Water on Mars, With a Grain of Salt: Local Heat Anomalies Are Required for Basal Melting of Ice at the South Pole Today

Recent analysis of radar data from the Mars Express spacecraft has interpreted bright subsurface radar reflections as indicators of local liquid water at the base of the south polar layered deposits (SPLD). However, the physical and geological conditions required to produce melting at this location were not quantified. Here we use thermophysical models to constrain parameters necessary to generate liquid water beneath the SPLD. We show that no concentration of salt is sufficient to melt ice at the base of the SPLD in the present day under typical Martian conditions. Instead, a local enhancement in the geothermal heat flux of >72 mW/m(2) is required, even under the most favorable compositional considerations. This heat flow is most simply achieved via the presence of a subsurface magma chamber emplaced 100 s of kyr ago. Thus, if the liquid water interpretation of the observations is correct, magmatism on Mars may have been active extremely recently.6 month embargo; published online: 12 February 2019This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Surgical conditions and requested procedures for ruminants and small animals handled at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture clinic, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia: A retrospective study 1999-2007

The surgical conditions and requested procedures encountered in ruminants and small animals were surveyed using the available clinical records of the veterinary clinic of the college and personal record book from December 1999 to December 2007 in order to document and compare their prevalence’s. Of the total 689 surgical conditions and requested procedures cattle, sheep, goat, dog and cat, accounted for 368 (53.48%), 148 (21.51%), 16 (2.32%), 133 (19.33%), and 23 (3.34%), respectively. The distribution of the surgical cases based on sex indicated that male cases predominate in cattle 278 (75.54%) and sheep 86 (58.10%). On the other hand, in dogs, cats and goats female cases predominate with 78 (58.64%), 16 (69.56%) and 10 (62.5%), respectively. The frequent surgical condition of male cattle according to their frequency of occurrence were abscess 64 (23.02%), wound 53 (19.06%), urethral obstruction 45 (16.18%), horn fracture 40 (14.38%) and penile and/preputial injuries 34 (12.23%). In female cattle, the common surgical conditions were wound 25 (27.77%), local abscess 17 (18.88 %), horn fracture 12 (13.33%) and hoof overgrowth 12 (13.33%). In male sheep urethral obstruction accounted for 28 (32.55%) of the cases followed by penile and or preputial injuries 15 (17.4430), wound 13 (15.11%) and traumatic hernia 10 (10.41%). Cases of dystocia were recorded in 33 (20.12%) and 5 (50%) of the female sheep and goats, respectively. The common reasons for male dog to be brought to the clinic were for sterilization 12 (21.81%), wound treatment 10 (18.18%) and aural hematoma 8 (14.54%). On the other hand, request for sterilization 45 (57.69%) and difficulty of parturition 16 (20.51%) were common reason for bitch to be brought to the clinic. The two main reasons for female cats to be presented to the clinic were difficulty of parturition 10 (62.5%) and request for sterilization 5 (31.25%). A concise description of intervention procedures is provided on the two common surgical problems of cattle (wound, urethral obstruction) and sheep (urethral obstruction).Keywords: Abscess, dystocia, surgical conditions, urethral obstruction, Veterinary Teaching Clini

Evaluation of antidiabetic activity of Tinospora cardifolia in alloxan induced diabetes in albino wistar rats

Background: The objective was to evaluate the antidiabetic activity of Tinospora cardifolia in alloxan induced diabetes in albino rats in comparison with a currently used oral hypoglycaemic glibenclamide.Methods: there were 24 rats with FBS in the range 80-115 mg/dl were selected for the study. Four groups each containing six rats, were induced diabetes with alloxan (150mg/kg). The diabetic control group (0.5ml normal saline), Standard control group (5mg/kg glibenclimide), Test group I (200mg/kg T. cardifolia) and test II group 400mg/kg T. cardifolia). FBS was recorded on 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28th day using glucometer. Data was analysed by using one way ANOVA and posthoc Tukey’s test SPSS 21Version.Results: Extract of Tinospora cardifolia showed dependent hypoglycaemic action in both low dose (200mg/kg) and high dose group (400mg/kg). Hypoglycaemic action with high dose of Tinospora cardifolia is comparable to that of standard drug glibenclamide.Conclusions: This study demonstrates the hypoglycaemic action of T. cardifolia in diabetic rats. T. cardifolia can be a therapeutic potential to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus

Correlation between Vitamin D Receptor Gene FOKI and BSMI Polymorphisms and the Susceptibility to Pulmonary Tuberculosis in an Indonesian Batak-ethnic Population

Aim: to explore the role of FokI and BsmI polymorphisms the VDR gene in the susceptibility to pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in an Indonesian Batak ethnic population. Methods: matched case-control study was conducted on 76 PTB patients and 76 healthy normal control. Genetic polymorphisms of Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) gene were analysed using PCR-RFLP. Results: the frequencies of FokI genotypes were FF 35.5%, Ff 55.3%, ff 9.2% for PTB patients and FF 39.5%, Ff 44.7.% and ff 15.8% for normal control. The BsmI genotypes frequencies were BB 0%, Bb 68.4%, bb 31.6% for TB patients and BB 2.6%, Bb 23.7% and bb 73.7% for control. There was no significant association between FokI genotype and PTB (OR 1.39, 95% CI: 0.69-2.77 for Ff genotype and OR 0.64, 95% CI: 0.22-1.86 for ff genotype). There was a significant association between BsmI genotype and PTB; the bb genotype was associated with a decreased risk to PTB (OR 0.22, 95% CI: 0.11-0.45). Conclusion: in Indonesian Batak ethnic population, there was no association between FokI polymorphism of VDR gene with host susceptibility to PTB. There was a significant association between BsmI polymorphism of VDR gene; bb genotype was associated with a decreased risk to PTB. Key words: pulmonary tuberculosis, polymorphisms, vitamin D receptor gene, Batak, Indonesi

