Service Quality in Power Sector

Service quality is an important issue in the electricity distribution and retail sectors. Customers are highly sensitive to all aspects of service quality and value the speed and accuracy with which their requests are handled, the reliability of the electricity supply, and the characteristics of the supply voltage. Quality regulation entails complications and subtleties. First of all, there is the multi-dimensional nature of service quality. Furthermore, the ideal level of quality depends on consumer preferences, and these preferences can vary widely among customers. In addition, measuring quality can be difficult, consumer behavior can affect the quality of the network, and so forth. As a result, there is no simple policy indication for service quality regulation: different means are normally used to induce regulated companies to deliver the desired levels of service quality on different quality dimensions. In this project firstly some popular methods for measuring service quality have been analyzed briefly. A consumer survey was then done to demonstrate the importance of service quality in power sector and its use. A questionnaire containing six questions which was most relevant to the consumers dealt with in the survey was distributed to the respondents. The weight for each index in the questionnaire was determined using entropy method. Then the overall Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) was determined using the weights previously calculated and the data obtained from the consumer survey and the results were plotted in bar charts. The results obtained demonstrated the importance of the service quality in power sector and also gave useful insight into consumer preferences and the changes required to deliver the quality of service expected by the consumers

AN OUTLOOK ON THE MECHANISMS OF DRUG INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER DRUGS, FRUITS, HERBS AND THEIR PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Drugs taken by a person are affected by a number of ways. A number of interactions are known to affect the drugs, change its efficacy or result intoxicity. Habits of a common person could also cause such interactions. Most of the people have habits of smoking, consumption of alcohol and takingdietary supplements without the advice of their physicians. Some drug interactions such as those between drug-herbs and drug-citrus fruit wouldbring us shock; even small fruit could sometimes bring adverse drug reactions to occur in our body. Due to drug interactions, there would sometimesbe an increase or decrease in the efficacy of a drug. Being a pharmacist, it would be their ultimate role to check at a person's hygienic record, lookingand gathering information of the past recorded drugs, dietary supplements, hereditary diseases, etc. They would have to gather information aboutthe recently releasing drugs and know complete information on the reactions which occur on their administration. Knowledge to people about herbaland food-drug interactions is very less. They take them to be natural and do not care about its consequences. However, this interaction depends on theamount and the potency of pharmacologically active ingredient present in the compounds. These herbal drugs are known to contain a varying numberof phytochemicals which may cause a change to the transporters, enzymatic systems, causing failure of the therapeutic effect of the drug interactions.The elimination of some particular drugs is also affected due to these interactions. As a result of this interaction, a number of drugs which had takenbirth had quickly been removed from the US markets. Thus, the ways for a person to avoid these interactions can only be the above mentionedadvices given by the health practitioners, not to administer drugs by self-medication methods, taking a note of all the additional supplements takenby a patient to his physician, so that there is a clear picture about the interactions at their initial stage. (1) There are various drug interactions with anumber of factors. (2) Unless there is clear knowledge about the pathway of drug elimination, drug interaction stands to be very difficult to be avoided.Keywords: Drug-food interactions, Pharmacokinetic, Pharmacodynamic, Drug-drug interactions.Â

Surveillance of Rodent and Fleas and Prevention of Plague in International Sea Ports in India in the context of International Health Regulations-2005

