A domain wall between single-mode and bimodal states and its transition to dynamical behavior in inhomogeneous systems

We consider domain walls (DW's) between single-mode and bimodal states that occur in coupled nonlinear diffusion (NLD), real Ginzburg-Landau (RGL), and complex Ginzburg-Landau (CGL) equations with a spatially dependent coupling coefficient. Group-velocity terms are added to the NLD and RGL equations, which breaks the variational structure of these models. In the simplest case of two coupled NLD equations, we reduce the description of stationary configurations to a single second-order ordinary differential equation. We demonstrate analytically that a necessary condition for existence of a stationary DW is that the group-velocity must be below a certain threshold value. Above this threshold, dynamical behavior sets in, which we consider in detail. In the CGL equations, the DW may generate spatio-temporal chaos, depending on the nonlinear dispersion.Comment: 16 pages (latex) including 11 figures; accepted for publication in Physica

Bose-Einstein Correlations and the Equation of State of Nuclear Matter

Within a relativistic hydrodynamic framework, we use four different equations of state of nuclear matter to compare to experimental spectra from CERN/SPS experiments NA44 and NA49. Freeze-out hypersurfaces and Bose-Einstein correlation functions for identical pion pairs are discussed. We find that two-pion Bose-Einstein interferometry measures the relationship between the temperature and the energy density in the equation of state during the late hadronic stage of the fireball expansion. Little sensitivity of the light-hadron data to a quark-gluon plasma phase-transition is seen.Comment: 4 pages, including 4 figures. You can also download a PostScript file of the manuscript from http://p2hp2.lanl.gov/people/schlei/eprint.htm

Stresses in Smooth Flows of Dense Granular Media

The form of the stress tensor is investigated in smooth, dense granular flows which are generated in split-bottom shear geometries. We find that, within a fluctuation fluidized spatial region, the form of the stress tensor is directly dictated by the flow field: The stress and strain-rate tensors are co-linear. The effective friction, defined as the ratio between shear and normal stresses acting on a shearing plane, is found not to be constant but to vary throughout the flowing zone. This variation can not be explained by inertial effects, but appears to be set by the local geometry of the flow field. This is in agreement with a recent prediction, but in contrast with most models for slow grain flows, and points to there being a subtle mechanism that selects the flow profiles.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Infant Responding to Joint Attention, Executive Processes, and Self-Regulation in Preschool Children

Infant joint attention is related to behavioral and social outcomes, as well as language in childhood. Recent research and theory suggests that the relations between joint attention and social–behavioral outcomes may reflect the role of executive self-regulatory processes in the development of joint attention. To test this hypothesis two studies were conducted. The first, cross-sectional study examined the development of responding to joint attention (RJA) skill in terms of increasing executive efficiency of responding between 9 and 18 months of age. The results indicated that development of RJA was characterized by a decreased latency to shift attention in following another person\u27s gaze and head turn, as well as an increase in the proportion of correct RJA responses exhibited by older infants. The second study examined the longitudinal relations between 12-month measures of responding to joint attention and 36-month attention regulation in a delay of gratification task. The results indicated that responding to joint attention at 12-months was significantly related to children\u27s use of three types of self-regulation behaviors while waiting for a snack reward at 36 months of age. These observations are discussed in light of a developmental theory of attention regulation and joint attention in infancy

Forecasting the SST space-time variability of the Alboran Sea with genetic algorithms

We propose a nonlinear ocean forecasting technique based on a combination of genetic algorithms and empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. The method is used to forecast the space-time variability of the sea surface temperature (SST) in the Alboran Sea. The genetic algorithm finds the equations that best describe the behaviour of the different temporal amplitude functions in the EOF decomposition and, therefore, enables global forecasting of the future time-variability.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; latex compiled with agums.st

Clinician-targeted interventions to reduce antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections in primary care:An overview of systematic reviews

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To systematically review the literature and appraise the existing evidence from systematic reviews regarding the effects of interventions, aimed at changing clinician behaviour, to reduce antibiotic prescribing for ARIs in primary care

Spatiotemporal Chaos, Localized Structures and Synchronization in the Vector Complex Ginzburg-Landau Equation

We study the spatiotemporal dynamics, in one and two spatial dimensions, of two complex fields which are the two components of a vector field satisfying a vector form of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation. We find synchronization and generalized synchronization of the spatiotemporally chaotic dynamics. The two kinds of synchronization can coexist simultaneously in different regions of the space, and they are mediated by localized structures. A quantitative characterization of the degree of synchronization is given in terms of mutual information measures.Comment: 6 pages, using bifchaos.sty (included). 7 figures. Related material, including higher quality figures, could be found at http://www.imedea.uib.es/PhysDept/publicationsDB/date.html . To appear in International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos (1999

Couette Flow of Two-Dimensional Foams

We experimentally investigate flow of quasi two-dimensional disordered foams in Couette geometries, both for foams squeezed below a top plate and for freely floating foams. With the top-plate, the flows are strongly localized and rate dependent. For the freely floating foams the flow profiles become essentially rate-independent, the local and global rheology do not match, and in particular the foam flows in regions where the stress is below the global yield stress. We attribute this to nonlocal effects and show that the "fluidity" model recently introduced by Goyon {\em et al.} ({\em Nature}, {\bf 454} (2008)) captures the essential features of flow both with and without a top plate.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, revised versio

Clinician-targeted interventions to influence antibiotic prescribing behaviour for acute respiratory infections in primary care: An overview of systematic reviews

