783 research outputs found
Measurement of the Charge Collection Efficiency after Heavy Non-Uniform Irradiation in BaBar Silicon Detectors
We have investigated the depletion voltage changes, the leakage current
increase and the charge collection efficiency of a silicon microstrip detector
identical to those used in the inner layers of the BaBar Silicon Vertex Tracker
(SVT) after heavy non-uniform irradiation. A full SVT module with the front-end
electronics connected has been irradiated with a 0.9 GeV electron beam up to a
peak fluence of 3.5 x 10^14 e^-/cm^2, well beyond the level causing substrate
type inversion. We irradiated one of the two sensors composing the module with
a non-uniform profile with sigma=1.4 mm that simulates the conditions
encountered in the BaBar experiment by the modules intersecting the horizontal
machine plane. The position dependence of the charge collection properties and
the depletion voltage have been investigated in detail using a 1060 nm LED and
an innovative measuring technique based only on the digital output of the chip.Comment: 7 pages, 13 figures. Presented at the 2004 IEEE Nuclear Science
Symposium, October 18-21, Rome, Italy. Accepted for publication by IEEE
Transactions on Nuclear Scienc
Minimal archi-texture for neutrino mass matrices
The origin of the observed masses and mixing angles of quarks and leptons is
one of imperative subjects in and beyond the standard model. Toward a deeper
understanding of flavor structure, we investigate in this paper the minimality
of fermion mass (Yukawa) matrices in unified theory. That is, the simplest
matrix form is explored in light of the current experimental data for quarks
and leptons, including the recent measurements of quark CP violation and
neutrino oscillations. Two types of neutrino mass schemes are particularly
analyzed; (i) Majorana masses of left-handed neutrinos with unspecified
mechanism and (ii) Dirac and Majorana masses introducing three right-handed
neutrinos. As a result, new classes of neutrino mass matrices are found to be
consistent to the low-energy experimental data and high-energy unification
hypothesis. For distinctive phenomenological implications of the minimal
fermion mass textures, we discuss flavor-violating decay of charged leptons,
the baryon asymmetry of the universe via thermal leptogenesis, neutrino-less
double beta decay, and low-energy leptonic CP violation.Comment: 37 pages, 6 figure
Individual Circadian Preference, Eating Disorders and Obesity in Children and Adolescents: A Dangerous Liaison? A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis
Obesity and other eating disorders are an actual public health problem, especially in childhood and adolescents, and could be also related with chronotype. The aim of this systematic review was to determine the relationship between eating disorders, obesity and the different chronotypes in children and adolescents. Methods: A systematic review of observational studies evaluating young populations dealing with and evaluating chronotype was conducted. Electronic searches were performed in six international databases. A qualitative thematic-categorical analysis was carried out and a random-effects model was used for the quantitative analysis (meta-analysis). Results: Fifteen studies were included, but quantitative analysis was only carried out in three of them. Children and adolescents with an evening chronotype had higher body mass index, consumed more junk food or were more predisposed to suffer from food addiction and night eating syndrome. Conclusions: Children and adolescents with evening chronotype had higher tendency to incorrect eating behaviors and were suffering from overweight/obesity. Environment but also lifestyle factors should be considered in the association between chronotype and eating disorders and obesity
Synergistic icephobic behaviour of swollen nitrile butadiene rubber graphene and/or carbon nanotube composites
Spontaneous change of adhesion of solidifying liquid on surfaces is of significant importance in materials technology where it finds applications such as anti-icing components operating in extreme environments like those of seals. In this work, nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) composites reinforced with graphene, carbon nanotubes, and a mix of them after immersion in several fluids, experienced both a swelling and a reduction of the cross-link density that reduces ice adhesion, being this effect more evident for graphene containing samples. These results have been rationalized via a first principles atomistic modellization of interfaces formed by ice water of increasing thickness and graphene and scaling laws from fracture mechanics, revealing a clear synergy between swelling and nanocarbon phase in the icephobic nature of the composite, dictated by a competition between elastic modulus and adsorption energy. These findings could find an upscale in component validation readily applied to different areas where de-icing demands handling of large amount of environmental harmful agents.GG wants to thank CINECA [grant number HP10CN7DI0] and acknowledge
PRACE for awarding us access to resource Marconi based in
Italy at CINECA [Grant number Pra14_3664]. G.G. is similarly grateful
to CARIT [grant number FCARITR17FR]â for supporting this research.
