545 research outputs found
Definite Streptococcus bovis endocarditis: characteristics in 20 patients
ObjectiveTo determine the specific characteristics of Streptococcus bovis infective endocarditis (IE) by reviewing our own experience of S. bovis IE.MethodsTwenty episodes of definite S. bovis IE were reviewed in 20 patients hospitalized from 1980 to 1996.ResultsThe mean age was 62 ± 14 years, and 14 (70%) patients had no known predisposing cardiac condition. The principal antimicrobials used were penicillin G (N = 10) and amoxycillin (N = 8). Surgery was required in four (20%) patients. Neurologic complications occurred in eight (40%) patients, after initiation of therapy in six (75%) (mean time: 14 days). An unfavorable outcome was observed in four of 20 patients and tended to be more frequent in patients who had had neurologic complications (P – 0.10). Colonic tumors were present in 11 of 16 (69%) patients.ConclusionsAdvanced age, occurrence of IE on presumably normal valves, high rate of neurologic complications, associated gastrointestinal diseases and low mortality rate during initial follow-up are characteristic features of S. bovis IE observed in this study
"Dark energy" in the Local Void
The unexpected discovery of the accelerated cosmic expansion in 1998 has
filled the Universe with the embarrassing presence of an unidentified "dark
energy", or cosmological constant, devoid of any physical meaning. While this
standard cosmology seems to work well at the global level, improved knowledge
of the kinematics and other properties of our extragalactic neighborhood
indicates the need for a better theory. We investigate whether the recently
suggested repulsive-gravity scenario can account for some of the features that
are unexplained by the standard model. Through simple dynamical considerations,
we find that the Local Void could host an amount of antimatter
() roughly equivalent to the mass of a typical
supercluster, thus restoring the matter-antimatter symmetry. The antigravity
field produced by this "dark repulsor" can explain the anomalous motion of the
Local Sheet away from the Local Void, as well as several other properties of
nearby galaxies that seem to require void evacuation and structure formation
much faster than expected from the standard model. At the global cosmological
level, gravitational repulsion from antimatter hidden in voids can provide more
than enough potential energy to drive both the cosmic expansion and its
acceleration, with no need for an initial "explosion" and dark energy.
Moreover, the discrete distribution of these dark repulsors, in contrast to the
uniformly permeating dark energy, can also explain dark flows and other
recently observed excessive inhomogeneities and anisotropies of the Universe.Comment: 6 pages, accepted as a Letter to the Editor by Astrophysics and Space
Scienc
Interacting entropy-corrected holographic dark energy with apparent horizon as an infrared cutoff
In this work we consider the entropy-corrected version of interacting
holographic dark energy (HDE), in the non-flat universe enclosed by apparent
horizon. Two corrections of entropy so-called logarithmic 'LEC' and power-law
'PLEC' in HDE model with apparent horizon as an IR-cutoff are studied. The
ratio of dark matter to dark energy densities , equation of state parameter
and deceleration parameter are obtained. We show that the cosmic
coincidence is satisfied for both interacting models. By studying the effect of
interaction in EoS parameter, we see that the phantom divide may be crossed and
also find that the interacting models can drive an acceleration expansion at
the present and future, while in non-interacting case, this expansion can
happen only at the early time. The graphs of deceleration parameter for
interacting models, show that the present acceleration expansion is preceded by
a sufficiently long period deceleration at past. Moreover, the thermodynamical
interpretation of interaction between LECHDE and dark matter is described. We
obtain a relation between the interaction term of dark components and thermal
fluctuation in a non-flat universe, bounded by the apparent horizon. In
limiting case, for ordinary HDE, the relation of interaction term versus
thermal fluctuation is also calculated.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, figures changed, some Ref. is added, changed
some sentences, accepted by General relativity and gravitation (GERG
Interacting Ghost Dark Energy in Non-Flat Universe
A new dark energy model called "ghost dark energy" was recently suggested to
explain the observed accelerating expansion of the universe. This model
originates from the Veneziano ghost of QCD. The dark energy density is
proportional to Hubble parameter, , where is a
constant of order and is
QCD mass scale. In this paper, we extend the ghost dark energy model to the
universe with spatial curvature in the presence of interaction between dark
matter and dark energy. We study cosmological implications of this model in
detail. In the absence of interaction the equation of state parameter of ghost
dark energy is always and mimics a cosmological constant in the
late time, while it is possible to have provided the interaction is
taken into account. When , all previous results of ghost dark energy in
flat universe are recovered. To check the observational consistency, we use
Supernova type Ia (SNIa) Gold sample, shift parameter of Cosmic Microwave
Background radiation (CMB) and the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation peak from
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The best fit values of free parameter at
confidence interval are: ,
and . Consequently
the total energy density of universe at present time in this model at 68% level
equates to .Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures. V2: Added comments, observational consequences,
references, figures and major corrections. Accepted for publication in
General Relativity and Gravitatio
Holographic dark energy in a non-flat universe with Granda-Oliveros cut-off
Motivated by Granda and Oliveros (GO) model, we generalize their work to the
non-flat case. We obtain the evolution of the dark energy density, the
deceleration and the equation of state parameters for the holographic dark
energy model in a non-flat universe with GO cut-off. In the limiting case of a
flat universe, i.e. , all results given in GO model are obtained.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Unusual plastic deformation and damage features in Titanium: experimental tests and constitutive modeling
