Insulin Resistance in psoriasis patients versus normal persos in a tertiary care hospital; A comparative study

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is a chronic T-cell mediated inflammatory skin disease characterized by complex alterations in epidermal growth and differentiation together with multiple biochemical, vascular and immunological changes. OBJECTIVES: This study was carried out in psoriasis patients to estimate their level of insulin resistance and to study the other associated biochemical parameters like fasting plasma glucose, serum high density lipoproteins and serum triglycerides in psoriasis patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 100 psoriasis patients and 100 age matched healthy controls attending outpatient department of Dermatology, Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences. Fasting blood samples were collected. FPG, insulin, HDL and triglycerides were assessed using Beckmann Coulter kit. IR was calculated using HOMA-IR adopting the value ≥2.5. Independent sample “t” tests were done for comparison of variables in two groups. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS 20. RESULTS: IR was observed in the study group. FPG and fasting insulin levels were significantly high in the cases compared to the controls. Triglyceride levels were significantly higher and HDLwas significantly lower in psoriasis patients. CONCLUSION: The results reveal IR was seen in psoriasis patients when compared to the controls. There was also a strong association of biochemical parameters like hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, high triglycerides and low HDL levels in the study group. This may elevate the risk of atherosclerosis, particularly cardiovascular diseases. Therefore periodic screening of psoriatic patients is recommended which may help in appropriate management

Radial flow of kaon mesons in heavy ion reactions

This work investigates the collective motion of kaons in heavy ion reactions at SIS energies (about 1-2 GeV/nucleon). A radial collective flow of $K^+$ mesons is predicted to exist in central Au + Au collisions, which manifests in a characteristic "shoulder-arm" shape of the transverse mass spectrum of the midrapidity $K^+$ mesons. The $K^+$ radial flow arises from the repulsive $K^+$ mean field in nuclear matter. In spite of a strong reabsorption and rescattering the attractive $K^-$ mean field leads as well to a collective radial flow of $K^-$ mesons. The $K^-$ radial flow, however, is different from that of $K^+$ mesons and can be observed by a characteristic "concave" structure of the transverse mass spectrum of the $K^-$ mesons emitted at midrapidity. The kaon radial flows can therefore serve as a novel tool for the investigation of kaon properties in dense nuclear matter.Comment: 30 pages RevTex, 5 PS figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

In-medium dependence and Coulomb effects of the pion production in heavy ion collisions

The properties of the high energy pions observed in heavy ion collisions, in particular in the system Au on Au at 1 GeV/nucleon are investigated. The reaction dynamics is described within the Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) approach. It is shown that high energy pions freeze out early and originate from the hot, compressed matter. $N^*$--resonances are found to give an important contribution toward the high energy tail of the pion. Further the role of in-medium effects in the description of charged pion yields and spectra is investigated using a microscopic potential derived from the Brueckner G-matrix which is obtained with the Reid soft-core potential. It is seen that the high energy part of the spectra is relatively more suppressed due to in-medium effects as compared to the low energy part. A comparision to experiments further demonstrates that the present calculations describe reasonably well the neutral (TAPS) and charged (FOPI) pion spectra. The observed energy dependence of the $\pi^-/\pi^+$ ratio, i.e. deviations from the isobar model prediction, is due to Coulomb effects and again indicate that high energy pions probe the hot and dense phase of the reaction. These findings are confirmed independently by a simple phase space analysis.Comment: 28 pages Latex, prepared with elsevier-style, 13 PS-figure

Reliable Computing Under Resources Constraints Policy 1

Abstract Hardware-based trusted computing platforms are intended to overcome many of the problems of trust that are prominent in computing systems. In this paper, a result of the Software Engineering Institute's Independent Research and Development Project "Trusted Computing in Extreme Adversarial Environments: Using Trusted Hardware as a Foundation for Cyber Security," we discuss the capabilities and limitations of the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). We describe credential storage, device identity, chains of trust, and other techniques for extending hardwarebased trust to higher levels of software-based infrastructure. We then examine the character of trust and identify strategies for increasing trust. We show why acceptance of TPM-based trust has been limited to date and suggest that broader acceptance will require more focus on traditional trust issues and on end-to-end services.

Surgical glue- a promising technology for wound healing

Wound closure is one of the important steps of surgical dressing and suturing is the most commonly used method of wound closure. The process of suturing takes very long time for surgery and increases the patient’s risk of anesthesia awareness. Skin glues are a safe and effective method to close selected wounds. They are also cost-effective and help prevent infection. Ideally, wounds should be less than 4 cm, not contaminated or infected and have skin edges that are not under tension. Wounds should be closed within 12 hours. Novel methods of wound closure have been introduced to address these issues, most notably cyanoacrylate tissue glues. The evidence would suggest that the use of cyanoacrylate tissue glue is associated with a reduction in closure time and costs. On a daily basis, dermasurgeons are facing different kinds of wounds that have to be closed. With a plethora of skin closure materials currently available, choosing a solution that combines excellent and rapid cosmetic results with practicality and cost-effectiveness is preferred

Saturation properties and incompressibility of nuclear matter: A consistent determination from nuclear masses

Starting with a two-body effective nucleon-nucleon interaction, it is shown that the infinite nuclear matter model of atomic nuclei is more appropriate than the conventional Bethe-Weizsacker like mass formulae to extract saturation properties of nuclear matter from nuclear masses. In particular, the saturation density thus obtained agrees with that of electron scattering data and the Hartree-Fock calculations. For the first time using nuclear mass formula, the radius constant $r_0$=1.138 fm and binding energy per nucleon $a_v$ = -16.11 MeV, corresponding to the infinite nuclear matter, are consistently obtained from the same source. An important offshoot of this study is the determination of nuclear matter incompressibility $K_{\infty}$ to be 288$\pm$ 28 MeV using the same source of nuclear masses as input.Comment: 14 latex pages, five figures available on request ( to appear in Phy. Rev. C

Role of isospin dependent mean field in pion production in heavy ion reactions

The importance of a isospin dependent nuclear mean field (IDMF) in regard to the pion production mechanism is studied for the reaction $Au+Au$ at 1 GeV/nucleon using the Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) model. In particular, the effect of the IDMF on pion spectra and the charged pion ratio are analyzed. It is found that the inclusion of a IDMF considerably suppresses the low$-p_t$ pions, thus, leading to a better agreement with the data on pion spectra. Moreover, the rapidity distribution of the charged pion ratio appears to be sensitive to the isospin dependence of the nuclear mean field.Comment: 16 pages, using RevTex, 6 PS-Figure

Origin of subthreshold K^+ production in heavy ion collisions

We investigate the origin of subthreshold $K^+$ production in heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies. In particular we study the influence of the pion induced $K^+$ creation processes. We find that this channel shows a strong dependence on the size of the system, i.e., the number of participating nucleons as well as on the incident energy of the reaction. In an energy region between 1--2 GeV/nucleon the pion induced processes essentially contribute to the total yield and can even become dominant in reactions with a large number of participating nucleons. Thus we are able to reproduce recent measurements of the KaoS Collaboration for 1 GeV/nucleon Au on Au reactions adopting a realistic momentum dependent nuclear mean field.Comment: 6 pages Latex using RevTex, revised version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.