6,203 research outputs found
A Phase Space Approach to Gravitational Enropy
We examine the definition S = ln Omega as a candidate "gravitational entropy"
function. We calculate its behavior for gravitationl and density perturbations
in closed, open and flat cosmologies and find that in all cases it increases
monotonically. Using the formalism to calculate the gravitational entropy
produced during inflation gives the canonical answer. We compare the behavior
of S with the behavior of the square of the Weyl tensor. Applying the formalism
to black holes has proven more problematical.Comment: Talk delivered at South African Relativistic Cosmology Symposium, Feb
1999. Some new results over Rothman and Anninos 97. To appear in GRG, 17
page
"Quantum Interference with Slits" Revisited
Marcella [arXiv:quant-ph/0703126] has presented a straightforward technique
employing the Dirac formalism to calculate single- and double-slit interference
patterns. He claims that no reference is made to classical optics or scattering
theory and that his method therefore provides a purely quantum mechanical
description of these experiments. He also presents his calculation as if no
approximations are employed. We show that he implicitly makes the same
approximations found in classical treatments of interference and that no new
physics has been introduced. At the same time, some of the quantum mechanical
arguments Marcella gives are, at best, misleading.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Instability of Extremal Relativistic Charged Spheres
With the question, ``Can relativistic charged spheres form extremal black
holes?" in mind, we investigate the properties of such spheres from a classical
point of view. The investigation is carried out numerically by integrating the
Oppenheimer-Volkov equation for relativistic charged fluid spheres and finding
interior Reissner-Nordstr\"om solutions for these objects. We consider both
constant density and adiabatic equations of state, as well as several possible
charge distributions, and examine stability by both a normal mode and an energy
analysis. In all cases, the stability limit for these spheres lies between the
extremal () limit and the black hole limit (). That is, we find
that charged spheres undergo gravitational collapse before they reach ,
suggesting that extremal Reissner-Nordtr\"om black holes produced by collapse
are ruled out. A general proof of this statement would support a strong form of
the cosmic censorship hypothesis, excluding not only stable naked
singularities, but stable extremal black holes. The numerical results also
indicate that although the interior mass-energy obeys the usual stability limit for the Schwarzschild interior solution, the gravitational
mass does not. Indeed, the stability limit approaches as .
In the Appendix we also argue that Hawking radiation will not lead to an
extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole. All our results are consistent with
the third law of black hole dynamics, as currently understood
Digital health care solution for proactive heart failure management with the Cordella Heart Failure System : results of the SIRONA firstâinâhuman study
Aims
Incorporation of remote monitoring of pulmonary artery pressure and vital signs has been demonstrated to reduce heart failure (HF) hospitalization and allâcause mortality in selected symptomatic HF patients. The aim of this study is to investigate the safety and accuracy of the new CordellaTM Pulmonary Artery Pressure Sensor (Endotronix, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and the usability of the comprehensive CordellaTM Heart Failure System (CHFS).
Methods and results
Multicentre, openâlabel, firstâinâhuman, feasibility study to evaluate the CHFS and the safety and accuracy of the Cordellaâą Pulmonary Artery Pressure Sensor in 15 patients with New York Heart Association class III HF. All patients were successfully implanted with the Cordella Pulmonary Artery Pressure Sensor, without sensor failure. No device systemârelated complications, defined as invasive treatment, device explant or death, occurred. The primary efficacy endpoint of a mean pulmonary artery pressure at 90âdays was met in all but one patients with a cohort difference of 2.7âmmHg (Cordella Sensor 22.5â±â11.8âmmHg, SwanâGanz catheter 25.2â±â8.5âmmHg). One patient did not go through the 90âday right heart catheterization for safety reasons. Patient adherence to daily measurement, transmission of vital signs and pulmonary artery pressure sensor readings were recorded 99% of the time.
