Treatment outcomes of patients with isoniazid resistant tuberculosis under National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme in Ahmedabad city: a retrospective study

Background: Drug resistance tuberculosis remains major public health problem worldwide. In India, the incidence of any isoniazid-resistant TB is 11.6% in new tuberculosis patients, while in previously treated patients, incidence is 25%. For isoniazid resistant cases management 6-9 months duration of H mono regimen containing rifampicin, pyrazinamide, ethambutol and levofloxacin is available under national tuberculosis elimination programme. We present a retrospective study on outcomes of patients of H mono regime in years 2019 and 2020 in Ahmedabad city.Methods: Retrospectively we collected data about age, sex, co-morbid conditions, resistance level (high/low level isoniazid resistance) and treatment outcome of patients put on H Mono regimen under programme from January 2019 to December 2020 in Ahmedabad city from Ni-kshay, an online web-based portal.Results: We have collected data of 251 patients (147 in 2019, 104 in 2020). Out of 251, 188 were males and 63 females. Out of 251, favourable outcome seen in 57.4% patients and unfavourable outcome seen in 42.6% patients. Favourable outcome was significantly higher among females compared to males.Conclusions: Management of drug resistance tuberculosis according to drug sensitivity helps in better patient outcome. Early diagnosis of drug resistance and its treatment, timely diagnosis of treatment failure and management, better patient compliance and patient education about disease help in decrease in the unfavourable outcome

Fibre Bragg gratings: monitoring of infusion process in liquid composite molding manufacturing

The authors report the use of FBGs to monitor the infusion process of the Resin Transfer Molding (RTM). Composite structure can be very large, ensuring that the resin has reached every part of the mold during the infusion process becomes a critical step to ensure the structural integrity and minimize failure. During the infusion stage of the process, the FBG undergoes a blue wavelength to red wavelength shift. The magnitude of wavelength shifts depends upon the location and depth of the sensors along with the viscosity of resin (we used a resin-like material with similar viscous properties) being used for the infusion. The observed wavelength shifts varied from ~10pm to ~400pm, which is small but still significant and readily measurable also showing reasonable repeatability for all experiments conducted with the same conditions. Evidence will be presented to show that viscous force is a major factor in explaining the observed FBG wavelength shifts. Due to the small wavelength shifts of the FBG sensors, this allows the opportunity to embed a dense population of sensors within a single structure, hence ensuring a satisfactory spatial resolution to monitor the resin flow front to ensure complete impregnation of the reinforcement

Monitoring of Curing Process of Epoxy Resin by Long-Period Fiber Gratings

The curing of epoxy resin is a complex thermo-chemical process that is difficult to monitor using existing sensing systems. We monitored the curing process of an epoxy resin by using long-period fiber gratings. The refractive index of the epoxy resin increases during the curing process and can be measured to determine the degree of curing. We employed long-period fiber gratings that are sensitive to the refractive index of an external medium for the measurement of refractive index changes in the resin. We observed that the resonances of long-period fiber gratings increased their depth with the increased refractive index of the resin, which was well described by our simulation taking the coupling to radiation modes into account. We demonstrated that the degree of cure can be estimated from the depth of the grating resonances using a phenomenological model. At the same time, long-period fiber gratings are sensitive to temperature variations and internal strains that are induced during curing. These factors may affect the measurements of curing degree and should also be addressed