Noise Pollution and Its Impact on Health

This paper aims at noise levels prediction at different locations inside the steel fabrication  industry by some noise parameters i.e. equivalent  noise levels, distance from sources at which a change in sound field occurs, intensity of sound, sound energy density & true sound level of different sources. Impact of industrial noise pollution on the health of workers by their personal interviews and the effect of industrial noise exposure on hearing capacity of workers by their clinical and audiometric examination

Audit of buying patterns of drugs from various pharmacies in Northern India

A study was conducted to gather data regarding drug buying practices in Delhi to compare the same in rural pharmacies in surrounding area. A cross sectional study was conducted as exit interviews using pretested Performa with customers visiting randomly selected pharmacies of Delhi and rural Haryana. Out of 280 consumers interviewed 140 belonged to urban areas and 140 to rural areas. In both areas male and younger consumers are significantly high. Most consumers in both set ups took medication after physician’s prescription in comparison to self medication. Source of information for self medication was media in urban and friends in rural areas. Alteration in brand name was more in rural areas. Antimicrobials and NSAIDs in rural areas and drugs for cardiovascular diseases and oral hypoglycemic drugs in urban areas are major purchased drug groups

Tailoring the Optical Properties of Polymers Blend Nanocomposites

The presented work deals with the structural and optical properties of chemically synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles filled PC/PS blend nanocomposites. A series of PC/PS (100/0, 50/50, 0/100 wt%/wt %) -TiO2 (1, 2, 3 wt %) blend nanocomposites have been prepared by solution casting method. Prepared blend nanocomposites have been subjected to XRD, SEM and FTIR for structural analysis. Optical constants have been analyzed using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The XRD, SEM and FTIR spectrum confirms the formation of PC/PS-TiO2 blend nanocomposites. Results reveal the decrease in band gap and enhancement in optical constants like, extinction coefficient, refractive index and dielectric constants of blend nanocomposites with nanofiller TiO2 content

A framework for multi-modal input in a pervasive computing environment

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-53).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.In this thesis, we propose a framework that uses multiple-domains and multi-modal techniques to disambiguate a variety of natural human input modes. This system is based on the input needs of pervasive computing users. The work extends the Galaxy architecture developed by the Spoken Language Systems group at MIT. Just as speech recognition disambiguates an input wave form by using a grammar to find the best matching phrase, we use the same mechanism to disambiguate other input forms, T9 in particular. A skeleton version of the framework was implemented to show this framework is possible and to explore some of the issues that might arise. The system currently works for both T9 and Speech modes. The framework also includes potential for any other type of input for which a recognizer can be built such as graffiti input.by Shalini Agarwal.M.Eng

A Questionnaire Based Study of Self-Medication Practices among Young Population

ABSTRACT Usage of medicines without a doctor's prescription is common in developing countries. The adverse consequences of such practices should always be emphasized to the community and steps to curb it considered. The pr esent study is based on a questionnaire and was done amongst the college students in Northern India. About 180 students responded to the questionnaires, which were collected with the help of medical students. The information on drugs used for self-medication, reasons for self-medication, source of medication, and the adverse effec ts associated in the one year period preceding the study were collected. The respondents wer e aged between 18 to 35 years. 135 (75%) of the respondents had taken some form of self-medication in the one year period preceding the study. The common reasons given for self-medication were mild illness, previous experience of treating similar illness, and unable to pay doctor's fees and bear the expenses on treatment, busy schedule, non availability of doctors in the villages. Advertisements in the newspaper, television, radio and magazines were the sources of information for 34.81%, followed by chemist shops (29.63%), but the main source of information about drugs used in self-medication was the prior illness experi ence in 48% respondents. The commonest drug used was paracetamol in 85 respondents (62.96%) followed by analgesics in 56 (41.48%). Fever was the most common indication for self-medication accounting for 50% of the illnesses requiring self-medication. Self-medication was found to be more in > 25 years age respondents. The adverse consequences of such practices were seen in 28.15% respondents. The most common adverse consequence was aggravation of the previous illness in 39.5%, skin allergies in 28.95% and gastrointestinal trouble in 18.42%

