Experience of cardiac rehabilitation after coronary artery surgery: effects on health and risk factors

Objective:Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs are provided to support the recovery process following acute myocardial infarction and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Attendance varies. We related attendance following CABG to severity of cardiac symptoms, general health status (Short Form-36) and prevalence of modifiable coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors. METHODS: 209 patients due to undergo CABG were recruited and assessed preoperatively as well as at a mean of 16.4 months postoperatively. General health status was measured using the Short Form-36 questionnaire. Severity of cardiac symptoms was assessed on a visual analogue scale. Modifiable coronary artery disease risk factors (smoking, body mass index, hypertension and elevated cholesterol) and social deprivation index were noted

Effects of Testicular and Ovarian Inhibin‐Like Activity, Using In Vitro and In Vivo Systems

Inhibin‐like activities in charcoal‐treated bovine follicular fluid (FF) and medium from cultured Sertoli cells (SCCM) were assayed in an in vitro bioassay system, using cultured pituitary cells. Addition of both fluids resulted in parallel dose‐dependent decreases of the concentration of follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH) in the medium, both in the presence or absence of luteinizing hormone‐releasing hormone (LH‐RH). A single injection of FF into immature and adult male and female rats resulted in decreased peripheral levels of FSH, but not of LH, after 4 or 8 h. This decrease was larger and occurred faster in adult female rats than in prepubertal female animals. Injection of FF into adult female rats, immediately after unilateral ovariectomy (ULO) prevented the specific increase of FSH levels, occurring in control animals. This suppression could not be obtained after treatment with steroids. Daily treatment of adult female or immature male rats for periods longer than 5 days did not result in prolonged suppression of circulating FSH concentrations; LH levels were significantly increased. The female animals showed cyclic vaginal smear changes and normal ovulation; in the male rats testis weight and numbers of spermatogenic cells were reduced. It is concluded that testicular and ovarian inhibin‐like activities have similar properties. Injections of FF into male and female rats cause similar effects on FSH and LH. The effect of FF in ULO‐animals suggests that inhibin could play a role in the short‐term regulation of the number of developing follicles in the ovary. Injection of FF into male rats causes a probably transient impairment of spermatogenesis through an initial suppression of FSH. Copyrigh

Linkage design effect on the reliability of surface-micromachined microengines driving a load

The reliability of microengines is a function of the design of the mechanical linkage used to connect the electrostatic actuator to the drive. The authors have completed a series of reliability stress tests on surface micromachined microengines driving an inertial load. In these experiments, the authors used microengines that had pin mechanisms with guides connecting the drive arms to the electrostatic actuators. Comparing this data to previous results using flexure linkages revealed that the pin linkage design was less reliable. The devices were stressed to failure at eight frequencies, both above and below the measured resonance frequency of the microengine. Significant amounts of wear debris were observed both around the hub and pin joint of the drive gear. Additionally, wear tracks were observed in the area where the moving shuttle rubbed against the guides of the pin linkage. At each frequency, they analyzed the statistical data yielding a lifetime (t{sub 50}) for median cycles to failure and {sigma}, the shape parameter of the distribution. A model was developed to describe the failure data based on fundamental wear mechanisms and forces exhibited in mechanical resonant systems. The comparison to the model will be discussed

Measurement of the 58Ni(α, γ) 62Zn reaction and its astrophysical impact

Funding Details: PHY 08-22648, NSF, National Science Foundation; PHY 0969058, NSF, National Science Foundation; PHY 1102511, NSF, National Science FoundationCross section measurements of the 58Ni(α,γ)62Zn reaction were performed in the energy range Eα=5.5to9.5 MeV at the Nuclear Science Laboratory of the University of Notre Dame, using the NSCL Summing NaI(Tl) detector and the γ-summing technique. The measurements are compared to predictions in the statistical Hauser-Feshbach model of nuclear reactions using the SMARAGD code. It is found that the energy dependence of the cross section is reproduced well but the absolute value is overestimated by the prediction. This can be remedied by rescaling the α width by a factor of 0.45. Stellar reactivities were calculated with the rescaled α width and their impact on nucleosynthesis in type Ia supernovae has been studied. It is found that the resulting abundances change by up to 5% when using the new reactivities. © 2014 American Physical Society.Peer reviewe

A small temperature rise may contribute towards the apparent induction by microwaves of heatshock gene expression in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

