Sleuthing in reciprocal space: the search for a charge-density wave in alphauranium

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the preparation of the first transuranium elements, neptunium and plutonium though thus losing pride of place in the Periodic Table, uranium still has secrets to reveal. This article describes efforts to characterize the extremely subtle series of distortions that appears at low temperature in the element. Our understanding of these distortions require some of the latest ideas in diffraction physics, so that the story is a continuously evolving one. Uranium is the only element (so far) that has been found to have a spontaneous charge-density wave.     

A conceptual model of taste receptors

Of all the senses, that of taste is perhaps the hardest to define and quantify and elucidation of the underlying mechanisms is unrespondingly difficult. This article describes a conceptual model — at the molecular level — for the four basic taste modalities, using apparent specific volume as a fundamental parameter. It also considers possible practical applications.     

Dynamic dictionary updating

A method for updating the dictionary in a dynamic information retrieval system is presented. It is shown that as a collection changes through addition and deletion of documents, the appropriate set of index terms may be determined without complete periodic regeneration of the dictionary. Results are presented for experiments involving a complete change in collection membership, with the dynamic dictionary updating methods shown to be effective.     

Polymorphonuclear leukocytic sialic acid and sialidase activity in obesity

The level of sialic acid in the obese polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) was found to be significantly reduced as compared to normal. Activity of sialic acid degrading enzyme, sialidase, was found to be increased in the obese state. Restoration in both sialic acid content and sialidase activity was also evidenced in the PMNL of treated obese patients.     

On preservation of mean square continuity under zero memory non-linear transformation

Mean square continuity of a random process is of considerable theoretical and practical importance. Mean square continuous random processes passed through zero memory non-linearities are considered. Several conditions are given relating to mean square continuity of the output. Bounded zero memory non-linearities are considered with arbitrary random processes as inputs, and conditions on both the zero memory non-linearity and on the random process are examined. Also, general zero memory non-linearities are considered with Gaussian random processes as inputs.     

Asymptotic memoryless detection of random signals in dependent noise

Design of detectors for strong mixing signals in strong mixing noise is considered, where a large degree of dependency may occur between the signal and noise. Under the criterion of asymptotic relative efficiency, it is shown that this design reduces to determining the solution of an integral equation, where only knowledge of the second order statistics of the randon processes involved is required. In particular, if the signal is independent of the noise and has nonzero mean, the optimal detector is the same as in the known constant signal case. It is also shown that it is possible to delete several regularity conditions which may be difficult to check in practice in the slightly more restrictive case where the maximal correlation coefficients of the signal and noise tend to zero.     

Evaluation of A60 antibodies in pulmonary and neurotuberculosis

Humoral immune response against PPD derived A60 antigen was evaluated by quantification of serum A60 antibodies in thrity healthy adults not exposed to tuberculosis (Group 1), in twenty seven healthy adults exposed to tuberculosis patients i.e. staff working in wards of tuberculosis hospital for one to thirty years (group 2), in twenty five pulmonary tuberculosis patients admitted to the Institute for Chest Diseases, Hyderabad (Group 3) and in sixty neurotuberculosis patients admitted to Neurosurgery department of our institute (Group 4). Highly significant elevation of A60 antibodies was observed in pulmonary tuberculosis patients (p<0.01) compared to healthy adult groups. A significant elevation in serum was also observed in case of neurotuberculosis group compared to both healthy groups (p<0.01). A test on A60 antibodies in serum gavv a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 96.6%, positive predictive value of 81% and negative predictive value of 100% for pulmonary tuberculosis, whereas a sensitivity of 58%, positive predictive value of 79% and negative predictive value of 75% were noted for neurotuberculosis patients. Results of A60 antibodies in ten cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) obtained from non tuberculosis patients and thirty two CSF from patients of neurotuberculosis did not show significant elevation of antibodies. However the ninetyfive percentile value of CSF A60 antibodies was higher in neurotuberculosis (7.4 U/ml) group compared to nontuberculous group (3.8 U/ml) and the test showed a good positive predictive value (83%), very low negative predictive value (25%) and low sensitivity (63%). Serum A60 antibody assay appears to be a good serological marker available today for pulmonary tuberculosis and a supportive marker for neurotuberculosis.