12,331 research outputs found
Analysis of electroencephalograms in Alzheimer's disease patients with multiscale entropy
The aim of this study was to analyse the electroencephalogram (EEG) background activity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients using the Multiscale Entropy (MSE). The MSE is a recently developed method that quantifies the regularity of a signal on different time scales. These time scales are inspected by means of several coarse-grained sequences formed from the analysed signals. We recorded the EEGs from 19 scalp electrodes in 11 AD patients and 11 age-matched controls and estimated the MSE profile for each epoch of the EEG recordings. The shape of the MSE profiles reveals the EEG complexity, and it suggests that the EEG contains information in deeper scales than the smallest one. Moreover, the results showed that the EEG background activity is less complex in AD patients than control subjects. We found significant difference
Granular Rheology in Zero Gravity
We present an experimental investigation on the rheological behavior of model
granular media made of nearly elastic spherical particles. The experiments are
performed in a cylindrical Couette geometry and the experimental device is
placed inside an airplane undergoing parabolic flights to cancel the effect of
gravity. The corresponding curves, shear stress versus shear rate, are
presented and a comparison with existing theories is proposed. The quadratic
dependence on the shear rate is clearly shown and the behavior as a function of
the solid volume fraction of particles exhibits a power law function. It is
shown that theoretical predictions overestimate the experiments. We observe, at
intermediate volume fractions, the formation of rings of particles regularly
spaced along the height of the cell. The differences observed between
experimental results and theoretical predictions are discussed and related to
the structures formed in the granular medium submitted to the external shear.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures to be published in Journal of Physics : Condensed
Matte
Independent evaluation of a simple clinical prediction rule to identify right ventricular dysfunction in patients with shortness of breath
BACKGROUND:
Many patients have unexplained persistent dyspnea after negative computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA). We hypothesized that many of these patients have isolated right ventricular (RV) dysfunction from treatable causes. We previously derived a clinical decision rule (CDR) for predicting RV dysfunction consisting of persistent dyspnea and normal CTPA, finding that 53% of CDR-positive patients had isolated RV dysfunction. Our goal is to validate this previously derived CDR by measuring the prevalence of RV dysfunction and outcomes in dyspneic emergency department patients.
METHODS:
A secondary analysis of a prospective observational multicenter study that enrolled patients presenting with suspected PE was performed. We included patients with persistent dyspnea, a nonsignificant CTPA, and formal echo performed. Right ventricular dysfunction was defined as RV hypokinesis and/or dilation with or without moderate to severe tricuspid regurgitation.
RESULTS:
A total of 7940 patients were enrolled. Two thousand six hundred sixteen patients were analyzed after excluding patients without persistent dyspnea and those with a significant finding on CTPA. One hundred ninety eight patients had echocardiography performed as standard care. Of those, 19% (95% confidence interval [CI], 14%-25%) and 33% (95% CI, 25%-42%) exhibited RV dysfunction and isolated RV dysfunction, respectively. Patients with isolated RV dysfunction or overload were more likely than those without RV dysfunction to have a return visit to the emergency department within 45 days for the same complaint (39% vs 18%; 95% CI of the difference, 4%-38%).
CONCLUSION:
This simple clinical prediction rule predicted a 33% prevalence of isolated RV dysfunction or overload. Patients with isolated RV dysfunction had higher recidivism rates and a trend toward worse outcomes
Heavy- to light-meson transition form factors
Semileptonic heavy -> heavy and heavy -> light meson transitions are studied
as a phenomenological application of a heavy-quark limit of Dyson-Schwinger
equations. Employing two parameters: E, the difference between the mass of the
heavy meson and the effective-mass of the heavy quark; and Lambda, the width of
the heavy-meson Bethe-Salpeter amplitude, we calculate f_+(t) for all decays on
their entire kinematically accessible t-domain. Our study favours f_B in the
range 0.135-0.17 GeV and with E=0.44 GeV and 1/Lambda = 0.14 fm we obtain
f_+^{B pi}(0) = 0.46. As a result of neglecting 1/m_c-corrections, we estimate
that our calculated values of \rho^2 = 0.87 and f_+^{DK}(0)=0.62 are too low by
approximately 15%. However, the bulk of these corrections should cancel in our
calculated values of Br(D -> \pi l nu)/Br(D -> K l nu)=0.13 and f_+^{D
pi}(0)/f_+^{DK}(0) = 1.16.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, REVTE
Instability of the symmetric Couette-flow in a granular gas: hydrodynamic field profiles and transport
We investigate the inelastic hard disk gas sheared by two parallel bumpy
walls (Couette-flow). In our molecular dynamic simulations we found a
sensitivity to the asymmetries of the initial condition of the particle places
and velocities and an asymmetric stationary state, where the deviation from
(anti)symmetric hydrodynamic fields is stronger as the normal restitution
coefficient decreases. For the better understanding of this sensitivity we
carried out a linear stability analysis of the former kinetic theoretical
solution [Jenkins and Richman: J. Fluid. Mech. {\bf 171} (1986)] and found it
to be unstable. The effect of this asymmetry on the self-diffusion coefficient
is also discussed.Comment: 9 pages RevTeX, 14 postscript figures, sent to Phys. Rev.