We have previously reported that low-intensity microwave exposure (0.75-1.0 GHz CW at 0.5 W; SAR 4-40 mW kg-1) can induce an apparently non-thermal heat-shock response in Caenorhabditis elegans worms carrying hsp16-1::reporter genes. Using matched copper TEM cells for both sham and exposed groups, we can detect only modest reporter induction in the latter (15-20% after 2.5 h at 26°C, rising to ~50% after 20 h). Traceable calibration of our copper TEM cell by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) reveals significant power loss within the cell (8.5% at 1.0 GHz), accompanied by slight heating of exposed samples (~0.3°C at 1.0 W). Thus exposed samples are in fact slightly warmer (by ≤0.2°C at 0.5 W) than sham controls. Following NPL recommendations, our TEM cell design was modified with the aim of reducing both power loss and consequent heating. In the modified silver-plated cell, power loss is only 1.5% at 1.0 GHz, and sample warming is reduced to ~ 0.15°C at 1.0 W (i.e. ≤ 0.1°C at 0.5 W). Under sham:sham conditions, there is no difference in reporter expression between the modified silverplated TEM cell and an unmodified copper cell. However, worms exposed to microwaves (1.0 GHz and 0.5 W) in the silver-plated cell also show no detectable induction of reporter expression relative to sham controls in the copper cell. Thus the 20% “microwave induction” observed using two copper cells may be caused by a small temperature difference between sham and exposed conditions. In worms incubated for 2.5 h at 26.0, 26.2 and 27.0°C (with no microwave field), there is a consistent and significant increase in reporter expression between 26.0 and 26.2°C (by ~20% in each of 6 independent runs), but paradoxically expression levels at 27.0°C are similar to those seen at 26.0°C. This surprising result is in line with other evidence pointing towards complex regulation of hsp16-1 gene expression across the sub-heat-shock range of 25-27.5°C in C. elegans. We conclude that our original interpretation of a non-thermal effect of microwaves cannot be sustained; at least part of the explanation appears to be thermal

Pressure and linear heat capacity in the superconducting state of thoriated UBe13

Even well below Tc, the heavy-fermion superconductor (U,Th)Be13 has a large linear term in its specific heat. We show that under uniaxial pressure, the linear heat capacity increases in magnitude by more than a factor of two. The change is reversible and suggests that the linear term is an intrinsic property of the material. In addition, we find no evidence of hysteresis or of latent heat in the low-temperature and low-pressure portion of the phase diagram, showing that all transitions in this region are second order.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Is null-point reconnection important for solar flux emergence?

The role of null-point reconnection in a 3D numerical MHD model of solar emerging flux is investigated. The model consists of a twisted magnetic flux tube rising through a stratified convection zone and atmosphere to interact and reconnect with a horizontal overlying magnetic field in the atmosphere. Null points appear as the reconnection begins and persist throughout the rest of the emergence, where they can be found mostly in the model photosphere and transition region, forming two loose clusters on either side of the emerging flux tube. Up to 26 nulls are present at any one time, and tracking in time shows that there is a total of 305 overall, despite the initial simplicity of the magnetic field configuration. We find evidence for the reality of the nulls in terms of their methods of creation and destruction, their balance of signs, their long lifetimes, and their geometrical stability. We then show that due to the low parallel electric fields associated with the nulls, null-point reconnection is not the main type of magnetic reconnection involved in the interaction of the newly emerged flux with the overlying field. However, the large number of nulls implies that the topological structure of the magnetic field must be very complex and the importance of reconnection along separators or separatrix surfaces for flux emergence cannot be ruled out.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures. Added one referenc

Description of inclusive scattering of 4.045 GeV electrons from D

We exploit a relationship between the Structure Functions of nucleons, the physical deuteron and of a deuteron, composed of point-nucleons to compute angular distributions of inclusive cross sections of 4.05 GeV electrons. We report general agreement with data and interpret the remaining discrepancies. We discuss the potential of the data for information on neutron structure functions $F_k^n(x,Q^2)$ and the static form factor $G_M^n(Q^2)$.Comment: 9 pages,1 Fig., PS fil

Quantum noise limited nanoparticle detection with exposed-core fiber

Label-free biosensors are important tools for clinical diagnostics and for studying biology at the single molecule level. The development of optical label-free sensors has allowed extreme sensitivity but can expose the biological sample to photodamage. Moreover, the fragility and complexity of these sensors can be prohibitive to applications. To overcome these problems, we develop a quantum noise limited exposed-core fiber sensor providing robust platform for label-free biosensing with a natural path toward microfluidic integration. We demonstrate the detection of single nanoparticles down to 25 nm in radius with optical intensities beneath known biophysical damage thresholds.Nicolas P. Mauranyapin, Lars S. Madsen, Larnii Booth, Lu Peng, Stephen C. Warren-Smith, Erik P. Schartner, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem and Warwick P. Bowe

A quantum Monte Carlo study of the one-dimensional ionic Hubbard model

Quantum Monte Carlo methods are used to study a quantum phase transition in a 1D Hubbard model with a staggered ionic potential (D). Using recently formulated methods, the electronic polarization and localization are determined directly from the correlated ground state wavefunction and compared to results of previous work using exact diagonalization and Hartree-Fock. We find that the model undergoes a thermodynamic transition from a band insulator (BI) to a broken-symmetry bond ordered (BO) phase as the ratio of U/D is increased. Since it is known that at D = 0 the usual Hubbard model is a Mott insulator (MI) with no long-range order, we have searched for a second transition to this state by (i) increasing U at fixed ionic potential (D) and (ii) decreasing D at fixed U. We find no transition from the BO to MI state, and we propose that the MI state in 1D is unstable to bond ordering under the addition of any finite ionic potential. In real 1D systems the symmetric MI phase is never stable and the transition is from a symmetric BI phase to a dimerized BO phase, with a metallic point at the transition