Implementation of ontology for intelligent hospital ward

We have developed and implemented an ontology for an intelligent hospital ward. Our aim is to address the pervasiveness of computing applications in healthcare environments, which require: sharing of data across the hospital, including data generated by sensors and embedded in such environments, and dealing with semantic heterogeneity that exists across the hospital's data repositories. Our conceptual ontological model that supports such an environment has been implemented using semantic web tools and tested through the application developed with the J2EE technology

Unusual Esophageal Twin Foreign Body (Glass Marble) in a Neonate

Although ingestion of foreign body in oesophagus is common in pediatric age group, its occurrence in neonatal period is rare. Etiology behind these foreign bodies may be negligence or homicidal attempt for unwanted child. A high index of suspicion is required for diagnosis, whenever the neonate presents with symptoms related either to the respiratory or gastrointestinal tract. Delayed diagnosis can result in serious complications. We report a very unusual case of twin foreign body (glass marble) in oesophagus in a 30 days old female neonate. The peculiarity of this case concerns the unusual foreign body and age of the patient

High temperature condensate clouds in super-hot Jupiter atmospheres

Deciphering the role of clouds is central to our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres, as they have a direct impact on the temperature and pressure structure, and observational properties of the planet. Super-hot Jupiters occupy a temperature regime similar to low mass M-dwarfs, where minimal cloud condensation is expected. However, observations of exoplanets such as WASP-12b (Teq ~ 2500 K) result in a transmission spectrum indicative of a cloudy atmosphere. We re-examine the temperature and pressure space occupied by these super-hot Jupiter atmospheres, to explore the role of the initial Al- and Ti-bearing condensates as the main source of cloud material. Due to the high temperatures a majority of the more common refractory material is not depleted into deeper layers and would remain in the vapor phase. The lack of depletion into deeper layers means that these materials with relatively low cloud masses can become significant absorbers in the upper atmosphere. We provide condensation curves for the initial Al- and Ti-bearing condensates that may be used to provide quantitative estimates of the effect of metallicity on cloud masses, as planets with metal-rich hosts potentially form more opaque clouds because more mass is available for condensation. Increased metallicity also pushes the point of condensation to hotter, deeper layers in the planetary atmosphere further increasing the density of the cloud. We suggest that planets around metal-rich hosts are more likely to have thick refractory clouds, and discuss the implication on the observed spectra of WASP-12b.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 10 pages, 1 table, 5 figure

Contemplation on new drug approvals by U.S. FDA, 2011-2015

Background: The U.S Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) is the world's leading drug regulatory authority. There are reports of more product pipelines in oncology therapy area. The objective of this study was to see the overall trends of new drug approvals by the U.S. FDA in last 5 years and find the therapeutic areas with higher new drug approvals.Methods: New drug approvals data obtained from publicly available databases of the U.S. FDA from 2011 through 2015. For the drug products identified, the drugs were classified into fourteen main Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) groups, single or combination products, New Drug Application (NDA) chemical types, review classification and approval date.Results: There were 182 new drugs approved from 2011 through 2015 by the U.S. FDA with a mean of 36.4 approvals per year. Out of these 182 new drug approvals, 149 (81.87%) approvals were for new molecular entity (NME) and 33 (18.13%) for biologics license application (BLA). There were more number of new drug approvals in antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents (L) ATC group (n=66; 36.26% of total new drug approvals).Conclusions: For new drugs approved between 2011 and 2015, the U.S. FDA was first to approve majority of new drugs. There was upward trend of new drug approvals in antineoplastic therapeutic area

Comparison of new drug approval by regulatory agencies of US, EU and India

Background: As per World Trade Organisation (WTO), from the year 2005, India granted product patent recognition to all new chemical entities (NCEs). This may affect the new drug approvals in India. The purpose of this study was to compare the new drug approvals in India with the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) regions.Methods: We obtained information about regulatory approval of new drugs in the US, EU, or India of last 5 years (from 2011 through 2015) from the publicly accessible databases of three regulatory agencies. For the drug products identified, the drugs were classified into fourteen main Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) groups, review classification and approval date.Results: There were 509 new drugs approved from 2011 through 2015 by one or more of the three regulatory agencies. Total 182 new drugs were approved in US during the period of 2011 to 2015, with an average of 36.4 new drugs approved per year. For the same period a total of 257 new drugs were approved in the EU, with an average of 51.4 new drugs approved per year and in India a total of 70 new drugs were approved, with an average of 14 new drugs approved per year. There were more number of new drug approvals in antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents (L) ATC group in all the three regions (US= 66; EU= 61 and India= 17).Conclusions: For new drugs approved between 2011 and 2015, India has lagged behind the US and the EU in approval of new drugs. There was no difference in the patterns of new drug approvals with respect to the therapeutic areas

