725 research outputs found
Influence of voluntary standards and design modifications on trampoline injury in Victoria, Australia
© 2015 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Purpose To examine the influence of the voluntary Australian trampoline standard (AS 4989-2006) and market-driven design modifications on relevant trampoline injuries. Methods Trend and intervention analysis on frequencies and proportions of hospital-treated trampoline-related injury in Victoria, Australia, extracted from the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset from 1 July 1999 to 30 June 2013. The injuries relevant to the AS were contact with spring and frame, and multipleuser injury. Falls from trampolines were relevant for netted trampolines, a market-driven modification. Results Frequency of all trampoline injuries increased by 11.4% (95% CI 10.0% to 11.7%) on average each year. Spring and frame, and fall injuries increased to a lesser extent (8.7%, 95% CI 6.9% to 9.8% and 7.3%, 95% CI 5.8% to 8.3%, respectively). Multiple-user injuries increased by 21.0% (95% CI 16.3% to 21.9%). As a proportion of all trampoline injuries, spring and frame injury and falls injury decreased, while multipleuser injuries increased. The intervention analysis showed no significant change in spring and frame injuries associated with the AS (p=0.17). A significant increase was found for multiple-user injuries (p=0.01), in particular for the 0-year to 4-year age group (p<0.0001), post 2007. Conclusions There was little evidence for an effect of the voluntary standard on spring and frame injury and none for multiple-user injury. Netted trampolines appear to be associated with a decrease in falls from trampolines but an increase in injuries to multiple users. A mandated trampoline safety standard and a safety campaign including warnings about multiple users is recommended. Continued monitoring of injury data will be required
Holographic Roberge-Weiss Transitions
We investigate N=4 SYM coupled to fundamental flavours at nonzero imaginary
quark chemical potential in the strong coupling and large N limit, using
gauge/gravity duality applied to the D3-D7 system, treating flavours in the
probe approximation. The interplay between Z(N) symmetry and the imaginary
chemical potential yields a series of first-order Roberge-Weiss transitions. An
additional thermal transition separates phases where quarks are bound/unbound
into mesons. This results in a set of Roberge-Weiss endpoints: we establish
that these are triple points, determine the Roberge-Weiss temperature, give the
curvature of the phase boundaries and confirm that the theory is analytic in
mu^2 when mu^2~0.Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures; minor comments added, to appear in JHE
Cochlear implantation in elderly: indication and results
The aim of the study was to investigate the outcome of CI among elderly cochlear implant recipients. Results from our study have shown that elder patient implanted above 75 yrs can obtain significant hearing benefit from cochlear implantation. Similarly to the results reported by Vermeer1, in our study subjects implanted at elder age show lower scores compared to younger adult implantees
Dynamical Symmetry Breaking in Models with the Yukawa Interaction
We discuss models with a massless fermion and a self-interacting massive
scalar field with the Yukawa interaction. The chiral condensate and the fermion
mass are calculated analytically. It is shown that the models have a phase
transition as a function of the squared mass of the scalar field.Comment: 7 pages, no figures, in Eqs. (7) and (11) one coefficient was change
Low-energy theorems of QCD and bulk viscosity at finite temperature and baryon density in a magnetic field
The nonperturbative QCD vacuum at finite temperature and a finite baryon
density in an external magnetic field is studied. Equations relating
nonperturbative condensates to the thermodynamic pressure for , and are obtained, and low-energy theorems are derived. A bulk
viscosity is expressed in terms of basic thermodynamical
quantities describing the quark-gluon matter at , , and
. Various limiting cases are also considered.Comment: 12 pages; v2: title changed, new section about bulk viscosity and new
references added; v3: new discussion adde
The distribution of equivalent widths in long GRB afterglow spectra
The extreme brightness of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows and their simple
spectral shape make them ideal beacons to study the interstellar medium of
their host galaxies through absorption line spectroscopy. Using 69
low-resolution GRB afterglow spectra, we conduct a study of the rest-frame
equivalent width (EW) distribution of features with an average rest-frame EW
larger than 0.5 A. To compare an individual GRB with the sample, we develop EW
diagrams as a graphical tool, and we give a catalogue with diagrams for the 69
spectra. We introduce a line strength parameter (LSP) that allows us to
quantify the strength of the absorption features as compared to the sample by a
single number. Using the distributions of EWs of single-species features, we
derive the distribution of column densities by a curve of growth (CoG) fit. We
find correlations between the LSP and the extinction of the GRB, the UV
brightness of the host galaxies and the neutral hydrogen column density.
