7,020 research outputs found
Effect of Surgical Fusion on Volitional Weight-Shifting in Individuals With Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis
Study Design Prospective. Objectives The goals of this study were to (1) evaluate the differences in weightbearing symmetry between individuals with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and typically developing controls; (2) observe the effect of posterior spinal fusion and instrumentation (PSFI) on volitional weight-shifting at 1 and 2 years postoperatively; and (3) evaluate whether lowest instrumented fusion level (ie, lowest instrumented vertebra [LIV]) in PSFI has an effect on volitional weight-shifting. Summary of Background Data Previous studies have conflicting findings with regard to the effect of scoliosis on postural control tasks as well as the effect of surgery. They have also noted an inconsistent effect of PSFI at different LIVs, with more distal LIVs exhibiting greater reductions in postoperative range of motion. Methods The study was designed with an AIS group of 41 patients (8 males and 33 females) with AIS who underwent PSFI, along with a Control Group of 24 age-matched typically developing participants (12 male and 12 female). Both groups performed postural control tasks (static balance and volitional weight-shifting), with the AIS group repeating the tasks at 1 and 2 years postoperatively. Results At baseline, the AIS group showed increased weightbearing asymmetry than the Control Group (p = .01). The AIS group showed improvements in volitional weight-shifting at 2 years over baseline (p \u3c .01). There was no effect of LIV on volitional weight-shifting by the second postoperative year. Conclusions Individuals with AIS have greater weightbearing asymmetry but improved volitional weight-shifting over typically developing controls. PSFI improves volitional weight-shifting beyond preoperative baseline but does not differ significantly by LIV
Effect of Surgical Fusion on Volitional Weight-Shifting in Individuals With Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis
Study Design Prospective. Objectives The goals of this study were to (1) evaluate the differences in weightbearing symmetry between individuals with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and typically developing controls; (2) observe the effect of posterior spinal fusion and instrumentation (PSFI) on volitional weight-shifting at 1 and 2 years postoperatively; and (3) evaluate whether lowest instrumented fusion level (ie, lowest instrumented vertebra [LIV]) in PSFI has an effect on volitional weight-shifting. Summary of Background Data Previous studies have conflicting findings with regard to the effect of scoliosis on postural control tasks as well as the effect of surgery. They have also noted an inconsistent effect of PSFI at different LIVs, with more distal LIVs exhibiting greater reductions in postoperative range of motion. Methods The study was designed with an AIS group of 41 patients (8 males and 33 females) with AIS who underwent PSFI, along with a Control Group of 24 age-matched typically developing participants (12 male and 12 female). Both groups performed postural control tasks (static balance and volitional weight-shifting), with the AIS group repeating the tasks at 1 and 2 years postoperatively. Results At baseline, the AIS group showed increased weightbearing asymmetry than the Control Group (p = .01). The AIS group showed improvements in volitional weight-shifting at 2 years over baseline (p \u3c .01). There was no effect of LIV on volitional weight-shifting by the second postoperative year. Conclusions Individuals with AIS have greater weightbearing asymmetry but improved volitional weight-shifting over typically developing controls. PSFI improves volitional weight-shifting beyond preoperative baseline but does not differ significantly by LIV
Scaling properties of cavity-enhanced atom cooling
We extend an earlier semiclassical model to describe the dissipative motion
of N atoms coupled to M modes inside a coherently driven high-finesse cavity.
The description includes momentum diffusion via spontaneous emission and cavity
decay. Simple analytical formulas for the steady-state temperature and the
cooling time for a single atom are derived and show surprisingly good agreement
with direct stochastic simulations of the semiclassical equations for N atoms
with properly scaled parameters. A thorough comparison with standard free-space
Doppler cooling is performed and yields a lower temperature and a cooling time
enhancement by a factor of M times the square of the ratio of the atom-field
coupling constant to the cavity decay rate. Finally it is shown that laser
cooling with negligible spontaneous emission should indeed be possible,
especially for relatively light particles in a strongly coupled field
configuration.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
EXPRESS: Learning from Data: An Empirics-First Approach to Relevant Knowledge Generation
A “theory-first” paradigm tends to be the dominant approach in much academic marketing research. In this approach, a theory is borrowed, refined, or developed and then tested empirically. In this challenging-the-boundaries article, we make a case for an “empirics-first” approach. Empirics-first refers to research that (i) is grounded in (originates from) a real-world marketing phenomenon, problem, or observation, (ii) involves obtaining and analyzing data, and (iii) produces valid marketing-relevant insights without necessarily developing or testing theory. The empirics-first approach is not antagonistic to theory but rather can serve as a stepping-stone to theory. The approach lends itself well to today’s data-rich environment, which can surface novel research questions untethered to theory. The present paper describes the underlying principles of an empirics-first approach, which consists of exploring a domain purposefully without preconceptions. Using a rich set of published examples, the present paper offers guidance on how to implement empirics-first research and how it can lead to valuable knowledge development. Advice is also offered to authors on how to report EF research and to reviewers and to editorial teams on how to evaluate it. Our ultimate objective is to pave a way for empirics-first to enter the mainstream of academic marketing research
The Search for Stable, Massive, Elementary Particles
In this paper we review the experimental and observational searches for
stable, massive, elementary particles other than the electron and proton. The
particles may be neutral, may have unit charge or may have fractional charge.
