Antimicrobials: a global alliance for optimizing their rational use in intra-abdominal infections (AGORA)

Intra-abdominal infections (IAI) are an important cause of morbidity and are frequently associated with poor prognosis, particularly in high-risk patients. The cornerstones in the management of complicated IAIs are timely effective source control with appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Empiric antimicrobial therapy is important in the management of intra-abdominal infections and must be broad enough to cover all likely organisms because inappropriate initial antimicrobial therapy is associated with poor patient outcomes and the development of bacterial resistance. The overuse of antimicrobials is widely accepted as a major driver of some emerging infections (such as C. difficile), the selection of resistant pathogens in individual patients, and for the continued development of antimicrobial resistance globally. The growing emergence of multi-drug resistant organisms and the limited development of new agents available to counteract them have caused an impending crisis with alarming implications, especially with regards to Gram-negative bacteria. An international task force from 79 different countries has joined this project by sharing a document on the rational use of antimicrobials for patients with IAIs. The project has been termed AGORA (Antimicrobials: A Global Alliance for Optimizing their Rational Use in Intra-Abdominal Infections). The authors hope that AGORA, involving many of the world's leading experts, can actively raise awareness in health workers and can improve prescribing behavior in treating IAIs

Where are the missing cosmic metals ?

The majority of the heavy elements produced by stars 2 billion years after the Big Bang (redshift z~3) are presently undetected at those epochs. We propose a solution to this cosmic `missing metals' problem in which such elements are stored in gaseous halos produced by supernova explosions around star-forming galaxies. By using data from the ESO/VLT Large Program, we find that:(i) only 5%-9% of the produced metals reside in the cold phase, the rest being found in the hot (log T=5.8-6.4) phase; (ii) 1%-6% (3%-30%) of the observed CIV (OVI) is in the hot phase. We conclude that at z~3 more than 90% of the metals produced during the star forming history can be placed in a hot phase of the IGM, without violating any observational constraint. The observed galaxy mass-metallicity relation, and the intergalactic medium and intracluster medium metallicity evolution are also naturally explained by this hypothesis.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, ApJ Letters, in pres

Effective theory for the Goldstone field in the BCS-BEC crossover at T=0

We perform a detailed study of the effective Lagrangian for the Goldstone mode of a superfluid Fermi gas at zero temperature in the whole BCS-BEC crossover. By using a derivative expansion of the response functions, we derive the most general form of this Lagrangian at the next to leading order in the momentum expansion in terms of four coefficient functions. This involves the elimination of all the higher order time derivatives by careful use of the leading order field equations. In the infinite scattering length limit where conformal invariance is realized, we show that the effective Lagrangian must contain an unnoticed invariant combination of higher spatial gradients of the Goldstone mode, while explicit couplings to spatial gradients of the trapping potential are absent. Across the whole crossover, we determine all the coefficient functions at the one-loop level, taking into account the dependence of the gap parameter on the chemical potential in the mean-field approximation. These results are analytically expressed in terms of elliptic integrals of the first and second kind. We discuss the form of these coefficients in the extreme BCS and BEC regimes and around the unitary limit, and compare with recent work by other authors.Comment: 27 pages. 4 references added, typos corrected, expanded Section III

5D gravity and the discrepant G measurements

It is shown that 5D Kaluza-Klein theory stabilized by an external bulk scalar field may solve the discrepant laboratory G measurements. This is achieved by an effective coupling between gravitation and the geomagnetic field. Experimental considerations are also addressed.Comment: 13 pages, to be published in: Proceedings of the 18th Course of the School on Cosmology and Gravitation: The gravitational Constant. Generalized gravitational theories and experiments (30 April-10 May 2003, Erice). Ed. by G. T. Gillies, V. N. Melnikov and V. de Sabbata, (Kluwer), 13pp. (in print) (2003

Search for Invisible Decays of η\eta and η′\eta^\prime in J/ψ→ϕηJ/\psi \to \phi\eta and ϕη′\phi \eta^\prime

