1,536 research outputs found
Health-related quality of life in long-term head and neck cancer survivors: a comparison with general population norms
To examine the health-related quality of life (HRQL) in long-term head and neck (H&N) cancer survivors compared with general population norms. HRQL was assessed with three standardized questionnaires: the SF-36 Health Survey (Short Form 36) and the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35 (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire, -Core 30 and -Head and Neck 35 cancer module). Altogether 135 H&N cancer patients (mean age 62 years, 31% females) of 151 survivors (89% acceptance) from a longitudinal HRQL study (n = 232) were included 3 years after diagnosis. The H&N cancer patients' SF-36 scores did not differ significantly from those of an age- and sex-matched sample (n = 871) from the Swedish normative population, except on the role-physical functioning scale. On the other hand, treatment-related side-effects and disease-specific problems (e.g., swallowing, local pain and dry mouth) measured by the H&N cancer module were, with few exceptions, significantly worse than norm values. Gender comparisons revealed that female H&N cancer patients generally scored better than the norms on both the SF-36 and the EORTC QLQ-C30, while the male patients scored significantly worse on most SF-36 scales. Patients ≥65 years more often scored worse than the norm than did patients <65. Clinically relevant differences were found on the majority of SF-36 scales in comparison of tumour sites, however, comparisons of patients with small (stage I+II) versus advanced (stage III+IV) tumours revealed few differences. Three years after diagnosis H&N cancer patients still suffer significant functional limitations/problems related to their disease and its treatment but these problems do not generally affect their overall HRQL. Tumour stage no longer differentiates HRQL at 3 years, however, factors related to the patients' age, gender and location of the tumour appear to have bearing on their reported health status. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co
Applications of control theory
Applications of control theory are considered in the areas of decoupling and wake steering control of submersibles, a method of electrohydraulic conversion with no moving parts, and socio-economic system modelling
Magnetization Process of Nanoscale Iron Cluster
Low-temperature magnetization process of the nanoscale iron cluster in
linearly sweeped fields is investigated by a numerical analysis of
time-dependent Schrdinger equation and the quantum master
equation. We introduce an effective basis method extracting important states,
by which we can obtain the magnetization process effectively. We investigate
the structure of the field derivative of the magnetization. We find out that
the antisymmetric interaction determined from the lattice structure reproduces
well the experimental results of the iron magnets and that this interaction
plays an important role in the iron cluster. Deviations from the adiabatic
process are also studied. In the fast sweeping case, our calculations indicate
that the nonadiabatic transition dominantly occurs at the level crossing for
the lowest field. In slow sweeping case, due to the influence of the thermal
environment to the spin system, the field derivative of the magnetization shows
an asymmetric behavior, the magnetic Fhn effect, which explains
the substructure of the experimental results in the pulsed field.Comment: 5 pages of text and 2 pages of 6 figures. To appear in J. Phys. Soc.
Jp
Mapping the Evolution of Optically-Generated Rotational Wavepackets in a Room Temperature Ensemble of D
A coherent superposition of rotational states in D has been excited by
nonresonant ultrafast (12 femtosecond) intense (2 10
Wcm) 800 nm laser pulses leading to impulsive dynamic alignment.
Field-free evolution of this rotational wavepacket has been mapped to high
temporal resolution by a time-delayed pulse, initiating rapid double
ionization, which is highly sensitive to the angle of orientation of the
molecular axis with respect to the polarization direction, . The
detailed fractional revivals of the neutral D wavepacket as a function of
and evolution time have been observed and modelled theoretically.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A. Full
reference to follow.
Lie bialgebras of generalized Witt type
In a paper by Michaelis a class of infinite-dimensional Lie bialgebras
containing the Virasoro algebra was presented. This type of Lie bialgebras was
classified by Ng and Taft. In this paper, all Lie bialgebra structures on the
Lie algebras of generalized Witt type are classified. It is proved that, for
any Lie algebra of generalized Witt type, all Lie bialgebras on are
coboundary triangular Lie bialgebras. As a by-product, it is also proved that
the first cohomology group is trivial.Comment: 14 page
An investigation of oxidation and reduction of C 60 , the excited states, energy gaps and stability using semi-empirical and ab initio methods
Abstract We have used semi-empirical and ab initio methods to investigate the various oxidation and reduction states of C 60 with their respective more energetically stable excited states resulting from variations of the charge from 112 to 212 electrons in the system with singlet, doublet, triplet and quadruplet multiplicities. We have analysed the various conformations, energy variations, uHOMO 2 LUMOu, system charges, average interatomic distances as well as regions of minimum energies resulting from the simulation of the possible reaction routes.