Background: Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide health threat. Interventions that reduce antibiotic prescribing by clinicians are expected to reduce antibiotic resistance. Disparate interventions to change antibiotic prescribing behaviour for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) have been trialled and meta-analysed, but not yet synthesised in an overview. This overview synthesises evidence from systematic reviews, rather than individual trials. Objectives: To systematically review the existing evidence from systematic reviews on the effects of interventions aimed at influencing clinician antibiotic prescribing behaviour for ARIs in primary care. Methods: We searched the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Science Citation Index to June 2016. We also searched the reference lists of all included reviews. We ran a pre-publication search in May 2017 and placed additional studies in 'awaiting classification'. We included both Cochrane and non-Cochrane reviews of randomised controlled trials evaluating the effect of any clinician-focussed intervention on antibiotic prescribing behaviour in primary care. Two overview authors independently extracted data and assessed the methodological quality of included reviews using the ROBIS tool, with disagreements reached by consensus or by discussion with a third overview author. We used the GRADE system to assess the quality of evidence in included reviews. The results are presented as a narrative overview. Main results: We included eight reviews in this overview: five Cochrane Reviews (33 included trials) and three non-Cochrane reviews (11 included trials). Three reviews (all Cochrane Reviews) scored low risk across all the ROBIS domains in Phase 2 and low risk of bias overall. The remaining five reviews scored high risk on Domain 4 of Phase 2 because the 'Risk of bias' assessment had not been specifically considered and discussed in the review Results and Conclusions. The trials included in the reviews varied in both size and risk of bias. Interventions were compared to usual care. Moderate-quality evidence indicated that C-reactive protein (CRP) point-of-care testing (risk ratio (RR) 0.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.66 to 0.92, 3284 participants, 6 trials), shared decision making (odds ratio (OR) 0.44, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.75, 3274 participants, 3 trials; RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.84, 4623 participants, 2 trials; risk difference -18.44, 95% CI -27.24 to -9.65, 481,807 participants, 4 trials), and procalcitonin-guided management (adjusted OR 0.10, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.14, 1008 participants, 2 trials) probably reduce antibiotic prescribing in general practice. We found moderate-quality evidence that procalcitonin-guided management probably reduces antibiotic prescribing in emergency departments (adjusted OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.43, 2605 participants, 7 trials). The overall effect of these interventions was small (few achieving greater than 50% reduction in antibiotic prescribing, most about a quarter or less), but likely to be clinically important. Compared to usual care, shared decision making probably makes little or no difference to reconsultation for the same illness (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.74 to 1.03, 1860 participants, 4 trials, moderate-quality evidence), and may make little or no difference to patient satisfaction (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.57 to 1.30, 1110 participants, 2 trials, low-quality evidence). Similarly, CRP testing probably has little or no effect on patient satisfaction (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.57 to 1.08, 689 participants, 2 trials, moderate-quality evidence) or reconsultation (RR 1.08, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.27, 5132 participants, 4 trials, moderate-quality evidence). Procalcitonin-guided management probably results in little or no difference in treatment failure in general practice compared to normal care (adjusted OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.73 to 1.24, 1008 participants, 2 trials, moderate-quality evidence), however it probably reduces treatment failure in the emergency department compared to usual care (adjusted OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.95, 2605 participants, 7 trials, moderate-quality evidence). The quality of evidence for interventions focused on clinician educational materials and decision support in reducing antibiotic prescribing in general practice was either low or very low (no pooled result reported) and trial results were highly heterogeneous, therefore we were unable draw conclusions about the effects of these interventions. The use of rapid viral diagnostics in emergency departments may have little or no effect on antibiotic prescribing (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.22, 891 participants, 3 trials, low-quality evidence) and may result in little to no difference in reconsultation (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.59 to 1.25, 200 participants, 1 trial, low-quality evidence). None of the trials in the included reviews reported on management costs for the treatment of an ARI or any associated complications. Authors' conclusions: We found evidence that CRP testing, shared decision making, and procalcitonin-guided management reduce antibiotic prescribing for patients with ARIs in primary care. These interventions may therefore reduce overall antibiotic consumption and consequently antibiotic resistance. There do not appear to be negative effects of these interventions on the outcomes of patient satisfaction and reconsultation, although there was limited measurement of these outcomes in the trials. This should be rectified in future trials. We could gather no information about the costs of management, and this along with the paucity of measurements meant that it was difficult to weigh the benefits and costs of implementing these interventions in practice. Most of this research was undertaken in high-income countries, and it may not generalise to other settings. The quality of evidence for the interventions of educational materials and tools for patients and clinicians was either low or very low, which prevented us from drawing any conclusions. High-quality trials are needed to further investigate these interventions. </p

Ruthenium indenylidene complexes bearing N-alkyl/N-mesityl-substituted N-heterocyclic carbene ligands

We report on the synthesis and characterization of second generation ruthenium indenylidene catalysts bearing unsymmetrical N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands denoted as RuCl2(3-phenyl-1-indenylidene)(1-mesityl-3-R-4,5-dihydroimidazol-2-ylidene)(PCy3), in which R is methyl 8a, octyl 8b or cyclohexyl 8c. The characterization of 8a-c was performed by NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, IR, HRMS and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. In addition, the catalytic activity of the obtained initiators was evaluated in various representative metathesis reactions. The results reveal that the complexes 8a-c, bearing an N-alkyl side on the NHC, show a faster catalytic initiation than the reference complex 2. Complex 8a, which performs the best among the investigated indenylidene complexes, exhibits slower initiation but better overall efficiency than its benzylidene analogue 1c, especially in a low catalyst loading