144 research outputs found
Vibrations and fractional vibrations of rods, plates and Fresnel pseudo-processes
Different initial and boundary value problems for the equation of vibrations
of rods (also called Fresnel equation) are solved by exploiting the connection
with Brownian motion and the heat equation. The analysis of the fractional
version (of order ) of the Fresnel equation is also performed and, in
detail, some specific cases, like , 1/3, 2/3, are analyzed. By means
of the fundamental solution of the Fresnel equation, a pseudo-process ,
with real sign-varying density is constructed and some of its properties
examined. The equation of vibrations of plates is considered and the case of
circular vibrating disks is investigated by applying the methods of
planar orthogonally reflecting Brownian motion within . The composition of
F with reflecting Brownian motion yields the law of biquadratic heat
equation while the composition of with the first passage time of
produces a genuine probability law strictly connected with the Cauchy process.Comment: 33 pages,8 figure
Nuclear Structure Functions in the Large x Large Q^2 Kinematic Region in Neutrino Deep Inelastic Scattering
Data from the CCFR E770 Neutrino Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) experiment
at Fermilab contain events with large Bjorken x (x>0.7) and high momentum
transfer (Q^2>50 (GeV/c)^2). A comparison of the data with a model based on no
nuclear effects at large x, shows a significant excess of events in the data.
Addition of Fermi gas motion of the nucleons in the nucleus to the model does
not explain the excess. Adding a higher momentum tail due to the formation of
``quasi-deuterons'' makes some improvement. An exponentially falling F_2
\propto e^-s(x-x_0) at large x, predicted by ``multi-quark clusters'' and
``few-nucleon correlations'', can describe the data. A value of s=8.3 \pm
0.7(stat.)\pm 0.7(sys.) yields the best agreement with the data.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Sibmitted to PR
A Precise Measurement of the Weak Mixing Angle in Neutrino-Nucleon Scattering
We report a precise measurement of the weak mixing angle from the ratio of
neutral current to charged current inclusive cross-sections in deep-inelastic
neutrino-nucleon scattering. The data were gathered at the CCFR neutrino
detector in the Fermilab quadrupole-triplet neutrino beam, with neutrino
energies up to 600 GeV. Using the on-shell definition, , we obtain .Comment: 10 pages, Nevis Preprint #1498 (Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.
Determination of the Strange Quark Content of the Nucleon from a Next-to-Leading-Order QCD Analysis of Neutrino Charm Production
We present the first next-to-leading-order QCD analysis of neutrino charm
production, using a sample of 6090 - and -induced
opposite-sign dimuon events observed in the CCFR detector at the Fermilab
Tevatron. We find that the nucleon strange quark content is suppressed with
respect to the non-strange sea quarks by a factor \kappa = 0.477 \:
^{+\:0.063}_{-\:0.053}, where the error includes statistical, systematic and
QCD scale uncertainties. In contrast to previous leading order analyses, we
find that the strange sea -dependence is similar to that of the non-strange
sea, and that the measured charm quark mass, , is larger and consistent with that determined in other processes.
Further analysis finds that the difference in -distributions between
and is small. A measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa
matrix element is also presented.
uufile containing compressed postscript files of five Figures is appended at
the end of the LaTeX source.Comment: Nevis R#150
Dairy foods, calcium, and risk of breast cancer overall and for subtypes defined by estrogen receptor status: a pooled analysis of 21 cohort studies
Background: Epidemiologic studies examining the relations between dairy product and calcium intakes and breast cancer have been inconclusive, especially for tumor subtypes. Objective: To evaluate the associations between intakes of specific dairy products and calcium and risk of breast cancer overall and for subtypes defined by estrogen receptor (ER) status. Method: We pooled the individual-level data of over 1 million women who were followed for a maximum of 8-20 years across studies. Associations were evaluated for dairy product and calcium intakes and risk of incident invasive breast cancer overall (n = 37,861 cases) and by subtypes defined by ER status. Study-specific multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) were estimated and then combined using random-effects models. Results: Overall, no clear association was observed between the consumption of specific dairy foods, dietary (from foods only) calcium, and total (from foods and supplements) calcium, and risk of overall breast cancer. Although each dairy product showed a null or very weak inverse association with risk of overall breast cancer (P, test for trend >0.05 for all), differences by ER status were suggested for yogurt and cottage/ricotta cheese with associations observed for ER-negative tumors only (pooled HR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.83, 0.98 comparing >= 60 g/d with = 25 g/d with Conclusion: Our study shows that adult dairy or calcium consumption is unlikely to associate with a higher risk of breast cancer and that higher yogurt and cottage/ricotta cheese intakes were inversely associated with the risk of ER-negative breast cancer, a less hormonally dependent subtype with poor prognosis. Future studies on fermented dairy products, earlier life exposures, ER-negative breast cancer, and different racial/ethnic populations may further elucidate the relation
The ‘mosaic habitat’ concept in human evolution: past and present
The habitats preferred by hominins and other species are an important theme in palaeoanthropology, and the ‘mosaic habitat’ (also referred to as habitat heterogeneity) has been a central concept in this regard for the last four decades. Here we explore the development of this concept – loosely defined as a range of different habitat types, such as woodlands, riverine forest and savannah within a limited spatial area– in studies of human evolution in the last sixty years or so. We outline the key developments that took place before and around the time when the term ‘mosaic’ came to wider palaeoanthropological attention. To achieve this we used an analysis of the published literature, a study of illustrations of hominin evolution from 1925 onwards and an email survey of senior researchers in palaeoanthropology and related fields. We found that the term mosaic starts to be applied in palaeoanthropological thinking during the 1970’s due to the work of a number of researchers, including Karl Butzer and Glynn Isaac , with the earliest usage we have found of ‘mosaic’ in specific reference to hominin habitats being by Adriaan Kortlandt (1972). While we observe a steady increase in the numbers of publications reporting mosaic palaeohabitats, in keeping with the growing interest and specialisation in various methods of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, we also note that there is a lack of critical studies that define this habitat, or examine the temporal and spatial scales associated with it. The general consensus within the field is that the concept now requires more detailed definition and study to evaluate its role in human evolution
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