Assessment of herbaceous biomass: A study in Rowghat mining areas of Chhattisgarh, India

We studied Rowghat sites of Chhattisgarh, India, with the objective to assess herbaceous layer composition, biomass and to prepare management implications for conservation of ecologically sensitive species in mined areas. Ten sites (Anjrel, Khodgaon, Khadkagaon, Takrel, Rav Dongri, Tarhur, Godenmar Dongri, Parmad Dongri, Bhusujkun Dongri and Bedhiyar Nala) were selected for the study. We randomly placed quadrats of 1x1 m size in each site. A sum of 36 species distributed in 15 families were encountered in Rowghat mining site. The total density of all herbs was highest (724000) in Bhusujkun Dongri followed by Khadkagaon (678000), Rav Dongri (662000) and lowest was recorded from Godenmar Dongri (502000). The density of herbs across the study area ranged from 9,000 (D. ciliaris) to 2,50,000 (S. viridis) in the areas of Tarhur and Bediyar Nala. The herb species were unevenly distributed across mined areas. The Chlorophytum tuberosum and Cassia tora were recorded only from Tarkel and Godenmar Dongri sites, respectively. The total belowground biomass ranged between 0.097 t/ha in Godenmar Dongri to 0.18 t/ha in Rav Dongri. An ecological approach is must to restore the collieries. Protection of ecologically sensitive herbs is necessary. Prolonged ban on mining activity in Rowghat forest area is needed to restore degraded forest

Discontinuation of reflex testing of stool samples for vancomycin-resistant enterococci resulted in increased prevalence

Discontinuation of reflex testing stool submitted for Clostridium difficile testing for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) led to an increase of patients with healthcare-associated VRE bacteremia and bacteriuria (2.1 versus 3.6 per 10,000 patient days; p<0.01 ). Cost-benefit analysis showed reflex screening and isolation of VRE reduced hospital costs

Interpreting ambiguous ‘trace’ results in Schistosoma mansoni CCA Tests: Estimating sensitivity and specificity of ambiguous results with no gold standard

Background The development of new diagnostics is an important tool in the fight against disease. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) is used to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of tests in the absence of a gold standard. The main field diagnostic for Schistosoma mansoni infection, Kato-Katz (KK), is not very sensitive at low infection intensities. A point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) test has been shown to be more sensitive than KK. However, CCA can return an ambiguous ‘trace’ result between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’, and much debate has focused on interpretation of traces results. Methodology/Principle findings We show how LCA can be extended to include ambiguous trace results and analyse S. mansoni studies from both Côte d’Ivoire (CdI) and Uganda. We compare the diagnostic performance of KK and CCA and the observed results by each test to the estimated infection prevalence in the population. Prevalence by KK was higher in CdI (13.4%) than in Uganda (6.1%), but prevalence by CCA was similar between countries, both when trace was assumed to be negative (CCAtn: 11.7% in CdI and 9.7% in Uganda) and positive (CCAtp: 20.1% in CdI and 22.5% in Uganda). The estimated sensitivity of CCA was more consistent between countries than the estimated sensitivity of KK, and estimated infection prevalence did not significantly differ between CdI (20.5%) and Uganda (19.1%). The prevalence by CCA with trace as positive did not differ significantly from estimates of infection prevalence in either country, whereas both KK and CCA with trace as negative significantly underestimated infection prevalence in both countries. Conclusions Incorporation of ambiguous results into an LCA enables the effect of different treatment thresholds to be directly assessed and is applicable in many fields. Our results showed that CCA with trace as positive most accurately estimated infection prevalence

Enhancing contraceptive usage by post-placental intrauterine contraceptive devices (PPIUCD) insertion with evaluation of safety, efficacy, and expulsion

Background: More than 100 million women in developing countries would prefer to avoid a pregnancy; but they may not be using any form of contraception. The study was conducted to assess the safety, incidence of perforation /pain/bleeding/foul discharge and expulsion rates at 6 week follow-up and willingness to continue when Cu T 380 A inserted within ten minutes of placental expulsion both in vaginal and C-section deliveries.Methods: This was an open label, prospective, and longitudinal study. The study was approved by the ethics committee of FOGSI.Results: The insertion of Intrauterine Contraceptive Devices (IUCD) at KIMS, Hubli was easy in 99.52% of subjects after normal delivery and 100% in all subjects after assisted vaginal deliveries. The position of the CuT was in situ in 94.78% of subjects, ultra sonogram was used in 24.76 % to confirm location where threads were not visible in the vagina and in 6.19% of subjects the tip of IUCD was in the cervix which was pushed back into the uterus using artery forceps. It was expelled in 5.23% of patients. There was no case of perforation in this series and no other major complications.Conclusions: Inserting CuT 380 A at 10 minutes after placental delivery is safe leading to the expanding of the usage of IUCD meeting the unmet needs. The expulsion rates would be minimal if it was inserted by a trained provider and placed at the fundus

Performance Analysis of Preemptive Based Uniprocessor Scheduling

All the real-time systems are bound with response time constraints, or else, there is a risk of  severe consequences, which includes failure. The System will fail when not able to meet the requirements according to the specifications. The problem of real-time scheduling is very vast, ranging from uni-processor to complicated-multiprocessor. In this paper, we have compared the performance of real-time tasks that should be scheduled properly, to get optimum performance. Analysis methodology and the concept of optimization leads to the design of appropriate scheduling. We have done  the analysis among RM and EDF algorithm that are important for scheduling in uni-processor

Testing MANET Protocol using Zigbee based Xbee Modules

In the last few years,there has been big interest in adhoc wireless network as they have tremendous military and commercial potential[1].Traditionally to test various parameters in the MANET , the most popular approach is to use mobile phone and Laptops and use the popular WIFI based protocol . But in the recent years there is a huge attraction towards the Internet Of things and specifically wireless sensor network. In this paper we are going to test the MANET protocol using zigbee based XBee modules specifally to determine the Range and Throughput of the Xbee netowork using XCTU Software . The sensor network will be deployed in the car parking application to see the parameters in the real time and dynamically see the sustainability of the network .The network is being designed keeping in mind that the nodes are mobile and at the same time the network does not require a standard infrastructure