Cognitive Intra-individual Variability in Cognitively Healthy APOE ε4 Carriers, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer's Disease: a Meta-analysis.

Intra-individual variability (IIV) quantifies an individual's scatter in performances across a test battery (dispersion) or across reaction times within a single task (consistency). No studies have meta-analyzed the cross-sectional IIV literature in those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's dementia (AD). An additional aim of this meta-analysis was to examine IIV in APOE ε4 + healthy control (HC) samples.

A kinetic model of thin-film fluorescent sensors for strategies to enhance chemical selectivity.

Thin film chemical sensors are widely used in environmental and industrial applications due to their scalable fabrication and high sensitivity, however they often suffer from low specificity limiting their ability to discriminate between analytes. In this paper we analyse the influence of molecular diffusion and binding interactions on the optical response of thin film fluorescent chemical sensors. We use a computational model to calculate the dynamics of fluorescence quenching due to sorption and desorption of analyte molecules, and compare this with experimental measurements of a conjugated polymer sensor for nitroaromatic vapour.

Primary abdominal Tyre blast injury: A rare case of intra-abdominal trauma.

Tyre blast injuries are an infrequently encountered but important cause of significant injury. Due to their rare nature tyre blast injuries are often not recognised as major trauma and this can pose significant risk to patient.

Ormosil-coated conjugated polymers for the detection of explosives in aqueous environments.

A fluorescence-based sensor for detecting explosives, based on a conjugated polymer coated with an ormosil layer, has been developed for use in aqueous environments. The conjugated polymer Super Yellow was spin-coated onto glass substrates prior to a further spin-coating of an MTEOS/TFP-TMOS-based ormosil film, giving an inexpensive, solution-based barrier material for ruggedization of the polymer to an aqueous environment. The sensors showed good sensitivity to 2,4-DNT in the aqueous phase at micromolar and millimolar concentrations, and also showed good recovery of fluorescence when the explosive was removed.

Ising spin glasses in two dimensions: Universality and nonuniversality.

Following numerous earlier studies, extensive simulations and analyses were made on the continuous interaction distribution Gaussian model and the discrete bimodal interaction distribution Ising spin glass (ISG) models in two dimensions [Lundow and Campbell, Phys. Rev. E 93, 022119 (2016)1539-375510.

Ising spin glasses in dimension five.

Ising spin-glass models with bimodal, Gaussian, uniform, and Laplacian interaction distributions in dimension five are studied through detailed numerical simulations. The data are analyzed in both the finite-size scaling regime and the thermodynamic limit regime. It is shown that the values of critical exponents and of dimensionless observables at criticality are model dependent.

Bimodal and Gaussian Ising spin glasses in dimension two.

An analysis is given of numerical simulation data to size L=128 on the archetype square lattice Ising spin glasses (ISGs) with bimodal (±J) and Gaussian interaction distributions. It is well established that the ordering temperature of both models is zero. The Gaussian model has a nondegenerate ground state and thus a critical exponent η≡0, and a continuous distribution of energy levels.

Non-self-averaging in Ising spin glasses and hyperuniversality.

Ising spin glasses with bimodal and Gaussian near-neighbor interaction distributions are studied through numerical simulations. The non-self-averaging (normalized intersample variance) parameter U_{22}(T,L) for the spin glass susceptibility [and for higher moments U_{nn}(T,L)] is reported for dimensions 2,3,4,5, and 7. In each dimension d the non-self-averaging parameters in the paramagnetic regime vary with the sample size L and the correlation length ξ(T,L) as U_{nn}(β,L)=[K_{d}ξ(T,L)/L]^{d} and so follow a renormalization group law due to Aharony and Harris [Phys.

Evidence for nonuniversal scaling in dimension-four Ising spin glasses.

The critical behavior of the Binder cumulant for Ising spin glasses in dimension four is studied through simulation measurements. Data for the bimodal interaction model are compared with those for the Laplacian interaction model. Special attention is paid to scaling corrections.

Brief advice to tuberculosis patients in Nepal to stop smoking: a pilot study by the Britain Nepal Medical Trust.

Setting: Tuberculosis (TB) treatment centres in Eastern Nepal.

Objective: To determine smoking cessation rates among TB patients advised to quit.

Design: One intervention and one control centre were studied.

Ising ferromagnet in dimension five: link and spin overlaps.

In the simple [hyper]cubic five-dimension, near-neighbor-interaction Ising ferromagnet, extensive simulation measurements are made of the link overlap and the spin overlap distributions. These "two replica" measurements are standard in the spin glass context but are not usually recorded in ferromagnet simulations. The moments and moment ratios of these distributions (the variance, the kurtosis, and the skewness) show clear critical behaviors at the known ordering temperature of the ferromagnet.

