A Circular Statistical Method for Extracting Rotation Measures

We propose a new method for the extraction of Rotation Measure from spectral polarization data. The method is based on maximum likelihood analysis and takes into account the circular nature of the polarization data. The method is unbiased and statistically more efficient than the standard $\chi^2$ procedure. We also find that the method is computationally much faster than the standard $\chi^2$ procedure if the number of data points are very large.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Immune response to BCG vaccination in children

The world-wide programme of mass BCG vaccination started in 1921' and used extensively since the forties has provided evidence that BCG vaccine has a protective value. This was confirmed by studies done on experimental animals.2 Despite this, no vaccination has become more controversial than BCG vaccination in recent times. The protection conferred by BCG vaccination in children is important because of the serious consequences of tuberculosis in them. The aim of this study was to assess the immunological response of children to BCG vaccination

Diagnostic utility of skin prick test in fungal asthma

Background: Allergic bronchopulmonary mycosis (ABPM) is a clinical syndrome associated with immune sensitivity to various fungi. Aspergillus spp. predominates in colonizing the airways of asthmatics. Early and accurate identification of fungus in such cases can prevent worsening of asthma. Also, can help in retarding the progression of ABPM. Objectives of this study were to evaluate different fungal allergens associated with clinically diagnosed Asthma patients by Skin Prick testing (SPT), to study total IgE in asthmatic patients by serological testing and to characterize the fungal isolate associated with SPT+ cases by conventional mycological culture. Methods: A prospective study of known asthma cases was done. Their sensitivity to fungal allergens was tested by SPT. The total IgE levels were measured by ELISA. Sputum collected from SPT+ cases were subjected for fungal identification. Results: Out of 175 patients, 25 (14.2%) showed positive reaction against fungal antigens in which fungal growth was seen in 21 (84%) sputum specimens.  Aspergillus fumigatus was isolated from 16 (76%) specimens followed by Candida albicans in 3 (14%) and Penicillium spp in 2 (9.5%) cases. Out of 25 SPT+ asthmatics, 21 patients with fungal growth had total IgE levels >600 IU/ml and 4 patients with negative culture had IgE levels 400-500 IU/ml. Conclusions: A significant prevalence of fungal asthma is seen among asthmatics. Thus, it is essential to screen asthma patients for fungal allergy. SPT seems to be a good screening test. SPT is easy to perform, less time consuming and inexpensive however needs to be performed under pulmonologist’s supervision

A CASE REPORT OF PHENYTOIN AND CARBAMAZEPINE CROSS-REACTIVITY

ABSTRACTA case report of cross-reactivity between phenytoin and carbamazepine, a 63-year-old male patient was prescribed phenytoin for generalized seizuresand on the 15 day of therapy developed generalized maculopapular eruptions. Phenytoin was discontinued, and carbamazepine was administered.After 28 days, he developed fever, generalized rashes with ulcers in the oral cavity. Carbamazepine was withdrawn, and the patient was treatedsymptomatically.thKeywords: Phenytoin, Carbamazepine, Cross-reactivity

Large Scale Alignment of Optical Polarizations from Distant QSOs using Coordinate Invariant Statistics

We introduce several coordinate invariant statistical procedures in order to test for local alignment of polarizations. A large scale alignment of optical polarizations from distant QSOs has recently been observed by \huts and collaborators. The new statistical procedures are based on comparing polarizations at different angular coordinates by making a parallel transport. The results of these statistical procedures continue to support the existence of the large scale alignment effect in the QSO optical polarization data. The alignment is found to be much more pronounced in the data sample with low degrees of polarization $p\le 2$%. This suggests that the alignment may be attributed to some propagation effect. The distance scale over which the alignment effect is dominant is found to be of order 1 Gpc. We also find that a very large scale alignment is present in the large redshift, $z\ge 1$, data sample. Infact the data sample with $z\ge 1$ appears to be aligned over the entire celestial sphere. We discuss possible physical effects, such as extinction and pseudoscalar-photon mixing, which may be responsible for the observations.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Evaluation of PCR Using TRC4 and IS6110 Primers in Detection of Tuberculous Meningitis

