2,142 research outputs found
Enhanced Room Temperature Coefficient of Resistance and Magneto-resistance of Ag-added La0.7Ca0.3-xBaxMnO3 Composites
In this paper we report an enhanced temperature coefficient of resistance
(TCR) close to room temperature in La0.7Ca0.3-xBaxMnO3 + Agy (x = 0.10, 0.15
and y = 0.0 to 0.40) (LCBMO+Ag) composite manganites. The observed enhancement
of TCR is attributed to the grain growth and opening of new conducting channels
in the composites. Ag addition has also been found to enhance intra-granular
magneto-resistance. Inter-granular MR, however, is seen to decrease with Ag
addition. The enhanced TCR and MR at / near room temperature open up the
possibility of the use of such materials as infrared bolometric and magnetic
field sensors respectively.Comment: 22 pages of Text +
Figs:comments/suggestions([email protected]
The study of adverse drug reactions in indoor patients of tuberculosis taking standardized antitubercular therapy (directly observed treatment short-course and programmatic management of drug resistant tuberculosis) in a tertiary care hospital at Surat
Background: Tuberculosis is a serious public health issue in India. The treatment regimen followed is Directly observed treatment short-course (DOTS) and Programmatic Management of Drug resistant Tuberculosis (PMDT) approach. In a long period of treatment adverse drug reactions (ADRs) can be an important programmatic issue. Thus, study was undertaken to assess the ADRs caused by antitubercular therapy in indoor patients in a tertiary care hospital at Surat.Methods: The Observational, prospective study was carried out for one year period. The causality was determined by WHO UMC scale and severity was determined by Modified Hartwig and Siegel scale. Chi square test was applied for statistical analysis.Results: Among 255 tuberculosis patients, 85 (33.3%) patients developed ADRs. Occurrence of ADRs was more among females (46.6%). The commonly involved systems are gastrointestinal (40.6%) followed by haematological (17.9%). The most common ADRs observed were nausea and vomiting (21.7%). High percentage of ADRs causing drugs were isoniazid (30.6%) followed by rifampicin (26.1%). Causality assessment showed 60.4% ADRs were possible, 37.7% ADRs were probable and 1.9% ADRs was certain. Severity assessment scale showed 81.1% of moderate, 12.3% of mild and 6.6% of severe grading. Occurrence of ADRs was more among PMDT (60%) in comparison to DOTS therapy (31.06%) [p value = 0.0084 (significant p value < 0.05)].Conclusions: Antitubercular treatment is safer but early detection, management and reporting of ADRs is required to prevent it at initial stage and helps to decrease default rate
Oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in men who have sex with men: prevalence and lack of anogenital concordance.
To estimate the prevalence of oral detectable human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM) attending a sexual health clinic in London and concordance with anogenital HPV infection. Such data are important to improve our understanding of the epidemiology of oral HPV and the potential use of vaccines to prevent oropharyngeal cancers
Lead optimisation of dehydroemetine for repositioned use in malaria
Drug repositioning offers an effective alternative to de novo drug design to tackle the urgent need for novel anti-malarial treatments. The anti-amoebic compound, emetine dihydrochloride, has been identified as a potent in-vitro inhibitor of the multi-drug resistant strain K1 of Plasmodium falciparum (IC50: 47 nM ± 2.1 nM). Dehydroemetine, a synthetic analogue of emetine dihydrochloride has been reported to have less cardiotoxic effects than emetine. The structures of two diastereomers of dehydroemetine were modelled on the published emetine binding site on cryo-EM structure 3J7A (Pf 80S ribosome in complex with emetine) and it was found that (-)-R,S-dehydroemetine mimicked the bound pose of emetine more closely than (-)-S,S-dehydroisoemetine. (-)-R,S-dehydroemetine (IC50 71.03 ± 6.1 nM) was also found to be highly potent against the multi-drug resistant K1 strain of P. falciparum in comparison with (-)-S,S-dehydroisoemetine (IC50 2.07 ± 0.26 μM), which loses its potency due to the change of configuration at C-1′. In addition to its effect on the asexual erythrocytic stages of P. falciparum, the compounds exhibited gametocidal properties with no cross-resistance against any of the multi-drug resistant strains tested. Drug interaction studies showed (-)-R,S-dehydroemetine to have synergistic antimalarial activity with atovaquone and proguanil. Emetine dihydrochloride, and (-)-R,S-dehydroemetine failed to show any inhibition of the hERG potassium channel and displayed activity on the mitochondrial membrane potential indicating a possible multi-modal mechanism of action. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2020 Panwar et al.
