Generation of circular polarization of the CMB

According to the standard cosmology, near the last scattering surface, the photons scattered via Compton scattering are just linearly polarized and then the primordial circular polarization of the CMB photons is zero. In this work we show that CMB polarization acquires a small degree of circular polarization when a background magnetic field is considered or the quantum electrodynamic sector of standard model is extended by Lorentz-noninvariant operators as well as noncommutativity. The existence of circular polarization for the CMB radiation may be verified during future observation programs and it represents a possible new channel for investigating new physics effects.Comment: 28 pages, v3, Phys. Rev. D 81, 084035 (2010

Digital Building Twins and Blockchain for Performance-Based (Smart) Contracts

Performance contracts used for servitized business models enable consideration of overall life-cycle costs rather than just production costs. However, practical implementation of performance contracts has been limited due to challenges with performance evaluation, accountability, and financial concepts. As a solution, this paper proposes the connection of the digital building twin with blockchain-based smart contracts to execute performance-based digital payments. First, we conceptualize a technical architecture to connect blockchain to digital building twins. The digital building twin stores and evaluates performance data in real-time while the blockchain ensures transparency and trusted execution of automatic performance evaluation and rewards through smart contracts. Next, we demonstrate the feasibility of both the concept and technical architecture by integrating the Ethereum blockchain with digital building models and sensors via the Siemens building twin platform. The resulting prototype is the first full-stack implementation of a performance-based smart contract in the built environment

Modifiable risk of breast cancer in Northeast Iran: Hope for the future. a case-control study

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Its prevalence is increasing annually by 2. The determination of modifiable risk factors has been the subject of various studies. The aim of this study was to determine risk factors of breast cancer in women in Golestan Province. Patients and Methods: This case-control study was conducted among women with breast cancer recorded in the cancer registry system between 2004 and 2006 (n = 134), and their agematched healthy neighbors (n = 133). Data were statistically analyzed. Results: Age at marriage, menarche and pregnancy, breast feeding, positive family history, marital status, and educational level were not significantly correlated with risk of breast cancer, but age at menopause (< 46.6 years) was significantly correlated (95 confidence interval 1.15-7.37; p = 0.021). Live births, still births, and infant deaths were not significantly different between the 2 groups. For other variables, such as smoking history, no odds ratio was calculated. Conclusion: Results show that there is no significant correlation between variables and risk of breast cancer in our population, except for age at menopause. A large cohort study is recommended. © 2011 S. Karger GmbH, Freiburg

Does routine repeat testing of critical laboratory values improve their accuracy?

Background: Routine repeat testing of critical laboratory values is very common these days to increase their accuracy and to avoid reporting false or infeasible results. We figure that repeat testing of critical laboratory values has any benefits or not. Methods: We examined 2233 repeated critical laboratory values in 13 different hematology and chemistry tests including: hemoglobin, white blood cell, platelet, international normalized ratio, partial thromboplastin time, glucose, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, total bilirubin and direct bilirubin. The absolute difference and the percentage of change between the two tests for each critical value were calculated and then compared with the College of American Pathologists/Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments allowable error. Results: Repeat testing yielded results that were within the allowable error on 2213 of 2233 specimens (99.1). There was only one outlier (0.2) in the white blood cell test category, 9 (2.9) in the platelet test category, 5 (4) in the partial thromboplastin time test category, 5 (4.8) in the international normalized ratio test category and none in other test categories. Conclusion: Routine, repeat testing of critical hemoglobin, white blood cell, platelet, international normalized ratio, partial thromboplastin time, glucose, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, total bilirubin and direct bilirubin results does not have any benefits to increase their accuracy

High energy neutrino oscillation at the presence of the Lorentz Invariance Violation

Due to quantum gravity fluctuations at the Planck scale, the space-time manifold is no longer continuous, but discretized. As a result the Lorentz symmetry is broken at very high energies. In this article, we study the neutrino oscillation pattern due to the Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV), and compare it with the normal neutrino oscillation pattern due to neutrino masses. We find that at very high energies, neutrino oscillation pattern is very different from the normal one. This could provide an possibility to study the Lorentz Invariance Violation by measuring the oscillation pattern of very high energy neutrinos from a cosmological distance.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

