A case of ulcerative colitis presenting as pyoderma gangrenosum and lung nodule

Pyoderma gangrenosum is a phenomenon of cutaneous ulceration where etiology is not well understood. About half of the cases have an associated extracutanoeus manifestation or associated systemic diseases. Most commonly associated systemic disorders include inflammatory bowel disease, hematologic malignancies, autoimmune arthritis, and vasculitis. We are reporting a case where pyoderma gangrenosum has presenting features for ulcerative colitis

A study of factors delaying hospital arrival and predictors of mortality in patients presenting to emergency department with stroke: A developing state scenario

Background: Thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke has recently become available in India but its success depends on initiating the treatment in the narrow therapeutic time window. There is commonly a delay of several hours before patients with acute stroke seek medical attention. Materials and Methods: A prospective study was conducted to assess the factors influencing this delay in admission of acute stroke cases. 134cases (101 males, 33 females) of acute stroke that arrived within 72 hours at our hospital casualty were recruited. A standardized structured questionnaire was given to patients or their attendants. Results: The median time to casualty arrival was 9 hours with 13.4% cases arriving within 3 hours and 36.5 % cases within 6 hours. Distances from hospital, referral, belief in myths and alternate medicine and low threat perception of symptoms of stroke were independent factors associated with delay in arrival. Living in city, day time onset, urgency shown by attendant, availability of transport and presence of family history were associated with early arrival. There was no correlation with patients' or attendants' sex, educational status, history of previous stroke or transient ischemic attack, subtype or severity of stroke, time of stroke and availability of transport. 134 patients (65.7% were from rural population, 55.22%-smokers, 46.76%-alcoholics) with mean (SD) age of 53.83+/-18.02years [significantly lower in females (mean difference=9.73years p=0.002)], were admitted and diagnosed to have stroke. 87.3% had first episode of stroke and 12.7 had more than one episode of stroke. ICF rate was 26.1%. ICF rate has no relation with age (p=0.516), sex (p=0.460), number of episodes (0.795), underlying hypertension (p=0.905). Odds of diabetics dying were 12 times higher than non-diabetics. Inpatient mortality was also significantly higher in smokers compared with non-smokers (p=0.004), in patients with right-sided compared with left-sided hemiplegic (p=0.029) and who couldn’t afford computed tomography (CT) scan (p=0.007). Kaplan Meier curve in Image-1 shows the survival following admission to emergency ward. Conclusion: Adequate measures need to be taken to improve the public awareness of stroke and the role of local doctors. Our study has shown that active smokers, involvement of the right side and non performance of CT were independent predictors of mortality which have not been shown earlier. Also, we found that diabetes mellitus is independent predictor of mortality in stroke, which has been seen in earlier studies too

Driving Towards a Sustainable Future: Optimizing Electric Vehicle Utilization in Last-Mile Supply Chain Operations

This is an era where environment has become one of the key concerns due to progressive deterioration caused by human activities that generate pollution. Hence it has become imperative for businesses to alter their strategies pertaining to operation and transport logistics and chose and implement more environment friendly options. Almost without exception, the logistics sector of any enterprise is the one with a significant carbon footprint, if not the largest. The growing gravity of the environmental damage has urged the enterprises to initiate a significant move towards choosing an alternative method of operation that is not only less polluting but is also a more sustainable option. This article evaluates the use of EV as a sustainable green alternative for last mile logistics and creates the scope for further research on possible alternatives

Ras hyperactivation versus overexpression : Lessons from Ras dynamics in Candida albicans

We thank Prof. Neta Dean for the CIp10ADH1-Cherry plasmid and Prof. Aaron Mitchell for the BWP17 strain. We gratefully acknowledge Prof. Sudipta Maiti, TIFR, Mumbai, India for providing the data acquisition software. We also appreciate the feedback and discussions with Dr. Rohini Muthuswami, SLS, JNU as well as from the Protein Society group, New Delhi while this study was taking shape. We thank Prof. Alok Bhattacharya for Cytochalasin D. The GC-MS and fluorescence lifetime measurements were carried out at the Advanced Instrumentation Research Facility (AIRF), JNU. Confocal images were recorded either at the central instrumentation facility (CIF), SLS, JNU or at AIRF, JNU. This work was supported by project grants from Department of Biotechnology (DBT, Project grant no. BT/PR20410/BRB/10/1542/2016) and Department of Science and Technology (DST, Project grant no. SB/SO/BB-011/2014), India to S.S.K; and project grants from Department of Information Technology, (DIT, Project grant no. 12(4)/2007-PDD), India to S.S. for FCS setup. In addition, both S.S. and S.S.K. thank DBT-BUILDER for funding support (Project grant no. BT/PR5006/INF/153/2012). S.S.K. also acknowledges funding support from UGC Resource Networking grant to the School of Life Sciences. We thank DST-PURSE and JNU for assistance with funding for publication. G.S.V. and S.C.S. received a fellowship from UGC; V.A.P., B.Y., P.J., N.P., M.F.K. acknowledge CSIR for fellowships. S.L.S. received a fellowship from ICMR. D.T.H. and M.F.K. thank DBT-BUILDER for funding.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Energy budget and aspects of energy metabolism in common carp, Cyprinus carpio

