3,431 research outputs found
A single center experience with coronary endarterectomy and vein patch reconstruction
Background: To evaluate the medium and late term outcomes of coronary artery bypass grafting with pull-through coronary endarterectomy using a saphenous vein patch for bypass distal anastomosis site.
Methods: Retrospective review of all coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures performed from January 1, 2000 through June 30, 2013 with and without concomitant coronary endarterectomy (CE), was carried out at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington DC. Patients who underwent concomitant valve operations were excluded. Primary outcome was overall survival, with analyses performed examining CE as well as the use of cardiopulmonary bypass. Secondary outcomes included 30-day mortality and post-operative MI.
Results: 1255 CABG operations were performed, 10 of which included CE. All CE procedures were performed with saphenous vein patch. 7 involved left anterior descending artery (LAD) CE with left internal mammary artery (LIMA) conduits. The remaining 3 were diagonal branch artery (D1) CE with saphenous vein bypass conduits. 1-year survival was 70%. 5-year survival was 43% out of 7 patients.
Conclusions: Pull-through CE with saphenous vein patch is a safe alternative technique for patients with diffuse coronary artery disease. Perioperative events and intermediate outcomes are favorable, although long-term survival is less than patients without CE
Facial emotion processing in schizophrenia : a non-specific neuropsychological deficit?
Original article can be found at : http://journals.cambridge.org/ Copyright Cambridge University PressBackground: Identification of facial emotions has been found to be impaired in schizophrenia but there are uncertainties about the neuropsychological specificity of the finding. Method: Twenty-two patients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy controls were given tests requiring identification of facial emotion, judgement of the intensity of emotional expressions without identification, familiar face recognition and the Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT). The schizophrenia patients were selected to be relatively intellectually preserved. Results: The patients with schizophrenia showed no deficit in identifying facial emotion, although they were slower than the controls. They were, however, impaired on judging the intensity of emotional expression without identification. They showed impairment in recognizing familiar faces but not on the BFRT. Conclusions: When steps are taken to reduce the effects of general intellectual impairment, there is no deficit in identifying facial emotions in schizophrenia. There may, however, be a deficit in judging emotional intensity. The impairment found in naming familiar faces is consistent with other evidence of semantic memory impairment in the disorder.Peer reviewe
Multiwavelength Observations of Swift J1753.5-0127
We present contemporaneous X-ray, ultraviolet, optical and near-infrared
observations of the black hole binary system, Swift J1753.5-0127, acquired in
2012 October. The UV observations, obtained with the Cosmic Origins
Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, are the first UV spectra of this
system. The dereddened UV spectrum is characterized by a smooth, blue continuum
and broad emission lines of CIV and HeII. The system was stable in the UV to
<10% during our observations. We estimated the interstellar reddening by
fitting the 2175 A absorption feature and fit the interstellar absorption
profile of Ly to directly measure the neutral hydrogen column density
along the line of sight. By comparing the UV continuum flux to steady-state
thin accretion disk models, we determined upper limits on the distance to the
system as a function of black hole mass. The continuum is well fit with disk
models dominated by viscous heating rather than irradiation. The broadband
spectral energy distribution shows the system has declined at all wavelengths
since previous broadband observations in 2005 and 2007. If we assume that the
UV emission is dominated by the accretion disk the inner radius of the disk
must be truncated at radii above the ISCO to be consistent with the X-ray flux,
requiring significant mass loss from outflows and/or energy loss via advection
into the black hole to maintain energy balance.Comment: To appear in the Ap
Discovery of 15-second oscillations in Hubble Space Telescope observations of WZ Sagittae following the 2001 outburst
We report the discovery of 15-s oscillations in ultraviolet observations of
WZ Sge obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope approximately one month after
the peak of the 2001 outburst. This is the earliest detection of oscillations
in WZ Sge following an outburst and the first time that a signal near 15 s has
been seen to be dominant. The oscillations are quite strong (amplitude about
5%), but not particularly coherent. In one instance, the oscillation period
changed by 0.7 s between successive observations separated by less than 1 hour.
We have also found evidence for weaker signals with periods near 6.5 s in some
of our data. We discuss the implications of our results for the models that
have been proposed to account for the 28-s oscillations seen in quiescence. If
the periods of the 15-s oscillations can be identified with the periods of
revolution of material rotating about the white dwarf, the mass of the white
dwarf must satisfy M_WD > 0.71 M_sun. The corresponding limit for the 6.5-s
signals is M_WD > 1.03 M_sun.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 13 pages, 4 postscript
figures; new version corrects a few typos and matches version that will
appear in ApJ
Book Reviews
Book reviews by Leon L. Lancaster, Jr., Jack C. Hynes, James J. Kearney, Joseph F. Nigro, Louis P. Da Pra, and Francis Bright
The Role of Final State Interactions in Quasielastic Fe Reactions at large
A relativistic finite nucleus calculation using a Dirac optical potential is
used to investigate the importance of final state interactions [FSI] at large
momentum transfers in inclusive quasielastic electronuclear reactions. The
optical potential is derived from first-order multiple scattering theory and
then is used to calculate the FSI in a nonspectral Green's function doorway
approach. At intermediate momentum transfers excellent predictions of the
quasielastic Fe experimental data for the longitudinal response
function are obtained. In comparisons with recent measurements at ~GeV/c the theoretical calculations of give good agreement for
the quasielastic peak shape and amplitude, but place the position of the peak
at an energy transfer of about ~MeV higher than the data.Comment: 13 pages typeset using revtex 3.0 with 6 postscript figures in
accompanying uuencoded file; submitted to Phys. Rev.
