168 research outputs found
Isospin-mixing corrections for fp-shell Fermi transitions
Isospin-mixing corrections for superallowed Fermi transitions in {\it
fp}-shell nuclei are computed within the framework of the shell model. The
study includes three nuclei that are part of the set of nine accurately
measured transitions as well as five cases that are expected to be measured in
the future at radioactive-beam facilities. We also include some new
calculations for C. With the isospin-mixing corrections applied to the
nine accurately measured values, the conserved-vector-current hypothesis
and the unitarity condition of the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix are
tested.Comment: 13 pages plus five tables. revtex macro
Indirect search for dark matter: prospects for GLAST
Possible indirect detection of neutralino, through its gamma-ray annihilation
product, by the forthcoming GLAST satellite from our galactic halo, M31, M87
and the dwarf galaxies Draco and Sagittarius is studied. Gamma-ray fluxes are
evaluated for the two representative energy thresholds, 0.1 GeV and 1.0 GeV, at
which the spatial resolution of GLAST varies considerably. Apart from dwarfs
which are described either by a modified Plummer profile or by a
tidally-truncated King profiles, fluxes are compared for halos with central
cusps and cores. It is demonstrated that substructures, irrespective of their
profiles, enhance the gamma-ray emission only marginally. The expected
gamma-ray intensity above 1 GeV at high galactic latitudes is consistent with
the residual emission derived from EGRET data if the density profile has a
central core and the neutralino mass is less than 50 GeV, whereas for a central
cusp only a substantial enhancement would explain the observations. From M31,
the flux can be detected above 0.1 GeV and 1.0 GeV by GLAST only if the
neutralino mass is below 300 GeV and if the density profile has a central cusp,
case in which a significant boost in the gamma-ray emission is produced by the
central black hole. For Sagittarius, the flux above 0.1 GeV is detectable by
GLAST provided the neutralino mass is below 50 GeV. From M87 and Draco the
fluxes are always below the sensitivity limit of GLAST.Comment: 14 Pages, 7 Figures, 3 Tables, version to appear on Physical Review
Self-Organization and Complex Networks
In this chapter we discuss how the results developed within the theory of
fractals and Self-Organized Criticality (SOC) can be fruitfully exploited as
ingredients of adaptive network models. In order to maintain the presentation
self-contained, we first review the basic ideas behind fractal theory and SOC.
We then briefly review some results in the field of complex networks, and some
of the models that have been proposed. Finally, we present a self-organized
model recently proposed by Garlaschelli et al. [Nat. Phys. 3, 813 (2007)] that
couples the fitness network model defined by Caldarelli et al. [Phys. Rev.
Lett. 89, 258702 (2002)] with the evolution model proposed by Bak and Sneppen
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 4083 (1993)] as a prototype of SOC. Remarkably, we show
that the results obtained for the two models separately change dramatically
when they are coupled together. This indicates that self-organized networks may
represent an entirely novel class of complex systems, whose properties cannot
be straightforwardly understood in terms of what we have learnt so far.Comment: Book chapter in "Adaptive Networks: Theory, Models and Applications",
Editors: Thilo Gross and Hiroki Sayama (Springer/NECSI Studies on Complexity
Series
Distribution of Major Health Risks: Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study
BACKGROUND: Most analyses of risks to health focus on the total burden of their aggregate effects. The distribution of risk-factor-attributable disease burden, for example by age or exposure level, can inform the selection and targeting of specific interventions and programs, and increase cost-effectiveness. METHODS AND FINDINGS: For 26 selected risk factors, expert working groups conducted comprehensive reviews of data on risk-factor exposure and hazard for 14 epidemiological subregions of the world, by age and sex. Age-sex-subregion-population attributable fractions were estimated and applied to the mortality and burden of disease estimates from the World Health Organization Global Burden of Disease database. Where possible, exposure levels were assessed as continuous measures, or as multiple categories. The proportion of risk-factor-attributable burden in different population subgroups, defined by age, sex, and exposure level, was estimated. For major cardiovascular risk factors (blood pressure, cholesterol, tobacco use, fruit and vegetable intake, body mass index, and physical inactivity) 43%–61% of attributable disease burden occurred between the ages of 15 and 59 y, and 87% of alcohol-attributable burden occurred in this age group. Most of the disease burden for continuous risks occurred in those with only moderately raised levels, not among those with levels above commonly used cut-points, such as those with hypertension or obesity. Of all disease burden attributable to being underweight during childhood, 55% occurred among children 1–3 standard deviations below the reference population median, and the remainder occurred among severely malnourished children, who were three or more standard deviations below median. CONCLUSIONS: Many major global risks are widely spread in a population, rather than restricted to a minority. Population-based strategies that seek to shift the whole distribution of risk factors often have the potential to produce substantial reductions in disease burden
The satisfactory growth and development at 2 years of age of the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards cohort support its appropriateness for constructing international standards.
BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization recommends that human growth should be monitored with the use of international standards. However, in obstetric practice, we continue to monitor fetal growth using numerous local charts or equations that are based on different populations for each body structure. Consistent with World Health Organization recommendations, the INTERGROWTH-21st Project has produced the first set of international standards to date pregnancies; to monitor fetal growth, estimated fetal weight, Doppler measures, and brain structures; to measure uterine growth, maternal nutrition, newborn infant size, and body composition; and to assess the postnatal growth of preterm babies. All these standards are based on the same healthy pregnancy cohort. Recognizing the importance of demonstrating that, postnatally, this cohort still adhered to the World Health Organization prescriptive approach, we followed their growth and development to the key milestone of 2 years of age. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the babies in the INTERGROWTH-21st Project maintained optimal growth and development in childhood. STUDY DESIGN: In the Infant Follow-up Study of the INTERGROWTH-21st Project, we evaluated postnatal growth, nutrition, morbidity, and motor development up to 2 years of age in the children who contributed data to the construction of the international fetal growth, newborn infant size and body composition at birth, and preterm postnatal growth standards. Clinical care, feeding practices, anthropometric measures, and assessment of morbidity were standardized across study sites and documented at 1 and 2 years of age. Weight, length, and head circumference age- and sex-specific z-scores and percentiles and motor development milestones were estimated with the use of the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards and World Health Organization milestone distributions, respectively. For the preterm infants, corrected age was used. Variance components analysis was used to estimate the percentage variability among individuals within a study site compared with that among study sites. RESULTS: There were 3711 eligible singleton live births; 3042 children (82%) were evaluated at 2 years of age. There were no substantive differences between the included group and the lost-to-follow up group. Infant mortality rate was 3 per 1000; neonatal mortality rate was 1.6 per 1000. At the 2-year visit, the children included in the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards were at the 49th percentile for length, 50th percentile for head circumference, and 58th percentile for weight of the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards. Similar results were seen for the preterm subgroup that was included in the INTERGROWTH-21st Preterm Postnatal Growth Standards. The cohort overlapped between the 3rd and 97th percentiles of the World Health Organization motor development milestones. We estimated that the variance among study sites explains only 5.5% of the total variability in the length of the children between birth and 2 years of age, although the variance among individuals within a study site explains 42.9% (ie, 8 times the amount explained by the variation among sites). An increase of 8.9 cm in adult height over mean parental height is estimated to occur in the cohort from low-middle income countries, provided that children continue to have adequate health, environmental, and nutritional conditions. CONCLUSION: The cohort enrolled in the INTERGROWTH-21st standards remained healthy with adequate growth and motor development up to 2 years of age, which supports its appropriateness for the construction of international fetal and preterm postnatal growth standards
Updated Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Unstable Relic Particles
We revisit the upper limits on the abundance of unstable massive relic
particles provided by the success of Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis calculations. We
use the cosmic microwave background data to constrain the baryon-to-photon
ratio, and incorporate an extensively updated compilation of cross sections
into a new calculation of the network of reactions induced by electromagnetic
showers that create and destroy the light elements deuterium, he3, he4, li6 and
li7. We derive analytic approximations that complement and check the full
numerical calculations. Considerations of the abundances of he4 and li6 exclude
exceptional regions of parameter space that would otherwise have been permitted
by deuterium alone. We illustrate our results by applying them to massive
gravitinos. If they weigh ~100 GeV, their primordial abundance should have been
below about 10^{-13} of the total entropy. This would imply an upper limit on
the reheating temperature of a few times 10^7 GeV, which could be a potential
difficulty for some models of inflation. We discuss possible ways of evading
this problem.Comment: 40 pages LaTeX, 18 eps figure
Helium identification with LHCb
The identification of helium nuclei at LHCb is achieved using a method based on measurements of ionisation losses in the silicon sensors and timing measurements in the Outer Tracker drift tubes. The background from photon conversions is reduced using the RICH detectors and an isolation requirement. The method is developed using pp collision data at √(s) = 13 TeV recorded by the LHCb experiment in the years 2016 to 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.5 fb-1. A total of around 105 helium and antihelium candidates are identified with negligible background contamination. The helium identification efficiency is estimated to be approximately 50% with a corresponding background rejection rate of up to O(10^12). These results demonstrate the feasibility of a rich programme of measurements of QCD and astrophysics interest involving light nuclei
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