Tilted excitation implies odd periodic resonances

This work was supported by the Brazilian agencies FAPESP and CNPq. MSB also acknowledges the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant Ref. EP/I032606/1. GID thanks Felipe A. C. Pereira for fruitful discussions.Peer reviewedPostprin

The Extreme Energy Events HECR array: status and perspectives

The Extreme Energy Events Project is a synchronous sparse array of 52 tracking detectors for studying High Energy Cosmic Rays (HECR) and Cosmic Rays-related phenomena. The observatory is also meant to address Long Distance Correlation (LDC) phenomena: the network is deployed over a broad area covering 10 degrees in latitude and 11 in longitude. An overview of a set of preliminary results is given, extending from the study of local muon flux dependance on solar activity to the investigation of the upward-going component of muon flux traversing the EEE stations; from the search for anisotropies at the sub-TeV scale to the hints for observations of km-scale Extensive Air Shower (EAS).Comment: XXV ECRS 2016 Proceedings - eConf C16-09-04.

Study of single muons with the Large Volume Detector at Gran Sasso Laboratory

The present study is based on the sample of about 3 mln single muons observed by LVD at underground Gran Sasso Laboratory during 36500 live hours from June 1992 to February 1998. We have measured the muon intensity at slant depths from 3 km w.e. to 20 km w.e. Most events are high energy downward muons produced by meson decay in the atmosphere. The analysis of these muons has revealed the power index of pion and kaon spectrum: 2.76 \pm 0.05. The reminders are horizontal muons produced by the neutrino interactions in the rock surrounding LVD. The value of this flux is obtained. The results are compared with Monte Carlo simulations and the world data.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in "Physics of Atomic Nuclei

Upper Limit on the Prompt Muon Flux Derived from the LVD Underground Experiment

We present the analysis of the muon events with all muon multiplicities collected during 21804 hours of operation of the first LVD tower. The measured depth-angular distribution of muon intensities has been used to obtain the normalization factor, A, the power index, gamma, of the primary all-nucleon spectrum and the ratio, R_c, of prompt muon flux to that of pi-mesons - the main parameters which determine the spectrum of cosmic ray muons at the sea level. The value of gamma = 2.77 +/- 0.05 (68% C.L.) and R_c < 2.0 x 10^-3 (95% C.L.) have been obtained. The upper limit to the prompt muon flux favours the models of charm production based on QGSM and the dual parton model.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, RevTex. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Jet production in charged current deep inelastic e⁺p scatteringat HERA

The production rates and substructure of jets have been studied in charged current deep inelastic e⁺p scattering for Q² > 200 GeV² with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 110.5 pb⁻¹. Inclusive jet cross sections are presented for jets with transverse energies E_{T}^{jet} > 5 GeV. Measurements of the mean subjet multiplicity, 〈n_{sbj}〉, of the inclusive jet sample are presented. Predictions based on parton-shower Monte Carlo models and next-to-leading-order QCD calculations are compared to the measurements. The value of α_{s} (M_{z}), determined from 〈n_{sbj}〉 at y_{cut} = 10⁻² for jets with 25 < E_{T}^{jet} < 119 GeV, is α_{s} (M_{z}) = 0.1202 ± 0.0052 (stat.)_{-0.0019}^{+0.0060} (syst.)_{-0.0053}^{+0.0065} (th.). The mean subjet multiplicity as a function of Q² is found to be consistent with that measured in NC DIS

Muon `Depth -- Intensity' Relation Measured by LVD Underground Experiment and Cosmic-Ray Muon Spectrum at Sea Level

We present the analysis of the muon events with all muon multiplicities collected during 21804 hours of operation of the first LVD tower. The measured angular distribution of muon intensity has been converted to the `depth -- vertical intensity' relation in the depth range from 3 to 12 km w.e.. The analysis of this relation allowed to derive the power index, $\gamma$, of the primary all-nucleon spectrum: $\gamma=2.78 \pm 0.05$. The `depth -- vertical intensity' relation has been converted to standard rock and the comparison with the data of other experiments has been done. We present also the derived vertical muon spectrum at sea level.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to be published on Phys. Rev.

The Role of Eye Gaze in Subjective Decision Making

Shimojo, Simion, Shimojo and Scheier (2003) provided preliminary evidence that eye movements have an active role in preference formation. In their study, subjects were presented with two faces and chose which was more attractive. By manipulating how long subjects were able to look at each face after an eye movement, Shimojo et al. (2003) showed that faces presented for a longer duration were more likely to be chosen as more attractive. However, a recent study from Nittono and Wada (2009) showed that an eye movement may not be necessary for this effect, as novel graphic patterns presented in the centre of the screen (thus requiring no eye movements) for longer durations were also more likely to be preferred. The purpose of the current study was to further investigate whether eye movements do have an active role in preference formation. The present study used the same paradigm as Shimojo et al.’s (2003) study. Subjects in Experiment 1 were presented with images of two real faces, alternatively (one for 900ms, one for 300ms) for six repetitions. There were 3 independent experimental conditions. One group were required to make eye movements to laterally presented faces and judge attractiveness (lateral attractiveness condition), a second were not required to make eye movements to centrally presented faces and judge attractiveness (central attractiveness condition). The third were required to make eye movements to laterally presented faces and judge roundness (lateral roundness condition). The findings indicated that subjects were more likely to choose the longer presented faces in the lateral attractiveness and central attractiveness conditions, but not the lateral roundness conditions. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 with the exception of the type of stimuli, which consisted of computer generated faces (CGFs). Subjects were more likely to choose the longer presented CGF in the lateral attractiveness, central attractiveness and lateral roundness conditions. The findings of the present study were not in line with Shimojo et al.’s (2003) previous findings, who found that faces presented for a longer duration were only preferred in the lateral attractiveness condition of their study. It is possible that the faces that are presented for the longer duration in the current paradigm are preferred due to the increase in exposure duration irrespective of an eye movement (as per the findings from Nittono and Wada, 2009). As it is unclear as to whether eye movements play an active role in preference formation, the findings of the present study have not been able to contribute to computational models of decision making

