Thermohaline instability and rotation-induced mixing. III - Grid of stellar models and asymptotic asteroseismic quantities from the pre-main sequence up to the AGB for low- and intermediate-mass stars at various metallicities

The availability of asteroseismic constraints for a large sample of stars from the missions CoRoT and Kepler paves the way for various statistical studies of the seismic properties of stellar populations. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of rotation-induced mixing and thermohaline instability on the global asteroseismic parameters at different stages of the stellar evolution from the Zero Age Main Sequence to the Thermally Pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch to distinguish stellar populations. We present a grid of stellar evolutionary models for four metallicities (Z = 0.0001, 0.002, 0.004, and 0.014) in the mass range between 0.85 to 6.0 Msun. The models are computed either with standard prescriptions or including both thermohaline convection and rotation-induced mixing. For the whole grid we provide the usual stellar parameters (luminosity, effective temperature, lifetimes, ...), together with the global seismic parameters, i.e. the large frequency separation and asymptotic relations, the frequency corresponding to the maximum oscillation power {\nu}_{max}, the maximal amplitude A_{max}, the asymptotic period spacing of g-modes, and different acoustic radii. We discuss the signature of rotation-induced mixing on the global asteroseismic quantities, that can be detected observationally. Thermohaline mixing whose effects can be identified by spectroscopic studies cannot be caracterized with the global seismic parameters studied here. But it is not excluded that individual mode frequencies or other well chosen asteroseismic quantities might help constraining this mixing.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Pion-less effective field theory for atomic nuclei and lattice nuclei

We compute the medium-mass nuclei $^{16}$O and $^{40}$Ca using pionless effective field theory (EFT) at next-to-leading order (NLO). The low-energy coefficients of the EFT Hamiltonian are adjusted to experimantal data for nuclei with mass numbers $A=2$ and $3$, or alternatively to results from lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) at an unphysical pion mass of 806 MeV. The EFT is implemented through a discrete variable representation in the harmonic oscillator basis. This approach ensures rapid convergence with respect to the size of the model space and facilitates the computation of medium-mass nuclei. At NLO the nuclei $^{16}$O and $^{40}$Ca are bound with respect to decay into alpha particles. Binding energies per nucleon are 9-10 MeV and 30-40 MeV at pion masses of 140 MeV and 806 MeV, respectively.Comment: 26 page

Effects of three-nucleon forces and two-body currents on Gamow-Teller strengths

We optimize chiral interactions at next-to-next-to leading order to observables in two- and three-nucleon systems, and compute Gamow-Teller transitions in carbon-14, oxygen-22 and oxygen-24 using consistent two-body currents. We compute spectra of the daughter nuclei nitrogen-14, fluorine-22 and fluorine-24 via an isospin-breaking coupled-cluster technique, with several predictions. The two-body currents reduce the Ikeda sum rule, corresponding to a quenching factor q^2 ~ 0.84-0.92 of the axial-vector coupling. The half life of carbon-14 depends on the energy of the first excited 1+ state, the three-nucleon force, and the two-body current

Boron depletion in 9 to 15 M(circle dot) stars with rotation

The treatment of mixing is still one of the major uncertainties in stellar evolution models. One open question is how well the prescriptions for rotational mixing describe the real effects. We tested the mixing prescriptions included in the Geneva stellar evolution code (GENEC) by following the evolution of surface abundances of light isotopes in massive stars, such as boron and nitrogen. We followed 9, 12 and 15 M(O) models with rotation from the zero age main sequence up to the end of He burning. The calculations show the expected behaviour with faster depletion of boton for faster rotating stars and more massive stars. The mixing at the surface is more efficient, than predicted by prescriptions used in other codes and reproduces the majority of observations very well However two observed stars with strong boron depletion but, no nitrogen enhancement still can not be explained and let the question open whether additional mixing processes are acting in these massive star

An optimized chiral nucleon-nucleon interaction at next-to-next-to-leading order

We optimize the nucleon-nucleon interaction from chiral effective field theory at next-to-next- to-leading order. The resulting new chiral force NNLOopt yields \chi^2 \approx 1 per degree of freedom for laboratory energies below approximately 125 MeV. In the A = 3, 4 nucleon systems, the contributions of three-nucleon forces are smaller than for previous parametrizations of chiral interactions. We use NNLOopt to study properties of key nuclei and neutron matter, and demonstrate that many aspects of nuclear structure can be understood in terms of this nucleon-nucleon interaction, without explicitly invoking three-nucleon forces.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Comparative genomic hybridization reveals population-based genetic alterations in hepatoblastomas

Hepatoblastoma is a malignant paediatric liver tumour. In order to approach the genetic background of this malignancy we have screened a panel of eighteen cases from Europe and Japan for chromosomal imbalances using comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). The most frequent losses included chromosomal regions 13q21–q22 (28%) and 9p22-pter (22%), while the most frequent gains occurred on 2q23–q24 (33%), 20q (28%) and 1q24–q25 (28%). A significant difference in CGH alterations between the tumours from patients of Caucasian and Japanese was revealed where loss of 13q was found only in the Japanese samples. In conclusion, the findings indicate several candidate regions for suppressor genes and oncogenes potentially involved in the hepatoblastomas of different ethnic origin. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Once-daily budesonide/formoterol in a single inhaler in adults with moderate persistent asthma

AbstractPatients with moderate persistent asthma (n = 523; mean FEV1 77.4%) not fully controlled with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS; 400–1000 μg/day) were randomized to receive either once-daily budesonide/formoterol (160/4.5 μg, two inhalations); or twice-daily budesonide/formoterol (160/4.5 μg, one inhalation); or budesonide (400 μg) once-daily for 12 weeks. Once-daily dosing was administered in the evening and twice-daily dosing was administered in the morn-ing and evening. All patients received twice-daily budesonide (200 μg) during a 2-week run-in. Compared with budesonide alone, change in mean morning and evening peak expiratory flow was greater in the once-daily budesonide/formoterol group (27 and 17 1 min−1, respectively; P<0.001) and twice-daily budesonide/formoterol group (23 and 24 1 min−1, respectively; P<0.001). Night awakenings, symptom-free days, reliever-use-free days and asthma-control days were all improved during once-daily budesonide/formoterol therapy vs. budesonide (P≤0.05). Similar improvements were also seen with twice-daily budesonide/formoterol (P≤0.05). The risk of a mild exacerbation was reduced after once- and twice-daily budesonide/formoterol vs. budesonide (38% and 35%, respectively; P<0.002). All treatments were well tolerated. Budesonide/formoterol, once- or twice-daily, in a single inhaler improved asthma symptoms and exacerbations compared with budesonide. In the majority of patients with moderate persistent asthma requiring ICS and long-actingβ -agonists, once-daily formoterol/budesonide provided sustained efficacy over 24 h, similar to twice-daily dosing