Universal relaxational dynamics of gapped one dimensional models in the quantum sine-Gordon universality class

A semiclassical approach to the low-temperature real time dynamics of generic one-dimensional, gapped models in the sine-Gordon model universality class is developed. Asymptotically exact universal results for correlation functions are obtained in the temperature regime T << Delta, where Delta is the energy gap.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Analysis of maternal mortality: a retrospective study at tertiary care centre

Background: Mother is the pillar of the family and maternal deaths during pregnancy and delivery are great loss to baby, family, society and country too. Epidemiological data pertaining to maternal mortality is valuable in each set-up to design interventional programs to reduce the ratio favourably. This study was design to evaluate the mortality rate in our hospital, to assess the epidemiological aspects and causes of maternal mortality, types of delay, and to suggest recommendations for improvement. Aim of the study was to analyse the causes of maternal death at tertiary care centre. Objective of the study was to analyse causes of maternal death and type of delay, and to suggest measures to reduce it.Methods: A retrospective study done at a tertiary level care centre from January 2011 to June15. Demographic data and other data were collected from maternal death review forms and case records. Data studied and analysed.Results: Most maternal deaths were due to obstetric causes like eclampsia (16.66%), preeclampsia (11.53%), anaemia (14.10%)and haemorrhage (10.25%). Associated co-morbid medical conditions hepatitis (6.41%) and heart disease (5.12%) were in the top list. Majority women were from rural area (69.23%), belonged to below poverty line (76.92%), had less than three visits (64.09%), received care at periphery below the level of specialist sub-district hospital. 94.87%were referred, and travelled more than 4 hours to reach hospital (88.44%). In majority cases Type 1 delay was most common (85.89%) comparatively to Type 2 and 3 delay.Conclusions: High risk cases should be identified. Early referral, easy transport, continued skill based training, monitoring of health services can reduce maternal mortality. Special training should be conducted for ASHA workers and ANM who generally works at grass root level in our country. Continued medical training is required for medical officers who are working at PHC and sub district hospital for early recognition of high risk women and their referral in time to higher centers to avoid maternal near miss or death

Oxidative and Inflammatory Events in Prion Diseases: Can They Be Therapeutic Targets?

Prion diseases are a group of incurable infectious terminal neurodegenerative diseases caused by the aggregated misfolded PrPsc in selected mammals including humans. The complex physical interaction between normal prion protein PrPc and infectious PrPsc causes conformational change from the α- helix structure of PrPc to the β-sheet structure of PrPsc, and this process is repeated. Increased oxidative stress is one of the factors that facilitate the conversion of PrPc to PrPsc. This overview presents evidence to show that increased oxidative stress and inflammation are involved in the progression of this disease. Evidence is given for the participation of redoxsensitive metals Cu and Fe with PrPsc inducing oxidative stress by disturbing the homeostasis of these metals. The fact that some antioxidants block the toxicity of misfolded PrPc peptide supports the role of oxidative stress in prion disease. After exogenous infection in mice, PrPsc enters the follicular dendritic cells where PrPsc replicates before neuroinvasion where they continue to replicate and cause inflammation leading to neurodegeneration. Therefore, reducing levels of oxidative stress and inflammation may decrease the rate of the progression of this disease. It may be an important order to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation at the same time. This may be achieved by increasing the levels of antioxidant enzymes by activating the Nrf2 pathway together with simultaneous administration of dietary and endogenous antioxidants. It is proposed that a mixture of micronutrients could enable these concurrent events thereby reducing the progression of human prion disease

Inhibition of Early Biochemical Defects in Prodromal Huntington's Disease by Simultaneous Activation of Nrf2 and Elevation of Multiple Micronutrients.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive fatal dominant hereditary neurodegenerative disease of the brain, which primarily affects the cortex and the striatum. The disorder is typified by an expansion of more than 35 repeats of the nucleotide triplet cytosine- adenine-guanosine (CAG) which codes for the amino acid glutamine in the huntingtin gene. Despite studies of several decades, there are no effective means to block or postpone the appearance of symptoms of HD. Analysis of these studies led us to propose that increased oxidative stress and chronic inflammation are earliest events in the pathogenesis of HD, and together with excessive glutamate release, participate in the progression of the disease. This review briefly describes evidence for the involvement of oxidative stress, chronic inflammation and glutamate in the pathogenesis of HD. It is proposed that attenuation of these biochemical abnormalities together, may delay the appearance of symptoms of HD. In order to achieve this goal, the simultaneous activation of the nuclear transcriptional factor-2/antioxidant response elements (Nrf2/ARE) pathway that would enhance the transcription of target genes coding for antioxidant enzymes and phase-2-detoxifying enzymes, and an elevation of the levels of antioxidant compounds by supplementation may be needed. Normal mechanisms of activation of Nrf2 requiring reactive oxygen species (ROS) may be impaired in HD, but certain antioxidant compounds can activate Nrf2 without ROS. Use of a combination of micronutrients that can activate the Nrf2/ARE pathway and enhance the levels of antioxidant compounds is suggested

Dietary Fibers and Their Fermented Short-Chain Fatty Acids in Prevention of Human Diseases.

