1,407 research outputs found
Laparoscopic repair of a large interstitially incarcerated inguinal hernia.
A 68 year old female presented for elective repair of an abdominal wall hernia. Preoperative CT imaging revealed a right inguinal hernia defect with hernia contents coursing cephalad between the external and internal abdominal oblique muscles. This was consistent with an interstitial inguinal hernia, a rare entity outside of post- traumatic hernias. At operation the hernia contents were reduced laparoscopically. The hernia was then repaired by transitioning to the totally extraperitoneal (TEP) approach using a 15cm X 15cm piece of polyester mesh. The patient had an uneventful recovery. Interstitial hernias are rare, difficult to diagnose and potentially dangerous if left untreated. There is no consensus on the ideal repair of these unique hernias. This represents a minimally invasive repair of an unusual hernia, with a novel approach to diagnose and manage the hernia and its redundant sac
The asymmetry of European integration: or why the EU cannot be a "Social Market Economy"
"Judge-made law has played a crucial role in the process of European integration. In the vertical dimension, it has greatly reduced the range of autonomous policy choices in the member states, and it has helped to expand the reach of European competences. At the same time, however, 'Integration through Law' does have a liberalizing and deregulatory impact on the socioeconomic regimes of EU member states. This effect is generally compatible with the status quo in liberal market economies, but it tends to undermine the institutions and policy legacies of Continental and Scandinavian social market economies. Given the high consensus requirements of European legislation, this structural asymmetry cannot be corrected through political action at the European level." (author's abstract
Quantifying the Impacts of Subpixel Reflectance Variability on Cloud Optical Thickness and Effective Radius Retrievals Based On HighResolution ASTER Observations
TOOLS SHAREAbstractRecently, Zhang et al. (2016) presented a mathematical framework based on a secondorder Taylor series expansion in order to quantify the planeparallel homogeneous bias (PPHB) in cloud optical thickness () and effective droplet radius (r(sub eff)) retrieved from the bispectral solar reflective method. This study provides observational validation of the aforementioned framework, using highresolution reflectance observations from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) over 48 marine boundary layer cloud scenes. ASTER reflectances at a horizontal resolution of 30 m are aggregated up to a scale of 1,920 m, providing retrievals of and r(sub eff) at different spatial resolutions. A comparison between the PPHB derived from these retrievals and the predicted PPHB from the mathematical framework reveals a good agreement with correlation coefficients of r > 0.97 (for ) and r > 0.79 (for r(sub eff)). To test the feasibility of PPHB predictions for present and future satellite missions, a scale analysis with varying horizontal resolutions of the subpixel and pixellevel observations is performed, followed by tests of corrections with only limited observational highresolution data. It is shown that for reasonably thick clouds with a mean subpixel larger than 5, correlations between observed and predicted PPHB remain high, even if the number of available subpixels decreases or just a single band provides the information about subpixel reflectance variability. Only for thin clouds the predicted r(sub eff) become less reliable, which can be attributed primarily to an increased retrieval uncertainty for r(sub eff)
Intensity of Coulomb Interaction between quasiparticles in diffusive metallic wires
The energy dependence and intensity of Coulomb interaction between
quasiparticles in metallic wires is obtained from two different methods:
determination of the temperature dependence of the phase coherence time from
the magnetoresistance, and measurements of the energy distribution function in
out-of-equilibrium situations. In both types of experiment, the energy
dependence of the Coulomb interaction is found to be in excellent agreement
with theoretical predictions. In contrast, the intensity of the interaction
agrees closely with theory only with the first method, whereas an important
discrepancy is found using the second one. Different explanations are proposed,
and results of a test experiment are presented.Comment: Submitted to Solid States Communication
Scaling analysis of Schottky barriers at metal-embedded semiconducting carbon nanotube interfaces
We present an atomistic self-consistent tight-binding study of the electronic
and transport properties of metal-semiconducting carbon nanotube interfaces as
a function of the nanotube channel length when the end of the nanotube wire is
buried inside the electrodes. We show that the lineup of the nanotube band
structure relative to the metal Fermi-level depends strongly on the metal work
function but weakly on the details of the interface. We analyze the
length-dependent transport characteristics, which predicts a transition from
tunneling to thermally-activated transport with increasing nanotube channel
length.Comment: To appear in Phys.Rev.B Rapid Communications. Color figures available
in PRB online versio
Helix vs. Sheet Formation in a Small Peptide
Segments with the amino acid sequence EKAYLRT appear in natural occurring
proteins both in -helices and -sheets. For this reason, we have
use this peptide to study how secondary structure formation in proteins depends
on the local environment. Our data rely on multicanonical Monte Carlo
simulations where the interactions among all atoms are taken into account.
