685 research outputs found
Density Perturbations in Heavy-Ion Collisions below the Critical Point
Heavy ion collisions at large baryon density may exhibit a first order phase
transition from a chirally symmetric phase to the symmetry broken ground state.
This should then lead to large density inhomogeneities, which affect the
relative hadron multiplicities.Comment: 1 page, 1 figure, contribution to the GSI annual report 200
On the Observation of Phase Transitions in Collisions of Elementary Matter
We investigate the excitation function of directed flow, which can provide a
clear signature of the creation of the QGP and demonstrate that the minimum of
the directed flow does not correspond to the softest point of the EoS for
isentropic expansion. A novel technique measuring the compactness is introduced
to determine the QGP transition in relativistic-heavy ion collisions: The QGP
transition will lead to higher compression and therefore to higher compactness
of the source in coordinate space. This effect can be observed by pion
interferometry. We propose to measure the compactness of the source in the
appropriate principal axis frame of the compactness tensor in coordinate space.Comment: LaTeX, 8 pages, 6 figures, Conference proceedings to CRIS 2000, 3rd
Catania Relativistic Ion Studie
Management of postoperative nausea and vomiting: focus on palonosetron
Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) remains a significant problem in modern anesthetic practice, with an incidence in high-risk groups of up to 80%. In addition to being unpleasant and distressing for the patient, PONV has the potential to adversely affect patient and surgical outcomes. Advances in PONV prophylaxis over recent years include using non-pharmacological means to reduce baseline risk, a change to less emetogenic anesthetic techniques and the combination of multiple antiemetic drugs. The 5-hydroxytryptamine-3 (5-HT3) antagonists have proven a particularly valuable addition to the armamentarium against PONV. Palonosetron is a second-generation 5-HT3 antagonist that has recently been approved for prophylaxis against PONV. It has unique structural, pharmacological and clinical properties that distinguish it from other agents in its class. This review summarizes current evidence on PONV prophylaxis, reviews the 5-HT3 antagonists in particular and focuses on the established and future roles of palonosetron
Searching for Invariants using Temporal Resolution
Abstract. In this paper, we show how the clausal temporal resolution technique developed for temporal logic provides an effective method for searching for invariants, and so is suitable for mechanising a wide class of temporal problems. We demonstrate that this scheme of searching for invariants can be also applied to a class of multi-predicate induction problems represented by mutually recursive definitions. Completeness of the approach, examples of the application of the scheme, and overview of the implementation are described.
Clinical results of resection arthrodesis by triangular external fixation for posttraumatic arthrosis of the ankle joint in 89 cases
The methods for ankle arthrodesis differ significantly, probably a sign that no method is clearly superior to others. In the last ten years there is a clear favour toward internal fixation. We retrospectively evaluate the technique and evaluate the clinical long term results of external fixation in a triangular frame
Acoustic monitoring (RFM) of total hip arthroplasty results of a cadaver study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>At present there are no reliable non-traumatic and non-invasive methods to analyse the healing process and loosening status after total hip replacement. Therefore early as well as late loosening of prosthesis and interface component problems are difficult to be found or diagnosed at any time.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a cadaver study the potential application of Resonance Frequency Monitoring (RFM) will be evaluated as a non-invasive and non-traumatic method to monitor loosening and interface problems in hip replacement. In a 65 year old female cadaver different stability scenarios for a total hip replacement (shaft, head/modular head and cup, ESKA, Luebeck, Germany) are simulated in cemented and cement less prosthesis and then analysed with RFM. The types of stability vary from secure/press-fit to interface-shaft disruption.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The RFM shows in cemented as well as cement less prosthesis significant intra-individual differences in the spectral measurements with a high dynamic (20 dB difference corresponding to the factor 100 (10000%)), regarding the simulated status of stability in the prosthesis system.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of the study demonstrate RFM as a highly sensitive non-invasive and non-traumatic method to support the application of RFM as a hip prosthesis monitoring procedure. The data obtained shows the possibility to use RFM for osteointegration surveillance and early detection of interface problems, but will require further evaluation in clinical and experimental studies.</p
A data mining approach to the SAR values over large MR image repositories
Purpose: In magnetic resonance imaging, the radiofrequency energy
absorption arises as one of the main safety concerns, being mainly related with
increased body temperature. Monitoring radiofrequency absorption is achieved
by the estimation of specific absorption rate (SAR), whose implementation lies
on equipment manufacturers, which in turn are not totally enlightening about its
calculus. This work presents an exploratory approach of whole-body SAR
values stored in DICOM metadata aiming to find correlation with body weight,
body mass index (BMI), gender and pulse sequences for abdominal/pelvic
(17.812 series) and head (29.907 series) studies.
Methods and Materials: All studies were acquired in a 3 Tesla scanner with
high-performance gradients. Data were extracted using Dicoogle, a DICOM
metadata mining tool. Several DICOM tags were analysed (e.g. patient weight,
height, gender, sequence name). For each study type, specifically weighted
pulse sequences were related with weight, BMI and gender through boxplot
diagrams, statistical and effect size analysis.
Results: SAR limits were never exceeded. Generally, SAR values tended to
decrease with increasing body weight and BMI values for abdominal/pelvic
studies. On the other hand, head studies showed different trends regarding
distinct pulse sequences. SAR values tend to be higher in male individuals
(p<0,05). As expected, turbo spin echo sequences present the highest SAR
values. The values found for echo gradient spoiled sequence (FLASH) were
also high.
Conclusion: It is confirmed that SAR estimates are related with the analysed
variables. An individual examination of pulse sequences is recommended to
observe trends regarding weight, BMI or gender.publishe
Eliciting Efficiency Requirements with Use Cases
Non-functional requirements provide the glue between functional requirements and architectural decisions. Thus, it is important to elicit and specify the nonfunctional requirements precisely. In practice, however, they are mostly neglected. In this paper, we sketch an approach developed in the context of the EMPRESS project, which allows efficiency requirements to be elicited in conjunction with use case. This is part of a more general, experience -based approach to elicit and specify nonfunctional requirements in concert with functional requirements and architecture
Unravelling the size distribution of social groups with information theory on complex networks
The minimization of Fisher's information (MFI) approach of Frieden et al.
[Phys. Rev. E {\bf 60} 48 (1999)] is applied to the study of size distributions
in social groups on the basis of a recently established analogy between scale
invariant systems and classical gases [arXiv:0908.0504]. Going beyond the ideal
gas scenario is seen to be tantamount to simulating the interactions taking
place in a network's competitive cluster growth process. We find a scaling rule
that allows to classify the final cluster-size distributions using only one
parameter that we call the competitiveness. Empirical city-size distributions
and electoral results can be thus reproduced and classified according to this
competitiveness, which also allows to correctly predict well-established
assessments such as the "six-degrees of separation", which is shown here to be
a direct consequence of the maximum number of stable social relationships that
one person can maintain, known as Dunbar's number. Finally, we show that scaled
city-size distributions of large countries follow the same universal
distribution
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