Refurbishing Pacemakers: A Viable Approach

Cardiologists implant permanent pacemakers widely for indications like sick sinus syndrome and complete heart block. The guidelines for such implantations are well established1. However, in developing countries like India, all patients who need pacemakers do not receive them because of financial constraints. Even when such patients get a pacemaker, it is often a more affordable VVI pacemaker rather than the costly DDD pacemaker. The lack of a health insurance scheme and improper social support programs prevent the more widespread implantation of appropriate pacemakers. However, in the developed countries and in affluent pockets of developing countries like India, the pacemaker implantation rates are quite high. Often permanent pacemakers are implanted in the very old and people with predicted brief longevities, due to medico-legal and other social reasons. There are quite a few instances when pacemakers are explanted within a year or even within a few months. This is often due to the unfortunate death of the patient due to unrelated causes. Such pacemakers have battery lives, which are near normal. These can be explanted from the dead patient after taking consent from the relatives and “refurbished” for use in another needy patient. Refurbishing involves proper re-sterilization, checking of battery life, pacing mode and other parameters and re-labelling with the current parameters including predicted battery life. These refurbished pacemakers are a suitable alternative for the financially ‘no option’ group of patients who otherwise would not afford a pacemaker. These can last nearly as long as the original pacemakers. Even pulse generators whose shelf lives have expired can also be resterilised and used gainfully for the economically deprived

Developing a Scale to Measure the Indigenous Wisdom Orientation of Rice Farmers

The traditional rice farmers had adopted various indigenous technologies in rice farming which in due course of time was forgotten after the advent of high yielding varieties that warranted excessive use of chemical inputs. Hence a study was designed to develop a scale to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of stakeholders in rice farming. The study was conducted in Palakkad district of Kerala. Fifty statements reflecting the indigenous wisdom orientation were generated. Likert’s method was employed in the scale construction and the final scale comprising 14 statements was standardized

E-Learning Initiatives in India

Abstract: emergence of world wide web has completely globalized the whole world into a global village business, entertainment, education, teaching, learning every field has achieved new dimensions and plays important role in the development of nation.one of the outcome of this is e learning. E-Learning is the extended form of traditional classroom teaching. The paper highlights concept, tools and initiatives taken by several and institutions and Library centers around the world and in India

Method of producing high T(subc) superconducting NBN films

Thin films of niobium nitride with high superconducting temperature (T sub c) of 15.7 K are deposited on substrates held at room temperature (approx 90 C) by heat sink throughout the sputtering process. Films deposited at P sub Ar 12.9 + or - 0.2 mTorr exhibit higher T sub c with increasing P sub N2,I with the highest T sub c achieved at P sub n2,I= 3.7 + or - 0.2 mTorr and total sputtering pressure P sub tot = 16.6 + or - 0.4. Further increase of N2 injection starts decreasing T sub c

Production and purification of biodiesel produced from used frying oilusing hydrodynamic cavitation

This work describes the biodiesel production from used frying oil using a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor as well as separation and purification of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). Under the optimized process conditions, i.e., methanol to oil molar ratio of 4.5:1 and catalyst (KOH) concentration of 0.55 wt%, the conversion achieved was 93.86 mol%. Higher conversion (93.6%) was obtained in only 20 min as compared to 88.5% in 1 h in stirred tank reactor. Due to the completion of transesterification reaction, the amount of intermediate diglycerides and monoglycerides present in the reaction mixture was less. It helps for the complete separation of methyl ester and glycerol layers without hindrance in 1 h. Small amount KOH catalyst used for completion of reaction reduces amount of KOH and soap in ester layer which further helps to form a less stable emulsion during water washing step. The complete separation was observed at 70 °C temperature in just 3 h. Thus, this study indicates that the increased production capacity can be achieved by shortening the time for the separation and purification

Work Participation in Cultural Operations of Rice Farming by Tribal and Non-Tribal Labourers in Wayanad district : A Comparative Analysis

Rice is a traditional staple food crop of India, having high cultural and ecological significance in the present global scenario. Tribal labourers in Wayanad district of Kerala had been the traditional labourers in rice farming. The consequent migration of non-tribals to Wayanad district of Kerala had been changed the demographic and cultural entity of the district. The present study was conducted in Wayanad district to compare the work participation between tribal and non- tribal labourers. Twenty tribal and non-tribal labourers were selected from each selected panchayats and a total of one hundred and twenty respondents were included in the study. A well-structured interview schedule was used for collecting the data from the respondents. The data were tabulated and inferences were drawn after appropriate statistical analysis. The results show that majority of the tribal labourers had high work participation than non-tribals. While comparing based on gender, female labourers had high work participation than male labourers both in the case of tribal and non-tribal labourers

The effects of long range residual stress, elastic follow-up and applied load on creep crack incubation and material toughness

Creep crack incubation of Type 316H stainless steel at 550 °C is explored in this article. Fracture mechanics specimens, subjected to combinations of residual and applied loads and in the presence of elastic follow-up, are tested. The design of two new test rigs is described. The rigs introduce planned levels of elastic follow-up together with combined residual and applied loading conditions to the specimens. A series of high-temperature elastic–plastic and elastic–plastic–creep experiments are undertaken to compare the experimentally determined values of elastic follow-up with the theoretical values. A further series of fracture mechanics tests are performed to measure creep crack incubation and material toughness for samples subjected to constant load and for tests under combined loading with elastic follow-up. It is demonstrated that for tests subjected to the same initial reference stresses, longer incubation times are attained for elastic follow-up tests compared to constant load tests. Also, combined loading tests exhibit longer creep crack incubation times based on the same measured material toughness obtained from constant load tests. This suggests that not all the available strain energy provided by combined loading to a specimen at high temperature contributes to creep crack incubation. </jats:p

Anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family proteins in acute neural injury.

Cells under stress activate cell survival and cell death signaling pathways. Cell death signaling frequently converges on mitochondria, a process that is controlled by the activities of pro- and anti-apoptotic B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) proteins. In this review, we summarize current knowledge on the control of neuronal survival, development and injury by anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family proteins. We discuss overlapping and differential effects of the individual family members BCL-2, BCL-extra long (BCL-XL), myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL-1), and BCL2-like 2 (BCL-W) in the control of survival during development and pathophysiological processes such as trophic factor withdrawal, ischemic injury, excitotoxicity, oxidative stress and energy stress. Finally we discuss recent evidence that several anti-apoptotic BCL-2 proteins influence mitochondrial bioenergetics and control neuronal Ca(2+) homeostasis independent of their classical role in cell death signaling