5,679 research outputs found
Evaluation of the progression of visual field damage in patients suffering from early manifest glaucoma
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
This retrospective study aimed to determine how often a perimetric examination should be carried out in order to identify visual field (VF) changes in patients with relatively early manifestation glaucoma.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Patients included had a relatively recent manifestation of primary open-angle glaucoma. Patients with a minimum follow-up of 5 years and a minimum of seven VF tests were included. Statistical analysis was performed to verify the trend of variations in mean defect (MD) over time (PeriData). The results were subjected to a t-test for a comparative analysis of progression of VF changes over time. The annual rate of progression provided by PeriData considering all the VFs analyzed was compared with that obtained on half of the VF examinations during the same follow-up period. An analysis of the MD trend over time was also carried out in relationship to the number of VF tests done and by dividing the sample into a high-frequency group (more than eight VFs) and a low-frequency group (fewer than eight VFs) in the follow-up period.
RESULTS:
A total of 96 eyes of 96 patients were included, and overall 846 VFs were examined. The paired t-test performed comparing the MD index of all the VFs against half of them did not show statistical significance (P=0.537). The high-frequency group comprised 39 eyes (average VF 11.05±1.91, average time interval 0.76 years) while the low-frequency group comprised 57 eyes (average VF 6.95±0.6, average time interval 1.21 years). The analysis of the MD trend in the high-frequency patients showed significance (P=0.017); the low-frequency group did not show statistical significance (P=0.08).
CONCLUSION:
The number of VFs in a determined time interval was not significant. However, a greater frequency of tests provides a predictive evaluation of the rate of progression of early manifestation open-angle glaucoma
Magnetism and Charge ordering in TMTTF-PF organic crystals
Using a combination of Density Functional Theory, mean-field analysis and
exact diagonalization calculations we reveal the emergence of a dimerized
charge ordered state in TMTTF-PF organic crystal. The interplay between
charge and spin order leads to a rich phase diagram. Coexistence of charge
ordering with a structural dimerization results in a ferroelectric phase, which
has been observed experimentally. The tendency to the dimerization is
magnetically driven revealing TMTTF-PF as a multiferroic material
CO2-crystal wettability in potassic magmas. Implications for eruptive dynamics in light of experimental evidence for heterogeneous nucleation.
The volatile content in magmas is fundamental for the triggering and style of volcanic eruptions. Carbon dioxide, the second most abundant volatile component in magmas after H2O, is the first to reach saturation upon ascent and depressurization. We investigate experimentally CO2-bubble nucleation in trachybasalt and trachyte melts at high temperature and high pressure (HT and HP) through wetting-angle measurements on different (sialic, mafic or oxide) phenocryst phases. The presence of crystals lowers the supersaturation required for CO2- bubble nucleation up to 37 per cent (heterogeneous nucleation, HeN), with a minor role of mineral chemistry. Different from H2O-rich systems, feldspar crystals are effective in reducing required supersaturation for bubble nucleation. Our data suggest that leucite, the dominant liquidus phase in ultrapotassic systems at shallow depth (i.e. <100 MPa), facilitates late-stage, extensive magma vesiculation through CO2 HeN, which may explain the shifting of CO2-rich eruptive systems towards an apparently anomalous explosive behaviour
Simulation of hydrogenated graphene Field-Effect Transistors through a multiscale approach
In this work, we present a performance analysis of Field Effect Transistors
based on recently fabricated 100% hydrogenated graphene (the so-called
graphane) and theoretically predicted semi-hydrogenated graphene (i.e.
graphone). The approach is based on accurate calculations of the energy bands
by means of GW approximation, subsequently fitted with a three-nearest neighbor
(3NN) sp3 tight-binding Hamiltonian, and finally used to compute ballistic
transport in transistors based on functionalized graphene. Due to the large
energy gap, the proposed devices have many of the advantages provided by
one-dimensional graphene nanoribbon FETs, such as large Ion and Ion/Ioff
ratios, reduced band-to-band tunneling, without the corresponding disadvantages
in terms of prohibitive lithography and patterning requirements for circuit
integration
Fractal universe and quantum gravity
We propose a field theory which lives in fractal spacetime and is argued to
be Lorentz invariant, power-counting renormalizable, ultraviolet finite, and
causal. The system flows from an ultraviolet fixed point, where spacetime has
Hausdorff dimension 2, to an infrared limit coinciding with a standard
four-dimensional field theory. Classically, the fractal world where fields live
exchanges energy momentum with the bulk with integer topological dimension.
However, the total energy momentum is conserved. We consider the dynamics and
the propagator of a scalar field. Implications for quantum gravity, cosmology,
and the cosmological constant are discussed.Comment: 4 pages. v2: typos corrected; v3: discussion improved, intuitive
introduction added, matches the published versio
Test particle motion in a gravitational plane wave collision background
Test particle geodesic motion is analysed in detail for the background
spacetimes of the degenerate Ferrari-Ibanez colliding gravitational wave
solutions. Killing vectors have been used to reduce the equations of motion to
a first order system of differential equations which have been integrated
numerically. The associated constants of the motion have also been used to
match the geodesics as they cross over the boundary between the single plane
wave and interaction zones.Comment: 11 pages, 6 Postscript figure
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An analysis of commercial real estate returns: is there a smoothing puzzle?
In this paper we investigate the commonly used autoregressive filter method of adjusting appraisal-based real estate returns to correct for the perceived biases induced in the appraisal process. Since the early work by Geltner (1989), many papers have been written on this topic but remarkably few have considered the relationship between smoothing at the individual property level and the amount of persistence in the aggregate appraised-based index. To investigate this issue in more detail we analyse a sample of individual property level appraisal data from the Investment Property Database (IPD). We find that commonly used unsmoothing estimates overstate the extent of smoothing that takes place at the individual property level. There is also strong support for an ARFIMA representation of appraisal returns
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