1,299 research outputs found
Comparison of web-based and face-to-face interviews for application to an anesthesiology training program: a pilot study.
ObjectiveThis study compared admission rates to a United States anesthesiology residency program for applicants completing face-to-face versus web-based interviews during the admissions process. We also explored factors driving applicants to select each interview type.MethodsThe 211 applicants invited to interview for admission to our anesthesiology residency program during the 2014-2015 application cycle were participants in this pilot observational study. Of these, 141 applicants selected face-to-face interviews, 53 applicants selected web-based interviews, and 17 applicants declined to interview. Data regarding applicants' reasons for selecting a particular interview type were gathered using an anonymous online survey after interview completion. Residency program admission rates and survey answers were compared between applicants completing face-to-face versus web-based interviews.ResultsOne hundred twenty-seven (75.1%) applicants completed face-to-face and 42 (24.9%) completed web-based interviews. The admission rate to our residency program was not significantly different between applicants completing face-to-face versus web-based interviews. One hundred eleven applicants completed post-interview surveys. The most common reasons for selecting web-based interviews were conflict of interview dates between programs, travel concerns, or financial limitations. Applicants selected face-to-face interviews due to a desire to interact with current residents, or geographic proximity to the residency program.ConclusionsThese results suggest that completion of web-based interviews is a viable alternative to completion of face-to-face interviews, and that choice of interview type does not affect the rate of applicant admission to the residency program. Web-based interviews may be of particular interest to applicants applying to a large number of programs, or with financial limitations
The role of Volatile Anesthetics in Cardioprotection: a systematic review.
This review evaluates the mechanism of volatile anesthetics as cardioprotective agents in both clinical and laboratory research and furthermore assesses possible cardiac side effects upon usage. Cardiac as well as non-cardiac surgery may evoke perioperative adverse events including: ischemia, diverse arrhythmias and reperfusion injury. As volatile anesthetics have cardiovascular effects that can lead to hypotension, clinicians may choose to administer alternative anesthetics to patients with coronary artery disease, particularly if the patient has severe preoperative ischemia or cardiovascular instability. Increasing preclinical evidence demonstrated that administration of inhaled anesthetics - before and during surgery - reduces the degree of ischemia and reperfusion injury to the heart. Recently, this preclinical data has been implemented clinically, and beneficial effects have been found in some studies of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Administration of volatile anesthetic gases was protective for patients undergoing cardiac surgery through manipulation of the potassium ATP (KATP) channel, mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP), reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, as well as through cytoprotective Akt and extracellular-signal kinases (ERK) pathways. However, as not all studies have demonstrated improved outcomes, the risks for undesirable hemodynamic effects must be weighed against the possible benefits of using volatile anesthetics as a means to provide cardiac protection in patients with coronary artery disease who are undergoing surgery
Mutant enrichment by filtration concentration: a variation for the selection of temperature-conditional heterocaryons
Mutant enrichment by filtration concentration: a variation for the selection of temperature-conditional heterocaryon
Thermal origin of neutron star magnetic fields
It is proposed that magnetic field arises naturally in neutron stars as a consequence of thermal effects occurring in their outer crusts. The heat flux through the crust, which is carried mainly by degenerate electrons, can give rise to a possible thermoelectric instability in the solid crust which causes horizontal magnetic field components to grow exponentially with time. However, in order for the thermally driven growth to exceed ohmic decay, either the electron collision time must exceed existing estimates by a factor ∼ 3 or the surface layers comprise helium. A second instability is possible if the liquid phase that lies above the solid crust also contains a horizontal magnetic field. The heat flux will drive circulation which should amplify the field strength provided that there is a seed field in excess of ∼ 10^8 G.
If either of these two instabilities develops the field will quickly grow to a strength of ∼ 10^(12) G, where the instabilities become non-linear. Further growth will saturate when either the magnetic stress exceeds the lattice yield stress or the temperature perturbations become non-linear, both of which occur at a subsurface field strength of ∼ 10^(14) G; the corresponding surface field strength is ∼ 10^(12) G. Further evolution of the magnetic field should lead to long-range order and yield neutron star magnetic dipole moments ∼ 10^(30) G cm^3, comparable with those observed.
