Role of Magnesium Supplementation in Children with West Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract Objectives West syndrome is a severe epileptic encephalopathy of young age. It is characterized by a clinico-electrical triad of infantile epileptic spasms, regression or arrest of psychomotor development, and hypsarrhythmia. In the last two decades, the large progress in the development of newer antiepileptic drugs has allowed us to have a vast choice of treatment options to control spasms, although they often fail to do so. Thus, there is a need to explore other treatment options. Materials & Methods Subjects in this open-labelled randomized control trial were included newly diagnosed children of age between 3 months and 5 years of both genders. A total of 52 children were recruited and randomized into two groups: an intervention group (n=30) and a non-intervention group (n=22). Magnesium sulphate was provided for the intervention group but not for the non-intervention one. Both groups received the rest of the treatments, including adrenocorticotropic hormone and antiepileptic drugs. The follow-up period was three months, at the end of which a per-protocol analysis was performed. Results There was no significant difference in seizure control and neurodevelopmental outcome between both groups, but electroencephalogram significantly improved in the intervention group compared to the control. Also, the clinical response was better in patients with normal initial serum magnesium levels in the intervention group (p=0.003) than in other patients. Conclusion Magnesium supplementation may be helpful in children with West syndrom

Physico-chemical analysis of selected ground water samples of Agra city, India

The aim of present study was carried out to assess the status of the groundwater in Agra city .The range of physicochemical parameters like pH (7.2-7.7), EC (1580-5200 mmhos), TDS (1020-4950 mg/l), Turbidity (1.1-31.4 NTU), Total Alkalinity (330-525 mg/l), Total hardness 240-1425 mg/l), Chloride (295-1140 mg/l), Calcium (72-436 mg/l), Magnesium 14.6-151.2 mg/l), Sodium (126.5-1254.9 mg/l) and Potassium (1.9-60.6 mg/l) were found to be higher than the natural background level of groundwater. This indicates the groundwater pollution in selected water samples from 12 sampling sites from Feb. to May 2011 of Agra city. The results considered that the groundwater of the study area in general cannot be considered as good quality

Light deflection angle through velocity profile of galaxies in f(R)f(R) model

We explore a new realisation of the galactic scale dynamics via gravitational lensing phenomenon in power-law $f(R)$ gravity theory of the type $f(R)\propto R^{1+\delta}$ with $\delta<<1$ for interpreting the clustered dark matter effects. We utilize the single effective point like potential (Newtonian potential + $f(R)$ background potential) obtained under the weak field limit to study the combined observations of galaxy rotation curve beyond the optical disk size and their lensing profile in $f(R)$ frame work. We calculate the magnitude of light deflection angle with the characteristic length scale (because of Noether symmetry in $f(R)$ theories) appearing in the effective $f(R)$ rotational velocity profile of a typical galaxy with the model parameter $\delta \approx O(10^{-6})$ constrained in previous work. For instance, we work with the two nearby controversial galaxies NGC 5533 and NGC 4138 and explore their galactic features by analysing the lensing angle profiles in $f(R)$ background. We also contrast the magnitudes of $f(R)$ lensing angle profiles and the relevant parameters of such galaxies with the generalised pseudo-isothermal galaxy halo model and find consistency.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Extended galactic rotational velocity profiles in f(R)f(R) gravity background

An attempt has been made to explore the galactic dynamics via the rotational velocity beyond the Einstein's geometric theory of gravity. It is inspired from the geometric relation obtained in the power law $f(R)$ gravity model in vacuum. We analyse the action with a small positive deviation from the Einstein-Hilbert action (taking $R$ as $f(R)\propto R^{1+\delta}$) at the galactic scales for the explanation of cosmological dark matter problem and obtain the contribution of dynamical $f(R)$ background geometry in accelerating the test mass. In the weak field limits, we obtain the effective acceleration of the test mass due to a massive spherically symmetric source in $f(R)$ background and develop an equation for the rotational velocity. We test the viability of the model by tracing the motion of test mass outside the typical galactic visible boundaries without considering any dark matter halo profile. We obtain a nice agreement in the outer regions (up to few tens of kpc beyond the visible boundary) of the typical galaxy by using the known galaxy data.\\ We further explore the galactic dynamics for a galaxy NGC 1052 of which the dark matter deficient galaxies, i.e., DF2 and DF4 are a part (satellite galaxies) and discuss plots of the dynamical feature of rotation curves in $f(R)$ background for the model parameter $\delta<<1$ and interpret the results for its satellite galaxies.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Biped dynamic walker with alternate unpowered and partially powered steps in a gait cycle

