2,252 research outputs found
On the relation between circular velocity and central velocity dispersion in high and low surface brightness galaxies
In order to investigate the correlation between the circular velocity Vc and
the central velocity dispersion of the spheroidal component sigma_c, we
analyzed these quantities for a sample of 40 high surface brightness disc
galaxies (hereafter HSB), 8 giant low surface brightness spiral galaxies
(hereafter LSB), and 24 elliptical galaxies characterized by flat rotation
curves. We find that the Vc-sigma_c relation is descri ed by a linear law out
to velocity dispersions as low as sigma_c~50km/s, while in previous works a
power law was adopted for galaxies with sigma_c>80k/ms.
Elliptical galaxies with Vc based on dynamical models or directly derived
from the HI rotation curves follow the same relation as the HSB galaxies in the
Vc-sigma_c plane. On the contrary, the LSB galaxies follow a different
relation, since most of them show either higher Vc (or lower sigma_c) with
respect to the HSB galaxies. This argues against the relevance of baryon
collapse in the radial density profile of the dark matter haloes of LSB
galaxies. (abridged)Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, ApJ in pres
Ancient Origins of a Modern Anthropic Cosmological Argument
Ancient origins of a modern anthropic argument against cosmologies involving
infinite series of past events are considered. It is shown that this argument -
which in modern times has been put forward by distinguished cosmologists like
Paul C. W. Davies and Frank J. Tipler - originates in pre-Socratic times and is
implicitly present in the cyclical cosmology of Empedocles. There are traces of
the same line of reasoning throughout the ancient history of ideas, and the
case of a provocative statement of Thucydides is briefly analyzed. Moreover,
the anthropic argument has been fully formulated in the epic of Lucretius,
confirming it as the summit of ancient cosmology. This is not only of
historical significance but presents an important topic for the philosophy of
cosmology provided some of the contemporary inflationary models, particularly
Linde's chaotic inflation, turn out to be correct.Comment: 11 pages, no figures; Astronomical and Astrophysical Transactions,
accepte
Effect of the integration method on the accuracy and computational efficiency of free energy calculations using thermodynamic integration
Although calculations of free energy using molecular dynamics simulations have gained significant importance in the chemical and biochemical fields, they still remain quite computationally intensive. Furthermore, when using thermodynamic integration, numerical evaluation of the integral of the Hamiltonian with respect to the coupling parameter may introduce unwanted errors in the free energy. In this paper, we compare the performance of two numerical integration techniques-the trapezoidal and Simpson's rules and propose a new method, based on the analytic integration of physically based fitting functions that are able to accurately describe the behavior of the data. We develop and test our methodology by performing detailed studies on two prototype systems, hydrated methane and hydrated methanol, and treat Lennard-Jones and electrostatic contributions separately. We conclude that the widely used trapezoidal rule may introduce systematic errors in the calculation, but these errors are reduced if Simpson's rule is employed, at least for the electrostatic component. Furthermore, by fitting thermodynamic integration data, we are able to obtain precise free energy estimates using significantly fewer data points (5 intermediate states for the electrostatic component and 11 for the Lennard-Jones term), thus significantly decreasing the associated computational cost. Our method and improved protocol were successfully validated by computing the free energy of more complex systems hydration of 2-methylbutanol and of 4-nitrophenol-thus paving the way for widespread use in solvation free energy calculations of drug molecules
Tumour invasiveness, the local and systemic environment and the basis of staging systems in colorectal cancer
background: The present study aimed to examine the relationship between tumour invasiveness (T stage), the local and systemic environment and cancer-specific survival (CSS) of patients with primary operable colorectal cancer.
methods: The tumour microenvironment was examined using measures of the inflammatory infiltrate (Klintrup-Makinen (KM) grade and Immunoscore), tumour stroma percentage (TSP) and tumour budding. The systemic inflammatory environment was examined using modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS) and neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio (NLR). A 5-year CSS was examined.
results: A total of 331 patients were included. Increasing T stage was associated with colonic primary, N stage, poor differentiation, margin involvement and venous invasion (P<0.05). T stage was significantly associated with KM grade (P=0.001), Immunoscore (P=0.016), TSP (P=0.006), tumour budding (P<0.001), and elevated mGPS and NLR (both P<0.05). In patients with T3 cancer, N stage stratified survival from 88 to 64%, whereas Immunoscore and budding stratified survival from 100 to 70% and from 91 to 56%, respectively. The Glasgow Microenvironment Score, a score based on KM grade and TSP, stratified survival from 93 to 58%.
conclusions: Although associated with increasing T stage, local and systemic tumour environment characteristics, and in particular Immunoscore, budding, TSP and mGPS, are stage-independent determinants of survival and may be utilised in the staging of patients with primary operable colorectal cancer
Multimorbidity in bipolar disorder and under-treatment of cardiovascular disease: a cross sectional study
Background: Individuals with serious mental disorders experience poor physical health, especially increased rates of cardiometabolic morbidity and premature morbidity. Recent evidence suggests that individuals with schizophrenia have numerous comorbid physical conditions which may be under-recorded and under-treated but to date very few studies have explored this issue for bipolar disorder.
