340 research outputs found
Structure-property relationships in azobenzene-based twist-bend nematogens
Peer reviewedPostprin
A preliminary investigation into the relationship between functional movement screen scores and athletic physical performance in female team sport athletes
There is little research investigating relationships between the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) and athletic performance in female athletes. This study analyzed the relationships between FMS (deep squat; hurdle step [HS]; in-line lunge [ILL]; shoulder mobility; active straight-leg raise [ASLR]; trunk stability push-up; rotary stability) scores, and performance tests (bilateral and unilateral sit-and-reach [flexibility]; 20-m sprint [linear speed]; 505 with turns from each leg; modified T-test with movement to left and right [change-of-direction speed]; bilateral and unilateral vertical and standing broad jumps; lateral jumps [leg power]). Nine healthy female recreational team sport athletes (age = 22.67 ± 5.12 years; height = 1.66 ± 0.05 m; body mass = 64.22 ± 4.44 kilograms) were screened in the FMS and completed the afore-mentioned tests. Percentage between-leg differences in unilateral sit-and-reach, 505 turns and the jumps, and difference between the T-test conditions, were also calculated. Spearman\u27s correlations (p = 0.05) examined relationships between the FMS and performance tests. Stepwise multiple regressions (p = 0.05) were conducted for the performance tests to determine FMS predictors. Unilateral sit-and-reach positive correlated with the left-leg ASLR (r = 0.704-0.725). However, higher-scoring HS, ILL, and ASLR related to poorer 505 and T-test performance (r = 0.722-0.829). A higher-scored left-leg ASLR related to a poorer unilateral vertical and standing broad jump, which were the only significant relationships for jump performance. Predictive data tended to confirm the correlations. The results suggest limitations in using the FMS to identify movement deficiencies that could negatively impact athletic performance in female team sport athletes
A Quality Improvement Checklist for the Perioperative Management of Surgical Patients with Opioid Addiction on Buprenorphine
Background: Buprenorphine is a semisynthetic opioid agonist-antagonist that displays antagonism at kappa receptors and partial agonist at mu receptors. Buprenorphine has the unfortunate effect of interfering with the actions of opioids administered for medical indications. When patients on buprenorphine present for surgery or procedures requiring anesthesia, it can become a substantial challenge. Currently, there are no guidelines or checklists that would help the anesthetist to provide adequate pain management for the OUD patient population.
Objectives: (1) Understand the perioperative management of patients with opioid addiction on buprenorphine. (2) Demonstrate increased knowledge and confidence in understanding the challenges, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of managing a patient on buprenorphine. (3) Discuss and manage perioperative interventions of patients taking buprenorphine with opioid addiction.
Methodology: The primary methodology of the proposed project was to administer an online Zoom educational module to providers that focus on the perioperative management of patients with OUD who take buprenorphine. The project was implemented by conducting an online pre-assessment test, zoom educational module, and a post-assessment test that assessed the anesthesia providers\u27 knowledge about managing a patient with OUD on buprenorphine during the perioperative period. Pre-assessment and post-assessment testing were used to measure the effects of the educational module. Statistical analysis was applied to assess the effectiveness of the educational module.
Results: There was a total of five Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) that participated in the quality improvement project. The results reflected an improvement in knowledge based on the pre-test and post-test scores. Knowledge showed an average gain of (25%). In addition, the post-test demonstrated that participants are most likely (n=4, 80%) or somewhat likely (n=2, 20%) to implement a perioperative checklist for surgical patients with opioid addiction taking buprenorphine.
