544 research outputs found
Measurement invariance testing of the patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) across people with and without diabetes mellitus from the NHANES, EHMS and UK Biobank datasets
Background: The prevalence of depression is higher among those with diabetes than in the general population. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is commonly used to assess depression in people with diabetes, but measurement invariance of the PHQ-9 across groups of people with and without diabetes has not yet been investigated.
Methods: Data from three independent cohorts from the USA (n=1,886 with diabetes, n=4,153 without diabetes), Quebec, Canada (n= 800 with diabetes, n= 2,411 without diabetes), and the UK (n=4,981 with diabetes, n=145,570 without diabetes), were used to examine measurement invariance between adults with and without diabetes. A series of multiple group confirmatory factor analyses were performed, with increasingly stringent model constraints applied to assess configural, equal thresholds, and equal thresholds and loadings invariance, respectively. One-factor and two-factor (somatic and cognitive-affective items) models were examined.
Results: Results demonstrated that the most stringent models, testing equal loadings and thresholds, had satisfactory model fit in the three cohorts for one-factor models (RMSEA = .063 or below and CFI = .978 or above) and two-factor models (RMSEA = .042 or below and CFI = .989 or above).
Limitations: Data were from Western countries only and we could not distinguish between type of diabetes.
Conclusions: Results provide support for measurement invariance between groups of people with and without diabetes, using either a one-factor or a two-factor model. While the two-factor solution has a slightly better fit, the one-factor solution is more parsimonious. Depending on research or clinical needs, both factor structures can be used
GHIGLS: HI mapping at intermediate Galactic latitude using the Green Bank Telescope
This paper introduces the data cubes from GHIGLS, deep Green Bank Telescope
surveys of the 21-cm line emission of HI in 37 targeted fields at intermediate
Galactic latitude. The GHIGLS fields together cover over 1000 square degrees at
9.55' spatial resolution. The HI spectra have an effective velocity resolution
about 1.0 km/s and cover at least -450 < v < +250 km/s. GHIGLS highlights that
even at intermediate Galactic latitude the interstellar medium is very complex.
Spatial structure of the HI is quantified through power spectra of maps of the
column density, NHI. For our featured representative field, centered on the
North Ecliptic Pole, the scaling exponents in power-law representations of the
power spectra of NHI maps for low, intermediate, and high velocity gas
components (LVC, IVC, and HVC) are -2.86 +/- 0.04, -2.69 +/- 0.04, and -2.59
+/- 0.07, respectively. After Gaussian decomposition of the line profiles, NHI
maps were also made corresponding to the narrow-line and broad-line components
in the LVC range; for the narrow-line map the exponent is -1.9 +/- 0.1,
reflecting more small scale structure in the cold neutral medium (CNM). There
is evidence that filamentary structure in the HI CNM is oriented parallel to
the Galactic magnetic field. The power spectrum analysis also offers insight
into the various contributions to uncertainty in the data. The effect of 21-cm
line opacity on the GHIGLS NHI maps is estimated.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, 2015 July 16.
32 pages, 21 figures (Fig. 10 new). Minor revisions from review, particularly
Section 8 and Appendix C; results unchanged. Additional surveys added and
made available; new Appendix B. Added descriptions of available FITS files
and links to four illustrative movies on enhanced GHIGLS archive
(www.cita.utoronto.ca/GHIGLS/
Consistent Modeling of Rotational Nonequilibrium in a Hybrid Particle-Continuum Method
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106474/1/AIAA2013-3145.pd
Excitation lines and the breakdown of Stokes-Einstein relations in supercooled liquids
By applying the concept of dynamical facilitation and analyzing the
excitation lines that result from this facilitation, we investigate the origin
of decoupling of transport coefficients in supercooled liquids. We illustrate
our approach with two classes of models. One depicts diffusion in a strong
glass former, and the other in a fragile glass former. At low temperatures,
both models exhibit violation of the Stokes-Einstein relation,
, where is the self diffusion constant and is the
structural relaxation time. In the strong case, the violation is sensitive to
dimensionality , going as for , and as for . In the fragile case, however, we argue that
dimensionality dependence is weak, and show that for , . This scaling for the fragile case compares favorably with the
results of a recent experimental study for a three-dimensional fragile glass
former.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Autonomous Bursting in a Homoclinic System
A continuous train of irregularly spaced spikes, peculiar of homoclinic
chaos, transforms into clusters of regularly spaced spikes, with quiescent
periods in between (bursting regime), by feeding back a low frequency portion
of the dynamical output. Such autonomous bursting results to be extremely
robust against noise; we provide experimental evidence of it in a CO2 laser
with feedback. The phenomen here presented display qualitative analogies with
bursting phenomena in neurons.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., 14 pages, 5 figure
Molecular mechanism of edema formation in nephrotic syndrome: therapeutic implications
Sodium retention and edema are common features of nephrotic syndrome that are classically attributed to hypovolemia and activation of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system. However, numbers of clinical and experimental findings argue against this underfill theory. In this review we analyze data from the literature in both nephrotic patients and experimental models of nephrotic syndrome that converge to demonstrate that sodium retention is not related to the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone status and that fluid leakage from capillary to the interstitium does not result from an imbalance of Starling forces, but from changes of the intrinsic properties of the capillary endothelial filtration barrier. We also discuss how most recent findings on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of sodium retention has allowed the development of an efficient treatment of edema in nephrotic patients
BMC Nephrol
BACKGROUND: To describe the quality of life of adolescents initiating haemodialysis, to determine the factors associated with quality of life, and to assess coping strategies and their impact on quality of life. METHODS: All adolescents initiating haemodialysis between September 2013 and July 2015 in French paediatric haemodialysis centres were included. Quality of life data were collected using the "Vecu et Sante Percue de l'Adolescent et l'Enfant" questionnaire, and coping data were collected using the Kidcope questionnaire. Adolescent's quality of life was compared with age- and sex-matched French control. RESULTS: Thirty-two adolescents were included. Their mean age was 13.9 +/- 2.0 years. The quality of life score was lowest in leisure activities and highest in relationships with medical staff. Compared with the French control, index, energy-vitality, relationships with friends, leisure activities and physical well-being scores were significantly lower in haemodialysis population. In multivariate analyses, active coping was positively associated with quality of life and especially with energy-vitality, relationships with parents and teachers, and school performance. In contrast, avoidant and negative coping were negatively associated with energy-vitality, psychological well-being and body image for avoidant coping, and body image and relationships with medical staff for negative coping. CONCLUSIONS: The quality of life of haemodialysis adolescents, and mainly the dimensions of leisure activities, physical well-being, relationships with friends and energy-vitality, were significantly altered compared to that of the French population. The impact of coping strategies on quality of life seems to be important. Given the importance of quality of life and coping strategies in adolescents with chronic disease, health care professionals should integrate these aspects into care management
Potassium currents in the heart: functional roles in repolarization, arrhythmia and therapeutics
L
Diffusion and viscosity in a supercooled polydisperse system
We have carried out extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a supercooled
polydisperse Lennard-Jones liquid with large variations in temperature at a
fixed pressure. The particles in the system are considered to be polydisperse
both in size and mass. The temperature dependence of the dynamical properties
such as the viscosity () and the self-diffusion coefficients () of
different size particles is studied. Both viscosity and diffusion coefficients
show super-Arrhenius temperature dependence and fit well to the well-known
Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) equation. Within the temperature range
investigated, the value of the Angell's fragility parameter (D )
classifies the present system into a strongly fragile liquid. The critical
temperature for diffusion () increases with the size of the
particles. The critical temperature for viscosity () is larger than
that for the diffusion and a sizeable deviations appear for the smaller size
particles implying a decoupling of translational diffusion from viscosity in
deeply supercooled liquid. Indeed, the diffusion shows markedly non-Stokesian
behavior at low temperatures where a highly nonlinear dependence on size is
observed. An inspection of the trajectories of the particles shows that at low
temperatures the motions of both the smallest and largest size particles are
discontinuous (jump-type). However, the crossover from continuous Brownian to
large length hopping motion takes place at shorter time scales for the smaller
size particles.Comment: Revtex4, 7 pages, 8 figure
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