Evidence of robust 2D transport and Efros-Shklovskii variable range hopping in disordered topological insulator (Bi2Se3) nanowires

We report the experimental observation of variable range hopping conduction in focused-ion-beam (FIB) fabricated ultra-narrow nanowires of topological insulator (Bi2Se3). The value of the exponent in the hopping equation was extracted as ~ 1/2 for different widths of nanowires, which is the proof of the presence of Efros-Shklovskii hopping transport mechanism in a strongly disordered system. High localization lengths (0.5nm, 20nm) were calculated for the devices. A careful analysis of the temperature dependent fluctuations present in the magnetoresistance curves, using the standard Universal Conductance Fluctuation theory, indicates the presence of 2D topological surface states. Also, the surface state contribution to the conductance was found very close to one conductance quantum. We believe that our experimental findings shed light on the understanding of quantum transport in disordered topological insulator based nanostructures.Comment: 14pages, 4 figure

Fetomaternal outcome in breech delivery

Background: Breech Presentation is the commonest of all malpresentations. Vaginal delivery of the breech presentations at term is associated with a much higher perinatal mortality and morbidity than that of vertex presentation. The objectives of the present study are to know the common causes leading to breech presentation. Further, to compare the different management protocols and outcome in different types of breech presentation.  Also, to know the perinatal morbidity and mortality associated with different types of breech presentation nd comparison of perinatal morbidity and mortality with vaginal delivery against cesarean section.Methods: This is a retrospective study of randomized 100 cases of pregnant women in labour with breech presentations after 28 weeks or more attending C U Shah Medical College, Surendranagar, over a period of May 2012 to April 2014.Results: Out of 100 patients breech presentation was more common in booked patients and multigravida. In primi and multigravidae patients, caesarean delivery was more compared to assisted breech delivery. Perinatal outcome was good in majority of the patients in both extended and complete breech with an incidence of 94% and 88% respectively. perinatal outcome was good in caesarean section with 100% compared to assisted breech delivery 93%.Conclusions: The balanced decision about the mode of delivery on a case by case basis as well as conduct, training and regular drills of assisted breech delivery will go a long way to optimize the outcome of breech presentation like ours. Delivery of breech fetus when labor and delivery is supervised and or conducted by experienced obstetrician lowers maternal morbidity, neonatal morbidity and mortality

Did you mix me? Formally Verifying Verifiable Mix Nets in Electronic Voting

Verifiable mix nets, and specifically proofs of (correct) shuffle, are a fundamental building block in numerous applications: these zero-knowledge proofs allow the prover to produce a public transcript which can be perused by the verifier to confirm the purported shuffle. They are particularly vital to verifiable electronic voting, where they underpin almost all voting schemes with non-trivial tallying methods. These complicated pieces of cryptography are a prime location for critical errors which might allow undetected modification of the outcome. The best solution to preventing these errors is to machine-check the cryptographic properties of the design and implementation of the mix net. Particularly crucial for the integrity of the outcome is the soundness of the design and implementation of the verifier (software). Unfortunately, several different encryption schemes are used in many different slight variations which makes t infeasible to machine-check every single case individually. However, a particular optimized variant of the Terelius-Wikstrom mix net is, and has been, widely deployed in elections including national elections in Norway, Estonia and Switzerland, albeit with many slight variations and several different encryption schemes. In this work, we develop the logical theory and formal methods tools to machine-check the design and implementation of all these variants of Terelius-Wikstrom mix nets, for all the different encryption schemes used; resulting in provably correct mix nets for all these different variations. We do this carefully to ensure that we can extract a formally verified implementation of the verifier (software) which is compatible with existing deployed implementations of the Terelius-Wikstrom mix net. This gives us provably correct implementations of the verifiers for more than half of the national elections which have used verifiable mix nets. Our implementation of a proof of correct shuffle is the first to be machine-checked to be cryptographically correct and able to verify proof transcripts from national elections. We demonstrate the practicality of our implementation by verifying transcripts produced by the Verificatum mix net system and the CHVote evoting system from Switzerland

TECHNIQUES USED FOR BIOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATION IN RELATION TO FORENSIC ANALYSIS

The aim of this review was to apply the knowledge & technology of science for the definition & enforcement of such laws. The forensic analysis is investigation the crime and examines material evidence. In forensic analysis various biochemical investigation techniques are used to examine the crimes like Hair analysis, Polygraphic test, serology test and finger print analysis. Several instruments are used in forensic analysis like IR, Chromatography, UV and Mass spectrophotometer. The characterization results showed that Forensic pharmacists engage in work relating to litigation, the regulatory process, or the criminal justice system

Correlation between serum ferritin and glycaemic control in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a case control study

Background: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. Ferritin is a ubiquitous intracellular protein complex that reflectes the iron stores of the body. Many cross-sectional studies indicate that increased body iron stores have been associated with the development of glucose intolerance, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome. This study was carried out to find out the relationship between serum ferritin and type 2 diabetes and to see the influence of body iron stores on HbA1c and blood glucose.Methods: This study includes 50 patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and compared with controls at Sir T hospital, Bhavnagar. S. ferritin, Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), Post Prandial Blood Sugar (PPBS) and HbA1c were measured.Results: Serum ferritin was significantly higher (p<0.0001) in the patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and the correlation between serum ferritin and HbA1c was positive. Patients with type 2 diabetes with increased level of serum ferritin had poor glycemic control reflected by increased levels of HBA1c (r=0.701, p<0.0001)Conclusions: There is a positive association between elevated iron stores measured by serum ferritin levels and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Ferritin levels also correlated FBS, PP2BS and HbA1c.

