Ancillary Imaging Tests for Confirmation of Brain Death

Brain death is an irreversible termination of functions of the entire brain including brain stem. The American Association of Neurology has defined brain death with three cardinal criteria, namely cessation of the functions of brain including brain stem, coma or unresponsiveness, and apnea. Ancillary testing is done in situations where clinical criteria of brain death cannot be determined by neurological examination or by apnea test. Ancillary tests for determining brain death can be primarily divided into two groups. One group includes tests that can test brain’s electrical functions and the other group includes tests that can document cerebral blood flow in the brain on imaging. In this chapter, we present characteristics of the ideal ancillary test in the diagnosis of brain death and also describe various types of ancillary imaging tests used in the clinical setting for brain death determination and the merits and demerits associated with these techniques

Performance Characteristics Evaluation for Cooperative Communication

Wireless channels suffer severely from the effect of multi-path and fading. To mitigate these effects of fading and, cooperative diversity protocols are used. In cooperative diversity, two or more users share their antennas to create a virtual MIMO system. Hence in cooperative communication several single antenna relays assist the transmission between a source and a destination. In this work, cooperative communication protocols such as amplify and forward and decode and forward are simulated for relaying. The received signals at the destination are combined using various diversity combination protocols such as Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) and Fixed Ratio Combining (FRC). For the performance study of cooperative communication protocol in wireless network, the symbol error rate (SER), outage probability and channel capacity are simulated for single relay and multiple relay in a flat fading Rayleigh channel.. In addition to this, for a 3 node cooperative communication containing a source , a relay and a destination the impact of relay location is studied for 3 different location of relay i.e. relay placed closer to the source, closer to the destination and at the midway between the source and the destination. When the relay is located in the middle of source and destination, it gives the best system performance. When the relay is located closer to the source, the quality of source-relay link is good, and the relay can decode the received information. On the other hand, when the relay node is located close to the destination, the system performance degrades. Through simulation results, it is shown the positive role that the relay plays, as it improves significantly the performance of the system and leads to lower SER and lower outage probability

Immunization status of children upto 3 years in rural block, Muzaffarnagar

Background: The year 2012-2013 was declared as ‘Year of intensification of Routine Immunization (IRI) in India. As per CES, DLHS and AHS, Full Immunization for the children of age group of 12-23 months of Uttar Pradesh is 30.2 (DLHS 2007), 40.9 (CES 2009) and 45.3 (AHS 2010-2011). Studies have been done to assess the primary immunization status i.e. BCG, OPV3, DTP3 and Measles. Data on the Booster doses and the additional vaccine is insufficient. Objectives: To assess the status of full Immunization, Complete Immunization and the status of Immunization with regard to different vaccine and reasons for partial and No Immunization. Design & Methodology: A community based cross sectional study was done (Aug to December 31th 2014) in the field practice area of rural health and training centre (RHTC) of Muzaffarnagar Medical College, Muzaffarnagar. 50% of the villages i.e. 3 villages (Bilaspur, Shernagar and Dhandhera) selected by simple random sampling technique and the age group selected were up to three years of age. The data was analyzed using MS excel sheet and the software used was software Epi-info version 7.1.3. Results and Conclusion: The Full Immunization in the age group of children between 12-23 months was 65% with antigen coverage maximum for BCG (93%) and lowest for Measles (68%). Reason for partial and unimmunized children were majority due to non-availability of vaccine at the centre followed by fear of AEFI. Complete Immunization in the age group between 24-36 months was 46% with MCV 2 coverage being the lowest (34%). Full Immunization in the age group of 24-36 months is significantly more than 12-23 months age group. Tendency is to have less and less immunization as the age of the child grows (P<0.05)

Modification at Lattice Scale for an Optimized Optical Response of Alx(ZnO)1-x Nanostructures

We report the systematic changes of nano-scaled featur es and optical properties in a promising transparent oxide material, namely, Al x (x = 0, 1, 2 and 5%) doped ZnO 1-x (AZO). Electron microscopy investigations revealed the alterations at lattice scale depending on th e presence of Al-content in ZnO nanostructures. Lat- tice spacings of 0.26 and 0.28 nm oriented along the (0002) and (10 1 0) planes, respectively, were attributed to euhedral-and facetted-structures of hexagonal-ZnO. Th e AZO samples were furthe r characterized by XRD, SEM, UV-vis spectrophotometry, Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence studies. It has been shown that at a dopant concentration of 2% Al in ZnO, an optimal balance could be achieved between microstruc- ture and optical properties

Implementation of Low Cost Automatic Gear Suggestion System

The present automatic transmission is fully mechanically controlled and costs very high. But the proposed gear suggestion mechanism design makes driving much easier and to achieve efficient driving. It is similar to other transmission system on vehicle as it allows an internal combustion engine, best suited to run at high rotational speed to provide torque outputs necessary for vehicular travel. By this system the manual mechanical gear-shifting system will remain unchanged because it suggests the gear change based on increased speed. This article touches on a PIC microcontroller and a Proximity sensor. The main advantage of using mid-range microcontroller is that it is of low-cost and reliable. This technique can also be used to identify the gear position. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.16045

An epidemiological comparative study of weight and height parameters for nutritional assessment of adolescents in a rural area of North India

