1,837 research outputs found
Training Package for Emergency Medical Teams Deployed to Disaster Stricken Areas: Has 'TEAMS' Achieved its Goals?
In spite of their good intentions, Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) were relatively disorganized for many years. To enhance the efficient provision of EMT's field team work, the Training for Emergency Medical Teams and European Medical Corps (TEAMS) project was established. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness and quality of the TEAMS training package in 2 pilot training programs in Germany and Turkey. A total of 19 German and 29 Turkish participants completed the TEAMS training package. Participants were asked to complete a set of questionnaires designed to assess self-efficacy, team work, and quality of training. The results suggest an improvement for both teams' self-efficacy and team work. The self-efficacy scale improved from 3.912 (± 0.655 SD) prior to training to 4.580 (± 0.369 SD) after training (out of 5). Team work improved from 3.085 (± 0.591 SD) to 3.556 (± 0.339 SD) (out of 4). The overall mean score of the quality of the training scale was 4.443 (± 0.671 SD) (out of 5). In conclusion, The TEAMS Training Package for Emergency Medical Teams has been demonstrated to be effective in promoting EMT team work capacities, and it is considered by its users to be a useful and appropriate tool for addressing their perceived needs
Far-from-equilibrium Ostwald ripening in electrostatically driven granular powders
We report the first experimental study of cluster size distributions in
electrostatically driven granular submonolayers. The cluster size distribution
in this far-from-equilibrium process exhibits dynamic scaling behavior
characteristic of the (nearly equilibrium) Ostwald ripening, controlled by the
attachment and detachment of the "gas" particles. The scaled size distribution,
however, is different from the classical Wagner distribution obtained in the
limit of a vanishingly small area fraction of the clusters. A much better
agreement is found with the theory of Conti et al. [Phys. Rev. E 65, 046117
(2002)] which accounts for the cluster merger.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in PR
Normal scaling in globally conserved interface-controlled coarsening of fractal clusters
Globally conserved interface-controlled coarsening of fractal clusters
exhibits dynamic scale invariance and normal scaling. This is demonstrated by a
numerical solution of the Ginzburg-Landau equation with a global conservation
law. The sharp-interface limit of this equation is volume preserving motion by
mean curvature. The scaled form of the correlation function has a power-law
tail accommodating the fractal initial condition. The coarsening length
exhibits normal scaling with time. Finally, shrinking of the fractal clusters
with time is observed. The difference between global and local conservation is
discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figure
Supersymmetric spacetimes in 2+1 adS-supergravity models
We find a class of (2+1)-dimensional spacetimes admitting Killing spinors
appropriate to (2,0) adS-supergravity. The vacuum spacetimes include anti-de
Sitter (adS) space and charged extreme black holes, but there are many others,
including spacetimes of arbitrarily large negative energy that have only
conical singularities, and the spacetimes of fractionally charged point
particles. The non-vacuum spacetimes are those of self-gravitating solitons
obtained by coupling (2,0) adS supergravity to sigma-model matter. We show,
subject to a condition on the matter currents (satisfied by the sigma model),
and a conjecture concerning global obstructions to the existence of certain
types of spinor fields, that the mass of each supersymmetric spacetime
saturates a classical bound, in terms of the angular momentum and charge, on
the total energy of arbitrary field configurations with the same boundary
conditions, although these bounds may be violated quantum mechanically.Comment: 47 pages, phyzzx.tex, no figures
An Almost Singularly Optimal Asynchronous Distributed MST Algorithm
A singularly (near) optimal distributed algorithm is one that is (near)
optimal in \emph{two} criteria, namely, its time and message complexities. For
\emph{synchronous} CONGEST networks, such algorithms are known for fundamental
distributed computing problems such as leader election [Kutten et al., JACM
2015] and Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) construction [Pandurangan et al., STOC
2017, Elkin, PODC 2017]. However, it is open whether a singularly (near)
optimal bound can be obtained for the MST construction problem in general
\emph{asynchronous} CONGEST networks.
We present a randomized distributed MST algorithm that, with high
probability, computes an MST in \emph{asynchronous} CONGEST networks and takes
time and messages, where
is the number of nodes, the number of edges, is the diameter of the
network, and is an arbitrarily small constant (both time and
message bounds hold with high probability). Our algorithm is message optimal
(up to a polylog factor) and almost time optimal (except for a
factor). Our result answers an open question raised in Mashregi
and King [DISC 2019] by giving the first known asynchronous MST algorithm that
has sublinear time (for all ) and uses
messages. Using a result of Mashregi and King [DISC 2019], this also yields the
first asynchronous MST algorithm that is sublinear in both time and messages in
the CONGEST model.
A key tool in our algorithm is the construction of a low diameter rooted
spanning tree in asynchronous CONGEST that has depth
(for an arbitrarily small constant )
in time and messages. To the best of
our knowledge, this is the first such construction that is almost singularly
optimal in the asynchronous setting.Comment: 27 pages, accepted to DISC 202
Inflation and Holography in String Theory
The encoding of an inflating patch of space-time in terms of a dual theory is
discussed. Following Bousso's interpretation of the holographic principle, we
find that those are generically described not by states in the dual theory but
by density matrices. We try to implement this idea on simple deformations of
the AdS/CFT examples, and an argument is given as to why inflation is so
elusive to string theory.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures. Uses psbox.te
Omnidirectional Stereo
Omnidirectional stereo (ODS) is a type of multi-perspective projection that captures horizontal parallax tangential to a viewing circle. This data allows the creation of stereo panoramas that provide plausible stereo views in all viewing directions on the equatorial plane
Scaling anomalies in the coarsening dynamics of fractal viscous fingering patterns
We analyze a recent experiment of Sharon \textit{et al.} (2003) on the
coarsening, due to surface tension, of fractal viscous fingering patterns
(FVFPs) grown in a radial Hele-Shaw cell. We argue that an unforced Hele-Shaw
model, a natural model for that experiment, belongs to the same universality
class as model B of phase ordering. Two series of numerical simulations with
model B are performed, with the FVFPs grown in the experiment, and with
Diffusion Limited Aggregates, as the initial conditions. We observed
Lifshitz-Slyozov scaling at intermediate distances and very slow
convergence to this scaling at small distances. Dynamic scale invariance breaks
down at large distances.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures; to appear in Phys. Rev.
The benefits of steroids versus steroids plus antivirals for treatment of Bell’s palsy: a meta-analysis
Objective To determine whether steroids plus antivirals provide a better degree of facial muscle recovery in patients with Bell’s palsy than steroids alone
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