Abdominal lump with intestinal obstruction: Prior history of abdominal surgery is a clue to diagnosis

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Traditional clay pottery of Odisha, India

325-332Pottery making is an important event of past. It has marked the beginning of the revolution in Neolithic period in human society. It all started with mud that indicates the emergence of civilization leading to development of culture. Pottery was introduced from different civilizations and was accepted, developed, changed and adapted. Few of the traditional communities in the world still maintain this tradition as their occupation. The present paper discusses the pottery making process and related activities in rural areas of Bhadrak district of Odisha, India. The field survey was conducted during the year 2015-2017 to access the present status of this unique clay-based craft as well as the condition of the artisans involved in this craft making. The information on pottery technique was obtained through semi-structured questionnaires, complemented by free interviews and informal conversations with 79 artisans. The result revealed that making artifacts from clay is exclusively the hand work of rural Kumbhara community. Most of these artisans are marginal farmers while making such craft is their primary occupation. They collect the raw material, i.e., clay from the nearby field, river bed or shallow land, process it and make varieties of attractive craft items for traditional domestic use as well as in socio-religious rituals. The existing conditions of this folk craft as well as the artisans were analysed. Some remedial measures are suggested to save this endangered craft from oblivion

Traditional clay pottery of Odisha, India

325-332Pottery making is an important event of past. It has marked the beginning of the revolution in Neolithic period in human society. It all started with mud that indicates the emergence of civilization leading to development of culture. Pottery was introduced from different civilizations and was accepted, developed, changed and adapted. Few of the traditional communities in the world still maintain this tradition as their occupation. The present paper discusses the pottery making process and related activities in rural areas of Bhadrak district of Odisha, India. The field survey was conducted during the year 2015-2017 to access the present status of this unique clay-based craft as well as the condition of the artisans involved in this craft making. The information on pottery technique was obtained through semi-structured questionnaires, complemented by free interviews and informal conversations with 79 artisans. The result revealed that making artifacts from clay is exclusively the hand work of rural Kumbhara community. Most of these artisans are marginal farmers while making such craft is their primary occupation. They collect the raw material, i.e., clay from the nearby field, river bed or shallow land, process it and make varieties of attractive craft items for traditional domestic use as well as in socio-religious rituals. The existing conditions of this folk craft as well as the artisans were analysed. Some remedial measures are suggested to save this endangered craft from oblivion

IS BACTERIOLOGY A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR IN UNSALVAGEABLE NATURE OF DIABETIC FOOT INFECTIONS?–A STUDY IN A DISTRICT HOSPITAL IN MALAYSIA

Objective: The objective is to study bacterial pathogens isolated in diabetic foot infection (DFI) and their sensitivity pattern to antibiotics commonly used in the management of DFI in the salvageable and unsalvageable groups of patients in a district hospital.Methods: 122 patients with diabetic limb infections treated at the Orthopedic Department of Hospital Sultan Abdul Halim, Sungai Petani, Kedah State in Malaysia. Clinically, limb infections were classified as salvageable and unsalvageable infections. Salvageable-mild, superficial/deep, localized ulcer with no systemic derangements necessitating conservative treatment or surgical procedures with minor amputations of limb (toe/ray amputation). Unsalvageable-deep seated extensive or spreading ulcers threatening the integrity of limb with or without toxic symptoms or metabolic derangement and could result in major limb amputation. A standard questionnaire was used to collect demographic, clinical and microbiological details of patients in both groups. Co-morbid illnesses, type/severity of limb infection during presentation and results of routine blood investigations were recorded. Details of nature of each specimen, species of isolate pathogen and sensitivity pattern to antibiotic of each clinical isolates were recorded.Results: 62 and 60 patients respectively belonged to the salvageable and unsalvageable groups. Only 11.66% presented with evidence of toxemia in the unsalvageable group. ESBL was the commonest nosocomial organisms. Percentage of organism sensitivity was most to vancomycin, ceftazidime, and gentamicin.Conclusion: All severe infections do not present with toxemia in diabetic patients. Gram-negative organisms were predominant in both groups although Staphylococcal organisms were the single largest group in the unsalvageable group. 3rd generation antibiotics are more useful in its control.Â

A thiadiazole-based covalent organic framework: a metal-free electrocatalyst toward oxygen evolution reaction

