Pulsed light beams in vacuum with superluminal and negative group velocities

Gouy's phase of transversally limited pulses can create a strong anomalous dispersion in vacuum leading to highly superluminal and negative group velocities. As a consequence, a focusing pulse can diverge beyond the focus before converging into it. A simple experiment is proposed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Joint system quantum descriptions arising from local quantumness

Bipartite correlations generated by non-signalling physical systems that admit a finite-dimensional local quantum description cannot exceed the quantum limits, i.e., they can always be interpreted as distant measurements of a bipartite quantum state. Here we consider the effect of dropping the assumption of finite dimensionality. Remarkably, we find that the same result holds provided that we relax the tensor structure of space-like separated measurements to mere commutativity. We argue why an extension of this result to tensor representations seems unlikely

Alcohol and early mortality (before 65 years) in the ‘seguimiento Universidad de Navarra’ (SUN) cohort: does any level reduce mortality?

The aim of this study was to assess the association between alcohol intake and premature mortality (younger than 65 years) and to explore the effect of potential alcohol underreporting by heavy drinkers. We followed-up 20 272 university graduates. Four categories of alcohol intake were considered (abstainer, light, moderate and heavy consumption). Repeated measurements of alcohol intake and updated information on confounders were used in time-dependent Cox models. Potential underreporting of alcohol intake by some heavy drinkers (likely misclassified as light or moderate drinkers) was explicitly addressed in an attempt to correct potential underreporting by using indirect information. During 12·3 years of median follow-up (interquartile range: 6·8–15·0), 226 participants died before their 65th birthday. A higher risk of early mortality was found for the highest category of alcohol intake (≥50 g/d) in comparison with abstention (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 2·82, 95 % CI 1·38, 5·79). In analyses of alcohol as a continuous variable, the multivariable-adjusted HR was 1·17 (95 % CI 1·08, 1·26), for each 10 g/d of alcohol. This harmful linear association was present both in uncorrected models and in models corrected for potential underreporting. No significant inverse association between light or moderate alcohol intake and premature mortality was observed, even after correcting for potential misclassification. Alcohol intake exhibited a harmful linear dose–response association with premature mortality (<65 years) in this young and highly educated Mediterranean cohort. Our attempts to correct for potential misclassification did not substantially change these results

Open Issues on the Synthesis of Evolved Stellar Populations at Ultraviolet Wavelengths

In this paper we briefly review three topics that have motivated our (and others') investigations in recent years within the context of evolutionary population synthesis techniques. These are: The origin of the FUV up-turn in elliptical galaxies, the age-metallicity degeneracy, and the study of the mid-UV rest-frame spectra of distant red galaxies. We summarize some of our results and present a very preliminary application of a UV grid of theoretical spectra in the analysis of integrated properties of aged stellar populations. At the end, we concisely suggest how these topics can be tackled once the World Space Observatory enters into operation in the midst of this decade.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Science, UV Universe special issu

Apoptosis in human liver carcinoma caused by gold nanoparticles in combination with carvedilol is mediated via modulation of MAPK/Akt/mTOR pathway and EGFR/FAAD proteins

Imaging- and therapeutic targets in neoplastic and musculoskeletal inflammatory diseas

Fast food consumption and gestational diabetes incidence in the SUN project

Background: Gestational diabetes prevalence is increasing, mostly because obesity among women of reproductive age is continuously escalating. We aimed to investigate the incidence of gestational diabetes according to the consumption of fast food in a cohort of university graduates. Methods: The prospective dynamic ‘‘Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra’’ (SUN) cohort included data of 3,048 women initially free of diabetes or previous gestational diabetes who reported at least one pregnancy between December 1999 and March 2011. Fast food consumption was assessed through a validated 136-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Fast food was defined as the consumption of hamburgers, sausages, and pizza. Three categories of fast food were established: low (0–3 servings/month), intermediate (.3 servings/month and #2 servings/week) and high (.2 servings/week). Non-conditional logistic regression models were used to adjust for potential confounders. Results: We identified 159 incident cases of gestational diabetes during follow-up. After adjusting for age, baseline body mass index, total energy intake, smoking, physical activity, family history of diabetes, cardiovascular disease/hypertension at baseline, parity, adherence to Mediterranean dietary pattern, alcohol intake, fiber intake, and sugar-sweetened soft drinks consumption, fast food consumption was significantly associated with a higher risk of incident gestational diabetes, with multivariate adjusted OR of 1.31 (95% conficence interval [CI]:0.81–2.13) and 1.86 (95% CI: 1.13–3.06) for the intermediate and high categories, respectively, versus the lowest category of baseline fast food consumption (p for linear trend: 0.007). Conclusion: Our results suggest that pre-pregnancy higher consumption of fast food is an independent risk factor for gestational diabetes

