First measurement of the ϱ spectral function in nuclear collisions

The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied low-mass muon pairs in 158 A GeV In–In collisions. A strong excess of pairs is observed above the yield expected from neutral meson decays. The unprecedented sample size close to 400000 events and the good mass resolution of about 2% made it possible to isolate the excess by subtraction of the decay sources. The shape of the resulting mass spectrum shows some non-trivial centrality dependence, but is largely consistent with a dominant contribution from π⁺π^-→ϱ→μ⁺μ^- annihilation. The associated ϱ spectral function exhibits considerable broadening, but essentially no shift in mass. The p_T-differential mass spectra show the excess to be much stronger at low p_T than at high p_T. The results are compared to theoretical model predictions; they tend to rule out models linking hadron masses directly to the chiral condensate. PACS 25.75.-q; 12.38.Mh; 13.85.Qk     

Collocation Methods for Weakly Singular Second-kind Volterra Integral Equations with Non-smooth Solution

Collocation type methods are studied for the numerical solutionof the weakly singular Volterra integral equation of the secondkind: where the solution (t) is assumedto have the form f(t) = x(t)+r^?(t), x and being sufficientlysmooth. The solution is approximated near zero by a linear combinationof powers of t?, and away from zero by the usual polynomialrepresentation. Convergence is proved and many numerical experimentsare carried out with examples from the literature. A comparisonis made with a method of Brunner & Norsett (1981), originallydeveloped for (1) with a smooth solution. Special attentionis paid to the numerical approximation of the so-called momentintegrals which emerge in the collocation scheme.     

J/psi production in Indium-Indium collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon

The NA60 experiment studies muon pair production at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. In this Letter we report on a precision measurement of J/psi in In-In collisions. We have studied the J/psi centrality distribution, and we have compared it with the one expected if absorption in cold nuclear matter were the only active suppression mechanism. For collisions involving more than approximately 80 participant nucleons, we find that an extra suppression is present. This result is in qualitative agreement with previous Pb-Pb measurements by the NA50 experiment, but no theoretical explanation is presently able to coherently describe both results.     

Synthesis and anti‐HIV‐1 evaluation of 1,5‐disubstituted pyrimidine‐2,4‐diones

1,5‐Disubstituted pyrimidine‐2,4‐diones were synthesized by fusion of 5‐bromouracil with an aniline derivative followed by coupling with benzyl halide whereas the opposite synthesis sequence failed. Also 4,6‐dichloro‐N,N,5‐trimethylpyrimidin‐2‐amine was treated with phenols. The products were tested for their activity against HIV‐1.     

无机酸洗脱对胜利褐煤微晶结构及其自燃倾向性的影响

利用XRD、Raman、XPS和FT-IR表征技术,研究无机酸洗脱(HCl、H2SO4、HCl-HF)处理的胜利褐煤微晶结构的变化,采用自行设计的表面吸附仪-GC联用装置,对样品进行不同温度的低温脉冲氧化实验,考察了煤样在不同温度下氧吸附量的变化规律,通过低温脉冲氧吸附规律与TG/DTG和固定床燃烧实验关联,考察了煤样的自燃倾向。结果表明,无机酸洗脱对矿物质的脱除使得煤结构的有序度增加,石墨化程度提高,无机酸洗脱煤样与原煤相比吸氧量明显下降。随着吸附温度的升高,各煤样吸氧量明显增加,且随着脱除矿物质程度的增加,吸氧量呈减小的趋势,导致自燃倾向降低。     

φ production in In–In collisions at 158 A GeV

The NA60 experiment has measured muon pair production in In–In collisions at 158 AGeV at the CERN SPS. This paper presents a high statistics measurement of φ→μ μ meson production. Differential spectra, yields, mass and width are measured as a function of centrality and compared to previous measurements in other colliding systems at the same energy. The width of the rapidity distribution is found to be constant as a function of centrality, compatible with previous results. The decay muon polar angle distribution is measured in several reference frames. No evidence of polarization is found as a function of transverse momentum and centrality. The analysis of the p _T spectra shows that the φ has a small radial flow, implying a weak coupling to the medium. The T _eff parameter measured in In–In collisions suggests that the high value observed in Pb–Pb in the kaon channel is difficult to reconcile with radial flow alone. The absolute yield is compared to results in Pb–Pb collisions: though significantly smaller than measured by NA50 in the muon channel, it is found to exceed the NA49 and CERES data in the kaon channel at any centrality. The mass and width are found to be compatible with the PDG values at any centrality and at any p _T : no evidence for in-medium modifications is observed.     

Anti-HIV-1 and cytotoxicity of the alkaloids of Erythrina abyssinica Lam. growing in Sudan

Erythrina abyssinica Lam. is an important medicinal plant growing in Sudan; its seeds were investigated for the first time for their alkaloidal constituents and biological activity. The in vitro cytotoxicity of the crude alkaloidal fraction (CAF) against the cell lines HeLa, Hep-G2, HEP-2, HCT116, MCF-7 and HFB4 showed promising activity, with IC?? values of 13.8, 10.1, 8.16, 13.9, 11.4 and 12.2?μg?mL?1, respectively. Doxorubicin (positive control) showed in vitro cytotoxic activity with IC?? values 3.64, 4.57, 4.89, 3.74, 2.97 and 3.96?μg?mL?1, respectively. Bioassay-guided fractionation and isolation of the CAF led to the isolation of five Erythrina alkaloids, identified as erythraline, erysodine, erysotrine, 8-oxoerythraline and 11-methoxyerysodine. These were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against Hep-G2 which resulted in IC?? values 17.60, 11.80, 15.80, 3.89 and 11.40?μg?mL?1, respectively. Furthermore, in vitro cytotoxic activity against HEP-2 was evaluated, which resulted in IC?? values 15.90, 19.90, 21.60, 18.50 and 11.50?μg?mL?1, respectively. The CAF caused a reduction in the viability of mock-infected MT-4 cells with a CC?? of 53?μM and a 50% protection of MT-4 cells against HIV-1 induced cytopathogeneticy with a EC?? of >53?μM, compared with EFV as a positive control, which had a CC?? of 45?μM and an EC?? of 0.003?μM. We concluded that the isolated alkaloids were responsible for the carcinogenic actions of the plant extract previously reported in the literature.