2,377 research outputs found
The impact of heat waves and cold spells on mortality rates in the Dutch population.
We conducted the study described in this paper to investigate the impact of ambient temperature on mortality in the Netherlands during 1979-1997, the impact of heat waves and cold spells on mortality in particular, and the possibility of any heat wave- or cold spell-induced forward displacement of mortality. We found a V-like relationship between mortality and temperature, with an optimum temperature value (e.g., average temperature with lowest mortality rate) of 16.5 degrees C for total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory mortality, and mortality among those [Greater and equal to] 65 year of age. For mortality due to malignant neoplasms and mortality in the youngest age group, the optimum temperatures were 15.5 degrees C and 14.5 degrees C, respectively. For temperatures above the optimum, mortality increased by 0.47, 1.86, 12.82, and 2.72% for malignant neoplasms, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, and total mortality, respectively, for each degree Celsius increase above the optimum in the preceding month. For temperatures below the optimum, mortality increased 0.22, 1.69, 5.15, and 1.37%, respectively, for each degree Celsius decrease below the optimum in the preceding month. Mortality increased significantly during all of the heat waves studied, and the elderly were most effected by extreme heat. The heat waves led to increases in mortality due to all of the selected causes, especially respiratory mortality. Average total excess mortality during the heat waves studied was 12.1%, or 39.8 deaths/day. The average excess mortality during the cold spells was 12.8% or 46.6 deaths/day, which was mostly attributable to the increase in cardiovascular mortality and mortality among the elderly. The results concerning the forward displacement of deaths due to heat waves were not conclusive. We found no cold-induced forward displacement of deaths
The influence of an electrostatic field on cyclotron resonance behaviour of a plasma
The theoretically predicted influence of an electrostatic field on the energy gain of electrons at e.c.r. is confirmed experimentally by measuring the loss tangent of the plasma as a function of an applied D.C. voltage. The applicability of this effect as a heating scheme is discussed in general term
Random walk approach to the d-dimensional disordered Lorentz gas
A correlated random walk approach to diffusion is applied to the disordered
nonoverlapping Lorentz gas. By invoking the Lu-Torquato theory for chord-length
distributions in random media [J. Chem. Phys. 98, 6472 (1993)], an analytic
expression for the diffusion constant in arbitrary number of dimensions d is
obtained. The result corresponds to an Enskog-like correction to the Boltzmann
prediction, being exact in the dilute limit, and better or nearly exact in
comparison to renormalized kinetic theory predictions for all allowed densities
in d=2,3. Extensive numerical simulations were also performed to elucidate the
role of the approximations involved.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Non-Mass Transfer Limited Crystal Growth
There are many different active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that have been discovered in research labs all around the world that can be used to treat and cure patients with a variety of different ailments. The challenge with these APIs in treatments is that they are not soluble in water, thus they low absorption into the blood stream (bio-availability). The key to making these APIs more bio-available is to understand how they grow as crystals and drop out of the aqueous solutions. One of the ways these APIs were made more bio-available is to render them amorphous and suspend them in an aqueous solution. After suspension in solution, the concentration of the API in the solution was measured every ten seconds while a seed crystal of the API was being rotated by a rotating disk apparatus (RDA). The data collected was then analyzed to see if at faster rotational speeds, the crystal growth rate would reach a maximum. This analysis will determine if there is a region where the drug’s growth is not limited by diffusion; it will help us with future experiments which include adding different cellulose based polymers to inhibit the integration of crystal growth molecules
On anomalous diffusion in a plasma in velocity space
The problem of anomalous diffusion in momentum space is considered for
plasma-like systems on the basis of a new collision integral, which is
appropriate for consideration of the probability transition function (PTF) with
long tails in momentum space. The generalized Fokker-Planck equation for
description of diffusion (in momentum space) of particles (ions, grains etc.)
in a stochastic system of light particles (electrons, or electrons and ions,
respectively) is applied to the evolution of the momentum particle distribution
in a plasma. In a plasma the developed approach is also applicable to the
diffusion of particles with an arbitrary mass relation, due to the small
characteristic momentum transfer. The cases of an exponentially decreasing in
momentum space (including the Boltzmann-like) kernel in the PT-function, as
well as the more general kernels, which create the anomalous diffusion in
velocity space due to the long tail in the PT-function, are considered.
Effective friction and diffusion coefficients for plasma-like systems are
found.Comment: 18 pages, no figure
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