86 research outputs found
IBM-1 description of the fission products Ru
IBM-1} calculations for the fission products Ru have been
carried out. The even-even isotopes of Ru can be described as transitional
nuclei situated between the U(5) (spherical vibrator) and SO(6)
(-unstable rotor) symmetries of the Interacting Boson Model. At first,
a Hamiltonian with only one- and two-body terms has been used. Excitation
energies and (E2) ratios of gamma transitions have been calculated. A
satisfactory agreement has been obtained, with the exception of the odd-even
staggering in the quasi- bands of Ru. The observed pattern
is rather similar to the one for a rigid triaxial rotor. A calculation based on
a Hamiltonian with three-body terms was able to remove this discrepancy. The
relation between the IBM and the triaxial rotor model was also examined.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure
Dynamic culturing of cartilage tissue: the significance of hydrostatic pressure
Human articular cartilage functions under a wide range of mechanical loads in synovial joints, where hydrostatic pressure (HP) is the prevalent actuating force. We hypothesized that the formation of engineered cartilage can be augmented by applying such physiologic stimuli to chondrogenic cells or stem cells, cultured in hydrogels, using custom-designed HP bioreactors. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the effects of distinct HP regimens on cartilage formation in vitro by either human nasal chondrocytes (HNCs) or human adipose stem cells (hASCs) encapsulated in gellan gum (GG) hydrogels. To this end, we varied the frequency of low HP, by applying pulsatile hydrostatic pressure or a steady hydrostatic pressure load to HNC-GG constructs over a period of 3 weeks, and evaluated their effects on cartilage tissue-engineering outcomes. HNCs (10 ¡ 106 cells/ mL) were encapsulated in GG hydrogels (1.5%) and cultured in a chondrogenic medium under three regimens for 3 weeks: (1) 0.4MPa Pulsatile HP; (2) 0.4MPa Steady HP; and (3) Static. Subsequently, we applied the pulsatile regimen to hASC-GG constructs and varied the amplitude of loading, by generating both low (0.4 MPa) and physiologic (5 MPa) HP levels. hASCs (10x106 cells/mL) were encapsulated in GG hydrogels (1.5%) and cultured in a chondrogenic medium under three regimens for 4 weeks: (1) 0.4MPa Pulsatile HP; (2) 5MPa Pulsatile HP; and (3) Static. In the HNC study, the best tissue development was achieved by the pulsatile HP regimen, whereas in the hASC study, greater chondrogenic differentiation and matrix deposition were obtained for physiologic loading, as evidenced by gene expression of aggrecan, collagen type II, and sox-9; metachromatic staining of cartilage extracellular matrix; and immunolocalization of collagens. We thus propose that both HNCs and hASCs detect and respond to physical forces, thus resembling joint loading, by enhancing cartilage tissue development in a frequency- and amplitude-dependant manner.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SFRH/BD/42316/200
Ajustes morfolĂłgicos e fisiolĂłgicos em plantas jovens de AraucĂĄria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze em resposta ao sombreamento
Desempenho de bezerros holandeses alimentados apĂłs o desaleitamento com silagem de grĂŁos Ăşmidos ou grĂŁos secos de milho ou sorgo
ÂŤHansenĂase e Doença de ChagasÂť: estudos realizados no SanatĂłrio SĂŁo Francisco de Assis, BambuĂ, Minas Gerais
Distribuição da concentração de potĂĄssio no solo em lisĂmetros cultivados com amendoim
Propagating uncertainty to estimates of above-ground biomass for Kenyan mangroves:A scaling procedure from tree to landscape level
Wearable Biomonitoring Platform for the Assessment of Stress and its Impact on Cognitive Performance of Firefighters: An Experimental Study
Background: Stress is a complex process with an impact on health and performance. The use of wearable sensor-based monitoring systems offers interesting opportunities for advanced health care solutions for stress analysis. Considering the stressful nature of firefighting and its importance for the communityâs safety, this study was conducted for firefighters. Objectives: A biomonitoring platform was designed, integrating different biomedical systems to enable the acquisition of real time Electrocardiogram (ECG), computation of linear Heart Rate Variability (HRV) features and collection of perceived stress levels. This platform was tested using an experimental protocol, designed to understand the effect of stress on firefighterâs cognitive performance, and whether this effect is related to the autonomic response to stress. Method: The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was used as a testing platform along with a 2-Choice Reaction Time Task. Linear HRV features from the participants were acquired using an wearable ECG. Self-reports were used to assess perceived stress levels. Results: The TSST produced significant changes in some HRV parameters (AVNN, SDNN and LF/HF) and subjective measures of stress, which recovered after the stress task. Although these short-term changes in HRV showed a tendency to normalize, an impairment on cognitive performance was found after performing the stress event. Conclusion: Current findings suggested that stress compromised cognitive performance and caused a measurable change in autonomic balance. Our wearable biomonitoring platform proved to be a useful tool for stress assessment and quantification. Future studies will implement this biomonitoring platform for the analysis of stress in ecological settings
Search for jet extinction in the inclusive jet-pT spectrum from proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.The first search at the LHC for the extinction of QCD jet production is presented, using data collected with the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10.7ââfbâ1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The extinction model studied in this analysis is motivated by the search for signatures of strong gravity at the TeV scale (terascale gravity) and assumes the existence of string couplings in the strong-coupling limit. In this limit, the string model predicts the suppression of all high-transverse-momentum standard model processes, including jet production, beyond a certain energy scale. To test this prediction, the measured transverse-momentum spectrum is compared to the theoretical prediction of the standard model. No significant deficit of events is found at high transverse momentum. A 95% confidence level lower limit of 3.3 TeV is set on the extinction mass scale
Measurement of the inclusive production cross sections for forward jets and for dijet events with one forward and one central jet in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
The inclusive production cross sections for forward jets, as well for jets in
dijet events with at least one jet emitted at central and the other at forward
pseudorapidities, are measured in the range of transverse momenta pt = 35-150
GeV/c in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV by the CMS experiment at
the LHC. Forward jets are measured within pseudorapidities 3.2<|eta|<4.7, and
central jets within the |eta|<2.8 range. The double differential cross sections
with respect to pt and eta are compared to predictions from three approaches in
perturbative quantum chromodynamics: (i) next-to-leading-order calculations
obtained with and without matching to parton-shower Monte Carlo simulations,
(ii) PYTHIA and HERWIG parton-shower event generators with different tunes of
parameters, and (iii) CASCADE and HEJ models, including different non-collinear
corrections to standard single-parton radiation. The single-jet inclusive
forward jet spectrum is well described by all models, but not all predictions
are consistent with the spectra observed for the forward-central dijet events.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of High Energy Physic
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