Radiaton Pattern Reconfiguration Using Parasitic Elements

A parasitic surface based reconfiguration technique for microstrip antenna beam steering has been presented and discussed in this paper. This concept can be used in reconfigurable antennas without additional modification on the basic design of an antenna. This paprasitic layer based antenna is designed using array of 5 by 5 pixel surface which can be connencted or disconnected depending upon required configuration so as to steer antenna beam in particular direction such as -30°, 0° and +30°

ANTI-CANCER HERBLE DRUGS: AN OVERVIEW

"Cancer" is the term we give to a large group of diseases that vary in type and location but have one thing in common: abnormal cells growing out of control. It continues multiplying uncontrollably and the result of this accumulation of abnormal cells is a mass of cells called a "cancer". The Plant Kingdom produces naturally occurring secondary metabolites which are being investigated for their anticancer activities leading to the development of new clinical drugs. With the success of these compounds that have been developed into staple drugs for cancer treatment new technologies are emerging to develop the area further. New technologies include nanoparticles for Nano-medicines which aim to enhance anticancer activities of plant-derived drugs by controlling the release of the compound and investigating new methods for administration. This review discusses the demand for naturally-derived compounds from medicinal plants and their properties which make them targets for potential anticancer treatments. The purpose of this brief review is to assemble current literature on some herbal drugs and to focus on their beneficial roles and drug targets in cancer therapy and chemoprevention. Keywords: 20 Herbal drugs, Cancer, Cell cycl

Barriers-enablers-ownership approach: A mixed methods analysis of a social intervention to improve surgical antibiotic prescribing in hospitals

Objectives To assess an intervention for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP) improvement within surgical teams focused on addressing barriers and fostering enablers and ownership of guideline compliance. Design The Queensland Surgical Antibiotic Prophylaxis (QSAP) study was a multicentre, mixed methods study designed to address barriers and enablers to SAP compliance and facilitate engagement in self-directed audit/feedback and assess the efficacy of the intervention in improving compliance with SAP guidelines. The implementation was assessed using a 24-month interrupted time series design coupled with a qualitative evaluation. Setting The study was undertaken at three hospitals (one regional, two metropolitan) in Australia. Participants SAP-prescribing decisions for 1757 patients undergoing general surgical procedures from three health services were included. Six bimonthly time points, pre-implementation and post implementation of the intervention, were measured. Qualitative interviews were performed with 29 clinical team members. SAP improvements varied across site and time periods. Intervention QSAP embedded ownership of quality improvement in SAP within surgical teams and used known social influences to address barriers to and enablers of optimal SAP prescribing. Results The site that reported senior surgeon engagement showed steady and consistent improvement in prescribing over 24 months (prestudy and poststudy). Multiple factors, including resource issues, influenced engagement and sites/time points where these were present had no improvement in guideline compliance. Conclusions The barriers-enablers-ownership model shows promise in its ability to facilitate prescribing improvements and could be expanded into other areas of antimicrobial stewardship. Senior ownership was a predictor of success (or failure) of the intervention across sites and time periods. The key role of senior leaders in change leadership indicates the critical need to engage other specialties in the stewardship agenda. The influence of contextual factors in limiting engagement clearly identifies issues of resource distributions/inequalities within health systems as limiting antimicrobial optimisation potential

Early infant HIV-1 diagnosis programs in resource-limited settings: opportunities for improved outcomes and more cost-effective interventions

Early infant diagnosis (EID) of HIV-1 infection confers substantial benefits to HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected infants, to their families, and to programs providing prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services, but has been challenging to implement in resource-limited settings. In order to correctly inform parents/caregivers of infant infection status and link HIV-infected infants to care and treatment, a 'cascade' of events must successfully occur. A frequently cited barrier to expansion of EID programs is the cost of the required laboratory assays. However, substantial implementation barriers, as well as personnel and infrastructure requirements, exist at each step in the cascade. In this update, we review challenges to uptake at each step in the EID cascade, highlighting that even with the highest reported levels of uptake, nearly half of HIV-infected infants may not complete the cascade successfully. We next synthesize the available literature about the costs and cost effectiveness of EID programs; identify areas for future research; and place these findings within the context of the benefits and challenges to EID implementation in resource-limited settings

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Heath risk dataset of PM and TS

The health impairments of construction workers due to exposure to PM and TS are found to have profound long-term implications for the construction industry. Since the 2000s, researchers have been demanding a dataset covering PM emissions. This dataset can help construction supervisor to mitigate and control the PM emissions and health impacts on construction workers. Although recent literature attempted to develop a PM database for various construction activities, it did not accommodate concerns regarding the different materials involved in construction activities and the percentage of toxic substances (TSs) present in the PM. Moreover, the data available is in raw format which cannot be considered a universally accepted datasetTHIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Data on particulate matter and toxic substances' concentration produced from different construction activity

This study determined the health risks associated with PM and toxic substances (TSs) generated from construction activities after considering the real-time IR measurement, which increases the accuracy of health risk assessment.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Data on particulate matter and toxic substances' concentration produced from different construction activity

Exposure to Particulate matter (PM) can significantly influence human health. Real-time inhalation rate (IR) and PM concentration have been disregarded in PM health risk assessments in the construction industry. Therefore, in this study, semi-automated devices (optical particle counters, wearable bio-monitors) and benchmark device are used to monitor real-time PM, and toxic substances (TS) emissions generated by construction activities.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Skill in forecasting extreme ozone pollution episodes with a global atmospheric chemistry model

From the ensemble of stations that monitor surface air quality over the United States and Europe, we identify extreme ozone pollution events and find that they occur predominantly in clustered, multiday episodes with spatial extents of more than 1000 km. Such scales are amenable to forecasting with current global atmospheric chemistry models. We develop an objective mapping algorithm that uses the heterogeneous observations of the individual surface sites to calculate surface ozone averaged over 1° by 1° grid cells, matching the resolution of a global model. Air quality extreme (AQX) events are identified locally as statistical extremes of the ozone climatology and not as air quality exceedances. With the University of California, Irvine chemistry-transport model (UCI CTM) we find there is skill in hindcasting these extreme episodes, and thus identify a new diagnostic using global chemistry-climate models (CCMs) to identify changes in the characteristics of extreme pollution episodes in a warming climate. © 2014 Author(s)