530 research outputs found
Foreground influence on primordial non-Gaussianity estimates: needlet analysis of WMAP 5-year data
We constrain the amplitude of primordial non-Gaussianity in the CMB data
taking into account the presence of foreground residuals in the maps. We
generalise the needlet bispectrum estimator marginalizing over the amplitudes
of thermal dust, free-free and synchrotron templates. We apply our procedure to
WMAP 5 year data, finding fNL= 38\pm 47 (1 \sigma), while the analysis without
marginalization provides fNL= 35\pm 42. Splitting the marginalization over each
foreground separately, we found that the estimates of fNL are positively cross
correlated of 17%, 12% with the dust and synchrotron respectively, while a
negative cross correlation of about -10% is found for the free-free component.Comment: Submitted to MNRA
Spherical Needlets for CMB Data Analysis
We discuss Spherical Needlets and their properties. Needlets are a form of
spherical wavelets which do not rely on any kind of tangent plane approximation
and enjoy good localization properties in both pixel and harmonic space;
moreover needlets coefficients are asymptotically uncorrelated at any fixed
angular distance, which makes their use in statistical procedures very
promising. In view of these properties, we believe needlets may turn out to be
especially useful in the analysis of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data on
the incomplete sky, as well as of other cosmological observations. As a final
advantage, we stress that the implementation of needlets is computationally
very convenient and may rely completely on standard data analysis packages such
as HEALPix.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
Searching for planar signatures in WMAP
We search for planar deviations of statistical isotropy in the Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data by applying a recently introduced
angular-planar statistics both to full-sky and to masked temperature maps,
including in our analysis the effect of the residual foreground contamination
and systematics in the foreground removing process as sources of error. We
confirm earlier findings that full-sky maps exhibit anomalies at the planar
() and angular () scales and , which
seem to be due to unremoved foregrounds since this features are present in the
full-sky map but not in the masked maps. On the other hand, our test detects
slightly anomalous results at the scales and in the
masked maps but not in the full-sky one, indicating that the foreground
cleaning procedure (used to generate the full-sky map) could not only be
creating false anomalies but also hiding existing ones. We also find a
significant trace of an anomaly in the full-sky map at the scale
, which is still present when we consider galactic cuts of
18.3% and 28.4%. As regards the quadrupole (), we find a coherent
over-modulation over the whole celestial sphere, for all full-sky and cut-sky
maps. Overall, our results seem to indicate that current CMB maps derived from
WMAP data do not show significant signs of anisotropies, as measured by our
angular-planar estimator. However, we have detected a curious coherence of
planar modulations at angular scales of the order of the galaxy's plane, which
may be an indication of residual contaminations in the full- and cut-sky maps.Comment: 15 pages with pdf figure
Affine equation of state from quintessence and k-essence fields
We explore the possibility that a scalar field with appropriate Lagrangian
can mimic a perfect fluid with an affine barotropic equation of state. The
latter can be thought of as a generic cosmological dark component evolving as
an effective cosmological constant plus a generalized dark matter. As such, it
can be used as a simple, phenomenological model for either dark energy or
unified dark matter. Furthermore, it can approximate (up to first order in the
energy density) any barotropic dark fluid with arbitrary equation of state. We
find that two kinds of Lagrangian for the scalar field can reproduce the
desired behaviour: a quintessence-like with a hyperbolic potential, or a purely
kinetic k-essence one. We discuss the behaviour of these two classes of models
from the point of view of the cosmological background, and we give some hints
on their possible clustering properties.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Minor updates, accepted by CQ
Non-Gaussian bubbles in the sky
We point out a possible generation mechanism of non-Gaussian bubbles in the
sky due to bubble nucleation in the early universe. We consider a curvaton
scenario for inflation and assume that the curvaton field phi, whose energy
density is subdominant during inflation but which is responsible for the
curvature perturbation of the universe, is coupled to another field sigma which
undergoes false vacuum decay through quantum tunneling. For this model, we
compute the skewness of the curvaton fluctuations due to its interaction with
sigma during tunneling, that is, on the background of an instanton solution
that describes false vacuum decay. We find that the resulting skewness of the
curvaton can become large in the spacetime region inside the bubble. We then
compute the corresponding skewness in the statistical distribution of the
cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature fluctuations. We find a
non-vanishing skewness in a bubble-shaped region in the sky. It can be large
enough to be detected in the near future, and if detected it will bring us
invaluable information about the physics in the early universe.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Are Patients With Longer Emergency Department Wait Times Less Likely to Consent to Research?
