Cognitive and affective correlates of temperament in Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients display low novelty seeking scores on the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), which may reflect the low dopamine function that characterises the disease. People with PD also display raised harm avoidance scores. Due to these and other observations, a “parkinsonian personality” has been suggested. However, little is known about how these features relate to cognitive and affective disorders, which are also common in PD. We examined links between TPQ scores and performance on an attentional orienting task in a sample of 20 people with PD. In addition, associations between TPQ and depression and anxiety scores were explored. It was found that novelty seeking scores were significantly correlated with a reaction time measure of attentional orienting to visual novelty. Harm avoidance scores were significantly correlated with anxiety, but not depression scores. These findings extend our understanding of how temperament interacts with cognitive and affective features of the disorder

K−/K+K^-/K^+ ratios in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We study $K^-/K^+$ ratios as a function of centrality (participant nucleon number), transverse mass ($m_t$), and rapidity, in heavy-ion collisions at beam energies between 1A and 2A GeV. We use the relativistic transport model that includes expicitly the strangeness degrees of freedom and consider two scenarios for kaon properties in dense matter, one with and one without medium modifications of their properties. In both scenarios, The $K^-/K^+$ ratio does not change very much with the centrality, while the $K/\pi$ and ${\bar K}/\pi$ ratios increase with increasing centrality. Significant differences are predicted, both in magnitudes and shapes, for the $m_t$ spectra and rapidity distributions of $K^-/K^+$ ratio. Experimental measurement of these ratios, currently under investigation by the FOPI, KaoS, E866, and E895 collaborations, will be useful in revealing the kaon in-medium properties.Comment: RevTex, 10 pages, including 17 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Magnetic heat pumping

The method employs ferromagnetic or ferromagnetic elements, preferably of rare-earth based material, for example gadolinium, and preferably employs a regenerator. The steps comprise controlling the temperature and applied magnetic field of the element to cause the state of the element as represented on a temperature-magnetic entropy diagram repeatedly to traverse a loop. The loop may have a first portion of concurrent substantially isothermal or constant temperature and increasing applied magnetic field, a second portion of lowering temperature and constant applied magnetic field, a third portion of isothermal and decreasing applied magnetic field, and a fourth portion of increasing temperature and constant applied magnetic field. Other loops may be four sided, with, for example, two isotherms and two adiabats (constant entropy portions