Computational studies of light acceptance and propagation in straight and curved multimodal active fibres

A Monte Carlo simulation has been performed to track light rays in cylindrical multimode fibres by ray optics. The trapping efficiencies for skew and meridional rays in active fibres and distributions of characteristic quantities for all trapped light rays have been calculated. The simulation provides new results for curved fibres, where the analytical expressions are too complex to be solved. The light losses due to sharp bending of fibres are presented as a function of the ratio of curvature to fibre radius and bending angle. It is shown that a radius of curvature to fibre radius ratio of greater than 65 results in a light loss of less than 10% with the loss occurring in a transition region at bending angles of pi/8 rad.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figure

Bioactivity of plants gums against pathogenic fungi

In order to investigate the bioactivity of gum of selected plants  against the economically important fungi like Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger, Curvularia lunata, Curvularia pellescence, Fusarium equiseti, Fusarium oxysporum, Macrophomina phaseolina, Penicillium digitatum, Penicillium chrysogenum and Rhizopus stolonifer  the experiments were carried out by using different concentrations of plant gum i.e. 1%, 5%, 10%. Gum Acacia arabica was found to promote the growth of fungi like Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger as the function of concentration of gum. Whereas the growth of fungi like Curvularia lunata, Fusarium equiseti, Fusarium oxysporum, Macrophomina phaseolina, Penicillium digitatum and Penicillium chrysogenum, were found to be inhibited by the 1% gum of Acacia arabica. But on the contrary the concentration of gum increased to level of 5% and 10%, the increase in dry mycelium weight of these fungi were found. The Rhizopus stolonifer was found to be suppressed at 10% concentration. Gum of Acacia chundra was found to promote the growth of fungi like Macrophomina phaseolina and Penicillium chrysogenum with the increased concentration of gum. On the other hand the fungi like Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger, Curvularia lunata, Fusarium equiseti, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizopus stolonifer were found to be inhibited at 1% concentration of gum. But at 5% concentration the fungi like Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger, Curvularia pellecence, Fusarium equiseti and Rhizopus stolonifer showed the increased in dry mycelial weight. At 10 % concentration all fungi except Curvularia pellecence and Penicillium digitatum showed increase in dry mycelium weight. Similarly, gum of Azadirechta indica, Boswellia serrata and Butea monosperma showed fungitoxic activity at variable concentrations

Storage mycoflora of oilseeds: a review

Present paper deals with the review of storage seed mycoflor

Recurrent solitary fibrous tumor of lumbar spine with vertebral body involvement: imaging features and differential diagnosis with report of a case

AbstractSolitary fibrous tumors (SFTs) of the spine are exceedingly rare tumors of mesenchymal origin. Most spinal SFTs arise from the thoracic spine, followed by cervical spine, and last lumbar spine with only 6 cases reported in literature. SFTs represent a wide range of neoplasms, ranging from benign to malignant. These tumors can develop a late recurrence, even after a decade or more of initial presentation, requiring long-term follow-up. We present a case of recurrent SFT of the lumbar spine with vertebral body involvement, presenting more than a decade after initial resection. It was initially misdiagnosed as a paraganglioma. To the best of our knowledge, there have been only 3 previous cases reporting SFT with vertebral body involvement

Form inspection using kernel methods

Form inspection of non-linear surfaces is a difficult task as suitable analytical models are often unavailable. This paper presents a mathematical model for surface inspection of face-milled plates and determination of the minimum zone based on a modification of the support vector machine (SVM) technique. The SVM approach is reformulated to regression problems using a different methodology than the ‘largest margin’ paradigm. In addition, this work derives extremely simple quadratic programming (QP) problems that allow for general symbolic solutions to non-linear regression problems. The results obtained from preliminary testing allow identification of processing tendencies so that a selective sampling procedure may be applied for inspecting future plates from that lot.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Predictors of Antibiotics Co-prescription with Antimalarials for Patients Presenting with Fever in Rural Tanzania.

Successful implementation of malaria treatment policy depends on the prescription practices for patients with malaria. This paper describes prescription patterns and assesses factors associated with co-prescription of antibiotics and artemether-lumefantrine (AL) for patients presenting with fever in rural Tanzania. From June 2009 to September 2011, a cohort event monitoring program was conducted among all patients treated at 8 selected health facilities in Ifakara and Rufiji Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS).It included all patients presenting with fever and prescribed with AL. Logistic regression was used to model the predictors on the outcome variable which is co-prescription of AL and antibiotics on a single clinical visit. A cohort of 11,648 was recruited and followed up with 92% presenting with fever. Presumptive treatment was used in 56% of patients treated with AL. On average 2.4 (1 -- 7) drugs was prescribed per encounter, indicating co-prescription of AL with other drugs. Children under five had higher odds of AL and antibiotics co-prescription (OR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.46 -- 0.85) than those aged more than five years. Patients testing negative had higher odds (OR = 2.22, 95%CI: 1.65 -- 2.97) of AL and antibiotics co-prescription. Patients receiving treatment from dispensaries had higher odds (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 0.84 -- 2.30) of AL and antibiotics co-prescription than those from served in health centres even though the deference was not statistically significant. Regardless the fact that Malaria is declining but due to lack of laboratories and mRDT in most health facilities in the rural areas, clinicians are still treating malaria presumptively. This leads them to prescribe more drugs to treat all possibilities