Competition between Allowed and First-Forbidden β Decay: The Case of Hg 208 → Tl 208

6 pags., 4 figs., 1 tab.The β decay of Hg208 into the one-proton hole, one neutron-particle Tl81208127 nucleus was investigated at CERN-ISOLDE. Shell-model calculations describe well the level scheme deduced, validating the proton-neutron interactions used, with implications for the whole of the N>126, Z<82 quadrant of neutron-rich nuclei. While both negative and positive parity states with spin 0 and 1 are expected within the Qβ window, only three negative parity states are populated directly in the β decay. The data provide a unique test of the competition between allowed Gamow-Teller and Fermi, and first-forbidden β decays, essential for the understanding of the nucleosynthesis of heavy nuclei in the rapid neutron capture process. Furthermore, the observation of the parity changing 0+→0-β decay where the daughter state is core excited is unique, and can provide information on mesonic corrections of effective operators.This work was supported by the European Union under Contracts No. 262010 (ENSAR) and No. 654002 (ENSAR2), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK), the German BMBF under Contract No. 05P18PKCIA and “Verbundprojekt 05P2018,” the MINECO Projects No. FPA2015-65035-P, No. RTI2018- 098868-B-I00, No. FPA2015-64969-P, and No. FPA2017- 87568-P (Spain), FWO-Vlaanderen (Belgium), GOA/ 2015/010 (BOF KU Leuven), the Excellence of Science programme (EOS-FWO), the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BriX network P7/12), the Romanian IFA project CERN-RO/ISOLDE and the Polish National Science Centre under Contracts No. UMO-2015/18/M/ST2/00523 and No. UMO-2019/33/N/ST2/03023. P. H. R. and S. M. J. acknowledge support from the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy via the National Measurement Office. Zs. P. acknowledges support from the ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum fr Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germa

Strong one-neutron emission from two-neutron unbound states in β decays of the r -process nuclei Ga 86,87

β-delayed one-neutron and two-neutron branching ratios (P1n and P2n) have been measured in the decay of A=84 to 87 Ga isotopes at the Radioactive-Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) at the RIKEN Nishina Center using a high-efficiency array of He3 neutron counters (BRIKEN). Two-neutron emission was observed in the decay of Ga84,85,87 for the first time and the branching ratios were measured to be P2n=1.6(2)%,1.3(2)%, and 10.2(28)stat(5)sys%, respectively. One-neutron branching ratio of Ga87(P1n=81(9)stat(8)sys%) and half-life of 29(4) ms were measured for the first time. The branching ratios of Ga86 were also measured to be P1n=74(2)stat(8)sys% and 16.2(9)stat(6)sys% with better precision than a previous study. The observation that P1n>P2n for both Ga86,87 was unexpected and is interpreted as a signature of dominating one-neutron emission from the two-neutron unbound excited states in Ge86,87. In order to interpret the experimental results, shell-model and Hauser-Feshbach statistical model calculations of delayed particle and γ-ray emission probabilities were performed. This model framework reproduces the experimental results. The shell model alone predicts P2n significantly larger than P1n for the Ga87 decay, and it is necessary to invoke a statistical description to successfully explain the observation that P1n>P2n. Our new results demonstrate the relevance and importance of a statistical description of neutron emission for the prediction of the decay properties of multineutron emitters and that it must be included in the r-process modeling