10,572 research outputs found
Estimation of individual beneficial and adverse effects of intensive glucose control for patients with type 2 diabetes
AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Intensive glucose control reduces the risk of vascular complications while increasing the risk of severe hypoglycaemia at a group level. We sought to estimate individual beneficial and adverse effects of intensive glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: We performed a post hoc analysis of the Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease: Preterax and Diamicron MR Controlled Evaluation (ADVANCE) trial, a randomised controlled trial evaluating standard vs intensive glucose control (HbA1c target ≤6.5% [48 mmol/mol]). In 11,140 participants, we estimated the individual 5 year absolute risk reduction (ARR) for the composite outcome of major micro- and macrovascular events and absolute risk increase (ARI) for severe hypoglycaemia for intensive vs standard glucose control. Predictions were based on competing risks models including clinical characteristics and randomised treatment. RESULTS: Based on these models, 76% of patients had a substantial estimated 5 year ARR for major vascular events (>1%, 5 year number-needed-to-benefit [NNTB5] 200). Similarly, 36% of patients had a substantial estimated ARI for severe hypoglycaemia (5 year number-needed-to-harm [NNTH5] 200). When assigning similar or half the weight to severe hypoglycaemia compared with a major vascular event, net benefit was positive in 85% or 99% of patients, respectively. Limiting intensive treatment to the 85% patient subgroup had no significant effect on the overall incidence of major vascular events and severe hypoglycaemia compared with treating all patients. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Taking account of the effects of intensive glucose control on major micro- and macrovascular events and severe hypoglycaemia for individual patients, the estimated net benefit was positive in the majority of the participants in the ADVANCE trial. The estimated individual effects can inform treatment decisions once individual weights assigned to positive and adverse effects have been specified. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00145925
Influence of diffraction on the spectrum and wavefunctions of an open system
In this paper, we demonstrate the existence and significance of diffractive
orbits in an open microwave billiard, both experimentally and theoretically.
Orbits that diffract off of a sharp edge of the system are found to have a
strong influence on the transmission spectrum of the system, especially in the
regime where there are no stable classical orbits. On resonance, the
wavefunctions are influenced by both classical and diffractive orbits. Off
resonance, the wavefunctions are determined by the constructive interference of
multiple transient, nonperiodic orbits. Experimental, numerical, and
semiclassical results are presented.Comment: 27 pages, 29 figures, and 3 tables. Submitted to Physical Review E. A
copy with higher resolution figures is available at
http://monsoon.harvard.edu/~hersch/papers.htm
Instantons revisited: dynamical tunnelling and resonant tunnelling
Starting from trace formulae for the tunnelling splittings (or decay rates)
analytically continued in the complex time domain, we obtain explicit
semiclassical expansions in terms of complex trajectories that are selected
with appropriate complex-time paths. We show how this instanton-like approach,
which takes advantage of an incomplete Wick rotation, accurately reproduces
tunnelling effects not only in the usual double-well potential but also in
situations where a pure Wick rotation is insufficient, for instance dynamical
tunnelling or resonant tunnelling. Even though only one-dimensional autonomous
Hamiltonian systems are quantitatively studied, we discuss the relevance of our
method for multidimensional and/or chaotic tunnelling
Heavy Quark Free Energies and Screening in SU(2) Gauge Theory
We investigate the singlet, triplet and colour average heavy quark free
energies in SU(2) pure gauge theory at various temperatures T. We focus on the
long distance behaviour of the free energies, studying in particular the
temperature dependence of the string tension and the screening masses. The
results are qualitatively similar to the SU(3) scenario, except near the
critical temperature Tc of the deconfining transition. Finally we test a
recently proposed method to renormalize the Polyakov loop.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the Proceedings of SEWM 2002
(Heidelberg
Husimi Maps in Lattices
We build upon previous work that used coherent states as a measurement of the
local phase space and extended the flux operator by adapting the Husimi
projection to produce a vector field called the Husimi map. In this article, we
extend its definition from continuous systems to lattices. This requires making
several adjustments to incorporate effects such as group velocity and multiple
bands. Several phenomena which uniquely occur in lattice systems, like
group-velocity warping and internal Bragg diffraction, are explained and
demonstrated using Husimi maps. We also show that scattering points between
bands and valleys can be identified in the divergence of the Husimi map
Biosensing platform combining label-free and labelled analysis using Bloch surface waves
Bloch surface waves (BSW) propagating at the boundary of truncated photonic crystals (1D-PC) have emerged as an attractive approach for label-free sensing in plasmon-like sensor configurations. Due to the very low losses in such dielectric thin film stacks, BSW feature very low angular resonance widths compared to the surface plasmon resonance
(SPR) case. Besides label-free operation, the large field enhancement and the absence of quenching allow utilizing BSW coupled fluorescence detection to additionally sense the presence of fluorescent labels. This approach can be adapted to the case of angularly resolved resonance detection, thus giving rise to a combined label-free / labelled biosensor
platform. It features a parallel analysis of multiple spots arranged as a one-dimensional array inside a microfluidic channel of a disposable chip. Application of such a combined biosensing approach to the detection of the Angiopoietin-2 cancer biomarker in buffer solutions is reported
The 1/N-expansion, quantum-classical correspondence and nonclassical states generation in dissipative higher-order anharmonic oscillators
We develop a method for the determination of thecdynamics of dissipative
quantum systems in the limit of large number of quanta N, based on the
1/N-expansion of Heidmann et al. [ Opt. Commun. 54, 189 (1985) ] and the
quantum-classical correspondence. Using this method, we find analytically the
dynamics of nonclassical states generation in the higher-order anharmonic
dissipative oscillators for an arbitrary temperature of a reservoir. We show
that the quantum correction to the classical motion increases with time
quadratically up to some maximal value, which is dependent on the degree of
nonlinearity and a damping constant, and then it decreases. Similarities and
differences with the corresponding behavior of the quantum corrections to the
classical motion in the Hamiltonian chaotic systems are discussed. We also
compare our results obtained for some limiting cases with the results obtained
by using other semiclassical tools and discuss the conditions for validity of
our approach.Comment: 15 pages, RevTEX (EPSF-style), 3 figs. Replaced with final version
(stylistic corrections
Classical and quantum chaos in a circular billiard with a straight cut
We study classical and quantum dynamics of a particle in a circular billiard
with a straight cut. This system can be integrable, nonintegrable with soft
chaos, or nonintegrable with hard chaos, as we vary the size of the cut. We use
a quantum web to show differences in the quantum manifestations of classical
chaos for these three different regimes.Comment: LaTeX2e, 8 pages including 3 Postscript figures and 4 GIF figures,
submitted to Phys. Rev.
Relaxation and Localization in Interacting Quantum Maps
We quantise and study several versions of finite multibaker maps. Classically
these are exactly solvable K-systems with known exponential decay to global
equilibrium. This is an attempt to construct simple models of relaxation in
quantum systems. The effect of symmetries and localization on quantum transport
is discussed.Comment: 32 pages. LaTex file. 9 figures, not included. For figures send mail
to first author at '[email protected]
Quarkonium Suppression
I discuss quarkonium suppression in equilibriated strongly interacting
matter. After a brief review of basic features of quarkonium production I
discuss the application of recent lattice data on the heavy quark potential to
the problem of quarkonium dissociation as well as the problem of direct lattice
determination of quarkonium properties in finite temperature lattice QCD.Comment: Invited plenary talk presented on 4th International Conference on
Physics and Astrophysics of Quark Gluon Plasma (ICPAQGP-2001), November
26-30, 2001, Jaipur; 12 pp, LaTeX, uses pramana.st
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