Heart catheter cable and connector

Ultraminiature catheter cables that are stiff enough for intravenous insertion yet flexible at the tip, sterilizable, and economical are fabricated entirely from commercially available parts. Assembly includes air passageway for reference pressures and coaxial cable for transmission of signals from the tip of catheter

Synthesis of polyethers of hexafluorobenzene and hexafluoropentanediol

Two new polyethers, poly /hexafluoropentamethylene tetrafluoro-p-phenylene ether/ and a completely hydroxyl-terminated polyether, is prepared by reactions of hexafluorobenzene with hexafluoropentanediol. The polyethers can be prepared as low molecular weight oils, as intermediate molecular weight waxes, or as high molecular weight elastomers

Particle tunneling through a polarizable insulator

The tunneling probability between two leads connected by a molecule, a chain, a film, or a bulk polarizable insulator is investigated within a model of an electron tunneling from lead A to a state higher in energy, describing the barrier, and from there to lead B. To describe the possibility of energy exchange with excitations of the molecule or the insulator we couple the intermediate state to a single oscillator or to a spectrum of these, respectively. In the single-oscillator case we find for weak coupling that the tunneling is weakly suppressed by a Debye-Waller-type factor. For stronger coupling the oscillator gets 'stiff' and we observe a suppression of tunneling since the effective barrier is increased. The probability for the electron to excite the oscillator increases with the coupling. In the case of a film, or a bulk barrier the behavior is qualitatively the same as in the single oscillator case. An insulating chain, as opposed to a film or a bulk connecting the two leads,shows an 'orthogonality catastrophe' similar to that of an electronic transition in a Fermi gas.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Robust nonparametric estimation via wavelet median regression

In this paper we develop a nonparametric regression method that is simultaneously adaptive over a wide range of function classes for the regression function and robust over a large collection of error distributions, including those that are heavy-tailed, and may not even possess variances or means. Our approach is to first use local medians to turn the problem of nonparametric regression with unknown noise distribution into a standard Gaussian regression problem and then apply a wavelet block thresholding procedure to construct an estimator of the regression function. It is shown that the estimator simultaneously attains the optimal rate of convergence over a wide range of the Besov classes, without prior knowledge of the smoothness of the underlying functions or prior knowledge of the error distribution. The estimator also automatically adapts to the local smoothness of the underlying function, and attains the local adaptive minimax rate for estimating functions at a point. A key technical result in our development is a quantile coupling theorem which gives a tight bound for the quantile coupling between the sample medians and a normal variable. This median coupling inequality may be of independent interest.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOS513 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Nonparametric regression in exponential families

Most results in nonparametric regression theory are developed only for the case of additive noise. In such a setting many smoothing techniques including wavelet thresholding methods have been developed and shown to be highly adaptive. In this paper we consider nonparametric regression in exponential families with the main focus on the natural exponential families with a quadratic variance function, which include, for example, Poisson regression, binomial regression and gamma regression. We propose a unified approach of using a mean-matching variance stabilizing transformation to turn the relatively complicated problem of nonparametric regression in exponential families into a standard homoscedastic Gaussian regression problem. Then in principle any good nonparametric Gaussian regression procedure can be applied to the transformed data. To illustrate our general methodology, in this paper we use wavelet block thresholding to construct the final estimators of the regression function. The procedures are easily implementable. Both theoretical and numerical properties of the estimators are investigated. The estimators are shown to enjoy a high degree of adaptivity and spatial adaptivity with near-optimal asymptotic performance over a wide range of Besov spaces. The estimators also perform well numerically.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOS762 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Evaluation of the cardiovascular system during various circulatory stresses Progress report, 1 Sep. 1968 - 1 May 1969

Cardiac response to chemotherapy after myocardial infraction and diagnostic methods of heart disease in man and animal

Zapotec Language Activism And Talking Dictionaries

Online dictionaries have become a key tool for some indigenous communities to promote and preserve their languages, often in collaboration with linguists. They can provide a pathway for crossing the digital divide and for establishing a first-ever presence on the internet. Many questions around digital lexicography have been explored, although primarily in relation to large and well-resourced languages. Lexical projects on small and under-resourced languages can provide an opportunity to examine these questions from a different perspective and to raise new questions (Mosel, 2011). In this paper, linguists, technical experts, and Zapotec language activists, who have worked together in Mexico and the United States to create a multimedia platform to showcase and preserve lexical, cultural, and environmental knowledge, share their experience and insight in creating trilingual online Talking Dictionaries in several Zapotec languages. These dictionaries sit opposite from big data mining and illustrate the value of dictionary projects based on small corpora, including having the flexibility to make design decisions to maximize community impact and elevate the status of marginalized languages

Constraints on the average magnetic field strength of relic radio sources 0917+75 and 1401-33 from XMM-Newton observations

We observed two relic radio sources, 0917+75 and 1401-33, with the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory. We did not detect any X-ray emission, thermal or non-thermal, in excess of the local background level from either target. This imposes new upper limits on the X-ray flux due to inverse Compton scattering of photons from the cosmic microwave background by relativistic electrons in the relic sources, and new lower limits on the magnetic field strength from the relative strength of the radio and X-ray emission. The combination of radio and X-ray observations provides a measure of the magnetic field independent of equipartition or minimum energy assumptions. Due to increasing sensitivity of radio observations, the known population of cluster relics has been growing; however, studies of non-thermal X-ray emission from relics remain scarce. Our study adds to the small sample of relics studied in X-rays. In both relics, our field strength lower limits are slightly larger than estimates of the equipartition magnetic field.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by MNRA

A new quantum fluid at high magnetic fields in the marginal charge-density-wave system α\alpha-(BEDT-TTF)2M_2MHg(SCN)4_4 (where M=M=~K and Rb)

Single crystals of the organic charge-transfer salts $\alpha$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2M$Hg(SCN)$_4$ have been studied using Hall-potential measurements ($M=$K) and magnetization experiments ($M$ = K, Rb). The data show that two types of screening currents occur within the high-field, low-temperature CDW$_x$ phases of these salts in response to time-dependent magnetic fields. The first, which gives rise to the induced Hall potential, is a free current (${\bf j}_{\rm free}$), present at the surface of the sample. The time constant for the decay of these currents is much longer than that expected from the sample resistivity. The second component of the current appears to be magnetic (${\bf j}_{\rm mag}$), in that it is a microscopic, quasi-orbital effect; it is evenly distributed within the bulk of the sample upon saturation. To explain these data, we propose a simple model invoking a new type of quantum fluid comprising a CDW coexisting with a two-dimensional Fermi-surface pocket which describes the two types of current. The model and data are able to account for the body of previous experimental data which had generated apparently contradictory interpretations in terms of the quantum Hall effect or superconductivity.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure