Recent results on Charm Physics from Fermilab

New high statistics, high resolution fixed target experiments producing $10^5$ - $10^6$ fully reconstructed charm particles are allowing a detailed study of the charm sector. Recent results on charm quark production from Fermilab fixed target experiments E791, SELEX and FOCUS are presented.Comment: 27 pages, corrected some typographical errors. To appear Proc. VII Mexican Workshop of Particles and Field, Merida Yuc. M\'ex., Nov. 199

A Reproducible Study on Remote Heart Rate Measurement

This paper studies the problem of reproducible research in remote photoplethysmography (rPPG). Most of the work published in this domain is assessed on privately-owned databases, making it difficult to evaluate proposed algorithms in a standard and principled manner. As a consequence, we present a new, publicly available database containing a relatively large number of subjects recorded under two different lighting conditions. Also, three state-of-the-art rPPG algorithms from the literature were selected, implemented and released as open source free software. After a thorough, unbiased experimental evaluation in various settings, it is shown that none of the selected algorithms is precise enough to be used in a real-world scenario

Social ties and economic development

We develop a parsimonious general equilibrium model where agents allocate time across three activities: production, trade, and leisure. Leisure includes time spent socializing, which economizes transaction costs. Our framework yields multiple equilibria in terms of the number of social ties and predicts that the number of social ties is positively associated with development, a relationship we observe in cross-country data. The model captures additional dimensions of data, namely: (i) increasing income inequality, but converging growth rates; (ii) an association between weak social ties and development; and (iii) an association between number of social ties and size of the transaction sector.social capital; development; transaction costs; networks

Multi-pion production in the d d -> alpha X reaction

A simple model, based on two parallel and independent N N -> d pi processes, has recently been proposed for two-pion production in the d d -> alpha X reaction. It reproduces all observed features, including the sharp peak structure in momentum distributions (the ABC effect) and the strong oscillations in the deuteron vector and tensor analyzing powers. This model is now extended to describe also four-pion production with the same basic mechanism, but with two n p -> d pi pi processes as input. The calculations of the high missing mass spectra are within about 30% of the experimental data for beam energies in the range 1.9 < T_d < 2.4 GeV.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX2e, 2 PS figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Dalitz plot analysis and branching fraction measurement of D+ and Ds+ -> pi+pi-pi+

Fermilab fixed target experiment E791 obtained a sample of $1172 \pm 61$ events of $D^+ \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+$ and 848 $\pm 44$ events of $D_s^+ \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+$ decays. We find respectively $B (D^+ \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+) / B (D^+ \to K^- \pi^+ \pi^+) = 0.0311 \pm 0.0018 ^ {+0.0016}_{-0.0026}$ and $B(D_s^+ \to \pi^+ \pi^- \pi^+) / B(D_s^+ \to \phi \pi^+) = 0.245 \pm 0.028^{+0.019}_{-0.012}$. Using a coherent amplitude analysis to fit the Dalitz plot of the $D^+ \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+$ decay, we find strong evidence for a scalar resonance of mass $478^{+24}_{-23} \pm 17$MeV/$c^2$ and width $324^{+42}_{-40} \pm 21$ MeV/$c^2$, compatible with what is expected for the isoscalar meson $\sigma$ >. The $D^+ \to \sigma(500) \pi^+$ fraction accounts for approximately half of all three-charged-pion decays of the $D^+$ . From the Dalitz plot analysis of the $D_s^+ \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+$ decay events, we find significant contributions from the channels $\rho^0(770)\pi^+$, $\rho^0(1450)\pi^+$, $f_0(980)\pi^+$, $f_2(1270)\pi^+$, and $f_0(1370)\pi^+$. We also present new measurement of the masses and widths of the isoscalar resonances $f_0(980)$ and $f_0(1370)$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, talk presented in BEACH2000, Valencia, Spai

BEAT: An Open-Source Web-Based Open-Science Platform

With the increased interest in computational sciences, machine learning (ML), pattern recognition (PR) and big data, governmental agencies, academia and manufacturers are overwhelmed by the constant influx of new algorithms and techniques promising improved performance, generalization and robustness. Sadly, result reproducibility is often an overlooked feature accompanying original research publications, competitions and benchmark evaluations. The main reasons behind such a gap arise from natural complications in research and development in this area: the distribution of data may be a sensitive issue; software frameworks are difficult to install and maintain; Test protocols may involve a potentially large set of intricate steps which are difficult to handle. Given the raising complexity of research challenges and the constant increase in data volume, the conditions for achieving reproducible research in the domain are also increasingly difficult to meet. To bridge this gap, we built an open platform for research in computational sciences related to pattern recognition and machine learning, to help on the development, reproducibility and certification of results obtained in the field. By making use of such a system, academic, governmental or industrial organizations enable users to easily and socially develop processing toolchains, re-use data, algorithms, workflows and compare results from distinct algorithms and/or parameterizations with minimal effort. This article presents such a platform and discusses some of its key features, uses and limitations. We overview a currently operational prototype and provide design insights.Comment: References to papers published on the platform incorporate

Non-contractible Hamiltonian loops in the kernel of Seidel's representation

The main purpose of this note is to exhibit a Hamiltonian diffeomorphism loop undetected by the Seidel morphism of certain 2-point blow-ups of $S^2 \times S^2$, exactly one of which being monotone. As side remarks, we show that Seidel's morphism is injective on all Hirzebruch surfaces and discuss how to adapt the monotone example to the Lagrangian setting.Comment: 13 pages. In the second version the title is changed to emphasize the actual point of the paper and a "background" section is added so the paper is more self-containe