The Impact of Isospin Breaking on the Distribution of Transition Probabilities

In the present paper we investigate the effect of symmetry breaking in the statistical distributions of reduced transition amplitudes and reduced transition probabilities. These quantities are easier to access experimentally than the components of the eigenvectors and were measured by Adams et al. for the electromagnetic transitions in ^{26}Al. We focus on isospin symmetry breaking described by a matrix model where both, the Hamiltonian and the electromagnetic operator, break the symmetry. The results show that for partial isospin conservation, the statistical distribution of the reduced transition probability can considerably deviate from the Porter-Thomas distribution.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, submitted to PR

Young Offenders and Juvenile Delinquency in Canada: a Look at the Canadian Juvenile Justice Act (2003)

This paper provides an evaluation and analysis of the laws in place to deal with juvenile delinquency in Canada. The primary focus of this paper is the Criminal Justice Act (Aprill, 2003) which is being introduced to replace the pre-existing Young Offenders Act. Canada\u27s New Criminal Justice Act is the topic of this paper. The Act is to be implemented on April 1, 2003. Fundamentally, it is the old Young Offender Act revised and also includes new changes, revisions, and mandates. After having taken a fairly in-depth look at this new proposal, I will attempt to break it down and explain what it is aiming towards and its purpose. In doing so, I hope to point out both the positive aspects as well as the negative that this new document could have, as well as a breakdown of the propositions and key points

Nonergodic Behavior of Interacting Bosons in Harmonic Traps

We study the time evolution of a system of interacting bosons in a harmonic trap. In the low-energy regime, the quantum system is not ergodic and displays rather large fluctuations of the ground state occupation number. In the high energy regime of classical physics we find nonergodic behavior for modest numbers of trapped particles. We give two conditions that assure the ergodic behavior of the quantum system even below the condensation temperature.Comment: 11 pages, 3 PS-figures, uses psfig.st

Energy Level Statistics of the U(5) and O(6) Symmetries in the Interacting Boson Model

We study the energy level statistics of the states in U(5) and O(6) dynamical symmetries of the interacting boson model and the high spin states with backbending in U(5) symmetry. In the calculations, the degeneracy resulting from the additional quantum number is eliminated manually. The calculated results indicate that the finite boson number $N$ effect is prominent. When $N$ has a value close to a realistic one, increasing the interaction strength of subgroup O(5) makes the statistics vary from Poisson-type to GOE-type and further recover to Poisson-type. However, in the case of $N \to \infty$, they all tend to be Poisson-type. The fluctuation property of the energy levels with backbending in high spin states in U(5) symmetry involves a signal of shape phase transition between spherical vibration and axial rotation.Comment: 38 pages, 13 figure

Collectivity Embedded in Complex Spectra of Finite Interacting Fermi Systems: Nuclear Example

The mechanism of collectivity coexisting with chaos in a finite system of strongly interacting fermions is investigated. The complex spectra are represented in the basis of two-particle two-hole states describing the nuclear double-charge exchange modes in $^{48}$Ca. An example of $J^{\pi}=0^-$ excitations shows that the residual interaction, which generically implies chaotic behavior, under certain specific and well identified conditions may create strong transitions, even much stronger than those corresponding to a pure mean-field picture. Such an effect results from correlations among the off-diagonal matrix elements, is connected with locally reduced density of states and a local minimum in the information entropy.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX2e, REVTeX, 8 PostScript figures, to appear in Physical Review

Using the Wigner-Ibach Surmise to Analyze Terrace-Width Distributions: History, User's Guide, and Advances

A history is given of the applications of the simple expression generalized from the surmise by Wigner and also by Ibach to extract the strength of the interaction between steps on a vicinal surface, via the terrace width distribution (TWD). A concise guide for use with experiments and a summary of some recent extensions are provided.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, reformatted (with revtex) version of refereed paper for special issue of Applied Physics A entitled "From Surface Science to Device Physics", in honor of the retirements of Prof. H. Ibach and Prof. H. L\"ut

Vector meson production and nucleon resonance analysis in a coupled-channel approach for energies m_N < sqrt(s) < 2 GeV II: photon-induced results

We present a nucleon resonance analysis by simultaneously considering all pion- and photon-induced experimental data on the final states gamma N, pi N, 2 pi N, eta N, K Lambda, K Sigma, and omega N for energies from the nucleon mass up to sqrt(s) = 2 GeV. In this analysis we find strong evidence for the resonances P_{31}(1750), P_{13}(1900), P_{33}(1920), and D_{13}(1950). The omega N production mechanism is dominated by large P_{11}(1710) and P_{13}(1900) contributions. In this second part we present the results on the photoproduction reactions and the electromagnetic properties of the resonances. The inclusion of all important final states up to sqrt(s) = 2 GeV allows for estimates on the importance of the individual states for the GDH sum rule.Comment: 41 pages, 26 figures, discussion extended, typos corrected, references updated, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Polygenic risk of major depressive disorder as a risk factor for venous thromboembolism

