Least action description of dynamic pairing correlations in the fission of Curium and Californium isotopes based on the Gogny energy density functional

The impact of dynamic pairing correlations and their interplay with Coulomb antipairing effects on the systematic of the spontaneous fission half-lives for the nuclei $^{240-250}$Cm and $^{240-250}$Cf is analyzed, using a hierarchy of approximations based on the parametrization D1M of the Gogny energy density functional (EDF). First, the constrained Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) approximation is used to compute deformed mean-field configurations, zero-point quantum corrections and collective inertias either by using the Slater approximation to Coulomb exchange and neglecting Coulomb antipairing or by fully considering the exchange and pairing channels of the Coulomb interaction. Next, the properties of the {\it{least action}} and {\it{least energy}} fission paths are compared. In the {\it{least action}} case, pairing is identified as the relevant degree of freedom in order to minimize the action entering the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation to the tunneling probability through the fission barrier. Irrespective of the treatment of Coulomb exchange and antipairing, it is shown that the {\it{least action}} path obtained taking into account the pairing degree of freedom leads to stronger pairing correlations that significantly reduce the spontaneous fission half-lives $t_{SF}$ improving thereby the comparison with the experiment by several orders of magnitude. It is also shown that the Coulomb antipairing effect is, to a large extent, washed out by the {\it{least action}} procedure and therefore the $t_{SF}$ values obtained by the two different treatments of the Coulomb exchange and pairing are of similar quality.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

Radionuclide Determination In Surface Water Samples By Inductively Coupled Plasma With Sector Field Mass Spectrometry (ICP-SFMS)

The determination of naturally occurring radionuclides in the environment by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry of high resolution (ICP-SFMS) has gained recognition over the last fifteen years, relative to the radiometric techniques, as the result of improvement in instrumental performance, sample introduction equipment and sample preparation. With the increase in instrumental sensitivity, it is now possible to measure ultratrace levels of many radioisotopes.The aim of this work was to determined the natural radionuclides (232Th, 234U, 235U and 238U) in surface water using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Sector Field Mass Spectrometry (ICP-SFMS). The samples were sampling from Lerma river, State of Mexico at february to april 2015. The process of treatment of sample consisted in perform an acid digestion according to the 3015A USEPA method followed of the direct measurement in ICP-SFMS. Results obtained were: a) identify the presence of 232Th, 234U, 235U and 238U isotopes in water, b) isotopic ratios were for 234U/238U=1.133 ± 0.016. ICP-SFMS has gained popularity in the field of radiochemistry, particularly as a method of detection for long lived-actinides

Liquid crystal relaxation in three dimensions: the effect of hydrodynamic interactions

We investigate the relaxation of two line defects of opposite strength in a confined nematic liquidcrystal by solving the coupled tensor order parameter evolution and momentum balance equations in three dimensions. The inclusion of hydrodynamic interactions causes the defects to move at different velocities and slows the overall relaxation process, but this effect is suppressed by increasing the degree of confinement. The most notable flow features that develop in the system are large vortices that surround and follow the defects as they approach each other

Parent-child interactions and adolescent anxiety: a systematic review

Parental behaviours have been implicated in the development and maintenance of anxiety in children and young people; however the degree to which findings apply to adolescents specifically remains unclear. We conducted a systematic review of studies examining the evidence for an association between parental behaviours and adolescent anxiety. Twenty two studies were identified. The results of this systematic review provide fairly consistent preliminary evidence for an association between anxiety and perceived parental control and anxious rearing in adolescence. The findings relating to an association between adolescent anxiety and perceived parental rejection and lack of warmth are somewhat less consistent. Methodological shortcomings in the studies mean that these results should be interpreted with caution. Future research should be conducted using observational and experimental design with adolescents from referred, clinical populations to help identify the critical parental processes and clarify the direction of effects

Risks Involved in the Use of Enrofloxacin for Salmonella Enteritidis or Salmonella Heidelberg in Commercial Poultry

