Privacy-preserving biometric-based remote user authentication with leakage resilience

National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapor

Forest dynamics in tropical rain forests of Uttara Kannada district in Western Ghats, India

Species richness, tree and stem density, basal area and recruitment details were monitored for ten years (1984 to 1994) in eight one-hectare forest sites in evergreen and moist deciduous forest zones of the tropical rain forests in Uttara Kannada district of the Western Chats in southern India, Changes in species richness and basal area were observed in majority of the forest sites. Loss of more number of stems and trees as well as species was observed in minor forests of the evergreen forest zone. Higher species richness and basal area were observed in reserve forests, perhaps as a result of restricted access. Occurrence of more number of species over ten years In minor forests of moist deciduous zone indicates opening of canopy, favouring growth of other species. Regeneration of existing species in the study plot is suggestive of the site potentiality to retain its physiognomic status. Appearance of species with different physiognomic characters and reduction in basal area suggest greater extraction pressure, implying the deteriorating vegetation status. Increase in the basal area could be due to recruitment, compensatory growth of the existing trees/stems and due to the fast growth of the coppicing trees/stems

Mortality after surgery in Europe: a 7 day cohort study

Background: Clinical outcomes after major surgery are poorly described at the national level. Evidence of heterogeneity between hospitals and health-care systems suggests potential to improve care for patients but this potential remains unconfirmed. The European Surgical Outcomes Study was an international study designed to assess outcomes after non-cardiac surgery in Europe.Methods: We did this 7 day cohort study between April 4 and April 11, 2011. We collected data describing consecutive patients aged 16 years and older undergoing inpatient non-cardiac surgery in 498 hospitals across 28 European nations. Patients were followed up for a maximum of 60 days. The primary endpoint was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcome measures were duration of hospital stay and admission to critical care. We used χ² and Fisher’s exact tests to compare categorical variables and the t test or the Mann-Whitney U test to compare continuous variables. Significance was set at p<0·05. We constructed multilevel logistic regression models to adjust for the differences in mortality rates between countries.Findings: We included 46 539 patients, of whom 1855 (4%) died before hospital discharge. 3599 (8%) patients were admitted to critical care after surgery with a median length of stay of 1·2 days (IQR 0·9–3·6). 1358 (73%) patients who died were not admitted to critical care at any stage after surgery. Crude mortality rates varied widely between countries (from 1·2% [95% CI 0·0–3·0] for Iceland to 21·5% [16·9–26·2] for Latvia). After adjustment for confounding variables, important differences remained between countries when compared with the UK, the country with the largest dataset (OR range from 0·44 [95% CI 0·19 1·05; p=0·06] for Finland to 6·92 [2·37–20·27; p=0·0004] for Poland).Interpretation: The mortality rate for patients undergoing inpatient non-cardiac surgery was higher than anticipated. Variations in mortality between countries suggest the need for national and international strategies to improve care for this group of patients.Funding: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, European Society of Anaesthesiology