The effect of stopping before turning on the direct observational measure of whole body turning bias

Turning bias, the preferential tendency to turn toward a given direction has been reported in both rodents and human participants. The observational gait method of determining turning bias in humans requires a stop prior to turning. This study removed the stop and hypothesised that turning bias would remain the same between stop and non-stop conditions if bias was solely under the control of neurochemical asymmetries. The results showed that statistically turning bias remained the same (to the left) regardless of method used but there was no agreement between the methods thus rejecting the hypothesis. It is likely that when not stopping biomechanical factors related to gait when turning influence the direction of turn rather than solely neurochemical asymmetries

Momentum and Energy Distributions of Nucleons in Finite Nuclei due to Short-Range Correlations

The influence of short-range correlations on the momentum and energy distribution of nucleons in nuclei is evaluated assuming a realistic meson-exchange potential for the nucleon-nucleon interaction. Using the Green-function approach the calculations are performed directly for the finite nucleus $^{16}$O avoiding the local density approximation and its reference to studies of infinite nuclear matter. The nucleon-nucleon correlations induced by the short-range and tensor components of the interaction yield an enhancement of the momentum distribution at high momenta as compared to the Hartree-Fock description. These high-momentum components should be observed mainly in nucleon knockout reactions like $(e,e'p)$ leaving the final nucleus in a state of high excitation energy. Our analysis also demonstrates that non-negligible contributions to the momentum distribution should be found in partial waves which are unoccupied in the simple shell-model. The treatment of correlations beyond the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approximation also yields an improvement for the calculated ground-state properties.Comment: 12 pages RevTeX, 7 figures postscript files appende

How is VR used to support training in industry? The INTUITION network of excellence working group on education and training

INTUITION is the European Network of Excellence on virtual reality and virtual environments applications for future workspaces. The purpose of the network is to gather expertise from partner members and determine the future research agenda for the development and use of virtual reality (VR) technologies. The working group on Education and Training (WG2.9) is specifically focused on understanding how VR is being used to support learning in educational and industrial contexts. This paper presents four case examples of VR technology currently in use or development for training in industry. Conclusions are drawn concerning future development of VR training applications and barriers that need to be overcome

Realistic Model of the Nucleon Spectral Function in Few- and Many- Nucleon Systems

By analysing the high momentum features of the nucleon momentum distribution in light and complex nuclei, it is argued that the basic two-nucleon configurations generating the structure of the nucleon Spectral Function at high values of the nucleon momentum and removal energy, can be properly described by a factorised ansatz for the nuclear wave function, which leads to a nucleon Spectral Function in the form of a convolution integral involving the momentum distributions describing the relative and center-of-mass motion of a correlated nucleon-nucleon pair embedded in the medium. The Spectral Functions of $^3He$ and infinite nuclear matter resulting from the convolution formula and from many-body calculations are compared, and a very good agreement in a wide range of values of nucleon momentum and removal energy is found. Applications of the model to the analysis of inclusive and exclusive processes are presented, illustrating those features of the cross section which are sensitive to that part of the Spectral Function which is governed by short-range and tensor nucleon-nucleon correlations.Comment: 40 pages Latex , 16 ps figures available from the above e-mail address or from [email protected]

The yield of head CT in syncope: a pilot study

Although head CT is often routinely performed in emergency department (ED) patients with syncope, few studies have assessed its value

Neutron structure function and inclusive DIS from H-3 and He-3 at large Bjorken-x

