392 research outputs found
Healthcare in continuum for an ageing population: national self monitoring or remote offshore monitoring for Australia?
Australia is a country, similar to other developed nations, confronting an ageing population with complex demographics. Ensuring continued healthcare for the ageing, while providing sufficient support for the already aged population requiring assistance, is at the forefront of the national agenda. Varied initiatives are with foci to leverage the advantages of lCTs leading to e-Health provisioning and assisted technologies. While these initiatives increasingly put budgetary constraints on local and federal governments, there is also a case for offshore resourcing of non-critical health services, to support, streamline and enhance the continuum of care, as the nation faces acute shortages of medical practitioners and nurses. However, privacy and confidentiality concerns in this context are a significant issue in Australia. In this paper, we take the position that if the National and state electronic health records system initiatives, are fully implemented, offshore resourcing can be a feasible complementary option resulting in a win-win situation of cutting costs and enabling the continuum of healthcare.<br /
Persistence in q-state Potts model: A Mean-Field approach
We study the Persistence properties of the T=0 coarsening dynamics of one
dimensional -state Potts model using a modified mean-field approximation
(MMFA). In this approximation, the spatial correlations between the interfaces
separating spins with different Potts states is ignored, but the correct time
dependence of the mean density of persistent spins is imposed. For this
model, it is known that follows a power-law decay with time, where is the -dependent persistence exponent. We
study the spatial structure of the persistent region within the MMFA. We show
that the persistent site pair correlation function has the scaling
form for all values of the persistence
exponent . The scaling function has the limiting behaviour () and (). We then show within the
Independent Interval Approximation (IIA) that the distribution of
separation between two consecutive persistent spins at time has the
asymptotic scaling form where the
dynamical exponent has the form =max(). The behaviour of
the scaling function for large and small values of the arguments is found
analytically. We find that for small separations where =max(), while for large
separations , decays exponentially with . The
unusual dynamical scaling form and the behaviour of the scaling function is
supported by numerical simulations.Comment: 11 pages in RevTeX, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Spatial distribution of persistent sites
We study the distribution of persistent sites (sites unvisited by particles
) in one dimensional reaction-diffusion model. We define
the {\it empty intervals} as the separations between adjacent persistent sites,
and study their size distribution as a function of interval length
and time . The decay of persistence is the process of irreversible
coalescence of these empty intervals, which we study analytically under the
Independent Interval Approximation (IIA). Physical considerations suggest that
the asymptotic solution is given by the dynamic scaling form
with the average interval size . We show
under the IIA that the scaling function as and
decays exponentially at large . The exponent is related to the
persistence exponent through the scaling relation .
We compare these predictions with the results of numerical simulations. We
determine the two-point correlation function under the IIA. We find
that for , where , in agreement
with our earlier numerical results.Comment: 15 pages in RevTeX, 5 postscript figure
Exact Results for a Three-Body Reaction-Diffusion System
A system of particles hopping on a line, singly or as merged pairs, and
annihilating in groups of three on encounters, is solved exactly for certain
symmetrical initial conditions. The functional form of the density is nearly
identical to that found in two-body annihilation, and both systems show
non-mean-field, ~1/t**(1/2) instead of ~1/t, decrease of particle density for
large times.Comment: 10 page
Exponents appearing in heterogeneous reaction-diffusion models in one dimension
We study the following 1D two-species reaction diffusion model : there is a
small concentration of B-particles with diffusion constant in an
homogenous background of W-particles with diffusion constant ; two
W-particles of the majority species either coagulate ()
or annihilate () with the respective
probabilities and ; a B-particle and a
W-particle annihilate () with probability 1. The
exponent describing the asymptotic time decay of
the minority B-species concentration can be viewed as a generalization of the
exponent of persistent spins in the zero-temperature Glauber dynamics of the 1D
-state Potts model starting from a random initial condition : the
W-particles represent domain walls, and the exponent
characterizes the time decay of the probability that a diffusive "spectator"
does not meet a domain wall up to time . We extend the methods introduced by
Derrida, Hakim and Pasquier ({\em Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 75} 751 (1995); Saclay
preprint T96/013, to appear in {\em J. Stat. Phys.} (1996)) for the problem of
persistent spins, to compute the exponent in perturbation
at first order in for arbitrary and at first order in
for arbitrary .Comment: 29 pages. The three figures are not included, but are available upon
reques
Model of Cluster Growth and Phase Separation: Exact Results in One Dimension
We present exact results for a lattice model of cluster growth in 1D. The
growth mechanism involves interface hopping and pairwise annihilation
supplemented by spontaneous creation of the stable-phase, +1, regions by
