446 research outputs found
Nerve Injury and Small Saphenous Vein Surgery
AbstractObjectiveTo assess nerve injuries in small (short) saphenous vein surgery.DesignProspective study.MethodsDuring a five and a half year period, 272 small saphenous vein operations were studied in 217 consecutive unselected patients, to assess postoperative nerve injuries. Patients with nerve injuries were treated and followed-up by an independent peripheral nerve surgeon.ResultsA peripheral nerve injury occurred three times in 272 procedures: two sural nerve injuries and one common peroneal nerve injury. There was a full recovery of all three nerve injuries, the latest after 18 months.ConclusionsNerve injuries following small saphenous vein surgery are rare and may have a good recovery
Near-surface generation of negative ions in low-pressure discharges
Formation processes of negative ions in low-pressure plasmas are not yet fully understood: as a rule experiments reveal higher negative ion density than predicted by the models. In this work we report near-surface generation of negative ions. This hitherto neglected formation mechanism appears to be important in low-pressure discharges and can have large impacts on the bulk plasma chemistry. We monitor energy-resolved positive and negative ion fluxes arriving at the electrodes in an oxygen parallel-plate radio-frequency ~rf, 13.56 MHz! and dc glow plasmas by means of a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Negative ions formed in the plasma volume are observed by extracting them through an orifice in the anode of a dc glow discharge. Unexpectedly, we record large negative ion signals at the cathode of a dc discharge and at the grounded electrode of an rf discharge. These ions are formed in the plasma sheath, in collision processes involving high-energy species. We propose an efficient mechanism of negative ion generation due to ion pair formation in the sheath
Near-surface generation of negative ions in low-pressure discharges
Formation processes of negative ions in low-pressure plasmas are not yet fully understood: as a rule experiments reveal higher negative ion density than predicted by the models. In this work we report near-surface generation of negative ions. This hitherto neglected formation mechanism appears to be important in low-pressure discharges and can have large impacts on the bulk plasma chemistry. We monitor energy-resolved positive and negative ion fluxes arriving at the electrodes in an oxygen parallel-plate radio-frequency ~rf, 13.56 MHz! and dc glow plasmas by means of a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Negative ions formed in the plasma volume are observed by extracting them through an orifice in the anode of a dc glow discharge. Unexpectedly, we record large negative ion signals at the cathode of a dc discharge and at the grounded electrode of an rf discharge. These ions are formed in the plasma sheath, in collision processes involving high-energy species. We propose an efficient mechanism of negative ion generation due to ion pair formation in the sheath
Force-based Cooperative Search Directions in Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization
International audienceIn order to approximate the set of Pareto optimal solutions, several evolutionary multi-objective optimization (EMO) algorithms transfer the multi-objective problem into several independent single-objective ones by means of scalarizing functions. The choice of the scalarizing functions' underlying search directions, however, is typically problem-dependent and therefore difficult if no information about the problem characteristics are known before the search process. The goal of this paper is to present new ideas of how these search directions can be computed \emph{adaptively} during the search process in a \emph{cooperative} manner. Based on the idea of Newton's law of universal gravitation, solutions attract and repel each other \emph{in the objective space}. Several force-based EMO algorithms are proposed and compared experimentally on general bi-objective MNK landscapes with different objective correlations. It turns out that the new approach is easy to implement, fast, and competitive with respect to a -SMS-EMOA variant, in particular if the objectives show strong positive or negative correlations
Self-organization of (001) cubic crystal surfaces
Self-organization on crystal surface is studied as a two dimensional spinodal
decomposition in presence of a surface stress. The elastic Green function is
calculated for a cubic crystal surface taking into account the crystal
anisotropy. Numerical calculations show that the phase separation is driven by
the interplay between domain boundary energy and long range elastic
interactions. At late stage of the phase separation process, a steady state
appears with different nanometric patterns according to the surface coverage
and the crystal elastic constants
Sneutrino-induced like sign dilepton signal with conserved R-parity
Lepton number violation could be manifest in the sneutrino sector of
supersymmetric extensions of the standard model with conserved R-parity. Then
sneutrinos decay partly into the ``wrong sign charged lepton'' final state, if
kinematically accessible. In sneutrino pair production or associated single
sneutrino production, the signal then is a like sign dilepton final state.
Under favourable circumstances, such a signal could be visible at the LHC or a
next generation linear collider for a relative sneutrino mass-splitting of
order and sneutrino width of order (1 GeV). On the
other hand, the like sign dilepton event rate at the TEVATRON is probably too
small to be observable.Comment: 19 pages, 14 Figures. Section about LSD at LHC and TEVATRON added.
Previous Title "Single sneutrino production and the wrong charged lepton
signal
Top-squark searches at the Tevatron in models of low-energy supersymmetry breaking
We study the production and decays of top squarks (stops) at the Tevatron
collider in models of low-energy supersymmetry breaking. We consider the case
where the lightest Standard Model (SM) superpartner is a light neutralino that
predominantly decays into a photon and a light gravitino. Considering the
lighter stop to be the next-to-lightest Standard Model superpartner, we analyze
stop signatures associated with jets, photons and missing energy, which lead to
signals naturally larger than the associated SM backgrounds. We consider both
2-body and 3-body decays of the top squarks and show that the reach of the
Tevatron can be significantly larger than that expected within either the
standard supergravity models or models of low-energy supersymmetry breaking in
which the stop is the lightest SM superpartner. For a modest projection of the
final Tevatron luminosity, L = 4 fb-1, stop masses of order 300 GeV are
accessible at the Tevatron collider in both 2-body and 3-body decay modes. We
also consider the production and decay of ten degenerate squarks that are the
supersymmetric partners of the five light quarks. In this case we find that
common squark masses up to 360 GeV are easily accessible at the Tevatron
collider, and that the reach increases further if the gluino is light.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures; references adde
Variational Monte Carlo study of the ground state properties and vacancy formation energy of solid para-H2 using a shadow wave function
A Shadow Wave Function (SWF) is employed along with Variational Monte Carlo
techniques to describe the ground state properties of solid molecular
para-hydrogen. The study has been extended to densities below the equilibrium
value, to obtain a parameterization of the SWF useful for the description of
inhomogeneous phases. We also present an estimate of the vacancy formation
energy as a function of the density, and discuss the importance of relaxation
effects near the vacant site
Beautiful Mirrors and Precision Electroweak Data
The Standard Model (SM) with a light Higgs boson provides a very good
description of the precision electroweak observable data coming from the LEP,
SLD and Tevatron experiments. Most of the observables, with the notable
exception of the forward-backward asymmetry of the bottom quark, point towards
a Higgs mass far below its current experimental bound. The disagreement, within
the SM, between the values for the weak mixing angle as obtained from the
measurement of the leptonic and hadronic asymmetries at lepton colliders, may
be taken to indicate new physics contributions to the precision electroweak
observables. In this article we investigate the possibility that the inclusion
of additional bottom-like quarks could help resolve this discrepancy. Two
inequivalent assignments for these new quarks are analysed. The resultant fits
to the electroweak data show a significant improvement when compared to that
obtained in the SM. While in one of the examples analyzed, the exotic quarks
are predicted to be light, with masses below 300 GeV, and the Higgs tends to be
heavy, in the second one the Higgs is predicted to be light, with a mass below
250 GeV, while the quarks tend to be heavy, with masses of about 800 GeV. The
collider signatures associated with the new exotic quarks, as well as the
question of unification of couplings within these models and a possible
cosmological implication of the new physical degrees of freedom at the weak
scale are also discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 4 embedded postscript figures, LaTeX. Two minor corrections
performe
Dark Matter, Light Stops and Electroweak Baryogenesis
We examine the neutralino relic density in the presence of a light top
squark, such as the one required for the realization of the electroweak
baryogenesis mechanism, within the minimal supersymmetric standard model. We
show that there are three clearly distinguishable regions of parameter space,
where the relic density is consistent with WMAP and other cosmological data.
These regions are characterized by annihilation cross sections mediated by
either light Higgs bosons, Z bosons, or by the co-annihilation with the
lightest stop. Tevatron collider experiments can test the presence of the light
stop in most of the parameter space. In the co-annihilation region, however,
the mass difference between the light stop and the lightest neutralino varies
between 15 and 30 GeV, presenting an interesting challenge for stop searches at
hadron colliders. We present the prospects for direct detection of dark matter,
which provides a complementary way of testing this scenario. We also derive the
required structure of the high energy soft supersymmetry breaking mass
parameters where the neutralino is a dark matter candidate and the stop
spectrum is consistent with electroweak baryogenesis and the present bounds on
the lightest Higgs mass.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures; version published in Phys.Rev.
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