Herbicide and conservative tracer movement through the soil profile and to subsurface drains under no-till and chisel plow systems

Adoption of conservation tillage has increased the role of macropore flow on the transport of agricultural chemicals to groundwater. Therefore, it is important to understand the role of macropore flow in the transport of water through the vadose zone and to the shallow groundwater. Two field studies were conducted at Iowa State University\u27s Agricultural Research Center near Boone, Iowa, to determine the effect of two tillage practices (chisel plow and no-till) on the transport of herbicides and tracers, with applied water, through the soil profile and to the shallow groundwater. Two herbicides, atrazine [(6-chloro-N-ethyl-N-(1-methylethyl-1,3,5 triazine)-2-4-diamine] and alachlor [2-chloro-N-(2,6-diethylphenyl-N-(methoxymethyl) acetamide], and a variety of conservative tracers such as chloride (Cl--), bromide (Br--), pentafluorobenzoate (PFBA), o -trifluoromethylbenzoate (o-TFMBA), and 2,6-difluorobenzoate (2,6-DFBA) were applied on the cropland before and during irrigation events to investigate the effect of no-till and chisel plow systems on the movement of chemicals and water to shallow groundwater. Water samples were collected using suction lysimeters and continuous monitoring of subsurface drain flow during and after various irrigation events. Soil samples were collected before and after the irrigation events and were analyzed for various chemical concentrations. The results of the study showed that significant amount of herbicides and tracers were not found to be lost with subsurface drain flow under either tillage system. Also, it was found that macropore flow did not contribute significantly in the transport of solutes through the soil under chisel plow system, however, it contributed significantly under no-till system. Atrazine leaching losses were found to be higher than alachlor under chisel plow and no-till systems. First irrigation or simulated rainfall event immediately after chemical application resulted in higher peak concentrations of tracers and herbicides in the subsurface drain water under both tillage systems compared to subsequent irrigation events. The LEACHP model was also evaluated in predicting the chemical movement through the soil profile. The LEACHP, on the average, predicted the transport of water and solutes through the soil profile reasonably well. The LEACHP model could not accurately predict the effect of rainfall events on the subsurface drain flows, although predicted flow for the no-till system was closer to the observed values. Predicted chemical losses with subsurface drain flow were correlated to the amount of water drained as subsurface drain flow

A Study of Effective Factors Over Routing Protocols for MANET

A network which does not require any fixed pre-existing infrastructure and can be defined as a set of mobile nodes is called MANET. In MANET mobile nodes are communicating through wireless medium. In MANET all mobile nodes behaves as router and when required they takes part in discovery and maintenance of the route to the other node. One of the major challenges in designing a routing protocol for the MANET is to determine a packet route; a node needs to know at least about its neighbors. On the other hand in MANET wireless networks conditions changes frequently with time due to the mobile nodes thus routing becomes a challenging task. To serve this purposes various proactive, reactive and hybrid routing protocols are developed by researchers. Among all AODV, DSR, DYMO and ZRP are well known popular routing protocols and have been standardized by the IETF MANET WG. ZRP is a well known hybrid routing protocol. To understand its suitability we must understand its behavior under various real time conditions. This paper study some propagation model and fading model and also describes two main characteristic of wireless channel path loss and fading. This paper also focuses on some other important factors that affect the performance of MANET. These important factors are battery model, Radio Model, Queue model and Mobility model. Thus, the goal is to carry out a systematic performance comparison of ad-hoc routing protocols under these factors in terms of QoS metrics such as average end-to-end delay, throughput and average jitter

Evaluation of rapid immunochromatographic card test in comparison with IgM ELISA in diagnosis of dengue fever at a tertiary care hospital, South India

