697 research outputs found
Anisotropy in the helicity modulus of a 3D XY-model: application to YBCO
We present a Monte Carlo study of the helicity moduli of an anisotropic
classical three-dimensional (3D) XY-model of YBCO in superconducting state. It
is found that both the ab-plane and the c-axis helicity moduli, which are
proportional to the inverse square of the corresponding magnetic field
penetration depth, vary linearly with temperature at low temperatures. The
result for the c-axis helicity modulus is in disagreement with the experiments
on high quality samples of YBCO. Thus we conclude that purely classical phase
fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter cannot account for the
observed c-axis electrodynamics of YBCO.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur
Liver segmental volume and attenuation ratio (LSVAR) on portal venous CT scans improves the detection of clinically significant liver fibrosis compared to liver segmental volume ratio (LSVR).
BACKGROUND
The aim of this proof-of-concept study was to show that the liver segmental volume and attenuation ratio (LSVAR) improves the detection of significant liver fibrosis on portal venous CT scans by adding the liver vein to cava attenuation (LVCA) to the liver segmental volume ratio (LSVR).
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Patients who underwent portal venous phase abdominal CT scans and MR elastography (reference standard) within 3 months between 02/2016 and 05/2017 were included. The LSVAR was calculated on portal venous CT scans as LSVR*LVCA, while the LSVR represented the volume ratio between Couinaud segments I-III and IV-VIII, and the LVCA represented the density of the liver veins compared to the density in the vena cava. The LSVAR and LSVR were compared between patients with and without significantly elevated liver stiffness (based on a cutoff value of 3.5 kPa) using the Mann-Whitney U test and ROC curve analysis.
RESULTS
The LSVR and LSVAR allowed significant differentiation between patients with (n = 19) and without (n = 122) significantly elevated liver stiffness (p < 0.001). However, the LSVAR showed a higher area under the curve (AUC = 0.96) than the LSVR (AUC = 0.74). The optimal cutoff value was 0.34 for the LSVR, which detected clinically increased liver stiffness with a sensitivity of 53% and a specificity of 88%. With a cutoff value of 0.67 for the LSVAR, the sensitivity increased to 95% while maintaining a specificity of 89%.
CONCLUSION
The LSVAR improves the detection of significant liver fibrosis on portal venous CT scans compared to the LSVR
Indication of Superconductivity at 35 K in Graphite-Sulfur Composites
We report magnetization measurements performed on graphite--sulfur composites
which demonstrate a clear superconducting behavior below the critical
temperature T = 35 K. The Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect, screening
supercurrents, and magnetization hysteresis loops characteristic of type-II
superconductors were measured. The results indicate that the superconductivity
occurs in a small sample fraction, possibly related to the sample surface.Comment: published versio
Phase Transitions Driven by Vortices in 2D Superfluids and Superconductors: From Kosterlitz-Thouless to 1st Order
The Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson hamiltonian is studied for different values of the
parameter which multiplies the quartic term (it turns out that this
is equivalent to consider different values of the coherence length in
units of the lattice spacing ). It is observed that amplitude fluctuations
can change dramatically the nature of the phase transition: for small values of
(), instead of the smooth Kosterlitz-Thouless transition
there is a {\em first order} transition with a discontinuous jump in the vortex
density and a larger non-universal drop in the helicity modulus. In
particular, for sufficiently small (), the density of
bound pairs of vortex-antivortex below is so low that, drops to zero
almost for all temperature .Comment: 8 pages, 5 .eps figure
High-momentum dynamic structure function of liquid 3He-4He mixtures: a microscopic approach
The high-momentum dynamic structure function of liquid 3He-4He mixtures has
been studied introducing final state effects. Corrections to the impulse
approximation have been included using a generalized Gersch-Rodriguez theory
that properly takes into account the Fermi statistics of 3He atoms. The
microscopic inputs, as the momentum distributions and the two-body density
matrices, correspond to a variational (fermi)-hypernetted chain calculation.
