113 research outputs found
Povidone iodine hookah therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses: A hypothesis we must test
Povidone – Iodine has been known to have strong bactericidal and virucidal properties for a long time. It has been in clinical use as an antiseptic agent for over fifty years. Now a new indication for this old drug is recommended as Hookah therapy. It is hypothesized that in this form it will be an effective therapeutic agent to kill the coronavirus (SARS-COV2) or significantly inhibit its multiplication to achieve a cure. Details of treatment and dosage form are presented
Mass Hierarchy Determination via future Atmospheric Neutrino Detectors
We study the problem of determination of the sign of Delta m^2_{31}, or the
neutrino mass hierarchy, through observations of atmospheric neutrinos in
future detectors. We consider two proposed detector types :
(a) Megaton sized water Cerenkov detectors, which can measure the survival
rates of nu_\mu + \bar{\nu}_\mu and nu_e + \bar{\nu}_e and (b) 100 kton sized
magnetized iron detectors, which can measure the survival rates of \nu_\mu and
\bar{\nu}_\mu. For energies and path-lengths relevant to atmospheric neutrinos,
these rates obtain significant matter contributions from P_{\mu e}, P_{\mu \mu}
and P_{ee}, leading to an appreciable sensitivity to the hierarchy. We do a
binned \chi^2 analysis of simulated data in these two types of detectors which
includes the effect of smearing in neutrino energy and direction and
incorporates detector efficiencies and relevant statistical, theoretical and
systematic errors. We also marginalize the \chi^2 over the allowed ranges of
neutrino parameters in order to accurately account for their uncertainties.
Finally, we compare the performance of both types of detectors vis a vis the
hierarchy determination.Comment: 36 pages, 13 figures, revised version accepted in Physical Review
Neutrino mass hierarchy and octant determination with atmospheric neutrinos
The recent discovery by the Daya-Bay and RENO experiments, that \theta_{13}
is nonzero and relatively large, significantly impacts existing experiments and
the planning of future facilities. In many scenarios, the nonzero value of
\theta_{13} implies that \theta_{23} is likely to be different from \pi/4.
Additionally, large detectors will be sensitive to matter effects on the
oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos, making it possible to determine the
neutrino mass hierarchy and the octant of \theta_{23}. We show that a 50 kT
magnetized liquid argon neutrino detector can ascertain the mass hierarchy with
a significance larger than 4 sigma with moderate exposure times, and the octant
at the level of 2-3 sigma with greater exposure.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Version published in Phys. Rev. Let
Mass Hierarchy Determination for and Atmospheric Neutrinos
We examine the possibility of determining the neutrino mass hierarchy in the
limit \theta_{13} = 0 using atmospheric neutrinos as the source. In this limit,
in which \theta_{13} driven matter effects are absent, independent measurements
of \Delta_{31} and \Delta_{32} can, in principle, lead to hierarchy
determination. Since the difference between these two is \Delta_{21}, one needs
an experimental arrangement where \Delta_{21} L/E \gtrsim 1 can be achieved.
This condition can be satisfied by atmospheric neutrinos since they have a
large range of energies and baselines. In spite of this, we find that hierarchy
determination in the \theta_{13}=0 limit with atmospheric neutrinos is not a
realistic possibility, even in conjunction with an apparently synergistic beam
experiment like T2K or NOvA. We discuss the reasons for this, and also in the
process clarify the conditions that must be satisfied in general for hierarchy
determination if \theta_{13} = 0.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. Focus of the paper changed to atmospheric
neutrinos, but main result unchanged. Title changed to reflect the change in
focu
Anticipatory anti-colonial writing in R.K. Narayan's Swami and Friends and Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable
This article uses the term “anticipatory anti-colonial writing” to discuss the workings of time in R.K. Narayan’s Swami and Friends and Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable. Both these first novels were published in 1935 with the support of British literary personalities (Graham Greene and E.M. Forster respectively) and both feature young protagonists who, in contrasting ways, are engaged in Indian resistance to colonial rule. This study examines the difference between Narayan’s local, though ironical, resistance to the homogenizing temporal demands of empire and Anand’s awkwardly modernist, socially committed vision. I argue that a form of anticipation that explicitly looks forward to decolonization via new and transnational literary forms is a crucial feature of Untouchable that is not found in Swami and Friends, despite the latter’s anti-colonial elements. Untouchable was intended to be a “bridge between the Ganges and the Thames” and anticipates postcolonial negotiations of time that critique global inequalities and rely upon the multidirectional global connections forged by modernism
Earth Matter Effects at Very Long Baselines and the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy
We study matter effects which arise in the muon neutrino oscillation and
survival probabilities relevant to atmospheric neutrino and very long baseline
beam experiments. The inter-relations between the three probabilities P_{\mu
e}, P_{\mu \tau} and P_{\mu \mu} are examined. It is shown that large and
observable sensitivity to the neutrino mass hierarchy can be present in P_{\mu
\mu} and P_{\mu \tau}. We emphasize that at baselines of > 7000 Km, matter
effects in P_{\mu \tau} can be large under certain conditions. The muon
survival rates in experiments with very long baselines thus depend on matter
effects in both P_{\mu \tau} and P_{\mu e}. We indicate where these effects are
sensitive to \theta_{13}, and identify ranges of E and L where the event rates
increase with decreasing \theta_{13}, providing a handle to probe small
\theta_{13}. The effect of parameter degeneracies in the three probabilities at
these baselines and energies is studied in detail. Realistic event rate
calculations are performed for a charge discriminating 100 kT iron calorimeter
which demonstrate the possibility of realising the goal of determining the
neutrino mass hierarchy using atmospheric neutrinos. It is shown that a careful
selection of energy and baseline ranges is necessary in order to obtain a
statistically significant signal, and that the effects are largest in bins
where matter effects in both P_{\mu e} and P_{\mu \tau} combine constructively.
Under these conditions, upto a 4\sigma signal for matter effects is possible
(for \Delta_{31}>0) within a timescale appreciably shorter than the one
anticipated for neutrino factories.Comment: 40 pages, 27 figures, version to match the published versio
Ultra-high neutrino fluxes as a probe for non-standard physics
We examine how light neutrinos coming from distant active galactic nuclei
(AGN) and similar high energy sources may be used as tools to probe
non-standard physics. In particular we discuss how studying the energy spectra
of each neutrino flavour coming from such distant sources and their distortion
relative to each other may serve as pointers to exotic physics such as neutrino
decay, Lorentz symmetry violation, pseudo-Dirac effects, CP and CPT violation
and quantum decoherence. This allows us to probe hitherto unexplored ranges of
parameters for the above cases, for example lifetimes in the range s/eV for the case of neutrino decay. We show that standard
neutrino oscillations ensure that the different flavours arrive at the earth
with similar shapes even if their flavour spectra at source may differ strongly
in both shape and magnitude. As a result, observed differences between the
spectra of various flavours at the detector would be signatures of non-standard
physics altering neutrino fluxes during propagation rather than those arising
during their production at source. Since detection of ultra-high energy (UHE)
neutrinos is perhaps imminent, it is possible that such differences in spectral
shapes will be tested in neutrino detectors in the near future. To that end,
using the IceCube detector as an example, we show how our results translate to
observable shower and muon-track event rates.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure
Two-Loop Neutrino Masses and the Solar Neutrino Problem
The addition of singlet right-handed neutrinos to the Standard Model
leads to radiatively generated mass corrections for the doublet
neutrinos. For those neutrinos which are massless at the tree level after this
addition, this implies a small mass generated at the two-loop level via
exchange. We calculate these mass corrections exactly by obtaining an
analytic form for the general case of doublets and singlets. As a
phenomenological application, we consider the case and examine the masses
and mixings of the doublet neutrinos which arise as a result of the two-loop
correction in the light of experimental data from two sources which may shed
light on the question of neutrino masses. These are(a) the neutrino detectors
reporting a solar neutrino deficit (and its resolution via
Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein matter oscillations), and
(b) the COBE satellite data on the non-zero angular variations of the cosmic
microwave background temperature (and its possible implications for hot dark
matter). Within the framework of the extension considered here, which leaves
the gauge group structure of the Standard Model intact, we show that it is
possible for neutrinos to acquire small masses naturally, with values which are
compatible with current theoretical bias and experimental data.Comment: 24 pages, Two figures, attached as postscript files at the end,
Latex, CTP-TAMU-76/93, MRI-PHY-12/93, LTH-32
Neutrino Interactions at Ultrahigh Energies
We report new calculations of the cross sections for deeply inelastic
neutrino-nucleon scattering at neutrino energies between 10^{9}\ev and
10^{21}\ev. We compare with results in the literature and assess the
reliability of our predictions. For completeness, we briefly review the cross
sections for neutrino interactions with atomic electrons, emphasizing the role
of the -boson resonance in interactions for neutrino
energies in the neighborhood of 6.3\pev. Adopting model predictions for
extraterrestrial neutrino fluxes from active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray
bursters, and the collapse of topological defects, we estimate event rates in
large-volume water \v{C}erenkov detectors and large-area ground arrays.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures, uses RevTeX and boxedep
Politics of #LoSha: using naming and shaming as a feminist tool on Facebook
This chapter examines the new feminist intervention in India against sexual harassment (SH) through the online weapon of anonymously listing sexual offenders. The publication of the list on Facebook—known as the List of Shame (or #LoSha)—was inspired by the #metoo campaign following the Hollywood Weinstein affair and was composed through a collection of first-hand survivor narratives. A list of 70 names of alleged academic sexual offenders was first shared by a lawyer based in the US, and became viral on Facebook. This chapter will look at how this campaign used naming as a risk-taking tool to point at the lack of institutional frameworks within academic spaces. In doing so, it successfully used the online space of Facebook to create a feminist debate around the issue of sexual harassment transcending geographical and hierarchical barriers and to raise questions regarding the viability of the established feminist recourses against SH.
Using the methodological tool of situated critique (Bannerji, Thinking Through: Essays on Feminism, Marxism, and Anti-Racism. Toronto: Women’s Press, 1995), in this chapter I will utilize my own experience of participating in the list as well as in the larger feminist debate to discuss the politics of risk-taking and solidarity and the implications of list-activism. In doing so, it has re-established the role of cyberfeminism (Daniels, Women’s Studies Quarterly, 37 (1 & 2): 101–124, 2009) in India and surfaced a new intersectional autocritique of the academia based on caste, class and gender. Though questions regarding the method remain, the use of Facebook for providing survivors a voice with anonymity promises new boundaries of empowerment and fear
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