Cosmology With Non-Minimally Coupled K-Field

We consider non-minimally coupled (with gravity) scalar field with non-canonical kinetic energy. The form of the kinetic term is of Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) form.We study the early evolution of the universe when it is sourced only by the k-field, as well as late time evolution when both the matter and k-field are present. For the k-field, we have considered constant potential as well as potential inspired from Boundary String Field Theory (B-SFT). We show that it is possible to have inflationary solution in early time as well as late time accelerating phase. The solutions also exhibit attractor property in a sense that it does not depend on the initial conditions for a certain values of the parameters.Comment: 10 pages, Revtex style, 14 eps figures, to appear in General Relativity and Gravitatio

Calculation of the Flux of Atmospheric Neutrinos

Atmospheric neutrino-fluxes are calculated over the wide energy range from 30 MeV to 3,000 GeV for the study of neutrino-physics using the data from underground neutrino-detectors. The atmospheric muon-flux at high altitude and at sea level is studied to calibrate the neutrino-fluxes at low energies and high energies respectively. The agreement of our calculation with observations is satisfactory. The uncertainty of atmospheric neutrino-fluxes is also studied.Comment: 51 page

Influence of visual feedback and speed on micromanipulation accuracy

10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5333996Proceedings of the 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society: Engineering the Future of Biomedicine, EMBC 20091188-119

Epigenome-wide association study of body mass index, and the adverse outcomes of adiposity

Approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide are overweight or affected by obesity, and are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and related metabolic and inflammatory disturbances. Although the mechanisms linking adiposity to associated clinical conditions are poorly understood, recent studies suggest that adiposity may influence DNA methylation, a key regulator of gene expression and molecular phenotype. Here we use epigenome-wide association to show that body mass index (BMI; a key measure of adiposity) is associated with widespread changes in DNA methylation (187 genetic loci with P < 1 × 10 -7, range P = 9.2 × 10 -8 to 6.0 × 10 -46; n = 10,261 samples). Genetic association analyses demonstrate that the alterations in DNA methylation are predominantly the consequence of adiposity, rather than the cause. We find that methylation loci are enriched for functional genomic features in multiple tissues (P < 0.05), and show that sentinel methylation markers identify gene expression signatures at 38 loci (P < 9.0 × 10 -6, range P = 5.5 × 10 -6 to 6.1 × 10 -35, n = 1,785 samples). The methylation loci identify genes involved in lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, substrate transport and inflammatory pathways. Finally, we show that the disturbances in DNA methylation predict future development of type 2 diabetes (relative risk per 1 standard deviation increase in methylation risk score: 2.3 (2.07-2.56); P = 1.1 × 10 -54). Our results provide new insights into the biologic pathways influen

Trans-ancestry genome-wide association study identifies 12 genetic loci influencing blood pressure and implicates a role for DNA methylation

We carried out a trans-ancestry genome-wide association and replication study of blood pressure phenotypes among up to 320,251 individuals of East Asian, European and South Asian ancestry. We find genetic variants at 12 new loci to be associated with blood pressure (P = 3.9 × 10 -11 to 5.0 × 10 -21). The sentinel blood pressure SNPs are enriched for association with DNA methylation at multiple nearby CpG sites, suggesting that, at some of the loci identified, DNA methylation may lie on the regulatory pathway linking sequence variation to blood pressure. The sentinel SNPs at the 12 new loci point to genes involved in vascular smooth muscle (IGFBP3, KCNK3, PDE3A and PRDM6) and renal (ARHGAP24, OSR1, SLC22A7 and TBX2) function. The new and known genetic variants predict increased left ventricular mass, circulating levels of NT-proBNP, and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality (P = 0.04 to 8.6 × 10 -6). Our results provide new evidence for the role of DNA methylation in blood pressure regulation