350 research outputs found
Attractive and repulsive cracks in a heterogeneous material
We study experimentally the paths of an assembly of cracks growing in
interaction in a heterogeneous two-dimensional elastic brittle material
submitted to uniaxial stress. For a given initial crack assembly geometry, we
observe two types of crack path. The first one corresponds to a repulsion
followed by an attraction on one end of the crack and a tip to tip attraction
on the other end. The second one corresponds to a pure attraction. Only one of
the crack path type is observed in a given sample. Thus, selection between the
two types appears as a statistical collective process.Comment: soumis \`a JSTA
Inertial waves and modes excited by the libration of a rotating cube
We report experimental measurements of the flow in a cubic container
submitted to a longitudinal libration, i.e. a rotation modulated in time.
Velocity fields in a vertical and a horizontal plane are measured in the
librating frame using a corotating particle image velocimetry system. When the
libration frequency is smaller than twice the mean rotation rate
, inertial waves can propagate in the interior of the fluid. At
arbitrary excitation frequencies , the oscillating flow
shows two contributions: (i) a basic flow induced by the libration motion, and
(ii) inertial wave beams propagating obliquely upward and downward from the
horizontal edges of the cube. In addition to these two contributions, inertial
modes may also be excited at some specific resonant frequencies. We
characterize in particular the resonance of the mode of lowest order compatible
with the symmetries of the forcing, noted [2,1,+]. By comparing the measured
flow fields to the expected inviscid inertial modes computed numerically
[L.R.M. Maas, Fluid Dyn. Res. \textbf{33}, 373 (2003)], we show that only a
subset of inertial modes, matching the symmetries of the forcing, can be
excited by the libration.Comment: Phys. Fluids (in press
Viscous spreading of an inertial wave beam in a rotating fluid
We report experimental measurements of inertial waves generated by an
oscillating cylinder in a rotating fluid. The two-dimensional wave takes place
in a stationary cross-shaped wavepacket. Velocity and vorticity fields in a
vertical plane normal to the wavemaker are measured by a corotating Particule
Image Velocimetry system. The viscous spreading of the wave beam and the
associated decay of the velocity and vorticity envelopes are characterized.
They are found in good agreement with the similarity solution of a linear
viscous theory, derived under a quasi-parallel assumption similar to the
classical analysis of Thomas and Stevenson [J. Fluid Mech. 54 (3), 495-506
(1972)] for internal waves
Assessing a treatment on the basis of an individual or a group. An example: the homeopathic treatment of digestive-tract strongyles in sheep
Homeopathic treatments, widely used in organic farming, remain unevaluated. Assessment is difficult since the individuals that respond to treatment are not identified, although it is central to the concept of homeopathic treatment. Classifying lambs into those to be treated (since they have high parasitic infection rate or poor production performances) or that should remain untreated (in other words, even when treated, they will not benefit from treatment) is not simple. The identification of lambs to be treated can be based on parasitological examinations (eggs per gram of faeces), clinical (anaemia or diarrhoea)or production-related (weight gain) results. The classification of lambs was a posteriori and based on dendrograms using UPGMA (unweighted pairwise grouping on arithmetic average) and Gowerâs similarity index. Parasitological, clinical and production identifiers were used for assessing the efficacy of Teucrium marum (9 CH) on digestive-tract strongyles. There was no reduction in gastro-intestinal infection in lambs with high infection rates or poor live weight gain
Fluctuation-Dissipation Relations and statistical temperatures in a turbulent von K\'arm\'an flow
We experimentally characterize the fluctuations of the non-homogeneous
non-isotropic turbulence in an axisymmetric von K\'arm\'an flow. We show that
these fluctuations satisfy relations analogous to classical
Fluctuation-Dissipation Relations (FDRs) in statistical mechanics. We use these
relations to measure statistical temperatures of turbulence. The values of
these temperatures are found to be dependent on the considered observable as
already evidenced in other far from equilibrium systems.Comment: four pages 2 figures one tabl
Statistical mechanics of Beltrami flows in axisymmetric geometry: Equilibria and bifurcations
We characterize the thermodynamical equilibrium states of axisymmetric
Euler-Beltrami flows. They have the form of coherent structures presenting one
or several cells. We find the relevant control parameters and derive the
corresponding equations of state. We prove the coexistence of several
equilibrium states for a given value of the control parameter like in 2D
turbulence [Chavanis and Sommeria, J. Fluid Mech. 314, 267 (1996)]. We explore
the stability of these equilibrium states and show that all states are saddle
points of entropy and can, in principle, be destabilized by a perturbation with
a larger wavenumber, resulting in a structure at the smallest available scale.
This mechanism is therefore reminiscent of the 3D Richardson energy cascade
towards smaller and smaller scales. Therefore, our system is truly intermediate
between 2D turbulence (coherent structures) and 3D turbulence (energy cascade).
