165 research outputs found
Modelling nucleon-nucleon scattering above 1 GeV
Motivated by the recent measurement of proton-proton spin-correlation
parameters up to 2.5 GeV laboratory energy, we investigate models for
nucleon-nucleon (NN) scattering above 1 GeV. Signatures for a gradual failure
of the traditional meson model with increasing energy can be clearly
identified. Since spin effects are large up to tens of GeV, perturbative QCD
cannot be invoked to fix the problems. We discuss various theoretical scenarios
and come to the conclusion that we do not have a clear phenomenological
understanding of the spin-dependence of the NN interaction above 1 GeV.Comment: 36 pages, 8 figure
The nucleon-nucleon interaction
We review the major progress of the past decade concerning our understanding
of the nucleon-nucleon interaction. The focus is on the low-energy region
(below pion production threshold), but a brief outlook towards higher energies
is also given. The items discussed include charge-dependence, the precise value
of the coupling constant, phase shift analysis and high-precision NN
data and potentials. We also address the issue of a proper theory of nuclear
forces. Finally, we summarize the essential open questions that future research
should be devoted to.Comment: 42 pages, 12 figures, iopart.cls style; Topical Review prepared for
J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phy
The Axial-Vector Current in Nuclear Many-Body Physics
Weak-interaction currents are studied in a recently proposed effective field
theory of the nuclear many-body problem. The Lorentz-invariant effective field
theory contains nucleons, pions, isoscalar scalar () and vector
() fields, and isovector vector () fields. The theory exhibits a
nonlinear realization of chiral symmetry and has three
desirable features: it uses the same degrees of freedom to describe the
axial-vector current and the strong-interaction dynamics, it satisfies the
symmetries of the underlying theory of quantum chromodynamics, and its
parameters can be calibrated using strong-interaction phenomena, like hadron
scattering or the empirical properties of finite nuclei. Moreover, it has
recently been verified that for normal nuclear systems, it is possible to
systematically expand the effective lagrangian in powers of the meson fields
(and their derivatives) and to reliably truncate the expansion after the first
few orders. Here it is shown that the expressions for the axial-vector current,
evaluated through the first few orders in the field expansion, satisfy both
PCAC and the Goldberger--Treiman relation, and it is verified that the
corresponding vector and axial-vector charges satisfy the familiar chiral
charge algebra. Explicit results are derived for the Lorentz-covariant,
axial-vector, two-nucleon amplitudes, from which axial-vector meson-exchange
currents can be deduced.Comment: 32 pages, REVTeX 4.0 with 12pt.rtx, aps.rtx, revsymb.sty,
revtex4.cls, plus 14 figures; two sentences added in Summary; two references
adde
Many-Body Currents and the Strange-Quark Content of 4he
Meson-exchange current (MEC) contributions to the parity-violating (PV)
asymmetry for elastic scattering of polarized electrons from He are
calculated over a range of momentum transfer using Monte Carlo methods and a
variational He ground state wavefunction. The results indicate that MEC's
generate a negligible contribution to the asymmetry at low-|\qv|, where a
determination of the nucleon's mean square strangeness radius could be carried
out at CEBAF. At larger values of momentum transfer -- beyond the first
diffraction minimum -- two-body corrections from the - \lq\lq
strangeness charge" operator enter the asymmetry at a potentially observable
level, even in the limit of vanishing strange-quark matrix elements of the
nucleon. For purposes of constraining the nucleon's strangeness electric form
factor, theoretical uncertainties associated with these MEC contributions do
not appear to impose serious limitations.Comment: 32 TEX pages and 7 figures (not included, available from authors upon
request), CEBAF Preprint #TH-94-1
Strangeness production in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions
In these lectures we discuss the investigation of the strange meson
production in proton-proton () and in proton-nucleus () reactions
within an effective Lagrangian model. The kaon production proceeds mainly via
the excitations of (1650), (1710), and (1720) resonant
intermediate nucleonic states, in the collision of two initial state nucleons.
