Associations of Perirenal Fat Thickness with Renal and Systemic Calcified Atherosclerosis.

BackgroundWe investigated associations between perirenal fat thickness and atherosclerotic calcification in six different vascular beds.MethodsUsing a community-based cohort (n=3,919), perirenal fat thickness was estimated from computed tomography scans. It was classified as Q1 (the lowest quartile) to Q4 (the highest quartile) in each sex. Calcification in the carotid arteries, coronary arteries, thoracic aorta, abdominal aorta, iliac arteries, and renal arteries was evaluated.ResultsPerirenal fat thickness was associated with older age (P<0.01) and a higher prevalence of obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia (P<0.01 for all). Perirenal fat thickness was independently associated with renal arterial calcification even after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking history, and family history of heart diseases in first-degree relatives (odds ratio [OR] per quartile of perirenal fat thickness, 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.09 to 1.44). Compared to Q1, the odds of renal arterial calcification in Q4 was about two times higher (OR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.29 to 3.25). After adjustment for renal arterial calcification and atherosclerotic risk factors, the only other vascular bed where perirenal fat thickness showed a significant association with calcification was the abdominal aorta (OR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.23; P=0.045).ConclusionPerirenal fat thickness was independently associated with vascular calcification in the renal artery and abdominal aorta

Full-time dynamics of modulational instability in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We describe the full-time dynamics of modulational instability in F=1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates for the case of the integrable three-component model associated with the matrix nonlinear Schroedinger equation. We obtain an exact homoclinic solution of this model by employing the dressing method which we generalize to the case of the higher-rank projectors. This homoclinic solution describes the development of modulational instability beyond the linear regime, and we show that the modulational instability demonstrates the reversal property when the growth of the modulation amplitude is changed by its exponential decay.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, text slightly extended, a reference adde

Automated verification of shape, size and bag properties.

In recent years, separation logic has emerged as a contender for formal reasoning of heap-manipulating imperative programs. Recent works have focused on specialised provers that are mostly based on fixed sets of predicates. To improve expressivity, we have proposed a prover that can automatically handle user-defined predicates. These shape predicates allow programmers to describe a wide range of data structures with their associated size properties. In the current work, we shall enhance this prover by providing support for a new type of constraints, namely bag (multi-set) constraints. With this extension, we can capture the reachable nodes (or values) inside a heap predicate as a bag constraint. Consequently, we are able to prove properties about the actual values stored inside a data structure

Chaotic properties of quantum many-body systems in the thermodynamic limit

By using numerical simulations, we investigate the dynamics of a quantum system of interacting bosons. We find an increase of properly defined mixing properties when the number of particles increases at constant density or the interaction strength drives the system away from integrability. A correspondence with the dynamical chaoticity of an associated $c$-number system is then used to infer properties of the quantum system in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 4 postscript figures included with psfig; Completely restructured version with new results on mixing properties added

Physical activity in the lives of young women and men: embodied identies

The purpose of this paper is to explore the complex and diverse positions particular young women and men take up in relation to the moral imperatives of the healthism discourse. We do this through a discussion of the ways in which they talk about their own and others’ bodies, in the context of a number of in-depth interviews conducted with them over the course of a year. These interviews were conducted as the major component of a longitudinal qualitative study, funded by the Australian Research Council, which investigates the place and meaning of physical activity and physical culture in young people’s lives

The calibration of photographic and spectroscopic films: Reciprocity failure and thermal responses of IIaO film at liquid nitrogen temperatures

Reciprocity failure was examined for IIaO spectroscopic film. The results indicate reciprocity failure occurs at three distinct minimum points in time; 15 min, 30 min and 90 min. The results are unique because theory suggests only one minimum reciprocity failure point should occur. When incubating 70mm IIaO film for 15 and 30 min at temperatures of 30, 40, 50, and 60 C and then placing in a liquid nitrogen bath at a temperature of -190 C the film demonstrated an increase of the optical density when developed at a warm-up time of 30 min. Longer warm-up periods of 1, 2 and 3 hrs yield a decrease in optical density of the darker wedge patterns; whereas, shorter warm-up times yield an overall increase in the optical densities