Newly-formed neutron stars should be able to develop their dipole moments in a hundred thousand years and maintain them for as long as heat flows through the crust. Thereafter, the dipole moment should decay in several million years, as observed in the case of most radio pulsars. Neutron stars that are formed spinning rapidly, like that in the Crab Nebula, should be able to grow magnetic fields far more rapidly since their rotational energy can also be tapped to drive thermoelectric currents. The interiors of neutron stars in binary systems may be heated by the energy released by accreting matter. The resulting heat flux may cause the production of magnetic fields in these objects. Binary pulsars, with their unusually low and persistent fields, have probably passed through this phase
Timing of the 2008 Outburst of SAX J1808.4-3658 with XMM-Newton: A Stable Orbital Period Derivative over Ten Years
We report on a timing analysis performed on a 62-ks long XMM-Newton
observation of the accreting millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 during the
latest X-ray outburst that started on September 21, 2008. By connecting the
time of arrivals of the pulses observed during the XMM observation, we derived
the best-fit orbital solution and a best-fit value of the spin period for the
2008 outburst. Comparing this new set of orbital parameters and, in particular,
the value of the time of ascending-node passage with the orbital parameters
derived for the previous four X-ray outbursts of SAX J1808.4-3658 observed by
the PCA on board RXTE, we find an updated value of the orbital period
derivative, which turns out to be s/s. This new value of the orbital period derivative agrees with the
previously reported value, demonstrating that the orbital period derivative in
this source has remained stable over the past ten years. Although this timespan
is not sufficient yet for confirming the secular evolution of the system, we
again propose an explanation of this behavior in terms of a highly
non-conservative mass transfer in this system, where the accreted mass (as
derived from the X-ray luminosity during outbursts) accounts for a mere 1% of
the mass lost by the companion.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Final version, including editing corrections, to
appear on A&A Letter
Cosmology and astrophysics from relaxed galaxy clusters - IV: Robustly calibrating hydrostatic masses with weak lensing
This is the fourth in a series of papers studying the astrophysics and
cosmology of massive, dynamically relaxed galaxy clusters. Here, we use
measurements of weak gravitational lensing from the Weighing the Giants project
to calibrate Chandra X-ray measurements of total mass that rely on the
assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium. This comparison of X-ray and lensing
masses provides a measurement of the combined bias of X-ray hydrostatic masses
due to both astrophysical and instrumental sources. Assuming a fixed cosmology,
and within a characteristic radius (r_2500) determined from the X-ray data, we
measure a lensing to X-ray mass ratio of 0.96 +/- 9% (stat) +/- 9% (sys). We
find no significant trends of this ratio with mass, redshift or the
morphological indicators used to select the sample. In accordance with
predictions from hydro simulations for the most massive, relaxed clusters, our
results disfavor strong, tens-of-percent departures from hydrostatic
equilibrium at these radii. In addition, we find a mean concentration of the
sample measured from lensing data of c_200 = . Anticipated
short-term improvements in lensing systematics, and a modest expansion of the
relaxed lensing sample, can easily increase the measurement precision by
30--50%, leading to similar improvements in cosmological constraints that
employ X-ray hydrostatic mass estimates, such as on Omega_m from the cluster
gas mass fraction.Comment: 13 pages. Submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcom
Robust Weak-lensing Mass Calibration of Planck Galaxy Clusters
In light of the tension in cosmological constraints reported by the Planck
team between their SZ-selected cluster counts and Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB) temperature anisotropies, we compare the Planck cluster mass estimates
with robust, weak-lensing mass measurements from the Weighing the Giants (WtG)
project. For the 22 clusters in common between the Planck cosmology sample and
WtG, we find an overall mass ratio of \left =
0.688 \pm 0.072. Extending the sample to clusters not used in the Planck
cosmology analysis yields a consistent value of from 38 clusters in common. Identifying the
weak-lensing masses as proxies for the true cluster mass (on average), these
ratios are lower than the default mass bias of 0.8 assumed in
the Planck cluster analysis. Adopting the WtG weak-lensing-based mass
calibration would substantially reduce the tension found between the Planck
cluster count cosmology results and those from CMB temperature anisotropies,
thereby dispensing of the need for "new physics" such as uncomfortably large
neutrino masses (in the context of the measured Planck temperature anisotropies
and other data). We also find modest evidence (at 95 per cent confidence) for a
mass dependence of the calibration ratio and discuss its potential origin in
light of systematic uncertainties in the temperature calibration of the X-ray
measurements used to calibrate the Planck cluster masses. Our results exemplify
the critical role that robust absolute mass calibration plays in cluster
cosmology, and the invaluable role of accurate weak-lensing mass measurements
in this regard.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
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