183 research outputs found
Assessment of fetal heart rate variability and velocity variability by Doppler velocimetry of the descending aorta at 10-20 weeks of gestation
Objectives: Determination of gestational age-related modulations in fetal heart rate and descending aorta blood flow velocity in the early human fetus and comparison of aortic variability data with data obtained from the umbilical artery. It is hypothesized that these modulations present in the umbilical artery also occur in the descending aorta. Methods: Doppler studies of descending aorta velocity waveforms were performed at 10-20 weeks in 55 normal pregnant women. In 24 of the 55 women, Doppler recordings from both the descending aorta and the umbilical artery were collected. Absolute values and variability of fetal heart rate, peak systolic and time-averaged velocities were determined from flow velocity waveforms of at least 18 s in duration. Results: From 10 to 20 weeks of gestation, the descending aorta peak systolic and time-averaged velocities increased, whereas the fetal heart rate decreased. The descending aorta peak systolic variability also increased. However, the time-averaged velocity variability and the fetal heart rate variability remained constant during the study period. In the subset of 24 women, the fetal heart rate variability and velocity variability data from the descending aorta and umbilical artery were not significantly different. Conclusions: Reproducible fetal heart rate and velocity variability data can be derived from the descending aorta and umblilical artery. The increase in heart rate variability observed in the umbilical artery was not seen in recordings obtained from the descending aorta. Different fetal activity states may be the underlying mechanism for these heart rate variability discrepancies
Momentum flux density, kinetic energy density and their fluctuations for one-dimensional confined gases of non-interacting fermions
We present a Green's function method for the evaluation of the particle
density profile and of the higher moments of the one-body density matrix in a
mesoscopic system of N Fermi particles moving independently in a linear
potential. The usefulness of the method is illustrated by applications to a
Fermi gas confined in a harmonic potential well, for which we evaluate the
momentum flux and kinetic energy densities as well as their quantal mean-square
fluctuations. We also study some properties of the kinetic energy functional
E_{kin}[n(x)] in the same system. Whereas a local approximation to the kinetic
energy density yields a multi-valued function, an exact single-valued
relationship between the density derivative of E_{kin}[n(x)] and the particle
density n(x) is demonstrated and evaluated for various values of the number of
particles in the system.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Dilute Bose gas in two dimensions: Density expansions and the Gross-Pitaevskii equation
A dilute two-dimensional (2D) Bose gas at zero temperature is studied by the
method developed earlier by the authors. Low density expansions are derived for
the chemical potential, ground state energy, kinetic and interaction energies.
The expansion parameter is found to be a dimensionless in-medium scattering
amplitude u obeying the equation 1/u+\ln u=-\ln(na^2\pi)-2\gamma, where na^2
and \gamma are the gas parameter and the Euler constant, respectively. It is
shown that the ground state energy is mostly kinetic in the low density limit;
this result does not depend on a specific form of the pairwise interaction
potential, contrary to 3D case. A new form of 2D Gross-Pitaevskii equation is
proposed within our scheme.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX, no figure
Thermal Detection of Turbulent and Laminar Dissipation in Vortex Front Motion
We report on direct measurements of the energy dissipated in the spin-up of
the superfluid component of 3He-B. A vortex-free sample is prepared in a
cylindrical container, where the normal component rotates at constant angular
velocity. At a temperature of 0.20Tc, seed vortices are injected into the
system using the shear-flow instability at the interface between 3He-B and
3He-A. These vortices interact and create a turbulent burst, which sets a
propagating vortex front into motion. In the following process, the free energy
stored in the initial vortex-free state is dissipated leading to the emission
of thermal excitations, which we observe with a bolometric measurement. We find
that the turbulent front contains less than the equilibrium number of vortices
and that the superfluid behind the front is partially decoupled from the
reference frame of the container. The final equilibrium state is approached in
the form of a slow laminar spin-up as demonstrated by the slowly decaying tail
of the thermal signal.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Journal of Low Temperature Physic
Violation of self-similarity in the expansion of a 1D Bose gas
The expansion of a 1D Bose gas is investigated employing the Lieb-Liniger
equation of state within the local density approximation. We show that during
the expansion the density profile of the gas does not follow a self-similar
solution, as one would expect from a simple scaling Ansatz. We carry out a
variational calculation, which recovers the numerical results for the
expansion, the equilibrium properties of the density profile, and the frequency
of the lowest compressional mode. The variational approach allows for the
analysis of the expansion in all interaction regimes between the mean field and
the Tonks-Girardeau limits, and in particular shows the range of parameters for
which the expansion violates self-similarity.Comment: 6 pages, 5 eps figure
Cosmology, Particle Physics and Superfluid 3He
Many direct parallels connect superfluid 3He with the field theories
describing the physical vacuum, gauge fields and elementary fermions.
