453 research outputs found
Appropriate Use Criteria for Echocardiography
Transthoracic Echocardiography (TTE) is one of the most common diagnostic imaging tests used in Cardiology. It is portable, noninvasive and provides important data regarding diagnosis and management of many cardiac conditions. In recent years TTE has had an increased in popularity for its use in both inpatient and outpatient settings. This has resulted in an increase of inappropriate use leading to overutilization of resources. At our institution, University of New Mexico Hospitals we evaluated the prevalence rate of appropriateness of TTE with a quality improvement project. During the first phase of the project 100 TTEs each were randomly selected in both the outpatient and inpatient settings. We evaluated appropriateness based on the AUC of TTE published in 2011 by the American College of Cardiology. Results demonstrated inpatient TTE orders had reduced number of inappropriate echo orders compared to outpatient echo orders. The percentage of inappropriate TTE orders in the outpatient setting was unacceptably high approaching 30% of all outpatient TTE requests. Recent studies have shown that education of physicians concerning the appropriate use of echocardiography can improve resource utilization in clinical practice. The purpose of the second phase of this quality improvement project is to reduce the number of inappropriate TTE orders in the outpatient settings at our UNM clinics through multiple and continued mechanisms. This will be achieved through educational material, EMR modifications, follow up audit reports and feedback sessions
Nucleon Edm from Atomic Systems and Constraints on Supersymmetry Parameters
The nucleon EDM is shown to be directly related to the EDM of atomic systems.
From the observed EDM values of the atomic Hg system, the neutron EDM can be
extracted, which gives a very stringent constraint on the supersymmetry
parameters. It is also shown that the measurement of Nitrogen and Thallium
atomic systems should provide important information on the flavor dependence of
the quark EDM. We perform numerical analyses on the EDM of neutron, proton and
electron in the minimal supersymmetric standard model with CP-violating phases.
We demonstrate that the new limit on the neutron EDM extracted from atomic
systems excludes a wide parameter region of supersymmetry breaking masses above
1 TeV, while the old limit excludes only a small mass region below 1 TeV.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure file
A simulational and theoretical study of the spherical electrical double layer for a size-asymmetric electrolyte: the case of big coions
Monte Carlo simulations of a spherical macroion, surrounded by a
size-asymmetric electrolyte in the primitive model, were performed. We
considered 1:1 and 2:2 salts with a size ratio of 2 (i.e., with coions twice
the size of counterions), for several surface charge densities of the
macrosphere. The radial distribution functions, electrostatic potential at the
Helmholtz surfaces, and integrated charge are reported. We compare these
simulational data with original results obtained from the Ornstein-Zernike
integral equation, supplemented by the hypernetted chain/hypernetted chain
(HNC/HNC) and hypernetted chain/mean spherical approximation (HNC/MSA)
closures, and with the corresponding calculations using the modified
Gouy-Chapman and unequal-radius modified Gouy-Chapman theories. The HNC/HNC and
HNC/MSA integral equations formalisms show good concordance with Monte Carlo
"experiments", whereas the notable limitations of point-ion approaches are
evidenced. Most importantly, the simulations confirm our previous theoretical
predictions of the non-dominance of the counterions in the size-asymmetric
spherical electrical double layer [J. Chem. Phys. 123, 034703 (2005)], the
appearance of anomalous curvatures at the outer Helmholtz plane and the
enhancement of charge reversal and screening at high colloidal surface charge
densities due to the ionic size asymmetry.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure
Abrupt grain boundary melting in ice
The effect of impurities on the grain boundary melting of ice is investigated
through an extension of Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory, in which we
include retarded potential effects in a calculation of the full frequency
dependent van der Waals and Coulombic interactions within a grain boundary. At
high dopant concentrations the classical solutal effect dominates the melting
behavior. However, depending on the amount of impurity and the surface charge
density, as temperature decreases, the attractive tail of the dispersion force
interaction begins to compete effectively with the repulsive screened Coulomb
interaction. This leads to a film-thickness/temperature curve that changes
depending on the relative strengths of these interactions and exhibits a
decrease in the film thickness with increasing impurity level. More striking is
