A 3D computational model for investigating the Spatial heterogeneity of Polymicrobial biofilm using K-means Clustering

Biofilm is considered for the cause of many microbial infections which range from Cystic fibrosis to middle ear infections. The biofilm mode of growth is more significant than planktonic as the biofilm mode of growth is protected from acidic PH, host immune responses, metal toxicity and antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is becoming a bigger threat to mankind than cancer. The inter and intra species communications play a vital role in the growth dynamics and survival of the biofilm. The emergence of Small colony variants by phenotypic switching from S.aureus in presence of 4- Hydroxy-2-heptylquinoline N-oxide (HQNO) which is produced by P.aeruginosa play a superior role because of its inherent resilience and host adaptability

New Vistas in Braneworld Cosmology

Traditionally, higher-dimensional cosmological models have sought to provide a description of the fundamental forces in terms of a unifying geometrical construction. In this essay we discuss how, in their present incarnation, higher-dimensional `braneworld' models might provide answers to a number of cosmological puzzles including the issue of dark energy and the nature of the big-bang singularity.Comment: Honorable mention in the 2002 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation. 10 pages, 2 figure

Optically addressing single rare-earth ions in a nanophotonic cavity

We demonstrate optical probing of spectrally resolved single Nd rare-earth ions in yttrium orthovanadate. The ions are coupled to a photonic crystal resonator and show strong enhancement of the optical emission rate via the Purcell effect, resulting in near radiatively limited single photon emission. The measured high coupling cooperativity between a single photon and the ion allows for the observation of coherent optical Rabi oscillations. This could enable optically controlled spin qubits, quantum logic gates, and spin-photon interfaces for future quantum networks