Radiative Decays of B Hadrons at LHCb

LHCb is dedicated B physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The experiment aims to look for New Physics at energy scales much higher than those reachable through direct production, by measuring effects from the New Physics particles in rare beauty and charm decays. Radiative penguin decays of B mesons are an important part of the LHCb physics programme, and the detector is well positioned to harness the large statistics of these decays available at the LHC luminosity. Even with a small integrated luminosity of 100 pb$^{-1}$, 5% of what LHCb would collect in one nominal year of LHC, it can make a competitive measurement of the CP asymmetry in the decay $B_d \to K^*\gamma$

Predicting prognosis in lung cancer: Use of proliferation marker, Ki67 monoclonal antibody

An investigation was carried out to assess the prognostic significance of proliferation marker Ki67 in a group of lung cancer patients treated by surgery (limited disease). Tissue was not available for Ki67 immunostaining in inoperable group. The diagnosis is established by bronchial biopsy which does not carry enough tissue for frozen section and counting. This study is supplemented by estimating the prognostic significance of histological sub-types in the operable group and in a group of inoperable patients with extensive disease. These are usually treated by radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. In all, 267 patients were studied including 105 treated by surgery. These patients attended King\u27s College and Brompton Hospital, UK, between 1986 and 1989. With regard to proliferation marker Ki67 done for the surgical group, only patients with Ki67 scores of less than 5% did survive significantly longer than the rest. Histology did not make any significant contribution in determining prognosis in both operable and inoperable groups. Although follow-up is limited (mean 20 months), Ki67 antibody seems promising in identifying low and high grade disease in the initial stage of lung cancer. It may prove useful for category of patients with high scores to be placed on chemotherapy/radiotherapy. Results suggest that in the case of lung tumour, proliferative activity is a better prognostic indicator than histological type

Fugacity-Based Lattice Boltzmann Method for Multicomponent Multiphase Systems

The free-energy model can extend the lattice Boltzmann method to multiphase systems. However, there is a lack of models capable of simulating multicomponent multiphase fluids with partial miscibility. In addition, existing models cannot be generalized to honor thermodynamic information provided by any multicomponent equation of state of choice. In this paper, we introduce a free-energy lattice Boltzmann model where the forcing term is determined by the fugacity of the species, the thermodynamic property that connects species partial pressure to chemical potential calculations. By doing so, we are able to carry out multicomponent multiphase simulations of partially miscible fluids and generalize the methodology for use with any multicomponent equation of state of interest. We test this fugacity-based lattice Boltzmann method for the cases of vapor-liquid equilibrium for two- and three-component mixtures in various temperature and pressure conditions. We demonstrate that the model is able to reliably reproduce phase densities and compositions as predicted by multicomponent thermodynamics and can reproduce different characteristic pressure-composition and temperature-composition envelopes with a high degree of accuracy. We also demonstrate that the model can offer accurate predictions under dynamic conditions

Seed storage protein polymorphism in ten elite rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes of Sindh

Seed protein profiling is the most promising tool in determining the molecular polymorphism and genetic homology. Seed storage proteins help in cultivar identification by avoiding the external environmental influences. Electrophoretically detectable proteins in rice grains possess the potential of characterizing the germplasms by their taxonomic and evolutionary aspects. This study was aimed at exploiting the genetic variations among ten elite rice genotypes of Sindh through  electrophoretical separation of grain proteins by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacryamide gel electrophoresis (SDSPAGE). In conclusion, the investigation revealed negligible polymorphism, with reference to the total seed protein profiles, among the rice genotypes of Sindh, Pakistan used in this study. Hence, it is highly important to include a significant number of rice genotypes to explore their existing genotypic diversity for future rice breeding programs. The SDS-PAGE in combination with 2-D electrophoresis is further suggested for documenting contrasting variations of isoforms of protein peptides.Key words: Seed storage proteins, polymorphism, Oryza sativa, Sindh, SDS-PAG

Prevalence and risk factors of symptoms of pelvic inflammatory disease in a rural community of Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan

Objectives: (1). To estimate the prevalence of symptoms of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in rural Jamshoro, Sindh, (2). To assess specific social and biological risk factors of symptoms of PID.METHODOLOGY: Trained females conducted the interviews using a pre-tested Sindhi questionnaire during a cross-sectional survey carried out in 8 villages of rural Jamshoro, Sindh. Women reporting either lower abdominal pain or vaginal discharge with continuous or intermittent fever during the 6 months prior to interview, were classified as having PID symptoms.Results: We approached 753 ever-married women and successfully interviewed 738 (98%) from July-September 1997. Sixty-five women (9%) had symptoms consistent with PID, and 156 (24%) reported ever using a modern contraceptive. Symptomatic women were 3.6 times more likely to have ever used IUCD/tubal ligation (95% CI, 1.9-6.9), 1.8 times more likely to have married at earlier age (\u3c 15) (95% CI, 1.1-3), and 3 times more likely to be housewives by occupation (95% CI, 10-8.4) as compared to women who did not have PID symptoms.CONCLUSION: Symptoms of PID among tubal ligation/IUCD users may reflect existence of unhygienic conditions during application of procedure, delay in replacement of IUCD and mismatching in the size of IUCD with uterus. The quality of life is affected in women with PID symptoms and may have serious consequences like infertility. These symptoms need thorough evaluation/investigation to gauge the magnitude and nature of the problem and to guide intervention, effective promotion of women\u27s socio-economic status, health education regarding counselling for delaying age at marriage and hygienic/safe use of family planning methods

EFFECT OF FOLIAR APPLICATION OF UREA ON DIFFERENT GROWTH STAGES OF WHEAT

The experiment was conducted at Student Farm, Department of Agronomy, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam during the year 2012-13, to evaluate the effect of foliar dose of urea on different growth stages of wheat variety TJ-83 with 3 replications, experimental design Randomized Block Design with two factors A foliar nitrogen concentration of urea with treatments control (non -treated plots), 0.5% and 1.0%however in factor B include two growth stages i.e. Tillering stage, Anthesis stage. Wheat variety TJ-83 was cultivated at net plot size 4x4= (16 m2). The results revealed that germination (%) showed non-significant response to foliar nitrogen concentrations, growth stages and their interaction whereas all other wheat traits significantly affected by different foliar fertilizers, growth stages and their interaction.The mean maximum plant height (cm), grains spike-1 and seed index (1000 grain weight g) were recorded at 0.5% urea nitrogen concentrations whereas other wheat traits tillers plant-1, spike length (cm), spikelets spike-1 and grain yield kg ha-1 were foundThe experiment was conducted at Student Farm, Department of Agronomy, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam during the year 2012-13, to evaluate the effect of foliar dose of urea on different growth stages of wheat variety TJ-83 with 3 replications, experimental design Randomized Block Design with two factors A foliar nitrogen concentration of urea with treatments control (non -treated plots), 0.5% and 1.0%however in factor B include two growth stages i.e. Tillering stage, Anthesis stage. Wheat variety TJ-83 was cultivated at net plot size 4x4= (16 m2). The results revealed that germination (%) showed non-significant response to foliar nitrogen concentrations, growth stages and their interaction whereas all other wheat traits significantly affected by different foliar fertilizers, growth stages and their interaction.The mean maximum plant height (cm), grains spike-1 and seed index (1000 grain weight g) were recorded at 0.5% urea nitrogen concentrations whereas other wheat traits tillers plant-1, spike length (cm), spikelets spike-1 and grain yield kg ha-1 were found superior at 0.5% and 1.0% foliar nitrogen concentrations.Maximum mean for growth stages was observed at plant height (cm), tillers plan-1,spike length (cm), spikelets spike-1, seed index (1000 grain weight g) and grain yield were recorded at tiilering stages whereas higher value of grains spike-1 was recorded at anthesis growth stage of wheat. The interactive results indicated that the maximum plant height (cm) was recorded at interaction of 1.0% foliar nitrogen concentration x tillering stage, however higher values of tillers plan-1, spike length (cm) spikelets spike-1, seed index (1000 grain weight g) and grain yield kg ha-1 were observed at interaction of 0.5% and 1.0% foliar nitrogen concentrations x tillering stages. Further results indicated that the foliar nitrogen concentrations, growth stages and their interaction showed enhanced values as compared to control plots where no any fertilizer was applied.&nbsp

