471 research outputs found
Hyperons and massive neutron stars: vector repulsion and SU(3) symmetry
With the discovery of massive neutron stars such as PSR J1614-2230, the
question has arisen whether exotic matter such as hyperons can exist in the
neutron star core. We examine the conditions under which hyperons can exist in
massive neutron stars. We consistently investigate the vector meson-hyperon
coupling, going from SU(6) quark model to a broader SU(3) symmetry. We propose
that the maximum neutron star mass decreases linearly with the strangeness
content f_s of the neutron star core as M_max(f_s) = M_max(0) - 0.6 M_solar
(f_s/0.1), which seems to be independent of the underlying nuclear equation of
state and the vector baryon-meson coupling scheme. Thus, pulsar mass
measurements can be used to constrain the hyperon fraction in neutron stars.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Hyperons and massive neutron stars: the role of hyperon potentials
The constituents of cold dense matter are still far from being understood.
However, neutron star observations such as the recently observed pulsar PSR
J1614-2230 with a mass of 1.97+/-0.04 M_solar help to considerably constrain
the hadronic equation of state (EoS). We systematically investigate the
influence of the hyperon potentials on the stiffness of the EoS. We find that
they have but little influence on the maximum mass compared to the inclusion of
an additional vector meson mediating repulsive interaction amongst hyperons.
The new mass limit can only be reached with this additional meson regardless of
the hyperon potentials. Further, we investigate the impact of the nuclear
compression modulus and the effective mass of the nucleon at saturation density
on the high density regime of the EoS. We show that the maximum mass of purely
nucleonic stars is very sensitive to the effective nucleon mass but only very
little to the compression modulus.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure
Solving relativistic hydrodynamic equation in presence of magnetic field for phase transition in a neutron star
Hadronic to quark matter phase transition may occur inside neutron stars (NS)
having central densities of the order of 3-10 times normal nuclear matter
saturation density (). The transition is expected to be a two-step
process; transition from hadronic to 2-flavour matter and two-flavour to
equilibrated charge neutral three-flavour matter. In this paper we
concentrate on the first step process and solve the relativistic hydrodynamic
equations for the conversion front in presence of high magnetic field. Lorentz
force due to magnetic field is included in the energy momentum tensor by
averaging over the polar angles. We find that for an initial dipole
configuration of the magnetic field with a sufficiently high value at the
surface, velocity of the front increases considerably.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, same as published version of JPG, J. Phys. G:
Nucl. Part. Phys. 39 (2012) 09520
Nanofiber fabrication in a temperature and humidity controlled environment for improved fibre consistency
To fabricate nanofibers with reproducible characteristics, an important demand for many applications, the effect of controlled atmospheric conditions on resulting electrospun cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibers was evaluated for temperature ranging 17.5 - 35°C and relative humidity ranging 20% - 70%. With the potential application of nanofibers in many industries, especially membrane and filter fabrication, their reproducible production must be established to ensure commercially viability.
Cellulose acetate (CA) solution (0.2 g/ml) in a solvent mixture of acetone/DMF/ethanol (2:2:1) was electrospun into nonwoven fibre mesh with the fibre diameter ranging from 150nm to 1µm.
The resulting nanofibers were observed and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), showing a correlation of reducing average fibre diameter with increasing atmospheric temperature. A less pronounced correlation was seen with changes in relative humidity regarding fibre diameter, though it was shown that increased humidity reduced the effect of fibre beading yielding a more consistent, and therefore better quality of fibre fabrication.
