Inflation with an antisymmetric tensor field

We investigate the possibility of inflation with models of antisymmetric tensor field having minimal and nonminimal couplings to gravity. Although the minimal model does not support inflation, the nonminimal models, through the introduction of a nonminimal coupling to gravity, can give rise to stable de-Sitter solutions with a bound on the coupling parameters. The values of field and coupling parameters are sub-planckian. Slow roll analysis is performed and slow-roll parameters are defined which can give the required number of e-folds for sufficient inflation. Stability analysis has been performed for perturbations to antisymmetric field while keeping the metric unperturbed, and it is found that only the sub-horizon modes are free of ghost instability for de-Sitter space.Comment: 10 pages; minor correction to the claim of Sec. IV; to appear in EPJ

Heller-Döhle Syndrome: A Rare Case of Syphilitic Aortitis with Calified Ascending Aortic Aneurysm in an Elderly Lady

Background: Tertiary syphilis with cardiovascular complications are a rarity in the antibiotic era in developed nations although diagnoses of syphilitic aortitis is not uncommon in developing countries. It usually presents in the 4th to 5th decade of life and is unusual in the elderly. Aortic aneurysms and aortic regurgitation due to aortic root dilatation is the usual presentation. Nevertheless, it can remain undetected for the duration of its latent period which may extend upto 40 years and is often diagnosed on routine evaluation.Presentation of Case: We report a case of an 82 year old south indian lady who presented with clinical features of aortic regurgitation who was found to have a large calcified ascending aortic aneurysm with no neurological manifestations.Conclusion: We discuss the diagnostic challenge due to the unusually long latent period in our patient, the epidemiologic concerns, treatment options and possible complications

Physical Activity Related Risk Factor Assessment for Altered Drug Pharmacokinetics in Human Population

The study examined the intensity of an individual’s physical activity by using self administered International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form 7 (IPAQ-SF7) as a measuring tool and assessed its impact on the various body physiological functions likely to alter drug pharmacokinetic processes. The study was conducted in normal, subjects inhabited at different regions in India, with the translated versions of IPAQ-SF7 in Hindi and Tamil languages found the high intensities of vigorous, moderate activities and walking and showed excellent reproducibility as similar as it has been studied in different population worldwide. The resting state systolic and diastolic blood pressures, heart rate and respiratory rate were significantly higher in the subjects. The diaphragmatic breathing pattern was found used by majority of the subjects. The energy utilization of the subjects on their physical activity was obtained in high Metabolic Equivalence of Task (METs) minutes per week. Thus significance in the physiological parameters was strong enough to alter the pharmacokinetics of drugs whose metabolism and elimination are primarily dependent on renal function. This results which will be helpful in optimizing and selecting the drug doses for the people under extreme physical activity with less oxygen consumption in muscles, low level of respiratory rates and high energy utilization in their body

Anti diabetic effect of ethanolic extract of leaves of Ocimum sanctum in alloxan induced diabetes in rats

Background: Diabetes mellitus refers to a group of common metabolic disorders that share the phenotype of hyperglycemia resulting from defects of reduced insulin secretion, decreased glucose utilization and increase in glucose production. It is estimated that there are currently 285 million people worldwide and this number is set to increase to 438 million by the year 2030. India has the highest number of patients with known diabetes worldwide, with a prevalence of 11.6%. The aim of the study was to evaluate the anti diabetic activity of ethanolic extract of leaves of plant Ocimum sanctum in alloxan induced diabetes in rats.Methods: The study was conducted on 4 groups of 6 rats each to evaluate the hypoglycaemic effect of ethanolic extract of Ocimum sanctum. Glibenclamide was used as a standard drug and the results were compared in reference to it. Tween 80 was given for both normal and diabetic control groups. The fasting blood sugar levels were recorded on 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th days by glucometer.Results: The results indicate that the test compound ethanolic extract of Ocimum sanctum has significant and sustained oral hypoglycaemic activity, comparable with the hypoglycaemic effect of glibenclamide, a sulfonylurea.Conclusion: The hypoglycaemic potential of the test compound is found to be comparable with that of the standard drug glibenclamide

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Using design provocations to investigate user engagement in online communities

This paper investigates user engagement in online communities using design provocations. These provocations aimed to stimulate feedback and gather discussion from members of the online community, Upbeater society. The design process consisted of preliminary interviews which gathered user insights, after which five design provocations following a Research through Design methodology were created using the insights and related work, and these provocations were used to provoke discussions and insights from the members. The discussions from the study indicated the possibility to move beyond the online space of the community, a need to examine power dynamics existing in the communities and the potential of the provocations to study attributes that could act as facilitators or constraints of the online communities. This study also suggested that design fictions could be a useful tool for researchers analysing engagement in online communities. Denna uppsats undersöker användarengagemang i online communities, eller på svenska online-gemenskaper, med hjälp av designprovokationer. Syftet med provokationerna var att uppmuntra feedback och samla diskussionspunkter från medlemmar i online-gemenskapen Upbeater Society. Designprocessen bestod av preliminära intervjuer för att samla insikter om användarna, varefter fem designprovokationer influerade av insikterna samt tidigare studier skapades med hjälp av en Research through Design-metodik. Dessa provokationer användes sedan för att uppmana diskussion och nya insikter från medlemmarna. Diskussionerna från studien pekar på möjligheten att gå bortom gemenskapens online-miljö, behovet av att undersöka maktdynamik som finns i online communities samt potentialen hos designprovokationer för att studera attribut som antingen kan underlätta eller begränsa för online-gemenskaper. Studien föreslår också att designfiktioner kan vara ett användbart verktyg för att analysera användareengagemang i online-communities

Using design provocations to investigate user engagement in online communities

This paper investigates user engagement in online communities using design provocations. These provocations aimed to stimulate feedback and gather discussion from members of the online community, Upbeater society. The design process consisted of preliminary interviews which gathered user insights, after which five design provocations following a Research through Design methodology were created using the insights and related work, and these provocations were used to provoke discussions and insights from the members. The discussions from the study indicated the possibility to move beyond the online space of the community, a need to examine power dynamics existing in the communities and the potential of the provocations to study attributes that could act as facilitators or constraints of the online communities. This study also suggested that design fictions could be a useful tool for researchers analysing engagement in online communities. Denna uppsats undersöker användarengagemang i online communities, eller på svenska online-gemenskaper, med hjälp av designprovokationer. Syftet med provokationerna var att uppmuntra feedback och samla diskussionspunkter från medlemmar i online-gemenskapen Upbeater Society. Designprocessen bestod av preliminära intervjuer för att samla insikter om användarna, varefter fem designprovokationer influerade av insikterna samt tidigare studier skapades med hjälp av en Research through Design-metodik. Dessa provokationer användes sedan för att uppmana diskussion och nya insikter från medlemmarna. Diskussionerna från studien pekar på möjligheten att gå bortom gemenskapens online-miljö, behovet av att undersöka maktdynamik som finns i online communities samt potentialen hos designprovokationer för att studera attribut som antingen kan underlätta eller begränsa för online-gemenskaper. Studien föreslår också att designfiktioner kan vara ett användbart verktyg för att analysera användareengagemang i online-communities