3,264 research outputs found
Characterization of left and right atrial function in healthy volunteers by cardiovascular magnetic resonance.
BACKGROUND: Left and right atrial function show a different pattern in advanced age in order to maintain adequate ventricular filling. It has been shown that left atrial (LA) function has a prognostic value in a number of heart conditions. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) provides high quality images of the left and right atria using high temporal resolution steady state free precession (SSFP) cine sequences. We used SSFP cines to characterize atrial function in healthy, normotensive, volunteers. METHODS: We measured maximum, preatrial contraction and minimum left and right atrial volumes in 120 healthy subjects after careful exclusion of cardiovascular abnormality (60 men, 60 women; 20 subjects per age decile from 20 to 80Â years). Data were generated from 3-dimensional modeling, including tracking of the atrioventricular ring motion and time-volume curves analysis. With those measurements, all the usual parameters for left and right atrial function were calculated. RESULTS: Gender had significant influence on some parameters of left and right atrial conduit and booster pump function. Age significantly influenced the majority of parameters of both left and right atrial function, with typically lower reservoir and conduit functions and higher booster pump function, both in males and females belonging to older age groups. CMR normal ranges were modelled for clinical use with normalization, where appropriate, for body surface area and gender, displaying parameters with respect to age. CONCLUSIONS: CMR normal reference ranges for components of left and right atrial function are provided for males and females for a wide age range
Holographic Phase Transition to Topological Dyons
The dynamical stability of a Julia-Zee solution in the AdS background in a
four dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills-Higgs theory is studied. We find that the
model with a vanishing scalar field develops a non-zero value for the field at
a certain critical temperature which corresponds to a topological dyon in the
bulk and a topological phase transition at the boundary.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, sections 2 and 4 are shortened, an
error in the last part of section 5 is corrected and equations are modified.
This version to be published in JHE
Coronary microvascular ischemia in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - a pixel-wise quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance perfusion study.
BACKGROUND: Microvascular dysfunction in HCM has been associated with adverse clinical outcomes. Advances in quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) perfusion imaging now allow myocardial blood flow to be quantified at the pixel level. We applied these techniques to investigate the spectrum of microvascular dysfunction in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and to explore its relationship with fibrosis and wall thickness. METHODS: CMR perfusion imaging was undertaken during adenosine-induced hyperemia and again at rest in 35 patients together with late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging. Myocardial blood flow (MBF) was quantified on a pixel-by-pixel basis from CMR perfusion images using a Fermi-constrained deconvolution algorithm. Regions-of-interest (ROI) in hypoperfused and hyperemic myocardium were identified from the MBF pixel maps. The myocardium was also divided into 16 AHA segments. RESULTS: Resting MBF was significantly higher in the endocardium than in the epicardium (mean ± SD: 1.25 ± 0.35 ml/g/min versus 1.20 ± 0.35 ml/g/min, P < 0.001), a pattern that reversed with stress (2.00 ± 0.76 ml/g/min versus 2.36 ± 0.83 ml/g/min, P < 0.001). ROI analysis revealed 11 (31%) patients with stress MBF lower than resting values (1.05 ± 0.39 ml/g/min versus 1.22 ± 0.36 ml/g/min, P = 0.021). There was a significant negative association between hyperemic MBF and wall thickness (β = −0.047 ml/g/min per mm, 95% CI: −0.057 to −0.038, P < 0.001) and a significantly lower probability of fibrosis in a segment with increasing hyperemic MBF (odds ratio per ml/g/min: 0.086, 95% CI: 0.078 to 0.095, P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Pixel-wise quantitative CMR perfusion imaging identifies a subgroup of patients with HCM that have localised severe microvascular dysfunction which may give rise to myocardial ischemia
One Monopole with k Singularities
We present all charge one monopole solutions of the Bogomolny equation with k
prescribed Dirac singularities for the gauge groups U(2), SO(3), or SU(2). We
analyze these solutions comparing them to the previously known expressions for
the cases of one or two singularities.Comment: 12 pages, LaTe
A review on motivational nudges for enhancing building energy conservation behavior
This paper explores energy use interventions and their influence on human behavior in commercial and institutional buildings. The main objectives of this paper are to identify the importance of nudges in reducing building energy usage and the implementation methods that can influence users to conserve energy in buildings through context specific interventions. A qualitative research method is used to elicit existing energy saving techniques, and a rigorous literature review is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of nudges. The investigation shows that combining multiple influencing options and interactive technological interventions can result in an effective nudging mechanism at a larger scale. Widely adopted technological tools identified in energy conservation in buildings included eco-feedback systems, IoT engagement systems, and recommendation systems that shared clear information to enable users to change their behavior. Besides, non-technological tools, such as posters and moral appeal by word of mouth, are highlighted as influencing user behavior to conserve energy in buildings. The use of nudges in commercial and institutional buildings has been studied in this review, and it has been demonstrated that the combination of influencing techniques is more effective than deploying a particular technique. It is concluded that energy conservation can be predicated in agent-based environments by modeling integrated nudges in future work
Holographic phase transition from dyons in an AdS black hole background
We construct a dyon solution for a Yang-Mills-Higgs theory in a 4 dimensional
Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter black hole background with temperature T. We then
apply the AdS/CFT correspondence to describe the strong coupling regime of a
2+1 quantum field theory which undergoes a phase transition exhibiting the
condensation of a composite charge operator below a critical temperature .Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures. Minor corrections, references added. Version
published in JHEP
Integrable models: from dynamical solutions to string theory
We review the status of integrable models from the point of view of their
dynamics and integrability conditions. Some integrable models are discussed in
detail. We comment on the use it is made of them in string theory. We also
discuss the Bethe Ansatz solution of the SO(6) symmetric Hamiltonian with SO(6)
boundary.
This work is especially prepared for the seventieth anniversaries of
Andr\'{e} Swieca (in memoriam) and Roland K\"{o}berle.Comment: 24 pages, to appear in Brazilian Journal of Physic
Scalar soliton quantization with generic moduli
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credArticle funded by SCOAP3. CP is
a Royal Society Research Fellow and partly supported by the U.S. Department of Energy
under grants DOE-SC0010008, DOE-ARRA-SC0003883 and DOE-DE-SC0007897. ABR
is supported by the Mitchell Family Foundation. We would like to thank the Mitchell
Institute at Texas A&M and the NHETC at Rutgers University respectively for hospitality
during the course of this work. We would also like to acknowledge the Aspen Center
for Physics and NSF grant 1066293 for a stimulating research environment which led to
questions addressed in this paper
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