Management of Flexor Tendon Injuries in Hand

Peculiar anatomy of human hand with flexing fingers and opposing thumb give human beings clear edge over other existing living beings. We use hands for carrying out most of our daily activities. But at the same time this makes our hands vulnerable for getting traumatized. Hand injuries which involve underlying tendons make digits dysfunctional, which in turn affects overall precise functioning of hand. In this chapter we will briefly discuss related surgical anatomy of flexor tendons and associated structures, features of flexor tendon injuries at different zonal levels, surgical methods involved and different post-operative protocols used for management of these flexor tendon injuries

Driver Fatigue Detection using Mean Intensity, SVM, and SIFT

Driver fatigue is one of the major causes of accidents. This has increased the need for driver fatigue detection mechanism in the vehicles to reduce human and vehicle loss during accidents. In the proposed scheme, we capture videos from a camera mounted inside the vehicle. From the captured video, we localize the eyes using Viola-Jones algorithm. Once the eyes have been localized, they are classified as open or closed using three different techniques namely mean intensity, SVM, and SIFT. If eyes are found closed for a considerable amount of time, it indicates fatigue and consequently an alarm is generated to alert the driver. Our experiments show that SIFT outperforms both mean intensity and SVM, achieving an average accuracy of 97.45% on a dataset of five videos, each having a length of two minutes

Antioxidant activity influenced by in vivo and in vitro mutagenesis in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.)

The antioxidant potential (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPHº)-scavenging activity) of in vitro regenerated and induced mutant sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) was investigated. Efficient callus induction and shoot regeneration were induced in bud explants when incubated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different plant growth regulators (PGRs). Best callogenesis was observed on MS-medium supplemented with 3 mg L-1 2,4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4 D) and on ½ MS medium with 2 mg L-1 2,4 D after 30-days of culture. Almost 85% shoot organogenesis was observed on MS-medium supplemented with 2 mg L-1 6-benzyladenine (BA) and 0.5 mg L-1 gibberellic acid (GA3) within 30 days. Optimum percentage rooting (89%), were obtained for 2 mg L-1 of BA alone. Mother plant setts were irradiated with 60Co mutagen source. Assay of antioxidant activity of in vitro and in vivo grown tissues was evaluated as gross parameter of medicinal efficacy. Significantly higher antioxidant activity (60%) in in vitro regenerated sugarcane was observed as compared to induced mutant (57%) and mother plant (53%).Key words: Saccharum officinarum, in vitro regeneration, induced mutation, antioxidant

Efficacy of Percutaneous Sclerotherapy in Low Flow Venous Malformations - A Single Center Series

Purpose We analyzed results of percutaneous sclerotherapy for venous malformations (VMs) in head, neck and extremities. Materials and Methods Thirty-five patients with head and neck and extremities VM treated by sclerotherapy with bleomycin and sodium tetradecyl sulphate (STS) were retrospectively reviewed. A pre-treatment magnetic resonance imaging was done for all patients to diagnose the lesion. Each lesion received 1 to 11 sessions (average, 2.7; standard deviation [SD], 2.03). We evaluated percentage reduction in swelling size and a Likert scale review of subjective feelings of the patients. Results Sixteen had a complete obliteration; by sclerotherapy alone (n=13) and surgery after a 75% reduction (n=3). Ten patients had a significant reduction up to 75% and three patients by 50%. Four had a minimal decrease with reduction of 25% or less. Follow-up duration of the patients varied from a minimum of 6 months up to 3 years (average, 15.7 months; SD, 7.8 months). Of all patients, three refused further treatment and were lost to follow-up, while another two were referred to a dermatologist. Thirteen patients reported feeling excellent after the sessions. Eight patients claimed to feel slightly better compared to before the sessions started. Only three patients complained of feeling the same before and after the sessions. None of the patients still in follow-up have reported a recurrence of a lesion thus far. Conclusion Sclerotherapy using bleomycin and STS as sclerosants is a safe and effective primary treatment for VMs in the head and neck as well as in extremities

Bayesian Analysis of Generalized Exponential Distribution

Bayesian estimators of unknown parameters of a two parameter generalized exponential distribution are obtained based on non-informative priors using different loss functions

Oil Recovery from Petroleum Sludge by Solvent Extraction Method

Industries developed during the last decades and the importance of oil is increasing. Petroleum is one of the most valuable non-renewable sources and it also, has the biggest effects on the environments after coal. Crude oil became the goal of many countries in order to increase their economies income, despite the outcome that has towards the environment. The crude oil that passes through the refinery process produces a large amount of waste, which is call petroleum sludge. The sludge has countless disadvantage that cause environmental hazards due to its remediation effects. In addition, it is very valuable energy and it can be recovered. So the companies used several methods in order to use this source and get benefit from it. One of the methods is the solvent extraction method and overall, this method can decrease the effect of the petroleum sludge on the environment but not that much. However, it can recover the waste and turn it to useful energy. The recovery can be done by different steps. The first step is making chemical compositions before using the instruments. Second step is to use the centrifuge machine which will separate the sludge and recover it into oil, sludge sediment and water. The third part is to use the residual carbon machine which will measure the solidcontent inside the sludge and it will help us to find the violate and non-violate hydrocarbons. Finally using the GC which is gas chromatography that checks the quality of the petrol and also the composition substance.

Designing a Customer Retention Framework for Telecommunication Sector

Abstract: Telecommunication sector has grown over last decade while transforming behavioral intentions. New entrants are exploring these behavioral intentions to attract more customers. The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of customer satisfaction in telecom industry on service quality, brand image and customer retention relationship. Furthermore, it identifies the key determinants of customer retention related to telecom service providers. A fully structured questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from 310 mobile users. Non-probability sampling technique was adopted for data collection. Regression analysis and Sobel test technique were practiced to analyze the data. The result showed that customer satisfaction mediates the relationship between service quality, brand image and customer retention. Moreover, this study found that service quality, brand image and customer satisfaction are the strongest predictors of customer retention in telecom industry of Pakistan. Therefore, to gain customer loyalty, organizations should focus current-users and target-users by providing sterling service qualit

Pharmacognostic Studies of Some Indigenous Medicinal Plants of Pakistan

Medicinal plants constitute an effective source of traditional and modern medicines. The plant is a biosynthetic laboratory, not only for chemical compounds but also a multitude of the compounds. The present research work was confined to study the macro, microscopic features and analysis of powdered drug of Acacia modesta Wall., Acacia nilotica (L.) Delile, Berberis lycium Royle and Zanthoxylum alatum D. C. Prod. These studies were carried out in Botany laboratory of University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi during 2004. These species are used as miswak (tooth brush) by local people of Pakistan in different areas. Anatomical features such as, fibres, parenchyma cells, vessels and pith were identified during microscopic studies. Powdered miswak of Acacia modesta Wall., Berberis lycium Royle and Zanthoxylum alatum D. C. Prod. were soluble in sulphuric acid only while insoluble in other solvents i.e., hydrochloric acid, acetic acid, benzene and water. Powdered miswak of Acacia nilotica was insoluble in these solvents. Powdered drug of these species did not retain their original colour in cold and hot tests and on dry filter paper, when mixed in various solvents