72 research outputs found
Virtual and Soft Pair Corrections to Polarized Muon Decay Spectrum
Radiative corrections to the muon decay spectrum due to soft and virtual
electron--positron pairs are calculated.Comment: 10pp, 2 PS figs, details of calculations are adde
O(\alpha^2 \ln(m_\mu/m_e)) Corrections to Electron Energy Spectrum in Muon Decay
O(\alpha^2 \ln(m_\mu/m_e)) corrections to electron energy spectrum in muon
decay are computed using perturbative fragmentation function approach. The
magnitude of these corrections is comparable to anticipated precision of the
TWIST experiment at TRIUMF where Michel parameters will be extracted from the
measurement of the electron energy spectrum in muon decay.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, revtex4.cls, 1 PostScript figur
Impact of Pre-Anthesis Water Deficit on Yield and Yield Components in Barley (\u3ci\u3eHordeum vulgare\u3c/i\u3e L.) Plants Grown under Controlled Conditions
Drought at pre-anthesis stages can influence barley growth and results in yield losses. Therefore, it is important to understand how drought at pre-anthesis can affect different traits associated with yield reduction in barley. The objective of this study was to understand the relevance of the genetic background of major flowering time genes in barley plants subjected to pre-anthesis drought and its impact on yield and yield components. A glasshouse experiment using a Randomized Complete Block Design was conducted to investigate the effect of drought and its timing on yield and yield components on eleven barley genotypes, which were selected to represent genetic diversity of major flowering time genes (PPDH1, PPDH2, HvVrn1, HvVrn2 and HvVrn3). Barley plants were exposed to three water regimes, non-stressed and stressed, which was applied at two pre-anthesis growth stages, tillering (SS) and stem elongation (SE). Results identified differences among genotypes in all measured traits. Grain yield, grain number and thousand kernel weight were reduced in all genotypes due to drought, irrespective of the growth stage. Early flowering genotypes had better performance as reflected in higher yield compared with late flowering genotypes. Results verified the fundamental importance of early flowering to improve productivity in response to pre-anthesis drought. The results of this study can help in selecting barley lines for future breeding purposes with improved resilience to drought conditions in Mediterranean environments
Measurement of the Muon Decay Parameter delta
The muon decay parameter delta has been measured by the TWIST collaboration.
We find delta = 0.74964 +- 0.00066(stat.) +- 0.00112(syst.), consistent with
the Standard Model value of 3/4. This result implies that the product Pmuxi of
the muon polarization in pion decay, Pmu, and the muon decay parameter xi falls
within the 90% confidence interval 0.9960 < Pmuxi < xi < 1.0040. It also has
implications for left-right-symmetric and other extensions of the Standard
Model.Comment: Extended to 5 pages. Referee's comments answere
Functional Connectivity Evaluation for Infant EEG Signals based on Artificial Neural Network
The employment of the brain signals
electroencephalography (EEG) could supply a deep intuitive
understanding for infants behaviour and their alertness level
within the living environment. The study of human brain
through a computer-based approach has increased significantly
as it aiming at the understanding of infants’ mind and measure
their attention towards the surrounding activities. The artificial
neural network achieved a significant level of success in different
fields such as pattern classification, decision making, prediction,
and adaptive control by learning from a set of data and construct
weight matrices to represent the learning patterns. This research
study proposes an artificial neural network based approach to
predict the rightward asymmetry or leftward asymmetry which
reflects higher frontal functional connectivity in the frontal right
and frontal left, respectively within infant’s brain. In the
traditional methods, the value of asymmetry of the frontal (FA)
functional connectivity is used to determine the rightward or the
leftward asymmetry. While the proposed approach is trying to
predict that without going through all the levels of the calculation
complexity. The achieved work will supply a deep understanding
into the deployment of the functional connectivity to provide
information on the interactions between different brain regions
Localising the auditory N1m with event-related beamformers:localisation accuracy following bilateral and unilateral stimulation