Prevention of hepatorenal toxicity with Sonchus asper in gentamicin treated rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Sonchus asper </it>possesses antioxidant capacity and is used in liver and kidney disorders. We have investigated the preventive effect of methanolic extract of <it>Sonchus asper </it>(SAME) on the gentamicin induced alterations in biochemical and morphological parameters in liver and kidneys of Sprague-Dawley male rat.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Acute oral toxicity studies were performed for selecting the therapeutic dose of SAME. 30 Sprague-Dawley male rats were equally divided into five groups with 06 animals in each. Group I received saline (0.5 ml/kg bw; 0.9% NaCl) while Group II administered with gentamicin 0.5 ml (100 mg/kg bw; i.p.) for ten days. Animals of Group III and Group IV received gentamicin and SAME 0.5 ml at a dose of 100 mg/kg bw and 200 mg/kg bw, respectively while Group V received only SAME at a dose of 200 mg/kg bw. Biochemical parameters including aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), γ-glutamyltransferase (γ-GT), total cholesterol, triglycerides, total protein, albumin, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), total bilirubin and direct bilirubin were determined in serum collected from various groups. Urinary out puts were measured in each group and also assessed for the level of protein and glucose. Lipid peroxides (TBARS), glutathione (GSH), DNA injuries and activities of antioxidant enzymes; catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were determined in liver and renal samples. Histopathological studies of liver and kidneys were also carried out.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>On the basis of acute oral toxicity studies, 2000 mg/kg bw did not induce any toxicity in rats, 1/10^thof the dose was selected for preventive treatment. Gentamicin increased the level of serum biomarkers; AST, ALT, ALP, LDH, γ-GT, total cholesterol, triglycerides, total protein, albumin, creatinine, BUN, total and direct bilirubin; as were the urinary level of protein, glucose, and urinary output. Lipid peroxidation (TBARS) and DNA injuries increased while GSH contents and activities of antioxidant enzymes; CAT, POD, SOD decreased with gentamicin in liver and kidney samples. SAME administration, dose dependently, prevented the alteration in biochemical parameters and were supported by low level of tubular and glomerular injuries induced with gentamicin.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggested the preventive role of SAME for gentamicin induced toxicity that could be attributed by phytochemicals having antioxidant and free radical scavenging properties.</p

Global mortality associated with 33 bacterial pathogens in 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Reducing the burden of death due to infection is an urgent global public health priority. Previous studies have estimated the number of deaths associated with drug-resistant infections and sepsis and found that infections remain a leading cause of death globally. Understanding the global burden of common bacterial pathogens (both susceptible and resistant to antimicrobials) is essential to identify the greatest threats to public health. To our knowledge, this is the first study to present global comprehensive estimates of deaths associated with 33 bacterial pathogens across 11 major infectious syndromes. Methods: We estimated deaths associated with 33 bacterial genera or species across 11 infectious syndromes in 2019 using methods from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019, in addition to a subset of the input data described in the Global Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance 2019 study. This study included 343 million individual records or isolates covering 11 361 study-location-years. We used three modelling steps to estimate the number of deaths associated with each pathogen: deaths in which infection had a role, the fraction of deaths due to infection that are attributable to a given infectious syndrome, and the fraction of deaths due to an infectious syndrome that are attributable to a given pathogen. Estimates were produced for all ages and for males and females across 204 countries and territories in 2019. 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) were calculated for final estimates of deaths and infections associated with the 33 bacterial pathogens following standard GBD methods by taking the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles across 1000 posterior draws for each quantity of interest. Findings: From an estimated 13·7 million (95% UI 10·9–17·1) infection-related deaths in 2019, there were 7·7 million deaths (5·7–10·2) associated with the 33 bacterial pathogens (both resistant and susceptible to antimicrobials) across the 11 infectious syndromes estimated in this study. We estimated deaths associated with the 33 bacterial pathogens to comprise 13·6% (10·2–18·1) of all global deaths and 56·2% (52·1–60·1) of all sepsis-related deaths in 2019. Five leading pathogens—Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa—were responsible for 54·9% (52·9–56·9) of deaths among the investigated bacteria. The deadliest infectious syndromes and pathogens varied by location and age. The age-standardised mortality rate associated with these bacterial pathogens was highest in the sub-Saharan Africa super-region, with 230 deaths (185–285) per 100 000 population, and lowest in the high-income super-region, with 52·2 deaths (37·4–71·5) per 100 000 population. S aureus was the leading bacterial cause of death in 135 countries and was also associated with the most deaths in individuals older than 15 years, globally. Among children younger than 5 years, S pneumoniae was the pathogen associated with the most deaths. In 2019, more than 6 million deaths occurred as a result of three bacterial infectious syndromes, with lower respiratory infections and bloodstream infections each causing more than 2 million deaths and peritoneal and intra-abdominal infections causing more than 1 million deaths. Interpretation: The 33 bacterial pathogens that we investigated in this study are a substantial source of health loss globally, with considerable variation in their distribution across infectious syndromes and locations. Compared with GBD Level 3 underlying causes of death, deaths associated with these bacteria would rank as the second leading cause of death globally in 2019; hence, they should be considered an urgent priority for intervention within the global health community. Strategies to address the burden of bacterial infections include infection prevention, optimised use of antibiotics, improved capacity for microbiological analysis, vaccine development, and improved and more pervasive use of available vaccines. These estimates can be used to help set priorities for vaccine need, demand, and development. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and Department of Health and Social Care, using UK aid funding managed by the Fleming Fund