Herschel-PACS Measurements of Nitrogen Enrichment in Nebulae around Wolf-Rayet Stars

For three nebulae that have early-WN Wolf-Rayet exciting stars, NGC 6888, WR 8 and Abell 48, we have obtained Herschel-PACS line scans of the [N III] 57 um and [O III] 88 micron lines, along with the 122 and 205 micron lines of [N II]. From the former two lines we have derived N$^{2+}$/O$^{2+}$ abundance ratios, equal to the overall N/O ratio under a wide range of nebular conditions. We find that all of the nebulae observed possess significant nitrogen enrichment, with derived N/O ratios greater than solar. The two nebulae with massive Wolf-Rayet exciting stars, NGC 6888 and WR8 are found to have N/O ratios that are enhanced by factors of 7 - 10 relative to the solar N/O ratio, consistent with an origin as material ejected just before the onset of the Wolf-Rayet phase. The other nebula, Abell 48, has recently been reclassified as a member of the rare class of three planetary nebulae that have early-WN central stars and are not of Peimbert Type I. We derive a nebular N/O ratio for it that is a factor of 4 enhanced relative to solar and slightly above the range of N/O values that have been measured for the other three members of its [WN] planetary nebula class.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS accepte

Optical imaging of resonant electrical carrier injection into individual quantum dots

We image the micro-electroluminescence (EL) spectra of self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in the intrinsic region of a GaAs p-i-n diode and demonstrate optical detection of resonant carrier injection into a single QD. Resonant tunneling of electrons and holes into the QDs at bias voltages below the flat-band condition leads to sharp EL lines characteristic of individual QDs, accompanied by a spatial fragmentation of the surface EL emission into small and discrete light- emitting areas, each with its own spectral fingerprint and Stark shift. We explain this behavior in terms of Coulomb interaction effects and the selective excitation of a small number of QDs within the ensemble due to preferential resonant tunneling paths for carriers.Comment: 4 page

Glial and axonal body fluid biomarkers are related to infarct volume, severity, and outcome.

Body fluid biomarkers of central nervous system damage may help improve the prognostic and diagnostic accuracy in ischemic stroke. We studied 53 patients. Stroke severity and outcome was rated using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale and modified Rankin scale. Ferritin, S100B, and NfH were measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum. Infarct volume was calculated from T2W images. CSF S100B (median 1.00 ng/mL) and CSF ferritin (10.0 ng/mL) levels were elevated in patients with stroke compared with control subjects (0.62 ng/mL, P < .0001; 2.34 ng/mL, P < .0001). Serum S100B (0.09 ng/mL) was higher in patients with stroke compared with control subjects (0.01 ng/mL). CSF S100B levels were higher in patients with a cardioembolic stroke (2.88 ng/mL) than in those with small-vessel disease (0.89 ng/mL, P < .05). CSF S100B levels correlated with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score on admission (R = 0.56, P < .01) and the stroke volume (R = 0.44, P = .01). CSF S100B and NfH-SMI35 levels correlated with outcome on the modified Rankin scale. CSF S100B levels were related to stroke severity and infarct volume and highest in cardioembolic stroke

Validity of the Hadronic Freeze-Out Curve

We analyze hadro-chemical freeze-out in central Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS energies, employing the hybrid version of UrQMD which models hadronization by the Cooper-Frye mechanism, and matches to a final hadron-resonance cascade. We fit the results both before and after the cascade stage using the Statistical Hadronization Model, to assess the effect of the cascade phase. We observe a strong effect on antibaryon yields except anti-{\Omega}, resulting in a shift in T and {\mu}_B. We discuss the implications for the freeze-out curve.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures. To appear in the proceedings of Quark Matter 2011, the XXII International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collision

Hadronization conditions in relativistic nuclear collisions and the QCD pseudo-critical line

We compare the reconstructed hadronization conditions in relativistic nuclear collisions in the nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy range 4.7-2760 GeV in terms of temperature and baryon-chemical potential with lattice QCD calculations, by using hadronic multiplicities. We obtain hadronization temperatures and baryon chemical potentials with a fit to measured multiplicities by correcting for the effect of post-hadronization rescattering. The post-hadronization modification factors are calculated by means of a coupled hydrodynamical-transport model simulation under the same conditions of approximate isothermal and isochemical decoupling as assumed in the statistical hadronization model fits to the data. The fit quality is considerably better than without rescattering corrections, as already found in previous work. The curvature of the obtained "true" hadronization pseudo-critical line kappa is found to be 0.0048 +- 0.0026, in agreement with lattice QCD estimates; the pseudo-critical temperature at vanishing mu_B is found to be 164.3+-1.8 MeV.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. Minor corrections, version published in PL

How did leading indicator forecasts perform during the 2001 recession?

Economic indicators ; Economic conditions ; Recessions