Tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment practices of private physicians in Karachi, Pakistan

In a densely populated urban area of Karachi, Pakistan, a questionnaire survey was made of the knowledge and practices of 120 private general practitioners about the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB). The majority knew that cough, fever and weight loss were the main symptoms of TB, but less than half knew that blood in sputum, poor appetite and chest pain were associated with the disease. Only 58.3% of physicians used sputum microscopy for diagnosing TB and 35.0% used it as a follow-up test. Only 41.7% treated TB patients themselves, the remaining referring their patients to specialists. Around 73.3% of the doctors were aware of the 4 first-line anti-TB drugs. Efforts to improve the knowledge of private practitioners, and strategies to enhance public-private collaboration forTB control in urban areas are urgently required

Complex magnetic topology and strong differential rotation on the low-mass T Tauri star V2247 Oph

From observations collected with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, we report the detection of Zeeman signatures on the low-mass classical TTauri star (cTTS) V2247Oph. Profile distortions and circular polarisation signatures detected in photospheric lines can be interpreted as caused by cool spots and magnetic regions at the surface of the star. The large-scale field is of moderate strength and highly complex; moreover, both the spot distribution and the magnetic field show significant variability on a timescale of only one week, as a likely result of strong differential rotation. Both properties make V2247Oph very different from the (more massive) prototypical cTTS BPTau; we speculate that this difference reflects the lower mass of V2247Oph. During our observations, V2247Oph was in a low-accretion state, with emission lines showing only weak levels of circular polarisation; we nevertheless find that excess emission apparently concentrates in a mid-latitude region of strong radial field, suggesting that it is the footpoint of an accretion funnel. The weaker and more complex field that we report on V2247Oph may share similarities with those of very-low-mass late-M dwarfs and potentially explain why low-mass cTTSs rotate on average faster than intermediate mass ones. These surprising results need confirmation from new independent data sets on V2247Oph and other similar low-mass cTTSs.Comment: MNRAS (in press) - 12 pages, 9 figure

Multi-wavelength observing of a forming solar-like star

V2129 Oph is a 1.35 solar mass classical T Tauri star, known to possess a strong and complex magnetic field. By extrapolating from an observationally derived magnetic surface map, obtained through Zeeman-Doppler imaging, models of V2129 Oph's corona have been constructed, and used to make predictions regarding the global X-ray emission measure, the amount of modulation of X-ray emission, and the density of accretion shocks. In late June 2009 we will under take an ambitious multi-wavelength, multi-observing site, and near contemporaneous campaign, combining spectroscopic optical, nIR, UV, X-ray, spectropolarimetric and photometric monitoring. This will allow the validity of the 3D field topologies derived via field extrapolation to be determined.Comment: 4 pages, proceedings of the 3rd MSSL workshop on High Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy: towards IX

A feasibility, randomised controlled trial of a complex breathlessness intervention in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (BREEZE-IPF): study protocol

Introduction Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive lung disease that causes breathlessness and cough that worsen over time, limiting daily activities and negatively impacting quality of life. Although treatments are now available that slow the rate of lung function decline, trials of these treatments have failed to show improvement in symptoms or quality of life. There is an immediate unmet need for evidenced-based interventions that improve patients' symptom burden and make a difference to everyday living. This study aims to assess the feasibility of conducting a definitive randomised controlled trial of a holistic, complex breathlessness intervention in people with IPF. Methods and analysis The trial is a two-centre, randomised controlled feasibility trial of a complex breathlessness intervention compared with usual care in patients with IPF. 50 participants will be recruited from secondary care IPF clinics and randomised 1:1 to either start the intervention within 1 week of randomisation (fast-track group) or to receive usual care for 8 weeks before receiving the intervention (wait-list group). Participants will remain in the study for a total of 16 weeks. Outcome measures will be feasibility outcomes, including recruitment, retention, acceptability and fidelity of the intervention. Clinical outcomes will be measured to inform outcome selection and sample size calculation for a definitive trial. Ethics and dissemination Yorkshire and The Humber – Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee approved the study protocol (REC 18/YH/0147). Results of the main trial and all secondary end-points will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal

Variable X-ray emission from the accretion shock in the classical T Tauri star V2129 Ophiuchi

Context. The soft X-ray emission from high density plasma observed in several CTTS is usually associated with the accretion process. However, it is still unclear whether this high density “cool” plasma is heated in the accretion shock, or if it is coronal plasma fed or modified by the accretion process. Aims. We conducted a coordinated quasi-simultaneous optical and X-ray observing campaign of the CTTS V2129 Oph. In this paper, we analyze Chandra grating spectrometer data and attempt to correlate the observed X-ray emitting plasma components with the characteristics of the accretion process and the stellar magnetic field constrained by simultaneous optical observations. Methods. We analyze a 200 ks Chandra/HETGS observation, subdivided into two 100 ks segments, of the CTTS V2129 Oph. For the two observing segments corresponding to two different phases within one stellar rotation, we measure the density of the cool plasma component and the emission measure distribution. Results. The X-ray emitting plasma covers a wide range of temperatures: from 2 up to 34 MK. The cool plasma component of V2129 Oph (T ≈ 3−4 MK) varies between the two segments of the Chandra observation: during the first observing segment high density plasma (log N_c = 12.1_(-1.1)^(+0.6)) with high EM at ~3−4 MK is present, whereas, during the second segment, this plasma component has lower EM and lower density (log N_e 3 R_⋆). Conclusions. Our observation provides additional confirmation that the dense cool plasma at a few MK in CTTS is material heated in the accretion shock. The variability of this cool plasma component on V2129 Oph may be explained in terms of X-rays emitted in the accretion shock and seen with different viewing angles at the two rotational phases probed by our observation. In particular, during the first time interval a direct view of the shock region is possible, while, during the second, the accretion funnel itself intersects the line of sight to the shock region, preventing us from observing the accretion-driven X-rays

Vestibular evidence for the evolution of aquatic behaviour in early cetaceans

Early cetaceans evolved from terrestrial quadrupeds to obligate swimmers, a change that is traditionally studied by functional analysis of the postcranial skeleton. Here we assess the evolution of cetacean locomotor behaviour from an independent perspective by looking at the semicircular canal system, one of the main sense organs involved in neural control of locomotion. Extant cetaceans are found to be unique in that their canal arc size, corrected for body mass, is approximately three times smaller than in other mammals. This reduces the sensitivity of the canal system, most plausibly to match the fast body rotations that characterize cetacean behaviour. Eocene fossils show that the new sensory regime, incompatible with terrestrial competence, developed quickly and early in cetacean evolution, as soon as the taxa are associated with marine environments. Dedicated agile swimming of cetaceans thus appeared to have originated as a rapid and fundamental shift in locomotion rather than as the gradual transition suggested by postcranial evidence. We hypothesize that the unparalleled modification of the semicircular canal system represented a key 'point of no return' event in early cetacean evolution, leading to full independence from life on land

Antibacterial, antifungal and insecticidal activities of some selected medicinal plants of polygonaceae

The antibacterial, antifungal and insecticidal activities of the crude extract of Polygonum persicaria, Rumex hastatus, Rumex dentatus, Rumex nepalensis, Polygonum plebejum and Rheum australe have been studied. Six bacterial species were used, of which Citrobacter frundii, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes and Staphylococcus aureus were the most susceptible bacterial species to crude extract with MICs 16, 5.0, 25 and 0.156 mg/ml, respectively. Among the tested fungal species Fusarium solani, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger were more susceptible to crude extracts with MICs 0.75, 2.15, and 1.75 μg/ml, respectively. The crude extracts of R. dentatus and R. nepalensis show significant insecticidal activity against Sitophilus oryzae; P. persicaria and P. plebejum show significant insecticidal activities against Tribolium castaneum, respectively. The above selected plants were shown by in vitro assays to be a potential source for natural antifungal, antibacterial and insecticidal agents.Key words: Polygonum persicaria, Rumex hastatus, Rumex dentatus, Rumex nepalensis, Polygonum plebejum, Rheum australe, antibacterial, antifungal, insecticidal

Magnetic topologies of cool stars

Stellar magnetic fields can be investigated using several, very complementary approaches. While conventional spectroscopy is capable of estimating the average magnetic strength of potentially complex field configurations thanks to its low sensitivity to the vector properties of the field, spectropolarimetry can be used to map the medium- and large-scale structure of magnetic topologies. In particular, the latter approach allows one to retrieve information about the poloidal and toroidal components of the large-scale dynamo fields in low-mass stars, and thus to investigate the physical processes that produce them. Similarly, this technique can be used to explore how magnetic fields couple young stars to their massive accretion disc and thus to estimate how much mass and angular momentum are transfered to the newly-born low-mass star. We present here the latest results in this field obtained with spectropolarimetry, with special emphasis on the surprising discoveries obtained on very-low mass fully-convective stars and classical T Tauri stars thanks to the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter recently installed on the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.Comment: 10p invited review paper, 3 figures, to be published in the proceedings of the 14th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun, November 6-10, 2006, ed. G. van Belle (ASP Conf Ser