Reactive synthesis of action planners

An increase in the level of autonomy marks one of the fundamental focuses of current robotic systems. This involves the ability of a robot to reason about its environment and plan its motion in order to carry out assigned tasks. For all tasks, it generally involves abstractions into discrete, logical actions, where each discrete action defines a particular capability of the robot. The problem of synthesis of correct-by-construction action planners has been considered in this work. Action Description Language (ADL) is used to model the actions. These ADL definitions are then translated to Linear Temporal Logic (LTL). LTL based specifications are further used for the reactive synthesis of the strategy. This work largely focuses on expressiveness which consists of a definition of the actions and system/environment behavior. Classical ADL semantics cannot handle multiple agents or non-determinism. A natural extension of ADL (referred to as ADLnE in this document) has been proposed which can handle dynamic environments, non-determinism, and multiple agents. The proposed work can be seen as an extension to generic search based action planners. One such A* search-based method, Goal Oriented Action Planner (GOAP) has been considered which is based on ADL semantics and is limited by deterministic, single agent modeling. Through examples, it has been established that for deterministic, single agent and static (or at best quasi-static) systems, the proposed strategy matches that of GOAP. For dynamic and multi-agent situations, a reactive action plan is synthesized (if feasible) that is guaranteed to satisfy the formal specification, i.e. achieve the goal.Mechanical Engineerin

IMPACT OF INTERNET GUIDED SELF DIAGNOSIS ON DOCTOR PATIENT RELATIONSHIP- A QUALITATIVE STUDY

INTRODUCTION The patient-physician relationship has been noted to be second only to family relationships in terms of importance. This relationship is based on trust of the patient on his physician. The growth of the Internet has enabled the public to more readily access information about health and disease. Patients use of the Internet in searching for and gathering health information is growing and has now become somewhat commonplace. Apart from many other issues created the central issue is the issue of trust on the doctor. An earlier study done on the patient compliance related to internet guided self-diagnosis revealed online self-diagnosis has significant effects on patient compliance. So through this qualitative study we hope to explore all aspects of the internet related self-diagnosis in medical practice OBJECTIVES The OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH IS TO STUDY THE IMPACT OF INTERNET GUIDED SELF DIAGNOSIS ON DOCTOR PATIENT RELATIONSHIP.THE OBJECTIVES ARE STUDIED UNDER THE HEADINGS OF- DIAGNOSISREACTIONPROBLEMS IN FURTHER MANAGEMENTCOMPLIANCE TO PRESCRIPTIONPERCEPTIONS/ FEELINGSANY RECOMMENDATIONS MATERIALS AND METHODS The sampling frame consisted of 20 participating Doctors. The study participants were asked to fill a structured survey form, which consisted of ideal, interpretative and leading questions focussed on recording experience, opinions and perceptions. The recurrent views were identified and these similar views were used to answer the research questions. OBSERVATION AND RESULTS From this study it was found that all the study participants have encountered such a patient who came with an internet guided self-diagnosis. About three fourth of these doctors said that the self-diagnosis was incorrect. Further, according to the physicians majority of them said this lead to problems in further management. But surprisingly most of the physicians said the patients were compliant to their doctor’s prescription even after doing the self-diagnosis. Our qualitative study also reviled a vast array of perceptions about the topic of study, these included absurdness, frustration, feeling irritated and many others. CONCLUSION Thus, from our study it can be said in conclusion that the internet guided self-diagnosis does not help the patient in any way instead in addition to causing problems in management also causes the straining of the doctor patient relationship. But still upon being counselled patient being compliant to the doctor reveals that the patients still trust the doctor more than the internet which is accordance with an earlier quantitative research which we studied in our study of literature. Thus, from our study it can be said in conclusion that the internet guided self-diagnosis does not help the patient in any way instead in addition to causing problems in management also causes the straining of the doctor patient relationship. But still upon being counselled patient being compliant to the doctor reveals that the patients still trust the doctor more than the internet which is accordance with an earlier quantitative research which we studied in our study of literature

Development and Validation of Method for the Estimation of Telmisartan as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient in Tablet Dosage form and Prepared Spherical Agglomerates by RP-HPLC

The Present work was designed to develop and validate an accurate, precise and rapid method for the estimation of Telmisartan as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) as well as in tablet dosage form and prepared spherical agglomerates by RP-HPLC. The developed method was found to be simple, accurate, precise and sensitive. The separation was achieved on an Isocratic High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) (Thermo Scientific) using pumps Jasco PU 2080 Plus, UV detector, column oven (Jasco), and a Reverse Phase C-18 (phenyl) Column (25 cm x 4.6 mm) i.d., particle size 5 μm. The HPLC system was run with flow rate: 0.8 ml/min Injection Volume: 10μl and run time: 10 min, Detector temp: 40 oC. The method was validated for specificity, precision, linearity, and accuracy, robustness, LOD and LOQ parameters. The recovery range was within the range of 99.0–102.0% and the method could be successfully applied for the routine analysis of the drug substance as well as the spherical agglomerates prepared by crystallo coagglomeration technique

Beneficial effects of Morus alba and Azadirachta indica leaf extract based combination cream in scalding type burn injury in rats

