Including Systematic Uncertainties in Confidence Interval Construction for Poisson Statistics

One way to incorporate systematic uncertainties into the calculation of confidence intervals is by integrating over probability density functions parametrizing the uncertainties. In this note we present a development of this method which takes into account uncertainties in the prediction of background processes, uncertainties in the signal detection efficiency and background efficiency and allows for a correlation between the signal and background detection efficiencies. We implement this method with the Feldman & Cousins unified approach with and without conditioning. We present studies of coverage for the Feldman & Cousins and Neyman ordering schemes. In particular, we present two different types of coverage tests for the case where systematic uncertainties are included. To illustrate the method we show the relative effect of including systematic uncertainties the case of dark matter search as performed by modern neutrino tel escopes.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, replaced to match published versio

Deoxy-sphingolipids, oxidative stress, and vitamin C correlate with qualitative and quantitative patterns of small fiber dysfunction and degeneration

Defined by dysfunction or degeneration of Aδ and C fibers, small fiber neuropathies (SFNs) entail a relevant health burden. In 50% of cases, the underlying cause cannot be identified or treated. In 100 individuals (70% female individuals; mean age: 44.8 years) with an idiopathic, skin biopsy-confirmed SFN, we characterized the symptomatic spectrum and measured markers of oxidative stress (vitamin C, selenium, and glutathione) and inflammation (transforming growth factor beta, tumor necrosis factor alpha), as well as neurotoxic 1-deoxy-sphingolipids. Neuropathic pain was the most abundant symptom (95%) and cause of daily life impairment (72%). Despite the common use of pain killers (64%), the painDETECT questionnaire revealed scores above 13 points in 80% of patients. In the quantitative sensory testing (QST), a dysfunction of Aδ fibers was observed in 70% and of C fibers in 44%, affecting the face, hands, or feet. Despite normal nerve conduction studies, QST revealed Aβ fiber involvement in 46% of patients' test areas. Despite absence of diabetes mellitus or mutations in SPTLC1 or SPTLC2 , plasma 1-deoxy-sphingolipids were significantly higher in the sensory loss patient cluster when compared with those in patients with thermal hyperalgesia ( P 25 kg/m 2 ), or hyperlipidemia showed significantly lower L-serine (arterial hypertension: P < 0.01) and higher 1-deoxy-sphingolipid levels (arterial hypertension: P < 0.001, overweight: P < 0.001, hyperlipidemia: P < 0.01). Lower vitamin C levels correlated with functional Aβ involvement ( P < 0.05). Reduced glutathione was lower in patients with Aδ dysfunction ( P < 0.05). Idiopathic SFNs are heterogeneous. As a new pathomechanism, plasma 1-deoxy-sphingolipids might link the metabolic syndrome with small fiber degeneration

Search for Rare and Forbidden 3-body Di-muon Decays of the Charmed Mesons D+ and Ds+

Using a high statistics sample of photo-produced charm particles from the FOCUS experiment at Fermilab, we report results of a search for eight rare and Standard-Model-forbidden decays: D+, Ds+ > h+/- muon-/+ muon+ (with h=pion or Kaon). Improvement over previous results by a factor of 1.7--14 is realized. Our branching ratio upper limit D+ > pion+ muon- muon+ of 8.8E-6 at the 90% C.L. is below the current MSSM R-Parity violating constraint.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure file

Emotional cues enhance the attentional effects on spatial and temporal resolution

In the present study, we demonstrated that the emotional significance of a spatial cue enhances the effect of covert attention on spatial and temporal resolution (i.e., our ability to discriminate small spatial details and fast temporal flicker). Our results indicated that fearful face cues, as compared with neutral face cues, enhanced the attentional benefits in spatial resolution but also enhanced the attentional deficits in temporal resolution. Furthermore, we observed that the overall magnitudes of individuals’ attentional effects correlated strongly with the magnitude of the emotion × attention interaction effect. Combined, these findings provide strong support for the idea that emotion enhances the strength of a cue’s attentional response

Validation, reproducibility and safety of trans dermal electrical stimulation in chronic pain patients and healthy volunteers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Surrogate pain models have been extensively tested in Normal Human Volunteers (NHV). There are few studies that examined pain models in chronic pain patients. Patients are likely to have altered pain mechanisms. It is of interest to test patient pain responses to selective pain stimuli under controlled laboratory conditions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Institutional Ethic Committee approved the study. 16 patients with chronic neuropathic radiculopathy and 16 healthy volunteers were enrolled to the study after obtaining informed consent. During electrical stimulation (150 minutes for volunteers and 75 minutes for patients) the following parameters were measured every 10 minutes:</p> <p>Ongoing pain: Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Numeric Rate Scale (NRS)</p> <p>Allodynia (soft foam brush)</p> <p>Hyperalgesia (von Frey monofilament 20 g)</p> <p>Flare</p> <p>For each endpoint, the area under the curve (AUC) was estimated from the start of stimulation to the end of stimulation by the trapezoidal rule. The individual AUC values for both periods were plotted to show the inter- and intra-subject variability. For each endpoint a mixed effect model was fitted with random effect subject and fixed effect visit. The estimate of intra-subject variance and the mean value were then used to estimate the sample size of a crossover study required to have a probability of 0.80 to detect a 25% change in the mean value. Analysis was done using GenStat 8^thedition.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Each endpoint achieved very good reproducibility for patients and NHV. Comparison between groups revealed trends towards:</p> <p>Faster habituation to painful stimuli in patients</p> <p>Bigger areas of hyperalgesia in patients</p> <p>Similar area of allodynia and flare (no statistical significance)</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The differences demonstrated between patients and NHVs suggest that the electrical stimulation device used here may stimulate pathways that are affected in the pathological state.</p