COMBINING INDEPENDENT COMPONENT ANALYSIS WITH CHAOTIC QUANTIFIERS FOR THE RECOGNITION OF POSITIVE, NEGATIVE AND NEUTRAL EMOTIONS USING EEG SIGNALS

ABSTRACT Given the importance of recognizingemotions, the present study attempts to recognize emotions from the EEG signals. The main idea of this study is that the brain has independent sources with different functions. Thus, emotions would be observable in independent brain sources. These sources are obtained by Independent component Analysis (ICA) algorithm from recorded EEG signals. However, considering the ill-posed problem in ICA, the Shannon entropy was used to resolve this problem and sort outthe sources. Moreover, Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) was used to extract chaotic features of each source and then, using a k-nearest neighbor (KNN) Classifier, the chaotic features of the three types of emotional state, i.e., positive, negative and neutral were analyzed, which yielded significant results. The results suggested that the greatest difference was observed in lowentropy sources while high-entropy sources showed no significant changes. Finally, for each emotional state, we established a relation between emotions and sources

Pro-HEART — A randomized clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a high protein diet targeting obese individuals with heart failure: Rationale, design and baseline characteristics

There is ample research to support the potential benefits of a high protein diet on clinical outcomes in overweight/obese, diabetic subjects. However, nutritional management of overweight/obese individuals with heart failure (HF) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) or metabolic syndrome (MS) is poorly understood and few clinical guidelines related to nutritional approaches exist for this subgroup. This article describes the design, methods, and baseline characteristics of study participants enrolled in Pro-HEART, a randomized clinical trial to determine the short term and long term effects of a high protein diet (30% protein [~110 g/day], 40% carbohydrates [150 g/day], 30% fat [~50 g/day]) versus a standard protein diet (15% protein [~55 g/day], 55% carbohydrates [~200 g/day], 30% fat [~50 g/day]) on body weight and adiposity, cardiac structure and function, functional status, lipid profile, glycemic control, and quality of life. Between August, 2009 and May, 2013, 61 individuals agreed to participate in the study; 52 (85%) - mean age 58.2 ± 9.8 years; 15.4% Blacks; 57.7% Whites; 19.2% Hispanics; 7.7% Asians; 73.1% male; weight 112.0 ± 22.6 kilograms- were randomized to a 3-month intensive weight management program of either a high protein or standard protein diet; data were collected at baseline, 3 months, and 15 months. This study has the potential to reveal significant details about the role of macronutrients in weight management of overweight/obese individuals with HF and DM or MS

Radical vs. Conservative Surgical Treatment of Hepatic Hydatid Cyst: A 10- Year Experience

Introduction: Hepatic hydatid cyst is caused by echinococcosis granulosis. It is a major health problem in endemic areas. The modern treatment of hydatid cysts of the liver varies from surgical intervention to percutaneous drainage or medical therapy. A high rate of complications following percutaneous drainage, and ineffectiveness of medical therapy have shown not to be the definitive treatments for the disease. Thus, surgery is still the best choice for the treatment of hydatid cyst of the liver. Surgical treatment methods can be divided into radical and conservative approaches. There is controversy regarding efficacy of the two surgical methods. In this study, we aimed to present a retrospective evaluation of the two surgical methods in patients treated for the hepatic hydatid cyst. Methods: This retrospective study reviewed medical records of 135 patients who underwent surgery for hepatic hydatid cyst from 1997 to 2007. Surgery comprised conservative methods (evacuation of the cyst content and excision of the inner cyst layers) and radical methods (total excision of the cyst and removal of its outer layer). Results: One hundred thirty five patients underwent liver surgery. Conservative surgery was performed for 71 (53%), whereas, the remaining 64 patients (47%) underwent radical surgery. Postoperative complications were 28% and 19%, respectively. Recurrence of the cyst in the conservative and radical surgery groups was noted to be 12.5 and 1.5%, respectively. The mean length of hospital stay was shorter in the radical surgery group (5 vs. 15 days). Conclusion: Radical surgery may be the preferred treatment for the hepatic hydatid cyst because of its low rate of postoperative complications and recurrence, as well as short hospital stay. Selection of the most appropriate treatment depends on the size, number, and location of the cyst(s), and presence of cystobiliary communications, and the availability of an experienced surgeon

