4,468 research outputs found
Outpatient alcohol detoxification: Implementation efficacy and outcome effectiveness of a model project
Background: The aim of the study was to examine the practicability and implementation efficacy of an alcohol outpatient detoxification model and the concomitant `motivational' psychotherapeutic approach. Method: This was an open prospective study to examine the implementation efficacy, practicability and medical safety of a novel psychotherapy-based, integrated outpatient detoxification model in alcohol-dependent patients. Patients were carefully screened for relevant neuropsychiatric disorders and other exclusion criteria and then seen on a daily outpatient basis for 5 - 7 days. Patients received psychotropic or other medication, if necessary (CIWA-A score >16). Beside management of withdrawal symptoms, psychotherapeutic interventions were conducted to motivate the patient for further alcohol therapy. Results: Of 557 patients screened 331 entered the program. For medical reasons 226 patients had to be admitted for inpatient detoxification, 122 patients in a special alcohol unit, 101 patients in a general hospital. 198 (60%) of the outpatients received psychotropic medication during treatment. 312 (94%) of these patients successfully completed treatment. 301 (91% of the initial sample) patients entered a consecutive 3-month motivational phase of a two-phase alcohol treatment program. 139 (46%) patients successfully completed the 1-year consecutive outpatient treatment. Conclusions: Outpatient detoxification, at least in a highly structured frame, can be considered as a safe and efficient therapeutic approach. The data of this study also indicate that psychotherapeutic interventions and motivation for further abstinence and treatment may work in alcohol-dependent patients on an outpatient basis. Further controlled trials are necessary to compare the effects of outpatient versus inpatient withdrawal. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel
Of NBOs and kHz QPOs: a low-frequency modulation in resonant oscillations of relativistic accretion disks
The origin of quasi periodic modulations of flux in the kilohertz range (kHz
QPOs), observed in low-mass X-ray binaries, is usually assumed to be physically
distinct from that of the ``normal branch oscillations'' (NBOs) in the
Z-sources. We show that a low-frequency modulation of the kHz QPOs is a natural
consequence of the non-linear relativistic resonance suggested previously to
explain the properties of the high-frequency twin peaks. The theoretical
results discussed here are reminiscent of the 6 Hz variations of frequency and
amplitude of the kHz QPOs reported by Yu, van der Klis and Jonker (2001).Comment: Accepted for publication in PASJ; 4 pages, 1 figur
Novel Fiber Design for Wideband Conversion and Amplification in Multimode Fibers
We propose an operating principle to achieve broadband and highly tunable
mode conversion and amplification exploiting inter-modal four wave mixing in a
multimode fiber. A bandwidth of 30 nanometers is demonstrated by properly
designing a simple step-index silica fiber.Comment: Ecoc conference 201
Catalysis of Charcoal Emissions
This paper is about the development of a system to reduce the emissions of charcoal kilns with the catalyst from automotive catalytic converters. This device, called the charcoal kiln emissions oxidizer (CKEO), was designed and fabricated to meet the goal of a cost effective means to reduce the carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions from charcoal kilns. Testing of the CKEO was never carried out as a test site could not be secured by this writing. The need for the CKEO, the theory behind it, and a procedure to test it are presented
Epicyclic oscillations of fluid bodies Paper II. Strong gravity
Fluids in external gravity may oscillate with frequencies characteristic of
the epicyclic motions of test particles. We explicitly demonstrate that global
oscillations of a slender, perfect fluid torus around a Kerr black hole admit
incompressible vertical and radial epicyclic modes. Our results may be directly
relevant to one of the most puzzling astrophysical phenomena -- high (hundreds
of hertz) frequency quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) detected in X-ray fluxes
from several black hole sources. Such QPOs are pairs of stable frequencies in
the 3/2 ratio. It seems that they originate a few gravitational radii away from
the black hole and thus observations of them have the potential to become an
accurate probe of super-strong gravity.Comment: submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit
Delocalization induced by low-frequency driving in disordered superlattices
We study the localization properties of disordered semiconductor
superlattices driven by ac-fields. The localization length of the electrons in
the superlattice increases when the frequency of the driving field is smaller
than the miniband width. We show that there is an optimal value of the
amplitude of the driving field for which the localization length of the system
is maximal. This maximum localization length increases with the inverse of the
driving frequency.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Fast and broadband fiber dispersion measurement with dense wavelength sampling
We report on a method to obtain dispersion measurements from spectral-domain low-coherence interferograms which enables high accuracy (~ps/(nm·km)), broadband measurements and the determination of very dense (up to 20 points/nm over 500 nm) data sets for both dispersion and dispersion slope. The method exploits a novel phase extraction algorithm which allows the phase associated with each sampling point of the interferogram to be calculated and provides for very accurate results as well as a fast measurement capability, enabling close to real time measurements. The important issue of mitigating the measurement errors due to any residual dispersion of optical elements and to environmental fluctuations was also addressed. We performed systematic measurements on standard fibers which illustrate the accuracy and precision of the technique, and we demonstrated its general applicability to challenging problems by measuring a carefully selected set of microstructured fibers: a lead silicate W-type fiber with a flat, near-zero dispersion profile; a hollow core photonic bandgap fiber with strongly wavelength dependent dispersion and dispersion slope; a small core, highly birefringent index guiding microstructured fiber, for which polarization resolved measurements over an exceptionally wide (~1000 nm) wavelength interval were obtained
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