3,759 research outputs found
Lumbar puncture for the generalist
The safe and successful performance of a lumbar puncture demands a working and yet specific knowledge as well as competency in performance. This review aims to aid understanding of the knowledge framework, the pitfalls and complications of lumbar puncture. It includes special reference to three dimensional relationships, functional anatomy, imaging anatomy, normal variation and living anatomy. A lumbar puncture is a commonly performed procedure for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Epidural and spinal anaesthesia, for example, are common in obstetric practice and involve the same technique as a lumbar puncture except for the endpoint of the needle being in the epidural space and subarachnoid space respectively. The procedure is by no means innocuous and some anatomical pitfalls include inability to find the correct entry site for placement of the lumbar puncture needle and lack of awareness of structures in relation to the advancing needle. Headache is the most common complication and it is important to avoid traumatic and dry taps, herniation syndromes and injury to the terminal end of the spinal cord. With a thorough knowledge of the contraindications, the regional anatomy and rationale of the technique and adequate prior skills practice, a lumbar puncture can be performed safely and successfully
Doing the Work of Medicine? Medical Television Programmes and Patient Behaviour
This article explores the contribution of television programmes to shaping
the doctor-patient relationship in Britain in the Sixties and beyond. Our core
proposition is that TV programmes on medicine ascribe a specifi c position
as patients to viewers. This is what we call the âInscribed Patientâ. In this article we discuss a number of BBC programmes centred on medicine, from the
1958 âOn Call to a Nationâ; to the 1985 âA Prize Discoveryâ, to examine how
television accompanied the development of desired patient behaviour during
the transition to what was dubbed âModern Medicineâ in early 1970s Britain. To support our argument about the âInscribed Patientâ, we draw a comparison with natural history programmes from the early 1960s, which similarly prescribed specifi c agencies to viewers as potential participants in wildlife fi lmmaking. We conclude that a âpatient positionâ is inscribed in
biomedical television programmes, which advance propositions to laypeople
about how to submit themselves to medical expertise.
Inscribed patient; doctor-patient relationship; biomedical television programmes; wildlife television; documentary television; BBC Horizo
Dynamic correlations in stochastic rotation dynamics
The dynamic structure factor, vorticity and entropy density dynamic
correlation functions are measured for Stochastic Rotation Dynamics (SRD), a
particle based algorithm for fluctuating fluids. This allows us to obtain
unbiased values for the longitudinal transport coefficients such as thermal
diffusivity and bulk viscosity. The results are in good agreement with earlier
numerical and theoretical results, and it is shown for the first time that the
bulk viscosity is indeed zero for this algorithm. In addition, corrections to
the self-diffusion coefficient and shear viscosity arising from the breakdown
of the molecular chaos approximation at small mean free paths are analyzed. In
addition to deriving the form of the leading correlation corrections to these
transport coefficients, the probabilities that two and three particles remain
collision partners for consecutive time steps are derived analytically in the
limit of small mean free path. The results of this paper verify that we have an
excellent understanding of the SRD algorithm at the kinetic level and that
analytic expressions for the transport coefficients derived elsewhere do indeed
provide a very accurate description of the SRD fluid.Comment: 33 pages including 16 figure
Science and Film-making
The essay reviews the literature, mostly historical, on the relationship between science and film-making, with a focus on the science documentary. It then discusses the circumstances of the emergence of the wildlife making-of documentary genre. The thesis examined here is that since the early days of cinema, film-making has evolved from being subordinate to science, to being an equal partner in the production of knowledge, controlled by non-scientists
Breakdown of Hydrodynamic Transport Theory in the Ordered Phase of Helimagnets
It is shown that strong fluctuations preclude a hydrodynamic description of
transport phenomena in helimagnets, such as MnSi, at T>0. This breakdown of
hydrodynamics is analogous to the one in chiral liquid crystals. Mode-mode
coupling effects lead to infinite renormalizations of various transport
coefficients, and the actual macroscopic description is nonlocal. At T=0 these
effects are weakened due to the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, and the
renormalizations remain finite. Observable consequences of these results, as
manifested in the neutron scattering cross-section, are discussedComment: 4pp., 1 eps figur
Escort mean values and the characterization of power-law-decaying probability densities
Escort mean values (or -moments) constitute useful theoretical tools for
describing basic features of some probability densities such as those which
asymptotically decay like {\it power laws}. They naturally appear in the study
of many complex dynamical systems, particularly those obeying nonextensive
statistical mechanics, a current generalization of the Boltzmann-Gibbs theory.
They recover standard mean values (or moments) for . Here we discuss the
characterization of a (non-negative) probability density by a suitable set of
all its escort mean values together with the set of all associated normalizing
quantities, provided that all of them converge. This opens the door to a
natural extension of the well known characterization, for the instance,
of a distribution in terms of the standard moments, provided that {\it all} of
them have {\it finite} values. This question would be specially relevant in
connection with probability densities having {\it divergent} values for all
nonvanishing standard moments higher than a given one (e.g., probability
densities asymptotically decaying as power-laws), for which the standard
approach is not applicable. The Cauchy-Lorentz distribution, whose second and
higher even order moments diverge, constitutes a simple illustration of the
interest of this investigation. In this context, we also address some
mathematical subtleties with the aim of clarifying some aspects of an
interesting non-linear generalization of the Fourier Transform, namely, the
so-called -Fourier Transform.Comment: 20 pages (2 Appendices have been added
Reply to the Comment by B. Andresen
All the comments made by Andresen's comments are replied and are shown not to
be pertinent. The original discussions [ABE S., Europhys. Lett. 90 (2010)
50004] about the absence of nonextensive statistical mechanics with q-entropies
for classical continuous systems are reinforced.Comment: 5 pages. This is Reply to B. Andresen's Comment on the paper entitled
"Essential discreteness in generalized thermostatistics with non-logarithmic
entropy", Europhys. Lett. 90 (2010) 5000
Collective dynamics of liquid aluminum probed by Inelastic X-ray Scattering
An inelastic X-ray scattering experiment has been performed in liquid
aluminum with the purpose of studying the collective excitations at wavevectors
below the first sharp diffraction peak. The high instrumental resolution (up to
1.5 meV) allows an accurate investigation of the dynamical processes in this
liquid metal on the basis of a generalized hydrodynamics framework. The
outcoming results confirm the presence of a viscosity relaxation scenario ruled
by a two timescale mechanism, as recently found in liquid lithium.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Methodological issues in testing the marginal productivity theory
Previous tests of the marginal productivity theory have been criticized on several grounds reviewed by the authors. One important deficiency has been the small number of factor inputs entered in the production functions. In 1978 Gottschalk suggested a method to estimate production functions with many inputs by assuming that the production process can be split into subprocesses. This reduces the probability of multicollinearity. The authors show that the method depends on an additional assumption. Tinbergen has developed a method for avoiding this assumption. Its application to American cross-section (state) data did not alter the estimated coefficients greatly
The origins and practice of science on British television
Television has become prominent as a medium at the same time as science and technology were becoming the major factors influencing public life in Britain. This chapter examines what science on television meant for several group of historical actors, viewers, scientists, broadcasters, and producers. It draws insights from the study of the history of the BBC Horizon series, and put it in contrast with the special case of natural history television. This chapterâs content is influenced by the rudimentary state of scholarship on the topic. And it calls for more research to be done on the history of British television science
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