1,067 research outputs found
The association between gender and priority of admission in Florida stroke patients
Introduction/Objective: Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States and results in significant morbidity and mortality annually. Its wide prevalence and critical nature make it essential to recognize and properly triage patients with symptoms of stroke so that appropriate time-sensitive interventions may be delivered. Many studies have delineated gender differences in risk, diagnosis and treatment of stroke; however, limited information exists on the association between gender and Emergency Department (ED) triage priority. The objective of this study is to determine if there is a gender difference in the assignation of an emergency priority of admission code among Florida stroke patients. Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was performed through secondary analysis of the Florida Stroke Registry, composed of hospital discharge data collected by the Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) on Florida stroke patients from 2012. A descriptive analysis was utilized to profile the study population, calculating measures of centrality and dispersion of demographic variables. We tested associations of our bivariate analysis using chi-square tests, then performed a multivariate analysis using logistic regression to control for confounders. Odds ratios were used to measure associations. Results: Women were 24% more likely to receive an emergency priority of admission code than men. Following adjustment and stratification by primary stroke center designation, it was determined that women remained more likely to receive a priority code of admission than males. This occurred at a higher rate in primary stroke centers (35% more) than in non-certified hospitals (11% more). Independently, the other factors included in the adjusted analysis (age, race, payer, source of admission, day of the week, and stroke center designation) also held statistically significant associations with emergency priority triage. Conclusions: Gender disparity does exist among Florida stroke patient triage and more research should be conducted concerning the factors influencing the assignation of an emergency priority code. Emergency department care providers may need more gender specific protocols on stroke triage and additional training in recognizing gender specific symptoms. Additional studies need to be conducted in order to identify if gender disparities exist in other links of the stroke chain of survival
Hierarchical Structure of Azbel-Hofstader Problem: Strings and loose ends of Bethe Ansatz
We present numerical evidence that solutions of the Bethe Ansatz equations
for a Bloch particle in an incommensurate magnetic field (Azbel-Hofstadter or
AH model), consist of complexes-"strings". String solutions are well-known from
integrable field theories. They become asymptotically exact in the
thermodynamic limit. The string solutions for the AH model are exact in the
incommensurate limit, where the flux through the unit cell is an irrational
number in units of the elementary flux quantum.
We introduce the notion of the integral spectral flow and conjecture a
hierarchical tree for the problem. The hierarchical tree describes the topology
of the singular continuous spectrum of the problem. We show that the string
content of a state is determined uniquely by the rate of the spectral flow
(Hall conductance) along the tree. We identify the Hall conductances with the
set of Takahashi-Suzuki numbers (the set of dimensions of the irreducible
representations of with definite parity).
In this paper we consider the approximation of noninteracting strings. It
provides the gap distribution function, the mean scaling dimension for the
bandwidths and gives a very good approximation for some wave functions which
even captures their multifractal properties. However, it misses the
multifractal character of the spectrum.Comment: revtex, 30 pages, 6 Figs, 8 postscript files are enclosed, important
references are adde
Momentum transfer using chirped standing wave fields: Bragg scattering
We consider momentum transfer using frequency-chirped standing wave fields.
Novel atom-beam splitter and mirror schemes based on Bragg scattering are
presented. It is shown that a predetermined number of photon momenta can be
transferred to the atoms in a single interaction zone.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
The angular distribution of the reaction
The reaction is very important for low-energy
( MeV) antineutrino experiments. In this paper we calculate
the positron angular distribution, which at low energies is slightly backward.
We show that weak magnetism and recoil corrections have a large effect on the
angular distribution, making it isotropic at about 15 MeV and slightly forward
at higher energies. We also show that the behavior of the cross section and the
angular distribution can be well-understood analytically for MeV by calculating to , where is the nucleon mass. The
correct angular distribution is useful for separating events from other reactions and detector backgrounds, as well as for
possible localization of the source (e.g., a supernova) direction. We comment
on how similar corrections appear for the lepton angular distributions in the
deuteron breakup reactions and . Finally, in the reaction , the
angular distribution of the outgoing neutrons is strongly forward-peaked,
leading to a measurable separation in positron and neutron detection points,
also potentially useful for rejecting backgrounds or locating the source
direction.Comment: 10 pages, including 5 figure
Probing the energy bands of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice
We simulate three experimental methods which could be realized in the
laboratory to probe the band excitation energies and the momentum distribution
of a Bose-Einstein condensate inside an optical lattice. The values of the
excitation energies obtained in these different methods agree within the
accuracy of the simulation. The meaning of the results in terms of density and
phase deformations is tested by studying the relaxation of a phase-modulated
condensate towards the ground state.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
The risk of cardiac failure following metal-on-metal hip arthroplasty
Aims
The aim of this study was to determine whether patients with metal-on-metal (MoM)
arthroplasties of the hip have an increased risk of cardiac failure compared with those with
alternative types of arthroplasties (non-MoM).
Patients and Methods
A linkage study between the National Joint Registry, Hospital Episodes Statistics and records
of the Office for National Statistics on deaths was undertaken. Patients who underwent
elective total hip arthroplasty between January 2003 and December 2014 with no past history
of cardiac failure were included and stratified as having either a MoM (n = 53 529) or a nonMoM
(n = 482 247) arthroplasty. The primary outcome measure was the time to an
admission to hospital for cardiac failure or death. Analysis was carried out using data from
all patients and from those matched by propensity score.
Results
The risk of cardiac failure was lower in the MoM cohort compared with the non-MoM cohort
(adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 0.901; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.853 to 0.953). The risk of
cardiac failure was similar following matching (aHR 0.909; 95% CI 0.838 to 0.987) and the
findings were consistent in subgroup analysis.
