1,567 research outputs found
Isovector Giant Dipole Resonance of Stable Nuclei in a Consistent Relativistic Random Phase Approximation
A fully consistent relativistic random phase approximation is applied to
study the systematic behavior of the isovector giant dipole resonance of nuclei
along the -stability line in order to test the effective Lagrangians
recently developed. The centroid energies of response functions of the
isovector giant dipole resonance for stable nuclei are compared with the
corresponding experimental data and the good agreement is obtained. It is found
that the effective Lagrangian with an appropriate nuclear symmetry energy,
which can well describe the ground state properties of nuclei, could also
reproduce the isovector giant dipole resonance of nuclei along the
-stability line.Comment: 4 pages, 1 Postscript figure, to be submitted to Chin.Phys.Let
Rho-Nucleon Tensor Coupling and Charge-Exchange Resonances
The Gamow-Teller resonances are discussed in the context of a self-consistent
RPA, based on the relativistic mean field theory. We inquire on the possibility
of substituting the phenomenological Landau-Migdal force by a microscopic
nucleon-nucleon interaction generated from the rho-nucleon tensor coupling. The
effect of this coupling turns out to be very small when the short range
correlations are not taken into account, but too large when these correlations
are simulated by the simple extraction of the contact terms from the resulting
nucleon-nucleon interaction.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures; extended text, improved figures, new
references added, the version appearing in Phys.Lett.
Recent updates on incubation of drug craving: a mini-review
Cue-induced drug craving progressively increases after prolonged withdrawal from drug self-administration in laboratory animals, a behavioral phenomenon termed 'incubation of drug craving.' Studies over the years have revealed several important neural mechanisms contributing to incubation of drug craving. In this mini-review, we first discuss three excellent Addiction Biology publications on incubation of drug craving in both human and laboratory animals. We then review several key publications from the past year on behavioral and mechanistic findings related to incubation of drug craving
The effects of weather and climate change on dengue
There is much uncertainty about the future impact of climate change on vector-borne diseases. Such uncertainty reflects the difficulties in modelling the complex interactions between disease, climatic and socioeconomic determinants. We used a comprehensive panel dataset from Mexico covering 23 years of province-specific dengue reports across nine climatic regions to estimate the impact of weather on dengue, accounting for the effects of non-climatic factors
Self-consistent description of nuclear compressional modes
Isoscalar monopole and dipole compressional modes are computed for a variety
of closed-shell nuclei in a relativistic random-phase approximation to three
different parametrizations of the Walecka model with scalar self-interactions.
Particular emphasis is placed on the role of self-consistency which by itself,
and with little else, guarantees the decoupling of the spurious
isoscalar-dipole strength from the physical response and the conservation of
the vector current. A powerful new relation is introduced to quantify the
violation of the vector current in terms of various ground-state form-factors.
For the isoscalar-dipole mode two distinct regions are clearly identified: (i)
a high-energy component that is sensitive to the size of the nucleus and scales
with the compressibility of the model and (ii) a low-energy component that is
insensitivity to the nuclear compressibility. A fairly good description of both
compressional modes is obtained by using a ``soft'' parametrization having a
compression modulus of K=224 MeV.Comment: 28 pages and 10 figures; submitted to PR
Local biases drive, but do not determine, the perception of illusory trajectories
When a dot moves horizontally across a set of tilted lines of alternating orientations, the dot appears to be moving up and down along its trajectory. This perceptual phenomenon, known as the slalom illusion, reveals a mismatch between the veridical motion signals and the subjective percept of the motion trajectory, which has not been comprehensively explained. In the present study, we investigated the empirical boundaries of the slalom illusion using psychophysical methods. The phenomenon was found to occur both under conditions of smooth pursuit eye movements and constant fixation, and to be consistently amplified by intermittently occluding the dot trajectory. When the motion direction of the dot was not constant, however, the stimulus display did not elicit the expected illusory percept. These findings confirm that a local bias towards perpendicularity at the intersection points between the dot trajectory and the tilted lines cause the illusion, but also highlight that higher-level cortical processes are involved in interpreting and amplifying the biased local motion signals into a global illusion of trajectory perception
Local biases drive, but do not determine, the perception of illusory trajectories
When a dot moves horizontally across a set of tilted lines of alternating orientations, the dot appears to be moving up and down along its trajectory. This perceptual phenomenon, known as the slalom illusion, reveals a mismatch between the veridical motion signals and the subjective percept of the motion trajectory, which has not been comprehensively explained. In the present study, we investigated the empirical boundaries of the slalom illusion using psychophysical methods. The phenomenon was found to occur both under conditions of smooth pursuit eye movements and constant fixation, and to be consistently amplified by intermittently occluding the dot trajectory. When the motion direction of the dot was not constant, however, the stimulus display did not elicit the expected illusory percept. These findings confirm that a local bias towards perpendicularity at the intersection points between the dot trajectory and the tilted lines cause the illusion, but also highlight that higher-level cortical processes are involved in interpreting and amplifying the biased local motion signals into a global illusion of trajectory perception
Economic Impact of Dengue Illness and the Cost-Effectiveness of Future Vaccination Programs in Singapore
Dengue illness is a tropical disease transmitted by mosquitoes that threatens more than one third of the worldwide population. Dengue has important economic consequences because of the burden to hospitals, work absenteeism and risk of death of symptomatic cases. Governments attempt to reduce the disease burden using costly mosquito control strategies such as habitat reduction and spraying insecticide. Despite such efforts, the number of cases remains high. Dengue vaccines are expected to be available in the near future and there is an urgent need to evaluate their cost-effectiveness, i.e. whether their cost will be justified by the reduction in disease burden they bring. For such an evaluation, we estimated the economic impacts of dengue in Singapore and the expected vaccine costs for different prices. In this way we estimated price thresholds for which vaccination is not cost-effective. This research provides useful estimates that will contribute to informed decisions regarding the adoption of dengue vaccination programs
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