Neutrino scattering on polarized electron target as a test of neutrino magnetic moment

We suggest to use a polarized electron target for improving the sensitivity of the search for the neutrino magnetic moment to the level $\sim 3\cdot10^{-13}\mu_B$ in the processes of neutrino (antineutrino) -- electron scattering. It is shown that in this case the weak interaction term in the total cross section is significantly suppressed comparing with unpolarized case, but the electromagnetic term does not depend on electron polarization.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX2e, using elsart.cls and epsf.sty, 3 postscript figures. Accepted in Phys. Lett.

Evaluating more naturalistic outcome measures:A 1-year smartphone study in multiple sclerosis

Objective: In this cohort of individuals with and without multiple sclerosis (MS), we illustrate some of the novel approaches that smartphones provide to monitor patients with chronic neurologic disorders in their natural setting. Methods: Thirty-eight participant pairs (MS and cohabitant) aged 18–55 years participated in the study. Each participant received an Android HTC Sensation 4G smartphone containing a custom application suite of 19 tests capturing participant performance and patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Over 1 year, participants were prompted daily to complete one assigned test. Results: A total of 22 patients with MS and 17 cohabitants completed the entire study. Among patients with MS, low scores on PROs relating to mental and visual function were associated with dropout (p < 0.05). We illustrate several novel features of a smartphone platform. First, fluctuations in MS outcomes (e.g., fatigue) were assessed against an individual's ambient environment by linking responses to meteorological data. Second, both response accuracy and speed for the Ishihara color vision test were captured, highlighting the benefits of both active and passive data collection. Third, a new trait, a person-specific learning curve in neuropsychological testing, was identified using spline analysis. Finally, averaging repeated measures over the study yielded the most robust correlation matrix of the different outcome measures. Conclusions: We report the feasibility of, and barriers to, deploying a smartphone platform to gather useful passive and active performance data at high frequency in an unstructured manner in the field. A smartphone platform may therefore enable large-scale naturalistic studies of patients with MS or other neurologic diseases

ARCTIC TOURISM: STATE AND PROSPECTS FOR RUSSIA

Tourism is the key factor of human presence in the Arctic region. The number of tourist visits has been growing extensively since the end of XX century. The Arctic region is not regarded only as prospective region for oil and gas industry but now it is also recognized as the region with high potential for tourism development. The research is dedicated to the assessment of the spatial distribution of human presence within the Arctic region on the basis of statistical analysis of population and tourist visits in different parts of the Arctic. Taking into account the uncertainty of regional Arctic borders definition, which are commonly determined in accordance with given purposes and tasks, we assessed the population and tourist visits for the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation as administrative union as well as for the Arctic region as physic-geographical region.The growing number of tourists in the Arctic region influences future development prospects of the region. In 2017 the Arctic region with population of 4.3 million people was visited by 10.2 million tourist. While the favorable environmental conditions of Arctic ecosystems exist, the Arctic region should be considered as the source of nature resources for tourism and various recreational activities. Modern technologies enable the development of travel industry in the region, and therefore the industrial paradigm of “conquer” and “utilization” should be replaced with the axiological paradigm of “Arctic beauty” and recreational resource value