Using a data sample of $58\times 10^6$ $J/\psi$ decays collected with the BES II detector at the BEPC, searches for invisible decays of $\eta$ and $\eta^\prime$ in $J/\psi$ to $\phi\eta$ and $\phi\eta^\prime$ are performed. The $\phi$ signals, which are reconstructed in $K^+K^-$ final states, are used to tag the $\eta$ and $\eta^\prime$ decays. No signals are found for the invisible decays of either $\eta$ or $\eta^\prime$, and upper limits at the 90% confidence level are determined to be $1.65 \times 10^{-3}$ for the ratio $\frac{B(\eta\to \text{invisible})}{B(\eta\to\gamma\gamma)}$ and $6.69\times 10^{-2}$ for $\frac{B(\eta^\prime\to \text{invisible})}{B(\eta^\prime\to\gamma\gamma)}$. These are the first searches for $\eta$ and $\eta^\prime$ decays into invisible final states.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; Added references, Corrected typo

Systematic analysis of the DJ(2580)D_{J}(2580), DJ∗(2650)D_{J}^{*}(2650), DJ(2740)D_{J}(2740), DJ∗(2760)D_{J}^{*}(2760), DJ(3000)D_{J}(3000) and DJ∗(3000)D_{J}^{*}(3000) in DD meson family

In this work, we tentatively assign the charmed mesons $D_{J}(2580)$, $D_{J}^{*}(2650)$, $D_{J}(2740)$, $D_{J}^{*}(2760)$, $D_{J}(3000)$ and $D_{J}^{*}(3000)$ observed by the LHCb collaboration according to their spin-parity and masses, then study their strong decays to the ground state charmed mesons plus light pseudoscalar mesons with the $^{3}P_{0}$ model. According to these study, we assigned the $D_{J}^{*}(2760)$ as the $1D\frac{5}{2}3^{-}$ state, the $D_{J}^{*}(3000)$ as the $1F\frac{5}{2}2^{+}$ or $1F\frac{7}{2}4^{+}$ state, the $D_{J}(3000)$ as the $1F\frac{7}{2}3^{+}$ or $2P\frac{1}{2}1^{+}$ state in the $D$ meson family. As a byproduct, we also study the strong decays of $2P\frac{1}{2}0^{+}$,$2P\frac{3}{2}2^{+}$, $3S\frac{1}{2}1^{-}$, $3S\frac{1}{2}0^{-}$ etc, states, which will be helpful to further experimentally study mixings of these $D$ mesons.Comment: 16 pages,1 figure. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0801.4821 by other author

About J-flow, J-balanced metrics, uniform J-stability and K-stability

From the work of Dervan-Keller, there exists a quantization of the critical equation for the J-flow. This leads to the notion of J-balanced metrics. We prove that the existence of J-balanced metrics has a purely algebro-geometric characterization in terms of Chow stability, complementing the result of Dervan-Keller. We also obtain various criteria that imply uniform J-stability and uniform K-stability. Eventually, we discuss the case of K\"ahler classes that may not be integral over a compact manifold.Comment: 23 pages; In honor of Ngaiming Mok's 60th birthday. To appear in Asian J. Mat

