1,390 research outputs found
Tetrahedral and Triangular Deformations of Nuclei in Mass Region
We study static non-axial octupole deformations in proton-rich nuclei,
Ge, Se, Kr, Sr, Zr and Mo, by using
the Skyrme Hartree-Fock plus BCS calculation with no restrictions on the
nuclear shape. The calculation predicts that the oblate ground state in
Se is extremely soft for the triangular deformation, and that
in Zr the low-lying local minimum state coexisting with the prolate
ground state has the tetrahedral deformation.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Postscript figures, REVTE
An exploration of the properties of cluster profiles for the thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects
With the advent of high-resolution, low-noise CMB measurements, the ability
to extract cosmological information from thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and
kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect will be limited not by statistical
uncertainties but rather by systematic and theoretical uncertainties. The
theoretical uncertainty is driven by the lack of knowledge about the electron
pressure and density. Thus we explore the electron pressure and density
distributions in the IllustrisTNG hydrodynamical simulations, and we
demonstrate that the cluster properties exhibit a strong dependence on the halo
concentration -- providing some of the first evidence of cluster assembly bias
in the electron pressure and density. Further, our work shows evidence for a
broken power-law mass dependence, with lower pressure in lower mass halos than
previous work and a strong evolution with mass of the radial correlations in
the electron density and pressure. Both of these effects highlight the
differing impact of active galactic nuclei and supernova feedback on the gas in
galaxy groups compared to massive clusters. We verified that we see
qualitatively similar features in the SIMBA hydro-dynamical simulations,
suggesting these effects could be generic features. Finally, we provide a
parametric formula for the electron pressure and density profile as a function
of dark matter halo mass, halo concentration, and redshift. These fitting
formulae can reproduce the distribution of density and pressure of clusters and
will be useful in extracting cosmological information from upcoming CMB
surveys.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure
Review on Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, L.) Improvement Programmes in Ghana
Tomato is an important component of every Ghanaian meal, and its cultivation contributes significantly to livelihood improvement. The demand for tomato in Ghana outstrips supply, and therefore local production is augmented by imports from neighbouring countries. Despite the importance of tomato in Ghana, past tomato-breeding programmes have been unsystematic and had not led to the development of new varieties that meet the needs of consumers as well as environmental stresses. This review outlined tomato production trends, constraints and past tomato improvement programmes in Ghana, which mainly focused on germplasm collection, morphological and agronomic characterization, molecular evaluation, diversity study, as well as screening germplasm against biotic and abiotic stresses. The established variability and the outcomes of the evaluations against the various biotic and abiotic stresses have not been utilized in the development of new varieties. This work will serve as a reference for developing future tomato-breeding programmes
Roles of proton-neutron interactions in alpha-like four-nucleon correlations
An extended pairing plus QQ force model, which has been shown to successfully
explain the nuclear binding energy and related quantities such as the symmetry
energy, is applied to study the alpha-like four-nucleon correlations in
1f_{7/2} shell nuclei.
The double difference of binding energies, which displays a characteristic
behavior at , is interpreted in terms of the alpha-like
correlations. Important roles of proton-neutron interactions forming the
alpha-like correlated structure are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, RevTex, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Screening families of patients with premature coronary heart disease to identify avoidable cardiovascular risk: a cross-sectional study of family members and a general population comparison group
<b>Background:</b>
Primary prevention should be targeted at individuals with high global cardiovascular risk, but research is lacking on how best to identify such individuals in the general population. Family history is a good proxy measure of global risk and may provide an efficient mechanism for identifying high risk individuals. The aim was to test the feasibility of using patients with premature cardiovascular disease to recruit family members as a means of identifying and screening high-risk individuals.
<b>Findings:</b>
We recruited family members of 50 patients attending a cardiology clinic for premature coronary heart disease (CHD). We compared their cardiovascular risk with a general population control group, and determined their perception of their risk and current level of screening. 103 (36%) family members attended screening (27 siblings, 48 adult offspring and 28 partners). Five (5%) had prevalent CHD. A significantly higher percentage had an ASSIGN risk score >20% compared with the general population (13% versus 2%, p < 0.001). Only 37% of family members were aware they were at increased risk and only 50% had had their blood pressure and serum cholesterol level checked in the previous three years.
