The role of molecular structure on the microscopic thermodynamics: unveiling with Femtosecond Optical Tweezers

Microscopic thermodynamic studies can elucidate specific molecular interactions. In this work, we report the microscopic thermodynamics in binary liquid mixtures, which elucidate the role of molecular structure in nonlinear solvent response using femtosecond optical tweezers (FOT). We obtain the excess thermodynamics property of mixing in various Newtonian liquid mixtures by analyzing Microrheology data from FOT. Using our noninvasive 780 nm pulse laser we have trapped micron-sized particles to show how excess viscosity and residual Gibbs free energy change due to mixing. Furthermore, we establish from this study that hydrocarbon chain length and branching can modulate microscopic thermodynamics through intermolecular interaction. This work sheds light on the relationship between thermodynamic properties and viscosity, which is of immense importance for predicting transport properties, mixing, and chemical reactions.Comment: 11 pages, 8 Figures, additional supplementary information provide

Clinical evaluation of cases of lower genitourinary tract trauma with special reference to primary realignment in cases of posterior urethral distraction defect

Background: The exact management strategy for lower genitourinary tract trauma remains controversial. Primary realignment with/without suprapubic catheterization provides definitive procedure with low complications and avoids the need for further open surgeries.Methods: This was a prospective longitudinal study done on 31 cases with different complaints related to lower tract genitourinary trauma. All patients underwent suprapubic catheterization and/or primary realignment. The outcome was measured in the terms of time for discharge, urinary incontinence, stricture formation, erectile dysfunction and impotence.Results: Maximum proportion of patients with lower genitourinary injuries in the study was in 10-20 years age group (48.4%). Blunt trauma was accounted for 93.6% of lower genitourinary injuries. Road traffic accidents were the most common cause (90.32%) of lower genitourinary injuries. Urinary bladder injuries accounted for 41.9% of all lower genitourinary injuries. Blood at meatus is present in only about half of the significant urethral injuries. Primary realignment of urethral injury results in lesser duration of hospital stay (9.24±2.44 days), shorter length of suprapubic catheterization (11.67±4.78 days) and early spontaneous voiding (40.93±15.79 days). The stricture rate following primary realignment is low (31.25%). Erectile dysfunction was noted only in two patients (16.6%).Conclusions: Management of traumatic urethral disruption by primary realignment serves as ultimate therapy in majority of patients

Prospective randomised study of cases of pelvic fracture urethral distraction defects managed by early alignment versus initial suprapubic urinary diversion with delayed urethroplasty

Background: In complex pelvic fracture urethral distraction defects (PFUDD), early management prevents incidence of devastating complications such as urinary incontinence, restenosis and urethra cutaneous fistula. The aim of the present study was to study the outcome of patients with PFUDD undergoing early alignment (either by rail roading or endoscopic) compared with initial suprapubic urinary diversion with delayed urethroplasty.Methods: This was a prospective randomized study done at KGMU, Lucknow; having PFUDD during the period from June 2014 to July 2017. Patients with PFUDD were randomized in to two groups. Group A included 22 patients and managed by supra pubic cystostomy followed by delayed urethroplasty. Group B included 23 patients and managed by primary alignment by rail-roading and early endoscopic alignment. Patients were followed up after 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months for measuring the primary and secondary outcomes during follow up.Results: The most common age group that sustained pelvic fracture urethral distraction defects injury are male of 21-40 years. In group A, stricture was present in all patients at 6 weeks post-surgery. Open urethroplasty was done at 3 months in 60% and 10% patients at 6 months.  In group B, stricture was present in 80% at 6 weeks, 40% at 3 months and 10% at 6 months. The incidence of ED in group A at 6 weeks, 3 months, was 25% patient which reduced to 20% at 6 months. In group B, ED was present in 30% patients 6 weeks, 3 months and which reduced to 25% at 6 months. No incontinence was observed in both groups.Conclusions: Primary realignment has significant benefits compared to SPC as realignment approach is associated with a 50%-55% decrease in stricture formation

Spontaneous Rectal Perforation with Transanal Evisceration of the Small Bowel: A Rare Case Report

Transanal evisceration of the small bowel is a rare surgical emergency. Rectal perforation in such cases is usually due to an underlying rectal prolapse. We report a case of a middle aged (45 years) male with spontaneous rectal perforation and transanal evisceration of the small bowel. Approximately 150 cm of small bowel had eviscerated transanally and the patient required emergent abdominal exploration, reposition of the small bowel, and repair of the rectal perforation. Small bowel evisceration through the anal verge is an emergent condition and the aim was to prevent life threatening complications related to sepsis

Satellite Image Classification Using a Hybrid Manta Ray Foraging Optimization Neural Network

A semi supervised image classification method for satellite images is proposed in this paper. The satellite images contain enormous data that can be used in various applications. The analysis of the data is a tedious task due to the amount of data and the heterogeneity of the data. Thus, in this paper, a Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) trained using Manta Ray Foraging Optimization algorithm (MRFO) is proposed. RBFNN is a three-layer network comprising of input, output, and hidden layers that can process large amounts. The trained network can discover hidden data patterns in unseen data. The learning algorithm and seed selection play a vital role in the performance of the network. The seed selection is done using the spectral indices to further improve the performance of the network. The manta ray foraging optimization algorithm is inspired by the intelligent behaviour of manta rays. It emulates three unique foraging behaviours namelys chain, cyclone, and somersault foraging. The satellite images contain enormous amount of data and thus require exploration in large search space. The spiral movement of the MRFO algorithm enables it to explore large search spaces effectively. The proposed method is applied on pre and post flooding Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images of New Brunswick area. The method was applied to identify and classify the land cover changes in the area induced by flooding. The images are classified using the proposed method and a change map is developed using post classification comparison. The change map shows that a large amount of agricultural area was washed away due to flooding. The measurement of the affected area in square kilometres is also performed for mitigation activities. The results show that post flooding the area covered by water is increased whereas the vegetated area is decreased. The performance of the proposed method is done with existing state-of-the-art methods

Fermentation process for alcoholic beverage production from mahua (Madhuca indica J. F. Mel.) flowers

Mahua flowers are rich in sugar (68-72%), in addition to a number of minerals and one of the most important raw materials for alcohol fermentation. The present investigation was for the development of a non-distilled alcoholic beverage from Mahua flowers. Eighteen (18) treatment combinations consisting of two temperatures (25 and 30°C), three pH (4.0, 4.5 and 5.0) and three period of fermentation (7, 14 and 21 days) were used in the fermentation conditions. The maximum yield of ethanol (9.51 %) occurred at 25°C with pH 4.5 after 14 days of  fermentation of Mahua flower juice. The fermented non-distilled alcoholic beverage contained total sugar (8.83 mg/ml), reducing sugar (0.82 mg/ml), total soluble solids (6.37°Brix) titrable acidity (0.65 %), and volatile acidity (0.086%). Methanol was not detected at any stage of fermentation. The developed fermented alcoholic beverage had characteristic flavor and aroma of Mahua flowers with about 7 to 9% alcohol.Keywords: Madhuca indica, ethanol, reducing sugar, fermentation.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(39), pp. 5771-577

Electro-catalyzed cynoarylmethylation of isatin for synthesis of 3-hydroxy-3-cynomethyl oxindole derivatives

An efficient and economical method has been developed for synthesis of 3-substituted oxindole by using electrochemically induced condensation of various N-substituted isatin, phenyl acetonitrile

Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

BACKGROUND: Detailed assessments of mortality patterns, particularly age-specific mortality, represent a crucial input that enables health systems to target interventions to specific populations. Understanding how all-cause mortality has changed with respect to development status can identify exemplars for best practice. To accomplish this, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) estimated age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality between 1970 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and at the subnational level for the five countries with a population greater than 200 million in 2016. METHODS: We have evaluated how well civil registration systems captured deaths using a set of demographic methods called death distribution methods for adults and from consideration of survey and census data for children younger than 5 years. We generated an overall assessment of completeness of registration of deaths by dividing registered deaths in each location-year by our estimate of all-age deaths generated from our overall estimation process. For 163 locations, including subnational units in countries with a population greater than 200 million with complete vital registration (VR) systems, our estimates were largely driven by the observed data, with corrections for small fluctuations in numbers and estimation for recent years where there were lags in data reporting (lags were variable by location, generally between 1 year and 6 years). For other locations, we took advantage of different data sources available to measure under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) using complete birth histories, summary birth histories, and incomplete VR with adjustments; we measured adult mortality rate (the probability of death in individuals aged 15-60 years) using adjusted incomplete VR, sibling histories, and household death recall. We used the U5MR and adult mortality rate, together with crude death rate due to HIV in the GBD model life table system, to estimate age-specific and sex-specific death rates for each location-year. Using various international databases, we identified fatal discontinuities, which we defined as increases in the death rate of more than one death per million, resulting from conflict and terrorism, natural disasters, major transport or technological accidents, and a subset of epidemic infectious diseases; these were added to estimates in the relevant years. In 47 countries with an identified peak adult prevalence for HIV/AIDS of more than 0·5% and where VR systems were less than 65% complete, we informed our estimates of age-sex-specific mortality using the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP)-Spectrum model fitted to national HIV/AIDS prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance systems. We estimated stillbirths, early neonatal, late neonatal, and childhood mortality using both survey and VR data in spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression models. We estimated abridged life tables for all location-years using age-specific death rates. We grouped locations into development quintiles based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and analysed mortality trends by quintile. Using spline regression, we estimated the expected mortality rate for each age-sex group as a function of SDI. We identified countries with higher life expectancy than expected by comparing observed life expectancy to anticipated life expectancy on the basis of development status alone. FINDINGS: Completeness in the registration of deaths increased from 28% in 1970 to a peak of 45% in 2013; completeness was lower after 2013 because of lags in reporting. Total deaths in children younger than 5 years decreased from 1970 to 2016, and slower decreases occurred at ages 5-24 years. By contrast, numbers of adult deaths increased in each 5-year age bracket above the age of 25 years. The distribution of annualised rates of change in age-specific mortality rate differed over the period 2000 to 2016 compared with earlier decades: increasing annualised rates of change were less frequent, although rising annualised rates of change still occurred in some locations, particularly for adolescent and younger adult age groups. Rates of stillbirths and under-5 mortality both decreased globally from 1970. Evidence for global convergence of death rates was mixed; although the absolute difference between age-standardised death rates narrowed between countries at the lowest and highest levels of SDI, the ratio of these death rates-a measure of relative inequality-increased slightly. There was a strong shift between 1970 and 2016 toward higher life expectancy, most noticeably at higher levels of SDI. Among countries with populations greater than 1 million in 2016, life expectancy at birth was highest for women in Japan, at 86·9 years (95% UI 86·7-87·2), and for men in Singapore, at 81·3 years (78·8-83·7) in 2016. Male life expectancy was generally lower than female life expectancy between 1970 and 2016, an

