Variability Measures of Positive Random Variables

During the stationary part of neuronal spiking response, the stimulus can be encoded in the firing rate, but also in the statistical structure of the interspike intervals. We propose and discuss two information-based measures of statistical dispersion of the interspike interval distribution, the entropy-based dispersion and Fisher information-based dispersion. The measures are compared with the frequently used concept of standard deviation. It is shown, that standard deviation is not well suited to quantify some aspects of dispersion that are often expected intuitively, such as the degree of randomness. The proposed dispersion measures are not entirely independent, although each describes the interspike intervals from a different point of view. The new methods are applied to common models of neuronal firing and to both simulated and experimental data

Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated

Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the “Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Rapid Acoustic Survey for Biodiversity Appraisal

Biodiversity assessment remains one of the most difficult challenges encountered by ecologists and conservation biologists. This task is becoming even more urgent with the current increase of habitat loss. Many methods–from rapid biodiversity assessments (RBA) to all-taxa biodiversity inventories (ATBI)–have been developed for decades to estimate local species richness. However, these methods are costly and invasive. Several animals–birds, mammals, amphibians, fishes and arthropods–produce sounds when moving, communicating or sensing their environment. Here we propose a new concept and method to describe biodiversity. We suggest to forego species or morphospecies identification used by ATBI and RBA respectively but rather to tackle the problem at another evolutionary unit, the community level. We also propose that a part of diversity can be estimated and compared through a rapid acoustic analysis of the sound produced by animal communities. We produced α and β diversity indexes that we first tested with 540 simulated acoustic communities. The α index, which measures acoustic entropy, shows a logarithmic correlation with the number of species within the acoustic community. The β index, which estimates both temporal and spectral dissimilarities, is linearly linked to the number of unshared species between acoustic communities. We then applied both indexes to two closely spaced Tanzanian dry lowland coastal forests. Indexes reveal for this small sample a lower acoustic diversity for the most disturbed forest and acoustic dissimilarities between the two forests suggest that degradation could have significantly decreased and modified community composition. Our results demonstrate for the first time that an indicator of biological diversity can be reliably obtained in a non-invasive way and with a limited sampling effort. This new approach may facilitate the appraisal of animal diversity at large spatial and temporal scales

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

Peer reviewe

Energy Resolution Performance of the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

The energy resolution performance of the CMS lead tungstate crystal electromagnetic calorimeter is presented. Measurements were made with an electron beam using a fully equipped supermodule of the calorimeter barrel. Results are given both for electrons incident on the centre of crystals and for electrons distributed uniformly over the calorimeter surface. The electron energy is reconstructed in matrices of 3 times 3 or 5 times 5 crystals centred on the crystal containing the maximum energy. Corrections for variations in the shower containment are applied in the case of uniform incidence. The resolution measured is consistent with the design goals

Le traitement des hemangiomes de la choroide par radiotherapie. [Irradiation treatment of choroidal hemangiomas]

Therapeutic results obtained following the treatment of 24 cases of choroidal hemangiomas (21 solitary and 3 in a Sturge-Weber syndrome) treated with 60Co applicators or an accelerated proton beam were analyzed. The observation period was less than 2 years for 4 cases, 2 to 5 years for 10 cases, 5 to 10 years for 7 cases and more than 10 years for 3 cases. Reabsorption of retinal detachment without any recurrency was obtained for all the cases. The V.A. was increased in 16 cases, did not change in 4 cases and decreased in 4 other cases. Final V.A. was 6/7.5 or more in 9 cases (37.5%), 6/60 a 6/7.5 in 6 cases (25%), and 6/60 or less in 9 cases (37.5%). None of the cases we treated presented complications induced by radiotherapy (actinic papillitis, circulatory disturbances in the macular area, or neovascular glaucoma). The comparison of the results we obtained with cases treated by photocoagulation or external radiotherapy demonstrated a slight advantage in favour of the focalized radiotherapy, which is not statistically significant because of the small number of cases included in the studies. Meanwhile, contact radiotherapy and irradiation with an accelerated proton beam seems to be a substantial alternative for the treatment of large hemangiomas and tumors invading the macula

Les melanomes de la conjonctive et leur traitement. [Melanoma of the conjunctiva and its treatment]

37 cases of conjunctival melanomas treated in the University Eye Clinic of Lausanne are analysed. This total is made of 20 men and 17 women aged between 19 and 81 years with a mean age of 54.7 years. Tumors were localized in the bulbar conjunctival in 27 cases, in the palpebral conjunctival in 2 cases and were diffuse in 8 cases. Cornea was infiltrated in 19 cases. In 21 cases, the first treatment was made in our service and 16 cases were recurrences following a treatment made elsewhere. The mortality rate to 5 years was 20%. In a multivariant analysis using the COX Model, the height of the tumor was the only significant parameter (p = 0.035) for life expectancy. Recurrence of the tumor (p = 0.060) and presence of a PAM (p = 0.652) were not significant parameters. Benefits of cryocoagulation and indications for a proton beam irradiation are discussed

Intérêt de l'angiographie numérisée au vert d'indocyanine dans le diagnostic différentiel des tumeurs non pigmentées de la choroïde [Value of indocyanine green videoangiography in differential diagnosis of nonpigmented tumors of the choroid]

BACKGROUND: Indocyanine green video-angiography (ICG) is a recent examination technique, its possibilities and limitations as far as intraocular tumours are concerned, haven't been fully explored yet. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We have studied 50 cases of non-pigmented choroidal tumours, including 14 cases of choroidal hemangioma's, 11 cases of posterior uveal metastases and 25 cases of non-pigmented melanoma's. RESULTS: Characteristic images were obtained when examining choroidal hemangioma's and, until a certain point, posterior choroidal metastases. Non pigmented melanoma's on the contrary, presented a great variety of different indocyanine green angiographic pictures. CONCLUSION: Indocyanine green video-angiography (ICG) has a definite value in the differential diagnosis of non-pigmented posterior choroidal tumours