2,758 research outputs found
Nitrogen fluorescence in air for observing extensive air showers
Extensive air showers initiate the fluorescence emissions from nitrogen
molecules in air. The UV-light is emitted isotropically and can be used for
observing the longitudinal development of extensive air showers in the
atmosphere over tenth of kilometers. This measurement technique is
well-established since it is exploited for many decades by several cosmic ray
experiments. However, a fundamental aspect of the air shower analyses is the
description of the fluorescence emission in dependence on varying atmospheric
conditions. Different fluorescence yields affect directly the energy scaling of
air shower reconstruction. In order to explore the various details of the
nitrogen fluorescence emission in air, a few experimental groups have been
performing dedicated measurements over the last decade. Most of the
measurements are now finished. These experimental groups have been discussing
their techniques and results in a series of Air Fluorescence Workshops
commenced in 2002. At the 8 Air Fluorescence Workshop 2011, it was
suggested to develop a common way of describing the nitrogen fluorescence for
application to air shower observations. Here, first analyses for a common
treatment of the major dependences of the emission procedure are presented.
Aspects like the contributions at different wavelengths, the dependence on
pressure as it is decreasing with increasing altitude in the atmosphere, the
temperature dependence, in particular that of the collisional cross sections
between molecules involved, and the collisional de-excitation by water vapor
are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, International Symposium on Future
Directions in UHECR Physics, 13-16 February 2012, CERN, Geneva (Switzerland);
the updated version corrects for a typo in Eq. (1
Nucleation of quark matter in protoneutron star matter
The phase transition from hadronic to quark matter may take place already
during the early post-bounce stage of core collapse supernovae when matter is
still hot and lepton rich. If the phase transition is of first order and
exhibits a barrier, the formation of the new phase occurs via the nucleation of
droplets. We investigate the thermal nucleation of a quark phase in supernova
matter and calculate its rate for a wide range of physical parameters. We show
that the formation of the first droplet of a quark phase might be very fast and
therefore the phase transition to quark matter could play an important role in
the mechanism and dynamics of supernova explosions.Comment: v3: fits version published in Physical Review
Phase conversion in a weakly first-order quark-hadron transition
We investigate the process of phase conversion in a thermally-driven {\it
weakly} first-order quark-hadron transition. This scenario is physically
appealing even if the nature of this transition in equilibrium proves to be a
smooth crossover for vanishing baryonic chemical potential. We construct an
effective potential by combining the equation of state obtained within Lattice
QCD for the partonic sector with that of a gas of resonances in the hadronic
phase, and present numerical results on bubble profiles, nucleation rates and
time evolution, including the effects from reheating on the dynamics for
different expansion scenarios. Our findings confirm the standard picture of a
cosmological first-order transition, in which the process of phase conversion
is entirely dominated by nucleation, also in the case of a weakly first-order
transition. On the other hand, we show that, even for expansion rates much
lower than those expected in high-energy heavy ion collisions, nucleation is
very unlikely, indicating that the main mechanism of phase conversion is
spinodal decomposition. Our results are compared to those obtained for a
strongly first-order transition, as the one provided by the MIT bag model.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures; v2: 1 reference added, minor modifications,
matches published versio
Suitability of salivary leucocytes to assess DNA repair ability in human biomonitoring studies by the challenge-comet assay
The challenge-comet assay is a simple but effective approach that provides a quantitative and functional determination of DNA repair ability, and allows to monitor the kinetics of repair process. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) are the cells most frequently employed in human biomonitoring studies using the challenge-comet assay, but having a validated alternative of non-invasive biomatrix would be highly convenient for certain population groups and circumstances. The objective of this study was to validate the use of salivary leucocytes in the challenge-comet assay. Leucocytes were isolated from saliva samples and challenged (either in fresh or after cryopreservation) with three genotoxic agents acting by different action mechanisms: bleomycin, methyl methanesulfonate, and ultraviolet radiation. Comet assay was performed just after treatment and at other three additional time points, in order to study repair kinetics. The results obtained demonstrated that saliva leucocytes were as suitable as PBMC for assessing DNA damage of different nature that was efficiently repaired over the evaluated time points, even after 5 months of cryopreservation (after a 24 h stimulation with PHA). Furthermore, a new parameter to determine the efficacy of the repair process, independent of the initial amount of damage induced, is proposed, and recommendations to perform the challenge-comet assay with salivary leucocytes depending on the type of DNA repair to be assessed are suggested. Validation studies are needed to verify whether the method is reproducible and results reliable and comparable among laboratories and studies. © 2022 The AuthorsFunding text 1: This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation : MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Grants PID2020-113788RB-I00 and PID2020-114908 GA-I00 ), NanoBioBarriers project (PTDC/MED-TOX/31162/2017), Xunta de Galicia (ED431B 2022/16), co-financed by the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) through European Regional Development Funds ( FEDER / FNR ), Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport [ BEAGAL18/00142 to V.V.], and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness , co-financed by the European Social Fund [ RYC-2015-18394 to L.L,-L,]. Funding for open access charge: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG. ; Funding text 2: This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation: MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Grants PID2020-113788RB-I00 and PID2020-114908 GA-I00), NanoBioBarriers project (PTDC/MED-TOX/31162/2017), Xunta de Galicia (ED431B 2022/16), co-financed by the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) through European Regional Development Funds (FEDER/FNR), Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport [BEAGAL18/00142 to V.V.], and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, co-financed by the European Social Fund [RYC-2015-18394 to L.L,-L,]. Funding for open access charge: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG
The Role of Strangeness in Astrophysics - an Odyssey through Strange Phases
The equation of state for compact stars is reviewed with special emphasis on
the role of strange hadrons, strange dibaryons and strange quark matter.
Implications for the properties of compact stars are presented. The importance
of neutron star data to constrain the properties of hypothetic particles and
the possible existence of exotic phases in dense matter is outlined. We also
discuss the growing interplay between astrophysics and heavy-ion physics.Comment: invited talk given at Strange Quark Matter 2001, Frankfurt, Germany,
8 pages, uses iopart.cls, minor modifications, version to appear in J. Phys.
Strangeness in Astrophysics and Cosmology
Some recent developments concerning the role of strange quark matter for
astrophysical systems and the QCD phase transition in the early universe are
addressed. Causality constraints of the soft nuclear equation of state as
extracted from subthreshold kaon production in heavy-ion collisions are used to
derive an upper mass limit for compact stars. The interplay between the
viscosity of strange quark matter and the gravitational wave emission from
rotation-powered pulsars are outlined. The flux of strange quark matter nuggets
in cosmic rays is put in perspective with a detailed numerical investigation of
the merger of two strange stars. Finally, we discuss a novel scenario for the
QCD phase transition in the early universe, which allows for a small
inflationary period due to a pronounced first order phase transition at large
baryochemical potential.Comment: 8 pages, invited talk given at the International Conference on
Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM2009), Buzios, Brasil, September 28 - October
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Increasing prevalence of obesity and diabetes among patients evaluated for liver transplantation in a Swiss tertiary referral center: a 10-year retrospective analysis.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the first cause of chronic liver disease in developed countries. We aimed to assess trends in the prevalence of obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and NAFLD in patients undergoing liver transplantation evaluation and to assess whether obese patients were less likely to be listed or had an increased drop-out rate after listing.
We conducted a retrospective study of all consecutive patients who underwent liver transplantation evaluation at a Swiss tertiary referral centre between January 2009 and March 2020.
A total of 242 patients were included, 83% were male. The median age was 59 years (IQR, 51-64 years). The most common causes of end-stage liver disease were viral hepatitis (28%), alcoholic liver disease (21%) and NAFLD (12%). Obesity was present in 28% of our cohort, with a significant increase over time. Prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus followed the same trend (p = 0.02). The proportions of non-listed and listed obese patients did not differ (21% vs. 30% respectively; p = 0.3).
The prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus significantly increased over our study period. Obese patients had similar chances of being listed. The landscape of liver transplantation indications is shifting towards NAFLD, highlighting the urgent need to prevent NAFLD progression
Magnetic Catalysis: A Review
We give an overview of the magnetic catalysis phenomenon. In the framework of
quantum field theory, magnetic catalysis is broadly defined as an enhancement
of dynamical symmetry breaking by an external magnetic field. We start from a
brief discussion of spontaneous symmetry breaking and the role of a magnetic
field in its a dynamics. This is followed by a detailed presentation of the
essential features of the phenomenon. In particular, we emphasize that the
dimensional reduction plays a profound role in the pairing dynamics in a
magnetic field. Using the general nature of underlying physics and its
robustness with respect to interaction types and model content, we argue that
magnetic catalysis is a universal and model-independent phenomenon. In support
of this claim, we show how magnetic catalysis is realized in various models
with short-range and long-range interactions. We argue that the general nature
of the phenomenon implies a wide range of potential applications: from certain
types of solid state systems to models in cosmology, particle and nuclear
physics. We finish the review with general remarks about magnetic catalysis and
an outlook for future research.Comment: 37 pages, to appear in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly interacting matter
in magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A.
Schmitt, H.-U. Yee. Version 2: references adde
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
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