Drug lag for antineoplastic and immunomodulating agent approvals in India compared with the US and EU approvals

Background: There is a tremendous amount of research being conducted on development of new drugs for cancer therapies. The drug development of cancer therapies has dramatically increased over the past few decades. The present study was undertaken to assess the drug lag for new antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents in India compared with that in the United States (US) or European Union (EU).Methods: The new drugs approved in the US, EU and India between 2011 and 2015 were identified and information was gathered primarily from the websites of regulatory agencies of the three regions. For the drug products identified, the drugs were classified into fourteen main Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) groups, review classification and approval date. We assessed the absolute and relative drug lag for new antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents approved in the three regions (with the ATC code L).Results: Of the 67 new antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents, 63 (94.02%) were approved in the United States, 58 (86.56%) in the European Union and 18 (26.86%) in India. The US was the first to approve 59 (88.05%) out of the 67 new antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents, the EU was the first to approve 7 (10.44%) and India was the first to approve 1 (1.49%). The median approval lag for India (18.36 months) was higher as compared to the United States (0 month) and European Union (6.02 months).Conclusions: This study confirms that India lag behind the US and EU regions in terms of total number of new drug approvals for antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents. There is a substantial approval delay in India compared to the US and EU regions. Further detailed analyses are necessary to find the reasons and impacts of drug lag for new antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents in India

CubeSat measurements of thermospheric plasma: spacecraft charging effects on a plasma analyzer

Spacecraft charging affects the accuracy of in-situ plasma measurements in space. We investigate the impact of spacecraft charging on upper thermospheric plasma measurements captured by a 2U CubeSat called Phoenix. Using the Spacecraft Plasma Interactions Software (SPIS), we simulate dayside surface potentials of − 0.6 V, and nightside potentials of − 0.2 V. We also observe this charging mechanism in the distribution function captured by the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) on-board Phoenix. Whilst negative charging in the dense ionosphere is known, the diurnal variation in density and temperature has resulted in dayside potentials that are smaller than at night. We apply charging corrections in accordance with Liouville’s theorem and employ a least-squares fitting routine to extract the plasma density, bulk speed, and temperature. Our routine returns densities that are within an order of magnitude of the benchmarks above, but they carry errors of at least 20%. All bulk speeds are greater than the expected range of 60–120 m/s and this could be due to insufficient charging corrections. Our parameterised ion temperatures are lower than our empirical benchmark but are in-line with other in-situ measurements. Temperatures are always improved when spacecraft charging corrections are applied. We mostly attribute the shortcomings of the findings to the ram-only capture mode of the INMS. Future work will improve the fitting routine and continue to cross-check with other in-flight data

Broken time-reversal symmetry in cubic skutterudite-like superconductor Y3_3Ru4_4Ge13_{13}

The microscopic properties of superconducting cubic skutterudite-like material Y$_3$Ru$_4$Ge$_{13}$ are investigated using muon spin relaxation and rotation ($\mu$SR) measurements. Zero-field $\mu$SR measurements reveal the presence of a spontaneous internal field with a magnitude of $\approx$ 0.18~mT below the superconducting transition temperature, indicating broken time-reversal symmetry in the ground state. In line with previous experiments, transverse-field $\mu$SR measurements are consistent with a fully developed superconductivity gap in Y$_3$Ru$_4$Ge$_{13}$. Our observations point towards the relevance of electronic correlations beyond electron-phonon coupling as origin and indicate that spin-orbit coupling is likely not the key driving force behind the spontaneous breaking of time-reversal symmetry in this system.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Time-reversal symmetry breaking in superconducting low-carrier-density quasi-skutterudite Lu3Os4Ge13

The complex structure of the Remeika phases, the intriguing quantum states they display, and their low carrier concentrations are a strong motivation to study the nature of their superconducting phases. In this work, the microscopic properties of the superconducting phase of single-crystalline Lu$_3$Os$_4$Ge$_{13}$ are investigated by muon-spin relaxation and rotation ($\mu$SR) measurements. The zero-field $\mu$SR data reveal the presence of spontaneous static or quasi-static magnetic fields in the superconducting state, breaking time-reversal symmetry; the associated internal magnetic field scale is found to be exceptionally large ($\approx$ 0.18~mT). Furthermore, transverse-field $\mu$SR measurements in the vortex state of Lu$_3$Os$_4$Ge$_{13}$ imply a complex gap function with significantly different strengths on different parts of the Fermi surface. While our measurements do not completely determine the order parameter, they strongly indicate that electron-electron interactions are essential to stabilizing pairing in the system, thus, demonstrating its unconventional nature.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure