5,496 research outputs found
COSMOS 2044: Lung morphology study, experiment K-7-28
Researchers examined the effect of microgravity during spaceflight on lung tissue. The ultrastructure of the left lungs of 5 Czechoslovakian Wister rats flown on the 13 day, 19+ hour Cosmos 2044 mission was examined and compared to 5 vivarium and 5 synchronous controls at 1-g conditions, and 5 rats exposed to 14 days of tail suspension. Pulmonary hemorrage and alveolar adema of unknown origin occurred to a greater extent in the flight, tail-suspended, and synchronous control animals, and in the dorsal regions of the lung when compared with the vivarium controls. The cause of these changes, which are possibly due to an increase in pulmonary vascular pressure, requires further investigation
Trends and Regional Variation in Hip, Knee and Shoulder Replacement
Analyzes patterns in underuse or overuse of joint replacements among Medicare beneficiaries by geographic regions and race/ethnicity. Explores underlying factors and highlights the need for physician and patient education and shared decision making
The Attitudes about Complex Therapy Scale (ACTS) in Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: Development, Validity and Reliability
Background: Type 2 diabetes is associated with cardiovascular disease, and patients with both conditions are prescribed complex medication regimens.
Aim: The aim was to develop a reliable and valid measure of attitudes associated with the prescription and management of multiple medicines in patients with Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Methods: Principal component analysis (PCA) and Cronbach alpha assessed the reliability of the Attitudes about Complex Therapy Scale (ACTS). Examinations of relationships with related measures inform concurrent validity. Questionnaires were sent to a cross-sectional sample of 480 people prescribed multiple medicines for co-morbid Type 2 diabetes.
Results: Cronbach alpha was 0.76, indicating the scale had good internal reliability. PCA rotated a four factor model accounting for 37% of the variance. Four subscales identified; 1. Concerns about multiple medicines and increasing numbers of medicines; 2.Anxiety over missed medicines; 3. Desires to substitute medicines and reduce the number of medicines prescribed and; 4. Perceptions related to organising and managing complex therapy. The ACTS showed significant relationships with measures of anxiety, depression, general beliefs about medicines and self-efficacy. Also, the ACTS significantly correlated with adherence to medicines, showing good predictive validity.
Conclusion: The ACTS was designed to assess negative attitudes towards complex therapy and multiple medication management. This tool could aid prescribing decisions and may identify people who are intentionally non-adherent to all or some of their medicines
Surveying structural complexity in quantum many-body systems
Quantum many-body systems exhibit a rich and diverse range of exotic
behaviours, owing to their underlying non-classical structure. These systems
present a deep structure beyond those that can be captured by measures of
correlation and entanglement alone. Using tools from complexity science, we
characterise such structure. We investigate the structural complexities that
can be found within the patterns that manifest from the observational data of
these systems. In particular, using two prototypical quantum many-body systems
as test cases - the one-dimensional quantum Ising and Bose-Hubbard models - we
explore how different information-theoretic measures of complexity are able to
identify different features of such patterns. This work furthers the
understanding of fully-quantum notions of structure and complexity in quantum
systems and dynamics.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Zips Racing Electric Battery Management System
Zips Racing Electric currently uses a bulky, off-the-shelf battery management system to monitor and manage the voltage, temperature, and state-of-charge of an electric formula-style racecar battery pack (accumulator). The objective of this project is to research current battery management methodologies and apply said research to design and create a lightweight, compact, custom battery management system that is integrated with existing vehicle systems. This will allow for cleaner accumulator packaging and improved communication between the battery management system and the rest of the vehicle
Extension rates across the northern Shanxi Grabens, China, from Quaternary geology, seismicity and geodesy
Discrepancies between geological, seismic and geodetic rates of strain can indicate that rates of crustal deformation, and hence seismic hazard, are varying through time. Previous studies in the northern Shanxi Grabens, at the northeastern corner of the Ordos Plateau in northern China, have found extension rates of anywhere between 0 and 6 mm aā1 at an azimuth of between 95Ā° and 180Ā°. In this paper we determine extension rates across the northern Shanxi Grabens from offset geomorphological features and a variety of Quaternary dating techniques (including new IRSL and Ar-Ar ages), a Kostrov summation using a 700 yr catalogue of historical earthquakes, and recent campaign GPS measurements. We observe good agreement between Quaternary, seismic and geodetic rates of strain, and we find that the northern Shanxi Grabens are extending at around 1ā2 mm aā1 at an azimuth of ā151Ā°. The azimuth of extension is particularly well constrained and can be reliably inferred from catalogues of small earthquakes. We do not find evidence for any substantial variations in extension rate through time, though there is a notable seismic moment rate deficit since 1750. This deficit could indicate complex fault interactions across large regions, aseismic accommodation of deformation, or that we are quite late in the earthquake cycle with the potential for larger earthquakes in the relatively near future
Thyroid hormones correlate with resting metabolic rate, not daily energy expenditure, in two charadriiform seabirds
K. Woo, M. Le Vaillant, T. van Nus, and especially A. Wesphal, J. Schultner and I. Dorresteijn, assisted with field work, often under unpleasant conditions. K. Wauthier was instrumental in wrestling the gamma counter into submission. P. Redman and C. Hambly conducted the isotopic analyses. K. Scott and K. Campbell provided the FoxBox. K.H.E. benefited from a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Vanier Scholarship, Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies Garfield Weston Northern Studies Award and the Arctic Institute of North America Jennifer Robinson Scholarship. Research support came from Bird Studies Canada/Society of Canadian Ornithologists James Baillie Award, Animal Behavior Society Research Grant, American Ornithologistsā Union Research Grant, Frank Chapman Research Grant, the Waterbird Society Nisbet Grant and NSERC Discovery Grants to J.F.H. and W.G.A. Any use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Synchronization and Control in Intrinsic and Designed Computation: An Information-Theoretic Analysis of Competing Models of Stochastic Computation
We adapt tools from information theory to analyze how an observer comes to
synchronize with the hidden states of a finitary, stationary stochastic
process. We show that synchronization is determined by both the process's
internal organization and by an observer's model of it. We analyze these
components using the convergence of state-block and block-state entropies,
comparing them to the previously known convergence properties of the Shannon
block entropy. Along the way, we introduce a hierarchy of information
quantifiers as derivatives and integrals of these entropies, which parallels a
similar hierarchy introduced for block entropy. We also draw out the duality
between synchronization properties and a process's controllability. The tools
lead to a new classification of a process's alternative representations in
terms of minimality, synchronizability, and unifilarity.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl
Bullying and Victimization among Students in Special Education and General Education Curricula
International research established over a decade ago that students who are en-rolled in special education curricula are victimized and perpetrate more bullying than their general education peers. However, few empirical studies have exam-ined bullying rates among American schoolchildren who receive special education services. In the current study, a sample of middle school students (n = 1009) enrolled in general and special education programs completed the Univer-sity of Illinois bullying, fighting, and victimization scales. As hypothesized, students with disabilities reported higher rates of victimization and fighting be-haviours than students without disabilities. Conversely, students with disabilities and their general education peers reported similar rates of bully perpetration
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