Cornering variants of Georgi-Machacek model using Higgs precision data

We show that in the absence of trilinear terms in the scalar potential of Georgi-Machacek model, heavy charged scalars do not necessarily decouple from the $h \to \gamma \gamma$ decay amplitude. In such scenarios, measurement of the Higgs to diphoton signal strength can place stringent constraints in the parameter space. Using the projected precisions at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) and the ILC, we find that the upper bound on the triplet vacuum expectation value can be as low as 10 GeV. We also found that when combined with the theoretical constraints from perturbative unitarity and stability, such variants may be ruled out altogether.Comment: 9 pages, 4 captioned figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND HEALTH ADVOCACY ON COVID-19: A CASE STUDY OF TWITTER HANDLES OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION AND MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF INDIA

The article has intended to study the action of Twitter-based media advocacy promoted by the Ministry of Health (MOH) of the Government of India, and World Health Organization (WHO) during the Covid-19 pandemic. Its goal was to assess the degree of the WHO and MOH's media campaigning for Covid-19, as well as the public's perception of this advocacy. In this regard, mixed methods have been used for data collection where a survey has been conducted with 125 respondents, who use Twitter, from Kolkata (India) with the help of random sampling. A content analysis of two well-known Twitter accounts was conducted, which helped to reflect the current trends that they follow. The findings of this research have reflected the choice of medium preferred by the respondents for receiving news and information during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has also helped to identify the Twitter handles and tweets they mostly follow and thereby the major factors influencing their choice. The outcome of this research has helped to study whether Twitter can be used for institutionalized health communication or not in the future

SCOPE OF MEDIA ADVOCACY DURING COVID-19: A SELECTED CASE STUDY IN KOLKATA

The spread of the Covid-19 has presented an unparalleled challenge for media management as well as for the media content. The pattern of daily life changed due to the excessive use of media. India, as a nation has been in the third position worldwide, many deaths during a pandemic are concerned. Kolkata being one of the metro cities of the country has not been exempted. The regional media content perceived a knowledge gap with the highest circulated national daily of the country. The changed media content, and audience perception towards the change, and the need for media advocacy during any health crisis in general and Covid-19 in particular, is studied in this paper using a mixed approach of both quantitative and qualitative. The discourse analysis of the newspapers in a constructed week format, representing a six months study during the pandemic, and the primary data from the audience suggested the behavior change and attitude formation through media, in this unique study

Bargaining Power, Social Capital and Environmental Health

Environmental health is a huge contributor to the global burden of disease, particularly in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the determinants of behaviors that can potentially reduce the burden on human health, time, and education and livelihood opportunities. This dissertation comprises three empirical chapters examining understudied determinants of environmental health behavior adoption and health outcomes, as the necessary first step, prior to generalizing a one-size-fits-all program based on anticipated benefits. In the first chapter, in a panel of nationally representative Indian households, I estimate the effect of women’s bargaining power on households’ adoption of environmental health behaviors. The results show that objective measures of women’s household-level bargaining have positive effects on environmental health behaviors among rural households. However, subjective measures of women’s autonomy have negative effects on the same suite of outcomes. In the second chapter, using the same data set as the previous chapter, I examine the effects of structural and cognitive social capital on Indian households’ choice of clean cooking and safe sanitation. The analysis demonstrates variation in results across rural and urban samples, based on different social capital dimensions. In the third chapter, using baseline data from an ongoing randomized controlled trial in Rwanda, I analyze the microenvironment factors that affect under-five children’s health. Results show that important housing and cooking area infrastructure reduce the prevalence of household air pollution-related health symptoms in this age group.Doctor of Philosoph