A detailed study of inclusive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) from mirror A = 3 nuclei at large values of the Bjorken variable x is presented. The main purpose is to estimate the theoretical uncertainties on the extraction of the neutron DIS structure function from such nuclear measurements. On one hand, within models in which no modification of the bound nucleon structure functions is taken into account, we have investigated the possible uncertainties arising from: i) charge symmetry breaking terms in the nucleon-nucleon interaction, ii) finite Q**2 effects neglected in the Bjorken limit, iii) the role of different prescriptions for the nucleon Spectral Function normalization providing baryon number conservation, and iv) the differences between the virtual nucleon and light cone formalisms. Although these effects have been not yet considered in existing analyses, our conclusion is that all these effects cancel at the level of ~ 1% for x < 0.75 in overall agreement with previous findings. On the other hand we have considered several models in which the modification of the bound nucleon structure functions is accounted for to describe the EMC effect in DIS scattering from nuclei. It turns out that within these models the cancellation of nuclear effects is expected to occur only at a level of ~ 3%, leading to an accuracy of ~ 12 % in the extraction of the neutron to proton structure function ratio at x ~ 0.7 -0.8$. Another consequence of considering a broad range of models of the EMC effect is that the previously suggested iteration procedure does not improve the accuracy of the extraction of the neutron to proton structure function ratio.Comment: revised version to appear in Phys. Rev. C; main modifications in Section 4; no change in the conclusion

Late veneer and late accretion to the terrestrial planets

It is generally accepted that silicate-metal (`rocky') planet formation relies on coagulation from a mixture of sub-Mars sized planetary embryos and (smaller) planetesimals that dynamically emerge from the evolving circum-solar disc in the first few million years of our Solar System. Once the planets have, for the most part, assembled after a giant impact phase, they continue to be bombarded by a multitude of planetesimals left over from accretion. Here we place limits on the mass and evolution of these planetesimals based on constraints from the highly siderophile element (HSE) budget of the Moon. Outcomes from a combination of N-body and Monte Carlo simulations of planet formation lead us to four key conclusions about the nature of this early epoch. First, matching the terrestrial to lunar HSE ratio requires either that the late veneer on Earth consisted of a single lunar-size impactor striking the Earth before 4.45 Ga, or that it originated from the impact that created the Moon. An added complication is that analysis of lunar samples indicates the Moon does not preserve convincing evidence for a late veneer like Earth. Second, the expected chondritic veneer component on Mars is 0.06 weight percent. Third, the flux of terrestrial impactors must have been low ( <=10^(-6) M_earth/Myr) to avoid wholesale melting of Earth's crust after 4.4~Ga, and to simultaneously match the number of observed lunar basins. This conclusion leads to an Hadean eon which is more clement than assumed previously. Last, after the terrestrial planets had fully formed, the mass in remnant planetesimals was ~10^(-3) M_earth, lower by at least an order of magnitude than most previous models suggest. Our dynamically and geochemically self-consistent scenario requires that future N-body simulations of rocky planet formation either directly incorporate collisional grinding or rely on pebble accretion.Comment: Accepted for publication in Earth and Planetary Science Letter

The delivery of personalised, precision medicines via synthetic proteins

Introduction: The design of advanced drug delivery systems based on synthetic and su-pramolecular chemistry has been very successful. Liposomal doxorubicin (Caelyx®), and liposomal daunorubicin (DaunoXome®), estradiol topical emulsion (EstrasorbTM) as well as soluble or erodible polymer systems such as pegaspargase (Oncaspar®) or goserelin acetate (Zoladex®) represent considerable achievements. The Problem: As deliverables have evolved from low molecular weight drugs to biologics (currently representing approximately 30% of the market), so too have the demands made of advanced drug delivery technology. In parallel, the field of membrane trafficking (and endocytosis) has also matured. The trafficking of specific receptors i.e. material to be recycled or destroyed, as well as the trafficking of protein toxins has been well characterized. This, in conjunction with an ability to engineer synthetic, recombinant proteins provides several possibilities. The Solution: The first is using recombinant proteins as drugs i.e. denileukin diftitox (Ontak®) or agalsidase beta (Fabrazyme®). The second is the opportunity to use protein toxin architecture to reach targets that are not normally accessible. This may be achieved by grafting regulatory domains from multiple species to form synthetic proteins, engineered to do multiple jobs. Examples include access to the nucleocytosolic compartment. Herein the use of synthetic proteins for drug delivery has been reviewed