Electroconvulsive therapy mediates neuroplasticity of white matter microstructure in major depression.

Whether plasticity of white matter (WM) microstructure relates to therapeutic response in major depressive disorder (MDD) remains uncertain. We examined diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) correlates of WM structural connectivity in patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), a rapidly acting treatment for severe MDD. Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) applied to DTI data (61 directions, 2.5 mm(3) voxel size) targeted voxel-level changes in fractional anisotropy (FA), and radial (RD), axial (AD) and mean diffusivity (MD) in major WM pathways in MDD patients (n=20, mean age: 41.15 years, 10.32 s.d.) scanned before ECT, after their second ECT and at transition to maintenance therapy. Comparisons made at baseline with demographically similar controls (n=28, mean age: 39.42 years, 12.20 s.d.) established effects of diagnosis. Controls were imaged twice to estimate scanning-related variance. Patients showed significant increases of FA in dorsal fronto-limbic circuits encompassing the anterior cingulum, forceps minor and left superior longitudinal fasciculus between baseline and transition to maintenance therapy (P<0.05, corrected). Decreases in RD and MD were observed in overlapping regions and the anterior thalamic radiation (P<0.05, corrected). Changes in DTI metrics associated with therapeutic response in tracts showing significant ECT effects differed between patients and controls. All measures remained stable across time in controls. Altered WM microstructure in pathways connecting frontal and limbic areas occur in MDD, are modulated by ECT and relate to therapeutic response. Increased FA together with decreased MD and RD, which trend towards normative values with treatment, suggest increased fiber integrity in dorsal fronto-limbic pathways involved in mood regulation

Scale-size calculations, energy dissipation rates and height coverage of a 404 MHz wind profiler at IMD, Pune

The 404 MHz wind profiler at the India Meteorological Department, Pune, is the first wind profiler of this frequency in India. Therefore, it is necessary to achieve maximum possible height to get valuable data. UHF wind profilers have better height and time resolution, which enables us to make reliable and correct estimations of the wind at various altitudes at regular spacing above the observational site. The height coverage of the profiler depends upon various factors like power aperture product and the operating wavelength vis-avis scale sizes available in the atmosphere. In this study, daily averaged second moment data archived during clear-air conditions have been used to estimate the scale-size parameters in terms of eddy dissipation rates, which explicitly indicates that more height coverage of a profiler depends only on the availability of the scale sizes in the atmosphere to which the radar is sensitive, and that in turn depends on where in the inertial subrange the operating wavelength resides. Power aperture product at various C2n values has been estimated. This note explicitly explains why the height coverage of the wind profiler at Pune is limited to 6-8 km under clear-air conditions

The 404 MHZ wind profiler to observe precipitation

This article delineates the tropical precipitation and classification of precipitating systems into stratiform and convective type, using the UHF wind profiler located at the Indian tropical station Pune (18°32'N, 73°51'E). Under moderate rain conditions the two signals arising due to clear air motions and precipitation are clearly distinguished in the power spectra. An algorithm with suitable methodology has been developed that separates clear air and precipitation echoes when they are clearly distinguishable as seen in the power spectrum. This was tested for various power spectra and found to work well under moderate rain conditions. The sensitivity of the threshold was tested for the precipitation observed on 25 July 2005. In addition, case studies of stratiform rain (precipitation observed over the site on 26 July 2005, 0800 h IST) and convective system (a thunderstorm observed on 16 May 2004) are presented and discussed. An attempt has been made to fit a Gaussian distribution curve to determine the actual Doppler shift and spectral width. The observed convective and stratiform precipitation is described in terms of reflectivity, maximum spectral width and Doppler velocity gradient in the vertical

Seasonal, annual and inter-annual features of turbulence parameters over the tropical station Pune (18°32' N, 73°51' E) observed with UHF wind profiler

