11,457 research outputs found
Risk factors and mortality associated with multimorbidity in people with stroke or transient ischaemic attack: a study of 8,751 UK Biobank participants
Background: Multimorbidity is common in stroke, but the risk factors and effects on mortality remain poorly understood. Objective: To examine multimorbidity and its associations with sociodemographic/lifestyle risk factors and all-cause mortality in UK Biobank participants with stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). Design: Data were obtained from an anonymized community cohort aged 40–72 years. Overall, 42 comorbidities were self-reported by those with stroke or TIA. Relative risk ratios demonstrated associations between participant characteristics and number of comorbidities. Hazard ratios demonstrated associations between the number and type of comorbidities and all-cause mortality. Results were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, smoking, and alcohol intake. Data were linked to national mortality data. Median follow-up was 7 years. Results: Of 8,751 participants (mean age 60.9±6.7 years) with stroke or TIA, the all-cause mortality rate over 7 years was 8.4%. Over 85% reported ≥1 comorbidities. Age, socioeconomic deprivation, smoking and less frequent alcohol intake were associated with higher levels of multimorbidity. Increasing multimorbidity was associated with higher all-cause mortality. Mortality risk was double for those with ≥5 comorbidities compared to those with none. Having cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease significantly increased mortality risk. Presence of any cardiometabolic comorbidity significantly increased mortality risk, as did any non-cardiometabolic comorbidity. Conclusions: In stroke survivors, the number of comorbidities may be a more helpful predictor of mortality than type of condition. Stroke guidelines should take greater account of comorbidities, and interventions are needed that improve outcomes for people with multimorbidity and stroke
A neuronal network model of interictal and recurrent ictal activity
We propose a neuronal network model which undergoes a saddle-node bifurcation
on an invariant circle as the mechanism of the transition from the interictal
to the ictal (seizure) state. In the vicinity of this transition, the model
captures important dynamical features of both interictal and ictal states. We
study the nature of interictal spikes and early warnings of the transition
predicted by this model. We further demonstrate that recurrent seizures emerge
due to the interaction between two networks.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Kinetically Inhibited Order in a Diamond-Lattice Antiferromagnet
Frustrated magnetic systems exhibit highly degenerate ground states and
strong fluctuations, often leading to new physics. An intriguing example of
current interest is the antiferromagnet on a diamond lattice, realized
physically in A-site spinel materials. This is a prototypical system in three
dimensions where frustration arises from competing interactions rather than
purely geometric constraints, and theory suggests the possibility of unusual
magnetic order at low temperature. Here we present a comprehensive
single-crystal neutron scattering study of CoAl2O4, a highly frustrated A-site
spinel. We observe strong diffuse scattering that peaks at wavevectors
associated with Neel ordering. Below the temperature T*=6.5 K, there is a
dramatic change in the elastic scattering lineshape accompanied by the
emergence of well-defined spin-wave excitations. T* had previously been
associated with the onset of glassy behavior. Our new results suggest instead
that T* signifies a first-order phase transition, but with true long-range
order inhibited by the kinetic freezing of domain walls. This scenario might be
expected to occur widely in frustrated systems containing first-order phase
transitions and is a natural explanation for existing reports of anomalous
glassy behavior in other materials.Comment: 40 pages, 9 figures, Introduction and discussion altered and
expanded. Additional section and figure added to Supplementary Informatio
Generating asymptotically plane wave spacetimes
In an attempt to study asymptotically plane wave spacetimes which admit an
event horizon, we find solutions to vacuum Einstein's equations in arbitrary
dimension which have a globally null Killing field and rotational symmetry. We
show that while such solutions can be deformed to include ones which are
asymptotically plane wave, they do not posses a regular event horizon. If we
allow for additional matter, such as in supergravity theories, we show that it
is possible to have extremal solutions with globally null Killing field, a
regular horizon, and which, in addition, are asymptotically plane wave. In
particular, we deform the extremal M2-brane solution in 11-dimensional
supergravity so that it behaves asymptotically as a 10-dimensional vacuum plane
wave times a real line.Comment: 23 pages, 1 eps figure; harvmac; v2:refs added; v3:minor comments
adde
X-ray diffraction measurements of Mo melting to 119 GPa and the high pressure phase diagram
In this paper, we report angle-dispersive X-ray diffraction data of molybdenum melting, measured in a double-sided laser-heated diamond-anvil cell up to a pressure of 119 GPa and temperatures up to 3400 K. The new melting temperatures are in excellent agreement with earlier measurements up to 90 GPa that relied on optical observations of melting and in strong contrast to most theoretical estimates. The X-ray measurements show that the solid melts from the bcc structure throughout the reported pressure range and provide no evidence for a high temperature transition from bcc to a close-packed structure, or to any other crystalline structure. This observation contradicts earlier interpretations of shock data arguing for such a transition. Instead, the values for the Poisson ratios of shock compressed Mo, obtained from the sound speed measurements, and the present X-ray evidence of loss of long-range order suggest that the 210 GPa ( ∼ 4100 K) transition in the shock experiment is from the bcc structure to a new, highly viscous, structured [email protected]
A prominent relativistic iron line in the Seyfert 1 MCG-02-14-009
I report the discovery of a prominent broad and asymmetrical feature near 6.4
