Broad features of surface ozone variations over Indian region

Surface ozone concentration at three Indian stations - New Delhi (28.6 deg N), Pune (18.5 deg N) and Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum (8.3 deg N) - has been measured since 1973 with the help of an electrochemical continuous ozone recorder. These stations show diurnal, seasonal and annual cycles in surface ozone. Daily changes show that the minimum value occurs at sunrise and maximum in the afternoon. As regards seasonal variations, Thiruvananthapuram and Pune have a minimum value during monsoon season (June to August) while at New Delhi the minimum value occurs in January. However, New Delhi also records low ozone amount during monsoon season identical to the amounts show at Thiruvananthapuram and Pune. The annual cycles at these stations have been compared with similar measurements in the northern and southern hemispheres. The Indian measurements agree well with the annual cycles at these stations. Further, the analysis of the Indian data indicates that the major contribution in surface ozone comes from the natural sources like stratospheric-tropospheric exchange, turbulence, and mixing in the boundary layer; however, a small contribution from anthropogenic sources cannot be ruled out at Pune and probably at New Delhi, especially in winter and summer seasons

Profile of Pediatric Kidney Transplantation at a Tertiary Care Centre in Southern India

Introduction: Renal transplantation offers the best chance of survival to children with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). Patient survival and growth are superior in children with a renal allograft compared to dialysis. The aim of the study was to evaluate the outcomes of pediatric transplants done at a tertiary care hospital in Kochi, India over the study period.Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, the data of children who underwent renal transplantation at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences from 2002 to 2016 Kochi were analyzed.Results: Thirty-four children underwent renal transplantation over a 14-year period. Thirty-three underwent live related transplant whereas one underwent deceased donor transplantation. The mean age and weight of the recipients at transplantation was 14.3 years and 35.7 kg, respectively. Fourteen children were boys and twenty were girls. Thirty-one patients underwent hemodialysis prior to transplant, 2 were taken up preemptively, and 1 patient was on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. There were 5 documented urinary tract infections. No surgical complications were noted in the immediate post-transplant period. There were 5 episodes of acute rejection (14.7%). Two cases experienced Delayed Graft Function and the patient survival rate was 100%.Conclusions: Renal transplantation is a viable option to manage children with ESRD with satisfactory long term results and can be done in a developing nation’s set-up. Keywords: Kidney transplantation; India; Child

Highly transparent and luminescent nanostructured Eu203 doped ZnO films.

Zinc oxide is a wide, direct band gap II-VI oxide semiconductor. Pure and Eu-doped ZnO films are prepared by RF Magnetron sputtering at different doping concentrations (0.5, 1, 3 and 5 wt %). The films are annealed at 500 0C in air for two hours. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the films are characterized using XRD, micro-Raman, AFM, UV-Visible and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The thickness of the films is measured using stylus profilometer. XRD analysis shows that all the films are highly c-axis oriented exhibiting a single peak corresponding to (002) lattice reflection plane of hexagonal wurtzite crystal phase of ZnO. The micro-Raman spectra analysis reveals the presence of E2 high mode in all the samples which is the intrinsic characteristic of hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO. The appearance of LO modes indicates the formation of defects such as oxygen vacancies in the films. AFM micrographs show uniform distribution of densely packed grains of size with well defined grain boundaries. All the films exhibit very high transmittance (above 80%) in the visible region with a sharp fundamental absorption edge around 380 nm corresponding to the intrinsic band edge of ZnO. All the films show PL emission in the UV and visible region. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Structural Nano Composites (NANOSTRUC 2014) held 20-21 May 2014 in Madrid, Spain

Highly ordered good crystalline ZnO-doped WO3 thin films suitable for optoelectronic applications.

Highly ordered ZnO-doped WO3 thin films with good crystalline quality are prepared using radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique, and its morphological and structural properties are studied using various characterization tools such as field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction technique, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Morphological analysis shows a smooth surface for pure film, whereas the ZnO-doped films presents a dense distribution of grains of larger sizes with well-defined grain boundary. X-ray diffraction studies reveal the enhancement of crystalline quality of the films with increase in ZnO doping concentration up to 5 wt.%, beyond which the crystalline quality gets deteriorated. A phase modification from a single monoclinic WO3 phase to mixed monoclinic WO3 and W18O49 phases is observed for films with higher ZnO doping concentrations

Users’ Satisfaction of Public Utility Services – Multivariate System Analysis

This research develops a multivariate system framework for assessing user satisfaction of public water utility organization in a developing country and predicts quality, quantity and overall user satisfaction for policy initiatives. The model framework is applied to the data collected by Public Affairs Centre (PAC) based on the Citizen Report Card approach pioneered by it. Wald test confirms that there exits cross equation correlation across quality, quantity and overall users’ satisfaction dimensions. Based on the system model, the study identifies statistically significant factors that explain users’ loyalty to express satisfaction and voice to express dissatisfaction of users. Policy initiatives are proposed on key factors to reduce voice factors set so that the service provider could improve its service delivery. The system model correctly predicts 85% of satisfied customers across quality, quantity and overall satisfaction dimensions.  Keywords: Multivariate, Logit, Discrete choice Model, Public Sector Utility service provide

Assessment of respiratory morbidity among loading and unloading workers exposed to cement dust

Background: A higher incidence of occupational diseases has been reported recently compared to the past years. One of the industries where workers are remarkably exposed to dust is cement industry. Several studies have been conducted to evaluate pulmonary functions and biochemical parameters of workers exposed to cement dust in factories and construction sites, but few were concentrated among loading and unloading workers of warehouses. Hence the present study was undertaken to find out the effect of cement dust among loading and unloading workers of cement warehouses.Methods: This study was conducted among 82 exposed (cement dust) and 82 non-exposed individuals. Frequency of symptoms, biochemical parameters and spirometric values were taken from all subjects. Spirometric parameters recorded were, forced vital capacity (FVC), Forced expiratory volume (FEV1), FEV1/FVC% and Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR).Results: Out of exposed group, 51.2% had cough, 46.3% had rhinitis 45.2% had breathlessness. FEV1 and FVC showed significant reduction while FEV1/FVC values were normal. No significant changes were seen in renal function tests or liver function tests. Mean value of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was found to be significantly increased.Conclusions: Compared to normal healthy adults the loading and unloading workers in cement warehouses showed restrictive lung disease and an increase in ESR representing a non-specific inflammatory change. A continuous bio monitoring of health status must be initiated for these employees and awareness campaigns regarding the exposure and use of standardized protective devices must be mandated

Inhibitory compound produced by Pseudomonas with effectiveness on Vibrio harveyi

Persistence of the antivibrio property of the potential antagonistic probiotics, Pseudomonas MCCB 102 and 103, at di¡erent temperatures, pH and in organic solvents was studied. The antivibrio compound was extracted, puri¢ed and characterized using thin-layer chromatography, high-pressure liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy, UV^ Vis and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and identi¢ed as N-methyl-1-hydroxyphenazine, a phenazine antibiotic. The toxicity of the compound was tested in Penaeus monodon haemocyte culture and the IC50 valuewas found to be1.4 _ 0.31mg L_1. The compound was found to be bacteriostatic at 0.5mg L_1. Its stability to varying temperature, pH, organic solvents, prolonged shelf-life and vibriostatic nature point to its suitability for prophylatic aquaculture application

Study on the structural, morphological and optical properties of RF-sputtered dysprosium-doped barium tungstate thin films.

Barium tungstate films with different Dy3+ doping concentrations, namely 0 wt.%, 1 wt.%, 3 wt.% and 5 wt.%, are deposited on cleaned quartz substrate by radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique and the prepared films are annealed at a temperature of 700{deg}C. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the annealed films are studied using techniques such as x-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. XRD analysis shows that all the films are well-crystallized in nature with a monoclinic barium tungstate phase. The presence of characteristic modes of the tungstate group in the Raman spectra supports the formation of the barium tungstate phase in the films. Scanning electron microscopic images of the films present a uniform dense distribution of well-defined grains with different sizes. All the doped films present a broad emission in the 390-500 nm region and its intensity increases up to 3 wt.% and thereafter decreases due to usual concentration quenching

Relative preservation of triceps over biceps strength in upper limb-onset ALS: the 'split elbow'

OBJECTIVE Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the motor system. The split hand sign in ALS refers to observed preferential weakness of the lateral hand muscles, which is unexplained. One possibility is larger cortical representation of the lateral hand compared with the medial. Biceps strength is usually preserved relative to triceps in neurological conditions, but biceps has a larger cortical representation and might be expected to show preferential weakness in ALS. METHODS Using the South-East England Register for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, we performed a retrospective longitudinal cohort study and extracted the modified Medical Research Council (MRC) muscle strength score for biceps and triceps in patients with a diagnosis of upper limb-onset ALS in the 19-year period 1996-2015. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to assess the relative strength of the muscles within the total sum of the upper limbs involved in the study. RESULTS There were 659 people with upper limb onset of weakness. In 215 there were insufficient data to perform the analysis, and a further 33 were excluded for other reasons, leaving 411 for analysis. Biceps was stronger than triceps in 87 limbs, and triceps was stronger than biceps in 258 limbs, with no difference seen in the remaining 477. Triceps strength scores (mean rank=186.1) were higher than ipsilateral biceps strength scores (mean rank=134.2), Z=-10.1, p<0.001 (two-tailed). CONCLUSION Triceps strength is relatively preserved compared with biceps in ALS. This is consistent with a broadly corticofugal hypothesis of selective vulnerability, in which susceptibility might be associated with larger cortical representation