The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the risks involved in the use of Enrofloxacin for Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) or Salmonella Heidelberg (SH) in commercial poultry and determine the effects of a probiotic as an antibiotic alternative. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the risks involved in the use of Enrofloxacin for SE or SH in commercial poultry. Exp 1 consisted of 2 trials. In each trial, chickens were assigned to one of three groups; control + SE challenged; Enrofloxacin 25 mg/kg + SE; Enrofloxacin 50 mg/kg + SE. Chickens received Enrofloxacin in the drinking water from days 1 to 5 of age. On day 6, all groups received fresh water without any treatment. All chickens were orally gavaged with 107 cfu/chick of SE at 7 days of age and euthanized on 8 days of age. In Exp 2, turkey poults were assigned to one of the three groups; control + SH; probiotic + SH; Enrofloxacin 50 mg/kg + SH. Poults received probiotic or Enrofloxacin in the drinking water from days 1 to 5 of age. On day 6, poults received fresh water without any treatment. Poults were orally gavaged with 107 cfu/poult of SH at 7 days of age. Poults were weighted and humanely killed 24 h post-SH challenge to evaluate serum concentration of FITC-D to evaluate intestinal permeability, metagenomics and SH infection. In both trials of Exp 1, chickens treated with Enrofloxacin were more susceptible to SE organ invasion and intestinal colonization when compared with control non-treated chickens (P < 0.05). In Exp 2, poults treated with 50 mg/kg of Enrofloxacin showed an increase in body weight, however, this group also showed an increase in SH susceptibility, intestinal permeability and lower proportion of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, but with control group had the highest proportion of Proteobacteria. In contrast, poults that received the probiotic had the highest proportion of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, but lowest Proteobacteria. The results of the present study suggest that prophylactic utilization of Enrofloxacin at 5 times the recommended dose in poultry, increases the susceptibility to salmonellae infections, and confirms probiotics may be a

Quantum entanglement and disentanglement of multi-atom systems

We present a review of recent research on quantum entanglement, with special emphasis on entanglement between single atoms, processing of an encoded entanglement and its temporary evolution. Analysis based on the density matrix formalism are described. We give a simple description of the entangling procedure and explore the role of the environment in creation of entanglement and in disentanglement of atomic systems. A particular process we will focus on is spontaneous emission, usually recognized as an irreversible loss of information and entanglement encoded in the internal states of the system. We illustrate some certain circumstances where this irreversible process can in fact induce entanglement between separated systems. We also show how spontaneous emission reveals a competition between the Bell states of a two qubit system that leads to the recently discovered "sudden" features in the temporal evolution of entanglement. An another problem illustrated in details is a deterministic preparation of atoms and atomic ensembles in long-lived stationary squeezed states and entangled cluster states. We then determine how to trigger the evolution of the stable entanglement and also address the issue of a steered evolution of entanglement between desired pairs of qubits that can be achieved simply by varying the parameters of a given system.Comment: Review articl

An Overview of the 2014 ALMA Long Baseline Campaign

A major goal of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is to make accurate images with resolutions of tens of milliarcseconds, which at submillimeter (submm) wavelengths requires baselines up to ~15 km. To develop and test this capability, a Long Baseline Campaign (LBC) was carried out from September to late November 2014, culminating in end-to-end observations, calibrations, and imaging of selected Science Verification (SV) targets. This paper presents an overview of the campaign and its main results, including an investigation of the short-term coherence properties and systematic phase errors over the long baselines at the ALMA site, a summary of the SV targets and observations, and recommendations for science observing strategies at long baselines. Deep ALMA images of the quasar 3C138 at 97 and 241 GHz are also compared to VLA 43 GHz results, demonstrating an agreement at a level of a few percent. As a result of the extensive program of LBC testing, the highly successful SV imaging at long baselines achieved angular resolutions as fine as 19 mas at ~350 GHz. Observing with ALMA on baselines of up to 15 km is now possible, and opens up new parameter space for submm astronomy.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters; this version with small changes to affiliation