Comportamiento en fritura del aceite de salvado de arroz, aceite de girasol y mezclas de ambos aceites

Shall be deleted offer some advantages like better nutritional quality, lower cost and greater storage stability than pure oils. Model blends prepared from pure rice bran oil (RBO) and sunflower oil (SFO) were examined for change in their physico-chemical parameters (acid value, iodine value, color value, peroxide value and fatty acids). Repeated deep fat frying processes were carried out using dried potato chips in pure rice bran oil, sunflower oil and their model blends, in order to study the thermal behavior of pure rice bran oil, sunflower oil and their model blends. Pure rice bran oil and sunflower oil showed good thermal stability during the repeated deep fat frying cycles. Although all the blended oils used in the study showed good thermal stability during repeated deep fat frying cycles, model blends consisting of 60%RBO + 40% SFO showed better suitability during repeated deep fat frying than the remaining blended oils.La mezclas de aceites pueden ofrecer algunas ventajas sobre los aceites puros las como mejor calidad nutricional, coste inferior o mayor estabilidad durante el almacenamiento. En este estudio, aceite de salvado de arroz (RBO), aceite de girasol (SFO) y mezclas de ambos, se sometieron al proceso de fritura de patatas y se evaluaron los principales cambios físico-químicos en los aceites puros y en sus mezclas (acidez, índice de yodo, color, índice de peróxidos y composición de ácidos grasos). Aunque todas las muestras mostraron buena estabilidad a elevada temperatura, los mejores resultados se obtuvieron con la mezcla que contenía 60% de RBO y 40% de SFO

Effect of various fluxes on different metals and alloys in A-TIG process: a review

Welding is the process of coalescence of two metals/alloys for creating a seamless joint, is a quintessential fabrication process utilised in almost every manufacturing sector. There is a range of welding processes that are used according to their features and the requirement of the fabricator. The tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding process is an extensively used welding process owing to its inherent characteristics like high weld quality, surface cleanliness, and autogenous welding mode. Unfortunately, the TIG process suffers some drawbacks, the most pronounced one is the shallow weld bead and low depth of penetration (DOP). This renders the process unusable for welding thicker sections in a single pass and consequently requires multiple passes which adds to the expenditure. A modification to this process is the A-TIG welding where A stands for Activated, the method utilises activating flux material to augment the penetration depth and depth to width ratio (DWR) of the weld bead. The current work is comprehensive and focuses mainly on the basics of the A-TIG process, understanding of weld pool dynamics that are governing the depth of penetration, analysis of various flux materials for their effects on different metals/alloys and finally the outcomes fetched from using A-TIG process on different commercially important alloys

Giant cell tumor of the breast masquerading as a malignant breast tumor: a case report

Introduction: Giant cell tumours of the soft tissue (GCT-ST) are usually found in the superficial and deep soft tissues of the extremities but have been described in the pancreas, lung, thyroid gland, urothelial tract, skin, larynx, heart and very rarely, in the breast. At present, according to the World Health Organization's classification of soft tissue tumors, GCT-ST is categorized as an intermediate grade (rarely metastasizing) fibrohistiocytic tumour. GCT of the breast is extremely rare and to date, only eleven cases have been reported. We report a case of GCT of the breast, which was clinically suspected as a malignant tumor and discuss the different treatment modalities with the importance of close follow-up of the same after a thorough review of the literature. Case Presentation: We report a case of a 45-year-old woman who noticed a tender lump in her left breast. A malignant tumour was suspected on clinical examination and imaging. Histological evaluation revealed a tumour composed of a mixture of round and oval mononuclear cells with minimal atypia and uniformly distributed multinucleated osteoclast-like giant cells (OGCs) with a stroma rich in blood vessels. IHC was done in which the OGCs stained positively for CD68 and CD45, mononuclear stromal cells were positive for vimentin whereas the tumour was negative for breast markers Progesterone Receptor (PR), Estrogen Receptor (ER), GATA 3, epithelial marker EMA, S-100 and Desmin; hence the definitive diagnosis of GCT of the breast was made. Discussion: GCT of the breast, due to its rareness and the malignant-mimicking clinical presentation, causes difficulty in diagnosis. Other giant cell-rich lesions including breast cancer with OGCs, pleomorphic leiomyosarcoma, osteosarcoma, undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma and metastatic GCT-B are to be considered in the differential diagnosis. Conclusion: GCT of the breast is an extremely rare tumour and pretends a breast malignant tumours. For the correct diagnosis of this rare tumour, combining the results of histological and immunohistochemical analyses helps in ruling out differential diagnosis

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries