Bilateral pneumothoraces secondary to latrogenic buffalo chest. An unusual complication of median sternotomy and subclavian vein catheterization.

Pneumothorax following subclavian venipuncture is a well-known risk. Less well recognized is the potential for life-threatening bilateral pneumothoraces occurring at the time of subclavian vein catheterization in patients who have previously undergone median sternotomy. Inadvertent bilateral pleural entry at the time of sternotomy may result in a common pleural space which subsequently places the patient in special jeopardy when the complication of pneumothorax occurs. This report documents the successful management of this important sequence of complications associated with now widely applied therapeutic interventions

Roentgen cephalometric analysis of ridge resorption and changes in jaw and occlusal relationships in immediate complete denture wearers

In eighteen subjects assigned for immediate complete upper and lower dentures, roentgen cephalometric recordings were made before extraction of the residual anterior dentition and 3 weeks, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year after denture insertion. The cephalometric analysis was based on electronic measurements of linear and angular morphological variables and computer head plots generated from 177 reference points (Walker, 1967), derived for each subject for each of the five observation stages. The reduction of the alveolar ridges was most rapid during the first 3 months of denture wear and particularly during the post-extraction period of 3 weeks. The reduction in anterior height of the lower ridge was on average twice as great as that of the upper ridge. The ridge resorption and the accompanying settling of the dentures on the basal seats, measured from lead shots inserted in the dentures, brought about an upward rotation of the mandible with a resulting decrease in occlusal vertical dimension and reduction in overjet of the dentures. In accordance with the amount of ridge reduction, these changes showed great individual variation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73577/1/j.1365-2842.1980.tb01466.x.pd

A Lanczos algorithm for linear response

An iterative algorithm is presented for solving the RPA equations of linear response. The method optimally computes the energy-weighted moments of the strength function, allowing one to match the computational effort to the intrinsic accuracy of the basic mean-field approximation, avoiding the problem of solving very large matrices. For local interactions, the computational effort for the method scales with the number of particles N_p as O(N_p^3).Comment: 12 pages including 3 figures; Late

Momentum Distribution in Nuclear matter within a Perturbation Approximation

It is shown that the norm corrections, introduced to avoid the violation of the constraints on the depletion of the hole states in the standard perturbative 2p2h approach, leads in nuclear matter to a dependence of the momentum distribution with the total nucleon number. This unphysical behavior, which in turn makes the depletion to be non-extensive, arises from contributions of disconnected diagrams contained in the norm. It is found that the extensivity is again recovered when the 4p4h excitations in the ground state are included, and a reasonable value for the total number of nucleons promoted above the Fermi level is obtained.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, 5 figures, figures 1 to 3 included in the latex file, postscript files of figures 4 and 5 available from the Authors. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

An algebraic analysis of cladistic characters

Cladistic characters are used by many numerical axonomists in the estimation of evolutionary history. We make use of semilattice theory to give an algebraic formulation of the ideas involved in this process and to give rigorous proofs of theorems which justify certain operational procedures in current use. In particular, we discuss certain compatibility tests for a collection of charactersPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/21663/1/0000050.pd

Analytic solutions and Singularity formation for the Peakon b--Family equations

Using the Abstract Cauchy-Kowalewski Theorem we prove that the $b$-family equation admits, locally in time, a unique analytic solution. Moreover, if the initial data is real analytic and it belongs to $H^s$ with $s > 3/2$, and the momentum density $u_0 - u_{0,{xx}}$ does not change sign, we prove that the solution stays analytic globally in time, for $b\geq 1$. Using pseudospectral numerical methods, we study, also, the singularity formation for the $b$-family equations with the singularity tracking method. This method allows us to follow the process of the singularity formation in the complex plane as the singularity approaches the real axis, estimating the rate of decay of the Fourier spectrum

Hall-conductivity sign change and fluctuations in amorphous Nbx_{x}Ge1−x_{1-x} films

The sign change in the Hall conductivity has been studied in thin amorphous Nb$_{1-x}$Ge$_x (x\approx$0.3) films. By changing the film thickness it is shown that the field at which the sign reversal occurs shifts to lower values (from above to below the mean-field transition field $H_{c2}$) with increasing film thickness. This effect can be understood in terms of a competition between a positive normal and a negative fluctuation contribution to the Hall conductivity.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

RPA vs. exact shell-model correlation energies

The random phase approximation (RPA) builds in correlations left out by mean-field theory. In full 0-hbar-omega shell-model spaces we calculate the Hartree-Fock + RPA binding energy, and compare it to exact diagonalization. We find that in general HF+RPA gives a very good approximation to the ``exact'' ground state energy. In those cases where RPA is less satisfactory, however, there is no obvious correlation with properties of the HF state, such as deformation or overlap with the exact ground state wavefunction.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys Rev

Transgenic amplification of glucocorticoid action in adipose tissue causes high blood pressure in mice

Obesity is closely associated with the metabolic syndrome, a combination of disorders including insulin resistance, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. A role for local glucocorticoid reamplification in obesity and the metabolic syndrome has been suggested. The enzyme 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) regenerates active cortisol from inactive 11-keto forms, and aP2-HSD1 mice with relative transgenic overexpression of this enzyme in fat cells develop visceral obesity with insulin resistance and dyslipidemia. Here we report that aP2-HSD1 mice also have high arterial blood pressure (BP). The mice have increased sensitivity to dietary salt and increased plasma levels of angiotensinogen, angiotensin II, and aldosterone. This hypertension is abolished by selective angiotensin II receptor AT-1 antagonist at a low dose that does not affect BP in non-Tg littermates. These findings suggest that activation of the circulating renin-angiotensin system (RAS) develops in aP2-HSD1 mice. The long-term hypertension is further reflected by an appreciable hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the distal tubule epithelium of the nephron, resembling salt-sensitive or angiotensin II–mediated hypertension. Taken together, our findings suggest that overexpression of 11β-HSD1 in fat is sufficient to cause salt-sensitive hypertension mediated by an activated RAS. The potential role of adipose 11β-HSD1 in mediating critical features of the metabolic syndrome extends beyond obesity and metabolic complications to include the most central cardiovascular feature of this disorder

Geometrothermodynamics of black holes

The thermodynamics of black holes is reformulated within the context of the recently developed formalism of geometrothermodynamics. This reformulation is shown to be invariant with respect to Legendre transformations, and to allow several equivalent representations. Legendre invariance allows us to explain a series of contradictory results known in the literature from the use of Weinhold's and Ruppeiner's thermodynamic metrics for black holes. For the Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole the geometry of the space of equilibrium states is curved, showing a non trivial thermodynamic interaction, and the curvature contains information about critical points and phase transitions. On the contrary, for the Kerr black hole the geometry is flat and does not explain its phase transition structure.Comment: Revised version, to be published in Gen.Rel.Grav.(Mashhoon's Festschrift