4,301 research outputs found
Vibrational frequencies and tuning of the African mbira
The acoustic spectrum of the mbira, a musical instrument from Africa that produces sound by the vibration of cantilevered metal rods, has been measured. It is found that the most prominent overtones present in the spectrum have frequencies that are approximately 5 and 14 times the lowest frequency. A finite-element model of the vibration of the key that takes into account the acoustic radiation efficiency of the various normal modes reveals that the far-field power spectrum is dominated by modes involving predominately transverse motion of the key. Modes involving longitudinal motion do not radiate efficiently, and therefore contribute little to the sound produced. The high frequencies of the dominant overtones relative to the fundamental make it unlikely that the tunings of the mbira that are used by expert musicians are determined by matching the fundamental frequencies of the upper keys with the overtones of the lower keys
Age at quitting smoking as a predictor of risk of cardiovascular disease incidence independent of smoking status, time since quitting and pack-years
BACKGROUND Risk prediction for CVD events has been shown to vary according to current smoking status, pack-years smoked over a lifetime, time since quitting and age at quitting. The latter two are closely and inversely related. It is not known whether the age at which one quits smoking is an additional important predictor of CVD events. The aim of this study was to determine whether the risk of CVD events varied according to age at quitting after taking into account current smoking status, lifetime pack-years smoked and time since quitting. FINDINGS We used the Cox proportional hazards model to evaluate the risk of developing a first CVD event for a cohort of participants in the Framingham Offspring Heart Study who attended the fourth examination between ages 30 and 74 years and were free of CVD. Those who quit before the median age of 37 years had a risk of CVD incidence similar to those who were never smokers. The incorporation of age at quitting in the smoking variable resulted in better prediction than the model which had a simple current smoker/non-smoker measure and the one that incorporated both time since quitting and pack-years. These models demonstrated good discrimination, calibration and global fit. The risk among those quitting more than 5 years prior to the baseline exam and those whose age at quitting was prior to 44 years was similar to the risk among never smokers. However, the risk among those quitting less than 5 years prior to the baseline exam and those who continued to smoke until 44 years of age (or beyond) was two and a half times higher than that of never smokers. CONCLUSIONS Age at quitting improves the prediction of risk of CVD incidence even after other smoking measures are taken into account. The clinical benefit of adding age at quitting to the model with other smoking measures may be greater than the associated costs. Thus, age at quitting should be considered in addition to smoking status, time since quitting and pack-years when counselling individuals about their cardiovascular risk.This research was supported by an NHMRC health services
research grant (no. 465130), an NHMRC/NHF PhD scholarship and a
Vichealth Fellowship
Short-Interval Cortical Inhibition and Intracortical Facilitation during Submaximal Voluntary Contractions Changes with Fatigue
This study determined whether short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) change during a sustained submaximal isometric contraction. On 2 days, 12 participants (6 men, 6 women) performed brief (7-s) elbow flexor contractions before and after a 10-min fatiguing contraction; all contractions were performed at the level of integrated electromyographic activity (EMG) which produced 25 % maximal unfatigued torque. During the brief 7-s and 10-min submaximal contractions, single (test) and paired (conditioning–test) transcranial magnetic stimuli were applied over the motor cortex (5 s apart) to elicit motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in biceps brachii. SICI and ICF were elicited on separate days, with a conditioning–test interstimulus interval of 2.5 and 15 ms, respectively. On both days, integrated EMG remained constant while torque fell during the sustained contraction by ~51.5 % from control contractions, perceived effort increased threefold, and MVC declined by 21–22 %. For SICI, the conditioned MEP during control contractions (74.1 ± 2.5 % of unconditioned MEP) increased (less inhibition) during the sustained contraction (last 2.5 min: 86.0 ± 5.1 %; P \u3c 0.05). It remained elevated in recovery contractions at 2 min (82.0 ± 3.8 %; P \u3c 0.05) and returned toward control at 7-min recovery (76.3 ± 3.2 %). ICF during control contractions (conditioned MEP 129.7 ± 4.8 % of unconditioned MEP) decreased (less facilitation) during the sustained contraction (last 2.5 min: 107.6 ± 6.8 %; P \u3c 0.05) and recovered to 122.8 ± 4.3 % during contractions after 2 min of recovery. Both intracortical inhibitory and facilitatory circuits become less excitable with fatigue when assessed during voluntary activity, but their different time courses of recovery suggest different mechanisms for the fatigue-related changes of SICI and ICF
The Electrosphere of Macroscopic "Quark Nuclei": A Source for Diffuse MeV Emissions from Dark Matter
Using a Thomas-Fermi model, we calculate the structure of the electrosphere
of the quark antimatter nuggets postulated to comprise much of the dark matter.