Implementation of ANN Controller Based UPQC Integrated with Microgrid

This study discusses how to increase power quality by integrating a unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) with a grid-connected microgrid for clean and efficient power generation. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) controller for a voltage source converter-based UPQC is proposed to minimize the system’s cost and complexity by eliminating mathematical operations such as a-b-c to d-q-0 translation and the need for costly controllers such as DSPs and FPGAs. In this study, nonlinear unbalanced loads and harmonic supply voltage are used to assess the performance of PV-battery-UPQC using an ANN-based controller. Problems with voltage, such as sag and swell, are also considered. This work uses an ANN control system trained with the Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation technique to provide effective reference signals and maintain the required dc-link capacitor voltage. In MATLAB/Simulink software, simulations of PV-battery-UPQC employing SRF-based control and ANN-control approaches are performed. The findings revealed that the proposed approach performed better, as presented in this paper. Furthermore, the influence of synchronous reference frame (SRF) and ANN controller-based UPQC on supply currents and the dc-link capacitor voltage response is studied. To demonstrate the superiority of the suggested controller, a comparison of percent THD in load voltage and supply current utilizing SRF-based control and ANN control methods is shown

Development of Single Phase FEFSM and its Excitation Circuit for Evaluating the Control Algorithm

Popularity of Field Excitation Flux Switching Motors (FEFSMs) has been significantly increased in modern high-speed applications due to their features such as variable flux control and the rotor structure which is free from any magnet and windings. However, most of the FEFSM structure is comprising of overlapped windings between the armature and field teeth which ends up in taking more space, more copper losses and increasing material costs as well. This paper emphasis on a particular structure of single phase FEFSM having a segmented rotor and non-overlapped stator windings. This structure offered more efficiency and eliminated all the drawbacks mentioned above of having overlapped windings. Design of this new topology and its characteristics such as speed, torque, and power has been analyzed through a 2D Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using JMAG Designer. The proposed FEFSM shows drastic improvements in terms of flux production, torque and power performances in contrast with FEFSM with salient rotor structure. Furthermore, a very efficient control strategy is proposed for this new FSM topology. Since existing technics require high-end DSPs and expensive sensors, however, the proposed strategy can be implemented in any 8-bit microcontroller and only need Infrared transceiver sensor, which is more appropriate for developing a low-cost drive for house hold applications

Performance of the Muon Identification at LHCb

The performance of the muon identification in LHCb is extracted from data using muons and hadrons produced in J/\psi->\mu\mu, \Lambda->p\pi and D^{\star}->\pi D0(K\pi) decays. The muon identification procedure is based on the pattern of hits in the muon chambers. A momentum dependent binary requirement is used to reduce the probability of hadrons to be misidentified as muons to the level of 1%, keeping the muon efficiency in the range of 95-98%. As further refinement, a likelihood is built for the muon and non-muon hypotheses. Adding a requirement on this likelihood that provides a total muon efficiency at the level of 93%, the hadron misidentification rates are below 0.6%.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure

Genomic insights into apple aroma diversity

An apple's aroma is a major determinant of its desirability by consumers. To better understand the aroma of apples, 2-dimensional gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry (2D-GCMS) was used to quantify 106 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from 515 apple varieties. We identified esters and aldehydes as the most abundant classes of VOCs, with butyl acetate and hexyl acetate being present in nearly every variety. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the primary axis of variation in the apple volatilome is correlated with harvest date, with early-harvested apples expressing a greater number and higher concentration of VOCs compared to late-harvested apples. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using 250,579 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified a significant association between SNPs near the alcohol acyltransferase (AAT1) locus and the abundance of several esters. Additionally, strong associations were observed between SNPs at the NAC18.1 transcription factor locus and the abundances of 1-hexanol and 1-butanol, which serve as precursors for hexyl acetate and butyl acetate, respectively. These findings provide a foundation for understanding the genetic basis of apple aroma production and pave the way for the genomics-assisted enhancement of the aroma profiles of apple varieties to meet consumer preferences