Model Exact Low-Lying States and Spin Dynamics in Ferric Wheels; Fe to Fe
Using an efficient numerical scheme that exploits spatial symmetries and
spin-parity, we have obtained the exact low-lying eigenstates of exchange
Hamiltonians for ferric wheels up to Fe. The largest calculation
involves the Fe ring which spans a Hilbert space dimension of about 145
million for M=0 subspace. Our calculated gaps from the singlet ground state
to the excited triplet state agrees well with the experimentally measured
values. Study of the static structure factor shows that the ground state is
spontaneously dimerized for ferric wheels. Spin states of ferric wheels can be
viewed as quantized states of a rigid rotor with the gap between the ground and
the first excited state defining the inverse of moment of inertia. We have
studied the quantum dynamics of Fe as a representative of ferric wheels.
We use the low-lying states of Fe to solve exactly the time-dependent
Schr\"odinger equation and find the magnetization of the molecule in the
presence of an alternating magnetic field at zero temperature. We observe a
nontrivial oscillation of magnetization which is dependent on the amplitude of
the {\it ac} field. We have also studied the torque response of Fe as a
function of magnetic field, which clearly shows spin-state crossover.Comment: Revtex, 24 pages, 8 eps figure
Masked suffix priming and morpheme positional constraints
Although masked stem priming (e.g., dealer\u2013DEAL) is one of the most established effects in visual word identification (e.g., Grainger et al., 1991), it is less clear whether primes and targets sharing a suffix (e.g., kindness\u2013WILDNESS) also yield facilitation (Giraudo & Grainger, 2003; Du\uf1abeitia et al., 2008). In a new take on this issue, we show that prime nonwords facilitate lexical decisions to target words ending with the same suffix (sheeter\uac\u2013TEACHER) compared to a condition where the critical suffix was substituted by another one (sheetal\u2013TEACHER) or by an unrelated non\u2013morphological ending (sheetub\u2013 TEACHER). We also show that this effect is genuinely morphological, as no priming emerged in non\u2013complex items with the same orthographic characteristics (sportel\u2013BROTHEL vs. sportic\u2013BROTHEL vs. sportur\u2013BROTHEL). In a further experiment, we took advantage of these results to assess whether suffixes are recognized in a position\u2013specific fashion. Masked suffix priming did not emerge when the relative order of stems and suffixes was reversed in the prime nonwords\u2014ersheet did not yield any time saving in the identification of teacher as compared to either alsheet or obsheet. We take these results to show that \u2013er was not identified as a morpheme in ersheet, thus indicating that suffix identification is position specific. This conclusion is in line with data on interference effects in nonword rejection (Crepaldi, Rastle, & Davis, 2010), and strongly constrains theoretical proposals on how complex words are identified. In particular, because these findings were reported in a masked priming paradigm, they suggest that positional constraints operate early, most likely at a pre\u2013lexical level of morpho\u2013orthographic analysi
Correlated physical and mental health summary scores for the SF-36 and SF-12 Health Survey, V.1
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The SF-36 and SF-12 summary scores were derived using an uncorrelated (orthogonal) factor solution. We estimate SF-36 and SF-12 summary scores using a correlated (oblique) physical and mental health factor model.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We administered the SF-36 to 7,093 patients who received medical care from an independent association of 48 physician groups in the western United States. Correlated physical health (PCS<sub>c</sub>) and mental health (MCS<sub>c</sub>) scores were constructed by multiplying each SF-36 scale z-score by its respective scoring coefficient from the obliquely rotated two factor solution. PCS<sub>c</sub>-12 and MCS<sub>c</sub>-12 scores were estimated using an approach similar to the one used to derive the original SF-12 summary scores.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The estimated correlation between SF-36 PCS<sub>c </sub>and MCS<sub>c </sub>scores was 0.62. There were far fewer negative factor scoring coefficients for the oblique factor solution compared to the factor scoring coefficients produced by the standard orthogonal factor solution. Similar results were found for PCS<sub>c</sub>-12, and MCS<sub>c</sub>-12 summary scores.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Correlated physical and mental health summary scores for the SF-36 and SF-12 derived from an obliquely rotated factor solution should be used along with the uncorrelated summary scores. The new scoring algorithm can reduce inconsistent results between the SF-36 scale scores and physical and mental health summary scores reported in some prior studies.</p> <p>(Subscripts C = correlated and UC = uncorrelated)</p
Proton NMR for Measuring Quantum-Level Crossing in the Magnetic Molecular Ring Fe10
The proton nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T1 has been measured as a
function of temperature and magnetic field (up to 15 T) in the molecular
magnetic ring Fe10. Striking enhancement of 1/T1 is observed around magnetic
field values corresponding to a crossing between the ground state and the
excited states of the molecule. We propose that this is due to a
cross-relaxation effect between the nuclear Zeeman reservoir and the reservoir
of the Zeeman levels of the molecule. This effect provides a powerful tool to
investigate quantum dynamical phenomena at level crossing.Comment: Four pages, to appear in Phys.Rev.Let
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