Results on Identified Charged Hadrons from the PHENIX Experiment at RHIC

Recent results on identified hadrons from the PHENIX experiment in Au+Au collisions at mid-rapidity at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV are presented. The centrality dependence of transverse momentum distributions and particle ratios for identified charged hadrons are studied.Comment: 10pp. To appear in the proceedings of The XVI International Conference on Particles and Nuclei (PaNic02), Osaka, Japan, September 30 - October 4, 200

Formation of light antinuclei and "dense gas" stage in heavy ion collisions

The antideuteron and antihelium-3 production rates at high-energy heavy ion collisions are calculated in the framework of fusion mechanism when participating particles are moving in the mean field of other fireball constituents. It is shown that coalescence parameters can be found from the requirement of balance between created and disintegrated antinuclei. The explicit formulae for coalescence parameters are presented and compared with experimental data.Comment: To be published in "Proceedings of the 18th International Nuclear Physics Divisional Conference of the EPS (NPDC18), 2004.

Results on Identified Hadrons from the PHENIX Experiment at RHIC

Recent results on identified hadrons from the PHENIX experiment in Au+Au collisions at mid-rapidity at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV are presented. The centrality dependence of transverse momentum distributions and particle ratios for identified charged hadrons are studied. The transverse flow velocity and freeze-out temperature are extracted from $p_{T}$ spectra within the framework of a hydrodynamic collective flow model. Two-particle HBT correlations for charged pions are measured in different centrality selections for a broad range of transverse momentum of the pair. Results on elliptic flow measurements with respect to the reaction plane for identified particles are also presented.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures. Talk presented at Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, France, July 18-24, 2002. To appear in the proceedings (Nucl. Phys. A

Eating Behaviors of Postoperative Esophageal Cancer Patients During the First Year After Surgery

[Background] The objective of this study was to identify the eating behaviors of patients from 3 months onwards after esophageal surgery. The study was conducted on patients who had been on an oral diet for more than 3 months after the surgery. [Methods] Data were collected through interviews and analyzed by a qualitative inductive method based on the Grounded Theory Approach. [Results] The results of the analysis revealed that postoperative esophageal cancer patients go through the following three stages in respect of their eating behavior during the first year after surgery: i) Get used to swallowing, ii) Learning how to cope with the symptoms occurring during eating, by failing and succeeding repeatedly, and iii) building self-management skills in terms of eating behaviors. These were identified as the process through which the patients develop their eating behaviors during the first year after surgery. [Conclusion] The patients first faced the reality of the underlying issue, namely, difficulty in eating after the surgery, with the feeling that they experienced during swallowing in the process of eating. However, they had no choice but to accept the reality and make efforts to devise practical eating behaviors through experience. Then, eventually, they learned that self-management is necessary not only for maintaining a stable eating behavior, but also for sustaining their lives. In the longterm post-operative patient’s acquisition of new eating habits, medical staff look back and share their experiences so that they can recognize their altered body without being discouraged. However, it is necessary to continue to support them even after they discharge from the hospital by accepting difficulties in eating behavior

Frustrated element-blocks: A new platform for constructing unique stimuli-responsive luminescent materials

Element-blocks, the minimum heteroatom-containing functional units, are versatile building blocks for constructing functional polymers. In this focus review, we explain the new concept of developing stimuli-responsive luminochromic materials based on frustrated element-blocks. Herein, we termed “frustrated” element-blocks as those that show a relatively larger degree of structural relaxation in the excited state but are structurally restricted. As a result, frustrated element-blocks can have unique stimuli-responsive luminochromic behaviors. As a representative example, the stimuli-responsive properties of frustrated boron clusters are initially illustrated, and a series of their luminochromic properties, such as mechano- and thermochromism, are described. Next, we designed fused complexes for suppressing intramolecular motion to obtain frustrated boron complexes that display constant emission in both the solution phase and solid-state to produce mechanochromic luminescent materials. Finally, generating the frustrated state by polymerization is explained. These polymers display unique luminochromic behaviors, such as thermochromism in solution, mechanochromism in the solid-state and vapochromism. Finally, the stimuli-responsive luminochromic behaviors of frustrated element-block-containing polymers and their mechanisms are illustrated, mainly by examples from our recent works

Optimization of body configuration and joint-driven attitude stabilization for transformable spacecrafts under solar radiation pressure

A solar sail is one of the most promising space exploration system because of its theoretically infinite specific impulse using solar radiation pressure (SRP). Recently, some researchers proposed "transformable spacecrafts" that can actively reconfigure their body configurations with actuatable joints. The transformable spacecrafts are expected to greatly enhance orbit and attitude control capability due to its high redundancy in control degree of freedom if they are used as solar sails. However, its large number of input poses difficulties in control, and therefore, previous researchers imposed strong constraints to limit its potential control capabilities. This paper addresses novel attitude control techniques for the transformable spacecrafts under SRP. The authors have constructed two proposed methods; one of those is a joint angle optimization to acquire arbitrary SRP force and torque, and the other is a momentum damping control driven by joint angle actuation. Our proposed methods are formulated in general forms and applicable to any transformable solar sail that consists of flat and thin body components. Validity of the proposed methods are confirmed by numerical simulations. This paper contributes to making most of the high control redundancy of transformable solar sails without consuming any expendable propellants, which is expected to greatly enhance orbit and attitude control capability.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Astrodynamics published by Tsinghua University Press and Springe