How ‘pill for every ill’-alarming source of polypharmacy in elderly patient

According to WHO there is one elderly person i.e., age 60 year or older in every nine people and this value is expected to increase by 2050 accounting for about half of the total growth of the world population. This demographic transition poses a significant challenge for health care authorities as the age advances multiple chronic disease such as hypertension, DM, arthritis, chronic heart disease, renal disease come in to scenario. For the above-mentioned disease an elderly patient has to take life-long medications this leads to polypharmacy

Measurement of the radial mode spectrum of photons through a phase-retrieval method

We propose and demonstrate a simple and easy-to-implement projective-measurement protocol to determine the radial index 'p' of a Laguerre-Gaussian (LGlp) mode. Our method entails converting any specified high-order LG0p mode into a near-Gaussian distribution that matches the fundamental mode of a single-mode fiber (SMF) through the use of two phase-screens (unitary transformations) obtained by applying a phase-retrieval algorithm. The unitary transformations preserve the orthogonality of modes and guarantee that our protocol can, in principle, be free of crosstalk. We measure the coupling efficiency of the transformed radial modes to the SMF for different pairs of phase-screens. Because of the universality of phase-retrieval methods, we believe that our protocol provides an efficient way of fully characterizing the radial spatial profile of an optical field

Proton pump inhibitor: a risk factor for spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in Indian cirrhotics decompensated with ascites

Background: Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is common complication of cirrhosis caused by bacterial translocation. Bacterial colonization and overgrowth may occur in GI tract on suppression of gastric acid secretion. Beta-blockers have been postulated to reduce intestinal permeability. There is no significant Indian study to evaluate association of PPI with SBP in cirrhotic ascites. We aimed to assess the effect of PPI in cirrhotic patients decompensated with ascites.Methods: A retrospective case control study (January 2016 to April 2018), evaluated subjects with cirrhosis and ascites. Two study groups of cirrhotic subjects with and without SBP were formed. In each of the two study groups, 143 subjects, were enrolled by matching for age, year of admission, Child-Pugh-Turcotte (CTP) class after considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. PPI use and various other correlates were compared in both study groups. SPSS ver 24.0 was used for statistical analysis.Results: About 69.23% subjects were using PPI prior to admission in SBP group, which was significant compared to only 31.47% in cirrhotics without SBP (p 0.003). On multivariate analysis PPI use was an independent risk factor for SBP (OR 2.24, 95% CI: 1.01-4.24; p value 0.033) and beta blocker use was protective (OR 0.58; 95% CI: 0.4-0.8; p 0.001).Conclusions: PPI use doubles the risk of development of SBP in cirrhotics decompensated with ascites. In contrast, Beta blockers use significantly lowers the risk of SBP

Suppression of Nonlinear Optical Rogue Wave Formation Using Polarization-Structured Beams

A nonlinear self-focusing material can amplify random small-amplitude phase modulations present in an optical beam, leading to the formation of amplitude singularities commonly referred to as optical caustics. By imposing polarization structuring on the beam, we demonstrate the suppression of amplitude singularities caused by nonlinear self-phase modulation. Our results are the first to indicate that polarization-structured beams can suppress nonlinear caustic formation in a saturable self-focusing medium and add to the growing understanding of catastrophic self-focusing effects in beams containing polarization structure.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Weak superradiance in arrays of plasmonic nanoantennas

A collection of N emitters can exhibit an N-fold broadening of the radiative linewidth resulting from the development of a macroscopic dipole moment. Such a broadening of the radiative linewidth has previously been observed in systems of several nanoparticles and has often been described in terms of superradiant behavior. However, the understanding of the physics behind the observed dependence of radiative linewidth on the number of irradiated nanoparticles is far from complete. In this paper, we present theoretical and experimental results that elucidate this broadening mechanism in plasmonic systems and draw a connection with the phenomenon of Dicke superradiance. We demonstrate that, in the limit where radiative broadening dominates, the extinction linewidth of a planar array of plasmonic nanoantennas scales linearly with the number of nanoantennas contained within a circle of radius equal to the resonant optical wavelength. We explain this classical phenomenon as a weak superradiance effect, which corresponds to the case in the Dicke model where only the ground state and the first collective excited state contribute to the enhanced radiation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson produced via vector boson fusion in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

A search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson produced via vector boson fusion (VBF) has been performed with 101  fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC at $\sqrt{s}$ =13  TeV and collected by the CMS detector in 2017 and 2018. The sensitivity to the VBF production mechanism is enhanced by constructing two analysis categories, one based on missing transverse momentum and a second based on the properties of jets. In addition to control regions with Z and W boson candidate events, a highly populated control region, based on the production of a photon in association with jets, is used to constrain the dominant irreducible background from the invisible decay of a Z boson produced in association with jets. The results of this search are combined with all previous measurements in the VBF topology, based on data collected in 2012 (at $\sqrt{s}$ =8  TeV), 2015, and 2016, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 19.7, 2.3, and 36.3  fb$^{-1}$, respectively. The observed (expected) upper limit on the invisible branching fraction of the Higgs boson is found to be 0.18 (0.10) at the 95% confidence level, assuming the standard model production cross section. The results are also interpreted in the context of Higgs-portal models

Search for top squarks in the four-body decay mode with single lepton final states in proton-proton collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

A search for the pair production of the lightest supersymmetric partner of the top quark, the top squark (t∼1), is presented. The search targets the four-body decay of the t∼1, which is preferred when the mass difference between the top squark and the lightest supersymmetric particle is smaller than the mass of the W boson. This decay mode consists of a bottom quark, two other fermions, and the lightest neutralino (χ∼01), which is assumed to be the lightest supersymmetric particle. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. Events are selected using the presence of a high-momentum jet, an electron or muon with low transverse momentum, and a significant missing transverse momentum. The signal is selected based on a multivariate approach that is optimized for the difference between m(t∼1) and m(χ∼01). The contribution from leading background processes is estimated from data. No significant excess is observed above the expectation from standard model processes. The results of this search exclude top squarks at 95% confidence level for masses up to 480 and 700 GeV for m(t∼1) − m(χ∼01) = 10 and 80 GeV, respectively

Search for Higgs Boson Decay to a Charm Quark-Antiquark Pair in Proton-Proton Collisions at √s = 13 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a charm quark-antiquark pair, H→c¯c, produced in association with a leptonically decaying V (W or Z) boson is presented. The search is performed with proton-proton collisions at √s=13  TeV collected by the CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138  fb−1. Novel charm jet identification and analysis methods using machine learning techniques are employed. The analysis is validated by searching for Z→c¯c in VZ events, leading to its first observation at a hadron collider with a significance of 5.7 standard deviations. The observed (expected) upper limit on σ(VH)B(H→c¯c) is 0.94 (0.50+0.22−0.15)pb at 95% confidence level (C.L.), corresponding to 14 (7.6+3.4−2.3) times the standard model prediction. For the Higgs-charm Yukawa coupling modifier, κc, the observed (expected) 95% C.L. interval is 1.1<|κc|<5.5 (|κc|<3.4), the most stringent constraint to date