25,422 research outputs found
Statistical features of the thermal neutron capture cross sections
We discuss the existence of huge thermal neutron capture cross sections in
several nuclei. The values of the cross sections are several orders of
magnitude bigger than expected at these very low energies. We lend support to
the idea that this phenomenon is random in nature and is similar to what we
have learned from the study of parity violation in the actinide region. The
idea of statistical doorways is advanced as a unified concept in the
delineation of large numbers in the nuclear world. The average number of maxima
per unit mass, in the capture cross section is calculated and related
to the underlying cross section correlation function and found to be , where is a characteristic mass
correlation width which designates the degree of remnant coherence in the
system. We trace this coherence to nucleosynthesis which produced the nuclei
whose neutron capture cross sections are considered here.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. To appear in Acta Physica Polonica B as a
Contribution to the proceedings of:Jagiellonian Symposium of Fundamental and
Applied Subatomic Physics, June 7- 12, 2015 Krakow, Polan
Baryon Resonance Analysis from MAID
The unitary isobar model MAID2007 has been used to analyze the recent data of
pion electroproduction. The model contains all four-star resonances in the
region below W=2 GeV and both single-Q^2 and Q^2 dependent transition form
factors could be obtained for the Delta, Roper, D13(1520), S11(1535),
S31(1620), S11(1650), D15(1675), F15(1680) and P13(1720). From the complete
world data base, including also pi- data on the neutron, also Q^2 dependent
neutron form factors are obtained. For all transition form factors we also give
convenient numerical parameterizations that can be used in other reactions.
Furthermore, we show how the transition form factors can be used to obtain
empirical transverse charge densities and our first results are given for the
Roper, the S11 and D13 resonances.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, Proc. of NSTAR2009, Beijin
Relationship between antihypertensive medications and cognitive impairment: Part II. Review of Physiology and animal studies
Purpose of Review There is an established association between hypertension and increased risk of poor cognitive performance and dementia including Alzheimer’s disease; however, associations between antihypertensive medications (AHM) and dementia risk are less clear. An increased interest in AHM has resulted in expanding publications; however, none of the recent reviews provide comprehensive review. Our extensive review includes 24 mechanistic animal and human studies published over the last 5 years assessing relationship between AHM and cognitive function. Recent Findings All classes of AHM showed similar result patterns in animal studies. The mechanism by which AHM exert their effect was extensively studied by evaluating well-established pathways of AD disease process, including amyloid beta (Aβ), vascular, oxidative stress and inflammation pathways, but only few studies evaluated the blood pressure lowering effect on the AD disease process. Summary Methodological limitations of the studies prevent comprehensive conclusions prior to further work evaluating AHM in animals and larger human observational studies, and selecting those with promising results for future RCTs
Effective Widths and Effective Number of Phonons of Multiphonon Giant Resonances
We discuss the origin of the difference between the harmonic value of the
width of the multiphonon giant resonances and the smaller observed value.
Analytical expressions are derived for both the effective width and the average
cross-section. The contribution of the Brink-Axel mechanism in resolving the
discrepancy is pointed out.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Stick-Slip Motion and Phase Transition in a Block-Spring System
We study numerically stick slip motions in a model of blocks and springs
being pulled slowly. The sliding friction is assumed to change dynamically with
a state variable. The transition from steady sliding to stick-slip is
subcritical in a single block and spring system. However, we find that the
transition is continuous in a long chain of blocks and springs. The size
distribution of stick-slip motions exhibits a power law at the critical point.Comment: 8 figure
Resolving Structure in Human Brain Organization: Identifying Mesoscale Organization in Weighted Network Representations
Human brain anatomy and function display a combination of modular and
hierarchical organization, suggesting the importance of both cohesive
structures and variable resolutions in the facilitation of healthy cognitive
processes. However, tools to simultaneously probe these features of brain
architecture require further development. We propose and apply a set of methods
to extract cohesive structures in network representations of brain connectivity
using multi-resolution techniques. We employ a combination of soft
thresholding, windowed thresholding, and resolution in community detection,
that enable us to identify and isolate structures associated with different
weights. One such mesoscale structure is bipartivity, which quantifies the
extent to which the brain is divided into two partitions with high connectivity
between partitions and low connectivity within partitions. A second,
complementary mesoscale structure is modularity, which quantifies the extent to
which the brain is divided into multiple communities with strong connectivity
within each community and weak connectivity between communities. Our methods
lead to multi-resolution curves of these network diagnostics over a range of
spatial, geometric, and structural scales. For statistical comparison, we
contrast our results with those obtained for several benchmark null models. Our
work demonstrates that multi-resolution diagnostic curves capture complex
organizational profiles in weighted graphs. We apply these methods to the
identification of resolution-specific characteristics of healthy weighted graph
architecture and altered connectivity profiles in psychiatric disease.Comment: Comments welcom
Relationship between antihypertensive medications and cognitive impairment: Part I. review of human studies and clinical trials
Purpose of review: There is an established association between hypertension and increased risk of poor cognitive performance and dementia including Alzheimer’s disease; however, associations between antihypertensive medications (AHMs) and dementia risk are less consistent. An increased interest in AHM has resulted in expanding publications; however, none of the recent reviews are comprehensive. Our extensive review includes 15 observational and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published over the last 5 years, assessing the relationship between AHM and cognitive impairment. Recent findings: All classes of AHM showed similar result patterns in human studies with the majority of study results reporting point estimates below one and only a small number of studies (N = 15) reporting statistically significant results in favor of a specific class. Summary: Only a small number of studies reported statistically significant results in favor of a specific class of AHM. Methodological limitations of the studies prevent definitive conclusions. Further work is now needed to evaluate the class of AHM and cognitive outcomes in future RCTs, with a particular focus on the drugs with the promising results in both animals and human observational studies
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