The auditory evoked N1m-P2m response complex presents a challenging case for MEG source-modelling, because symmetrical, phase-locked activity occurs in the hemispheres both contralateral and ipsilateral to stimulation. Beamformer methods, in particular, can be susceptible to localisation bias and spurious sources under these conditions. This study explored the accuracy and efficiency of event-related beamformer source models for auditory MEG data under typical experimental conditions: monaural and diotic stimulation; and whole-head beamformer analysis compared to a half-head analysis using only sensors from the hemisphere contralateral to stimulation. Event-related beamformer localisations were also compared with more traditional single-dipole models. At the group level, the event-related beamformer performed equally well as the single-dipole models in terms of accuracy for both the N1m and the P2m, and in terms of efficiency (number of successful source models) for the N1m. The results yielded by the half-head analysis did not differ significantly from those produced by the traditional whole-head analysis. Any localisation bias caused by the presence of correlated sources is minimal in the context of the inter-individual variability in source localisations. In conclusion, event-related beamformers provide a useful alternative to equivalent-current dipole models in localisation of auditory evoked responses
Perturbative Heavy Quark Fragmentation Function through O(alpha_s^2)
We derive the initial condition for the perturbative fragmentation function
of a heavy quark through order O(alpha_s^2) in the MS-bar scheme. This initial
condition is useful for computing heavy quark (or lepton, in case of QED)
energy distributions from calculations with massless partons. In addition, the
initial condition at O(alpha_s^2) can be used to resum collinear logarithms
ln(Q^2/m^2) in heavy quark energy spectrum with next-to-next-to-leading
logarithmic accuracy by solving the DGLAP equation.Comment: 14 pages, uses axodraw.sty; minor clarifications in the text;
Fig(1,2) corrected; references adde
Measurement of P_{mu}xi in Polarized Muon Decay
The quantity P_{mu}^{pi}xi, where xi is one of the muon decay parameters and
is the degree of muon polarization in pion decay, has been
measured. The value P_{mu}^{pi}xi = 1.0003 +- 0.0006 stat. +- 0.0038 syst. was
obtained. This result agrees with previous measurements but is over a factor of
two more precise. It also agrees with the Standard Model prediction for
P_{mu}^{pi}xi and thus leads to restrictions on left-right symmetric models.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, Phys. Rev. D 74, 072007 (2006) Final versio
Measurement of the Michel Parameter in Muon Decay
The TWIST Collaboration has measured the Michel parameter in normal
muon decay, . In the Standard Model,
= 3/4. Deviations from this value require mixing of left- and
right-handed muon and electron couplings in the muon-decay Lagrangian. We find
= 0.75080 0.00044(stat.) 0.00093(syst.) 0.00023, where
the last uncertainty represents the dependence of on the Michel
parameter . This result sets new limits on the mixing angle in
left-right symmetric models.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR
Revealing a brain network endophenotype in families with idiopathic generalised epilepsy
Idiopathic generalised epilepsy (IGE) has a genetic basis. The mechanism of seizure expression is not fully known, but is assumed to involve large-scale brain networks. We hypothesised that abnormal brain network properties would be detected using EEG in patients with IGE, and would be manifest as a familial endophenotype in their unaffected first-degree relatives. We studied 117 participants: 35 patients with IGE, 42 unaffected first-degree relatives, and 40 normal controls, using scalp EEG. Graph theory was used to describe brain network topology in five frequency bands for each subject. Frequency bands were chosen based on a published Spectral Factor Analysis study which demonstrated these bands to be optimally robust and independent. Groups were compared, using Bonferroni correction to account for nonindependent measures and multiple groups. Degree distribution variance was greater in patients and relatives than controls in the 6-9 Hz band (p = 0.0005, p = 0.0009 respectively). Mean degree was greater in patients than healthy controls in the 6-9 Hz band (p = 0.0064). Clustering coefficient was higher in patients and relatives than controls in the 6-9 Hz band (p = 0.0025, p = 0.0013). Characteristic path length did not differ between groups. No differences were found between patients and unaffected relatives. These findings suggest brain network topology differs between patients with IGE and normal controls, and that some of these network measures show similar deviations in patients and in unaffected relatives who do not have epilepsy. This suggests brain network topology may be an inherited endophenotype of IGE, present in unaffected relatives who do not have epilepsy, as well as in affected patients. We propose that abnormal brain network topology may be an endophenotype of IGE, though not in itself sufficient to cause epilepsy
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