keV in the Seyfert 1 MCG-02-14-009 (z=0.028) with XMM-Newton/EPIC. The present
short X-ray observation (PN net exposure time ~5 ks) is the first one above 2
keV for MCG-02-14-009. The feature can be explained by either a relativistic
iron line around either a Schwarzschild (non-rotating) or a Kerr (rotating)
black hole. If the feature is a relativistic iron line around a Schwarzschild
black hole, the line energy is 6.51 (+0.21,-0.12) keV with an equivalent width
of 631 (+259,-243) eV and that the inclination angle of the accretion disc
should be less than 43 degrees. A relativistically blurred photoionized disc
model gives a very good spectral fit over the broad band 0.2-12keV energy
range. The spectrum is reflection dominated and this would indicate that the
primary source in MCG-02-14-009 is located very close to the black hole, where
gravitational light bending effect is important (about 3-4 Rg), and that the
black hole may rapidly rotate.Comment: Accepted for publication, A&A Letters, 5 pages, 3 figures, and 1
tabl
Risk factors and mortality associated with multimorbidity in people with stroke or transient ischaemic attack: a study of 8,751 UK Biobank participants
Background: Multimorbidity is common in stroke, but the risk factors and effects on mortality remain poorly understood. Objective: To examine multimorbidity and its associations with sociodemographic/lifestyle risk factors and all-cause mortality in UK Biobank participants with stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). Design: Data were obtained from an anonymized community cohort aged 40–72 years. Overall, 42 comorbidities were self-reported by those with stroke or TIA. Relative risk ratios demonstrated associations between participant characteristics and number of comorbidities. Hazard ratios demonstrated associations between the number and type of comorbidities and all-cause mortality. Results were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, smoking, and alcohol intake. Data were linked to national mortality data. Median follow-up was 7 years. Results: Of 8,751 participants (mean age 60.9±6.7 years) with stroke or TIA, the all-cause mortality rate over 7 years was 8.4%. Over 85% reported ≥1 comorbidities. Age, socioeconomic deprivation, smoking and less frequent alcohol intake were associated with higher levels of multimorbidity. Increasing multimorbidity was associated with higher all-cause mortality. Mortality risk was double for those with ≥5 comorbidities compared to those with none. Having cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease significantly increased mortality risk. Presence of any cardiometabolic comorbidity significantly increased mortality risk, as did any non-cardiometabolic comorbidity. Conclusions: In stroke survivors, the number of comorbidities may be a more helpful predictor of mortality than type of condition. Stroke guidelines should take greater account of comorbidities, and interventions are needed that improve outcomes for people with multimorbidity and stroke
Controlling Organization and Forces in Active Matter Through Optically-Defined Boundaries
Living systems are capable of locomotion, reconfiguration, and replication.
To perform these tasks, cells spatiotemporally coordinate the interactions of
force-generating, "active" molecules that create and manipulate non-equilibrium
structures and force fields that span up to millimeter length scales [1-3].
Experimental active matter systems of biological or synthetic molecules are
capable of spontaneously organizing into structures [4,5] and generating global
flows [6-9]. However, these experimental systems lack the spatiotemporal
control found in cells, limiting their utility for studying non-equilibrium
phenomena and bioinspired engineering. Here, we uncover non-equilibrium
phenomena and principles by optically controlling structures and fluid flow in
an engineered system of active biomolecules. Our engineered system consists of
purified microtubules and light-activatable motor proteins that crosslink and
organize microtubules into distinct structures upon illumination. We develop
basic operations, defined as sets of light patterns, to create, move, and merge
microtubule structures. By composing these basic operations, we are able to
create microtubule networks that span several hundred microns in length and
contract at speeds up to an order of magnitude faster than the speed of an
individual motor. We manipulate these contractile networks to generate and
sculpt persistent fluid flows. The principles of boundary-mediated control we
uncover may be used to study emergent cellular structures and forces and to
develop programmable active matter devices
The large-scale Quasar-Lyman \alpha\ Forest Cross-Correlation from BOSS
We measure the large-scale cross-correlation of quasars with the Lyman
\alpha\ forest absorption in redshift space, using ~ 60000 quasar spectra from
Data Release 9 (DR9) of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The
cross-correlation is detected over a wide range of scales, up to comoving
separations r of 80 Mpc/h. For r > 15 Mpc/h, we show that the cross-correlation
is well fitted by the linear theory prediction for the mean overdensity around
a quasar host halo in the standard \Lambda CDM model, with the redshift
distortions indicative of gravitational evolution detected at high confidence.
Using previous determinations of the Lyman \alpha\ forest bias factor obtained
from the Lyman \alpha\ autocorrelation, we infer the quasar bias factor to be
b_q = 3.64^+0.13_-0.15 at a mean redshift z=2.38, in agreement with previous
measurements from the quasar auto-correlation. We also obtain a new estimate of
the Lyman \alpha\ forest redshift distortion factor, \beta_F = 1.1 +/- 0.15,
slightly larger than but consistent with the previous measurement from the
Lyman \alpha\ forest autocorrelation. The simple linear model we use fails at
separations r < 15 Mpc/h, and we show that this may reasonably be due to the
enhanced ionization due to radiation from the quasars. We also provide the
expected correction that the mass overdensity around the quasar implies for
measurements of the ionizing radiation background from the line-of-sight
proximity effect.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, published in JCA
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