BCS theory of nodal superconductors

This course has a dual purpose. First we review the successes of the weak-coupling BCS theory in describing new classes of superconductors discovered since 1979. They include the heavy-fermion superconductors, high-Tc cuprate superconductors, organic superconductors, Sr2RuO4, etc. Second, we present the quasiclassical approximation introduced by Volovik, which we extend to describe the thermodynamics and the thermal conductivity of the vortex state in nodal superconductors. This approach provides the most powerful tool to identify the symmetry of the energy gap function Delta(k) in these new superconductors.Comment: 31 pages, 33 figure

Unusual fishery of Parapenaeopsis acclivirostris in Tadri area (Karwar)

The occurrence of Oratosquilla nepa and Acetes johni, only for a few days before the beginning of the night fishing for prawns, serves as an indicator of the commencement of the intensive prawn fishery in the Tadri area of Karwar. The Acetes johni forms favourite food item of some fishes, which is related to the appearance of Lepturacanthus savala at Tadri. trawlers. Once P. acclivirostris which is called as young 'Karikadi' landed from 18-20 fathoms depth amounting to as high as 350 kg/boat. The observations provide a clue to the appearance of prawns from south to north at the beginning of the prawn fishery season in the Tadri-Karwar area during November over the years. This may help the fishermen to plan their fishing activities accordingly

Region-specific and activity-dependent regulation of SVZ neurogenesis and recovery after stroke.

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability. Neurogenesis after stroke is associated with repair; however, the mechanisms regulating poststroke neurogenesis and its functional effect remain unclear. Here, we investigate multiple mechanistic routes of induced neurogenesis in the poststroke brain, using both a forelimb overuse manipulation that models a clinical neurorehabilitation paradigm, as well as local manipulation of cellular activity in the peri-infarct cortex. Increased activity in the forelimb peri-infarct cortex via either modulation drives increased subventricular zone (SVZ) progenitor proliferation, migration, and neuronal maturation in peri-infarct cortex. This effect is sensitive to competition from neighboring brain regions. By using orthogonal tract tracing and rabies virus approaches in transgenic SVZ-lineage-tracing mice, SVZ-derived neurons synaptically integrate into the peri-infarct cortex; these effects are enhanced with forelimb overuse. Synaptic transmission from these newborn SVZ-derived neurons is critical for spontaneous recovery after stroke, as tetanus neurotoxin silencing specifically of the SVZ-derived neurons disrupts the formation of these synaptic connections and hinders functional recovery after stroke. SVZ-derived neurogenesis after stroke is activity-dependent, region-specific, and sensitive to modulation, and the synaptic connections formed by these newborn cells are functionally critical for poststroke recovery

The Need for Compliance Verification in Collaborative Business Processes

Compliance constrains processes to adhere to rules, standards, laws and regulations. Non-compliance subjects enterprises to litigation and financial fines. Collaborative business processes cross organizational and regional borders implying that internal and cross regional regulations must be complied with. To protect customs’ data, European enterprises must comply with the EU data privacy regulation (general data protection regulation - GDPR) and each member state’s data protection laws. An example of non-compliance with GDPR is Facebook, it is accused for breaching subscriber trust. Compliance verification is thus essential to deploy and implement collaborative business process systems. It ensures that processes are checked for conformance to compliance requirements throughout their life cycle. In this paper we take a proactive approach aiming to discuss the need for design time preventative compliance verification as opposed to after effect runtime detective approach. We use a real-world case to show how compliance needs to be analyzed and show the benefits of applying compliance check at the process design stag

The Need for Compliance Verification in Collaborative Business Processes

Compliance constrains processes to adhere to rules, standards, laws and regulations. Non-compliance subjects enterprises to litigation and financial fines. Collaborative business processes cross organizational and regional borders implying that internal and cross regional regulations must be complied with. To protect customs’ data, European enterprises must comply with the EU data privacy regulation (general data protection regulation - GDPR) and each member state’s data protection laws. An example of non-compliance with GDPR is Facebook, it is accused for breaching subscriber trust. Compliance verification is thus essential to deploy and implement collaborative business process systems. It ensures that processes are checked for conformance to compliance requirements throughout their life cycle. In this paper we take a proactive approach aiming to discuss the need for design time preventative compliance verification as opposed to after effect runtime detective approach. We use a real-world case to show how compliance needs to be analyzed and show the benefits of applying compliance check at the process design stag

Aligning Monitoring and Compliance Requirements in Evolving Business Networks

Dynamic business networks (BNs) are intrinsically characterised by change. Compliance requirements management, in this context, may become particularly challenging. Partners in the network may join and leave the collaboration dynamically and tasks over which compliance requirements are specified may be consequently delegated to new partners or backsourced by network participants. This paper considers the issue of aligning the compliance requirements in a BN with the monitoring requirements they induce on the BN participants when change (or evolution) occurs. We first provide a conceptual model of BNs and their compliance requirements, introducing the concept of monitoring capabilities induced by compliance requirements. Then, we present a set of mechanisms to ensure consistency between the monitoring and compliance requirements when BNs evolve, e.g. tasks are delegated or backsourced in-house. Eventually, we discuss a prototype implementation of our framework, which also implements a set of metrics to check the status of a BN in respect of compliance monitorability

Is Patient Data Better Protected in Competitive Healthcare Markets?

