X-ray properties of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 during a variability class transition

We present a detailed X-ray study of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 during a variability class transition observed in 2000 June with the PPCs of the Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment. We supplement this observation with data from the RXTE archives. The source made a transition from a steady low-hard state to a regular oscillatory behaviour in the light curve known as bursts or class `rho' (Belloni et al. 2000) between 2000 May 11 and 17 and reverted back to the low-hard state on 2000 June 27. A gradual change in the burst recurrence time from about 75 s to about 40 s was observed which then increased to about 120 s during the ~ 40 days of class `rho'. The regular bursts disappeared from the X-ray light curves and the class transition was observed to occur within 1.5 hours on 2000 June 27 with the PPCs. A correlation is found between the observed QPO frequency at 5-8 Hz in the quiescent phase and the average X-ray intensity of the source during the class `rho'. We notice a strong similarity between the properties of the source during the class `rho' and those during the oscillatory phase of the observations of class `alpha'. From the timing and spectral analysis, it is found that the observed properties of the source over tens of days during the class `rho' are identical to those over a time scale of a few hundreds of seconds in the class `alpha'. Examining the light curves from the beginning of the RXTE/PCA and RXTE/ASM observations, it is found that the change of state from radio-quiet low-hard state to high state occurs through the X-ray classes `rho' and `alpha' which appear together during the state transition. It is further inferred that the source switches from low-hard state to the class `rho' through the intermediate class `alpha'.Comment: 10 pages with 9 figures, LaTex. To be appeared in MNRA

Prevalence of hyperprolactinemia in infertile cases and its correlation with TSH in a rural set up hospital

Background: Hyperprolactinemia is a common endocrine disorder of hypothalamic-pituitary ovarian axis affecting the reproductive functions. Despite the significant role of hyperprolactinemia in infertility, serum prolactin estimation is still not universally done as a part of evaluation of infertility. This study intended to find out the incidence of hyperprolactinemia in infertility, highlight the importance of assessment of serum TSH level in hyperprolactinemia.Methods: 200 cases of primary and secondary infertility were investigated for serum prolactin levels at Acharya Vinoba Bhave Rural Hospital, Wardha from 2011-2013.Results: There were 130 (65%) cases of primary infertility as against 70 (35%) cases of secondary infertility. A maximum of 106 (53%) cases were in the age group of 26 - 30 years, with the mean age as 27.50±3.76years. There were 11.5% cases of hyperprolactinemia out of 200 cases of infertility. 21.73% cases of hyperprolactinemia had hypothyroidism.Conclusion: The high prevalence of hyperprolactinemia with infertility stresses the fact that all the cases of infertility should be subjected for serum prolactin estimation. Prolactin estimation should be done at early stages of infertility check up rather than straight away going for more costly tests or invasive procedures. There is high crude prevalence of hypothyroidism in hyperprolactinemia. All the cases of hyperprolactinemia should have TSH estimation.

The Onset of Stationary and Oscillatory Convection in a Horizontal Porous Layer Saturated with Viscoelastic Liquid Heated and Soluted From Below: Effect of Anisotropy

The onset of double diffusive stationary and oscillatory convection in a viscoelastic Oldroyd type fluid saturated in an anisotropic porous layer heated and soluted from below is studied. The flow is governed by the extended Darcy model for Oldroyd fluid. Stability analysis based on the method of perturbations of infinitesimal amplitude is performed using the normal mode technique. The analysis examines the effect of the Darcy Rayleigh number, the solutal Darcy the Rayleigh number, the relaxation time, the retardation time and the Lewis number. Important conclusions include the destabilizing effect of the relaxation time, the Darcy Rayleigh number and the Lewis number and the stabilizing effect of the solutal Darcy Rayleigh number, the retardation time and anisotropy parameter. Some of the results are generalization of the previous findings for isotropic porous medium

Different types of X-ray bursts from GRS 1915+105 and their origin

We report the X-ray observations of the Galactic X-ray transient source GRS 1915+105 with the PPCs of the Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment(IXAE) onboard the Indian satellite IRS-P3 during 1997 June - August, which have revealed the presence of four types of intense X-ray bursts. All the observed bursts have a slow exponential rise, a sharp linear decay, and they can broadly be put in two classes: irregular and quasi-regular bursts in one class, and regular bursts in another class. The regular bursts are found to have two distinct time scales and they persist over extended durations. There is a strong correlation between the preceding quiescent time and the burst duration for the quasi-regular and irregular bursts. No such correlation is found for the regular bursts. The ratio of average flux during the burst time to the average flux during the quiescent phase is high and variable for the quasi- regular and irregular bursts while it is low and constant for the regular bursts. We suggest that the peculiar bursts that we have seen are charact- eristic of the change of state of the source. The source can switch back and forth between the low-hard state and the high-soft state near critical accretion rates in a very short time scale. A test of the model is presented using the publicly available 13-60 keV RXTE/PCA data for irregular and regular bursts concurrent with our observations.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, Accepted in APJ, emulateapj style use