Temperature effects on the nuclear symmetry energy and symmetry free energy with an isospin and momentum dependent interaction

Within a self-consistent thermal model using an isospin and momentum dependent interaction (MDI) constrained by the isospin diffusion data in heavy-ion collisions, we investigate the temperature dependence of the symmetry energy $E_{sym}(\rho, T)$ and symmetry free energy $F_{sym}(\rho, T)$ for hot, isospin asymmetric nuclear matter. It is shown that the symmetry energy $E_{sym}(\rho, T)$ generally decreases with increasing temperature while the symmetry free energy $F_{sym}(\rho, T)$ exhibits opposite temperature dependence. The decrement of the symmetry energy with temperature is essentially due to the decrement of the potential energy part of the symmetry energy with temperature. The difference between the symmetry energy and symmetry free energy is found to be quite small around the saturation density of nuclear matter. While at very low densities, they differ significantly from each other. In comparison with the experimental data of temperature dependent symmetry energy extracted from the isotopic scaling analysis of intermediate mass fragments (IMF's) in heavy-ion collisions, the resulting density and temperature dependent symmetry energy $E_{sym}(\rho, T)$ is then used to estimate the average freeze-out density of the IMF's.used to estimate the average freeze-out density of the IMF's.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 1 figure added to show the temperature dependence of the potential and kinetic parts of the symmetry energy. Revised version to appear in PR

SCOPE: Scalable Composite Optimization for Learning on Spark

Many machine learning models, such as logistic regression~(LR) and support vector machine~(SVM), can be formulated as composite optimization problems. Recently, many distributed stochastic optimization~(DSO) methods have been proposed to solve the large-scale composite optimization problems, which have shown better performance than traditional batch methods. However, most of these DSO methods are not scalable enough. In this paper, we propose a novel DSO method, called \underline{s}calable \underline{c}omposite \underline{op}timization for l\underline{e}arning~({SCOPE}), and implement it on the fault-tolerant distributed platform \mbox{Spark}. SCOPE is both computation-efficient and communication-efficient. Theoretical analysis shows that SCOPE is convergent with linear convergence rate when the objective function is convex. Furthermore, empirical results on real datasets show that SCOPE can outperform other state-of-the-art distributed learning methods on Spark, including both batch learning methods and DSO methods

Differential isospin-fractionation in dilute asymmetric nuclear matter

The differential isospin-fractionation (IsoF) during the liquid-gas phase transition in dilute asymmetric nuclear matter is studied as a function of nucleon momentum. Within a self-consistent thermal model it is shown that the neutron/proton ratio of the gas phase becomes {\it smaller} than that of the liquid phase for energetic nucleons, although the gas phase is overall more neutron-rich. Clear indications of the differential IsoF consistent with the thermal model predictions are demonstrated within a transport model for heavy-ion reactions. Future comparisons with experimental data will allow us to extract critical information about the momentum dependence of the isovector strong interaction.Comment: Rapid Communication, Phys. Rev. C (2007) in pres

Effect of Baicalin on inflammatory mediator levels and microcirculation disturbance in rats with severe acute pancreatitis

Objective: To investigate the effect of Bacailin on inflammatory mediator levels and microcirculation disturbance in severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) rats and explore its therapeutic mechanism on this disease. Methods: SAP model rats were randomly divided into model control group and Baicalin treated group, 45 rats in each group. The same number of normal rats were included in sham-operated group. These groups were further subdivided into 3 h, 6 h and 12 h subgroups, respectively (15 rats in each subgroup). At 3, 6 and 12 hours after operation, rats were killed to conduct the following experiments: (1) to examine the mortality rates of rats, the ascites volume and pancreatic pathological changes in each group; (2) to determine the contents of amylase, PLA~2~, TXB~2~, PGE~2~, PAF and IL-1[beta]; in blood as well as the changes in blood viscosity.Results: (1) Compared to model control group, treatment with Baicalin is able to improve the pathological damage of the pancreas, lower the contents of amylase and multiple inflammatory mediators in blood, decrease the amount of ascitic fluid and reduce the mortality rates of SAP rats; (2) at 3 hours after operation, the low-shear whole blood viscosity in Baicalin treated group was significantly lower than that in model control group;at 12 hours after operation, both the high-shear and low-shear whole blood viscosity in Baicalin treated group were also significantly lower than those in model control group.Conclusion: Baicalin, as a new drug, has good prospects in the treatment of SAP since it can exert therapeutic effects on this disease through inhibiting the production of inflammatory mediators, lowering blood viscosity, improving microcirculation and mitigating the pathological damage of the pancreas

Differential responses of two rubber tree clones to chilling stress

Chilling stress is one of the most important environmental factors that limit the growth, distribution and yield of rubber tree in China. The effects of chilling stress on the grated plants of two rubber trees clones, GT1 and Wenchang217, were studied by physiological methods in controlled light chamber in order to explore the physiological mechanism of cold tolerance in rubber tree. Our results show a significant change in the tested physiological parameters after chilling treatment between two rubber clones. In comparison with the case of rubber tree clone GT1, the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased while superoxide dismutase, especially peroxidase and catalase decreased significantly in the seedlings of rubber tree clone Wenchang217 in response to chilling stress. As the cold tolerance ability of rubber tree clone GT1 is stronger than that of rubber tree clone Wenchang217, activation of oxidative quenching enzyme system should be one of the important factors that determine the cold tolerance of rubber tree.Keywords: Chilling stress, cold tolerance, Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg., physiological parameter, seedlin