VERITAS Search for VHE Gamma-ray Emission from Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies

Indirect dark matter searches with ground-based gamma-ray observatories provide an alternative for identifying the particle nature of dark matter that is complementary to that of direct search or accelerator production experiments. We present the results of observations of the dwarf spheroidal galaxies Draco, Ursa Minor, Bootes 1, and Willman 1 conducted by VERITAS. These galaxies are nearby dark matter dominated objects located at a typical distance of several tens of kiloparsecs for which there are good measurements of the dark matter density profile from stellar velocity measurements. Since the conventional astrophysical background of very high energy gamma rays from these objects appears to be negligible, they are good targets to search for the secondary gamma-ray photons produced by interacting or decaying dark matter particles. No significant gamma-ray flux above 200 GeV was detected from these four dwarf galaxies for a typical exposure of ~20 hours. The 95% confidence upper limits on the integral gamma-ray flux are in the range 0.4-2.2x10^-12 photons cm^-2s^-1. We interpret this limiting flux in the context of pair annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles and derive constraints on the thermally averaged product of the total self-annihilation cross section and the relative velocity of the WIMPs. The limits are obtained under conservative assumptions regarding the dark matter distribution in dwarf galaxies and are approximately three orders of magnitude above the generic theoretical prediction for WIMPs in the minimal supersymmetric standard model framework. However significant uncertainty exists in the dark matter distribution as well as the neutralino cross sections which under favorable assumptions could further lower the limits.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures, updated to reflect version published in ApJ. NOTE: M.D. Wood added as autho

Study of Hadronic Five-Body Decays of Charmed Mesons Involving KS0K_S^0

We study the decay of $D^0$ and $D^+_s$ mesons into five-body final states including a $K_S^0$ and report the discovery of the decay mode $D_s^+\to K_S^0 K_S^0\pi^+\pi^+\pi^-$. The branching ratio for the new mode is {${\Gamma(D_s^+\to K_S^0K_S^0\pi^+\pi^-\pi^+)} \over {\Gamma(D_s^+\to K_S^0K^-\pi^+\pi^+)}$} = 0.102$\pm0.029\pm$0.029. We also determine the branching ratio of {${\Gamma(D^0\to K_S^0\pi^+\pi^+\pi^-\pi^-)} \over {\Gamma(D^0 \to K_S^0\pi^+\pi^-)}$} = 0.095$\pm0.005\pm$0.007 as well as an upper limit for {${\Gamma(D^0\to K_S^0K^-\pi^+\pi^+\pi^-)} \over {\Gamma(D^0\to K_S^0\pi^+\pi^+\pi^-\pi^-)}$} $<$ 0.054 (90% CL). An analysis of the resonant substructure for $D^0 \to K_S^0\pi^+\pi^+\pi^-\pi^-$ is also performed

Interaction of hyperalgesia and sensory loss in complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS I)

Sensory abnormalities are a key feature of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). In order to characterise these changes in patients suffering from acute or chronic CRPS I, we used Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) in comparison to an age and gender matched control group

Evidence for the exclusive decay Bc+- to J/psi pi+- and measurement of the mass of the Bc meson

We report first evidence for a fully reconstructed decay mode of the B_c^{\pm} meson in the channel B_c^{\pm} \to J/psi \pi^{\pm}, with J/psi \to mu^+mu^-. The analysis is based on an integrated luminosity of 360 pb$^{-1} in p\bar{p} collisions at 1.96 TeV center of mass energy collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We observe 14.6 \pm 4.6 signal events with a background of 7.1 \pm 0.9 events, and a fit to the J/psi pi^{\pm} mass spectrum yields a B_c^{\pm} mass of 6285.7 \pm 5.3(stat) \pm 1.2(syst) MeV/c^2. The probability of a peak of this magnitude occurring by random fluctuation in the search region is estimated as 0.012%.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Version 3, accepted by PR

National strategy for palliative care of severely ill and dying people and their relatives in pandemics (PallPan) in Germany - study protocol of a mixed-methods project

BACKGROUND In the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, general and specialist Palliative Care (PC) plays an essential role in health care, contributing to symptom control, psycho-social support, and providing support in complex decision making. Numbers of COVID-19 related deaths have recently increased demanding more palliative care input. Also, the pandemic impacts on palliative care for non-COVID-19 patients. Strategies on the care for seriously ill and dying people in pandemic times are lacking. Therefore, the program 'Palliative care in Pandemics' (PallPan) aims to develop and consent a national pandemic plan for the care of seriously ill and dying adults and their informal carers in pandemics including (a) guidance for generalist and specialist palliative care of patients with and without SARS-CoV-2 infections on the micro, meso and macro level, (b) collection and development of information material for an online platform, and (c) identification of variables and research questions on palliative care in pandemics for the national pandemic cohort network (NAPKON). METHODS Mixed-methods project including ten work packages conducting (online) surveys and qualitative interviews to explore and describe i) experiences and burden of patients (with/without SARS-CoV-2 infection) and their relatives, ii) experiences, challenges and potential solutions of health care professionals, stakeholders and decision makers during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The work package results inform the development of a consensus-based guidance. In addition, best practice examples and relevant literature will be collected and variables for data collection identified. DISCUSSION For a future \textquotedblpandemic preparedness\textquotedbl national and international recommendations and concepts for the~care of severely ill and dying people are necessary considering both generalist and specialist palliative care in the home care and inpatient setting