2,510 research outputs found
Arsenic and Fluoride Exposure in Drinking Water: Children’s IQ and Growth in Shanyin County, Shanxi Province, China
BACKGROUND: Recently, in a cross-sectional study of 201 children in Araihazar, Bangladesh, exposure to arsenic (As) in drinking water has been shown to lower the scores on tests that measure children’s intellectual function before and after adjustment for sociodemographic features. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the effects of As and fluoride exposure on children’s intelligence and growth. METHODS: We report the results of a study of 720 children between 8 and 12 years of age in rural villages in Shanyin county, Shanxi province, China. The children were exposed to As at concentrations of 142 ± 106 μg/L (medium-As group) and 190 ± 183 μg/L (high-As group) in drinking water compared with the control group that was exposed to low concentrations of As (2 ± 3 μg/L) and low concentrations of fluoride (0.5 ± 0.2 mg/L). A study group of children exposed to high concentrations of fluoride (8.3 ± 1.9 mg/L) but low concentrations of As (3 ± 3 μg/L) was also included because of the common occurrence of elevated concentrations of fluoride in groundwater in our study area. A standardized IQ (intelligence quotient) test was modified for children in rural China and was based on the classic Raven’s test used to determine the effects of these exposures on children’s intelligence. A standardized measurement procedure for weight, height, chest circumference, and lung capacity was used to determine the effects of these exposures on children’s growth. RESULTS: The mean IQ scores decreased from 105 ± 15 for the control group, to 101 ± 16 for the medium-As group (p < 0.05), and to 95 ± 17 for the high-As group (p < 0.01). The mean IQ score for the high-fluoride group was 101 ± 16 and significantly different from that of the control group (p < 0.05). Children in the control group were taller than those in the high-fluoride group (p < 0.05); weighed more than the those in the high-As group (p < 0.05); and had higher lung capacity than those in the medium-As group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Children’s intelligence and growth can be affected by high concentrations of As or fluoride. The IQ scores of the children in the high-As group were the lowest among the four groups we investigated. It is more significant that high concentrations of As affect children’s intelligence. It indicates that arsenic exposure can affect children’s intelligence and growth
A Note on Temperature and Energy of 4-dimensional Black Holes from Entropic Force
We investigate the temperature and energy on holographic screens for
4-dimensional black holes with the entropic force idea proposed by Verlinde. We
find that the "Unruh-Verlinde temperature" is equal to the Hawking temperature
on the horizon and can be considered as a generalized Hawking temperature on
the holographic screen outside the horizons. The energy on the holographic
screen is not the black hole mass but the reduced mass , which is
related to the black hole parameters. With the replacement of the black hole
mass by the reduced mass , the entropic force can be written as
, which could be tested by experiments.Comment: V4: 13 pages, 4 figures, title changed, discussions for experiments
added, accepted by CQ
Observation of decays into vector meson pairs , , and
Decays of to vector meson pairs , and
are observed for the first time using
\psip events accumulated at the BESIII detector at the BEPCII
collider. The branching fractions are measured to be , , and , for , , and ,
respectively. The observation of decays into a pair of vector
mesons , and indicates that the hadron
helicity selection rule is significantly violated in decays. In
addition, the measurement of gives the rate of doubly
OZI-suppressed decay. Branching fractions for and
decays into other vector meson pairs are also measured with improved precision.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
First Observation of the Decays chi_{cJ} -> pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 pi^0
We present a study of the P-wave spin -triplet charmonium chi_{cJ} decays
(J=0,1,2) into pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 pi^0. The analysis is based on 106 million
\psiprime decays recorded with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII electron
positron collider. The decay into the pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 hadronic final state
is observed for the first time. We measure the branching fractions B(chi_{c0}
-> pi^0 pi^0 pi^0 pi^0)=(3.34 +- 0.06 +- 0.44)*10^{-3}, B(chi_{c1} -> pi^0 pi^0
pi^0 pi^0)=(0.57 +- 0.03 +- 0.08)*10^{-3}, and B(chi_{c2} -> pi^0 pi^0 pi^0
pi^0)=(1.21 +- 0.05 +- 0.16)*10^{-3}, where the uncertainties are statistical
and systematical, respectively.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Measurement of azimuthal asymmetries in inclusive charged dipion production in annihilations at = 3.65 GeV
We present a measurement of the azimuthal asymmetries of two charged pions in
the inclusive process based on a data set of 62
at the center-of-mass energy GeV collected with
the BESIII detector. These asymmetries can be attributed to the Collins
fragmentation function. We observe a nonzero asymmetry, which increases with
increasing pion momentum. As our energy scale is close to that of the existing
semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering experimental data, the measured
asymmetries are important inputs for the global analysis of extracting the
quark transversity distribution inside the nucleon and are valuable to explore
the energy evolution of the spin-dependent fragmentation function.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Measurement of the Cross Section between 600 and 900 MeV Using Initial State Radiation
We extract the cross section in the energy
range between 600 and 900 MeV, exploiting the method of initial state
radiation. A data set with an integrated luminosity of 2.93 fb taken at
a center-of-mass energy of 3.773 GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII
collider is used. The cross section is measured with a systematic uncertainty
of 0.9%. We extract the pion form factor as well as the
contribution of the measured cross section to the leading order hadronic vacuum
polarization contribution to . We find this value to be
.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted by PL
Study of radiative decays into a vector meson
The decays () are studied with
a sample of radiative \psip\to\gamma\chi_{cJ} events in a sample of
(1.06\pm0.04)\times 10^{8} \psip events collected with the BESIII detector.
The branching fractions are determined to be: , , and . The decay is observed for the first time. Upper limits at the 90% confidence
level on the branching fractions for and \chict decays into these
final states are determined. In addition, the fractions of the transverse
polarization component of the vector meson in decays
are measured to be for , for , and for , respectively. The first errors are statistical and the second
ones are systematic.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Improved measurement of the absolute branching fraction of
By analyzing 2.93 fb of data collected at GeV with the
BESIII detector, we measure the absolute branching fraction , which is consistent with previous measurements within
uncertainties but with significantly improved precision. Combining the Particle
Data Group values of , , and the lifetimes of the and
mesons with the value of measured in this work, we determine the following ratios of
partial widths: and .Comment: 9 pages; 8 figure
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