The present study is specifically focused on the seasonal, annual and inter-annual variations of the refractive index structure parameter (Cn2) using three years of radar observations. Energy dissipation rates (ε) during different seasons for a particular year are also computed over a tropical station, Pune. Doppler spectral width measurements made by the Wind Profiler, under various atmospheric conditions, are utilized to estimate the turbulence parameters. The refractive index structure parameter varies from 10−17.5 to 10−13 m−2/3 under clear air to precipitation conditions in the height region of 1.05 to 10.35 km. During the monsoon months, observed Cn2 values are up to 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than those during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. Spectral width correction for various non-turbulent spectral broadenings such as beam broadening and shear broadening are made in the observed spectral width for reliable estimation of ε under non-precipitating conditions. It is found that in the lower tropospheric height region, values of ε are in the range of 10−6 to 10−3 m2 s−3. In summer and monsoon seasons the observed values of ε are larger than those in post-monsoon and winter seasons in the lower troposphere. A comparison of Cn2 observed with the wind profiler and that estimated using Radio Sonde/Radio Wind (RS/RW) data of nearby Met station Chikalthana has been made for the month of July 200

Designing disordered materials using DNA-coated colloids of bacteriophage fd and gold.

DNA has emerged as an exciting binding agent for programmable colloidal self-assembly. Its popularity derives from its unique properties: it provides highly specific short-ranged interactions and at the same time it acts as a steric stabilizer against non-specific van der Waals and Coulomb interactions. Because complementary DNA strands are linked only via hydrogen bonds, DNA-mediated binding is thermally reversible: it provides an effective attraction that can be switched off by raising the temperature only by a few degrees. In this article we introduce a new binary system made of DNA-functionalized filamentous fd viruses of ∼880 nm length with an aspect ratio of ∼100, and 50 nm gold nanoparticles (gold NPs) coated with the complementary DNA strands. When quenching mixtures below the melt temperature Tm, at which the attraction is switched on, we observe aggregation. Conversely, above Tm the system melts into a homogenous particulate 'gas'. We present the aggregation behavior of three different gold NP to virus ratios and compare them to a gel made solely of gold NPs. In particular, we have investigated the aggregate structures as a function of cooling rate and determine how they evolve as function of time for given quench depths, employing fluorescence microscopy. Structural information was extracted in the form of an effective structure factor and chord length distributions. Rapid cooling rates lead to open aggregates, while slower controlled cooling rates closer to equilibrium DNA hybridization lead to more fine-stranded gels. Despite the different structures we find that for both cooling rates the quench into the two-phase region leads to initial spinodal decomposition, which becomes arrested. Surprisingly, although the fine-stranded gel is disordered, the overall structure and the corresponding length scale distributions in the system are remarkably reproducible. Such highly porous systems can be developed into new functional materials.This work would not have been possible without the financial support of various agencies: EE, CPG and ZR thank the Winton Program for the Physics of Sustainability. CPG and ZR acknowledge support from the EU ERC FP7 programme via an advanced fellowship for CPG. RU and SHN received support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for financial support. Work in the GPCS Lab is funded by the BBSRC, UK. DJ acknowledges the financial support from Udayan Care, NTCU and Schlumberger Foundation's FFTF program.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the Royal Society of Chemistry via http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5FD00120

Study of transmission and reflection from a disordered lasing medium

A numerical study of the statistics of transmission ($t$) and reflection ($r$) of quasi-particles from a one-dimensional disordered lasing or amplifying medium is presented. The amplification is introduced via a uniform imaginary part in the site energies in the disordered segment of the single-band tight binding model. It is shown that $t$ is a non-self-averaging quantity. The cross-over length scale above which the amplification suppresses the transmittance is studied as a function of amplification strength. A new cross-over length scale is introduced in the regime of strong disorder and weak amplification. The stationary distribution of the backscattered reflection coefficient is shown to differ qualitatively from the earlier analytical results obtained within the random phase approximation.Comment: 5 pages RevTex (twocolumn format), 5 EPS figures, considerably modifie

