Nuclear Symmetry Energy in Relativistic Mean Field Theory

The Physical origin of the nuclear symmetry energy is studied within the relativistic mean field (RMF) theory. Based on the nuclear binding energies calculated with and without mean isovector potential for several isobaric chains we conform earlier Skyrme-Hartree-Fock result that the nuclear symmetry energy strength depends on the mean level spacing $\epsilon (A)$ and an effective mean isovector potential strength $\kappa (A)$. A detaied analysis of isospin dependence of the two components contributing to the nuclear symmetry energy reveals a quadratic dependence due to the mean-isoscalar potential, $\sim\epsilon T^2$, and, completely unexpectedly, the presence of a strong linear component $\sim\kappa T(T+1+\epsilon/\kappa)$ in the isovector potential. The latter generates a nuclear symmetry energy in RMF theory that is proportional to $E_{sym}\sim T(T+1)$ at variance to the non-relativistic calculation. The origin of the linear term in RMF theory needs to be further explored.Comment: 14 pages and 6 figure

KINETIC FAMILY DRAWING INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE (KFD-IQ): A TOOL TO LEARN ABOUT THE FAMILY UNIT FROM A DRAWER’S PERSPECTIVE

Although reports on akinetic family drawings or Draw-a-Family (DaF) found in literature can be traced to Hulse (1951, 1952), Burns and Kaufmann (1970, 1972) have been credited as the originators of the Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD), which is used in assessing cognitive, interpersonal, and/or psychological functioning today. Spinetta et al. (1981) revised the KFD measure and used it as an affective measure to work with siblings of children diagnosed with cancer. The focus of this paper is to introduce the Kinetic Family Drawing Interview Questionnaire (KFD-IQ) within the context of a family unit which is based on the triangulation of three key components – composition of a family (C), the relationships of the family members (R), and the dynamics of family activities (D) – involving the social beings (S) that make up the family unit. From these components, the authors of this paper have created the CRDS framework as the model of a family unit. The goal of the KFD-IQ within the CRDS framework is to provide therapists an additional tool to be used with children and adolescents with emotional behavioral issues and also to complement the KFD (Burns & Kaufman, 1970, 1972) or KFD-Revised (Spinetta et al., 1981) scoring system for the KFD analysis.   Article visualizations

REFRAMING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR AND/OR FEELINGS DISORDERS: WHAT EDUCATIONAL THERAPISTS, SPECIAL EDUCATORS AND COUNSELORS SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND

In this paper, the authors have chosen to take a closer look at a socio-emotional behavioral condition known as Inappropriate Behavior or Feelings Disorder (IBFD) which is listed in the Educator’s Diagnostic Manual of Disabilities and Disorders (EDM; Pierangelo & Guiliani, 2007). The term (or IBFD for short) used in this diagnostic manual is not found anywhere in the current literature including the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). According to the EDM, under the IDEA 2004 enactment, it is one of the criteria for the classification of Emotional Disturbance (ED): “inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances” (p.163), and it covers social, emotional, physical and psychological aspects of behavior or feelings. Hence, the term Inappropriate Behavior or Feelings Disorder is coined from this particular IDEA statement of criterion and, in turn, it is used only in the EDM multi-level coding system. The authors argued the need for educational therapists, special educators and counselors to reframe their current understanding of the IBFD, whose symptoms are similar to disruptive behavior disorders (DBD), within the context of the cognition-conation-affect-sensation (CCAS) framework as they continue to observe, record and evaluate the condition in terms of its core symptoms seen, measured and/or profiled before the diagnostic term IBFD is applied under the EDM code ED3.00.   Article visualizations

A Diagnostic Case Study of a Young Man with Russell-Silver Syndrome and Associated Comorbidities

This is a case study of a young man diagnosed with Russell-Silver Syndrome or RSS for short (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man® Classification Number #180860) and associated comorbidities. The aim of this paper is to provide diagnostic information about the syndrome with its comorbidities so that educational therapists and other allied professionals working with such individuals will know what to look out for, especially the RSS-associated comorbidities, and in that way, they become better informed in order to know what offer in their Response to Intervention (RtI) for such individuals with RSS

Relativistic Continuum Hartree Bogoliubov Theory for Ground State Properties of Exotic Nuclei

The Relativistic Continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov (RCHB) theory, which properly takes into account the pairing correlation and the coupling to (discretized) continuum via Bogoliubov transformation in a microscopic and self-consistent way, has been reviewed together with its new interpretation of the halo phenomena observed in light nuclei as the scattering of particle pairs into the continuum, the prediction of the exotic phenomena -- giant halos in nuclei near neutron drip line, the reproduction of interaction cross sections and charge-changing cross sections in light exotic nuclei in combination with the Glauber theory, better restoration of pseudospin symmetry in exotic nuclei, predictions of exotic phenomena in hyper nuclei, and new magic numbers in superheavy nuclei, etc. Recent investigations on new effective interactions, the density dependence of the interaction strengthes, the RMF theory on the Woods-Saxon basis, the single particle resonant states, and the resonant BCS (rBCS) method for the pairing correlation, etc. are also presented in some details.Comment: 79 pages. Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. (2005) in pres