Pion-kaon correlations in central Au+Au collisions at sqrt[sNN]=130 GeV

Pion-kaon correlation functions are constructed from central Au+Au STAR data taken at sqrt[sNN]=130 GeV by the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The results suggest that pions and kaons are not emitted at the same average space-time point. Space-momentum correlations, i.e., transverse flow, lead to a space-time emission asymmetry of pions and kaons that is consistent with the data. This result provides new independent evidence that the system created at RHIC undergoes a collective transverse expansion.alle Autoren: J. Adams, C. Adler, M. M. Aggarwal, Z. Ahammed, J. Amonett, B. D. Anderson, M. Anderson, D. Arkhipkin, G. S. Averichev, S. K. Badyal, J. Balewski, O. Barannikova, L. S. Barnby, J. Baudot, S. Bekele, V. V. Belaga, R. Bellwied, J. Berger, B. I. Bezverkhny, S. Bhardwaj, P. Bhaskar, A. K. Bhati, H. Bichsel, A. Billmeier, L. C. Bland, C. O. Blyth, B. E. Bonner, M. Botje, A. Boucham, A. Brandin, A. Bravar, R. V. Cadman, X. Z. Cai, H. Caines, M. Calderón de la Barca Sánchez, J. Carroll, J. Castillo, M. Castro, D. Cebra, P. Chaloupka, S. Chattopadhyay, H. F. Chen, Y. Chen, S. P. Chernenko, M. Cherney, A. Chikanian, B. Choi, W. Christie, J. P. Coffin, T. M. Cormier, J. G. Cramer, H. J. Crawford, D. Das, S. Das, A. A. Derevschikov, L. Didenko, T. Dietel, X. Dong, J. E. Draper, F. Du, A. K. Dubey, V. B. Dunin, J. C. Dunlop, M. R. Dutta Majumdar, V. Eckardt, L. G. Efimov, V. Emelianov, J. Engelage, G. Eppley, B. Erazmus, P. Fachini, V. Faine, J. Faivre, R. Fatemi, K. Filimonov, P. Filip, E. Finch, Y. Fisyak, D. Flierl, K. J. Foley, J. Fu, C. A. Gagliardi, M. S. Ganti, T. D. Gutierrez, N. Gagunashvili, J. Gans, L. Gaudichet, M. Germain, F. Geurts, V. Ghazikhanian, P. Ghosh, J. E. Gonzalez, O. Grachov, V. Grigoriev, S. Gronstal, D. Grosnick, M. Guedon, S. M. Guertin, A. Gupta, E. Gushin, T. J. Hallman, D. Hardtke, J. W. Harris, M. Heinz, T. W. Henry, S. Heppelmann, T. Herston, B. Hippolyte, A. Hirsch, E. Hjort, G. W. Hoffmann, M. Horsley, H. Z. Huang, S. L. Huang, T. J. Humanic, G. Igo, A. Ishihara, P. Jacobs, W. W. Jacobs, M. Janik, I. Johnson, P. G. Jones, E. G. Judd, S. Kabana, M. Kaneta, M. Kaplan, D. Keane, J. Kiryluk, A. Kisiel, J. Klay, S. R. Klein, A. Klyachko, D. D. Koetke, T. Kollegger, A. S. Konstantinov, M. Kopytine, L. Kotchenda, A. D. Kovalenko, M. Kramer, P. Kravtsov, K. Krueger, C. Kuhn, A. I. Kulikov, A. Kumar, G. J. Kunde, C. L. Kunz, R. Kh. Kutuev, A. A. Kuznetsov, M. A. C. Lamont, J. M. Landgraf, S. Lange, C. P. Lansdell, B. Lasiuk, F. Laue, J. Lauret, A. Lebedev, R. Lednický, V. M. Leontiev, M. J. LeVine, C. Li, Q. Li, S. J. Lindenbaum, M. A. Lisa, F. Liu, L. Liu, Z. Liu, Q. J. Liu, T. Ljubicic, W. J. Llope, H. Long, R. S. Longacre, M. Lopez-Noriega, W. A. Love, T. Ludlam, D. Lynn, J. Ma, Y. G. Ma, D. Magestro, S. Mahajan, L. K. Mangotra, D. P. Mahapatra, R. Majka, R. Manweiler, S. Margetis, C. Markert, L. Martin, J. Marx, H. S. Matis, Yu. A. Matulenko, T. S. McShane, F. Meissner, Yu. Melnick, A. Meschanin, M. Messer, M. L. Miller, Z. Milosevich, N. G. Minaev, C. Mironov, D. Mishra, J. Mitchell, B. Mohanty, L. Molnar, C. F. Moore, M. J. Mora-Corral, V. Morozov, M. M. de