The Optimal Number of Charities

In this paper charity brings some joy of giving; it yields more contributions to public goods than standard "subscription", but its creation is costly. We compare the laissez-faire number of charities with both the second and the first-best level. In general, laissez-faire implies an underprovision of both charities and public goods.Charities, Public Good

The Optimal Number of Charities

In this paper charity brings some joy of giving; it yields more contributions to public goods than standard "subscription", but its creation is costly. We compare the laissez-faire number of charities with both the second and the first-best level. In general, laissez-faire implies an underprovision of both charities and public goods.Charities, Public Good

Intracranial massive subdural haematoma: a potentially serious consequence of diagnostic lumbar puncture

Intracranial subdural haematoma (SDH) is an exceptionally rare complication of lumbar puncture (LP) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage. Post LP headache mostly has a benign course, but it can also be a manifestation of a potentially life-threatening complication such as SDH. Only a few cases has been reported in literature. We report a case of massive intracranial SDH in a young male following LP and CSF drainage

Prevalence of thyroid dysfunctions in pregnant women: a prospective study in a tertiary care hospital in Maharashtra, India

Background: Thyroid dysfunction is known to be the commonest endocrinological disorder in pregnancy. A range of adverse outcomes in pregnant women and the fetus have been reported. These can be prevented if the thyroid dysfunction is diagnosed and treated as early as possible. There are limited studies conducted on the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy in India. Hence, this study was conducted for assessment of the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy.Methods: The present study is a prospective study conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, MIMER Medical College and Hospital, Talegaon, Dabhade, Maharashtra. The total sample population comprised of 705 pregnant women with uncomplicated singleton intra-uterine pregnancy. All participants were screened by estimation for serum TSH in first trimester.Results: The prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in the present study is 13.9%. Of this, prevalence of hypothyroidism is 12.76% and that of hyperthyroidism is 1.13%.Conclusions: With this study, we conclude that there is high prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy even in rural population. Thus, a universal screening helps in early diagnosis and preventing the aftermaths of thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy

Prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy and its impact on maternal and fetal outcome: a prospective study in a tertiary care hospital in Maharashtra, India

Background: Thyroid dysfunction is the commonest endocrinological disorder in pregnancy. A broad spectrum of adverse outcomes in pregnant women and the fetus have been reported which can be prevented by early diagnosis and treatment of thyroid dysfunction. Thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy has not yet been extensively studied in India. Hence, this study was conducted for assessment of the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy and effect on the mother and her fetus.Methods: This study is a prospective study conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, MIMER Medical College and Hospital, Talegaon Dabhade, Maharashtra. A 3 years study. Antenatal women attending the outpatient and inpatient department of the hospital. The total sample population comprised of 698 pregnant women with uncomplicated singleton intra-uterine pregnancy. All participants were screened by estimation for serum TSH in first trimester. Immediately after delivery the cord blood sample was collected and cord blood TSH levels were estimated. Babies, whose cord blood TSH levels were elevated, were called for follow-up on day 5 of neonatal life and TSH, free T3 and free T4 levels were estimated. Among these babies, those diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism were started on appropriate treatment.Results: The prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy in present study was 17.90% whereas 82.1% patients were euthyroid (control group). Among the 17.9% patients with thyroid dysfunction, 14.6% had subclinical hypothyroidism, 1.9% had overt hypothyroidism and 1.4% had hyperthyroidism.Conclusions: With this study, we can come to the conclusion that there is high prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy. Thus, an early diagnosis and prevention of the aftermaths of thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy is of utmost importance

Valence and magnetic instabilities in Sm compounds at high pressures

We report on the study of the response to high pressures of the electronic and magnetic properties of several Sm-based compounds, which span at ambient pressure the whole range of stable charge states between the divalent and the trivalent. Our nuclear forward scattering of synchrotron radiation and specific heat investigations show that in both golden SmS and SmB6 the pressure-induced insulator to metal transitions (at 2 and about 4-7 GPa, respectively) are associated with the onset of long-range magnetic order, stable up to at least 19 and 26 GPa, respectively. This long-range magnetic order, which is characteristic of Sm(3+), appears already for a Sm valence near 2.7. Contrary to these compounds, metallic Sm, which is trivalent at ambient pressure, undergoes a series of pressure-induced structural phase transitions which are associated with a progressive decrease of the ordered 4f moment.Comment: 15 pages (including 7 figures) submitted to J. Phys.: Condens. Matte

