1,376 research outputs found
Characterizing Planetary Orbits and the Trajectories of Light
Exact analytic expressions for planetary orbits and light trajectories in the
Schwarzschild geometry are presented. A new parameter space is used to
characterize all possible planetary orbits. Different regions in this parameter
space can be associated with different characteristics of the orbits. The
boundaries for these regions are clearly defined. Observational data can be
directly associated with points in the regions. A possible extension of these
considerations with an additional parameter for the case of Kerr geometry is
briefly discussed.Comment: 49 pages total with 11 tables and 10 figure
Physicians' communication skills with patients and legal liability in decided medical malpractice litigation cases in Japan
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In medical malpractice litigations in recent years in Japan, it is notable that the growing number of medical litigation cases includes the issue of a doctor's explanation to the patient as a pivotal point. The objective of this study was to identify factors of physicians' communication skills with patients, as related to their legal liability, and differences in doctors' communication skills with patients by the type of medical facility.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Decisions of medical malpractice litigation cases between 1988 and 2005 in Japan, the pivotal issue of which was a physician's explanation, were analyzed in the study. The content of each decision was summarized using the study variables (information about the patient, doctor, manner of the doctor's explanation, and subsequent litigation), and a database comprising the content of each decision (<it>N </it>= 100) was constructed. In order to evaluate an association between doctors' communication skills with patients and the outcome of the litigation, the analysis was performed based on the outcome of litigation or the type of medical facility.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The ratio of acknowledged physician liability by court decision was lower in cases in which the doctor's explanation occurred before treatment or surgery (<it>p </it>= 0.013). The ratio of acknowledged physician liability by court decision was higher in cases of elective or non-urgent treatment (<it>p </it>= 0.046). The ratio of acknowledged physician liability by court decision was higher in clinics than in hospital groups (<it>p </it>= 0.036).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings are beneficial for the prevention of medical disputes and improvement of patient-physician communication.</p
Physicians' explanatory behaviours and legal liability in decided medical malpractice litigation cases in Japan
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A physician's duty to provide an adequate explanation to the patient is derived from the doctrine of informed consent and the physician's duty of disclosure. However, findings are extremely limited with respect to physicians' specific explanatory behaviours and what might be regarded as a breach of the physicians' duty to explain in an actual medical setting. This study sought to identify physicians' explanatory behaviours that may be related to the physicians' legal liability.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analysed legal decisions of medical malpractice cases between 1990 and 2009 in which the pivotal issue was the physician's duty to explain (366 cases). To identify factors related to the breach of the physician's duty to explain, an analysis was undertaken based on acknowledged breaches with regard to the physician's duty to explain to the patient according to court decisions. Additionally, to identify predictors of physicians' behaviours in breach of the duty to explain, logistic regression analysis was performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When the physician's explanation was given before treatment or surgery (<it>p </it>= 0.006), when it was relevant or specific (<it>p </it>= 0.000), and when the patient's consent was obtained (<it>p </it>= 0.002), the explanation was less likely to be deemed inadequate or a breach of the physician's duty to explain. Patient factors related to physicians' legally problematic explanations were patient age and gender. One physician factor was related to legally problematic physician explanations, namely the number of physicians involved in the patient's treatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings may be useful in improving physician-patient communication in the medical setting.</p
Orbits in the Field of a Gravitating Magnetic Monopole
Orbits of test particles and light rays are an important tool to study the
properties of space-time metrics. Here we systematically study the properties
of the gravitational field of a globally regular magnetic monopole in terms of
the geodesics of test particles and light. The gravitational field depends on
two dimensionless parameters, defined as ratios of the characteristic mass
scales present. For critical values of these parameters the resulting metric
coefficients develop a singular behavior, which has profound influence on the
properties of the resulting space-time and which is clearly reflected in the
orbits of the test particles and light rays.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in GR
Characterization of metal-insulator-semicomductor capacitors with insulating nitride films grown on 4H-SiC
ArticleJAPANESE JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS. 47(1):676-678(2008)journal articl
Performance of the neutron polarimeter NPOL3 for high resolution measurements
We describe the neutron polarimeter NPOL3 for the measurement of polarization
transfer observables with a typical high resolution of 300 keV
at 200 MeV.