Observation of the Baryonic Flavor-Changing Neutral Current Decay Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu-

We report the first observation of the baryonic flavor-changing neutral current decay Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu- with 24 signal events and a statistical significance of 5.8 Gaussian standard deviations. This measurement uses ppbar collisions data sample corresponding to 6.8fb-1 at sqrt{s}=1.96TeV collected by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron collider. The total and differential branching ratios for Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu- are measured. We find B(Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu-) = [1.73+-0.42(stat)+-0.55(syst)] x 10^{-6}. We also report the first measurement of the differential branching ratio of B_s -> phi mu+ mu- using 49 signal events. In addition, we report branching ratios for B+ -> K+ mu+ mu-, B0 -> K0 mu+ mu-, and B -> K*(892) mu+ mu- decays.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

SummaryBackground The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 provides an up-to-date synthesis of the evidence for risk factor exposure and the attributable burden of disease. By providing national and subnational assessments spanning the past 25 years, this study can inform debates on the importance of addressing risks in context. Methods We used the comparative risk assessment framework developed for previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease Study to estimate attributable deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and trends in exposure by age group, sex, year, and geography for 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks from 1990 to 2015. This study included 388 risk-outcome pairs that met World Cancer Research Fund-defined criteria for convincing or probable evidence. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from randomised controlled trials, cohorts, pooled cohorts, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. We developed a metric that allows comparisons of exposure across risk factors—the summary exposure value. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk level, we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We decomposed trends in attributable burden into contributions from population growth, population age structure, risk exposure, and risk-deleted cause-specific DALY rates. We characterised risk exposure in relation to a Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Findings Between 1990 and 2015, global exposure to unsafe sanitation, household air pollution, childhood underweight, childhood stunting, and smoking each decreased by more than 25%. Global exposure for several occupational risks, high body-mass index (BMI), and drug use increased by more than 25% over the same period. All risks jointly evaluated in 2015 accounted for 57·8% (95% CI 56·6–58·8) of global deaths and 41·2% (39·8–42·8) of DALYs. In 2015, the ten largest contributors to global DALYs among Level 3 risks were high systolic blood pressure (211·8 million [192·7 million to 231·1 million] global DALYs), smoking (148·6 million [134·2 million to 163·1 million]), high fasting plasma glucose (143·1 million [125·1 million to 163·5 million]), high BMI (120·1 million [83·8 million to 158·4 million]), childhood undernutrition (113·3 million [103·9 million to 123·4 million]), ambient particulate matter (103·1 million [90·8 million to 115·1 million]), high total cholesterol (88·7 million [74·6 million to 105·7 million]), household air pollution (85·6 million [66·7 million to 106·1 million]), alcohol use (85·0 million [77·2 million to 93·0 million]), and diets high in sodium (83·0 million [49·3 million to 127·5 million]). From 1990 to 2015, attributable DALYs declined for micronutrient deficiencies, childhood undernutrition, unsafe sanitation and water, and household air pollution; reductions in risk-deleted DALY rates rather than reductions in exposure drove these declines. Rising exposure contributed to notable increases in attributable DALYs from high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, occupational carcinogens, and drug use. Environmental risks and childhood undernutrition declined steadily with SDI; low physical activity, high BMI, and high fasting plasma glucose increased with SDI. In 119 countries, metabolic risks, such as high BMI and fasting plasma glucose, contributed the most attributable DALYs in 2015. Regionally, smoking still ranked among the leading five risk factors for attributable DALYs in 109 countries; childhood underweight and unsafe sex remained primary drivers of early death and disability in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation Declines in some key environmental risks have contributed to declines in critical infectious diseases. Some risks appear to be invariant to SDI. Increasing risks, including high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, drug use, and some occupational exposures, contribute to rising burden from some conditions, but also provide opportunities for intervention. Some highly preventable risks, such as smoking, remain major causes of attributable DALYs, even as exposure is declining. Public policy makers need to pay attention to the risks that are increasingly major contributors to global burden. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation