Studying Three Phase Supply in School

The power distribution of nearly all major countries have accepted 3-phase distribution as a standard. With increasing power requirements of instrumentation today even a small physics laboratory requires 3-phase supply. While physics students are given an introduction of this in passing, no experiment work is done with 3-phase supply due to the sheer possibility of accidents while working with such large powers. We believe a conceptual understanding of 3-phase supply would be useful for physics students with hands on experience using a simple circuit that can be assembled even in a high school laboratorys

Antibody-mediated targeting of liposomes to red cells in vivo

Covalent attachment of anti-rat erythrocyte F(ab')2 to liposomes specifically enhanced their binding to rat erythrocytes in vivo and reduced their uptake by the liver. Furthermore, at least 20-30% of the cell-bound liposomes delivered their contents to the cells. Besides, the liposome binding did not affect the survival time of the target cells at least up to 3 h in the blood circulation. These results demonstrate for the first time that liposomes can be successfully targeted to cells other than liver cells in vivo

Sleep, Sleepiness and Medical College Students: A Comparative Study among Medical and Paramedical Students of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital from a West Indian Metropolitan City

Background: Behavioural, physiological and neurocognitive processes occur during sleep which can be impaired by the absence of sleep. Accommodation and travelling stress can additionally compromise sleep duration along with the demanding curriculum. Aim: To compare sleep quality and quantity of medical versus paramedical and hostellers versus day scholar students of a Medical college in a metropolitan city. Subjects and Methods: Validated questionnaires (PSQI, ESS and Sleep 50) along with sleep diary and demographic sheet were used to study sleep duration, daytime sleepiness and sleep associated problems in 271 students of medical and paramedical course. Results: Study group included MBBS (76.4%, 207/271) and OT/ PT (23.6%, 64/271) students. Average (SD) sleep duration for MBBS students was 6:38 hrs (52 minutes) and of OT/PT students was 7 hrs (46 minutes). Short sleepers were 47.9% (130/271) students with 21% (57/271) sleeping <6 hours per day. Travel time of Hostellers was a maximum 40 minutes while day scholars was up to 4 hours/day. Poor sleep quality was reported by 20.7% students and Excessive Day time Sleepiness (ESS) by 24.4% students. More number of MBBS day scholars reported poor sleep quality and ESS than the hostellers. No student reported any sleep disturbance. Conclusion: The pressure of first year curriculum, transition to medical curriculum coupled with long and strenuous travel time take a toll on the sleep physiology of the medical students. College authorities have a limited role in this as a metropolitan city is saturated in terms of accommodation facilities. It is a social, academic and administrative problem.Keywords: PSQI, ESS, Sleep-50, Sleep quality, Sleep duratio

Comparison of thoracic segmental spinal anaesthesia and lumbar spinal anaesthesia for percutaneous nephrolithotomy

Background: Randomised controlled study aimed to compare low thoracic segmental spinal anesthesia (TSSA) and conventional lumbar spinal anesthesia (LSA) in percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). Methods: Sixty adult patients undergoing elective PCNL were randomly assigned to two groups: T (TSSA) and L (LSA). Group T received TSSA (isobaric ropivacaine 0.75% 2.5 ml with dexmedetomidine 6mcg) at T10-T12, while Group L received LSA (hyperbaric ropivacaine 0.75% 4 ml with dexmedetomidine 6mcg) at L2-L4. Primary objectives of our study was to evaluate the feasibility and safety of TSSA for PCNL and to compare hemodynamic changes, block onset, and duration, and adverse effects. Secondary objectives were time to rescue analgesia, patient, and surgeon satisfaction. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Results: All patients underwent surgery successfully under neuraxial anesthesia. Group T exhibited more stable hemodynamics with a significantly lower hypotension incidence compared to Group L (3.33% vs. 26.66%, p=0.03). Onset of sensory and motor block was quicker in the TSSA group (p<0.001) upper. Sensory block levels were T6 for both groups, but lower level in TSSA was levels L2 and L3, while LSA impacted all segments below T6. No neurological complications occurred, particularly in Group T, which had higher satisfaction scores from surgeons and patients. Conclusions: TSSA is a safe and effective option for PCNL, providing better hemodynamic stability with lesser incidence of and reducing intra-operative hypotension compared to conventional LSA