On Inverse Scattering at a Fixed Energy for Potentials with a Regular Behaviour at Infinity

We study the inverse scattering problem for electric potentials and magnetic fields in \ere^d, d\geq 3, that are asymptotic sums of homogeneous terms at infinity. The main result is that all these terms can be uniquely reconstructed from the singularities in the forward direction of the scattering amplitude at some positive energy.Comment: This is a slightly edited version of the previous pape

Prevalence and distribution of intestinal parasitic infestations among school children in Kaski District, Western Nepal

This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infestations among school children in Kaski District of Western Nepal. A total of 2091 stool samples were collected from school children selected from 11 rural and eight urban schools. The stool samples were examined for evidence of parasitic infections by direct microscopic examination. Prevalence of intestinal parasites was 21.3%. There was a significant difference in prevalence between urban (18.7%) and rural (24.1%) school samples. Giardia lamblia (13.2%), Ascaris lumbricoides (2.1%) and Entamoeba histolytica (1.7%) were the commonest parasites isolated. The results indicate that intestinal parasitic infestation among school children in the study area is mainly water-borne. The burden of parasitic infestations among the school children, coupled with the poor sanitary conditions in the schools, should be regarded as an issue of public health priority. This strongly supports the need for school health programmes that will involve periodic deworming, health education and improvement of school sanitation

Infant feeding practices of mothers in an urban area in Nepal

Abstract Background: Child health in developing countries including Nepal is a matter of serious concern as the prevalence of malnutrition among children continues to be high with 48.6% of children under five in Nepal being underweight. Since infant feeding practices adopted by mothers play a major role in influencing health of these children, there is a need to study the infant feeding practices prevalent in different areas in order to have pragmatic approaches to solve this problem. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among mothers who attended the immunization clinics of 18 wards of Pokhara municipality area. They were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire on various aspects of infant feeding. Result: A total of 168 mothers were interviewed and prevalence of breastfeeding was 99.4% (167). Only 43.5% of the mothers initiated breastfeeding within one hour of birth and 60.5% were practicing exclusive breastfeeding at 5 months. Almost 40% of the mothers started complementary feeding before the recommended age of 6 months and 22.5 % delayed introduction of complementary feeding beyond the recommended age. Conclusion: Breast feeding practices adopted by mothers of Pokhara urban area are still lacking in terms of late initiation of and early starting of complementary feeding. There is a need to educate the mothers regarding proper infant feeding practices

Agenda setting and framing of gender-based violence in Nepal: how it became a health issue.

: Gender-based violence (GBV) has been addressed as a policy issue in Nepal since the mid 1990s, yet it was only in 2010 that Nepal developed a legal and policy framework to combat GBV. This article draws on the concepts of agenda setting and framing to analyse the historical processes by which GBV became legitimized as a health policy issue in Nepal and explored factors that facilitated and constrained the opening and closing of windows of opportunity. The results presented are based on a document analysis of the policy and regulatory framework around GBV in Nepal. A content analysis was undertaken. Agenda setting for GBV policies in Nepal evolved over many years and was characterized by the interplay of political context factors, actors and multiple frames. The way the issue was depicted at different times and by different actors played a key role in the delay in bringing health onto the policy agenda. Women's groups and less powerful Ministries developed gender equity and development frames, but it was only when the more powerful human rights frame was promoted by the country's new Constitution and the Office of the Prime Minister that legislation on GBV was achieved and a domestic violence bill was adopted, followed by a National Plan of Action. This eventually enabled the health frame to converge around the development of implementation policies that incorporated health service responses. Our explicit incorporation of framing within the Kindgon model has illustrated how important it is for understanding the emergence of policy issues, and the subsequent debates about their resolution. The framing of a policy problem by certain policy actors, affects the development of each of the three policy streams, and may facilitate or constrain their convergence. The concept of framing therefore lends an additional depth of understanding to the Kindgon agenda setting model.<br/