Cytological spectrum of granulomatous mastitis: diagnostic and treatment challenges

Background: Granulomatous mastitis (GM) is an inflammatory disease of the breast which clinico- radiologically mimics both inflammatory and malignant lesions. This leads to diagnostic dilemmas and delay in treatment. The aim of the present study was to review the cases diagnosed as granulomatous mastitis on Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) with an objective to co-relate their clinico-radiological findings, histology review where available and follow up treatment received to establish etiology and study the treatment outcome.Methods: Cytologically diagnosed cases of granulomatous mastitis were retrieved and reviewed from August 2015 - July 2017 records. Clinico-radiological co-relation, histology review where available and follow up treatment records were sought for.Results: Around 31.7% (530/1670) cases were reported as malignant, 60.3% (1009/1670) as benign proliferative and 7.9% (131/1670) as inflammatory lesions by breast FNA. 3.1% (51/1670) cases were reported as GM of all breast FNAC and 38% (51/131) of all inflammatory lesions. Follow up was available for 47 cases. Of which 26 (55.3%) cases were diagnosed as Tubercular Granulomatous mastitis (TGM) and 21(44.7%) were idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM).Conclusions: Countries where tuberculosis is endemic, high degree of clinical suspicion and detailed work-up to rule out TGM is essential for all cases of granulomatous mastitis. Authors recommend a multidisciplinary workup with microbiological culture and molecular based tests on FNA material. This retrospective study illustrates that the cause of GM needs to be determined accurately for timely treatment, to avoid unnecessary delays and treatment dilemma in these patients

Synthesis and Crystallization Studies of Thermo-plastic Polyster/Titania Nanocomposites

The present work reports the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of PET-TiO2 nanocomposites. The average particle size of TiO2 nanoparticles, prepared by chemical route, has been calculated 32 nm using Debay-Scherrer’s formula in XRD peaks. PET-TiO2 nanocomposites have been synthesized using solution casting method. The investigation of non-isothermal crystallization behavior has been conducted by means of Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). The crystallization temperature shift to lower temperature for both PET pristine and PET-TiO2 nanocomposites due to decrease in mobility of chain segments and heterogeneous nucleation. Also, the inclusion of TiO2 nanoparticles may accelerate nucleation rate in nanocomposites that causes the crystallization time and absolute crystallinity fraction. The thermal conductivity of inorganic filler TiO2 nanoparticles may affect the crystallization temperature

Estimation and comparison of thrombocyte count by peripheral blood smear method and automated method in women with pregnancy

Background: Thrombocyte is important and very essential component of blood and have significant role in maintenance of hemostasis. Thrombocyte count is an important investigation done in various acquired and congenital coagulable states which include conditions like pregnancy. Thrombocyte count is routinely done by automated hematology analyzer method. The automated hematology analyzer counters are not usually available at all centres especially in peripheral and rural side though thrombocytes can also be assessed from the peripheral blood smears, which can be easily and precisely done at any set up. Aim and objective of this study was to compare the thrombocyte estimation by peripheral blood smear method and automated hematology analyzer in pregnant women.Methods: Thrombocyte estimation was done from samples taken from 120 normal pregnant women between December 2018 to March 2019, where samples were Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic acid (EDTA) anticoagulated. Thrombocyte was counted manually using PBS (Leishman stain) and hematology analyzer (Sysmex XN1000 series). Thrombocyte counts were expressed in Mean and standard Deviation. Statistical analysis was done by student’s t test using MS excel and SPSS version 17.Results: Thrombocyte count by PBS have mean value of 2.04 lacs/mm3 with standard deviation of 0.56 lacs/mm3 and by automated method have mean value of 1.89 lacs/mm3 and standard deviation of 0.71 lacs/mm3 with p value 0.010. Thus, there was no statistically significant difference found between two methods.Conclusions: Estimation of thrombocyte count on the basis of manual thrombocyte count is a reliable technique and can be used to validate automated thrombocyte counts. It can also be used in under resourced laboratories, where there are no automated counters of good precision available. In fact, all the tests showing abnormal thrombocyte counts must be reported only after cross examining on PBS