Effect of electrostatic field on dynamic friction coefficient of pistachio

Introduction: Separation and grading of agricultural products from the production to supply, has notable importance. The separation can be done based on physical, electrical, magnetic, optical properties and etc. It is necessary for any development of new systems to study enough on the properties and behavior of agricultural products. Some characteristics for separation are size (length, width and thickness), hardness, shape, density, surface roughness, color, speed limit, aerodynamic properties, electrical conductivity, elasticity and coefficient of static friction point. So far, the friction properties of agricultural products used in the separating process, but the effect of electrostatic charging on static and dynamic coefficients of friction for separation had little attention. The aim of this study was to find out the interactions between electrostatic and friction properties to find a way to separate products that separation is not possible with conventional methods or not sufficiently accurate. In this paper, the separation of close and smiley pistachios by electrostatic charging was investigated. Materials and Methods: Kallehghoochi pistachio cultivar has the top rank in production in Iran. Therefore, it was used as a sample. The experimental design that used in this study, had moisture content at three levels (24.2, 14.5 and 8.1 percent), electric field intensity at three levels (zero, 4000 and 7000 V), speed of movement on the surface at three levels (1300, 2500 and 3300 mm per minute), friction surface (galvanized sheet iron, aluminum and flat rubber) and pistachio type at two levels (filled splits and closed) that was measured and analyzed in completely randomized factorial design. A friction measuring device (built in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad) used to measure the friction force. It has a removable table that can move in two directions with adjustable speed. The test sample put into the vessel with internal dimensions of 300 × 150 × 25 mm and with wall thickness of 5 mm placed on trolleys. In the bottom of the container a separate aluminum plate was installed as the negative pole of the electric field. The friction plates as a positive pole placed on top of the sample. There were no contact between friction plates and walls of vessel (samples were about 2 to 3 mm higher from the edges of wall). Frictional force changes due to movement of table, measured and recorded by an accurate load cell. From force-displacement curves, the coefficient of dynamic friction and static coefficient of friction calculated. In general, according to the experimental design, 486 tests were performed. Results and Discussion: According to the results of statistical analysis, there is significant interaction affect between pistachios type and electrical field, as well as, the interaction between electrical field and speed, on dynamic coefficient of friction. It means two pistachio types can be separated by electrical charging. Different physical properties of surface of filled non-splits pistachio nuts (such as corners and edges) and filled splits ones, caused differences in the distribution of electric charge and as a result, its interaction with the electric field were significant. Changes in dynamic coefficient of friction according to the electric field intensity at different levels of moisture content and speed on the friction surfaces of iron, aluminum and rubber, was drawn in Fig.4, 5 and 6, respectively. These figures reflected the reduction of dynamic coefficient of friction by increasing the movement speed of table. According to Fig.7, increasing the intensity of the electric field increases the dynamic coefficient of friction. Because this leads to build the opposition charge on samples and galvanized iron sheets, and with increase of electrical field, these charges will rise. Fig.9 shows different trends of variation of dynamic coefficient of friction against moisture on rubber surface. This chart shows the higher coefficient of friction of filled non-splits samples than filled splits in all cases and shows an increasing trend with increasing humidity. Conclusions: Table 2 presents the dynamic coefficients of friction in different states on different levels of moisture content. According to this table, the maximum difference was achieved in moisture content of 8% (which is close to the product storage moisture) in rubber surface with field strength of 7000 V and 1300 mm per minute speed. On 14 percent moisture content, the maximum difference was achieved on aluminum surface by 2500 millimeter per minute speed and 7000 V field strength. By the results, on 24 percent moisture content (the moisture close to peeling process) the maximum difference between filled non-splits and filled splits pistachios friction was achieved on aluminum surface, 7000 V electric field strength and 2500 millimeter per minute table speed. Thus, to have a separation system, the aluminum surface, 7000 V electric field strength and adjustable speed between 1300 to 2500 mm per minute is recommended