Nuclear Periphery in Mean-Field Models

The halo factor is one of the experimental data which describes a distribution of neutrons in nuclear periphery. In the presented paper we use Skyrme-Hartree (SH) and the Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) models and we calculate the neutron excess factor $\Delta_B$ defined in the paper which differs slightly from halo factor $f_{\rm exp}$. The results of the calculations are compared to the measured data.Comment: Proceedings of the Xth Nuclear Physics Workshop, Maria and Pierre Curie, Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, Sept 24-28, 2003; LaTex, 4 pages, 3 figure

Natural risk warning: comparison of two methodologies

International audienceThe Italian network of "Centri Funzionali" is now reaching operational status both in hydro-meteorological risk forecasting and support to the decision making of administrations that issue natural risk warning. Each centre operates for its district of influence. In order to have a nationwide common standard the National Civil Protection Department proposed a quantitative warning methodology based on the definition of rainfall thresholds correlated to historical damages. In the first phase the thresholds have been defined using two studies that cover all Italy: the VAPI (statistics of extreme rainfall and discharges, see reference) and the AVI (database of historical flood and landslide events and reported damages, see reference). This work presents one year back analysis that compares the new methodology and the one that has been usied since 2000 by the Liguria Region Meteorological Centre with regard to flood warning, pinpointing the performance differences in terms of false and missed alerts

Genericity of blackhole formation in the gravitational collapse of homogeneous self-interacting scalar fields

The gravitational collapse of a wide class of self-interacting homogeneous scalar fields models is analyzed. The class is characterized by certain general conditions on the scalar field potential, which, in particular, include both asymptotically polynomial and exponential behaviors. Within this class, we show that the generic evolution is always divergent in a finite time, and then make use of this result to construct radiating star models of the Vaidya type. It turns out that blackholes are generically formed in such models.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Escape Orbits for Non-Compact Flat Billiards

It is proven that, under some conditions on $f$, the non-compact flat billiard $\Omega = \{ (x,y) \in \R_0^{+} \times \R_0^{+};\ 0\le y \le f(x) \}$ has no orbits going {\em directly} to $+\infty$. The relevance of such sufficient conditions is discussed.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, 3 postscript figures available at http://www.princeton.edu/~marco/papers/ . Minor changes since previously posted version. Submitted to 'Chaos

Tactile-STAR: A Novel Tactile STimulator And Recorder System for Evaluating and Improving Tactile Perception

Many neurological diseases impair the motor and somatosensory systems. While several different technologies are used in clinical practice to assess and improve motor functions, somatosensation is evaluated subjectively with qualitative clinical scales. Treatment of somatosensory deficits has received limited attention. To bridge the gap between the assessment and training of motor vs. somatosensory abilities, we designed, developed, and tested a novel, low-cost, two-component (bimanual) mechatronic system targeting tactile somatosensation: the Tactile-STAR—a tactile stimulator and recorder. The stimulator is an actuated pantograph structure driven by two servomotors, with an end-effector covered by a rubber material that can apply two different types of skin stimulation: brush and stretch. The stimulator has a modular design, and can be used to test the tactile perception in different parts of the body such as the hand, arm, leg, big toe, etc. The recorder is a passive pantograph that can measure hand motion using two potentiometers. The recorder can serve multiple purposes: participants can move its handle to match the direction and amplitude of the tactile stimulator, or they can use it as a master manipulator to control the tactile stimulator as a slave. Our ultimate goal is to assess and affect tactile acuity and somatosensory deficits. To demonstrate the feasibility of our novel system, we tested the Tactile-STAR with 16 healthy individuals and with three stroke survivors using the skin-brush stimulation. We verified that the system enables the mapping of tactile perception on the hand in both populations. We also tested the extent to which 30 min of training in healthy individuals led to an improvement of tactile perception. The results provide a first demonstration of the ability of this new system to characterize tactile perception in healthy individuals, as well as a quantification of the magnitude and pattern of tactile impairment in a small cohort of stroke survivors. The finding that short-term training with Tactile-STARcan improve the acuity of tactile perception in healthy individuals suggests that Tactile-STAR may have utility as a therapeutic intervention for somatosensory deficits

Quantum Chaos in the Bose-Hubbard model

We present a numerical study of the spectral properties of the 1D Bose-Hubbard model. Unlike the 1D Hubbard model for fermions, this system is found to be non-integrable, and exhibits Wigner-Dyson spectral statistics under suitable conditions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

A Morse-theoretical analysis of gravitational lensing by a Kerr-Newman black hole

Consider, in the domain of outer communication of a Kerr-Newman black hole, a point (observation event) and a timelike curve (worldline of light source). Assume that the worldline of the source (i) has no past end-point, (ii) does not intersect the caustic of the past light-cone of the observation event, and (iii) goes neither to the horizon nor to infinity in the past. We prove that then for infinitely many positive integers k there is a past-pointing lightlike geodesic of (Morse) index k from the observation event to the worldline of the source, hence an observer at the observation event sees infinitely many images of the source. Moreover, we demonstrate that all lightlike geodesics from an event to a timelike curve in the domain of outer communication are confined to a certain spherical shell. Our characterization of this spherical shell shows that in the Kerr-Newman spacetime the occurrence of infinitely many images is intimately related to the occurrence of centrifugal-plus-Coriolis force reversal.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures; REVTEX; submitted to J. Math. Phy

Activity of drugs against dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis

AbstractObjective/backgroundHeterogeneous mixtures of cellular and caseous granulomas coexist in the lungs of tuberculosis (TB) patients, with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) existing from actively replicating (AR) to dormant, nonreplicating (NR) stages. Within cellular granulomas, the pH is estimated to be less than 6, whereas in the necrotic centres of hypoxic, cholesterol/triacylglycerol-rich, caseous granulomas, the pH varies between 7.2 and 7.4. To combat TB, we should kill both AR and NR stages of Mtb. Dormant Mtb remodels lipids of its cell wall, and so lipophilic drugs may be active against NR Mtb living in caseous, lipid-rich, granulomas. Lipophilicity is expressed as logP, that is, the logarithm of the partition coefficient (P) ratio Poctanol/Pwater. In this study, the activity of lipophilic drugs (logP>0) and hydrophilic drugs (logP⩽0) against AR and NR Mtb was measured in hypoxic conditions under acidic and slightly alkaline pHs.MethodsThe activity of drugs was determined against AR Mtb (5-day-old aerobic cells: A5) and NR Mtb (12- and 19-day-old hypoxic cells: H12 and H19) in a Wayne dormancy model of Mtb H37Rv at pH 5.8, to mimic the environment of cellular granulomas. Furthermore, AR and NR bacilli were grown for 40days in Wayne models at pH 6.6, 7.0, 7.4, and 7.6, to set up conditions mimicking the caseous granulomas (hypoxia+slightly alkaline pH), to measure drug activity against NR cells. Mtb viability was determined by colony-forming unit (CFU) counts.ResultsAt pH 5.8, lipophilic drugs (rifampin, rifapentine, bedaquiline, PA-824, clofazimine, nitazoxanide: logP⩾2.14) reduced CFU of all cells (H12, H19, and A5) by ⩾2log10. Among hydrophilic drugs (isoniazid, pyrazinamide, ethambutol, amikacin, moxifloxacin, metronidazole: logP⩽0.01), none reduced H12 and H19 CFUs by ⩾2log10, with the exception of metronidazole. When Mtb was grown at different pHs the following Mtb growth was noted: at pH 6.6, AR cells grew fluently while NR cells grew less, with a CFU increase up to Day 15, followed by a drop to Day 40. AR and NR Mtb grown at pH 7.0, 7.4, and 7.6 showed up to 1 log10 CFU lower than their growth at pH 6.6. The pHs of all AR cultures tended to reach pH 7.2–7.4 on Day 40. The pHs of all NR cultures remained stable at their initial values (6.6, 7.0, 7.4, and 7.6) up to Day 40. The activity of drugs against H12 and H19 cells was tested in hypoxic conditions at a slightly alkaline pH. Under these conditions, some lipophilic drugs were more active (>5 log CFU decrease after 21days of exposure) against H12 and H19 cells than clofazimine, nitazoxanide, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, amikacin (<1 log CFU decrease after 21days of exposure). Testing of other drugs is in progress.ConclusionLipophilic drugs were more active than hydrophilic agents against dormant Mtb in hypoxic conditions at pH 5.8. The Wayne model under slightly alkaline conditions was set up, and in hypoxic conditions at a slightly alkaline pH some lipophilic drugs were more active than other drugs against NR Mtb. Overall, these models can be useful for testing drug activity against dormant Mtb under conditions mimicking the environments of cellular and caseous granulomas