426 research outputs found
Randomised controlled trial of specialist nurse intervention in heart failure
<p>Objectives. To determine whether specialist nurse intervention improves outcome in patients with chronic heart failure.</p>
<p>Design. Randomised controlled trial.</p>
<p>Setting. Acute medical admissions unit in a teaching hospital.</p>
<p>Participants. 165 patients admitted with heart failure due to left ventricular systolic dysfunction. The intervention started before discharge and continued thereafter with home visits for up to 1 year.</p>
<p>Main outcome measures. Time to first event analysis of death from all causes or readmission to hospital with worsening heart failure.</p>
<p>Results. 31 patients (37%) in the intervention group died or were readmitted with heart failure compared with 45 (53%) in the usual care group (hazard ratio=0.61, 95% confidence interval 0.33 to 0.96).Compared with usual care, patients in the intervention group had fewer readmissions for any reason (86 v 114, P=0.018), fewer admissions for heart failure (19 v 45, P<0.001) and spent fewer days in hospital for heart failure (mean 3.43 v 7.46 days, P=0.0051).</p>
<p>Conclusions. Specially trained nurses can improve the outcome of patients admitted to hospital with heart failure.</p>
Spin Seebeck effect in polycrystalline yttrium iron garnet pellets prepared by the solid-state method [Letter]
We study the properties of polycrystalline bulk yttrium iron garnet (YIG) pellets
prepared by the solid-state method, where the choice of the sintering temperature can lead to
mixed phases of yttrium iron perovskite (YIP) and YIG or single phase YIG. Magnetometry
shows multiple switching regimes in the mixed-phase pellets where the saturation magnetization
is dominated by the proportion of YIG present. Ferromagnetic resonance was used to corroborate
the saturation magnetization from magnetometry and to extract the spin wave damping α. The
lowest damping was observed for the YIG pellet, which resulted in a spin Seebeck effect (SSE)
coefficient that was approximately 55% of single crystal YIG. This demonstrates that macroscale
crystallization does not play a major role in the SSE and paves the way for utilising polycrystalline
samples for thermomagnetic applications
Covariance of Antiproton Yield and Source Size in Nuclear Collisions
We confront for the first time the widely-held belief that combined
event-by-event information from quark gluon plasma signals can reduce the
ambiguity of the individual signals. We illustrate specifically how the
measured antiproton yield combined with the information from pion-pion HBT
correlations can be used to identify novel event classes.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, improved title, references and readability;
results unchange
RG flows from Spin(7), CY 4-fold and HK manifolds to AdS, Penrose limits and pp waves
We obtain explicit realizations of holographic renormalization group (RG)
flows from M-theory, from E^{2,1} \times Spin(7) at UV to AdS_4 \times
\tilde{S^7} (squashed S^7) at IR, from E^{2,1} \times CY4 at UV to AdS_4 \times
Q^{1,1,1} at IR, and from E^{2,1} \times HK (hyperKahler) at UV to AdS_4 \times
N^{0,1,0} at IR. The dual type IIA string theory configurations correspond to
D2-D6 brane systems where D6 branes wrap supersymmetric four-cycles. We also
study the Penrose limits and obtain the pp-wave backgrounds for the above
configurations. Besides, we study some examples of non-supersymmetric and
supersymmetric flows in five-dimensional gauge theories.Comment: 42 pages, 6 eps figures, typos and misprints correcte
Measurement of the Nucleon Structure Function F2 in the Nuclear Medium and Evaluation of its Moments
We report on the measurement of inclusive electron scattering off a carbon
target performed with CLAS at Jefferson Laboratory. A combination of three
different beam energies 1.161, 2.261 and 4.461 GeV allowed us to reach an
invariant mass of the final-state hadronic system W~2.4 GeV with four-momentum
transfers Q2 ranging from 0.2 to 5 GeV2. These data, together with previous
measurements of the inclusive electron scattering off proton and deuteron,
which cover a similar continuous two-dimensional region of Q2 and Bjorken
variable x, permit the study of nuclear modifications of the nucleon structure.
