Coalescence in the 1D Cahn-Hilliard model

We present an approximate analytical solution of the Cahn-Hilliard equation describing the coalescence during a first order phase transition. We have identified all the intermediate profiles, stationary solutions of the noiseless Cahn-Hilliard equation. Using properties of the soliton lattices, periodic solutions of the Ginzburg-Landau equation, we have construct a family of ansatz describing continuously the processus of destabilization and period doubling predicted in Langer's self similar scenario

Spinodal decomposition of off-critical quenches with a viscous phase using dissipative particle dynamics in two and three spatial dimensions

We investigate the domain growth and phase separation of hydrodynamically-correct binary immiscible fluids of differing viscosity as a function of minority phase concentration in both two and three spatial dimensions using dissipative particle dynamics. We also examine the behavior of equal-viscosity fluids and compare our results to similar lattice-gas simulations in two dimensions.Comment: 34 pages (11 figures); accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Triangulations and Severi varieties

We consider the problem of constructing triangulations of projective planes over Hurwitz algebras with minimal numbers of vertices. We observe that the numbers of faces of each dimension must be equal to the dimensions of certain representations of the automorphism groups of the corresponding Severi varieties. We construct a complex involving these representations, which should be considered as a geometric version of the (putative) triangulations

Computer simulations of domain growth and phase separation in two-dimensional binary immiscible fluids using dissipative particle dynamics

We investigate the dynamical behavior of binary fluid systems in two dimensions using dissipative particle dynamics. We find that following a symmetric quench the domain size R(t) grows with time t according to two distinct algebraic laws R(t) = t^n: at early times n = 1/2, while for later times n = 2/3. Following an asymmetric quench we observe only n = 1/2, and if momentum conservation is violated we see n = 1/3 at early times. Bubble simulations confirm the existence of a finite surface tension and the validity of Laplace's law. Our results are compared with similar simulations which have been performed previously using molecular dynamics, lattice-gas and lattice-Boltzmann automata, and Langevin dynamics. We conclude that dissipative particle dynamics is a promising method for simulating fluid properties in such systems.Comment: RevTeX; 22 pages, 5 low-resolution figures. For full-resolution figures, connect to http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~ken21/tension/tension.htm

Three-dimensional lattice-Boltzmann simulations of critical spinodal decomposition in binary immiscible fluids

We use a modified Shan-Chen, noiseless lattice-BGK model for binary immiscible, incompressible, athermal fluids in three dimensions to simulate the coarsening of domains following a deep quench below the spinodal point from a symmetric and homogeneous mixture into a two-phase configuration. We find the average domain size growing with time as $t^\gamma$, where $\gamma$ increases in the range $0.545 < \gamma < 0.717$, consistent with a crossover between diffusive $t^{1/3}$ and hydrodynamic viscous, $t^{1.0}$, behaviour. We find good collapse onto a single scaling function, yet the domain growth exponents differ from others' works' for similar values of the unique characteristic length and time that can be constructed out of the fluid's parameters. This rebuts claims of universality for the dynamical scaling hypothesis. At early times, we also find a crossover from $q^2$ to $q^4$ in the scaled structure function, which disappears when the dynamical scaling reasonably improves at later times. This excludes noise as the cause for a $q^2$ behaviour, as proposed by others. We also observe exponential temporal growth of the structure function during the initial stages of the dynamics and for wavenumbers less than a threshold value.Comment: 45 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Reliability and validity of PedsQL for Portuguese children aged 5–7 and 8–12 years

BACKGROUND: Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) is a measure to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children and adolescents. It is formed by 23 items adapted to children age and includes a parent proxy report version. With four multidimensional subscales and three summary scores, it measures health as defined by WHO. The concepts measured by this instrument are ‘physical functioning’ (8 items), ‘emotional functioning’ (5 items), ‘social functioning’ (5 items) and ‘school functioning’ (5 items). It also measures a ‘total scale score’ (23 items), a ‘physical health summary score’ (8 items) and a ‘psychosocial health summary score’ (15 items). The aim of this paper is to present the main results of the cultural adaptation and validation of the PedsQL into European Portuguese. METHODS: The Portuguese version was the result of a forward-backward translation process, with a cognitive debriefing analysis, guaranteeing face validity and semantic equivalence. Children aged 5–7 and 8–12 were randomly selected and were asked to fill a socio-demographic data survey and the Portuguese versions of PedsQL and KINDL, another HRQoL measure for children and adolescents. They were divided into three groups, healthy children, children with type I diabetes and children with spina bifida. The reliability was tested for reproducibility (ICC) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha). The construct validity (known-groups discriminant validity) was supported by differences between self-reports from healthy children and children with chronic conditions, and from children with chronic diseases and their parents. The criterion validity was tested after the correlations of the scores obtained by both children and adolescents HRQoL assessment instruments. RESULTS: A total of 179 children and 97 parents were recruited. PedsQL demonstrated good levels of reproducibility (r > 0.95 in all versions) and acceptable levels of internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha at 0.70 on most scales. Concordance values between children’s and parents’ perceptions ranged between 0.36 and 0.78 and the correlations with KINDL questionnaire were excellent, supporting concurrent validity. CONCLUSIONS: The Portuguese version of the PedsQL demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties for future research and clinical practice for children aged 5–12

Распознавание областей текста с персональными данными на диагностических изображениях

The aim of the study is to develop a method for detecting areas of text with private data on medical diagnostic images using the Tesseract module and the modified Levenshtein distance.Materials and methods. For threshold filtering, the brightness of the points belonging to the text characters in the images is determined at the initial stage. The dynamic threshold is calculated from the histogram of the brightness of the pixels of the image. Next, the Tesseract module is used for primary text recognition. Based on the tag values from DICOM files, a set of strings was formed to search for them in the recognized text. A modified Levenshtein distance was used to search for these strings. A set of DICOM files of the “Dose Report” type was used to test the algorithm. The accuracy was assessed by experts marking up blocks of private information on images.Results. A tool has been developed with a set of metrics and optimal thresholds for choosing decisive rules in finding matches that allow detecting areas of text with private data on medical images. For this tool, the accuracy of localization of areas with personal data on a set of 1131 medical images was determined in comparison with expert markup, which is 99.86%.Conclusion. The tool developed within the framework of this study allows identifying personal data on digital medical images with high accuracy, which indicates the possibility of its practical application in the preparation of data sets.Цель исследования: разработка метода обнаружения областей текста с приватными данными на медицинских диагностических изображениях при помощи модуля Tesseract и модифицированного расстояния Левенштейна.Материал и методы. Для пороговой фильтрации на начальном этапе определяется яркость точек, принадлежащих символам текста на изображениях. Динамический порог вычисляется по гистограмме яркостей пикселей изображения. Далее для первичного распознавания текста используется модуль Tesseract. На основании значений тэгов из DICOM-файлов формировался набор строк для поиска их в распознанном тексте. Для поиска этих строк использовалось модифицированное расстояние Левенштейна. Для тестирования алгоритма применялся набор DICOM файлов типа “Dose Report” модальности CT. Оценку точности проводили эксперты, размечающие блоки приватной информации на изображениях.Результаты. Разработан инструмент с набором метрик и оптимальных порогов для выбора решающих правил в нахождении совпадений, позволяющих обнаруживать области текста с приватными данными на медицинских изображениях. Для этого инструмента определена точность локализации областей с личными данными по сравнению с экспертной разметкой, которая составляет 99,86%.Заключение. Разработанный в рамках настоящего исследования инструмент позволяет выявлять персональные данные на цифровых медицинских изображениях с высокой точностью, что указывает на возможность его практического применения при подготовке наборов данных