475 research outputs found
Gait quality assessed by trunk accelerometry after total knee arthroplasty and its association with patient related outcome measures
Background: With an increasingly younger population and more active patients, assessment of functional outcome is more important than ever in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty. Accelerometers have been used successfully to objectively evaluate gait quality in other fields. The aim of this study was to assess gait quality with accelerometers before and after surgery, and to assess added value of resulting parameters to patient reported outcome measures scores. Methods: Sixty-five patients (mean age 65 years (range 41–75)) who underwent primary total knee arthroplasty were evaluated using a tri-axial trunk accelerometer preoperatively and 1 year after surgery. Gait quality parameters derived from the accelerometry data were evaluated in three dimensions at both time points. Factor analysis was performed on all outcome variables and changes from before to 1 year after surgery in the most representative variable for each factor were studied. Findings: Factor analysis identified three separate gait quality factors, with questionnaire and gait quality parameters loading on different factors. Both gait quality factor scores and questionnaire factor scores improved significantly 1 year after surgery. As expected based on the factor analysis, only weak to moderate associations were found between patient reported outcome measures and gait quality before surgery, after surgery and in change scores. Interpretation: The independence of patient reported outcome measures and gait quality parameters measured with trunk accelerometry indicates that gait quality parameters provide additional information on functional outcome after total knee arthroplasty. Providing caretakers with objectively measurable targets using accelerometry could help improve outcome of these patients
Modelling different cropping systems
Grapevine is a worldwide valuable crop characterized by a high economic importance for the production of high quality wines. However, the impact of climate change on the narrow climate niches in which grapevine is currently cultivated constitute a great risk for future suitability of grapevine. In this context, grape simulation models are considered promising tools for their contribution to investigate plant behavior in different environments. In this study, six models developed for simulating grapevine growth and development were tested by focusing on their performances in simulating main grapevine processes under two calibration levels: minimum and full calibration. This would help to evaluate major limitations/strength points of these models, especially in the view of their application to climate change impact and adaptation assessments. Preliminary results from two models (GrapeModel and STICS) showed contrasting abilities in reproducing the observed data depending on the site, the year and the target variable considered. These results suggest that a limited dataset for model calibration would lead to poor simulation outputs. However, a more complete interpretation and detailed analysis of the results will be provided when considering the other models simulations
Energy dependence of Cronin momentum in saturation model for and collisions
We calculate dependence of Cronin momentum for and
collisions in saturation model. We show that this dependence is consistent with
expectation from formula which was obtained using simple dimentional
consideration. This can be used to test validity of saturation model (and
distinguish among its variants) and measure dependence of saturation
momentum from experimental data.Comment: LaTeX2e, 12 pages, 8 figure
Study of Tau-pair Production in Photon-Photon Collisions at LEP and Limits on the Anomalous Electromagnetic Moments of the Tau Lepton
Tau-pair production in the process e+e- -> e+e-tau+tau- was studied using
data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP2 during the years 1997 - 2000.
The corresponding integrated luminosity is 650 pb^{-1}. The values of the
cross-section obtained are found to be in agreement with QED predictions.
Limits on the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau lepton
are deduced.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
Evidence for an Excess of Soft Photons in Hadronic Decays of Z^0
Soft photons inside hadronic jets converted in front of the DELPHI main
tracker (TPC) in events of qqbar disintegrations of the Z^0 were studied in the
kinematic range 0.2 < E_gamma < 1 GeV and transverse momentum with respect to
the closest jet direction p_T < 80 MeV/c. A clear excess of photons in the
experimental data as compared to the Monte Carlo predictions is observed. This
excess (uncorrected for the photon detection efficiency) is (1.17 +/- 0.06 +/-
0.27) x 10^{-3} gamma/jet in the specified kinematic region, while the expected
level of the inner hadronic bremsstrahlung (which is not included in the Monte
Carlo) is (0.340 +/- 0.001 +/- 0.038) x 10^{-3} gamma/jet. The ratio of the
excess to the predicted bremsstrahlung rate is then (3.4 +/- 0.2 +/- 0.8),
which is similar in strength to the anomalous soft photon signal observed in
fixed target experiments with hadronic beams.Comment: 37 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
Study of Inclusive J/psi Production in Two-Photon Collisions at LEP II with the DELPHI Detector
Inclusive J/psi production in photon-photon collisions has been observed at
LEP II beam energies. A clear signal from the reaction gamma gamma -> J/psi+X
is seen. The number of observed N(J/psi -> mu+mu-) events is 36 +/- 7 for an
integrated luminosity of 617 pb^{-1}, yielding a cross-section of
sigma(J/psi+X) = 45 +/- 9 (stat) +/- 17 (syst) pb. Based on a study of the
event shapes of different types of gamma gamma processes in the PYTHIA program,
we conclude that (74 +/- 22)% of the observed J/psi events are due to
`resolved' photons, the dominant contribution of which is most probably due to
the gluon content of the photon.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, Accepted by Phys. Lett.
CP asymmetry in in a general two-Higgs-doublet model with fourth-generation quarks
We discuss the time-dependent CP asymmetry of decay in an
extension of the Standard Model with both two Higgs doublets and additional
fourth-generation quarks. We show that although the Standard Model with
two-Higgs-doublet and the Standard model with fourth generation quarks alone
are not likely to largely change the effective from the decay of
, the model with both additional Higgs doublet and
fourth-generation quarks can easily account for the possible large negative
value of without conflicting with other experimental
constraints. In this model, additional large CP violating effects may arise
from the flavor changing Yukawa interactions between neutral Higgs bosons and
the heavy fourth generation down type quark, which can modify the QCD penguin
contributions. With the constraints obtained from processes
such as and , this model can lead to the
effective to be as large as in the CP asymmetry of .Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, references added, to appear in Eur.Phys.J.
A Precise Measurement of the Tau Lifetime
The tau lepton lifetime has been measured with the e+e- -> tau+tau- events
collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP in the years 1991-1995. Three different
methods have been exploited, using both one-prong and three-prong tau decay
channels. Two measurements have been made using events in which both taus decay
to a single charged particle. Combining these measurements gave tau_tau (1
prong) = 291.8 +/- 2.3 (stat) +/- 1.5 (sys) fs. A third measurement using taus
which decayed to three charged particles yielded tau_tau (3 prong) = 288.6 +/-
2.4 (stat) +/- 1.3 (sys) fs. These were combined with previous DELPHI results
to measure the tau lifetime, using the full LEP1 data sample, to be tau_tau =
290.9 +/- 1.4 (stat) +/- 1.0 (sys) fs.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure
Search for composite and exotic fermions at LEP 2
A search for unstable heavy fermions with the DELPHI detector at LEP is
reported. Sequential and non-canonical leptons, as well as excited leptons and
quarks, are considered. The data analysed correspond to an integrated
luminosity of about 48 pb^{-1} at an e^+e^- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV
and about 20 pb^{-1} equally shared between the centre-of-mass energies of 172
GeV and 161 GeV. The search for pair-produced new leptons establishes 95%
confidence level mass limits in the region between 70 GeV/c^2 and 90 GeV/c^2,
depending on the channel. The search for singly produced excited leptons and
quarks establishes upper limits on the ratio of the coupling of the excited
fermio
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