Headache--a Sinonasal Symptom and More… a Review Article

Headaches and facial pain are common complaints. In many cases, patients are referred to an otolaryngologist to determine if head pain is sinus related. In the absence of other nasal or sinus symptoms, some rhinogenic headaches can be overlooked or misdiagnosed. A complete history and thorough ENT examination, including nasal endoscopy with or without coronal CT scans is key to the correct diagnosis.1 Headache resulting from disease of the nose or paranasal sinuses are usually associated with symptoms (congestion, fullness, discharge, obstruction) that point to the site of origin. Occasionally, however nasal or sinus disease can be manifested solely as headache

Search for lepton flavor violating decays of a heavy neutral particle in p-pbar collisions at root(s)=1.8 TeV

We report on a search for a high mass, narrow width particle that decays directly to e+mu, e+tau, or mu+tau. We use approximately 110 pb^-1 of data collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab from 1992 to 1995. No evidence of lepton flavor violating decays is found. Limits are set on the production and decay of sneutrinos with R-parity violating interactions.Comment: Figure 2 fixed. Reference 4 fixed. Minor changes to tex

A Study of Thermodynamic Properties of Transition Metal Diborides

AbstractThe diborides are members of a broad class of materials known as the boron-rich solids, which consist of extended networks of covalently bonded boron (B) atoms stabilized through donation of electrons from the metal atoms. Although the structures of the diborides are unique, their physical properties are somewhat similar to those of nitrides and carbides; they are extremely hard and have very high melting points. They are attractive for the same types of applications as super hard, refractory materials, such as in composites and in hard coatings. The proposal presents an overview of some of the important properties of transition metal diborides (TMB2), as these are of interest for fundamental reasons as well as for practical applications. Keywords: TMB2; AlB2; Physical propertie

Biology of Mango Pulp Weevil, Sternochetus gravis (Fabr.) (Curculionidae: Coleoptera) in the Agro-ecosystem of Manipur

A study was conducted in the laboratory of Entomology, P.G. Department of Zoology, D.M. College of Science, Imphal during February to July, 2009 at 25± 20C and 75±5% RH (at room temperature and humidity) to study the biology of mango pulp weevil, Sternochetus gravis. The duration of life cycle has been observed to vary from one crop to another crop. Only one crop was observed in a season. The environmental parameters have been observed to play a vital role in the biology of this pest. Adult weevils were nocturnal and began feeding, mating and oviposition at dusk. Male and females mate more than once. The eggs were laid singly by making incisions in the skin of the immature fruits with the help of their ovipositors. These incisions looked like a crescent shaped cut protected by an opaque coating formed by exudation. The eggs hatched in about 7 - 9 days. The five larval instars were observed with four moulting. The larval duration varied from 5 - 8 days in first instar, 6 - 9 days in second instar, 7 - 8 days in the third and fourth instars and 6 to 7 days in the fifth instar respectively. The pupation lasted for about 7 days. The life cycle was completed in 49 - 57 days. The adult emerges during May- July

Pressure-volume Relationship for Platinum and Aluminium

Platinum and Aluminium are widely used as a pressure calibration standard. The present proposal which intends to compare the efficiency of the four equations under close examination reports the V/VO versus P values derived from the new modified forms of Murnaghan equation NMME1, NMME2, Birch equation (BE) and Freund-Ingalls (FIE) obtained for the best agreement with the experimental data of Mc Queen et.al

Non‐pharmacological interventions for challenging behaviours of adults with intellectual disabilities: A meta‐analysis

Background  Non-pharmacological interventions are recommended for the treatment of challenging behaviours in individuals with intellectual disabilities by clinical guidelines. However, evidence for their effectiveness is ambiguous. The aim of the current meta-analysis is to update the existing evidence, to investigate long-term outcome, and to examine whether intervention type, delivery mode, and study design were associated with differences in effectiveness. Method An electronic search was conducted using the databases Medline, Eric, PsychINFO and Cinahl. Studies with experimental or quasi-experimental designs were included. We performed an overall random-effect meta-analysis and subgroup analyses. Results We found a significant moderate overall effect of non-pharmacological interventions on challenging behaviours (d = 0.573, 95% CI [0.352-0.795]), and this effect appears to be longlasting. Interventions combining mindfulness and behavioural techniques showed to be more effective than other interventions. However, this result should be interpreted with care due to possible overestimation of the subgroup analysis. No differences in effectiveness were found across assessment times, delivery modes or study designs. Conclusions Non-pharmacological interventions appear to be moderately effective on the short and long term in reducing challenging behaviours in adults with intellectual disabilities

