Search

The orthogonality relations for SUq(2) are here formulated with the aid of the Woronowicz integral. The first part of this paper is devoted to a summary of the relevant parts of the Woronowicz theory and the second part to its implementation in terms of completely explicit representations of the irreducible unitary representations. The purpose of this presentation is to provide background for a separate study of the q deformation of the Coulomb problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents operator solutions of the q-Coulomb problem in both configuration and momentum space. Solutions to the problem of physical interpretation by associating with the operator amplitude in momentum space a numerically valued amplitude lying in a Hilbert space; Interpretation of the amplitude by the rules of quantum mechanics.

Studies the q-deformation of the Lorentz group in terms of a q-deformation of the van der Waerden spinor algebra. Spin representation of a vector; Invariants and irreducible representations; Decomposition of a reducible representation of the Lorentz group.

Background and Objectives: In paediatric trauma patients, there are limited prospective data regarding blood components and mortality, with some literature suggesting decreased mortality with high ratios of plasma and platelets to red blood cells (RBCs) in massive transfusions; however, most paediatric massive transfusions occur for non‐traumatic aetiologies and few studies assess blood product ratios in these children. This study's objective was to evaluate whether high blood product ratios or low deficits conferred a survival benefit in children with non‐traumatic life‐threatening bleeding. Materials and Methods: This is a secondary analysis of the five‐year, multicentre, prospective, observational massive transfusion epidemiology and outcomes in children study of children with life‐threatening bleeding from US, Canadian and Italian medical centres. Primary interventions were plasma:RBC and platelets:RBC (high ratio ≥1:2 ml/kg) and plasma and platelet deficits. The primary outcome was mortality at 6 h, 24 h and 28 days. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine independent associations with mortality. Results: A total of 222 children were included from 24 medical centres: 145 children (median [interquartile range] age 2.1 years [0.3–11.8]) with operative bleeding and 77 (8.0 years [1.2–14.7]) with medical bleeding. In adjusted analyses, neither blood product ratios nor deficits were associated with mortality at 6 h, 24 h or 28 days. Conclusion: This paper addresses a lack of prospective data in children regarding optimal empiric massive transfusion strategies in non‐traumatic massive haemorrhage and in finding no decrease in mortality with high plasma or platelet to RBC ratios or lower deficits supports an exploratory analysis for mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By generalizing from systems characterized by finite Lie algebras the propagator of an extended particle that appears in a gauge theory based on an affine algebra is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since general relativity may be regarded as a non-Abelian gauge theory obtained by gauging the Lorentz group, one may obtain its q-deformation by gauging the q-Lorentz group. The q-dependent action resulting from this construction describes interacting gravitational and spinor fields. This action is invariant under nonlocal q-transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. In early 2020, the novel coronavirus pandemic forced communities around the globe to shut down and isolate. Routine graduate medical education activities have also been suspended as resident and fellow physicians-in-training have been re-deployed to support critical patient care services. Innovation. We developed a two-part hybrid telesimulation model to teach COVID-19 ventilator management strategies while physically separating a group of learners and an instructor from one another. Learners consisted of non-ICU health care providers with limited experience in ventilator management being redeployed to manage ICU level COVID-19 infected patients. In the first week, the video tutorial has been viewed over 500 times and we have facilitated 14 telesimulation sessions, including 48 participants comprised of hospitalists, emergency medicine physicians and physician assistants, pediatric residents, nurses, and a nurse educator. Conclusion. We believe that the combination of a video tutorial followed by an interactive telesimulation was successful in providing timely education during a coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, it reinforced the value and flexibility in which simulation education could continue conveniently for learners despite significant restrictions in place during the coronavirus pandemic. Research is needed to assess the efficacy of this hybrid intervention in preparing healthcare workers and to determine if the knowledge is successfully transferred to the clinical setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argument: Nineteenth-century Prussia was deeply entrenched in philhellenism, which affected the ideological framework of its public institutions. At Berlin's Friedrich Wilhelm University, philhellenism provided the rationale for a persistent elevation of the humanities over the burgeoning experimental life sciences. Despite this outspoken hierarchy, professor of physiology Emil du Bois-Reymond eventually managed to increase the prestige of his discipline considerably. We argue that du Bois-Reymond's use of philhellenic repertoires in his expositions on physiology for the educated German public contributed to the rise of physiology as a renowned scientific discipline. Du Bois-Reymond's rhetorical strategies helped to disassociate experimental physiology from clinical medicine, legitimize experimental practices, and associate the emerging discipline with the more esteemed humanities and theoretical sciences. His appropriation of philhellenic rhetoric thus spurred the late nineteenth-century change in disciplinary hierarchies and helped to pave the way for the current hegemonic position of the life sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine a generic field theory in which the field particle has two couplings. It is of particular interest when these are the electroweak, e , and the hypothetical magnetoweak, g. The new field operators are obtained by replacing the field operators Ψ (x) of the Standard Model or of similar models by Ψ ̃ (x) D q j (m , m ′) where D q j (m , m ′) is an element of the (2 j + 1) -dimensional representation of the SLq(2) algebra, which is also the knot algebra. The new field is assumed to exist in two phases distinguished by two values of q : q e = e q and q g = g q which label the electroweak and magnetoweak phases, respectively. We assume that the observed leptons and quarks are mainly composed of e -preons and are in agreement with the observed charge spectrum of leptons and quarks. It is now proposed that there is also a g -phase where g -leptons and g -quarks are composed of mainly g -preons. It is assumed that the g -charge is very large compared to the e -charge and the mass of the g -charged particle is even larger since the mass of all of these particles is partially determined by the eigenvalues of D ̄ q j (m , m ′) D q j (m , m ′) , a polynomial in q , that multiplies the Higgs mass term and where q g q e = ℏ c e 2 2 ≈ (1 3 7) 2 . Since these values of q g / q e indicate that particles in the g -phase are much more massive, they should be harder to produce or to observe. Since the remote parts of the universe are at increasingly higher temperatures, magnetic poles are perhaps most likely to be found in deep probes of space as well as in high energy accelerators. The section entitled "Introduction" was added only after it was generally realized that the birth of the present universe was probably due to a nuclear explosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that, following the emergence of the first evidence for an expanding universe, Albert Einstein banished the cosmological constant term from his cosmology. Indeed, he is reputed to have labelled the term, originally introduced to the field equations of general relativity in 1917 in order to predict a static universe, his "biggest blunder." However, serious doubts about this reported statement have been raised in recent years. We interrogate the legend of Einstein's "biggest blunder" statement in the context of our recent studies of Einstein's cosmology in his later years. We find that the remark is highly compatible with Einstein's cosmic models of the 1930s, with his later writings on cosmology, and with independent reports by at least three physicists. We conclude that there is little doubt that Einstein came to view the introduction of the cosmological constant term as a serious error and that he very likely labelled the term his "biggest blunder" on at least one occasion. This finding may be of some relevance for those theoreticians today who seek to describe the recently discovered acceleration in cosmic expansion without the use of a cosmological constant term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our SLq(2) extension of the standard model is constructed by replacing the elementary field operators, , of the standard model by where is an element of the -dimensional representation of the SLq(2) algebra, which is also the knot algebra. The allowed quantum states are restricted by the topological conditions postulated between the states of the quantum knot and the corresponding classical knot where the are (the number of crossings, the writhe, the rotation) of the 2d projection of the corresponding oriented classical knot. Here, is an odd number that is required by the difference in parity between and . There is also the empirical restriction on the allowed states that holds at the level, connecting quantum trefoils with leptons and quarks . The so-constructed knotted leptons and quarks turn out to be composed of three particles which unexpectedly agree with the preon models of Harrari and Shupe. The particles, being electroweak neutral, are dark and plausibly greatly outnumber the quarks and leptons. The SLq(2) or measure of charge has a direct physical interpretation since is the total number of preonic charges while and are the numbers of writhe and rotation sources of preonic charge. The total SLq(2) charge of a particle, measured by writhe and rotation and composed of preons, sums the signs of the counterclockwise turns and clockwise turns that any energy-momentum current makes in going once around the knot. In this way, the handedness of the knot reduces charge to a geometric concept similar to the way that curvature of space-time encodes mass and energy. According to this model, the leptons and quarks are particles, the preons are particles, and the particles are candidates for dark matter. It is possible to understand as a simple deformation parameter or as the ratio of the electroweak to the gluon coupling constants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that the elementary particles might have the symmetry of knots has had a long history. In any modern formulation of this idea, however, the knot must be quantized. The present review is a summary of a small set of papers that began as an attempt to correlate the properties of quantized knots with empirical properties of the elementary particles. As the ideas behind these papers have developed over a number of years, the model has evolved, and this review is intended to present the model in its current form. The original picture of an elementary fermion as a solitonic knot of field, described by the trefoil representation of SUq(2), has expanded into its present form in which a knotted field is complementary to a composite structure composed of three preons that in turn are described by the fundamental representation of SLq(2). Higher representations of SLq(2) are interpreted as describing composite particles composed of three or more preons bound by a knotted field. This preon model unexpectedly agrees in important detail with the Harari-Shupe model. There is an associated Lagrangian dynamics capable in principle of describing the interactions and masses of the particles generated by the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composition