917 research outputs found
Informed consent, parental awareness, and reasons for participating in a randomised controlled study
BACKGROUND: The informed consent procedure plays a central role in
randomised controlled trials but has only been explored in a few studies
on children. AIM: To assess the quality of the informed consent process in
a paediatric setting. METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to parents who
volunteered their child (230 children) for a randomised, double blind,
placebo controlled trial of ibuprofen syrup to prevent recurrent febrile
seizures. RESULTS: 181 (79%) parents responded. On average, 73% of parents
were aware of the major study characteristics. A few had difficulty
understanding the information provided. Major factors in parents granting
approval were the contribution to clinical science (51%) and benefit to
the child (32%). Sociodemographic status did not influence initial
participation but west European origin of the father was associated with
willingness to participate in future trials. 89% of participants felt
positive about the informed consent procedure; however, 25% stated that
they felt obliged to participate. Although their reasons for granting
approval and their evaluation of the informed consent procedure did not
differ, relatively more were hesitant about participating in future.
Parents appreciated the investigator being on call 24 hours a day (38%)
and the extra medical care and information provided (37%) as advantages of
participation. Disadvantages were mainly the time consuming aspects and
the work involved (23%). CONCLUSIONS: Parents' understanding of trial
characteristics might be improved by designing less difficult informed
consent forms and by the investigator giving extra attention and
information to non-west European parents. Adequate measures should be
taken to avoid parents feeling obliged to participate, rather than giving
true informed consent
On the Fluctuation Relation for Nose-Hoover Boundary Thermostated Systems
We discuss the transient and steady state fluctuation relation for a
mechanical system in contact with two deterministic thermostats at different
temperatures. The system is a modified Lorentz gas in which the fixed
scatterers exchange energy with the gas of particles, and the thermostats are
modelled by two Nos\'e-Hoover thermostats applied at the boundaries of the
system. The transient fluctuation relation, which holds only for a precise
choice of the initial ensemble, is verified at all times, as expected. Times
longer than the mesoscopic scale, needed for local equilibrium to be settled,
are required if a different initial ensemble is considered. This shows how the
transient fluctuation relation asymptotically leads to the steady state
relation when, as explicitly checked in our systems, the condition found in
[D.J. Searles, {\em et al.}, J. Stat. Phys. 128, 1337 (2007)], for the validity
of the steady state fluctuation relation, is verified. For the steady state
fluctuations of the phase space contraction rate \zL and of the dissipation
function \zW, a similar relaxation regime at shorter averaging times is
found. The quantity \zW satisfies with good accuracy the fluctuation relation
for times larger than the mesoscopic time scale; the quantity \zL appears to
begin a monotonic convergence after such times. This is consistent with the
fact that \zW and \zL differ by a total time derivative, and that the tails
of the probability distribution function of \zL are Gaussian.Comment: Major revision. Fig.10 was added. Version to appear in Journal of
Statistical Physic
The Formation and Evolution of Massive Stellar Clusters in IC 4662
We present a multiwavelength study of the formation of massive stellar
clusters, their emergence from cocoons of gas and dust, and their feedback on
surrounding matter. Using data that span from radio to optical wavelengths,
including Spitzer and Hubble ACS observations, we examine the population of
young star clusters in the central starburst region of the irregular Wolf-Rayet
galaxy IC 4662. We model the radio-to-IR spectral energy distributions of
embedded clusters to determine the properties of their HII regions and dust
cocoons (sizes, masses, densities, temperatures), and use near-IR and optical
data with mid-IR spectroscopy to constrain the properties of the embedded
clusters themselves (mass, age, extinction, excitation, abundance). The two
massive star-formation regions in IC 4662 are excited by stellar populations
with ages of ~ 4 million years and masses of ~ 3 x 10^5 M_sun (assuming a
Kroupa IMF). They have high excitation and sub-solar abundances, and they may
actually be comprised of several massive clusters rather than the single
monolithic massive compact objects known as Super Star Clusters (SSCs). Mid-IR
spectra reveal that these clusters have very high extinctions, A_V ~ 20-25 mag,
and that the dust in IC 4662 is well-mixed with the emitting gas, not in a
foreground screen.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, to appear in proceedings of the conference
"Young Massive Star Clusters: Initial Conditions and Environments ", held in
Granada, Spain, September 200
Structural transitions in granular packs: statistical mechanics and statistical geometry investigations
We investigate equal spheres packings generated from several experiments and
from a large number of different numerical simulations. The structural
organization of these disordered packings is studied in terms of the network of
common neighbours. This geometrical analysis reveals sharp changes in the
network's clustering occurring at the packing fractions (fraction of volume
occupied by the spheres respect to the total volume, ) corresponding to
the so called Random Loose Packing limit (RLP, ) and Random
Close Packing limit (RCP, ). At these packing fractions we
also observe abrupt changes in the fluctuations of the portion of free volume
around each sphere. We analyze such fluctuations by means of a statistical
mechanics approach and we show that these anomalies are associated to sharp
variations in a generalized thermodynamical variable which is the analogous for
these a-thermal systems to the specific heat in thermal systems.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset
corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected
during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV.
The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the
couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and
right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary
mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b,
leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing
transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W'
boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to
the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for
masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC
data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed
coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant
improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe
Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV
A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The
analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC
from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an
integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross
section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected
exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the
standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The
analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model
Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The
largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is
observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance
of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local
significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is
estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of
this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters
Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment
This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and
W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with
the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and
the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto
the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions
f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV
and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw
> 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour,
are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017
+/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second
include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables,
revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio
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