 Background: Dengue has emerged as a major public health concern throughout India because of the mortality and morbidity associated with it. It is the most common mosquito-borne viral disease of humans. Hence early and rapid laboratory diagnosis of dengue is crucial. This study aims to determine demographic, clinical and laboratory investigations of all the suspected cases of dengue fever and comparison of two commercial tests routinely useful in diagnosis of dengue fever. This study was conducted to determine seropositivity of dengue samples in patients suspected of dengue illness and to compare immunochromatographic card test (ICT) test and IgM ELISA test.Methods: A total of 702 serum samples from patients with suspected dengue infection were included and the study was undertaken at department of microbiology at a tertiary care hospital, Hyderabad from July to December 2021. All samples were subjected to rapid ICT and confirmed by dengue IgM-capture ELISA.Results: Out of 702 cases suspected of dengue, 85 (12%) samples were positive by IgM ELISA method. The most affected age group was 21-40 years with 55 cases (64.3%) were positive, followed by the age group 0f 0-20 years with 25% of the cases. Males were affected more than females with a percentage of 54% and 46% respectively. The highest number of suspected dengue patients admitted was in the month of September, i.e., 140 with 16 positive (14.81%) followed by August 122 samples (12.16%) and October 110 samples with 14 (11.03%) positive. The sensitivity and specificity of ICT was 95.5% and 100% when compared with IgM-ELISA.Conclusions: Dengue cases were more during August to November in the monsoon and post monsoon season which is useful to plan special preventive strategies. This study draws attention toward the male, young and adult age group. To conclude, in countries lacking infrastructure for the diagnostic labs especially in the rural and remote areas, the rapid dengue ICT tests can play a major role in diagnosis and in patient management of acute dengue infection. The rapid ICTs are very simple, easy to perform, and can be used as point of care tests. We suggest that the rapid ICT for dengue detection may be used in patients presenting with febrile illness

Hiv/Aids Treatment And Health-Related Quality Of Life: Patients’ Perspective And Impact Of Adverse Drug Reactions Among Hiv/Aids Patients

Advancements in antiretroviral treatment (ART) and shift of HIV as a chronic infection, presents challenges, including adverse drug reactions (ADRs) affecting adherence and retention to care as well as health related quality of life (HRQoL); thus evaluation of ADRs and measures of HRQoL is imperative to maximize the overall treatment outcomes. In addition, greater involvement of the patients in their medical care can benefit treatment outcomes, thus understanding patients’ knowledge and beliefs towards disease, treatment and related issues are essential elements in overall HIV care. The present study was carried out at Hospital Sungai Buloh. Four hundred and forty three Malaysian HIV/AIDS patients, using Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) for at least three months, participated in this study. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS®) version 18 and STATA IC® version 12. Qualitative methodology was used to explore patients’ perspectives on the disease, treatment and care with the help of a semi structured interview guide. A saturation point was reached after the 13th interview. All interviews were audio-recorded and subjected to a standard content analysis framework

Practice of pharmacy and language competency: delivery of an integrated cross-cultural care

Student pharmacists in countries where English is used for on-campus instruction but is not the national language may face difficulties when it comes to effectual communication with patients during experiential learning in clinical settings. Having effective communication skills is one of the traits of professionalism,1 and is not only one of the core competencies in becoming a better practicing pharmacist, but also an integral part of effective pharmaceutical care planning.2 Seemingly, on the view on cultural competency as one of the traits of professionalism in pharmacy education;3 most of the articles have mentioned the predestined importance of language and the knowledge of language as integral components to cultural competency.4-6 Some even have looked at cultural competency as a defense against healthcare disparities,4 as speaking the same language minimizes the possibilities of “otherizing” and stigmatization in the delivery of cross-cultural care

Impact of Brand Loyalty on Brand Extension

The key objective of this study is to explore the effects of different dimensions of brand loyalty towards the original brand on the evaluation of brand extensions. This was a primary research and questionnaire was distributed among 200 respondents and 183 were processed for analysis. The target respondents were the students of different universities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The scale was taken from the existing research (Hem and Iversen, 2003). SPSS was used to analyze the data. The result finds that there is positive and significant relationship between brand loyalty and brand extension. So on the bases of these results that all the hypotheses (H1, H2, H3, H4 and H5) are proved positively and significantly and affect the evaluation of brand extension. Keywords: Brand Loyalty, Brand Extension, original bran