We have evaluated a new set of primers (TRC4) in comparison with the IS6110 primers commonly used in PCR to detect tuberculous meningitis among children. The levels of concordance between the results of IS6110 PCR and TRC4 PCR with cerebrospinal fluid specimens from patients with clinically confirmed tuberculous meningitis were 80 and 86%, respectively. Results with the two primer sets were concordant for 55 positive and 22 negative specimens (n 5 98). We conclude that the sensitivity of PCR can be increased by using both IS6110 and TRC4 primers

Benthos - Polychaetes

Polychaetes are one of the major benthic group of animals just like molluscs and crustaceans. Globally 12,620 species of Polychaetes are supposed to be occurring and in India around, 1,093 species representing 8.66% of the total number of polychaete species are known. Polychaetes are very important in the marine and brackish water ecosystems extending from the abyssal depths to the inter-tidal regions. Its major role is through the biomass formation in the benthic as well as in the pelagic aquatic systems as sedentary and pelagic polychaetes and through the different larval forms released by them. It also forms the major food for crustaceans, molluscs as well as for fishes. Because of the special adaptive nature of this group, Polychaetes are distributed in almost all ecological conditions, both in the macro and micro environments having different ranges of salinities and dissolved oxygen. Certain species survive in the anaerobic conditions also

SPECTRO-ANALYTICAL, COMPUTATIONAL AND BIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON 4-PYRIDINE CARBOXALDEHYDE-3-HYDROXY-5-(HYDROXY METHYL)-2-METHYL HYDRAZONE HYDROCHLORIDE AND ITS CU (II) COMPLEXCA

Objective: The title compound 4-pyridine carboxaldehyde 3-hydroxy-5-(hydroxy methyl)-2-methyl hydrazone (PCHHMMH) hydrochloride an analogue of Pyridoxal isonicotinoyl hydrazone PIH, is an iron chelator. The PCHHMMH has potential donor sites suitable for metal ion binding, the study on structural aspects of the compound and its copper complex are explored. With a view to understand biological importance of title compounds, antimicrobial and cytotoxic studies were planned. Methods: In the present study the spectroanalytical techniques employed were pH-metry, spectrophotometry, IR, 1H & 13C-NMR, UV-Vis, ESR, Magnetic measurements, TGA and SEM. The computational method employed is HyperChem 7.5 software. The antimicrobial studies were carried out by agar disc diffusion method for antibacterial studies against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. The cytotoxic potential was measured by Sulforhodamine B (SRB) method against selected tumor cells. Results: The equilibrium studies by employing pH-metric method inferred the dissociation of two protons in it. Further titration in presence of Cu (II) ion, it is confirmed the release of two protons from title compound and formation of corresponding complex. The orientations of frontier orbitals for molecular and ionized forms of compound were computed to understand the electronic properties. The Cu (II) PCHHMMH complex was characterized by spectroanalytical methods and screened for, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities. Conclusion: As the structural features are important to understand the chemical behavior of metal complexes, in the present study copper complex was synthesized and characterized by employing various spectro-analytical tools viz; IR, 1H & 13C-NMR, UV-Vis, ESR, Magnetic measurements, TGA and SEM. Further the antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities were evaluated and correlated with computed QSAR data

Interpretation of the Global Anisotropy in the Radio Polarizations of Cosmologically Distant Sources

We present a detailed statistical study of the observed anisotropy in radio polarizations from distant extragalactic objects. This anisotropy was earlier found by Birch (1982) and reconfirmed by Jain and Ralston (1999) in a larger data set. A very strong signal was seen after imposing the cut $|RM-\bar{RM}|>6$ rad/m$^2$, where $RM$ is the rotation measure and $\bar{RM}$ its mean value. In this paper we show that there are several indications that this anisotropy cannot be attributed to bias in the data. We also find that a generalized statistic shows a very strong signal in the entire data without imposing the RM dependent cut. Finally we argue that an anisotropic background pseudoscalar field can explain the observations.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure