8,143 research outputs found
Perioperative infection prophylaxis and risk factor impact in colon surgery
Background: A prospective observational study was undertaken in 2,481 patients undergoing elective colon resection in 114 German centers to identify optimal drug and dosing modalities and risk factors for postoperative infection. Methods: Patients were pair matched using six risk factors and divided into 672 pairs (ceftriaxone vs, other cephalosporins, group A) and 400 pairs (ceftriaxone vs. penicillins, group B). End points were local and systemic postoperative infection and cost effectiveness. Results: Local infection rates were 6.0 versus 6.5% (group A) and 4.0 versus 10.5% (group B); systemic infection rates in groups A and B were 4.9 versus 6.3% and 3.3 versus 10.5%, respectively. Ceftriaxone was more effective than penicillins overall (6.8 vs. 17.8%, p < 0.001). Length of postoperative hospital stay was 16.2 versus 16.9 days (group A) and 15.8 versus 17.6 days (group B). Of the six risk factors, age and concomitant disease were significant for systemic infection, and blood loss, rectum resection and immunosuppressive therapy were significant for local infection. Penicillin was a risk factor compared to ceftriaxone (p < 0.0001). Ceftriaxone saved Q160.7 versus other cephalosporins and O416.2 versus penicillins. Conclusion: Clinical and microbiological efficacy are responsible for the cost effectiveness of ceftriaxone for perioperative prophylaxis in colorectal surgery. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel
Five-Dimensional Unification of the Cosmological Constant and the Photon Mass
Using a non-Riemannian geometry that is adapted to the 4+1 decomposition of
space-time in Kaluza-Klein theory, the translational part of the connection
form is related to the electromagnetic vector potential and a Stueckelberg
scalar. The consideration of a five-dimensional gravitational action functional
that shares the symmetries of the chosen geometry leads to a unification of the
four-dimensional cosmological term and a mass term for the vector potential.Comment: 8 pages, LaTe
Supersymmetric Extensions of Calogero--Moser--Sutherland like Models: Construction and Some Solutions
We introduce a new class of models for interacting particles. Our
construction is based on Jacobians for the radial coordinates on certain
superspaces. The resulting models contain two parameters determining the
strengths of the interactions. This extends and generalizes the models of the
Calogero--Moser--Sutherland type for interacting particles in ordinary spaces.
The latter ones are included in our models as special cases. Using results
which we obtained previously for spherical functions in superspaces, we obtain
various properties and some explicit forms for the solutions. We present
physical interpretations. Our models involve two kinds of interacting
particles. One of the models can be viewed as describing interacting electrons
in a lower and upper band of a one--dimensional semiconductor. Another model is
quasi--two--dimensional. Two kinds of particles are confined to two different
spatial directions, the interaction contains dipole--dipole or tensor forces.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure
Damping of dHvA oscillations and vortex-lattice disorder in the peak-effect region of strong type-II superconductors
The phenomenon of magnetic quantum oscillations in the superconducting state
poses several questions that still defy satisfactory answers. A key
controversial issue concerns the additional damping observed in the vortex
state. Here, we show results of \mu SR, dHvA, and SQUID magnetization
measurements on borocarbide superconductors, indicating that a sharp drop
observed in the dHvA amplitude just below H_{c2} is correlated with enhanced
disorder of the vortex lattice in the peak-effect region, which significantly
enhances quasiparticle scattering by the pair potential.Comment: 4 pages 4 figure
Optical/Near-Infrared Imaging of Infrared-Excess Palomar-Green QSOs
Ground-based high spatial-resolution (FWHM < 0.3-0.8") optical and
near-infrared imaging (0.4-2.2um) is presented for a complete sample of
optically selected Palomar-Green QSOs with far-infrared excesses at least as
great as those of "warm" AGN-like ultraluminous infrared galaxies
(L_ir/L_big-blue-bump > 0.46). In all cases, the host galaxies of the QSOs were
detected and most have discernable two-dimensional structure. The QSO host
galaxies and the QSO nuclei are similar in magnitude at H-band. H-band
luminosities of the hosts range from 0.5-7.5 L* with a mean of 2.3 L*, and are
consistent with those found in ULIGs. Both the QSO nuclei and the host galaxies
have near-infrared excesses, which may be the result of dust associated with
the nucleus and of recent dusty star formation in the host. These results
suggest that some, but not all, optically-selected QSOs may have evolved from
