Preliminary Results from Recent Measurements of the Antiprotonic Helium Hyperfine Structure

We report on preliminary results from a systematic study of the hyperfine (HF) structure of antiprotonic helium. This precise measurement which was commenced in 2006, has now been completed. Our initial analysis shows no apparent density or power dependence and therefore the results can be averaged. The statistical error of the observable M1 transitions is a factor of 60 smaller than that of three body quantum electrodynamic (QED) calculations, while their difference has been resolved to a precision comparable to theory (a factor of 10 better than our first measurement). This difference is sensitive to the antiproton magnetic moment and agreement between theory and experiment would lead to an increased precision of this parameter, thus providing a test of CPT invariance.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Soft networks for bridging the gap between research and practice: illuminative evaluation of CHAIN

Objectives To explore the process of knowledge exchange in an informal email network for evidence based health care, to illuminate the value of the service and its critical success factors, and to identify areas for improvement.Design Illuminative evaluationSetting Targeted email and networking service for UK healthcare practitioners and researchers.Participants 2800 members of a networking service.Main outcome measures Tracking of email messages, interviews with core staff, and a qualitative analysis of messages, postings from focus groups, and invited and unsolicited feedback to the service.Results The informal email network helped to bridge the gap between research and practice by serving as a rich source of information, providing access to members' experiences, suggestions, and ideas, facilitating cross boundary collaboration, and enabling participation in networking at a variety of levels. Ad hoc groupings and communities of practice emerged spontaneously as members discovered common areas of interest.Conclusion This study illuminated how knowledge for evidence based health care can be targeted, personalised, and made meaningful through informal social processes. Critical success factors include a broad based membership from both the research and service communities; a loose and fluid network structure; fight targeting of messages based on members' interests; the presence of a strong network identity and culture of reciprocity; and the opportunity for new members to learn through passive participation

On inward motion of the magnetopause preceding a substorm

Magnetopause inward motion preceding magnetic storms observed by means of OGO-E magnetomete

Mirror modes: Nonmaxwellian distributions

We perform direct analysis of mirror mode instabilities from the general dielectric tensor for several model distributions, in the longwavelength limit. The growth rate at the instability threshold depends on the derivative of the distribution for zero parallel energy. The maximum growth rate is always $\sim k_\parallel v_{T\parallel}$ and the instability is of nonresonant kind. The instability growth rate and its dependence on the propagation angle depend on the shape of the ion and electron distribution functions.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures, revtex4, amsmath, amssymb,amsfonts,times, graphicx, float,verbatim,psfra

Presence and localization of a 30-kDa basic fibroblast growth factor-like protein in rodent testes

We have used a recently characterized rabbit antiserum against basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), which recognizes various forms of bFGF, to examine the presence and localization of bFGF in the testes of adult rats and mice and the 5-day-old rat. In Western blots of testicular homogenates of adult rats and mice and immature rats, immunoreactive single bands at approximately 30 kDa were detected. Immunocytochemistry revealed specific staining restricted to the tubular compartment. In 5-day-old rat testes, prespermatogonia were immunoreactive. The cytoplasm of pachytene spermatocytes was heavily stained in the adult testes of both species. Staining of these cells became evident around stage IV/V, was prominent in stage VII through IX and declined about stage XII/XIII (rat) or X-XI (mouse). Staining was seen in type A spermatogonia and in elongating spermatids in their cytoplasmatic lobes and along their flagellae. Sertoli cells were unstained. We propose that the pluripotential growth factor bFGF could be involved in the regulation of germ cell proliferation and differentiation in the adult and immature testis

Petrology and geochemistry of nakhlite MIL 03346: A new Martian meteorite from Antarctica

MIL 03346 is the first nakhlite in the US Antarctic collection. We have performed detailed mineralogical and bulk-geochemical investigations to compare petrogenesis of this Martian meteorite with other nakhlites