Post-traumatic stress disorder, suggestibility, and dissociation related to alleged alien abductions.

Objectives: Thousands of people throughout the world are convinced that they have been abducted by aliens. We aimed to assess the emotional reaction to such an implausible event and propose some explanations alternative to severe psychopathology.

Methods: A total of 19 individuals who reported memories of having been abducted by aliens were compared to a control group of 32 participants.

Measuring the Tangle of Three-Qubit States.

We present a quantum circuit that transforms an unknown three-qubit state into its canonical form, up to relative phases, given many copies of the original state. The circuit is made of three single-qubit parametrized quantum gates, and the optimal values for the parameters are learned in a variational fashion. Once this transformation is achieved, direct measurement of outcome probabilities in the computational basis provides an estimate of the tangle, which quantifies genuine tripartite entanglement.

Parton distributions from high-precision collider data: NNPDF Collaboration.

We present a new set of parton distributions, NNPDF3.1, which updates NNPDF3.0, the first global set of PDFs determined using a methodology validated by a closure test.

A compression algorithm for the combination of PDF sets.

The current PDF4LHC recommendation to estimate uncertainties due to parton distribution functions (PDFs) in theoretical predictions for LHC processes involves the combination of separate predictions computed using PDF sets from different groups, each of which comprises a relatively large number of either Hessian eigenvectors or Monte Carlo (MC) replicas. While many fixed-order and parton shower programs allow the evaluation of PDF uncertainties for a single PDF set at no additional CPU cost, this feature is not universal, and, moreover, the a posteriori combination of the predictions using at least three different PDF sets is still required. In this work, we present a strategy for the statistical combination of individual PDF sets, based on the MC representation of Hessian sets, followed by a compression algorithm for the reduction of the number of MC replicas.

An unbiased Hessian representation for Monte Carlo PDFs.

We develop a methodology for the construction of a Hessian representation of Monte Carlo sets of parton distributions, based on the use of a subset of the Monte Carlo PDF replicas as an unbiased linear basis, and of a genetic algorithm for the determination of the optimal basis. We validate the methodology by first showing that it faithfully reproduces a native Monte Carlo PDF set (NNPDF3.0), and then, that if applied to Hessian PDF set (MMHT14) which was transformed into a Monte Carlo set, it gives back the starting PDFs with minimal information loss.

Monosodium glutamate and aspartame in perceived pain in fibromyalgia.

Our aim was to assess the effect of dietary elimination of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and aspartame on perceived pain in fibromyalgia. A total of 72 female patients with fibromyalgia were randomized to discontinuation of dietary MSG and aspartame (n = 36) or waiting list (n = 36). Patients were requested to rate their pain using a seven-point scale.

Lack of pattern of birth in patients with bulimia nervosa.

Objective: An excess of bulimia nervosa (BN) births during the fall has been recently reported, but this finding has not been yet adequately replicated. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the presence of a seasonal birth pattern in a representative clinical sample of women with BN.

Method: We registered the month of birth of 216 female patients who fulfilled all the criteria for BN according to DSM-IV on admission to a specialized eating disorders service in Spain.

Absence of seasonal pattern of birth in patients with anorexia nervosa.

Objective: An excess of spring births has been suggested in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), especially in the restricting subtype, but most of the research has been carried out inside the United Kingdom. The aim of this study was to assess whether there is a seasonal pattern of birth in a representative sample of patients with AN in a different latitude in the northern hemisphere.

Method: We examined the month of birth in a sample of 210 female patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of AN at first presentation to a specialized eating disorders service in Spain.