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies observed lower melt enthalpies for finer CA nanofibers in the first heating cycle confirming the results gained from SEM analysis. From the conditions that were explored in this study the temperature and humidity that gave the most suitable fibre mats for a membrane purpose were 25.0°C and 50%RH due to the highest level of fibre diameter uniformity, the lowest level of beading while maintaining a low fibre diameter for increased surface area and increased pore size homogeneity. This study has highlighted the requirement to control the atmospheric conditions during the electrospinning process in order to fabricate reproducible fibre mats
Autoantibodies against NMDAR subunit NR1 disappear from blood upon anesthesia
Anesthetics penetrate the blood-brain-barrier (BBB) and - as confirmed preclinically – transiently disrupt it. An analogous consequence in humans has remained unproven. In mice, we previously reported that upon BBB dysfunction, the brain acts as ‘immunoprecipitator’ of autoantibodies against N-methyl-D-aspartate-receptor subunit-NR1 (NMDAR1-AB). We thus hypothesized that during human anesthesia, pre-existing NMDAR1-AB will specifically bind to brain. Screening of N = 270 subjects undergoing general anesthesia during cardiac surgery for serum NMDAR1-AB revealed N = 25 NMDAR1-AB seropositives. Only N = 14 remained positive post-surgery. No changes in albumin, thyroglobulin or CRP were associated with reduction of serum NMDAR1-AB. Thus, upon anesthesia, BBB opening likely occurs also in humans
Core collapse supernovae in the QCD phase diagram
We compare two classes of hybrid equations of state with a hadron-to-quark
matter phase transition in their application to core collapse supernova
simulations. The first one uses the quark bag model and describes the
transition to three-flavor quark matter at low critical densities. The second
one employs a Polyakov-loop extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model with
parameters describing a phase transition to two-flavor quark matter at higher
critical densities. These models possess a distinctly different temperature
dependence of their transition densities which turns out to be crucial for the
possible appearance of quark matter in supernova cores. During the early post
bounce accretion phase quark matter is found only if the phase transition takes
place at sufficiently low densities as in the study based on the bag model. The
increase critical density with increasing temperature, as obtained for our PNJL
parametrization, prevents the formation of quark matter. The further evolution
of the core collapse supernova as obtained applying the quark bag model leads
to a structural reconfiguration of the central proto-neutron star where, in
addition to a massive pure quark matter core, a strong hydrodynamic shock wave
forms and a second neutrino burst is released during the shock propagation
across the neutrinospheres. We discuss the severe constraints in the freedom of
choice of quark matter models and their parametrization due to the recently
observed 2 solar mass pulsar and their implications for further studies of core
collapse supernovae in the QCD phase diagram.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, CPOD2010 conference proceedin
Alcohol affects neuronal substrates of response inhibition but not of perceptual processing of stimuli signalling a stop response
Alcohol impairs inhibitory control, including the ability to terminate an initiated action. While there is increasing knowledge about neural mechanisms involved in response inhibition, the level at which alcohol impairs such mechanisms remains poorly understood. Thirty-nine healthy social drinkers received either 0.4g/kg or 0.8g/kg of alcohol, or placebo, and performed two variants of a Visual Stop-signal task during acquisition of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. The two task variants differed only in their instructions: in the classic variant (VSST), participants inhibited their response to a “Go-stimulus” when it was followed by a “Stop-stimulus”. In the control variant (VSST_C), participants responded to the “Go-stimulus” even if it was followed by a “Stop-stimulus”. Comparison of successful Stop-trials (Sstop)>Go, and unsuccessful Stop-trials (Ustop)>Sstop between the three beverage groups enabled the identification of alcohol effects on functional neural circuits supporting inhibitory behaviour and error processing. Alcohol impaired inhibitory control as measured by the Stop-signal reaction time, but did not affect other aspects of VSST performance, nor performance on the VSST_C. The low alcohol dose evoked changes in neural activity within prefrontal, temporal, occipital and motor cortices. The high alcohol dose evoked changes in activity in areas affected by the low dose but importantly induced changes in activity within subcortical centres including the globus pallidus and thalamus. Alcohol did not affect neural correlates of perceptual processing of infrequent cues, as revealed by conjunction analyses of VSST and VSST_C tasks. Alcohol ingestion compromises the inhibitory control of action by modulating cortical regions supporting attentional, sensorimotor and action-planning processes. At higher doses the impact of alcohol also extends to affect subcortical nodes of fronto-basal ganglia- thalamo-cortical motor circuits. In contrast, alcohol appears to have little impact on the early visual processing of infrequent perceptual cues. These observations clarify clinically-important effects of alcohol on behaviour
Human 13N-ammonia PET studies: the importance of measuring 13N-ammonia metabolites in blood
Dynamic 13N-ammonia PET is used to assess ammonia metabolism in brain, liver and muscle based on kinetic modeling of metabolic pathways, using arterial blood 13N-ammonia as input function. Rosenspire et al. (1990) introduced a solid phase extraction procedure for fractionation of 13N-content in blood into 13N-ammonia, 13N-urea, 13N-glutamine and 13N-glutamate. Due to a radioactive half-life for 13N of 10 min, the procedure is not suitable for blood samples taken beyond 5–7 min after tracer injection. By modifying Rosenspire’s method, we established a method enabling analysis of up to 10 blood samples in the course of 30 min. The modified procedure was validated by HPLC and by 30-min reproducibility studies in humans examined by duplicate 13N-ammonia injections with a 60-min interval. Blood data from a 13N-ammonia brain PET study (from Keiding et al. 2006) showed: (1) time courses of 13N-ammonia fractions could be described adequately by double exponential functions; (2) metabolic conversion of 13N-ammonia to 13N-metabolites were in the order: healthy subjects > cirrhotic patients without HE > cirrhotic patients with HE; (3) kinetics of initial tracer distribution in tissue can be assessed by using total 13N-concentration in blood as input function, whereas assessment of metabolic processes requires 13N-ammonia measurements
Interfacial Tension of (Brines+CO2): CaCl2(aq), MgCl2(aq), and Na2SO4(aq) at Temperatures between (343 and 423) K, Pressures between (2 and 50) MPa, and Molalities of (0.5 to 5) mol.kg-1
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