903 research outputs found
Radiographic spectrum of adult pulmonary tuberculosis in a developed country
AbstractSetting. Bispebjerg Hospital, Department of Pulmonary Medicine P. The referral centre of adult tuberculosis in the municipality of Copenhagen, Denmark.Objective. To evaluate the radiographic spectrum of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in adults in a low-prevalence country and to correlate radiographic appearances with bacteriological results, clinical and demographic data.Design. Retrospective review of medical files on 548 cases with pulmonary TB according to the criteria of WHO.Results. Usual radiographic pattern of reactivating TB, with upper lobe involvement, was found in 92% (n=504). eight percent (n=44) showed unusual X-ray patterns for adults, such as isolated lower lobe infiltrations (n=19), hilar adenopathy (n=10), miliary TB (n=7), tuberculoma (n=2), pleural effusion (n=1) and normal chest X-ray (n=3). Eighty-nine percent of cases with cavitary lesions were positive by microscopy.Conclusion. The risk of missing a diagnosis of pulmonary TB may be high if patients present with an X-ray unusual for TB, but this is fortunately seen only in 8% of cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. Unusual X-ray is more commonly found in patients with concomitant disease, such as diabetes and cancer.If chest X-ray shows cavities, but the smear is negative for Mycobacterium, TB is unlikely and further diagnostic procedures should be performed without waiting for culture results
Can Gravitational Waves Prevent Inflation?
To investigate the cosmic no hair conjecture, we analyze numerically
1-dimensional plane symmetrical inhomogeneities due to gravitational waves in
vacuum spacetimes with a positive cosmological constant. Assuming periodic
gravitational pulse waves initially, we study the time evolution of those waves
and the nature of their collisions. As measures of inhomogeneity on each
hypersurface, we use the 3-dimensional Riemann invariant and the electric and magnetic parts of
the Weyl tensor. We find a temporal growth of the curvature in the waves'
collision region, but the overall expansion of the universe later overcomes
this effect. No singularity appears and the result is a ``no hair" de Sitter
spacetime. The waves we study have amplitudes between and widths between ,
where , the horizon scale of de Sitter spacetime. This
supports the cosmic no hair conjecture.Comment: LaTeX, 11 pages, 3 figures are available on request <To
[email protected] (Hisa-aki SHINKAI)>, WU-AP/29/9
Direct identification and susceptibility testing of enteric bacilli from positive blood cultures using VITEK (GNI+/GNS-GA)
AbstractObjective To study the possibility of reporting results of identification and susceptibility testing of Gram-negative bacilli the same day as bacteremia is detected by using direct inoculation from positive blood cultures (Bactec 9240) into VITEK GNI+ and GNS-GA cards.Methods All blood cultures with Gram-negative enteric bacillus-like morphology on microscopy found to be positive on workdays between 15 June 1999 and 29 February 2000 were included. Identification and susceptibility testing were done by three methods: the direct method using a suspension made by differential centrifugation of positive blood culture broth for inoculation of the VITEK cards; the standard method using an inoculum made from an overnight culture on a solid media; and the routine method (reference method) using conventional testing.Results Of 169 isolates, the direct method resulted in 75% correct identifications, 9% misidentifications and 17% non-identifications. All misidentified isolateswere Escherichia coli, of which 80% were reported as Salmonella arizonae. Five biochemical tests yielded most of the aberrant results; correcting the citrate and malonate reactions in most cases led to correct identification by the VITEK database. Despite a negative H2S reaction, 11 E. coli isolates were reported as S. arizonae. Two-thirds (69%) of identifications were reported within 6 h, and 95% of these were correct. The direct susceptibility testing method was assessable for 140 isolates. Correct results were found in 99% of isolate-antimicrobial combinations, and 85% were reported within 6 h.Conclusion The direct VITEK method could correctly report identifications and susceptibility patterns within 6 h, making same-day reporting possible for almost two-thirds (63%) of bacteremic episodes with Gram-negative bacilli. These results could probably be improved by modification of the identification algorithms of the VITEK software
Long-distance vocalizations of spotted hyenas contain individual, but not group, signatures
In animal societies, identity signals are common, mediate interactions within groups, and allow individuals to discriminate group-mates from out-group competitors. However, individual recognition becomes increasingly challenging as group size increases and as signals must be transmitted over greater distances. Group vocal signatures may evolve when successful in-group/out-group distinctions are at the crux of fitness-relevant decisions, but group signatures alone are insufficient when differentiated within-group relationships are important for decision-making. Spotted hyenas are social carnivores that live in stable clans of less than 125 individuals composed of multiple unrelated matrilines. Clan members cooperate to defend resources and communal territories from neighbouring clans and other mega carnivores; this collective defence is mediated by long-range (up to 5 km range) recruitment vocalizations, called whoops. Here, we use machine learning to determine that spotted hyena whoops contain individual but not group signatures, and that fundamental frequency features which propagate well are critical for individual discrimination. For effective clan-level cooperation, hyenas face the cognitive challenge of remembering and recognizing individual voices at long range. We show that serial redundancy in whoop bouts increases individual classification accuracy and thus extended call bouts used by hyenas probably evolved to overcome the challenges of communicating individual identity at long distance
