520 research outputs found
Chern-Simons theory and three-dimensional surfaces
There are two natural Chern-Simons theories associated with the embedding of
a three-dimensional surface in Euclidean space; one is constructed using the
induced metric connection -- it involves only the intrinsic geometry, the other
is extrinsic and uses the connection associated with the gauging of normal
rotations. As such, the two theories appear to describe very different aspects
of the surface geometry. Remarkably, at a classical level, they are equivalent.
In particular, it will be shown that their stress tensors differ only by a null
contribution. Their Euler-Lagrange equations provide identical constraints on
the normal curvature. A new identity for the Cotton tensor is associated with
the triviality of the Chern-Simons theory for embedded hypersurfaces implied by
this equivalence. The corresponding null surface stress capturing this
information will be constructed explicitly.Comment: 10 pages, unnecessary details removed, typos fixed, references adde
Phrenology report of Francis Cotton by A.S. Hamilton, Tasmania 1856
Phrenology report in 1856 by A.S. Hamilton on Francis Cotton who assumed the name William Thompson and the dress of a 'seafaring man ... so as to prevent if possible, any personal knowledge or bias through an oral report.
Automatic polyp detection and measurement with computed tomographic colonography: A phantom study
Forces between clustered stereocilia minimize friction in the ear on a subnanometre scale
The detection of sound begins when energy derived from acoustic stimuli
deflects the hair bundles atop hair cells. As hair bundles move, the viscous
friction between stereocilia and the surrounding liquid poses a fundamental
challenge to the ear's high sensitivity and sharp frequency selectivity. Part
of the solution to this problem lies in the active process that uses energy for
frequency-selective sound amplification. Here we demonstrate that a
complementary part involves the fluid-structure interaction between the liquid
within the hair bundle and the stereocilia. Using force measurement on a
dynamically scaled model, finite-element analysis, analytical estimation of
hydrodynamic forces, stochastic simulation and high-resolution interferometric
measurement of hair bundles, we characterize the origin and magnitude of the
forces between individual stereocilia during small hair-bundle deflections. We
find that the close apposition of stereocilia effectively immobilizes the
liquid between them, which reduces the drag and suppresses the relative
squeezing but not the sliding mode of stereociliary motion. The obliquely
oriented tip links couple the mechanotransduction channels to this least
dissipative coherent mode, whereas the elastic horizontal top connectors
stabilize the structure, further reducing the drag. As measured from the
distortion products associated with channel gating at physiological stimulation
amplitudes of tens of nanometres, the balance of forces in a hair bundle
permits a relative mode of motion between adjacent stereocilia that encompasses
only a fraction of a nanometre. A combination of high-resolution experiments
and detailed numerical modelling of fluid-structure interactions reveals the
physical principles behind the basic structural features of hair bundles and
shows quantitatively how these organelles are adapted to the needs of sensitive
mechanotransduction.Comment: 21 pages, including 3 figures. For supplementary information, please
see the online version of the article at http://www.nature.com/natur
Determinants of patient recruitment in a multicenter clinical trials group: trends, seasonality and the effect of large studies
BACKGROUND: We examined whether quarterly patient enrollment in a large multicenter clinical trials group could be modeled in terms of predictors including time parameters (such as long-term trends and seasonality), the effect of large trials and the number of new studies launched each quarter. We used the database of all clinical studies launched by the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) between October 1986 and November 1999. Analyses were performed in two datasets: one included all studies and substudies (n = 475, total enrollment 69,992 patients) and the other included only main studies (n = 352, total enrollment 57,563 patients). RESULTS: Enrollment differed across different months of the year with peaks in spring and late fall. Enrollment accelerated over time (+27 patients per quarter for all studies and +16 patients per quarter for the main studies, p < 0.001) and was affected by the performance of large studies with target sample size > 1,000 (p < 0.001). These relationships remained significant in multivariate autoregressive modeling. A time series based on enrollment during the first 32 quarters could forecast adequately the remaining 21 quarters. CONCLUSIONS: The fate and popularity of large trials may determine the overall recruitment of multicenter groups. Modeling of enrollment rates may be used to comprehend long-term patterns and to perform future strategic planning
Towards an ecology of collective innovation: Human variome project (HVP), rare disease consortium for autosomal loci (RADical) and data-enabled life sciences alliance (DELSA)
Disclosure, stigma of HIV positive child and access to early infant diagnosis in the rural communities of OR Tambo District, South Africa: a qualitative exploration of maternal perspective
Calculating the energy spectra of magnetic molecules: application of real- and spin-space symmetries
The determination of the energy spectra of small spin systems as for instance
given by magnetic molecules is a demanding numerical problem. In this work we
review numerical approaches to diagonalize the Heisenberg Hamiltonian that
employ symmetries; in particular we focus on the spin-rotational symmetry SU(2)
in combination with point-group symmetries. With these methods one is able to
block-diagonalize the Hamiltonian and thus to treat spin systems of
unprecedented size. In addition it provides a spectroscopic labeling by
irreducible representations that is helpful when interpreting transitions
induced by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
(NMR) or Inelastic Neutron Scattering (INS). It is our aim to provide the
reader with detailed knowledge on how to set up such a diagonalization scheme.Comment: 29 pages, many figure
Treatments for reversing warfarin anticoagulation in patients with acute intracranial hemorrhage: a structured literature review
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