2,591 research outputs found
Appearance of symmetry, beauty, and health in human faces
Symmetry is an important concept in biology, being related to mate selection strategies, health, and survival of species. In human faces, the relevance of left-right symmetry to attractiveness and health is not well understood. We compared the appearance of facial attractiveness, health, and symmetry in three separate experiments. Participants inspected front views of faces on the computer screen and judged them on a 5-point scale according to their attractiveness in Experiment 1, health in Experiment 2, and symmetry in Experiment 3. We found that symmetry and attractiveness were not strongly related in faces of women or men while health and symmetry were related. There was a significant difference between attractiveness and symmetry judgments but not between health and symmetry judgments. Moreover, there was a significant difference between attractiveness and health. Facial symmetry may be critical for the appearance of health but it does not seem to be critical for the appearance of attractiveness, not surprisingly perhaps because human faces together with the human brain have been shaped by adaptive evolution to be naturally asymmetrical
Allelic Frequency of ABO And Rh D Blood Group Among The Banjara Backward Caste of Yavatmal District, Maharashtra , India
The distribution of ABO blood groups and Rh(D) factor has been studied among the Banjara of Backward population of Yavatmal (Maharashtra). The A, B, O and AB blood group percentage were recorded as 24.54%, 33.82%, 29.64% and 12% respectively. The allele frequencies of O, A, B and AB groups in the combined data were found to be 0.5354, 0.2022 and 0.2624 respectively. The distribution of Rh(D) group varies among the ABO blood groups. The Rh(D) positive allelic frequency was 0.8405 and the Rh(D) negative incidence was recorded as 02.55% in the studied population
Ant Species Richness Around Amravati City Maharashtra, India
Ants deserve a special place in the study of ecology, including behavior, given their species richness, social habits, and high densities, contributing to much of the animal biomes on earth (Gadagkar et.at. 1993). As ants can be studied virtually everywhere from forest interiors below ground, right up to the kitchen, we attempted a study to assess the ant species richness in a variety of habitats in and around Amravati city. The prime objective of this study is to prepare a partial checklist of ants of Amravati and to compare species richness between selected study sites. Eight study sites with different levels and types of vegetation were selected for the study.
We employed an “all out search” method for collection in the months of June and July 2010. Ants were hand collected using a brush and forecep during the day time for 6 hrs at each study site. Collected samples were preserved in 70% alcohol in the Department of Zoology, Govt. Vidarbha Institute of Science & Humanities, Amravati.
We identified Ants up to the genus level by using a Stemi DV4 Stereo microscope based on taxonomic keys of (Holldobles & Wilson, 1990; Bolton, 1994; Mathew & R.N. Tiwari, 2000).
During the present study a total of 34 species of 20 genera have been recognized from Amravati city representing five subfamilies namely Myrmicinae, Formicinae, Ponerinae, Dolichoderinae and Pseudomyrmicinae. Out of this subfamily, Myrmicinae is the most abundant having 11 genera including the genus Rhoptromyrmex. It has been recorded for the first time in this region, followed by Formicinae with four genera for being recorded for the first time as genus Oecophylla. Subfamily Ponerinae and Dolichoderinae were recorded only with two genera each; while the subfamily Pseudomyrmicinae where recorded very poorly with only one genera from G.V.I.S.H. campus.
Few ant genera such as Crematogaster and Myrmicaria of subfamily Myrmicinae, Camponotus and Polyrhachis of subfamily Formicinae and Leptogenys of subfamily Ponerinae were mostly found in all the habitats and most localities. Few genera are confined to few localities or habitat types, such as Rhoptromyrmex and Oecophylla recorded only from Pohara forests. Genus Tetraponera of subfamily Pseudomyrmicinae were collected from the tree trunk of Azadirakhta indica in the G.V.I.S.H. campus. 
Comparison of ant species distribution between the different study sites revealed that ant species richness was highest in Pohara forest with 28 species & lowest with 9 species around urban areas. Relatively high ant species richness was recorded at all the study sites such as the Agriculture field, Tree plantation area, and the Wadali and Chhatri Garden. On the other hand, ant species richness was low around urban houses compared to rural houses due to little or no vegetation and high levels of disturbance. The tree plantation site, roads, and pavement showed higher numbers of ant species compared to around urban areas probably due to road side richness of tree plantation.
