Respiratory Syncytial Virus

RSV infection has an estimated global incidence of 33 million cases in children <5 years of age, with 10% requiring hospital admission and up to 199 000 dying of the disease. There is growing evidence that severe infantile RSV bronchiolitis, a condition characterised by an inflammatory reaction to the virus, is associated with later childhood wheeze in some vulnerable children; however, a direct causal relationship with asthma has not yet been established. RSV infection is also increasingly recognised as a cause of morbidity and mortality in those with underlying airway disease, the immunocompromised and frail elderly persons. Novel molecular-based diagnostic tools are becoming established, but treatment remains largely supportive, with palivizumab the only licensed agent currently available for passive prophylaxis of selected pre-term infants. While effective treatments remain elusive, there is optimism about the testing of novel antiviral drugs and the development of vaccines that may induce long-lasting immunity without the risk of disease augmentation

Effects of age on amplitude-modulated cVEMP temporal modulation transfer function

With the aging population on the rise, the need for effective assessment tools to identify risk factors for falls among the elderly is paramount. One independent risk factor for falls is vestibular impairment, but the available vestibular diagnostic tests have limitations. A promising new methodology: amplitude-modulated tones to elicit a vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (AMcVEMP), offers a more detailed examination of vestibular (sacculo-collic reflex) functions. This method assesses non-linearities, synchrony, and magnitude, providing a more thorough evaluation compared to the conventional transient cVEMP. So far, AMcVEMP has only been utilized in young adults. The current study aimed to investigate the impact of age on the AMcVEMP temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF), determine the shape and limit of the AMcVEMP TMTF, and assess non-linearity across a range of modulation frequencies. The study included 49 healthy participants, categorized into three age groups. AMcVEMP responses were elicited using a carrier-frequency of 500 Hz and 10 modulation frequencies. An FFT-based approach was employed to analyze the responses, focusing on amplitude, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), phase coherence (PC), and non-linearity. To measure non-linearity, harmonics of the modulation frequencies were analyzed. The AMcVEMP responses exhibited characteristics consistent with saccular rectification. The AMcVEMP amplitude, SNR, and PC reduced with increasing age. The effects of age were less pronounced for PC, showing 100% response rates among older adults. Further, AMcVEMP TMTF range reduced with age for all measures. The shape of the AMcVEMP TMTF resembled bandpass filter among young adults and got narrower with age. Lastly, for the non-linearity measures, harmonics were robust in most young, some middle-aged and fewer older adults, indicating loss of non-linearity with aging. AMcVEMP offers several advantages in assessing older adults compared to conventional cVEMP: higher response rates and the ability to examine and quantify the magnitude, synchrony, and non-linearity from the sacculo-collic reflex. This study advances our overall understanding of age-related changes in the vestibular system. Further utility of AMcVEMP in clinical populations will advance our comprehension of vestibular pathophysiology. Furthermore, linking vestibular non-linearity with functional balance may facilitate the development of strategies to mitigate the risk of falls among older adults

Role of MgO impurity on the superconducting properties of MgB2

We address the effect of MgO impurity on the superconducting properties of MgB2. The synthesis of MgB2 is very crucial because of sensitivity of Mg to oxidation which may lead to MgO as a secondary phase. Rietveld refinement was performed to determine the quantitative volume fraction of MgO in the samples synthesized by two different techniques. Both the samples were subjected to magnetization measurements under dc and ac applied magnetic fields and the observed results were compared as a function of temperature. Paramagnetic Meissner effect has been observed in a sample of MgB2 having more amount of MgO (with Tc = 37.1K) whereas the pure sample MgB2 having minor quantity of MgO shows diamagnetic Meissner effect with Tc = 38.8K. M-H measurements at 10K reveal a slight difference in irreversibility field which is due to MgO impurity along with wide transition observed from ac magnetic susceptibility measurements. The magnetotransport measurements R(T)H using RN = 90%, 50% and 10% criterion on pure sample of MgB2 has been used to determine the upper critical field whereas the sample having large quantity of MgO does not allow these measurements due to its high resistance.Comment: 15 pages text + Fig

Constraints on nuclear matter parameters of an Effective Chiral Model

Within an effective non-linear chiral model, we evaluate nuclear matter parameters exploiting the uncertainties in the nuclear saturation properties. The model is sternly constrained with minimal free parameters, which display the interlink between nuclear incompressibility ($K$), the nucleon effective mass ($m^{\star}$), the pion decay constant ($f_{\pi}$) and the $\sigma-$meson mass ($m_{\sigma}$). The best fit among the various parameter set is then extracted and employed to study the resulting Equation of state (EOS). Further, we also discuss the consequences of imposing constraints on nuclear EOS from Heavy-Ion collision and other phenomenological model predictions.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Controlling laser spectra in a phaseonium photonic crystal using maser

We study the control of quantum resonances in photonic crystals with electromagnetically induced transparency driven by microwave field. In addition to the control laser, the intensity and phase of the maser can alter the transmission and reflection spectra in interesting ways, producing hyperfine resonances through the combined effects of multiple scattering in the superstructure.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

A Simple Statistical Model for Analysis of QGP-droplet (Fireball) Formation

We construct the density of states for quarks and gluons using the `Thomas - Fermi model' for atoms and the `Bethe model' for nucleons as templates. With parameters to take care of the plasma (hydrodynamical) features of the QGP with a thermal potential for the interaction, we find a window in the parametric space of the model where observable QGP droplets of $\sim$ 5 fm radius can occur with transition temperature in the range 140 MeV to 250 MeV. By matching with the expectations of Lattice Gauge estimates of the QGP-hadron transitions, we can further narrow the window, thereby restricting the allowed values of the flow-parameters of the model.Comment: LaTex 11 pages, 8 figure