Rodents are among the most important competitors globally with humans for food and other resources. In the past century alone, more than ten million people died due to rodent borne diseases. Plague is a rodent borne zoonotic disease therefore, absence of human plague cases in a particular ecological zone would not justify the conclusion that plague has disappeared from the area. Plague continues to pose a threat to human health in certain regions of the world where natural foci still exist.An assessment of the effectiveness of the International Health Regulations (1969) in control of cholera, plague, and yellow fever reveals that WHO member states have not observed the regulations strictly. In consideration of the growth in international travel and trade, and the emergence or re-emergence of international disease threats and other public health risks, the International Health Regulations (2005) were adopted by the Fifty eighth World Health Assembly on 23rd May 2005. It came into force on 15th June 2007. The purpose and scope of IHR (2005) are to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public Health Response to the international spread of the disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade.The Ship Sanitation Control Exemption Certificate/ Ship Sanitation Control Certificate replaces the narrower in scope Deratting/ Deratting Exemption Certificate as from 15th June 2007. It has greatly expanded the areas for public health inspections on international ships. Contaminated international vessels may transport rodent borne diseases (31-Viral, Bacterial, protozoan, nematode and 11 documented Hunta viruses) across geographical boundaries. Rodents can gain access to ships directly by mooring ropes, hulls and gang ways. Rodents may be concealed in cargo, ship’s stores and other materials taken on to the ship.All the international sea ports in India including residential areas of the ports were jointly surveyed by NCDC, Plague Surveillance Unit, Bangalore and Port Health Organizations in collaboration with Rodent control unit of Port Trusts every year from 2008 to 2011. During the survey, heavy infestation of different species of rodents were detected in and around of sea port areas. Rattus rattus and Bandicoota bengalensis, which were found to be the predominant rodent sp. in all the port areas along with Bandicoota indica, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus and Meriones hurrianae. In some ports, absolute and specific flea indices of Xenopsylla cheopis, the efficient vector of human plague transmission were found above critical level (≥1.0). Mooring ropes in 73.6 percent of the ships inspected during the survey were without the rodent guards or rodent guards without proper locking system. All the Gang ways in the ships, which were supposed to be lifted during night time to prevent the entry of the rodents were kept touching the ground. Suggestions were made for appropriate rodent control measures to keep the sea port areas rodent free

In-depth critical analysis of complications following robot-assisted radical cystectomy with intracorporeal urinary diversion

Background: Robot-assisted radical cystectomy with intracorporeal urinary diversion (iRARC) is an attractive option to open cystectomy, but the benefit in terms of improved outcomes is not established. Objective: To evaluate the early postoperative morbidity and mortality of patients undergoing iRARC and conduct a critical analysis of complications using standardised reporting criteria as stratified according to urinary diversion. Design, setting, and participants: A total of 134 patients underwent iRARC for bladder cancer at a single centre between June 2011 and July 2015. Intervention: Radical cystectomy with iRARC. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: Patient demographics, pathologic data, and 90-d perioperative mortality and complications were recorded. Complications were reported according to the Clavien-Dindo (CD) classification and stratified according to urinary diversion type and either surgical or medical complications. The chi-square test and t test were used for categorical and continuous variables respectively. Multivariable logistic regression was performed on variables with significance in univariate analysis. Results and limitations: The 90-d all complication rate following ileal conduit and continent diversion was 68% and 82.4%, and major complications were 21.0% and 20.6% respectively. The 90-d mortality was 3% and 2.9% for ileal conduit and continent diversion patients, respectively. On multivariate analysis, the blood transfusion requirement was independently associated with major complications (p = 0.002) and all 30-d (p = 0.002) and 90-d (p = 0.012) major complications. Male patients were associated with 90-d major complications (p = 0.015). Critical analysis identified that surgical complications were responsible for 39.4% of all 90-d major complications. The incidence of surgical complications did not decline with increasing number of iRARC cases performed (p = 0.742, r = 0.31). Limitations of this study include its retrospective nature, limited sample size, and limited multivariate analysis due to the low number of major complications events. Conclusions: Although complications following iRARC are common, most are low grade. A critical analysis identified surgical complications as a cause of major complications. Addressing this issue could have a significant impact on lowering the morbidity associated with iRARC. Patient summary: We looked at the surgical outcomes in bladder cancer patients treated with minimally invasive robotic surgery. We found that surgical complications account for most major complications and previous surgical experience may be a confounding factor when interpreting results from a different centre even in a randomised trial setting