Medical evacuation on high seas

A previously healthy Indian male seafarer aged 34 years, presented with vague perianal symptoms to the Master on a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) in the Pacific Ocean. Over a few days, his condition deteriorated, and the company’s medical consultant ashore, based on telephonic consultation, transmitted information and photos, diagnosed the condition as a life threatening case of Fournier’s gangrene. The ship was then almost 1140 nm from the port. The consultant instructed the Master to intensify antibiotic treatment and started necessary procedures for an urgent complex medevac. Arranged by the United States Coast Guard, it involved deployment of two helicopters, two fixed wing aircrafts and an air tanker. Helicopters needed to be refuelled mid-air to increase their range of operations. Rendezvous point was 478 nm from Santa Barbara, California. 3½ hours after lift off from the vessel, the helicopter landed at Santa Barbara airport and the patient was transported to hospital. State-of-the-art treatment ashore preserved both testicles and after long term recovery the seafarer was again fit for ship duty

Secure Data Deduplication on Hybrid Cloud Storage Architecture

Data deduplication is one of the most important Data compression techniques used for to removing the identical copies of repeating data and it is used in the cloud storage for the purpose of reduce the storage space as well as save bandwidth. To retain the confidentiality of sensitive data while supporting the deduplication, to encrypt the data before outsourcing convergent encryption technique has been proposed . This project makes the first attempt to formally address the problem of authorized data deduplication giving better protect data security, Different from the traditional deduplication system, distinctive benefits of the user are further considered the duplicate check besides the data itself. Hybrid cloud architecture having various new deduplication constructions supporting authorized duplicate check. The proposed security models contain the illustration of security analysis scheme. As a proof of concept, contains the implementation framework of proposed authorized duplicate check scheme and conduct experiments using these prototype. In proposed system contain authorized duplicate check scheme sustain minimal overhead compared to normal operations. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15059

APPLICATION OF NOVEL NATURAL POLYMER FOR CONTROLLING THE RELEASE OF FENOVERINE FROM CONTROLLED RELEASE MATRIX TABLETS

Objective: To explore a novel natural polymer, pullulan for controlling the release of fenoverine from matrix tablets and to elucidate the release kinetics of fenoverine from pullulan and HPMC matrices.Methods: In this study we formulated monolithic matrix tablets containing of fenoverine as controlled-release tablets by direct compression using pullulan, HPMC (Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose) K4M and HPMC K100M polymers and evaluated for hardness, thickness, friability, weight variation drug content, in vitro drug release characteristics and FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) and DSC (Differential scanning calorimetry) study.Results: All the formulations showed compliance with pharmacopoeial standards. FTIR and DSC study indicated the absence of interaction between fenoverine and excipients. The formulation was optimized on the basis of acceptable tablet properties and in vitro drug release. The results of dissolution studies indicated that the formulation F5 [drug to polymer 1: 0.35] exhibited highest % cumulative drug release of 96.82±0.75 % at the end of 12 h. Optimised batch F5 showed super case II transport mechanism and followed zero order release kinetics. Short-term stability studies of the optimized formulation indicated that there were no significant changes observed in hardness, drug content and in vitro dissolution studies at the end of three months period. Similarity factor f2 was found to be 89, which indicated similar dissolution profiles before and after stability study.Conclusion: Based on above results we conclude that pullulan can be used as a polymer for retarding the release of drug from matrix formulations.Keywords: Pullulan, Fenoverine, Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, Controlled release, In vitr

