13,504 research outputs found
Lambda hyperonic effect on the normal driplines
A generalized mass formula is used to calculate the neutron and proton drip
lines of normal and lambda hypernuclei treating non-strange and strange nuclei
on the same footing. Calculations suggest existence of several bound
hypernuclei whose normal cores are unbound. Addition of Lambda or,
Lambda-Lambda hyperon(s) to a normal nucleus is found to cause shifts of the
neutron and proton driplines from their conventional limits.Comment: 6 pages, 4 tables, 0 figur
Folding model analysis of proton radioactivity of spherical proton emitters
Half lives of the decays of spherical nuclei away from proton drip line by
proton emissions are estimated theoretically. The quantum mechanical tunneling
probability is calculated within the WKB approximation. Microscopic
proton-nucleus interaction potentials are obtained by single folding the
densities of the daughter nuclei with M3Y effective interaction supplemented by
a zero-range pseudo-potential for exchange along with the density dependence.
Strengths of the M3Y interaction are extracted by fitting its matrix elements
in an oscillator basis to those elements of the G-matrix obtained with the
Reid-Elliott soft-core nucleon-nucleon interaction. Parameters of the density
dependence are obtained from the nuclear matter calculations. Spherical charge
distributions are used for calculating the Coulomb interaction potentials.
These calculations provide reasonable estimates for the observed proton
radioactivity lifetimes of proton rich nuclei for proton emissions from 26
ground and isomeric states of spherical proton emitters.Comment: 6 page
Dopamine restores reward prediction errors in old age.
Senescence affects the ability to utilize information about the likelihood of rewards for optimal decision-making. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans, we found that healthy older adults had an abnormal signature of expected value, resulting in an incomplete reward prediction error (RPE) signal in the nucleus accumbens, a brain region that receives rich input projections from substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA) dopaminergic neurons. Structural connectivity between SN/VTA and striatum, measured by diffusion tensor imaging, was tightly coupled to inter-individual differences in the expression of this expected reward value signal. The dopamine precursor levodopa (L-DOPA) increased the task-based learning rate and task performance in some older adults to the level of young adults. This drug effect was linked to restoration of a canonical neural RPE. Our results identify a neurochemical signature underlying abnormal reward processing in older adults and indicate that this can be modulated by L-DOPA
Cluster formation and anomalous fundamental diagram in an ant trail model
A recently proposed stochastic cellular automaton model ({\it J. Phys. A 35,
L573 (2002)}), motivated by the motions of ants in a trail, is investigated in
detail in this paper. The flux of ants in this model is sensitive to the
probability of evaporation of pheromone, and the average speed of the ants
varies non-monotonically with their density. This remarkable property is
analyzed here using phenomenological and microscopic approximations thereby
elucidating the nature of the spatio-temporal organization of the ants. We find
that the observations can be understood by the formation of loose clusters,
i.e. space regions of enhanced, but not maximal, density.Comment: 11 pages, REVTEX, with 11 embedded EPS file
Flow properties of driven-diffusive lattice gases: theory and computer simulation
We develop n-cluster mean-field theories (0 < n < 5) for calculating the flow
properties of the non-equilibrium steady-states of the Katz-Lebowitz-Spohn
model of the driven diffusive lattice gas, with attractive and repulsive
inter-particle interactions, in both one and two dimensions for arbitrary
particle densities, temperature as well as the driving field. We compare our
theoretical results with the corresponding numerical data we have obtained from
the computer simulations to demonstrate the level of accuracy of our
theoretical predictions. We also compare our results with those for some other
prototype models, notably particle-hopping models of vehicular traffic, to
demonstrate the novel qualitative features we have observed in the
Katz-Lebowitz-Spohn model, emphasizing, in particular, the consequences of
repulsive inter-particle interactions.Comment: 12 RevTex page
Parcellation of the human substantia nigra based on anatomical connectivity to the striatum
Substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA) subregions, defined by dopaminergic projections to the striatum, are differentially affected by health (e.g. normal aging) and disease (e.g. Parkinson's disease). This may have an impact on reward processing which relies on dopaminergic regions and circuits. We acquired diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with probabilistic tractography in 30 healthy older adults to determine whether subregions of the SN/VTA could be delineated based on anatomical connectivity to the striatum. We found that a dorsomedial region of the SN/VTA preferentially connected to the ventral striatum whereas a more ventrolateral region connected to the dorsal striatum. These SN/VTA subregions could be characterised by differences in quantitative structural imaging parameters, suggesting different underlying tissue properties. We also observed that these connectivity patterns differentially mapped onto reward dependence personality trait. We show that tractography can be used to parcellate the SN/VTA into anatomically plausible and behaviourally meaningful compartments, an approach that may help future studies to provide a more fine-grained synopsis of pathological changes in the dopaminergic midbrain and their functional impact
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