Limited palmar fasciectomy for bilateral Dupuytren’s contracture

Dupuytren’s disease is a fibro-proliferative condition affecting the palmar and digital fascia. This disease is very common in Northern Europe but in India it uncommon as there are only a few cases reported, hence also called as ‘Viking Disease’. Surgical fasciectomy is the standard surgical treatment of choice for Dupuytren’s disease. Complications following surgery are high but there is no definitive cure for Dupuytren disease (DD), and recurrence of finger contractures after treatment is common

Camptodactyly correction: A report of two cases

Camptodactyly is a condition where there is a permanent flexion contracture at the proximal interphalangeal joint mostly involving the little finger. This condition has a varied presentation and hence treatment is controversial, whether conservative management or surgical correction. Here, we present two cases of camptodactyly that were managed with surgery

Tuberculosis tenosynovitis of the wrist: a rare case report

Tuberculosis (TB) is a common disease of the Asian continent and has a varied presentation. Involvement of the musculoskeletal system is uncommon and presents in 10% of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The atypical sites of tuberculous infection are the spine (51%) pelvis (12%), hip and femur (10%), knee and tibia (10%), and ribs (7%), but involvement of the wrist is rare. Tuberculosis tenosynovitis is a rare site of extra-articular TB. Delayed diagnosis and hence treatment is because it mimics many other disease processes and as a result, complications are common. Median nerve compression leading to carpal tunnel syndrome may also occur in these patients. Here, we present a case of tuberculous tenosynovitis involving the wrist flexors and the radial and ulnar bursae treated with surgery

Emerging fishery for Japanese ruby fish in Vizhinjam

Unique catch of Japanese ruby fish, Erythrocles schlegelii (Richardson, 1846) locally known as Imbooraan accurred at Vizhinjam Landing Centre for the last few months. A demersal fish (family Emmelichthyidae) they are commonly known as ruby fishes, rovers, bonnet mouths and redbaits. Marine plywood boats fitted with two 9.9 HP engines are operating hooks and line to exploit these fishes. Daily trips with fishermen departing early at 3.00 am from the shore, travelling about 20-25 km to operate at more than 100 m depths and reaching back by 3.00 pm in the afternoon is common

Frustrated with Code Quality Issues? LLMs can Help!

As software projects progress, quality of code assumes paramount importance as it affects reliability, maintainability and security of software. For this reason, static analysis tools are used in developer workflows to flag code quality issues. However, developers need to spend extra efforts to revise their code to improve code quality based on the tool findings. In this work, we investigate the use of (instruction-following) large language models (LLMs) to assist developers in revising code to resolve code quality issues. We present a tool, CORE (short for COde REvisions), architected using a pair of LLMs organized as a duo comprised of a proposer and a ranker. Providers of static analysis tools recommend ways to mitigate the tool warnings and developers follow them to revise their code. The \emph{proposer LLM} of CORE takes the same set of recommendations and applies them to generate candidate code revisions. The candidates which pass the static quality checks are retained. However, the LLM may introduce subtle, unintended functionality changes which may go un-detected by the static analysis. The \emph{ranker LLM} evaluates the changes made by the proposer using a rubric that closely follows the acceptance criteria that a developer would enforce. CORE uses the scores assigned by the ranker LLM to rank the candidate revisions before presenting them to the developer. CORE could revise 59.2% Python files (across 52 quality checks) so that they pass scrutiny by both a tool and a human reviewer. The ranker LLM is able to reduce false positives by 25.8% in these cases. CORE produced revisions that passed the static analysis tool in 76.8% Java files (across 10 quality checks) comparable to 78.3% of a specialized program repair tool, with significantly much less engineering efforts

