4,187 research outputs found
The relationship between the COPD Assessment Test score and airflow limitation in Japan in patients aged over 40 years with a smoking history.
BACKGROUND: A large number of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients in Japan remain undiagnosed, primarily due to the underuse of spirometry. Two studies were conducted to see whether the COPD Assessment Test (CAT) in primary care has the potential to identify those patients who need spirometry for a diagnosis of COPD and to determine whether patients with cardiovascular disease had airflow limitation, which could be detected by CAT.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two multicenter, noninterventional, prospective studies (studies 1 and 2) were conducted across Japan. Patients in both studies were â„40 years old with a smoking history. Those in study 1 were seen in primary care and had experienced repeated respiratory tract infections, but had no diagnosis of COPD. Patients in study 2 were identified in cardiovascular disease clinics when routinely visiting for their cardiovascular disease. All patients completed the CAT prior to lung-function testing by hand-held spirometry. The presence of airflow limitation was defined as a forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)/FEV6 ratio<0.73.
RESULTS: A total of 3,062 subjects completed the CAT (2,067 in study 1, 995 in study 2); 88.8% were male, and the mean age (±standard deviation) was 61.5±11.6 years. Airflow limitation was found in 400 (19.4%) patients in study 1, and 269 (27.0%) in study 2. The CAT score in patients with airflow limitation was significantly higher than in patients without airflow limitation in both studies: 8.6 (95% confidence interval [CI] 7.9-9.2) versus 7.4 (95% CI 7.1-7.6) in study 1, and 8.3 (95% CI 7.5-9.2) versus 6.4 (95% CI 6.0-6.8) in study 2 (both P<0.001).
CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the CAT has the potential to identify patients with cardiovascular disease or a history of frequent chest infections who need spirometry to diagnose COPD
Using Bourdieu in Communication and Forensics Research
As norms in the forensics community are often unspoken and have few identifiable starting points, habitus and Bourdieu seems an apt place to begin an analysis. Further, such analysis can serve as a potential case study for broader applications of Bourdieu to communication studies. Thus, my goal is to provide an overview of Bourdieuâs work through his interconnecting ideas of habitus, field, and cultural capital and use those concepts to discuss college forensics as a case study of how communicative norms and attitudes are shaped in small collective social structures such as forensics. Building from that application, I explore ways in which Bourdieu might be used more broadly in communication studies
Weakly nonlinear stability analysis of MHD channel flow using an efficient numerical approach
We analyze weakly nonlinear stability of a flow of viscous conducting liquid
driven by pressure gradient in the channel between two parallel walls subject
to a transverse magnetic field. Using a non-standard numerical approach, we
compute the linear growth rate correction and the first Landau coefficient,
which in a sufficiently strong magnetic field vary with the Hartmann number as
and
. These
coefficients describe a subcritical transverse velocity perturbation with the
equilibrium amplitude
which exists at Reynolds numbers below the linear stability threshold
We find that the flow
remains subcritically unstable regardless of the magnetic field strength. Our
method for computing Landau coefficients differs from the standard one by the
application of the solvability condition to the discretized rather than
continuous problem. This allows us to bypass both the solution of the adjoint
problem and the subsequent evaluation of the integrals defining the inner
products, which results in a significant simplification of the method.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, revised version (to appear in Phys Fluids
Prolonging assembly through dissociation:A self assembly paradigm in microtubules
We study a one-dimensional model of microtubule assembly/disassembly in which
GTP bound to tubulins within the microtubule undergoes stochastic hydrolysis.
In contrast to models that only consider a cap of GTP-bound tubulin, stochastic
hydrolysis allows GTP-bound tubulin remnants to exist within the microtubule.
We find that these buried GTP remnants enable an alternative mechanism of
recovery from shrinkage, and enhances fluctuations of filament lengths. Under
conditions for which this alternative mechanism dominates, an increasing
depolymerization rate leads to a decrease in dissociation rate and thus a net
increase in assembly.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review
Reduction and reconstruction of stochastic differential equations via symmetries
An algorithmic method to exploit a general class of infinitesimal symmetries
for reducing stochastic differential equations is presented and a natural
definition of reconstruction, inspired by the classical reconstruction by
quadratures, is proposed. As a side result the well-known solution formula for
linear one-dimensional stochastic differential equations is obtained within
this symmetry approach. The complete procedure is applied to several examples
with both theoretical and applied relevance
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