229 research outputs found
Self-consistent cluster CPA methods and the nested CPA theory
The coherent potential approximation, CPA, is a useful tool to treat systems
with disorder. Cluster theories have been proposed to go beyond the translation
invariant single-site CPA approximation and include some short range
correlations. In this framework one can also treat simultaneously diagonal
disorder (in the site-diagonal elements of the Hamiltonian) and non-diagonal
disorder (in the bond energies). It proves difficult to obtain reasonable
results, free of non-analyticities, for lattices of dimension higher than one
(D>1). We show electronic structure results obtained for a Hubbard model,
treated in mean field approximation, on a square lattice and a simple cubic
lattice, with the simultaneous inclusion of diagonal and non-diagonal disorder.
We compare the results obtained using three different methods to treat the
problem: a self-consistent 2-site cluster CPA method, the
Blackman-Esterling-Berk single-site like extension of the CPA and a nested CPA
approach.Comment: 5 pages + 2 figures, to appear in Physica B. Presented at the SCES'99
conference, Nagano, Japan (Aug.'99
Considering the totality of evidence: Combining real-world data with clinical trial results to better inform decision-making
Clinical trials are the key mechanism for testing efficacy of cancer therapy. While results from clinical trials have high internal validity, generalizability is limited due to strict criteria for inclusion and exclusion (i.e., eligibility criteria). Indeed, eligibility criteria are designed to protect the safety of trial participants by excluding those expected to have low efficacy or high toxicity from the treatment under investigation. However, if overly restrictive, eligibility criteria can also result in narrow populations that do not reflect the general population treated in routine practice. Recent analyses of cancer clinical trial data have shown that eligibility criteria have become increasingly restrictive, ranging from 16 to 32 exclusion criteria per trial, over time. Therefore, it is not surprising that <5% of US adult patients with cancer participate in clinical trials, and those who do are often younger and healthier than patients seen in clinical practice. These differences raise serious concern that the âefficacyâ of cancer therapies reported in published clinical trials provides incomplete evidence of their âeffectivenessâ when administered to patients in routine care
Thin-layer effects in glaciological seismic amplitude-versus-angle (AVA) analysis: implications for characterising a subglacial till unit, Russell Glacier, West Greenland
Seismic amplitude-versus-angle (AVA) methods are a powerful means of quantifying the physical properties of subglacial material, but serious interpretative errors can arise when AVA is measured over a thinly-layered substrate. A substrate layer with a thickness less than 1/4 of the seismic wavelength, λ, is considered "thin", and reflections from its bounding interfaces superpose and appear in seismic data as a single reflection event. AVA interpretation of subglacial till can be vulnerable to such thin-layer effects, since a lodged (non-deforming) till can be overlain by a thin (metre-scale) cap of dilatant (deforming) till. We assess the potential for misinterpretation by simulating seismic data for a stratified subglacial till unit, with an upper dilatant layer between 0.1â5.0 m thick (λ / 120 to > λ / 4, with &lambda; = 12 m). For dilatant layers less than &lambda; / 6 thick, conventional AVA analysis yields acoustic impedance and Poisson's ratio that indicate contradictory water saturation. A thin-layer interpretation strategy is proposed, that accurately characterises the model properties of the till unit. The method is applied to example seismic AVA data from Russell Glacier, West Greenland, in which characteristics of thin-layer responses are evident. A subglacial till deposit is interpreted, having lodged till (acoustic impedance = 4.26&plusmn;0.59 &times; 10<sup>6</sup> kg m<sup>â2</sup> s<sup>&minus;1</sup>) underlying a water-saturated dilatant till layer (thickness < 2 m, Poisson's ratio ~ 0.5). Since thin-layer considerations offer a greater degree of complexity in an AVA interpretation, and potentially avoid misinterpretations, they are a valuable aspect of quantitative seismic analysis, particularly for characterising till units
Dynamics of the Hubbard model: a general approach by time dependent variational principle
We describe the quantum dynamics of the Hubbard model at semi-classical
level, by implementing the Time-Dependent Variational Principle (TDVP)
procedure on appropriate macroscopic wavefunctions constructed in terms of
su(2)-coherent states. Within the TDVP procedure, such states turn out to
include a time-dependent quantum phase, part of which can be recognized as
Berry's phase. We derive two new semi-classical model Hamiltonians for
describing the dynamics in the paramagnetic, superconducting, antiferromagnetic
and charge density wave phases and solve the corresponding canonical equations
of motion in various cases. Noticeably, a vortex-like ground state phase
dynamics is found to take place for U>0 away from half filling. Moreover, it
appears that an oscillatory-like ground state dynamics survives at the Fermi
surface at half-filling for any U. The low-energy dynamics is also exactly
solved by separating fast and slow variables. The role of the time-dependent
phase is shown to be particularly interesting in the ordered phases.Comment: ReVTeX file, 38 pages, to appear on Phys. Rev.
