Oscillatory Tunnel Splittings in Spin Systems: A Discrete Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin Approach

Certain spin Hamiltonians that give rise to tunnel splittings that are viewed in terms of interfering instanton trajectories, are restudied using a discrete WKB method, that is more elementary, and also yields wavefunctions and preexponential factors for the splittings. A novel turning point inside the classically forbidden region is analysed, and a general formula is obtained for the splittings. The result is appled to the \Fe8 system. A previous result for the oscillation of the ground state splitting with external magnetic field is extended to higher levels.Comment: RevTex, one ps figur

Role of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy in Healing of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Introduction: Foot disorders such as ulceration, infection and gangrene are the most common, complex and costly sequelae of diabetes mellitus.[1-3] Even for the most superficial wounds, treatment is often difficult with poor healing responses and high rates of complications. The purpose of this study is to compare the rate of ulcer healing with the negative pressure dressing technique to conventional moist dressings in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 30 patients, which were divided into two groups. One group received negative pressure dressing while other group received conventional saline moistened gauze dressing. Results were compared for rate of wound healing. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the rate of appearance of granulation tissue between the two groups; with granulation tissue appearing earlier in the study group. The study group promised a better outcome (80% complete responders) as compared to the control group (60% complete responders). Conclusions: Negative pressure wound therapy has a definitive role in healing of diabetic foot ulcers

Quenched Spin Tunneling and Diabolical Points in Magnetic Molecules: II. Asymmetric Configurations

The perfect quenching of spin tunneling first predicted for a model with biaxial symmetry, and recently observed in the magnetic molecule Fe_8, is further studied using the discrete phase integral (or Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin) method. The analysis of the previous paper is extended to the case where the magnetic field has both hard and easy components, so that the Hamiltonian has no obvious symmetry. Herring's formula is now inapplicable, so the problem is solved by finding the wavefunction and using connection formulas at every turning point. A general formula for the energy surface in the vicinity of the diabolo is obtained in this way. This formula gives the tunneling apmplitude between two wells unrelated by symmetry in terms of a small number of action integrals, and appears to be generally valid, even for problems where the recursion contains more than five terms. Explicit results are obtained for the diabolical points in the model for Fe_8. These results exactly parallel the experimental observations. It is found that the leading semiclassical results for the diabolical points appear to be exact, and the points themselves lie on a perfect centered rectangular lattice in the magnetic field space. A variety of evidence in favor of this perfect lattice hypothesis is presented.Comment: Revtex; 4 ps figures; follow up to cond-mat/000311

FAST DISSOLVING TABLETS (FDTs): CURRENT STATUS, NEW MARKET OPPORTUNITIES, RECENT ADVANCES IN MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

Fast dissolving tablet technology is a topic of current interest in pharmacy and therapeutics. Tablet swallowing difficulty primarily affects the geriatric and paediatric populations whereas unpalatable taste of drugs leads to patient non-compliance. Swallowing problems also are common in young individuals because of their underdeveloped muscular and nervous systems. Fast Dissolving Tablets (FDTs) are one of the fruitful results of continuous technological advancements in the pharmaceutical industry. FD tablets play a major r

Gender norms and relations in an agricultural watershed project in the Parasai-Sindh Watershed, Jhansi/India

Agricultural watershed projects require intertwined technical and social interventions, and accompanying research should aim at blending technical and social sciences (Douthwaite et al. 2001). CGIAR research programs have been designed by centers and partners with such an approach since their first phase from 2010 to 2016; and also in their second phase, 2017 to 2022, this interdisciplinary approach represents their conditions of existence. As many studies have demonstrated, the success of agricultural intervention projects depends on the degree of participatory approach and gendersensitivity in each project stage: planning, design, implementation and monitoring (Leder et al. 2017; Quisumbing et al. 2014). Hence, any intervention project should develop mechanisms trying to avoid the reproduction of gender relations and the exclusion of diverse local knowledge at the community level. Instead, a holistic approach to empower communities with its diverse members should be developed and adjusted continuously. While “participatory” has become a buzzword, it is necessary to demystify respective project stakeholders’ assumptions. As Cleaver (1998: 293) argues, “sectorial bias, instrumental approaches to participation, and an inadequate understanding of social context (...) detract from a truly gendered understanding of water resource management“. Hence it is the role of any intervening organization to understand diverse water needs, and to identify who accesses water and who controls water access. Women are traditionally associated with the domestic use of water, while men are linked to the productive uses of water, whereas several studies have found this division inadequate and far more complex, particularly in the context of primarily male out-migration and the so-called feminization of agriculture. In their study on agrobiodiversity management in Nepals Himalaya, Bhattarai et al. (2015: 129) found that women’s lack of power can be “reinforced by the development organizations’ acceptance of established gender roles that privileges men with new products associated with cash”