Erratum: Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Interpretation: By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 comparative risk assessment (CRA) is a comprehensive approach to risk factor quantification that offers a useful tool for synthesising evidence on risks and risk–outcome associations. With each annual GBD study, we update the GBD CRA to incorporate improved methods, new risks and risk–outcome pairs, and new data on risk exposure levels and risk–outcome associations. Methods We used the CRA framework developed for previous iterations of GBD to estimate levels and trends in exposure, attributable deaths, and attributable disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), by age group, sex, year, and location for 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or groups of risks from 1990 to 2017. This study included 476 risk–outcome pairs that met the GBD study criteria for convincing or probable evidence of causation. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from 46 749 randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk exposure level (TMREL), we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We explored the relationship between development and risk exposure by modelling the relationship between the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and risk-weighted exposure prevalence and estimated expected levels of exposure and risk-attributable burden by SDI. Finally, we explored temporal changes in risk-attributable DALYs by decomposing those changes into six main component drivers of change as follows: (1) population growth; (2) changes in population age structures; (3) changes in exposure to environmental and occupational risks; (4) changes in exposure to behavioural risks; (5) changes in exposure to metabolic risks; and (6) changes due to all other factors, approximated as the risk-deleted death and DALY rates, where the risk-deleted rate is the rate that would be observed had we reduced the exposure levels to the TMREL for all risk factors included in GBD 2017. Findings In 2017, 34·1 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 33·3–35·0) deaths and 1·21 billion (1·14–1·28) DALYs were attributable to GBD risk factors. Globally, 61·0% (59·6–62·4) of deaths and 48·3% (46·3–50·2) of DALYs were attributed to the GBD 2017 risk factors. When ranked by risk-attributable DALYs, high systolic blood pressure (SBP) was the leading risk factor, accounting for 10·4 million (9·39–11·5) deaths and 218 million (198–237) DALYs, followed by smoking (7·10 million [6·83–7·37] deaths and 182 million [173–193] DALYs), high fasting plasma glucose (6·53 million [5·23–8·23] deaths and 171 million [144–201] DALYs), high body-mass index (BMI; 4·72 million [2·99–6·70] deaths and 148 million [98·6–202] DALYs), and short gestation for birthweight (1·43 million [1·36–1·51] deaths and 139 million [131–147] DALYs). In total, risk-attributable DALYs declined by 4·9% (3·3–6·5) between 2007 and 2017. In the absence of demographic changes (ie, population growth and ageing), changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs would have led to a 23·5% decline in DALYs during that period. Conversely, in the absence of changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs, demographic changes would have led to an 18·6% increase in DALYs during that period. The ratios of observed risk exposure levels to exposure levels expected based on SDI (O/E ratios) increased globally for unsafe drinking water and household air pollution between 1990 and 2017. This result suggests that development is occurring more rapidly than are changes in the underlying risk structure in a population. Conversely, nearly universal declines in O/E ratios for smoking and alcohol use indicate that, for a given SDI, exposure to these risks is declining. In 2017, the leading Level 4 risk factor for age-standardised DALY rates was high SBP in four super-regions: central Europe, eastern Europe, and central Asia; north Africa and Middle East; south Asia; and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania. The leading risk factor in the high-income super-region was smoking, in Latin America and Caribbean was high BMI, and in sub-Saharan Africa was unsafe sex. O/E ratios for unsafe sex in sub-Saharan Africa were notably high, and those for alcohol use in north Africa and the Middle East were notably low. Interpretation By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning