Antiproton annihilation on light nuclei at very low energies

The recent experimental data obtained by the OBELIX group on $\bar{p}$D and $\bar{p}^4$He total annihilation cross sections are analyzed. The combined analysis of these data with existing antiprotonic atom data allows, for the first time, the imaginary parts of the S-wave scattering lengths for the two nuclei to be extracted. The obtained values are: $Im a^{sc}_0 = [- 0.62 \pm 0.02 ({stat}) \pm 0.04 ({sys})] fm$ for $\bar{p}$D and $Im a^{sc}_0 = [- 0.36\pm 0.03({stat})^{+0.19}_{-0.11}({sys})] fm$ for $\bar{p}^4$He. This analysis indicates an unexpected behaviour of the imaginary part of the $\bar{p}$-nucleus S-wave scattering length as a function of the atomic weight A: $|Im a^{sc}_0|$ ($\bar{p}$p) > $|Im a^{sc}_0|$ ($\bar{p}$D) > $|Im a^{sc}_0|$ ($\bar{p}^4$He).Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Limits on the low energy antinucleon-nucleus annihilations from the Heisenberg principle

We show that the quantum uncertainty principle puts some limits on the effectiveness of the antinucleon-nucleus annihilation at very low energies. This is caused by the fact that the realization a very effective short-distance reaction process implies information on the relative distance of the reacting particles. Some quantitative predictions are possible on this ground, including the approximate A-independence of antinucleon-nucleus annihilation rates.Comment: 10 pages, no figure

Coulomb corrections to low energy antiproton annihilation cross sections on protons and nuclei

We calculate, in a systematic way, the enhancement effect on antiproton-proton and antiproton-nucleus annihilation cross sections at low energy due to the initial state electrostatic interaction between the projectile and the target nucleus. This calculation is aimed at future comparisons between antineutron and antiproton annihilation rates on different targets, for the extraction of pure isospin channels.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures (latex format

Synchronous byzantine lattice agreement in O(log(f)) rounds

In the Lattice Agreement (LA) problem, originally proposed by Attiya et al. [1], a set of processes has to decide on a chain of a lattice. More precisely, each correct process proposes an element e of a certain join-semi lattice L and it has to decide on a value that contains e. Moreover, any pair pi, pj of correct processes has to decide two values deci and decj that are comparable (e.g., deci = decj or decj < deci). In this paper we present new contributions for the synchronous case. We investigate the problem in the usual message passing model for a system of n processes with distinct unique IDs. We first prove that, when only authenticated channels are available, the problem cannot be solved if f = n/3 or more processes are Byzantine. We then propose a novel algorithm that works in a synchronous system model with signatures (i.e., the authenticated message model), tolerates up to f byzantine failures (where f < n/3) and that terminates in O(log f) rounds. We discuss how to remove authenticated messages at the price of algorithm resiliency (f < n/4). Finally, we present a transformer that converts any synchronous LA algorithm to an algorithm for synchronous Generalised Lattice Agreement

Zinc, thymic endocrine activity and mitogen responsiveness (PHA) in piglets exposed to maternal aflatoxicosis B1 and G1

Growth retardation, thymic involution and impaired peripheral immune efficiency are constantevents in piglets exposed to maternal aflatoxicosis. Zinc may play a key role because of itsrequirement for good immune responses, including thymic endocrine activity. Zinc is required to.activate a thymic hormone, i.e. thymulin ZnFTS , which is responsible for cell-mediatedimmunity. Zinc deficiency and decreased thymic endocrine activity are present in piglets fed from.sows exposed to aflatoxins AF B and G as compared with healthy control piglets. In particular,11.active ZnFTS is decreased while concentrations of inactive thymulin FTS are high. The in vitroaddition of zinc up to the plasma samples induces a reduction of inactive thymulin. The.lymphocytes mitogen responsiveness PHA is decreased and a thymic cortical lymphocytedepletion is also present. These data suggest that the thymic defect, followed by impairedperipheral immune efficiency, may largely depend by the low peripheral zinc bioavailability tosaturate all thymulin molecules produced

A phenomenological analysis of antiproton interactions at low energies

We present an optical potential analysis of the antiproton-proton interactions at low energies. Our optical potential is purely phenomenological, and has been parametrized on data recently obtained by the Obelix Collaboration at momenta below 180 MeV/c. It reasonably fits annihilation and elastic data below 600 MeV/c, and allows us for an evaluation of the elastic cross section and rho-parameter down to zero kinetic energy. Moreover we show that the mechanism that depresses antiproton-nucleus annihilation cross sections at low energies is present in antiproton-proton interactions too.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

A Modular, Low Latency, A2B-based Architecture for Distributed Multichannel Full-Digital Audio Systems

Despite the increasing demand for multichannel audio systems, existing solutions are still mainly analog or audio-over-IP based, leading to well-known limitations: bulky wiring, high latency (0.5-2 ms), and expensive devices for protocol stack management. This paper presents a cost-effective, low latency, full-digital solution that overcomes all the previously mentioned problems. The proposed architecture is based on the new Automotive Audio Bus (A2B) protocol. It guarantees deterministic latency of 2 samples, 32 downstream/upstream channels over a single Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) cable and phase-aligned signals. A single A2B chip is required for each node, reducing dramatically the system cost. The developed architecture is composed by a main board and an A2B network. The main board handles up to 64 channels, and it converts standard protocols usually employed for audio signal delivery, such as AES10, AVB and AES67, into A2B streams and vice versa. The A2B network can include a series of devices, for instance power amplifiers, codecs, DSPs, and transducers. There are many application examples including, but not limited to, transducer arrays (e.g., microphone, loudspeaker, accelerometer arrays), audio distribution in meeting rooms, Wave Field Synthesis (WFS), Ambisonics immersive audio systems and Active Noise Control (ANC). A modular and portable WFS system was developed employing the above-described architecture. It is based on eight channels soundbars, which can be daisy-chained in reconfigurable geometries and featuring up to 192 channels