In this paper, we present an experimental study on plastic deformation and
damage of polycrystalline pure Ti, as well as modeling of the observed
behavior. From the mechanical characterization data, it can be concluded that
the material displays anisotropy and tension-compression asymmetry. As concerns
damage, the X-ray tomography measurements conducted reveal that damage
distribution and evolution in this HCP Ti material is markedly different than
in a typical FCC material such as copper. Stewart and Cazacu (2011) anisotropic
elastic/plastic damage model is used to describe the behavior. All material
parameters involved in this model have a clear physical significance, being
related to plastic properties, and are determined based on very few simple
mechanical tests. It is shown that this model predicts correctly the anisotropy
in plastic deformation, and its strong influence on damage distribution and
damage accumulation in Ti. Specifically, for a smooth axisymmetric specimen
subject to uniaxial tension, damage initiates at the center of the specimen and
is diffuse; the level of damage close to failure is very low. On the other
hand, for a notched specimen subject to the same loading, the model predicts
that damage initiates at the outer surface of the specimen, and further grows
from the outer surface to the center of the specimen, which corroborates with
the in-situ tomography data.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Cosmological evolution and statefinder diagnostic for new holographic dark energy model in non flat universe
In this paper, the holographic dark energy model with new infrared cut-off
proposed by Granda and Oliveros has been investigated in spatially non flat
universe. The dependency of the evolution of equation of state, deceleration
parameter and cosmological evolution of Hubble parameter on the parameters of
new HDE model are calculated. Also, the statefinder parameters and in
this model are derived and the evolutionary trajectories in plane are
plotted. We show that the evolutionary trajectories are dependent on the model
parameters of new HDE model. Eventually, in the light of SNe+BAO+OHD+CMB
observational data, we plot the evolutionary trajectories in and
planes for best fit values of the parameters of new HDE model.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, Accepted by Astrophys. Space Sc
Geochemical Study of Natural CO2 Emissions in the French Massif Central: How to Predict Origin, Processes and Evolution of CO2 Leakage
International audienceThis study presents an overview of some results obtained within the French ANR (National Agency of Research) supported Géocarbone-Monitoring research program. The measurements were performed in Sainte-Marguerite, located in the French Massif Central. This site represents a natural laboratory for CO2/fluid/rock interactions studies, as well as CO2 migration mechanisms towards the surface. The CO2 leaking character of the studied area also allows to test and validate measurements methods and verifications for the future CO2 geological storage sites. During these surveys, we analyzed soil CO2 fluxes and concentrations. We sampled and analyzed soil gases, and gas from carbo-gaseous bubbling springs. A one-month continuous monitoring was also tested, to record the concentration of CO2 both in atmosphere and in the soil at a single point. We also developed a new methodology to collect soil gas samples for noble gas abundances and isotopic analyses, as well as carbon isotopic ratios. Our geochemical results, combined with structural geology, show that the leaking CO2 has a very deep origin, partially mantle derived. The gas rises rapidly along normal and strike-slip active faults. CO2 soil concentrations (also showing a mantle derived component) and CO2 fluxes are spatially variable, and reach high values. The recorded atmospheric CO2 is not very high, despite the important CO2 degassing throughout the whole area
A pessimistic view of optimistic belief updating
Received academic wisdom holds that human judgment is characterized by unrealistic optimism, the tendency to underestimate the likelihood of negative events and overestimate the likelihood of positive events. With recent questions being raised over the degree to which the majority of this research genuinely demonstrates optimism, attention to possible mechanisms generating such a bias becomes ever more important. New studies have now claimed that unrealistic optimism emerges as a result of biased belief updating with distinctive neural correlates in the brain. On a behavioral level, these studies suggest that, for negative events, desirable information is incorporated into personal risk estimates to a greater degree than undesirable information (resulting in a more optimistic outlook). However, using task analyses, simulations and experiments we demonstrate that this pattern of results is a statistical artifact. In contrast with previous work, we examined participants’ use of new information with reference to the normative, Bayesian standard. Simulations reveal the fundamental difficulties that would need to be overcome by any robust test of optimistic updating. No such test presently exists, so that the best one can presently do is perform analyses with a number of techniques, all of which have important weaknesses. Applying these analyses to five experiments shows no evidence of optimistic updating. These results clarify the difficulties involved in studying human ‘bias’ and cast additional doubt over the status of optimism as a fundamental characteristic of healthy cognition
Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS
We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a
significant distance from their production point into a final state containing
charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is
conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV
and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS
detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles
is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We
observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of
supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the
neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino
masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final
version to appear in Physics Letters
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