An investigation into the phenomenological relation between solar activity and nuclear beta-decay rates

We investigate experimental evidence for time-varying nuclear decay rates, in contrast to the widely-accepted view that nuclear decaying isotopes disintegrate at a constant rate unaffected by external conditions. We study several past cases of radioactive isotopes exhibiting annual periodicities in their decay rates, presumably related to the annual variation in Earth-Sun distance. Following recent indications of shorter-lived anomalies in 54Mn decay rates concomitant with an X-class flare in 2006, we attempt to design and develop a series of unique signal detection algorithms to identify regions of anomalous activity in a nuclear decay signal. With stringent threshold cut-offs and filtering processes, these regions are isolated as exhibiting statistically significant deviations from an expected exponential decay model. The isolated decay flags are compared to daily distributions of multiple solar indices associated with heightened flare activity. We present the findings from a 2 year period of data collection on 54Mn. Of the several computational checks performed to verify the validity of these results, none were able to produce values as good as those generated from the actual decay measurements

Glove balloon uterine tamponade for post-partum haemorrhage: indigenous, readily available, cheap, easy to learn and practice, yet effective

Background: Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is still a nightmare in obstetrics. It is the leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity accounting for one quarter of the maternal mortality worldwide. In a simple language, we can say PPH is allowing the delivered woman to bleed till death. Uterine atony is the cause in 80% of cases.Methods: This study is conducted in a tertiary care and teaching hospital between May 2019-2020. There were 5400 vaginal and 2100 caesarean sections conducted in our institute in the study period. 20 patients who underwent vaginal delivery and 12 patients of caesarean section had PPH. Only one patient had unsuccessful glove tamponade who underwent stepwise devascularisation for her survival. Hence the success rate of glove tamponade in our institute is found to be 95% (n=19).Results: We chose glove as it is simple, safe, least invasive, rapidly made without any expertise, non-irritant, doesn’t rupture easily, doesn’t slip and cost effective. We have manually tried out the capacity of the glove and found to be enormous, of 10 litres. After a successful insertion of glove tamponade, it is left in situ for 24 hours in our study.Conclusions: In this era of advanced medical services, it is annoying to say women still die of postpartum haemorrhage. Timely intervention (medical or surgical) in the golden hour can bring back many mothers back to life.

One dimensional M5-brane intersections

We study one dimensional intersections of M5 branes with M5 and M2 branes. On the worldvolume of the M5-brane, such an intersection appears as a string soliton. We study this worldvolume theory in two different regimes: 1) Where the worldvolume theory is formulated in flat space and 2) where the worldvolume theory is studied in the supergravity background produced by a stack of M5 (or M2) branes. In both cases, we study the corresponding string solitons, and find the most general BPS configuration consistent with the fraction of supersymmetries preserved. We argue that M5 and M2 brane intersections leave different imprints on the worldvolume theory of the intersecting probe brane, although geometrically they appear to be similar.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, references adde

Pregnancy emerged thrombocytopenia: maternal and fetal outcome

Background: A low platelet count is often an incidental finding in pregnancy. It can be an indicator of a severe systemic disorder requiring emergent maternal and fetal care or can just be unique to pregnancy with no harm to mother or fetus. Physiological decrease in platelet count is seen in pregnancy due to hemodilution and hypercoagulating state, though the exact pathophysiology is still unclear.Methods: It is a prospective observational study done in a tertiary care centre.Results: In about 11,258 cases screened 46 patients had thrombocytopenia (0.4%). The commonest etiology is found to be gestational thrombocytopenia (n=21, 45.6%) followed by preeclampsia/ eclampsia/ HELLP (haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count) syndrome (n=19, 41.3%). Only one patient had immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and 7 (15.3%) were associated with amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Maximum of them (n=19, 41.3%) underwent spontaneous vaginal delivery. 4 patients (8.6%) had postpartum haemorrhage, 6 (13.04%) had ceserean section wound infection, 4 (8.6%) had disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and 4 (8.6%) had multiorgan failure. 13 patients (28.3%) had platelet count between 40 to 60 thousand per cumm, 11 (23.9%) had between 60 to 80 thousand per cumm, 10 (21.7%) had between 80,000 to 1 lakh and none had their platelet count less than 20,000 per cumm.Conclusions: Gestational thrombocytopenia is not a preventable condition. It is an incidental finding in pregnancy. With strict vigilance during intrapartum and postpartum period, even without any treatment proper for the same, the maternal and fetal outcome is found to be good

