1,197 research outputs found
A saturation property of structures obtained by forcing with a compact family of random variables
A method how to construct Boolean-valued models of some fragments of
arithmetic was developed in Krajicek (2011), with the intended applications in
bounded arithmetic and proof complexity. Such a model is formed by a family of
random variables defined on a pseudo-finite sample space. We show that under a
fairly natural condition on the family (called compactness in K.(2011)) the
resulting structure has a property that is naturally interpreted as saturation
for existential types. We also give an example showing that this cannot be
extended to universal types.Comment: preprint February 201
Green Building in the Pacific Northwest: Next Steps for an Emerging Trend
This report provides an understanding of why green building is important to our communities, a brief look at the emergence of green building standards, research evidence on the perceived pros and cons of green building, and original research on green building in the Pacific Northwest. The original research is an analysis of perspectives voiced in conversations, focus groups and surveys with both members of the construction industry and local government on the barriers and incentives to green building in their local communities. As nearly 500 construction industry members and just over 300 local governments participated in the research, this report encompasses, perhaps for the fi rst time, one of the largest examinations of the aggregated voices of both the public and private sector on factors that aff ect green building. Green house gas emissions from commercial buildings are growing at a faster than average annual rate – 1.8% higher – than either transportation or residential emission rates. This trend alone provides strong justification to take a close look at the factors that may help change this dynamic
On Recurrent Reachability for Continuous Linear Dynamical Systems
The continuous evolution of a wide variety of systems, including
continuous-time Markov chains and linear hybrid automata, can be described in
terms of linear differential equations. In this paper we study the decision
problem of whether the solution of a system of linear
differential equations reaches a target
halfspace infinitely often. This recurrent reachability problem can
equivalently be formulated as the following Infinite Zeros Problem: does a
real-valued function satisfying a
given linear differential equation have infinitely many zeros? Our main
decidability result is that if the differential equation has order at most ,
then the Infinite Zeros Problem is decidable. On the other hand, we show that a
decision procedure for the Infinite Zeros Problem at order (and above)
would entail a major breakthrough in Diophantine Approximation, specifically an
algorithm for computing the Lagrange constants of arbitrary real algebraic
numbers to arbitrary precision.Comment: Full version of paper at LICS'1
Effect of psychiatry liaison with general practitioners on depression severity in recently hospitalised cardiac patients: a randomised controlled trial
The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia (26 April 2007). An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Objective: To evaluate the effect on depressive symptoms in cardiac patients of patient-specific advice to general practitioners regarding management of comorbid depression. Design and setting: A randomised controlled trial in four general hospitals in Adelaide, South Australia. Participants: Patients (n = 669) admitted to cardiology units for a range of cardiovascular conditions who were screened and assessed as being depressed according to the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Intervention: Inpatient psychiatric review, followed by telephone case conferencing between specialist hospital staff and GPs to provide patient-specific information about the patient’s depression and its management, educational material, and ongoing clinical support. Main outcome measures: Level of depression severity at 12 months posthospitalisation. Results: On the basis of intention to treat, intervention patients had lower rates of moderate to severe depression (CES-D ≥ 27) after 12 months (25% v 35%, relative risk, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.54–0.96, number needed to treat for benefit, 11). The intervention was most effective in preventing progression from mild depression to moderate to severe depression. The multidisciplinary telephone case conferencing was difficult to implement and, in a post hoc analysis, brief phone advice from a psychiatrist was found to be effective. Conclusions: Screening hospitalised cardiac patients for depression and providing targeted advice to their GPs reduces depression severity 12 months after hospitalisation.Geoff Schrader, Frida Cheok, Ann-Louise Hordacre, Julie Marker and Victoria Wad
Depression after cardiac hospitalisation: the identifying depression as a comorbid condition (IDACC) study
Copyright © 2005 Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Copyright to Australian Family Physician. Reproduced with permission. Permission to reproduce must be sought from the publisher, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.Background: The Identifying Depression as a Comorbid Condition (IDACC) study aimed to identify depressive symptoms in hospitalised cardiac patients and support management of depression in general practice. Objective: This post hoc analysis of the IDACC trial examines the effectiveness and practicality of different forms of communication between hospital psychiatric services and general practitioners. Methods: We randomised 669 cardiac inpatients with depressive symptoms, identified with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), to an intervention or usual care control group. Individual depression scores and depression management guidelines were sent to GPs of all intervention patients. Where possible, psychiatric advice was provided to the GP either by multidisciplinary enhanced primary care case conference or one-to-one telephone advice. Results: Multidisciplinary case conferences were implemented for only 24% of intervention patients. General practitioners received individual telephone advice in 40% of cases, and 36% received written information only. The psychiatrist telephone advice resulted in a significant reduction in the proportion of patients with moderate to severe depression 12 months after cardiac hospitalisation (19% vs. 35%). Discussion: Screening, combined with psychiatrist telephone advice to GPs, was simple to organise and effective in reducing depression severity after cardiac admission.Victoria Wade, Frida Cheok, Geoff Schrader, Ann-Louise Hordacre and Julie Marke
Depression after cardiac hospitalisation: the identifying depression as a comorbid condition (IDACC) study
