Wireless Charging: Its types, Standards and Applications

An electrical gadget can be powered without cords by providing electrical via an air pocket to the device in order to re-charge its capacity. The performance and practicality of cordless charging tech have noticeably enhanced lately. The introduction to cordless charging in this paper covers its basics. The evaluation of standards, which includes Qi and the A4WP, is then given, as well as a focus on their communications channels. Next, we put out a cutting-edge idea for cordless charger networking, which enables chargers to be linked for easier data gathering and management. We explain how the wireless charger network can be used to assign users to chargers, which demonstrates the usefulness in terms of a reduction costs for users to find the best chargers to recharge their mobile devices

Surfactant protein D inhibits HIV-1 infection of target cells via interference with gp120-CD4 interaction and modulates pro-inflammatory cytokine production

© 2014 Pandit et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Surfactant Protein SP-D, a member of the collectin family, is a pattern recognition protein, secreted by mucosal epithelial cells and has an important role in innate immunity against various pathogens. In this study, we confirm that native human SP-D and a recombinant fragment of human SP-D (rhSP-D) bind to gp120 of HIV-1 and significantly inhibit viral replication in vitro in a calcium and dose-dependent manner. We show, for the first time, that SP-D and rhSP-D act as potent inhibitors of HIV-1 entry in to target cells and block the interaction between CD4 and gp120 in a dose-dependent manner. The rhSP-D-mediated inhibition of viral replication was examined using three clinical isolates of HIV-1 and three target cells: Jurkat T cells, U937 monocytic cells and PBMCs. HIV-1 induced cytokine storm in the three target cells was significantly suppressed by rhSP-D. Phosphorylation of key kinases p38, Erk1/2 and AKT, which contribute to HIV-1 induced immune activation, was significantly reduced in vitro in the presence of rhSP-D. Notably, anti-HIV-1 activity of rhSP-D was retained in the presence of biological fluids such as cervico-vaginal lavage and seminal plasma. Our study illustrates the multi-faceted role of human SPD against HIV-1 and potential of rhSP-D for immunotherapy to inhibit viral entry and immune activation in acute HIV infection. © 2014 Pandit et al.The work (Project no. 2011-16850) was supported by Medical Innovation Fund of Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India (www.icmr.nic.in/)

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Comparative assessment of the frying performance of palm olein and sunflower oil during deep-fat frying of Indian battered food products

The present study evaluates the frying performance of palm olein and sunflower oil during deep-fat frying of Indian snacks. Changes in parameters such as free fatty acids (FFA), peroxide value (PV), p-anisidine value (AV), total oxidation as TOTOX value (TV), dienes, and trienes value together with colour, were evaluated after deep frying of fried products, namely aloo pakora, onion pakora, bread pakora, boondi, and meduvada. The FFA and PV after frying were 0.12 ± 0.01 and 1.16 ± 0.07, 0.13 ± 0.02 and 1.3 ± 0.01, 0.66 ± 0.01 and 2.63 ± 0.00, 0.13 ± 0.01 and 1.65 ± 0.05, 0.22 ± 0.01% and 0.92 ± 0.00 meq/kg for fried medium after frying of aloo pakora, onion pakora, bread pakora, boondi, and meduvada fried in palm olein respectively. A similar trend was also observed for AV, TV, CD, and CT, where sunflower oil showed higher deterioration upon frying than palm olein. The changes in fatty acids profile showed significant change in sunflower oil, evidenced by increased saturated fatty acids and decreased unsaturated fatty acids. The colour also increased significantly for both oil after frying, depicting the buildup of oxidative by-products in the frying medium. The prospect of palm olein for frying various Indian snacks is prominent owing to its thermal resistance and techno-economic benefits over sunflower oil

Delineation of safe groundwater aquifers in a Fluoride contaminated region: Walwa Taluka, Maharashtra

