A low cost time-energy correlation apparatus for positronium annihilation

A two parameter correlation system to measure the energy of a thermalizing ortho-positronium as function of its age was constructed. The Doppler broadening of the 2 annihilation line due the quenching ofo-Ps is measured in coincidence with the age of the positronium. We use only one high resolution nuclear ADC for the energy spectrum, together with a self build low resolution ADC for the timing information and an integrated logical unit. In this way, AMOC (Age Momentum Correlation) becomes possible with small extra expenses.     

Tails of random sums of a heavy-tailed number of light-tailed terms

The tail of the distribution of a sum of a random number of independent and identically distributed nonnegative random variables depends on the tails of the number of terms and of the terms themselves. This situation is of interest in the collective risk model, where the total claim size in a portfolio is the sum of a random number of claims. If the tail of the claim number is heavier than the tail of the claim sizes, then under certain conditions the tail of the total claim size does not change asymptotically if the individual claim sizes are replaced by their expectations. The conditions allow the claim number distribution to be of consistent variation or to be in the domain of attraction of a Gumbel distribution with a mean excess function that grows to infinity sufficiently fast. Moreover, the claim number is not necessarily required to be independent of the claim sizes.     

Book Review

Stuart Coles, An Introduction to Statistical Modeling of Extreme Values. A volume in the Springer Series in Statistics, Springer-Verlag, London, 2001, ISBN 1-85233-459-2, xiv+208 pp., 77 illus., hardback £45.00     

Prenatal stress and subsequent exposure to chronic mild stress influence dendritic spine density and morphology in the rat medial prefrontal cortex

Background  

Both prenatal stress (PS) and postnatal chronic mild stress (CMS) are associated with behavioral and mood disturbances in humans and rodents. The aim of this study was to reveal putative PS- and/or CMS-related changes in basal spine morphology and density of pyramidal neurons in the rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC).     

Traffic jam at the bacterial sec translocase: targeting the SecA nanomotor by small-molecule inhibitors

The rapid rise of drug-resistant bacteria is one of the most serious unmet medical needs facing the world. Despite this increasing problem of antibiotic resistance, the number of different antibiotics available for the treatment of serious infections is dwindling. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new antibacterial drugs, preferably with novel modes of action to potentially avoid cross-resistance with existing antibacterial agents. In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to bacterial protein secretion as a potential antibacterial target. Among the different protein secretion pathways that are present in bacterial pathogens, the general protein secretory (Sec) pathway is widely considered as an attractive target for antibacterial therapy. One of the key components of the Sec pathway is the peripheral membrane ATPase SecA, which provides the energy for the translocation of preproteins across the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane. In this review, we will provide an overview of research efforts on the discovery and development of small-molecule SecA inhibitors. Furthermore, recent advances on the structure and function of SecA and their potential impact on antibacterial drug discovery will be discussed.     

Lower Bound for the Poles of Igusa’s p-adic Zeta Functions

Let K be a p-adic field, R the valuation ring of K, P the maximal ideal of R and q the cardinality of the residue field R/P. Let f be a polynomial over R in n >1 variables and let χ be a character of . Let M _i (u) be the number of solutions of f = u in (R/P ⁱ ) ⁿ for and. These numbers are related with Igusa’s p-adic zeta function Z _f,χ(s) of f. We explain the connection between the M _i (u) and the smallest real part of a pole of Z _f,χ(s). We also prove that M _i (u) is divisible by , where the corners indicate that we have to round up. This will imply our main result: Z _f,χ(s) has no poles with real part less than − n/2. We will also consider arbitrary K-analytic functions f.