5,938 research outputs found
Formula for Fixed Point Resolution Matrix of Permutation Orbifolds
We find a formula for the resolution of fixed points in extensions of
permutation orbifold conformal field theories by its (half-)integer spin simple
currents. We show that the formula gives a unitary and modular invariant S
matrix.Comment: 42 page
Association between one-hour post-load plasma glucose levels and vascular stiffness in essential hypertension
Objectives: Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a surrogate end-point for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. A plasma glucose
value 155 mg/dl (NGT155 had a worse insulin sensitivity and higher hs-CRP than NGT,155, similar to IGT subjects. In addition, NGT 155 subjects, compared with NGT,155, have higher PWV and its hemodynamic correlates
that increase their cardiovascular risk profile
Family caregiversâ conceptualisation of quality end-of-life care for people with dementia: A qualitative study
BACKGROUND:
People with dementia have been described as the âdisadvantaged dyingâ with poor end-of-life care. Towards the end of life, people with dementia cannot report on the care they receive. It is therefore important to talk to caregivers; however, few have explored the views about end-of-life care from the caregiversâ perspective. The majority of research on family caregivers has focussed on the burden and psychological impact of caring for a relative with dementia.
AIM:
This study aimed to explore the views of family caregivers about quality end-of-life care for people with dementia.
DESIGN:
Qualitative study using in-depth interviews and analysed using thematic analysis.
SETTING/PARTICIPANTS:
Purposive sampling from a third sector organisationâs caregiver network was used to recruit 47 caregivers in England (2012â2013), consisting of (1) family caregivers of someone who had recently received a diagnosis of dementia, (2) family caregivers currently caring for someone with dementia and (3) bereaved family caregivers.
RESULTS:
Three over-arching themes were derived from the intervieweesâ discourse, including maintaining the person within, fostering respect and dignity and showing compassion and kindness.
CONCLUSION:
End-of-life care for people with dementia does not differ from care throughout the dementia trajectory. Throughout the findings, there is an implicit underlying theme of conflict: conflict between family caregivers and an increasingly systematised service of care and conflict between family caregivers and professionals. This study has in particular demonstrated the importance of the psycho-social aspects of care, aligning with the holistic definition of palliative care
How to measure a Hill-Sachs lesion: a systematic review
Quantifying bone loss is important to decide the best treatment for patients with recurrent anterior glenohumeral instability. Currently, there is no standard method available to make a precise evaluation of the Hill-Sachs lesion and predict its engagement before the surgical procedure. This literature review was performed in order to identify existing published imaging methods quantifying humeral head bone loss in Hill-Sachs lesions.Searches were undertaken in Scopus and PubMed databases from January 2008 until February 2018. The search terms were "Hill-Sachs" and "measurement" for the initial search and "Hill-Sachs bone loss" for the second, to be present in the keywords, abstracts and title. All articles that presented a method for quantifying measurement of Hill-Sachs lesions were analysed.Several methods are currently available to evaluate Hill-Sachs lesions. The length, width and depth measurements on CT scans show strong inter and intra-observer correlation coefficients. Three-dimensional CT is helpful for evaluation of bony injuries; however, there were no significant differences between 3D CT and 3D MRI measurements. The on-track off-track method using MRI allows a simultaneous evaluation of the Hill-Sachs and glenoid bone loss and also predicts the engaging lesions with good accuracy. Cite this article: EFORT Open Rev 2019;4:151-157. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.4.180031.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Neural evidence of motivational conflict between social values
Motivational interdependence is an organizing principle in Schwartzâs circumplex model of social values, which has received abundant cross-cultural support. We used fMRI to test whether motivational relations between social values predict different brain responses in a situation of choice between values. We hypothesized that differences in brain responses would become evident when the more important value had to be selected in pairs of congruent (e.g., wealth and success) as opposed to incongruent (e.g., curiosity and stability) values as they are described in Schwartzâs model, because the former serve mutually facilitating motives, whereas the latter serve mutually inhibiting motives. Consistent with the model, choosing between congruent values led to longer response times and more activation in conflict-related brain regions (e.g., the supplementary motor area, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) than selecting between incongruent values. These results provide novel neural evidence supporting the circumplex modelâs predictions about motivational interdependence between social values. In particular, our results show that the neural networks underlying social values are organized in a way that allows activation patterns related to motivational similarity between congruent values to be dissociated from those related to incongruent values
Remote device access in the new accelerator controls middleware
