Inclusive production of charged kaons in p+p collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum and a new evaluation of the energy dependence of kaon production up to collider energies

New data on the production of charged kaons in p+p interactions are presented. The data come from a sample of 4.8 million inelastic events obtained with the NA49 detector at the CERN SPS at 158 GeV/c beam momentum. The kaons are identified by energy loss in a large TPC tracking system. Inclusive invariant cross sections are obtained in intervals from 0 to 1.7 GeV/c in transverse momentum and from 0 to 0.5 in Feynman x. Using these data as a reference, a new evaluation of the energy dependence of kaon production, including neutral kaons, is conducted over a range from 3 GeV to $\mathrm{p}+\overline{\mathrm{p}}$ collider energies.     

Untersuchung der tribologischen Eigenschaften von Nutzfahrzeugmotoren unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Luftfiltration

Es wurde eine unter Betriebsverhältnissen anwendbare Prüfmethode für die Bestimmung der Verschleβeigenschaften von Verbrennungsmotoren mit Hilfe der Gammaspektrometrie der neutronenaktivierten Verschleiβprodukte ausgearbeitet und die die Lebensdauer begrenzende Wirkung des abrasiven Verschleiβes festgestellt. Durch Verbesserung der Luftfilterung konnte die potentielle Lebensdauer der Motoren gut angenähert, und es konnten die Verunreinigung des Schmieröls vermindert und die Dauer der Ölwechselperiode verdoppelt werden.     

The benefits of training with vibration in stabilizers and postural human muscle strengthening

The mechanical vibrations have been perceived as unhealthy, although in some circunstances these may lead to a human body fortification. The trainings that use the vibrating stimulus have certain advantages to the classical trainings. Stabilizers and postural muscles are less visible, being hidden by large muscle groups and have little growth potential. For this reason most types of training does not focus on training and strengthening them. This article presents the advantages of training muscular groups of the vertebral column performed on vibrating plates. This type of training has the advantage that besides the requiring to all muscles in where the vibratory stimulus reaches, leads to an increase flexibility of joints. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Re-weighted random series path integral simulations of molecular clusters: Applications to lithium solvated by a mixed Stockmayer cluster

Nuclear quantum effects in finite temperature simulations of molecular clusters are determined by taking advantage of a recently developed method based on the Feynman Path Integral. The structural and thermodynamic properties, including the nuclear quantum effects are determined for three Stockmayer clusters. The ionic system contain a lithium ion solvated by six strong dipoles and 12 weaker ones. The presence of the ion in the mixed Stockmayer cluster drastically enhances the fluxional nature of the less polar components which occupy the second solvation layer, whereas the neutral counterpart has the effect of reducing it. The nuclear quantum effects are significant at room temperature and above for the solvated ionic system. These are attributable to two factors: (a) the lightness of the lithium ion and (b) the stiffness of the ion-dipole interactions. At 300 K, the difference between the fully converged quantum and the classical heat capacities is about 1.3 K_B for the ionic cluster. This difference is about 10 SDs obtained from 95% confidence estimates of the statistical fluctuations. Cubic convergence is confirmed for temperatures as low as 50 K by regression analysis. The nuclear quantum effects do not change the peak melting temperature of the cluster.     

Functional MRI of the cervical spinal cord during noxious and innocuous thermal stimulation in the alpha-chloralose- and halothane-anesthetized rat

Patterns of neuronal activity in the spinal cord using functional magnetic resonance imaging during noxious (48 degrees C) and innocuous (40 degrees C) thermal stimulation of the rat forepaw were examined. The patterns of functional activity elicited by thermal stimuli were compared in alpha-chloralose- and halothane-anesthetized rats. Although the locations of active pixels were similar during both types of stimulation, the mean percentage signal change was higher during noxious stimulation in both anesthetic groups. Ipsilateral dorsal horn activity was evident during both noxious and innocuous stimulation in all animals. The greatest consistency of ipsilateral dorsal horn activity occurred at the C3 to C5 spinal cord segments in all groups. Consistent contralateral dorsal horn activity appeared in segments C6 to C8 in all groups. C-fos immunohistochemical staining confirmed the presence of neural activity in the spinal cords of all animals.     