Therefore, the strangeness production is expected to provide information about
the resonances lying at higher excitation energies. For beam energies very
close to the kaon production threshold the hyperon-proton final state
interaction effects are quite important. Thus, these studies provide a check on
the models of hyperon-nucleon interactions. The in-medium production of kaons
show strong sensitivity to the self energies of the intermediate mesons.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, Talk presented in the workshop on Hadron
Physics, Puri, India, March 7-17,200
Neutron and proton energy spectra from the non-mesonic weak decays of 5_Lambda-He and 12_Lambda-C
We have simultaneously measured the energy spectra of neutrons and protons
emitted in the non-mesonic weak decays of 5_Lambda-He and 12_Lambda-C
hypernuclei produced via the (pi^+,k^+) reaction with much higher statistics
over those of previous experiments. The neutron-to-proton yield ratios for both
hypernuclei at a high energy threshold (60 MeV) were approximately equal to
two, which suggests that the ratio of the neutron- and proton-induced decay
channels, Gn(Lambda n -> nn)/Gp(Lambda p -> np), is about 0.5. In the neutron
energy spectra, we found that the yield of the low-energy component is
unexpectedly large, even for 5_Lambda-He.Comment: 13pages, 4figures, submitted to Physics Letters
Strangeness nuclear physics: a critical review on selected topics
Selected topics in strangeness nuclear physics are critically reviewed. This
includes production, structure and weak decay of --Hypernuclei, the
nuclear interaction and the possible existence of bound
states in nuclei. Perspectives for future studies on these issues are also
outlined.Comment: 63 pages, 51 figures, accepted for publication on European Physical
Journal
Analgesics use and ESRD in younger age: a case-control study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An ad hoc peer-review committee was jointly appointed by Drug Authorities and Industry in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 1999/2000 to review the evidence for a causal relation between phenacetin-free analgesics and nephropathy. The committee found the evidence as inconclusive and requested a new case-control study of adequate design.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed a population-based case-control study with incident cases of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) under the age of 50 years and four age and sex-matched neighborhood controls in 170 dialysis centers (153 in Germany, and 17 in Austria) from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2004. Data on lifetime medical history, risk factors, treatment, job exposure and intake of analgesics were obtained in a standardized face-to-face interview using memory aids to enhance accuracy. Study design, study performance, analysis plan, and study report were approved by an independent international advisory committee and by the Drug Authorities involved. Unconditional logistic regression analyses were performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The analysis included 907 cases and 3,622 controls who had never used phenacetin-containing analgesics in their lifetime. The use of high cumulative lifetime dose (3<sup>rd </sup>tertile) of analgesics in the period up to five years before dialysis was not associated with later ESRD. Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were 0.8 (0.7 – 1.0) and 1.0 (0.8 – 1.3) for ever- compared with no or low use and high use compared with low use, respectively. The same results were found for all analgesics and for mono-, and combination preparations with and without caffeine. No increased risk was shown in analyses stratifying for dose and duration. Dose-response analyses showed that analgesic use was not associated with an increased risk for ESRD up to 3.5 kg cumulative lifetime dose (98 % of the cases with ESRD). While the large subgroup of users with a lifetime dose up to 0.5 kg (278 cases and 1365 controls) showed a significantly decreased risk, a tiny subgroup of extreme users with over 3.5 kg lifetime use (19 cases and 11 controls) showed a significant risk increase. The detailed evaluation of 22 cases and 19 controls with over 2.5 kg lifetime use recommended by the regulatory advisors showed an impressive excess of other conditions than analgesics triggering the evolution of ESRD in cases compared with controls.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We found no clinically meaningful evidence for an increased risk of ESRD associated with use of phenacetin-free analgesics in single or combined formulation. The apparent risk increase shown in a small subgroup with extreme lifetime dose of analgesics is most likely an indirect, non-causal association. This hypothesis, however, cannot be confirmed or refuted within our case-control study. Overall, our results lend support to the mounting evidence that phenacetin-free analgesics do not induce ESRD and that the notion of "analgesic nephropathy" needs to be re-evaluated.</p
Remote in vivo stress assessment of aquatic animals with microencapsulated biomarkers for environmental monitoring
Remote in vivo scanning of physiological parameters is a major trend in the development of new tools for the fields of medicine and animal physiology. For this purpose, a variety of implantable optical micro- and nanosensors have been designed for potential medical applications. At the same time, the important area of environmental sciences has been neglected in the development of techniques for remote physiological measurements. In the field of environmental monitoring and related research, there is a constant demand for new effective and quick techniques for the stress assessment of aquatic animals, and the development of proper methods for remote physiological measurements in vivo may significantly increase the precision and throughput of analyses in this field. In the present study, we apply pH-sensitive microencapsulated biomarkers to remotely monitor the pH of haemolymph in vivo in endemic amphipods from Lake Baikal, and we compare the suitability of this technique for stress assessment with that of common biochemical methods. For the first time, we demonstrate the possibility of remotely detecting a change in a physiological parameter in an aquatic organism under ecologically relevant stressful conditions and show the applicability of techniques using microencapsulated biomarkers for remote physiological measurements in environmental monitoring
Continuous population-level monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in a large European metropolitan region.
Effective public health measures against SARS-CoV-2 require granular knowledge of population-level immune responses. We developed a Tripartite Automated Blood Immunoassay (TRABI) to assess the IgG response against three SARS-CoV-2 proteins. We used TRABI for continuous seromonitoring of hospital patients and blood donors (n = 72'250) in the canton of Zurich from December 2019 to December 2020 (pre-vaccine period). We found that antibodies waned with a half-life of 75 days, whereas the cumulative incidence rose from 2.3% in June 2020 to 12.2% in mid-December 2020. A follow-up health survey indicated that about 10% of patients infected with wildtype SARS-CoV-2 sustained some symptoms at least twelve months post COVID-19. Crucially, we found no evidence of a difference in long-term complications between those whose infection was symptomatic and those with asymptomatic acute infection. The cohort of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2-infected subjects represents a resource for the study of chronic and possibly unexpected sequelae
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