Spatial survival probability for one-dimensional fluctuating interfaces in the steady state

We report numerical and analytic results for the spatial survival probability for fluctuating one-dimensional interfaces with Edwards-Wilkinson or Kardar-Parisi-Zhang dynamics in the steady state. Our numerical results are obtained from analysis of steady-state profiles generated by integrating a spatially discretized form of the Edwards-Wilkinson equation to long times. We show that the survival probability exhibits scaling behavior in its dependence on the system size and the `sampling interval' used in the measurement for both `steady-state' and `finite' initial conditions. Analytic results for the scaling functions are obtained from a path-integral treatment of a formulation of the problem in terms of one-dimensional Brownian motion. A `deterministic approximation' is used to obtain closed-form expressions for survival probabilities from the formally exact analytic treatment. The resulting approximate analytic results provide a fairly good description of the numerical data.Comment: RevTeX4, 21 pages, 8 .eps figures, changes in sections IIIB and IIIC and in Figs 7 and 8, version to be published in Physical Review

Pharmaceutical drug promotion: perception and attitude of medical interns towards drug company interactions in a tertiary care teaching hospital

Background: Interactions of pharmaceutical industry with the physicians which are usually mediated through pharmaceutical representatives have a significant impact on physician decision-making. This interaction can start as early as medical school during their training and this is said to influence their prescribing behavior when they become physicians. Aims and objectives of the study was to evaluate the attitude of interns towards pharmaceutical companies interactions including accepting gifts, ethical issues and influence on clinical decisions and also to study perception of medical interns towards the accuracy of information provided by the medical representatives.Methods: This was a cross sectional questionnaire based study that was conducted among the medical interns of the teaching hospital attached to Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, Mandya. The study was carried out between July and August 2016. A preformed structured questionnaire was distributed to the interns consenting to participate in the study. Completed questionnaires were collected, compiled and data was analyzed.Results: A total of 93 questionnaires were distributed and 90 interns responded (response rate 96.7%). About 44.4% respondents felt that accepting gifts from Drug Company would influence their own decision making. Only 26.6% of them were of the opinion that it is ethical to accept pharmaceutical company gifts. Majority of them felt that Medical Representatives exaggerate the benefits of medicines and downplay the risks and contraindications of medicine. About 32.2% of them were of the opinion that they would prefer to prescribe the drug from the companies offering them with gifts over those without. Majority of the respondents felt that the doctors should be offered with gifts by drug companies whenever their drugs are prescribed.Conclusions: Attitude of Medical Interns towards Drug Company interactions as observed suggests for training the budding doctors on appropriate drug company interactions to prevent the risks associated with promotional efforts of pharmaceutical companies.

Anthelmintic activity of extracts of coriandrum sativum linn. In indian earthworm

Coriandrum sativum Linn. (CSL) is popularly known as coriander in India belongs to family Apiaceae. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the in-vitro anthelmintic potency of the ethanolic extract and carbon tetrachloride extract of Coriandrum sativum Linn. plant using Indian earthworms (Pheretima posthumad). The various concentrations (50, 100, and 150 mg/ml) of the ethanolic extract and carbon tetrachloride extract were tested in-vitro for anthelmintic potency by determination of time of paralysis and time of death of worm. Piperazine citrate (15mg/ml) used as standard. The result of present study indicates that the Coriandrum sativum Linn. potentiate to paralyze earthworm and also caused its death after some time. The shortest time of paralysis was observed at higher dose (150 mg/ml) of both ethanolic extract and carbon tetrachloride were found to 28 min and 45 min respectively. The results of the study are comparable to standard Piperazine citrate. The result showed that ethanolic extract of Coriandrum sativum Linn. took less time to cause paralysis of the earthworm than that of carbon tetrachloride extract Coriandrum sativum Linn.. Thus the present study demonstrate that the Coriandrum sativum Linn. as an anthelmintic has been confirm as the ethanolic and carbon tetrachloride extracts of whole plant displayed activity against the earthworm used in study. Key word: CSL, Paralysis, death of earthworm

Efficacy and safety of 1% terbinafine hydrochloride versus 2% sertaconazole cream in the treatment of tinea corporis