overturning the unstable-phase, -1, spins with probability p. For cluster
coarsening at phase coexistence, p=0, the conventional structure-factor scaling
applies. In this limit our model falls in the class of diffusion-limited
reactions A+A->inert. The +1 cluster size grows diffusively, ~t**(1/2), and the
two-point correlation function obeys scaling. However, for p>0, i.e., for the
dynamics of formation of stable phase from unstable phase, we find that
structure-factor scaling breaks down; the length scale associated with the size
of the growing +1 clusters reflects only the short-distance properties of the
two-point correlations.Comment: 12 page
Coherent State path-integral simulation of many particle systems
The coherent state path integral formulation of certain many particle systems
allows for their non perturbative study by the techniques of lattice field
theory. In this paper we exploit this strategy by simulating the explicit
example of the diffusion controlled reaction . Our results are
consistent with some renormalization group-based predictions thus clarifying
the continuum limit of the action of the problem.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures. Minor corrections. Acknowledgement and reference
correcte
Predicting complicated appendicitis based on clinical findings: the role of Alvarado and appendicitis inflammatory response scores
PURPOSE: The pre-interventional differentiation between complicated and uncomplicated appendicitis is decisive for treatment. In the context of conservative therapy, the definitive diagnosis of uncomplicated appendicitis is mandatory. This study investigates the ability of clinical scoring systems and imaging to differentiate between the two entities. METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis of two cohorts from two tertiary referral centers in Switzerland and Germany. All consecutive patients underwent appendectomy between January 2008 and April 2013 (in the first cohort) or between January 2017 and June 2019 (the second cohort). Exclusion criteria did not apply as all patients found by the database search and received an appendectomy were included. Diagnostic testing and calculation of a receiver operating curve were performed to identify a cutoff for clinical scores that resulted in a minimum sensitivity of 90% to detect complicated appendicitis. The cutoff was combined with additional diagnostic imaging criteria to see if diagnostic properties could be improved. RESULTS: Nine hundred fifty-six patients were included in the analysis. Two hundred twenty patients (23%) had complicated appendicitis, and 736 patients (77%) had uncomplicated appendicitis or no inflammation. The complicated appendicitis cohort had a mean Alvarado score of 7.03 and a mean AIR of 5.21. This compared to a mean Alvarado of 6.53 and a mean AIR of 4.07 for the uncomplicated appendicitis cohort. The highest Alvarado score with a sensitivity of > 90% to detect complicated appendicitis was >== 5 (sensitivity = 95%, specificity 8.99%). The highest AIR score with a sensitivity of > 90% to detect complicated appendicitis was >== 3 (sensitivity 91.82%, specificity 18.53). The analysis showed that additional CT information did not improve the sensitivity of the proposed cut-offs. CONCLUSION: AIR and Alvarado scores showed limited capability to distinguish between complicated and uncomplicated appendicitis even with additional imaging in this retrospective cohort. As conservative management of appendicitis needs to exclude patients with complicated disease reliably, appendectomy seems until now to remain the safest option to prevent undertreatment of this mostly benign disease
Reaction Kinetics of Clustered Impurities
We study the density of clustered immobile reactants in the
diffusion-controlled single species annihilation. An initial state in which
these impurities occupy a subspace of codimension d' leads to a substantial
enhancement of their survival probability. The Smoluchowski rate theory
suggests that the codimensionality plays a crucial role in determining the long
time behavior. The system undergoes a transition at d'=2. For d'<2, a finite
fraction of the impurities survive: ni(t) ~ ni(infinity)+const x log(t)/t^{1/2}
for d=2 and ni(t) ~ ni(infinity)+const/t^{1/2} for d>2. Above this critical
codimension, d'>=2, the subspace decays indefinitely. At the critical
codimension, inverse logarithmic decay occurs, ni(t) ~ log(t)^{-a(d,d')}. Above
the critical codimension, the decay is algebraic ni(t) ~ t^{-a(d,d')}. In
general, the exponents governing the long time behavior depend on the dimension
as well as the codimension.Comment: 10 pages, late
Three-Species Diffusion-Limited Reaction with Continuous Density-Decay Exponents
We introduce a model of three-species two-particle diffusion-limited
reactions A+B -> A or B, B+C -> B or C, and C+A -> C or A, with three
persistence parameters (survival probabilities in reaction) of the hopping
particle. We consider isotropic and anisotropic diffusion (hopping with a
drift) in 1d. We find that the particle density decays as a power-law for
certain choices of the persistence parameter values. In the anisotropic case,
on one symmetric line in the parameter space, the decay exponent is
monotonically varying between the values close to 1/3 and 1/2. On another, less
symmetric line, the exponent is constant. For most parameter values, the
density does not follow a power-law. We also calculated various characteristic
exponents for the distance of nearest particles and domain structure. Our
results support the recently proposed possibility that 1d diffusion-limited
reactions with a drift do not fall within a limited number of distinct
universality classes.Comment: 12 pages in plain LaTeX and four Postscript files with figure
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