They may interact through the strong, electromagnetic, weak or gravitational
forces or through some unknown force. The purpose of this review is to provide
a guide for future searches - what is known, what is not known, and what appear
to be the most fruitful areas for new searches. A variety of experimental and
observational methods such as accelerator experiments, cosmic ray studies,
searches for exotic particles in bulk matter and searches using astrophysical
observations is included in this review.Comment: 34 pages, 8 eps figure
Vortex Fluctuations in High-Tc Films: Flux Noise Spectrum and Complex Impedance
The flux noise spectrum and complex impedance for a 500 {\AA} thick YBCO film
are measured and compared with predictions for two dimensional vortex
fluctuations. It is verified that the complex impedance and the flux noise
spectra are proportional to each other, that the logarithm of the flux noise
spectra for different temperatures has a common tangent with slope , and that the amplitude of the noise decreases as , where is
the height above the film at which the magnetic flux is measured. A crossover
from normal to anomalous vortex diffusion is indicated by the measurements and
is discussed in terms of a two-dimensional decoupling.Comment: 5 pages including 4 figures in two columns, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Let
Axially symmetric rotating traversable wormholes
This paper generalizes the static and spherically symmetric traversable
wormhole geometry to a rotating axially symmetric one with a time-dependent
angular velocity by means of an exact solution. It was found that the violation
of the weak energy condition, although unavoidable, is considerably less severe
than in the static spherically symmetric case. The radial tidal constraint is
more easily met due to the rotation. Similar improvements are seen in one of
the lateral tidal constraints. The magnitude of the angular velocity may have
little effect on the weak energy condition violation for an axially symmetric
wormhole. For a spherically symmetric one, however, the violation becomes less
severe with increasing angular velocity. The time rate of change of the angular
velocity, on the other hand, was found to have no effect at all. Finally, the
angular velocity must depend only on the radial coordinate, confirming an
earlier result.Comment: 17 pages, AMSTe
Tunneling in a cavity
The mechanism of coherent destruction of tunneling found by Grossmann et al.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 516 (1991)] is studied from the viewpoint of quantum
optics by considering the photon statistics of a single mode cavity field which
is strongly coupled to a two-level tunneling system (TS). As a function of the
interaction time between TS and cavity the photon statistics displays the
tunneling dynamics. In the semi-classical limit of high photon occupation
number , coherent destruction of tunneling is exhibited in a slowing down of
an amplitude modulation for certain parameter ratios of the field. The
phenomenon is explained as arising from interference between displaced number
states in phase space which survives the large limit due to identical
scaling between orbit width and displacement.Comment: 4 pages Revtex, 2 PS-figures, appears in The Physical Review
Incremental Mutual Information: A New Method for Characterizing the Strength and Dynamics of Connections in Neuronal Circuits
Understanding the computations performed by neuronal circuits requires characterizing the strength and dynamics of the connections between individual neurons. This characterization is typically achieved by measuring the correlation in the activity of two neurons. We have developed a new measure for studying connectivity in neuronal circuits based on information theory, the incremental mutual information (IMI). By conditioning out the temporal dependencies in the responses of individual neurons before measuring the dependency between them, IMI improves on standard correlation-based measures in several important ways: 1) it has the potential to disambiguate statistical dependencies that reflect the connection between neurons from those caused by other sources (e. g. shared inputs or intrinsic cellular or network mechanisms) provided that the dependencies have appropriate timescales, 2) for the study of early sensory systems, it does not require responses to repeated trials of identical stimulation, and 3) it does not assume that the connection between neurons is linear. We describe the theory and implementation of IMI in detail and demonstrate its utility on experimental recordings from the primate visual system
Completing Natural Inflation
If the inflaton is a pseudo-scalar axion, the axion shift symmetry can
protect the flatness of its potential from too large radiative corrections.
This possibility, known as natural inflation, requires an axion scale which is
greater than the (reduced) Planck scale. It is unclear whether such a high
value is compatible with an effective field theoretical description, and if the
global axionic symmetry survives quantum gravity effects. We propose a
mechanism which provides an effective large axion scale, although the original
one is sub-Planckian. The mechanism is based on the presence of two axions,
with a potential provided by two anomalous gauge groups. The effective large
axion scale is due to an almost exact symmetry between the couplings of the
axions to the anomalous groups. We also comment on a possible implementation in
heterotic string theory.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur
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