292 research outputs found
Left ventricular apical hypoplasia: Case report on cardiomyopathy and a history of sudden cardiac death
BACKGROUND: Isolated left ventricular apical hypoplasia with several different unrecognized dimensions is a newly discovered congenital anomaly of the heart. CASE REPORT: In this report, we describe a case of cardiomyopathy of this type occurring in a 13-year-old male with a history of mental retardation and sudden cardiac death (SCD) of second-degree relatives. The patient was referred for an evaluation of cardiac status. An echocardiography analysis demonstrated a spherical left ventricle (LV) appearance with mild mitral regurgitation. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed a spherical and truncated LV appearance. The right ventricle was found to have elongated and wrapped around the LV, and diverticulum was also seen in the cardiac MRI.CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is to present the first case of LV apical hypoplasia combined with LV diverticulum and a family history of SCD. As more cases featuring this cardiomyopathy type are recognized, it will be easier to elucidate the natural history and management of such cardiac anomalies. © 2016, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences(IUMS). All rights reserved
Changes in synergy of transtibial amputee during gait: A pilot study
The number of lower limb amputations is increasing significantly in developed countries. The knowledge of muscle synergy in subjects with loss of muscles could help to understand the general neural strategy underlying muscle coordination in walking. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in healthy subject's dominant leg, amputee's intact leg (IL) and the amputee's prosthetic leg (PL) muscles using synergy analysis. Concatenated non-negative matrix factorization (CNMF) was performed to divide the surface electromyography (sEMG) data obtained from 6 upper knee and 4 shank muscles into muscle synergy (S) and activation coefficient profile (C) during walking. The difference in S showed low to high correlations inter-subjectively. The high correlation suggests that the central nervous system (CNS) activates the same groups of muscles synergistically. Amputee's muscle alterations due to inadequate proprioceptive feedback, weight bearing deficiency in PL and prosthesis type could lead to a low correlation in S between groups. The C showed to be statistically significantly different in some regions of the gait cycle (GC). These findings could provide valuable information for rehabilitation purposes and development of a synergy-based controller from sEMG for future generations of prostheses
Predictions for Pb Collisions at TeV: Comparison with Data
Predictions made in Albacete {\it et al} prior to the LHC Pb run at
TeV are compared to currently available data. Some
predictions shown here have been updated by including the same experimental
cuts as the data. Some additional predictions are also presented, especially
for quarkonia, that were provided to the experiments before the data were made
public but were too late for the original publication are also shown here.Comment: 55 pages 35 figure
Whightman function and scalar Casimir densities for a wedge with a cylindrical boundary
Whightman function, vacuum expectation values of the field square, and the
energy-momentum tensor are investigated for a scalar field inside a wedge with
and without a coaxial cylindrical boundary. Dirichlet boundary conditions are
assumed on the bounding surfaces. The vacuum energy-momentum tensor is
evaluated in the general case of the curvature coupling parameter. Making use
of a variant of the generalized Abel-Plana formula, expectation values are
presented as the sum of two terms. The first one corresponds to the geometry
without a cylindrical boundary and the second one is induced by the presence of
this boundary. The asymptotic behaviour of the field square, vacuum energy
density and stresses near the boundaries are investigated. The additional
vacuum forces acting on the wedge sides due the presence of the cylindrical
boundary are evaluated and it is shown that these forces are attractive. As a
limiting case, the geometry of two parallel plates perpendicularly intersected
by a third one is analyzed.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, new section is added on the VEVs for the region
outside the cylidrical shell, discussion and references added, accepted for
publication in J. Phys.
Scalar Casimir densities for cylindrically symmetric Robin boundaries
Wightman function, the vacuum expectation values of the field square and the
energy-momentum tensor are investigated for a massive scalar field with general
curvature coupling parameter in the region between two coaxial cylindrical
boundaries. It is assumed that the field obeys general Robin boundary
conditions on bounding surfaces. The application of a variant of the
generalized Abel-Plana formula allows to extract from the expectation values
the contribution from single shells and to present the interference part in
terms of exponentially convergent integrals. The vacuum forces acting on the
boundaries are presented as the sum of self-action and interaction terms. The
first one contains well-known surface divergences and needs a further
renormalization. The interaction forces between the cylindrical boundaries are
finite and are attractive for special cases of Dirichlet and Neumann scalars.
For the general Robin case the interaction forces can be both attractive or
repulsive depending on the coefficients in the boundary conditions. The total
Casimir energy is evaluated by using the zeta function regularization
technique. It is shown that it contains a part which is located on bounding
surfaces. The formula for the interference part of the surface energy is
derived and the energy balance is discussed.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure
Trace anomaly and Casimir effect
The Casimir energy for scalar field of two parallel conductor in two
dimensional domain wall background, with Dirichlet boundary conditions, is
calculated by making use of general properties of renormalized stress tensor.We
show that vacuum expectation values of stress tensor contain two terms which
come from the boundary conditions and the gravitational background. In two
dimensions the minimal coupling reduces to the conformal coupling and stress
tensor can be obtained by the local and non-local contribution of the anomalous
trace. This work shows that there exists a subtle relation between Casimir
effect and trace anomaly in curved space time.Comment: 6pages, Latex. Journal-ref adde
Electromagnetic Casimir densities for a wedge with a coaxial cylindrical shell
Vacuum expectation values of the field square and the energy-momentum tensor
for the electromagnetic field are investigated for the geometry of a wedge with
a coaxal cylindrical boundary. All boundaries are assumed to be perfectly
conducting and both regions inside and outside the shell are considered. By
using the generalized Abel-Plana formula, the vacuum expectation values are
presented in the form of the sum of two terms. The first one corresponds to the
geometry of the wedge without the cylindrical shell and the second term is
induced by the presence of the shell. The vacuum energy density induced by the
shell is negative for the interior region and is positive for the exterior
region. The asymptotic behavior of the vacuum expectation values are
investigated in various limiting cases. It is shown that the vacuum forces
acting on the wedge sides due to the presence of the cylindrical boundary are
always attractive.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure
Thermal Dileptons at LHC
We predict dilepton invariant-mass spectra for central 5.5 ATeV Pb-Pb
collisions at LHC. Hadronic emission in the low-mass region is calculated using
in-medium spectral functions of light vector mesons within hadronic many-body
theory. In the intermediate-mass region thermal radiation from the Quark-Gluon
Plasma, evaluated perturbatively with hard-thermal loop corrections, takes
over. An important source over the entire mass range are decays of correlated
open-charm hadrons, rendering the nuclear modification of charm and bottom
spectra a critical ingredient.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, contributed to Workshop on Heavy Ion Collisions
at the LHC: Last Call for Predictions, Geneva, Switzerland, 14 May - 8 Jun
2007 v2: acknowledgment include
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