Scaling Behaviour and Complexity of the Portevin-Le Chatelier Effect
The plastic deformation of dilute alloys is often accompanied by plastic
instabilities due to dynamic strain aging and dislocation interaction. The
repeated breakaway of dislocations from and their recapture by solute atoms
leads to stress serrations and localized strain in the strain controlled
tensile tests, known as the Portevin-Le Chatelier (PLC) effect. In this present
work, we analyse the stress time series data of the observed PLC effect in the
constant strain rate tensile tests on Al-2.5%Mg alloy for a wide range of
strain rates at room temperature. The scaling behaviour of the PLC effect was
studied using two complementary scaling analysis methods: the finite variance
scaling method and the diffusion entropy analysis. From these analyses we could
establish that in the entire span of strain rates, PLC effect showed Levy walk
property. Moreover, the multiscale entropy analysis is carried out on the
stress time series data observed during the PLC effect to quantify the
complexity of the distinct spatiotemporal dynamical regimes. It is shown that
for the static type C band, the entropy is very low for all the scales compared
to the hopping type B and the propagating type A bands. The results are
interpreted considering the time and length scales relevant to the effect.Comment: 35 pages, 6 figure
A novel codon insert in protease of clade B HIV type 1.
A novel combination of three codon inserts in the pol coding region of HIV-1 RNA was identified in a highly antiretroviral experienced study subject with HIV-1 infection. A one codon insert was observed in the protease region between codon 40 and 41 simultaneously with a two codon insert present in the reverse transcriptase region at codon 69
Semileptonic B decays to excited charmed mesons
Exclusive semileptonic B decays into excited charmed mesons are investigated
at order in the heavy quark effective theory. Differential
decay rates for each helicity state of the four lightest excited mesons
(, , , and ) are examined. At zero recoil,
corrections to the matrix elements of the weak currents can
be written in terms of the leading Isgur-Wise functions for the corresponding
transition and meson mass splittings. A model independent prediction is found
for the slope parameter of the decay rate into helicity zero at zero
recoil. The differential decay rates are predicted, including
corrections with some model dependence away from zero
recoil and including order corrections. Ratios of various exclusive
branching ratios are computed. Matrix elements of the weak currents between
mesons and other excited charmed mesons are discussed at zero recoil to order
. These amplitudes vanish at leading order, and can be
written at order in terms of local matrix elements.
Applications to decay sum rules and factorization are presented.Comment: 39 pages revtex including 10 figures, uses epsf. Substantial
improvements throughout the pape
An algorithmic approach to the existence of ideal objects in commutative algebra
The existence of ideal objects, such as maximal ideals in nonzero rings,
plays a crucial role in commutative algebra. These are typically justified
using Zorn's lemma, and thus pose a challenge from a computational point of
view. Giving a constructive meaning to ideal objects is a problem which dates
back to Hilbert's program, and today is still a central theme in the area of
dynamical algebra, which focuses on the elimination of ideal objects via
syntactic methods. In this paper, we take an alternative approach based on
Kreisel's no counterexample interpretation and sequential algorithms. We first
give a computational interpretation to an abstract maximality principle in the
countable setting via an intuitive, state based algorithm. We then carry out a
concrete case study, in which we give an algorithmic account of the result that
in any commutative ring, the intersection of all prime ideals is contained in
its nilradical
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