Effects of External Loads on Human Head Movement Control Systems

The central and reflexive control strategies underlying movements were elucidated by studying the effects of external loads on human head movement control systems. Some experimental results are presented on dynamic changes weigh the addition of aviation helmet (SPH4) and lead weights (6 kg). Intended time-optimal movements, their dynamics and electromyographic activity of neck muscles in normal movements, and also in movements made with external weights applied to the head were measured. It was observed that, when the external loads were added, the subject went through complex adapting processes and the head movement trajectory and its derivatives reached steady conditions only after transient adapting period. The steady adapted state was reached after 15 to 20 seconds (i.e., 5 to 6 movements)

Model simulation studies to clarify the effect on saccadic eye movements of initial condition velocities set by the Vestibular Ocular Reflex (VOR)

Voluntary active head rotations produced vestibulo-ocular reflex eye movements (VOR) with the subject viewing a fixation target. When this target jumped, the size of the refixation saccades were a function of the ongoing initial velocity of the eye. Saccades made against the VOR were larger in magnitude. Simulation of a reciprocally innervated model eye movement provided results comparable to the experimental data. Most of the experimental effect appeared to be due to linear summation for saccades of 5 and 10 degree magnitude. For small saccades of 2.5 degrees, peripheral nonlinear interaction of state variables in the neuromuscular plant also played a role as proven by comparable behavior in the simulated model with known controller signals

Production of the pentaquark Θ+\Theta^+ in npnp scattering

We study $np\to \Lambda\Theta^{+}$ and $np\to \Sigma^{0}\Theta^{+}$ processes for both of the positive and negative parities of the $\Theta^{+}$. Employing the effective chiral Lagrangians for the $KNY$ and $K^*NY$ interactions, we calculate differential cross sections as well as total cross sections for the $np\to \Sigma^0 \Theta^+$ and $np\to \Lambda\Theta^+$ reactions. The total cross sections for the positive-parity $\Theta^+$ turn out to be approximately ten times larger than those for the negative parity $\Theta^+$ in the range of the CM energy $\sqrt{s}_{\rm th}\le \sqrt{s}\le 3.5 {\rm GeV}$. The results are rather sensitive to the mechanism of $K$ exchanges in the $t$ -- channel.Comment: 9 pages and 11 figure

Pion properties at finite density

In this talk, we report our recent work on the pion weak decay constant (F_pi) and pion mass (m_pi) using the nonlocal chiral quark model with the finite quark-number chemical potential (mu) taken into account. Considering the breakdown of Lorentz invariance at finite density, the time and space components are computed separately, and the corresponding results turn out to be: F^t_pi = 82.96 MeV and F^s_pi = 80.29 MeV at mu_c ~ 320 MeV, respectively. Using the in-medium Gell-Mann Oakes-Renner (GOR) relation, we show that the pion mass increases by about 15% at mu_c.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Talk given at the 4th Asia-Pacific Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics 2008 (APFB08), 19 ~ 23 Aug 2008, Depok, Indonesi

Extended nonlocal chiral-quark model for the heavy-light quark systems

In this talk, we report the recent progress on constructing a phenomenological effective model for the heavy-light quark systems, which consist of (u,d,s,c,b) quarks, i.e. extended nonlocal chiral-quark model (ExNLChQM). We compute the heavy-meson weak-decay constants to verify the validity of the model. From the numerical results, it turns out that (f_D, f_B, f_{D_s}, f_{B_s})=(207.54,208.13,262.56,262.39) MeV. These values are in relatively good agreement with experimental data and various theoretical estimations.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, Talk given at the 20th International IUPAP Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics (FB20), 20~25 August 2012, Fukuoka, Japa

Microstructure of severely deformed metals from X-ray line profile analysis

Two essentially different materials, cubic Ti(49.8)Ni(50.2) shape memory alloy and hexagonal AZ91 Mg alloy, were deformed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). The microstructure developed as a result of severe plastic deformation was studied by X-ray line profile analysis. The correlation between the microstructure and the mechanical behavior was also investigated. Below 100 degrees C the tensile strength of the Mg alloy increased as a consequence of the increase of the dislocation density owing to ECAP. Above 200 degrees C the strength decreased and the ductility increased as a result of the breakage of the Al(12)Mg(17) precipitates due to ECAP. The analysis of the dislocation contrast factors of Ti(49.8)Ni(50.2) revealed that {110} dislocations with line vector formed during ECAP