A Note on the use of Ethnomedicine in Treatment of Diabetes by Mishing Communities in Assam, India

Ethnomedicinal field surveys were conducted in several places of Sonitpur district and near by areas of Lakhimpur district in Assam, where diverse ethnic groups have lived since time immemorial. The ethnic groups have very rich tradition of herbal medicines used in the treatment of various ailments. Among the tribal communities, Mishings constitute the largest group along with Bodos. The ethnomedicinal information was collected on the basis of interview and field studies with local healers among those communities. Medicinal plants were collected and identified with help from indigenous healers. Such medicines have been shown to have significant healing power, either in their natural state or as the source of new products processed by them. Generally these formulations of crude products are considered moderate in efficacy and thus less toxic than most pharmaceutical agents. Our study is mainly concentrated with plants used in relation to cure of diabetes. In our report, detailed notes on the method of preparation, precise dosage, the part/parts of plants used and method of application is given. Scientific name, vernacular names and family names of the collected plants are also given in this report

Reactor mixing angle from hybrid neutrino masses

In terms of its eigenvector decomposition, the neutrino mass matrix (in the basis where the charged lepton mass matrix is diagonal) can be understood as originating from a tribimaximal dominant structure with small deviations, as demanded by data. If neutrino masses originate from at least two different mechanisms, referred to as "hybrid neutrino masses", the experimentally observed structure naturally emerges provided one mechanism accounts for the dominant tribimaximal structure while the other is responsible for the deviations. We demonstrate the feasibility of this picture in a fairly model-independent way by using lepton-number-violating effective operators, whose structure we assume becomes dictated by an underlying $A_4$ flavor symmetry. We show that if a second mechanism is at work, the requirement of generating a reactor angle within its experimental range always fixes the solar and atmospheric angles in agreement with data, in contrast to the case where the deviations are induced by next-to-leading order effective operators. We prove this idea is viable by constructing an $A_4$-based ultraviolet completion, where the dominant tribimaximal structure arises from the type-I seesaw while the subleading contribution is determined by either type-II or type-III seesaw driven by a non-trivial $A_4$ singlet (minimal hybrid model). After finding general criteria, we identify all the $\mathbb{Z}_N$ symmetries capable of producing such $A_4$-based minimal hybrid models.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures. v3: section including sum rules added, accepted by JHE

A highly efficient sensor platform using simply manufactured nanodot patterned substrates

Block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly is a low-cost means to nanopattern surfaces. Here, we use these nanopatterns to directly print arrays of nanodots onto a conducting substrate (Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) coated glass) for application as an electrochemical sensor for ethanol (EtOH) and hydrogen peroxide (H\u1d7e4O\u1d7e4) detection. The work demonstrates that BCP systems can be used as a highly efficient, flexible methodology for creating functional surfaces of materials. Highly dense iron oxide nanodots arrays that mimicked the original BCP pattern were prepared by an ‘insitu’ BCP inclusion methodology using poly(styrene)-\u1d623\u1d62d\u1d630\u1d624\u1d62c-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-\u1d623-PEO). The electrochemical behaviour of these densely packed arrays of iron oxide nanodots fabricated by two different molecular weight PS-\u1d623-PEO systems was studied. The dual detection of EtOH and (H\u1d7e4O\u1d7e4) was clearly observed. The as-prepared nanodots have good long term thermal and chemical stability at the substrate and demonstrate promising electrocatalytic performance

Correlation Between Instrumental Hand Function and Activities of Daily Living in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective: To find the correlation of instrumental handfunction (grip strength, muscle power and range ofmotion) and Activities of Daily Living (ADL) inrheumatoid arthritis patients.Methods: 50 patients of either sex were included in thestudy. Objective evaluation of hand function was doneusing Hand dynamometer and Electrogoniometer(Tracker system-version 4®). The patients were assessedfor their functional limitations using Indian version ofHAQ-DI. Spearman rank collision was performed to findout the association among the variables.Results: It was found that most of the disease specificparameters like morning stiffness, number of inflamedjoints, duration of the disease and deformities had a strongcorrelation with the instrumental hand function. Deficitsin grip strength, tip pinch, palmar pinch, and range ofmotion of hand strongly correlated to difficulty in activitiesof daily living in patient with RA. Instrumental handfunctions (grip strength, pinch strength and range of motionof joints) were significantly impaired in patient with RAand they had good correlation with Indian HealthAssessment Questionnaire Disability Index (IHAQ-DI).Conclusion: Instrumental hand function assessmentalong with IHAQ-DI is an effective tool in evaluationand modulation of therapeutic interventions in patientswith rheumatoid arthritis. The instrumental hand functionassessment can also predict the deficits in ADL

Constrained analytical interrelations in neutrino mixing

Hermitian squared mass matrices of charged leptons and light neutrinos in the flavor basis are studied under general additive lowest order perturbations away from the tribimaximal (TBM) limit in which a weak basis with mass diagonal charged leptons is chosen. Simple analytical expressions are found for the three measurable TBM-deviants in terms of perturbation parameters appearing in the neutrino and charged lepton eigenstates in the flavor basis. Taking unnatural cancellations to be absent and charged lepton perturbation parameters to be small, interrelations are derived among masses, mixing angles and the amount of CP-violation.Comment: To be published in the Springer Proceedings in the Physics Series under the heading of the XXI DAE-BRNS Symposium (Guwahati, India

Formation of sub-7 nm feature size PS-b-P4VP block copolymer structures by solvent vapour process

The nanometer range structure produced by thin films of diblock copolymers makes them a great of interest as templates for the microelectronics industry. We investigated the effect of annealing solvents and/or mixture of the solvents in case of symmetric Poly (styrene-block-4vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) diblock copolymer to get the desired line patterns. In this paper, we used different molecular weights PS-b-P4VP to demonstrate the scalability of such high χ BCP system which requires precise fine-tuning of interfacial energies achieved by surface treatment and that improves the wetting property, ordering, and minimizes defect densities. Bare Silicon Substrates were also modified with polystyrene brush and ethylene glycol self-assembled monolayer in a simple quick reproducible way. Also, a novel and simple in situ hard mask technique was used to generate sub-7nm Iron oxide nanowires with a high aspect ratio on Silicon substrate, which can be used to develop silicon nanowires post pattern transfer

The morphology of ordered block copolymer patterns as probed by high resolution imaging

The microphase separation of block copolymer (BCP) thin films can afford a simple and cost-effective means to studying nanopattern surfaces, and especially the fabrication of nanocircuitry. However, because of complex interface effects and other complications, their 3D morphology, which is often critical for application, can be more complex than first thought. Here, we describe how emerging microscopic methods may be used to study complex BCP patterns and reveal their rich detail. These methods include helium ion microscopy (HIM) and high resolution x-section transmission electron microscopy (XTEM), and complement conventional secondary electron and atomic force microscopies (SEM and TEM). These techniques reveal that these structures are quite different to what might be expected. We illustrate the advances in the understanding of BCP thin film morphology in several systems, which result from this characterization. The systems described include symmetric, lamellar forming polystyrene-b-polymethylmethacrylate (PS-b-PMMA), cylinder forming polystyrene-b-polydimethylsiloxane (PS-b-PDMS), as well as lamellar and cylinder forming patterns of polystyrene-b-polyethylene oxide (PS-b-PEO) and polystyrene-b-poly-4-vinylpyridine (PS-b-P4VP). Each of these systems exhibits more complex arrangements than might be first thought. Finding and developing techniques whereby complex morphologies, particularly at very small dimensions, can be determined is critical to the practical use of these materials in many applications. The importance of quantifying these complex morphologies has implications for their use in integrated circuit manufacture, where they are being explored as alternative pattern forming methods to conventional UV lithography

Performance Evaluation of \u3cem\u3eKharif\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eRabi\u3c/em\u3e Fodder Sorghum in Namsai District of Arunachal Pradesh

Deficiency of feed and fodder accounts for half of the total loss in dairy farming therefore, forages are called as backbone of livestock industry. The scarcity of green forages and grazing resources in the country has made the livestock to suffer continuously with malnutrition resulting in their production potentiality at sub-optimum level as compared to many developed nations (Anonymous, 2012). Arunachal Pradesh is well known for its ever green vegetation and biodiversity under hilly ecosystem. Though, it is situated at remotest part of country but possess huge scope of livestock farming. Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh is a bordering district of Assam and having huge potential of milk production and its marketing which may help to improve the economic condition and poverty eradication of rural people. Cow is a major dairy animal here, however, the milk production capacity is very low as compared to other parts of the country. Dairy cow are reared in century old traditional way therefore, there are several areas of dairy management which needs improvement. Scarcity of feed and fodder is one of the major bottleneck which needs to be addressed urgently. Namsai district has very limited number of fodder crop and farmers mainly depend on non-conventional, public grazing land and forest vegetation. KVK Lohit (Namsai district) has introduced fodder sorghum in rainy and winter season for the first time in the district purposefully to improve the fodder availability under organized dairy farming in Namsai district

Electroweak baryogenesis

Electroweak baryogenesis (EWBG) remains a theoretically attractive and experimentally testable scenario for explaining the cosmic baryon asymmetry. We review recent progress in computations of the baryon asymmetry within this framework and discuss their phenomenological consequences. We pay particular attention to methods for analyzing the electroweak phase transition and calculating CP-violating asymmetries, the development of Standard Model extensions that may provide the necessary ingredients for EWBG, and searches for corresponding signatures at the high energy, intensity, and cosmological frontiers.Comment: 42 pages, 13 figures, invited review for the New Journal of Physics focus issue on 'Origin of Matter

Grand unification in the minimal left-right symmetric extension of the standard model

The simplest minimal left-right symmetric extension of the standard model is studied in the high energy limit, and some consequences of the grand unification hypothesis are explored assuming that the parity breaking scale is the only relevant energy between the electro-weak scale and the unification point. While the model is shown to be compatible with the observed neutrino phenomenology, the parity breaking scale and the heavy boson masses are predicted to be above 10^7 TeV, quite far from the reach of nowadays experiments. Below that scale only an almost sterile right handed neutrino is allowed with a mass M \approx 100 TeV