68 research outputs found
Macrosomia - maternal and fetal risk factors
Risk factors associated with fetal macrosomia were studied in 348 pregnancies resulting in the delivery of an infant weighing 4 000 g or more in a black population. Identifiable maternal risk factors included a mother in her 3rd decade of life, multiparity, maternal weight of 70 kg or more at the end of pregnancy, prolonged or post-term pregnancy, abnormal glucose tolerance and previous history of a macrosomic infant. Male infants had a higher risk of being macrosomic. Macrosomic infants accounted for 3,4% of all singleton deliveries, with their caesarean section rate of 33,9% being almost three times that of control infants. The importance of antenatal prediction of fetal weight is emphasised and suggestions for reduction of the high perinatal mortality and morbidity rates, as well as maternal morbidity, are discussed
Space charge in drift chambers operated with the Xe,CO2(15%) mixture
Using prototype modules of the ALICE Transition Radiation Detector we
investigate space charge effects and the dependence of the pion rejection
performance on the incident angle of the ionizing particle. The average pulse
height distributions in the drift chambers operated with the Xe,CO2(15%)
mixture provide quantitative information on the gas gain reduction due to space
charge accumulating during the drift of the primary ionization. Our results
demonstrate that the pion rejection performance of a TRD is better for tracks
which are not at normal incidence to the anode wires. We present detailed
simulations of detector signals, which reproduce the measurements and lend
strong support to our interpretation of the measurements in terms of space
charge effects.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Nucl.Instrum.Meth.
A. Data files available at http://www-alice.gsi.de/tr
Energy loss of pions and electrons of 1 to 6 GeV/c in drift chambers operated with Xe,CO2(15%)
We present measurements of the energy loss of pions and electrons in drift
chambers operated with a Xe,CO2(15%) mixture. The measurements are carried out
for particle momenta from 1 to 6 GeV/c using prototype drift chambers for the
ALICE TRD. Microscopic calculations are performed using input parameters
calculated with GEANT3. These calculations reproduce well the measured average
and most probable values for pions, but a higher Fermi plateau is required in
order to reproduce our electron data. The widths of the measured distributions
are smaller for data compared to the calculations. The electron/pion
identification performance using the energy loss is also presented.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Nucl.Instrum.Meth.
Observation of Non-Exponential Orbital Electron Capture Decays of Hydrogen-Like Pr and Pm Ions
We report on time-modulated two-body weak decays observed in the orbital
electron capture of hydrogen-like Pr and Pm
ions coasting in an ion storage ring. Using non-destructive single ion,
time-resolved Schottky mass spectrometry we found that the expected exponential
decay is modulated in time with a modulation period of about 7 seconds for both
systems. Tentatively this observation is attributed to the coherent
superposition of finite mass eigenstates of the electron neutrinos from the
weak decay into a two-body final state.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Initial Upper Palaeolithic humans in Europe had recent Neanderthal ancestry
Modern humans appeared in Europe by at least 45,000 years ago1â5, but the extent of their interactions with Neanderthals, who disappeared by about 40,000 years ago6, and their relationship to the broader expansion of modern humans outside Africa are poorly understood. Here we present genome-wide data from three individuals dated to between 45,930 and 42,580 years ago from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria1,2. They are the earliest Late Pleistocene modern humans known to have been recovered in Europe so far, and were found in association with an Initial Upper Palaeolithic artefact assemblage. Unlike two previously studied individuals of similar ages from Romania7 and Siberia8 who did not contribute detectably to later populations, these individuals are more closely related to present-day and ancient populations in East Asia and the Americas than to later west Eurasian populations. This indicates that they belonged to a modern human migration into Europe that was not previously known from the genetic record, and provides evidence that there was at least some continuity between the earliest modern humans in Europe and later people in Eurasia. Moreover, we find that all three individuals had Neanderthal ancestors a few generations back in their family history, confirming that the first European modern humans mixed with Neanderthals and suggesting that such mixing could have been common
Genetic insights into the social organization of Neanderthals
Genomic analyses of Neanderthals have previously provided insights into their population history and relationship to modern humans1â8, but the social organization of Neanderthal communities remains poorly understood. Here we present genetic data for 13âNeanderthals from two Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia: 11 from Chagyrskaya Cave9,10 and 2 from Okladnikov Cave11âmaking this one of the largest genetic studies of a Neanderthal population to date. We used hybridization capture to obtain genome-wide nuclear data, as well as mitochondrial and Y-chromosome sequences. Some Chagyrskaya individuals were closely related, including a fatherâdaughter pair and a pair of second-degree relatives, indicating that at least some of the individuals lived at the same time. Up to one-third of these individualsâ genomes had long segments of homozygosity, suggesting that the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals were part of a small community. In addition, the Y-chromosome diversity is an order of magnitude lower than the mitochondrial diversity, a pattern that we found is best explained by female migration between communities. Thus, the genetic data presented here provide a detailed documentation of the social organization of an isolated Neanderthal community at the easternmost extent of their known range
Observation of Non-Exponential Orbital Electron Capture Decays of Hydrogen-Like Pr and Pm Ions
We report on time-modulated two-body weak decays observed in the orbital
electron capture of hydrogen-like Pr and Pm
ions coasting in an ion storage ring. Using non-destructive single ion,
time-resolved Schottky mass spectrometry we found that the expected exponential
decay is modulated in time with a modulation period of about 7 seconds for both
systems. Tentatively this observation is attributed to the coherent
superposition of finite mass eigenstates of the electron neutrinos from the
weak decay into a two-body final state.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
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