The NPOL3 system consists of three planes of neutron detectors.
The first two planes for neutron polarization analysis are made of 20 sets of
one-dimensional position-sensitive plastic scintillation counters with a size
of 100 cm 10 cm 5 cm, and they cover the area of 100
100 .
The last plane for detecting doubly scattered neutrons or recoiled protons is
made of the two-dimensional position-sensitive liquid scintillation counter
with a size of 100 cm 100 cm 10 cm.
The effective analyzing powers and double scattering
efficiencies were measured by using the three kinds
of polarized neutrons from the , , and reactions at = 198 MeV.
The performance of NPOL3 defined as
are similar to that of the
Indiana Neutron POLarimeter (INPOL) by taking into account for the counter
configuration difference between these two neutron polarimeters.Comment: 28 pages, 18 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res.
Energy Spectra of the Soft X-ray Diffuse Emission in Fourteen Fields Observed with Suzaku
The soft diffuse X-ray emission of twelve fields observed with Suzaku are
presented together with two additional fields from previous analyses. All have
galactic longitudes 65 deg < l < 295 deg to avoid contributions from the very
bright diffuse source that extends at least 30 deg from the Galactic center.
The surface brightnesses of the Suzaku nine fields for which apparently
uncontaminated ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) were available were statistically
consistent with the RASS values, with an upper limit for differences of 17 x
10^{-6} c s^{-1} amin^{-2} in R45}-band. The Ovii and Oviii intensities are
well correlated to each other, and Ovii emission shows an intensity floor at ~2
photons s^{-1} cm^{-2 str^{-1} (LU). The high-latitude Oviii emission shows a
tight correlation with excess of Ovii emission above the floor, with (Oviii
intensity) = 0.5 x [(Ovii intensity) -2 LU], suggesting that temperatures
averaged over different line-of-sight show a narrow distribution around ~0.2
keV. We consider that the offset intensity of Ovii arises from the Heliospheric
solar wind charge exchange and perhaps from the local hot bubble, and that the
excess Ovii (2-7 LU) is emission from more distant parts of the Galaxy. The
total bolometric luminosity of this galactic emission is estimated to be 4 x
10^{39} erg s^{-1}, and its characteristic temperature may be related to the
virial temperature of the Galaxy.Comment: 22 Pages, 8 figures, to appear in PASJ (Vol.61 No.4
X-ray and UV spectroscopy of Galactic diffuse hot gas along the LMC X--3 sight line
We present Suzaku spectra of X-ray emission in the fields just off the LMC
X-3 sight line. OVII, OVIII, and NeIX emission lines are clearly detected,
suggesting the presence of an optically thin thermal plasma with an average
temperature of 2.4E6. This temperature is significantly higher than that
inferred from existing X-ray absorption line data obtained with Chandra grating
observations of LMC X-3, strongly suggesting that the gas is not isothermal. We
then jointly analyze these data to characterize the spatial and temperature
distributions of the gas. Assuming a vertical exponential Galactic disk model,
we estimate the gas temperature and density at the Galactic plane and their
scale heights as 3.6(2.9, 4.7)E6 K and 1.4(0.3, 3.4)E-3 cm^{-3} and 1.4(0.2,
5.2) kpc and kpc, respectively. This characterization can
account for all the \ovi line absorption, as observed in a FUSE spectrum of LMC
X-3, but only predicts less than one tenth of the OVI line emission intensity
typically detected at high Galactic latitudes. The bulk of the OVI emission
most likely arises at interfaces between cool and hot gases.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ, 200
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