Thomas-Fermi theory for atomic nuclei revisited

The recently developed semiclassical variational Wigner-Kirkwood (VWK) approach is applied to finite nuclei using external potentials and self-consistent mean fields derived from Skyrme inter-actions and from relativistic mean field theory. VWK consist s of the Thomas-Fermi part plus a pure, perturbative h 2 correction. In external potentials, VWK passes through the average of the quantal values of the accumulated level density and total en energy as a function of the Fermi energy. However, there is a problem of overbinding when the energy per particle is displayed as a function of the particle number. The situation is analyzed comparing spherical and deformed harmonic oscillator potentials. In the self-consistent case, we show for Skyrme forces that VWK binding energies are very close to those obtained from extended Thomas-Fermi functionals of h 4 order, pointing to the rapid convergence of the VWK theory. This satisfying result, however, does not cure the overbinding problem, i.e., the semiclassical energies show more binding than they should. This feature is more pronounced in the case of Skyrme forces than with the relativistic mean field approach. However, even in the latter case the shell correction energy for e.g.208 Pb turns out to be only ∼ −6 MeV what is about a factor two or three off the generally accepted value. As an adhoc remedy, increasing the kinetic energy by 2.5%, leads to shell correction energies well acceptable throughout the periodic table. The general importance of the present studies for other finite Fermi systems, self-bound or in external potentials, is pointed out.

Euphorbia chamaesyce L. dentro del genero Chamaesyce S.F. Gray (Euphorbiaceae)

Desde antiguo, los caracteres morfológicos han permitido agrupar las especies de Chamaesyce, bien con rango genérico independiente (Chamaesyce S. F. Gray, Anisophyllum Haw., Xamesike Rafin.), bien supeditándolas a Euphorbia L. a nivel subgenérico (E. subgen. Chamaesyce Rafin.) o seccional (E. sect. Anisophyllum Roeper). Los resultados de los estudios comparativos sobre el tipo de crecimiento, fisiología del metabolismo, morfología de los granulos de almidón del látex, carpología, fitodermología, boiquímica y palinología (cf. KOUTNIK, allertonia 4 : 331-387, 1984) aportan datos más que suficientes para considerar Chamaesyce segregado genéricamente de Euphorbia. Una vez aceptado el género Chamaesyce, se plantea el problema de la inclusión en dicho género de Euphorbia chamaesyce L.

Early versus delayed application of Thomas splints in patients with isolated femur shaft fractures: The benefits quantified.

AIMS: To investigate and quantify the clinical benefits of early versus delayed application of Thomas splints in patients with isolated femur shaft fractures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Level IV retrospective clinical and radiological analysis of patients presenting from January to December 2012 at a Level 1 Trauma Unit. All skeletally mature patients with isolated femur shaft fractures independently of their mechanism of injury were included. Exclusion criteria were: ipsilateral fracture of the lower limb, neck and supracondylar femur fractures, periprosthetic and incomplete fractures. Their clinical records were analysed for blood transfusion requirements, pulmonary complications, surgery time, duration of hospital stay and analgesic requirements. RESULTS: A total of 106 patients met our inclusion criteria. There were 74 males and 32 females. Fifty seven (54%) patients were in the 'early splinted' group and 49 patients (46%) were in the 'delayed splinted' group (P>0.05). The need for blood transfusion was significantly reduced in the 'early splinted' group (P=0.04). There was a significantly higher rate of pulmonary complications in the 'delayed splinted' group (P=0.008). All other parameters were similar between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The early application of Thomas splints for isolated femur fractures in non-polytraumatised patients has a clinically and statistically significant benefit of reducing the need for blood transfusions and the incidence of pulmonary complications.

Classical references and their significance in The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

Although Thomas Mann’s novel The Magic Mountain has been the object of innumerable studies, this paper suggests that so far none of these has given truly close attention to the significance of the classical references in this novel with regard to the search for a true humanism. This is probably owing to the generally held belief that the influence of the classical tradition is relatively inconsequential in relation to the ample conjunction of philosophical ideas on which the novel is based. This article takes a differing view and, through a close analysis and comment of the explicit and implicit classical notions in the text, concludes that these ideas are also a valuable key to a greater comprehension of the ideological design of the main character, Hans Castorp, and to a certain degree they also help to continue to reflect on the most enigmatic and controversial episode of the novel: the young protagonist’s descent to the plain from the magical mountain (Zauberberg) in order to take part in the great tragedy of World War I, alien as is any war to the prevalent but ultimately futile desire that love (Liebe) should in the end prevail in the life of humans.

