Pulmonary function profile of children with sickle cell disease

Background: Lung disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in sickle cell disease (SCD). In view of severe anemia, decreased blood oxygen affinity, pulmonary arterial vaso-occlusion, microinfarction and microfibrosis being associated with sickle cell disease; an analysis of pulmonary function in them will be of great interest.Methods: Seventy 6-12 years old children with SCD (SS pattern) were studied as cases along with age, sex and socioeconomic status matched 70 controls (AA pattern) and comparisons drawn between the two groups.Results: All the static and dynamic pulmonary functions such as FVC, FEV1, MMEFR25-75%, PEFR and MVV were found reduced in sickle cell disease, most of them significantly.Conclusions: Any restrictive, obstructive or combined pattern may be produced in SCD depending upon frequency & severity of the acute chest syndrome and vaso-occlusive crises in past

Green and Sustainability in Software Development Lifecycle Process

This chapter gives an insight of GREENSOFT Model for sustainable software engineering. In today’s world, computing devices are extensively by all for many purposes. They consume lots of energy even though they reduce energy consumption. Computers are used extensively while developing software. Existing software engineering models do not pay much attention to green computing that focuses on the effective use of natural resources. Sustainability of resources is the key. The GREENSOFT model of software engineering proposes a methodology in which Green IT practices are used, which will reduce the energy consumption of computers while developing software

Posterior Urethral Valve Management - A Review of 104 cases.

INTRODUCTION : Posterior urethral valve (P.U.V) represents the most common cause of congenital obstructive uropathy leading to childhood renal failure. The incidence of P.U.V. is approximately 1:5000 to 1:8000 infant males. Challenges posed by children with P.U.V are multiple. Obstruction by valves is a process which involves the entire urinary system. So the surgeons involved in the acute and long-term care of these patients are faced with the challenging management problems that are multiple and interdependent. Appropriate clinical suspicion remains the key to diagnosis which is confirmed by standard imaging techniques. Initial therapy usually consists of skillful endoscopic work to remove the obstruction. The outcome is however far from determined at this point. The risk of renal compromise and ultimate renal failure is a potential problem for each patient. This outcome may be altered by appropriate intervention, but in most cases the renal development in utero determines the need for eventual dialysis or transplant. In the past, the treatment of P.U.V was based primarily on the mechanism of obstruction and its relief. The current treatment of P.U.V. is based upon our evolving knowledge of the consequences of bladder outlet obstruction on our patients renal health and is enhanced by continuous, long term follow-up. AIMS : 1. To analyze our experience with the management of PUV and to study the short term outcome of patients managed at our institution. 2. To analyze the different modalities of treatment and to choose the best among them. 3. To determine the complications and follow-up criteria of PUV. 4. To determine the prognosis of our antenatally detected Patients. METHODS : In our study of 104 patients of P.U.V, 34 (32.70%) cases presented in the neonatal period, 31 (29.80%) cases between 1 to 12 months of age , 24 (23.08%) patients in the 1 to 5 year age group and 15 (14.42%) were of 5 to 12 years of age. 8 patients were diagnosed antenatally. Among the 104 patients, 47 were treated by Primary endoscopic valve fulguration and the remaining cases underwent urinary diversion either in the form of vesicostomy in 45 patients or ureterostomy in 9 patients. We have analyzed the results and have presented the discussion with a brief review of literature, follow-up and recommendations. CONCLUSION : The following conclusions were arrived at 1. Though technically demanding primary fulguration seems to be a promising method for managing PUV irrespective of age. The benefits of primary fulguration are: a. Length of hospital stay is reduced, b. Cost effective, c. Lesser number of surgeries, d. Scarless, e. Parent's psychological trauma is lessened. 2. We could avoid urinary diversion in 42.30 percentage of our cases. 3. Urosepsis and increased serum creatinine are not absolute contraindications for primary fulgurations. 4. Outcome of patients with PUV depends upon initial renal status irrespective of management options used. 5. So it is better to fulgurate as a single stage than going in for diversion which involves many stages. 6. The prognosis of antenatally detected patients was dismal in our study. 7. Patients should be referred at the earliest to tertiary centres which have facilities for fulguration. 8. Long term follow-up is a must going by the prognostic indicators with special attention to bladder dynamics

Nitration & Bromination of Some Binary & Mixed Ligand Schiff Base Complexes of Cu(II)

1025-102

Performance Analysis of Different Scheduling Algorithms in LTE System for Jitter Constraint

LTE (Long Term Evolution) is an emerging technology which promises to provide higher user throughput, reduced latency and reduced cost compared to previous technologies. One of the critical factor of latency in LTE is jitter. During the handover process a UE (User Equipment) context is to be handed over form Source eNB (evolved Node Base station) to the Target eNB. If the variation in jitter is very high then it reduces the performance of the system. Thus in this paper an attempt has been made to analyze the performance of scheduling algorithms for jitter constraint during the handover process in LTE system. Handover scenario is created using QualNet 7.1 simulator, and performance evaluation is done for RR (Round Robin) and PF (Proportional Fading) scheduling algorithms considering jitter as performance metric

