Current understanding on venous leg ulcer

Venous leg ulcer (VLU) or stasis ulcer is a relatively common, chronic and recurring problem. Besides being costly to the health-care system, it significantly impairs the quality of life of the patients. Nearly 1% of adults and 3.6% of older patients are reported to suffer from this chronic condition. Chronic venous insufficiency is considered to be the predominant cause of VLU. The most recent theories associate the pathogenesis of venous ulcer with microcirculatory abnormalities and generation of an inflammatory response. The pharmacological treatment for VLU is based on the pathogenesis and often includes diosmin, pentoxifylline, diuretics as well as antibiotics and the non-pharmacological treatment like compression and skin grafting. VLU has a high rate of recurrence and requires self-care to avoid relapse. Treatment of VLU should always focus for complete treatment, and improve quality of life for patients along with minimum relapse. In recent years novel therapeutic approaches for venous ulcers have offered valuable tools for the management of patients with this disorder

Comparative clinical profile of patients of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) with and without Metabolic Syndrome: a prospective observational study

Background: Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is one of common disorder in men of old age group. The pathogenesis of BPH is multi-factorial and still not been fully elucidated. There are numerous reports which suggest possible link between several metabolic alterations known as Metabolic Syndrome. In the present study, the aim was to establish relation between Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia and Metabolic Syndrome and to find out effects of therapeutic intervention of Metabolic Syndrome on prostatic parameters.Methods: 93 patients of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia enrolled who met qualifying criteria for inclusion in study and divided into three groups on the basis of Metabolic Syndrome and its treatment administered. Administration of alpha adrenergic blocker was common to all patients of all groups. Metabolic parameters including Fasting blood glucose, High-density lipoprotein (HDL), Triglycerides (TGs), waist circumference and prostatic parameters that is prostate volume, prostate specific antigen (PSA), uroflometry, International prostate symptom score (IPSS) were assessed at baseline, after 3 and 6 months follow-up. Further appropriate statistical tests were applied for comparison of parameters among groups.Results: Patients receiving no treatment for Metabolic Syndrome were having most deranged prostatic parameters as compared to patients without Metabolic Syndrome or patients with Metabolic Syndrome receiving treatment for same. Further patients receiving treatment for Metabolic Syndrome and alpha adrenergic blocker were having better clinical profile than patients of alpha adrenergic blocker alone.Conclusions: These findings show probable link between Metabolic Syndrome and worse prostatic profile. Metabolic Syndrome must be looked for and treated in patients of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia. Metabolic derangements must not be overlooked and must be treated accordingly

X-ray Intraday Variability of HBL Blazars with XMM-Newton

We present an extensive study on the X-ray intraday variability of ten TeV-emitting high synchrotron peaked blazars (HBLs): 1ES 0229+200, 1ES 0414+009, PKS 0548-322, 1ES 1101-232, 1H 1219+301, H 1426+428, Mrk 501, 1ES 1959+650, PKS 2005-489, and 1ES 2344+514 made with twenty-five XMM-Newton pointed observations during its operational period. Intraday variability has been estimated in three energy bands: soft (0.3--2 keV), hard (2--10 keV) and total (0.3--10 keV). Although seven out of these ten TeV HBLs exhibited some intraday variability at three-sigma levels no major variations exceeding six percent were detected. We explored the spectral properties of the sample by extracting the hardness ratio from the soft and hard bands; no significant variations in the hardness ratio were observed in any source. We performed power spectral density analyses on the variable light-curves by fitting power-laws, yielding slopes lying in the range from 1.11 to 2.93 for different HBLs. We briefly discuss possible emission mechanisms and carry out rough estimates for magnetic fields, electron Lorentz factors and emission region sizes for seven of these HBLs.Comment: Accepeted for publication in ApJ, 33 pages, 14 figures, 5 table

Complete Anatomy of B -> K*ll and its angular distribution

We present a complete and optimal set of observables for the exclusive 4-body B meson decay B -> K*(->K pi) l+l- in the low dilepton mass region, that contains a maximal number of clean observables. This basis of observables is built in a systematic way. We show that all the previously defined observables and any observable that one can construct, can be expressed as a function of this basis. This set of observables contains all the information that can be extracted from the angular distribution in the cleanest possible way. We provide explicit expressions for the full and the uniangular distributions in terms of this basis. The conclusions presented here can be easily extended to the large-q^2 region. We study the sensitivity of the observables to right-handed currents and scalars. Finally, we present for the first time all the symmetries of the full distribution including massive terms and scalar contributions.Comment: 37 pages, 12 Figures. Corrected typo in Eqs. (29) and (44). Results and conclusions unchange

