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Background: It has been reported that in prelingually deafened adults there is maturation of the late latency response (LLR) after rehabilitation using cochlear implants. Other evidence suggests that the auditory system, like any other sensory system, receives multimodal stimulation, a factor which could help the auditory system mature even in the absence of any auditory input. The current study was done on two prelingually deaf adults who had not received rehabilitation, and their latencies were within the normal mature range, suggesting their auditory cortex responses were maturely developed prior to rehabilitation. Material and methods: Two male participants took part in the study: one was 21 years old and the other was 36, and both had congenital profound hearing loss. Using pure tone thresholds obtained earlier, a strong class hearing aid (Siemens Infiniti Pro SP) was programmed using NOAH software and fitted to the right ear using the NALNL-1 fitting formula. As an objective measure of verification of hearing aid effect, auditory P1, N1, P2, and N2 were recorded using the free-field facility available in the IHS SmartEP system: a 1000 Hz pure tone was presented at 70 dB SPL (30 dB SL) and 50 dB SPL (10 dB SL) from a loudspeaker at a distance of 1 m and 45° angle. Results: The latencies of P1, N1, P2, and N2 for both participants were recorded for 70 and 90 dB HL; all latencies were well within normal limits. Conclusions: The results indicate that, with adequate amplification, a mature response from the auditory cortex can be obtained even in adults who have profound hearing loss and who have been deprived of auditory stimuli since a prelingual age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove that the magic basis discussed by Hill and Wootters (1997 Phys. Rev. Lett. 78 5022) does not exist for entangled 2N-qubit states with N > 1, but magic partial bases, similar to those discussed recently by Prakash and Maurya (2011 Opt. Commun. 284 5024), do exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study amplitude-squared squeezing in interaction of coherent light with a nonlinear Kerr medium modelled as an anharmonic oscillator with interaction Hamiltonian H = ½ λ a+2a2, where λ is proportional to χ(3) of the nonlinear medium and a is annihilation operator for the interacting field. We find the squeezing parameter S ( τ, r) in terms of a dimensionless interaction time τ = λ t and Kerr parameter r, which is product of, τ and the average number of photons and obtain almost complete amplitude-squared squeezing (i.e., S ≈ 0) for very small interaction time and very large intensity of the interacting light. We optimize squeezing parameter S ( τ, r) by an analytic estimation assuming high intensity of the interacting light and realistic values of Kerr nonlinearity following J.Bajer et al. [Czech. J. Phy. 52, 1313 (2002)] and obtain a scaling law for optimal amplitude-squared squeezing with minimum value Smin, at r = rmin for a given τ. The validity of the scaling law is checked numerically and analytically in the region of realistic values of Kerr nonlinearity and intensity of the interacting light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear coupled differential equations for Stokes parameters for plane wave propagation of light in an isotropic medium having third-order nonlinearity are obtained in slowly varying envelope approximation and solved exactly for arbitrary linear and nonlinear losses. Numerical solution in general and analytic solutions in special cases exist. Vibration ellipse is seen to rotate and change in shape. Only plane and circular polarizations are stable and others change. This change is large when absorption is mainly nonlinear, and for purely nonlinear absorption, polarization tends asymptotically to either plane or circular. An example of analytic exact solution is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diabetes is a chronic medical condition with severe complications, mainly caused by unhealthy lifestyles in genetically susceptible individuals. There has been a growing interest in the role of mobile health technologies in achieving better self-efficacy in managing diabetes. This study attempts to assess the impact of a web-based model on improving the diabetes status among Type 2 diabetic patients attending a tertiary care hospital in southern India. Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted among patients with type 2 diabetes attending the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Mysuru, southern India, for 6 months. Diabetes Care (https://www.diabetescare. co.in/), which is an online website that can be used as a risk prediction tool for uncontrolled diabetes and recommends lifestyle changes, was used by 456 diabetes patients for 6 months. We assessed the change in glycosylated haemoglobin levels at the beginning and after 6 months of using the software. Results: The mean HbA1c value at the start of the study was 8.039% ± 1.981. The HbA1c value assessed after 6 months post-intervention showed an improvement of 7.794% ± 1.853 with a mean difference of 0.245. A paired T-test showed a statistically significant association with a P value of 0.049. Conclusions: Evidence from this study suggests that intervention using a webbased model focusing on risk prediction and educational intervention showed an improvement in the diabetic status of the patients with T2DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]