Alpha Decay Hindrance Factors: A Probe of Mean Field Wave Functions

A simple model to calculate alpha-decay Hindrance Factors is presented. Using deformation values obtained from PES calculations as the only input, Hindrance Factors for the alpha-decay of Rn- and Po-isotopes are calculated. It is found that the intrinsic structure around the Fermi surface determined by the deformed mean field plays an important role in determining the hindrance of alpha-decay. The fair agreement between experimental and theoretical Hindrance Factors suggest that the wave function obtained from the energy minima of the PES calculations contains an important part of the correlations that play a role for the alpha-decay. The calculated HF that emerges from these calculations render a different interpretation than the commonly assumed n-particle n-hole picture.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

Authorship Attribution With Few Training Samples

This chapter discusses authorship attribution through a training sample. The focus on authorship attribution discussed in this chapter differs in two ways from the traditional authorship identification problem discussed in the earlier chapters of this book. Firstly, the traditional authorship attribution studies [63, 65] only work in the presence of large training samples from each candidate author, which are typically enough to build a classification model. With authorship attribution, the emphasis is on using a few training samples for each suspect. In some scenarios, no training samples may exist, and the suspects may be asked (usually through court orders) to produce a writing sample for investigation purposes. Secondly, in traditional authorship studies, the goal is to attribute a single anonymous document to its true author. In this chapter, we look at cases where we have more than one anonymous message that needs to be attributed to the true author(s). It is likely that the perpetrator may either create a ghost e-mail account or hack an existing account, and then use it for sending illegitimate messages in order to remain anonymous. To address the aforementioned shortfalls, the authorship attribution problem has been redefined as follows: given a collection of anonymous messages potentially written by a set of suspects {S1, ···, Sn}, a cybercrime investigator first wants to identify the major groups of messages based on stylometric features; intuitively, each message group is written by one suspect. Then s/he wants to identify the author of each anonymous message collection from the given candidate suspects. To address the newly defined authorship attribution problem, the stylometric pattern-based approach of AuthorMinerl (described previously in Sect. 5.4.1) is extended and called AuthorMinerSmall. When applying this approach, the stylometric features are first extracted from the given anonymous message collection Ω

Measuring Accuracy of Automated Parsing and Categorization Tools and Processes in Digital Investigations

This work presents a method for the measurement of the accuracy of evidential artifact extraction and categorization tasks in digital forensic investigations. Instead of focusing on the measurement of accuracy and errors in the functions of digital forensic tools, this work proposes the application of information retrieval measurement techniques that allow the incorporation of errors introduced by tools and analysis processes. This method uses a `gold standard' that is the collection of evidential objects determined by a digital investigator from suspect data with an unknown ground truth. This work proposes that the accuracy of tools and investigation processes can be evaluated compared to the derived gold standard using common precision and recall values. Two example case studies are presented showing the measurement of the accuracy of automated analysis tools as compared to an in-depth analysis by an expert. It is shown that such measurement can allow investigators to determine changes in accuracy of their processes over time, and determine if such a change is caused by their tools or knowledge.Comment: 17 pages, 2 appendices, 1 figure, 5th International Conference on Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime; Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime, pp. 147-169, 201

Criminal Information Mining

In the previous chapters, the different aspects of the authorship analysis problem were discussed. This chapter will propose a framework for extracting criminal information from the textual content of suspicious online messages. Archives of online messages, including chat logs, e-mails, web forums, and blogs, often contain an enormous amount of forensically relevant information about potential suspects and their illegitimate activities. Such information is usually found in either the header or body of an online document. The IP addresses, hostnames, sender and recipient addresses contained in the e-mail header, the user ID used in chats, and the screen names used in web-based communication help reveal information at the user or application level. For instance, information extracted from a suspicious e-mail corpus helps us to learn who the senders and recipients are, how often they communicate, and how many types of communities/cliques there are in a dataset. Such information also gives us an insight into the inter and intra-community patterns of communication. A clique or a community is a group of users who have an online communication link between them. Header content or user-level information is easy to extract and straightforward to use for the purposes of investigation

beta-decay study of Cu-77

A beta-decay study of Cu-77 has been performed at the ISOLDE mass separator with the aim to deduce its beta-decay properties and to obtain spectroscopic information on Zn-77. Neutron-rich copper isotopes were produced by means of proton- or neutron-induced fission reactions on U-238. After the production, Cu-77 was selectively laser ionized, mass separated and sent to different detection systems where beta-gamma and beta-n coincidence data were collected. We report on the deduced half-live, decay scheme, and possible spin assignment of 77Cu