We study the effect of hospital market concentration on the quality of patient data protection practices. We use approximately 200 reported data breaches in US hospitals over the period 2006 - 2011 as a measure of the quality of patient data protection practices. We measure market concentration using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and estimate our models by exploiting cross-sectional HHI variation. Surprisingly, we find that increased competition is associated with a decline in the quality of patient data protection. Our main result indicates that a 100 point increase in HHI is associated with a 5% decline in the average count of data breach incidents. The results are directionally robust to a number of alternate model specifications. To explain our findings, we posit that hospitals in more competitive markets may be inclined to shift resources to more consumer visible activities from the less consumer visible activity of data protection

Brain monoamine oxidase A activity predicts trait aggression

The genetic deletion of monoamine oxidase A (MAO A), an enzyme that breaks down the monoamine neurotransmitters norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine, produces aggressive phenotypes across species. Therefore, a common polymorphism in the MAO A gene (MAOA, Mendelian Inheritance in Men database number 309850, referred to as high or low based on transcription in non-neuronal cells) has been investigated in a number of externalizing behavioral and clinical phenotypes. These studies provide evidence linking the low MAOA genotype and violent behavior but only through interaction with severe environmental stressors during childhood. Here, we hypothesized that in healthy adult males the gene product of MAO A in the brain, rather than the gene per se, would be associated with regulating the concentration of brain amines involved in trait aggression. Brain MAO A activity was measured in vivo in healthy nonsmoking men with positron emission tomography using a radioligand specific for MAO A (clorgyline labeled with carbon 11). Trait aggression was measured with the multidimensional personality questionnaire (MPQ). Here we report for the first time that brain MAO A correlates inversely with the MPQ trait measure of aggression (but not with other personality traits) such that the lower the MAO A activity in cortical and subcortical brain regions, the higher the self-reported aggression (in both MAOA genotype groups) contributing to more than one-third of the variability. Because trait aggression is a measure used to predict antisocial behavior, these results underscore the relevance of MAO A as a neurochemical substrate of aberrant aggression

Clinical Significance of Telomere Length and Associated Proteins in Oral Cancer

Purpose: Telomere shortening is an important event during carcinogenesis. Although studies suggest role of multiple proteins in telomere length regulation, there is dearth of reports in oral cancer which is a leading malignancy in Asian countries especially in India. Thus the present study was carried out to study these mechanisms and explore the pathways involved in telomere—telomerase regulation and identify possible prognostic markers to understand the biology of oral tumors for better treatment approaches. Methods: Telomere length was determined by Southern Hybridisation method, telomeric repeat binding factor (TRF) 1 and 2 expression was detected by Western blot method and telomerase activation by telomeric repeat amplifi cation protocol. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS (Version 10) software. Results: Significant shortening of telomeres was seen in the tumor tissues as compared to normal tissues. Poor prognosis was observed in the patients with higher telomere length in malignant tissue, higher tumor to normal telomere length ratio (T/N TRF LR). Expression of TRF-2 but not TRF-1 protein was signifi cantly higher in the malignant tissues. We also observed telomerase activation in 75 malignant tissues.Conclusions: Our results reveal signifi cant clinical usefulness of telomere length, T/N TRF LR and telomerase activation in the prognosis of oral cancer patients. TRF-2 overexpression in malignant tissues appears to play an important role in telomere length shortening in oral cancer. Abbreviations: TRF—Terminal restriction fragment; TRF-1—telomeric repeat binding factor-1; TRF-2—telomeric repeat binding factor-2; T/N TRF LR—Tumor/ Normal TRF length ratio

Wireless Sensor Network using DRINA

On demand routing protocols give climbable and price effective solutions for transferring packets in mobile spontaneous networks (MANET). A wireless detector network could be a assortment of distributed nodes to watch and additionally to transmit their information from detector network to a sink node. In wireless detector network, detector nodes area unit set close to every different and additionally act with one another through information routing. In wireless detector network, the information routing takes place in non-aggregated manner would force a lot of energy. Energy conservation is that the major issue in wireless detector network. During this work we have a tendency to propose jury-rigged information routing with in-network aggregation formula which may address this energy consumption issue. It uses information aggregation technique and it will be effective in routing. so information aggregation is beneficial for increasing information accuracy, elimination of information redundancy, and reduction of communication load alongside reducing energy consumption