PRRT2 controls neuronal excitability by negatively modulating Na+ channel 1.2/1.6 activity

Proline-rich transmembrane protein 2 (PRRT2) is the causative gene for a heterogeneous group of familial paroxysmal neurological disorders that include seizures with onset in the first year of life (benign familial infantile seizures), paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia or a combination of both. Most of the PRRT2 mutations are loss-of-function leading to haploinsufficiency and 80% of the patients carry the same frameshift mutation (c.649dupC; p.Arg217Profs*8), which leads to a premature stop codon. To model the disease and dissect the physiological role of PRRT2, we studied the phenotype of neurons differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells from previously described heterozygous and homozygous siblings carrying the c.649dupC mutation. Singlecell patch-clamp experiments on induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons from homozygous patients showed increased Na+ currents that were fully rescued by expression of wild-type PRRT2. Closely similar electrophysiological features were observed in primary neurons obtained from the recently characterized PRRT2 knockout mouse. This phenotype was associated with an increased length of the axon initial segment and with markedly augmented spontaneous and evoked firing and bursting activities evaluated, at the network level, by multi-electrode array electrophysiology. Using HEK-293 cells stably expressing Nav channel subtypes, we demonstrated that the expression of PRRT2 decreases the membrane exposure and Na+ current of Nav1.2/Nav1.6, but not Nav1.1, channels. Moreover, PRRT2 directly interacted with Nav1.2/Nav1.6 channels and induced a negative shift in the voltage-dependence of inactivation and a slow-down in the recovery from inactivation. In addition, by co-immunoprecipitation assays, we showed that the PRRT2-Nav interaction also occurs in brain tissue. The study demonstrates that the lack of PRRT2 leads to a hyperactivity of voltage-dependent Na+ channels in homozygous PRRT2 knockout human and mouse neurons and that, in addition to the reported synaptic functions, PRRT2 is an important negative modulator of Nav1.2 and Nav1.6 channels. Given the predominant paroxysmal character of PRRT2-linked diseases, the disturbance in cellular excitability by lack of negative modulation of Na+ channels appears as the key pathogenetic mechanism

Leading Neutron Production in e\u3csup\u3e+\u3c/sup\u3e p Collisions at HERA

The production of neutrons carrying at least 20% of the proton beam energy (xL \u3e 0.2) in e+ p collisions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for a wide range of Q2, the photon virtuality, from photoproduction to deep inelastic scattering. The neutron-tagged cross section, ep → e′ Xn, is measured relative to the inclusive cross section, ep → e′ X, thereby reducing the systematic uncertainties. For xL \u3e 0.3, the rate of neutrons in photoproduction is about half of that measured in hadroproduction, which constitutes a clear breaking of factorisation. There is about a 20% rise in the neutron rate between photoproduction and deep inelastic scattering, which may be attributed to absorptive rescattering in the γ p system. For 0.64 \u3c xL \u3c 0.82, the rate of neutrons is almost independent of the Bjorken scaling variable x and Q2. However, at lower and higher xL values, there is a clear but weak dependence on these variables, thus demonstrating the breaking of limiting fragmentation. The neutron-tagged structure function, F2LN(3) (x, Q2, xL), rises at low values of x in a way similar to that of the inclusive F2(x, Q2) of the proton. The total γπ cross section and the structure function of the pion, F2π (xπ, Q2) where xπ = x/(1 - xL), have been determined using a one-pion-exchange model, up to uncertainties in the normalisation due to the poorly understood pion flux. At fixed Q2, F2π has approximately the same x dependence as F2 of the proton. © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V

ZEUS Next-to-leading-order QCD Analysis of Data on Deep Inelastic Scattering

Next-to-leading-order QCD analyses of the ZEUS data on deep inelastic scattering together with fixed-target data have been performed, from which the gluon and quark densities of the proton and the value of the strong coupling constant (Formula presented) were extracted. The study includes a full treatment of the experimental systematic uncertainties including point-to-point correlations. The resulting uncertainties in the parton density functions are presented. A combined fit for (Formula presented) and the gluon and quark densities yields a value for (Formula presented) in agreement with the world average. The parton density functions derived from ZEUS data alone indicate the importance of HERA data in determining the sea quark and gluon distributions at low x. The limits of applicability of the theoretical formalism have been explored by comparing the fit predictions to ZEUS data at very low (Formula presented) © 2003 The American Physical Society