Evaluation of correction of kyphotic deformity in dorso-lumbar spinal injuries by posterior stabilization with pedicular screw rod fixation

Background: Acute injury to dorso-lumbar spine is the second most frequent site after cervical spine in adults. The injury, although not associated with high mortality, causes severe morbidity. The management of the traumatic dorso-lumbar spine injuries has improved considerably in the last few years. The objective of the study was to evaluate correction of kyphotic deformity in dorso-lumbar spinal injuries by posterior stabilization with pedicular screw rod fixation.Methods: The study includes 52 patients with dorso-lumbar spinal injuries with or without neurological deficit treated between 2006 and 2014. Pre and postoperative kyphosis was measured by Cobb’s method on plain radiographs. Pre and postoperative neurological status was evaluated based on Frankel’s classification. All un-stable dorso-lumbar spine injuries where two or more columns are involved on X-ray and CT scan were included in the present study.Results: Majority of the patients were in the age group of 20-30 years (38.5%) followed by 31-40 years (30.8%). Males were more than females. The most common mode of injury was road traffic injury in 71.2% of the cases. The most common level of injury was at L1 in 28.8% of the cases followed by at level D12 in 25% of the cases. In all the groups the mean kyphosis angle is reduced significantly. Overall the improvement rate was 94.2% and failure rate was only 5.8%.Conclusions: In conclusion the posterior reduction and internal fixation is a useful procedure in the treatment of the acute injuries of the dorsolumbar spine.

Bioluminescence assay of adenosine triphosphate in drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Twenty three clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis and the reference strain, M. tuberculosis H37Rv were tested for their susceptibility to trifluoperazine (TFP) by the standard broth dilution method and the bioluminescence assay. The results showed that in 15 of the 23 isolates, the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was identical in both the methods and in the remaining 8 isolates the difference in the MIC values between the methods, was less than two fold and was not significant. The findings suggest that the measurement of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by bioluminescence assay can be employed as an alternative method for the rapid screening of clinical isolates for their susceptibility to anti-mycobacterial agents

Adaptive Estimation of Line-of-sight Rate Measurement from a Radio Frequency Seeker

The line-of-sight (LOS) rate output from a radio frequency (RF) seeker is widely used during the homing phase guidance of a tactical missile: The LOS rate is noisy and needs to be filtered.The application of an adaptive Kalman filter for the L.OS rate state estimation has been studied. This filter requires minimal a priori knowledge about technical parameters of the seeker. It isalso capable of estimating the variable noise statistics

In vitro susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to trifluoperazine

The reference strain, Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, 19 drug-sensitive and 15 drug resistant clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis were tested for their in vitro susceptibility to trifluoperazine (TFP), an antipsychotic drug, by broth dilution method. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) of TFP against M. tuberculosis H37Rv were 8 and 32 mg/l, respectively. The distribution of the sensitive and resistant isolates, with respect to the MIC of TFP, was similar. The distribution of the sensitive and resistant isolates, with respect to the MBC of TFP, was different and the difference was statistically significant. The findings suggest that TFP is more bactericidal to drug-resistant isolates than to the sensitive isolates

A Predictive Explicit Guidance Scheme for Ballistic Missiles

A new approach to the design of ballistic missile guidance is presented in this paper. The proposed method uses the missile model to predict the likely impact point at every guidance cycle and apply course corrections based on the predicted impact point (PIP) deviations. The algorithm also estimates the in-flight thrust variation from nominal and accordingly updates the model to reduce the uncertainty in the prediction of the impact point. The performance of the algorithm is tested through 6-DOF simulation. The simulation results show excellent performance of the proposed guidance scheme in nominal & off nominal cases.Defence Science Journal, 2013, 63(5), pp.456-461, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.63.257

Avipox Virus Infection in Rosella parakeet (Platycercus sp.)

Three parakeets were brought for postmortem examination with a history of sudden death. The gross examination of birds revealed multiple light whitish nodules around the left eye, on the skin at the level of hock joint, on the anterior part of tracheal mucosa, congested lung and pallor liver. Impression smears from nodules revealed numerous heterophils, red blood cells, necrotic epithelial cells and bacterial colonies. Histopathological examination of nodules revealed eosinophilic intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies in the spinosal cells, epidermal hyperplasia, ballooning degeneration of spinosal cells and bacterial colonies. The virus was isolated and infection was produced on both chorioallantoic membrane and chicken embryo fibroblasts. Polymerase chain reaction was carried out and primer set designed from the 4b core protein gene of fowl pox virus revealed amplification at 578 bp. Suitable remedial measures were recommended against avipox virus infection and secondary bacterial infection

Acoustical-Mode-Driven Electron-Phonon Coupling in Transition-Metal Diborides

We show that the electron-phonon coupling in the transition-metal diborides NbB2 and TaB2 is dominated by the longitudinal acoustical (LA) mode, in contrast to the optical E_{2g} mode dominated coupling in MgB2. Our ab initio results, described in terms of phonon dispersion, linewidth, and partial electron-phonon coupling along Gamma to A, also show that (i) NbB2 and TaB2 have a relatively weak electron-phonon coupling, (ii) the E_{2g} linewidth is an order of magnitude larger in MgB2 than in NbB2 or TaB2, (iii) the E_{2g} frequency in NbB2 and TaB2 is considerably higher than in MgB2, and (iv) the LA frequency at A for TaB2 is almost half of that of MgB2 or NbB2.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, and 1 tabl