1,163 research outputs found
Testicular Adrenal Rest Tumours in Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
In adult patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), the presence
of testicular adrenal rest tumours (TART) is an important complication leading to
gonadal dysfunction and infertility. These tumours can be already found in childhood and puberty. In this paper, we review the embryological, histological, biochemical,
and clinical features of TART and discuss treatment options
Nuclear effects in atomic transitions
Atomic electrons are sensitive to the properties of the nucleus they are
bound to, such as nuclear mass, charge distribution, spin, magnetization
distribution, or even excited level scheme. These nuclear parameters are
reflected in the atomic transition energies. A very precise determination of
atomic spectra may thus reveal information about the nucleus, otherwise hardly
accessible via nuclear physics experiments. This work reviews theoretical and
experimental aspects of the nuclear effects that can be identified in atomic
structure data. An introduction to the theory of isotope shifts and hyperfine
splitting of atomic spectra is given, together with an overview of the typical
experimental techniques used in high-precision atomic spectroscopy. More exotic
effects at the borderline between atomic and nuclear physics, such as parity
violation in atomic transitions due to the weak interaction, or nuclear
polarization and nuclear excitation by electron capture, are also addressed.Comment: review article, 53 pages, 14 figure
MASCARA-2 b: A hot Jupiter transiting the A-star HD185603
In this paper we present MASCARA-2 b, a hot Jupiter transiting the
A2 star HD 185603. Since early 2015, MASCARA has taken more than 1.6 million
flux measurements of the star, corresponding to a total of almost 3000 hours of
observations, revealing a periodic dimming in the flux with a depth of .
Photometric follow-up observations were performed with the NITES and IAC80
telescopes and spectroscopic measurements were obtained with the Hertzsprung
SONG telescope. We find MASCARA-2 b orbits HD 185603 with a period of
at a distance of , has a radius of and place a
upper limit on the mass of . HD 185603 is a
rapidly rotating early-type star with an effective temperature of
and a mass and radius of
, , respectively. Contrary
to most other hot Jupiters transiting early-type stars, the projected planet
orbital axis and stellar spin axis are found to be aligned with . The brightness of the host star and the high equilibrium
temperature, , of MASCARA-2 b make it a suitable target for
atmospheric studies from the ground and space. Of particular interest is the
detection of TiO, which has recently been detected in the similarly hot planets
WASP-33 b and WASP-19 b.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in A&
Shell Effects in Nuclei with Vector Self-Coupling of Omega Meson in Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov Theory
Shell effects in nuclei about the stability line are investigated within the
framework of the Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB) theory with
self-consistent finite-range pairing. Using 2-neutron separation energies of Ni
and Sn isotopes, the role of - and -meson couplings on the
shell effects in nuclei is examined. It is observed that the existing
successful nuclear forces (Lagrangian parameter sets) based upon the nonlinear
scalar coupling of -meson exhibit shell effects which are stronger than
suggested by the experimental data. We have introduced nonlinear vector
self-coupling of -meson in the RHB theory. It is shown that the
inclusion of the vector self-coupling of -meson in addition to the
nonlinear scalar coupling of -meson provides a good agreement with the
experimental data on shell effects in nuclei about the stability line. A
comparison of the shell effects in the RHB theory is made with the Hartree-Fock
Bogoliubov approach using the Skyrme force SkP. It is shown that the
oft-discussed shell quenching with SkP is not consistent with the available
experimental data.Comment: 34 pages latex, 18 ps figures, replaced with minor corrections in
some figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Evaluating Greek equity funds using data envelopment analysis
This study assesses the relative performance of Greek equity funds employing a non-parametric method, specifically Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Using an original sample of cost and operational attributes we explore the e¤ect of each variable on funds' operational efficiency for an oligopolistic and bank-dominated fund industry. Our results have significant implications for the investors' fund selection process since we are able to identify potential sources of inefficiencies for the funds. The most striking result is that the percentage of assets under management affects performance negatively, a conclusion which may be related to the structure of the domestic stock market. Furthermore, we provide evidence against the notion of funds' mean-variance efficiency
Isotope Shift Measurements of Stable and Short-Lived Lithium Isotopes for Nuclear Charge Radii Determination
Changes in the mean-square nuclear charge radii along the lithium isotopic
chain were determined using a combination of precise isotope shift measurements
and theoretical atomic structure calculations. Nuclear charge radii of light
elements are of high interest due to the appearance of the nuclear halo
phenomenon in this region of the nuclear chart. During the past years we have
developed a new laser spectroscopic approach to determine the charge radii of
lithium isotopes which combines high sensitivity, speed, and accuracy to
measure the extremely small field shift of an 8 ms lifetime isotope with
production rates on the order of only 10,000 atoms/s. The method was applied to
all bound isotopes of lithium including the two-neutron halo isotope Li-11 at
the on-line isotope separators at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany and at TRIUMF,
Vancouver, Canada. We describe the laser spectroscopic method in detail,
present updated and improved values from theory and experiment, and discuss the
results.Comment: 34 pages, 24 figures, 14 table
Commissioning of the vacuum system of the KATRIN Main Spectrometer
The KATRIN experiment will probe the neutrino mass by measuring the
beta-electron energy spectrum near the endpoint of tritium beta-decay. An
integral energy analysis will be performed by an electro-static spectrometer
(Main Spectrometer), an ultra-high vacuum vessel with a length of 23.2 m, a
volume of 1240 m^3, and a complex inner electrode system with about 120000
individual parts. The strong magnetic field that guides the beta-electrons is
provided by super-conducting solenoids at both ends of the spectrometer. Its
influence on turbo-molecular pumps and vacuum gauges had to be considered. A
system consisting of 6 turbo-molecular pumps and 3 km of non-evaporable getter
strips has been deployed and was tested during the commissioning of the
spectrometer. In this paper the configuration, the commissioning with bake-out
at 300{\deg}C, and the performance of this system are presented in detail. The
vacuum system has to maintain a pressure in the 10^{-11} mbar range. It is
demonstrated that the performance of the system is already close to these
stringent functional requirements for the KATRIN experiment, which will start
at the end of 2016.Comment: submitted for publication in JINST, 39 pages, 15 figure
Neutrinoless double-beta decay and seesaw mechanism
From the standard seesaw mechanism of neutrino mass generation, which is
based on the assumption that the lepton number is violated at a large
(~10exp(+15) GeV) scale, follows that the neutrinoless double-beta decay is
ruled by the Majorana neutrino mass mechanism. Within this notion, for the
inverted neutrino-mass hierarchy we derive allowed ranges of half-lives of the
neutrinoless double-beta decay for nuclei of experimental interest with
different sets of nuclear matrix elements. The present-day results of the
calculation of the neutrinoless double-beta decay nuclear matrix elements are
briefly discussed. We argue that if neutrinoless double-beta decay will be
observed in future experiments sensitive to the effective Majorana mass in the
inverted mass hierarchy region, a comparison of the derived ranges with
measured half-lives will allow us to probe the standard seesaw mechanism
assuming that future cosmological data will establish the sum of neutrino
masses to be about 0.2 eV.Comment: Some changes in sections I, II, IV, and V; two new figures;
additional reference
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