Superfluid He exhibits a variety of topological defects which can be
detected with single-defect sensitivity. Modern scenarios of defect-mediated
baryogenesis can be simulated by the interaction of the 3He vortices and domain
walls with fermionic quasiparticles. Formation of defects in a
symmetry-breaking phase transition in the early Universe, which could be
responsible for large-scale structure formation and for microwave-background
anisotropy, also may be modelled in the laboratory. This is supported by the
recent observation of vortex formation in neutron-irradiated 3He-B where the
"primordial fireball" is formed in an exothermic nuclear reaction.Comment: Invited talk at LT-21 Conference, 20 pages, 3 figures available at
request, compressed ps file of the camera-ready format with 3 figures is at
ftp://boojum.hut.fi/pub/publications/lowtemp/LTL-96006.ps.g
Intratumoral heterogeneity of second-harmonic generation scattering from tumor collagen and its effects on metastatic risk prediction
Background: Metastases are the leading cause of breast cancer-related deaths. The tumor microenvironment impacts cancer progression and metastatic ability. Fibrillar collagen, a major extracellular matrix component, can be studied using the light scattering phenomenon known as second-harmonic generation (SHG). The ratio of forward- to backward-scattered SHG photons (F/B) is sensitive to collagen fiber internal structure and has been shown to be an independent prognostic indicator of metastasis-free survival time (MFS). Here we assess the effects of heterogeneity in the tumor matrix on the possible use of F/B as a prognostic tool. Methods: SHG imaging was performed on sectioned primary tumor excisions from 95 untreated, estrogen receptor-positive, lymph node negative invasive ductal carcinoma patients. We identified two distinct regions whose collagen displayed different average F/B values, indicative of spatial heterogeneity: the cellular tumor bulk and surrounding tumor-stroma interface. To evaluate the impact of heterogeneity on F/B’s prognostic ability, we performed SHG imaging in the tumor bulk and tumor-stroma interface, calculated a 21-gene recurrence score (surrogate for OncotypeDX®, or S-ODX) for each patient and evaluated their combined prognostic ability. Results: We found that F/B measured in tumor-stroma interface, but not tumor bulk, is prognostic of MFS using three methods to select pixels for analysis: an intensity threshold selected by a blinded observer, a histogram-based thresholding method, and an adaptive thresholding method. Using both regression trees and Random Survival Forests for MFS outcome, we obtained data-driven prediction rules that show F/B from tumor-stroma interface, but not tumor bulk, and S-ODX both contribute to predicting MFS in this patient cohort. We also separated patients into low-intermediate (S-ODX < 26) and high risk (S-ODX ≥26) groups. In the low-intermediate risk group, comprised of patients not typically recommended for adjuvant chemotherapy, we find that F/B from the tumor-stroma interface is prognostic of MFS and can identify a patient cohort with poor outcomes. Conclusions: These data demonstrate that intratumoral heterogeneity in F/B values can play an important role in its possible use as a prognostic marker, and that F/B from tumor-stroma interface of prim
Bose-Einstein condensates in a one-dimensional double square well: Analytical solutions of the Nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and tunneling splittings
We present a representative set of analytic stationary state solutions of the
Nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation for a symmetric double square well potential
for both attractive and repulsive nonlinearity. In addition to the usual
symmetry preserving even and odd states, nonlinearity introduces quite exotic
symmetry breaking solutions - among them are trains of solitons with different
number and sizes of density lumps in the two wells. We use the symmetry
breaking localized solutions to form macroscopic quantum superpositions states
and explore a simple model for the exponentially small tunneling splitting.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, revised version, typos and references correcte
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