Comment on “Mathematical and physical aspects of Kappa velocity distribution” [ Phys. Plasmas 14, 110702 (2007) ]

A recent paper [L.-N. Hau and W.-Z. Fu, Phys. Plasmas 14, 110702 (2007)] deals with certain mathematical and physical properties of the kappa distribution. We comment on the authors' use of a form of distribution function that is different from the "standard" form of the kappa distribution, and hence their results, inter alia for an expansion of the distribution function and for the associated number density in an electrostatic potential, do not fully reflect the dependence on kappa that would be associated with the conventional kappa distribution. We note that their definition of the kappa distribution function is also different from a modified distribution based on the notion of nonextensive entropy.

Identifying Critical Financial Networks of the DJIA: Toward a Network-Based Index

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, we introduce a novel definition of financial networks obtained from time series data from the stock market. Second, we demonstrate that these networks can be used as an index with the property to reflect critical states of the market, respectively, crashes sufficiently. Our work aims to advocate a network-based analysis in the context of the stock market, because such a collective phenomenon can not only be economically described by networks but also analyzed as demonstrated in this article. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 16: 24-33, 2010

Genetic Aspects of Familial Thyroid Cancer

Familial thyroid cancer is rare, accounting for