The agreement with experimental data obtained at \AA is not
completely satisfactory, the comparison being difficult due to inconsistencies
present in the scattering measurements. The significant differences between the
experimental determinations of the 4He condensate fraction and the 3He kinetic
energy, and the theoretical results, still remain unsolved.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
A characteristics framework for Semantic Information Systems Standards
Semantic Information Systems (IS) Standards play a critical role in the development of the networked economy. While their importance is undoubted by all stakeholders—such as businesses, policy makers, researchers, developers—the current state of research leaves a number of questions unaddressed. Terminological confusion exists around the notions of “business semantics”, “business-to-business interoperability”, and “interoperability standards” amongst others. And, moreover, a comprehensive understanding about the characteristics of Semantic IS Standards is missing. The paper addresses this gap in literature by developing a characteristics framework for Semantic IS Standards. Two case studies are used to check the applicability of the framework in a “real-life” context. The framework lays the foundation for future research in an important field of the IS discipline and supports practitioners in their efforts to analyze, compare, and evaluate Semantic IS Standard
Efficient multi-class fetal brain segmentation in high resolution MRI reconstructions with noisy labels
Segmentation of the developing fetal brain is an important step in
quantitative analyses. However, manual segmentation is a very time-consuming
task which is prone to error and must be completed by highly specialized
indi-viduals. Super-resolution reconstruction of fetal MRI has become standard
for processing such data as it improves image quality and resolution. However,
dif-ferent pipelines result in slightly different outputs, further complicating
the gen-eralization of segmentation methods aiming to segment super-resolution
data. Therefore, we propose using transfer learning with noisy multi-class
labels to automatically segment high resolution fetal brain MRIs using a single
set of seg-mentations created with one reconstruction method and tested for
generalizability across other reconstruction methods. Our results show that the
network can auto-matically segment fetal brain reconstructions into 7 different
tissue types, regard-less of reconstruction method used. Transfer learning
offers some advantages when compared to training without pre-initialized
weights, but the network trained on clean labels had more accurate
segmentations overall. No additional manual segmentations were required.
Therefore, the proposed network has the potential to eliminate the need for
manual segmentations needed in quantitative analyses of the fetal brain
independent of reconstruction method used, offering an unbiased way to quantify
normal and pathological neurodevelopment.Comment: Accepted for publication at PIPPI MICCAI 202
Release of sICAM-1 in Oocytes and In Vitro Fertilized Human Embryos
Background: During the last years, several studies have reported the significant relationship between the production of soluble HLA-G molecules (sHLA-G) by 48–72 hours early embryos and an increased implantation rate in IVF protocols. As consequence, the detection of HLA-G modulation was suggested as a marker to identify the best embryos to be transferred. On the opposite, no suitable markers are available for the oocyte selection. Methodology/Principal Findings: The major finding of the present paper is that the release of ICAM-1 might be predictive of oocyte maturation. The results obtained are confirmed using three independent methodologies, such as ELISA, Bio-Plex assay and Western blotting. The sICAM-1 release is very high in immature oocytes, decrease in mature oocytes and become even lower in in vitro fertilized embryos. No significant differences were observed in the levels of sICAM-1 release between immature oocytes with different morphological characteristics. On the contrary, when the mature oocytes were subdivided accordingly to morphological criteria, the mean sICAM-I levels in grade 1 oocytes were significantly decreased when compared to grade 2 and 3 oocytes. Conclusions/Significance: The reduction of the number of fertilized oocytes and transferred embryos represents the main target of assisted reproductive medicine. We propose sICAM-1 as a biochemical marker for oocyte maturation and grading
Nature of the Low Field Transition in the Mixed State of High Temperature Superconductors
We have numerically studied the statics and dynamics of a model
three-dimensional vortex lattice at low magnetic fields. For the statics we use
a frustrated 3D XY model on a stacked triangular lattice. We model the dynamics
as a coupled network of overdamped resistively-shunted Josephson junctions with
Langevin noise. At low fields, there is a weakly first-order phase transition,
at which the vortex lattice melts into a line liquid. Phase coherence parallel
to the field persists until a sharp crossover, conceivably a phase transition,
near which develops at the same temperature as an infinite
vortex tangle. The calculated flux flow resistivity in various geometries near
closely resembles experiment. The local density of field induced
vortices increases sharply near , corresponding to the experimentally
observed magnetization jump. We discuss the nature of a possible transition or
crossover at (B) which is distinct from flux lattice melting.Comment: Updated references. 46 pages including low quality 25 eps figures.
Contact [email protected] or visit
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu:80/~ryu/ for better figures and additional
movie files from simulations. To be published in Physical Review B1 01Jun9
"Psychic Degenerate": Why G. Was Interned
Abstract
This chapter explains how homosexuality was pathologised: to do this, it traces the origins of the "effeminate male" stereotype, explaining how the socio-cultural concept of degeneration was extended to include "sexual inversion". Through the doctors' words, G.'s biography starts to take shape and it becomes clear how it matched the "degenerate" and "effeminate pederast" stereotypical description
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