Effect of Standard Treatment Guidelines with or without Prescription Audit on Prescribing for Acute Respiratory Tract Infection (ARI) and Diarrhoea in some Thana Health Complexes (THCs) of Bangladesh

Inappropriate prescribing for ARI and diarrhoea is a serious health problem in many developing countries including Bangladesh. A baseline retrospective prescribing survey for ARI and diarrhoea have been conducted in randomly selected 60 thana health complexes (THCs) of Dhaka division of Bangladesh. In the 38 of 60 THCs, the prescribers did not comply with the standard treatment guidelines (STG) for ARI. They are marked as \u27unsatisfactory performers\u27. In these THCs unnecessary antibiotics were prescribed in more than 50% of the encounters. The study further revealed that in 26 THCs, comprising 41.6% of the 38 THCs, the situation was even worse regarding the indiscriminate use of antibiotics. In these THCs antibiotics were prescribed in \u3e or =72% of the encounters. For diarrhoea, only in 8.3% of the THCs antibiotics were prescribed in \u3e or =50% of the encounters. Encouragingly, most of the prescribers prescribed ORS. So the diarrhoea cases were dropped from the intervention. The 24 out of 26 worse performing THCs for ARI management, were grouped into three groups: Group-I (implementing STG+ Audit), Group-II (STG) and Group-III (no intervention, control). The prescribers of the THCs belonging to Group-I and Group-II received STG+Audit and STG only respectively as intervention(s). On the contrary, the prescribers of the THCs of Group-III (control) did not receive any intervention. It was observed that after the implementation of interventions the use of the unnecessary antibiotics to treat ARI was significantly reduced (p\u3c0.01) compared to pre-intervention period in Group-I (STG+Audit). In this group highly significant (p\u3c0.000) reduction in antibiotics use was achieved in 6 out of 8 THCs. The average reduction in antibiotic use in terms of encounters was 23.7 and 15.2% in the Group-I and Group-II respectively owing to the intervention(s). Significant reduction in antibiotic use in terms of THCs was 3 (out of 8 THCs) and 2 (out of 8 THCs) belonging to the Group-II and Group-III respectively. When compensated for the change in the control group, the reduction of antibiotic use in terms of encounters was 15.2 and 6.9% in the THCs of the Group-I and Group-II respectively due to introduction of the interventions. The study concludes that STG supported by prescription audit are highly effective interventions to change the prescribing behaviour of the prescribers for ARI in the THCs

Structural and doping effects in the half-metallic double perovskite A2A_2CrWO6_6

he structural, transport, magnetic and optical properties of the double perovskite $A_2$CrWO$_6$ with $A=\text{Sr, Ba, Ca}$ have been studied. By varying the alkaline earth ion on the $A$ site, the influence of steric effects on the Curie temperature $T_C$ and the saturation magnetization has been determined. A maximum $T_C=458$ K was found for Sr$_2$CrWO$_6$ having an almost undistorted perovskite structure with a tolerance factor $f\simeq 1$. For Ca$_2$CrWO$_6$ and Ba$_2$CrWO$_6$ structural changes result in a strong reduction of $T_C$. Our study strongly suggests that for the double perovskites in general an optimum $T_C$ is achieved only for $f \simeq 1$, that is, for an undistorted perovskite structure. Electron doping in Sr$_2$CrWO$_6$ by a partial substitution of Sr$^{2+}$ by La$^{3+}$ was found to reduce both $T_C$ and the saturation magnetization $M_s$. The reduction of $M_s$ could be attributed both to band structure effects and the Cr/W antisites induced by doping. Band structure calculations for Sr$_2$CrWO$_6$ predict an energy gap in the spin-up band, but a finite density of states for the spin-down band. The predictions of the band structure calculation are consistent with our optical measurements. Our experimental results support the presence of a kinetic energy driven mechanism in $A_2$CrWO$_6$, where ferromagnetism is stabilized by a hybridization of states of the nonmagnetic W-site positioned in between the high spin Cr-sites.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

An artificial fish swarm filter-based Method for constrained global optimization

Ana Maria A.C. Rocha, M. Fernanda P. Costa and Edite M.G.P. Fernandes, An Artificial Fish Swarm Filter-Based Method for Constrained Global Optimization, B. Murgante, O. Gervasi, S. Mirsa, N. Nedjah, A.M. Rocha, D. Taniar, B. Apduhan (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Part III, LNCS 7335, pp. 57–71, Springer, Heidelberg, 2012.An artificial fish swarm algorithm based on a filter methodology for trial solutions acceptance is analyzed for general constrained global optimization problems. The new method uses the filter set concept to accept, at each iteration, a population of trial solutions whenever they improve constraint violation or objective function, relative to the current solutions. The preliminary numerical experiments with a wellknown benchmark set of engineering design problems show the effectiveness of the proposed method.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

The role of non-resonant effect in terahertz transmission through subwavelength holes

Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium1256-25

Rotational effect of a cylinder on hydro-thermal characteristics in a partially heated square enclosure using CNT-water nanofluid

Rotating cylinder movement in a cavity flow is an exciting field of study in heat transfer. Considerable research has been carried out on rotating cylinders under MHD mixed convection in various types of enclosures. However, considering partially heated square enclosure and magnetic field using CNT-water nanofluid is very limited. This study's goal is to assess the hydrothermal phenomena in a square enclosure with a rotating cylinder. Simulation has been conducted for different rotational speeds (Ω) and dimensionless times (τ) to observe the thermal and fluid flow behaviour. The Galerkin Residual based finite element method has been used to conduct numerical calculations. The results are shown as isotherms, streamlines, and average Nusselt number at the cylinder wall. Moreover, the drag force at the moving wall, and the fluid properties such as the root mean square (rms) of velocity, the temperature, the vorticity functions, and the average fluid temperature are also presented. The heat transfer rate, drag force, rms velocity, and temperature increase with the rise of rotational speed and dimensionless time rise. Maximum vorticity occurs at Ω = 8 and τ = 1. The maximum vorticity function increases 12 times with the increasing rotational speed. Higher rotational speed leads to increased average fluid temperature. The case of Ω = 8, τ = 1 shows the most temperature variance, while Ω = 1, τ = 0.1 has the least. Increasing rotational speed results in higher drag force on the cylinder's surface. At Ω = 4, the drag force is 2.8 times greater than at Ω = 2. Overall, the fluid flow and thermal performance boost up while the rotating speed of the cylinder is higher