467 research outputs found
Exercise for falls prevention in community-dwelling older adults: Trial and participant characteristics, interventions and bias in clinical trials from a systematic review
IntroductionThere is strong evidence that exercise prevents falls in community-dwelling older people. This review summarises trial and participant characteristics, intervention contents and study quality of 108 randomised trials evaluating exercise interventions for falls prevention in community-dwelling older adults.MethodsMEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL and three other databases sourced randomised controlled trials of exercise as a single intervention to prevent falls in community-dwelling adults aged 60+ years to May 2018.Results108 trials with 146 intervention arms and 23 407 participants were included. Trials were undertaken in 25 countries, 90% of trials had predominantly female participants and 56% had elevated falls risk as an inclusion criterion. In 72% of trial interventions attendance rates exceeded 50% and/or 75% of participants attended 50% or more sessions. Characteristics of the trials within the three types of intervention programme that reduced falls were: (1) balance and functional training interventions lasting on average 25 weeks (IQR 16–52), 39% group based, 63% individually tailored; (2) Tai Chi interventions lasting on average 20 weeks (IQR 15–43), 71% group based, 7% tailored; (3) programmes with multiple types of exercise lasting on average 26 weeks (IQR 12–52), 54% group based, 75% tailored. Only 35% of trials had low risk of bias for allocation concealment, and 53% for attrition bias.ConclusionsThe characteristics of effective exercise interventions can guide clinicians and programme providers in developing optimal interventions based on current best evidence. Future trials should minimise likely sources of bias and comply with reporting guidelines
Fractal dimension crossovers in turbulent passive scalar signals
The fractal dimension of turbulent passive scalar signals is
calculated from the fluid dynamical equation. depends on the
scale. For small Prandtl (or Schmidt) number one gets two ranges,
for small scale r and =5/3 for large r, both
as expected. But for large one gets a third, intermediate range in
which the signal is extremely wrinkled and has . In that
range the passive scalar structure function has a plateau. We
calculate the -dependence of the crossovers. Comparison with a numerical
reduced wave vector set calculation gives good agreement with our predictions.Comment: 7 pages, Revtex, 3 figures (postscript file on request
Intrinsic Neuronal Properties Switch the Mode of Information Transmission in Networks
Diverse ion channels and their dynamics endow single neurons with complex biophysical properties. These properties determine the heterogeneity of cell types that make up the brain, as constituents of neural circuits tuned to perform highly specific computations. How do biophysical properties of single neurons impact network function? We study a set of biophysical properties that emerge in cortical neurons during the first week of development, eventually allowing these neurons to adaptively scale the gain of their response to the amplitude of the fluctuations they encounter. During the same time period, these same neurons participate in large-scale waves of spontaneously generated electrical activity. We investigate the potential role of experimentally observed changes in intrinsic neuronal properties in determining the ability of cortical networks to propagate waves of activity. We show that such changes can strongly affect the ability of multi-layered feedforward networks to represent and transmit information on multiple timescales. With properties modeled on those observed at early stages of development, neurons are relatively insensitive to rapid fluctuations and tend to fire synchronously in response to wave-like events of large amplitude. Following developmental changes in voltage-dependent conductances, these same neurons become efficient encoders of fast input fluctuations over few layers, but lose the ability to transmit slower, population-wide input variations across many layers. Depending on the neurons' intrinsic properties, noise plays different roles in modulating neuronal input-output curves, which can dramatically impact network transmission. The developmental change in intrinsic properties supports a transformation of a networks function from the propagation of network-wide information to one in which computations are scaled to local activity. This work underscores the significance of simple changes in conductance parameters in governing how neurons represent and propagate information, and suggests a role for background synaptic noise in switching the mode of information transmission
History dependence in insect flight decisions during odor tracking
Natural decision-making often involves extended decision sequences in response to variable stimuli with complex structure. As an example, many animals follow odor plumes to locate food sources or mates, but turbulence breaks up the advected odor signal into intermittent filaments and puffs. This scenario provides an opportunity to ask how animals use sparse, instantaneous, and stochastic signal encounters to generate goal-oriented behavioral sequences. Here we examined the trajectories of flying fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) navigating in controlled plumes of attractive odorants. While it is known that mean odor-triggered flight responses are dominated by upwind turns, individual responses are highly variable. We asked whether deviations from mean responses depended on specific features of odor encounters, and found that odor-triggered turns were slightly but significantly modulated by two features of odor encounters. First, encounters with higher concentrations