Use of medicinal plants in traditional health care practices: A case study in Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda District, Punjab (India)

A comprehensive study was conducted to document the available medicinal plants and their traditional applications among the local people from July 2018 to June 2019 in Talwandi Sabo town of Bathinda District of Punjab. Purposive sampling method was used to select traditional medicinal practitioners of the study area. A semi-structured questionnaire was prepared and personal interviews were conducted to gather firsthand information about ethno-medicinal plants. Analysis of data revealed the use of 88 medicinal plant species belonging to 77 genera and 42 families for the treatment of about 60 ailments. The highest number of plants were used for gastrointestinal problems, skin problems followed by respiratory diseases, skeletomuscular diseases and dental problems. Traditional healers are still playing a great role in the primary health care system of Talwandi Sabo. Some practitioners were ensuring the 100% results of their formulations against many serious diseases. Further, the scientific validation of these formulations should be done for getting new alternative medicines against these diseases

STUDY OF ELECTROLYTES AND LIVER FUNCTION TESTS IN CHRONIC ALCOHOLISM

Objective: Alcohol abuse is considered one of the major health issue in India, which can impair the electrolyte balance in chronic patient of alcoholism. In the present study, investigation has been conducted to estimate the levels of calcium, magnesium, SGOT, SGPT, total protein and urea in the chronic alcoholic patients and their comparison was determined with normal healthy controls.Methods: A total of 50 male alcoholics consuming variable amount of alcohol from more than past 5 years in the age frame of 30–70 years were taken. Equal number of age-matched normal healthy individuals without the family history of any disease served as controls. Levels of magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), and other biochemicals, namely urea and total protein, transaminases, namely serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase and serum glutamate pyruvic transaminase were estimated colorimetrically in all the subjects consuming variable amount of alcohol.Results: Alcoholics were found to have lower magnesium, calcium, and total protein levels as compared to non-alcoholics, whereas transaminases were higher in alcoholics, predicting hepatocytes injury. Catalytic activity of alcohol dehydrogenase produced highly reactive acetaldehyde forming adducts with membrane proteins, leading to organ damage. Alcohol disturbed the electrolytes balance produced hypomagnesia and hypocalcemia and severely affected liver function tests.Conclusion: Magnesium levels and other related parameters could be considered as diagnostic predictors of alcohol-related toxicity. Age advances the alcohol-related health consequences, and this could be due to the cumulative effect of reduced intestinal absorption, dietary deficiencies, and alcohol toxicity

Effect of fungicidal contamination on survival, morphology, and cellular immunity of Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Pesticide residues have been reported in hive-stored products for long periods. Larvae of honey bees experience oral or contact exposure to these products during their normal growth and development inside the cells. We analyzed various toxicological, morphogenic, and immunological effects of residue-based concentrations of two fungicides, captan and difenoconazole, on the larvae of worker honey bees, Apis mellifera. Selected concentrations (0.08, 0.4, 2, 10, and 50 ppm) of both fungicides were applied topically at a volume of 1 µL/larva/cell as single and multiple exposures. Our results revealed a continuous, concentration-dependent decrease in brood survival after 24 h of treatment to the capping and emergence stages. Compared to larvae with a single exposure, the multiply exposed youngest larvae were most sensitive to fungicidal toxicity. The larvae that survived higher concentrations, especially multiple exposures, showed several morphological defects at the adult stage. Moreover, difenoconazole-treated larvae showed a significantly decreased number of granulocytes after 1 h of treatment followed by an increase after 24 h of treatment. Thus, fungicidal contamination poses a great risk as the tested concentrations showed adverse effects on the survival, morphology, and immunity of larval honey bees

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Search for new particles in events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for new particles produced at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV, using events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb(-1), collected in 2017-2018 with the CMS detector. Machine learning techniques are used to define separate categories for events with narrow jets from initial-state radiation and events with large-radius jets consistent with a hadronic decay of a W or Z boson. A statistical combination is made with an earlier search based on a data sample of 36 fb(-1), collected in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the standard model background expectation determined from control samples in data. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on the branching fraction of an invisible decay of the Higgs boson, as well as constraints on simplified models of dark matter, on first-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to quarks and neutrinos, and on models with large extra dimensions. Several of the new limits, specifically for spin-1 dark matter mediators, pseudoscalar mediators, colored mediators, and leptoquarks, are the most restrictive to date.Peer reviewe

Combined searches for the production of supersymmetric top quark partners in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on themodel, the combined result excludes a top squarkmass up to 1325 GeV for amassless neutralino, and a neutralinomass up to 700 GeV for a top squarkmass of 1150 GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295 GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100 GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30 GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative signal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420 GeV

Probing effective field theory operators in the associated production of top quarks with a Z boson in multilepton final states at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the W gamma Production Cross Section in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=13 TeV and Constraints on Effective Field Theory Coefficients

A fiducial cross section for W gamma production in proton-proton collisions is measured at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 137 fb(-1) of data collected using the CMS detector at the LHC. The W -> e nu and mu nu decay modes are used in a maximum-likelihood fit to the lepton-photon invariant mass distribution to extract the combined cross section. The measured cross section is compared with theoretical expectations at next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics. In addition, 95% confidence level intervals are reported for anomalous triple-gauge couplings within the framework of effective field theory.Peer reviewe

Performance of the CMS muon trigger system in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

The muon trigger system of the CMS experiment uses a combination of hardware and software to identify events containing a muon. During Run 2 (covering 2015-2018) the LHC achieved instantaneous luminosities as high as 2 × 10 cm s while delivering proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV. The challenge for the trigger system of the CMS experiment is to reduce the registered event rate from about 40 MHz to about 1 kHz. Significant improvements important for the success of the CMS physics program have been made to the muon trigger system via improved muon reconstruction and identification algorithms since the end of Run 1 and throughout the Run 2 data-taking period. The new algorithms maintain the acceptance of the muon triggers at the same or even lower rate throughout the data-taking period despite the increasing number of additional proton-proton interactions in each LHC bunch crossing. In this paper, the algorithms used in 2015 and 2016 and their improvements throughout 2017 and 2018 are described. Measurements of the CMS muon trigger performance for this data-taking period are presented, including efficiencies, transverse momentum resolution, trigger rates, and the purity of the selected muon sample. This paper focuses on the single- and double-muon triggers with the lowest sustainable transverse momentum thresholds used by CMS. The efficiency is measured in a transverse momentum range from 8 to several hundred GeV

Search for top squark production in fully hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search for production of the supersymmetric partners of the top quark, top squarks, is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision events containing multiple jets, no leptons, and large transverse momentum imbalance. The data were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1). The targeted signal production scenarios are direct and gluino-mediated top squark production, including scenarios in which the top squark and neutralino masses are nearly degenerate. The search utilizes novel algorithms based on deep neural networks that identify hadronically decaying top quarks and W bosons, which are expected in many of the targeted signal models. No statistically significant excess of events is observed relative to the expectation from the standard model, and limits on the top squark production cross section are obtained in the context of simplified supersymmetric models for various production and decay modes. Exclusion limits as high as 1310 GeVare established at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the top squark for direct top squark production models, and as high as 2260 GeV on the mass of the gluino for gluino-mediated top squark production models. These results represent a significant improvement over the results of previous searches for supersymmetry by CMS in the same final state.Peer reviewe