2,258 research outputs found
International consensus (ICON) on treatment of sudden sensorineural hearing loss
© 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is a common and alarming symptom that often prompts an urgent visit to an ENT specialist. Treatment of SSNHL remains one of the most problematic issues for contemporary otorhinolaryngology: although many meta-analyses and national guidelines have been issued, management is not standardized in terms of medical treatment, and duration and route of administration. We present several methodological suggestions for the study of treatments for SSNHL. These were developed from the existing level of evidence of the main treatments used in SSNHL by experts who convened at the IFOS 2017 ENT World Congress in Paris, France. All panelists agreed that one of the main limitations present in studies on SSNHL is related to the wide heterogeneity, which characterizes both the initial hearing deficit and the amount of hearing recovery. Although evidence of the efficacy of systemic steroids cannot be considered as strong enough to recommend their use, it is still the most widespread primary therapy and can be considered as the current standard of care. Therefore, systemic steroids stand as an adequate control for any innovative treatment. To reduce the number of subjects we suggest that the inclusion criteria should be restricted to moderate to profound levels of hearing loss. The efficacy of trans-tympanic steroids as a salvage therapy was suggested in several reports on small populations and needs to be confirmed with larger randomized controlled trials
Level densities and -ray strength functions in Yb
Level densities and radiative strength functions in Yb and Yb
nuclei have been measured using the
Yb(He,He)Yb and
Yb(He,)Yb reactions. New data on Yb
are compared to a previous measurement for Yb from the
Yb(He,)Yb reaction. Systematics of level
densities and radiative strength functions in Yb are
established. The entropy excess in Yb relative to the even-even nuclei
Yb due to the unpaired neutron quasiparticle is found to be
approximately 2. Results for the radiative strength function from the two
reactions lead to consistent parameters characterizing the ``pygmy''
resonances. Pygmy resonances in the Yb populated by the
(He,) reaction appear to be split into two components for both of
which a complete set of resonance parameters are obtained.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Detection of Very Low-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in the 2015 Outburst of V404 Cygni
In June 2015, the black hole X-ray binary (BHXRB) V404 Cygni went into
outburst for the first time since 1989. Here, we present a comprehensive search
for quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) of V404 Cygni during its recent
outburst, utilizing data from six instruments on board five different X-ray
missions: Swift/XRT, Fermi/GBM, Chandra/ACIS, INTEGRAL's IBIS/ISGRI and JEM-X,
and NuSTAR. We report the detection of a QPO at 18 mHz simultaneously with both
Fermi/GBM and Swift/XRT, another example of a rare but slowly growing new class
of mHz-QPOs in BHXRBs linked to sources with a high orbital inclination.
Additionally, we find a duo of QPOs in a Chandra/ACIS observation at 73 mHz and
1.03 Hz, as well as a QPO at 136 mHz in a single Swift/XRT observation that can
be interpreted as standard Type-C QPOs. Aside from the detected QPOs, there is
significant structure in the broadband power, with a strong feature observable
in the Chandra observations between 0.1 and 1 Hz. We discuss our results in the
context of current models for QPO formation.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, published in Ap
The effects of digital predistortion in a CO-OFDM system – a stochastic approach
Digital predistortion is topic of significant interest in telecommunications – both in the wireless radio field and, more recently, in photonics. In the present letter, the authors undertake a sensitivity analysis of various digital predistortion algorithms. Using recent metamodeling techniques designed for efficient stochastic analysis, the authors show that using predistortion not only leads to a reduction of the error vector magnitude in general but can also make the system less sensitive to uncertainties
Fiber-Flux Diffusion Density for White Matter Tracts Analysis: Application to Mild Anomalies Localization in Contact Sports Players
We present the concept of fiber-flux density for locally quantifying white
matter (WM) fiber bundles. By combining scalar diffusivity measures (e.g.,
fractional anisotropy) with fiber-flux measurements, we define new local
descriptors called Fiber-Flux Diffusion Density (FFDD) vectors. Applying each
descriptor throughout fiber bundles allows along-tract coupling of a specific
diffusion measure with geometrical properties, such as fiber orientation and
coherence. A key step in the proposed framework is the construction of an FFDD
dissimilarity measure for sub-voxel alignment of fiber bundles, based on the
fast marching method (FMM). The obtained aligned WM tract-profiles enable
meaningful inter-subject comparisons and group-wise statistical analysis. We
demonstrate our method using two different datasets of contact sports players.
