776 research outputs found
Olfactory and gustatory dysfunction in patients with autoimmune encephalitis
OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that olfactory (OF) and gustatory function (GF) is disturbed in patients with autoimmune encephalitides (AE). METHODS: The orthonasal OF was tested in 32 patients with AE and 32 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) with the standardized Threshold Discrimination Identification (TDI) score. This validated olfactory testing method yields individual scores for olfactory threshold (T), odor discrimination (D), and identification (I), along with a composite TDI score. The GF was determined by the Taste Strip Test (TST). RESULTS: Overall, 24/32 (75%) of patients with AE, but none of 32 HC (p < 0.001) had olfactory dysfunction in TDI testing. The results of the threshold, discrimination and identification subtests were significantly reduced in patients with AE compared to HC (all p < 0.001). Assessed by TST, 5/19 (26.3%) of patients with AE, but none of 19 HC presented a significant limitation in GF (p < 0.001). The TDI score was correlated with the subjective estimation of the olfactory capacity on a visual analog scale (VAS; r(s) = 0.475, p = 0.008). Neither age, sex, modified Rankin Scale nor disease duration were associated with the composite TDI score. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study investigating OF and GF in AE patients. According to unblinded assessment, patients with AE have a reduced olfactory and gustatory capacity compared to HC, suggesting that olfactory and gustatory dysfunction are hitherto unrecognized symptoms in AE. Further studies with larger number of AE patients would be of interest to verify our results
An easy way to solve two-loop vertex integrals
Negative dimensional integration is a step further dimensional regularization
ideas. In this approach, based on the principle of analytic continuation,
Feynman integrals are polynomial ones and for this reason very simple to
handle, contrary to the usual parametric ones. The result of the integral
worked out in must be analytically continued again --- of course --- to
real physical world, , and this step presents no difficulties. We consider
four two-loop three-point vertex diagrams with arbitrary exponents of
propagators and dimension. These original results give the correct well-known
particular cases where the exponents of propagators are equal to unity.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures, misprints correcte
Can childcare work be designed to promote moderate and vigorous physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness and health? Study protocol for the Goldilocks-childcare randomised controlled trial
Background: Despite extensive efforts, issues like obesity and poor physical capacity remain challenges for a healthy work life in several occupations. The Goldilocks work principle offers a new approach, encouraging design of productive work to promote physical capacity and health. This paper presents the protocol for the Goldilocks-childcare study, a randomised controlled intervention trial aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing the Goldilocks work principle in childcare. The primary aim of the intervention is to increase time in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) by having the childcare workers act as active role models for children in daily playful physical activities, and thereby improve cardiorespiratory fitness and health of the workers.
Methods: The study is a cluster-randomised trial with a usual-practice wait-list control group. The 10-week intervention consists of two phases. In the first, the childcare workers will participate in two participatory workshops aiming to a) develop playful physical activities ('Goldilocks-games') for children in which childcare workers participate as active role models at MVPA intensity, and b) develop action plans for implementation of the Goldilocks-games in daily work routines. In the second phase, childcare institutions will implement the Goldilocks-games. The primary outcome is working time spent in MVPA, and secondary outcomes are cardiorespiratory fitness, sleeping heart rate, perceived need for recovery, and productivity. Primary outcome and process evaluation will be based on direct measurements of physical activity and heart rate, determination of cardiorespiratory fitness, and questionnaires.
Discussion: If proven effective, the Goldilocks work principle has a large potential for promoting sustainable health and working lives of childcare workers.
Trial registration: ISRCTN, ISRCTN15644757, Registered 25th December 201
Soft and virtual corrections to pp -> H + X at NNLO
The contributions of virtual corrections and soft gluon emission to the
inclusive Higgs production cross section pp -> H + X are computed at
next-to-next-to-leading order in the heavy top quark limit. We show that this
part of the total cross section is well behaved in the sense of perturbative
convergence, with the NNLO corrections amounting to an enhancement of the NLO
cross section by \sim 5% for LHC and 10-20% for the Tevatron. We compare our
results with an existing estimate of the full NNLO effects and argue that an
analytic evaluation of the hard scattering contributions is needed.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 16 ps files embedded with epsf. Minor
modifications: references and note added, results unchange
Critical scaling of the a.c. conductivity for a superconductor above Tc
We consider the effects of critical superconducting fluctuations on the
scaling of the linear a.c. conductivity, \sigma(\omega), of a bulk
superconductor slightly above Tc in zero applied magnetic field. The dynamic
renormalization- group method is applied to the relaxational time-dependent
Ginzburg-Landau model of superconductivity, with \sigma(\omega) calculated via
the Kubo formula to O(\epsilon^{2}) in the \epsilon = 4 - d expansion. The
critical dynamics are governed by the relaxational XY-model
renormalization-group fixed point. The scaling hypothesis \sigma(\omega) \sim
\xi^{2-d+z} S(\omega \xi^{z}) proposed by Fisher, Fisher and Huse is explicitly
verified, with the dynamic exponent z \approx 2.015, the value expected for the
d=3 relaxational XY-model. The universal scaling function S(y) is computed and
shown to deviate only slightly from its Gaussian form, calculated earlier. The
present theory is compared with experimental measurements of the a.c.
conductivity of YBCO near Tc, and the implications of this theory for such
experiments is discussed.Comment: 16 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Firing statistics of inhibitory neuron with delayed feedback. I. Output ISI probability density
Activity of inhibitory neuron with delayed feedback is considered in the
framework of point stochastic processes. The neuron receives excitatory input
impulses from a Poisson stream, and inhibitory impulses from the feedback line
with a delay. We investigate here, how does the presence of inhibitory feedback
affect the output firing statistics. Using binding neuron (BN) as a model, we
derive analytically the exact expressions for the output interspike intervals
(ISI) probability density, mean output ISI and coefficient of variation as
functions of model's parameters for the case of threshold 2. Using the leaky
integrate-and-fire (LIF) model, as well as the BN model with higher thresholds,
these statistical quantities are found numerically. In contrast to the
previously studied situation of no feedback, the ISI probability densities
found here both for BN and LIF neuron become bimodal and have discontinuity of
jump type. Nevertheless, the presence of inhibitory delayed feedback was not
found to affect substantially the output ISI coefficient of variation. The ISI
coefficient of variation found ranges between 0.5 and 1. It is concluded that
introduction of delayed inhibitory feedback can radically change neuronal
output firing statistics. This statistics is as well distinct from what was
found previously (Vidybida & Kravchuk, 2009) by a similar method for excitatory
neuron with delayed feedback.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
Superconductors with Magnetic Impurities: Instantons and Sub-gap States
When subject to a weak magnetic impurity potential, the order parameter and
quasi-particle energy gap of a bulk singlet superconductor are suppressed.
According to the conventional mean-field theory of Abrikosov and Gor'kov, the
integrity of the energy gap is maintained up to a critical concentration of
magnetic impurities. In this paper, a field theoretic approach is developed to
critically analyze the validity of the mean field theory. Using the
supersymmetry technique we find a spatially homogeneous saddle-point that
reproduces the Abrikosov-Gor'kov theory, and identify instanton contributions
to the density of states that render the quasi-particle energy gap soft at any
non-zero magnetic impurity concentration. The sub-gap states are associated
with supersymmetry broken field configurations of the action. An analysis of
fluctuations around these configurations shows how the underlying supersymmetry
of the action is restored by zero modes. An estimate of the density of states
is given for all dimensionalities. To illustrate the universality of the
present scheme we apply the same method to study `gap fluctuations' in a normal
quantum dot coupled to a superconducting terminal. Using the same instanton
approach, we recover the universal result recently proposed by Vavilov et al.
Finally, we emphasize the universality of the present scheme for the
description of gap fluctuations in d-dimensional superconducting/normal
structures.Comment: 18 pages, 9 eps figure
Resummation of the hadronic tau decay width with the modified Borel transform method
A modified Borel transform of the Adler function is used to resum the
hadronic tau decay width ratio. In contrast to the ordinary Borel transform,
the integrand of the Borel integral is renormalization--scale invariant. We use
an ansatz which explicitly accounts for the structure of the leading infrared
renormalon. Further, we use judiciously chosen conformal transformations for
the Borel variable, in order to map sufficiently away from the origin the other
ultraviolet and infrared renormalon singularities. In addition, we apply Pade
approximants for the corresponding truncated perturbation series of the
modified Borel transform, in order to further accelerate the convergence.
Comparing the results with the presently available experimental data on the tau
hadronic decay width ratio, we obtain . These predictions
virtually agree with those of our previous resummations where we used ordinary
Borel transforms instead.Comment: 32 pages, 2 eps-figures, revtex; minor changes in the formulations; a
typo in Eq.(47) corrected; version as appearing in Phys. Rev.
Quark droplets stability induced by external magnetic field
The influence of a constant homogeneous external magnetic field on the
formation and stability of quark droplets is investigated within a simple Nambu
-- Jona-Lasinio model by using a thermodynamic approach. For a vanishing
magnetic field stable quark droplets, which are schematically the bags of
massless quarks, are allowed to exist only at , where is the
quark coupling constant, , and is the value of
the coupling constant above which chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken down.
On the other hand, a nonvanishing external magnetic field can induce the
stability of quark droplets so that they may exist even at . In this
case, depending on the value of , quark droplets are composed either of
massive or massless quarks.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, REVTEX4; new references added; minor changes of
the tex
Community structures of actively growing bacteria shift along a north-south transect in the western North Pacific
Bacterial community structures and their activities in the ocean are tightly coupled with organic matter fluxes and thus control ocean biogeochemical cycles. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), halogenated nucleoside and thymidine analogue, has been recently used to monitor actively growing bacteria (AGB) in natural environments. We labelled DNA of proliferating cells in seawater bacterial assemblages with BrdU and determined community structures of the bacteria that were possible key species in mediating biochemical reactions in the ocean. Surface seawater samples were collected along a north-south transect in the North Pacific in October 2003 and subjected to BrdU magnetic beads immunocapture and PCR-DGGE (BUMP-DGGE) analysis. Change of BrdU-incorporated community structures reflected the change of water masses along a north-south transect from subarctic to subtropical gyres in the North Pacific. We identified 25 bands referred to AGB as BrdU-incorporated phylotypes, belonging to Alphaproteobacteria (5 bands), Betaproteobacteria (1 band), Gammaproteobacteria (4 bands), Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides (CFB) group bacteria (5 bands), Gram-positive bacteria (6 bands), and Cyanobacteria (4 bands). BrdU-incorporated phylotypes belonging to Vibrionales, Alteromonadales and Gram-positive bacteria appeared only at sampling stations in a subtropical gyre, while those belonging to Roseobacter-related bacteria and CFB group bacteria appeared at the stations in both subarctic and subtropical gyres. Our result revealed phylogenetic affiliation of AGB and their dynamic change along with north-south environmental gradients in open oceans. Different species of AGB utilize different amount and kinds of substrates, which can affect the change of organic matter fluxes along transect
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