Antidote application: an educational system for treatment of common toxin overdose

Poisonings account for almost 1% of emergency room visits each year. Time is a critical factor in dealing with a toxicologic emergency. Delay in dispensing the first antidote dose can lead to life-threatening sequelae. Current toxicological resources that support treatment decisions are broad in scope, time-consuming to read, or at times unavailable. Our review of current toxicological resources revealed a gap in their ability to provide expedient calculations and recommendations about appropriate course of treatment. To bridge the gap, we developed the Antidote Application (AA), a computational system that automatically provides patient-specific antidote treatment recommendations and individualized dose calculations. We implemented 27 algorithms that describe FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration) approved use and evidence-based practices found in primary literature for the treatment of common toxin exposure. The AA covers 29 antidotes recommended by Poison Control and toxicology experts, 19 poison classes and 31 poisons, which represent over 200 toxic entities. To the best of our knowledge, the AA is the first educational decision support system in toxicology that provides patient-specific treatment recommendations and drug dose calculations. The AA is publicly available at http://projects.met- hilab.org/antidote/

Finite-size effects of a left-handed material slab on the image quality

The characteristics of an imaging system formed by a left-handed material (LHM) slab of finite length are studied, and the influence of the finite length of the slab on the image quality is analyzed. Unusual phenomena such as surface bright spots and negative energy stream at the image side are observed and explained as the cavity effects of surface plasmons excited by the evanescent components of the incident field. For a thin LHM slab, the cavity effects are found rather sensitive to the length of the slab, and the bright spots on the bottom surface of the slab may stretch to the image plane and degrade the image quality.Comment: changes in the content and the title, and also the figure

Constraints on holographic dark energy models using the differential ages of passively evolving galaxies

Using the absolute ages of passively evolving galaxies observed at different redshifts, one can obtain the differential ages, the derivative of redshift $z$ with respect to the cosmic time $t$ (i.e. ${\rm d} z/{\rm d}t$). Thus, the Hubble parameter $H(z)$ can be measured through the relation $H(z)=-({\rm d} z/{\rm d}t)/(1+z)$. By comparing the measured Hubble parameter at different redshifts with the theoretical one containing free cosmological parameters, one can constrain current cosmological models. In this paper, we use this method to present the constraint on a spatially flat Friedman-Robert-Walker Universe with a matter component and a holographic dark energy component, in which the parameter $c$ plays a significant role in this dark energy model. Firstly we consider three fixed values of $c$=0.6, 1.0 and 1.4 in the fitting of data. If we set $c$ free, the best fitting values are $c=0.26$, $\Omega_{\rm m0}=0.16$, $h=0.9998$. It is shown that the holographic dark energy behaves like a quintom-type at the $1\sigma$ level. This result is consistent with some other independent cosmological constrains, which imply that $c<1.0$ is favored. We also test the results derived from the differential ages using another independent method based on the lookback time to galaxy clusters and the age of the universe. It shows that our results are reliable.Comment: 18 pages including 7 figures and 1 tables. Final version for publication in Modern Physics Letters A (MPLA)[minor revision to match the appear version

Evolution of Nuclear Shell Structure due to the Pion Exchange Potential

The evolution of nuclear shell structure is investigated for the first time within density-dependent relativistic Hartree-Fock theory and the role of $\pi$-exchange potential is studied in detail. The energy differences between the neutron orbits \Lrb{\nu1h_{9/2},\nu 1i_{13/2}} in the N=82 isotones and between the proton ones \Lrb{\pi1g_{7/2},\pi1h_{11/2}} in the Z=50 isotopes are extracted as a function of neutron excess $N-Z$. A kink around $Z = 58$ for the N=82 isotones is found as an effect resulting from pion correlations. It is shown that the inclusion of $\pi$-coupling plays a central role to provide realistic isospin dependence of the energy differences. In particular, the tensor part of the $\pi$-coupling has an important effect on the characteristic isospin dependence observed in recent experiments.Comment: 4 pages and 4 figure

The velocity field of baryonic gas in the universe

The dynamic evolution of the baryonic intergalactic medium (IGM) caused by the underlying dark matter gravity is governed by the Navier-Stokes equations in which many cooling and heating processes are involved. However, it has long been recognized that the growth mode dynamics of cosmic matter clustering can be sketched by a random force driven Burgers' equation if cooling and heating are ignored. Just how well the dynamics of the IGM can be described as a Burgers fluid has not been fully investigated probably because cooling and heating are essential for a detailed understanding of the IGM. Using IGM samples produced by a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation in which heating and cooling processes are properly accounted for, we show that the IGM velocity field in the nonlinear regime shows the features of a Burgers fluid, that is, when the Reynolds number is high, the velocity field consists of an ensemble of shocks. Consequently, (1) the IGM velocity $v$ is generally smaller than that of dark matter; (2) for the smoothed field, the IGM velocity shows tight correlation with dark matter given by $v \simeq s v_{dm}$, with $s<1$, such that the lower the redshift, the smaller $s$; (3) the velocity PDFs are asymmetric between acceleration and deceleration events; (4) the PDF of velocity difference $\Delta v=v(x+r)-v(x)$ satisfies the scaling relation for a Burgers fluid, i.e., $P(\Delta v)=(1 r^y)F(\Delta v/r^y)$. We find the scaling function and parameters for the IGM which are applicable to the entire scale range of the samples (0.26 - 8 h$^{-1}$ Mpc). These properties show that the similarity mapping between the IGM and dark matter is violated on scales much larger than the Jeans length of the IGM.Comment: 14 pages, 10 jpg-figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. References adde

