Observation of low-lying resonances in the quasicontinuum of 195,196Pt and enhanced astrophysical reaction rates

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A century of trends in adult human height

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries

Galactic production of 138La: Impact of 138,139La statistical properties

The γ-ray strength functions and nuclear level densities of 138La and 139La have been measured below the neutron separation energies. These new data were used to calculate astrophysical Maxwellian-averaged (n,γ) cross-sections to investigate the production and destruction of the p-nucleus 138La in the photodisintegration process. The results confirm the underproduction of 138La in the p-process with respect to the observed abundances and strongly support the ν-process through νe capture on 138Ba as the main contributor to the synthesis of 138La in Type II supernovae. Keywords: γ-ray strength functions, Nuclear level densities, Maxwellian averaged cross-section