However, we see no significant evolution of the LSP with the redshift. There is
a weak correlation between the ionisation of the absorbers and the energy of
the GRB, indicating that, either the GRB event is responsible for part of the
ionisation, or that galaxies with high-ionisation media produce more energetic
GRBs. Spectral features in GRB spectra are, on average, 2.5 times stronger than
those seen in QSO intervening damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems and slightly
more ionised. In particular we find larger excess in the EW of CIV1549 relative
to QSO DLAs, which could be related to an excess of Wolf-Rayet stars in the
environments of GRBs. From the CoG fitting we obtain an average number of
components in the absorption features of GRBs of 6.00(-1.25,+1.00). The most
extreme ionisation ratios in our sample are found for GRBs with low neutral
hydrogen column density, which could be related to ionisation by the GRB
emission.Comment: 37 pages, 31 figures, 15 tables. Accepted for publication in Astonomy
and Astrophysic
The QCD phase diagram at nonzero quark density
We determine the phase diagram of QCD on the \mu-T plane for small to
moderate chemical potentials. Two transition lines are defined with two
quantities, the chiral condensate and the strange quark number susceptibility.
The calculations are carried out on N_t =6,8 and 10 lattices generated with a
Symanzik improved gauge and stout-link improved 2+1 flavor staggered fermion
action using physical quark masses. After carrying out the continuum
extrapolation we find that both quantities result in a similar curvature of the
transition line. Furthermore, our results indicate that in leading order the
width of the transition region remains essentially the same as the chemical
potential is increased.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
Holographic Roberge-Weiss Transitions II: Defect Theories and the Sakai-Sugimoto Model
We extend the work of Aarts et al., including an imaginary chemical potential
for quark number into the Sakai-Sugimoto model and codimension k defect
theories. The phase diagram of these models are a function of three parameters,
the temperature, chemical potential and the asymptotic separation of the
flavour branes, related to a mass for the quarks in the boundary theories. We
compute the phase diagrams and the pressure due to the flavours of the theories
as a function of these parameters and show that there are Roberge-Weiss
transitions in the high temperature phases, chiral symmetry restored for the
Sakai-Sugimoto model and deconfined for the defect models, while at low
temperatures there are no Roberge-Weiss transitions. In all the models we
consider the transitions between low and high temperature phases are first
order, hence the points where they meet the Roberge-Weiss lines are triple
points. The pressure for the defect theories scales in the way we expect from
dimensional analysis while the Sakai-Sugimoto model exhibits unusual scaling.
We show that the models we consider are analytic in \mu^2 when \mu^2 is small.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures. references added, Sakai-Sugimoto section
revised, version to appear in JHE
Gauge-invariant quark-antiquark nonlocal condensates in lattice QCD
We study, by numerical simulations on a lattice, the behaviour of the
gauge-invariant quark-antiquark nonlocal condensates in the QCD vacuum with
dynamical fermions. A determination is also done in the quenched approximation
and the results are compared with the full-QCD case. The fermionic correlation
length is extracted and compared with the analogous gluonic quantity.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX file, + 6 PS figure
Topological susceptibility in Yang-Mills theory in the vacuum correlator method
We calculate the topological susceptibility of the Yang-Mills vacuum using
the field correlator method. Our estimate for the SU(3) gauge group, \chi^{1/4}
= 196(7) MeV, is in a very good agreement with the results of recent numerical
simulations of the Yang-Mills theory on the lattice.Comment: 5 pages (JETP Letters style
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