288 research outputs found
Mixed Neural-Conventional Processing to Differentiate Airway Diseases by Means of Functional Noninvasive Tests
This paper describes a processing technique that can be used to combine information from different medical analyze to discriminate between different pathologies that have similar symptoms. The paper is focused on the differentiation between asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema, using only functional noninvasives tests, but the proposed technique can be easily applied to other similar situations where different tests have to be used to identify a pathology. The technique is based on mixed neural-and-conventional processing that not only suggests the pathology, but also estimates the reliability of this suggestion
Ventilation heterogeneity in obesity.
Obesity is associated with important decrements in lung volumes. Despite this, ventilation remains normally or near normally distributed at least for moderate decrements in functional residual capacity (FRC). We tested the hypothesis that this is because maximum flow increases presumably as a result of an increased lung elastic recoil. Forced expiratory flows corrected for thoracic gas compression volume, lung volumes, and forced oscillation technique at 5-11-19 Hz were measured in 133 healthy subjects with a body mass index (BMI) ranging from 18 to 50 kg/m(2). Short-term temporal variability of ventilation heterogeneity was estimated from the interquartile range of the frequency distribution of the difference in inspiratory resistance between 5 and 19 Hz (R5-19_IQR). FRC \% predicted negatively correlated with BMI (r = -0.72, P < 0.001) and with an increase in slope of either maximal (r = -0.34, P < 0.01) or partial flow-volume curves (r = -0.30, P < 0.01). Together with a slight decrease in residual volume, this suggests an increased lung elastic recoil. Regression analysis of R5-19_IQR against FRC \% predicted and expiratory reserve volume (ERV) yielded significantly higher correlation coefficients by nonlinear than linear fitting models (r(2) = 0.40 vs. 0.30 for FRC \% predicted and r(2) = 0.28 vs. 0.19 for ERV). In conclusion, temporal variability of ventilation heterogeneities increases in obesity only when FRC falls approximately below 65\% of predicted or ERV below 0.6 liters. Above these thresholds distribution is quite well preserved presumably as a result of an increase in lung recoil
Analysis of the Thymidylate Synthase Gene Structure in Colorectal Cancer Patients and Its Possible Relation with the 5-Fluorouracil Drug Response
Thymidylate synthase (TS) catalyzes methylation
of dUMP to dTMP and it is the target for the
5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) activity. Barbour et al.
showed that variant structural forms of TS in tumour
cell lines confer resistance to fluoropyrimidines.
We planned to perform the whole TS gene structure by
means of sequencing techniques in human colorectal
cancer (CRC) samples to try to identify the presence
of any possible TS variant form that could be
responsible of fluoropyrimidines drug resistance and
of the worse prognosis. We performed the TS-DNA gene
sequence in 68 CRC from patients of A, B, and C
Dukes' stages and different histological grade,
but we did not find any mutation in the TS-DNA
structure. In the future we intend to widen the TS
structure analysis to the metastatic CRCs,
because due to their higher genomic
instability, they could present a TS variant form
responsible of the fluoropyrimidines drug resistance
and the worse prognosis
Numerical studies of the ABJM theory for arbitrary N at arbitrary coupling constant
We show that the ABJM theory, which is an N=6 superconformal U(N)*U(N)
Chern-Simons gauge theory, can be studied for arbitrary N at arbitrary coupling
constant by applying a simple Monte Carlo method to the matrix model that can
be derived from the theory by using the localization technique. This opens up
the possibility of probing the quantum aspects of M-theory and testing the
AdS_4/CFT_3 duality at the quantum level. Here we calculate the free energy,
and confirm the N^{3/2} scaling in the M-theory limit predicted from the
gravity side. We also find that our results nicely interpolate the analytical
formulae proposed previously in the M-theory and type IIA regimes. Furthermore,
we show that some results obtained by the Fermi gas approach can be clearly
understood from the constant map contribution obtained by the genus expansion.