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have attracted surging interest lately due to their wide potential in several frontline application areas like gas storage, sensing, photovoltaics, fuel cells, active catalyst supports, and so on. However, only very few reports are available for the metal-free electrocatalysis over COFs. Herein, we developed a new thiadiazole-based COF, C4-SHz COF, through the reaction between 1,3,5-tris(4-formylphenyl)benzene and 2,5-dihydrazinyl-1,3,4-thiadiazole that possesses a very high specific surface area of 1224 m2 g–1, unique molecular architecture, high porosity, and abundant active sites. The synthesized C4-SHz COF displayed superior electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity and excellent long-term durability. The electrocatalytic performance of the C4-SHz COF achieved a current density of 10 mA/cm2 at an overpotential of 320 mV. The higher activity of the C4-SHz COF could be attributed to the high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area, porosity, and network structure of the π-conjugated organic building blocks, which allowed fast charge and mass transport processes. This work validates the promising potential of a metal-free COF electrocatalyst toward the OER and its capability to replace carbon-based electrocatalysts

The first small-molecule inhibitors of members of the ribonuclease E family

The Escherichia coli endoribonuclease RNase E is central to the processing and degradation of all types of RNA and as such is a pleotropic regulator of gene expression. It is essential for growth and was one of the first examples of an endonuclease that can recognise the 5′-monophosphorylated ends of RNA thereby increasing the efficiency of many cleavages. Homologues of RNase E can be found in many bacterial families including important pathogens, but no homologues have been identified in humans or animals. RNase E represents a potential target for the development of new antibiotics to combat the growing number of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics in use currently. Potent small molecule inhibitors that bind the active site of essential enzymes are proving to be a source of potential drug leads and tools to dissect function through chemical genetics. Here we report the use of virtual high-throughput screening to obtain small molecules predicted to bind at sites in the N-terminal catalytic half of RNase E. We show that these compounds are able to bind with specificity and inhibit catalysis of Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis RNase E and also inhibit the activity of RNase G, a paralogue of RNase E

Cut Throat Injuries at a University Teaching Hospital in Northwestern Tanzania: A Review of 98 cases.

Cut throat injuries though rarely reported in literature pose a great therapeutic challenge because multiple vital structures are vulnerable to injuries in the small, confined unprotected area. A sudden increase in the number of cut throat patients in our centre in recent years prompted the authors to analyze this problem. This study was conducted in our local setting to describe the etiology, patterns and treatment outcome of these injuries. This was a combined retrospective and prospective study of cut throat injury patients who were managed at Bugando Medical Centre between February 2009 and January 2013. Statistical data analysis was done using SPSS software version 17.0. A total of 98 patients with cut throat injuries were studied. Males outnumbered females by a ratio of 2.4: 1. The median age of patients was 26 years (range 8 to 78 years). Majority of patients (79.6%) had no employment and most of them (65.3%) came from rural community. Homicide was the commonest (55.1%) cause, followed by suicidal attempts (34.7%) and accidental (10.2%) injuries. Interpersonal conflict (24.4%) was the most common motivating factor for homicidal injury whereas psychiatric illness (16.2%) and road traffic accidents (9.2%) were the most frequent motivating factors of suicidal attempt and accidental injuries respectively. The majority of injuries were in Zone II accounting for 65.3% of cases and most of them had laryngeal (57.1%) injury. Surgical debridement, laryngeal/hypopharynx repair and tracheostomy were the most common surgical procedures performed in 93.9%, 73.5% and 70.4% of patients respectively. Postoperative complication rate was 57.1%, the commonest being surgical site infections in 28.1% of patients and it was significantly associated with late presentation and anatomical zones (P < 0.001). The overall median duration of hospitalization was 12 days. Patients who had postoperative complications stayed longer in the hospital and this was statistically significant (p = 0.011). Mortality rate was 11.2% and was significantly associated with co-morbidities, delayed presentation and presence of complications (p < 0.001). The follow up of patients was poor. Cut throat injuries are a major cause of morbidity and mortality among young adult males in our setting. Addressing the root causes of violence such as poverty, unemployment, and substance abuse will reduce the incidence of these injuries in our environment

Azimuthal Anisotropy of Photon and Charged Particle Emission in Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 A GeV/c

The azimuthal distributions of photons and charged particles with respect to the event plane are investigated as a function of centrality in Pb + Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The anisotropy of the azimuthal distributions is characterized using a Fourier analysis. For both the photon and charged particle distributions the first two Fourier coefficients are observed to decrease with increasing centrality. The observed anisotropies of the photon distributions compare well with the expectations from the charged particle measurements for all centralities.Comment: 8 pages and 6 figures. The manuscript has undergone a major revision. The unwanted correlations were enhanced in the random subdivision method used in the earlier version. The present version uses the more established method of division into subevents separated in rapidity to minimise short range correlations. The observed results for charged particles are in agreement with results from the other experiments. The observed anisotropy in photons is explained using flow results of pions and the correlations arising due to the decay of the neutral pion