44,880 research outputs found
Signal quality measures for unsupervised blood pressure measurement
Accurate systolic and diastolic pressure estimation, using automated blood pressure measurement, is difficult to achieve when the transduced signals are contaminated with noise or interference, such as movement artifact. This study presents an algorithm for automated signal quality assessment in blood pressure measurement by determining the feasibility of accurately detecting systolic and diastolic pressures when corrupted with various levels of movement artifact. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared to a manually annotated reference scoring (RS). Based on visual representations and audible playback of Korotkoff sounds, the creation of the RS involved two experts identifying sections of the recorded sounds and annotating sections of noise contamination. The experts determined the systolic and diastolic pressure in 100 recorded Korotkoff sound recordings, using a simultaneous electrocardiograph as a reference signal. The recorded Korotkoff sounds were acquired from 25 healthy subjects (16 men and 9 women) with a total of four measurements per subject. Two of these measurements contained purposely induced noise artifact caused by subject movement. Morphological changes in the cuff pressure signal and the width of the Korotkoff pulse were extracted features which were believed to be correlated with the noise presence in the recorded Korotkoff sounds. Verification of reliable Korotkoff pulses was also performed using extracted features from the oscillometric waveform as recorded from the inflatable cuff. The time between an identified noise section and a verified Korotkoff pulse was the key feature used to determine the validity of possible systolic and diastolic pressures in noise contaminated Korotkoff sounds. The performance of the algorithm was assessed based on the ability to: verify if a signal was contaminated with any noise; the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of this noise classification, and the systolic and diastolic pressure differences between the result obtained from the algorithm and the RS. 90% of the actual noise contaminated signals were correctly identified, and a sample-wise accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 97.0%, 80.61% and 98.16%, respectively, were obtained from 100 pooled signals. The mean systolic and diastolic differences were 0.37 ± 3.31 and 3.10 ± 5.46 mmHg, respectively, when the artifact detection algorithm was utilized, with the algorithm correctly determined if the signal was clean enough to attempt an estimation of systolic or diastolic pressures in 93% of blood pressure measurements
Energetic Components of Cooperative Protein Folding
A new lattice protein model with a four-helix bundle ground state is analyzed
by a parameter-space Monte Carlo histogram technique to evaluate the effects of
an extensive variety of model potentials on folding thermodynamics. Cooperative
helical formation and contact energies based on a 5-letter alphabet are found
to be insufficient to satisfy calorimetric and other experimental criteria for
two-state folding. Such proteinlike behaviors are predicted, however, by models
with polypeptide-like local conformational restrictions and
environment-dependent hydrogen bonding-like interactions.Comment: 11 pages, 4 postscripts figures, Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press
Field Strength Formulation of SU(2) Yang-Mills Theory in the Maximal Abelian Gauge: Perturbation Theory
We present a reformulation of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in the maximal Abelian
gauge, where the non-Abelian gauge field components are exactly integrated out
at the expense of a new Abelian tensor field. The latter can be treated in a
semiclassical approximation and the corresponding saddle point equation is
derived. Besides the non-trivial solutions, which are presumably related to
non-perturbative interactions for the Abelian gauge field, the equation of
motion for the tensor fields allows for a trivial solution as well. We show
that the semiclassical expansion around this trivial solution is equivalent to
the standard perturbation theory. In particular, we calculate the one-loop
-function for the running coupling constant in this approach and
reproduce the standard result.Comment: 29 pages LaTeX, 6 postscript figures. Version to be published in Int.
J. Mod. Phys.
Effects of Electromagnetic Field on the Dynamical Instability of Cylindrical Collapse
The objective of this paper is to discuss the dynamical instability in the
context of Newtonian and post Newtonian regimes. For this purpose, we consider
non-viscous heat conducting charged isotropic fluid as a collapsing matter with
cylindrical symmetry. Darmois junction conditions are formulated. The
perturbation scheme is applied to investigate the influence of dissipation and
electromagnetic field on the dynamical instability. We conclude that the
adiabatic index has smaller value for such a fluid in cylindrically
symmetric than isotropic sphere
Knuthian Drawings of Series-Parallel Flowcharts
Inspired by a classic paper by Knuth, we revisit the problem of drawing
flowcharts of loop-free algorithms, that is, degree-three series-parallel
digraphs. Our drawing algorithms show that it is possible to produce Knuthian
drawings of degree-three series-parallel digraphs with good aspect ratios and
small numbers of edge bends.Comment: Full versio
Black string and velocity frame dragging
We investigate velocity frame dragging with the boosted Schwarzschild black
string solution and the boosted Kaluza-Klein bubble solution, in which a
translational symmetry along the boosted -coordinate is implemented. The
velocity frame dragging effect can be nullified by the motion of an observer
using the boost symmetry along the coordinate if it is not compact.
However, in spacetime with the compact coordinate, we show that the effect
cannot be removed since the compactification breaks the global Lorentz boost
symmetry. As a result, the comoving velocity is dependent on and the
momentum parameter along the coordinate becomes an observer independent
characteristic quantity of the black string and bubble solutions. The dragging
induces a spherical ergo-region around the black string.Comment: 8 pages, no figure, some correction
A Model Behind the Standard Model
In spite of its many successes, the Standard Model makes many empirical
assumptions in the Higgs and fermion sectors for which a deeper theoretical
basis is sought. Starting from the usual gauge symmetry plus the 3 assumptions: (A) scalar fields as vielbeins in
internal symmetry space \cite{framevec}, (B) the ``confinement picture'' of
symmetry breaking \cite{tHooft,Banovici}, (C) generations as ``dual'' to colour
\cite{genmixdsm}, we are led to a scheme which offers: (I) a geometrical
significance to scalar fields, (II) a theoretical criterion on what scalar
fields are to be introduced, (III) a partial explanation of why appears
broken while confines, (IV) baryon-lepton number (B - L) conservation,
(V) the standard electroweak structure, (VI) a 3-valued generation index for
leptons and quarks, and (VII) a dynamical system with all the essential
features of an earlier phenomenological model \cite{genmixdsm} which gave a
good description of the known mass and mixing patterns of quarks and leptons
including neutrino oscillations. There are other implications the consistency
of which with experiment, however, has not yet been systematically explored. A
possible outcome is a whole new branch of particle spectroscopy from
confinement, potentially as rich in details as that of hadrons from colour
confinement, which will be accessible to experiment at high energy.Comment: 66 pages, added new material on phenomenology, and some new
reference
Ellipsometric measurements of the refractive indices of linear alkylbenzene and EJ-301 scintillators from 210 to 1000 nm
We report on ellipsometric measurements of the refractive indices of LAB-PPO,
Nd-doped LAB-PPO and EJ-301 scintillators to the nearest +/-0.005, in the
wavelength range 210-1000 nm.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
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