Authorship Analysis Approaches

This chapter presents an overview of authorship analysis from multiple standpoints. It includes historical perspective, description of stylometric features, and authorship analysis techniques and their limitations

Pharmacological levels of withaferin A (Withania somnifera) trigger clinically relevant anticancer effects specific to triple negative breast cancer cells

Withaferin A (WA) isolated from Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) has recently become an attractive phytochemical under investigation in various preclinical studies for treatment of different cancer types. In the present study, a comparative pathway-based transcriptome analysis was applied in epithelial-like MCF-7 and triple negative mesenchymal MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells exposed to different concentrations of WA which can be detected systemically in in vivo experiments. Whereas WA treatment demonstrated attenuation of multiple cancer hallmarks, the withanolide analogue Withanone (WN) did not exert any of the described effects at comparable concentrations. Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that WA targets specific cancer processes related to cell death, cell cycle and proliferation, which could be functionally validated by flow cytometry and real-time cell proliferation assays. WA also strongly decreased MDA-MB-231 invasion as determined by single-cell collagen invasion assay. This was further supported by decreased gene expression of extracellular matrix-degrading proteases (uPA, PLAT, ADAM8), cell adhesion molecules (integrins, laminins), pro-inflammatory mediators of the metastasis-promoting tumor microenvironment (TNFSF12, IL6, ANGPTL2, CSF1R) and concomitant increased expression of the validated breast cancer metastasis suppressor gene (BRMS1). In line with the transcriptional changes, nanomolar concentrations of WA significantly decreased protein levels and corresponding activity of uPA in MDA-MB-231 cell supernatant, further supporting its anti-metastatic properties. Finally, hierarchical clustering analysis of 84 chromatin writer-reader-eraser enzymes revealed that WA treatment of invasive mesenchymal MDA-MB-231 cells reprogrammed their transcription levels more similarly towards the pattern observed in non-invasive MCF-7 cells. In conclusion, taking into account that sub-cytotoxic concentrations of WA target multiple metastatic effectors in therapy-resistant triple negative breast cancer, WA-based therapeutic strategies targeting the uPA pathway hold promise for further (pre)clinical development to defeat aggressive metastatic breast cancer

Ventricular beat detection in single channel electrocardiograms

BACKGROUND: Detection of QRS complexes and other types of ventricular beats is a basic component of ECG analysis. Many algorithms have been proposed and used because of the waves' shape diversity. Detection in a single channel ECG is important for several applications, such as in defibrillators and specialized monitors. METHODS: The developed heuristic algorithm for ventricular beat detection includes two main criteria. The first of them is based on steep edges and sharp peaks evaluation and classifies normal QRS complexes in real time. The second criterion identifies ectopic beats by occurrence of biphasic wave. It is modified to work with a delay of one RR interval in case of long RR intervals. Other algorithm branches classify already detected QRS complexes as ectopic beats if a set of wave parameters is encountered or the ratio of latest two RR intervals RR(i-1)/RR(i )is less than 1:2.5. RESULTS: The algorithm was tested with the AHA and MIT-BIH databases. A sensitivity of 99.04% and a specificity of 99.62% were obtained in detection of 542014 beats. CONCLUSION: The algorithm copes successfully with different complicated cases of single channel ventricular beat detection. It is aimed to simulate to some extent the experience of the cardiologist, rather than to rely on mathematical approaches adopted from the theory of signal analysis. The algorithm is open to improvement, especially in the part concerning the discrimination between normal QRS complexes and ectopic beats

On-line yields obtained with the ISOLDE RILIS

The ISOLDE resonance ionization laser ion source (RILIS) allows to ionize efficiently and selectively many metallic elements. In recent yield surveys and on-line experiments with the ISOLDE RILIS we observed $^{23-34}$Mg , $^{26-34}\!$Al , $^{98-132}$Cd , $^{149}$Tb , $^{155-177}\!$Yb , $^{179-200}$Tl , $^{183-215}$Pb and $^{188-218}$Bi. The obtained yields are presented together with measured release parameters which allow to extrapolate the release efficiency towards more exotic (short-lived) nuclides of the same elements