Momentum dependence of the symmetry potential and nuclear reactions induced by neutron-rich nuclei at RIA

Effects of the momentum-dependence of the symmetry potential in nuclear reactions induced by neutron-rich nuclei at RIA energies are studied using an isospin- and momentum-dependent transport model. It is found that symmetry potentials with and without the momentum-dependence but corresponding to the same density-dependent symmetry energy $E_{sym}(\rho)$ lead to significantly different predictions on several $E_{sym}(\rho)$-sensitive experimental observables. The momentum-dependence of the symmetry potential is thus critically important for investigating accurately the equation of state (${\rm EOS}$) and novel properties of dense neutron-rich matter at RIA.Comment: Rapid Communication, Phys. Rev. C in pres

On the choice of colliding beams to study deformation effects in relativistic heavy ion collisions

It has been suggested that collisions between deformed shapes will lead to interesting effects on various observables such as K production and elliptic flow. Simple formulae can be written down which show how to choose the colliding beams which will maximise the effects of deformation.Comment: 2 pages, this version supersedes the previous on

Pulmonary effects of passive smoking: the Indian experience

There are only a few studies done on pulmonary effects of passive smoking from India, which are summarized in this paper. Several vernacular tobacco products are used in India, bidis (beedis) being the commonest form of these. Bidis contain a higher concentration of nicotine and other tobacco alkaloids compared to the standard cigarettes (e.g., the sum of total nicotine and minor tobacco alkaloids was 37.5 mg in bidi compared to 14–16 mg in Indian or American cigarettes in one study). A large study performed on 9090 adolescent school children demonstrated environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure to be associated with an increased risk of asthma. The odds ratio for being asthmatic in ETS-exposed as compared to ETS-unexposed children was 1.78 (95% CI: 1.33–2.31). Nearly one third of the children in this study reported non-specific respiratory symptoms and the ETS exposure was found to be positively associated with the prevalence of each symptom. Passive smoking was also shown to increase morbidity and to worsen the control of asthma among adults. Another study demonstrated exposure to ETS was a significant trigger for acute exacerbation of asthma. Increased bronchial hyper-responsiveness was also demonstrated among the healthy nonsmoking adult women exposed to ETS. Passive smoking leads to subtle changes in airflow mechanics. In a study among 50 healthy nonsmoking women passively exposed to tobacco smoke and matched for age with 50 unexposed women, forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were marginally lower among the passive smokers (mean difference 0.13 L and 0.20 L-1, respectively), but maximal mid expiratory flow (FEF25–75%), airway resistance (Raw) and specific conductance (sGaw) were significantly impaired. An association between passive smoking and lung cancer has also been described. In a study conducted in association with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the exposure to ETS during childhood was strongly associated with an enhanced incidence of lung cancer (OR = 3.9, 95% CI 1.9–8.2). In conclusions several adverse pulmonary effects of passive smoking, similar to those described from the western and developed countries, have been described from India

Capital Inflows and House Prices: Aggregate and Regional Evidence from China

Rising house prices in China have been of concern for investors and policymakers. Prices have risen substantially in the last decade, especially in large urban cities, and some economists have expressed concerns about the affordability of residential housing for young adults. This phenomenon becomes a major concern for policymakers, in terms of managing policies to balance the residential needs of individuals and the transition to a market economy. Theoretically, house prices ought to be linked to economic factors such as disposable income, availability of land to build and credit policy. However, it appears that traditional economic theories fail to appropriately explain house prices in China. We provide an explanation from the perspective of capital inflows into China. In terms of per capita remittances, China receives the highest inflow of foreign capital, and this may have a significant impact on risk adjusted returns in the Chinese market. To investigate this relationship, we use the vector error correction model to assess the impact of capital inflows on house prices. We find that capital inflows have a significant positive effect on house prices. The study makes important contributions to understanding the relationship between house prices and foreign remittances after controlling for other economic factors. China is a large economy. Because the impact of economic development in China has not been consistent across the country, we address the regional differences in the house price changes to capital inflows. Using regional data, we show that capital inflows have an asymmetric effect on the housing market across different provinces and cities of China. This has important implications for the development of economic policies in China that aim to provide fair access to residential housing for everyone. These findings are also relevant to investors in the housing market, whether investing for a personal residential home or as part of their diversified investment portfolio. It will also be informative to see how a reversal of capital inflows associated with tighter financing conditions in advanced countries will affect house prices in China.No Full Tex