Conclusion
The risk of cardiac failure following total hip arthroplasty was not increased in those in
whom MoM implants were used, compared with those in whom other types of prostheses
were used, in the first seven years after surgery.
Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2018;100-B:20–
A microflow cytometer for microsphere-based immunoassays using integrated optics and inertial particle focussing
We present work towards a microflow cytometer for performing multiplex immunoassays using commercially available fluorescently-labelled microspheres. The device consists of a silica chip with integrated GeO2:SiO2 channel waveguides which deliver excitation light orthogonally to an etched flow channel [1], [2]. The rectangular cross section, 2:1 aspect ratio flow channel and flow rate create an inertial focussing effect on the microspheres [3] which ensures they flow through the plane of maximum optical excitation, halfway up the height of the channel, with minimal positional variation. The optical waveguide core is fabricated by magnetron sputtering of GeO2:SiO2 films which are then etched to form channel waveguides by ICP etching. The silica cladding, up to 13.5 µm thick, is deposited by either flame hydrolysis deposition or a combination of magnetron sputtering followed by PECVD. Fluidic channels are etched with ICP etching. Channels with the dimensions of 14.1 µm x 27.5 µm and near vertical sidewalls (91°±4°) have been produced in silica as shown in the cross section in Figure 1A. Figure 1B shows a device with the fluidic channel etched through waveguides clad with PECVD silica. Design parameters were established with PDMS test channels 25.5 µm deep by 12.2 µm wide. Figures 2A and 2B show transmission fluorescence imaging of streaks from multiple 5.6µm diameter microspheres flowing at 0.49 m/s down the fluidic channel. The microspheres are shown to be focused into a tight stream at 15 mm from the channel entrance in Figure 2C, indicating the minimum channel length required for the final devices. Future work will include dual channel quantification of microsphere fluorescence and development of an assay for TNFalpha and later multiplex measurements. Collection of fluorescence with channel waveguides and also characterisation of transmission measurements from flowing microspheres will also be studied
Piecewise Approximate Bayesian Computation: fast inference for discretely observed Markov models using a factorised posterior distribution
Many modern statistical applications involve inference for complicated stochastic models for which the likelihood function is difficult or even impossible to calculate, and hence conventional likelihood-based inferential techniques cannot be used. In such settings, Bayesian inference can be performed using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC). However, in spite of many recent developments to ABC methodology, in many applications the computational cost of ABC necessitates the choice of summary statistics and tolerances that can potentially severely bias the estimate of the posterior.
We propose a new “piecewise” ABC approach suitable for discretely observed Markov models that involves writing the posterior density of the parameters as a product of factors, each a function of only a subset of the data, and then using ABC within each factor. The approach has the advantage of side-stepping the need to choose a summary statistic and it enables a stringent tolerance to be set, making the posterior “less approximate”. We investigate two methods for estimating the posterior density based on ABC samples for each of the factors: the first is to use a Gaussian approximation for each factor, and the second is to use a kernel density estimate. Both methods have their merits. The Gaussian approximation is simple, fast, and probably adequate for many applications. On the other hand, using instead a kernel density estimate has the benefit of consistently estimating the true piecewise ABC posterior as the number of ABC samples tends to infinity. We illustrate the piecewise ABC approach with four examples; in each case, the approach offers fast and accurate inference
Tunneling of quantum rotobreathers
We analyze the quantum properties of a system consisting of two nonlinearly
coupled pendula. This non-integrable system exhibits two different symmetries:
a permutational symmetry (permutation of the pendula) and another one related
to the reversal of the total momentum of the system. Each of these symmetries
is responsible for the existence of two kinds of quasi-degenerated states. At
sufficiently high energy, pairs of symmetry-related states glue together to
form quadruplets. We show that, starting from the anti-continuous limit,
particular quadruplets allow us to construct quantum states whose properties
are very similar to those of classical rotobreathers. By diagonalizing
numerically the quantum Hamiltonian, we investigate their properties and show
that such states are able to store the main part of the total energy on one of
the pendula. Contrary to the classical situation, the coupling between pendula
necessarily introduces a periodic exchange of energy between them with a
frequency which is proportional to the energy splitting between
quasi-degenerated states related to the permutation symmetry. This splitting
may remain very small as the coupling strength increases and is a decreasing
function of the pair energy. The energy may be therefore stored in one pendulum
during a time period very long as compared to the inverse of the internal
rotobreather frequency.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, REVTeX4 styl
Stability of the monoclinic phase in the ferroelectric perovskite PbZr(1-x)TixO3
Recent structural studies of ferroelectric PbZr(1-x)TixO3 (PZT) with x= 0.48,
have revealed a new monoclinic phase in the vicinity of the morphotropic phase
boundary (MPB), previously regarded as the the boundary separating the
rhombohedral and tetragonal regions of the PZT phase diagram. In the present
paper, the stability region of all three phases has been established from high
resolution synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction measurements on a series of
highly homogeneous samples with 0.42 <=x<= 0.52. At 20K the monoclinic phase is
stable in the range 0.46 <=x<= 0.51, and this range narrows as the temperature
is increased. A first-order phase transition from tetragonal to rhombohedral
symmetry is observed only for x= 0.45. The MPB, therefore, corresponds not to
the tetragonal-rhombohedral phase boundary, but instead to the boundary between
the tetragonal and monoclinic phases for 0.46 <=x<= 0.51. This result provides
important insight into the close relationship between the monoclinic phase and
the striking piezoelectric properties of PZT; in particular, investigations of
poled samples have shown that the monoclinic distortion is the origin of the
unusually high piezoelectric response of PZT.Comment: REVTeX file, 7 figures embedde
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