The Spectrum of the Black Hole X-ray Nova V404 Cygni in Quiescence as Measured by XMM-Newton
We present XMM observations of the black hole X-ray nova V404 Cygni in
quiescence. Its quiescent spectrum can be best fitted by a simple power-law
with slope 2. The spectra are consistent with that expected for the
advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF). V404 Cyg was roughly equal in
luminosity compared to the previous observation of Chandra. We see variability
of a factor of 4 during the observation. We find no evidence for the presence
of fluorescent or H-like/He-like iron emission, with upper limits of 52 eV and
110 eV respectively. The limit on the fluorescent emission is improved by a
factor of 15 over the previous estimate, and the restriction on H-like/He-like
emission is lower than predicted from models by a factor of roughly 2.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, ApJ accepte
Modelling spectral and timing properties of accreting black holes: the hybrid hot flow paradigm
The general picture that emerged by the end of 1990s from a large set of
optical and X-ray, spectral and timing data was that the X-rays are produced in
the innermost hot part of the accretion flow, while the optical/infrared (OIR)
emission is mainly produced by the irradiated outer thin accretion disc. Recent
multiwavelength observations of Galactic black hole transients show that the
situation is not so simple. Fast variability in the OIR band, OIR excesses
above the thermal emission and a complicated interplay between the X-ray and
the OIR light curves imply that the OIR emitting region is much more compact.
One of the popular hypotheses is that the jet contributes to the OIR emission
and even is responsible for the bulk of the X-rays. However, this scenario is
largely ad hoc and is in contradiction with many previously established facts.
Alternatively, the hot accretion flow, known to be consistent with the X-ray
spectral and timing data, is also a viable candidate to produce the OIR
radiation. The hot-flow scenario naturally explains the power-law like OIR
spectra, fast OIR variability and its complex relation to the X-rays if the hot
flow contains non-thermal electrons (even in energetically negligible
quantities), which are required by the presence of the MeV tail in Cyg X-1. The
presence of non-thermal electrons also lowers the equilibrium electron
temperature in the hot flow model to <100 keV, making it more consistent with
observations. Here we argue that any viable model should simultaneously explain
a large set of spectral and timing data and show that the hybrid
(thermal/non-thermal) hot flow model satisfies most of the constraints.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures. To be published in the Space Science Reviews
and as hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI - The Physics of
Accretion on to Black Holes (Springer Publisher
XMM-Newton observations of two black hole X-ray transients in quiescence
We report on XMM-Newton observations of GRO J1655-40 and GRS 1009-45, which
are two black hole X-ray transients currently in their quiescent phase. GRO
J1655-40 was detected with a 0.5 - 10 keV luminosity of 5.9 10^{31} erg/s. This
luminosity is comparable to a previous Chandra measurement, but ten times lower
than the 1996 ASCA value, most likely obtained when the source was not yet in a
true quiescent state. Unfortunately, XMM-Newton failed to detect GRS 1009-45. A
stringent upper limit of 8.9 10^{30} erg/s was derived by combining data from
the EPIC-MOS and PN cameras.
The X-ray spectrum of GRO J1655-40 is very hard as it can be fitted with a
power law model of photon index ~ 1.3 +/- 0.4. Similarly hard spectra have been
observed from other systems; these rule out coronal emission from the secondary
or disk flares as the origin of the observed X-rays. On the other hand, our
observations are consistent with the predictions of the disc instability model
in the case that the accretion flow forms an advection dominated accretion flow
(ADAF) at distances less than a fraction ~ 0.1 - 0.3) of the circularization
radius. This distance corresponds to the greatest extent of the ADAF that is
thought to be possible.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic
Recommended from our members
Photometric observations of the radio bright B[e]/X-ray binary CI Cam
We present multiwavelength (optical, IR, radio) observations of CI Cam, the optical counterpart to the transient X-ray source XTE J0421+560. Pre-outburst quiescent observations reveal the presence of a dusty envelope around the system. Pronounced short term variability is observed at all wavebands from U-K, but no indication of prior flaring of a similar magnitude to the 1998 April outburst is found in these data.
Data obtained during the 1998 April X-ray flare reveal pronounced optical-radio flaring. The optical flux was observed to quickly return to quiescent levels, while the radio flare was of much longer duration. The optical component is likely to result from a combination of free-free/free-bound emission, emission line and thermal dust emission, caused by re-radiation of the X-ray flux, while the behaviour of the multiwavelength radio data is consistent with emission from expanding ejecta emitting via the synchrotron mechanism.
Post-outburst (1998 August-1999 March) U-M broadband photometric observations reveal that while the optical (UBV) flux remains at pre-outburst quiescent levels, near IR (JHKLM) fluxes exceed the pre-outburst fluxes by ~0.5 magnitudes. Modelling the pre- and post-outburst spectral energy distribution of CI Cam reveals that the structure and/or composition of the dusty component of the circumstellar envelope appears to have changed. Due to a lack of information on the precise chemical composition of the dust within the system several explanations for this behaviour are possible, such as the production of new dust at the inner edge of the envelope, or modification of the composition of the dust due to X-ray irradiation
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