Antenatal ultrasonographic diagnosis of congenital high airway obstruction syndrome – a chaotic state: a case report

Congenital high airway obstruction syndrome is a fatal condition of multifactorial inheritance. It can be partial or complete. Most common cause of this is laryngeal atresia incompatible with life. Prenatal diagnosis becomes important due to recent management options. Here we report a case of congenital high airway obstruction, diagnosed on antenatal ultrasonography at 26 weeks of gestation. Parents decided to terminate the pregnancy and observations were confirmed on autopsy

Comparative Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Propranolol versus Amitriptyline for Prophylaxis of Migraine

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Reference values for the six-minute walk test in obese Indian population

Background: The six-minute walk test is one of the most powerful test used to measure the functional capacity in various chronic conditions such as in Obesity. There are very few reported studies on SMWT on Obese population all over the world, and there is no reference equation for SMWD. The aim of present study is to propose a Reference equation which could predict the distance walked in SMWT by obese individuals.Methods: 150 obese individuals free from any cardiorespiratory disease were randomized into 2 groups. SMWT data from group A was used to propose the reference equation and SMWD for Group B was predicted. Significance of difference between predicted and original values for group B was found.Results: Mean SMWD for Group A was 304.56 (SD= 68.28) which significantly correlated to (by using linear regression method) age (r = -0.32, p <0.001), BMI (r = -0.43, p <0.001) SpO2* (r=-0.35, p<0.001). These could explain 56% of the total variance in 6MWT. Though the difference between predicted and original values for group B wasn’t found to be statistically significant. The proposed Reference equation is:6MWT distance = (6.8) O2 saturation-(4.3) BMI-(0.6) age-170.64.Conclusions: SMWT is a simple, safe and powerful test to assess the functional status. The standardized SMWD values for Indian obese population would serve as benchmark to assess baseline functional capacity, prescribe proper and safe exercise intensity and monitor changes after rehabilitation interventions

Predictive biometrics: A review and analysis of predicting personal characteristics from biometric data

Interest in the exploitation of soft biometrics information has continued to develop over the last decade or so. In comparison with traditional biometrics, which focuses principally on person identification, the idea of soft biometrics processing is to study the utilisation of more general information regarding a system user, which is not necessarily unique. There are increasing indications that this type of data will have great value in providing complementary information for user authentication. However, the authors have also seen a growing interest in broadening the predictive capabilities of biometric data, encompassing both easily definable characteristics such as subject age and, most recently, `higher level' characteristics such as emotional or mental states. This study will present a selective review of the predictive capabilities, in the widest sense, of biometric data processing, providing an analysis of the key issues still adequately to be addressed if this concept of predictive biometrics is to be fully exploited in the future

Customer Specific Transaction Risk Management in eCommerce

Increasing potential for turnover in e-commerce is inextricably linked with an increase in risk. Online retailers (e-tailers), aiming for a company-wide value orientation should manage this risk. However, current approaches to risk management either use average retail prices elevated by an overall risk premium or restrict the payment methods offered to customers. Thus, they neglect customer-specific value and risk attributes and leave turnover potentials unconsidered. To close this gap, an innovative valuation model is proposed in this contribution that integrates customer-specific risk and potential turnover. The approach presented evaluates different payment methods using their risk-turnover characteristic, provides a risk-adjusted decision basis for selecting payment methods and allows e-tailers to derive automated risk management decisions per customer and transaction without reducing turnover potential

Properties of high-frequency wave power halos around active regions: an analysis of multi-height data from HMI and AIA onboard SDO

We study properties of waves of frequencies above the photospheric acoustic cut-off of $\approx$5.3 mHz, around four active regions, through spatial maps of their power estimated using data from Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) and Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The wavelength channels 1600 {\AA} and 1700 {\AA} from AIA are now known to capture clear oscillation signals due to helioseismic p modes as well as waves propagating up through to the chromosphere. Here we study in detail, in comparison with HMI Doppler data, properties of the power maps, especially the so called 'acoustic halos' seen around active regions, as a function of wave frequencies, inclination and strength of magnetic field (derived from the vector field observations by HMI) and observation height. We infer possible signatures of (magneto-)acoustic wave refraction from the observation height dependent changes, and hence due to changing magnetic strength and geometry, in the dependences of power maps on the photospheric magnetic quantities. We discuss the implications for theories of p mode absorption and mode conversions by the magnetic field.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, Accepted by journal Solar Physic

Constraining the dark energy with galaxy clusters X-ray data

The equation of state characterizing the dark energy component is constrained by combining Chandra observations of the X-ray luminosity of galaxy clusters with independent measurements of the baryonic matter density and the latest measurements of the Hubble parameter as given by the HST key project. By assuming a spatially flat scenario driven by a "quintessence" component with an equation of state $p_x = \omega \rho_x$ we place the following limits on the cosmological parameters $\omega$ and $\Omega_{\rm{m}}$: (i) $-1 \leq \omega \leq -0.55$ and $\Omega_{\rm m} = 0.32^{+0.027}_{-0.014}$ (1$\sigma$) if the equation of state of the dark energy is restricted to the interval $-1 \leq \omega < 0$ (\emph{usual} quintessence) and (ii) $\omega = -1.29^{+0.686}_{-0.792}$ and $\Omega_{\rm{m}} = 0.31^{+0.037}_{-0.034}$ ($1\sigma$) if $\omega$ violates the null energy condition and assume values $< -1$ (\emph{extended} quintessence or ``phantom'' energy). These results are in good agreement with independent studies based on supernovae observations, large-scale structure and the anisotropies of the cosmic background radiation.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, LaTe