Search for magnetic monopoles produced via the Schwinger mechanism.

Electrically charged particles can be created by the decay of strong enough electric fields, a phenomenon known as the Schwinger mechanism1. By electromagnetic duality, a sufficiently strong magnetic field would similarly produce magnetic monopoles, if they exist2. Magnetic monopoles are hypothetical fundamental particles that are predicted by several theories beyond the standard model3-7 but have never been experimentally detected. Searching for the existence of magnetic monopoles via the Schwinger mechanism has not yet been attempted, but it is advantageous, owing to the possibility of calculating its rate through semi-classical techniques without perturbation theory, as well as that the production of the magnetic monopoles should be enhanced by their finite size8,9 and strong coupling to photons2,10. Here we present a search for magnetic monopole production by the Schwinger mechanism in Pb-Pb heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, producing the strongest known magnetic fields in the current Universe11. It was conducted by the MoEDAL experiment, whose trapping detectors were exposed to 0.235 per nanobarn, or approximately 1.8 × 109, of Pb-Pb collisions with 5.02-teraelectronvolt center-of-mass energy per collision in November 2018. A superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer scanned the trapping detectors of MoEDAL for the presence of magnetic charge, which would induce a persistent current in the SQUID. Magnetic monopoles with integer Dirac charges of 1, 2 and 3 and masses up to 75 gigaelectronvolts per speed of light squared were excluded by the analysis at the 95% confidence level. This provides a lower mass limit for finite-size magnetic monopoles from a collider search and greatly extends previous mass bounds.

First Search for Dyons with the Full MoEDAL Trapping Detector in 13 TeV pp Collisions.

The MoEDAL trapping detector consists of approximately 800 kg of aluminum volumes. It was exposed during run 2 of the LHC program to 6.46 fb^{-1} of 13 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHCb interaction point. Evidence for dyons (particles with electric and magnetic charge) captured in the trapping detector was sought by passing the aluminum volumes comprising the detector through a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer. The presence of a trapped dyon would be signaled by a persistent current induced in the SQUID magnetometer. On the basis of a Drell-Yan production model, we exclude dyons with a magnetic charge ranging up to five Dirac charges (5g_{D}) and an electric charge up to 200 times the fundamental electric charge for mass limits in the range 870-3120 GeV and also monopoles with magnetic charge up to and including 5g_{D} with mass limits in the range 870-2040 GeV.

A profile of human immunodeficiency virus seroconcordant/serodiscordant couples.

INTRODUCTION: Heterosexual route is the most common mode of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission among married couples in India. The aim of the study was to determine HIV seroconcordance and serodiscordance among couples when one of the partners is HIV positive. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study which included HIV positive married cohabiting cases was carried out at the Department of Skin-VD, Medical College, Baroda. Detailed history of high-risk sexual behavior, blood transfusion (BT) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) was taken. All the cases were examined for the presence of STIs and all males were examined for circumcision. The spouses of these cases were tested for HIV to know the seroconcordance/serodiscordance. RESULTS: A total of 66 HIV positive cases were studied which included 34 males and 32 females. Forty-five cases had seropositive spouses that consisted of 20 out of 34 HIV positive males and 25 out of 32 HIV positive females. History of STI was present in 13 cases. History of BT in one of the spouses was present in 15 of 45 seroconcordant couples while in 6 out of 21 serodiscordant couples. Among 34 HIV positive males, circumcision was present in 8 cases out of which 6 were serodiscordant. DISCUSSION: About 68% concordance suggests continued intramarital transmission probably due to lack of spousal communication and late testing. In cases having transfusion transmitted HIV, seroconcordance rate was found to be high. Such cases are usually asymptomatic and hence tested late but continue to transmit HIV by unprotected sexual activity.

Polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins--leucine-rich repeat proteins in plant defence.

Plant polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) belong to the leucine-rich repeat (LRR) family and are known to prevent pathogen invasion by inhibiting the plant cell wall degrading enzyme, polygalacturonase. Our study reveals that these multigene-encoded defence proteins found in flowering plants only exhibit identical domain architecture with 10 tandemly-arranged LRRs. This implies that variations of PGIP inhibitory properties are not associated with the number of the repeats but with subtle changes in the sequence content of the repeats. The first and eighth repeat contain more mutations compared to the strict conservation of the plant-specific LRRs or any repeat at other positions. Each of these repeats forms a separate cluster in the phylogenetic tree, both within and across plant families, thus suggesting uniqueness with respect to their position. A study of the genes encoding PGIPs, shows the existence of two categories (i) single exon and hence no intron; and (ii) two exons with an intron in between. Analyses of the intron phase and correlation of the exon-intron structure with the compact structural modules in PGIPs support insertion of introns in the pre-existing single exon genes and thus the intron late model. Lack of conservation of phase across families and formation of individual clusters for each family in the phylogenetic tree drawn with the intron sequences illustrate the event of insertion that took place separately in each of these families.

Rapunzel syndrome complicated with gastric perforation diagnosed on operation table.

Rapunzel syndrome is a variety of trichobezoar with the main body in the stomach and the tail extending into the small or large bowel. Twenty-seven cases of Rapunzel syndrome have been reported in the literature so far. This particular case of Rapunzel syndrome was on table diagnosis in a case of gastric perforation. The bezoar was removed and the patient was given psychiatric consultation.

Evaluation of the role of injection therapy for benign prostatic hypertrophy.

Intraprostatic phenol injection treatment was given to 13 cases of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) without urinary retention. Symptomatic improvement was significant, although objective assessment showed neither significant alteration in the size of the prostate nor in the urinary flow rate. Injection therapy is considered inadequate in the relief of prostatic obstruction.