Along-tract pairwise comparison as well as group-wise analysis, with respect to
non-player healthy controls, reveal significant and spatially-consistent FFDD
anomalies. Comparing our method with along-tract FA analysis shows improved
sensitivity to subtle structural anomalies in football players over standard FA
measurements
Evolution of level density step structures from 56,57-Fe to 96,97-Mo
Level densities have been extracted from primary gamma spectra for 56,57-Fe
and 96,97-Mo nuclei using (3-He,alpha gamma) and (3-He,3-He') reactions on
57-Fe and 97-Mo targets. The level density curves reveal step structures above
the pairing gap due to the breaking of nucleon Cooper pairs. The location of
the step structures in energy and their shapes arise from the interplay between
single-particle energies and seniority-conserving and seniority-non-conserving
interactions.Comment: 9 pages, including 5 figure
Syn‐rift sediment gravity flow deposition on a Late Jurassic fault‐terraced slope, northern North Sea
Structurally controlled bathymetry in rifts has a significant influence on sediment routing pathways and depositional architecture of sediment gravity flow deposits. In contrast to rift segments characterized by crustal-scale half-grabens, the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of deep-water rift domains characterised by distributed faulting on narrow fault terraces has received little attention. We use 3D broadband seismic data, calibrated by boreholes, from the Lomre and Uer terraces in the northern North Sea rift to investigate Late Jurassic syn-rift sediment gravity flow systems on fault-terraced slopes. The sediment gravity flow fairways were sourced from hinterland drainages via basin margin deltaic systems on the Horda Platform to the southeast. The deep-water sedimentary systems evolve from initial, widespread submarine channelized lobe complexes, through submarine channels, to incised submarine canyons. This progressive confinement of the sediment gravity flow system was concomitant with progressive localization of strain onto the main terrace-bounding faults. Although the normal fault network on the terraces has local impact on deep-water sediment transport and the architecture of gravity flow deposits, it is the regional basin margin to rift axis gradient that dominantly controls deep-water sediment routing. Furthermore, the gravity flow deposits on the Lomre and Uer terraces were predominantly sourced by rift margin deltaic systems, not from erosion of local uplifted footwall crests, emphasising the significance of hinterland catchments in the development of volumetrically significant deep-water syn-rift depositional systems
Superdeformation in Po
The Yb(Si,5n) reaction at 148 MeV with thin targets was used
to populate high-angular momentum states in Po. Resulting rays
were observed with Gammasphere. A weakly-populated superdeformed band of 10
-ray transitions was found and has been assigned to Po. This is
the first observation of a SD band in the region in a nucleus
with . The of the new band is very similar to those of
the yrast SD bands in Hg and Pb. The intensity profile suggests
that this band is populated through states close to where the SD band crosses
the yrast line and the angular momentum at which the fission process dominates.Comment: 10 pages, revtex, 2 figs. available on request, submitted to Phys.
Rev. C. (Rapid Communications
John Schuster, Descartes-agonistes: Physico-mathematics, method and corpuscular-mechanism, 1618–1633
We report on a 10 ks simultaneous Chandra/HETG-NuSTAR observation of the
Bursting Pulsar, GRO J1744-28, during its third detected outburst since
discovery and after nearly 18 years of quiescence. The source is detected up to
60 keV with an Eddington persistent flux level. Seven bursts, followed by dips,
are seen with Chandra, three of which are also detected with NuSTAR. Timing
analysis reveals a slight increase in the persistent emission pulsed fraction
with energy (from 10% to 15%) up to 10 keV, above which it remains constant.
The 0.5-70 keV spectra of the persistent and dip emission are the same within
errors, and well described by a blackbody (BB), a power-law with an exponential
rolloff, a 10 keV feature, and a 6.7 keV emission feature, all modified by
neutral absorption. Assuming that the BB emission originates in an accretion
disc, we estimate its inner (magnetospheric) radius to be about 4x10^7 cm,
which translates to a surface dipole field B~9x10^10 G. The Chandra/HETG
spectrum resolves the 6.7 keV feature into (quasi-)neutral and highly ionized
Fe XXV and Fe XXVI emission lines. XSTAR modeling shows these lines to also
emanate from a truncated accretion disk. The burst spectra, with a peak flux
more than an order of magnitude higher than Eddington, are well fit with a
power-law with an exponential rolloff and a 10~keV feature, with similar fit
values compared to the persistent and dip spectra. The burst spectra lack a
thermal component and any Fe features. Anisotropic (beamed) burst emission
would explain both the lack of the BB and any Fe components.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, Accepted in Ap
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