Stability of the pentaquark in a naive string model

The pentaquark is studied in a simple model of confinement where the quarks and the antiquark are linked by flux tubes of minimal cumulated length, and the Coulomb-like interaction, the spin-dependent terms and the antisymmetrization constraints are neglected.. The ground-state is found to be stable against spontaneous dissociation into a meson and a baryon, both in the case of five equal-mass constituents and for a static quark or antiquark surrounded by four equal masses.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, minor corrections, references added, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Total Collision Cross Sections for the Interaction of Atomic Beams of Alkali Metals with Gases

Total collision cross sections (Q) for the interaction of atomic beams of K and Cs with a number of molecules were measured with an apparatus of 30″ angular resolution. Although absolute determinations of Q are difficult, relative values are readily obtained (±3%). Results are reported as the ratio (Q*) of the cross section for a given molecule to that of argon for the same beam atom. Seventy‐seven molecules (of varied complexity and reactivity) were studied with K and 16 with Cs beams. Q* ranged from 0.29 to 2.8.The data were correlated using the Massey‐Mohr theory, assuming an attractive intermolecular potential V(r) = —C/r6. For this case Q=b(C/vr)2/5, where vr is the relative velocity and b a known constant. C was estimated from standard formulas for the London dispersion and dipole‐induced dipole forces, using known refraction and dipole moment data. The theoretical values of Q differ by a nearly constant factor from the experimental results; thus values of Q* are predicted with good accuracy. The deviation between Qcalc* and Qobs* was <±3% for 57% (and <±10% for 87%) of the molecules. Most of the large deviations occurred for the light gases.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70463/2/JCPSA6-31-6-1619-1.pd

Total Collision Cross Sections for the Interaction of Molecular Beams of Cesium Chloride with Gases. Influence of the Dipole‐Dipole Force upon the Scattering

Total cross sections (Q) for the interaction of beams of CsCl with a number of molecules were measured using an apparatus of ca 4′ angular resolution in which the temperature of the scattering gas could be varied from 200°—735°K. The temperature dependence of Q was studied for Ar, CH4, CH2F2, CHF3, CF4, NO, H2S, NH3, and for cis‐ and trans‐CHCl☒CHCl. Relative values of Q at 300°K were measured for eight additional gases.The data were correlated using the Massey‐Mohr theory, assuming an intermolecular potential V(r) = —C/r6, so that Q=b(C/vr)2/5, where vr is the relative velocity and b a known constant; the potential constant C was estimated from formulas for the dispersion, dipole‐induced dipole, and dipole‐dipole forces.For the nonpolar gases the observed small temperature dependence of Q agrees within experimental error (±3%) with that expected from the temperature dependence of vr. The theoretical values of Q differ by a nearly constant factor from the experimental results; thus relative cross sections (Q*) are predicted with fair accuracy.For the polar gases the Q's are large, decreasing significantly with increasing temperature. Because of the large dipole‐dipole interaction, the approximate theoretical treatment (based on the limiting temperature‐dependent dipole‐dipole contribution to C) accounts only semiquantitatively for the observations.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70830/2/JCPSA6-33-2-584-1.pd

Asymptotic behavior of age-structured and delayed Lotka-Volterra models

In this work we investigate some asymptotic properties of an age-structured Lotka-Volterra model, where a specific choice of the functional parameters allows us to formulate it as a delayed problem, for which we prove the existence of a unique coexistence equilibrium and characterize the existence of a periodic solution. We also exhibit a Lyapunov functional that enables us to reduce the attractive set to either the nontrivial equilibrium or to a periodic solution. We then prove the asymptotic stability of the nontrivial equilibrium where, depending on the existence of the periodic trajectory, we make explicit the basin of attraction of the equilibrium. Finally, we prove that these results can be extended to the initial PDE problem.Comment: 29 page

Second Generation Voices: The Pleasures and Afflictions of Inherited Exilic Legacy

The Exile Studies Program In Collaboration with The Betsy-South Beach Hotel The Department of English & The College of Arts, Sciences & Education Presents Panel Discussion Second Generation Voices: The Pleasures and Afflictions of Inherited Exilic Legacyhttps://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cri_events/1379/thumbnail.jp