SoC Estimation and Monitoring of Li-ion Cell using Kalman-Filter Algorithm

With the rise in an energy crisis, electric vehicles have become a necessity. An integral part of the electric/hybrid vehicle is batteries. Out of many types, Li-ion batteries are providing features like high power as well as energy density. The features make Li-ion is an excellent choice for multiple applications from electronic appliances to electric vehicles. Li-ion batteries have their limitations while using in electric vehicles, and battery parameter monitoring like temperature, voltage, current, State of Charge (SoC), etc. is very much essential. The monitoring is dependent on actual physical measurements, which are subject to error contributing factors such as measurement noise, errors etc. With the estimation of SOC and State of Health (SoH) of the battery model, the lifetime of the battery will be calculated out, and along these lines sparing significant cost. In this paper, a study on SoH estimation and Li-ion battery SoC is estimated using a Kalman Filter (KF) algorithm estimation and results are presented to validate the Li-ion operating performanc

Unified Generative & Dense Retrieval for Query Rewriting in Sponsored Search

Sponsored search is a key revenue source for search engines, where advertisers bid on keywords to target users or search queries of interest. However, finding relevant keywords for a given query is challenging due to the large and dynamic keyword space, ambiguous user/advertiser intents, and diverse possible topics and languages. In this work, we present a comprehensive comparison between two paradigms for online query rewriting: Generative (NLG) and Dense Retrieval (DR) methods. We observe that both methods offer complementary benefits that are additive. As a result, we show that around 40% of the high-quality keywords retrieved by the two approaches are unique and not retrieved by the other. To leverage the strengths of both methods, we propose CLOVER-Unity, a novel approach that unifies generative and dense retrieval methods in one single model. Through offline experiments, we show that the NLG and DR components of CLOVER-Unity consistently outperform individually trained NLG and DR models on public and internal benchmarks. Furthermore, we show that CLOVER-Unity achieves 9.8% higher good keyword density than the ensemble of two separate DR and NLG models while reducing computational costs by almost half. We conduct extensive online A/B experiments on Microsoft Bing in 140+ countries and achieve improved user engagement, with an average increase in total clicks by 0.89% and increased revenue by 1.27%. We also share our practical lessons and optimization tricks for deploying such unified models in production.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures and 6 table

Surveillance data on micro-organisms in respiratory tract infections at a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India

Background: Respiratory tract infections are the leading cause of infections and associated hospitalizations in India. Generally, there is little control on the use of antibiotics. Community awareness of the issues involved in antibiotic therapy is poor and this is compounded by over-the-counter availability. The main aim was to compare the resistance developed by respiratory microbes.Methods: A retrospective and prospective study was designed and conducted to compare the pattern of resistance developed by microorganisms affecting the respiratory tract.Results: The sensitivity of K. pneumoniae to cefepime/tazobactum has decreased from 91.9% to 47.6% and S. aureus to Linezolid has decreased from 93.4% to 80% and S. pyogenes to azithromycin from 51.4% to 24.8%. Whereas sensitivity pattern of S. pneumoniae to amoxicillin/clavulanate is increased from 65.6% to 82.3%. The prevalence of Klebsiella pneumoniae was increased 19% to 25.2% whereas the prevalence of S. pneumoniae was decreased from 66.8% to 65.2%. Our study suggests that all microorganisms isolated are susceptible to carbapenems and cefepime/tazobactum in the cephalosporin class.Conclusions: There is major shift in the sensitivity pattern of microorganisms towards antibiotics. Therefore, these results must be kept in mind by the practitioners in the study site, prior to making decisions over a medication regimen empirically for patients and also to maximize the output of medications by rational prescribing and dosing.

Relative tolerance and expression of resistance to phosphine in life stages of the rusty grain beetle, Cryptolestes ferrugineus

Cryptolestes ferrugineus is a serious cosmopolitan pest of stored products. Frequent and indiscriminate usage of phosphine has caused the development of high levels of resistance to this fumigant. As there are few alternatives, it is imperative that resistance to phosphine is managed. Effective management requires knowledge of key factors driving the rate of selection. One of the most important factors is the response of each resistance genotype to phosphine, especially heterozygotes. Moreover, it is important to understand the expression of resistance in all life stages as all stages are subjected to selection during fumigation. We determined the relative tolerance and resistance levels to phosphine in all life stages of homozygous parental strains (susceptible and resistant) and their F1 progeny (heterozygous) and estimated relative dominance of resistance within life stages over 48 h. In susceptible insects, relative tolerance was highest in eggs followed by pupae, then adults which had about the same tolerance as larvae. In homozygous resistant insects, the order of tolerance was adult = egg > pupae > larvae and in heterozygotes larvae > eggs > pupae > adults. All life stages expressed resistance with resistance ratios highest in adults > pupae > larvae > eggs. At LC50, resistance was incompletely recessive in eggs, pupae and adults and incompletely dominant in larvae. Eggs and adults were also incompletely recessive at LC95, but larvae were completely dominant and pupae were incompletely dominant. Our data showed that a proportion of heterozygotes in all life stages, the major carriers of resistance in the field, will survive at very high concentrations, particularly in the egg stage, forming a nucleus for reinfestation or dispersal of resistance