A comparative study between single dose intralesional autologous blood and corticosteroid injection in chronic plantar fasciitis-a short term follow-up study

Background: Plantar fasciitis was initially thought to be an acute inflammatory disease, but histology findings show that it is a chronic degenerative process leading to pain at the calcaneal insertion without any inflammation. The diagnosis of plantar fasciitis is mainly based on clinical symptoms, like heel pain and tightness, and diagnostic imaging is not routinely required. Injection of autologous blood can help stimulate a healing response in chronic tendon disorders. Methods: Radiological imaging of the affected foot in lateral view will be taken. 30 patients will be treated with 2 ml of autologous blood with 1 ml lidocaine and another 30 patients with 2 ml of triamcinolone acetonide with 1 ml lidocaine. The main outcomes measured are subjective based on the visual analog scale done pre-injection, 2 weeks, 4 weeks and 12 weeks post injection. Final outcome was measured based on the pain and activity level at 3 months. Results: The corticosteroid group showed an early sharp and then more gradual improvement in pain scores, but autologous blood group had a steady gradual drop in pain. Conclusions: Autologous whole blood and corticosteroid local injection can both be considered as effective methods in the treatment of chronic plantar fasciitis

Palmprint Authentication System Based on Local and Global Feature Fusion Using DOST

Palmprint is the region between wrist and fingers. In this paper, a palmprint personal identification system is proposed based on the local and global information fusion. The local and global information is critical for the image observation based on the results of the relationship between physical stimuli and perceptions. The local features of the enhanced palmprint are extracted using discrete orthonormal Stockwell transform. The global feature is obtained by reducing the scale of discrete orthonormal Stockwell transform to infinity. The local and global matching distances of the two palmprint images are fused to get the final matching distance of the proposed scheme. The results show that the fusion of local and global features outperforms the existing works on the available three datasets

Demarcation of Ground Water Potential Zones using Remote Sensing and GIS Applications

Now-a-days, due to the high demand of water for the human needs, groundwater sources are drastically extracted and causing to least the source. The entire Yearly furnish is contributing from the utmost resource called Groundwater. Globally, groundwater is extracting primarily for the purpose of agricultural fields, domestic and for industrial water supply. Majority of the surface water is in the form of saline water which is not useful for the needs of human beings for their daily needs. Very less amount of fresh surface water is existing on the ground surface. To compensate the needs, it is essential to identify, extract and manage the groundwater which is available at different levels at different areas of the globe. Proper planning is required for the extraction of groundwater using updated technologies for using and maintaining of natural resources like water resources. The prime strive of the selected project area is to map out potential groundwater regions in the Pendlimarri Mandal of Kadapa District by using Geospatial Technology. The main impartial target of the work is to select appropriate methods and assessment criteria of the technology to identify the potential underground demarcations in geographic information system environment with help of ArcGIS software. To demarcate zones of groundwater potential, various key parameters called geology, lineament density, LU / LC, geomorphology, groundwater depths, slope and drainage pattern were prepared by utilizing remote sensing data and secondary data which can collect from concern departments. The thematic layers are to be finally integrated by using weighted overlay analysis of spatial analyst tools of data management tools of ArcMap software to delineate underground water prospects regions output layout of the project. Disparate groundwater prospects levels were categorized, from the range excellent to poor including very good, good and moderate in between. At last, decided that that the applications of geoinformatics are essential and effectively applied for the demarcation of potential zones of groundwater

Transport and infrared photoresponse properties of InN nanorods/Si heterojunction

The present work explores the electrical transport and infrared (IR) photoresponse properties of InN nanorods (NRs)/n-Si heterojunction grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Single-crystalline wurtzite structure of InN NRs is verified by the X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Raman measurements show that these wurtzite InN NRs have sharp peaks E2(high) at 490.2 cm-1 and A1(LO) at 591 cm-1. The current transport mechanism of the NRs is limited by three types of mechanisms depending on applied bias voltages. The electrical transport properties of the device were studied in the range of 80 to 450 K. The faster rise and decay time indicate that the InN NRs/n-Si heterojunction is highly sensitive to IR light

