24 research outputs found
Life-threatening envenoming by the Saharan horned viper (Cerastes cerastes) causing micro-angiopathic haemolysis, coagulopathy and acute renal failure: clinical cases and review
Background: The desert horned vipers (Cerastes cerastes and C. gasperettii) are the most familiar snakes of the great deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, including the plains of Iraq. They are responsible for many human snake bites. In Western countries, they are popular among exotic-snake keepers. Aim: To investigate mechanisms of life-threatening envenoming and treatment. Design: Clinical investigation. Methods: Clinical and laboratory studies with measurement of serum venom antigen concentrations by enzyme immunoassay. Results: Two men bitten while handling captive Saharan horned vipers (Cerastes cerastes) in Europe developed extensive local swelling and life-threatening systemic envenoming, characterized by coagulopathy, increased fibrinolysis, thrombocytopenia, micro-angiopathic haemolytic anaemia and acute renal failure. The clinical picture is explicable by the presence in C. cerastes venom of several thrombin-like, Factor-X-activating, platelet-aggregating, haemorrhagic and nephrotoxic components. In one case, prophylactic use of subcutaneous epinephrine may have contributed to intracranial haemorrhage. The roles in treatment of heparin (rejected) and specific antivenom (recommended) are discussed. Discussion: Cerastes cerastes is capable of life-threatening envenoming in humans. Optimal treatment of envenoming is by early administration of specific antivenom, and avoidance of ineffective and potentially-dangerous ancillary method
Fractional Exclusion Statistics and Anyons
Do anyons, dynamically realized by the field theoretic Chern-Simons
construction, obey fractional exclusion statistics? We find that they do if the
statistical interaction between anyons and anti-anyons is taken into account.
For this anyon model, we show perturbatively that the exchange statistical
parameter of anyons is equal to the exclusion statistical parameter. We obtain
the same result by applying the relation between the exclusion statistical
parameter and the second virial coefficient in the non-relativistic limit.Comment: 9 pages, latex, IFT-498-UN
Thermodynamics of an Anyon System
We examine the thermal behavior of a relativistic anyon system, dynamically
realized by coupling a charged massive spin-1 field to a Chern-Simons gauge
field. We calculate the free energy (to the next leading order), from which all
thermodynamic quantities can be determined. As examples, the dependence of
particle density on the anyon statistics and the anyon anti-anyon interference
in the ideal gas are exhibited. We also calculate two and three-point
correlation functions, and uncover certain physical features of the system in
thermal equilibrium.Comment: 18 pages; in latex; to be published in Phys. Rev.