Objectives: There are unique challenges to enrolling patients in emergency department (ED) clinical
research studies, including the time-sensitive nature of emergency conditions, the acute care environ-
ment, and the lack of an established relationship with patients. Prolonged ED wait times have been asso-
ciated with a variety of adverse effects on patient care. The objective of this study was to assess the
effect of ED wait times on patient participation in ED clinical research. The hypothesis was that
increased ED wait times would be associated with reduced ED clinical research consent rates.
Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of all patients eligible for two diagnostic clinical research
studies from January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2008, in an urban academic ED. Sex, age, race, study
eligibility, and research consent decisions were recorded by trained study personnel. The wait times to
registration and to be seen by a physician were obtained from administrative databases and compared
between consenters and nonconsenters. An analysis of association between patient wait times for the
outcome of consent to participate was performed using a multivariate logistic regression model.
Results: A total of 903 patients were eligible for enrollment and were asked for consent. Overall, 589
eligible patients (65%) gave consent to research participation. The consent rates did not change when
patients were stratified by the highest and lowest quartile wait times for both time from arrival to regis-
tration (68% vs. 65%, p = 0.35) and time to be seen by a physician (65% vs. 66%, p = 0.58). After adjusting
for patient demographics (age, race, and sex) and study, there was still no relationship between wait
times and consent (p > 0.4 for both wait times). Furthermore, median time from arrival to registration did
not differ between those who consented to participate (15 minutes; interquartile range [IQR] = 9 to
36 minutes) versus those who did not (15.5 minutes; IQR = 10 to 39 minutes; p = 0.80; odds ratio
[OR] = 1.00, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.99 to 1.01). Similarly, there was no difference in the median
time to be seen by a physician between those who consented (25 minutes; IQR = 15 to 55 minutes) versus
those who did not (25 minutes; IQR = 15 to 56 minutes; p = 0.70; OR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.99 to 1.01).
Conclusions: Regardless of wait times, nearly two-thirds of eligible patients were willing to consent to
diagnostic research studies in the ED. These findings suggest that effective enrollment in clinical
research is possible in the ED, despite challenges with prolonged wait times
Manuscript Architect: a web application for scientific writing in virtual interdisciplinary groups
DADOS-Survey: an open-source application for CHERRIES-compliant Web surveys
BACKGROUND: The Internet has been increasingly utilized in biomedical research. From online searching for literature to data sharing, the Internet has emerged as a primary means of research for many physicians and scientists. As a result, Web-based surveys have been employed as an alternative to traditional, paper-based surveys. We describe DADOS-Survey, an open-source Web-survey application developed at our institution that, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to be compliant with the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES). DADOS-Survey was designed with usability as a priority, allowing investigators to design and execute their own studies with minimal technical difficulties in doing so. RESULTS: To date, DADOS-Survey has been successfully implemented in five Institutional Review Board-approved studies conducted by various departments within our academic center. Each of these studies employed a Web-survey design as their primary methodology. Our initial experience indicates that DADOS-Survey has been used with relative ease by each of the investigators and survey recipients. This has been further demonstrated through formal and field usability testing, during which time suggestions for improvement were incorporated into the software design. CONCLUSION: DADOS-Survey has the potential to have an important role in the future direction of Web-survey administration in biomedical research. This CHERRIES-compliant application is tailored to the emerging requirements of quality data collection in medicine
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