Biomass Cooking Fuels and Health Outcomes for Women in Malawi

In sub-Saharan Africa, biomass fuels account for approximately 90% of household energy consumption. Limited evidence exists on the association between different biomass fuels and health outcomes. We report results from a cross-sectional sample of 655 households in Malawi. We calculated odds ratios between hypothesized determinants of household air pollution (HAP) exposure (fuel, stove type, and cooking location) and five categories of health outcomes (cardiopulmonary, respiratory, neurologic, eye health, and burns). Reliance on high- or low-quality firewood or crop residue (vs. charcoal) was associated with significantly higher odds of shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, chest pains, night phlegm, forgetfulness, dizziness, and dry irritated eyes. Use of high-quality firewood was associated with significantly lower odds of persistent phlegm. Cooks in rural areas (vs. urban areas) had significantly higher odds of experiencing shortness of breath, persistent cough, and phlegm, but significantly lower odds of phlegm, forgetfulness, and burns. With deforestation and population pressures increasing reliance on low-quality biomass fuels, prevalence of HAP-related cardiopulmonary and neurologic symptoms will likely increase among cooks. Short- to medium-term strategies are needed to secure access to high-quality biomass fuels given limited potential for scalable transitions to modern energy

IN VITRO ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF BACILLUS AMYLOLIQUEFACIENS ISOLATED FROM SIMILIPAL BIOSPHERE RESERVE, ODISHA, INDIA

Objective: The purpose of our study was to isolate and identify the bacteriocinogenic strain exhibiting broad range antimicrobial activity and to analyze the effect of different culturing conditions on the production of an antimicrobial metabolites isolated from the soil of Simlipal Biosphere Reserve, India. Methods: In the current study, bacterial strains were screened for antimicrobial activity from soil samples of five different regions. The effect of varying culture conditions such as pH, incubation period, and temperature along with carbon and nitrogen sources with and without certain salts was studied. The characterization of the potent strain was studied by morphological, biochemical, and 16S rRNA genetic sequencing. A phylogenetic affiliation of the strain was studied. Results: A total of 31 out of 245 strains isolated from soil were screened on the basis of antimicrobial results against the test pathogens. On the basis of bacteriocin-like inhibition studies method, one potential isolate that exhibited the highest inhibition against all the pathogens was selected. The optimization of highest antimicrobial metabolite production by the isolate with the influence of physical parameters was found as the incubation period of 3 days with 37°C temperature at pH 8 and for the chemical parameters dextrose was showed the most effective carbon sources when implemented with salts and yeast extract as the best sources of nitrogen with salts. The crude metabolite showed an absorbance peak value of 1.234 with optimum ƛ-max at 214 nm. The potent isolate showed maximum identity with Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (99% similarity) with highest query coverage on basic local alignment search tool search analysis of the 16S rDNA sequence. Phylogenetic analysis revealed close affiliation of the isolate with B. amyloliquefaciens (KC494392.1) having antimicrobial activity. Conclusion: The findings revealed that the incubation period, temperature, pH, and the culture medium have a direct influence on the production of metabolites. These parameters can be modified for the improvement of the fermentation process

IMMUNONUTRITION WITH GLUTAMINE IN ICU PATIENTS

   Objective: Endogenous production of glutamine may be reduced during critical illness. The shortage of glutamine is reflected as a decrease in plasma concentration, which is a prognostic factor for outcome in sepsis. Therefore, we have studied the effect of enteral or parenteral glutamine therapy on biochemical parameters and the hospital stay of critically ill patients.Methods: A total of 66 critically ill patients aged 18-70 years, admitted to central and medical intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital were randomly divided into three equal groups; 22 in each group: Group 1 (control group) received no glutamine, Group 2 received oral glutamine 0.5 g/kg/d for 5 days, and Group 3 received parenteral glutamine 0.5 g/kg/d by intravenous infusion for 5 days. All patients received glutamine-free tube feed throughout the study period. Total leukocyte count (TLC), total lymphocyte count, total protein and serum albumin, serum lactate, and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score were recorded on each day for 7 days and were compared.Results: Decrease in the TLC and increase in lymphocyte count was most evident in Group 3 compared to Groups 2 and 1 which was statistically significant. Decrease in serum lactate and increase in serum protein and albumin was maximum in Group 3 compared to Groups 1 and 2 which was statistically significant. The mean duration of hospital stay of Group 3 was the least followed by Groups 2 and 1 which was statistically not significant. There was an improvement in SOFA score in all the three groups.Conclusion: Parenteral glutamine in a dose of 0.5 g/kg/d was more potent than oral glutamine in improving the biochemical parameters. The duration of hospital stay was similar in all the groups after treatment