Transverse NMR relaxation in magnetically heterogeneous media
We consider the NMR signal from a permeable medium with a heterogeneous
Larmor frequency component that varies on a scale comparable to the
spin-carrier diffusion length. We focus on the mesoscopic part of the
transverse relaxation, that occurs due to dispersion of precession phases of
spins accumulated during diffusive motion. By relating the spectral lineshape
to correlation functions of the spatially varying Larmor frequency, we
demonstrate how the correlation length and the variance of the Larmor frequency
distribution can be determined from the NMR spectrum. We corroborate our
results by numerical simulations, and apply them to quantify human blood
spectra.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Temperature and ac Effects on Charge Transport in Metallic Arrays of Dots
We investigate the effects of finite temperature, dc pulse, and ac drives on
the charge transport in metallic arrays using numerical simulations. For finite
temperatures there is a finite conduction threshold which decreases linearly
with temperature. Additionally we find a quadratic scaling of the
current-voltage curves which is independent of temperature for finite
thresholds. These results are in excellent agreement with recent experiments on
2D metallic dot arrays. We have also investigated the effects of an ac drive as
well as a suddenly applied dc drive. With an ac drive the conduction threshold
decreases for fixed frequency and increasing amplitude and saturates for fixed
amplitude and increasing frequency. For sudden applied dc drives below
threshold we observe a long time power law conduction decay.Comment: 6 pages, 7 postscript figure
Mode-Locking in Driven Disordered Systems as a Boundary-Value Problem
We study mode-locking in disordered media as a boundary-value problem.
Focusing on the simplest class of mode-locking models which consists of a
single driven overdamped degree-of-freedom, we develop an analytical method to
obtain the shape of the Arnol'd tongues in the regime of low ac-driving
amplitude or high ac-driving frequency. The method is exact for a scalloped
pinning potential and easily adapted to other pinning potentials. It is
complementary to the analysis based on the well-known Shapiro's argument that
holds in the perturbative regime of large driving amplitudes or low driving
frequency, where the effect of pinning is weak.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX, Submitte
Vortex Dynamics and Defects in Simulated Flux Flow
We present the results of molecular dynamic simulations of a two-dimensional
vortex array driven by a uniform current through random pinning centers at zero
temperature. We identify two types of flow of the driven array near the
depinning threshold. For weak disorder the flux array contains few dislocation
and moves via correlated displacements of patches of vortices in a {\it
crinkle} motion. As the disorder strength increases, we observe a crossover to
a spatially inhomogeneous regime of {\it plastic} flow, with a very defective
vortex array and a channel-like structure of the flowing regions. The two
regimes are characterized by qualitatively different spatial distribution of
vortex velocities. In the crinkle regime the distribution of vortex velocities
near threshold has a single maximum that shifts to larger velocities as the
driving force is increased. In the plastic regime the distribution of vortex
velocities near threshold has a clear bimodal structure that persists upon
time-averaging the individual velocities. The bimodal structure of the velocity
distribution reflects the coexistence of pinned and flowing regions and is
proposed as a quantitative signature of plastic flow.Comment: 12 pages, 13 embedded PostScript figure
Zero Temperature Glass Transition in the Two-Dimensional Gauge Glass Model
We investigate dynamic scaling properties of the two-dimensional gauge glass
model for the vortex glass phase in superconductors with quenched disorder.
From extensive Monte Carlo simulations we obtain static and dynamic finite
size scaling behavior, where the static simulations use a temperature exchange
method to ensure convergence at low temperatures. Both static and dynamic
scaling of Monte Carlo data is consistent with a glass transition at zero
temperature. We study a dynamic correlation function for the superconducting
order parameter, as well as the phase slip resistance. From the scaling of
these two functions, we find evidence for two distinct diverging correlation
times at the zero temperature glass transition. The longer of these time scales
is associated with phase slip fluctuations across the system that lead to
finite resistance at any finite temperature, while the shorter time scale is
associated with local phase fluctuations.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures; v2: some minor correction
Velocity-force characteristics of an interface driven through a periodic potential
We study the creep dynamics of a two-dimensional interface driven through a
periodic potential using dynamical renormalization group methods. We find that
the nature of weak-drive transport depends qualitatively on whether the
temperature is above or below the equilibrium roughening transition
temperature . Above , the velocity-force characteristics is Ohmic,
with linear mobility exhibiting a jump discontinuity across the transition. For
, the transport is highly nonlinear, exhibiting an interesting
crossover in temperature and weak external force . For intermediate drive,
, we find near a power-law velocity-force characteristics
, with , and well-below ,
, with . In the limit
of vanishing drive () the velocity-force characteristics crosses over
to , and is controlled by soliton nucleation.Comment: 18 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.
- …