A study of scrub meningoencephalitis and keeping it as a common differential diagnosis

Background: Scrub typhus is caused by the organism Orientia tsutsugamushi, transmitted by trombiculid mites. Meningoencephalitis as a cause of mortality in cases of scrub typhus is becoming a common entity now. Aims and objectives were to study the incidence of meningoencephalitis in scrub typhus cases admitted to our hospital and stress the importance of keeping it as a common differential diagnosis.Methods: A descriptive observational study of 39 diagnosed cases of scrub typhus admitted to our hospital for 6 months duration (May 2018 to October 2018) was conducted. Data concerning the cases were recorded and analyzed using appropriate statistics.Results: Out of 39 cases admitted, 8 patients were diagnosed as having meningoencephalitis. Patients with meningoencephalitis had severe thrombocytopenia when compared to those without any central nervous system (CNS) symptoms. All patients responded well to doxycycline therapy with no mortality amongst cases under study.Conclusions: There have been numerous outbreaks of scrub typhus in our state of Rajasthan, especially in the Hadoti region. And in recent years, scrub typhus has been an important contributor to the newer class of emerging infections causing mortality in India. Meningoencephalitis although rare forms a major part of the complications of scrub typhus

Potential predictors of surgical evacuation following early medical abortion: a prospective study

Background: Medical management is the safer, effective and more convenient method for the management of missed abortion. Owing to the risk and complications, medical management is offered to all the women presenting with missed abortions. Yet after all possible efforts a large number of patients land up into surgical evacuation. This study is conducted for the in-depth analysis of the patient's presenting complaints and their risk factors to establish the correlation of these factors with failed medical abortion. This would help in the establishment of easily identifiable subgroups for whom medical management would be a success. Methods: This is a prospective observational study conducted at St. Stephen’s hospital Delhi during September 2019-June 2020. 55 women with missed abortion attending the gynaecological clinic and emergency, were recruited based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. After taking informed and written consent, all cases were administered misoprostol by vaginal route for medical management. Patients were followed up for 24 hours and looked for the outcome.Results: We found that multiparity, advanced gestational age and previous caesarean deliveries were the predictors of uterine evacuation following failed medical management. Higher chances of complete abortion were seen among multiparous and among the patients who had bleeding at the time of presentation. Failure of medical management was seen in around 70% cases with more than 9 weeks gestational age. Lesser side effects are observed with 400 mcg misoprostol dosing.Conclusions: Nulliparous patients and the patients presenting with bleeding at the time of presentation had more complete abortion. Multiparity and previous caesarean delivery is associated with failed medical management. After studying the potential risk factors, every patient can be counselled about the chances of completion of medical management

Android App Security -A Survey

ABSTRAC

A production inventory model with exponential demand rate and reverse logistics

The objective of this paper is to develop an integrated production inventory model for reworkable items with exponential demand rate. This is a three-layer supply chain model with perspectives of supplier, producer and retailer. Supplier delivers raw material to the producer and finished goods to the retailer. We consider perfect and imperfect quality products, product reliability and reworking of imperfect items. After screening, defective items reworked at a cost just after the regular manufacturing schedule. At the beginning, the manufacturing system starts produce perfect items, after some time the manufacturing system can undergo into “out-of-control” situation from “in-control” situation, which is controlled by reverse logistic technique. This paper deliberates the effects of business strategies like optimum order size of raw material, exponential demand rate, production rate is demand dependent, idle times and reverse logistics for an integrated marketing system. Mathematica is used to develop the optimal solution of production rate and raw material order for maximum expected average profit. A numerical example and sensitivity analysis is illustrated to validate the model

Design and Analysis of Decagonal Photonic Crystal Fiber with Elliptical air hole core for liquid sensing

In this paper, a decagonal geometry has been designed for liquid sensing. The liquid analytes that are sensed are ethanol, benzene and water as they are the most used analytes in the chemical and biological industries. Firstly, a simple decagonal structure is designed and  and sensitivity of this structure is calculated. Then, the core structure is modified and decagonal, octagonal and hexagonal geometries are constructed inside the core with circular holes. Lastly, these circular holes are replaced by elliptical holes. All the designed layouts are analysed and compared. The sensitivity obtained is of the order 40-50 % and confinement loss of order which shows that these structures can be used for sensing ethanol, water and benzene and are reliable. For benzene, water and ethanol, the decagonal structure with core comprised of decagonal geometry, made up of elliptical holes (x as major axis), gives the best results. For this geometry, the values are 1.379, 1.317 and 1.313 for benzene, ethanol and water respectively. The sensitivity values obtained are 51.94%, 46.95%, and 44.45% and confinement loss value is , and  respectively

Design and analysis of decagonal photonic crystal fiber with elliptical air hole core for liquid sensing