Clock drawing performance in cognitively normal elderly
The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is a common neuropsychological measure sensitive to cognitive changes and functional skills (e.g., driving test performance) among older adults. However, normative data have not been adequately developed. We report the distribution of CDT scores using three common scoring systems [Mendez, M. F., Ala, T., & Underwood, K. L. (1992). Development of scoring criteria for the Clock Drawing Task in Alzheimer's Disease. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 40, 1095-1099; Cahn, D. A., Salmon, D. P., Monsch, A. U., Butters, N., Wiederholt, W. C., & Corey-Bloom, J. (1996). Screening for dementia of the Alzheimer type in the community: The utility of the Clock Drawing Test. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 11(6), 529-539], among 207 cognitively normal elderly. The systems were well correlated, took little time to use, and had high inter-rater reliability. We found statistically significant differences in CDT scores based on age and WRAT-3 Reading score, a marker of education quality. We present means, standard deviations, and t- and z-scores based on these subgroups. We found that "normal" CDT performance includes a wider distribution of scores than previously reported. Our results may serve as useful comparisons for clinicians wishing to know whether their patients perform in the general range of cognitively normal elderly. © 2007 National Academy of Neuropsychology
Energy calibration of large underwater detectors using stopping muons
We propose to use stopping cosmic-ray muons in the energy calibration of planned and deployed large underwater detectors. The method is based on the proportionality between the incident muon energy and the length of the muon path before it stops. Simultaneous measurements of the muon path and the amplitude of the signal from the photomultiplier tubes allow a relation between the energy deposited in the sensitive volume of the detector and the observed signal to be derived, and also provide a test of detector simulations. We describe the proposed method and present the results of simulations
Searching for the Slater Transition in the Pyrochlore CdOsO with Infrared Spectroscopy
Infrared reflectance measurements were made on the single crystal pyrochlore
CdOsO in order to examine the transformations of the
electronic structure and crystal lattice across the boundary of the metal
insulator transition at . All predicted IR active phonons are
observed in the conductivity over all temperatures and the oscillator strength
is found to be temperature independent. These results indicate that charge
ordering plays only a minor role in the MIT and that the transition is strictly
electronic in nature. The conductivity shows the clear opening of a gap with
. The gap opens continuously, with a temperature
dependence similar to that of BCS superconductors, and the gap edge having a
distinct dependence. All of these
observables support the suggestion of a Slater transition in CdOsO.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
A comprehensive collection of chicken cDNAs
AbstractBirds have played a central role in many biological disciplines, particularly ecology, evolution, and behavior. The chicken, as a model vertebrate, also represents an important experimental system for developmental biologists, immunologists, cell biologists, and geneticists. However, genomic resources for the chicken have lagged behind those for other model organisms, with only 1845 nonredundant full-length chicken cDNA sequences currently deposited in the EMBL databank. We describe a large-scale expressed-sequence-tag (EST) project aimed at gene discovery in chickens (http://www.chick.umist.ac.uk). In total, 339,314 ESTs have been sequenced from 64 cDNA libraries generated from 21 different embryonic and adult tissues. These were clustered and assembled into 85,486 contiguous sequences (contigs). We find that a minimum of 38% of the contigs have orthologs in other organisms and define an upper limit of 13,000 new chicken genes. The remaining contigs may include novel avian specific or rapidly evolving genes. Comparison of the contigs with known chicken genes and orthologs indicates that 30% include cDNAs that contain the start codon and 20% of the contigs represent full-length cDNA sequences. Using this dataset, we estimate that chickens have approximately 35,000 genes in total, suggesting that this number may be a characteristic feature of vertebrates
The Parallel Magnetoconductance of Interacting Electrons in a Two Dimensional Disordered System
The transport properties of interacting electrons for which the spin degree
of freedom is taken into account are numerically studied for small two
dimensional diffusive clusters. On-site electron-electron interactions tend to
delocalize the electrons, while long-range interactions enhance localization.
On careful examination of the transport properties, we reach the conclusion
that it does not show a two dimensional metal insulator transition driven by
interactions. A parallel magnetic field leads to enhanced resistivity, which
saturates once the electrons become fully spin polarized. The strength of the
magnetic field for which the resistivity saturates decreases as electron
density goes down. Thus, the numerical calculations capture some of the
features seen in recent experimental measurements of parallel
magnetoconductance.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
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