3,875 research outputs found
Adherence to secondary stroke prevention strategies - Results from the German stroke data bank
Only very limited data are available concerning patient adherence to antithrombotic medication intended to prevent a recurrent stroke. Reduced adherence and compliance could significantly influence the effects of any stroke prevention strategies. This study from a large stroke data bank provides representative data concerning the rate of stroke victims adhering to their recommended preventive medication. During a 2-year period beginning January 1, 1998, all patients with acute stroke or TIA in 23 neurological departments with an acute stroke unit were included in the German Stroke Data Bank. Data were collected prospectively, reviewed, validated and processed in a central data management unit. Only 12 centers with a follow-up rate of 80% or higher were included in this evaluation. 3,420 patients were followed up after 3 months, and 2,640 patients were followed up one year after their stroke. After one year, 96% of all patients reported still adhere to at least one medical stroke prevention strategy. Of the patients receiving aspirin at discharge, 92.6% reported to use that medication after 3 months and 84% after one year, while 81.6 and 61.6% were the respective figures for clopidogrel, and 85.2 and 77.4% for oral anticoagulation. Most patients who changed medication switched from aspirin to clopidogrel. Under the conditions of this observational study, adherence to stroke prevention strategies is excellent. The highest adherence rate is noticed for aspirin and oral anticoagulation. After one year, very few patients stopped taking stroke preventive medication. Copyright (C) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel
Patterns of convection in rotating spherical shells
Patterns of convection in internally heated, self-gravitating rotating
spherical fluid shells are investigated through numerical simulations. While
turbulent states are of primary interest in planetary and stellar applications
the present paper emphasizes more regular dynamical features at Rayleigh
numbers not far above threshold which are similar to those which might be
observed in laboratory or space experiments. Amplitude vacillations and spatial
modulations of convection columns are common features at moderate and large
Prandtl numbers. In the low Prandtl number regime equatorially attached
convection evolves differently with increasing Rayleigh number and exhibits an
early transition into a chaotic state. Relationships of the dynamical features
to coherent structures in fully turbulent convection states are emphasized
Elastic turbulence in shear banding wormlike micelles
We study the dynamics of the Taylor-Couette flow of shear banding wormlike
micelles. We focus on the high shear rate branch of the flow curve and show
that for sufficiently high Weissenberg numbers, this branch becomes unstable.
This instability is strongly sub-critical and is associated with a shear stress
jump. We find that this increase of the flow resistance is related to the
nucleation of turbulence. The flow pattern shows similarities with the elastic
turbulence, so far only observed for polymer solutions. The unstable character
of this branch led us to propose a scenario that could account for the recent
observations of Taylor-like vortices during the shear banding flow of wormlike
micelles
Emergence of pointer states in a non-perturbative environment
We show that the pointer basis distinguished by collisional decoherence
consists of exponentially localized, solitonic wave packets. Based on the
orthogonal unraveling of the quantum master equation, we characterize their
formation and dynamics, and we demonstrate that the statistical weights arising
from an initial superposition state are given by the required projection. Since
the spatial width of the pointer states can be obtained by accounting for the
gas environment in a microscopically realistic fashion, one may thus calculate
the coherence length of a strongly interacting gas.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure; corresponds to published versio
Localized transverse bursts in inclined layer convection
We investigate a novel bursting state in inclined layer thermal convection in
which convection rolls exhibit intermittent, localized, transverse bursts. With
increasing temperature difference, the bursts increase in duration and number
while exhibiting a characteristic wavenumber, magnitude, and size. We propose a
mechanism which describes the duration of the observed bursting intervals and
compare our results to bursting processes in other systems.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figure
Scaling properties of granular materials
Given an assembly of viscoelastic spheres with certain material properties,
we raise the question how the macroscopic properties of the assembly will
change if all lengths of the system, i.e. radii, container size etc., are
scaled by a constant. The result leads to a method to scale down experiments to
lab-size.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Planform selection in two-layer Benard-Marangoni convection
Benard-Marangoni convection in a system of two superimposed liquids is
investigated theoretically. Extending previous studies the complete
hydrodynamics of both layers is treated and buoyancy is consistently taken into
account. The planform selection problem between rolls, squares and hexagons is
investigated by explicitly calculating the coefficients of an appropriate
amplitude equation from the parameters of the fluids. The results are compared
with recent experiments on two-layer systems in which squares at onset have
been reported.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, oscillatory instability included, typos
corrected, references adde
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