Wilsons disease and autoimmune liver disease overlap syndrome: a clinical study

Background: The coexistence of Wilson’s disease and autoimmune liver disease in a same patient is a rare entity. Combined treatment with steroid and D-penicillamine may be effective. Aim of the study was analyse the clinical, histological, laboratory profile for patients with chronic liver disease with aim of finding the etiology of the disease.Methods: It is an observational study. Common clinical presentations were evaluated. Laboratory investigations done include complete blood count, renal and liver function tests, prothrombin time, viral markers for hepatitis A, B, C and E, USG abdomen and pelvis, portal Doppler studies and upper GI endoscopy. Specific tests include ANA, AMA, ASMA, Anti LKM-1Ab, serum ceruloplasmin and 24hrs urinary copper were done. Liver biopsy was done in selected patients.Results: Commonest clinical presentation was abdominal distension (80%), abdominal pain (30%), pedal edema (60%), splenomegaly (40%) and upper GI bleed (40%). Laboratory investigation revealed anemia (50%), thrombocytopenia (70%), prothrombin time prolongation in (60%), normal liver function in 60%, abnormal liver function in (40%). Autoimmune markers revealed ANA strong positivity in (40%), mild positivity in (60%). AMA, ASMA, Anti-LKM-1 were negative in all cases (100%). Liver biopsy showed features of autoimmune liver disease and Periportal copper deposition in 80% of cases.Conclusions: Coexistence of Wilson’s disease and autoimmune liver disease is a rare entity and medical treatment with steroids and D-penicillamine simultaneously to be started in these patients

Soil organic carbon stock in natural and restored mangrove forests in Pichavaram south-east coast of India

801-808Mangrove ecosystem is one of the important coastal ecosystems providing ecological security of the coastal area and livelihood security to the coastal fishermen.  Besides it plays an important role in carbon sequestration as large amount of carbon is stored in the below ground biomass. The role of mangrove restoration in carbon stocking has not been studied comprehensively either globally or nationally. The aim of the present study is to quantify the soil organic carbon stock and carbon sequestration rate of the different age groups of restored and natural stands of Pichavaram mangroves forest. The soil organic carbon stock of the upper soil layer (0–90 cm) of six different sites from natural mangrove stands, 21years, 17 years, 16 years, 15 years and 12 years old stands were 146.1(Mg C ha-1), 99.29 (Mg C ha-1), 93.18 (Mg C ha-1), 57.41 (Mg C ha-1), 95.54 (Mg C ha-1) and 84.84 (Mg C ha-1), respectively. Carbon sequestration rate of Pichavaram mangrove forests ranged from 2.33 to 4.44 g C m-2 year-1. The result of the study reveals that soil organic carbon stock and burial rate were high in natural mangrove area than the restored areas. In this regard, restoration and rehabilitation of mangroves is required for preserving the ecologically important mangroves ecosystem to mitigate the impacts of climate change

Performance characteristics and commissioning of MOSFET as an in-vivo dosimeter for high energy photon external beam radiation therapy

AimIn vivo dosimetry is an essential tool of quality assurance programmes in radiotherapy. In fact, the assessment of the final uncertainty between the prescribed dose and the dose actually delivered to the patient is an effective way of checking the entire dosimetric procedure. Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) have recently been proposed for use in radiation therapy. The purpose of this work is to study the performance characteristics and to carry out the commissioning of MOSFET as an in-vivo dosimeter for high-energy photon external beam radiation therapy.Material and MethodsCharacterization and commissioning of low sensitivity TN502RD and high sensitivity TN1002RD MOSFETs for entrance and exit dosimetry respectively for application in in-vivo dosimetry in radiotherapy was carried out. The MOSFETs were characterized in terms of reproducibility, short-term constancy, long-term constancy, linearity, angular dependence, energy dependence, source to skin distance (SSD) dependence and field size dependence.ResultsThe reproducibility of standard sensitivity MOSFET is about 1.4% (1 SD) and 1.98% (1 SD) for high sensitivity detectors. The linearity of both MOSFETs was excellent (R2 = 0.996). The response of MOSFETs varies linearly for square fields from 3 × 3 cm2 to 30 × 30 cm2. For beam incidence ranging from ±45° the MOSFET response varies within ±3%. Commissioning of both MOSFETs was carried out in terms of entrance dose calibration factor, exit dose calibration factor, SSD correction factor, field size correction factor, wedge correction factor and shielding tray correction factor. The average calibration factor for low and high sensitivity MOSFET detectors is 0.9065 cGy/mV and 0.3412 cGy/mV respectively. The average SSD correction factors are quite small and vary between 0.968 and 1.027 for both types of detectors for the range of clinical SSDs from 80 cm to 120 cm. The field size correction factor varies from 1.00 to 1.02 for both types of detectors. The wedge and the shielding tray correction factors for both the detectors also show quite small variation. MOSFET characteristics are suitable for in vivo dosimetry of entrance and exit dose measurement relevant to 6 MV treatment.ConclusionIt can be concluded that MOSFET dosimetry's low energy dependence, high sensitivity and immediate readout make it a good replacement for TLD in radiation therapy dosimetry

ACT now: Aggregate Comparison of Traces for Incident Localization

Incidents in production systems are common and downtime is expensive.Applying an appropriate mitigating action quickly, such as changing a specificfirewall rule, reverting a change, or diverting traffic to a differentavailability zone, saves money. Incident localization is time-consuming since asingle failure can have many effects, extending far from the site of failure.Knowing how different system events relate to each other is necessary toquickly identify \emph{where} to mitigate. Our approach, Aggregate Comparisonof Traces (ACT), localizes incidents by comparing sets of traces (which captureevents and their relationships for individual requests) sampled from the mostrecent steady-state operation and during an incident. In our quantitativeexperiments, we show that ACT is able to effectively localize more than 99% ofincidents.<br