The method can be easily generalized to the calculations of BPS operators and
to other theories that reduce to matrix models.Comment: 35 pages, 20 figures; reference added. The simulation code is
available upon request to [email protected]
Interacting fermions and N=2 Chern-Simons-matter theories
The partition function on the three-sphere of N=3 Chern-Simons-matter
theories can be formulated in terms of an ideal Fermi gas. In this paper we
show that, in theories with N=2 supersymmetry, the partition function
corresponds to a gas of interacting fermions in one dimension. The large N
limit is the thermodynamic limit of the gas and it can be analyzed with the
Hartree and Thomas-Fermi approximations, which lead to the known large N
solutions of these models. We use this interacting fermion picture to analyze
in detail N=2 theories with one single node. In the case of theories with no
long-range forces we incorporate exchange effects and argue that the partition
function is given by an Airy function, as in N=3 theories. For the theory with
g adjoint superfields and long-range forces, the Thomas-Fermi approximation
leads to an integral equation which determines the large N, strongly coupled
R-charge.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figure
Risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in children: state of the art
The obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) represents only part of a large group of pathologies of variable entity called respiratory sleep disorders (RSD) which include simple snoring and increased upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS). Although the etiopathogenesis of adult OSAS is well known, many aspects of this syndrome in children are still debated. Its prevalence is about 2% in children from 2 to 8 years of age, mostly related to the size of the upper airways adenoid tissue. Several risk factors linked to the development of OSAS are typical of the pediatric age. The object of this paper is to analyze the state of the art on this specific topic, discussing its implications in terms of diagnosis and management
From Necklace Quivers to the F-theorem, Operator Counting, and T(U(N))
The matrix model of Kapustin, Willett, and Yaakov is a powerful tool for
exploring the properties of strongly interacting superconformal Chern-Simons
theories in 2+1 dimensions. In this paper, we use this matrix model to study
necklace quiver gauge theories with {\cal N}=3 supersymmetry and U(N)^d gauge
groups in the limit of large N. In its simplest application, the matrix model
computes the free energy of the gauge theory on S^3. The conjectured F-theorem
states that this quantity should decrease under renormalization group flow. We
show that for a simple class of such flows, the F-theorem holds for our
necklace theories. We also provide a relationship between matrix model
eigenvalue distributions and numbers of chiral operators that we conjecture
holds more generally. Through the AdS/CFT correspondence, there is therefore a
natural dual geometric interpretation of the matrix model saddle point in terms
of volumes of 7-d tri-Sasaki Einstein spaces and some of their 5-d
submanifolds. As a final bonus, our analysis gives us the partition function of
the T(U(N)) theory on S^3.Comment: 3 figures, 41 pages; v2 minor improvements, refs adde
Parton picture for the strongly coupled SYM plasma
Deep inelastic scattering off the strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric
Yang-Mills plasma at finite temperature can be computed within the AdS/CFT
correspondence, with results which are suggestive of a parton picture for the
plasma. Via successive branchings, essentially all partons cascade down to very
small values of the longitudinal momentum fraction x and to transverse momenta
smaller than the saturation momentum Q_s\sim T/x. This scale Q_s controls the
plasma interactions with a hard probe, in particular, the jet energy loss and
its transverse momentum broadening.Comment: 4 pages, Talk given at Quark Matter 2008: 20th International
Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus Nucleus Collisions (QM 2008),
Jaipur, India, 4-10 Feb 200
Shear sum rules at finite chemical potential
We derive sum rules which constrain the spectral density corresponding to the
retarded propagator of the T_{xy} component of the stress tensor for three
gravitational duals. The shear sum rule is obtained for the gravitational dual
of the N=4 Yang-Mills, theory of the M2-branes and M5-branes all at finite
chemical potential. We show that at finite chemical potential there are
additional terms in the sum rule which involve the chemical potential. These
modifications are shown to be due to the presence of scalars in the operator
product expansion of the stress tensor which have non-trivial vacuum
expectation values at finite chemical potential.Comment: The proof for the absence of branch cuts is corrected.Results
unchange
ABJM theory as a Fermi gas
The partition function on the three-sphere of many supersymmetric
Chern-Simons-matter theories reduces, by localization, to a matrix model. We
develop a new method to study these models in the M-theory limit, but at all
orders in the 1/N expansion. The method is based on reformulating the matrix
model as the partition function of an ideal Fermi gas with a non-trivial,
one-particle quantum Hamiltonian. This new approach leads to a completely
elementary derivation of the N^{3/2} behavior for ABJM theory and N=3 quiver
Chern-Simons-matter theories. In addition, the full series of 1/N corrections
to the original matrix integral can be simply determined by a next-to-leading
calculation in the WKB or semiclassical expansion of the quantum gas, and we
show that, for several quiver Chern-Simons-matter theories, it is given by an
Airy function. This generalizes a recent result of Fuji, Hirano and Moriyama
for ABJM theory. It turns out that the semiclassical expansion of the Fermi gas
corresponds to a strong coupling expansion in type IIA theory, and it is dual
to the genus expansion. This allows us to calculate explicitly non-perturbative
effects due to D2-brane instantons in the AdS background.Comment: 52 pages, 11 figures. v3: references, corrections and clarifications
added, plus a footnote on the relation to the recent work by Hanada et a
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