an infrared-active state triggered by the merger of two similarly-sized L*
galaxies, in a manner similar to that of the ultraluminous infrared galaxies.Comment: Aastex format, 38 pages, 4 tables, 10 figures. Higher quality figures
are available in JPG forma
Self consistent determination of plasmonic resonances in ternary nanocomposites
We have developed a self consistent technique to predict the behavior of
plasmon resonances in multi-component systems as a function of wavelength. This
approach, based on the tight lower bounds of the Bergman-Milton formulation, is
able to predict experimental optical data, including the positions, shifts and
shapes of plasmonic peaks in ternary nanocomposites without using any ftting
parameters. Our approach is based on viewing the mixing of 3 components as the
mixing of 2 binary mixtures, each in the same host. We obtained excellent
predictions of the experimental optical behavior for mixtures of Ag:Cu:SiO2 and
alloys of Au-Cu:SiO2 and Ag-Au:H2 O, suggesting that the essential physics of
plasmonic behavior is captured by this approach.Comment: 7 pages and 4 figure
The Asiago-ESO/RASS QSO Survey II. The Southern Sample
This is the second paper of a series describing the Asiago-ESO/RASS QSO
survey, a project aimed at the construction of an all-sky statistically
well-defined sample of very bright QSOs (B_J < 15). Such a survey is required
to remove the present uncertainties about the properties of the local QSO
population and constitutes an homogeneous database for detailed evolutionary
studies of AGN. We present here the complete Southern Sample, which comprises
243 bright (12.60 < B_J < 15.13) QSO candidates at high galactic latitudes
(|b_{gal}| > 30^{\circ}). The area covered by the survey is 5660 sq. deg.
Spectroscopy for the 137 still unidentified objects has been obtained. The
total number of AGN turns out to be 111, 63 of which are new identifications.
The properties of the selection are discussed. The completeness and the success
rate for this survey at the final stage are 63% and 46%, respectively.Comment: 36 pages Latex, with 15 PostScript figures. Accepted for publication
in Astronomical Journa
Ray splitting in paraxial optical cavities
We present a numerical investigation of the ray dynamics in a paraxial
optical cavity when a ray splitting mechanism is present. The cavity is a
conventional two-mirror stable resonator and the ray splitting is achieved by
inserting an optical beam splitter perpendicular to the cavity axis. We show
that depending on the position of the beam splitter the optical resonator can
become unstable and the ray dynamics displays a positive Lyapunov exponent.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl
The Seyfert Population in the Local Universe
The magnitude-limited catalog of the Southern Sky Redshift Survey (SSRS2), is
used to characterize the properties of galaxies hosting Active Galactic Nuclei.
Using emission-line ratios, we identify a total of 162 (3%) Seyfert galaxies
out of the parent sample with 5399 galaxies. The sample contains 121 Seyfert 2
galaxies and 41 Seyfert 1. The SSRS2 Seyfert galaxies are predominantly in
spirals of types Sb and earlier, or in galaxies with perturbed appearance as
the result of strong interactions or mergers. Seyfert galaxies in this sample
are twice as common in barred hosts than the non-Seyferts. By assigning
galaxies to groups using a percolation algorithm we find that the Seyfert
galaxies in the SSRS2 are more likely to be found in binary systems, when
compared to galaxies in the SSRS2 parent sample. However, there is no
statistically significant difference between the Seyfert and SSRS2 parent
sample when systems with more than 2 galaxies are considered. The analysis of
the present sample suggests that there is a stronger correlation between the
presence of the AGN phenomenon with internal properties of galaxies
(morphology, presence of bar, luminosity) than with environmental effects
(local galaxy density, group velocity dispersion, nearest neighbor distance).Comment: 35 pages, 13 figures, Accepted to be publised in Astronomical Journa
QED vacuum fluctuations and induced electric dipole moment of the neutron
Quantum fluctuations in the QED vacuum generate non-linear effects, such as
peculiar induced electromagnetic fields. In particular, we show here that an
electrically neutral particle, possessing a magnetic dipole moment, develops an
induced electric dipole-type moment with unusual angular dependence, when
immersed in a quasistatic, constant external electric field. The calculation of
this effect is done in the framework of the Euler-Heisenberg effective QED
Lagrangian, corresponding to the weak field asymptotic expansion of the
effective action to one-loop order. It is argued that the neutron might be a
good candidate to probe this signal of non-linearity in QED.Comment: A misprint has been corrected, and three new references have been
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