Many studies show that daily consumption of high-fiber diet is associated with a reduced risk of developing kidney stones, inflammatory disease, colon cancer and other malignancies, obesity, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Dietary fibers are non-digestible polysaccharides that are composed of complex carbohydrates. Based on their relative solubility in water, dietary fibers can be divided into insoluble and soluble forms. An important property of insoluble fibers is their ability to bind with carcinogens, mutagens, and other toxic chemicals that are formed during digestion of food and eliminate them through the feces. Soluble fibers can often be degraded to short-chain fatty acids, such as butyrate, propionate, and acetate by microbial fermentation. This review discusses mechanisms of action of fibers and their beneficial effects on the GI tract as well as on other organs. Among short-chain fatty acids, butyrate has been most extensively studied and the effects of sodium butyrate on cell culture and animal models are discussed in order to emphasize its potential value in prevention of certain diseases

Parabolic resonances and instabilities in near-integrable two degrees of freedom Hamiltonian flows

When an integrable two-degrees-of-freedom Hamiltonian system possessing a circle of parabolic fixed points is perturbed, a parabolic resonance occurs. It is proved that its occurrence is generic for one parameter families (co-dimension one phenomenon) of near-integrable, t.d.o. systems. Numerical experiments indicate that the motion near a parabolic resonance exhibits new type of chaotic behavior which includes instabilities in some directions and long trapping times in others. Moreover, in a degenerate case, near a {\it flat parabolic resonance}, large scale instabilities appear. A model arising from an atmospherical study is shown to exhibit flat parabolic resonance. This supplies a simple mechanism for the transport of particles with {\it small} (i.e. atmospherically relevant) initial velocities from the vicinity of the equator to high latitudes. A modification of the model which allows the development of atmospherical jets unfolds the degeneracy, yet traces of the flat instabilities are clearly observed

Intra-population genetic variance for grain iron and zinc contents and agronomic traits in pearl millet

AbstractCrop biofortification is a sustainable approach for fighting micronutrient malnutrition in the world. The estimation of variance components in genetically broad-based populations provides information about their genetic architecture, allowing the design of an appropriate biofortification breeding method for cross-pollinated crops such as pearl millet. The objective of this study was to estimate intra-population genetic variance using self (S1) and half-sib (HS) progenies in two populations, AIMP92901 and ICMR312. Field trials were evaluated in two contrasting seasons (2009 rainy and 2010 summer; otherwise called environments) in Alfisols at ICRISAT, Patancheru. Analyses of variance showed highly significant variation for S1s and HS progenies, reflecting high within-population genetic variation for both micronutrients and other key traits. However, the HS showed narrow ranges and lower genetic variances than the S1 for all of the traits. The micronutrients were highly positively correlated in S1 (r=0.77 to 0.86; P<0.01) and HS (r=0.74 to 0.77; P<0.01) progenies of both populations, implying concurrent genetic improvement for both micronutrients. The genetic variance component was different among populations for Fe and Zn contents across environments, with AIMP92901 showing a greater proportion of dominance and ICMR312 greater additive variance for these micronutrients. The estimates of variance (additive and dominance) were specific for each population, given their dependence on the additive and dominance effects of the segregating loci, which also differ among populations. The possible causes for such differences were discussed. The results showed that the expression of these micronutrients in pearl millet shows largely additive variance, so that breeding high-iron hybrids will require incorporation of these micronutrient traits into both parental lines

Telomere shortening during aging: Attenuation by antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents.

Telomeres are a repeated sequence -of bases found at the ends of chromosomes. In humans, this sequence is TTAGGG, which is repeated over 2000 times. Telomeres protect the ends chromosomes from fusion with nearby chromosomes, and allow effective replication of DNA. Each time a cell divides, 25-200 base pairs are lost from the terminal sequence of chromosomes. By becoming truncated during cell division, telomeres protect essential genes from being shortened and thus inactivated. In addition, telomeres are sensitive to inflammation and oxidative stress, which can further promote telomere shortening. Reduction in the length of telomeres leads to the cessation of cell division and thus cellular senescence and apoptosis. This review discusses evidence for the role of oxidative stress and inflammation in regulating the length of telomeres in mammalian cells during senescence. Evidence is presented suggesting that antioxidants and anti-inflammatories can reduce the pace of shortening of telomere length during aging. The distinctive properties of transformed cells suggest that treatment with such materials will have a deleterious rather than a protective effect on such abnormal cells

Thermoelastic analysis of a nonhomogeneous hollow cylinder with internal heat generation

In the present paper, we have determined the heat conduction and thermal stresses of a hollow cylinder with inhomogeneous material properties and internal heat generation. All the material properties except Poisson’s ratio and density are assumed to be given by a simple power law in axial direction. We have obtained the solution of the two dimensional heat conduction equation in the transient state in terms of Bessel’s and trigonometric functions. The influence of inhomogeneity on the thermal and mechanical behavior is examined. Numerical computations are carried out for both homogeneous and nonhomogeneous cylinders and are represented graphically