Conclusion
The initial experience of the CHFS incorporating comprehensive vital signs and pulmonary artery pressure monitoring enables safe and accurate monitoring of HF status
Measures of gravitational entropy I. Self-similar spacetimes
We examine the possibility that the gravitational contribution to the entropy
of a system can be identified with some measure of the Weyl curvature. In this
paper we consider homothetically self-similar spacetimes. These are believed to
play an important role in describing the asymptotic properties of more general
models. By exploiting their symmetry properties we are able to impose
significant restrictions on measures of the Weyl curvature which could reflect
the gravitational entropy of a system. In particular, we are able to show, by
way of a more general relation, that the most widely used "dimensionless"
scalar is \textit{not} a candidate for this measure along homothetic
trajectories.Comment: revtex, minor clarifications, to appear in Physical Review
Interface Roughening in a Hydrodynamic Lattice-Gas Model with Surfactant
Using a hydrodynamic lattice-gas model, we study interface growth in a binary
fluid with various concentrations of surfactant. We find that the interface is
smoothed by small concentrations of surfactant, while microemulsion droplets
form for large surfactant concentrations. To assist in determining the
stability limits of the interface, we calculate the change in the roughness and
growth exponents and as a function of surfactant concentration
along the interface.Comment: 4 pages with 4 embedded ps figures. Requires psfig.tex. Will appear
in PRL 14 Oct 199
White blood cell count and risk of incident lung cancer in the UK Biobank
Background The contribution of measurable immunological/inflammatory parameters to lung cancer development remains unclear, particularly among never-smokers. We investigated the relationship between total and differential white blood cell (WBC) counts and incident lung cancer risk overall and among subgroups defined by smoking status and sex in the United Kingdom (UK). Methods We evaluated 424,407 adults aged 37-73 years from the UK Biobank. Questionnaires, physical measurements, and blood were administered/collected at baseline in 2006-2010. Complete blood cell counts were measured using standard methods. Lung cancer diagnoses and histological classifications were obtained from cancer registries. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of incident lung cancer in relation to quartiles (Q) of total WBC and subtype-specific counts, with Q1 as the reference. Results There were 1,493 incident cases diagnosed over an average 7-year follow-up. Overall, the highest quartile of total WBC count was significantly associated with elevated lung cancer risk (HRQ4=1.67, 95% CI:1.41-1.98). Among women, increased risks were found in current-smokers (ncases/n=244/19,464, HRQ4=2.15, 95% CI:1.46-3.16), former-smokers (ncases/n=280/69,198, HRQ4=1.75, 95% CI:1.24-2.47), and never-smokers without environmental tobacco smoke exposure (ncases/n=108/111,294, HRQ4=1.93, 95% CI:1.11-3.35). Among men, stronger associations were identified in current-smokers (ncases/n=329/22,934, HRQ4=2.95, 95% CI:2.04-4.26) and former-smokers (ncases/n= 358/71,616, HRQ4=2.38, 95% CI:1.74-3.27) but not in never-smokers. Findings were similar for lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma and were driven primarily by elevated neutrophil fractions. Conclusions Elevated WBCs could potentially be one of many important markers for increased lung cancer risk, especially among never-smoking women and ever-smoking men
Holonomy invariance, orbital resonances, and kilohertz QPOs
Quantized orbital structures are typical for many aspects of classical
gravity (Newton's as well as Einstein's). The astronomical phenomenon of
orbital resonances is a well-known example. Recently, Rothman, Ellis and
Murugan (2001) discussed quantized orbital structures in the novel context of a
holonomy invariance of parallel transport in Schwarzschild geometry. We present
here yet another example of quantization of orbits, reflecting both orbital
resonances and holonomy invariance. This strong-gravity effect may already have
been directly observed as the puzzling kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations
(QPOs) in the X-ray emission from a few accreting galactic black holes and
several neutron stars
Bounds on the mass-to-radius ratio for non-compact field configurations
It is well known that a spherically symmetric compact star whose energy
density decreases monotonically possesses an upper bound on its mass-to-radius
ratio, . However, field configurations typically will not be
compact. Here we investigate non-compact static configurations whose matter
fields have a slow global spatial decay, bounded by a power law behavior. These
matter distributions have no sharp boundaries. We derive an upper bound on the
fundamental ratio max_r{2m(r)/r} which is valid throughout the bulk. In its
simplest form, the bound implies that in any region of spacetime in which the
radial pressure increases, or alternatively decreases not faster than some
power law , one has . [For
the bound degenerates to .] In its general version, the bound
is expressed in terms of two physical parameters: the spatial decaying rate of
the matter fields, and the highest occurring ratio of the trace of the pressure
tensor to the local energy density.Comment: 4 page
Shear-Induced Isotropic-to-Lamellar Transition in a Lattice-Gas Model of Ternary Amphiphilic Fluids
Although shear-induced isotropic-to-lamellar transitions in ternary systems
of oil, water and surfactant have been observed experimentally and predicted
theoretically by simple models for some time now, their numerical simulation
has not been achieved so far. In this work we demonstrate that a recently
introduced hydrodynamic lattice-gas model of amphiphilic fluids is well suited
for this purpose: the two-dimensional version of this model does indeed exhibit
a shear-induced isotropic-to-lamellar phase transition.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX with epsf and REVTeX, PostScript and EPS
illustrations included. To appear in J. Phys. Cond. Ma
- âŠ