Major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia (SCZ) are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, including venous thromboembolism (VTE). The reasons for this are complex and include obesity, smoking, and use of hormones and psychotropic medications. Genetic studies have increasingly provided evidence of the shared genetic risk of psychiatric and cardiometabolic illnesses. This study aimed to determine whether a genetic predisposition to MDD, BD, or SCZ is associated with an increased risk of VTE. Genetic correlations using the largest genome-wide genetic meta-analyses summary statistics for MDD, BD, and SCZ (Psychiatric Genetics Consortium) and a recent genome-wide genetic meta-analysis of VTE (INVENT Consortium) demonstrated a positive association between VTE and MDD but not BD or SCZ. The same summary statistics were used to construct polygenic risk scores for MDD, BD, and SCZ in UK Biobank participants of self-reported White British ancestry. These were assessed for impact on self-reported VTE risk (10 786 cases, 285 124 controls), using logistic regression, in sex-specific and sex-combined analyses. We identified significant positive associations between polygenic risk for MDD and the risk of VTE in men, women, and sex-combined analyses, independent of the known risk factors. Secondary analyses demonstrated that this association was not driven by those with lifetime experience of mental illness. Meta-analyses of individual data from 6 additional independent cohorts replicated th

Genetic risk scores for major psychiatric disorders and the risk of postpartum psychiatric disorders

Postpartum psychiatric disorders are heritable, but how genetic liability varies by other significant risk factors is unknown. We aimed to (1) estimate associations of genetic risk scores (GRS) for major depression (MD), bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia (SCZ) with postpartum psychiatric disorders, (2) examine differences by prior psychiatric history, and (3) compare genetic and familial risk of postpartum psychiatric disorders. We conducted a nested case-control study based on Danish population-based registers of all women in the iPSYCH2012 cohort who had given birth before December 31, 2015 (n = 8850). Cases were women with a diagnosed psychiatric disorder or a filled psychotropic prescription within one year after delivery (n = 5829 cases, 3021 controls). Association analyses were conducted between GRS calculated from Psychiatric Genomics Consortium discovery meta-analyses for MD, BD, and SCZ and case-control status of a postpartum psychiatric disorder. Parental psychiatric history was associated with postpartum psychiatric disorders among women with previous psychiatric history (OR, 1.14; 95% CI 1.02–1.28) but not without psychiatric history (OR, 1.08; 95% CI: 0.81–1.43). GRS for MD was associated with an increased risk of postpartum psychiatric disorders in both women with (OR, 1.44; 95% CI: 1.19–1.74) and without (OR, 1.88; 95% CI: 1.26–2.81) personal psychiatric history. SCZ GRS was only minimally associated with postpartum disorders and BD GRS was not. Results suggest GRS of lifetime psychiatric illness can be applied to the postpartum period, which may provide clues about distinct environmental or genetic elements of postpartum psychiatric disorders and ultimately help identify vulnerable groups

Exome sequencing of child–parent trios with bladder exstrophy: Findings in 26 children

Bladder exstrophy (BE) is a rare, lower ventral midline defect with the bladder and part of the urethra exposed. The etiology of BE is unknown but thought to be influenced by genetic variation with more recent studies suggesting a role for rare variants. As such, we conducted paired-end exome sequencing in 26 child/mother/father trios. Three children had rare (allele frequency ≤ 0.0001 in several public databases) inherited variants in TSPAN4, one with a loss-of-function variant and two with missense variants. Two children had loss-of-function variants in TUBE1. Four children had rare missense or nonsense variants (one per child) in WNT3, CRKL, MYH9, or LZTR1, genes previously associated with BE. We detected 17 de novo missense variants in 13 children and three de novo loss-of-function variants (AKR1C2, PRRX1, PPM1D) in three children (one per child). We also detected rare compound heterozygous loss-of-function variants in PLCH2 and CLEC4M and rare inherited missense or loss-of-function variants in additional genes applying autosomal recessive (three genes) and X-linked recessive inheritance models (13 genes). Variants in two genes identified may implicate disruption in cell migration (TUBE1) and adhesion (TSPAN4) processes, mechanisms proposed for BE, and provide additional evidence for rare variants in the development of this defect