Improving Phonics and Fluency Skills Using a Multisensory Language Intervention

The purpose of this single case design study was to examine the efficacy of multisensory language instruction, specifically the Wilson Reading System, on the phonetic analysis skills and reading fluency of a single student identified as dyslexic. Data was collected for a period of eight weeks and analyzed using visual representations to determine participant growth in all areas assessed. Data showed growth of 20 words read correctly per minute (WCPM) with a projected gain of 16 WCPM according to Hasbrouk and Tindal\u27s (2006) reading fluency normative chart. The education implications of the study are discussed and recommendations for further research are given. Overall, the intervention was deemed successful from data collected

Anisotropic Cosmological Constant and the CMB Quadrupole Anomaly

There are evidences that the cosmic microwave background (CMB) large-angle anomalies imply a departure from statistical isotropy and hence from the standard cosmological model. We propose a LCDM model extension whose dark energy component preserves its nondynamical character but wield anisotropic vacuum pressure. Exact solutions for the cosmological scale factors are presented, upper bounds for the deformation parameter are evaluated and its value is estimated considering the elliptical universe proposal to solve the quadrupole anomaly. This model can be constructed from a Bianchi I cosmology with cosmological constant from two different ways: i) a straightforward anisotropic modification of the vacuum pressure consistently with energy-momentum conservation; ii) a Poisson structure deformation between canonical momenta such that the dynamics remain invariant under scale factors rescalings.Comment: 8 pages, 2 columns, 1 figure. v2: figure improved, added comments on higher eccentricity powers and references. v3: typos corrected, version to appear in PR

Quantum Entropy

Quantum physics, despite its observables being intrinsically of a probabilistic nature, does not have a quantum entropy assigned to them. We propose a quantum entropy that quantify the randomness of a pure quantum state via a conjugate pair of observables forming the quantum phase space. The entropy is dimensionless, it is a relativistic scalar, it is invariant under coordinate transformation of position and momentum that maintain conjugate properties, and under CPT transformations; and its minimum is positive due to the uncertainty principle. We expand the entropy to also include mixed states and show that the proposed entropy is always larger than von Neumann's entropy. We conjecture an entropy law whereby that entropy of a closed system never decreases, implying a time arrow for particles physics.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with A follow up on this paper is arXiv:2106.15378. A related paper is arXiv:2111.11605. Early versions of the ideas in this paper are in arXiv:1906.11712 and arXiv:2103.0799

Rastall Cosmology and the \Lambda CDM Model

Rastall's theory is based on the non-conservation of the energy-momentum tensor. We show that, in this theory, if we introduce a two-fluid model, one component representing vacuum energy whereas the other pressureless matter (e.g. baryons plus cold dark matter), the cosmological scenario is the same as for the \Lambda CDM model, both at background and linear perturbative levels, except for one aspect: now dark energy may cluster. We speculate that this can lead to a possibility of distinguishing the models at the non-linear perturbative level.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Incidence of mild cognitive impairment and dementia in Parkinson's disease: The Parkinson's disease cognitive impairment study

Background: Cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD) includes a spectrum varying from Mild Cognitive Impairment (PD-MCI) to PD Dementia (PDD). The main aim of the present study is to evaluate the incidence of PD-MCI, its rate of progression to dementia, and to identify demographic and clinical characteristics which predict cognitive impairment in PD patients. Methods: PD patients from a large hospital-based cohort who underwent at least two comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations were retrospectively enrolled in the study. PD-MCI and PDD were diagnosed according to the Movement Disorder Society criteria. Incidence rates of PD-MCI and PDD were estimated. Clinical and demographic factors predicting PD-MCI and dementia were evaluated using Cox proportional hazard model. Results: Out of 139 enrolled PD patients, 84 were classified with normal cognition (PD-NC), while 55 (39.6%) fulfilled the diagnosis of PD-MCI at baseline. At follow-up (mean follow-up 23.5 ± 10.3 months) 28 (33.3%) of the 84 PD-NC at baseline developed MCI and 4 (4.8%) converted to PDD. The incidence rate of PD-MCI was 184.0/1000 pyar (95% CI 124.7-262.3). At multivariate analysis a negative association between education and MCI development at follow-up was observed (HR 0.37, 95% CI 0.15-0.89; p = 0.03). The incidence rate of dementia was 24.3/1000 pyar (95% CI 7.7-58.5). Out of 55 PD-MCI patients at baseline, 14 (25.4%) converted to PDD, giving an incidence rate of 123.5/1000 pyar (95% CI 70.3-202.2). A five time increased risk of PDD was found in PD patients with MCI at baseline (RR 5.09, 95% CI 1.60-21.4). Conclusion: Our study supports the relevant role of PD-MCI in predicting PDD and underlines the importance of education in reducing the risk of cognitive impairment

Bound vortex states and exotic lattices in multi-component Bose-Einstein condensates: The role of vortex-vortex interaction

We numerically study the vortex-vortex interaction in multi-component homogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates within the realm of the Gross-Pitaevskii theory. We provide strong evidences that pairwise vortex interaction captures the underlying mechanisms which determine the geometric configuration of the vortices, such as different lattices in many-vortex states, as well as the bound vortex states with two (dimer) or three (trimer) vortices. Specifically, we discuss and apply our theoretical approach to investigate intra- and inter-component vortex-vortex interactions in two- and three-component Bose-Einstein condensates, thereby shedding light on the formation of the exotic vortex configurations. These results correlate with current experimental efforts in multi-component Bose-Einstein condensates, and the understanding of the role of vortex interactions in multiband superconductors.Comment: Published in PR