2,814 research outputs found
The effect of adherence to statin therapy on cardiovascular mortality : quantification of unmeasured bias using falsification end-points
Background: To determine the clinical effectiveness of statins on cardiovascular mortality in practice, observational studies are needed. Control for confounding is essential in any observational study. Falsification end-points may be useful to determine if bias is present after adjustment has taken place.
Methods: We followed starters on statin therapy in the Netherlands aged 46 to 100 years over the period 1996 to 2012, from initiation of statin therapy until cardiovascular mortality or censoring. Within this group (n = 49,688, up to 16 years of follow-up), we estimated the effect of adherence to statin therapy (0 = completely non-adherent, 1 = fully adherent) on ischemic heart diseases and cerebrovascular disease (ICD10-codes I20-I25 and I60-I69) as well as respiratory and endocrine disease mortality (ICD10-codes J00-J99 and E00-E90) as falsification end points, controlling for demographic factors, socio-economic factors, birth cohort, adherence to other cardiovascular medications, and diabetes using time-varying Cox regression models.
Results: Falsification end-points indicated that a simpler model was less biased than a model with more controls. Adherence to statins appeared to be protective against cardiovascular mortality (HR: 0.70, 95 % CI 0.61 to 0.81).
Conclusions: Falsification end-points helped detect overadjustment bias or bias due to competing risks, and thereby proved to be a useful technique in such a complex setting
Cavity optomechanics with stoichiometric SiN films
We study high-stress SiN films for reaching the quantum regime with
mesoscopic oscillators connected to a room-temperature thermal bath, for which
there are stringent requirements on the oscillators' quality factors and
frequencies. Our SiN films support mechanical modes with unprecedented products
of mechanical quality factor and frequency reaching Hz. The SiN membranes exhibit a low optical absorption
characterized by Im at 935 nm, representing a 15 times
reduction for SiN membranes. We have developed an apparatus to simultaneously
cool the motion of multiple mechanical modes based on a short, high-finesse
Fabry-Perot cavity and present initial cooling results along with future
possibilities.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Spheroids. II: Scaling Relations at z=0.36
We combine Hubble Space Telescope images of a sample of 20 Seyfert galaxies
at z=0.36 with spectroscopic information from the Keck Telescope to determine
the black hole mass - spheroid luminosity relation (M-L), the Fundamental Plane
(FP) of the host galaxies and the M-sigma relation. Assuming pure luminosity
evolution, we find that the host spheroids had smaller luminosity and stellar
velocity dispersion than today for a fixed M. The offsets correspond to Delta
log L_B,0=0.40+-0.11+-0.15 (Delta log M = 0.51+-0.14+-0.19) and Delta log sigma
= 0.13+-0.03+-0.05 (Delta log M = 0.54+-0.12+-0.21), respectively for the M-L
and M-sigma relation. A detailed analysis of known systematic errors and
selection effects shows that they cannot account for the observed offset. The
data are inconsistent with pure luminosity evolution and the existence of
universal and tight scaling relations. To obey the three local scaling
relations by z=0 the distant spheroids have to grow their stellar mass by
approximately 60% (\Delta log M_sph=0.20+-0.14) in the next 4 billion years.
The measured evolution can be expressed as M/ M_sph ~ (1+z)^{1.5+-1.0}. Based
on the disturbed morphologies of a fraction of the sample (6/20) we suggest
collisional mergers with disk-dominated systems as evolutionary mechanism.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
The interaction of unidirectional winds with an isolated barchan sand dune
Velocity profile measurements are determined on and around a barchan dune model inserted in the roughness layer on the tunnel floor. A theoretical investigation is made into the factors influencing the rate of sand flow around the dune. Flow visualization techniques are employed in the mapping of streamlines of flow on the dune's surface. Maps of erosion and deposition of sand are constructed for the barchan model, utilizing both flow visualization techniques and friction velocities calculated from the measured velocity profiles. The sediment budget found experimentally for the model is compared to predicted and observed results reported. The comparison shows fairly good agreement between the experimentally determined and predicted sediment budgets
The effect of non-uniform damping on flutter in axial flow and energy harvesting strategies
The problem of energy harvesting from flutter instabilities in flexible
slender structures in axial flows is considered. In a recent study, we used a
reduced order theoretical model of such a system to demonstrate the feasibility
for harvesting energy from these structures. Following this preliminary study,
we now consider a continuous fluid-structure system. Energy harvesting is
modelled as strain-based damping and the slender structure under investigation
lies in a moderate fluid loading range, for which {the flexible structure} may
be destabilised by damping. The key goal of this work is to {analyse the effect
of damping distribution and intensity on the amount of energy harvested by the
system}. The numerical results {indeed} suggest that non-uniform damping
distributions may significantly improve the power harvesting capacity of the
system. For low damping levels, clustered dampers at the position of peak
curvature are shown to be optimal. Conversely for higher damping, harvesters
distributed over the whole structure are more effective.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Proc. R. Soc.
