Book review: Ploughshares and swords: India's nuclear program in the global Cold War by Jayita Sarkar

In Ploughshares and Swords: India’s Nuclear Program in the Global Cold War – available open access – Jayita Sarkar explores the global story of India’s nuclear programme during its first 40 years, set within the context of the Cold War. Drawing on extensive interdisciplinary research, this book is a useful addition to the literature on India’s nuclear programme and powerfully underscores the importance of its subject matter, writes M.V. Ramana. Ploughshares and Swords: India’s Nuclear Program in the Global Cold War. Jayita Sarkar. Cornell University Press. 2022

An evaluation of the practice of active management of third stage of labour in a teaching hospital

Background: Worldwide post-partum haemorrhage (PPH) is the most common cause of maternal mortality. Atonic PPH accounts for 80% of the cases. Risk of PPH can be reduced by 60% by actively managing the third stage of labour. International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and World Health Organization (WHO) recommend routine use of active management of third stage of labour (AMTSL). The present study was done to evaluate the practices of AMTSL.Methods: 100 Case sheets of women who had vaginal delivery were randomly taken and analyzed for the data regarding the components of AMTSL. Microsoft excel was used for analysis.Results: The main component of AMTSL, Oxytocin 10 IU IM was used in 80% of the cases for prevention of PPH. Methylergometrine was used in 20% of the cases. Documentation of controlled cord traction was not present. Uterine massage was not routinely done and documented.Conclusions: WHO recommends all the components of AMTSL and uterotonic is the most significant component. Controlled cord traction should be used where trained person is available. It is necessary to train the staff and create awareness about the AMTSL. Correct documentation is essential for feedback and auditing. Methylergometrine should be used as a second line drug for the treatment of post-partum haemorrhage

Dynamics of a prey-predator model involving a prey refuge and disease in the predator

In this paper, a mathematical model consisting of a prey-predator involving a prey refuge and infectious disease in the predator has been proposed and analyzed. Two types of functional responses are used to describe the feeding of the predator on the available prey. The existence, uniqueness and boundedness of the solution of the system are discussed. The dynamical behavior of the system has been investigated locally as well as globally using suitable Lyapunov function. The persistence conditions of the system are established. Local bifurcation near the equilibrium points has been investigated. The Hopf bifurcation conditions around the positive equilibrium point are derived. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to specify the control parameters and confirm the obtained results Keywords: Prey-Predator, Disease, Refuge, Stability, Bifurcation

Comparative Investigation on in vitro release of extemporaneously prepared norfloxacin semisolid formulations with marketed silver sulfadiazine 1% cream, USP using model independent approach

Objective In an attempt for better treatment of bacterial infections, various semisolid formulations containing 5% w/w of norfloxacin were prepared and evaluated for in vitro drug release and in vitro skin permeability using dialysis membrane and rat abdominal skin respectively. The in vitro diffusion and permeation profile of the prepared formulation was compared with marketed silver sulfadiazine cream 1%, USP using model independent approach. Methods Various semisolid formulations were prepared with different dermatological bases using standard procedures. In vitro diffusion and permeation studies were carried out using Keshary-Chein (KC) type diffusion cell using dialysis membrane and rat abdominal skin respectively. Results The f1 lower than 15 and f2 higher than 50 indicated similarities in the in vitro diffusion and permeation profiles of the extemporaneously prepared selected semisolid formulations and marketed silver sulfadiazine 1% cream, USP. Conclusion Amongst all the semisolid formulations prepared, carbopol gel base was found to be most suitable dermatological base for norfloxacin, the results obtained for in vitro diffusion, and in vitro skin permeation studies are comparable with that of marketed silver sulphadiazine 1% cream, USP

New flavor physics in bb decays

A new $U(1)$ gauge boson coupling predominantly to the third family has been considered in connection with recent LEP data. We consider another likely consequence of such a gauge boson, a greatly enhanced $b$ quark decay mode, b \to s \nnbar.Comment: 6 pages, Latex documen

Exhibition of Bleaching Resistance Via Adaptive Bleaching Pattern by Coral Reefs of the Gulf of Mannar during Massive Bleaching Event 2019

Coral reefs in the Gulf of Mannar (GoM) and Palk Bay regions are facing potential threats from climate change, sedimentation and anthropogenic activities. Considerably, coral reefs in these two regions are highly damaged due to frequent bleaching events caused by increased sea surface temperature (SST) recorded over the past two decades. Recently, during February to May 2019, mass bleaching event of corals was documented again in GoM and Palk Bay regions due to increased sea surface temperatures ranged between 32°C to 36°C. Despite of completely bleached corals, some coral colonies of the same bleached coral species have displayed adaptive bleaching pattern (ABP) for survival. This incidence is displayed by the symbiotic zooxanthellae to protect coral polyps from environmental stress such as elevated temperatures. These observations infer that coral colonies with preferential bleaching pattern ability would serve as environmental stress resisting coral colonies which can be used for restoration activities and cryopreservation. Further studies are needed to explain the potential mechanisms or specific environmental drivers responsible for ABP.   

Dimension Reduction via Colour Refinement

Colour refinement is a basic algorithmic routine for graph isomorphism testing, appearing as a subroutine in almost all practical isomorphism solvers. It partitions the vertices of a graph into "colour classes" in such a way that all vertices in the same colour class have the same number of neighbours in every colour class. Tinhofer (Disc. App. Math., 1991), Ramana, Scheinerman, and Ullman (Disc. Math., 1994) and Godsil (Lin. Alg. and its App., 1997) established a tight correspondence between colour refinement and fractional isomorphisms of graphs, which are solutions to the LP relaxation of a natural ILP formulation of graph isomorphism. We introduce a version of colour refinement for matrices and extend existing quasilinear algorithms for computing the colour classes. Then we generalise the correspondence between colour refinement and fractional automorphisms and develop a theory of fractional automorphisms and isomorphisms of matrices. We apply our results to reduce the dimensions of systems of linear equations and linear programs. Specifically, we show that any given LP L can efficiently be transformed into a (potentially) smaller LP L' whose number of variables and constraints is the number of colour classes of the colour refinement algorithm, applied to a matrix associated with the LP. The transformation is such that we can easily (by a linear mapping) map both feasible and optimal solutions back and forth between the two LPs. We demonstrate empirically that colour refinement can indeed greatly reduce the cost of solving linear programs

Data Preparation and Analysis for Andhra Pradesh Clusters

Local clusters are highly preferable in all domains due to complex and large Database applications are available. Clustering techniques are applied to local clusters as per needs of local clusters. We can apply divide and conquer rule for local clusters. Local clusters are always constructed as per needs of local bodies. In future we can combine or integrate these local clusters with big clusters or centralized clusters. The number of local cluster formation is completely depend upon requirements of local bodies. But in some contexts they must work along with central systems when they are integrated or combine with central systems

Strong duality in conic linear programming: facial reduction and extended duals

The facial reduction algorithm of Borwein and Wolkowicz and the extended dual of Ramana provide a strong dual for the conic linear program $$(P) \sup {<c, x> | Ax \leq_K b}$$ in the absence of any constraint qualification. The facial reduction algorithm solves a sequence of auxiliary optimization problems to obtain such a dual. Ramana's dual is applicable when (P) is a semidefinite program (SDP) and is an explicit SDP itself. Ramana, Tuncel, and Wolkowicz showed that these approaches are closely related; in particular, they proved the correctness of Ramana's dual using certificates from a facial reduction algorithm. Here we give a clear and self-contained exposition of facial reduction, of extended duals, and generalize Ramana's dual: -- we state a simple facial reduction algorithm and prove its correctness; and -- building on this algorithm we construct a family of extended duals when $K$ is a {\em nice} cone. This class of cones includes the semidefinite cone and other important cones.Comment: A previous version of this paper appeared as "A simple derivation of a facial reduction algorithm and extended dual systems", technical report, Columbia University, 2000, available from http://www.unc.edu/~pataki/papers/fr.pdf Jonfest, a conference in honor of Jonathan Borwein's 60th birthday, 201

The Phenomenology of a Hidden Symmetry Breaking Sector

We calculate the production rate of gauge-boson pairs at the SSC in a model with a ``hidden'' electroweak symmetry breaking sector. We show that the signal of electroweak symmetry breaking is lower than the background and that we cannot necessarily rely on gauge boson pairs as a signal of the dynamics of symmetry breaking.Comment: harvmac, 8 pages (4 figures), BUHEP-92-23 new version corrects error in figure