1,134 research outputs found
Elastocapillary driven assembly of particles at free-standing smectic-A films
Colloidal particles at complex fluid interfaces and within films assemble to
form ordered structures with high degrees of symmetry via interactions that
include capillarity, elasticity, and other fields like electrostatic charge.
Here we study microparticle interactions within free-standing smectic-A films,
in which the elasticity arising from the director field distortion and
capillary interactions arising from interface deformation compete to direct the
assembly of motile particles. New colloidal assemblies and patterns, ranging
from 1D chains to 2D aggregates, sensitive to the initial wetting conditions of
particles at the smectic film, are reported. This work paves the way to
exploiting LC interfaces as a means to direct spontaneously formed,
reconfigurable, and optically active materials.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Supplementary Materials: 3 pages, 3 figure
Glasgow Coma Scale and Its Components on Admission: Are They Valuable Prognostic Tools in Acute Mixed Drug Poisoning?
Introduction. The verbal, eye, and motor components of Glasgow coma scale (GCS) may be influenced by poisoned patients' behavior in an attempted suicide. So, the values of admission GCS and its components for outcomes prediction in mixed drugs poisoning were investigated. Materials and Methods. A followup study data was performed on patients with mixed drugs poisoning. Outcomes were recorded as without complications and with complications. Discrimination was evaluated by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC). Results. There was a significant difference between the mean value of each component of GCS as well as the total GCS between patients with and without complication. Discrimination was best for GCS (AUC: 0.933 ± 0.020) and verbal (0.932 ± 0.021), followed by motor (0.911 ± 0.025), then eye (0.89 ± 0.028). Conclusions. Admission GCS and its components seem to be valuable in outcome prediction of patients with mixed drug poisoning
Co-infection of Malaria and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever
Southeast of Iran is an endemic area for Malaria and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF). In 1999, we faced with an outbreak of CCHF in Sistan and Baluchistan Province, in the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The most cases of Malaria in Iran are also reported from this area. This article presents a 17-year- old woman who admitted to our hospital because of acute fever, headache, epistaxis, hemorrhagic lesions on the skin and vaginal bleeding. Finally, she was recognized as a case that was co –infected with CCHF and malaria
Effect of Antioxidants on the Outcome of Therapy in Paraquat-intoxicated Patients
Purpose: The present study was conducted to determine the effect of vitamins C and E administration on the outcome of therapy in patients with paraquat intoxication admitted in the Poisoning EmergencyDepartment (PED) of Noor Teaching General Hospital, Isfahan, Iran.Methods: We studied retrospectively medical records of 186 patients admitted to the PED in two different study periods: 157 patients were evaluated from 1985 to 2001 (first study period) in which patients received conventional treatment protocol consisting of fluid replacement, oral absorbents, haemodialysis, etc, Also, 29 other patients were assessed from 2001 to 2005 (second study period) in which vitamins C and E had been administered to the patients, in addition to the conventional protocol.The patients' mortality rate after the first study period was compared to that of the second one, with regard to the impact of the additional therapeutic intervention (use of antioxidant vitamins).Results: Most of the patients (40.5 %) had ingested more than 20 mL of 20 % paraquat solution and were admitted to the hospital during the first 4 h after exposure. Paraquat poisoning was more common in men (76.6 %), young adults in the age group 19 - 34 (47 %) and during summer (43.3 %). Mean (± SE) length of hospital stay was 62.6 ± 15.6 h. Overall mortality rates were 31 and 55.2 % in the first and second periods, respectively.Conclusion: Although the addition of antioxidants (vitamins C and E) to the conventional therapy did not reduce the mortality rate, other dependent variables including different doses of antioxidants may beconsidered for future studies
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Attention and the motion after effect
We measured the effects of attentional distraction on the time course and asymptote of motion adaptation strength, using visual search performance (percent correct and reaction time). In the first two experiments, participantsadapted to a spatial array of moving Gaborpatches, either all vertically oriented (Experiment 1) or randomly oriented (Experiment 2). On each trial the adaptingarray was followed by a test array in which all of the test patchesexcept one were identical in orientation and movement direction to their retinotopically corresponding adaptors, but thetarget moved in the opposite direction to its adaptor. Participantswere required to identify the location of the changed targetwith a mouse click. The ability to do so increased with the number of adapting trials. Neither search speed nor accuracy was affected by an attentionallydemanding conjunction task at the fixation point during adaptation, suggesting low-level (pre-attentive) sites in the visual pathway for the adaptation. In Experiment 3 the same participants were required to identify the one element in the test array that was slowly moving. Reaction times in this case were elevated following adaptation, but once again there was nosignificant effect of the distracting task upon performance.In Experiment 4 participants were required to make eye movements, so that retinotopically corresponding adaptors could be distinguished from spatiotopically corresponding adaptors.Performance in Experiments 1 and 2 correlated positively with reaction times in Experiment 3, suggesting a general trait for adaptation strength
Radiation from the LTB black hole
Does a dynamical black hole embedded in a cosmological FRW background emit
Hawking radiation where a globally defined event horizon does not exist? What
are the differences to the Schwarzschild black hole? What about the first law
of black hole mechanics? We face these questions using the LTB cosmological
black hole model recently published. Using the Hamilton-Jacobi and radial null
geodesic-methods suitable for dynamical cases, we show that it is the apparent
horizon which contributes to the Hawking radiation and not the event horizon.