Multi-band optical-NIR variability of blazars on diverse timescales

To search for optical variability on a wide range of timescales, we have carried out photometric monitoring of two flat spectrum radio quasars, 3C 454.3 and 3C 279, plus one BL Lac, S5 0716+714, all of which have been exhibiting remarkably high activity and pronounced variability at all wavelengths. CCD magnitudes in B, V, R and I pass-bands were determined for $\sim$ 7000 new optical observations from 114 nights made during 2011 - 2014, with an average length of $\sim$ 4 h each, at seven optical telescopes: four in Bulgaria, one in Greece, and two in India. We measured multiband optical flux and colour variations on diverse timescales. Discrete correlation functions were computed among B, V, R, and I observations, to search for any time delays. We found weak correlations in some cases with no significant time lags. The structure function method was used to estimate any characteristic time-scales of variability. We also investigated the spectral energy distribution of the three blazars using B, V, R, I, J and K pass-band data. We found that the sources almost always follows a bluer-when-brighter trend. We discuss possible physical causes of the observed spectral variability.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 16 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables, plus supplementary material containing additional figures and tables (please contact authors for it

New Physics in b -> s mu+ mu-: CP-Conserving Observables

We perform a comprehensive study of the impact of new-physics operators with different Lorentz structures on decays involving the b -> s mu+ mu- transition. We examine the effects of new vector-axial vector (VA), scalar-pseudoscalar (SP) and tensor (T) interactions on the differential branching ratios and forward-backward asymmetries (A_{FB}'s) of Bsbar -> mu+ mu-, Bdbar -> Xs mu+ mu-, Bsbar -> mu+ mu- gamma, Bdbar -> Kbar mu+ mu-, and Bdbar -> K* mu+ mu-, taking the new-physics couplings to be real. In Bdbar -> K* mu+ mu-, we further explore the polarization fraction f_L, the angular asymmetry A_T^{(2)}, and the longitudinal-transverse asymmetry A_{LT}. We identify the Lorentz structures that would significantly impact these observables, providing analytical arguments in terms of the contributions from the individual operators and their interference terms. In particular, we show that while the new VA operators can significantly enhance most of the asymmetries beyond the Standard Model predictions, the SP and T operators can do this only for A_{FB} in Bdbar -> Kbar mu+ mu-.Comment: 54 pages, JHEP format, 45 figures (included). 5/6/2013: typos in K* mu mu angular coefficients corrected, typos in Eq. (D.12) corrected, added a missing term in I3LT in Eq. (D.16). Numerical analysis unchange

Complementarity of Semileptonic BB to K2∗(1430)K_2^*(1430) and K∗(892)K^*(892) Decays in the Standard Model with Fourth Generation

The $B\rightarrow K_{2}^{\ast}(1430)l^{+}l^{-}$ $(l=\mu,\tau)$ decays are analyzed in the Standard Model extended to fourth generation of quarks (SM4). The decay rate, forward-backward asymmetry, lepton polarization asymmetries and the helicity fractions of the final state $K^{*}_{2}(1430)$ meson are obtained using the form factors calculated in the light cone sum rules (LCSR) approach. We have utilized the constraints on different fourth generation parameters obtained from the experimental information on $K$, $B$ and $D$ decays and from the electroweak precision data to explore their impact on the $B\rightarrow K_{2}^{\ast}(1430)l^{+}l^{-}$ decay. We find that the values of above mentioned physical observables deviate deviate significantly from their minimal SM predications. We also identify a number of correlations between various observables in $B\rightarrow K_{2}^{\ast}(1430)l^{+}l^{-}$ and $B\rightarrow K^{\ast}(892)l^{+}l^{-}$ decays. Therefore a combined analysis of these two decays will compliment each other in the searches of SM4 effects in flavor physics.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figure

New-physics contributions to the forward-backward asymmetry in B -> K* mu+ mu-

We study the forward-backward asymmetry (AFB) and the differential branching ratio (DBR) in B -> K* mu+ mu- in the presence of new physics (NP) with different Lorentz structures. We consider NP contributions from vector-axial vector (VA), scalar-pseudoscalar (SP), and tensor (T) operators, as well as their combinations. We calculate the effects of these new Lorentz structures in the low-q^2 and high-q^2 regions, and explain their features through analytic approximations. We find two mechanisms that can give a significant deviation from the standard-model predictions, in the direction indicated by the recent measurement of AFB by the Belle experiment. They involve the addition of the following NP operators: (i) VA, or (ii) a combination of SP and T (slightly better than T alone). These two mechanisms can be distinguished through measurements of DBR in B -> K* mu+ mu- and AFB in B -> K mu+ mu-.Comment: 33 pages, revtex, 9 figures. Paper originally submitted with the wrong figures. This is corrected in the replacement. An incorrect factor of 2 found in a formula. This is corrected and figures modified. Conclusions unchanged. Typos correcte