Methods:We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of a dataset of 1,751,841 registered patients within 314 primary-care practices in Scotland, U.K. Bipolar disorder was identified using Read Codes recorded within electronic medical records. Data on 32 common chronic physical conditions were also assessed. Potential prescribing inequalities were evaluated by analyzing prescribing data for coronary heart disease (CHD) and hypertension.
Results: Compared to controls, individuals with bipolar disorder were significantly less likely to have no recorded physical conditions (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.54-0.63) and significantly more likely to have one physical condition (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.16-1.39), two physical conditions (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.30-1.62) and three or more physical conditions (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.30-1.64). People with bipolar disorder also had higher rates of thyroid disorders, chronic kidney disease, chronic pain, chronic obstructive airways disease and diabetes but, surprisingly, lower recorded rates of hypertension and atrial fibrillation. People with bipolar disorder and comorbid CHD or hypertension were significantly more likely to be prescribed no antihypertensive or cholesterol-lowering medications compared to controls, and bipolar individuals with CHD or hypertension were significantly less likely to be on 2 or more antihypertensive agents.
Conclusions: Individuals with bipolar disorder are similar to individuals with schizophrenia in having a wide range of comorbid and multiple physical health conditions. They are also less likely than controls to have a primary-care record of cardiovascular conditions such as hypertension and atrial fibrillation. Those with a recorded diagnosis of CHD or hypertension were less likely to be treated with cardiovascular medications and were treated less intensively. This study highlights the high physical healthcare needs of people with bipolar disorder, and provides evidence for a systematic under-recognition and under-treatment of cardiovascular disease in this group
Gravitational Lensing By Spiral Galaxies
We study gravitational lensing by spiral galaxies, using realistic models
consisting of halo, disk, and bulge components combined to produce a flat
rotation curve. Proper dynamical normalization of the models is critical
because a disk requires less mass than a spherical halo to produce the same
rotation curve---a face-on Mestel disk has a lensing cross section only 41% as
large as a singular isothermal sphere with the same rotation curve. The cross
section is sensitive to inclination and dominated by edge-on galaxies, which
produce lenses with an unobserved 2-image geometry and a smaller number of
standard 5-image lenses. Unless the disk is unreasonably massive, disk+halo
models averaged over inclination predict \lesssim 10% more lenses than pure
halo models. Finally, models with an exponential disk and a central bulge are
sensitive to the properties of the bulge. In particular, an exponential disk
model normalized to our Galaxy cannot produce multiple images without a bulge,
and including a bulge reduces the net flattening of edge-on galaxies. The
dependence of the lensing properties on the masses and shapes of the halo,
disk, and bulge means that a sample of spiral galaxy lenses would provide
useful constraints on galactic structure.Comment: 27 pages, 7 postscript figures, submitted to Ap
Machine Learning in Automated Text Categorization
The automated categorization (or classification) of texts into predefined
categories has witnessed a booming interest in the last ten years, due to the
increased availability of documents in digital form and the ensuing need to
organize them. In the research community the dominant approach to this problem
is based on machine learning techniques: a general inductive process
automatically builds a classifier by learning, from a set of preclassified
documents, the characteristics of the categories. The advantages of this
approach over the knowledge engineering approach (consisting in the manual
definition of a classifier by domain experts) are a very good effectiveness,
considerable savings in terms of expert manpower, and straightforward
portability to different domains. This survey discusses the main approaches to
text categorization that fall within the machine learning paradigm. We will
discuss in detail issues pertaining to three different problems, namely
document representation, classifier construction, and classifier evaluation.Comment: Accepted for publication on ACM Computing Survey
Twenty Years of Galactic Observations in Searching for Bursts of Collapse Neutrinos with the Baksan Underground Scintillation Telescope
The results of twenty-year-long Galactic observations in neutrino radiation
are summarized. Except for the recording of a neutrino signal from the
supernova SN 1987A, no Galactic bursts of collapse neutrinos have been
detected. An upper bound on the mean frequency of gravitational collapses in
our Galaxy was obtained, .Comment: latex, 7 pages, 2 eps figure
Hospitalised hip fracture risk with rosiglitazone and pioglitazone use compared with other glucose-lowering drugs
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
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