An Assessment of Knowledge and Practices Regarding Tuberculosis in the Context of RNTCP Among Non Allopathic Practitioners in Gwalior District

Introduction: India has the highest TB burden accounting for one-fifth of the global incidence with an estimated 1.98 million cases. Non- allopathic practitioners are the major service providers especially in rural and peri-urban areas, treating not just patients of diarrhea, respiratory infections and abdominal Pain but also of tuberculosis. Objectives: To assess the knowledge of sign and symptoms of TB and its management as per the RNTCP guidelines and to assess the practicing pattern regarding tuberculosis. Material & Methods: The present was carried out among the registered non allopathic practitioners providing their services in Gwalior District during the study period. A total of 150 non allopathic practitioners of various methods from both government and private sectors were interviewed using a pre-designed, pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. The information was collected on the General profile of the participant, knowledge about signs and symptoms of TB and its management, practices commonly adopted in the management and their views on involvement of non allopathic practitioners in RNTCP programme. Result: The average score of government practitioners was 7.3 compared to 4.6 by private practitioners. There was a statistically significant difference between the two group on issue related to the management of TB patients as per the RNTCP guidelines. Government practitioners relied mostly on sputum examination for diagnosis and follow up compared to private practitioners who chose other modalities like X-ray, blood examination for this work. Conclusion: There is a gap in knowledge and practices of practitioners of both the sectors. Some serious efforts were required to upgrade the knowledge of non allopathic practitioners if the government is serious about controlling tuberculosis in India

Measurement of Δ\Delta and K∗K^{*} Production in dd+Au collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV

The measurements of the transverse momentum spectra and the invariant mass distributions of $\Delta(1232)$ $\to \pi p$, $K^{*}(892)\to \pi K$ resonances in $d$+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV using the STAR Time Projection Chamber (TPC) at RHIC are presented. The in-medium modification of the $\Delta$ and $K^{*}$ mass and width has been studied as a function of transverse momentum ($p_T$). The particle ratios $K^{*}/K$, $\Delta/p$ and the average transverse momentum ($$) as a function of different collision centrality has been reported. The nuclear modification factors ($R_{CP}$ and $R_{dAu}$) of $\Delta$ and $K^{*}$ are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures, proceeding (poster) of the 18th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (QM2005), Aug.4-9, Budapest, Hungar

Dissolution of heavy metals from electrostatic precipitator (ESP) dust of a coal based sponge iron plant by fungal leaching

Coal based sponge iron industries in India generate considerable quantity of solid waste, 40% of which is flue dust produced from the electrostatic precipitator (ESP) connected to rotary kiln. This paper reports the dissolution of Zn, Cu, Pb, Mn and Fe from the ESP dust using three fungal species, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus at 5 and 10% pulp densities over a period of 28 days. Highest metal leaching was achieved with A. niger followed by A. flavus. The least metal leaching was achieved with A. fumigatus. The pH of the medium declined consistently over the incubation period. Maximum leaching for Zn, Cu, Pb, Mn and Fe were 81, 76, 74, 72 and 52% respectively.Key words: Fungal leaching, sponge iron, electrostatic precipitator (ESP) dust, metal dissolution

Natural organic matter in sedimentary basins and its relation to arsenic in anoxic ground water: the example of West Bengal and its worldwide implications

In order to investigate the mechanism of As release to anoxic ground water in alluvial aquifers, the authors sampled ground waters from 3 piezometer nests, 79 shallow (80 m) wells, in an area 750 m by 450 m, just north of Barasat, near Kolkata (Calcutta), in southern West Bengal. High concentrations of As (200-1180 mug L-1) are accompanied by high concentrations of Fe (3-13.7 mgL(-1)) and PO4 (1-6.5 mg L-1). Ground water that is rich in Mn (1-5.3 mg L-1) contains <50 mug L-1 of As. The composition of shallow ground water varies at the 100-m scale laterally and the metre-scale vertically, with vertical gradients in As concentration reaching 200 mug L-1 m(-1). The As is supplied by reductive dissolution of FeOOH and release of the sorbed As to solution. The process is driven by natural organic matter in peaty strata both within the aquifer sands and in the overlying confining unit. In well waters, thermotolerant coliforms, a proxy for faecal contamination, are not present in high numbers (<10 cfu/100 ml in 85% of wells) showing that faecally-derived organic matter does not enter the aquifer, does not drive reduction of FeOOH, and so does not release As to ground water.Arsenic concentrations are high (much greater than50 mug L-1) where reduction of FeOOH is complete and its entire load of sorbed As is released to solution, at which point the aquifer sediments become grey in colour as FeOOH vanishes. Where reduction is incomplete, the sediments are brown in colour and resorption of As to residual FeOOH keeps As concentrations below 10 mug L-1 in the presence of dissolved Fe. Sorbed As released by reduction of Mn oxides does not increase As in ground water because the As resorbs to FeOOH. High concentrations of As are common in alluvial aquifers of the Bengal Basin arise because Himalayan erosion supplies immature sediments, with low surface-loadings of FeOOH on mineral grains, to a depositional environment that is rich in organic mater so that complete reduction of FeOOH is common. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd

PSO-GWO Optimized Fractional Order PID Based Hybrid Shunt Active Power Filter for Power Quality Improvements

This paper presents a Hybrid Shunt Active Power Filter (HSAPF) optimized by hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization-Grey Wolf Optimization (PSO-GWO) and Fractional Order Proportional-Integral-Derivative Controller (FOPIDC) for reactive power and harmonic compensation under balance and unbalance loading conditions. Here, the parameters of FOPID controller are tuned by PSO-GWO technique to mitigate the harmonics. Comparing Passive with Active Filters, the former is tested to be bulky and design is complex and the later is not cost effective for high rating. Hence, a hybrid structure of shunt active and passive filter is designed using MATLAB/Simulink and in real time experimental set up. The compensation process for shunt active filter is different from predictable methods such as (p-q) or (id-i ) theory, in which only the source current is to be sensed. The performance of the proposed controller is tested under different operating conditions such as steady and transient states and indices like Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), Input Power Factor (IPF), Real Power (P) and Reactive Power (Q) are estimated and compared with that of other controllers. The parameters of FOPIDC and Conventional PID Controller (CPIDC) are optimized by the techniques such as PSO, GWO and hybrid PSO-GWO. The comparative simulation/experiment results reflect the better performance of PSO-GWO optimized FOPIDC based HSAPF with respect to PSO/GWO optimized FOPIDC/CPIDC based HSAPF under different operating conditions.

Impact of planting geometry on productivity and profitability of turmeric (Curcuma longa) and pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) intercropping under rainfed condition

Six planting patterns of turmeric and pigeonpea intercropping compared with sole turmericand sole pigeonpea at Phulbani, Orissa during 2005-06 and 2006-07 under organicenvironment. Turmeric cv. Lakadong (200 days) and pigeonpea cv. Asha (225 days) wereselected for the experiment. Well-decomposed FYM @ 20t/ha was applied as the source ofnutrient for the system. Over seasons, sole turmeric gave the maximum dry rhizome equivalentyield of 21.19 q/ha closely followed by turmeric and pigeonpea (10:2) planting in replacementseries with dry rhizome equivalent yield of 19.91 q/ha. Sole turmeric gave the maximumgross return of Rs. 61,319/ha, but turmeric and pigeonpea (10:2) intercropping proved themost remunerative with net return of Rs. 17,884/ha due to lower cost of cultivation as comparedto sole turmeric. &nbsp