1,153 research outputs found
Feedback from activity trackers improves daily step count after knee and hip arthroplasty: A randomized controlled trial
Background: Commercial wrist-worn activity monitors have the potential to accurately assess activity levels and are being increasingly adopted in the general population. The aim of this study was to determine if feedback from a commercial activity monitor improves activity levels over the first 6 weeks after total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
Methods: One hundred sixty-three consecutive subjects undergoing primary TKA or THAwere randomized into 2 groups. Subjects received an activity tracker with the step display obscured 2 weeks before surgery and completed patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). On day 1 after surgery, participants were randomized to either the “feedback (FB) group” or the “no feedback (NFB) group.” The FB group was able to view their daily step count and was given a daily step goal. Participants in the NFB group wore the device with the display obscured for 2 weeks after surgery, after which time they were also able to see their daily step count but did not receive a formal step goal. The mean daily steps at 1, 2, 6 weeks, and 6 months were monitored. At 6 months after surgery, subjects repeated PROMs and daily step count collection.
Results: Of the 163 subjects, 95 underwent THA and 68 underwent TKA. FB subjects had a significantly higher (P \u3c .03) mean daily step count by 43% in week 1, 33% in week 2, 21% in week 6, and 17% at 6 months, compared with NFB. The FB subjects were 1.7 times more likely to achieve a mean 7000 steps per day than the NFB subjects at 6 weeks after surgery (P ÂĽ .02). There was no significant difference between the groups in PROMs at 6 months. Ninety percent of FB and 83% of NFB participants reported that they were satisfied with the results of the surgery (P ÂĽ .08). At 6 months after surgery, 70% of subjects had a greater mean daily step count compared with their preoperative level.
Conclusion: Subjects who received feedback from a commercial activity tracker with a daily step goal had significantly higher activity levels after hip and knee arthroplasty over 6 weeks and 6 months, compared with subjects who did not receive feedback in a randomized controlled trial. Commercial activity trackers may be a useful and effective adjunct after arthroplasty
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New building technologies and building energy standards in the United States
Some new and emerging technologies that may affect building energy consumption are reviewed in this paper. We also describe a brief impact analysis that evaluates the sensitivity of a simulation model to changes in broad categories of building equipment and materials. The analysis results permit direct comparisons of the effect of changes in energy efficiency to these building components. Potential barriers to the use of some new building products are also discussed. The barriers, inherent in the current building energy standards, result partly from the structure of the standards and the procedures used to determine building compliance with those standards. We propose several methods for overcoming these barriers and encouraging the accommodation of new technologies within the standards. 21 refs., 2 figs., 5 tabs
Precision measurements of large scale structure with future type Ia supernova surveys
Type Ia supernovae are currently the best known standard candles at
cosmological distances. In addition to providing a powerful probe of dark
energy they are an ideal source of information about the peculiar velocity
field of the local universe. Even with the very small number of supernovae
presently available it has been possible to measure the dipole and quadrupole
of the local velocity field out to z~0.025. With future continuous all-sky
surveys like the LSST project the luminosity distances of tens of thousands of
nearby supernovae will be measured accurately. This will allow for a
determination of the local velocity structure of the universe as a function of
redshift with unprecedented accuracy, provided the redshifts of the host
galaxies are known. Using catalogues of mock surveys we estimate that future
low redshift supernova surveys will be able to probe sigma-8 to a precision of
roughly 5% at 95% C.L. This is comparable to the precision in future galaxy and
weak lensing surveys and with a relatively modest observational effort it will
provide a crucial cross-check on future measurements of the matter power
spectrum.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, submitted to JCA
Concerted changes in tropical forest structure and dynamics: evidence from 50 South American long-term plots
Several widespread changes in the ecology of old-growth tropical forests have recently been documented for the late twentieth century, in particular an increase in stem turnover (pan-tropical), and an increase in above-ground biomass (neotropical). Whether these changes are synchronous and whether changes in growth are also occurring is not known. We analysed stand-level changes within 50 long-term. monitoring plots from across South America spanning 1971-2002. We show that: (i) basal area (BA: sum of the cross-sectional areas of all trees in a plot) increased significantly over time (by 0.10 +/- 0.04 m(2) ha(-1) yr(-1), mean +/- 95% CI); as did both (ii) stand-level BA growth rates (sum of the increments of BA of surviving trees and BA of new trees that recruited into a plot); and (iii) stand-level BA mortality rates (sum of the cross-sectional areas of all trees that died in a plot). Similar patterns were observed on a per-stem basis: (i) stem density (number of stems per hectare; 1 hectare is 10(4) m(2)) increased significantly over time (0.94 +/- 0.63 stems ha(-1) yr(-1)); as did both (ii) stem recruitment rates; and (iii) stem mortality rates. In relative terms, the pools of BA and stem density increased by 0.38 +/- 0.15% and 0.18 +/- 0.12% yr(-1), respectively. The fluxes into and out of these pools-stand-level BA growth, stand-level BA mortality, stem recruitment and stem mortality rates-increased, in relative terms, by an order of magnitude more. The gain terms (BA growth, stem recruitment) consistently exceeded the loss terms (BA loss, stem mortality) throughout the period, suggesting that whatever process is driving these changes was already acting before the plot network was established. Large long-term increases in stand-level BA growth and simultaneous increases in stand BA and stem density imply a continent-wide increase in resource availability which is increasing net primary productivity and altering forest dynamics. Continent-wide changes in incoming solar radiation, and increases in atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and air temperatures may have increased resource supply over recent decades, thus causing accelerated growth and increased dynamism across the world's largest tract of tropical forest
Correlations in Two-Dimensional Vortex Liquids
We report on a high temperature perturbation expansion study of the
superfluid-density spatial correlation function of a Ginzburg-Landau-model
superconducting film in a magnetic field. We have derived a closed form which
expresses the contribution to the correlation function from each graph of the
perturbation theory in terms of the number of Euler paths around appropriate
subgraphs. We have enumerated all graphs appearing out to 10-th order in the
expansion and have evaluated their contributions to the correlation function.
Low temperature correlation functions, obtained using Pad\'{e} approximants,
are in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulation results and show that the
vortex-liquid becomes strongly correlated at temperatures well above the vortex
solidification temperature.Comment: 18 pages (RevTeX 3.0) and 4 figures, available upon request,
IUCM93-01
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Measured energy savings from using night temperature setback
The measured energy savings resulting from using night temperature setback in typical light-construction wooden office buildings was determined. Researchers installed monitoring equipment in a six-building sample of two-story wooden buildings at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Data obtained during both single-setting and night-setback operating modes were used to develop models of each building`s heat consumption as a function of the difference between inside and outside temperature. These models were used to estimate seasonal savings that could be obtained from the use of night-setback thermostat control. The measured savings in heating energy from using night temperature setback for the six Fort Devens buildings ranged from 14% to 25%; the mean savings was 19.2%. Based on an energy cost of 780 per year per building
Logic gates at the surface code threshold: Superconducting qubits poised for fault-tolerant quantum computing
A quantum computer can solve hard problems - such as prime factoring,
database searching, and quantum simulation - at the cost of needing to protect
fragile quantum states from error. Quantum error correction provides this
protection, by distributing a logical state among many physical qubits via
quantum entanglement. Superconductivity is an appealing platform, as it allows
for constructing large quantum circuits, and is compatible with
microfabrication. For superconducting qubits the surface code is a natural
choice for error correction, as it uses only nearest-neighbour coupling and
rapidly-cycled entangling gates. The gate fidelity requirements are modest: The
per-step fidelity threshold is only about 99%. Here, we demonstrate a universal
set of logic gates in a superconducting multi-qubit processor, achieving an
average single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.92% and a two-qubit gate fidelity up
to 99.4%. This places Josephson quantum computing at the fault-tolerant
threshold for surface code error correction. Our quantum processor is a first
step towards the surface code, using five qubits arranged in a linear array
with nearest-neighbour coupling. As a further demonstration, we construct a
five-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state using the complete circuit
and full set of gates. The results demonstrate that Josephson quantum computing
is a high-fidelity technology, with a clear path to scaling up to large-scale,
fault-tolerant quantum circuits.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, including supplementary materia
Who Needs Good Neighbours?
Abstract: Due to the increasing spatial dispersion of social networks, the association between neighbor relationships and quality of life has become more uncertain. Our analysis used instrumental variable modelling to reduce bias associated with residual confounding and reverse causation, in order to provide a more reliable examination of the effect of interaction with neighbors on subjective well-being than previous work. While the frames of reference for individuals’ socializing may have shifted outside the neighborhood, our analysis provides robust evidence that interaction with neighbors still matters a great deal for subjective well-being. A further important question to ask is if neighboring does affect well-being, then are there certain groups in society for whom contact with neighbors matters more? Our analysis suggests that there are, namely for those in a relationship, unemployed or retired. This means that while fostering contact with neighbors has the potential to significantly improve individual well-being, such policy efforts are likely to matter a good deal more in neighborhoods with relatively large numbers of geographically constrained social groups, such as the elderly and the unemployed. Key words: subjective well-being, neighborly interaction, social capita
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