166 research outputs found
Preventive analgesia and novel strategies for the prevention of chronic post-surgical pain
Chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) is a serious complication of major surgery that can impair a patient’s quality of life. The development of CPSP is a complex process which involves biologic, psychosocial, and environmental mechanisms that have yet to be fully understood. Currently perioperative pharmacologic interventions aim to suppress and prevent sensitization with the aim of reducing pain and analgesic requirement in acute as well as long-term pain . Despite the detrimental effects of CPSP on patients, the body of literature focused on treatment strategies to reduce CPSP remains limited and continues to be understudied. This article reviews the main pharmacologic candidates for the treatment of CPSP, discusses the future of preventive analgesia, and considers novel strategies to help treat acute postoperative pain and lessen the risk that it becomes chronic. In addition, this article highlights important areas of focus for clinical practice including: multimodal management of CPSP patients, psychological modifiers of the pain experience, and the development of a Transitional Pain Service specifically designed to manage patients at high risk of developing chronic post-surgical pain.HC is supported by a Merit Award (Department of Anaesthesia, University of Toronto) and the STAGE Training Program in Genetic Epidemiology (Canadian Institutes of Health Research, CIHR) and a grant by the Physicians Services Incorporated Foundation. JK is supported by a Canada Research Chair in Health Psychology. The authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest to declare
Metal-superconductor transition at zero temperature: A case of unusual scaling
An effective field theory is derived for the normal metal-to-superconductor
quantum phase transition at T=0. The critical behavior is determined exactly
for all dimensions d>2. Although the critical exponents \beta and \nu do not
exist, the usual scaling relations, properly reinterpreted, still hold. A
complete scaling description of the transition is given, and the physics
underlying the unusual critical behavior is discussed. Quenched disorder leads
to anomalously strong T_c-fluctuations which are shown to explain the
experimentally observed broadening of the transition in low-T_c thin films.Comment: 4 pp., no figs, final version as publishe
Antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains with bond alternation and quenched disorder
We consider S=1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains with alternating bonds
and quenched disorder, which represents a theoretical model of the compound
CuCl_{2x}Br_{2(1-x)}(\gamma-{pic})_2. Using a numerical implementation of the
strong disorder renormalization group method we study the low-energy properties
of the system as a function of the concentration, x, and the type of
correlations in the disorder. For perfect correlation of disorder the system is
in the random dimer (Griffiths) phase having a concentration dependent
dynamical exponent. For weak or vanishing disorder correlations the system is
in the random singlet phase, in which the dynamical exponent is formally
infinity. We discuss consequences of our results for the experimentally
measured low-temperature susceptibility of
CuCl_{2x}Br_{2(1-x)}(\gamma-{pic})_2
Explicit Renormalization Group for D=2 random bond Ising model with long-range correlated disorder
We investigate the explicit renormalization group for fermionic field
theoretic representation of two-dimensional random bond Ising model with
long-range correlated disorder. We show that a new fixed point appears by
introducing a long-range correlated disorder. Such as the one has been observed
in previous works for the bosonic () description. We have calculated
the correlation length exponent and the anomalous scaling dimension of
fermionic fields at this fixed point. Our results are in agreement with the
extended Harris criterion derived by Weinrib and Halperin.Comment: 5 page
Site-diluted three dimensional Ising Model with long-range correlated disorder
We study two different versions of the site-diluted Ising model in three
dimensions with long-range spatially correlated disorder by Monte Carlo means.
We use finite-size scaling techniques to compute the critical exponents of
these systems, taking into account the strong scaling-corrections. We find a
value that is compatible with the analytical predictions.Comment: 19 pages, 1 postscript figur
Random quantum magnets with long-range correlated disorder: Enhancement of critical and Griffiths-McCoy singularities
We study the effect of spatial correlations in the quenched disorder on
random quantum magnets at and near a quantum critical point. In the random
transverse field Ising systems disorder correlations that decay algebraically
with an exponent rho change the universality class of the transition for small
enough rho and the off-critical Griffiths-McCoy singularities are enhanced. We
present exact results for 1d utilizing a mapping to fractional Brownian motion
and generalize the predictions for the critical exponents and the generalized
dynamical exponent in the Griffiths phase to d>=2.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 1 eps-figure include
Method for Generating Long-Range Correlations for Large Systems
We propose a new method to generate a sequence of random numbers with
long-range power-law correlations that overcomes known difficulties associated
with large systems. The new method presents an improvement on the commonly-used
methods. We apply the algorithm to generate enhanced diffusion, isotropic and
anisotropic self-affine surfaces, and isotropic and anisotropic correlated
percolation.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX, figures available upon request from
[email protected]
Disorder-induced critical behavior in driven diffusive systems
Using dynamic renormalization group we study the transport in driven
diffusive systems in the presence of quenched random drift velocity with
long-range correlations along the transport direction. In dimensions
we find fixed points representing novel universality classes of
disorder-dominated self-organized criticality, and a continuous phase
transition at a critical variance of disorder. Numerical values of the scaling
exponents characterizing the distributions of relaxation clusters are in good
agreement with the exponents measured in natural river networks
Obligations in the Shade: The Application of Fiduciary Directors’ Duties to Shadow Directors
This paper argues that shadow directors, as defined in English law, ought to owe the full range of directors’ duties, both fiduciary and non-fiduciary, enacted in the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006), ss 171-177, to the relevant company under their influence. Following the enactment of the recent Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act (SBEEA) 2015, these general duties are likely to apply to shadow directors, although there is still a case to be made as to why shadow directors should owe fiduciary duties to the relevant company. It is argued here that such a relationship is fiduciary in nature, but the current approach deployed in the English courts, based upon the application of Finn’s originally formulated ‘undertaking’ test alone, is inadequate.
Given these inadequacies, it is proposed that the Canadian ‘power and discretion’ test be deployed alongside the ‘undertaking’ test, in order to provide a far more comprehensive justification for the application of fiduciary obligations to shadow directors. This position is supported by establishing a theoretical basis for the ‘power and discretion’ test, via Paul Miller’s ‘fiduciary powers theory’, as well as considering the application of such a test to shadow directors
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