Research Question: What is the simplest way to assess the nutritional status of adolescents? Objectives: (1) To compare and identify the most appropriate method for rapid assessment of nutritional status of rural adolescents using height and weight parameters. (2) To assess whether EHPA chart is superior over the conventional method of using BMI for the nutritional assessment of adolescents or not. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Study Setting: Eight registered schools in the field practice area of Rural Health Training Center, Bilaspur, Department of Community Medicine, Muzaffarnagar Medical College, Muzaffarnagar, U.P., INDIA. Sample size: 467 i.e., all the school going rural adolescents of both sexes (11-19 yrs of age). Study variables: Height and weight. Methodology: The weight and height of all the study subjects was recorded by portable dial weighing machine and stadiometer respectively with due permission of the school principal. Age of subjects were recorded from the school register as on their last birthday. The data were subjected to comparision for nutritional assessment by using two study tools i.e., conventional BMI and EHPA chart. Statistical analysis: Proportion and Chi square test by using epi info statistical package. Result:   A total of 467 adolescents were examined. By using conventional BMI, 93.79% of adolescents were classified as underweight and 4.06% as normal; however with the help of EHPA chart it was found that 38.97% adolescents were underweight and 58.67% were normal. Conclusion: Existing norms of using conventional BMI for assessing nutritional status of adolescents is inappropriate as far too many normal adolescents fall in undernourished category, whereas EHPA chart prevents such fallacies

Identification of RAPD and SCAR markers associated with yield traits in the Indian tropical tasar silkworm Antheraea mylitta drury

Abstract The tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta, is a semi-domesticated vanya silk-producing insect of high economic importance. To date, no molecular marker associated with cocoon and shell weights has been identified in this species. In this report, we identified a randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker and examined its inheritance, and also developed a stable diagnostic sequence-characterized amplified region (SCAR) marker. Silkworms were divided into groups with high (HCSW) and low (LCSW) cocoon and shell weights, and the F 2 progeny of a cross between these two groups were obtained. DNA from these silkworms was screened by PCR using 34 random primers and the resulting RAPD fragments were used for cluster analysis and discriminant function analysis (DFA). The clustering pattern in a UPGMA-based dendogram and DFA clearly distinguished the HCSW and LCSW groups. Multiple regression analysis identified five markers associated with cocoon and shell weights. The marker OPW16 905 bp showed the most significant association with cocoon and shell weights, and its inheritance was confirmed in F 2 progeny. Cloning and sequencing of this 905 bp fragment showed 88% identity between its 134 nucleotides and the Bmc-1/Yamato-like retroposon of A. mylitta. This marker was further converted into a diagnostic SCAR marker (SCOPW 16 826 bp ). The SCAR marker developed here may be useful in identifying the right parental stock of tasar silkworms for high cocoon and shell weights in breeding programs designed to enhance the productivity of tasar silk

Integrative Neuroinformatics for Precision Prognostication and Personalized Therapeutics in Moderate and Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

Despite changes in guideline-based management of moderate/severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) over the preceding decades, little impact on mortality and morbidity have been seen. This argues against the "one-treatment fits all" approach to such management strategies. With this, some preliminary advances in the area of personalized medicine in TBI care have displayed promising results. However, to continue transitioning toward individually-tailored care, we require integration of complex "-omics" data sets. The past few decades have seen dramatic increases in the volume of complex multi-modal data in moderate and severe TBI care. Such data includes serial high-fidelity multi-modal characterization of the cerebral physiome, serum/cerebrospinal fluid proteomics, admission genetic profiles, and serial advanced neuroimaging modalities. Integrating these complex and serially obtained data sets, with patient baseline demographics, treatment information and clinical outcomes over time, can be a daunting task for the treating clinician. Within this review, we highlight the current status of such multi-modal omics data sets in moderate/severe TBI, current limitations to the utilization of such data, and a potential path forward through employing integrative neuroinformatic approaches, which are applied in other neuropathologies. Such advances are positioned to facilitate the transition to precision prognostication and inform a top-down approach to the development of personalized therapeutics in moderate/severe TBI

Morphology of Atmospheric Particles over Semi-Arid Region (Jaipur, Rajasthan) of India: Implications for Optical Properties

The regional dust morphology and spectral refractive indices (RIs; governed by hematite, Fe2O3 content at short wavelengths) are key elements for ascertaining direct radiative forcing of mineral dust aerosols. To provide morphological features of background mineral dust from a semi-arid zone in the vicinity of the Thar Desert, we carried out an expedition to the Jaipur city during late winter of 2012. Morphological analysis reveals the predominance of "Layered", "Angular" and "Flattened" particles, while the frequency distribution of a total of 235 dust particles shows the aspect ratio, AR and circularity parameter, CIR (measures of particle's non-sphericity) typically similar to 1.4 and similar to 0.8, respectively. Sensitivity analysis at 550 nm wavelength reveals the equivalent sphere model may underestimate Single Scattering Albedo, SSA for the dust with low (similar to 1.1%) hematite by similar to 3.5%. Both underestimation (by similar to 5.6%) and overestimation (up to 9.1%) are probable in case of dust with high hematite content (similar to 5.68%). In addition, the effect of AR on the dust scattering is significant in case of dust with high hematite content. More such regionally representative dust morphological data are required for better estimation of regional radiative forcing of mineral dust aerosols