Evaluation of functional outcome of metacarpal fractures managed by operative techniques: a hospital based study

Background: Metacarpal fractures comprise approximately 35.5% of cases in daily emergencies, mostly due to road traffic accidents, fall, and assault. The main goal of treatment is to achieve the strong bony union without any functional disability. Aim of the study was evaluation of functional outcome of metacarpal fractures managed by operative techniques and to compare the efficacy of different operative techniques.Methods: A total of 50 patients managed by various operative techniques by using k-wires, screws and plates. Functional outcome was assessed by using total active movement (TAM) and disabilities of the arm, shoulder and hand (DASH) scoring system at 6th week, 3rd month and at 6th month.Results: A total 47 fractures united and three fractures mal-united at the time of final assessment. Overall excellent and good results were achieved in 94% cases.Conclusions: Our finding suggests that open reduction and internal fixation with k-wire is most preferable method among all other operative techniques

Fundamental solutions of an extended hydrodynamic model in two dimensions: derivation, theory and applications

The inability of the Navier-Stokes-Fourier equations to capture rarefaction effects motivates us to adopt the extended hydrodynamic equations. In the present work, a hydrodynamic model comprised of the conservation laws closed with the recently propounded coupled constitutive relations (CCR) -- referred to as the CCR model -- adequate for describing moderately rarefied gas is utilized. A numerical framework based on the method of fundamental solutions is developed and employed to solve the CCR model in two dimensions. To this end, the fundamental solutions of the linearized CCR model are derived in two dimensions. The significance of deriving the two-dimensional fundamental solutions is that they cannot be deduced from their three-dimensional counterparts that do exist in literature. As applications, the developed numerical framework based on the derived fundamental solutions is used to simulate (i) a rarefied gas flow confined between two coaxial cylinders with evaporating walls and (ii) a temperature-driven rarefied gas flow between two non-coaxial cylinders. The results for both problems have been validated against those obtained with the other classical approaches. Through this, it is shown that the method of fundamental solutions is an efficient tool for addressing two-dimensional multiphase microscale gas flow problems at a low computational cost. Moreover, the findings also show that the CCR model solved with the method of fundamental solutions depicts rarefaction effects, like transpiration flows and thermal stress, generally well.Comment: 14 figure

Numerical Simulation of the Phase Space of Jupiter-Europa System Including the Effect of Oblateness

We have numerically investigated the phase space of the Jupiter-Europa system in the framework of a Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem. In our model, Jupiter is taken as oblate primary. We have considered time-frequency analysis (TFA) based on wavelets and the Poincare Surface of Section (PSS) for the characterization of orbits in the Jupiter-Europa model. We have exploited both cases: a system with and without considering the effect of oblateness. Graphs (ridge-plots) explaining the phenomenon of resonance trapping, a difference between chaotic sticky orbit and the non-sticky orbit, and periodic and quasi-periodic orbit are presented. Our results of Poincare surfaces of the section of the Jupiter-Europa system (with and without the effect of oblateness) reveal the impact of oblateness of Jupiter as reducing parameter for regular and chaotic regions. Time-frequency analysis based on wavelets is comparatively fast and is suitable for the identification and characterization of the different type of trajectories in the nonlinear dynamical system

Trace Detection of Nerve Agent Simulant in the Fuel Vapour Environment using Metal Oxide Surface Acoustic Wave E Nose

Nerve agents are often used at the military warfront, where diesel is a very common interferant. In the present work, a group of surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors, called E-Nose with dissimilar sensing layers is developed for the recognition of the mixture of diesel and dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) vapors. The exposure of DMMP and diesel vapors is kept at ppb and ppm levels respectively. Varied response patterns of DMMP and diesel vapors were obtained by SAW E-nose. Principal component analysis (PCA) has been used to extract features from the response curves of SAW sensors. Artificial Neural Network pattern recognition has been implemented to identify the precise detection of DMMP vapors in the binary mixture of DMMP and diesel. The effect of pre-processing (using PCA) the raw data before feeding it to artificial neural network is also studied

Coupled constitutive relations: a second law based higher order closure for hydrodynamics

In the classical framework, the Navier-Stokes-Fourier equations are obtained through the linear uncoupled thermodynamic force-flux relations which guarantee the non-negativity of the entropy production. However, the conventional thermodynamic description is only valid when the Knudsen number is sufficiently small. Here, it is shown that the range of validity of the Navier-Stokes-Fourier equations can be extended by incorporating the nonlinear coupling among the thermodynamic forces and fluxes. The resulting system of conservation laws closed with the coupled constitutive relations is able to describe many interesting rarefaction effects, such as Knudsen paradox, transpiration flows, thermal stress, heat flux without temperature gradients, etc., which can not be predicted by the classical Navier-Stokes-Fourier equations. For this system of equations, a set of phenomenological boundary conditions, which respect the second law of thermodynamics, is also derived. Some of the benchmark problems in fluid mechanics are studied to show the applicability of the derived equations and boundary conditions.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the Royal Society A (Open access article

Assessment of drug prescribing pattern using WHO indicators in hospitalized patients at a tertiary care teaching hospital in rural area of India

Background: To promote rational drug use in patients of rural areas, it is important to assess drug use pattern using the WHO prescription indicators. The aim of this study was to assess the drug prescription patterns in patients admitted in Medicine department of UPRIMS&R.Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted from Jan 2015 to June 2015. Data were collected & analysed according to WHO prescribing indicators and presented by using descriptive statistics.Results: 626 prescriptions were selected in which 3205 drugs were prescribed. The most common drug groups prescribed were antibiotics 24.64% followed by anti-diabetic drugs 12.38%, analgesics 12.23% and drugs for cardiovascular diseases 11.82%, GIT drugs 9.01%. Average number of drugs per prescription was 5.11. Drugs prescribed from essential drugs list (India) was 76.06%. Drugs prescribed from essential drugs list (WHO) was 23.04%. Total number of prescriptions with antibiotics was 24.27%. Total number of prescriptions with injections was 24.05%. Percentage of fixed dose combinations was 28.7%. Drugs prescribed by generic name were 89.88%.Conclusions: The prescribing pattern of antibiotics was according to WHO recommendations while the average number of drugs per prescription was found high. There were small differences in the values of drugs prescribed by generic names, injectable and drugs from NLEM from the recommended values