Fortuin-Kasteleyn and damage-spreading transitions in random-bond Ising lattices.

The Fortuin-Kasteleyn and heat-bath damage-spreading temperatures T(FK)(p) and T(DS)(p) are studied on random-bond Ising models of dimensions 2-5 and as functions of the ferromagnetic interaction probability p; the conjecture that T(DS)(p)~T(FK)(p) is tested. It follows from a statement by Nishimori that in any such system, exact coordinates can be given for the intersection point between the Fortuin-Kasteleyn T(FK)(p) transition line and the Nishimori line [p(NL,FK),T(NL,FK)]. There are no finite-size corrections for this intersection point.

Operative experience of general surgeons in a rural hospital.

Background: There is a lack of published data on the range of procedures currently carried out by rural general surgeons. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the diversity of conditions encountered and managed by rural general surgeons, in order to determine the scope of training necessary to adequately equip trainees for rural practice.

Methods: An audit of surgical procedures completed by two surgeons over 5 years from June 2004 to June 2009 in a rural Victorian hospital was carried out.

Stretched-exponential behavior and random walks on diluted hypercubic lattices.

Diffusion on a diluted hypercube has been proposed as a model for glassy relaxation and is an example of the more general class of stochastic processes on graphs. In this article we determine numerically through large-scale simulations the eigenvalue spectra for this stochastic process and calculate explicitly the time evolution for the autocorrelation function and for the return probability, all at criticality, with hypercube dimensions N up to N=28. We show that at long times both relaxation functions can be described by stretched exponentials with exponent 1/3 and a characteristic relaxation time which grows exponentially with dimension N.

An opportune finding in suspected liver metastases.

Opportunistic mycobacterial infections are rare in immunocompetent patients. The authors describe a case of disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex disease in a previously healthy patient presenting with hepatosplenomegaly and non-specific symptoms which initially led to a diagnosis of metastatic carcinoma. After correct treatment she made a full recovery, with resolution of symptoms and the radiological findings.

A re-appraisal of warfarin control in the treatment of deep vein thrombosis and / or pulmonary embolism.

Background: Warfarin is commonly used for management of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), controlling therapy by means of the International Normalized Ratio (INR).

Objectives: To identify differences in INR results between patients with thromboembolic and haemorrhagic complications and controls.

Methods: Two nested case-control studies from within a controlled trial of the duration of warfarin therapy (47 thrombotic and 16 haemorrhagic complications).

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or etidronate for osteoporosis in postmenopausal asthmatics on glucocorticoids: a randomised factorial trial.

Introduction: The study was designed to establish the effects of HRT on osteoporosis and fractures over five years in postmenopausal women with asthma receiving regular glucocorticoids and to compare with etidronate.

Methods: Postmenopausal patients receiving inhaled and/or oral glucocorticoids were randomly assigned to HRT, cyclical etidronate, HRT plus cyclical etidronate or no treatment for five years. The trial was multi-centre and aimed to recruit 750 patients.

Clarithromycin vs ciprofloxacin as adjuncts to rifampicin and ethambutol in treating opportunist mycobacterial lung diseases and an assessment of Mycobacterium vaccae immunotherapy.

Background: The mainstays of treatment for pulmonary disease caused by opportunist mycobacteria are rifampicin (R) and ethambutol (E). The role of macrolides, quinolones and immunotherapy with Mycobacterium vaccae is not clear. A trial was undertaken to compare clarithromycin (Clari) and ciprofloxacin (Cipro) as third drugs added to [corrected] 2 years of treatment with R and E for pulmonary disease caused by M avium-intracellulare (MAC), M malmoense and M xenopi (REClari and RECipro).

Anticoagulation for three versus six months in patients with deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, or both: randomised trial.

Objective: To determine the optimum duration of oral anticoagulant therapy after an episode of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, or both.

Design: Multicentre, prospective, randomised study with follow-up for one year.

Setting: 46 hospitals in United Kingdom.

Extended scaling scheme for critically divergent quantities in ferromagnets and spin glasses.

From a consideration of high temperature series expansions in ferromagnets and in spin glasses, we propose an extended scaling scheme involving a set of scaling formulas which expresses to leading order the temperature (T) and the system size (L) dependences of thermodynamic observables over a much wider range of T than the corresponding one in the conventional scaling scheme. The extended scaling, illustrated by data on the canonical 2d ferromagnet and on the 3d bimodal Ising spin glass, leads to consistency in the estimates of critical parameters obtained from scaling analyses for different observables.