The Hawking temperature is calculated using the two different methods giving
the same result. The first law of LTB black hole dynamics and the thermal
character of the radiation is also dealt with.Comment: 9 pages, revised version, Europhysics Letter 2012 97 2900
A Student-t based filter for robust signal detection
The search for gravitational-wave signals in detector data is often hampered
by the fact that many data analysis methods are based on the theory of
stationary Gaussian noise, while actual measurement data frequently exhibit
clear departures from these assumptions. Deriving methods from models more
closely reflecting the data's properties promises to yield more sensitive
procedures. The commonly used matched filter is such a detection method that
may be derived via a Gaussian model. In this paper we propose a generalized
matched-filtering technique based on a Student-t distribution that is able to
account for heavier-tailed noise and is robust against outliers in the data. On
the technical side, it generalizes the matched filter's least-squares method to
an iterative, or adaptive, variation. In a simplified Monte Carlo study we show
that when applied to simulated signals buried in actual interferometer noise it
leads to a higher detection rate than the usual ("Gaussian") matched filter.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure
Do we know the mass of a black hole? Mass of some cosmological black hole models
Using a cosmological black hole model proposed recently, we have calculated
the quasi-local mass of a collapsing structure within a cosmological setting
due to different definitions put forward in the last decades to see how similar
or different they are. It has been shown that the mass within the horizon
follows the familiar Brown-York behavior. It increases, however, outside the
horizon again after a short decrease, in contrast to the Schwarzschild case.
Further away, near the void, outside the collapsed region, and where the
density reaches the background minimum, all the mass definitions roughly
coincide. They differ, however, substantially far from it. Generically, we are
faced with three different Brown-York mass maxima: near the horizon, around the
void between the overdensity region and the background, and another at
cosmological distances corresponding to the cosmological horizon. While the
latter two maxima are always present, the horizon mass maxima is absent before
the onset of the central singularity.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, revised version, accepted in General Relativity
and Gravitatio
Knowledge of falls risk factors in older adults among physiotherapy students in Malaysia
INTRODUCTION: Knowledge of the risk factors for falls is necessary for the prevention of falls in older adults. This study aimed to identify the levels of knowledge of the risk factors of falls among physiotherapy students in Malaysia. METHODS: A total of 239 physiotherapy students from seven institutions completed a two-section questionnaire about their sociodemographic information and knowledge regarding risk factors for falls (balance/gait disorders, muscle weakness, environmental hazards, postural hypotension, sensory/perceptive deceptive, multiple medications, impaired cognitive and foot/footwear problems) that were answered on a Likert scale ranging from 'Not very important (1)' to 'Very important (5)'. RESULTS: Analysis indicated that only two factors scored means of > 4, namely balance/gait disorders and muscle weakness, with 82.8% and 65.7% responded 'very important', respectively. The factors with the lowest means were postural hypotension (3.41±1.40) and multiple medications (2.97±1.21), in which the majority of the participants responded as 'somewhat unimportant' or 'moderately important. Students studying full-time and those with no working experience were significantly better than part-time students and those with working experience, respectively, in the level of knowledge of risk factors of falls (Both p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that physiotherapy students in Malaysia may have insufficient knowledge about the risk factors of falls as all factors should be deemed very important. The higher education providers should design a comprehensive curriculum considering all factors, especially postural hypotension and multiple medications
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