From this study we conclude that due to availability of food and shelter, richness of ant species increases in forest and tree plantation areas. The number of ant species declines in low vegetative areas including urban areas. It is possible to study the ecology and biodiversity of living faunas by the studying the habitats of ants. The environs of Amravati city are rich in Ant fauna which deserve further study
Monopole Percolation in pure gauge compact QED
The role of monopoles in quenched compact QED has been studied by measuring
the cluster susceptibility and the order parameter previously
introduced by Hands and Wensley in the study of the percolation transition
observed in non-compact QED. A correlation between these parameters and the
energy (action) at the phase transition has been observed. We conclude that the
order parameter is a sensitive probe for studying the phase
transition of pure gauge compact QED.Comment: LaTeX file + 4 PS figures, 12 pag., Pre-UAB-FT-308 ILL-(TH)-94-1
Evaluation of Bender Elements for Use with Coarse-Grained Soils
The feasibility of using piezo-ceramic bender elements for measuring shear modulus of coarse materials has been reported. If was found that moduli obtained from bender element are repeatable. The results in most cases compare favorably with those obtained by resonant column
The Phases and Triviality of Scalar Quantum Electrodynamics
The phase diagram and critical behavior of scalar quantum electrodynamics are
investigated using lattice gauge theory techniques. The lattice action fixes
the length of the scalar (``Higgs'') field and treats the gauge field as
non-compact. The phase diagram is two dimensional. No fine tuning or
extrapolations are needed to study the theory's critical behovior. Two lines of
second order phase transitions are discovered and the scaling laws for each are
studied by finite size scaling methods on lattices ranging from through
. One line corresponds to monopole percolation and the other to a
transition between a ``Higgs'' and a ``Coulomb'' phase, labelled by divergent
specific heats. The lines of transitions cross in the interior of the phase
diagram and appear to be unrelated. The monopole percolation transition has
critical indices which are compatible with ordinary four dimensional
percolation uneffected by interactions. Finite size scaling and histogram
methods reveal that the specific heats on the ``Higgs-Coulomb'' transition line
are well-fit by the hypothesis that scalar quantum electrodynamics is
logarithmically trivial. The logarithms are measured in both finite size
scaling of the specific heat peaks as a function of volume as well as in the
coupling constant dependence of the specific heats measured on fixed but large
lattices. The theory is seen to be qualitatively similar to .
The standard CRAY random number generator RANF proved to be inadequateComment: 25pages,26figures;revtex;ILL-(TH)-94-#12; only hardcopy of figures
availabl
Evaluation of efficacy of self breast examination for breast cancer prevention: a cost effective screening tool
Breast cancer is the most prevalent neoplasm among females and every year the number of associated deaths increases so that there is a dire need for implementation of cancer screening and early detection. A survey conducted by various locally organised cancer registries indicated breast cancer to be the most prevalent cancer among females and the second most common cause of cancer deaths among Pakistani women. Since Pakistani females do not generally engage in screening practices we argue that nurses and lady health workers should team up to educate women for the possible early detection of cancer using Self Breast Examination as a screening tool. In this paper, we attempt to evaluate the primary efficacy of self breast examination as an early and cost effective cancer screening measure, and to discuss the relation of community health nurses as well as the lady health workers to education of females of low income countries such as Pakistan to possibly lower the cancer burden
Evaluation of a cancer awareness campaign: experience with a selected population in Karachi
The incidence and prevalence of cancer is rapidly increasing in both developed and developing countries. The most common cancers reported in Pakistan are breast and cervical cancers in females, and lung and oral cancers in males. Public awareness of cancer can play a vital role in its prevention, early diagnosis and treatment. A pilot survey conducted by the Cancer Support Group (CSG) of Aga Khan University Hospital from 2001 till 2004 to gauge the public awareness of cancer in Pakistan revealed that people were afraid of cancer and had little knowledge about its prevention and early detection. The survey also identified several social, religious and cultural misconceptions which hinder cancer screening and treatment. In order to create awareness amongst the general public, especially the young generation, members of the CSG also organized fifteen health education sessions in schools, colleges, hospitals and communities in Karachi which were attended by more than 1,500 people. With the help of the results generated in the pilot project, education material was designed and developed for these health education sessions. Ten percent of the participants contacted CSG members for some unusual finding after administering a self screening tests taught in these sessions. This indicates the importance of holding cancer awareness sessions and the positive feedback obtained suggests that people would like to have cancer awareness sessions continued. Key Words
Quantum reverse-engineering and reference frame alignment without non-local correlations
Estimation of unknown qubit elementary gates and alignment of reference
frames are formally the same problem. Using quantum states made out of
qubits, we show that the theoretical precision limit for both problems, which
behaves as , can be asymptotically attained with a covariant protocol
that exploits the quantum correlation of internal degrees of freedom instead of
the more fragile entanglement between distant parties. This cuts by half the
number of qubits needed to achieve the precision of the dense covariant coding
protocol
Monopole Percolation in the Compact Abelian Higgs Model
We have studied the monopole-percolation phenomenon in the four dimensional
Abelian theory that contains compact U(1) gauge fields coupled to unitary norm
Higgs fields. We have determined the location of the percolation transition
line in the plane . This line overlaps the confined-Coulomb
and the confined-Higgs phase transition lines, originated by a
monopole-condensation mechanism, but continues away from the end-point where
this phase transition line stops. In addition, we have determined the critical
exponents of the monopole percolation transition away from the phase transition
lines. We have performed the finite size scaling in terms of the monopole
density instead of the coupling, because the density seems to be the natural
parameter when dealing with percolation phenomena.Comment: 13 pages. REVTeX. 16 figs. included using eps
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