Prevalence of hepatic steatosis as diagnosed on unenhanced abdominal computed tomography

Background/Objectives: The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been found to be lower in the African American population when compared to European American or Hispanics, even after controlling for obesity and insulin resistance. The prevalence of hepatic steatosis in the local population is unknown. No studies looking at the association between metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease have been done in the local population. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of hepatic steatosis in patients undergoing unenhanced abdominal Computed Tomography (CT) at Aga Khan University Hospital, NairobiSubjects/Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study of resident indigenous African patients undergoing an unenhanced CT abdomen at Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi’s (AKUHN) Radiology department. Data from 246 patients who meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria was collected. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed using the WHO definition.Results: Of the 246 patients, 39.3% were female and 60.7% were male. Only 77 patients consented to undergo testing for fasting lipid profile. This limited the number of patients who could be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. Out of the 246 patients, 33 had hepatic steatosis giving a prevalence of 13.4%, at a P value of 0.05 and a confidence interval of 9.0 to 17.8.Although a large number of people reported occasional/social alcohol intake, only 10 patients had alcohol uptake threshold meeting the criteria used. The causes of hepatic steatosis were mainly attributable to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; only 2.5% had hepatic steatosis due to alcohol consumption. Obesity was found to be a strong risk factor for hepatic steatosis and patients with elevated BMI were up to 4 times more likely to have hepatic steatosis. Diabetes was also found to be a strong risk factor for hepatic steatosis, diabetics were 3 times more likely to have steatosis when compared to non-diabetics.Conclusions: The prevalence of hepatic steatosis was 13.4%. There was a strong association of hepatic steatosis and diabetes, with diabetics 3 times more likely to have hepatic steatosis. An association was found between the components of metabolic syndrome and hepatic steatosis

Nonperturbative Renormalization and the QCD Vacuum

We present a self consistent approach to Coulomb gauge Hamiltonian QCD which allows one to relate single gluon spectral properties to the long range behavior of the confining interaction. Nonperturbative renormalization is discussed. The numerical results are in good agreement with phenomenological and lattice forms of the static potential.Comment: 23 pages in RevTex, 4 postscript figure

Size-dependent decoherence of excitonic states in semiconductor microcrystallites

The size-dependent decoherence of the exciton states resulting from the spontaneous emission is investigated in a semiconductor spherical microcrystallite under condition $a_{B}\ll R_{0}\leq\lambda$. In general, the larger size of the microcrystallite corresponds to the shorter coherence time. If the initial state is a superposition of two different excitonic coherent states, the coherence time depends on both the overlap of two excitonic coherent states and the size of the microcrystallite. When the system with fixed size is initially in the even or odd coherent states, the larger average number of the excitons corresponds to the faster decoherence. When the average number of the excitons is given, the bigger size of the microcrystallite corresponds to the faster decoherence. The decoherence of the exciton states for the materials GaAs and CdS is numerically studied by our theoretical analysis.Comment: 4 pages, two figure

Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in the linked cluster expansion

We investigate dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in the Coulomb gauge Hamiltonian QCD. Within the framework of the linked cluster expansion we extend the BCS ansatz for the vacuum and include correlation beyond the quark-antiquark paring. In particular we study the effects of the three-body correlations involving quark-antiquark and transverse gluons. The high momentum behavior of the resulting gap equation is discussed and numerical computation of the chiral symmetry breaking is presented.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Exact eigenstate analysis of finite-frequency conductivity in graphene

We employ the exact eigenstate basis formalism to study electrical conductivity in graphene, in the presence of short-range diagonal disorder and inter-valley scattering. We find that for disorder strength, $W \ge$ 5, the density of states is flat. We, then, make connection, using the MRG approach, with the work of Abrahams \textit{et al.} and find a very good agreement for disorder strength, $W$ = 5. For low disorder strength, $W$ = 2, we plot the energy-resolved current matrix elements squared for different locations of the Fermi energy from the band centre. We find that the states close to the band centre are more extended and falls of nearly as $1/E_l^{2}$ as we move away from the band centre. Further studies of current matrix elements versus disorder strength suggests a cross-over from weakly localized to a very weakly localized system. We calculate conductivity using Kubo Greenwood formula and show that, for low disorder strength, conductivity is in a good qualitative agreement with the experiments, even for the on-site disorder. The intensity plots of the eigenstates also reveal clear signatures of puddle formation for very small carrier concentration. We also make comparison with square lattice and find that graphene is more easily localized when subject to disorder.Comment: 11 pages,15 figure

