Information from quantum blackhole physics

The study of BTZ blackhole physics and the cosmological horizon of 3D de Sitter spaces are carried out in unified way using the connections to the Chern Simons theory on three manifolds with boundary. The relations to CFT on the boundary is exploited to construct exact partition functions and obtain logarithmic corrections to Bekenstein formula in the asymptotic regime. Comments are made on the dS/CFT correspondence frising from these studies.Comment: 11 pages; 1 figure(eps file);Talk presented at the conference Space-time and Fundamental Interactions: Quantum Aspects'' in honour of A.P. Balachandran's 65th birthday, Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy 26th-31st May, 200

A Metric for Gradient RG Flow of the Worldsheet Sigma Model Beyond First Order

Tseytlin has recently proposed that an action functional exists whose gradient generates to all orders in perturbation theory the Renormalization Group (RG) flow of the target space metric in the worldsheet sigma model. The gradient is defined with respect to a metric on the space of coupling constants which is explicitly known only to leading order in perturbation theory, but at that order is positive semi-definite, as follows from Perelman's work on the Ricci flow. This gives rise to a monotonicity formula for the flow which is expected to fail only if the beta function perturbation series fails to converge, which can happen if curvatures or their derivatives grow large. We test the validity of the monotonicity formula at next-to-leading order in perturbation theory by explicitly computing the second-order terms in the metric on the space of coupling constants. At this order, this metric is found not to be positive semi-definite. In situations where this might spoil monotonicity, derivatives of curvature become large enough for higher order perturbative corrections to be significant.Comment: 15 pages; Erroneous sentence in footnote 14 removed; this version therefore supersedes the published version (our thanks to Dezhong Chen for the correction

Development of unique buttermilk by incorporation of Moringa

The present investigation was aimed at formulating a fermented beverage with incorporation of Moringa Pod Powder (MPP) to develop therapeutic buttermilk. Dahi (prepared from standardized milk) mesophilic/ thermophilic dahi culture. Optimisation of the product formulation was done by using Response Surface Methodolo-gy (RSM) with central composite rotatable design (CCRD) with varying levels of MPP, total milk solids (TMS) in but-termilk and acidity of dahi. It was found that 5.60 % TMS, 0.90 % acidity of dahi and 1.92 % MPP gave the most acceptable product with a desirability of 0.917 which is very high. From amongst various stabilizers, it was found that a blend of 0.04 % pectin and 0.015 % carrageenan most suitable and addition of salt, sugar and spices blend @ 0.5 %, 4.0 %, 0.5% respectively were most acceptable. The proximate chemical composition of Moringa Pod Buttermilk (MPBM) was 11.77 % total solids, 1.51 % protein, 1.84 % fat and 0.89 % ash. One serving size (300 g) of MPBM could be an "excellent source of calcium" having 21 % Daily Value (DV). The product could be labelled as "a good source of Vitamin A, calcium and iron" providing 10, 18 and 11 % DV respectively. MPBM was found to have consid-erable amount of Potassium and Vitamin C and fiber (9.0, 9.0 and 6.5 % DV respectively). The shelf-life of the prod-uct was 20 days under refrigeration (7±2?C). The developed product is rich in fiber and iron, that is conventionally deficient in milk and hence makes the developed product complete food

BTZ Black Hole Entropy from Ponzano-Regge Gravity

The entropy of the BTZ black hole is computed in the Ponzano-Regge formulation of three-dimensional lattice gravity. It is seen that the correct semi-classical behaviour of entropy is reproduced by states that correspond to all possible triangulations of the Euclidean black hole.Comment: 11 pages LaTeX, 3 eps figures, some minor clarifications added, result unchange

Application of blooms taxonomy of verbs to evaluate the cognitive domain in undergraduate medical physiology question papers: a critique

Background: Over the years medical education has evolved in the system of education, teaching and evaluation. It is the evaluation system that has the most insightful impact on learning. This study aimed to assess the use of taxonomy of verbs in medical physiology question papers as a tool for written examination for summative evaluation of I year medical students.Methods: Retrospective analysis of I MBBS undergraduate question papers of revised scheme Rajiv Gandhi University of health sciences, Bangalore from the year 2006- 2014 was done. Questions were analyzed individually for the use of taxonomy of verbs in each question, marks allotted for each, and type of cognition analyzed from each question. The data was classified using a modification of Bloom’s hierarchy of cognitive learning (level I, II, III).Results: Majority (45%) of the questions in the papers had no use of verbs. There was variability in the distribution of marks on various chapters of Physiology across the years. Comprehension and knowledge component of the cognitive domain were maximally assessed in the written examination.Conclusions: Examination and evaluation though a source of anxiety for the undergraduate medical students, it is essential to stimulate their cognitive skills by teaching and enhance the evaluation of mental and reasoning skills. It could be more facilitated by proper framing of questions by adequate usage of verbs.