidized and reduced states. The fracture toughness followed similar trends

Effect of vitamin K2 on postural sway in older people who fall:a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVES: Vitamin K is thought to be involved in both bone health and maintenance of neuromuscular function. We tested the effect of vitamin K2 supplementation on postural sway, falls, healthcare costs, and indices of physical function in older people at risk of falls.DESIGN: Parallel-group double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial.SETTING: Fourteen primary care practices in Scotland, UK.PARTICIPANTS: A total of 95 community-dwelling participants aged 65 and older with at least two falls, or one injurious fall, in the previous year.INTERVENTION: Once/day placebo, 200 μg or 400 μg of oral vitamin K2 for 1 year.MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was anteroposterior sway measured using sway plates at 12 months, adjusted for baseline. Secondary outcomes included the Short Physical Performance Battery, Berg Balance Scale, Timed Up &amp; Go Test, quality of life, health and social care costs, falls, and adverse events.RESULTS: Mean participant age was 75 (standard deviation [SD] = 7) years. Overall, 58 of 95 (61%) were female; 77 of 95 (81%) attended the 12-month visit. No significant effect of either vitamin K2 dose was seen on the primary outcome of anteroposterior sway (200 μg vs placebo: -.19 cm [95% confidence interval [CI] -.68 to .30; P = .44]; 400 μg vs placebo: .17 cm [95% CI -.33 to .66; P = .50]; or 400 μg vs 200 μg: .36 cm [95% CI -.11 to .83; P = .14]). Adjusted falls rates were similar in each group. No significant treatment effects were seen for other measures of sway or secondary outcomes. Costs were higher in both vitamin K2 arms than in the placebo arm.CONCLUSION: Oral vitamin K2 supplementation did not improve postural sway or physical function in older people at risk of falls.</p

L\'evy-Schr\"odinger wave packets

We analyze the time--dependent solutions of the pseudo--differential L\'evy--Schr\"odinger wave equation in the free case, and we compare them with the associated L\'evy processes. We list the principal laws used to describe the time evolutions of both the L\'evy process densities, and the L\'evy--Schr\"odinger wave packets. To have self--adjoint generators and unitary evolutions we will consider only absolutely continuous, infinitely divisible L\'evy noises with laws symmetric under change of sign of the independent variable. We then show several examples of the characteristic behavior of the L\'evy--Schr\"odinger wave packets, and in particular of the bi-modality arising in their evolutions: a feature at variance with the typical diffusive uni--modality of both the L\'evy process densities, and the usual Schr\"odinger wave functions.Comment: 41 pages, 13 figures; paper substantially shortened, while keeping intact examples and results; changed format from "report" to "article"; eliminated Appendices B, C, F (old names); shifted Chapters 4 and 5 (old numbers) from text to Appendices C, D (new names); introduced connection between Relativistic q.m. laws and Generalized Hyperbolic law

Conformational Mechanics of Polymer Adsorption Transitions at Attractive Substrates

Conformational phases of a semiflexible off-lattice homopolymer model near an attractive substrate are investigated by means of multicanonical computer simulations. In our polymer-substrate model, nonbonded pairs of monomers as well as monomers and the substrate interact via attractive van der Waals forces. To characterize conformational phases of this hybrid system, we analyze thermal fluctuations of energetic and structural quantities, as well as adequate docking parameters. Introducing a solvent parameter related to the strength of the surface attraction, we construct and discuss the solubility-temperature phase diagram. Apart from the main phases of adsorbed and desorbed conformations, we identify several other phase transitions such as the freezing transition between energy-dominated crystalline low-temperature structures and globular entropy-dominated conformations.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figure