Phase Transition in a Long Range Antiferromagnetic Model

We consider an Ising model where longitudinal components of every pair of spins have antiferromagnetic interaction of the same magnitude. When subjected to a transverse magnetic field at zero temperature, the system undergoes a phase transition of second order to an ordered phase and if the temperature is now increased, there is another phase transition to disordered phase. We provide derivation of these features by perturbative treatment up to the second order and argue that the results are non-trivial and not derivable from the known results about related models.Comment: 3 page

Dangerous bifurcation at border collision: when does it occur?

It has been shown recently that border collision bifurcation in a piecewise smooth map can lead to a situation where a fixed point remains stable at both sides of the bifurcation point, and yet the orbit becomes unbounded at the point of bifurcation because the basin of attraction of the stable fixed point shrinks to zero size. Such bifurcations have been named "dangerous bifurcations". In this paper we provide explanation of this phenomenon, and develop the analytical conditions on the parameters under which such dangerous bifurcations will occur

Rhizospheric soil of Typha angustifolia L. from heavy metal contaminated and free sites: Comparative profiling reveals selective abundance of γ-proteobacteria and β-proteobacteria

733-740Typha angustifolia L. commonly called Lesser bulrush or Narrowleaf cattail, is one of the most predominant flora of the heavy metal enriched wetland of Jaduguda Uranium mine tailings, India. The luxurious growth of this plant is due to its ability to tolerate heavy metals, such as iron and manganese.This plant also grows abundantly in natural wetlands of Kolkata. Rhizospheric eubacterial community of Typha growing in Jaduguda and Kolkata were compared by cloning of 16SrDNA sequences followed by ARDRA (Amplified rDNA Restriction Analysis) and sequencing of unique clusters. Sequencing results were subjected to computational analysis. In the natural wetland of Kolkata, the predominant group of eubacteria was found to be β-proteobacteria, which isabsent in heavy metal enriched wetland of Jaduguda where γ-proteobacteria was found to be predominant. The data was statistically validated using a simple χ2 test which established the diversity of the populations in context to the bioavailability of heavy metals

Local social support mitigates depression among women contending with spousal violence and husband’s risky drinking in Mumbai slum communities

BACKGROUND: Women living in slum communities in India too often contend with depression. Local social support in other national contexts has been shown to reduce such risks. Less research in this area has been done in India and specifically with monogamous wives. METHODS: This study involved a household sample of women reporting husband's partner violence or heavy alcohol use (N=220). Participants were assessed on high social support in the community, and number of depressed days in the past 30 days (dichotomized as 10+ vs<10 days). Logistic regression analyses assessed associations between local social support and depression, adjusting for demographics, spousal violence, and husband risky alcohol use. RESULTS: High local social support was reported by 40% of women; 33% reported never having local social support. Women with high local social support were significantly less likely to report depression (AOR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.30–0.94), even after adjusting for husbands’ recent spousal violence perpetration and his risky alcohol use, both of which were also significantly associated with depression. LIMITATIONS: The data analyzed for this study are vulnerable to self-report and recall biases, as well as issues around social desirability. These analyses are further limited due to the use of single item measures to assess depression and local social support. CONCLUSIONS: Local social support reduces risk for depression among women in Mumbai contending with husbands’ spousal violence and risky alcohol use. These findings support the likely utility of community-based social support building to reduce risk for depression among this vulnerable population of women