2,157 research outputs found
Hawking radiation and thermodynamics of dynamical black holes in phantom dominated universe
The thermodynamic properties of dark energy-dominated universe in the
presence of a black hole are investigated in the general case of a varying
equation-of-state-parameter . We show that all the thermodynamics
quantities are regular at the phantom divide crossing, and particularly the
temperature and the entropy of the dark fluid are always positive definite. We
also study the accretion process of a phantom fluid by black holes and the
conditions required for the validity of the generalized second law of
thermodynamics. As a results we obtain a strictly negative chemical potential
and an equation-of-state parameter Comment: 22 pages,3 figure
Does the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB) Distinguish Between Cognitive Domains in Healthy Older Adults?
The Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) is a semiautomated computer interface for assessing cognitive function. We examined whether CANTAB tests measured specific cognitive functions, using established neuropsychological tests as a reference point. A sample of 500 healthy older (M = 60.28 years, SD = 6.75) participants in the Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project completed battery of CANTAB subtests and standard paper-based neuropsychological tests. Confirmatory factor analysis identified four factors: processing speed, verbal ability, episodic memory, and working memory. However, CANTAB tests did not consistently load onto the cognitive domain factors derived from traditional measures of the same function. These results indicate that five of the six CANTAB subtests examined did not load onto single cognitive functions. These CANTAB tests may lack the sensitivity to measure discrete cognitive functions in healthy populations or may measure other cognitive domains not included in the traditional neuropsychological battery
Effect of Standard vs Intensive Blood Pressure Control on Cerebral Blood Flow in Small Vessel Disease The PRESERVE Randomized Clinical Trial
Importance: Blood pressure lowering is considered neuroprotective in patients with cerebral small vessel disease, however more “intensive” regimens may increase cerebral hypoperfusion. We examined the effect of intensive vs. standard blood pressure treatment on cerebral perfusion in severe small vessel disease patients.
Objective: To determine whether intensive vs. standard blood pressure lowering over 3 months causes decreased cerebral perfusion.
Design, Setting and Participants: This randomised, parallel, controlled, blinded-outcomes clinical trial took place in 2 English university medical centres. A central, online randomisation system (1:1 ratio) allocated grouping. 70 hypertensive patients with MRI confirmed symptomatic lacunar infarct and confluent white matter hyperintensities were recruited between 2012 and 2015, and randomised (36/34 in standard/intensive arms). Analysable data were available in 62 patients, 33/29 in the standard/intensive groups respectively, for intention to treat analysis. This experiment examines the 3 month follow-up period.
Intervention: Patients were randomised to “standard” (systolic=130-140mmHg) or “intensive” (systolic=<125mmHg) blood pressure targets, to be achieved through medication regimen changes.
Main Outcome and Measure: Cerebral perfusion was determined using arterial spin labelling; the primary end point was change in global perfusion between baseline and 3 months, compared between treatment groups by ANOVA. Linear regression compared change in perfusion against change in blood pressure. MR scan analysis was blinded to treatment arm.
Results: Patients were 69.3 years old (mean) and 59.7% male. Mean(SD) systolic blood pressure reduced by 8(12) and 27(17)mmHg in the standard/intensive groups, respectively (p<0.001), with achieved pressures of 141(13) and 126(10) mmHg respectively. Change in global perfusion did not differ between treatment arms: standard, mean(SD) (ml/min/100g)= -0.5(9.4); intensive, 0.7(8.6), partial ETA2= 0.004, 95% CI= -3.6–5.8, p= 0.63. No differences were observed when analysis examined grey/white matter only, or was confined to those achieving target blood pressure. The number of adverse events did not differ between treatment groups (standard/intensive mean(SD)= .21(.65)/.32(.75), p=.44).
Conclusions and Relevance: Intensive blood pressure lowering did not reduce cerebral perfusion in severe small vessel disease.This study was funded by a joint Stroke Association/British Heart Foundation program grant (TSA BHF 2010/01). The study received additional support from the Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre, which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Drs O’Brien, Ford, and Markus are supported by NIHR Senior Investigator awards. Drs O’Brien and Markus are also supported by the Cambridge University Hospitals NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre
A Survey of the Foreign Policies of Herbert Hoover During his Presidency
This paper is a survey of the foreign policy of Herbert Hoover during his presidency. He is often associated only with domestic issues and the Great Depression, and his foreign policies have been somewhat unfamiliar. The more reading that was done, the more interesting and absorbing became his ideas and attempts to formulate his actions. The topic was chosen partially because of an intense interest in American history. There has been--and still is--a violently pro-Hoover or anti-Hoover sentiment and criticism regarding this former president. Another reason for this selection is that Mr. Hoover is a contemporary. There may be added personal interest because he was born in a little Iowa town near my former home. I have attempted to present a survey of the Hoover foreign policies as he expressed them and attempted to carry them out. There has been considerable amount written by historians and scholars on this subject but in the final analysis, it is based primarily on the Hoover Memoirs and State Papers which have been extensively used and quoted to establish authenticity and to illustrate the particular policy under discussion. Insofar as it is possible, each foreign policy will be discussed individually and in the order in which it presented itself
Two become one : the integration of male and female labour markets in the English and Welsh coalfields
Two become one: the integration of male and female labour markets in the English and Welsh Coalfields, Regional Studies. This paper explores the extent to which the labour markets for men and women are becoming integrated as a single entity. It does so in the specific context of the English and Welsh coalfields, where major job losses in the coal industry fell almost exclusively on men. Using data from 1981 to 2008, the paper presents ‘labour market accounts’ for the coalfields that reveal changing female labour force participation and employment, and it compares these trends with those among men in the same places. Evidence emerges of two relatively independent labour markets – male and female – operating in the 1980s in the same geographic space. However, over time a degree of integration appears to have occurred. As a result, women increasingly have to compete with men for the same jobs and a greater proportion of new job opportunities in the former coalfields are now going to men
Bank Of Holly Springs, Holly Springs, Miss.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/ms_pcards/1089/thumbnail.jp
Equilibrium configurations of two charged masses in General Relativity
An asymptotically flat static solution of Einstein-Maxwell equations which
describes the field of two non-extreme Reissner - Nordstr\"om sources in
equilibrium is presented. It is expressed in terms of physical parameters of
the sources (their masses, charges and separating distance). Very simple
analytical forms were found for the solution as well as for the equilibrium
condition which guarantees the absence of any struts on the symmetry axis. This
condition shows that the equilibrium is not possible for two black holes or for
two naked singularities. However, in the case when one of the sources is a
black hole and another one is a naked singularity, the equilibrium is possible
at some distance separating the sources. It is interesting that for
appropriately chosen parameters even a Schwarzschild black hole together with a
naked singularity can be "suspended" freely in the superposition of their
fields.Comment: 4 pages; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Dominion cartoon satire as trench culture narratives: complaints, endurance and stoicism
Although Dominion soldiers’ Great War field publications are relatively well known, the way troops created cartoon multi-panel formats in some of them has been neglected as a record of satirical social observation. Visual narrative humour provides a ‘bottom-up’ perspective for journalistic observations that in many cases capture the spirit of the army in terms of stoicism, buoyed by a culture of internal complaints. Troop concerns expressed in the early comic strips of Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and British were similar. They shared a collective editorial purpose of morale boosting among the ranks through the use of everyday narratives that elevated the anti-heroism of the citizen soldier, portrayed as a transnational everyman in the service of empire. The regenerative value of disparagement humour provided a redefinition of courage as the very act of endurance on the Western Front
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