Gait Measurements and Motor Recovery after Stroke

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 62P10, 92C20Gait analysis is one of the methods used for estimation of the degree of restoration of motor recovery after stroke. The purpose of the present study was to examine the diagnostic value of the footprint parameters and their relationship with the functional ambulation profile (FAP) scores provided automatically by the pressure sensor walkway system for gait examination. The patterns of walking were studied in a group of 23 patients with chronic unilateral stroke and 72 healthy subjects. Among the measured gait variables the peak times of the footprints were found as most informative parameters. Their predictive value was compared with some other gait indicators for motor recovery after stroke

Darboux transformation for two component derivative nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation

In this paper, we consider the two component derivative nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation and present a simple Darboux transformation for it. By iterating this Darboux transformation, we construct a compact representation for the $N-$soliton solutions.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Estimation of errors in text and data processing

The company Adiss Lab Lts. obtained 1 000 000 medical reports that are either in free form text, or in XML format. One of the main goals of their development is to integrate an algorithm for information extraction (IE) in their platform. The verification of the algorithm’s output for a report is done by a medical doctor (MD) for a certain fee. Validating the correctness of all data would be overwhelming and very expensive. Hence, the problem, as presented by the company, is to provide a method (algorithm) which determines the minimum amount of reports that will validate the correctness of the IE algorithm and a procedure for selecting these reports. In order to solve the problem we have considered an algorithm-centric approach uses active learning and semi-supervised learning

Recoilless resonant neutrino capture and basics of neutrino oscillations

It is shown that the experiment on recoilless resonant emission and absorption of $\bar \nu_{e}$, proposed recently by Raghavan, could have an important impact on our understanding of the physics of neutrino oscillations.Comment: Additional information in the last chapte

Assessing market attractiveness for mergers and acquisitions: the M&A Attractiveness Index Score

This paper presents a new scoring methodology designed to measure a country's capability to attract and sustain business investment activity in the forms of cross-border inflow and domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&A). We compute a theoretically grounded Index of Attractiveness for M&A purposes based on groups of country development factors which have been identified as key drivers of corporate investment activity in economics, finance and management literature. By using the Index, which has been successfully tested against country-level M&A activity in a time series analysis, we show that the drivers of M&A activity differ significantly at different stages of country maturity. Specifically, for mature countries, the quality of their regulatory systems, political stability, socio-economic environment and the sophistication of their physical infrastructure as well as the availability of sizeable assets all determine differences in country-level M&A volume and value activity. For countries at the transitional stage, it is instead their economic and financial health, socio-economic environment, technological developments and the quality of their infrastructure and the availability of sizeable assets which drive M&A activity. We also prove the predictability power of the Index, by a set of Granger causality tests, showing not only how country-level development drives future M&A activity but also how, to some extent, the inverse relationship is also true, i.e. that M&A activity can contribute to country development

Search for the QCD critical point in nuclear collisions at the CERN SPS

Pion production in nuclear collisions at the SPS is investigated with the aim to search, in a restricted domain of the phase diagram, for power-laws in the behavior of correlations which are compatible with critical QCD. We have analyzed interactions of nuclei of different size (p+p, C+C, Si+Si, Pb+Pb) at 158$A$ GeV adopting, as appropriate observables, scaled factorial moments in a search for intermittent fluctuations in transverse dimensions. The analysis is performed for $\pi^+\pi^-$ pairs with invariant mass very close to the two-pion threshold. In this sector one may capture critical fluctuations of the sigma component in a hadronic medium, even if the $\sigma$-meson has no well defined vacuum state. It turns out that for the Pb+Pb system the proposed analysis technique cannot be applied without entering the invariant mass region with strong Coulomb correlations. As a result the treatment becomes inconclusive in this case. Our results for the other systems indicate the presence of power-law fluctuations in the freeze-out state of Si+Si approaching in size the prediction of critical QCD.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure

System-size and centrality dependence of charged kaon and pion production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 40A GeV and158A GeV beam energy

Measurements of charged pion and kaon production are presented in centrality selected Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV beam energy as well as in semi-central C+C and Si+Si interactions at 40A GeV. Transverse mass spectra, rapidity spectra and total yields are determined as a function of centrality. The system-size and centrality dependence of relative strangeness production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV beam energy are derived from the data presented here and published data for C+C and Si+Si collisions at 158A GeV beam energy. At both energies a steep increase with centrality is observed for small systems followed by a weak rise or even saturation for higher centralities. This behavior is compared to calculations using transport models (UrQMD and HSD), a percolation model and the core-corona approach.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, typo table II correcte

Inclusive production of charged pions in p+C collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum

The production of charged pions in minimum bias p+C interactions is studied using a sample of 377000 inelastic events obtained with the NA49 detector at the CERN SPS at 158 GeV/c beam momentum. The data cover a phase space area ranging from 0 to 1.8 GeV/c in transverse momentum and from -0.1 to 0.5 in Feynman x. Inclusive invariant cross sections are given on a grid of 270 bins per charge thus offering for the first time a dense coverage of the projectile hemisphere and of the cross-over region into the target fragmentation zone.Comment: 31 pages, 30 figures, submitted to European Journal of Physic

Rapidity and energy dependence of the electric charge correlations in A+A collisions at the SPS energies

Results from electric charge correlations studied with the Balance Function method in A+A collisions from 20\emph{A} to 158\emph{A} GeV are presented in two different rapidity intervals: In the mid-rapidity region we observe a decrease of the width of the Balance Function distribution with increasing centrality of the collision, whereas this effect vanishes in the forward rapidity region. Results from the energy dependence study in central Pb+Pb collisions show that the narrowing of the Balance Function expressed by the normalised width parameter \textit{W} increases with energy towards the highest SPS and RHIC energies. Finally we compare our experimental data points with predictions of several models. The hadronic string models UrQMD and HIJING do not reproduce the observed narrowing of the Balance Function. However, AMPT which contains a quark-parton transport phase before hadronization can reproduce the narrowing of the BF's width with centrality. This confirms the proposed sensitivity of the Balance Function analysis to the time of hadronization.Comment: Submitted in Phys. Rev.

High p_T Spectra of Identified Particles Produced in Pb+Pb Collisions at 158GeV/nucleon Beam Energy

Transverse momentum spectra of pi^{+/-}, p, pbar, K^{+/-}, K^0_s and Lambda at midrapidity were measured at high p_T in Pb+Pb collisions at 158GeV/nucleon beam energy by the NA49 experiment. Particle yield ratios (p/pi, K/pi and Lambda/K^0_s) show an enhancement of the baryon/meson ratio for p_T>2GeV/c. The nuclear modification factor R_{CP} is extracted and compared to RHIC measurements and pQCD calculations.Comment: Quark Matter 2005 parallel section proceeding