Comparative study about knowledge, attitude and practice study of fixed dose combination among junior residents and interns of a tertiary care hospital

Background: Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) are defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as combination of two or more active ingredients in a fixed ratio of doses. According to the FDA, “two or more drugs may be combined in a single dose when each component makes a contribution to the claimed effects, and the dosage of each component (i.e., amount, frequency, and duration) is such that the combination is safe and effective for significant patient population requiring such concurrent therapy. However, certain disadvantages like incompatible pharmacokinetics, inflexible dose ratio, increased toxicity and cost, contraindication of one component of the FDC decreased their utility. Adverse effect of any one component also limits their use. The aim of the study is to compare and evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices about prescribing fixed dose combinations among junior resident doctors (JRs) and interns (INTs) at SDM College of Medical Sciences and Hospital Dharwad.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in 134 doctors using pre-validated 10 item questionnaire with details of participant’s information followed by questions regarding knowledge, attitude and prescribing practice of fixed dose combinations was used as a tool, administrated to all the resident doctors and the collected data was analysed.Results: Our study revealed that knowledge about FDCs was lacking in JRs and INTs. They were not able to point out the actual advantages and disadvantages of FDCs. Knowledge about rational/irrational, banned FDCs and availability of WHO EML was also lacking.Conclusions: There is need to improve knowledge about rationality, essential medicine list, usage and banned FDCs in undergraduate medical students to promote the rational use of drugs

Computational simulation of biaxial fatigue behaviour of lotus-type porous material

A computational simulation of low-cycle fatigue behaviour of lotus-type porous material, subjected to biaxial in-phase loading cycles is presented in this paper. Fatigue properties of porous materials are less frequently published in the literature. This paper evaluates computational analyses, where different pore distribution and biaxial loading conditions in relation to the pore orientations is considered in each simulation. The fatigue analysis is performed by using a damage initiation and evolution law based on the inelastic strain energy. The computational results are subjected to the appropriate statistical analysis, because of different pore topology a different fatigue lives are obtained on the same loading level. Results of computational simulations show also a qualitative understanding of porosity influence on low-cycle fatigue failures of lotus-type porous material under biaxial loading conditions

Study on synthesizing Mg/Al layered double hydroxides at different pHs

Mg/Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) was successfully synthesized at different pHs values. The Mg/AL LDH was well characterized by X-Ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared analysis. The morphology of the LDH was observed using Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The influence of pH values on the morphology of the Mg/Al LDHs were studied. The result showed that the well-synthesized Mg/Al LDHs could be obtained when the pH value was about 10.0 at room temperature.DOI: http://doi.dx.org/10.5564/mjc.v15i0.319 Mongolian Journal of Chemistry 15 (41), 2014, p36-3

A procedure for testing the significance of orbital tuning of the martian polar layered deposits

a b s t r a c t Layered deposits of dusty ice in the martian polar caps have been hypothesized to record climate changes driven by orbitally induced variations in the distribution of incoming solar radiation. Attempts to identify such an orbital signal by tuning a stratigraphic sequence of polar layered deposits (PLDs) to match an assumed forcing introduce a risk of identifying spurious matches between unrelated records. We present an approach for evaluating the significance of matches obtained by orbital tuning, and investigate the utility of this approach for identifying orbital signals in the Mars PLDs. Using a set of simple models for ice and dust accumulation driven by insolation, we generate synthetic PLD stratigraphic sequences with nonlinear time-depth relationships. We then use a dynamic time warping algorithm to attempt to identify an orbital signal in the modeled sequences, and apply a Monte Carlo procedure to determine whether this match is significantly better than a match to a random sequence that contains no orbital signal. For simple deposition mechanisms in which dust deposition rate is constant and ice deposition rate varies linearly with insolation, we find that an orbital signal can be confidently identified if at least 10% of the accumulation time interval is preserved as strata. Addition of noise to our models raises this minimum preservation requirement, and we expect that more complex deposition functions would generally also make identification more difficult. In light of these results, we consider the prospects for identifying an orbital signal in the actual PLD stratigraphy, and conclude that this is feasible even with a strongly nonlinear relationship between stratigraphic depth and time, provided that a sufficient fraction of time is preserved in the record and that ice and dust deposition rates vary predictably with insolation. Independent age constraints from other techniques may be necessary, for example, if an insufficient amount of time is preserved in the stratigraphy

NASA Planetary Mission Concept Study: Assessing: Dwarf Planet Ceres' past and Present Habitability Potential

The Dawn mission revolutionized our understanding of Ceres during the same decade that has also witnessed the rise of ocean worlds as a research and exploration focus. We will report progress on the Planetary Mission Concept Study (PMCS) on the future exploration of Ceres under the New Frontiers or Flagship program that was selected for NASA funding in October 2019. At the time this writing, the study was just kicked off, hence this abstract reports the study plan as presented in the proposal