Low-mass young stellar population and star formation history of the cluster IC 1805 in the W4 H{\sc ii} region
W4 is a giant H{\sc ii} region ionized by the OB stars of the cluster
IC~1805. The H{\sc ii} region/cluster complex has been a subject of numerous
investigations as it is an excellent laboratory for studying the feedback
effect of massive stars on the surrounding region. However, the low-mass
stellar content of the cluster IC~1805 remains poorly studied till now. With
the aim to unravel the low-mass stellar population of the cluster, we present
the results of a multiwavelength study based on deep optical data obtained with
the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, infrared data from 2MASS, Space
Telescope and X-ray data from Space Telescope. The present optical
dataset is complete enough to detect stars down to 0.2~M, which is the
deepest optical observations so far for the cluster. We identified 384
candidate young stellar objects (YSOs; 101 Class I/II and 283 Class III) within
the cluster using various colour-colour and colour-magnitude diagrams. We
inferred the mean age of the identified YSOs to be 2.5 Myr and mass in
the range 0.3 - 2.5 M. The mass function of our YSO sample has a power
law index of -1.23 0.23, close to the Salpeter value (-1.35), and
consistent with those of other star-forming complexes. We explored the disk
evolution of the cluster members and found that the diskless sources are
relatively older compared to the disk bearing YSO candidates. We examined the
effect of high-mass stars on the circumstellar disks and found that within
uncertainties, the influence of massive stars on the disk fraction seems to be
insignificant. We also studied the spatial correlation of the YSOs with the
distribution of gas and dust of the complex to conclude that IC 1805 would have
formed in a large filamentary cloud.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 34 pages, 10 figure
Young Stellar Population of the Bright-Rimmed Clouds BRC 5, BRC 7 and BRC 39
Bright-rimmed clouds (BRCs), illuminated and shaped by nearby OB stars, are
potential sites of recent/ongoing star formation. Here we present an optical
and infrared photometric study of three BRCs: BRC 5, BRC 7 and BRC 39 to obtain
a census of the young stellar population, thereby inferring the star formation
scenario, in these regions. In each BRC, the Class I sources are found to be
located mostly near the bright rim or inside the cloud, whereas the Class II
sources are preferentially outside, with younger sources closer to the rim.
This provides strong support to sequential star formation triggered by
radiation driven implosion due to the UV radiation. Moreover, each BRC contains
a small group of young stars being revealed at its head, as the next-generation
stars. In particular, the young stars at the heads of BRC 5 and BRC 7 are found
to be intermediate/high mass stars, which, under proper conditions, may
themselves trigger further star birth, thereby propagating star formation out
to long distances.Comment: 30 pages, 7 Figures, 6 Tables, accepted for publication in Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ
Diagnostic accuracy of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in comparison with liver function tests for the diagnosis of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy
Background: In this study, we aimed to find diagnostic accuracy of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in comparison with liver function tests for the diagnosis of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy and adverse fetal-maternal outcomes.Methods: NLR and aminotransferase (AST/ALT) levels in the blood samples of pregnant women with complaint of pruritus. 90 women with elevated transaminase were taken as cases and same number of women with normal aminotransferase levels taken as control. All were examined in this prospective case-control study.Results: Not only was the mean NLR elevated in the pregnant women with cholestasis when compared to the controls, but it also predicted the severity of the cholestasis. The correlation between transaminase levels and NLR was significant.Conclusions: Although TBA is still the diagnostic standard, NLR can be used as an initial screening tool due to its high specificity
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