Present energy scenario and solar energy as an alternative option for environmental protection

In today’s scenario utilization of energy in an effective manner is must and that is the need of the time. After industrial revolution we are using the classical energy sources which are dependent on fossil fuels. The rate of exploration ofthese resources are much higher along with the higher rate of pollution. With the advancement in technology more efficient alternative energy sources have been recognized for environmental protection and are now available for various applications. This paper focuses one of the alternativeused for energy generation i.e. the solar option. In this study comparison of flat plate solar collector and evacuated tube solar collector is carried out and feasibility is reported

Application of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality in endourology and urolithiasis: An update by YAU endourology and Urolithiasis Working Group

The integration of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) in urological practices and medical education has led to modern training systems that are cost-effective and with an increased expectation toward surgical performance and outcomes. VR aids the user in interacting with the virtual environment realistically by providing a three-dimensional (3D) view of the structures inside the body with high-level precision. AR enhances the real environment around users by integrating experience with virtual information over physical models and objects, which in turn has improved understanding of physiological mechanisms and anatomical structures. MR is an immersive technology that provides virtual content to interact with real elements. The field of urolithiasis has adapted the technological advancements, newer instruments, and methods to perform endourologic treatment procedures. This mini-review discusses the applications of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality in endourology and urolithiasis.publishedVersio

Socio-Economic Inequalities in the Use of Postnatal Care in India

OBJECTIVES: First, our objective was to estimate socio-economic inequalities in the use of postnatal care (PNC) compared with those in the use of care at birth and antenatal care. Second, we wanted to compare inequalities in the use of PNC between facility births and home births and to determine inequalities in the use of PNC among mothers with high-risk births. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Rich-poor ratios and concentration indices for maternity care were estimated using the third round of the District Level Household Survey conducted in India in 2007-08. Binary logistic regression models were used to examine the socio-economic inequalities associated with use of PNC after adjusting for relevant socio-economic and demographic characteristics. PNC for both mothers and newborns was substantially lower than the care received during pregnancy and child birth. Only 44% of mothers in India at the time of survey received any care within 48 hours after birth. Likewise, only 45% of newborns received check-up within 24 hours of birth. Mothers who had home births were significantly less likely to have received PNC than those who had facility births, with significant differences across the socio-economic strata. Moreover, the rich-poor gap in PNC use was significantly wider for mothers with birth complications. CONCLUSIONS: PNC use has been unacceptably low in India given the risks of mortality for mothers and babies shortly after birth. However, there is evidence to suggest that effective use of pregnancy and childbirth care in health facilities led to better PNC. There are also significant socio-economic inequalities in access to PNC even for those accessing facility-based care. The coverage of essential PNC is inadequate, especially for mothers from economically disadvantaged households. The findings suggest the need for strengthening PNC services to keep pace with advances in coverage for care at birth and prenatal services in India through targeted policy interventions

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Ten golden rules for optimal antibiotic use in hospital settings: the WARNING call to action

Antibiotics are recognized widely for their benefits when used appropriately. However, they are often used inappropriately despite the importance of responsible use within good clinical practice. Effective antibiotic treatment is an essential component of universal healthcare, and it is a global responsibility to ensure appropriate use. Currently, pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to develop new antibiotics due to scientific, regulatory, and financial barriers, further emphasizing the importance of appropriate antibiotic use. To address this issue, the Global Alliance for Infections in Surgery established an international multidisciplinary task force of 295 experts from 115 countries with different backgrounds. The task force developed a position statement called WARNING (Worldwide Antimicrobial Resistance National/International Network Group) aimed at raising awareness of antimicrobial resistance and improving antibiotic prescribing practices worldwide. The statement outlined is 10 axioms, or “golden rules,” for the appropriate use of antibiotics that all healthcare workers should consistently adhere in clinical practice

Sodium nitroprusside relaxes goat coronary artery through activation of calcium-dependent K⁺ channels

324-329In the present investigation we have examined the hypothesis that calcium-dependent K+ channels (KCa) are involved in the sodium nitroprusside (SNP)-induced vasodilatation of goat coronary artery. SNP (10-9- 3×10-6 M), added cumulatively, relaxed K+ (30 mM)-contracted coronary artery ring segments in a concentration-dependent manner with an EC50 of 1.32 × 10-7 M (95% CL, 0.93 -1.86×10-7 M; n = 21). KCa blocker, tetraethyl ammonium (1mM) caused a rightward shift in the concentration-response curve of SNP with a corresponding increase in EC50 (1.62×10-6 M; 95% CL, 0.44-6.02×10-6 M, n = 4) of nitro vasodilator. Lowering of extra cellular Ca2+ in the physiological saline solution to 1/4 of normal selectively attenuated the vasorelaxant response of SNP, thereby causing an increase in its EC50 (2.4 × 10-6 M; 95% CL, 1.23 - 4.68 ×10-6 M, n = 4). Exposure of the tissues to high K+ (80 mM) solution, a protocol adopted to reduce the K+ gradient across the cell membrane, markedly inhibited the coronary artery relaxations induced by SNP (EC50, 2.54 × 10-6 M; 95% CL, 1.31 -4.91×10-6 M, n = 4), when compared with tissues contracted with low K+ (30 mM) solution (EC50 7.9 × 10-8; 95% CL, 4.4×10-8-1.44 × 10-7 M, n = 6). The results suggested that a major component of SNP-induced relaxation of goat coronary artery was mediated by KCa channels

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Not AvailableEmploying the advanced soil moisture accounting (ASMA) procedure and the modified subsurface drainage flow concept, a curve number (CN)–based model, named as modified long-term hydrologic simulation advance soil moisture accounting (MLTHS ASMA) model, is proposed to simulate daily flows. Its application to 17 watersheds falling in different agro-climatic zones of India and comparison with the existing long-term hydrologic simulation advance soil moisture accounting (LTHS ASMA) model reveal that the proposed model yields higher efficiency, lower standard error of estimate (SE) and percentage relative error (RE) values for high runoff producing wet watersheds, and lower efficiency for low runoff producing dry watersheds, indicating a very good model response to wet watersheds, and good to satisfactory-to-dry watersheds. On most watersheds, the proposed model performed better than the existing one. In addition, CN parameters for surface and subsurface flows were most sensitive followed by the parameters related with soil characteristics, and the significance of base flow was greater in wet watersheds than in dry watersheds. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000592. © 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers. CE Database subject headings: Watersheds; Runoff curve number; Hydrologic models; Simulation; Rainfall; Runoff; Subsurface flow.Not Availabl

Fabrication of Al–TiC composites by hot consolidation technique: its microstructure and mechanical properties

Al-based metal matrix composites reinforced with different volume fraction of TiC particles as reinforcement was synthesized by the hot consolidation process. The titanium carbide used in this study was synthesized directly from the titanium ore (ilmenite, FeTiO3) by carbothermic reduction process through thermal plasma technique. The field emission scanning electron micrographs (FESEM) reveals the homogeneous distribution of TiC particles in the Al-matrix. Enhanced Young's modulus and mechanical properties with appreciable ductility were observed in the composite samples. The significant increases in the mechanical properties of the composites demonstrate the effectiveness of the low-density TiC reinforcement