Coulomb Gauge QCD, Confinement, and the Constituent Representation

Quark confinement and the genesis of the constituent quark model are examined in nonperturbative QCD in Coulomb gauge. We employ a self-consistent method to construct a quasiparticle basis and to determine the quasiparticle interaction. The results agree remarkably well with lattice computations. They also illustrate the mechanism by which confinement and constituent quarks emerge, provide support for the Gribov-Zwanziger confinement scenario, clarify several perplexing issues in the constituent quark model, and permit the construction of an improved model of low energy QCD.Comment: 43 pages, 14 figures, revtex, uses psfig.st

Generation of maximum spin entanglement induced by cavity field in quantum-dot systems

Equivalent-neighbor interactions of the conduction-band electron spins of quantum dots in the model of Imamoglu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4204 (1999)] are analyzed. Analytical solution and its Schmidt decomposition are found and applied to evaluate how much the initially excited dots can be entangled to the remaining dots if all of them are initially disentangled. It is demonstrated that the perfect maximally entangled states (MES) can only be generated in the systems of up to 6 dots with a single dot initially excited. It is also shown that highly entangled states, approximating the MES with a good accuracy, can still be generated in systems of odd number of dots with almost half of them being excited. A sudden decrease of entanglement is observed by increasing the total number of dots in a system with a fixed number of excitations.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Effects of Temperature on the Wave Soldering of Printed Circuit Boards: CFD Modeling Approach

ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of temperature on the wave soldering of printed circuit boards (PCBs) using three-dimensional finite volume analysis. A computational solder pot model consisting of a six-blade rotational propeller was developed and meshed using tetrahedral elements. The leaded molten solder (Sn63Pb37) distribution and PCB wetting profile were determined using the volume of fluid technique in the fluid flow solver, FLUENT. In this study, the effects of five different molten solder temperatures (456 K, 473 K, 523 K, 583 K, and 643 K) on the wave soldering of a 70 mm × 146 mm PCB were considered. The effects of temperature on wetting area, wetting profile, velocity vector, and full wetting time were likewise investigated. Molten solder temperature significantly affected the wetting time and distribution of PCBs. The molten solder temperature at 523 K demonstrated desirable wetting distribution and yielded a stable fountain profile and was therefore considered the best temperature in this study. The simulation results were substantiated by the experimental results

Versatile Multilayer Metamaterial Nanoparticles with Tailored Optical Constants for Force and Torque Transduction

The ability to apply force and torque directly to micro- and nanoscale particles in optical traps has a wide range of applications. While full control of both force and torque in three dimensions has been realized using top-down fabrication of rod-shaped particles composed of birefringent crystalline materials, widespread usage of such particles is limited as the optical constants of the predominant birefringent materials (quartz SiO2 and rutile TiO2) preclude coverage of the full application space of optical trapping. Here, we show that multilayer metamaterial nanoparticles provide access to a wide range of optical constants that can be specifically tuned for each application. Selecting the material pair Nb2O5/SiO2 from the library of amorphous dielectrics as our metamaterial, we show that its refractive index and birefringence can be designed by adapting the ratio of layer thicknesses. Using a robust top-down fabrication process, we show that uniformly sized, free-floating Nb2O5/SiO2 particles with high birefringence at moderate refractive index are obtained at high yield. Using an optical torque wrench, we show that these particles function as joint force and torque transducers while maintaining excellent stability in aqueous solutions and can be controllably optimized for particular physical characteristics such as maximal torque transfer or rapid response time. We expect that such customizable birefringent metamaterial nanoparticles whose properties surpass those of conventional crystalline particles will provide a means to unleash the full potential of optical trapping applications. </p