6,938 research outputs found
Kinetic modelling of epitaxial film growth with up- and downward step barriers
The formation of three-dimensional structures during the epitaxial growth of
films is associated to the reflection of diffusing particles in descending
terraces due to the presence of the so-called Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) barrier.
We generalize this concept in a solid-on-solid growth model, in which a barrier
dependent on the particle coordination (number of lateral bonds) exists
whenever the particle performs an interlayer diffusion. The rules do not
distinguish explicitly if the particle is executing a descending or an
ascending interlayer diffusion. We show that the usual model, with a step
barrier in descending steps, produces spurious, columnar, and highly unstable
morphologies if the growth temperature is varied in a usual range of mound
formation experiments. Our model generates well-behaved mounded morphologies
for the same ES barriers that produce anomalous morphologies in the standard
model. Moreover, mounds are also obtained when the step barrier has an equal
value for all particles independently if they are free or bonded. Kinetic
roughening is observed at long times, when the surface roughness w and the
characteristic length scale as and where
and , independently of the growth
temperature.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
The Impact of Hospital Costing Methods on Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: A Case Study
Background: Several methods exist to cost hospital contacts when estimating the cost effectiveness of a new intervention. However, the implications of choosing a particular approach remain unclear. We compare the use of the three main diagnosis-related group (DRG)-based national unit costs in England to determine whether choice of approach can impact on economic evaluation results. Methods: A cost-utility model was developed to compare secondary fracture prevention models of care for hip fracture patients, using data from large primary and hospital care administrative datasets in England. A healthcare and personal social services payer perspective was adopted, and utilities were informed by a meta-regression. Hospital resource use was valued using three DRG-based unit costs, and regression-based costing models were developed using data from 13,906 patients to inform the model health states. Results: Finished consultant episode (FCE)-level reference costs resulted in the highest costs on admission (£9075) and in the year of the fracture (£14,440). Relative to FCE-level costs, spell-level tariffs led to the lowest total hospital care costs per patient within 1 year of fracture (− £3691) compared with spell-level reference costs (− £2106). At a £20,000/quality-adjusted life-year threshold, using spell-level reference costs or spell-level tariffs, the introduction of a nurse-led fracture liaison service model of care was the cost-effective alternative. However, using FCE-level reference costs, usual care was the cost-effective option. Conclusions: Our results show that, conditional on the set of national unit costs adopted, the costs of hip fracture may vary considerably and different decisions may be reached regarding the introduction of new healthcare interventions
A Geometric Approach to Massive p-form Duality
Massive theories of abelian p-forms are quantized in a generalized
path-representation that leads to a description of the phase space in terms of
a pair of dual non-local operators analogous to the Wilson Loop and the 't
Hooft disorder operators. Special atention is devoted to the study of the
duality between the Topologically Massive and the Self-Dual models in 2+1
dimensions. It is shown that these models share a geometric representation in
which just one non local operator suffices to describe the observables.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX. The discussion about the equivalence between the
Proca model and two seldual models, with opposite spins, was eliminated.
Typos correcte
Diagnóstico de verminose em ruminantes.
Diagnostico laboratorial; Contagem de ovos por grama de fezes (OPG) - tecnica de Gordon & Whitlock; Coprocultura; Sedimentação; Coleta de helmintos através de necropsias.bitstream/item/35891/1/Doc42.pd
Surface-Invariants in 2D Classical Yang-Mills Theory
We study a method to obtain invariants under area-preserving diffeomorphisms
associated to closed curves in the plane from classical Yang-Mills theory in
two dimensions. Taking as starting point the Yang-Mills field coupled to non
dynamical particles carrying chromo-electric charge, and by means of a
perturbative scheme, we obtain the first two contributions to the on shell
action, which are area-invariants. A geometrical interpretation of these
invariants is given.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure
The Role of Psychological Adjustment in the Decision-Making Process for Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy
BACKGROUND: This study's objective was to evaluate the role of psychological adjustment in the decision-making process to have an abortion and explore individual variables that might influence this decision.
METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we sequentially enrolled 150 women who made the decision to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy in Maternity Dr. Alfredo da Costa, in Lisbon, Portugal, between September 2008 and June 2009. The instruments were the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS), Satisfaction with Social Support Scale (SSSS), Emotional Assessment Scale (EAS), Decision Conflict Scale (DCS), and Beliefs and Values Questionnaire (BVQ). We analyzed the data using Student's T-tests, MANOVA, ANOVA, Tukey's post-hoc tests and CATPCA. Statistically significant effects were accepted for p<0.05.
RESULTS: The participants found the decision difficult and emotionally demanding, although they also identified it as a low conflict decision. The prevailing emotions were sadness, fear and stress; but despite these feelings, the participants remained psychologically adjusted in the moment they decided to have an abortion. The resolution to terminate the pregnancy was essentially shared with supportive people and it was mostly motivated by socio-economic issues. The different beliefs and values found in this sample, and their possible associations are discussed.
CONCLUSION: Despite high levels of stress, the women were psychologically adjusted at the time of making the decision to terminate the pregnancy. However, opposing what has been previously reported, the women presented high levels of sadness and fear, showing that this decision was hard to make, triggering disruptive emotions
Loop representation of charged particles interacting with Maxwell and Chern-Simons fields
The loop representation formulation of non-relativistic particles coupled
with abelian gauge fields is studied. Both Maxwell and Chern-Simons
interactions are separately considered. It is found that the loop-space
formulations of these models share significant similarities, although in the
Chern-Simons case there exists an unitary transformation that allows to remove
the degrees of freedom associated with the paths. The existence of this
transformation, which allows to make contact with the anyonic interpretation of
the model, is subjected to the fact that the charge of the particles be
quantized. On the other hand, in the Maxwell case, we find that charge
quantization is necessary in order to the geometric representation be
consistent.Comment: 6 pages, improved versio
Orientation dynamics of weakly Brownian particles in periodic viscous flows
Evolution equations for the orientation distribution of axisymmetric
particles in periodic flows are derived in the regime of small but non-zero
Brownian rotations. The equations are based on a multiple time scale approach
that allows fast computation of the relaxation processes leading to statistical
equilibrium. The approach has been applied to the calculation of the effective
viscosity of a thin disk suspension in gravity waves.Comment: 16 pages, 7 eps figures include
The scenario of two-dimensional instabilities of the cylinder wake under EHD forcing: A linear stability analysis
We propose to study the stability properties of an air flow wake forced by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) actuator, which is a type of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) actuator. These actuators add momentum to the flow around a cylinder in regions close to the wall and, in our case, are symmetrically disposed near the boundary layer separation point.
Since the forcing frequencies, typical of DBD, are much higher than the natural shedding frequency of the flow, we will be considering the forcing actuation as stationary.
In the first part, the flow around a circular cylinder modified by EHD actuators will be experimentally studied by means of particle image velocimetry (PIV). In the second part, the EHD actuators have been numerically implemented as a boundary condition on the cylinder surface. Using this boundary condition, the computationally obtained base flow is then compared with the experimental one in order to relate the control parameters from both methodologies.
After validating the obtained agreement, we study the Hopf bifurcation that appears once the flow starts the vortex shedding through experimental and computational approaches. For the base flow derived from experimentally obtained snapshots, we monitor the evolution of the velocity amplitude oscillations. As to the computationally obtained base flow, its stability is analyzed by solving a global eigenvalue problem obtained from the linearized Navier–Stokes equations. Finally, the critical parameters obtained from both approaches are compared
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