Research in Observations of Oceanic Air/Sea Interaction

The primary purpose of this research has been: (1) to develop an innovative research radar scatterometer system capable of directly measuring both the radar backscatter and the small-scale and large-scale ocean wave field simultaneously and (2) deploy this instrument to collect data to support studies of air/sea interaction. The instrument has been successfully completed and deployed. The system deployment lasted for six months during 1995. Results to date suggest that the data is remarkably useful in air/sea interaction studies. While the data analysis is continuing, two journal and fifteen conference papers have been published. Six papers are currently in review with two additional journal papers scheduled for publication. Three Master's theses on this research have been completed. A Ph.D. student is currently finalizing his dissertation which should be completed by the end of the calendar year. We have received additional 'mainstream' funding from the NASA oceans branch to continue data analysis and instrument operations. We are actively pursuing results from the data expect additional publications to follow. This final report briefly describes the instrument system we developed and results to-date from the deployment. Additional detail is contained in the attached papers selected from the bibliography

A Self-Occulting Accretion Disk in the SW Sex Star DW UMa

We present the ultraviolet spectrum of the SW Sex star and nova-like variable DW UMa in an optical low state, as observed with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The data are well described by a synthetic white dwarf (WD) spectrum with T_eff = 46,000 +/- 1000 K, log g = 7.60 +/- 0.15, v*sin(i) = 370 +/- 100 km/s and Z/Z_solar = 0.47 +/- 0.15. For this combination of T_eff and log g, WD models predict M_WD = 0.48 +/- 0.06 M_solar and R_WD = (1.27 +/- 0.18) * 10^9 cm. Combining the radius estimate with the normalization of the spectral fit, we obtain a distance estimate of d = 830 +/-150 pc. During our observations, DW UMa was approximately 3 magnitudes fainter in V than in the high state. A comparison of our low-state HST spectrum to a high-state spectrum obtained with the International Ultraviolet Explorer shows that the former is much bluer and has a higher continuum level shortward of 1450 A. Since DW UMa is an eclipsing system, this suggests that an optically thick accretion disk rim blocks our view of the WD primary in the high state. If self-occulting accretion disks are common among the SW Sex stars, we can account for (i) the preference for high-inclination systems within the class and (ii) their V-shaped continuum eclipses. Moreover, even though the emission lines produced by a self-obscured disk are generally still double-peaked, they are weaker and narrower than those produced by an unobscured disk. This may allow a secondary line emission mechanism to dominate and produce the single-peaked, optical lines that are a distinguishing characteristic of the SW Sex stars.Comment: 9 pages, including 2 figures; accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters; New version matches version in press (footnote added to discussion section; figures now use color

Rare Kaon Decay K^+ --> \pi^+ \nu \bar{\nu} in SU(3)_C X SU(3)_L X U(1)_N Models

The rare kaon decay K^+ --> \pi^+ \nu \bar{\nu} is considered in the framework of the models based on the SU(3)_C X SU(3)_L X U(1)_N (3 - 3 - 1) gauge group. It is shown that a lower bound of the Z' mass in the 3 - 3 - 1 model with right-handed neutrinos at a value of 3 TeV is derived, while that in the minimal version -- 1.7 TeV.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, late

Dynamically Induced Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in 3-3-1 Models

We show that in SU(3)_C X SU(3)_L X U(1)_N (3-3-1) models embedded with a singlet scalar playing the role of the axion, after imposing scale invariance, dynamical symmetry breaking of Peccei-Quinn symmetry occurs through the one-loop effective potential for the singlet field. We, then, analyze the structure of spontaneous symmetry breaking by studying the new scalar potential for the model, and verify that electroweak symmetry breaking is tightly connected to the 3-3-1 breaking by the strong constraints among their vacuum expectation values. This offers a valuable guide to write down the correct pattern of symmetry breaking for multi-scalar theories. We also obtained that the accompanying massive pseudo-scalar, instead of acquiring mass of order of Peccei-Quinn scale as we would expect, develops a mass at a much lower scale, a consequence solely of the dynamical breaking.Comment: 12 pages, typos corrected, improved text, conclusions unchange