Beyond the Standard Model

A few topics beyond the standard model are reviewed.Comment: 10 pages, ichep.st

Development of an instrument for early detection of dementia in people with Down syndrome

The successful detection of early signs of dementia in people with Down syndrome could form a basis for useful early support and for drug treatment. This report describes the development and preliminary application of an interview and test instrument for the assessment of dementia among people with intellectual disability, as well as a framework for diagnosis that combines the findings of an interview and a test with the diagnostic criteria of ICD-10, DSM-IV and NINCDS-ADRDA. From among the number of tests and interview questions developed, those showing the most significant differences between participants in three groups of differing levels of intellectual disability and estimated dementia were kept. Reported are the assumptions for the items used, descriptions of the process and items used, and the associations of test items with predicting the presence of dementia. The authors conclude that a protocol combining testing and interview has promise and potential for detecting early signs of dementia in this population and could prove feasible for use in practice

A Family Guide to the Sun

This downloadable 46-page activity and resource guide is a collection of puzzles, pictures, poetry and projects designed to stimulate co-learning experiences between children aged 6 to 13 and the adults they learn with. The Guide assumes little or no prior knowledge about the Sun or astronomy in general, and addresses many popular misconceptions. It focuses on four general themes: The Sun as a Star, The Sun's Connection to Life on Earth, The Sun's apparent Motion in the Earth's Sky, and The Sun's 11-year cycle of activity. The Guide includes several activities that engage multiple learning modes, a detailed FAQ (frequently asked questions), a glossary, and tips for adults on guiding inquiry-based learning experiences, as well as dynamic imagery, and elements such as cartoon host characters, Solar Max and Solar Minnie. Educational levels: Primary elementary, Intermediate elementary, Middle school

What Can Craters Tell Us About a Planet?

In this activity, students examine images of Martian craters and speculate about what caused them. Next, they model the formation of an impact crater by dropping objects into a tray of powder. They examine the effects of each impact and the features each impact creates. Students re-examine the images of the Martian craters to see if their modeling experience gives them additional insights. They create hypotheses to try to explain a feature not seen in their models, a mud-flow-like ejecta blanket. They then write a plan to test one of the hypotheses and carry out their investigation. Finally, students apply their modeling experiences by making several inferences. Educational levels: High school, Middle school

Cross-correlation asymmetries and causal relationships between stock and market risk

We study historical correlations and lead-lag relationships between individual stock risk (volatility of daily stock returns) and market risk (volatility of daily returns of a market-representative portfolio) in the US stock market. We consider the cross-correlation functions averaged over all stocks, using 71 stock prices from the Standard \& Poor's 500 index for 1994--2013. We focus on the behavior of the cross-correlations at the times of financial crises with significant jumps of market volatility. The observed historical dynamics showed that the dependence between the risks was almost linear during the US stock market downturn of 2002 and after the US housing bubble in 2007, remaining on that level until 2013. Moreover, the averaged cross-correlation function often had an asymmetric shape with respect to zero lag in the periods of high correlation. We develop the analysis by the application of the linear response formalism to study underlying causal relations. The calculated response functions suggest the presence of characteristic regimes near financial crashes, when the volatility of an individual stock follows the market volatility and vice versa.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl