Activity controls fragility: A Random First Order Transition Theory for an active glass

How does nonequilibrium activity modify the approach to a glass? This is an important question, since many experiments reveal the near-glassy nature of the cell interior, remodelled by activity. However, different simulations of dense assemblies of active particles, parametrised by a self-propulsion force, $f_0$, and persistence time, $\tau_p$, appear to make contradictory predictions about the influence of activity on characteristic features of glass, such as fragility. This calls for a broad conceptual framework to understand active glasses; here we extend the Random First-Order Transition (RFOT) theory to a dense assembly of self-propelled particles. We compute the active contribution to the configurational entropy using an effective medium approach - that of a single particle in a caging-potential. This simple active extension of RFOT provides excellent quantitative fits to existing simulation results. We find that whereas $f_0$ always inhibits glassiness, the effect of $\tau_p$ is more subtle and depends on the microscopic details of activity. In doing so, the theory automatically resolves the apparent contradiction between the simulation models. The theory also makes several testable predictions, which we verify by both existing and new simulation data, and should be viewed as a step towards a more rigorous analytical treatment of active glass

Neural Underpinnings of Decoupled Ethical Behavior in Adolescents as an Interaction of Peer and Personal Values

In the present study, we are trying to understand how peer unethical behavior stimulates the decoupling of emotions in adolescents. We have simulated an interactive game-based environment in order to stimulate participants to make decisions that are found to be correlated with their virtual partner decisions. The responses given by participants were also recorded as neural signals using an EEG to study neurophysiological correlates of different decision-making behavioral patterns. There was an active correlation between personality values and decision-making. Preliminary analysis was focused on studying the differences in lower brain frequencies (0.1-4Hz) when the participants developed frustration, in contrast to when they experienced gratitude. The study presents three case studies in which delta frequencies increased in cases when frustration was experienced and decreased when gratitude was experienced. The study focused on understanding the neural underpinnings of corresponding modified behavior in adolescents. The findings highlight an increase in delta frequencies when apparent frustration was developed in adolescents due to their peer unethical behavior. The delta frequencies lowered when participants were tested for ethical behavior. The results concluded that based on personality value types, adolescents tend to develop frustration toward perceived unethical behavior and carry it over to other unrelated peers. This study is highly explorative in nature, with preliminary analysis using only three case studies, having a small sample size. However, the novelty of this study brings about new dimensions to social cognition and personality studies.Comment: 8 Pages, 6 Figure

Business and Social Behaviour Intelligence Analysis Using PSO

The goal of this paper is to elaborate swarm intelligence for business intelligence decision making and the business rules management improvement. The paper introduces the decision making model which is based on the application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. Essentially the business spatial data illustrate the group behaviors. The swarm optimization, which is highly influenced by the behavior of creature, performs in group. The Spatial data is defined as data that is represented by 2D or 3D images. SQL Server supports only 2D images till now. As we know that location is an essential part of any organizational data as well as business data: enterprises maintain customer address lists, own property, ship goods from and to warehouses, manage transport flows among their workforce, and perform many other activities. By means to say a lot of spatial data is used and processed by enterprises, organizations and other bodies in order to make the things more visible and self-descriptive. From the experiments, we found that PSO is can facilitate the intelligence in social and business behaviour

Prevalence and significance of thrombophilia markers in adverse pregnancy outcome

Background: Thrombophilia complicates the pregnancy by interfering the physiology of utero-placental circulation which in turn leads to IUGR, IUD, PIH, RPL, abruption placentae. This study is to find out the prevalence and significance of different thrombophilia markers in cases of adverse pregnancy outcome in eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, India.Methods: 54 antenatal women are selected from the cases presented with or previous history of PIH, IUGR, IUD, Abruption or early/late abortion. A thorough family history, history of risk factors, clinical examination were noted. Platelet count, prothrombin time(PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), plasma fibrinogen, factor-VIII assay, LA, ACLA, protein- C, protein- S, TORCH, thyroid profile, blood sugar, USG is done in all patients at the time of first registration. 50 antenatal females without any bad obstetric history was taken as controls.Results: Among 54 cases, 64.8% cases were positive for thrombophilia markers, whereas 6% control had presence of thrombophilia markers. 6.5% thrombophilia positive cases had ≥3 markers present and had ≥2 manifestations of adverse pregnancy outcome in 100% cases. Prevalence of different thrombophilia markers are studied in individual case and association to various outcomes were noted.Conclusions: There was high prevalence of thrombophilia markers in the cases with adverse pregnancy outcome. As treatment was found significantly effective in literature, screening of these markers should be done in patients with bad obstetric history

Fallopian tube as a cause of intestinal obstruction: a rare case report with review of literature

Adhesive Intestinal obstruction is the most common cause of intestinal obstruction in post-operative period. Diagnosis is based on history, clinical examination, plain X-ray abdomen. Authors here report an interesting case of intestinal obstruction after surgery for chronic calcific pancreatitis with pancreatic duct stone with intractable pain. In post-operative period patient developed features of intestinal obstruction, patient was planned for re- exploration and it was found that band was formed by left fallopian tube with transition point at terminal ileum and treated successfully with left Salpingectomy. Very few cases of fallopian tube as cause of intestinal obstruction have been reported in literature and it should be considered as one of the cause of intestinal obstruction in females presenting with acute abdomen

Manufacturing and characterization of regenerated cellulose/curcumin based sustainable composites fibers spun from environmentally benign solvents

We report a novel manufacturing method for bio renewable regenerated cellulose fibres modified with curcumin, a molecule is known for its medicinal properties. Ionic liquid namely 1-Ethyl 3-Methyl Imidazolium diethyl phosphate (emim DEP) was found to be capable of dissolving cellulose as well as curcumin. Regenerated cellulose/curcumin composites fibres with curcumin concentration ranging from 1 to 10 wt% were manufactured using dry jet wet fibres spinning process using three different winding speeds. All the cellulose and curcumin composite fibres showed distinct yellow colour imparted by curcumin. The resultant fibres were characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared spectroscopy, mechanical testing, and X-Ray diffraction studies. Scanning electron microscopy of cellulose/curcumin fibres cross-section did not show curcumin aggregates in cellulose fibres indicating uniform dispersion of curcumin in cellulose matrix. The cellulose chain alignment in cellulose/curcumin composite fibres resulted in tensile strength ranging from 223 to 336 MPa and Young’s modulus ranging from 13 to 14.9 GPa. The mechanical properties of cellulose/curcumin composite fibres thus obtained are better than some of the commercially available regenerated cellulose viscose fibres. The wide-angle X-ray diffraction analysis of cellulose/curcumin composite fibres showed good alignment of cellulose chains along the fibre axis. Thus, our findings are a major step in manufacturing strong cellulose fibres with a pharmacologically potent drug curcumin which in future could be used for medicinal, cosmetic and food packaging applications

Performance analysis of anomalous photocatalytic activity of Cr-doped TiO2 nanoparticles [Cr(x)TiO2(1-x)]

We report the synthesis and characterisation of pristine and chromium (Cr) metal ion-doped titanium dioxide nanoparticles [Cr(x)TiO2(1-x)] to study the anomalous effect of Cr doping on the photocatalytic property of TiO2. The presence of dopants generates more number of recombination pairs and increases surface coverage sites which decreases photocatalytic activity. We study the structural morphology of the synthesised Cr(x)TiO2(1-x) samples using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. The effect of Cr3+ ions on the optical properties of TiO2 has been studied using various imaging and spectroscopic techniques. Further, the effect of doping of Cr on the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 has been analysed in detail. The concentration of Cr in TiO2 has been chosen as 0, 1, 5 and 10% by weight. It has been observed that the pristine TiO2 exhibits better photocatalytic activity as compared to Cr-doped TiO2 irrespective of the Cr concentration. This can be attributed to the fact that due to Cr doping in TiO2, the number of available adsorption sites for malachite green reduces which degrades its photocatalytic activity. It is also confirmed by photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. PL intensity increases, and lifetime decreases with increase in doping concentration. Radiative recombination of electron and hole pairs of Cr3+ in TiO2 degrades its photocatalytic activity. The degradation efficiency is found to be 96% in the case of pristine TiO2 which reduces to 12% when doped with x = 10% concentration of chromium. Therefore, it is observed that in comparison with Cr-doped TiO2, pristine TiO2 exhibits an improved photocatalytic activity which shows the anomalous effect of Cr doping on the photocatalytic property of TiO2