Groundwater aquifer contamination has leads health problems in village areas of Maharashtra, India. In this study, groundwater analysis was carried out for different groundwater parameters along with fluoride to delineate the high and low contaminated fluoride region in the Walwa taluka, Maharashtra. A distinct contaminated regions for high and low F‒ contaminated regions were identified in the collected post monsoon groundwater samples (n = 144). In total 98% samples are unsuitable for consumption. Hydro-geochemistry of the region showed highest anion concentration for bicarbonate (1880 mg/L), whereas highest cation concentration for calcium was measured as 118 mg/L. It is main cause for alkaline groundwater condition in this region. The 2D ordinary kriging results are well corborated with the obtained hydrogeochemistry results. The low F‒ concentration region was found near the Krishna River, whereas high concentration regions were found near the agricultural and high land region. The primary hydrogeochemistry of the region suggests that the geogenic source of F‒ minerals in the region. The practice of fertiliser, herbicides and pesticides on agricultural field suggests that these are the secondary source for groundwater F‒ contamination. The applied numerical groundwater modelling software, provided technically viable and effective decision making-tool for identification of safe region in the study area

A STUDY OF SOCIO DEMOGRAPHIC AND CLINICAL PROFILE OF CASES OF DIABETIC FOOT

Introduction: Diabetic foot is a complication of Diabetes Mellitus, which is a group of metabolic disorders sharing the phenotype of hyperglycemia. The aim of the therapy is to avoid diabetic foot complications, salvage the limb with available modalities in hospital, preventing recurrences and rehabilitation. Methods: This article summarizes the profile of 200 patients with diabetic foot seen in General Surgery department of Civil Hospital at Ahmedabad. The diagnosis of diabetic foot was based on clinical, biochemical and radiological investigations. Clinical presentation can be divided into infective, vascular and neuropathic groups. Results: Average age of presentation was 55.02 year. There is a higher incidence in male patients, majority of patients (57%) belongs to lower socioeconomic status. The average duration of diabetes is 9.78 years. Severity of lesion correlated with severity and duration of diabetes. Commonest presenting feature is an abscess followed by gangrene. Staph.aureus is the most common organism isolated from diabetic foot. X-Rays of feet were taken and majority presented with osteomyelitic changes. The average duration of hospital stay was 17.34 days. Conclusion: Foot ulceration in diabetic patients is a resource consuming, disabling morbidity that often is the first step towards lower extremity amputation. Prevention is the best treatment. Effective glycemic control and education are of key importance for decreasing diabetic foot disease, while early presentation and hospital admission, aggressive and appropriate medical and surgical treatment according to grade if disease can improve outcome and reduce the morbidity and mortality due to diabetes

Outcome of single level instrumented posterior lumbar interbody fusion using corticocancellous laminectomy bone chips

Background: Interbody fusion surgery has been considered by many to be a treatment of choice for instability in lumbar degenerative disc disease. A posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) has the advantages of spinal canal decompression, anterior column reconstruction, and reduction of the sagittal slips from a single posterior approach. The PLIF using double cage was a standard practice till many studies reported comparable results and lesser complications with single cage. Iliac crest was considered as an appropriate source of bone graft until comparable spinal fusion rates using local bone graft and cage emerged. Till date, there has been no report of corticocancellous laminectomy bone chips alone being used for spinal fusion. In this paper, we present radiologic results of single level instrumented PLIF, where in only corticocancellous laminectomy bone chips were used as a fusion device. Materials and Methods: It is a retrospective cohort study of 35 consecutive patients, who underwent single level instrumented PLIF surgery, wherein only locally obtained bone chips was used for spinal fusion. The average follow-up was 26 months. The indications for the surgery were as follows: 19 patients had disc herniations, with back pain of instability type, normal disc height on radiology. Ten patients had grade 1 spondylolisthesis, with significant back pain and translational instability on radiography. Three patients were redo spine surgeries, and three patients had healed spondylodiscitis with significant back pain and instability. All patients were regularly followed up and decision of spinal fusion or no fusion was taken at 2 years using modified criteria of Lee. Results: Of total 35 patients, there were 24 males and 11 females, with a mean age of 41 years. There were 16 patients with definitive fusion, 15 patients with probable fusion, 04 patients with possible pseudoarthrosis, and no patient had definitive pseudoarthrosis. The mean time for fusion to occur was 18 months. The average loss of disc height, over 2 year follow up, was only 3 mm in 8 patients. Three patients had a localized kyphosis of more than 3° at the fusion level. The average blood loss was 356 ml and average operating time was 150 min. Conclusion: Corticocancellous laminectomy bone chips alone can be used as a means of spinal fusion in patients with single level instrumented PLIF. This has got a good fusion rate