Copyright © 2005 Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Copyright to Australian Family Physician. Reproduced with permission. Permission to reproduce must be sought from the publisher, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.Background: The Identifying Depression as a Comorbid Condition (IDACC) study aimed to identify depressive symptoms in hospitalised cardiac patients and support management of depression in general practice. Objective: This post hoc analysis of the IDACC trial examines the effectiveness and practicality of different forms of communication between hospital psychiatric services and general practitioners. Methods: We randomised 669 cardiac inpatients with depressive symptoms, identified with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), to an intervention or usual care control group. Individual depression scores and depression management guidelines were sent to GPs of all intervention patients. Where possible, psychiatric advice was provided to the GP either by multidisciplinary enhanced primary care case conference or one-to-one telephone advice. Results: Multidisciplinary case conferences were implemented for only 24% of intervention patients. General practitioners received individual telephone advice in 40% of cases, and 36% received written information only. The psychiatrist telephone advice resulted in a significant reduction in the proportion of patients with moderate to severe depression 12 months after cardiac hospitalisation (19% vs. 35%). Discussion: Screening, combined with psychiatrist telephone advice to GPs, was simple to organise and effective in reducing depression severity after cardiac admission.Victoria Wade, Frida Cheok, Geoff Schrader, Ann-Louise Hordacre and Julie Marke
Automatic Generation of Efficient Linear Algebra Programs
The level of abstraction at which application experts reason about linear
algebra computations and the level of abstraction used by developers of
high-performance numerical linear algebra libraries do not match. The former is
conveniently captured by high-level languages and libraries such as Matlab and
Eigen, while the latter expresses the kernels included in the BLAS and LAPACK
libraries. Unfortunately, the translation from a high-level computation to an
efficient sequence of kernels is a task, far from trivial, that requires
extensive knowledge of both linear algebra and high-performance computing.
Internally, almost all high-level languages and libraries use efficient
kernels; however, the translation algorithms are too simplistic and thus lead
to a suboptimal use of said kernels, with significant performance losses. In
order to both achieve the productivity that comes with high-level languages,
and make use of the efficiency of low level kernels, we are developing Linnea,
a code generator for linear algebra problems. As input, Linnea takes a
high-level description of a linear algebra problem and produces as output an
efficient sequence of calls to high-performance kernels. In 25 application
problems, the code generated by Linnea always outperforms Matlab, Julia, Eigen
and Armadillo, with speedups up to and exceeding 10x
Does commitment to rehabilitation influence clinical outcome of total hip resurfacing arthroplasty?
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether compliance and rehabilitative efforts were predictors of early clinical outcome of total hip resurfacing arthroplasty. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was utilized to collect information from 147 resurfacing patients, who were operated on by a single surgeon, regarding their level of commitment to rehabilitation following surgery. Patients were followed for a mean of 52 months (range, 24 to 90 months). Clinical outcomes and functional capabilities were assessed utilizing the Harris hip objective rating system, the SF-12 Health Survey, and an eleven-point satisfaction score. A linear regression analysis was used to determine whether there was any correlation between the rehabilitation commitment scores and any of the outcome measures, and a multivariate regression model was used to control for potentially confounding factors. RESULTS: Overall, an increased level of commitment to rehabilitation was positively correlated with each of the following outcome measures: SF-12 Mental Component Score, SF-12 Physical Component Score, Harris Hip score, and satisfaction scores. These correlations remained statistically significant in the multivariate regression model. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who were more committed to their therapy after hip resurfacing returned to higher levels of functionality and were more satisfied following their surgery
Cinematic and aesthetic cartographies of subjective mutation
This article exmaines the use of cinema as a mapping of subjective mutation in the work of Deleuze, Gauttari and Berardi. Drawing on Deleuze's distinciton between the reduction of the art-work to the symptom and the idea of art as symptomatology, the article focuses on Berardi's use of cinematic examples, posing the quesiton in each case of to what extent they function as symptomatologies or mere symptoms of cultural and subjective mutations in examples ranging from Bergman's Persona to Van Sant's Elephant to finish on speculations about Fincher's The Social Network as a cirtical engagement with subjective mutation in the 21st Century
Mid-term results and factors affecting outcome of a metal-backed unicompartmental knee design: a case series
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Controversies exist regarding the indications for unicompartmental knee arthroplasty. The objective of this study is to report the mid-term results and examine predictors of failure in a metal-backed unicompartmental knee arthroplasty design.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>At a mean follow-up of 60 months, 80 medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasties (68 patients) were evaluated. Implant survivorship was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier method. The Knee Society objective and functional scores and radiographic characteristics were compared before surgery and at final follow-up. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to examine the association of patient's age, gender, obesity (body mass index > 30 kg/m<sup>2</sup>), diagnosis, Knee Society scores and patella arthrosis with failure.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 9 failures during the follow up. The mean Knee Society objective and functional scores were respectively 49 and 48 points preoperatively and 95 and 92 points postoperatively. The survival rate was 92% at 5 years and 84% at 10 years. The mean age was younger in the failure group than the non-failure group (p < 0.01). However, none of the factors assessed was independently associated with failure based on the results from the Cox proportional hazard model.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Gender, pre-operative diagnosis, preoperative objective and functional scores and patellar osteophytes were not independent predictors of failure of unicompartmental knee implants, although high body mass index trended toward significance. The findings suggest that the standard criteria for UKA may be expanded without compromising the outcomes, although caution may be warranted in patients with very high body mass index pending additional data to confirm our results.</p> <p><b>Level of Evidence</b>: IV</p
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