In Vitro Fertility of Post-thawed Epididymal Ram Spermatozoa After Storage at 5 °C Before Cryopreservation

This study addressed the effects of storage duration of epididymides at 5 °C before sperm collection and their fertility after cryopreservation in vitro. Spermatozoa from one of the testes pairs were immediately collected, evaluated and frozen (control group). The remaining epididymides were cooled to 5 °C and stored for 24, 48, 72, and 96 h (experimental groups), after which spermatozoa were collected and frozen as in the control group. Before and after thawing, sperm motility, sperm viability and plasma membrane integrity were assessed. The fertilizing ability of frozen-thawed spermatozoa of each group was evaluated by in vitro fertilization of matured sheep oocytes. Sperm quality (sperm motility, viability, and plasma membrane integrity) at collection and after cryopreservation decreased as the duration of the epididymal storage interval increase (P < 0.05). The motility decreased steadily along the studied time periods. Although, the fertilizing ability of post-thawed epididymal spermatozoa gradually decreased as the storage period was prolonged, the spermatozoa collected from the cauda epididymides stored at 5 °C for up to 96 h were able to fertilize 16%-65% of oocytes in vitro. Results of the present study showed that ram epididymal spermatozoa survive in storage at 5 °C for up to 96 h. These spermatozoa maintain their fertilizing ability and may be suitable for use in IVF and other assisted reproductive procedures

3D Jet Tomography of Twisted Strongly Coupled Quark Gluon Plasmas

The triangular enhancement of the rapidity distribution of hadrons produced in p+A reactions relative to p+p is a leading order in A^{1/3}/log(s) violation of longitudinal boost invariance at high energies. In A+A reactions this leads to a trapezoidal enhancement of the local rapidity density of produced gluons. The local rapidity gradient is proportional to the local participant number asymmetry, and leads to an effective rotation in the reaction plane. We propose that three dimensional jet tomography, correlating the long range rapidity and azimuthal dependences of the nuclear modification factor, R_{AA}(\eta,\phi,p_\perp; b>0), can be used to look for this intrinsic longitudinal boost violating structure of $A+A$ collisions to image the produced twisted strongly coupled quark gluon plasma (sQGP). In addition to dipole and elliptic azimuthal moments of R_{AA}, a significant high p_\perp octupole moment is predicted away from midrapidity. The azimuthal angles of maximal opacity and hence minima of R_{AA} are rotated away from the normal to the reaction plane by an `Octupole Twist' angle, \theta_3(\eta), at forward rapidities.Comment: 10 Pages, 16 Figures, RevTex, Replaced with Peer reviewed verion for PR

Chemical Abundances of the Milky Way Thick Disk and Stellar Halo I.: Implications of [alpha/Fe] for Star Formation Histories in Their Progenitors

We present the abundance analysis of 97 nearby metal-poor (-3.3<[Fe/H]<-0.5) stars having kinematics characteristics of the Milky Way (MW) thick disk, inner, and outer stellar halos. The high-resolution, high-signal-to-noise optical spectra for the sample stars have been obtained with the High Dispersion Spectrograph mounted on the Subaru Telescope. Abundances of Fe, Mg, Si, Ca and Ti have been derived using a one-dimensional LTE abundance analysis code with Kurucz NEWODF model atmospheres. By assigning membership of the sample stars to the thick disk, inner or outer halo components based on their orbital parameters, we examine abundance ratios as a function of [Fe/H] and kinematics for the three subsamples in wide metallicity and orbital parameter ranges. We show that, in the metallicity range of -1.5<[Fe/H]<= -0.5, the thick disk stars show constantly high mean [Mg/Fe] and [Si/Fe] ratios with small scatter. In contrast, the inner, and the outer halo stars show lower mean values of these abundance ratios with larger scatter. The [Mg/Fe], [Si/Fe] and [Ca/Fe] for the inner and the outer halo stars also show weak decreasing trends with [Fe/H] in the range [Fe/H]$>-2$. These results favor the scenarios that the MW thick disk formed through rapid chemical enrichment primarily through Type II supernovae of massive stars, while the stellar halo has formed at least in part via accretion of progenitor stellar systems having been chemically enriched with different timescales.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Grinding as an approach to the production of high-strength, dispersion-strengthened nickel-base alloys

Mechanical process produces dispersion-strengthened metal alloys. Power surface contamination during milling is removed by a cleaning method that involves heating thin shapes or partially-compacted milled powder blends in hydrogen to carefully controlled temperature schedules

Hydrogenic Transitions in Multiply Charged Fe and Ni Ions

Ten lines in the range 3880≦λ≦5666 Å in the beam-foil spectrum of iron have been identified with specific hydrogenic transitions in Fe iv-viii. The same transitions were observed from Ni and Ar beams. Deviations from the hydrogenic wavelengths are shown to be consistent with that expected from core polarization. The absence of these lines in astrophysical sources is discussed. A wavelength table is presented for identification of hydrogenic transitions to be expected in beam-foil spectra

Peculiarities of isotopic temperatures obtained from p+A collisions at 1 GeV

Nuclear temperatures obtained from inclusive measurements of double isotopic yield ratios of fragments produced in 1 GeV p + A collisions amount to about 4 MeV nearly independent from the target mass.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Eur. Phys. J.

Non-vanishing of LL-functions associated to cusp forms of half-integral weight

In this article, we prove non-vanishing results for $L$-functions associated to holomorphic cusp forms of half-integral weight on average (over an orthogonal basis of Hecke eigenforms). This extends a result of W. Kohnen to forms of half-integral weight.Comment: 8 pages, Accepted for publication in Oman conference proceedings (Springer