the fact that at very large film thicknesses, the repulsive Coulomb interaction
can be effectively screened leading to an abrupt reduction to zero film
thickness.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur
Missing and Quenched Gamow Teller Strength
Gamow-Teller strength functions in full spaces are calculated with
sufficient accuracy to ensure that all the states in the resonance region have
been populated. Many of the resulting peaks are weak enough to become
unobservable. The quenching factor necessary to bring into agreement the low
lying observed states with shell model predictions is shown to be due to
nuclear correlations. To within experimental uncertainties it is the same that
is found in one particle transfer and (e,e') reactions. Perfect consistency
between the observed peaks and the calculation is
achieved by assuming an observation threshold of 0.75\% of the total strength,
a value that seems typical in several experimentsComment: 11 pages, 6 figures avalaible upon request, RevTeX, FTUAM-94/0
Growth model with restricted surface relaxation
We simulate a growth model with restricted surface relaxation process in d=1
and d=2, where d is the dimensionality of a flat substrate. In this model, each
particle can relax on the surface to a local minimum, as the Edwards-Wilkinson
linear model, but only within a distance s. If the local minimum is out from
this distance, the particle evaporates through a refuse mechanism similar to
the Kim-Kosterlitz nonlinear model. In d=1, the growth exponent beta, measured
from the temporal behavior of roughness, indicates that in the coarse-grained
limit, the linear term of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation dominates in short
times (low-roughness) and, in asymptotic times, the nonlinear term prevails.
The crossover between linear and nonlinear behaviors occurs in a characteristic
time t_c which only depends on the magnitude of the parameter s, related to the
nonlinear term. In d=2, we find indications of a similar crossover, that is,
logarithmic temporal behavior of roughness in short times and power law
behavior in asymptotic times
Effect of Long-Range Interactions in the Conserved Kardar-Parisi-Zhang Equation
The conserved Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation in the presence of long-range
nonlinear interactions is studied by the dynamic renormalization group method.
The long-range effect produces new fixed points with continuously varying
exponents and gives distinct phase transitions, depending on both the
long-range interaction strength and the substrate dimension . The long-range
interaction makes the surface width less rough than that of the short-range
interaction. In particular, the surface becomes a smooth one with a negative
roughness exponent at the physical dimension d=2.Comment: 4 pages(LaTex), 1 figure(Postscript
Collective T- and P- Odd Electromagnetic Moments in Nuclei with Octupole Deformations
Parity and time invariance violating forces produce collective P- and T- odd
moments in nuclei with static octupole deformation. Collective Schiff moment,
electric octupole and dipole and also magnetic quadrupole appear due to the
mixing of rotational levels of opposite parity and can exceed single-particle
moments by more than a factor of 100. This enhancement is due to two factors,
the collective nature of the intrinsic moments and the small energy separation
between members of parity doublets. The above moments induce T- and P- odd
effects in atoms and molecules. Experiments with such systems may improve
substantially the limits on time reversal violation.Comment: 9 pages, Revte
Roughness Scaling in Cyclical Surface Growth
The scaling behavior of cyclical growth (e.g. cycles of alternating
deposition and desorption primary processes) is investigated theoretically and
probed experimentally. The scaling approach to kinetic roughening is
generalized to cyclical processes by substituting the time by the number of
cycles . The roughness is predicted to grow as where is
the cyclical growth exponent. The roughness saturates to a value which scales
with the system size as , where is the cyclical
roughness exponent. The relations between the cyclical exponents and the
corresponding exponents of the primary processes are studied. Exact relations
are found for cycles composed of primary linear processes. An approximate
renormalization group approach is introduced to analyze non-linear effects in
the primary processes. The analytical results are backed by extensive numerical
simulations of different pairs of primary processes, both linear and
non-linear. Experimentally, silver surfaces are grown by a cyclical process
composed of electrodeposition followed by 50% electrodissolution. The roughness
is found to increase as a power-law of , consistent with the scaling
behavior anticipated theoretically. Potential applications of cyclical scaling
include accelerated testing of rechargeable batteries, and improved
chemotherapeutic treatment of cancerous tumors
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