The biped dynamic walker considered in this paper has three actuators - two at the ankle joints and one at the hip joint. We consider the case of one of the two ankle actuators at fault. Despite having only two actuators operational, we show that successful gait is possible for a typical case of virtual passive dynamic walking. We analyze such gaits for local and global stability for a virtual slope and for the cases of completely unpowered or partially powered alternate steps. It is shown that completely unpowered alternate steps are preferred over partially powered alternate steps in the case of virtual passive dynamic walking for global stability, and the other way for local stability. Copyright © 2020 Krishna Prakash Yadav, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Longitudinal trial of smart-phone based social media applications for remote monitoring of cancer patients in the context of a LMIC: compliance, satisfaction, and cost-benefit analysis

The cancer burden is expected to reach 20 million new cases annually in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) by 2025. Few estimates suggest that thyroid cancer could become the third most common cancer diagnosed in women by 2019. Health care services need to gear up to provide close clinical follow-up care for patients especially in LMICs where there is already a shortage of healthcare personnel. We conducted this study to assess the effect of remote monitoring using tele-follow up on compliance, satisfaction and economic benefit. Participants were recruited to traditional hospital follow-up (consultation, clinical examination, and investigations as per hospital policy) or tele-follow up based on social media. Outcomes included information needs, participants’ compliance, and satisfaction, post-op complications, clinical investigations ordered. A total of 64 patients with thyroid cancer were recruited- 24 in hospital follow up group and 40 in the remote monitoring group. There were no significant differences between groups regarding satisfaction with information received. Responses were significantly more positive in the social media group, with a higher percentage reporting “very satisfied”. Wound evaluation through tele-follow up was on par with OPD follow up. If all of these 40 patients would have come to our OPD follow-up, they would have travelled on an average of 930 kms per patient. This study shows that social media is a practical tool in follow-up of cancer patients in LMICs where traditional telemedicine tools are restricted and conventional follow-up is economically challenging to patients. It also ensures compliance which is a major issue with conventional follow-up due to poor infrastructure

A Case Control Study on Risk Factors Associated with Low Birth Weight Babies in Eastern Nepal

Background. This study was done to assess the maternal and sociodemographic factors associated with low birth weight (LBW) babies. Methods. An unmatched case control study was done involving 159 cases (mothers having LBW singleton babies) and 159 controls (mothers having normal birth weight singleton babies). Results. More than 50% of LBW babies were from the mothers with height ≤145 cm while only 9.43% of NBW babies were from the mothers with that height. Finally, after multivariate logistic regression analysis, maternal height, time of first antenatal care (ANC) visit, number of ANC visits, iron supplementation, calcium supplementation, maternal education, any illness during pregnancy, and hypertension were found as the significant predictors of LBW. However, maternal blood group AB, normal maternal Body Mass Index (BMI), mother’s age of 30 or more years, and starting ANC visit earlier were found to be protective for LBW. Conclusion. Study findings suggest that selectively targeted interventions such as delay age at first pregnancy, improving maternal education and nutrition, and iron and calcium supplementation can prevent LBW in Nepal

Emerging trends in the recovery of ferrospheres and plerospheres from coal fly ash waste and their emerging applications in environmental cleanup

Coal fly ash (CFA) is a major global problem due to its production in huge volumes. Fly ash has numerous toxic heavy metals; thus, it is considered a hazardous material. However, it also has several value-added minerals like ferrous, alumina, and silica along with other minerals. Fly ash also has several natural micro- to nano-structured materials; for instance, spherical ferrous-rich particles, cenospheres, plerospheres, carbon nanomaterials, and unburned soot. These micron- to nano-sized particles are formed from the molten slag of coal, followed by condensation. Among these particles, plerospheres which are hollow spherical particles, and ferrospheres which are ferrous-rich particles, have potential applications in the environmental cleanup, research, catalytic industries, and glass and ceramics industries. Additionally, these particles could be further surface-functionalized or purified for other applications. Moreover, these particles are widely explored for their potential in the army and other defense systems like lightweight materials and sensing The recovery of such particles from waste fly ash will make the process and remediation technology economically and environmentally friendly. The current review focuses on the various structural and elemental properties of ferrospheres and plerospheres from fly ash. This review also focuses on the emerging applications of both naturally formed materials in CFA

Water Quality Assessment of Pahuj River using Water Quality Index at Unnao Balaji, M.P., India

The study has been carried to assess the water quality index of Pahuj River at Unnao Balaji, Madhya Pradesh. The samples were collected from 10 different locations and analyzed for various physico-chemical parameters like Temperature, pH, Turbidity, Total Hardness, Chloride, Dissolved Oxygen, Biological Oxygen Demand, Fluoride, Iron and Nitrate. Water Quality Index serves as the basis for environment assessment of water in relation to pollution load categorization and designation of classes. The value of Water Quality Index (WQI) at almost all location indicates that water of Pahuj River at Unnao Balaji is unfit for drinking purpose due to disposal of heavy amount of sewage into the River