Modeling reverberation mapping data II: dynamical modeling of the Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2008 dataset
We present dynamical modeling of the broad line region (BLR) for a sample of
five Seyfert 1 galaxies using reverberation mapping data taken by the Lick AGN
Monitoring Project in 2008. By modeling the AGN continuum light curve and
H line profiles directly we are able to constrain the geometry and
kinematics of the BLR and make a measurement of the black hole mass that does
not depend upon the virial factor, , needed in traditional reverberation
mapping analysis. We find that the geometry of the BLR is generally a thick
disk viewed close to face-on. While the H emission is found to come
preferentially from the far side of the BLR, the mean size of the BLR is
consistent with the lags measured with cross-correlation analysis. The BLR
kinematics are found to be consistent with either inflowing motions or
elliptical orbits, often with some combination of the two. We measure black
hole masses of for Arp
151, for Mrk 1310, for NGC 5548,
for NGC 6814, and for SBS
1116+583A. The factors measured individually for each AGN are found to
correlate with inclination angle, although not with , ,
or FWHM/ of the emission line profile.Comment: 21 pages, 24 figures, 3 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS,
corrected masses for NGC 5548 and NGC 6814 in the abstrac
Replication
Replication is conducting a study in another case (or population) in order to assess whether a research finding from previous studies can be confirmed. The aim of replication is to assess the generalizability of a theoretical claim and the “research finding” that is (or is not) confirmed in the replication study is a claim that is derived from the previous studies.
Sometimes the term replication is also used for conducting a study in the same case (or population) in order to assess whether the finding from the previous study can be reproduced. To avoid confusion, the latter method of assessing the reliability of a study might better be called duplication. Duplication will not be discussed here
Simulation model of erosion and deposition on a barchan dune
Erosion and deposition over a barchan dune near the Salton Sea, California, are modeled by bookkeeping the quantity of sand in saltation following streamlines of transport. Field observations of near surface wind velocity and direction plus supplemental measurements of the velocity distribution over a scale model of the dune are combined as input to Bagnold type sand transport formulas corrected for slope effects. A unidirectional wind is assumed. The resulting patterns of erosion and deposition compare closely with those observed in the field and those predicted by the assumption of equilibrium (downwind translation of the dune without change in size or geometry). Discrepancies between the simulated results and the observed or predicted erosional patterns appear to be largely due to natural fluctuations in the wind direction. The shape of barchan dunes is a function of grain size, velocity, degree of saturation of the oncoming flow, and the variability in the direction of the oncoming wind. The size of the barchans may be controlled by natural atmospheric scales, by the age of the dunes, or by the upwind roughness. The upwind roughness can be controlled by fixed elements or by sand in the saltation. In the latter case, dune scale is determined by grain size and wind velocity
Pattern matching
Pattern matching is comparing two patterns in order to determine whether they match (i.e., that they are the same) or do not match (i.e., that they differ). Pattern matching is the core procedure of theory-testing with cases. Testing consists of matching an “observed pattern” (a pattern of measured values) with an “expected pattern” (a hypothesis), and deciding whether these patterns match (resulting in a confirmation of the hypothesis) or do not match (resulting in a disconfirmation). Essential to pattern matching (as opposed to pattern recognition, which is a procedure by which theory is built) is that the expected pattern is precisely specified before the matching takes place
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