Artisanal fishing methods along the Vizhinjam Coast, Kerala

Vizhinjam Landing Centre (8º 22' 30'' N, 76º 59' 15'' E), is one of the important fish landing centres in Kerala capable where fish landings occur all over the year by employing crafts and gears according to the seasonal requirements and availability of fishes. Primarily carried out by traditional crafts and gears, fitted with outboard engines, vessels fitted with inboard engines and other modern gears are not able to operate along the coast due to patchy rocks and steep sloping continental shelf of this region. During the last decade, there was a complete transition from the wooden crafts to fibre boats which made crafts lighter and in turn enabled increase in the speeds of the fishing vessels. Even some of the catamarans which the government had given free to fishers after the 2004 Tsunami, remain at shore. Most of the traditional crafts along the coast ranged from 25 to 40 feet overall length (OAL). Two outboard engines with 9.9 HP each are used for propulsion. Fishers disclosed that after the Ockhi Cyclone in December 2017, fishing grounds haved changed and there is a conspicuous reduction in fish availability. Drift gillnet forms the major gear in fishing operation along the coast followed by mechanised hooks and line and boat seines.. The details of some of the artisanal gears and its mode of operation are given below

Frequent landing of bull sharks at Vizhinjam

Unique and continuous landing of bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas was observed at Vizhinjam landing centre during the February – March, 2018 period (Fig. 1). 16 numbers of bull sharks measuring 110-359 cm (total length) and weighing 90 - 330 kg each were landed. Of these, only 3 sharks were immature. The landings of C. leucas along the Vizhinjam coast is usually occurs only once or twice in a month, but such steady landings as recorded was a rare occurrence

Progressive recovery of macrobenthic fauna in Chilika Lagoon after its restoration, with a focus on Stenothyra blanfordiana (Gastropoda: Stenothyridae)

The macrobenthic fauna of Chilika Lagoon was investigated from July 2012 to June 2016 to comprehend the status post its restoration and to discern signs of biological recovery. The study revealed the existence of 42 macrobenthic faunal taxa belonging to 28 families, apart from polychaetes, oligochaetes and fishes. Gastropods dominated the macrobenthic population of the lagoon, especially in its Central sector during pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons. Stenothyra blanfordiana an endemic species with an abundance as high as 3067 no./m2 , contributed to 80% of the total abundance of the macrobenthic fauna. Despite its importance concerning global biodiversity, information on its ecology, habitat, feeding behaviour, etc. is seldom available worldwide. This study elucidated the distribution, habitat preference and behaviour of S. blanfordiana in Chilka Lagoon. This endemic species showed a preference for comparatively less sandy substratum with higher C:N values and exhibited a dietary preference for dead and decaying plankton, particularly prevalent in macrophytedominated regions. The study has also demonstrated the gradual recovery of the macrobenthic community within the ecosystem, particularly notable in the case of S. blanfordiana, from previously degraded conditions

Heavy landings of Black pomfret post lockdown

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic there was a complete lockdown in the fisheries harbours and the fish landing centres in India. for more than two months which affected fishing operations and fishers’ livelihoods. The triple lockdown enforced in the Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala affected fishing activities in all of the major fishing harbours like Thazhampally, Perumathura, Anjengo, Vizhinjam etc. as these were in the containment zone and only after 07/08/2020, the fishing activities resumed

A paper-based colourimetric sensor for sodium sulfite detection in beverages

Sulfite is a common food additive that prevents oxidation from damaging food nutrients, and it has long been used in the food industry as a bleaching agent. It can harm the human body if taken wrongly or excessively. In this study, three dyes (cresol red, chlorophenol red, and bromocresol green) were explored to analyze the presence of sodium sulfite (SS) in an inexpensive, disposable paper sensor with a lower visible detection limit of 0.05 M. This visual paper sensor detects sodium sulfite with high selectivity and sensitivity at room temperature. An IoT-based sensor was also developed to practically apply the developed method, which is rapid and low-cost and can replace heavy-duty instruments. Both these sensors can substantially impact scenarios such as food quality monitoring and detecting sodium sulfite in medicinal items. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.