Moura, M. G. Munhoz, B. K. Nandi, S. K. Nayak, T. K. Nayak, J. M. Nelson, P. Nevski, V. A. Nikitin, L. V. Nogach, B. Norman, S. B. Nurushev, G. Odyniec, A. Ogawa, V. Okorokov, M. Oldenburg, D. Olson, G. Paic, S. U. Pandey, S. K. Pal, Y. Panebratsev, S. Y. Panitkin, A. I. Pavlinov, T. Pawlak, V. Perevoztchikov, W. Peryt, V. A. Petrov, S. C. Phatak, R. Picha, M. Planinic, J. Pluta, N. Porile, J. Porter, A. M. Poskanzer, M. Potekhin, E. Potrebenikova, B. V. K. S. Potukuchi, D. Prindle, C. Pruneau, J. Putschke, G. Rai, G. Rakness, R. Raniwala, S. Raniwala, O. Ravel, R. L. Ray, S. V. Razin, D. Reichhold, J. G. Reid, G. Renault, F. Retiere, A. Ridiger, H. G. Ritter, J. B. Roberts, O. V. Rogachevski, J. L. Romero, A. Rose, C. Roy, L. J. Ruan, V. Rykov, R. Sahoo, I. Sakrejda, S. Salur, J. Sandweiss, I. Savin, J. Schambach, R. P. Scharenberg, N. Schmitz, L. S. Schroeder, K. Schweda, J. Seger, D. Seliverstov, P. Seyboth, E. Shahaliev, M. Shao, M. Sharma, K. E. Shestermanov, S. S. Shimanskii, R. N. Singaraju, F. Simon, G. Skoro, N. Smirnov, R. Snellings, G. Sood, P. Sorensen, J. Sowinski, H. M. Spinka, B. Srivastava, S. Stanislaus, R. Stock, A. Stolpovsky, M. Strikhanov, B. Stringfellow, C. Struck, A. A. P. Suaide, E. Sugarbaker, C. Suire, M. Šumbera, B. Surrow, T. J. M. Symons, A. Szanto de Toledo, P. Szarwas, A. Tai, J. Takahashi, A. H. Tang, D. Thein, J. H. Thomas, V. Tikhomirov, M. Tokarev, M. B. Tonjes, T. A. Trainor, S. Trentalange, R. E. Tribble, M. D. Trivedi, V. Trofimov, O. Tsai, T. Ullrich, D. G. Underwood, G. Van Buren, A. M. VanderMolen, A. N. Vasiliev, M. Vasiliev, S. E. Vigdor, Y. P. Viyogi, S. A. Voloshin, W. Waggoner, F. Wang, G. Wang, X. L. Wang, Z. M. Wang, H. Ward, J. W. Watson, R. Wells, G. D. Westfall, C. Whitten, Jr., H. Wieman, R. Willson, S. W. Wissink, R. Witt, J. Wood, J. Wu, N. Xu, Z. Xu, Z. Z. Xu, A. E. Yakutin, E. Yamamoto, J. Yang, P. Yepes, V. I. Yurevich, Y. V. Zanevski, I. Zborovský, H. Zhang, H. Y. Zhang, W. M. Zhang, Z. P. Zhang, P. A. Żołnierczuk, R. Zoulkarneev, J. Zoulkarneeva, and A. N. Zubarev (STAR Collaboration

Impurity Energy Level Within The Haldane Gap

An impurity bond $J{'}$ in a periodic 1D antiferromagnetic, spin 1 chain with exchange $J$ is considered. Using the numerical density matrix renormalization group method, we find an impurity energy level in the Haldane gap, corresponding to a bound state near the impurity bond. When $J{'}<J$ the level changes gradually from the edge of the Haldane gap to the ground state energy as the deviation $dev=(J-J{'})/J$ changes from 0 to 1. It seems that there is no threshold. Yet, there is a threshold when $J{'}>J$. The impurity level appears only when the deviation $dev=(J{'}-J)/J{'}$ is greater than $B_{c}$, which is near 0.3 in our calculation.Comment: Latex file,9 pages uuencoded compressed postscript including 4 figure