BackgroundTo evaluate the interest of using automatic speech analyses for the assessment of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD).MethodsHealthy elderly control (HC) subjects and patients with MCI or AD were recorded while performing several short cognitive vocal tasks. The voice recordings were processed, and the first vocal markers were extracted using speech signal processing techniques. Second, the vocal markers were tested to assess their “power” to distinguish among HC, MCI, and AD. The second step included training automatic classifiers for detecting MCI and AD, using machine learning methods and testing the detection accuracy.ResultsThe classification accuracy of automatic audio analyses were as follows: between HCs and those with MCI, 79% ± 5%; between HCs and those with AD, 87% ± 3%; and between those with MCI and those with AD, 80% ± 5%, demonstrating its assessment utility.ConclusionAutomatic speech analyses could be an additional objective assessment tool for elderly with cognitive decline.

Below we analyze the 'critic' statements made in the Preprint arXiv:1301.1828v1 [nucl-th]. The doubtful scientific argumentation of the authors of the Preprint arXiv:1301.1828v1 [nucl-th] is also discussed.

We propose to use the thermal model with the multi-component hard-core radii to describe the hadron yield ratios from the low AGS to the highest RHIC energies. It is demonstrated that the variation of the hard-core radii of pions and kaons enable us to drastically improve the fit quality of the measured mid-rapidity data and for the first time to completely describe the Strangeness Horn behavior as the function of the energy of collision without spoiling the fit quality of other ratios. The best global fit is found for the vanishing hard-core radius of pions and for the hard-core radius of kaons being equal to 0.35 fm, whereas the hard-core radius of all other mesons is fixed to 0.3 fm and that one of baryons is fixed to 0.5 fm.It is argued that the multi-component hadron resonance gas model opens us a principal possibility to determine the second virial coefficients of hadron-hadron interaction. I. INTRODUCTIONThe hadron resonance gas model 1 [1, 2] is the only theoretical tool allowing us to extract information about the chemical freeze-out (FO) stage of the relativistic heavy ion collisions. Although its systematic application to the experimental data description began about fifteen years ago [3], many features of this model are not well studied [4,5]. Thus, very recently in a critical analysis of the hadron resonance gas model [5] it was shown that for the description of the hadron multiplicities the baryon charge conservation and the isospin conservation, used in one of the most successful versions of this model [1], should be essentially modified, whereas for the description of the hadron yield ratios these conservation laws are not necessary at all. Although the discussion about the reliable chemical FO criterion has a long history [1,6], only recently it was demonstrated that none of the previously suggested chemical FO criteria, including the most popular one of constant energy per particle E/N 1.1 GeV [6], is robust [5], if the realistic particle table with the hadron masses up to 2.5 GeV is used. At the same time in [5] it was shown that despite an essential difference with the approach used in [1], the both versions of the hadron resonance gas * Electronic address: Bugaev@th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de † Electronic address: Dimafopf@gmail.com ‡ Electronic address: Sorin@theor.jinr.ru § Electronic address: Gennady.Zinovjev@cern.ch 1We apologize for not quoting even the major works on this model which are well known, but the list is so long that we have to choose just the papers strictly related to our discussion.

ALICE is a general-purpose heavy-ion experiment designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark–gluon plasma in nucleus–nucleus collisions at the LHC. It currently involves more than 900 physicists and senior engineers, from both the nuclear and high-energy physics sectors, from over 90 institutions in about 30 countries.The ALICE detector is designed to cope with the highest particle multiplicities above those anticipated for Pb–Pb collisions (dNch/dy up to 8000) and it will be operational at the start-up of the LHC. In addition to heavy systems, the ALICE Collaboration will study collisions of lower-mass ions, which are a means of varying the energy density, and protons (both pp and pA), which primarily provide reference data for the nucleus–nucleus collisions. In addition, the pp data will allow for a number of genuine pp physics studies.The detailed design of the different detector systems has been laid down in a number of Technical Design Reports issued between mid-1998 and the end of 2004. The experiment is currently under construction and will be ready for data taking with both proton and heavy-ion beams at the start-up of the LHC.Since the comprehensive information on detector and physics performance was last published in the ALICE Technical Proposal in 1996, the detector, as well as simulation, reconstruction and analysis software have undergone significant development. The Physics Performance Report (PPR) provides an updated and comprehensive summary of the performance of the various ALICE subsystems, including updates to the Technical Design Reports, as appropriate.The PPR is divided into two volumes. Volume I, published in 2004 (CERN/LHCC 2003-049, ALICE Collaboration 2004 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 30 1517–1763), contains in four chapters a short theoretical overview and an extensive reference list concerning the physics topics of interest to ALICE, the experimental conditions at the LHC, a short summary and update of the subsystem designs, and a description of the offline framework and Monte Carlo event generators.The present volume, Volume II, contains the majority of the information relevant to the physics performance in proton–proton, proton–nucleus, and nucleus–nucleus collisions. Following an introductory overview, Chapter 5 describes the combined detector performance and the event reconstruction procedures, based on detailed simulations of the individual subsystems. Chapter 6 describes the analysis and physics reach for a representative sample of physics observables, from global event characteristics to hard processes.

We study the P-odd effects related to the vorticity of the medium formed in noncentral heavy ion collisions. Using the kinetic Quark-Gluon Strings Model we perform the numerical simulations of the vorticity and hydrodynamical helicity for the various atomic numbers, energies and centralities. We observed the vortical structures typically occupying the relatively small fraction of the fireball volume. In the course of numerical simulations the noticeable hydrodanamical helicity was observed manifesting the specific mirror behaviour with respect to the reaction plane. The effect is maximal at the NICA and FAIR energy range.