A study of maternal and fetal outcomes in critically ill obstetric patients

Background: Pregnancy related morbidity is becoming a nightmare in Indian women. Some of these women end up in mortality and a few of them narrowly escape death. Critical care should be and is an authenticated part of obstetric practice. This study is an effort initiated to understand the risk of maternal morbidity, to investigate the contributing factors, foetal outcome, to study the adverse event, cause of maternal death and remedial measures.Methods: All the obstetric cases admitted in Intensive care unit in a government institute in Maharashtra during January 2018 to June 2019 were analyzed prospectively. The indications for transfer into intensive care, risk factors, co morbidities if any were studied. Maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality were included in the study.Results: During the study period, there were 10, 208 deliveries. There were 12 maternal deaths and 98 critically ill patients became morbid. Anemia is found to be a major pre-existing contributing factor (25.5%) and an important risk factor making pregnancy become critical. DIC is found to be a major reason for ICU admission (39.1%), 72.7% needed mechanical ventilator and 60.1% needed ionotropic support.Conclusions: Anemia is a major problem still existing in our country. Gestational hypertension is another leading cause of critical illness in pregnancy. Identification of patients who are going downhill, timely referral to higher centers and appropriate management can improve both the maternal and the fetal outcomes

Synthesis and reactivity of tricarbonyl(1-methoxycarbonyl-5-phenylpentadienyl)iron(1+) cation

Tricarbonyl(1-methoxycarbonyl-5-phenylpentadienyl)iron(1+) hexafluorophosphate (7) was prepared in two steps from tricarbonyl(methyl 6-oxo-2,4-hexadienoate)iron. While addition of carbon and heteroatom nucleophiles to 7 generally occurs at the phenyl-substituted dienyl carbon to afford (2,4-dienoate)iron products, the addition of phthalimide proceeded at C2 to afford a (pentenediyl)iron product (18). Complex 18 was structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis. The reaction of the title cation with carbon and heteroatom nucleophiles was examined. In general, the products arise from nucleophilic attack at C5 to give E,E- or E,Z-dienoate iron complexes. Addition of phthalimide anion proceeds at C2 of the cation to afford a (pentenediyl)iron complex, whose structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis

Effect of collaborative depression treatment on risk for diabetes: A 9-year follow-up of the IMPACT randomized controlled trial

Considerable epidemiologic evidence and plausible biobehavioral mechanisms suggest that depression is an independent risk factor for diabetes. Moreover, reducing the elevated diabetes risk of depressed individuals is imperative given that both conditions are leading causes of death and disability. However, because no prior study has examined clinical diabetes outcomes among depressed patients at risk for diabetes, the question of whether depression treatment prevents or delays diabetes onset remains unanswered. Accordingly, we examined the effect of a 12-month collaborative care program for late-life depression on 9-year diabetes incidence among depressed, older adults initially free of diabetes. Participants were 119 primary care patients [M (SD) age: 67.2 (6.9) years, 41% African American] with a depressive disorder but without diabetes enrolled at the Indiana sites of the Improving Mood-Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment (IMPACT) trial. Incident diabetes cases were defined as diabetes diagnoses, positive laboratory values, or diabetes medication prescription, and were identified using electronic medical record and Medicare/Medicaid data. Surprisingly, the rate of incident diabetes in the collaborative care group was 37% (22/59) versus 28% (17/60) in the usual care group. Even though the collaborative care group exhibited greater reductions in depressive symptom severity (p = .024), unadjusted (HR = 1.29, 95% CI: 0.69-2.43, p = .428) and adjusted (HR = 1.18, 95% CI: 0.61-2.29, p = .616) Cox proportional hazards models indicated that the risk of incident diabetes did not differ between the treatment groups. Our novel preliminary findings raise the possibility that depression treatment alone may be insufficient to reduce the excess diabetes risk of depressed, older adults