Clastogenicity of sugar factory effluent using Allium assay

In the current study, an attempt was made to assess the physicochemical parameters of distillery effluent and its cytotoxic effects on root tip cells of onion (Allium cepa L.). The Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) were found to be very high in the effluent. The onion bulbs were treated with different concentrations of the distillery effluent (25, 50, 75 and 100%) at room temperature. The percentage mitotic index and relative division rate were found to be decreased significantly as the concentration of the effluent increased. On the other hand, mitotic inhibition percentage and relative abnormality rate were found to increase as the effluent concentration increased. The chromosomal abnormalities were found to be increased as the concentration of the effluent increased when compared to the control. The observed chromosomal abnormalities include sticky metaphase, disturbed chromosome, sticky telophase, multipolar chromosome, laggards, fragmented metaphase, fragmented anaphase, scattered anaphase and chromosomal bridge. From the present study, it can be concluded that higher concentrations of the effluent inhibit cell division when compared to the control.Â

Mott scattering of polarized electrons in a strong laser field

We present analytical and numerical results of the relativistic calculation of the transition matrix element $S_{fi}$ and differential cross section for Mott scattering of initially polarized Dirac particles (electrons) in the presence of strong laser field with linear polarization. We use exact Dirac-Volkov wave functions to describe the dressed electrons and the collision process is treated in the first Born approximation. The influence of the laser field on the degree of polarization of the scattered electron is reported.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, Revte

Exact semi-relativistic model for ionization of atomic hydrogen by electron impact

We present a semi-relativistic model for the description of the ionization process of atomic hydrogen by electron impact in the first Born approximation by using the Darwin wave function to describe the bound state of atomic hydrogen and the Sommerfeld-Maue wave function to describe the ejected electron. This model, accurate to first order in $Z/c$ in the relativistic correction, shows that, even at low kinetic energies of the incident electron, spin effects are small but not negligible. These effects become noticeable with increasing incident electron energies. All analytical calculations are exact and our semi-relativistic results are compared with the results obtained in the non relativistic Coulomb Born Approximation both for the coplanar asymmetric and the binary coplanar geometries.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Revte

Robust digital watermarking for compressed 3D models based on polygonal representation

Multimedia has recently played an increasingly important role in various domains, including Web applications, movies, video game and medical visualization. The rapid growth of digital media data over the Internet, on the other hand, makes it easy for anyone to access, copy, edit and distribute digital contents such as electronic documents, images, sounds and videos. Motivated by this, much research work has been dedicated to develop methods for digital data copyright protection, tracing the ownership, and preventing illegal duplication or tampering. This paper introduces a methodology of robust digital watermarking based on a well-known spherical wavelet transformation, applied to 3D compressed model based on polygonal representation using a neural network. It will be demonstrated in this work that applying a watermarking algorithm on a compressed domain of a 3D object is more effective, efficient, and robust than when applied on a normal domain

Growth and yield of garlic (Allium Sativum L.) influenced by Zn and Fe application

A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of Zn and Fe application on growth and yield of garlic (Allium sativum L.) var. Desi Sufaid at National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad during Rabi season 2018-2019. Eight kilogram of sandy clay loam soil was filled in the pots. Four garlic cloves were sown in each pot. The treatments of Zn, Fe and their mixture (1:1 ratio) @ 5 kg ha-1 along with basal dose of N, P and K (100, 75 and 50 mg kg-1) fertilizer were applied at sowing following complete randomized design with three replications. The plants were allowed to stand till maturity and data on growth traits like plant height (cm), pseudo stem diameter (cm), leaf length (cm), leaves plant-1, bulb diameter (cm), cloves (bulb-1), clove weight (g) and bulb yield (g plant-1) were recorded at harvest. The mean data were analyzed statistically. The highest growth attributes like plant height, number of leaves per plant, bulb diameter, cloves, clove weight and bulb yield were harvested with micronutrients (Zn and Fe) along with basal dose of N, P and K (100, 75 and 50 mg kg-1) application which were significantly higher as compared to control. Though, all the treatments showed positive effect through growth characteristics and yield, however, the mixture of Zn and Fe application produced comparable garlic yield among all the treatments which was 6 and 4 (%) higher than that of sole application of Zn and Fe, respectively. Significant improvement in Zn and Fe concentration in garlic plant tissues was observed with the application of Zn and Fe respectively. Overall the combination of both micronutrients performed better than rest of the treatments through improved growth traits and bulb yield

Dissipation and Decoherence in Nanodevices: a Generalized Fermi's Golden Rule

We shall revisit the conventional adiabatic or Markov approximation, which --contrary to the semiclassical case-- does not preserve the positive-definite character of the corresponding density matrix, thus leading to highly non-physical results. To overcome this serious limitation, originally pointed out and partially solved by Davies and co-workers almost three decades ago, we shall propose an alternative more general adiabatic procedure, which (i) is physically justified under the same validity restrictions of the conventional Markov approach, (ii) in the semiclassical limit reduces to the standard Fermi's golden rule, and (iii) describes a genuine Lindblad evolution, thus providing a reliable/robust treatment of energy-dissipation and dephasing processes in electronic quantum devices. Unlike standard master-equation formulations, the dependence of our approximation on the specific choice of the subsystem (that include the common partial trace reduction) does not threaten positivity, and quantum scattering rates are well defined even in case the subsystem is infinitely extended/has continuous spectrum.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figure

