Oxygen intake and walking speed before and after total hip replacement

The objective of the study was to evaluate the walking ability and the energy cost of walking in patients before and after total hip replacement. The oxygen intake and the maximum walking speed were measured immediately before and 6 months after operation in 25 patients. Although the oxygen intake did not change significantly in most patients it was decreased in those patients who before surgery had had the worst walking capacity. The average maximum walking speed almost doubled in the 25 patients.     

Impact of natural organic matter (NOM) on freshwater amphipods

Natural organic matter (NOM) isolated from the eutrophic Sanctuary Pond (Point Pelee National Park, Canada) has an adverse impact on amphipod species (Gammarus tigrinus and Chaetogammarus ischnus from Lake Müggelsee, Germany, and Eulimnogammarus cyaneus, from Lake Baikal, Russia). Increases in amphipod mortality, changes in peroxidase activity and increases of heat shock protein (hsp70) expression were observed upon exposure to NOM. The highest resistance to the adverse impact of NOM was observed with the endemic Baikalian amphipod E. cyaneus. However, the mechanisms behind this finding remains obscure. If differences in the sensitivity of the hsp70 antibody may be excluded, different modes of action may be postulated: because the adverse impact of NOM may be caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the NOM itself, the observed differences may be due to the action of ROS alone (with E. cyaneus) and a combination of both adverse modes of action (European species).     

Tolerances in self-cohering antenna arrays of arbitrary geometry

In a conventional array, the location of each element must be known to an accuracy of aboutlambda/10for phasing and scanning purposes. A larger tolerance on the element location results in the loss of gain and deterioration of the radiation pattern. In a self-cohering phased array, the phasing of the array elements is accomplished closed-loop and adaptively; therefore, no information on the element location is necessary. On the other hand, to scan the adaptively formed beam about the direction of the received wave, which has to be performed open-loop, one requires information on the element locations. In this paper, basic relations pertaining to the open-loop scanning of adaptive antenna arrays of arbitrary geometry are derived for both far-field and near-field scanning problems, and the transition between the two cases and the required accuracy in the knowledge of the same distance are explored. It is shown that the tolerance requirement on the element locations is the conventional tolerance divided by the maximum scan angle. In large systems designed for target imaging, it is shown that the tolerance on element location can be two or more orders of magnitude larger than that in a conventional array.     

Sensitivity analysis of narrowband photonic crystal filters and waveguides to structure variations and inaccuracy

Photonic crystal microcavities, formed by local defects within an otherwise perfectly periodic structure, can be used as narrowband optical resonators and filters. The coupled-cavity waveguide (CCW) is a linear array of equally spaced identical microcavities. Tunneling of light between microcavities forms a guiding effect, with a central frequency and bandwidth controlled by the local defects' parameters and spacing, respectively. We employ cavity perturbation theory to investigate the sensitivity of microcavities and CCWs to random structure inaccuracies. For the microcavity, we predict a frequency shift that is due to random changes in the lattice structure and show an approximate linear dependence between the standard deviation of the structure inaccuracy and that of the resonant frequency. The effect of structural inaccuracy on the CCW devices, however, is different; it has practically no effect on the CCW performance if it is below a certain threshold but may destroy the CCW if this threshold is exceeded.     

Concurrent brief versus intensive smoking intervention during alcohol dependence treatment.

Alcohol dependent smokers (N=118) enrolled in an intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment program were randomized to a concurrent brief or intensive smoking cessation intervention. Brief treatment consisted of a 15-min counseling session with 5 min of follow-up. Intensive intervention consisted of three 1-hr counseling sessions plus 8 weeks of nicotine patch therapy. The cigarette abstinence rate, verified by breath carbon monoxide, was significantly higher for the intensive treatment group (27.5%) versus the rate for the brief treatment group (6.6%) at 1 month after the quit date but not at 6 months, when abstinence rates fell to 9.1% for the intensive treatment group and 2.1% for the brief treatment group. Smoking treatment assignment did not significantly impact alcohol outcomes. Although intensive smoking treatment was associated with higher rates of short-term tobacco abstinence, other, perhaps more intensive, smoking interventions are needed to produce lasting smoking cessation in alcohol dependent smokers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tilings and Submonoids of Metabelian Groups

In this paper we show that membership in finitely generated submonoids is undecidable for the free metabelian group of rank 2 and for the wreath product ℤ≀(ℤ×ℤ). We also show that subsemimodule membership is undecidable for finite rank free (ℤ×ℤ)-modules. The proof involves an encoding of Turing machines via tilings. We also show that rational subset membership is undecidable for two-dimensional lamplighter groups.