12,439 research outputs found
The intrinsic value of HFO features as a biomarker of epileptic activity
High frequency oscillations (HFOs) are a promising biomarker of epileptic
brain tissue and activity. HFOs additionally serve as a prototypical example of
challenges in the analysis of discrete events in high-temporal resolution,
intracranial EEG data. Two primary challenges are 1) dimensionality reduction,
and 2) assessing feasibility of classification. Dimensionality reduction
assumes that the data lie on a manifold with dimension less than that of the
feature space. However, previous HFO analyses have assumed a linear manifold,
global across time, space (i.e. recording electrode/channel), and individual
patients. Instead, we assess both a) whether linear methods are appropriate and
b) the consistency of the manifold across time, space, and patients. We also
estimate bounds on the Bayes classification error to quantify the distinction
between two classes of HFOs (those occurring during seizures and those
occurring due to other processes). This analysis provides the foundation for
future clinical use of HFO features and buides the analysis for other discrete
events, such as individual action potentials or multi-unit activity.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Hadron energy response of the Iron Calorimeter detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory
The results of a Monte Carlo simulation study of the hadron energy response
for the magnetized Iron CALorimeter detector, ICAL, proposed to be located at
the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is presented. Using a GEANT4
modeling of the detector ICAL, interactions of atmospheric neutrinos with
target nuclei are simulated. The detector response to hadrons propagating
through it is investigated using the hadron hit multiplicity in the active
detector elements. The detector response to charged pions of fixed energy is
studied first, followed by the average response to the hadrons produced in
atmospheric neutrino interactions using events simulated with the NUANCE event
generator. The shape of the hit distribution is observed to fit the Vavilov
distribution, which reduces to a Gaussian at high energies. In terms of the
parameters of this distribution, we present the hadron energy resolution as a
function of hadron energy, and the calibration of hadron energy as a function
of the hit multiplicity. The energy resolution for hadrons is found to be in
the range 85% (for 1GeV) -- 36% (for 15 GeV).Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures (24 eps files
Loneliness, Depression, and Inflammation: Evidence from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis
Objective
Both objective and subjective aspects of social isolation have been associated with alterations in immune markers relevant to multiple chronic diseases among older adults. However, these associations may be confounded by health status, and it is unclear whether these social factors are associated with immune functioning among relatively healthy adults. The goal of this study was to examine the associations between perceived loneliness and circulating levels of inflammatory markers among a diverse sample of adults.
Methods
Data come from a subset of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (n = 441). Loneliness was measured by three items derived from the UCLA Loneliness Scale. The association between loneliness and C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen was assessed using multivariable linear regression analyses. Models were adjusted for demographic and health characteristics.
Results
Approximately 50% of participants reported that they hardly ever felt lonely and 17.2% felt highly lonely. Individuals who were unmarried/unpartnered or with higher depressive symptoms were more likely to report being highly lonely. There was no relationship between perceived loneliness and ln(CRP) (β = -0.051, p = 0.239) adjusting for demographic and health characteristics. Loneliness was inversely associated with ln(fibrinogen) (β = -0.091, p = 0.040), although the absolute magnitude of this relationship was small.
Conclusion
These results indicate that loneliness is not positively associated with fibrinogen or CRP among relatively healthy middle-aged adults
Bag Formation in Quantum Hall Ferromagnets
Charged skyrmions or spin-textures in the quantum Hall ferromagnet at filling
factor nu=1 are reinvestigated using the Hartree-Fock method in the lowest
Landau level approximation. It is shown that the single Slater determinant with
the minimum energy in the unit charge sector is always of the hedgehog form. It
is observed that the magnetization vector's length deviates locally from unity,
i.e. a bag is formed which accommodates the excess charge. In terms of a
gradient expansion for extended spin-textures a novel O(3) type of effective
action is presented, which takes bag formation into account.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
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