Background: Tinea corporis is a common superficial dermatophytosis seen in tropical countries. This study was done to compare the efficacy and safety of topical antifungal agents, terbinafine versus sertaconazole in the treatment of tinea corporis.Methods: This study was conducted in Babuji Hospital and Chigateri Government Hospital, Davangere. A total of 60 (n=60) patients were included and divided into two groups of 30 patients each in the study. 1st group - received topical 1% terbinafine hydrochloride and 2nd group - received 2% sertaconazole cream. Patients were advised to apply cream twice daily for 4 weeks. Improvement in clinical parameters like erythema, scaling, itching, and potassium hydroxide (KOH) mount were taken for assessing the efficacy of drugs. They were followed-up at the end of 2, 4, and 6 weeks to assess the improvement of the condition. Complete cure rate was defined as mycological cure with a complete absence of clinical signs and symptoms. For safety data of both drugs presence of any local side effects (like stinging sensation, swelling and increased erythema) were analyzed in both groups. Statistical analysis was done using students paired t-test and unpaired t-test.Results: When two groups were compared at the end of 2 weeks, complete cure rate for terbinafine was 80% as compared to 63.3% for sertaconazole (p0.05) results were obtained. KOH mount was negative in both groups at the end of 2nd week. Local side effects like erythema, swelling, stinging sensation were not noticed during the study in both the groups.Conclusion: From this study, it was shown that 2% sertaconazole cream was as effective as 1% terbinafine cream, though 1% terbinafine had higher rates of complete cure at the end of 2 weeks as compared to sertaconazole

Entropic Origin of the Growth of Relaxation Times in Simple Glassy Liquids

Transitions between ``glassy'' local minima of a model free-energy functional for a dense hard-sphere system are studied numerically using a ``microcanonical'' Monte Carlo method that enables us to obtain the transition probability as a function of the free energy and the Monte Carlo ``time''. The growth of the height of the effective free energy barrier with density is found to be consistent with a Vogel-Fulcher law. The dependence of the transition probability on time indicates that this growth is primarily due to entropic effects arising from the difficulty of finding low-free-energy saddle points connecting glassy minima.Comment: Four pages, plus three postscript figure

Conical refraction lasing in a Nd:YVO4 laser with a conerefringent KGW element

A conical refraction (CR) laser based on a separate gain medium (Nd:YVO4) and an intracavity CR element (KGW) was demonstrated. The decoupling of the gain and CR media enabled the laser to produce a well-behaved CR laser beam with excellent quality, while reducing the complexity of the pumping scheme. The proposed laser setup has the potential for power scaling using the efficient diode pumping approach and the properties of the generated CR beam are independent from the laser gain medium

Enhanced Joule Heating in Umbral Dots

We present a study of magnetic profiles of umbral dots (UDs) and its consequences on the Joule heating mechanisms. Hamedivafa (2003) studied Joule heating using vertical component of magnetic field. In this paper UDs magnetic profile has been investigated including the new azimuthal component of magnetic field which might explain the relatively larger enhancement of Joule heating causing more brightness near circumference of UD.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, accepted in Solar Physic

Equilibrium and dynamical properties of the ANNNI chain at the multiphase point

We study the equilibrium and dynamical properties of the ANNNI (axial next-nearest-neighbor Ising) chain at the multiphase point. An interesting property of the system is the macroscopic degeneracy of the ground state leading to finite zero-temperature entropy. In our equilibrium study we consider the effect of softening the spins. We show that the degeneracy of the ground state is lifted and there is a qualitative change in the low temperature behaviour of the system with a well defined low temperature peak of the specific heat that carries the thermodynamic ``weight'' of the ground state entropy. In our study of the dynamical properties, the stochastic Kawasaki dynamics is considered. The Fokker-Planck operator for the process corresponds to a quantum spin Hamiltonian similar to the Heisenberg ferromagnet but with constraints on allowed states. This leads to a number of differences in its properties which are obtained through exact numerical diagonalization, simulations and by obtaining various analytic bounds.Comment: 9 pages, RevTex, 6 figures (To appear in Phys. Rev. E

Free Energy Landscape Of Simple Liquids Near The Glass Transition

Properties of the free energy landscape in phase space of a dense hard sphere system characterized by a discretized free energy functional of the Ramakrishnan-Yussouff form are investigated numerically. A considerable number of glassy local minima of the free energy are located and the distribution of an appropriately defined ``overlap'' between minima is calculated. The process of transition from the basin of attraction of a minimum to that of another one is studied using a new ``microcanonical'' Monte Carlo procedure, leading to a determination of the effective height of free energy barriers that separate different glassy minima. The general appearance of the free energy landscape resembles that of a putting green: deep minima separated by a fairly flat structure. The growth of the effective free-energy barriers with increasing density is consistent with the Vogel-Fulcher law, and this growth is primarily driven by an entropic mechanism.Comment: 10 pages, 6 postscript figures, uses iopart.cls and iopart10.clo (included). Invited talk at the ICTP Trieste Conference on "Unifying Concepts in Glass Physics", September 1999. To be published in J. Phys. Cond. Ma