Subtracting and Fitting Histograms using Profile Likelihood

It is known that many interesting signals expected at LHC are of unknown shape and strongly contaminated by background events. These signals will be dif cult to detect during the rst years of LHC operation due to the initial low luminosity. In this work, one presents a method of subtracting histograms based on the pro le likelihood function when the background is previously estimated by Monte Carlo events and one has low statistics. Estimators for the signal in each bin of the histogram difference are calculated so as limits for the signals with 68.3% of Con dence Level in a low statistics case when one has a exponential background and a Gaussian signal. The method can also be used to t histograms when the signal shape is known. Our results show a good performance and avoid the problem of negative values when subtracting histograms

Two singularity subtraction schemes for a class of nonlinear weakly singular integral equations

Singularity subtraction for linear weakly singular Fredholm integral equations of the second kind is generalized to nonlinear integral equations. Two approaches are presented: The Classical Ap proach discretizes the nonlinear problem, and uses some finite dimensional linearization process to solve numerically the discrete problem. Its convergence is proved under mild hypotheses on the nonlinearity and the quadrature rule of the singularity subtraction scheme. The New Approach is based on linearization of the problem in its infinite dimensional setting, and dis cretization of the sequence of linear problems by singularity subtraction. It is more efficient than the former, as two numerical experiments confirm.The second and fourth authors were partially supported by CMUP, which is financed by national funds through FCT -Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, I.P., under the project with reference UIDB/00144/2020. The research of the third author was partially financed by Portuguese Funds through FCT (Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia) within the Projects UIDB/00013/2020 and UIDP/00013/2020

Much or More? Experiments of Rationality and Spite with School Children

Copyright © 2014 North American Journal of Pyschology.In a competitive environment the maximization of self-interest and the minimization of the other's interest can be seen as the two faces of the same coin. However, these motivations can lead to very different behaviors. In order to understand how these are expressed, we designed an experiment to measure the ability of children and teenagers to react to stimuli that induce behavior to act as a rational player (maximization of self interest) or as a spiteful player (minimization of other's interest). Each player faced the following dilemma: maximizing pay-off and incurring the risk of having a lower pay-off; or alternatively guaranteeing one’s own pay-off was not smaller than the opponent’s pay-off. A prize was attributed proportionally to the pay-off (Treatment 1) or to the player with highest pay-off (Treatment 2), which meant that the optimal behavior was different for each treatment. We performed experiments with 398 Portuguese children and teenagers and found evidence that younger children tended to be maximizers (in both variants) and that teenagers tended towards rational behavior when it was best for them and towards spiteful behavior when the latter was more advantageous

Subchronical treatment with Fluoxetine modifies the activity of the MCHergic and hypocretinergic systems. Evidences from peptide CSF concentration and gene expression

In the postero-lateral hypothalamus are located two neuronal systems that utilize the neuropeptides melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) and hypocretins (also called orexins) as neuromodulators. These systems have reciprocal connections between them, and project throughout the central nervous system. MCH has been involved in the generation of sleep, mainly REM sleep, while hypocretins have a critical role in the generation of wakefulness. MCHergic activity is also involved in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MD). In this regards, intracerebral administration of MCH promotes pro-depressive behaviors (i.e., immobility in the forced swimming test) and REM sleep hypersomnia, which is an important trait of depression. Furthermore, the antagonism of the MCHR-1 receptor has a reliable antidepressant effect, suggesting that MCH is a pro-depressive factor. Hypocretins have been also involved in mood regulation; however, their role in depression is still on debate. Taking these data into account, we explored whether systemic subchronical treatment with Fluoxetine (FLX), a serotonergic antidepressant, modifies the concentration of MCH in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), as well as the preproMCH mRNA expression. We also evaluated the hypocretinergic system by quantifying the hypocretin-levels in the CSF and the preprohypocretin mRNA expression. Compared to control, FLX increased the levels of preprohypocretin mRNA without affecting the hypocretin-1 CSF levels. On the contrary, FLX significantly decreased the MCH CSF concentration without affecting the preproMCH gene expression. This result is in agreement with the fact that MCH serum level diminishes during the antidepressant treatment in MD, and supports the hypothesis that an increase in the MCHergic activity could have pro-depressive consequences. (C) 2016 Brazilian Association of Sleep. Production and Hosting by Elsevier B.V.Proyecto de Cooperacion Bilateral Uruguay- Brasil, Dicyt-CNPqPrograma de Desarrollo de Ciencias Basicas (PEDECIBA)Associacao Fundo de Incentivo a Pesquisa (AFIP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq)Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Psychobiol, Sao Paulo, BrazilUniv Republica, Dept Physiol, Sch Med, Montevideo, UruguayUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Psychobiol, Sao Paulo, BrazilProyecto de Cooperacion Bilateral Uruguay- Brasil, Dicyt-CNPq: ANII-FCE-1-2011-1-5997Web of Scienc

Lidar temperature series in the middle atmosphere as a reference data set – Part 1: Improved retrievals and a 20-year cross-validation of two co-located French lidars

The objective of this paper and its companion (Wing et al., 2018) is to show that ground-based lidar temperatures are a stable, accurate, and precise data set for use in validating satellite temperatures at high vertical resolution. Long-term lidar observations of the middle atmosphere have been conducted at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP), located in southern France (43.93°&thinsp;N, 5.71°&thinsp;E), since 1978. Making use of 20 years of high-quality co-located lidar measurements, we have shown that lidar temperatures calculated using the Rayleigh technique at 532&thinsp;nm are statistically identical to lidar temperatures calculated from the non-absorbing 355&thinsp;nm channel of a differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system. This result is of interest to members of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) ozone lidar community seeking to produce validated temperature products. Additionally, we have addressed previously published concerns of lidar–satellite relative warm bias in comparisons of upper-mesospheric and lower-thermospheric (UMLT) temperature profiles. We detail a data treatment algorithm which minimizes known errors due to data selection procedures, a priori choices, and initialization parameters inherent in the lidar retrieval. Our algorithm results in a median cooling of the lidar-calculated absolute temperature profile by 20&thinsp;K at 90&thinsp;km altitude with respect to the standard OHP NDACC lidar temperature algorithm. The confidence engendered by the long-term cross-validation of two independent lidars and the improved lidar temperature data set is exploited in Wing et al. (2018) for use in multi-year satellite validations.</p