Aspects of the resting respiration rate, specific dynamic action (SDA) and components of the total energy budget of 55 - 80g common carp were studied in the laboratory. The resting respiratory rate was monitored in computer operated metabolic chambers under different photoperiods. Common carp showed a crepuscular respiratory rhythm with peaks at dawn and dusk during a 12L : 12D photoperiod, with a mean oxygen consumption of 152 mg/kg/h. When acclimated to longer or shorter photoperiods respiration was also cyclic but with a lower mean respiratory rate. In continuous light or darkness respiratory rhythm was suppressed with no significant peakings. In carp fed with three diets containing 20,35 and 50% protein at a ration level of 0.40 to 1.00% body weight per day, SDA coefficient varied from 8.99 to 15.94% and was dependent on dietary protein but not on ration levels. SDA magnitude and post-feeding peak oxygen consumption varied significantly with both dietary protein content and total daily ration level. SDA duration was only related to ration size. The pattern of food energy allocation between the major components of the energy budget varied with dietary protein content and ration levels. The energy lost as heat of metabolism was found to increase with dietary protein level and total ration. Energy lost as faeces 'F' varied from 19 - 24% of 'C' and did not appear to be related to either protein content or ration levels. Nitrogenous excretion increased with an increase of dietary protein but decreased with an increase of ration level in the diet. Regression equations were developed from the data to allow prediction of respiratory energy loss 'R', faecal energy loss 'F' and energy lost through excretion 'U' from the food ingested V. Complete energy budget models compiled from experiments conducted over a 17 days period and using different diets did not successfully predict the actual growth. The energy budget balance was between 66.04% and 81.96%. Observed growth was less than predicted growth in every trial and it is suggested that this difference might have been due to short-term cyclic growth regulation and other minor experimental features. The data presented form the basis for the first reported study of total energy budgets in Cyprinus carpio

Traditional rain water harvesting systems in Rajasthan: water resources conservation and its sustainable management – a review

Communities all over the world have been endowed with the wisdom of indigenous technologies to collect the rain where it falls, so one can find such structures all around the world. The region of western Rajasthan in India faces frequent droughts and an acute shortages of water. This has compelled the local people to incorporate mechanisms to conserve water in their everyday life. These traditional methods have been developed over centuries and reflect the accumulated wisdom of many generations. An attempt has been made in this paper to undertake a detailed investigation of the various traditional water harvesting systems weaved in the social fabric of Rajasthan, that have been constructed using the indigenous knowledge and locally available material and are also significant for the state in present context to cope with drought. Keywords: Traditional water harvesting, Johad, Rajasthan,  Thar Desert

Shock Wave Propagation through the Pressure Tubes of a CANDU-Type Nuclear Reactor

The propagation of weak shock waves through a horizontal stratified two-phase system has been investigated both theoretically and experimentally to demonstrate the various facets of its interaction with the phases, fuel bundles and flow network branches. Two types of shock tubes are used: a lucite shock tube is utilized in monitoring the mechanism at the interface of the phases by high speed photography and the other one is an aluminum shock tube of 101.6 mm inner diameter with flow network branches is used in investigating the shock wave behaviour inside a pressure tube during blow-down and loss of coolant accidents. This dissertation can be divided in to three broad categories. First, the inclusion of the interfacial roughness factor in the analysis of the shock wave propagation through a two-phase system inside a pressure tube weakens the strength of the shock waves, because of the energy loss due to frictional resistance at the interface. The interface is subjected to a combined effect of the waves propagating both in the gas and liquid phases of the system. High speed photography of the interface is considered to estimate the parameters pertaining to the generation of the ripples at the interface and the coupling of this parameter to a quasi-steady energy balance for the system can provide the values of the magnitude of the overpressures in the system. Secondly, the interaction of weak shock waves with three different types of fuel bundles used in CANDU reactors is presented. Depending on the percentage of the flow area available, different fuel bundles produce different magnitudes of the overpressure. For the transmitted waves, the choking is markedly observed even for moderate range of the shock waves. Presence of liquid phase enhances the strengths of overpressure for the reflected and transmitted waves. Inside the fuel bundles, the shock waves cause unusual vibrational effects which may be detrimental to the life of the fuel elements. Around the network, the two-phase propagation velocity is observed to be same as the gas phase propagation velocity is observed as the gas phase propagation velocity. Though tap and distilled water exhibit variations in the maximum overpressures, the time averaged magnitude under these two systems agree very well everywhere in the network branches. The vertical pressure profiles in the tap water has dispersive and high oscillatory nature whereas in the distilled water the rise in overpressure is dispersive, but smooth in nature. In distilled water, the pre-pulses moving under a free surface travel at the speed of sound in water and for those in tap water, this velocity is influenced by the presence of air bubbles in the tube walls.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD

A spatio-temporal analysis of land use pattern and land use changes in Rajasthan

Land use planning is a strategic planning exercise to enhance the future potential of the agricultural sector andachieve augmented growth through judicious management of land. The presentpaper expresses the Spatio-temporal pattern of land-use in Rajasthan during 1960-61 to 2017-18 periods. The objective of the present paper is to find out the land use in different categories and the trend of variations so that the characteristics of land utilization may be analyzed for future planning. The study examines trends of variations in land use patterns in districts of Rajasthan and provides policy implications for future planning. The proportion of net sown area in the state has increased significantly from 38.7 percent in 1960-61 to 52.21 percent in 2017-18. Forest acreage has increased considerably from 2.4 percent in 1960-61 to 8.03 percent of the reporting area in 2017-18 while barren and un-cultivable land declined from 15.2 percent to 6.95 percent over the period of time. Current Fallows and Fallow Land other than Current Fallow have significantly decreased in the same time period.Keywords: Land use, Net Sown Area, Spatio-temporal, Waste land