Weizmann Institute of Science

About: Weizmann Institute of Science is a education organization based out in Rehovot, Israel. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 21942 authors who have published 54561 publications receiving 3032812 citations. The organization is also known as: Bessie F. Lawrence International Summer Science Institute & Weitzman Institute.

Ground State of Two-Electron Atoms

Abstract: A new method is developed for solving the wave equation for two-electron atoms. The wave function is expanded into a triple orthogonal set in three perimetric coordinates. From the wave equation one obtains an explicit recursion relation for the coefficients in the expansion, and the vanishing of the determinant of these coefficients provides the condition for the energy eigenvalues and for the eigenvectors. The determinant was solved on WEIZAC for $Z=1 \mathrm{to} 10$, using an iteration method. Since the elements of the determinant are integers, and only an average of about 20 per row are nonvanishing, it has been possible to go to an order of 214 before exceeding the capacity of the fast memory of WEIZAC. The nonrelativistic energy eigenvalues obtained for the ground state are lower than any previously published for all $Z$ from 1 to 10. In the case of helium, our nonrelativistic energy value is accurate to within 0.01 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and is 0.40 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ lower than the value computed by Kinoshita. From the wave functions obtained, the mass-polarization and the relativistic corrections were evaluated for $Z=1 \mathrm{to} 10$. Using the values of the Lamb shift computed by Kabir, Salpeter, and Sucher, we obtain an ionization potential for helium of 198 310.67 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ as against Herzberg's value of 198 ${310.8}_{2}$\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.15 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. Comparison is also made with the available experimental data for the other values of $Z$. By the use of our magnetic tape storage, the accuracy of the nonrelativistic energy value for helium could be pushed to about 0.001 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, should future improvements in the experimental values and in the computed radiative corrections warrant it.

Summarizing visual data using bidirectional similarity

Abstract: We propose a principled approach to summarization of visual data (images or video) based on optimization of a well-defined similarity measure. The problem we consider is re-targeting (or summarization) of image/video data into smaller sizes. A good ldquovisual summaryrdquo should satisfy two properties: (1) it should contain as much as possible visual information from the input data; (2) it should introduce as few as possible new visual artifacts that were not in the input data (i.e., preserve visual coherence). We propose a bi-directional similarity measure which quantitatively captures these two requirements: Two signals S and T are considered visually similar if all patches of S (at multiple scales) are contained in T, and vice versa. The problem of summarization/re-targeting is posed as an optimization problem of this bi-directional similarity measure. We show summarization results for image and video data. We further show that the same approach can be used to address a variety of other problems, including automatic cropping, completion and synthesis of visual data, image collage, object removal, photo reshuffling and more.

Thousands of samples are needed to generate a robust gene list for predicting outcome in cancer

Abstract: Predicting at the time of discovery the prognosis and metastatic potential of cancer is a major challenge in current clinical research. Numerous recent studies searched for gene expression signatures that outperform traditionally used clinical parameters in outcome prediction. Finding such a signature will free many patients of the suffering and toxicity associated with adjuvant chemotherapy given to them under current protocols, even though they do not need such treatment. A reliable set of predictive genes also will contribute to a better understanding of the biological mechanism of metastasis. Several groups have published lists of predictive genes and reported good predictive performance based on them. However, the gene lists obtained for the same clinical types of patients by different groups differed widely and had only very few genes in common. This lack of agreement raised doubts about the reliability and robustness of the reported predictive gene lists, and the main source of the problem was shown to be the small number of samples that were used to generate the gene lists. Here, we introduce a previously undescribed mathematical method, probably approximately correct (PAC) sorting, for evaluating the robustness of such lists. We calculate for several published data sets the number of samples that are needed to achieve any desired level of reproducibility. For example, to achieve a typical overlap of 50% between two predictive lists of genes, breast cancer studies would need the expression profiles of several thousand early discovery patients.

Direct observation of a fractional charge

Abstract: Since Millikan's famous oil-drop experiments1, it has been well known that electrical charge is quantized in units of the charge of an electron, e. For this reason, the theoretical prediction2,3 by Laughlin of the existence of fractionally charged ‘quasiparticles’—proposed as an explanation for the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effect—is very counterintuitive. The FQH effect is a phenomenon observed in the conduction properties of a two-dimensional electron gas subjected to a strong perpendicular magnetic field. This effect results from the strong interaction between electrons, brought about by the magnetic field, giving rise to the aforementioned fractionally charged quasiparticles which carry the current. Here we report the direct observation of these counterintuitive entities by using measurements of quantum shot noise. Quantum shot noise results from the discreteness of the current-carrying charges and so is proportional to both the charge of the quasiparticles and the average current. Our measurements of quantum shot noise show unambiguously that current in a two-dimensional electron gas in the FQH regime is carried by fractional charges—e/3 in the present case—in agreement with Laughlin's prediction.

A Highly Significant Association between a COMT Haplotype and Schizophrenia

Abstract: Several lines of evidence have placed the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene in the limelight as a candidate gene for schizophrenia. One of these is its biochemical function in metabolism of catecholamine neurotransmitters; another is the microdeletion, on chromosome 22q11, that includes the COMT gene and causes velocardiofacial syndrome, a syndrome associated with a high rate of psychosis, particularly schizophrenia. The interest in the COMT gene as a candidate risk factor for schizophrenia has led to numerous linkage and association analyses. These, however, have failed to produce any conclusive result. Here we report an efficient approach to gene discovery. The approach consists of ( i ) a large sample size—to our knowledge, the present study is the largest case-control study performed to date in schizophrenia; ( ii ) the use of Ashkenazi Jews, a well defined homogeneous population; and ( iii ) a stepwise procedure in which several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are scanned in DNA pools, followed by individual genotyping and haplotype analysis of the relevant SNPs. We found a highly significant association between schizophrenia and a COMT haplotype ( P =9.5×10 −8 ). The approach presented can be widely implemented for the genetic dissection of other common diseases.