A Retrospect on Robotic Telepresence

Determination of response times of the communicating distributed processes is presented as a fundamental problem i n time - critical applications. A lot of research has been done on the analysis of communication protocols. Todays distributed real ti me systems grow more and more complex. Telecommunication has introduced RTC (real time communication) as a method of informa tion exchange with a negligible latency. A fundamental requirement of all real time systems is that all the tasks should have a deadline to estimate their worst execution times (WET) reliably. Real time communications may include telephony, amateur radio, instant messaging (IM), voice over internet protocol (VoIP), live video conference communications, live teleconference communications and robotic telepresence. In this paper, we are going to discuss the applications of robotic telepresence whereby an agent acts as a surrogate for a remote user

Evaluation of efficacy of bupivacaine and bupivacaine plus clonidine in transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block for postoperative analgesia: a prospective, randomized, double blind, comparative study

Background: Pain is the commonest symptom encountered postoperatively and hence multimodal analgesia is tried to overcome it. In this study, we have compared bupivacaine and bupivacaine plus clonidine in transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block for postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing lower abdominal surgeries under spinal anaesthesia.Methods: Sixty ASA I and II patients in the age range of 18-60 years undergoing various lower abdominal surgeries were randomly divided into two groups, who were operated after giving spinal block using 2.5 ml of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacine and 25ug of fentanyl. At the end of surgical procedure tranversus abdominis plane (TAP) block was given by giving 25 ml of injection bupivacaine 0.25% in group I and 25 ml of 0.25% of bupivacaine with 1 ug.kg-1 of clonidine in group II. Quality of analgesia was assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS), categorical pain scoring system and frequency of rescue analgesia given and duration was assessed with the time at which first rescue analgesia was given. Side effects of clonidine such as sedation, bradycardia and hypotension were also noted. The hemodynamic parameters like heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were noted for both the groups.Results: Demographic characteristics like age, weight, sex, ASA class and type of surgeries were comparable in both groups. SBP, DBP and HR were less in group II than in group I and was statistically significant (p-value<0.05). The overall mean VAS score in group I was 3.03 ± 1.57 and group II was 1.72 ± 1.02 with p-value of 0.0005 and hence better quality of analgesia in group II. Categorical pain scoring system also showed statistically better scores in group II than group I. The duration of analgesia which was calculated by mean time for first rescue analgesia in group I was 6.38 ± 2.56 hours and group II was 14.23 ± 4.63 hours with a p-value of <0.0001 and the difference was statistically significant. The mean number of doses of rescue analgesia in group I for the first 24 hours was 1.37 ± 0.89 and in group II was 0.60 ± 0.62 with a p-value of 0.0003 and the difference was statistically significant. Group II patients showed more sedation scores than group I patients (p-value <0.05). None of the patients had any episode of bradycardia or hypotension.Conclusions: Addition of clonidine 1 ug.kg-1 to 25 ml of 0.25% bupivacaine compared to 25 ml of 0.25% bupivacaine alone in tranverse abdominis plane (TAP) block improves quality of analgesia, increases duration of postoperative analgesia and decreases postoperative analgesic requirements with minimal side effects

A prospective, randomized, double blind study to evaluate and compare the efficacy of lidocaine, ramosetron and tramadol pre-medication, in attenuating the pain caused due to propofol injection

Background: Propofol is a popular induction agent, especially for short cases, day care surgeries and when a laryngeal mask is to be used. It produces a good quality of anaesthesia and rapid recovery. Pain on injection of propofol has been reported and is an important limitation of its use. A multitude of interventions: pharmacological as well as non-pharmacological, have been tried for the attenuation of pain caused due to propofol injection. In our study, we evaluated and compared the efficacy of lidocaine, ramosetron and tramadol in attenuating pain on propofol injection.Methods: A total of 180 patients belonging to American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade I and II,  of either sex, aged between 21 to 50 years undergoing elective surgery under general anaesthesia, were taken up for the study and were divided into group A, B and C. Group A received 2ml of 2% (40mg) lidocaine, Group B received 2ml of ramosetron (0.3mg) and Group C received 1mg/kg of tramadol in 0.9% normal saline to make a total solution of 2ml. Venous occlusion was done by compressing forearm with tourniquet to increase the local concentration of drug after establishing an intravenous access. The study drug was injected over 10 seconds and then occlusion was removed after 60 seconds, followed by giving 25% of the total calculated dose (2.5mg/kg) of propofol (1% w/v in lipid base) injected over 20 seconds. This was followed by asking the patient about the severity of pain felt. The intensity of pain was graded using verbal rating scale (McCrirrick and Hunter) and was assessed at 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 seconds, as after 20 seconds, the patient would be under the influence of propofol.Results: Lidocaine showed the best efficacy in attenuating propofol injection pain amongst the 3 groups recorded at 5 (95%), 10 (91.7%) and 15 seconds (98.3%). In addition to reducing the incidence of pain, it also reduced its severity, with majority of patients experiencing only mild pain. Ramosetron ranked 2nd in the overall reduction of propofol pain, with lowest incidence of propofol pain amongst 3 groups, recorded at 0 (98.3%) and 20 seconds (95%) of propofol injection. However, ramosetron failed in reducing severity of pain, with a significant number of patients experiencing moderate and severe pain. Tramadol ranked 3rd in the overall attenuation of propofol pain and showed lowest incidence of pain at 0 seconds (93%) of propofol injection.Conclusions: All the three study drugs viz lidocaine, ramosetron and tramadol cause a significant decrease in propofol injection pain with lidocaine as the most efficacious drug amongst the 3 drugs followed by ramosetron and tramadol. Lidocaine has an added advantage of decreasing incidence and severity of pain associated with propofol and ramosetron prevents postoperative nausea and vomiting

Blockchain-Enhanced Sensor-as-a-Service (SEaaS) in IoT: Leveraging Blockchain for Efficient and Secure Sensing Data Transactions

As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to revolutionize value-added services, its conventional architecture exhibits persistent scalability and security vulnerabilities, jeopardizing the trustworthiness of IoT-based services. These architectural limitations hinder the IoT’s Sensor-as-a-Service (SEaaS) model, which enables the commercial transmission of sensed data through cloud platforms. This study proposes an innovative computational framework that integrates decentralized blockchain technology into the IoT architectural design, specifically enhancing SEaaS efficiency. This research contributes to an optimized IoT architecture with decentralized blockchain operations and simplified public key encryption. Furthermore, this study introduces an advanced SEaaS model featuring innovative trading operations for sensed data among diverse stakeholders. At its core, this model presents a unique blockchain-based data-sharing mechanism that manages multiple aspects, from enrollment to validation. Evaluations conducted in a standard Python environment indicate that the proposed SEaaS model outperforms existing blockchain-based data-sharing models, demonstrating approximately 40% less energy consumption, 18% increased throughput, 16% reduced latency, and a 25% reduction in algorithm processing time. Ultimately, integrating a lightweight authentication mechanism using simplified public key cryptography within the blockchain establishes the model’s potential for efficient and secure data-sharing in IoT