Accelerator and reactor neutrino experiments

Neutrino experiments at reactors and accelerators have provided a wealth of physics results and will continue to do so in the future. Over the next decade, these experiments will focus on oscillation studies. They will verify that the atmospheric neutrino results are indeed associated with oscillations and will provide more precise measurements of the oscillation parameters. They will also verify the large mixing angle MSW solution of the solar neutrino problem and provide information on the existence (or non-existence) of the fourth, sterile neutrino which is required if three independent Delta M/sup 2/ values are needed to explain all the observed oscillation signals. (34 refs)

Correlations in high transverse momentum final states

The author reviews experiments and results in the study of particle correlations in high energy collisions leading to high transverse momentum secondaries. Most of the effects observed in opposite direction with respect to that of a high p/sub perpendicular to / hadron, can be largely explained in terms of kinematic effects. These effects have made any search for jets of hadrons opposite to a high p /sub perpendicular to / hadron inconclusive-on the other hand, the positive momentum correlations observed between two high p/sub perpendicular to / hadrons in the same azimuthal region, are certainly of dynamical origin and must be studied further. (9 refs)

The birth of lepton universality and the second neutrino

Bruno Pontecorvo has given many important contributions to particle physics, two of which were closely related to my work at the beginning of my career. I will discuss them here and I will also describe my first meeting with Bruno in 1973, on the occasion of a visit to Dubna

The Winckelmann300 Project: Dissemination of Culture with Virtual Reality at the Capitoline Museum in Rome

The best way to disseminate culture is, nowadays, the creation of scenarios with virtual and augmented reality that supply the visitors of museums with a powerful, interactive tool that allows to learn sometimes difficult concepts in an easy, entertaining way. 3D models derived from reality-based techniques are nowadays used to preserve, document and restore historical artefacts. These digital contents are also powerful instrument to interactively communicate their significance to non-specialist, making easier to understand concepts sometimes complicated or not clear. Virtual and Augmented Reality are surely a valid tool to interact with 3D models and a fundamental help in making culture more accessible to the wide public. These technologies can help the museum curators to adapt the cultural proposal and the information about the artefacts based on the different type of visitor’s categories. These technologies allow visitors to travel through space and time and have a great educative function permitting to explain in an easy and attractive way information and concepts that could prove to be complicated. The aim of this paper is to create a virtual scenario and an augmented reality app to recreate specific spaces in the Capitoline Museum in Rome as they were during Winckelmann’s time, placing specific statues in their original position in the 18th century

Shannon entropy approach reveals relevant genes in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia and affects millions of people worldwide. Since complex diseases are often the result of combinations of gene interactions, microarray data and gene co-expression analysis can provide tools for addressing complexity. Our study aimed to find groups of interacting genes that are relevant in the development of AD. In this perspective, we implemented a method proposed in a previous work to detect gene communities linked to AD. Our strategy combined co-expression network analysis with the study of Shannon entropy of the betweenness. We analyzed the publicly available GSE1297 dataset, achieved from the GEO database in NCBI, containing hippocampal gene expression of 9 control and 22 AD human subjects. Co-expressed genes were clustered into different communities. Two communities of interest (composed by 72 and 39 genes) were found by calculating the correlation coefficient between communities and clinical features. The detected communities resulted stable, replicated on two independent datasets and mostly enriched in pathways closely associated with neuro-degenative diseases. A comparison between our findings and other module detection techniques showed that the detected communities were more related to AD phenotype. Lastly, the hub genes within the two communities of interest were identified by means of a centrality analysis and a bootstrap procedure. The communities of the hub genes presented even stronger correlation with clinical features. These findings and further explorations on the detected genes could shed light on the genetic aspects related with physiological aspects of Alzheimer's disease