Purpose: To evaluate the effect of a ‘social’ dose of alcohol on the central retinal sensitivity and fixation stability, measured with microperimetry using scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO). Patients and methods: Eighteen subjects, nine males and nine females, were given alcohol in a ‘social’ dose, corresponding to 40 ml wine/70 kg/30 minutes. Alcohol level, visual acuity (VA), and contrast s...

The stability and convergence properties of the mimetic finite difference method for diffusion-type problems on polyhedral meshes are analyzed. The optimal convergence rates for the scalar and vector variables in the mixed formulation of the problem are proved.

The error generated by the classical upwind finite difference method on a uniform mesh, when applied to a class of singularly perturbed model ordinary differential equations with a singularly perturbed Neumann boundary condition, tends to infinity as the singular perturbation parameter tends to zero. Note that the exact solution is uniformly bounded with respect to the perturbation parameter. F...

It is important to simulate a groundwater transport process, e.g., pollutant migration, through the vadose zone and subsequent mixing within the saturated zone to assess potential impacts of contaminants in the subsurface in preliminary stages. It is challenging to simulate heterogeneous soil characteristics and non-uniform initial contaminant concentration. This paper proposes a vertically het...

The results of computations with eight explicit finite difference schemes on a suite of one-dimensional and two-dimensional test problems for the Euler equations are presented in various formats. Both dimensionally split and two-dimensional schemes are represented, as are central and upwind-biased methods, and all are at least second-order accurate.

Central difference method (CDM) that is explicit for pseudo dynamic testing is also supposed to be explicit for real-time substructure testing (RST). However, to obtain correct velocity dependent restoring force of the physical substructure being tested, the target velocity is required to be calculated as well as displacement. The standard CDM provides only explicit target displacement but not ...

This paper investigates the role of the central nucleus of the barn owl's inferior colliculus in determination of the soundsource azimuth. The central nucleus contains many neurons that are sensitive to interaural time difference (ITD), the cue for azimuth in the barn owl. The response of these neurons varies in a cyclic manner with the ITD of a tone or noise burst. Response maxima recur at int...

BACKGROUND To evaluate the effects of acute hyperventilation on the central venous-to-arterial carbon dioxide tension difference (∆PCO2) in hemodynamically stable septic shock patients. METHODS Eighteen mechanically ventilated septic shock patients were prospectively included in the study. We measured cardiac index (CI), ∆PCO2, oxygen consumption (VO2), central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO2...