triggered stronger upwind turns. Second, encounters occurring later in a sequence triggered weaker upwind turns. To contextualize the latter history dependence theoretically, we examined trajectories simulated from three normative tracking strategies. We found that neither a purely reactive strategy nor a strategy in which the tracker learned the plume centerline over time captured the observed history dependence. In contrast, “infotaxis”, in which flight decisions maximized expected information gain about source location, exhibited a history dependence aligned in sign with the data, though much larger in magnitude. These findings suggest that while true plume tracking is dominated by a reactive odor response it might also involve a history-dependent modulation of responses consistent with the accumulation of information about a source over multi-encounter timescales. This suggests that short-term memory processes modulating decision sequences may play a role in natural plume tracking
Anomalous Scaling in the N-Point Functions of Passive Scalar
A recent analysis of the 4-point correlation function of the passive scalar
advected by a time-decorrelated random flow is extended to the N-point case. It
is shown that all stationary-state inertial-range correlations are dominated by
homogeneous zero modes of singular operators describing their evolution. We
compute analytically the zero modes governing the N-point structure functions
and the anomalous dimensions corresponding to them to the linear order in the
scaling exponent of the 2-point function of the advecting velocity field. The
implications of these calculations for the dissipation correlations are
discussed.Comment: 16 pages, latex fil
The Viscous Lengths in Hydrodynamic Turbulence are Anomalous Scaling Functions
It is shown that the idea that scaling behavior in turbulence is limited by
one outer length and one inner length is untenable. Every n'th order
correlation function of velocity differences \bbox{\cal
F}_n(\B.R_1,\B.R_2,\dots) exhibits its own cross-over length to
dissipative behavior as a function of, say, . This length depends on
{and on the remaining separations} . One result of this Letter
is that when all these separations are of the same order this length scales
like with
, with being
the scaling exponent of the 'th order structure function. We derive a class
of scaling relations including the ``bridge relation" for the scaling exponent
of dissipation fluctuations .Comment: PRL, Submitted. REVTeX, 4 pages, I fig. (not included) PS Source of
the paper with figure avalable at http://lvov.weizmann.ac.il/onlinelist.htm
A Simple Passive Scalar Advection-Diffusion Model
This paper presents a simple, one-dimensional model of a randomly advected
passive scalar. The model exhibits anomalous inertial range scaling for the
structure functions constructed from scalar differences. The model provides a
simple computational test for recent ideas regarding closure and scaling for
randomly advected passive scalars. Results suggest that high order structure
function scaling depends on the largest velocity eddy size, and hence scaling
exponents may be geometry-dependent and non-universal.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figure
Manifestation of anisotropy persistence in the hierarchies of MHD scaling exponents
The first example of a turbulent system where the failure of the hypothesis
of small-scale isotropy restoration is detectable both in the `flattening' of
the inertial-range scaling exponent hierarchy, and in the behavior of odd-order
dimensionless ratios, e.g., skewness and hyperskewness, is presented.
Specifically, within the kinematic approximation in magnetohydrodynamical
turbulence, we show that for compressible flows, the isotropic contribution to
the scaling of magnetic correlation functions and the first anisotropic ones
may become practically indistinguishable. Moreover, skewness factor now
diverges as the P\'eclet number goes to infinity, a further indication of
small-scale anisotropy.Comment: 4 pages Latex, 1 figur
Towards a Nonperturbative Theory of Hydrodynamic Turbulence:Fusion Rules, Exact Bridge Relations and Anomalous Viscous Scaling Functions
In this paper we derive here, on the basis of the NS eqs. a set of fusion
rules for correlations of velocity differences when all the separation are in
the inertial interval. Using this we consider the standard hierarchy of
equations relating the -th order correlations (originating from the viscous
term in the NS eq.) to 'th order (originating from the nonlinear term) and
demonstrate that for fully unfused correlations the viscous term is negligible.
Consequently the hierarchic chain is decoupled in the sense that the
correlations of 'th order satisfy a homogeneous equation that may exhibit
anomalous scaling solutions. Using the same hierarchy of eqs. when some
separations go to zero we derive a second set of fusion rules for correlations
with differences in the viscous range. The latter includes gradient fields. We
demonstrate that every n'th order correlation function of velocity differences
{\cal F}_n(\B.R_1,\B.R_2,\dots) exhibits its own cross-over length
to dissipative behavior as a function of, say, . This length depends on
{and on the remaining separations} . When all these
separations are of the same order this length scales like with ,
with being the scaling exponent of the 'th order structure
function. We derive a class of exact scaling relations bridging the exponents
of correlations of gradient fields to the exponents of the 'th
order structure functions. One of these relations is the well known ``bridge
relation" for the scaling exponent of dissipation fluctuations .Comment: PRE, Submitted. REVTeX, 18 pages, 7 figures (not included) PS Source
of the paper with figures avalable at
http://lvov.weizmann.ac.il/onlinelist.htm
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