Dissipation and Decoherence in Nanodevices: a Generalized Fermi's Golden Rule

We shall revisit the conventional adiabatic or Markov approximation, which --contrary to the semiclassical case-- does not preserve the positive-definite character of the corresponding density matrix, thus leading to highly non-physical results. To overcome this serious limitation, originally pointed out and partially solved by Davies and co-workers almost three decades ago, we shall propose an alternative more general adiabatic procedure, which (i) is physically justified under the same validity restrictions of the conventional Markov approach, (ii) in the semiclassical limit reduces to the standard Fermi's golden rule, and (iii) describes a genuine Lindblad evolution, thus providing a reliable/robust treatment of energy-dissipation and dephasing processes in electronic quantum devices. Unlike standard master-equation formulations, the dependence of our approximation on the specific choice of the subsystem (that include the common partial trace reduction) does not threaten positivity, and quantum scattering rates are well defined even in case the subsystem is infinitely extended/has continuous spectrum.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figure

Dissipation and Decoherence in Nanodevices: a Generalized Fermi's Golden Rule

We shall revisit the conventional adiabatic or Markov approximation, which --contrary to the semiclassical case-- does not preserve the positive-definite character of the corresponding density matrix, thus leading to highly non-physical results. To overcome this serious limitation, originally pointed out and partially solved by Davies and co-workers almost three decades ago, we shall propose an alternative more general adiabatic procedure, which (i) is physically justified under the same validity restrictions of the conventional Markov approach, (ii) in the semiclassical limit reduces to the standard Fermi's golden rule, and (iii) describes a genuine Lindblad evolution, thus providing a reliable/robust treatment of energy-dissipation and dephasing processes in electronic quantum devices. Unlike standard master-equation formulations, the dependence of our approximation on the specific choice of the subsystem (that include the common partial trace reduction) does not threaten positivity, and quantum scattering rates are well defined even in case the subsystem is infinitely extended/has continuous spectrum.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figure

Prevalence and correlates of depressive disorders in people with Type 2 diabetes: results from the International Prevalence and Treatment of Diabetes and Depression (INTERPRET‐DD) study, a collaborative study carried out in 14 countries

Aims To assess the prevalence and management of depressive disorders in people with Type 2 diabetes in different countries. Methods People with diabetes aged 18–65 years and treated in outpatient settings were recruited in 14 countries and underwent a psychiatric interview. Participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Problem Areas in Diabetes scale. Demographic and medical record data were collected. Results A total of 2783 people with Type 2 diabetes (45.3% men, mean duration of diabetes 8.8 years) participated. Overall, 10.6% were diagnosed with current major depressive disorder and 17.0% reported moderate to severe levels of depressive symptomatology (Patient Health Questionnaire scores >9). Multivariable analyses showed that, after controlling for country, current major depressive disorder was significantly associated with gender (women) (PPPPP<0.0001). The proportion of those with either current major depressive disorder or moderate to severe levels of depressive symptomatology who had a diagnosis or any treatment for their depression recorded in their medical records was extremely low and non-existent in many countries (0–29.6%). Conclusions Our international study, the largest of this type ever undertaken, shows that people with diabetes frequently have depressive disorders and also significant levels of depressive symptoms. Our findings indicate that the identification and appropriate care for psychological and psychiatric problems is not the norm and suggest a lack of the comprehensive approach to diabetes management that is needed to improve clinical outcomes

Repercussion of biofilm and antibiotic resistance in ventilator associated pneumonia

Background: Ventilator associated pneumonia contributes nearly half of all cases of hospital-acquired pneumonia. Drug resistance among ventilator associated pneumonia has obligation of device withdrawal in order to achieve clinical and microbiological cure. Aim of the study was to determine the relationship between antibiotic resistance of Endotracheal tube biofilm and pulmonary pathogens in ventilator-associated pneumonia.Methods: A descriptive analytical study of 100 clinically suspected VAP patients was done. Patients were divided into group-I and Group-II based on intubation duration for 1-5 days and 6-10 days respectively. Endotracheal aspirate (ETA) was collected from clinically diagnosed cases and processed as per standard microbiological techniques. Bacterial counts ≥106 CFU/ml for quantitative cultures was considered significant. Biofilm production was detected by tissue culture plate, tube method and Congo red method. Multi-variant analysis was done to find out the association of the various factors.Results: Klebsiella pneumoniae was the predominant bacteria isolated followed by Acinetobacter baumannii. 45% of Gram negative bacteria were β lactamase producers. In Biofilm production by tissue culture method, 72% of the isolates showed either strong or moderate biofilm formation. Multivariate analysis revealed that bacteria isolated from VAP occurring after 5 days of mechanical ventilation among prior antibiotic-treated patients were resistant to all the antibiotics tested.Conclusions: Bacterial aetiology, biofilm formation and drug resistance has ramification on outcome of ventilator associated pneumonia. Hence, advised that it is crucial to remove ET tube in regular interval to prevent biofilm formation and sequential cultures to obtain the microbiological information which enables better patient care.