Optimizing Anti-icing Operation for Winter Roadway Treatment Using A Decision-Making Tool

Managing winter roadway treatment can be a challenge where winter is not severe, but snowfall is experienced a few times a year. Winter weather makes the road dangerous and challenging to travel. Most US states have approached and implemented different winter road maintenance practices to make transportation of goods, services, and people uninterrupted. However, the state of Georgia has always struggled to deal with winter weather. Recently, there has been some progress. The Georgia Department of Transportation prepared a winter road treatment plan in 2019, and they are still working on improving it. Increasing emphasis on pre-treating the road rather than relying heavily on snow plowing and other post-treatment is the current trend in winter road maintenance. Pre-treatment reduces chemical use and has several other benefits. In this research, a pre-treatment requirement model was developed to calculate the amount of brine required to melt different snow and ice amounts. In the last three years, Georgia faced a few snow events; three were selected for analysis using the developed model. The study revealed that adjusting the pre-treatment amount at smaller snow events can eliminate the need for post-treatment. The model suggests that different parts of a route require different amounts of pre-treatment. The application of the brine amount can be adjusted based on snow accumulation prediction by the model. The model sensitivity analysis showed that more snow is accumulated at lower temperatures, and the effectiveness of brine in melting snow diminishes. Higher wind speed increases snowmelt resulting in lowered brine application requirements. The decision-making tool can optimize the amount of brine used by suggesting location and pre-treatment amount. The output of the model can be used in better decision making on winter road pre-treatment

To Study the Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Remdesivir in Hospitalized Adult Patients with Moderate-to-Severe COVID-19 Disease in ICU of a Tertiary Center in Bihar

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has adversely affected the human health and wealth across the globe and is still posing a serious challenge to us. In the armamentarium of various drugs approved for COVID-19, remdesivir proved to be a major breakthrough in the treatment of moderate-to-severe cases. Our study is regarding its clinical efficacy and safety in hospitalized reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed adult patients with moderate-to-severe COVID-19 disease. Material and methods: A total of 100 patients with moderate-to-severe COVID-19 (RT-PCR positive) admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) of Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), Muzaffarpur, Bihar, were enrolled in the study from 12th August to 11th November, 2020. All patients were given injection remdesivir as 200 mg IV loading dose on Day 1, followed by 100 mg IV daily for next 4 days along with other standard treatment. Results: Out of total 100 patients, 88 patients recovered and were discharged, while 12 patients died. Mean age of patients was 54 ± 16 years with male preponderance (4:1). Mean duration of hospital stay was 10.6 ± 5.4 days. C-reactive protein, D-dimer, ferritin and interleukin-6 decreased significantly after treatment with remdesivir, with p value <0.01, as compared to values at the time of admission, without any significant side effects. Conclusion: Early administration of remdesivir helps contribute to better clinical outcome in moderate-to-severe COVID-19 disease, without any significant side effects

Thermalised dark radiation in the presence of PBH: ΔNeff{\rm \Delta N_{\rm eff}} and gravitational waves complementarity

We study the possibility of detecting dark radiation (DR) produced by a combination of interactions with the thermal bath and ultra-light primordial black hole (PBH) evaporation in the early universe. We show that the detection prospects via cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements of the effective relativistic degrees of freedom ${\rm \Delta N_{eff}}$ get enhanced in some part of the parameter space compared to the purely non-thermal case where DR is produced solely from PBH. On the other hand, for certain part of the parameter space, DR which initially decouples from the bath followed by its production from PBH evaporation, can re-enter the thermal bath leading to much tighter constraints on the PBH parameter space. We also discuss the complementary detection prospects via observation of stochastic gravitational wave (GW) sourced by PBH density perturbations. The complementary probes offered by CMB and GW observations keep the detection prospects of such light degrees of freedom very promising in spite of limited discovery prospects at particle physics experiments.Comment: 31 pages, 11 captioned figure

Adnexal mass: a clinicopathological study at a tertiary care centre in Assam, India

Background: An adnexal mass may be found in females of all ages with significantly variable prevalence, but more common among women of reproductive age. Adnexal masses pose a special dilemma to the attending gynaecologist because the diagnosis is often difficult and differential diagnosis is vast. Clinical examination is the first step in evaluation of patients with adnexal mass. Pelvic masses which are undetected or overlooked on physical examination can be identified by Ultrasonography. The aims and objectives of the study were to: to find out different types of adnexal pathology clinically, correlation of clinical finding with histopathology, correlation of ultrasonography finding with histopathology.Methods: The present study was carried in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Assam medical college and hospital, Dibrugarh from 1st July 2017 to 30th June 2018. This study was a hospital based observational study which included 145 patients of adnexal mass attending the GOPD who required admission and operative intervention. All cases underwent an abdominal ultrasound examination with color Doppler. Transvaginal sonography was done wherever feasible. Following surgery, specimens were sent for histopathological examination and the reports were correlated with pre-operative clinical and ultrasonography findings.Results: The most common site of origin of adnexal mass was ovary (92.41%) followed by fallopian tube (6.20%) and broad ligament (1.39%). Majority (79.31%) were non neoplastic or benign adnexal masses. All cases of adnexal malignancy were of ovarian origin. The sensitivity and specificity of clinical examination for diagnosis and discriminating benign and malignant ovarian neoplasms were 70% and 86.6% and that of ultrasonography was 86.67% and 96.65% respectively.Conclusions: Adnexal mass in reproductive age group were mostly non neoplastic and benign, whereas malignancy was mostly seen in peri and post-menopausal age group. Ultrasonography is a useful adjunct to clinical examination for diagnosis and proper management of patients with adnexal mass in low resource setup

Study of Distributed Controlling Techniques in Micro Grids

: Microgrids are moving from laboratory benches and pilot demonstration sites to commercial markets thanks to technological improvements, lower costs, proven track record and growing recognition of their benefits. They are used to improve the reliability and resilience of power grids, manage the addition of distributed clean energy resources such as wind and solar photovoltaic (PV), reduce fossil fuel emissions, and provide power in areas not supported by a centralized electrical system. The infrastructure is provided. This article presents the control techniques for DC micro-network, distributed control, and description of micro-grid systems

Post placental copper-T 380A insertion after normal vaginal delivery and cesarean section and its clinical outcome

Background: Post placental IUCD insertion refers to the insertion of IUD within 10 minutes of expulsion of placenta. Intra-cesarean section is insertion of IUD after removal of placenta before closure of uterine incision. The objective of this study was to study the efficacy, safety and effect on menstrual cycle, expulsion, continuation and failure rate of post-placental copper-T 380A after vaginal and cesarean birth over the period of 1 year in tertiary centre.Methods: A total 150 women who opted for insertion of copper-T 380A within 10 minutes of expulsion of placenta whether delivered vaginally or by cesarean section, were enrolled in study. Women having past history of ectopic pregnancy or any genital tract infection or hemorrhagic disorders, uterine anomaly, chorioamnionitis, LPV>18 hours, unresolved PPH, Hb<8 g% were excluded from the study.Results: No incidence of perforation, PID or failure of contraception was detected. Percentage of satisfaction among users after 6 weeks 91%, 3 months 92.9% and 6 months 95.6%.Conclusions: Although there was high incidence of missing IUCD threads (due to coiling of thread), actual expulsion rate was far lesser. Removal rate due to menorrhagia, pain abdomen and vaginal discharge was low and 6 months continuation rate was considerably good