Results in gas phase are compared with that in an implicit solvent. We find
that both in gas phase and solvated EKAYLRT forms an -helix when not
interacting with other molecules. However, in the vicinity of a -strand,
the peptide forms a -strand. Because of this change in secondary
structure our peptide may provide a simple model for the
transition that is supposedly related to the outbreak of Prion diseases and
similar illnesses.Comment: to appear in Physical Review
Probing interactions in mesoscopic gold wires
We have measured in gold wires the energy exchange rate between
quasiparticles, the phase coherence time of quasiparticles and the resistance
vs. temperature, in order to probe the interaction processes which are relevant
at low temperatures. We find that the energy exchange rate is higher than
expected from the theory of electron-electron interactions, and that it has a
different energy dependence. The dephasing time is constant at temperatures
between 8 K and 0.5 K, and it increases below 0.5 K. The magnetoresistance is
negative at large field scales, and the resistance decreases logarithmically
with increasing temperatures, indicating the presence of magnetic impurities,
probably Fe. Whereas resistivity and phase coherence measurements can be
attributed to magnetic impurities, the question is raised whether these
magnetic impurities could also mediate energy exchanges between quasiparticles.Comment: latex pothier.tex, 12 files, 15 pages in: Proceedings of the NATO
Advanced Research Workshop on Size Dependent Magnetic Scattering, Pesc,
Hungary, May 28 - June 1st, 2000 Chandrasekhar V., Van Haesendonck C. eds
(Kluwer, 2001) [SPEC-S00/083
Electron Dephasing in Mesoscopic Metal Wires
The low-temperature behavior of the electron phase coherence time,
, in mesoscopic metal wires has been a subject of controversy
recently. Whereas theory predicts that in narrow wires should
increase as as the temperature is lowered, many samples exhibit
a saturation of below about 1 K. We review here the experiments
we have performed recently to address this issue. In particular we emphasize
that in sufficiently pure Ag and Au samples we observe no saturation of
down to our base temperature of 40 mK. In addition, the measured
magnitude of is in excellent quantitative agreement with the
prediction of the perturbative theory of Altshuler, Aronov and Khmelnitskii. We
discuss possible explanations why saturation of is observed in
many other samples measured in our laboratory and elsewhere, and answer the
criticisms raised recently by Mohanty and Webb regarding our work.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures; to appear in proceedings of conference
"Fundamental Problems of Mesoscopic Physics", Granada, Spain, 6-11 September,
200
Ab-initio theory of NMR chemical shifts in solids and liquids
We present a theory for the ab-initio computation of NMR chemical shifts
(sigma) in condensed matter systems, using periodic boundary conditions. Our
approach can be applied to periodic systems such as crystals, surfaces, or
polymers and, with a super-cell technique, to non-periodic systems such as
amorphous materials, liquids, or solids with defects. We have computed the
hydrogen sigma for a set of free molecules, for an ionic crystal, LiH, and for
a H-bonded crystal, HF, using density functional theory in the local density
approximation. The results are in excellent agreement with experimental data.Comment: to appear in Physical Review Letter
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