Wide-field Multi-object Spectroscopy to Enhance Dark Energy Science from LSST

LSST will open new vistas for cosmology in the next decade, but it cannot reach its full potential without data from other telescopes. Cosmological constraints can be greatly enhanced using wide-field ($>20$ deg$^2$ total survey area), highly-multiplexed optical and near-infrared multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) on 4-15m telescopes. This could come in the form of suitably-designed large surveys and/or community access to add new targets to existing projects. First, photometric redshifts can be calibrated with high precision using cross-correlations of photometric samples against spectroscopic samples at $0 < z < 3$ that span thousands of sq. deg. Cross-correlations of faint LSST objects and lensing maps with these spectroscopic samples can also improve weak lensing cosmology by constraining intrinsic alignment systematics, and will also provide new tests of modified gravity theories. Large samples of LSST strong lens systems and supernovae can be studied most efficiently by piggybacking on spectroscopic surveys covering as much of the LSST extragalactic footprint as possible (up to $\sim20,000$ square degrees). Finally, redshifts can be measured efficiently for a high fraction of the supernovae in the LSST Deep Drilling Fields (DDFs) by targeting their hosts with wide-field spectrographs. Targeting distant galaxies, supernovae, and strong lens systems over wide areas in extended surveys with (e.g.) DESI or MSE in the northern portion of the LSST footprint or 4MOST in the south could realize many of these gains; DESI, 4MOST, Subaru/PFS, or MSE would all be well-suited for DDF surveys. The most efficient solution would be a new wide-field, highly-multiplexed spectroscopic instrument in the southern hemisphere with $>6$m aperture. In two companion white papers we present gains from deep, small-area MOS and from single-target imaging and spectroscopy.Comment: Submitted to the call for Astro2020 science white papers; tables with estimates of telescope time needed for a supernova host survey can be seen at http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/3604

Work-Related Mental Health and Job Performance: Can Mindfulness Help?

Work-related mental health issues such as work-related stress and addiction to work impose a significant health and economic burden to the employee, the employing organization, and the country of work more generally. Interventions that can be empirically shown to improve levels of work-related mental health – especially those with the potential to concurrently improve employee levels of work performance – are of particular interest to occupational stakeholders. One such broad-application interventional approach currently of interest to occupational stakeholders in this respect is mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). Following a brief explication of the mindfulness construct, this paper critically discusses current research directions in the utilization of mindfulness in workplace settings and assesses its suitability for operationalization as an organization-level work-related mental health intervention. By effecting a perceptual-shift in the mode of responding and relating to sensory and cognitive-affective stimuli, employees that undergo mindfulness training may be able to transfer the locus of control for stress from external work conditions to internal metacognitive and attentional resources. Therefore, MBIs may constitute cost-effective organization-level interventions due to not actually requiring any modifications to human resource management systems and practises. Based on preliminary empirical findings and on the outcomes of MBI studies with clinical populations, it is concluded that MBIs appear to be viable interventional options for organizations wishing to improve the mental health of their employees

Deep Multi-object Spectroscopy to Enhance Dark Energy Science from LSST

Community access to deep (i ~ 25), highly-multiplexed optical and near-infrared multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) on 8-40m telescopes would greatly improve measurements of cosmological parameters from LSST. The largest gain would come from improvements to LSST photometric redshifts, which are employed directly or indirectly for every major LSST cosmological probe; deep spectroscopic datasets will enable reduced uncertainties in the redshifts of individual objects via optimized training. Such spectroscopy will also determine the relationship of galaxy SEDs to their environments, key observables for studies of galaxy evolution. The resulting data will also constrain the impact of blending on photo-z's. Focused spectroscopic campaigns can also improve weak lensing cosmology by constraining the intrinsic alignments between the orientations of galaxies. Galaxy cluster studies can be enhanced by measuring motions of galaxies in and around clusters and by testing photo-z performance in regions of high density. Photometric redshift and intrinsic alignment studies are best-suited to instruments on large-aperture telescopes with wider fields of view (e.g., Subaru/PFS, MSE, or GMT/MANIFEST) but cluster investigations can be pursued with smaller-field instruments (e.g., Gemini/GMOS, Keck/DEIMOS, or TMT/WFOS), so deep MOS work can be distributed amongst a variety of telescopes. However, community access to large amounts of nights for surveys will still be needed to accomplish this work. In two companion white papers we present gains from shallower, wide-area MOS and from single-target imaging and spectroscopy.Comment: Science white paper submitted to the Astro2020 decadal survey. A table of time requirements is available at http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/36036

Enhancement of Xanthan Biosynthesis Using Medicinal Herbs - A Novel Approach

This study aimed to evaluate the potential of five medicinal herbs in the enhancement of xanthan gum production when used against indigenously isolated (from molasses, an agricultural waste) phytopathogen Xanthomonas campestris MW741556. Antibiotic susceptibility of five medicinal herbs (Moringa oleifera, Bacopa monnieri, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Withania somnifera, and Arthrospira platensis) against X. campestris culture was first checked. All five herbs exhibited a clear zone of inhibition against X. campestris during the investigation. Thereafter their effect on enhancing the xanthan gum production was studied using molasses enriched medium. The results of this experiment showed that all five herbs were capable of enhancing xanthan gum production significantly. Xanthan gum produced differed in viscosity and dried biomass. Among all, A. platensis and M. oleifera were found to be the most promising for xanthan gum production with higher viscosity. These results were further confirmed by the characterization of xanthan gum produced by five herbs using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. Further, a multivariate approach using principal component analysis confirmed the variability among the herbs used. This versatility of these medicinal herbs opens the possibility of their utilization and application in various fields