This paper presents the Remote Device Access (RDA) package developed at CERN in the framework of the joint PS/SL Controls Middleware project. The package design reflects the Accelerator Device Model in which devices, named entities in the control system, can be controlled via properties. RDA implements this model in a distributed environment with devices residing in servers that can run anywhere in the controls network. It provides a location-independent and reliable access to the devices from control programs. By invoking the device access methods, clients can read, write and subscribe to device property values. We describe the architecture and design of RDA its API, and CORBA-based implementations in Java and C++. First applications of RDA in the CERN accelerator control systems are described as well
Multiphysics Optimization for First Wall Design Enhancement in Water-Cooled Breeding Blankets
The commercial feasibility of the first fusion power plant generation adopting D-T plasma is strongly dependent upon the self-sustainability in terms of tritium fuelling. Within such a kind of reactor, the component selected to house the tritium breeding reactions is the breeding blanket, which is further assigned to heat power removal and radiation shielding functions. As a consequence of both its role and position, the breeding blanket is heavily exposed to both surface and volumetric heat loads and, hence, its design requires a typical multiphysics approach, from the neutronics to the thermo-mechanics. During last years, a great deal of effort has been put in the optimization of the breeding blanket design, with the aim of maximizing the tritium breeding and heat removal performances without undermining its structural integrity. In this paper, a derivative-free optimization method named âComplex methodâ is applied for the design optimization of the European DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead breeding blanket concept. To this purpose, a potential performances-based objective function, focusing on the maximization of the tritium breeding, is defined and a multiphysics numerical model of the blanket is developed in order to solve the coupled thermo-mechanical problem, while the optimization algorithm leads the design towards a minimum optimum point compliant with the prescribed requirements. Once the optimized design is obtained, its nuclear and thermo-structural performances are assessed by means of specific neutron transport and multiphysics simulations, respectively. Finally, the structural integrity is verified by means of the application of the RCC-MRx design criteria
Impact of reconfiguration on the flow downstream of a flexible foliated plant
This paper explores the impacts of reconfiguration and leaf morphology on the flow downstream of a flexible foliated plant. 3D acoustic Doppler velocimetry and particle image velocimetry were used to experimentally investigate the hydrodynamic interaction between a foliated plant and the flow, testing two plants with different leaves morphology under different bulk flow velocities. The model vegetation was representative of riparian vegetation species in terms of plants hydrodynamic behavior and leaf to stem area ratio. To explore the effects of the seasonal variability of vegetation
on the flow structure, leafless conditions were tested. Reconfiguration resulted in a decrease of the frontal projected area of the plants up to the 80% relative to the undeformed value. Such changes in plant frontal area markedly affected the
spatial distributions of mean velocity and turbulence intensities, altering the local exchanges of momentum. At increasing reconfiguration, the different plant morphology influenced the mean and turbulent wake width. The leafless
stem exhibited a rigid behavior, with the flow in the wake being comparable to that downstream of a rigid cylinder. The study revealed that the flexibility-induced reconfiguration of plants can markedly affect the local distribution of flow properties in the wake, potentially affecting transport processes at the scale of the plant and its subparts
The onset of star formation in primordial haloes
Star formation remains an unsolved problem in astrophysics. Numerical studies
of large-scale structure simulations cannot resolve the whole process and their
approach usually assumes that only gas denser than a typical threshold can host
and form stars. We investigate the onset of cosmological star formation and
compare several very-high-resolution, three-dimensional, N-body/SPH simulations
that include non-equilibrium, atomic and molecular chemistry, star formation
prescriptions, and feedback effects. We study how primordial star formation
depends on gas density thresholds, cosmological parameters and initial set-ups.
For mean-density initial conditions, we find that standard low-density
star-formation threshold (0.2 h^2/cm3) models predict the onset of star
formation at z~25-31, depending on the adopted cosmology. In these models stars
are formed regardless of the time between the moment when the threshold is
reached and the effective runaway collapse. At high redshift, this time
interval represents a significant fraction of the Hubble time and thus this
assumption can induce large artificial off-sets to the onset of star formation.
Choosing higher density thresholds (135 h^2/cm3) allows the entire cooling
process to be followed, and the onset of star formation is then estimated to be
at redshift z~12-16. When isolated, rare, high-density peaks are considered,
the chemical evolution is much faster and the first star formation episodes
occur at z > 40, almost regardless of the choice for the density threshold.
These results could have implications for the formation redshift of the first
cosmological objects, as inferred from direct numerical simulations of
mean-density environments, and on the studies of the reionization history of
the universe.Comment: 10 pages, 1 table, 5 figures; in press. Minor changes don
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