Measurement of the neutron proton spin correlation parameter Azz at forward angles

The n-p spin correlation parameter Azz was measured at an energy of 68 MeV and 7 angles in the range of 22.5° - 57.3° CM with a statistical accuracy better than 0.01. In the measured range, Azz is most semsitive to є1, the mixing parameter of the deuteron states 2S1 and 2D1. Therefore the measurement is expected to reduce significantly the uncertainties of the phases in the energy range below 100 MeV, when a new global Phase Shift Analysis (PSA) is performed. This should help to find a more accurate answer to the strength of the tensor force in the NN-interaction. The experiment was performed in the low energy area C (NEC) of the Paul Scherrer Institute )PSI) in Villigen, Switzerland

Model Checking Synchronized Products of Infinite Transition Systems

Formal verification using the model checking paradigm has to deal with two aspects: The system models are structured, often as products of components, and the specification logic has to be expressive enough to allow the formalization of reachability properties. The present paper is a study on what can be achieved for infinite transition systems under these premises. As models we consider products of infinite transition systems with different synchronization constraints. We introduce finitely synchronized transition systems, i.e. product systems which contain only finitely many (parameterized) synchronized transitions, and show that the decidability of FO(R), first-order logic extended by reachability predicates, of the product system can be reduced to the decidability of FO(R) of the components. This result is optimal in the following sense: (1) If we allow semifinite synchronization, i.e. just in one component infinitely many transitions are synchronized, the FO(R)-theory of the product system is in general undecidable. (2) We cannot extend the expressive power of the logic under consideration. Already a weak extension of first-order logic with transitive closure, where we restrict the transitive closure operators to arity one and nesting depth two, is undecidable for an asynchronous (and hence finitely synchronized) product, namely for the infinite grid.Comment: 18 page

Porphyrins, Phthalocyanines, and Naphthalocyanines for Various Processes of Visible Light Driven Conversion Processes

Phthalocyanines, naphthalocyanines, tetraphenylporphyrins, and perylenebis(dicarboximides) are interesting compounds for the conversion of visible light. For photon-induced reactions in solution or in thin films of photoelectrochemical or photovoltaic cells some examples are given. It is shown that the position of energy levels or energy bands is a prerequisite for these visible-light-driven processes

Model checking synchronized products of infinite transition systems

Abstract. Formal verification using the model checking paradigm has to deal with two aspects: The system models are structured, often as products of components, and the specification logic has to be expressive enough to allow the formalization of reachability properties. The present paper is a study on what can be achieved for infinite transition systems under these premises. As models we consider products of infinite transition systems with different synchronization constraints. We introduce finitely synchronized transition systems, i.e. product systems which contain only finitely many (parameterized) synchronized transitions, and show that the decidability of FO(R), first-order logic extended by reachability predicates, of the product system can be reduced to the decidability of FO(R) of the components. This result is optimal in the following sense: (1) If we allow semifinite synchronization, i.e. just in one component infinitely many transitions are synchronized, the FO(R)-theory of the product system is in general undecidable. (2) We cannot extend the expressive power of the logic under consideration. Already a weak extension of firstorder logic with transitive closure, where we restrict the transitive closure operators to arity one and nesting depth two, is undecidable for an asynchronous (and hence finitely synchronized) product, namely for the infinite grid. 1

The Caucal hierarchy of infinite graphs in terms of logic and higher-order pushdown automata

In this paper we give two equivalent characterizations of the Caucal hierarchy, a hierarchy of infinite graphs with a decidable monadic second-order (MSO) theory. It is obtained by iterating the graph transformations of unfolding and inverse rational mapping. The first characterization sticks to this hierarchical approach, replacing the language-theoretic operation of a rational mapping by an MSO-transduction and the unfolding by the treegraph operation. The second characterization is non-iterative. We show that the family of graphs of the Caucal hierarchy coincides with the family of graphs obtained as the ε-closure of configuration graphs of higher-order pushdown automata. While the different characterizations of the graph family show their robustness and thus also their importance, the characterization in terms of higher-order pushdown automata additionally yields that the graph hierarchy is indeed strict

Untersuchungen zur Epidemiologie und Verlauf der Myasthenia gravis in Deutschland unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Krankheitsverlaufes während des Menstruationszyklus

Eine große Studie zur Epidemiologie der Myasthenia gravis (MG) in Deutschland wurde mit 1383 Patienten durchgeführt. Schwerpunkte waren 1) Manifestationsalter: Patientinnen erkrankten erkrankten vor dem 40. Lebensjahr mehr als doppelt so häufig wie Patienten, Männer mit zunehmendem Alter immer häufiger. An Alters-MG erkrankten weitaus mehr Männer, 2) Initiale Symptome: Augenmuskelparesen und Ptosis bei knapp 50 % der Patienten,, die häufigsten bulbären Initialsymptome waren Sprechschwierigkeiten,3) Okuläre MG: kam bei 6-10 % vor, der Verlauf war milder, Thymome seltener und seronegative MG's häufiger, 4)Fluktuationen der Symptome: bei der Mehrzahl, insbesondere bei Temperaturschwankungen,5)Diagnosestellung: diagnostische Odyssee besonders in der ehemaligen DDR häufig, 6) Thymusveränderungen: wahrscheinlich bei 86 %, Thymom bei bis zu 17,9 % mit schwerer Verlaufsform, 7)Erfolg der Thymektomie (TE): um so größer früher die TE, und je länger der Zeitraum nach der TE desto stärker die Symptombesserung, 8) Therapie: Kombinationstherapie von Cholinesterase-Hemmern und Azathioprin am häufigsten, 9) Ausbreitung auf andere Muskelgruppen: große Tendenz dazu, bei bis zu 88,6 % der Patienten mit initial okulärer MG folgt eine generalisierte MG, 10) Begleiterkrankungen: Schilddrüsenerkrankungen weitaus am häufigsten, dabei Frauen viel öfter, 11)Krankheitsverlauf während des Menstruationszyklus: zur selbständigen Prüfung der Muskelschwäche wurde ein Belastungstest mit Score entworfen, der mit dem Titer der Acetylcholoin-Rezeptor-Antikörper (AChR-AK) verglichen wurde. Eine Korrelation zwischen niedrigem Score und gleichzeitig niedrigem AChR-AK-Titer war nicht nachweisbar. Dadurch ist es wahrscheinlich dass die Exazerbationen im Verlauf des Menstruationszyklus nicht durch AChR-AK-induzierte autoimmunologische Vorgänge bewirkt wurden

Function, regulation and pathological roles of the Gab/DOS docking proteins

Since their discovery a little more than a decade ago, the docking proteins of the Gab/DOS family have emerged as important signalling elements in metazoans. Gab/DOS proteins integrate and amplify signals from a wide variety of sources including growth factor, cytokine and antigen receptors as well as cell adhesion molecules. They also contribute to signal diversification by channelling the information from activated receptors into signalling pathways with distinct biological functions. Recent approaches in protein biochemistry and systems biology have revealed that Gab proteins are subject to complex regulation by feed-forward and feedback phosphorylation events as well as protein-protein interactions. Thus, Gab/DOS docking proteins are at the centre of entire signalling subsystems and fulfil an important if not essential role in many physiological processes. Furthermore, aberrant signalling by Gab proteins has been increasingly linked to human diseases from various forms of neoplasia to Alzheimer's disease