Droplet epitaxy of InN quantum dots on Si(111) by RF plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

InN quantum dots (QDs) were fabricated on Si(111) substrate by droplet epitaxy using an RF plasma-assisted MBE system. Variation of the growth parameters, such as growth temperature and deposition time, allowed us to control the characteristic size and density of the QDs. As the growth temperature was increased from 100 °C to 300 °C, an enlargement of QD size and a drop in dot density were observed, which was led by the limitation of surface diffusion of adatoms with the limited thermal energy. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to assess the QDs size and density. The chemical bonding configurations of InN QDs were examined by X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum of the deposited InN QDs shows the presence of In-N bond. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements showed that the emission peak energies of the InN QDs are sensitive to temperature and show a strong peak emission at 0.79 eV

Inhomogeneous magnetism in single crystalline Sr3_3CuIrO6+δ_{6+\delta}: Implications to phase-separation concepts

The single crystalline form of an insulator, Sr$_3$CuIrO$_{6+\delta}$, is shown to exhibit unexpectedly more than one magnetic transition (at 5 and 19 K) with spin-glass-like magnetic susceptibility behaviour. On the basis of this finding, viz., inhomogeneous magnetism in a chemically homogeneous material, we propose that the idea of "phase- separation" described for manganites [1] is more widespread in different ways. The observed experimental features enable us to make a comparison with the predictions of a recent toy model [2] on {\it magnetic} phase separation in an insulating environment.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Effectiveness of community-based health education and home support program to reduce blood pressure among patients with uncontrolled hypertension in Nepal : a cluster-randomized trial

Background Hypertension is a major global public health problem. Elevated blood pressure can cause cardiovascular and kidney diseases. We assessed the effectiveness of health education sessions and home support programs in reducing blood pressure among patients with uncontrolled hypertension in a suburban community of Nepal. Methods We conducted a community-based, open-level, parallel-group, cluster randomized controlled trial in Birendranagar municipality of Surkhet, Nepal. We randomly assigned four clusters (wards) into intervention and control arms. We provided four health education sessions, frequent home and usual care for intervention groups over six months. The participants of the control arm received only usual care from health facilities. The primary outcome of this study was the proportion of controlled systolic blood pressure (SBP). The analysis included all participants who completed follow-up at six months. Results 125 participants were assigned to either the intervention (n = 63) or the control (n = 62) group. Of them, 60 participants in each group completed six months follow-up. Theproportion of controlled SBP was significantly higher among the intervention participants compared to the control (58.3% vs. 40%). Odds ratio of this was 2.1 with 95% CI: 1.01–4.35 (p = 0.046) and that of controlled diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 1.31 (0.63–2.72) (p = 0.600). The mean change (follow-up minus baseline) in SBP was significantly higher in the intervention than in the usual care (-18.7 mmHg vs. -11.2 mmHg, p = 0.041). Such mean change of DBP was also higher in the intervention (-10.95 mmHg vs. -5.53 mmHg, p = 0.065). The knowledge score on hypertension improved by 2.38 (SD 2.4) in the intervention arm, which was significantly different from that of the control group, 0.13 (1.8) (p<0.001). Conclusions Multiple health education sessions complemented by frequent household visits by health volunteers can effectively improve knowledge on hypertension and reduce blood pressure among uncontrolled hypertensive patients at the community level in Nepal

Implementation of a Deutsch-like quantum algorithm utilizing entanglement at the two-qubit level, on an NMR quantum information processor

We describe the experimental implementation of a recently proposed quantum algorithm involving quantum entanglement at the level of two qubits using NMR. The algorithm solves a generalisation of the Deutsch problem and distinguishes between even and odd functions using fewer function calls than is possible classically. The manipulation of entangled states of the two qubits is essential here, unlike the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm and the Grover's search algorithm for two bits.Comment: 4 pages, two eps figure