9,020 research outputs found
Ultrasound by emergency physicians to detect abdominal aortic aneurysms: a UK case series
Early identification of abdominal aortic aneurysms in some
patients can be difficult and the diagnosis is missed in up to
30% of patients. Ultrasound cannot be used to identify a leak,
but the presence of an aneurysm in an unstable patient is
conclusive. With minimal training emergency physicians can
easily identify the aorta and thus in the early phase of
resuscitation an aneurysm can be confidently excluded. The
purpose of the examination is not to delineate the extent of
the aneurysm, but to identify those patients that will need
emergency surgery. A series of patients presented to the
department in an unstable condition with equivocal abdominal
signs. An ultrasound scan in the resuscitation room by
members of the emergency department revealed an aneurysm,
which was enough to convince the vascular surgeons to
take the patient straight to theatre with good results. In
patients who are stable, computed tomography will continue
to be used to evaluate the extent of the aneurysm and identify a leak
Force and energy dissipation variations in non-contact atomic force spectroscopy on composite carbon nanotube systems
UHV dynamic force and energy dissipation spectroscopy in non-contact atomic
force microscopy were used to probe specific interactions with composite
systems formed by encapsulating inorganic compounds inside single-walled carbon
nanotubes. It is found that forces due to nano-scale van der Waals interaction
can be made to decrease by combining an Ag core and a carbon nanotube shell in
the Ag@SWNT system. This specific behaviour was attributed to a significantly
different effective dielectric function compared to the individual
constituents, evaluated using a simple core-shell optical model. Energy
dissipation measurements showed that by filling dissipation increases,
explained here by softening of C-C bonds resulting in a more deformable
nanotube cage. Thus, filled and unfilled nanotubes can be discriminated based
on force and dissipation measurements. These findings have two different
implications for potential applications: tuning the effective optical
properties and tuning the interaction force for molecular absorption by
appropriately choosing the filling with respect to the nanotube.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
Heavy-light meson decay constants from NRQCD: an analysis of the 1/M corrections
We present {\it preliminary} results for the decay constants of heavy-light
mesons using NRQCD heavy and tadpole improved Clover light quarks. A comparison
is made with data obtained using Wilson light quarks. We present an analysis of
the 1/M corrections to the decay constants in the static limit and compare with
the predictions of HQET.Comment: Contribution to Lattice 95, 4 pages uuencoded compressed postscript
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An Infrared Study of the Circumstellar Material Associated with the Carbon Star R Sculptoris
The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star R Sculptoris (R Scl) is one of the
most extensively studied stars on the AGB. R Scl is a carbon star with a
massive circumstellar shell () which
is thought to have been produced during a thermal pulse event years
ago. To study the thermal dust emission associated with its circumstellar
material, observations were taken with the Faint Object InfraRed CAMera for the
SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) at 19.7, 25.2, 31.5, 34.8, and 37.1 m. Maps of
the infrared emission at these wavelengths were used to study the morphology
and temperature structure of the spatially extended dust emission. Using the
radiative transfer code DUSTY and fitting the spatial profile of the emission,
we find that a geometrically thin dust shell cannot reproduce the observed
spatially resolved emission. Instead, a second dust component in addition to
the shell is needed to reproduce the observed emission. This component, which
lies interior to the dust shell, traces the circumstellar envelope of R Scl. It
is best fit by a density profile with where
and dust mass of
. The strong departure from an
law indicates that the mass-loss rate of R Scl has not been constant.
This result is consistent with a slow decline in the post-pulse mass-loss which
has been inferred from observations of the molecular gas.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted to Ap
Glueball matrix elements on anisotropic lattices
We describe a lattice calculation of the matrix elements relevant for
glueball production in radiative decays. The techniques for such a
calculation on anisotropic lattices with an improved action are outlined. We
present preliminary results showing the efficacy of the computational method.Comment: 3 pages (LaTeX), 3 figures (PostScript), Presented at Lattice '9
Equidistribution of the Fekete points on the sphere
The Fekete points are the points that maximize a Vandermonde-type determinant
that appears in the polynomial Lagrange interpolation formula. They are well
suited points for interpolation formulas and numerical integration. We prove
the asymptotic equidistribution of the Fekete points in the sphere. The way we
proceed is by showing their connection with other array of points, the
Marcinkiewicz-Zygmund arrays and the interpolating arrays, that have been
studied recently
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