593 research outputs found
Development of an international standard set of outcome measures for patients with atrial fibrillation: a report of the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) atrial fibrillation working group.
AIMS: As health systems around the world increasingly look to measure and improve the value of care that they provide to patients, being able to measure the outcomes that matter most to patients is vital. To support the shift towards value-based health care in atrial fibrillation (AF), the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) assembled an international Working Group (WG) of 30 volunteers, including health professionals and patient representatives to develop a standardized minimum set of outcomes for benchmarking care delivery in clinical settings. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using an online-modified Delphi process, outcomes important to patients and health professionals were selected and categorized into (i) long-term consequences of disease outcomes, (ii) complications of treatment outcomes, and (iii) patient-reported outcomes. The WG identified demographic and clinical variables for use as case-mix risk adjusters. These included baseline demographics, comorbidities, cognitive function, date of diagnosis, disease duration, medications prescribed and AF procedures, as well as smoking, body mass index (BMI), alcohol intake, and physical activity. Where appropriate, and for ease of implementation, standardization of outcomes and case-mix variables was achieved using ICD codes. The standard set underwent an open review process in which over 80% of patients surveyed agreed with the outcomes captured by the standard set. CONCLUSION: Implementation of these consensus recommendations could help institutions to monitor, compare and improve the quality and delivery of chronic AF care. Their consistent definition and collection, using ICD codes where applicable, could also broaden the implementation of more patient-centric clinical outcomes research in AF
Renaissance of the ~1 TeV Fixed-Target Program
This document describes the physics potential of a new fixed-target program
based on a ~1 TeV proton source. Two proton sources are potentially available
in the future: the existing Tevatron at Fermilab, which can provide 800 GeV
protons for fixed-target physics, and a possible upgrade to the SPS at CERN,
called SPS+, which would produce 1 TeV protons on target. In this paper we use
an example Tevatron fixed-target program to illustrate the high discovery
potential possible in the charm and neutrino sectors. We highlight examples
which are either unique to the program or difficult to accomplish at other
venues.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure
Shadowing in neutrino deep inelastic scattering and the determination of the strange quark distribution
We discuss shadowing corrections to the structure function in neutrino
deep-inelastic scattering on heavy nuclear targets. In particular, we examine
the role played by shadowing in the comparison of the structure functions
measured in neutrino and muon deep inelastic scattering. The importance of
shadowing corrections in the determination of the strange quark distributions
is explained.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure
Nuclear Structure Functions in the Large x Large Q^2 Kinematic Region in Neutrino Deep Inelastic Scattering
Data from the CCFR E770 Neutrino Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) experiment
at Fermilab contain events with large Bjorken x (x>0.7) and high momentum
transfer (Q^2>50 (GeV/c)^2). A comparison of the data with a model based on no
nuclear effects at large x, shows a significant excess of events in the data.
Addition of Fermi gas motion of the nucleons in the nucleus to the model does
not explain the excess. Adding a higher momentum tail due to the formation of
``quasi-deuterons'' makes some improvement. An exponentially falling F_2
\propto e^-s(x-x_0) at large x, predicted by ``multi-quark clusters'' and
``few-nucleon correlations'', can describe the data. A value of s=8.3 \pm
0.7(stat.)\pm 0.7(sys.) yields the best agreement with the data.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Sibmitted to PR
A measurement of from the Gross-Llewellyn Smith Sum Rule
We extract a set of values for the Gross-Llewellyn Smith sum rule at
different values of 4-momentum transfer squared (), by combining revised
CCFR neutrino data with data from other neutrino deep-inelastic scattering
experiments for . A comparison with the order
theoretical predictions yields a determination of
at the scale of the Z-boson mass of . This measurement
provides a new and useful test of perturbative QCD at low , because of the
low uncertainties in the higher order calculations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Determination of the Strange Quark Content of the Nucleon from a Next-to-Leading-Order QCD Analysis of Neutrino Charm Production
We present the first next-to-leading-order QCD analysis of neutrino charm
production, using a sample of 6090 - and -induced
opposite-sign dimuon events observed in the CCFR detector at the Fermilab
Tevatron. We find that the nucleon strange quark content is suppressed with
respect to the non-strange sea quarks by a factor \kappa = 0.477 \:
^{+\:0.063}_{-\:0.053}, where the error includes statistical, systematic and
QCD scale uncertainties. In contrast to previous leading order analyses, we
find that the strange sea -dependence is similar to that of the non-strange
sea, and that the measured charm quark mass, , is larger and consistent with that determined in other processes.
Further analysis finds that the difference in -distributions between
and is small. A measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa
matrix element is also presented.
uufile containing compressed postscript files of five Figures is appended at
the end of the LaTeX source.Comment: Nevis R#150
Classical wave experiments on chaotic scattering
We review recent research on the transport properties of classical waves
through chaotic systems with special emphasis on microwaves and sound waves.
Inasmuch as these experiments use antennas or transducers to couple waves into
or out of the systems, scattering theory has to be applied for a quantitative
interpretation of the measurements. Most experiments concentrate on tests of
predictions from random matrix theory and the random plane wave approximation.
In all studied examples a quantitative agreement between experiment and theory
is achieved. To this end it is necessary, however, to take absorption and
imperfect coupling into account, concepts that were ignored in most previous
theoretical investigations. Classical phase space signatures of scattering are
being examined in a small number of experiments.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures; invited review for the Special Issue of J.
Phys. A: Math. Gen. on "Trends in Quantum Chaotic Scattering
A High Statistics Search for Electron-Neutrino --> Tau-Neutrino Oscillations
We present new limits on nu_e to nu_tau and nu_e to nu_sterile oscillations
by searching for electron neutrino dissappearance in the high-energy wide-band
CCFR neutrino beam. Sensitivity to nu_tau appearance comes from tau decay modes
in which a large fraction of the energy deposited is electromagnetic. The beam
is composed primarily of muon neutrinos but this analysis uses the 2.3%
electron neutrino component of the beam. Electron neutrino energies range from
30 to 600 GeV and flight lengths vary from 0.9 to 1.4 km. This limit improves
the sensitivity of existing limits and obtains a lowest 90% confidence upper
limit in sin**2(2*alpha) of 9.9 x 10**(-2) at delta-m**2 of 125 eV**2.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. D. Rapid Com
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