28,141 research outputs found
The association between retinal vein ophthalmodynamometric force change and optic disc excavation
Aim: Retinal vein ophthalmodynamometric force (ODF) is predictive of future optic disc excavation in glaucoma, but it is not known if variation in ODF affects prognosis. We aimed to assess whether a change in ODF provides additional prognostic information. Methods: 135 eyes of 75 patients with glaucoma or being glaucoma suspects had intraocular pressure (IOP), visual fields, stereo optic disc photography and ODF measured on an initial visit and a subsequent visit at mean 82 (SD 7.3) months later. Corneal thickness and blood pressure were recorded on the latter visit. When venous pulsation was spontaneous, the ODF was recorded as 0 g. Change in ODF was calculated. Flicker stereochronoscopy was used to determine the occurrence of optic disc excavation, which was modelled against the measured variables using multiple mixed effects logistic regression. Results: Change in ODF (p=0.046) was associated with increased excavation. Average IOP (p=0.66) and other variables were not associated. Odds ratio for increased optic disc excavation of 1.045 per gram ODF change (95% CI 1.001 to 1.090) was calculated. Conclusion: Change in retinal vein ODF may provide additional information to assist with glaucoma prognostication and implies a significant relationship between venous change and glaucoma patho-physiology
Nested Balanced Incomplete Block Designs
If the blocks of a balanced incomplete block design (BIBD) with v treatments and with parameters (v; b1;r;k1) are each partitioned into sub-blocks of size k2, and the b2 =b1k1=k2 sub-blocks themselves constitute a BIBD with parameters (v; b2;r;k2), then the system of blocks, sub-blocks and treatments is, by de4nition, a nested BIBD (NBIBD). Whist tournaments are special types of NBIBD with k1 =2k2= 4. Although NBIBDs were introduced in the statistical literature in 1967 and have subsequently received occasional attention there, they are almost unknown in the combinatorial literature, except in the literature of tournaments, and detailed combinatorial studies of them have been lacking. The present paper therefore reviews and extends mathematical knowledge of NBIBDs. Isomorphism and automorphisms are defined for NBIBDs, and methods of construction are outlined. Some special types of NBIBD are de4ned and illustrated. A first-ever detailed table of NBIBDs with v⩜16, r⩜30 is provided; this table contains many newly discovered NBIBDs. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
Development of Ground-testable Phase Fresnel Lenses in Silicon
Diffractive/refractive optics, such as Phase Fresnel Lenses (PFL's), offer
the potential to achieve excellent imaging performance in the x-ray and
gamma-ray photon regimes. In principle, the angular resolution obtained with
these devices can be diffraction limited. Furthermore, improvements in signal
sensitivity can be achieved as virtually the entire flux incident on a lens can
be concentrated onto a small detector area. In order to verify experimentally
the imaging performance, we have fabricated PFL's in silicon using gray-scale
lithography to produce the required Fresnel profile. These devices are to be
evaluated in the recently constructed 600-meter x-ray interferometry testbed at
NASA/GSFC. Profile measurements of the Fresnel structures in fabricated PFL's
have been performed and have been used to obtain initial characterization of
the expected PFL imaging efficiencies.Comment: Presented at GammaWave05: "Focusing Telescopes in Nuclear
Astrophysics", Bonifacio, Corsica, September 2005, to be published in
Experimental Astronomy, 8 pages, 3 figure
Invariance of the correlation energy at high density and large dimension in two-electron systems
We prove that, in the large-dimension limit, the high-density correlation
energy \Ec of two opposite-spin electrons confined in a -dimensional space
and interacting {\em via} a Coulomb potential is given by \Ec \sim -1/(8D^2)
for any radial confining potential . This result explains the observed
similarity of \Ec in a variety of two-electron systems in three-dimensional
space.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
A Reanalysis of theUltraviolet Extinction from Interstellar Dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud
We have reanalyzed the Large Magellanic Cloud's (LMC) ultraviolet (UV)
extinction using data from the IUE final archive. Our new analysis takes
advantage of the improved signal--to--noise of the IUE NEWSIPS reduction, the
exclusion of stars with very low reddening, the careful selection of well
matched comparison stars, and an analysis of the effects of Galactic foreground
dust. Differences between the average extinction curves of the 30 Dor region
and the rest of the LMC are reduced compared to previous studies. We find that
there is a group of stars with very weak 2175 Ang. bumps that lie in or near
the region occupied by the supergiant shell, LMC 2, on the southeast side of 30
Dor. The average extinction curves inside and outside LMC 2 show a very
significant difference in 2175 Ang. bump strength, but their far--UV
extinctions are similar. While it is unclear whether or not the extinction
outside the LMC 2 region can be fit with the relation of Cardelli, Clayton and
Mathis (CCM), sightlines near LMC 2 cannot be fit with CCM due to their weak
2175 Ang. bumps. While the extinction properties seen in the LMC lie within the
range of properties seen in the Galaxy, the correlations of UV extinction
properties with environment seen in the Galaxy do not appear to hold in the
LMC.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, to be published in Ap
Bivariate stochastic modeling of functional response with natural mortality
A correction due to Abbott (1925) is the standard method of dealing with control mortality in insect bioassay to estimate the mortality of an insect conditional on control mortality not having occurred. In this article a bivariate stochastic process for overall mortality is developed in which natural mortality and predation are jointly modeled to take account of the competing-risks associated with prey loss. The total mortality estimate from this model is essentially identical with that from more classical modeling. However, when predation loss is estimated in the absence of control mortality the results are somewhat different, with the estimate from the bivariate model being lower than that from using Abbottâs formula in conjunction with the classical model. It is argued that overdispersion in observed mortality data corresponds to correlated outcomes (death or survival) for the prey initially present, while Abbottâs correction relies implicitly on independence
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