Bench-to-bedside review: The importance of the precision of the reference technique in method comparison studies - with specific reference to the measurement of cardiac output

Bland-Altman analysis is used for assessing agreement between two measurements of the same clinical variable. In the field of cardiac output monitoring, its results, in terms of bias and limits of agreement, are often difficult to interpret, leading clinicians to use a cutoff of 30% in the percentage error in order to decide whether a new technique may be considered a good alternative. This percentage error of ± 30% arises from the assumption that the commonly used reference technique, intermittent thermodilution, has a precision of ± 20% or less. The combination of two precisions of ± 20% equates to a total error of ± 28.3%, which is commonly rounded up to ± 30%. Thus, finding a percentage error of less than ± 30% should equate to the new tested technique having an error similar to the reference, which therefore should be acceptable. In a worked example in this paper, we discuss the limitations of this approach, in particular in regard to the situation in which the reference technique may be either more or less precise than would normally be expected. This can lead to inappropriate conclusions being drawn from data acquired in validation studies of new monitoring technologies. We conclude that it is not acceptable to present comparison studies quoting percentage error as an acceptability criteria without reporting the precision of the reference technique

Ferromagnetic 0-pi Junctions as Classical Spins

The ground state of highly damped PdNi based 0-pi ferromagnetic Josephson junctions shows a spontaneous half quantum vortex, sustained by a supercurrent of undetermined sign. This supercurrent flows in the electrode of a Josephson junction used as a detector and produces a phi(0)/4 shift in its magnetic diffraction pattern. We have measured the statistics of the positive or negative sign shift occurring at the superconducting transition of such a junction. The randomness of the shift sign, the reproducibility of its magnitude and the possibility of achieving exact flux compensation upon field cooling: all these features show that 0-pi junctions behave as classical spins, just as magnetic nanoparticles with uniaxial anisotropy.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Conductance fluctuations in metallic nanogaps made by electromigration

We report on low temperature conductance measurements of gold nanogaps fabricated by controlled electromigration. Fluctuations of the conductance due to quantum interferences and depending both on bias voltage and magnetic field are observed. By analyzing the voltage and magnetoconductance correlation functions we determine the type of electron trajectories generating the observed quantum interferences and the effective characteristic time of phase coherence in our device.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in J. Appl. Phy

On Graph Refutation for Relational Inclusions

We introduce a graphical refutation calculus for relational inclusions: it reduces establishing a relational inclusion to establishing that a graph constructed from it has empty extension. This sound and complete calculus is conceptually simpler and easier to use than the usual ones.Comment: In Proceedings LSFA 2011, arXiv:1203.542

Effects of natural and seminatural elements on the composition and dispersion of carabid beetles inhabiting an agroecosystem in Northern Italy

The natural and seminatural components of agricultural landscapes play a key role in maintaining a high level of biodiversity. Being the Po Valley one of the most human-dominated and intensively cultivated landscapes in Europe, we investigated the effect of no-crop habitats on carabid richness and composition and evaluated the role of tree row as corridor for forest carabid dispersion. Carabids were sampled with 70 pitfall traps arranged in 35 sampling plots along three parallel transects (80, 100, and 140 m long) and encompassing five different habitats: tree row, tree row edge, grassland, forest edge, and forest. We found 5,615 individuals belonging to 55 species. Despite the similarity in species richness, all the habitats investigated showed a peculiar and distinct species assemblage. The main distinction was between the "open habitat" cluster composed of grassland and tree row edge and the “forest" cluster composed of forest, tree row, and forest edge. We found that forest species are able to penetrate the grassland matrix up to 30 m from the forest edge and that a distance of no more than 60 m between tree row and forest can allow the passage of up to 50% of the forest species. Beyond this distance, the grassland matrix becomes a barrier, preventing them from reaching other suitable habitats. Our findings confirm the importance of maintaining different types of natural habitats to significantly increase biodiversity in an intensively cultivated agroecosystem and demonstrated the role of linear elements as a corridor and “stepping stones” for many forest species

Estudio comparativo de la congelación de papa (Solanum tuberosum L.) sometida a diferentes pretratamientos

Se estudió la historia térmica del proceso de congelación de papas frescas y pretratadas por los siguientes tratamientos: deshidratación osmótica, por escaldado y posterior microondas y deshidratación osmótica seguida de microondas. Las papas pretratadas disminuyen su contenido de agua durante los diferentes procesos y por consiguiente, el posterior proceso de congelación requiere tiempos de congelación menores y de esta manera se pueden lograr ahorros energéticos importantes. Los tiempos de congelación se estimaron muy satisfactoriamente aplicando la ecuación de Salvadori-Mascheroni y se compararon con los experimentales. Los errores son inferiores al 8%. Las papas pretratadas por deshidratación osmótica y microondas exhibieron un tiempo de congelación 9 minutos inferior al de las papas frescas.The thermal history of freezing fresh and pre-treated potatoes was studied by the following treatments: osmotic dehydration, scald and later microwave and osmotic dehydration followed by microwave. Pre-treated potatoes reduce its water content during the different processes and therefore the subsequent process of freezing requires lower freezing times and in this way, significant energy savings can be achieved. The freezing times were estimated very satisfactorily by applying the equation of Salvadori - Mascheroni and were compared with the experimental ones. The errors are lower than 8%. Pre-treated potatoes by osmodehydration and then microwave exhibit a freezing time 9 minutes lower than the fresh potatoes one.Fil: Della Rocca, Patricia A.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Roche, Luis Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigaciones en Criotecnología de Alimentos (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Mascheroni, Rodolfo Horacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigaciones en Criotecnología de Alimentos (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; Argentin

Estudio de la transferencia de agua durante la deshidratación osmótica de zanahoria

Se estudió la cinética de deshidratación y la ganancia de sólidos de cubos de zanahoria en solución de sacarosa y sal a una temperatura de 40 °C. Se aplicaron modelos empíricos para describir el proceso de transferencia de agua desde el alimento hacia la solución como los de Azuara, Page y uno teórico, basado en la segunda ley de difusión de Fick, el modelo de Crank. Todos ajustaron los datos experimentales de manera satisfactoria, siendo los dos primeros los que presentaron un mejor ajuste. Se estimó el coeficiente de difusión efectiva del agua y el valor obtenido fue de aproximadamente 1,5x10-9 m2 /s, similar a los hallados en la literatura en condiciones análogas.The osmotic dehydration kinetic and the solid uptake of carrots cubes in a sucrose-salt solution at a temperature of 40 °C were studied. Empiric models were applied to describe the process of water transfer from the product to the solution. All the models: Azuara, Page and Crank adjust the experimental data in a satisfactory way, being the two first models which adjust better. The water diffusion effective coefficient was estimated and the value obtained was 1,5x 10-9 m2 /s, similar to that found in the literature in analogous conditions.Fil: Della Rocca, Patricia A.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Roche, Luis Alberto. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigaciones en Criotecnología de Alimentos (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas; ArgentinaFil: Mascheroni, Rodolfo Horacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigaciones en Criotecnología de Alimentos (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; Argentin

Measurement of the current-phase relation of superconducting atomic contacts

We have probed the current-phase relation of an atomic contact placed with a tunnel junction in a small superconducting loop. The measurements are in quantitative agreement with the predictions of a resistively shunted SQUID model in which the Josephson coupling of the contact is calculated using the independently determined transmissions of its conduction channels.Comment: to be published in Physical Review Letter