Role of color Doppler ultrasound in the diagnosis of nonpalpable testes

Purpose Color Doppler ultrasound has been used for the diagnosis of torsion of testes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of this noninvasive tool in detecting impalpable testes.Patients and methods Twenty-five children with nonpalpable testes were treated at the Department of Pediatric Surgery, Institute of Medical Science, Banaras, between 2007 and 2009. Color Doppler ultrasound was used for detecting the position, size, and vascularity of nonpalpable testes. These patients were subsequently revaluated by laparoscopy.Results Out of 25 cases, 15 cases were unilateral and 10 cases were bilateral (a total of 35 nonpalpable testes). The color Doppler ultrasound study successfully localized 30 of the 35 nonpalpable testes, which were confirmed by subsequent laparoscopic examination. The sensitivity of color Doppler in locating testes was 85.71% (95% confidence interval = 0.64–0.97).Conclusion Color Doppler ultrasound is an effective noninvasive method for the initial diagnosis of impalpable testes and for planning its subsequent management.Keywords: color Doppler ultrasound, laparoscopy, nonpalpable teste

A Si-micromachined 48-stage Knudsen pump for on-chip vacuum

This paper describes a thermal transpiration-driven multistage Knudsen pump for vacuum pumping applications. This type of pump relies upon the motion of gas molecules from the cold end to the hot end of a channel in which the flow is restricted to the free molecular or transitional regimes. To achieve a high compression ratio, 48 stages are cascaded in series in a single chip. A five-mask, single silicon wafer process is used for monolithic integration of the designed Knudsen pump. The pump has several monolithically integrated Pirani gauges to experimentally measure the vacuum pumping characteristics of the pump. It has a footprint of 10.35 × 11.45 mm 2 . For an input power of 1350 mW, the fabricated pump self-evacuates the encapsulated cavities from 760 to ≈50 Torr, resulting in a compression ratio of 15. It also pumps down from 250 to ≈5 Torr, resulting in a compression ratio of 50. Each integrated Pirani gauge requires ≈3.9 mW of power consumption, and its response is sufficiently sensitive in the operating pressure range of 760–1 Torr.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98610/1/0960-1317_22_10_105026.pd

A Transport Model for Nuclear Reactions Induced by Radioactive Beams

Major ingredients of an isospin and momentum dependent transport model for nuclear reactions induced by radioactive beams are outlined. Within the IBUU04 version of this model we study several experimental probes of the equation of state of neutron-rich matter, especially the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. Comparing with the recent experimental data from NSCL/MSU on isospin diffusion, we found a nuclear symmetry energy of $)\approx 31.6(\rho /\rho_{0})^{1.05}$ at subnormal densities. Predictions on several observables sensitive to the density dependence of the symmetry energy at supranormal densities accessible at GSI and the planned Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) are also made.Comment: 10 pages. Talk given at the 2nd Argonne/MSU/JINA/INT RIA Workshop at MSU, March 9-12, 2005 to be published in the Proceedings by the American Institute of Physic

Minimizing the postoperative complications of severe hypospadias using a simple technique

Background The aim of this study was to decrease complication rates in proximal hypospadias surgery.Methods A simple method of stenting using a polypropylene stent has been developed for the most severe form of hypospadias during the period from January 2008 to January 2011 in the Department of Pediatric Surgery. The total number of patients was 46. The patients were classified into group 1 (n= 23), in which a polypropylene stent was used, and group 2 (n= 23), in which a polypropylene stent was not used.Results In group 1, complications occurred in three patients (13.04%), whereas in group 2 it occurred in 12 patients (52.2%). The difference in the total number of complications between groups was highly significant (P < 0.001). In group 1, no patient needed redo surgery, and in group 2 four patients (17.39%) needed redo surgery (P < 0.05). All other patients responded to repeated dilatation in the follow-up.Conclusion Although the sample size was small, this simple modification can decrease the complication rate significantly in the most severe form of hypospadias. Keywords: polypropylene stent, proximal hypospadias, surgical complications, urethroplast

Reducing False Discoveries in Statistically-Significant Regional-Colocation Mining: A Summary of Results

Given a set S of spatial feature types, its feature instances, a study area, and a neighbor relationship, the goal is to find pairs such that C is a statistically significant regional-colocation pattern in r_{g}. This problem is important for applications in various domains including ecology, economics, and sociology. The problem is computationally challenging due to the exponential number of regional colocation patterns and candidate regions. Previously, we proposed a miner [Subhankar et. al, 2022] that finds statistically significant regional colocation patterns. However, the numerous simultaneous statistical inferences raise the risk of false discoveries (also known as the multiple comparisons problem) and carry a high computational cost. We propose a novel algorithm, namely, multiple comparisons regional colocation miner (MultComp-RCM) which uses a Bonferroni correction. Theoretical analysis, experimental evaluation, and case study results show that the proposed method reduces both the false discovery rate and computational cost