331 research outputs found
A Generalization of Martin's Axiom
We define the chain condition. The corresponding forcing axiom
is a generalization of Martin's Axiom and implies certain uniform failures of
club--guessing on that don't seem to have been considered in the
literature before.Comment: 36 page
Outcomes of haematology/oncology patients admitted to intensive care unit at The Canberra Hospital
BACKGROUND: Outcomes for haematology/oncology patients have improved; however, determining their suitability for intensive care unit (ICU) admission remains challenging and controversial. AIM: Examine outcomes of patients admitted to an Australian tertiary hospital ICU and explore potential prognostic factors. METHODS: A retrospective review of patients with haematological and solid tumour malignancies non-electively admitted to The Canberra Hospital (TCH) ICU, between January 2008 and December 2012. Patient demographics, cancer details, reasons for ICU admission and Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores were collected, and survival rates calculated and correlated with potential prognostic factors. RESULTS Of 205 patients, 113 (55%) had haematological malignancies, and 92 (45%) had solid tumours: 58% male and mean age 60.3 years (standard deviation (SD) 13.4). Eighty-two per cent of solid tumour patients had metastatic disease and 55% received palliative chemotherapy. Primary reasons for ICU admission included sepsis (59%), respiratory distress (37%) and hypotension/shock (18%). Mean APACHE II score was 20.1(SD 0.55); mean length of stay in ICU, 4 days (SD 5.2); ICU survival was 76% with 62% and 41% alive at 30 days and 6 months respectively. Overall 1-year survival was 36%. High APACHE II scores and ≥2 organs failing were significant risk factors for 30-day mortality. CONCLUSION: Short-term outcomes were similar to contemporary studies from a general tertiary hospital setting and better than historical data. Sixty-two per cent of patients were alive 30 days post-ICU admission, with a significant minority alive at 12 months, confirming some patients achieved worthwhile outcomes. Further research is needed to ensure appropriate patient selection and to explore quality of life post ICU
The relationship of femoral neck shaft angle and adiposity to greater trochanteric pain syndrome in women. A case control morphology and anthropometric study
OBJECTIVE To evaluate if pelvic or hip width predisposed women to developing greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS). DESIGN Prospective case control study. PARTICIPANTS Four groups were included in the study: those gluteal tendon reconstructions (n=31, GTR), those with conservatively managed GTPS (n=29), those with hip osteoarthritis (n=20, OA) and 22 asymptomatic participants (ASC). METHODS Anterior-posterior pelvic x-rays were evaluated for femoral neck shaft angle; acetabular index, and width at the lateral acetabulum, and the superior and lateral aspects of the greater trochanter. Body mass index, and waist, hip and greater trochanter girth were measured. Data were analysed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA; posthoc Scheffe analysis), then multivariate analysis. RESULTS The GTR group had a lower femoral neck shaft angle than the other groups (p=0.007). The OR (95% CI) of having a neck shaft angle of less than 134°, relative to the ASC group: GTR=3.33 (1.26 to 8.85); GTPS=1.4 (0.52 to 3.75); OA=0.85 (0.28 to 2.61). The OR of GTR relative to GTPS was 2.4 (1.01 to 5.6). No group difference was found for acetabular or greater trochanter width. Greater trochanter girth produced the only anthropometric group difference (mean (95% CI) in cm) GTR=103.8 (100.3 to 107.3), GTPS=105.9 (100.2 to 111.6), OA=100.3 (97.7 to 103.9), ASC=99.1 (94.7 to 103.5), (ANOVA: p=0.036). Multivariate analysis confirmed adiposity is associated with GTPS. CONCLUSION A lower neck shaft angle is a risk factor for, and adiposity is associated with, GTPS in women
Gorenstein homological algebra and universal coefficient theorems
We study criteria for a ring—or more generally, for a small category—to be Gorenstein and for a module over it to be of finite projective dimension. The goal is to unify the universal coefficient theorems found in the literature and to develop machinery for proving new ones. Among the universal coefficient theorems covered by our methods we find, besides all the classic examples, several exotic examples arising from the KK-theory of C*-algebras and also Neeman’s Brown–Adams representability theorem for compactly generated categories
Localisation and colocalisation of KK-theory at sets of primes
Given a set of prime numbers S, we localise equivariant bivariant Kasparov
theory at S and compare this localisation with Kasparov theory by an exact
sequence. More precisely, we define the localisation at S to be KK^G(A,B)
tensored with the ring of S-integers Z[S^-1]. We study the properties of the
resulting variants of Kasparov theory.Comment: 16 page
Development and validation of a VISA tendinopathy questionnaire for greater trochanteric pain syndrome, the VISA-G
BACKGROUND Greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS) is common, resulting in significant pain and disability. There is no condition specific outcome score to evaluate the degree of severity of disability associated with GTPS in patients with this condition. OBJECTIVE To develop a reliable and valid outcome measurement capable of evaluating the severity of disability associated with GTPS. METHODS A phenomenological framework using in-depth semi structured interviews of patients and medical experts, and focus groups of physiotherapists was used in the item generation. Item and format clarification was undertaken via piloting. Multivariate analysis provided the basis for item reduction. The resultant VISA-G was tested for reliability with the inter class co-efficient (ICC), internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha), and construct validity (correlation co-efficient) on 52 naĂŻve participants with GTPS and 31 asymptomatic participants. RESULTS The resultant outcome measurement tool is consistent in style with existing tendinopathy outcome measurement tools, namely the suite of VISA scores. The VISA-G was found to be have a test-retest reliability of ICC2,1 (95% CI) of 0.827 (0.638-0.923). Internal consistency was high with a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.809. Construct validity was demonstrated: the VISA-G measures different constructs than tools previously used in assessing GTPS, the Harris Hip Score and the Oswestry Disability Index (Spearman Rho:0.020 and 0.0205 respectively). The VISA-G did not demonstrate any floor or ceiling effect in symptomatic participants. CONCLUSION The VISA-G is a reliable and valid score for measuring the severity of disability associated GTPS.The study was funded through the Australian National University,
Monash University and LaTrobe University.
