Clinical Profile of Patients with Osteoarthritis of the Knee A Study of 162 Cases

One hundred sixty two patients of osteoarthritis (OA)knee were studied to describe their clinical profile. Thepatients were included according to the criteria developedby the American College of Rheumatology. Detailedhistory, clinical examination and X-rays were carried out.The data were analysed statistically and the results wereexpressed in percentage and frequency. In this study, 96(59.3%) were male and 66 (40.7%) were female. Themean age of the subject was 53.73 ± 11.35 years. Mostof the patients of were in the age group of 50 to 59 years.Maximum number of females in the age group of 35 to45 years was affected. Most of the males were affectedin the later ages, between 55 to 65 years. Most of thepatients were middle class (68.5%) and housewives(35.8%). Mean height was 159.99 ± 8.12 cm and meanweight was 63.34 ± 11.60 kg. Mean duration of symptomswas 25.25 ± 38.85 months. Most patients gave the historyof gradual onset of the pain (87.7%). Most of the patientshad no morning stiffness in the knee (90.1%). Morningstiffness was present in 9.3% but it was for less than onehour. Maximum patients had intermittent pain (53.7%)but 46.3% patients had constant pain. By this study, itcan be concluded that OA knee is commoner in malesbut females develop it earlier in the life than the males

Competition between species can stabilize public-goods cooperation within a species

Competition between species is a major ecological force that can drive evolution. Here, we test the effect of this force on the evolution of cooperation within a species. We use sucrose metabolism of budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as a model cooperative system that is subject to social parasitism by cheater strategies. We find that when cocultured with a bacterial competitor, Escherichia coli, the frequency of cooperator phenotypes in yeast populations increases dramatically as compared with isolated yeast populations. Bacterial competition stabilizes cooperation within yeast by limiting the yeast population density and also by depleting the public goods produced by cooperating yeast cells. Both of these changes induced by bacterial competition increase the cooperator frequency because cooperator yeast cells have a small preferential access to the public goods they produce; this preferential access becomes more important when the public good is scarce. Our results indicate that a thorough understanding of species interactions is crucial for explaining the maintenance and evolution of cooperation in nature.United States. National Institutes of Health (GM085279‐02)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (PHY‐1055154)Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (BR2011‐066

Development of Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Gas/ Chemical Sensors

The development of highly-sensitive and miniaturized sensors that capable of real-time analytes detection is highly desirable. Nowadays, toxic or colorless gas detection, air pollution monitoring, harmful chemical, pressure, strain, humidity, and temperature sensors based on photonic crystal fiber (PCF) are increasing rapidly due to its compact structure, fast response and efficient light controlling capabilities. The propagating light through the PCF can be controlled by varying the structural parameters and core-cladding materials, as a result, evanescent field can be enhanced significantly which is the main component of the PCF based gas/chemical sensors. The aim of this chapter is to (1) describe the principle operation of PCF based gas/ chemical sensors, (2) discuss the important PCF properties for optical sensors, (3) extensively discuss the different types of microstructured optical fiber based gas/ chemical sensors, (4) study the effects of different core-cladding shapes, and fiber background materials on sensing performance, and (5) highlight the main challenges of PCF based gas/ chemical sensors and possible solutions

Holographic Josephson Junctions and Berry holonomy from D-branes

We construct a holographic model for Josephson junctions with a defect system of a Dp brane intersecting a D(p+2) brane. In addition to providing a geometrical picture for the holographic dual, this leads us very naturally to suggest the possibility of non-Abelian Josephson junctions characterized in terms of the topological properties of the branes. The difference between the locations of the endpoints of the Dp brane on either side of the defect translates into the phase difference of the condensate in the Josephson junction. We also add a magnetic flux on the D(p+2) brane and allow it evolve adiabatically along a closed curve in the space of the magnetic flux, while generating a non-trivial Berry holonomy.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure

Photonic Analogue of Two-dimensional Topological Insulators and Helical One-Way Edge Transport in Bi-Anisotropic Metamaterials

Recent progress in understanding the topological properties of condensed matter has led to the discovery of time-reversal invariant topological insulators. Because of limitations imposed by nature, topologically non-trivial electronic order seems to be uncommon except in small-band-gap semiconductors with strong spin-orbit interactions. In this Article we show that artificial electromagnetic structures, known as metamaterials, provide an attractive platform for designing photonic analogues of topological insulators. We demonstrate that a judicious choice of the metamaterial parameters can create photonic phases that support a pair of helical edge states, and that these edge states enable one-way photonic transport that is robust against disorder.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Topological Photonics

