Reexamining the "finite-size" effects in isobaric yield ratios using a statistical abrasion-ablation model

The "finite-size" effects in the isobaric yield ratio (IYR), which are shown in the standard grand-canonical and canonical statistical ensembles (SGC/CSE) method, is claimed to prevent obtaining the actual values of physical parameters. The conclusion of SGC/CSE maybe questionable for neutron-rich nucleus induced reaction. To investigate whether the IYR has "finite-size" effects, the IYR for the mirror nuclei [IYR(m)] are reexamined using a modified statistical abrasion-ablation (SAA) model. It is found when the projectile is not so neutron-rich, the IYR(m) depends on the isospin of projectile, but the size dependence can not be excluded. In reactions induced by the very neutron-rich projectiles, contrary results to those of the SGC/CSE models are obtained, i.e., the dependence of the IYR(m) on the size and the isospin of the projectile is weakened and disappears both in the SAA and the experimental results.Comment: 5 pages and 4 figure

Lepton Family Symmetry and Neutrino Mass Matrix

The standard model of leptons is extended to accommodate a discrete Z_3 X Z_2 family symmetry. After rotating the charged-lepton mass matrix to its diagonal form, the neutrino mass matrix reveals itself as very suitable for explaining atmospheric and solar neutrino oscillation data. A generic requirement of this approach is the appearance of three Higgs doublets at the electroweak scale, with observable flavor violating decays.Comment: 9 pages, including 1 figur

Pyrite oxidation under initially neutral pH conditions and in the presence of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and micromolar hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) at a micromolar level played a role in the microbial surface oxidation of pyrite crystals under initially neutral pH. When the mineral-bacteria system was cyclically exposed to 50 μM H2O2, the colonization of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans onto the mineral surface was markedly enhanced, as compared to the control(no added H2O2). This can be attributed to the effects of H2O2 on increasing the roughness of the mineral surfaces, as well as the acidity and Fe2+ concentration at the mineral-solution interfaces. All of these effects tended to create more favourable nanoto micro-scale environments in the mineral surfaces for the cell adsorption. However, higher H2O2 levels inhibited the attachment of cells onto the mineral surfaces, possibly due to the oxidative stress in the bacteria when they approached the mineral surfaces where high levels of free radicals are present as a result of Fenton-like reactions. The more aggressive nature of H2O2 as an oxidant caused marked surface flaking of the mineral surface. The XPS results suggest that H2O2 accelerated the oxidation of pyrite-S and consequently facilitated the overall corrosion cycle of pyrite surfaces. This was accompanied by pH drop in the solution in contact with the pyrite cubes

Inherent robustness of discrete-time adaptive control systems

Global stability robustness with respect to unmodeled dynamics, arbitrary bounded internal noise, as well as external disturbance is shown to exist for a class of discrete-time adaptive control systems when the regressor vectors of these systems are persistently exciting. Although fast adaptation is definitely undesirable, so far as attaining the greatest amount of global stability robustness is concerned, slow adaptation is shown to be not necessarily beneficial. The entire analysis in this paper holds for systems with slowly varying return difference matrices; the plants in these systems need not be slowly varying

Form Invariance of the Neutrino Mass Matrix

Consider the most general $3 \times 3$ Majorana neutrino mass matrix $\cal M$. Motivated by present neutrino-oscillation data, much theoretical effort is directed at reducing it to a specific texture in terms of a small number of parameters. This procedure is often {\it ad hoc}. I propose instead that for any $\cal M$ one may choose, it should satisfy the condition $U {\cal M} U^T = {\cal M}$, where $U \neq 1$ is a specific unitary matrix such that $U^N$ represents a well-defined discrete symmetry in the $\nu_{e,\mu,\tau}$ basis, $N$ being a particular integer not necessarily equal to one. I illustrate this idea with a number of examples, including the realistic case of an inverted hierarchy of neutrino masses.Comment: Version to appear in PR

Cenozoic plate driving forces

Past studies of plate driving forces have concluded that the forces due to subducted slabs in the upper mantle and those due to the thickening of the oceanic lithosphere are the principal driving forces. We reexamine the balance of driving forces for the present-day and extend our analysis through the Cenozoic, using an analytical torque balance method which accounts for interactions between plates via viscous coupling to the induced mantle flow, We use an evolving mantle density heterogeneity field based on the last 200 Myr. of subduction to drive plate motions, an approach which has proven successful in predicting the present-day mantle heterogeneity field. We find that for plausible upper mantle viscosities the forces due to subducted slabs in the Cenozoic and Mesozoic account for in excess of 90% of plate driving forces and those due to lithospheric thickening for less than 10%

Analysis of the contour structural irregularity of skin lesions using wavelet decomposition

The boundary irregularity of skin lesions is of clinical significance for the early detection of malignant melanomas and to distinguish them from other lesions such as benign moles. The structural components of the contour are of particular importance. To extract the structure from the contour, wavelet decomposition was used as these components tend to locate in the lower frequency sub-bands. Lesion contours were modeled as signatures with scale normalization to give position and frequency resolution invariance. Energy distributions among different wavelet sub-bands were then analyzed to extract those with significant levels and differences to enable maximum discrimination. Based on the coefficients in the significant sub-bands, structural components from the original contours were modeled, and a set of statistical and geometric irregularity descriptors researched that were applied at each of the significant sub-bands. The effectiveness of the descriptors was measured using the Hausdorff distance between sets of data from melanoma and mole contours. The best descriptor outputs were input to a back projection neural network to construct a combined classifier system. Experimental results showed that thirteen features from four sub-bands produced the best discrimination between sets of melanomas and moles, and that a small training set of nine melanomas and nine moles was optimum