Normal pressure hydrocephalus with onset following a traumatic experience

Background: Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) is a neurological disorder caused by excessive accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with resultant pressure to the brain. It is a rare syndrome usually found in the sixth and seventh decades of life. The condition is often misdiagnosed because of its non specific symptoms and chronic nature, but recently NPH is receiving a great deal of media and medical attention, leading to a more efficient and timely diagnosis and treatment.Methods: This is a case report of a 40 year old widow, who presented with eight weeks history of recurrent vomiting, fearfulness and withdrawal to self following a traumatic experience. Prior to above presentation patient was normal and stable with no past history of physical or mental illness.Results: Clinical features met the criteria for diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following a traumatic experience. Clinical examination and investigations including (skull xray) conducted were all within normal limits. Two weeks into admission patient developed seizure, facial nerve palsy, and progressive weakness of lower limbs which warranted further investigation. The patient had Computer Tomography scan which revealed NPH, she had a ventro-peritoneal shunt at the neurosurgical unit of the hospital.Conclusion: Despite the advances in the diagnosis and treatment of hydrocephalus, there is still much to be learned about hydrocephalus and the subtle forms it can take. Even though it is more common in infants and elderly, it can occur at any time in life and as a result of a variety of causes.Keywords: Hydrocephalus, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Female, Adul

Multi objective optimization using genetic algorithm of a pneumatic connector

The concept of sustainability was first introduced by Dr Harlem Brutland in the 1980's promoting the need to preserve today's natural environment for the sake of future generations. Based on this concept, John Elkington proposed an approach to measure sustainability known as Triple Bottom Line (TBL). There are three evaluation criteria's involved in the TBL approach; namely economics, environmental integrity and social equity. In manufacturing industry the manufacturing costs measure the economic sustainability of a company in a long term. Environmental integrity is a measure of the impact of manufacturing activities on the environment. Social equity is complicated to evaluate; but when the focus is at the production floor level, the production operator health can be considered. In this paper, the TBL approach is applied in the manufacturing of a pneumatic nipple hose. The evaluation criteria used are manufacturing costs, environmental impact, ergonomics impact and also energy used for manufacturing. This study involves multi objective optimization by using genetic algorithm of several possible alternatives for material used in the manufacturing of the pneumatic nipple

Abrupt return of the summer monsoon 15,000 years ago: new supporting evidence from the lower White Nile valley and Lake Albert

The Last Glacial period ended with an abrupt return to warmer and wetter conditions at a number of sites in intertropical Africa, Asia, Australia and South America ~ 15,000 years (15 ka) ago. Similar abrupt warming is also evident at this time in high latitudes and in air trapped in Greenland ice. We here report new supporting evidence of this event from a climatically sensitive region in Africa: the White Nile valley of the central Sudan and Lake Albert in the Uganda headwaters. During the Last Glacial Maximum the White Nile valley was even more arid than it is today, with desert dunes active as far south as latitude 12°S. The sudden overflow of Lake Victoria in the Ugandan headwaters of the White Nile ~ 14.5 ka, confirmed here by Sr-isotope statigraphy, caused extensive flooding in the lower White Nile valley and severe flooding in Egypt. The volume of fresh water flowing into the eastern Mediterranean at this time ultimately resulted in accumulation of highly organic sediments (Sapropel 1) on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. Flooding in the central Sudan attained an elevation of 382 m along a north-south distance of ~ 400 km. The recessional shoreline of the 382 m White Nile is indicated by concentrations of now buried freshwater gastropod shells and beach sands dated, respectively, by calibrated AMS radiocarbon and OSL to ~ 15–16 ka. This mega-flood event marks the abrupt return of the summer monsoon and may reflect a globally synchronous event.Martin Williams, Michael Talbot, Paul Aharon, Yassin Abdl Salaam, Frances Williams and Knut Inge Brendelandhttp://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/636/description#descriptio

Energy harvesting and battery power based routing in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are a collection of several small and inexpensive battery-powered nodes, commonly used to monitor regions of interests and to collect data from the environment. Several issues exist in routing data packets through WSN, but the most crucial problem is energy. There are a number of routing approaches in WSNs that address the issue of energy by the use of different energy-efficient methods. This paper, presents a brief summary of routing and related issues in WSNs. The most recent energy-efficient data routing approaches are reviewed and categorized based on their aims and methodologies. The traditional battery based energy sources for sensor nodes and the conventional energy harvesting mechanisms that are widely used to in energy replenishment in WSN are reviewed. Then a new emerging energy harvesting technology that uses piezoelectric nanogenerators to supply power to nanosensor; the type of sensors that cannot be charged by conventional energy harvesters are explained. The energy consumption reduction routing strategies in WSN are also discussed. Furthermore, comparisons of the variety of energy harvesting mechanisms and battery power routing protocols that have been discussed are presented, eliciting their advantages, disadvantages and their specific feature. Finally, a highlight of the challenges and future works in this research domain is presented

Application of integrated sustainability assessment: Case study of a screw design

Sustainability can be referred to as meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. For politicians, it is an attempt to shape the social; sustain the economy and preserved the environment for future generations. Balancing these three criteria is a difficult task since it involves different output measurements t. The aim of this paper is to present a new approach of evaluating sustainability at the product design stage. There are three criteria involved in this study which is manufacturing costs, carbon emission release into the air and ergonomic assessment. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to generalize the outputs of the three criteria which is then ranked accordingly. The highest score is selected as the best solution. In this paper, a simple screw design is presented as a case stud

Vortex Tube Air Cooling: The Effect on Surface Roughness and Power Consumption in Dry Turning

There has been an increase awareness to reduce environmental impact in the last 10 years. The manufacturing industry is striving to reduce environmental impact by introducing new materials with better characteristics, consume less processing power and use less amount of processing coolant. The main objective of this paper is to study the effect of Ranque-Hilsch vortex cooling tube on power consumption and surface roughness quality in turning process when machining mild steel material with coated carbide cutting tool. The machining parameters involved in the experiment are cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut. The cutting speed is fixed at 160 m/min while the feed rate and the depth of cut are varied. The feed rates used are 0.10, 0.18 and 0.28 mm/rev, while the depth of cut is varied from 1.0 to 4.0 mm. During the machining process, the cutting temperatures are measured using an infrared thermometer and the power consumption measured using a Prova 6830 power and harmonics analyzer. The machined parts surface roughnesses are measured using a surface roughness tester. The results show that cooling using Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube air cooling reduces the cutting temperature, but the power consumption and surface roughness is better under ambient condition except at higher feed rate