Thermal comfort in office buildings

The Department of Energy (DOE), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and other government agencies and professional associations which are interested in to the building industry have initiated policies and developed methods to reduce energy consumption in buildings. Policies and methods designed to reduce energy usage in buildings have had significant impacts on building performance characteristics and indoor air quality and environmental conditions. These include ventilation and space conditioning, temperature and humidity control, acoustics, occupant perception, worker productivity, and other related factors. An integrated protocol consisting of appropriate engineering measurements and related occupant surveys is developed and used in this study is used to survey the first five buildings in the United States. Performance parameters assessed experimentally in this thesis work include ventilation, temperature and humidity as well as numerical simulations using STAR-CD for temperature, air distribution and concentration profiles of contaminants in several arrangements of air distribution in a typical office space. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Rent-A-Car

In the current world, people are always seeking to decrease their workload by utilizing technology. They are all Travelling to get away from their worries. Using our application, we decreased the difficulty of car rental in our rent-a-car operation. The car owner posts information about the vehicle and how people can travel in it. Car owners oversee car availability. Renters can select the car they want to rent based on their preferences. The renter can see the model of the car and how much space it has. If a renter wants to book a car, they fill out a form and pay the car owner. We gave the option, renters and car owners should communicate with one another. After the trip, the renter can evaluate the vehicle. Our team members wish to construct the application utilizing the Model, View, Controller (MVC) framework in .Net core for the backend and HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, And JavaScript for the front end, with data saved in MS-SQL Server. Renter, Vehicle Owner, and Administrators use the rent-a-car system. Vehicle owners can post photographs of their vehicles along with vehicle information. Renters can reserve the car they require. The administrator is in management of the entire application

Mirrors in the PDB: left-handed α-turns guide design with D-amino acids

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Incorporating variable amino acid stereochemistry in molecular design has the potential to improve existing protein stability and create new topologies inaccessible to homochiral molecules. The Protein Data Bank has been a reliable, rich source of information on molecular interactions and their role in protein stability and structure. D-amino acids rarely occur naturally, making it difficult to infer general rules for how they would be tolerated in proteins through an analysis of existing protein structures. However, protein elements containing short left-handed turns and helices turn out to contain useful information. Molecular mechanisms used in proteins to stabilize left-handed elements by L-amino acids are structurally enantiomeric to potential synthetic strategies for stabilizing right-handed elements with D-amino acids.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Propensities for amino acids to occur in contiguous α_Lhelices correlate with published thermodynamic scales for incorporation of D-amino acids into α_Rhelices. Two backbone rules for terminating a left-handed helix are found: an α_Rconformation is disfavored at the amino terminus, and a β_Rconformation is disfavored at the carboxy terminus. Helix capping sidechain-backbone interactions are found which are unique to α_Lhelices including an elevated propensity for L-Asn, and L-Thr at the amino terminus and L-Gln, L-Thr and L-Ser at the carboxy terminus.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>By examining left-handed α-turns containing <smcaps>L</smcaps>-amino acids, new interaction motifs for incorporating <smcaps>D</smcaps>-amino acids into right-handed α-helices are identified. These will provide a basis for <it>de novo </it>design of novel heterochiral protein folds.</p

Role of nephrotoxic drugs in contrast-induced nephropathy

Background: Elevation of serum creatinine (SCr) more than 0.5 mg/dl or 25% or more of the baseline value in 3 days after contrast administration is considered as contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN). Contrast material (CM) used in the radiological studies like contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) and intravenous urogram (IVU) are nephrotoxic and their ability to cause renal damage is increased when other potential nephrotoxic drugs are given simultaneously. The present study aimed to demonstrate the effects of CM on patients who are on nephrotoxic drugs by studying the incidence of CIN in patients who are on nephrotoxic drugs and need a CECT or IVU (cases presenting with an emergency). The study compares the incidence of CIN in patients on nephrotoxic drugs with that in those not on nephrotoxic drugs and evaluates the importance of withdrawal of nephrotoxic drugs (3 days) in non-emergency contrast studies.Methods: The study population is divided into three groups. Group A consists of 40 cases undergoing emergency CECT or IVU, who are on nephrotoxic drugs. 40 cases undergoing CECT or IVU after 3 days of holding of nephrotoxic drugs are included in Group B. Group C consists of 40 cases undergoing CECT or IVU who are not on any nephrotoxic drugs. Patients with parenchymal renal disease, renal injury, and renal mass are excluded from the study. All cases having SCr <1.4 mg/dl are included in the study. SCr investigation is repeated 3 days after the contrast study.Results: The incidence of CIN is more in the patients who are on nephrotoxic drugs (15%) than in those who are not on nephrotoxic drugs (5%). There is no significant difference in the incidence of CIN between Groups B and C. p=0.045 between Groups A and B was noted showing the significance of waiting period in reducing the incidence of CIN.Conclusions: The incidence of CIN is more in patients who underwent contrast studies without stopping nephrotoxic drugs and stoppage of nephrotoxic drugs for 3 days prior to the procedure is beneficial by reducing the incidence of CIN among them

Nutritional assessment of school children and adolescents: Pokhara city in Western Nepal

Introduction: Nutritional assessment of school children and adolescent is one of the most cost-effective ways of keeping track of overall wellbeing of children in the society. The objective of this study was to find out the nutritional status of school children and adolescent of Pokhara city using anthropometric indicators. &nbsp;Method: A total of 1160 students from the schools across the Pokhara city, Nepal, were enrolled in this study. Anthropometric measurements, height and weight, mean height and weight for age, and BMI for age were estimated. Undernutrition and obesity were defined as per the 2007 WHO growth reference data. Association among the variables were determined by applying statistical tests: t-test and Anova. &nbsp;Result: Growth curve of weight and BMI for age were above 15th percentile and height for age were between 3rd and 15th percentile, in both, boys and girls. The proportion of stunted and underweight students were 26.29% (boys 51% and girls 41%) and 24.65% (boys 53% and girls 47%) respectively. The proportion of thin, severely thin, overweight and obese were 3.53%, 5.03%, 12.49% and 8.96% respectively. Father’s occupation and education, mother’s occupation, school type, number of siblings were statistically associated with mean BMI and height. &nbsp;Conclusion: Stunted and underweight were seen in a quarter of students, as well overweight and obesity in less than 10% of school children surveyed

Impact of teaching session on concepts of palliative care in medical undergraduates

Background: The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of teaching session on concepts of palliative care and pain management among medical undergraduate students in a tertiary care hospital.Methods: The study was conducted in tertiary care teaching hospital among undergraduates. 152 medical students were enrolled. Pre-session questionnaire was distributed to the students and the response was obtained. This was followed by an educational lecture with power point presentation for 45 minutes and post-lecture response to the questionnaire was perceived. With comments, a qualitative mathematic analysis was carried out.Results: With response of 90% the attitude of students regarding incurable terminal illness did not change due to educational training. Comparison of knowledge and attitude in precession and post session in 4th year undergraduates was higher (p value <0.001 & <0.0001) in comparison to 2nd year undergraduates (P value <0.0002 & < 0.0005). Post session mean assessment also showed slight increase for 4th year (45.6 & 87.4) when compared with 2nd year students (42.8 & 82.12).Conclusions: Concept of palliative care was poor among medical undergraduates. Health care providers can overcome by knowledge construction, interrelation between practice and evidence based medicine