Modelling of an IR scintillation counter

A systematic study of the excitation and de-excitation mechanisms in ternary gas mixtures Ar+CO2+N2 is presented regarding the possibility of developing a proportional scintillation counter based on the detection of the infrared molecular emissions associated with the lowest vibrational states of molecules. The use of visible or near-infrared photons ([lambda]<1 [mu]m) for applications like imaging and quality control of microstructure detectors has been reported. In view of these applications we analyse the processes leading to near-infrared emissions in pure argon and give an estimation of the number of photons emitted per electron, at several pressures, as a function of the charge gain.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TJM-3YXB101-2M/1/b5bfeb3739389bb6dbe4d84c8746dbf

Planosols developed under rainfall gradient in the Brazilian semi-arid region.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of the rainfall gradient on the and development of three Planosols, in diferente soil forming enviroments, in the state of Paraíba, considering three climatic subtypes according to the annual average

Electron localization by a magnetic vortex

We study the problem of an electron in two dimensions in the presence of a magnetic vortex with a step-like profile. Dependending on the values of the effective mass and gyromagnetic factor of the electron, it may be trapped by the vortex. The bound state spectrum is obtained numerically, and some limiting cases are treated analytically.Comment: 8 pages, latex, 4 figure

What do women know about testicular cancer? Exploratory study of a female university population

Poster 123 publicado em European Urology Supplements 11 (2012) 191–235.Introduction & Objectives: Testicular cancer (TC) is one of the most common malignancies in young population, and it appears to be increasing worldwide. The cure rate for TC now approaches 100%, but is negatively influenced by the delay in seeking medical attention. Sometimes it’s a man’s partner who spots a change in the testicle. Several publications have showed the importance of the partners in health. There is a lack of evidence about the importance of women, as partners, in the diagnosis of several pathologic processes in men, but we know that the healthy behavior is shaped by the partner. Our objective was to evaluate women’s knowledge about TC, as they can act as educators towards better men’s health. Material & Methods: We performed a survey of 13 questions concerning the awareness of TC and perceived importance of testicular self-examination in 307 women from the university. The questionnaire was sent to the institutional email of students, professors and other workers and the data were collected and then analyzed. Results: The mean age of our group was 26±8.3 years (range 18–58 years). Students were 74.6% (n = 229) of the sample and 25.7% (n = 79) were from the medical course. When asked if they had any knowledge about TC, 89.3% (n = 274) answered they had information about TC. Sixty-four (20.8%) of the participants knew someone with testicular cancer. Only 25% (n = 77) of the women answered correctly to the question about the age group most frequently seen with TC and 57.7% (n = 177) responded properly to the most frequent symptom of testicular cancer. When a paired analysis of the correct answers to the age group of TC and most frequent symptom only 24 (7.8%) of the subjects gave proper responses to every questions. A second part of the questionnaire was about testicular self-examination. Approximately half (50.5%) of the subjects, n = 155, referred knowledge about testicular examination. We used a Lickert-type scale to categorize the perceived importance of this examination from 1 (not important) to 10 (extremely important), with 69.4% (n = 213) considering that this was extremely important (10) and only one participant (0.3%) responded that it wasn’t important. Almost all participants (95.4%) answered that they would advise their male friends to perform testicular self-examination. Conclusions: In this study we have showed a low level of knowledge about TC. Despite this fact, the knowledge about this cancer, a great number of women considered important to men to perform testicular self-examination and were motivated to advise their male friends to perform it. Considering that partners may assume an important role in health promotion and education, maybe women, as the partner of patients in risk of having TC, can be a way of engaging healthy behaviors in men

Administration of HCG seven days after estrous onset increases the pregnancy rate in Toggenburg goats subjected to induction of synchronized estrus and natural mating.

The dominant follicle reaches its maximum diameter on the sixth day after ovulation or seven days after the onset of estrus (Castro et al., Theriogenology, 52: 399-411, 1999). This study investigated the effect of hCG administration on the seventh day after the onset of estrus (D7) on pregnancy rate in Toggenburg goats. The study was conducted during December and January in Piau, MG, Brazil (latitude 21°35?S and longitude 43°15?W). For statistical analysis, the chi-square test was used with a significance level of 5%. The pregnancy rate of the animals receiving hCG was superior (P=0.047) than those receiving saline [90.7% (39/43) and 74.4% (32/43)]. We conclude that the use of hCG seven days after hormonally induced-estrus is an efficient strategy to increase the pregnancy rate in dairy goats

Iroa: the international register of open abdomen. an international effort to better understand the open abdomen: call for participants

Actually the most common indications for Open Abdomen (OA) are trauma, abdominal sepsis, severe acute pancreatitis and more in general all those situations in which an intra-abdominal hypertension condition is present, in order to prevent the development of an abdominal compartment syndrome. The mortality and morbidity rate in patients undergone to OA procedures is still high. At present many studies have been published about the OA management and the progresses in survival rate of critically ill trauma and septic surgical patients. However several issues are still unclear and need more extensive studies. The definitions of indications, applications and methods to close the OA are still matter of debate. To overcome this lack of high level of evidence data about the OA indications, management, definitive closure and follow-up, the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) promoted the International Register of Open Abdomen (IROA). The register will be held on a web platform (Clinical Registers (R)) through a dedicated web site: www. clinicalregisters. org. This will allow to all surgeons and physicians to participate from all around the world only by having a computer and a web connection. The IROA protocol has been approved by the coordinating center Ethical Committee (Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital, Bergamo, Italy).Actually the most common indications for Open Abdomen (OA) are trauma, abdominal sepsis, severe acute pancreatitis and more in general all those situations in which an intra-abdominal hypertension condition is present, in order to prevent the development103713sem informaçãosem informaçã

Improved semiclassical density matrix: taming caustics

We present a simple method to deal with caustics in the semiclassical approximation to the thermal density matrix of a particle moving on the line. For simplicity, only its diagonal elements are considered. The only ingredient we require is the knowledge of the extrema of the Euclidean action. The procedure makes use of complex trajectories, and is applied to the quartic double-well potential.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. Revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Hydrodynamical instabilities in an expanding quark gluon plasma

We study the mechanism responsible for the onset of instabilities in a chiral phase transition at nonzero temperature and baryon chemical potential. As a low-energy effective model, we consider an expanding relativistic plasma of quarks coupled to a chiral field, and obtain a phenomenological chiral hydrodynamics from a variational principle. Studying the dispersion relation for small fluctuations around equilibrium, we identify the role played by chiral waves and pressure waves in the generation of instabilities. We show that pressure modes become unstable earlier than chiral modes.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Dense quark matter in compact stars

The densest predicted state of matter is colour-superconducting quark matter, in which quarks near the Fermi surface form a condensate of Cooper pairs. This form of matter may well exist in the core of compact stars, and the search for signatures of its presence is an ongoing enterprise. Using a bag model of quark matter, I discuss the effects of colour superconductivity on the mass-radius relationship of compact stars, showing that colour superconducting quark matter can occur in compact stars at values of the bag constant where ordinary quark matter would not be allowed. The resultant ``hybrid'' stars with colour superconducting quark matter interior and nuclear matter surface have masses in the range 1.3-1.6 Msolar and radii 8-11 km. Once perturbative corrections are included, quark matter can show a mass-radius relationship very similar to that of nuclear matter, and the mass of a hybrid star can reach 1.8 \Msolar.Comment: 11 pages, for proceedings of SQM 2003 conference; references added, abstract reworde