Topology is revolutionizing photonics, bringing with it new theoretical discoveries and a wealth of potential applications. This field was inspired by the discovery of topological insulators, in which interfacial electrons transport without dissipation even in the presence of impurities. Similarly, new optical mirrors of different wave-vector space topologies have been constructed to support new states of light propagating at their interfaces. These novel waveguides allow light to flow around large imperfections without back-reflection. The present review explains the underlying principles and highlights the major findings in photonic crystals, coupled resonators, metamaterials and quasicrystals.Comment: progress and review of an emerging field, 12 pages, 6 figures and 1 tabl

Topological Surface States Protected From Backscattering by Chiral Spin Texture

Topological insulators are a new class of insulators in which a bulk gap for electronic excitations is generated by strong spin orbit coupling. These novel materials are distinguished from ordinary insulators by the presence of gapless metallic boundary states, akin to the chiral edge modes in quantum Hall systems, but with unconventional spin textures. Recently, experiments and theoretical efforts have provided strong evidence for both two- and three-dimensional topological insulators and their novel edge and surface states in semiconductor quantum well structures and several Bi-based compounds. A key characteristic of these spin-textured boundary states is their insensitivity to spin-independent scattering, which protects them from backscattering and localization. These chiral states are potentially useful for spin-based electronics, in which long spin coherence is critical, and also for quantum computing applications, where topological protection can enable fault-tolerant information processing. Here we use a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to visualize the gapless surface states of the three-dimensional topological insulator BiSb and to examine their scattering behavior from disorder caused by random alloying in this compound. Combining STM and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we show that despite strong atomic scale disorder, backscattering between states of opposite momentum and opposite spin is absent. Our observation of spin-selective scattering demonstrates that the chiral nature of these states protects the spin of the carriers; they therefore have the potential to be used for coherent spin transport in spintronic devices.Comment: to be appear in Nature on August 9, 200

Observation of Dirac plasmons in a topological insulator

Plasmons are the quantized collective oscillations of electrons in metals and doped semiconductors. The plasmons of ordinary, massive electrons are since a long time basic ingredients of research in plasmonics and in optical metamaterials. Plasmons of massless Dirac electrons were instead recently observed in a purely two-dimensional electron system (2DEG)like graphene, and their properties are promising for new tunable plasmonic metamaterials in the terahertz and the mid-infrared frequency range. Dirac quasi-particles are known to exist also in the two-dimensional electron gas which forms at the surface of topological insulators due to a strong spin-orbit interaction. Therefore,one may look for their collective excitations by using infrared spectroscopy. Here we first report evidence of plasmonic excitations in a topological insulator (Bi2Se3), that was engineered in thin micro-ribbon arrays of different width W and period 2W to select suitable values of the plasmon wavevector k. Their lineshape was found to be extremely robust vs. temperature between 6 and 300 K, as one may expect for the excitations of topological carriers. Moreover, by changing W and measuring in the terahertz range the plasmonic frequency vP vs. k we could show, without using any fitting parameter, that the dispersion curve is in quantitative agreement with that predicted for Dirac plasmons.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, published in Nature Nanotechnology (2013

Graphene Photonics and Optoelectronics

The richness of optical and electronic properties of graphene attracts enormous interest. Graphene has high mobility and optical transparency, in addition to flexibility, robustness and environmental stability. So far, the main focus has been on fundamental physics and electronic devices. However, we believe its true potential to be in photonics and optoelectronics, where the combination of its unique optical and electronic properties can be fully exploited, even in the absence of a bandgap, and the linear dispersion of the Dirac electrons enables ultra-wide-band tunability. The rise of graphene in photonics and optoelectronics is shown by several recent results, ranging from solar cells and light emitting devices, to touch screens, photodetectors and ultrafast lasers. Here we review the state of the art in this emerging field.Comment: Review Nature Photonics, in pres

Electron Correlation Effects in Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering of NaV2O5

Element- and site-specific resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectroscopy (RIXS) is employed to investigate electron correlation effects in {$\rm NaV_2O_5$}. In contrast to single photon techniques, RIXS at the vanadium $L_3$ edge is able to probe $d-d^*$ transitions between V d-bands. A sharp energy loss feature is observed at -1.56 eV, which is well reproduced by a model calculation including correlation effects. The calculation identifies the loss feature as excitation between the lower and upper Hubbard bands and permits an accurate determination of the Hubbard interaction term $U= 3.0 \pm 0.2$ eV.Comment: 15 pages, four figures, accepted to Phys. Rev. Let