Spin Tunneling in Magnetic Molecules: Quasisingular Perturbations and Discontinuous SU(2) Instantons

Spin coherent state path integrals with discontinuous semiclassical paths are investigated with special reference to a realistic model for the magnetic degrees of freedom in the Fe8 molecular solid. It is shown that such paths are essential to a proper understanding of the phenomenon of quenched spin tunneling in these molecules. In the Fe8 problem, such paths are shown to arise as soon as a fourth order anisotropy term in the energy is turned on, making this term a singular perturbation from the semiclassical point of view. The instanton approximation is shown to quantitatively explain the magnetic field dependence of the tunnel splitting, as well as agree with general rules for the number of quenching points allowed for a given value of spin. An accurate approximate formula for the spacing between quenching points is derived

Study of neurological deficits in patients with tuberculous meningitis and its association with urodynamic study

Background: Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is the main form of tuberculosis that affects the central nervous system and is associated with high rates of death and disability. The objective of this study was to study neurological symptoms in TBM patients using clinical diagnosis and MRI of spine and comparing with urodynamic study.Methods: Fifty one patients diagnosed with TBM were studied in Neurology Department of KGM Medical University, Lucknow. Uroflowmetry and urodynamic study were done to divide the patients into normal and abnormal. A detailed history taking, general physical and neurological examination using MRI spinal cord was done and recorded on a predesigned proforma.Results: Visual impairment, hemiparesis, paraparesis, abnormal tone and reflexes in lower limbs showed significant association with abnormality in urodynamic study. MRI spine showed significant relationship of spinal meningeal enhancement, lumbosacral arachnoiditis, with abnormal urodynamic study.Conclusions: We found a significant association between neurological symptoms and abnormal urodynami

Humoral and cytokine response elicited during immunisation with recombinant Immune Mapped protein-1 (EtIMP-1) and oocysts of Eimeria tenella

Eimeria tenella, the causative agent of caecal coccidiosis, is a pathogenic gut dwelling protozoan which can cause severe morbidity and mortality in farmed chickens. Immune mapped protein-1 (IMP-1) has been identified as an anticoccidial vaccine candidate; in the present study allelic polymorphism was assessed across the IMP-1 coding sequence in E. tenella isolates from four countries and compared with the UK reference Houghton strain. Nucleotide diversity was low, limited to expansion/contraction of a CAG triplet repeat and five substitutions, three of which were non-synonymous. The EtIMP-1 coding sequence from a cloned Indian E. tenella isolate was expressed in E. coli and purified as a His-tagged thioredoxin fusion protein. An in-vivo vaccination and challenge trial was conducted to test the vaccine potential of recombinant EtIMP-1 (rEtIMP-1) and to compare post-vaccination immune responses of chickens to those stimulated by live oocyst infection. Following challenge, parasite replication measured using quantitative PCR was significantly reduced in chickens that had been vaccinated with rEtIMP-1 (rIC group; 67% reduction compared to UC or unimmunised controls; 79% reduction compared to rTC group or recombinant thioredoxin mock-immunised controls, p < 0.05), or the birds vaccinated by infection with oocysts (OC group, 90% compared to unimmunised controls). Chickens vaccinated with oocysts (OC) had significantly higher levels of interferon gamma in their serum post-challenge, compared to rEtIMP-1 vaccinated birds (rIC). Conversely rEtIMP-1 (rIC) vaccinated birds had significantly higher antigen specific serum IgY responses, correlating with higher serum IL-4 (both p < 0.05)