The Stable Association of Virion with the Triple-geneblockProtein 3-based Complex of Bamboo mosaic virus

The triple-gene-block protein 3 (TGBp3) of Bamboo mosaic virus (BaMV) is an integral endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membraneprotein which is assumed to form a membrane complex to deliver the virus intracellularly. However, the virus entity that isdelivered to plasmodesmata (PD) and its association with TGBp3-based complexes are not known. Results from chemicalextraction and partial proteolysis of TGBp3 in membrane vesicles revealed that TGBp3 has a right-side-out membranetopology; i.e., TGBp3 has its C-terminal tail exposed to the outer surface of ER. Analyses of the TGBp3-specificimmunoprecipitate of Sarkosyl-extracted TGBp3-based complex revealed that TGBp1, TGBp2, TGBp3, capsid protein (CP),replicase and viral RNA are potential constituents of virus movement complex. Substantial co-fractionation of TGBp2, TGBp3and CP, but not TGBp1, in the early eluted gel filtration fractions in which virions were detected after TGBp3-specificimmunoprecipitation suggested that the TGBp2- and TGBp3-based complex is able to stably associate with the virion. Thisnotion was confirmed by immunogold-labeling transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the purified virions. In addition,mutational and confocal microscopy analyses revealed that TGBp3 plays a key role in virus cell-to-cell movement byenhancing the TGBp2- and TGBp3-dependent PD localization of TGBp1. Taken together, our results suggested that the cellto-cell movement of potexvirus requires stable association of the virion cargo with the TGBp2- and TGBp3-based membranecomplex and recruitment of TGBp1 to the PD by this complex

Sensitivity of deexcitation energies of superdeformed secondary minima to the density dependence of symmetry energy with the relativistic mean-field theory

The relationship between deexcitation energies of superdeformed secondary minima relative to ground states and the density dependence of the symmetry energy is investigated for heavy nuclei using the relativistic mean field (RMF) model. It is shown that the deexcitation energies of superdeformed secondary minima are sensitive to differences in the symmetry energy that are mimicked by the isoscalar-isovector coupling included in the model. With deliberate investigations on a few Hg isotopes that have data of deexcitation energies, we find that the description for the deexcitation energies can be improved due to the softening of the symmetry energy. Further, we have investigated deexcitation energies of odd-odd heavy nuclei that are nearly independent of pairing correlations, and have discussed the possible extraction of the constraint on the density dependence of the symmetry energy with the measurement of deexcitation energies of these nuclei.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

The use of carboxymethylcellulose gel to increase non-viral gene transfer in mouse airways

We have assessed whether viscoelastic gels known to inhibit mucociliary clearance can increase lipid-mediated gene transfer. Methylcellulose or carboxymethylcellulose (0.25 to 1.5%) were mixed with complexes of the cationic lipid GL67A and plasmids encoding luciferase and perfused onto the nasal epithelium of mice. Survival after perfusion with 1% CMC or1% MC was 90 and 100%, respectively. In contrast 1.5% CMC was uniformly lethal likely due to the viscous solution blocking the airways. Perfusion with 0.5% CMC containing lipid/DNA complexes reproducibly increased gene expression by approximately 3-fold (n= 16, p<0.05). Given this benefit, likely related to increased duration of contact, we also assessed the effect of prolonging contact time of the liposome/DNA complexes by delivering our standard 80 μg DNA dose over either approximately 22 or 60 min of perfusion. This independently increased gene transfer by 6-fold (n=8, p<0.05) and could be further enhanced by the addition of 0.5% CMC, leading to an overall 25-fold enhancement (n=8, p<0.001) in gene expression. As a result of these interventions CFTR transgene mRNA transgene levels were increased several logs above background. Interestingly, this did not lead to correction of the ion transport defects in the nasal epithelium of cystic fibrosis mice nor for immunohistochemical quantification of CFTR expression. To assess if 0.5% CMC also increased gene transfer in the mouse lung, we used whole body nebulisation chambers. CMC was nebulised for 1 hr immediately before, or simultaneously with GL67A/pCIKLux. The former did not increase gene transfer, whereas co-administration significantly increased gene transfer by 4-fold (p<0.0001, n=18). This study suggests that contact time of non-viral gene transfer agents is a key factor for gene delivery, and suggests two methods which may be translatable for use in man