The Definition and Measurement of Heterogeneity

Heterogeneity is an important concept in psychiatric research and science more broadly. It negatively impacts effect size estimates under case-control paradigms, and it exposes important flaws in our existing categorical nosology. Yet, our field has no precise definition of heterogeneity proper. We tend to quantify heterogeneity by measuring associated correlates such as entropy or variance: practices which are akin to accepting the radius of a sphere as a measure of its volume. Under a definition of heterogeneity as the degree to which a system deviates from perfect conformity, this paper argues that its proper measure roughly corresponds to the size of a system’s event/sample space, and has units known as numbers equivalent. We arrive at this conclusion through focused review of more than 100 years of (re)discoveries of indices by ecologists, economists, statistical physicists, and others. In parallel, we review psychiatric approaches for quantifying heterogeneity, including but not limited to studies of symptom heterogeneity, microbiome biodiversity, cluster-counting, and time-series analyses. We argue that using numbers equivalent heterogeneity measures could improve the interpretability and synthesis of psychiatric research on heterogeneity. However, significant limitations must be overcome for these measures—largely developed for economic and ecological research—to be useful in modern translational psychiatric science.

IceCube High Energy Starting Events at 7.5 Years - New Measurements of Flux and Flavor

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, which detects Cherenkov light from charged particles produced in neutrino interactions, firmly established the existence of an astrophysical high-energy neutrino component. Here I present IceCube’s High-Energy Starting Event sample and the new results obtained with a livetime of about 7.5 years. I will focus on the new measurement of the flavor composition performed using this sample. IceCube is directly sensitive to each neutrino flavor via the single cascade, track and double cascade event topologies, the latter being the topology produced in tauneutrino interactions above an energy threshold of ~100 TeV. A measurement of the flavor ratio on Earth can provide important constraints on sources and production mechanisms within the standard model, and also constrain various beyond-standard-model processes.

Productivity of Spanish verb–noun compounds

This study examines Spanish verb–noun compounds in terms of the role played by, and the relationship between, metonymy and metaphor in generating them. After exploring different referent types denoted by Spanish verb–noun compounds such as instrument, agent, place, plant, animal/insect, and causer event, sample examples are analyzed in each referent type for their conceptualization patterns. The analytical tools are based on the notion of domain-internal and domain-external conceptual mappings for metonymy and metaphor, respectively, as well as on the model proposed in the Combined Input Hypothesis for the analysis of metaphors involving multiple inputs. The analysis of the data shows that there are at least four metonymic and metaphoric patterns involved in Spanish verb–noun compounds and that these patterns are productive. The four patters are: (i) only metonymy is involved; (ii) target-in-source metonymy is derived from metaphor; (iii) metaphor is derived from target-in-source metonymy, and (iv) metonymy is derived from a metaphor which is derived from metonymy. This study proposes that these four types of metonymic and metaphoric patterns mediate the production of novel Spanish verb–noun compounds. The implication of this finding is that the more complex the cognitive operations involved in verb–noun compounds, the less predictable the meaning of the compound will be for the language users who first hear them; but once learnt, the meaning of the compound is stored as a whole unit in their mental lexicon. An analysis of a larger corpus of data in future studies will reveal a more comprehensive picture of the relational patterns involved in Spanish verb–noun compounds.

EXPERIMENTAL SEARCH FOR THE KAONIC NUCLEAR STATE K-pp

We search for the most basic kaonic nuclear state, K-pp, by studying an exclusive p + p → p + Λ + K+ process at Tp = 3.1 GeV using FOPI apparatus at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany. A possible signature of the K-pp is searched as a p + p → K-pp + K+ → p + Λ + K+ reaction in the event sample of pΛK+ three body process. A missing-mass ΔM(K+) spectrum, a Λp invariant-mass M(Λp) spectrum and a mono energetic kaon will characterize such a two body process. The reaction channel is basically the same as the one which T. Yamazaki et al. very recently reported a possible hint of such state with M = 2267 MeV /c2 and Γ = 118 MeV from a re-analysis of the DISTO experiment data. The DISTO data was taken at Tp = 2.85 GeV . The beam energy of the FOPI experiment is chosen to optimize the signal to background ratio and also to see the background shape separately. FOPI data taking took place in August-September 2009 and analysis is currently undergoing.

Measurement of Dijet Azimuthal Decorrelations in $p{\bar p}$ Collisions

Correlations in the azimuthal angle between the two largest transverse momentum jets have been measured using the DØ detector in [Formula: see text] collisions at [Formula: see text]. The analysis is based on an inclusive dijet event sample in the central rapidity region corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 150 pb-1. Azimuthal correlations are stronger at larger transverse momenta. These are well-described in NLO pQCD, except at large azimuthal differences where soft effects are significant.

Recent Charmonium Results from the Beijing Spectrometer Experiment

Recent results from the nearly 4.0 M BESI ψ(2S) event sample, the BESII ψ(2S) scan, and the recent BESII 25 M J/ψ sample are presented.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HARD AND SOFT PROCESSES IN HIGH ENERGY HADRONIC COLLISIONS

According to the cone definition of the jet we propose a practical and effective algorithm to identify jets. Through comparison between the Monte Carlo samples with and without jet(s), the following observations are made. Contrary to what is expected, most of the jetty events do not have high multiplicity. The distributions of multiplicity and [Formula: see text] have long tails for the whole event sample because of (mini)jet production, but no such tail for a no-jet event subsample. The average transverse momentum per event [Formula: see text] and multiplicity n are positively correlated for the whole event sample, and negatively correlated for the jetty event subsample. Two ratios are introduced to describe the "degree of hardness" of each event and are found to be correlated positively with [Formula: see text], but negatively with multiplicity, indicating that [Formula: see text] is a better characteristic parameter to describe the evet hardness than multiplicity.