Identifying studies for systematic reviews - An example from medical imaging

Objectives: To determine if published figures on the proportion of articles included in systematic reviews and identified in electronic databases are applicable to an example from medical imaging. Methods: A systematic review was performed. Additionally, sensitivity and precision of a MEDLINE search were compared with values from three published searches, each customized for a specific field. Results: All articles included in the systematic review were in electronic databases. The MEDLINE search had low precision compared with searches in other fields. Conclusions: in a specific area of medical imaging, electronic databases, including MEDLINE, are reliable sources of articles

Subthreshold photoproduction of charm

Charm photoproduction rates off nuclei below the nucleon threshold are estimated using the phenomenologically known structure functions both for x>1 and x<1. The rates rapidly fall below the threshold from values of the order 10 pb for Pb close to the threshold (at 7.5 GeV) down to values of the order 1 pb at 6 GeV.Comment: 11 p[ages, 7 figure

Existential Anthropology and the Transformation of the Existential Situation into Religious Meaning: The Rise and Similarities of Religion and the Arts

The social forming elements to the existential situation provide the basis from which springs all things human, where seemingly disparate functions within the social dynamic—in this instance, art and religion—find common genesis. An aspect of the existential situation is the development of complete memory and awareness because of the human state of physical vulnerability. In the following essay, starting with remembrance, we will see how the existential complex itself helps to form notions of art and religion; how impediment-to-will and exertion become essential elements to the formulation of religious ritual and fashion; and finally, we will take a look at the part worship itself plays in the performing arts

Gambling Treatment Diversion Court: First in Nevada

The first Gambling Treatment Diversion Court was established in Las Vegas, Nevada in fall of 2018 following more than 25 years of effort by passionately concerned non-profit Executives, therapists, lawyers and judges. This panel represents one leader from each of those areas, including Judge Cheryl Moss, the first judge to open the Gambling Treatment Diversion Court (GTDC), Dayvid Figler, the first attorney to successfully represent a gambling client and refer her to the GTDC, Carol O\u27Hare, Executive Director of the non-profit Nevada Council on Problem Gambler with 25+ years leadership and advocacy for problem gamblers, Sydney Smith, M.A., Clinical Director of RISE treatment center in Las Vegas and nationally- and state-certified gambling counselor, and Denise F. Quirk, M.A., Clinical Director of the Reno Problem Gambling Center and nationally- and Nevada-certified problem gambling counselor and instructor at the University of Nevada, Reno. The panel will share the development of gambling diversion treatment, legal challenges and victories, the process of the GTDC, case studies of individuals with Gambling Disorder who have endured and succeeded in the legal process, and discussion relevant to the impact of the gambling diversion process at all levels of evaluation, advocacy, treatment and support for gamblers and communities

Mental state attribution and the gaze cueing effect

Theory of mind is said to be possessed by an individual if he or she is able to impute mental states to others. Recently, some authors have demonstrated that such mental state attributions can mediate the “gaze cueing” effect, in which observation of another individual shifts an observer’s attention. One question that follows from this work is whether such mental state attributions produce mandatory modulations of gaze cueing. Employing the basic gaze cueing paradigm, together with a technique commonly used to assess mental-state attribution in nonhuman animals, we manipulated whether the gazing agent could see the same thing as the participant (i.e., the target) or had this view obstructed by a physical barrier. We found robust gaze cueing effects, even when the observed agent in the display could not see the same thing as the participant. These results suggest that the attribution of “seeing” does not necessarily modulate the gaze cueing effect

Hydrothermal Surface-Wave Instability and the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky Equation

We consider a system formed by an infinite viscous liquid layer with a constant horizontal temperature gradient, and a basic nonlinear bulk velocity profile. In the limit of long-wavelength and large nondimensional surface tension, we show that hydrothermal surface-wave instabilities may give rise to disturbances governed by the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation. A possible connection to hot-wire experiments is also discussed.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, no figure

Social games in a social network

We study an evolutionary version of the Prisoner's Dilemma game, played by agents placed in a small-world network. Agents are able to change their strategy, imitating that of the most successful neighbor. We observe that different topologies, ranging from regular lattices to random graphs, produce a variety of emergent behaviors. This is a contribution towards the study of social phenomena and transitions governed by the topology of the community

Zeroing in on more photons and gluons

We discuss radiation zeros that are found in gauge tree amplitudes for processes involving multi-photon emission. Previous results are clarified by examples and by further elaboration. The conditions under which such amplitude zeros occur are identical in form to those for the single-photon zeros, and all radiated photons must travel parallel to each other. Any other neutral particle likewise must be massless (e.g. gluon) and travel in that common direction. The relevance to questions like gluon jet identification and computational checks is considered. We use examples to show how certain multi-photon amplitudes evade the zeros, and to demonstrate the connection to a more general result, the decoupling of an external electromagnetic plane wave in the ``null zone". Brief comments are made about zeros associated with other gauge-boson emission.Comment: 26 page

Optical properties of tissue measured using terahertz pulsed imaging.

The first demonstrations of terahertz imaging in biomedicine were made several years ago, but few data are available on the optical properties of human tissue at terahertz frequencies. A catalogue of these properties has been established to estimate variability and determine the practicality of proposed medical applications in terms of penetration depth, image contrast and reflection at boundaries. A pulsed terahertz imaging system with a useful bandwidth 0.5-2.5 THz was used. Local ethical committee approval was obtained. Transmission measurements were made through tissue slices of thickness 0.08 to 1 mm, including tooth enamel and dentine, cortical bone, skin, adipose tissue and striated muscle. The mean and standard deviation for refractive index and linear attenuation coefficient, both broadband and as a function of frequency, were calculated. The measurements were used in simple models of the transmission, reflection and propagation of terahertz radiation in potential medical applications. Refractive indices ranged from 1.5 ± 0.5 for adipose tissue to 3.06 ± 0.09 for tooth enamel. Significant differences (P<0.05) were found between the broadband refractive indices of a number of tissues. Terahertz radiation is strongly absorbed in tissue so reflection imaging, which has lower penetration requirements than transmission, shows promise for dental or dermatological applications

Tidal influence on Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica: observations of surface flow and basal processes from closely-spaced GPS and passive seismic stations

High-resolution surface velocity measurements and passive seismic observations from Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica, 40 km upstream from the grounding line are presented. These measurements indicate a complex relationship between the ocean tides and currents, basal conditions and ice-stream flow. Both the mean basal seismicity and the velocity of the ice stream are modulated by the tides. Seismic activity increases twice during each semi-diurnal tidal cycle. The tidal analysis shows the largest velocity variation is at the fortnightly period, with smaller variations superimposed at diurnal and semi-diurnal frequencies. The general pattern of the observed velocity is two velocity peaks during each semi-diurnal tidal cycle, but sometimes three peaks are observed. This pattern of two or three peaks is more regular during spring tides, when the largest-amplitude velocity variations are observed, than during neap tides. This is the first time that velocity and level of seismicity are shown to correlate and respond to tidal forcing as far as 40 km upstream from the grounding line of a large ice stream