Background: The present study was designed to evaluate the potential of a combination cream of aqueous extracts of leaves of Morus alba (MA) and Azadirachta indica (AI) in scalding type burn wound injury in rats.Methods: Plant material was successively extracted and aqueous extracts were selected. Three extract based cream formulations viz. 20% w/w(MA), 20% w/w (AI), and combination cream containing 10%+10% w/w (MA+AI) were prepared. Cream base and standard anti-burn cream containing silver sulfadiazine were also used for comparison. Scalding type burn was given by pouring water at 90°C on a shaved dorsal area of 20 mm2. Deep second-degree burn injury was produced which was evaluated for next 21 days for a percentage of wound contraction and period of epithelialization. On 21st day, animals were sacrificed and histopathological slides were prepared using hematoxylin-eosin staining. Burned tissue was also screened for levels of oxidative stress using thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and glutathione (GSH) estimation.Results: There was a significant increase in the percentage of wound contraction and significant decrease in period of epithelialization in MA, AI, and MA+AI combination cream treated group as compared with control group. However, most significant results were obtained with MA+AI combination cream. Histologically, MA+AI cream treatment resulted in almost complete re-epithelialization and restructuring of the wound tissue. There was a significant rise in TBARS and decrease in GSH levels in burn injury group which was reversed to a major extent by the application of combination cream.Conclusions: The results indicate toward the possible role of free radical scavenging potential of extracts in the Burn wound tissue healing

Rotary Endodontics in Pediatric Dentistry: Literature Review.

Pulpectomy is indicated in primary teeth with carious pulp exposures in which coronal and radicular pulp exhibits clinical signs of hyperemia or evidence of pulp necrosis with or without caries involvement. In primary teeth, it can be challenging and time-consuming, especially during canal preparation, which is considered one of the most important steps in root canal therapy. The development of NiTi rotary files has helped pediatric dentists also. With the availability of rapidly coming versions of these files, it may be difficult to pick appropriate file systems and techniques most suitable for an individual case. Practitioners must always bear in mind that all file systems have benefits and weaknesses

A Validated Stability-Indicating Liquid-Chromatographic Method for Ranitidine Hydrochloride in Liquid Oral Dosage Form

A selective, specific and stability-indicating gradient reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for the determination of Ranitidine in presence of its impurities, forced degradation products and placebo substances such as saccharide and parabens. Ultraviolet detection was performed at 230 nm. Separate portions of the drug product and ingredients were exposed to stress conditions to induce oxidative, acidic, basic, hydrolytic, thermal and photolytic degradation. Ranitidine was found to degrade significantly at acidic, basic and oxidative stress conditions but was stable at heat and humidity. The developed method was validated as per International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines. The method was validated over this range for (i) system suitability (ii) specificity, (iii) precision, (iv) limit of detection and limit of quantification, (v) linearity, (vi) accuracy, (vii) robustness. The method was found to be precise, accurate, linear and robust. The proposed method was successfully employed for estimation of Ranitidine impurities in pharmaceutical preparations

Insights into frequent asthma exacerbations from a primary care perspective and the implications of UK National Review of Asthma Deaths recommendations

The United Kingdom National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) recommends that patients who require ≥3 courses of oral corticosteroids (OCS) for exacerbations in the past year or those on British Thoracic Society (BTS) Step 4/5 treatment must be referred to a specialist asthma service. The aim of the study was to identify the proportion of asthma patients in primary care that fulfil NRAD criteria for specialist referral and factors associated with frequent exacerbations. A total of 2639 adult asthma patients from 10 primary care practices in Glasgow, UK were retrospectively studied between 2014 and 2015. Frequent exacerbators and short-acting β2-agonist (SABA) over-users were identified if they received ≥2 confirmed OCS courses for asthma and ≥13 SABA inhalers in the past year, respectively. Community dispensing data were used to assess treatment adherence defined as taking ≥75% of prescribed inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) dose. The study population included 185 (7%) frequent exacerbators, 137 (5%) SABA over-users, and 319 (12%) patients on BTS Step 4/5 treatment. Among frequent exacerbators, 41% required BTS Step 4/5 treatment, 46% had suboptimal ICS adherence, 42% had not attended an asthma review in the past year and 42% had no previous input from a specialist asthma service. Older age, female gender, BTS Step 4/5, SABA over-use and co-existing COPD diagnosis increased the risk of frequent exacerbations independently. Fourteen per 100 asthma patients would fulfil the NRAD criteria for specialist referral. Better collaboration between primary and secondary care asthma services is needed to improve chronic asthma care

Atypical iliac unicameral bone cyst – An incidental finding in MRI

Bone cyst is a simple fluid filled lesion which can be diagnosed at any age and can occur in any bone of the body. These are non cancerous unicameral bone cysts (UBC). These are asymptomatic and usually do not cause any complications. Though common in the long bones but can rarely occur in flat bones. The iliac bone is a rare location for the occurrence and can be found as incidental finding while doing computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies. There is no expansion of the bone with unicameral bone cysts but in our present case there was expansion making it atypical presentation. We present a 22-year male who underwent MRI for Lumbosacral spine for his vague low backache symptoms. There was incidental finding of bony lesion in left iliac bone which turned out to be simple bone cyst. The study of Lumbosacral spine was unremarkable