New results from CERES

During the year 2000 the CERES experiment, upgraded with a radial drift TPC, took a large data sample of Pb on Au collisions at 158 AGeV triggered on the 8% most central collisions. A very detailed calibration of the radial drift TPC was since completed. Preliminary results on $e^+e^-$ pairs and $\phi$ mesons reconstructed in the $K^+K^-$ channel are presented.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, proceedings of the Quark Matter 2004, in Oakland, US

Postpartum depression and thyroid dysfunction– should pregnant women be screened for thyroid disorders?

The relationship between thyroid dysfunction and postpartum depression has been investigated for quite some time now, but no consensus has been reached regarding the need for screening for thyroid function during pregnancy. This paper aims to investigate whether thyroid hormone screening in pregnancy might contribute to the diagnosis of postpartum depression. Depression was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) - one of the most widely used measures in detecting postpartum depression and anxiety. Thyroid function was measured using the commonly recommended thyroid laboratory tests. A structured questionnaire was given to 61 patients closely monitored during their pregnancy and at least one year after giving birth, including for thyroid and depression disorders. The questionnaire was completed anonymously online by the patients and had three sections: one containing the EPDS questions, one assessing thyroid function, and a demographic section. The interdependency between thyroid and depression was analyzed in SPSS using the Pearson chi-square test of independence. The results show no statistically significant relationship between thyroid dysfunction and depression. In other words, women suffering from thyroid dysfunctions have no greater rate of depression compared to women without thyroid dysfunction. As a result, it screening for thyroid disorders during pregnancy may not provide relevant information for detecting postnatal depression

The Orbital Period of V368 Aquilae (Nova Aquilae 1936 No. 2)

We report observations of the eclipsing classical nova V368 Aql (Nova Aql 1936 No. 2). These data reveal that the orbital period previously published by Diaz & Bruch is an alias of the true orbital period. A total of 14 eclipses (12 complete and 2 partial) over 25 nights of observation have established that the orbital period of V368 Aql is 0.6905093(1) d (16.57 hr), which is roughly twice the previously published period. With its revised orbital period, V368 Aql now joins other nova systems with periods in excess of 0.5 day that dominate the long end of the orbital period distribution of cataclysmic variables.Comment: Accepted for publication in the PAS

Fuzzy ART Choice Functions

Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) models are real-time neural networks for category learning, pattern recognition, and prediction. Unsupervised fuzzy ART and supervised fuzzy ARTMAP networks synthesize fuzzy logic and ART by exploiting the formal similarity between tile computations of fuzzy subsethood and the dynamics of ART category choice, search, and learning. Fuzzy ART self-organizes stable recognition categories in response to arbitrary sequences of analog or binary input patterns. It generalizes the binary ART 1 model, replacing the set-theoretic intersection (∩) with the fuzzy intersection(∧), or component-wise minimum. A normalization procedure called complement coding leads to a symmetric theory in which the fuzzy intersection and the fuzzy union (∨), or component-wise maximum, play complementary roles. A geometric interpretation of fuzzy ART represents each category as a box that increases in size as weights decrease. This paper analyzes fuzzy ART models that employ various choice functions for category selection. One such function minimizes total weight change during learning. Benchmark simulations compare peformance of fuzzy ARTMAP systems that use different choice functions.Advanced Research Projects Agency (ONR N00014-92-J-4015); National Science Foundation (IRI-90-00530); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100

Spatially resolving the thermally inhomogeneous outer atmosphere of the red giant Arcturus in the 2.3 micron CO lines

The outer atmosphere of K giants shows thermally inhomogeneous structures consisting of the hot chromospheric gas and the cool molecular gas. We present spectro-interferometric observations of the multicomponent outer atmosphere of the well-studied K1.5 giant Arcturus (alpha Boo) in the CO first overtone lines near 2.3 micron. We observed Arcturus with the AMBER instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at 2.28--2.31 micron with a spectral resolution of 12000 and at projected baselines of 7.3, 14.6, and 21.8 m. The high spectral resolution of the VLTI/AMBER instrument allowed us to spatially resolve Arcturus in the individual CO lines. Comparison of the observed interferometric data with the MARCS photospheric model shows that the star appears to be significantly larger than predicted by the model. It indicates the presence of an extended component that is not accounted for by the current photospheric models for this well-studied star. We found out that the observed AMBER data can be explained by a model with two additional CO layers above the photosphere. The inner CO layer is located just above the photosphere, at 1.04 +/- 0.02 stellar radii, with a temperature of 1600 +/- 400 K and a CO column density of 10^{20 +/- 0.3} cm^-2. On the other hand, the outer CO layer is found to be as extended as to 2.6 +/- 0.2 stellar radii with a temperature of 1800 +/- 100 K and a CO column density of 10^{19 +/- 0.15} cm^-2. The properties of the inner CO layer are in broad agreement with those previously inferred from the spatially unresolved spectroscopic analyses. However, our AMBER observations have revealed that the quasi-static cool molecular component extends out to 2--3 stellar radii, within which region the chromospheric wind steeply accelerates.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic