Predictors of Failure from Primary Therapy for Giardiasis in San Diego: A Single Institution Retrospective Review.

This study aimed to determine the presence of giardiasis among HIV patients in San Diego, the rate of failure of metronidazole treatment, and factors associated with treatment failure. We used a 7 year retrospective single-center case series of HIV-infected individuals with giardiasis at University of California San Diego Medical Center. Data were analyzed for the changes in the hematological, biochemical, and immunologic results at pre- and at-diagnosis levels. We also compared the changes at the diagnosis level among patients who were treated successfully and those who experienced treatment failure as defined by retreatment with a second course of antibiotics. In 29 Giardia lamblia-infected HIV patients, following diagnosis of G. lamblia, there was a non-significant decrement in cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4), but a statistically significant increase in the number of white blood cell (WBC). Other indices did not differ between pre- and at-diagnosis levels. Twenty patients (69%) were treated with a single course of metronidazole or tinidazole and seven patients (24.1%) were treated with more than one course of metronidazole. These seven patients had statistically significant higher hemoglobin at the time of diagnosis, but further studies are required to confirm if this is a consistent finding and if this can predict failure from primary therapy

The effect of Pressure in Higher Dimensional Quasi-Spherical Gravitational Collapse

We study gravitational collapse in higher dimensional quasi-spherical Szekeres space-time for matter with anisotropic pressure. Both local and global visibility of central curvature singularity has been studied and it is found that with proper choice of initial data it is possible to show the validity of CCC for six and higher dimensions. Also the role of pressure in the collapsing process has been discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, RevTeX styl

Evaluating building material based thermal comfort of a typical low-cost modular house in India

‘Housing for All by 2022’ is an ambitious initiative by the Government of India, to provide affordable and quality housing to the people of economically weaker sections (EWS) and the low-income group (LIG). Modular housing has become the de-facto in this context of low-cost and affordable housing. In this study, we evaluate the thermal comfort of a commercially available modular house with respect to different low-cost building wall materials and window glass panes. Dynamic energy simulations were carried out for Mumbai to analyse the thermal-comfort performance of such houses throughout the year. Results have shown that none of the low-cost building materials was competent enough to meet the ASHRAE-55 standards. However, a combination of glass fibre reinforced gypsum board and a blue-tinted glass of a 6mm thickness, performed better in thermal comfort in comparison to other materials. This study showed the need for the development of efficient low-cost building materials in order to address the long-term sustainability of the low-cost housing project

Resource Symbiosis Model through bricolage: A livelihood generation assessment of an Indian village

In this study, a conceptual model of resource symbiosis (RSM) of an Indian village was developed, by leveraging the concept of bricolage, to aid in sustainable livelihood generation. This novel RSM expands as a co-management model for a rural community in resource-constrained environments to manage its resources efficiently in collaboration with local governments. Avenues for sustainable livelihood generation was assessed through household surveys and resource mapping of the village. A mixed-mode research method was adopted through participatory rural appraisal activities for involving local people and their practices in the design philosophy of RSM. Problem identification and ranking through personal and collective interviews of the villagers formed a core basis for the livelihood assessment. It enabled the internalisation of normative and idiosyncratic linkages for resource symbiosis. These linkages were interconnected through community participation, which set the boundary conditions for RSM. Results show that RSM for the study village could foster inclusive growth in two ways: first, by creating scope for efficient resource utilisation through the establishment of an oil mill, a biogas plant and a milk processing unit; and, second, by creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem based on village's self-sufficiency and market demand by empowering local entrepreneurs. Additionally, RSM could leverage local governing bodies to connect with private investors and policymakers to enable fast-track implementation of the livelihood generation schemes of the government

Tripartite Entanglement versus Tripartite Nonlocality in Three-Qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-Class States

We analyze the relationship between tripartite entanglement and genuine tripartite nonlocality for three-qubit pure states in the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger class. We consider a family of states known as the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states and derive an analytical expression relating the three-tangle, which quantifies tripartite entanglement, to the Svetlichny inequality, which is a Bell-type inequality that is violated only when all three qubits are nonlocally correlated. We show that states with three-tangle less than 1/2 do not violate the Svetlichny inequality. On the other hand, a set of states known as the maximal slice states does violate the Svetlichny inequality, and exactly analogous to the two-qubit case, the amount of violation is directly related to the degree of tripartite entanglement.We discuss further interesting properties of the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger and maximal slice states

Daylight Performance of a Naturally Ventilated Building as Parameter for Energy Management

© 2016 The Authors. Daylight is an important element of energy efficient buildings. Energy savings from artificial lighting during the daytime can have significant impact on the energy sustainability residential buildings. For a city like Mumbai, where the buildings have limited access to daylight due to the sprawling of densely packed high rise buildings, energy saving from daylighting can be an effective driver of sustainability. Under this purview, it is prudent to evaluate the effects of various building design elements like orientation and window-to-wall ratio (WWR) on energy saving potential through daylighting. In this study, two parameters of daylight incidences: Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDI) and annual light exposure, were studied to understand the daylight performance of a high rise residential building. UDI values were then reiterated by varying the orientation and WWR. The results showed that the building performed best at the South-East orientation with a WWR of 50% which allowed 63% more ambient illuminance in the functional space. This study also unveils the paradigm that ambient illuminance inside the functional space of the building may be independent of total incident annual light exposure in the rooms. That means more annual exposure does not necessarily means better lighting conditions within the indoor functional space. Hence, this study creates a way forward in designing energy efficient buildings using UDI as a daylight performance metric.Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India under the Grant number- 14MHRD005

Socially inclusive renewable energy transition in sub-Saharan Africa: A social shaping of technology analysis of appliance uptake in Rwanda

Rural off-grid renewable energy solutions often fail due to uncertainties in household energy demand, insufficient community engagement, inappropriate financial models, policy inconsistency and lack of political will. Social shaping of technology (SST) o