Nephron sparing surgery for renal tumors-Comparison of off-clamp partial nephrectomy with hilar clamping

Background and objective: Open partial nephrectomy (PN) is still considered gold standard procedure for T1 localized renal tumors. Conventional technique involves clamping of the renal artery with or without vein however, renal ischemia produces a certain level of damage to the kidneys. This study aims to investigate potential effect of off-clamp vs. hilar clamping PN on renal function.Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent unilateral, open partial nephrectomy for renal tumors b/w January 2009 December 2016 at our institution. A total of 90 partial nephrectomies were performed of which 65 cases were eligible for analysis. Non clamping technique was used in 43 while clamp was applied in 22 patients. Variables studied were patients\u27 demographics, clinical variables, the laterality, tumors size and location, R.E.N.A.L nephrometry score, blood loss, tumor histology and surgical margins. Patients\u27 renal function (serum creatinine and eGFR) were determined pre-operatively, at 3 and 12 months follow up. Data was analyzed on SPSS v. 22.Results: Both the groups were comparable with regards to pre-operative renal function. Mean radiological size of tumor was 4.71±1.31 and 3.81±1.0 (0.003) in two groups respectively. Mean R.E.N.A.L nephrometry score was 6.1±1.5 in off-clamp group compared to 7.05 ± 1.7 in clamp group (p=0.04). No statistically significant difference was found in operative duration, blood loss, positive surgical margins and intra/ peri-operative complications. At three months and one year, renal function was better preserved in non-clamp group compared to clamp group (p=0.001 and 0.007 respectively).Conclusion: Off clamp open partial nephrectomy is safe and feasible option leading to less decline in renal function

A qualitative evaluation of patients understanding, expectations and experiences with HIV/AIDS treatment

Background: Treatment understanding and experiences are vital to determine HIV patients’ adherence and retention to care. Methods: In-depth patient interviews were audio-recorded, with a prior verbal and written consent and subjected to a thematic content analysis framework for data analysis. Results: Though majority of participants believed in Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) as the most effective way of treatment, they were greatly worried about its toxicities. Disease understanding and peer influence were regarded as the main reasons for treatment initiation; whereas, perceived side effects and lack of support system were among the main reasons associated with treatment delay. Almost all the patients experienced toxicities due to ARTs and viewed it negatively impacting their quality of life. Conclusion: It is vital for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) to be retained in care; hence, the provision of optimal care with greater support to overcome treatment challenges must be focused in any HIV program

Antifungal Treatment of Mucormycosis-Associated with COVID-19

Not Applicabl

Federating cloud systems for collaborative construction and engineering

The construction industry has undergone a transformation in the use of data to drive its processes and outcomes, especially with the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM). In particular, project collaboration in the construction industry can involve multiple stakeholders (architects, engineers, consultants) that exchange data at different project stages. Therefore, the use of Cloud computing in construction projects has continued to increase, primarily due to the ease of access, availability and scalability in data storage and analysis available through such platforms. Federation of cloud systems can provide greater flexibility in choosing a Cloud provider, enabling different members of the construction project to select a provider based on their cost to benefit requirements. When multiple construction disciplines collaborate online, the risk associated with project failure increases as the capability of a provider to deliver on the project cannot be assessed apriori. In such uncontrolled industrial environments, “trust” can be an efficacious mechanism for more informed decision making adaptive to the evolving nature of such multi-organisation dynamic collaborations in construction. This paper presents a trust based Cooperation Value Estimation (CoVE) approach to enable and sustain collaboration among disciplines in construction projects mainly focusing on data privacy, security and performance. The proposed approach is demonstrated with data and processes from a real highway bridge construction project describing the entire selection process of a cloud provider. The selection process uses the audit and assessment process of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and real world performance data from the construction industry workloads. Other application domains can also make use of this proposed approach by adapting it to their respective specifications. Experimental evaluation has shown that the proposed approach ensures on-time completion of projects and enhanced..