Conclusion: An evidence-based educational module determined an increase in participants\u27 knowledge of managing surgical patients with OUD taking buprenorphine during the perioperative period. There is no consensus on the management of buprenorphine; however, the recommendation is to continue buprenorphine during the perioperative period
Simulating Physical Phenomena by Quantum Networks
Physical systems, characterized by an ensemble of interacting elementary
constituents, can be represented and studied by different algebras of
observables or operators. For example, a fully polarized electronic system can
be investigated by means of the algebra generated by the usual fermionic
creation and annihilation operators, or by using the algebra of Pauli
(spin-1/2) operators. The correspondence between the two algebras is given by
the Jordan-Wigner isomorphism. As we previously noted similar one-to-one
mappings enable one to represent any physical system in a quantum computer. In
this paper we evolve and exploit this fundamental concept in quantum
information processing to simulate generic physical phenomena by quantum
networks. We give quantum circuits useful for the efficient evaluation of the
physical properties (e.g, spectrum of observables or relevant correlation
functions) of an arbitrary system with Hamiltonian .Comment: 44 pages, 15 psfigur
Differential Effects of Isoflurane and Propofol on Upper Airway Dilator Muscle Activity and Breathing
Background: Anesthesia impairs upper airway integrity, but recent data suggest that low doses of some anesthetics increase upper airway dilator muscle activity, an apparent paradox. The authors sought to understand which anesthetics increase or decrease upper airway dilator muscle activity and to study the mechanisms mediating the effect. Methods: The authors recorded genioglossus electromyogram, breathing, arterial blood pressure, and expiratory carbon dioxide in 58 spontaneously breathing rats at an estimated ED 50 (median effective dose) of isoflurane or propofol. The authors further evaluated the dose-response relations of isoflurane under different study conditions: (1) normalization of mean arterial pressure, or end-expiratory carbon dioxide; (2) bilateral lesion of the Kölliker-Fuse nucleus; and (3) vagotomy. To evaluate whether the markedly lower inspiratory genioglossus activity during propofol could be recovered by increasing flow rate, a measure of respiratory drive, the authors performed an additional set of experiments during hypoxia or hypercapnia. Results: In vagally intact rats, tonic and phasic genioglossus activity were markedly higher with isoflurane compared with propofol. Both anesthetics abolished the genioglossus negative pressure reflex. Inspiratory flow rate and anesthetic agent predicted independently phasic genioglossus activity. Isoflurane dose-dependently decreased tonic and increased phasic genioglossus activity, and increased flow rate, and its increasin
Heliconical smectic phases formed by achiral molecules
M.S. acknowledges the support of the US National Science Foundation I2CAM International Materials Institute Award, Grant DMR-1411344 and NSF grant DMR-1307674. D.P., E.G. acknowledges the support of the National Science Centre (Poland) under the grant no. 2016/22/A/ST5/00319. R.W. gratefully acknowledges the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for the award of a PhD studentship. The beamline 11.0.1.2 at the Advanced Light Source at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is supported by the Director of the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02- 05CH11231. Addendum: Heliconical smectic phases formed by achiral molecules Published: 17 July 2018, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05334-x "We would like to make our readers aware of the related publications by S.P. Sreenilayam et al. (Nat. Commun. 7, 11369 (2016) and Phys. Rev. Mat. 1, 035604 (2017)), which report the spontaneous helix formation in a polar smectic liquid crystal phase made of achiral bent-core mesogens."Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Shapes of the Pb ground states from beta decay studies using the total absorption technique
The beta decay of Pb has been studied using the total absorption
technique at the ISOLDE(CERN) facility. The beta-decay strength deduced from
the measurements, combined with QRPA theoretical calculations, allow us to
infer that the ground states of the Pb isotopes are spherical.
These results represent the first application of the shape determination method
using the total absorption technique for heavy nuclei and in a region where
there is considerable interest in nuclear shapes and shape effects
On the validity of entropy production principles for linear electrical circuits
We discuss the validity of close-to-equilibrium entropy production principles
in the context of linear electrical circuits. Both the minimum and the maximum
entropy production principle are understood within dynamical fluctuation
theory. The starting point are Langevin equations obtained by combining
Kirchoff's laws with a Johnson-Nyquist noise at each dissipative element in the
circuit. The main observation is that the fluctuation functional for time
averages, that can be read off from the path-space action, is in first order
around equilibrium given by an entropy production rate. That allows to
understand beyond the schemes of irreversible thermodynamics (1) the validity
of the least dissipation, the minimum entropy production, and the maximum
entropy production principles close to equilibrium; (2) the role of the
observables' parity under time-reversal and, in particular, the origin of
Landauer's counterexample (1975) from the fact that the fluctuating observable
there is odd under time-reversal; (3) the critical remark of Jaynes (1980)
concerning the apparent inappropriateness of entropy production principles in
temperature-inhomogeneous circuits.Comment: 19 pages, 1 fi
2d Stringy Black Holes and Varying Constants
Motivated by the recent interest on models with varying constants and whether
black hole physics can constrain such theories, two-dimensional charged stringy
black holes are considered. We exploit the role of two-dimensional stringy
black holes as toy models for exploring paradoxes which may lead to constrains
on a theory. A two-dimensional charged stringy black hole is investigated in
two different settings. Firstly, the two-dimensional black hole is treated as
an isolated object and secondly, it is contained in a thermal environment. In
both cases, it is shown that the temperature and the entropy of the
two-dimensional charged stringy black hole are decreased when its electric
charge is increased in time. By piecing together our results and previous ones,
we conclude that in the context of black hole thermodynamics one cannot derive
any model independent constraints for the varying constants. Therefore, it
seems that there aren't any varying constant theories that are out of favor
with black hole thermodynamics.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, to appear in JHE
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