New Distance Transforms for Gray Level Image Compression

This thesis deals with distance transforms which are a fundamental issue in image processing and computer vision. In this thesis, two new distance transforms for gray level images are presented. As a new application for distance transforms, they are applied to gray level image compression. The new distance transforms are both new extensions of the well known distance transform algorithm developed by Rosenfeld, Pfaltz and Lay. With some modification their algorithm which calculates a distance transform on binary images with a chosen kernel has been made to calculate a chessboard like distance transform with integer numbers (DTOCS) and a real value distance transform (EDTOCS) on gray level images. Both distance transforms, the DTOCS and EDTOCS, require only two passes over the graylevel image and are extremely simple to implement. Only two image buffers are needed: The original gray level image and the binary image which defines the region(s) of calculation. No other image buffers are needed even if more than one iteration round is performed. For large neighborhoods and complicated images the two pass distance algorithm has to be applied to the image more than once, typically 3 10 times. Different types of kernels can be adopted. It is important to notice that no other existing transform calculates the same kind of distance map as the DTOCS. All the other gray weighted distance function, GRAYMAT etc. algorithms find the minimum path joining two points by the smallest sum of gray levels or weighting the distance values directly by the gray levels in some manner. The DTOCS does not weight them that way. The DTOCS gives a weighted version of the chessboard distance map. The weights are not constant, but gray value differences of the original image. The difference between the DTOCS map and other distance transforms for gray level images is shown. The difference between the DTOCS and EDTOCS is that the EDTOCS calculates these gray level differences in a different way. It propagates local Euclidean distances inside a kernel. Analytical derivations of some results concerning the DTOCS and the EDTOCS are presented. Commonly distance transforms are used for feature extraction in pattern recognition and learning. Their use in image compression is very rare. This thesis introduces a new application area for distance transforms. Three new image compression algorithms based on the DTOCS and one based on the EDTOCS are presented. Control points, i.e. points that are considered fundamental for the reconstruction of the image, are selected from the gray level image using the DTOCS and the EDTOCS. The first group of methods select the maximas of the distance image to new control points and the second group of methods compare the DTOCS distance to binary image chessboard distance. The effect of applying threshold masks of different sizes along the threshold boundaries is studied. The time complexity of the compression algorithms is analyzed both analytically and experimentally. It is shown that the time complexity of the algorithms is independent of the number of control points, i.e. the compression ratio. Also a new morphological image decompression scheme is presented, the 8 kernels' method. Several decompressed images are presented. The best results are obtained using the Delaunay triangulation. The obtained image quality equals that of the DCT images with a 4 x 4

Triterpenos e alcalóide tipo cantinona dos galhos de Simaba polyphylla (Cavalcante) W.W. Thomas (Simaroubaceae)

Simaba polyphylla is a small tree found in the Amazon region, known by the common names "marupazinho" or "serve para tudo". It is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of fevers. This work describes the phytochemical study of the hexane extract and chloroform fraction obtained by partitioning the methanol extract of stems, which led to isolation and identification of the triterpenes niloticin, dyhidroniloticin, taraxerone and of the cytotoxic alkaloid 9-methoxy-canthin-6-one. These compounds are described for the first time in S. polyphylla.

Gray mold severity and vase life of rose buds after pulsing with citric acid, salicylic acid, calcium sulfate, sucrose and silver thiosulfate

Gray mold of roses (Rosa hibrida) caused by Botrytis cinerea requires many management strategies for its control. The effect of pulsing rose cv. Kiss with solutions of citric acid, salicylic acid, sucrose, calcium sulfate, and silver thiosulfate (STS) on disease severity and vase life of the flowers was evaluated. The solutions were applied to cut stems at different stages of harvest, the variation in the opening stage of harvest did not affect the results. Pulsing with STS reduced the values of area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) and of severity of disease by 15% and 55%, respectively, and increased the vase life of the flowers by 20%. Calcium sulfate consistently reduced AUDPC by 66% and maximum severity by 88%, and increased vase life of the flowers by 37%. Therefore, pulsing rose buds with solutions of STS and calcium sulfate is potentially useful in reducing losses due to gray mold after harvest and in extending the vase life.