We further explore numerically the robustness of the equilibrium states with
respect to random perturbations using a relaxation algorithm in both canonical
and microcanonical ensembles. We show that saddle points of entropy can be very
robust and therefore play a role in the dynamics. We evidence differences in
the robustness of the solutions in the canonical and microcanonical ensembles.
A scenario of bifurcation between two different equilibria (with one or two
cells) is proposed and discussed in connection with a recent observation of a
turbulent bifurcation in a von Karman experiment [Ravelet et al., Phys. Rev.
Lett. 93, 164501 (2004)].Comment: 25 pages; 16 figure
The osteoporosis treatment gap in patients at risk of fracture in European primary care : a multi-country cross-sectional observational study
Summary
This study in 8 countries across Europe found that about 75% of elderly women seen in primary care who were at high risk of osteoporosis-related fractures were not receiving appropriate medication. Lack of osteoporosis diagnosis appeared to be an important contributing factor.
Introduction
Treatment rates in osteoporosis are documented to be low. We wished to assess the osteoporosis treatment gap in women â„ 70 years in routine primary care across Europe.
Methods
This cross-sectional observational study in 8 European countries collected data from women 70 years or older visiting their general practitioner. The primary outcome was treatment gap: the proportion who were not receiving any osteoporosis medication among those at increased risk of fragility fracture (using history of fracture, 10-year probability of fracture above country-specific Fracture Risk Assessment Tool [FRAX] thresholds, T-score †â 2.5).
Results
Median 10-year probability of fracture (without bone mineral density [BMD]) for the 3798 enrolled patients was 7.2% (hip) and 16.6% (major osteoporotic). Overall, 2077 women (55%) met one or more definitions for increased risk of fragility fracture: 1200 had a prior fracture, 1814 exceeded the FRAX threshold, and 318 had a T-score †â 2.5 (only 944 received a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry [DXA] scan). In those at increased fracture risk, the median 10-year probability of hip and major osteoporotic fracture was 11.2% and 22.8%, vs 4.1% and 11.5% in those deemed not at risk. An osteoporosis diagnosis was recorded in 804 patients (21.2%); most (79.7%) of these were at increased fracture risk. The treatment gap was 74.6%, varying from 53% in Ireland to 91% in Germany. Patients with an osteoporosis diagnosis were found to have a lower treatment gap than those without a diagnosis, with an absolute reduction of 63%.
Conclusions
There is a large treatment gap in women aged â„ 70 years at increased risk of fragility fracture in routine primary care across Europe. The gap appears to be related to a low rate of osteoporosis diagnosis
Functional and Taxonomic Diversity of Collembola as Complementary Tools to Assess Land Use Effects on Soils Biodiversity
Collembola have been proposed for several decades as a good model organisms to survey soil biodiversity; but most of the studies focused on taxonomic endpoints. The main objectives of this study are to compare the effects of the different land uses, including urban and industrial land uses, while using both collembolan functional and taxonomic biodiversity approaches. We collected data on 3,056 samples of Collembola communities across 758 sites in various land uses throughout France. The types of land use considered included all types of human activity from forestry to urban, industrial, traffic, mining and military areas, agricultural grassland, arable land, vineyards and urban vegetable gardens. In order to study functional and taxonomic biodiversity, we used community-weighted means, functional indices, species richness and density. When looking at collembolan functional diversity, urban and industrial soils appear clearly less diversified than when considering the taxonomic diversity. We suspect here a functional homogenization effect commonly reported in the literature for various organisms in urban ecosystems. Our study provides range of values for different taxonomic and functional indices of Collembola communities in a wide land use classification across France
Modelling and analysis of turbulent datasets using Auto Regressive Moving Average processes
International audienceWe introduce a novel way to extract information from turbulent datasets by applying an Auto Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) statistical analysis. Such analysis goes well beyond the analysis of the mean flow and of the fluctuations and links the behavior of the recorded time series to a discrete version of a stochastic differential equation which is able to describe the correlation structure in the dataset. We introduce a new index Ï that measures the difference between the resulting analysis and the Obukhov model of turbulence, the simplest stochastic model reproducing both Richardson law and the Kolmogorov spectrum. We test the method on datasets measured in a von KĂĄrmĂĄn swirling flow experiment. We found that the ARMA analysis is well correlated with spatial structures of the flow, and can discriminate between two different flows with comparable mean velocities, obtained by changing the forcing. Moreover, we show that the Ï is highest in regions where shear layer vortices are present, thereby establishing a link between deviations from the Kolmogorov model and coherent structures. These deviations are consistent with the ones observed by computing the Hurst exponents for the same time series. We show that some salient features of the analysis are preserved when considering global instead of local observables. Finally, we analyze flow configurations with multistability features where the ARMA technique is efficient in discriminating different stability branches of the system
Postprocedural CT for perivertebral cement leakage in percutaneous vertebroplasty is not necessaryâresults from VERTOS II
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