By using these, as well as other world data, we evaluated the F2 structure
function and its moments. Using an OPE-based twist expansion, we studied the
Q2-evolution of the moments, obtaining a separation of the leading-twist and
the total higher-twist terms. The carbon-to-deuteron ratio of the leading-twist
contributions to the F2 moments exhibits the well known EMC effect, compatible
with that discovered previously in x-space. The total higher-twist term in the
carbon nucleus appears, although with large systematic uncertainites, to be
smaller with respect to the deuteron case for n<7, suggesting partial parton
deconfinement in nuclear matter. We speculate that the spatial extension of the
nucleon is changed when it is immersed in the nuclear medium.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figure
The PHENIX Experiment at RHIC
The physics emphases of the PHENIX collaboration and the design and current
status of the PHENIX detector are discussed. The plan of the collaboration for
making the most effective use of the available luminosity in the first years of
RHIC operation is also presented.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Further details of the PHENIX physics program
available at http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/phenix
Measurement of and charged current inclusive cross sections and their ratio with the T2K off-axis near detector
We report a measurement of cross section and the first measurements of the cross section
and their ratio
at (anti-)neutrino energies below 1.5
GeV. We determine the single momentum bin cross section measurements, averaged
over the T2K -flux, for the detector target material (mainly
Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Copper) with phase space restricted laboratory
frame kinematics of 500 MeV/c. The
results are and $\sigma(\nu)=\left( 2.41\
\pm0.022{\rm{(stat.)}}\pm0.231{\rm (syst.)}\ \right)\times10^{-39}^{2}R\left(\frac{\sigma(\bar{\nu})}{\sigma(\nu)}\right)=
0.373\pm0.012{\rm (stat.)}\pm0.015{\rm (syst.)}$.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure
Proximity effect at superconducting Sn-Bi2Se3 interface
We have investigated the conductance spectra of Sn-Bi2Se3 interface junctions
down to 250 mK and in different magnetic fields. A number of conductance
anomalies were observed below the superconducting transition temperature of Sn,
including a small gap different from that of Sn, and a zero-bias conductance
peak growing up at lower temperatures. We discussed the possible origins of the
smaller gap and the zero-bias conductance peak. These phenomena support that a
proximity-effect-induced chiral superconducting phase is formed at the
interface between the superconducting Sn and the strong spin-orbit coupling
material Bi2Se3.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
Seed dormancy and germination in Dodonaea viscosa (Sapindaceae) from south-western Saudi Arabia
Dodonaea viscosa (Sapindaceae) is widespread in the mountainous highlands of the southwestern part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where it is a medicinally important species for the people of Saudi Arabia. Seeds of this species were collected from Mount Atharb in the Al-Baha region, at an altitude of 2100 m. The aims of this study were to determine if the seeds of D. viscosa have physical dormancy (i.e. a water-impermeable seed coat) and, if so, what treatments would break dormancy, and what conditions promote germination after dormancy has been broken. The dormancy-breaking treatments included: soaking of seeds in concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4) for 10 minutes, immersion in boiling water for 10 minutes and exposure to 50 °C for 1 minute. After seeds had been pre-treated with H2SO4, to break dormancy, they were incubated at constant temperatures from 5 to 35°C, under 12-h photoperiods or in continuous darkness, and germination recorded. Salinity tolerance was investigated by incubating acid-scarified seeds in 0, 100, 200 and 300 mM NaCl in the light at 25°C. Untreated seeds had low final germination (30%). Seeds that had been acid-scarified, immersed in boiling water or exposed to 50 °C all achieved 91% subsequently when incubated at 25°C. Thus, seeds of this species in Saudi Arabia have physical dormancy, which can be broken by all three treatments designed to increase the permeability of the testa. After pre-treatment, there was a broad optimum constant temperature for germination that ranged between 5-25°C but germination was inhibited by higher temperatures (30 and 35°C). Light had little effect on this germination response. Scarified seeds were also sensitive to salinity, with the highest germination in distilled water and complete inhibition in 400 mM NaCl. Seeds that failed to germinate in saline treatments were mostly able to germinate on transfer to distilled water, suggesting osmotic inhibition
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