A new P‐heterocyclic family: A variety of six‐membered and bridged P‐heterocycles with 1‐benzyl substituent

The ring enlargement of 1‐benzyl‐2,5‐dihydro‐1H‐phosphole oxide ( 1 ) via the corresponding 2‐phosphabicyclo[3.1.0]hexane 2‐oxide ( 2 ) afforded, depending on the conditions, the double bond isomers ( A and B ) of 1,2‐dihydrophosphinine oxide 4 or that of 3‐substituted 1,2,3,6‐tetrahydrophosphinine oxides 5 and 6 . Dihydrophosphinine oxides ( 4 ) were suitable starting materials for 1,2,3,4,5,6‐hexahydrophosphinine oxide 7 and 1,2,3,6‐tetrahydrophosphinine oxide 8 obtained by reductive approaches and for the double bond isomers ( A and B ) of 2‐phosphabicyclo[2.2.2]octadiene 2‐oxide 9 and phosphabicyclooctene oxide 10 prepared in Diels–Alder cycloaddition. Precursor 9 was utilized in the fragmentation‐related phosphorylation of alcohols. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 19:28–34, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/hc.20363     

Contribution of individual flavonoids in Lysimachia species to the antioxidant capacity based on HPLC-DPPH assay

Quantitative phytochemical characterisation of the chief flavonoid aglycones in the hydrolysed Lysimachia extracts revealed the dominance of kaempferol, quercetin and myricetin in L. vulgaris, L. nummularia, L. punctata, L. christinae, L. ciliata and L. clethroides, respectively. Due to the significant radical scavenging capacity of the samples, the contribution of the individual aglycones to the total antioxidant activity became of interest. Therefore, a HPLC method coupled to pre-column DPPH scavenging assay was developed. Differences in the six Lysimachia species’ phenolic composition regarding their participation to the antioxidant activity were revealed. The participation of the three investigated flavonoids to the radical quenching activity was the highest (91.2%) in the L. vulgaris sample, the lowest in L. christinae sample with 29.6%. In L. vulgaris sample, the 76.3% contribution of quercetin to the scavenger capacity was the highest peak area decrement ratio among the investigated samples.     

Monte Carlo structure simulations for aqueous 1,4-dioxane solutions

Monte Carlo simulations in the NpT ensembles have been performed for the structure exploration of aqueous 1,4-dioxane solutions. Three different systems with all-atom dioxane:TIP4P water molar compositions of 2:500 (code:D2), 8:465 (D8), and 17:425 (D17) modeled solutions of 0.22, 0.88, and 1.86 mol/dm3 concentrations, respectively, at T = 298 K and p = 1 atm. The calculated solution densities increase from 0.992 to 1.002 g/cm3 with increasing dioxane concentration and approach the experimentally determined densities within 1%. This close agreement was achieved by utilizing RESP charges fitted to the in-solution IEF-PCM/B3LYP/6-31G* electrostatic potential of dioxane taken in its chair conformation and recently developed C, H steric parameters for ethers for calculations with a 12-6-1 all-atom potential. Solution structure analyses pointed out that the dioxane molecules arrange in the solutions with favorable distances of 4-8 angstroms for the ring symmetry centers. Within this range not only pairs of rings but triangular triads and tetrads have also been observed with center-center distances <8 angstroms. For the D8 system, about 25% of the sampled configurations included such a triad. In the case of the D17 model, two simulations starting from different solution configuration predicted different degrees for the dioxane aggregation in aqueous solution. In the more aggregated structure 3-21 triads are consistently maintained and 1-2 tetrads are formed in 58% of the configurations. Each dioxane oxygen forms about one hydrogen bond, on average, to a water molecule in the 0.22-1.86 molar range. The most likely O(dioxane)...H(water) hydrogen bond distance is 1.75-1.80 angstroms compared to the optimal distance of 1.72 angstroms in the isolated dimer. The optimal dioxane-water interaction energy of -5.65 kcal/mol indicates a remarkable hydrogen-bond acceptor character for dioxane.