Discontinuous Transition from a Real Bound State to Virtual Bound State in a Mixed-Valence State of SmS

Golden SmS is a paramagnetic, mixed-valence system with a pseudogap. With increasing pressure across a critical pressure Pc, the system undergoes a discontinuous transition into a metallic, anti-ferromagnetically ordered state. By using a combination of thermodynamic, transport, and magnetic measurements, we show that the pseudogap results from the formation of a local bound state with spin singlet. We further argue that the transition Pc is regarded as a transition from an insulating electron-hole gas to a Kondo metal, i.e., from a spatially bound state to a Kondo virtually bound state between 4f and conduction electrons.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

The significance of lipid profile and positive troponin-I in predicting cardiac event

Background: Diagnosis of acute cardiac event in the early stage of its onset is important in the treatment process. The development of highly sensitive and specific immunoassays for myocardial proteins such as cardiac troponin-I had made it possible. However troponin indicates cardiac events only after its onset or after cardiac tissue necrosis. Traditionally such high risk subjects were identified using lipid profiles. The identification of subjects with high risk of developing cardiac event in the future is more significant as it will provide time to prevent such incidents.Methods: In this retrospective study data of the 250 patients presented to the emergency department with symptoms of cardiac ischemia who underwent both troponin-I and lipid profiles tests were compared with the lipid profiles of 100 normal healthy subjects (controls). The troponin-I was detected quantitatively when a specimen contains troponin-I above the 99th percentile (TnI >0.3 ng/ml). The total cholesterol, high density lipoproteins cholesterol, very low density lipoproteins cholesterol and triacylglycerol levels were also analyzed and low density lipoprotein cholesterol level was calculated using Friedewald’s formula.Results: Patients with chest pain and positive troponin-I test (with confirmed cardiac event) were found to have significantly elevated levels of total cholesterol, triacylglycerols, low density lipoprotein cholesterol level and significantly reduced high density lipoproteins cholesterol levels when compared to the patients who experienced only chest pain with (negative troponin-I) and healthy controls.Conclusions: An acute cardiac event is best diagnosed by highly sensitive and specific positive troponin-I test (by quantitative method). However, traditional lipid profile levels still can be used in screening the populations to identify those subjects with high risk of developing cardiac event, in those centres where troponin-I test facility is unavailable.

Observation of insulator-metal transition in EuNiO3_{3} under high pressure

The charge transfer antiferromagnetic (T$_{N}$ =220 K) insulator EuNiO$_{3}$ undergoes, at ambient pressure, a temperature-induced metal insulator MI transition at T$_{MI}$=463 K. We have investigated the effect of pressure (up to p~20 GPa) on the electronic, magnetic and structural properties of EuNiO$_{3}$ using electrical resistance measurements, {151}^Eu nuclear resonance scattering of synchrotron radiation and x-ray diffraction, respectively. With increasing pressure we find at p$_{c}$ =5.8 GPa a transition from the insulating state to a metallic state, while the orthorhombic structure remains unchanged up to 20 GPa. The results are explained in terms of a gradual increase of the electronic bandwidth with increasing pressure, which results in a closing of the charge transfer gap. It is further shown that the pressure-induced metallic state exhibits magnetic order with a lowervalue of T$_{N}$ (T$_{N}$ ~120 K at 9.4 GPa) which disappears between 9.4 and 14.4 GPa.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Specular motion and 3D shape estimation

Dynamic visual information facilitates three-dimensional shape recognition. It is still unclear, however, whether the motion information generated by moving specularities across a surface is congruent to that available from optic flow produced by a matte-textured shape. Whereas the latter is directly linked to the firstorder properties of the shape and its motion relative to the observer, the specular flow, the image flow generated by a specular object, is less sensitive to the object's motion and is tightly related to second-order properties of the shape. We therefore hypothesize that the perceived bumpiness (a perceptual attribute related to curvature magnitude) is more stable to changes in the type of motion in specular objects compared with their matte-textured counterparts. Results from two twointerval forced-choice experiments in which observers judged the perceived bumpiness of perturbed spherelike objects support this idea and provide an additional layer of evidence for the capacity of the visual system to exploit image information for shape inference. © 2017 The Authors