Influence of the Coulomb Interaction on the Chemical Equilibrium of Nuclear Systems at Break-Up

The importance of a Coulomb correction to the formalism proposed by Albergo et al. for determining the temperatures of nuclear systems at break-up and the ensities of free nucleon gases is discussed. While the proposed correction has no effect on the temperatures extracted based on double isotope ratios, it becomes non-negligible when such temperatures or densities of free nucleon gases are extracted based on multiplicities of heavier fragments of different atomic numbers

Microcanonical Lattice Gas Model for Nuclear Disassembly

Microcanonical calculations are no more difficult to implement than canonical calculations in the Lattice Gas Model. We report calculations for a few observables where we compare microcanonical model results with canonical model results.Comment: 7 pages, Revtex, 3 postscript figure

Elaboration and characterization of Fe1–xO thin films sputter deposited from magnetite target

Majority of the authors report elaboration of iron oxide thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering from an iron target with Ar–O2 gas mixture. Instead of using the reactive sputtering of a metallic target we report here the preparation of Fe1–xOthin films, directly sputtered froma magnetite target in a pure argon gas flow with a bias power applied. This oxide is generally obtained at very low partial oxygen pressure and high temperature.We showed that bias sputtering which can be controlled very easily can lead to reducing conditions during deposition of oxide thin film on simple glass substrates. The proportion of wustite was directly adjusted bymodifying the power of the substrate polarization. Atomic force microscopy was used to observe these nanostructured layers. Mössbauer measurements and electrical properties versus bias polarization and annealing temperature are also reported

Model of multifragmentation, Equation of State and phase transition

We consider a soluble model of multifragmentation which is similar in spirit to many models which have been used to fit intermediate energy heavy ion collision data. We draw a p-V diagram for the model and compare with a p-V diagram obtained from a mean-field theory. We investigate the question of chemical instability in the multifragmentation model. Phase transitions in the model are discussed.Comment: Revtex, 9 pages including 6 figures: some change in the text and Fig.

Incorporating Radial Flow in the Lattice Gas Model for Nuclear Disassembly

We consider extensions of the lattice gas model to incorporate radial flow. Experimental data are used to set the magnitude of radial flow. This flow is then included in the Lattice Gas Model in a microcanonical formalism. For magnitudes of flow seen in experiments, the main effect of the flow on observables is a shift along the $E^*/A$ axis.Comment: Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C, Rapid Communicatio

Existence of weak solutions for the generalized Navier-Stokes equations with damping

In this work we consider the generalized Navier-Stokes equations with the presence of a damping term in the momentum equation. The problem studied here derives from the set of equations which govern isothermal flows of incompressible and homogeneous non-Newtonian fluids. For the generalized Navier-Stokes problem with damping, we prove the existence of weak solutions by using regularization techniques, the theory of monotone operators and compactness arguments together with the local decomposition of the pressure and the Lipschitz-truncation method. The existence result proved here holds for any and any sigma > 1, where q is the exponent of the diffusion term and sigma is the exponent which characterizes the damping term.MCTES, Portugal [SFRH/BSAB/1058/2010]; FCT, Portugal [PTDC/MAT/110613/2010]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Testing foundations of quantum mechanics with photons

The foundational ideas of quantum mechanics continue to give rise to counterintuitive theories and physical effects that are in conflict with a classical description of Nature. Experiments with light at the single photon level have historically been at the forefront of tests of fundamental quantum theory and new developments in photonics engineering continue to enable new experiments. Here we review recent photonic experiments to test two foundational themes in quantum mechanics: wave-particle duality, central to recent complementarity and delayed-choice experiments; and Bell nonlocality where recent theoretical and technological advances have allowed all controversial loopholes to be separately addressed in different photonics experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, published as a Nature Physics Insight review articl

Mouse models for preeclampsia: disruption of redox-regulated signaling

The concept that oxidative stress contributes to the development of human preeclampsia has never been tested in genetically-defined animal models. Homozygous deletion of catechol-Omethyl transferase (Comt-/-) in pregnant mice leads to human preeclampsia-like symptoms (high blood pressure, albuminurea and preterm birth) resulting from extensive vasculo-endothelial pathology, primarily at the utero-fetal interface where maternal cardiac output is dramatically increased during pregnancy. Comt converts estradiol to 2-methoxyestradiol 2 (2ME2) which counters angiogenesis by depleting hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) at late pregnancy. We propose that in wild type (Comt++) pregnant mice, 2ME2 destabilizes HIF-1 alpha by inhibiting mitochondrial superoxide dismutase (MnSOD). Thus, 2ME2 acts as a pro-oxidant, disrupting redox-regulated signaling which blocks angiogenesis in wild type (WT) animals in physiological pregnancy. Further, we suggest that a lack of this inhibition under normoxic conditions in mutant animals (Comt-/-) stabilises HIF-1 alpha by inactivating prolyl hydroxlases (PHD). We predict that a lack of inhibition of MnSOD, leading to persistent accumulation of HIF-1 alpha, would trigger inflammatory infiltration and endothelial damage in mutant animals. Critical tests of this hypothesis would be to recreate preeclampsia symptoms by inducing oxidative stress in WT animals or to ameliorate by treating mutant mice with Mn-SOD-catalase mimetics or activators of PHD