Analysis of electroencephalograms in Alzheimer's disease patients with multiscale entropy

The aim of this study was to analyse the electroencephalogram (EEG) background activity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients using the Multiscale Entropy (MSE). The MSE is a recently developed method that quantifies the regularity of a signal on different time scales. These time scales are inspected by means of several coarse-grained sequences formed from the analysed signals. We recorded the EEGs from 19 scalp electrodes in 11 AD patients and 11 age-matched controls and estimated the MSE profile for each epoch of the EEG recordings. The shape of the MSE profiles reveals the EEG complexity, and it suggests that the EEG contains information in deeper scales than the smallest one. Moreover, the results showed that the EEG background activity is less complex in AD patients than control subjects. We found significant difference

Isoscalar-isovector mass splittings in excited mesons

Mass splittings between the isovector and isoscalar members of meson nonets arise in part from hadronic loop diagrams which violate the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka rule. Using a model for these loop processes which works qualitatively well in the established nonets, I tabulate predictions for the splittings and associated isoscalar mixing angles in the remaining nonets below about 2.5 GeV, and explain some of their systematic features. The results for excited vector mesons compare favorably with experiment.Comment: 8 RevTeX pages, including 1 LaTeX figure. CMU-HEP93-23/DOE-ER-40682-4

Production, Collection and Utilization of Very Long-Lived Heavy Charged Leptons

If a fourth generation of leptons exists, both the neutrino and its charged partner must be heavier than 45 GeV. We suppose that the neutrino is the heavier of the two, and that a global or discrete symmetry prohibits intergenerational mixing. In that case, non-renormalizable Planck scale interactions will induce a very small mixing; dimension five interactions will lead to a lifetime for the heavy charged lepton of $O(1-100)$ years. Production of such particles is discussed, and it is shown that a few thousands can be produced and collected at a linear collider. The possible uses of these heavy leptons is also briefly discussed.Comment: 9 pages Late

BigWig and BigBed: enabling browsing of large distributed datasets

Summary: BigWig and BigBed files are compressed binary indexed files containing data at several resolutions that allow the high-performance display of next-generation sequencing experiment results in the UCSC Genome Browser. The visualization is implemented using a multi-layered software approach that takes advantage of specific capabilities of web-based protocols and Linux and UNIX operating systems files, R trees and various indexing and compression tricks. As a result, only the data needed to support the current browser view is transmitted rather than the entire file, enabling fast remote access to large distributed data sets

Strangeness Content in the Nucleon

I review recent studies of strangeness content in the nucleon pertaining to the flavor-singlet $g_A^0$, the $\bar{s}s$ matrix element and the strangeness electric and magnetic form factors $G_E^s(q^2)$ and $G_M^s(q^2)$, based on lattice QCD calculations. I shall also discuss the relevance of incorporating the strangeness content in nuclei in regard to strange baryon-antibaryon productions from proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at SPS and RHIC energies.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, Invited talk at V Int. Conf. on Strangeness in Quark Matter, Berkeley, CA, July 20--25, 200

Hadron Spectroscopy with COMPASS at CERN

The aim of the COMPASS hadron programme is to study the light-quark hadron spectrum, and in particular, to search for evidence of hybrids and glueballs. COMPASS is a fixed-target experiment at the CERN SPS and features a two-stage spectrometer with high momentum resolution, large acceptance, particle identification and calorimetry. A short pilot run in 2004 resulted in the observation of a spin-exotic state with $J^{PC} = 1^{-+}$ consistent with the debated $\pi1(1600)$. In addition, Coulomb production at low momentum transfer data provide a test of Chiral Perturbation Theory. During 2008 and 2009, a world leading data set was collected with hadron beam which is currently being analysed. The large statistics allows for a thorough decomposition of the data into partial waves. The COMPASS hadron data span over a broad range of channels and shed light on several different aspects of QCD.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Researching the home using architectural and social science methods

This article explores the possibilities of using innovative, interdisciplinary methods for understanding home-making. Drawing on a study of Claremont Court (1959–1962), a post-war social housing scheme designed by Sir Basil Spence in Edinburgh, we discuss the methodological potentials of combining architectural and social science methods to study the home. Claremont Court was built in the post-war era as part of Scotland’s social housing drive. It was designed following the principles of ‘cross-class’ living in order to foster a sense of community. In subsequent years, inhabitants of the court have adapted their dwellings in numerous ways and the population of the court has changed dramatically. But, while meanings of home and understandings of the division between public and private have been reconfigured, the spatial layouts of the dwellings continue to shape residents’ sense of home. To explore how residents make home at Claremont Court, we use ‘facet methodology’, which opens up new ways of thinking about the research process through a ‘playful’ approach to epistemology. In doing so, we develop an innovative approach which combines architectural methods (including survey drawings and visual mappings of both dwellings and communal areas) with social science methods (including ‘traditional’ interviews and walk-along interviews). To conclude, we discuss the possibility of widening the scope of qualitative research by bringing architectural and social science methods into dialogue through visual methods, in order to attend to spatial and material aspects of the home. We argue that our novel cross-disciplinary approach broadens understandings of home, by bringing attention to the unspoken dimensions of physical space, embodied elements of home and what people said about their homes, all of which are central to home-making

Exploring the QCD landscape with high-energy nuclear collisions

Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram is usually plotted as temperature (T) versus the chemical potential associated with the conserved baryon number (\mu_{B}). Two fundamental properties of QCD, related to confinement and chiral symmetry, allows for two corresponding phase transitions when T and \mu_{B} are varied. Theoretically the phase diagram is explored through non-perturbative QCD calculations on lattice. The energy scale for the phase diagram (\Lambda_{QCD} ~ 200 MeV) is such that it can be explored experimentally by colliding nuclei at varying beam energies in the laboratory. In this paper we review some aspects of the QCD phase structure as explored through the experimental studies using high energy nuclear collisions. Specifically, we discuss three observations related to the formation of a strongly coupled plasma of quarks and gluons in the collisions, experimental search for the QCD critical point on the phase diagram and freeze-out properties of the hadronic phase.Comment: Submitted to the New Journal of Physics focus issue "Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: From Ultracold Quantum Gases to QCD Plasmas