<b>Conclusions:</b>
Patients attending hospital for premature CHD provide a mechanism to contact family members and this can identify individuals with a high global risk who are not currently screened
Progress on catastrophic health spending in 133 countries: a retrospective observational study
Background The goal of universal health coverage (UHC) requires inter alia that families who get needed health care do not suffer undue financial hardship as a result. This can be measured by the percentage of people in households whose out-of-pocket health expenditures are large relative to their income or consumption. We aimed to estimate the global incidence of catastrophic health spending, trends between 2000 and 2010, and associations between catastrophic health spending and macroeconomic and health system variables at the country level. Methods We did a retrospective observational study of health spending using data obtained from household surveys. Of 1566 potentially suitable household surveys, 553 passed quality checks, covering 133 countries between 1984 and 2015. We defined health spending as catastrophic when it exceeded 10% or 25% of household consumption. We estimated global incidence by aggregating up from every country, using a survey for the year in question when available, and interpolation and model-based estimates otherwise. We used multiple regression to explore the relation between a country’s incidence of catastrophic spending and gross domestic product (GDP) per person, the Gini coefficient for income inequality, and the share of total health expenditure spent by social security funds, other government agencies, private insurance schemes, and non-profit institutions. Findings The global incidence of catastrophic spending at the 10% threshold was estimated as 9·7% in 2000, 11·4% in 2005, and 11·7% in 2010. Globally, 808 million people in 2010 incurred catastrophic health spending. Across 94 countries with two or more survey datapoints, the population-weighted median annual rate of change of catastrophic payment incidence was positive whatever catastrophic payment incidence measure was used. Incidence of catastrophic payments was correlated positively with GDP per person and the share of GDP spent on health, and incidence correlated negatively with the share of total health spending channelled through social security funds and other government agencies. Interpretation The proportion of the population that is supposed to be covered by health insurance schemes or by national or subnational health services is a poor indicator of financial protection. Increasing the share of GDP spent on health is not sufficient to reduce catastrophic payment incidence; rather, what is required is increasing the share of total health expenditure that is prepaid, particularly through taxes and mandatory contributions
Progress on catastrophic health spending in 133 countries: a retrospective observational study
Background The goal of universal health coverage (UHC) requires inter alia that families who get needed health care do not suffer undue financial hardship as a result. This can be measured by the percentage of people in households whose out-of-pocket health expenditures are large relative to their income or consumption. We aimed to estimate the global incidence of catastrophic health spending, trends between 2000 and 2010, and associations between catastrophic health spending and macroeconomic and health system variables at the country level. Methods We did a retrospective observational study of health spending using data obtained from household surveys. Of 1566 potentially suitable household surveys, 553 passed quality checks, covering 133 countries between 1984 and 2015. We defined health spending as catastrophic when it exceeded 10% or 25% of household consumption. We estimated global incidence by aggregating up from every country, using a survey for the year in question when available, and interpolation and model-based estimates otherwise. We used multiple regression to explore the relation between a country’s incidence of catastrophic spending and gross domestic product (GDP) per person, the Gini coefficient for income inequality, and the share of total health expenditure spent by social security funds, other government agencies, private insurance schemes, and non-profit institutions. Findings The global incidence of catastrophic spending at the 10% threshold was estimated as 9·7% in 2000, 11·4% in 2005, and 11·7% in 2010. Globally, 808 million people in 2010 incurred catastrophic health spending. Across 94 countries with two or more survey datapoints, the population-weighted median annual rate of change of catastrophic payment incidence was positive whatever catastrophic payment incidence measure was used. Incidence of catastrophic payments was correlated positively with GDP per person and the share of GDP spent on health, and incidence correlated negatively with the share of total health spending channelled through social security funds and other government agencies. Interpretation The proportion of the population that is supposed to be covered by health insurance schemes or by national or subnational health services is a poor indicator of financial protection. Increasing the share of GDP spent on health is not sufficient to reduce catastrophic payment incidence; rather, what is required is increasing the share of total health expenditure that is prepaid, particularly through taxes and mandatory contributions
Emergent Chiral Symmetry: Parity and Time Reversal Doubles
There are numerous examples of approximately degenerate states of opposite
parity in molecular physics. Theory indicates that these doubles can occur in
molecules that are reflection-asymmetric. Such parity doubles occur in nuclear
physics as well, among nuclei with odd A 219-229. We have also suggested
elsewhere that such doubles occur in particle physics for baryons made up of
`cbu' and `cbd' quarks. In this article, we discuss the theoretical foundations
of these doubles in detail, demonstrating their emergence as a surprisingly
subtle consequence of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, and emphasizing their
bundle-theoretic and topological underpinnings. Starting with certain ``low
energy'' effective theories in which classical symmetries like parity and time
reversal are anomalously broken on quantization, we show how these symmetries
can be restored by judicious inclusion of ``high-energy'' degrees of freedom.
This mechanism of restoring the symmetry naturally leads to the aforementioned
doublet structure. A novel by-product of this mechanism is the emergence of an
approximate symmetry (corresponding to the approximate degeneracy of the
doubles) at low energies which is not evident in the full Hamiltonian. We also
discuss the implications of this mechanism for Skyrmion physics, monopoles,
anomalies and quantum gravity.Comment: 32 pages, latex. minor changes in presentation and reference
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