Distribution of the color fields around static quarks: Flux tube profiles

We report detailed calculations of the profiles of energy and action densities in the quark-antiquark string in SU(2) lattice gauge theory.Comment: 40 pages, LSUHE 94-15

Assessing the safety of cosmetic chemicals: Consideration of a flux decision tree to predict dermally delivered systemic dose for comparison with oral TTC (Threshold of Toxicological Concern)

AbstractThreshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) aids assessment of human health risks from exposure to low levels of chemicals when toxicity data are limited. The objective here was to explore the potential refinement of exposure for applying the oral TTC to chemicals found in cosmetic products, for which there are limited dermal absorption data. A decision tree was constructed to estimate the dermally absorbed amount of chemical, based on typical skin exposure scenarios. Dermal absorption was calculated using an established predictive algorithm to derive the maximum skin flux adjusted to the actual ‘dose’ applied. The predicted systemic availability (assuming no local metabolism), can then be ranked against the oral TTC for the relevant structural class. The predictive approach has been evaluated by deriving the experimental/prediction ratio for systemic availability for 22 cosmetic chemical exposure scenarios. These emphasise that estimation of skin penetration may be challenging for penetration enhancing formulations, short application times with incomplete rinse-off, or significant metabolism. While there were a few exceptions, the experiment-to-prediction ratios mostly fell within a factor of 10 of the ideal value of 1. It can be concluded therefore, that the approach is fit-for-purpose when used as a screening and prioritisation tool

Old World megadroughts and pluvials during the Common Era

Climate model projections suggest widespread drying in the Mediterranean Basin and wetting in Fennoscandia in the coming decades largely as a consequence of greenhouse gas forcing of climate. To place these and other “Old World” climate projections into historical perspective based on more complete estimates of natural hydroclimatic variability, we have developed the “Old World Drought Atlas” (OWDA), a set of year-to-year maps of tree-ring reconstructed summer wetness and dryness over Europe and the Mediterranean Basin during the Common Era. The OWDA matches historical accounts of severe drought and wetness with a spatial completeness not previously available. In addition, megadroughts reconstructed over north-central Europe in the 11th and mid-15th centuries reinforce other evidence from North America and Asia that droughts were more severe, extensive, and prolonged over Northern Hemisphere land areas before the 20th century, with an inadequate understanding of their causes. The OWDA provides new data to determine the causes of Old World drought and wetness and attribute past climate variability to forced and/or internal variability

Fluorescence optical imaging feature selection with machine learning for differential diagnosis of selected rheumatic diseases

Background and objectiveAccurate and fast diagnosis of rheumatic diseases affecting the hands is essential for further treatment decisions. Fluorescence optical imaging (FOI) visualizes inflammation-induced impaired microcirculation by increasing signal intensity, resulting in different image features. This analysis aimed to find specific image features in FOI that might be important for accurately diagnosing different rheumatic diseases.Patients and methodsFOI images of the hands of patients with different types of rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA), and connective tissue diseases (CTD), were assessed in a reading of 20 different image features in three phases of the contrast agent dynamics, yielding 60 different features for each patient. The readings were analyzed for mutual differential diagnosis of the three diseases (One-vs-One) and each disease in all data (One-vs-Rest). In the first step, statistical tools and machine-learning-based methods were applied to reveal the importance rankings of the features, that is, to find features that contribute most to the model-based classification. In the second step machine learning with a stepwise increasing number of features was applied, sequentially adding at each step the most crucial remaining feature to extract a minimized subset that yields the highest diagnostic accuracy.ResultsIn total, n = 605 FOI of both hands were analyzed (n = 235 with RA, n = 229 with OA, and n = 141 with CTD). All classification problems showed maximum accuracy with a reduced set of image features. For RA-vs.-OA, five features were needed for high accuracy. For RA-vs.-CTD ten, OA-vs.-CTD sixteen, RA-vs.-Rest five, OA-vs.-Rest eleven, and CTD-vs-Rest fifteen, features were needed, respectively. For all problems, the final importance ranking of the features with respect to the contrast agent dynamics was determined.ConclusionsWith the presented investigations, the set of features in FOI examinations relevant to the differential diagnosis of the selected rheumatic diseases could be remarkably reduced, providing helpful information for the physician