Exchange bias phenomenology and models of core/shell nanoparticles

Some of the main experimental observations related to the occurrence of exchange bias in magnetic systems are reviewed, focusing the attention on the peculiar phenomenology associated to nanoparticles with core/shell structure as compared to thin film bilayers. The main open questions posed by the experimental observations are presented and contrasted to existing theories and models for exchange bias formulated up to date. We also present results of simulations based on a simple model of a core/shell nanoparticle in which the values of microscopic parameters such as anisotropy and exchange constants can be tuned in the core, shell and at the interfacial regions, offering new insight on the microscopic origin of the experimental phenomenology. A detailed study of the of the magnetic order of the interfacial spins shows compelling evidence that most of the experimentally observed effects can be qualitatively accounted within the context of this model and allows also to quantify the magnitude of the loop shifts with striking agreement with the macroscopic observed values.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. Review article, submitted to J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. (special Issue on Nanomagnetism), invited contribution. Suggestions and comments are welcome. A copy with higher resolution of Fig. 7 may be obtained at this web site: http://hermes.ffn.ub.es/oscar/Articles.htm

Rescue of a saturation diver, unconscious due to an explosion underwater

Evolution of “safe diving practices” introduced by the diving industry and regulatory authorities in the North Sea over the past 3 or 4 decades has improved the safety records of oilfield commercial diving considerably. However, accidents still occur. In an accident occurring underwater, the outcome is often fatal. For a diving doctor providing emergency medical advice to the industry, when a diving superintendent calls to say “I have a problem” indicates an emergency and a life and death situation for a diver in water. Making a quick decision after comprehending the situations is important to tackle the problem

Deaths due to hydrogen sulphide on a jack up rig at Bombay High: an avoidable accident

An enclosed space is an area with poor or no natural ventilation which is not designed for continuousoccupancy, where access is limited and which may contain a dangerous atmosphere. Enclosed spaceatmospheres can be hazardous due to one or a combination of the conditions which includes oxygendeficiency; presence of toxic and/or flammable gases. When it is intended that personnel should enter orwork in an enclosed space, care should be taken to create and maintain safe working conditions.The case report describes an incident on board an oil rig where the rig workers were exposed to noxiousgases resulting in multiple fatalities. Work involved gas sampling/monitoring at various locations insidethe “spud tanks” of the rig and certifying it free of noxious gases for marine surveyor’s inspection.Contributory factors that have been frequently identified following enclosed space accident investigationsare non-compliance with procedures, inappropriate equipment, poor supervision, complacency and overfamiliarity leading to short cuts being taken, detection and monitoring equipment not used or not workingproperly and improper action in an emergency. Preventive measures to avoid such accidents and createa safe working area are discussed

Anaesthetic management of a patient with multiple system atrophy

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rare adult-onset neurodegenerative disease. Symptoms vary from autonomic dysfunction to Parkinsonism and cerebellar ataxia, in any combination. MSA affects many organ systems with many possible complications and makes perioperative management of a patient with this condition very challenging. Successful management of a patient with MSA posted for laparoscopic nephrectomy under general anaesthesia is reported.Keywords: laparoscopy, multiple system atrophy, Parkinsonis

Rheological Behavior of Aqueous Suspensions of Laponite: New Insights into the Ageing Phenomena

In this paper, ageing behavior of suspensions of laponite with varying salt concentration is investigated using rheological tools. It is observed that the ageing is accompanied by an increase in the complex viscosity. The succeeding creep experiments performed at various ages showed damped oscillations in the strain. The characteristic time-scale of the damped oscillations, retardation time, showed a prominent decrease with the age of the system. However, this dependence weakens with an increase in the salt concentration, which is known to change microstructure of the system from glass-like to gel-like. We postulate that a decrease in the retardation time can be represented as a decrease in the viscosity (friction) of the dissipative environment surrounding the arrested entities that opposes elastic deformation of the system. We believe that ageing in colloidal glass leads to a greater ordering that enhances relative spacing between the constituents thereby reducing the frictional resistance. However, since a gel state is inherently different in structure (fractal network) than that of a glass (disordered), ageing in the same does not induce ordering. Consequently, we observe inverse dependence of retardation time on age becoming weaker with an increase in the salt concentration. We analyze these results from a perspective of ageing dynamics of both glass state and gel state of laponite suspensions.Comment: 27 Pages, 12 figure