Prof Cook was supported by the Australian Centre for Research
into Sports Injury and its Prevention, which is one of the International
Research Centres for Prevention of Injury and Protection of
Athlete Health supported by the International Olympic Committee
(IOC).
Prof Cook is a NHMRC practitioner fellow (ID 1058493)
Renal safety of zoledronic acid with thalidomide in patients with myeloma: a pharmacokinetic and safety sub-study
BACKGROUND: Cases of impaired renal function have been reported in patients who had been treated with both zoledronic acid and thalidomide for myeloma. Hence, we conducted a safety study of zoledronic acid and thalidomide in myeloma patients participating in a trial of maintenance therapy. METHODS: Twenty-four patients who were enrolled in a large randomized trial of thalidomide vs no thalidomide maintenance therapy for myeloma, in which all patients also received zoledronic acid, were recruited to a pharmacokinetic and renal safety sub-study, and followed for up to 16 months. RESULTS: No significant differences by Wilcoxon rank-sum statistic were found in zoledronic acid pharmacokinetics or renal safety for up to 16 months in patients randomized to thalidomide or not. CONCLUSION: In myeloma patients receiving maintenance therapy, the combination of zoledronic acid and thalidomide appears to confer no additional renal safety risks over zoledronic acid alone
Superfield T-duality rules
A geometric treatment of T-duality as an operation which acts on differential
forms in superspace allows us to derive the complete set of T-duality
transformation rules which relate the superfield potentials of D=10 type IIA
supergravity with those of type IIB supergravity including Ramond-Ramond
superfield potentials and fermionic supervielbeins. We show that these rules
are consistent with the superspace supergravity constraints.Comment: 24 pages, latex, no figures. V2 misprints corrected. V3. One
reference ([30]) and a comment on it ('Notice added') on p. 19 adde
Lorentz harmonics and superfield action. D=10, N=1 superstring
We propose a new version of the superfield action for a closed D=10, N=1
superstring where the Lorentz harmonics are used as auxiliary superfields. The
incorporation of Lorentz harmonics into the superfield action makes possible to
obtain superfield constraints of the induced worldsheet supergravity as
equations of motion. Moreover, it becomes evident that a so-called 'Wess-Zumino
part' of the superfield action is basically a Lagrangian form of the
generalized action principle. We propose to use the second Noether theorem to
handle the essential terms in the transformation lows of hidden gauge
symmetries, which remove dynamical degrees of freedom from the Lagrange
multiplier superfield.Comment: 23 pages, latex, no figures. V.2, minor corrections, a reference
adde
Quiver GIT for varieties with tilting bundles
In the setting of a variety X admitting a tilting bundle T we consider the problem of constructing X as a quiver GIT quotient of the algebra A:=EndX(T)opA:=EndX(T)op . We prove that if the tilting equivalence restricts to a bijection between the skyscraper sheaves of X and the closed points of a quiver representation moduli functor for A=EndX(T)opA=EndX(T)op then X is indeed a fine moduli space for this moduli functor, and we prove this result without any assumptions on the singularities of X. As an application we consider varieties which are projective over an affine base such that the fibres are of dimension 1, and the derived pushforward of the structure sheaf on X is the structure sheaf on the base. In this situation there is a particular tilting bundle on X constructed by Van den Bergh, and our result allows us to reconstruct X as a quiver GIT quotient for an easy to describe stability condition and dimension vector. This result applies to flips and flops in the minimal model program, and in the situation of flops shows that both a variety and its flop appear as moduli spaces for algebras produced from different tilting bundles on the variety. We also give an application to rational surface singularities, showing that their minimal resolutions can always be constructed as quiver GIT quotients for specific dimension vectors and stability conditions. This gives a construction of minimal resolutions as moduli spaces for all rational surface singularities, generalising the G-Hilbert scheme moduli space construction which exists only for quotient singularities
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