of diesel exhaust has changed over the past decade due to the increased use of alternative fuels, like biodiesel, and to new regulations on diesel engine emissions. Given the changing nature of diesel fuels and diesel exhaust emissions, a need exists to understand the human health implications of switching to “cleaner” diesel engines run with particulate filters and engines run on alternative fuels like biodiesel. We exposed well-differentiated normal human bronchial epithelial cells to fresh, complete exhaust from a diesel engine run (1) with and without a diesel particulate filter and (2) using either traditional petro- or alternative biodiesel. Despite the lowered emissions in filter-treated exhaust (a 91–96% reduction in mass), significant increases in transcripts associated with oxidative stress and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon response were observed in all exposure groups and were not significantly different between exposure groups. Our results suggest that biodiesel and filter-treated diesel exhaust elicits as great, or greater a cellular response as unfiltered, traditional petrodiesel exhaust in a representative model of the bronchial epithelium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are suggestive experimental indications that the leptons, neutrinos, and quarks might be composite and that their structure is described by the quantum group SLq(2). Since the hypothetical preons must be very heavy relative to the masses of the leptons, neutrinos, and quarks, there must be a very strong binding field to permit these composite particles to form. Unfortunately there are no experiments direct enough to establish the order of magnitude needed to make the SLq(2) Lagrangian dynamics quantitative. It is possible, however, to parametrize the preon masses and interactions that would be necessary to stabilize the three particle composite representing the leptons, neutrinos, and quarks. In this note we examine possible parametrizations of the masses and the interactions of these hypothetical structures. We also note an alternative view of SLq(2) preons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses potential benefits and complications of induced hypothermia to treat various types of trauma. Topics discussed include myocardial and cerebral damages caused by injuries; uncontrolled hemorrhage; and the ischemia. In addition, reference is made to the use of hypothermia in cardiac, vascular, and neurosurgery.

It is shown that the four quantum trefoil solitons that are described by the irreducible representations ${\mathcal D}^{3/2}_{mm^\prime}$ of the quantum algebra SLq(2) [and that may be identified with the four families of elementary fermions (e, μ, τ; νeνμντ;d, s, b; u, c, t)] may be built out of three preons, chosen from two charged preons with charges (1/3, -1/3) and two neutral preons. These preons are fermions and are described by the ${\mathcal D}^{1/2}_{mm^\prime}$ representation of SLq(2). There are also four bosonic preons described by the ${\mathcal D}^1_{mm^\prime}$ and ${\mathcal D}^0_{00}$ representations of SLq(2). The knotted standard theory may be replicated at the preon level and the conjectured particles are in principle indirectly observable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a paradox that escapes most of the public and many law practitioners, pre- 1972 sound recordings are not eligible for federal copyright protection; rather, these sound recordings are protected by state law. While the protection afforded by federal copyright law is relatively clear, determining the scope of protection afforded by state law is a difficult, uncertain, and frequently fruitless endeavor. The legal distinction between pre-1972 and post-1972 sound recordings results in a patchwork scheme wherein the availability and strength of protection varies significantly from state to state. The inherent complications are magnified and exponentially compounded when sound recordings are digitally reproduced, distributed and used. This Note reviews the history of protection afforded to pre-1972 sound recordings, and advocates for the adoption of a uniform national protection scheme and an amendment to the Federal Copyright Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social constructionists believe that experimental evidence plays a minimal role in the production of scientific knowledge, while rationalists such as myself believe that experimental evidence is crucial in it. As one historical example in support of the rationalist position, I trace in some detail the theoretical and experimental research that led to our understanding of beta decay, from Enrico Fermi’s pioneering theory of 1934 to George Sudarshan and Robert Marshak’s and Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann’s suggestion in 1957 and 1958, respectively, of the V– A theory of weak interactions. This is not a history of an unbroken string of successes, but one that includes incorrect experimental results, incorrect experiment-theory comparisons, and faulty theoretical analyses. Nevertheless, we shall see that the constraints that Nature imposed made the V– A theory an almost inevitable outcome of this theoretical and experimental research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore a knot model of the elementary particles that is compatible with electroweak physics. The knots are quantized and their kinematic states are labeled by $D^j_{mm^\prime}$, irreducible representations of SUq(2), where j = N/2, m = w/2, m′ = (r+1)/2 and (N, w, r) designate respectively the number of crossings, the writhe, and the rotation of the knot. The knot quantum numbers (N, w, r) are related to the standard isotopic spin quantum numbers (t, t3, t0) by (t = N/6, t3 = -w/6, t0 = -(r+1)/6), where t0 is the hypercharge. In this model the elementary fermions are low lying states of the quantum trefoil (N = 3) and the gauge bosons are ditrefoils (N = 6). The fermionic knots interact by the emission and absorption of bosonic knots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A list of peer reviewers who contributed their time and expertise to the "Canadian Medical Association Journal" in 2006 is presented.

The q-electroweak theory suggests a description of elementary particles as solitons labeled by the irreducible representations of SUq(2). Since knots may also be labeled by the irreducible representations of SUq(2), we study a model of elementary particles based on a one-to-one correspondence between the four families of fermions (leptons, neutrinos, (-1/3) quarks, (2/3) quarks) and the four simplest knots (trefoils). In this model the three particles of each family are identified with the ground and first two excited states of their common trefoil. Guided by the standard electroweak theory, we calculate conditions restricting the masses of the fermions and the interactions between them. In its present form the model predicts a fourth generation of fermions as well as a neutrino spectrum. The same model with q ≅ 1 is compatible with the Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix. Depending on the test of these predictions, the model may be refined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We attempt to go beyond the standard electroweak theory by replacing SU(2) with its q-deformation: SUq(2). This step introduces new degrees of freedom that we interpret as indicative of nonlocality and as a possible basis for a solitonic model of the elementary particles. The solitons are conjectured to be knotted flux tubes labeled by the irreducible representations of SUq(2), an algebra which is not only closely related to the standard theory but also plays an underlying role in the description of knots. Each of the four families of elementary fermions is conjectured to be represented by one of the four possible trefoils. The three individual fermions belonging to any family are then assumed to occupy the three lowest states in the excitation spectrum of the trefoil for that family. One finds a not unreasonable variation of q among the lepton and quark families. The model in its present form predicts a fourth generation of fermions as well as a neutrino mass spectrum. The model may be refined depending on whether or not the fourth generation is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the replacement of SU(3) by SU[sub q](3) in standard gauge theories. At the level of a global theory there is a physically sensible SU[sub q](3) formalism with measurable differences from the SU(3) theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with large numbers of retirements, higher education institutions must hire many new faculty members in the near future. Drawing on the body of research on graduate education and the early career faculty experience, this article argues that the current preparation of aspiring faculty does not fully match the demands they are likely to face in the near future. The article concludes with recommendations for improving the preparation of the next generation of faculty members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine why common methodologies for determining 'religious architecture' do not account for the diverse and fluid ways in which religious behavior can be expressed. We focus on religious architecture from the Iron Age Southern Levant highlighting certain sites that 'fall through the cracks' of current taxonomies. We propose a different way of approaching evidence for religious practice in the archaeological record, viewing religion as one dimension of social action made visible along a spectrum of ritualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Grassmannian analogues of the Legendre polonomials are obtained from the corresponding Grassmannian Hermite multinomials. The generating function, recurrence relations, and differential equation are given. In contrast to the Hermitian case there is no Berezin weight function that orthogonalizes these functions. Generalizations to the Tchebyscheff and Gegenbauer cases are also possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is no empirical motivation for replacing the commutators of dynamically conjugate operators in quantum mechanics by q-commutators, it appears possible to construct a consistent mathematical formulism based on this idea. To examine such a possibility further, we have studied the relation of this proposal to the Schwinger action principle, since the entire quantum mechanical formulism may be inferred from this principle. In particular, we have discussed the quantum transformation theory within this framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]