MALM thanks the support from the MINECO [grant number MAT2016-
81138-R]. NMP is supported by the European Commission under the
Graphene Flagship Core2 [WP14 âCompositesâ grant number 785219]
and FET Proactive âNeurofibresâ [grant number 732344]. NMP is
supported by theItalian Ministry of Education, University and Research
(MIUR) under the âDepartments of Excellenceâ grant L.232/2016. LV is
supported by the European Commission under the Graphene Flagship
Core2 [WP14 âCompositesâ grant number 785219]. LV and GG rea
supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research
(MIUR) under the âDepartments of Excellenceâ grant L.232/2016Peer Reviewe
Daylight Saving Time and Spontaneous Deliveries: A CaseâControl Study in Italy
(1) Background: Although the current literature shows that daylight saving time (DST) may play a role in human health and behavior, this topic has been poorly investigated with reference to Obstetrics. The aim of this caseâcontrol study was to evaluate whether DST may influence the number of spontaneous deliveries. (2) Methods: A low-risk pregnancy cohort with spontaneous onset of labor (n = 7415) was analyzed from a single Italian region for the period 2016â2018. Primary outcome was the number of spontaneous deliveries. Secondary outcomes were: gestational age at delivery, type and time of delivery, use of analgesia, birth weight, and 5-min Apgar at delivery. We compared the outcomes in the two weeks after DST (cases) to the two weeks before DST (controls). (3) Results: Data showed no significant difference between the number of deliveries occurring before and after DST (Chi-square = 0.546, p = 0.46). Vaginal deliveries at any gestational age showed no statistical difference between the two groups (Chi-square = 0.120, p = 0.73). There were no significant differences in the secondary outcomes, as well. (4) Conclusions: DST has neither a significant impact on the number of deliveries nor on the obstetric variables investigated by this study
Passing to the Limit in a Wasserstein Gradient Flow: From Diffusion to Reaction
We study a singular-limit problem arising in the modelling of chemical
reactions. At finite {\epsilon} > 0, the system is described by a Fokker-Planck
convection-diffusion equation with a double-well convection potential. This
potential is scaled by 1/{\epsilon}, and in the limit {\epsilon} -> 0, the
solution concentrates onto the two wells, resulting into a limiting system that
is a pair of ordinary differential equations for the density at the two wells.
This convergence has been proved in Peletier, Savar\'e, and Veneroni, SIAM
Journal on Mathematical Analysis, 42(4):1805-1825, 2010, using the linear
structure of the equation. In this paper we re-prove the result by using solely
the Wasserstein gradient-flow structure of the system. In particular we make no
use of the linearity, nor of the fact that it is a second-order system. The
first key step in this approach is a reformulation of the equation as the
minimization of an action functional that captures the property of being a
curve of maximal slope in an integrated form. The second important step is a
rescaling of space. Using only the Wasserstein gradient-flow structure, we
prove that the sequence of rescaled solutions is pre-compact in an appropriate
topology. We then prove a Gamma-convergence result for the functional in this
topology, and we identify the limiting functional and the differential equation
that it represents. A consequence of these results is that solutions of the
{\epsilon}-problem converge to a solution of the limiting problem.Comment: Added two sections, corrected minor typos, updated reference
Electronic structure of rectangular quantum dots
We study the ground state properties of rectangular quantum dots by using the
spin-density-functional theory and quantum Monte Carlo methods. The dot
geometry is determined by an infinite hard-wall potential to enable comparison
to manufactured, rectangular-shaped quantum dots. We show that the electronic
structure is very sensitive to the deformation, and at realistic sizes the
non-interacting picture determines the general behavior. However, close to the
degenerate points where Hund's rule applies, we find spin-density-wave-like
solutions bracketing the partially polarized states. In the
quasi-one-dimensional limit we find permanent charge-density waves, and at a
sufficiently large deformation or low density, there are strongly localized
stable states with a broken spin-symmetry.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PR
Variational convergence of gradient flows and rate-independent evolutions in metric spaces
We study the asymptotic behaviour of families of gradient flows in a general
metric setting, when the metric-dissipation potentials degenerate in the limit
to a dissipation with linear growth. We present a general variational
definition of BV solutions to metric evolutions, showing the different
characterization of the solution in the absolutely continuous regime, on the
singular Cantor part, and along the jump transitions. By using tools of metric
analysis, BV functions and blow-up by time rescaling, we show that this
variational notion is stable with respect to a wide class of perturbations
involving energies, distances, and dissipation potentials. As a particular
application, we show that BV solutions to rate-independent problems arise
naturally as a limit of -gradient flows, , when the exponents
converge to 1
Sporting embodiment: sports studies and the (continuing) promise of phenomenology
Whilst in recent years sports studies have addressed the calls âto bring the body back inâ to theorisations of sport and physical activity, the âpromise of phenomenologyâ remains largely under-realised with regard to sporting embodiment. Relatively few accounts are grounded in the âfleshâ of the lived sporting body, and phenomenology offers a powerful framework for such analysis. A wide-ranging, multi-stranded, and interpretatively contested perspective, phenomenology in general has been taken up and utilised in very different ways within different disciplinary fields. The purpose of this article is to consider some selected phenomenological threads, key qualities of the phenomenological method, and the potential for existentialist phenomenology in particular to contribute fresh perspectives to the sociological study of embodiment in sport and exercise. It offers one way to convey the âessencesâ, corporeal immediacy and textured sensuosity of the lived sporting body. The use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is also critically addressed.
Key words: phenomenology; existentialist phenomenology; interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA); sporting embodiment; the lived-body; Merleau-Pont
Face morphology: Can it tell us something about body weight and fat?
This paper proposes a method for an automatic extraction of geometric features, related to weight parameters, from 3D facial data acquired with low-cost depth scanners. The novelty of the method relies both on the processing of the 3D facial data and on the definition of the geometric features which are conceptually simple, robust against noise and pose estimation errors, computationally efficient, invariant with respect to rotation, translation, and scale changes. Experimental results show that these measurements are highly correlated with weight, BMI, and neck circumference, and well correlated with waist and hip circumference, which are markers of central obesity. Therefore the proposed method strongly supports the development of interactive, non-obtrusive systems able to provide a support for the detection of weight-related problems
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