This provides a single self-consistent density profile from ultrarelativistic
densities to the nonrelativistic Boltzmann regime that use to present
microscopically justified calculations of several properties of the nuggets,
including their net charge, and the ratio of MeV to 511 keV emissions from
electron annihilation. We find that the calculated parameters agree with
previous phenomenological estimates based on the observational supposition that
the nuggets are a source of several unexplained diffuse emissions from the
Galaxy. As no phenomenological parameters are required to describe these
observations, the calculation provides another nontrivial verification of the
dark-matter proposal. The structure of the electrosphere is quite general and
will also be valid at the surface of strange-quark stars, should they exist.Comment: 20 Pages, REVTeX4.
Pulmonary arterial hypertension: a new era in management
The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a heterogeneous condition with a wide range of causes. The diagnosis is often delayed or missed. PAH is covert in its early stages, when its detection and treatment should have the most impact. Access in Australia to effective PAH therapies has lagged behind that in other affluent countries. New agents for PAH, now becoming available, improve symptoms and reduce pulmonary resistance, with some demonstrating an ability to reverse remodelling of the right ventricle. Best management of PAH is comprehensive and multidisciplinary. Centres of excellence are needed in geographically strategic areas. Aggressive efforts must be made to diagnose PAH and to facilitate access to effective therapies.Anne M Keogh, Keith D McNeil, Trevor Williams, Eli Gabbay and Leslie G Clelan
A modal model for diffraction gratings
A description of an algorithm for a rather general modal grating calculation
is presented. Arbitrary profiles, depth, and permittivity are allowed. Gratings
built up from sub-gratings are allowed, as are coatings on the sidewalls of
lines, and arbitrary complex structure. Conical angles and good conductors are
supported
WMAP Haze: Directly Observing Dark Matter?
In this paper we show that dark matter in the form of dense matter/antimatter
nuggets could provide a natural and unified explanation for several distinct
bands of diffuse radiation from the core of the Galaxy spanning over 12 orders
of magnitude in frequency. We fix all of the phenomenological properties of
this model by matching to x-ray observations in the keV band, and then
calculate the unambiguously predicted thermal emission in the microwave band,
at frequencies smaller by 10 orders of magnitude. Remarkably, the intensity and
spectrum of the emitted thermal radiation are consistent with--and could
entirely explain--the so-called "WMAP haze": a diffuse microwave excess
observed from the core of our Galaxy by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy
Probe (WMAP). This provides another strong constraint of our proposal, and a
remarkable nontrivial validation. If correct, our proposal identifies the
nature of the dark matter, explains baryogenesis, and provides a means to
directly probe the matter distribution in our Galaxy by analyzing several
different types of diffuse emissions.Comment: 16 pages, REVTeX4. Updated to correspond with published version:
includes additional appendices discussing finite-size effect
Intermediate Tail Dependence: A Review and Some New Results
The concept of intermediate tail dependence is useful if one wants to
quantify the degree of positive dependence in the tails when there is no strong
evidence of presence of the usual tail dependence. We first review existing
studies on intermediate tail dependence, and then we report new results to
supplement the review. Intermediate tail dependence for elliptical, extreme
value and Archimedean copulas are reviewed and further studied, respectively.
For Archimedean copulas, we not only consider the frailty model but also the
recently studied scale mixture model; for the latter, conditions leading to
upper intermediate tail dependence are presented, and it provides a useful way
to simulate copulas with desirable intermediate tail dependence structures.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figur
Ab initio studies of phonon softening and high pressure phase transitions of alpha-quartz SiO2
Density functional perturbation theory calculations of alpha-quartz using
extended norm conserving pseudopotentials have been used to study the elastic
properties and phonon dispersion relations along various high symmetry
directions as a function of bulk, uniaxial and non-hydrostatic pressure. The
computed equation of state, elastic constants and phonon frequencies are found
to be in good agreement with available experimental data. A zone boundary (1/3,
1/3, 0) K-point phonon mode becomes soft for pressures above P=32 GPa. Around
the same pressure, studies of the Born stability criteria reveal that the
structure is mechanically unstable. The phonon and elastic softening are
related to the high pressure phase transitions and amorphization of quartz and
these studies suggest that the mean transition pressure is lowered under
non-hydrostatic conditions. Application of uniaxial pressure, results in a
post-quartz crystalline monoclinic C2 structural transition in the vicinity of
the K-point instability. This structure, intermediate between quartz and
stishovite has two-thirds of the silicon atoms in octahedral coordination while
the remaining silicon atoms remain tetrahedrally coordinated. This novel
monoclinic C2 polymorph of silica, which is found to be metastable under
ambient conditions, is possibly one of the several competing dense forms of
silica containing octahedrally coordinated silicon. The possible role of high
pressure ferroelastic phases in causing pressure induced amorphization in
silica are discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figs., 8 Table
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