Electrolytic Metallization of Halloysite Nanotubes and Antimicrobial Applications

Due to increased reports of infections and biofouling arising from the use of invasive medical devices, novel antimicrobial agents with suitable anti-biofouling properties are critically needed. Transition metals exhibit substantial antimicrobial activity; however, their use is limited because of their inherent toxicity to eukaryotic cells. In this regard, naturally occurring halloysite clay nanotubes (HNTs) show significant promise. HNTs possess a high surface area for adsorption while its hollow lumen can be used for loading different materials. Herein, we demonstrate an electrolytic method for generating and depositing metal nanoparticles (NPs) on the HNTs outer surface and we propose an optimized method for fabricating metal-halloysite clay nanotubes (mHNTs) with varying silver (Ag), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) deposition displaying contrasting microbiological and cytotoxic properties which were validated using various characterization methods. Bacterial biofouling of medical devices through biofilm formation is a significant problem leading to failure, to address this problem mHNTs were incorporated into 3D printing, spray coating of antibacterial chitosan film, electrodeposition of titanium implants

Gradenigo\u27s syndrome: Surgical management in a child

Otits media is a common problem. Some of its complications that were seen frequently in the preantibiotic era are rare today. We report a case of an 8 year boy who presented with earache, retro-orbital pain and diplopia secondary to a sixth nerve palsy--Gradenigo\u27s syndrome. In this syndrome infection from the middle ear spreads medially to the petrous apex of the temporal bone. Work-up includes CT scan of the temporal bones. Timely management with intravenous antibiotics (+ surgery) is needed to prevent intra-cranial complications

Flow-Aware Elephant Flow Detection for Software-Defined Networks

Software-defined networking (SDN) separates the network control plane from the packet forwarding plane, which provides comprehensive network-state visibility for better network management and resilience. Traffic classification, particularly for elephant flow detection, can lead to improved flow control and resource provisioning in SDN networks. Existing elephant flow detection techniques use pre-set thresholds that cannot scale with the changes in the traffic concept and distribution. This paper proposes a flow-aware elephant flow detection applied to SDN. The proposed technique employs two classifiers, each respectively on SDN switches and controller, to achieve accurate elephant flow detection efficiently. Moreover, this technique allows sharing the elephant flow classification tasks between the controller and switches. Hence, most mice flows can be filtered in the switches, thus avoiding the need to send large numbers of classification requests and signaling messages to the controller. Experimental findings reveal that the proposed technique outperforms contemporary methods in terms of the running time, accuracy, F-measure, and recall

Learning Front-end Filter-bank Parameters using Convolutional Neural Networks for Abnormal Heart Sound Detection

Automatic heart sound abnormality detection can play a vital role in the early diagnosis of heart diseases, particularly in low-resource settings. The state-of-the-art algorithms for this task utilize a set of Finite Impulse Response (FIR) band-pass filters as a front-end followed by a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model. In this work, we propound a novel CNN architecture that integrates the front-end bandpass filters within the network using time-convolution (tConv) layers, which enables the FIR filter-bank parameters to become learnable. Different initialization strategies for the learnable filters, including random parameters and a set of predefined FIR filter-bank coefficients, are examined. Using the proposed tConv layers, we add constraints to the learnable FIR filters to ensure linear and zero phase responses. Experimental evaluations are performed on a balanced 4-fold cross-validation task prepared using the PhysioNet/CinC 2016 dataset. Results demonstrate that the proposed models yield superior performance compared to the state-of-the-art system, while the linear phase FIR filterbank method provides an absolute improvement of 9.54% over the baseline in terms of an overall accuracy metric.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, IEEE International Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference (EMBC

A review on water disinfection with plant products-

BackgroundConventional techniques for water disinfection are fraught with issues like personnel exposure to damaging radiation and formation of harmful and carcinogenic disinfection byproducts. There are difficulties related to transportation and handling, and expensive capital and working costs also are involved like costs associated with on-site generation of disinfectants. There is a dire need for newer disinfection technologies that are environment and health friendly.Scope and benefitsThis article reviews the use of natural disinfectants derived from plants to enhance the quality of water. Researchers have utilized herbal extracts, phytochemicals, and phytochemical-metal complexes for the disinfection of water. Various factors for these chemicals like efficacy, toxicity, cost, and water solubility have been discussed and some useful phytochemical disinfectants are also identified. These disinfection methods particularly when using only pure phytochemicals are generally thought to be free from the deleterious effects associated with chlorination and other conventional technologies. Inherently, chlorinated and other harmful disinfection byproducts are not formed.Key findings and conclusionsIn various studies eugenol, thymol and extracts of Ocimum sanctum and Azadirachta indica have been utilized with fairly effective disinfection capabilities. The significant antimicrobial effects of allicin, berteroin, sanguinarine, and thymol are reflected from their very low minimum inhibitory concentration values. Even so, presently the efficiency of phytochemicals is not comparable to conventional disinfectants. The use of phytochemical metal complexes is, however, a plausible option that might be investigated further. The metal complexes because of their greater water solubility than pure phytochemicals result in improved disinfection efficiency. Notable among those are flavonoid-metal complexes that should be considered further for use in water disinfection. It is also concluded that phytochemicals may be added to water that has also been disinfected with some other commonly-used technology. A way to do this may be to design a fixed bed tower of phyto-disinfectant through which water should pass

Angioembolization in itractable epistaxis—a tertiary care experience

Objective: To review the role of angioembolization in the control of intractable epistaxis at our institution. Methods: A retrospective review of the charts of the patients between Jan 2001 to June 2010 at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi was done. All patients who underwent angioembolization for intractable epistaxis were included in the study. Patients with nasal or nasopharyngeal mass were excluded. Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 16. Results: Total numbers of the patients were 16. Fourteen (87.5%) patients were male and 2(12.5%) were female with mean age 51.2 ± 12.922 years (range 26-71 years). In 11(68.75%) patients there were no associated risk factors for epistaxis, 3(18.75%) patients had uncontrolled hypertension, 1(6.25%) patient had road traffic accident and 1(6.25%) patient had bleeding after nasal surgery. All patients were initially treated by anterior and posterior nasal packing for 48 to 72 hours. Angioembolization successfully controlled epistaxis in all 16 (100%) patients initially. However, in 2(12.5%) cases embolization had to be repeated; in 1 patient on the same day and in another patient after one month of initial procedure. The average length of stay after angioembolization was 1.9 ± 0.854 days. No major or permanent complication was observed. Two (12.5%) patients developed minor complications (1 patient experienced facial pain for 7 days and another patient developed haematoma at the site of femoral artery). Conclusion: Angioembolization is a safe and effective treatment option for intractable epistaxi