465-470In this paper, a decagonal geometry has been designed for liquid sensing. The liquid analytes that are sensed are ethanol, benzene and water as they are the most used analytes in the chemical and biological industries. Firstly, a decagonal structure has been designed and neff and sensitivity of this structure has been calculated. Then, the core structure has been modified and decagonal, octagonal and hexagonal geometries have been constructed inside the core with circular holes. Lastly, these circular holes have been replaced by elliptical holes. All the designed layouts have been analyzed and compared. The sensitivity obtained is of the order 40-50 % and confinement loss of order 10-9 dB/m which shows that these structures can be used for sensing ethanol, water and benzene and are reliable. For benzene, water and ethanol, the decagonal structure with core comprised of decagonal geometry, has been made of elliptical holes (x as major axis), gives the best results. For this geometry, the neff values are 1.379, 1.317 and 1.313 for benzene, ethanol and water, respectively. The sensitivity values obtained are 51.94%, 46.95%, and 44.45% and confinement loss value is 8.19 x 10-10, 1.03 x 10-10 and 1.069 x 10-7 dB/m, respectively

Enhancement in structural, morphological and optical features of thermally annealed zinc oxide nanofilm

This paper presents the study of surface morphological, optical and microstructural features of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanofilm layered upon p-type Si substrate of <100> orientation by employing conventional RF magnetron sputtering system at different annealing temperatures. The effect of annealing on the nano-film is examined using different characterization techniques such as Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), UV-vis spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The sharp diffraction peak at (002) orientation is seen by the XRD spectra which signifies a better growth of single crystalline thin film along the z-axis with the hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. The surface morphological study shows that the grain size of the thin film intensifies from 22.06 nm to 36.77 nm when the annealing temperature is increased whereas there is a decrease in the values of lattice constants (a=b, c), FWHM (full width at half maximum), residual stress, lattice strain and dislocation density by increasing annealing temperature. The enhancement in the grain size makes the thin film appropriate for MEMS device applications including piezoelectric energy harvesters, gas sensors, etc. The optical bandgap of the ZnO thin film is estimated using Kubelka-Munk (KM) approach and it decreases from 3.23 to 3.16 eV for As-deposited, 400 °C, 600 °C and 800 °C respectively which makes the annealed thin film apposite for optoelectronic device applications. The intensity of the Raman peaks strengthens with the annealing temperature. These results prove that the annealing extensively enhances the crystallinity, structural, morphological and optical features of ZnO thin film and hence becomes suitable for nanoelectronic device applications

Enhancement in structural, morphological and optical features of thermally annealed zinc oxide nanofilm

642-648This paper presents the study of surface morphological, optical and microstructural features of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanofilm layered upon p-type Si substrate of orientation by employing conventional RF magnetron sputtering system at different annealing temperatures. The effect of annealing on the nano-film is examined using different characterization techniques such as Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), UV-vis spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The sharp diffraction peak at (002) orientation is seen by the XRD spectra which signifies a better growth of single crystalline thin film along the z-axis with the hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. The surface morphological study shows that the grain size of the thin film intensifies from 22.06 nm to 36.77 nm when the annealing temperature is increased whereas there is a decrease in the values of lattice constants (a=b, c), FWHM (full width at half maximum), residual stress, lattice strain and dislocation density by increasing annealing temperature. The enhancement in the grain size makes the thin film appropriate for MEMS device applications including piezoelectric energy harvesters, gas sensors, etc. The optical bandgap of the ZnO thin film is estimated using Kubelka-Munk (KM) approach and it decreases from 3.23 to 3.16 eV for As-deposited, 400 °C, 600 °C and 800 °C respectively which makes the annealed thin film apposite for optoelectronic device applications. The intensity of the Raman peaks strengthens with the annealing temperature. These results prove that the annealing extensively enhances the crystallinity, structural, morphological and optical features of ZnO thin film and hence becomes suitable for nanoelectronic device applications

Reduced P53 levels ameliorate neuromuscular junction loss without affecting motor neuron pathology in a mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a childhood motor neuron disease caused by mutations or deletions within the SMN1 gene. At endstages of disease there is profound loss of motor neurons, loss of axons within ventral roots and defects at the neuromuscular junctions (NMJ), as evidenced by pathological features such as pre-synaptic loss and swelling and post-synaptic shrinkage. Although these motor unit defects have been widely described, the time course and interdependancy of these aspects of motor unit degeneration are unclear. Recent reports have also revealed an early upregulation of transcripts associated with the P53 signalling pathway. The relationship between the upregulation of these transcripts and pathology within the motor unit is also unclear. In this study, we exploit the prolonged disease timecourse and defined pre-symptomatic period in the Smn mouse model to perform a temporal analysis of the different elements of motor unit pathology. We demonstrate that NMJ loss occurs prior to cell body loss, and coincides with the onset of symptoms. The onset of NMJ pathology also coincides with an increase in P53-related transcripts at the cell body. Finally, using a tamoxifen inducible P53 knockout, we demonstrate that post-natal reduction in P53 levels can reduce NMJ loss, but does not affect other aspects of NMJ pathology, motor neuron loss or the phenotype of the Smn mouse model. Together this work provides a detailed temporal description of pathology within motor units of an SMA mouse model, and demonstrates that NMJ loss is a P53-dependant process. This work supports the role for P53 as an effector of synaptic and axonal degeneration in a die-back neuropathy