Leishmania donovani Isolates with Antimony-Resistant but Not -Sensitive Phenotype Inhibit Sodium Antimony Gluconate-Induced Dendritic Cell Activation

The inability of sodium antimony gluconate (SAG)-unresponsive kala-azar patients to clear Leishmania donovani (LD) infection despite SAG therapy is partly due to an ill-defined immune-dysfunction. Since dendritic cells (DCs) typically initiate anti-leishmanial immunity, a role for DCs in aberrant LD clearance was investigated. Accordingly, regulation of SAG-induced activation of murine DCs following infection with LD isolates exhibiting two distinct phenotypes such as antimony-resistant (SbRLD) and antimony-sensitive (SbSLD) was compared in vitro. Unlike SbSLD, infection of DCs with SbRLD induced more IL-10 production and inhibited SAG-induced secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, up-regulation of co-stimulatory molecules and leishmanicidal effects. SbRLD inhibited these effects of SAG by blocking activation of PI3K/AKT and NF-κB pathways. In contrast, SbSLD failed to block activation of SAG (20 µg/ml)-induced PI3K/AKT pathway; which continued to stimulate NF-κB signaling, induce leishmanicidal effects and promote DC activation. Notably, prolonged incubation of DCs with SbSLD also inhibited SAG (20 µg/ml)-induced activation of PI3K/AKT and NF-κB pathways and leishmanicidal effects, which was restored by increasing the dose of SAG to 40 µg/ml. In contrast, SbRLD inhibited these SAG-induced events regardless of duration of DC exposure to SbRLD or dose of SAG. Interestingly, the inhibitory effects of isogenic SbSLD expressing ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter MRPA on SAG-induced leishmanicidal effects mimicked that of SbRLD to some extent, although antimony resistance in clinical LD isolates is known to be multifactorial. Furthermore, NF-κB was found to transcriptionally regulate expression of murine γglutamylcysteine synthetase heavy-chain (mγGCShc) gene, presumably an important regulator of antimony resistance. Importantly, SbRLD but not SbSLD blocked SAG-induced mγGCS expression in DCs by preventing NF-κB binding to the mγGCShc promoter. Our findings demonstrate that SbRLD but not SbSLD prevents SAG-induced DC activation by suppressing a PI3K-dependent NF-κB pathway and provide the evidence for differential host-pathogen interaction mediated by SbRLD and SbSLD

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far

Supplement: "Localization and broadband follow-up of the gravitational-wave transient GW150914" (2016, ApJL, 826, L13)

This Supplement provides supporting material for Abbott et al. (2016a). We briefly summarize past electromagnetic (EM) follow-up efforts as well as the organization and policy of the current EM follow-up program. We compare the four probability sky maps produced for the gravitational-wave transient GW150914, and provide additional details of the EM follow-up observations that were performed in the different bands

A gravitational-wave standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant

On 17 August 2017, the Advanced LIGO 1 and Virgo 2 detectors observed the gravitational-wave event GW170817-a strong signal from the merger of a binary neutron-star system 3 . Less than two seconds after the merger, a γ-ray burst (GRB 170817A) was detected within a region of the sky consistent with the LIGO-Virgo-derived location of the gravitational-wave source 4-6 . This sky region was subsequently observed by optical astronomy facilities 7 , resulting in the identification 8-13 of an optical transient signal within about ten arcseconds of the galaxy NGC 4993. This detection of GW170817 in both gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves represents the first 'multi-messenger' astronomical observation. Such observations enable GW170817 to be used as a 'standard siren' 14-18 (meaning that the absolute distance to the source can be determined directly from the gravitational-wave measurements) to measure the Hubble constant. This quantity represents the local expansion rate of the Universe, sets the overall scale of the Universe and is of fundamental importance to cosmology. Here we report a measurement of the Hubble constant that combines the distance to the source inferred purely from the gravitational-wave signal with the recession velocity inferred from measurements of the redshift using the electromagnetic data. In contrast to previous measurements, ours does not require the use of a cosmic 'distance ladder' 19 : the gravitational-wave analysis can be used to estimate the luminosity distance out to cosmological scales directly, without the use of intermediate astronomical distance measurements. We determine the Hubble constant to be about 70 kilometres per second per megaparsec. This value is consistent with existing measurements 20,21 , while being completely independent of them. Additional standard siren measurements from future gravitationalwave sources will enable the Hubble constant to be constrained to high precision

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta