High Prevalence of Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome Among Policemen

The prevalence of diabetes is rapidly rising all over the globe at an alarming rate.1 Over the past 30 years, the status of diabetes has changed from being considered a mild disorder of the elderly, to one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality affecting the youth and middle aged. It is important to note that the rise in prevalence is seen in all six inhabited continents of the globe.2 The major driver of the epidemic is the more common form of diabetes namely type 2 diabetes, which accounts more than 90% of all diabetic cases

A study of diagnostic accuracy in benign breast disease with special reference to recent diagnostic tools

INTRODUCTION: Benign breast disease is a common disorder. It is atleast 10 times more common than breast cancer in hospital clinics. The histological changes of benign breast disease are in reality part of the spectrum of changes that occur in the life time of breast tissue. These histological charges do not proceed as a smooth continuum; the individual elements often occur simultaneously and can give rise to anatomical (palpable) abnormalities such as nodularity (or) cystic change, which may initiate referral to hospital, but are not disease in the true sense of word. However an increasing interest in histology of the normal human breast with studies of autopsy and biopsy material, is providing a background which allowed a better understanding of what is normal and what is abnormal, thus helping to correct the tendency to overrate the malignant potential of benign Breast disease. The term benign breast disease encompasses a wide range of clinical and pathological entities. Up to 30% of women may suffer from a benign breast disorder requiring treatment at sometime in their life. In general population on examination of breast grossly evident cystic changes were found in 20% but histological evidence of cystic changes were found in 59% of women(2). In patients attending breast clinic for various breast problems, 40% of patients were found to be having fibrocystic changes and about 7% having fibroadenoma. Hence benign breast disease requires imaging studies for evaluations. Mammography and ultrasound are the most useful tools for this purpose. Mammography is used as a primary tool in benign breast disease and also as a screening tool to detect early breast cancer. Ultrasound is used to differentiate cystic lesions from solid lesions and particularly useful in dense breast seen in young women. Both of these tools are also useful in localizing to lesion and in guiding biopsy. Hence both ultrasound and Mammography are the pillars on which the edifice of this study is built. AIM OF THE STUDY 1. To compare the utility of mammography and sonography in the diagnosis of benign breast diseases. 2. To study the utility of 3D Ultrasound in the evaluation of Benign Breast lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Female patients in the pre, peri and post menopausal age groups with benign breast disorders who underwent breast ultrasound and mammography from September 2003 were included in this study. Patients with features of malignancy were excluded from the study. Standard nomenclature for characterization of the lesions on mammography and ultrasound were used. Subsequently all the patients underwent histopathological examinations of lesions in the form of excision biopsy or true cut biopsy. Patients in whom histopathology could not be done due to practical reasons Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology was done. In correlation with the clinical diagnosis and FNAC final diagnosis was arrived and patients were treated accordingly. RESULTS: Sixty nine patients were included in this study. All patients underwent ultrasound of the breast and mammography. All the 69 patients underwent FNAC. Histopathological examinations were done for 49 patients. In Our study out of 69 patients histopathological confirmation was possible in 49 patients. Of the remaining patients, 10 patients were not willing for surgery because of the small size of the lesions and for cosmetic objections and another 10 patients did not require biopsy and were conservatively treated. Out of the 49 patients in whom histopathological confirmation and FNAC were done, result of the FNAC did not correlate with the HPE in 5 patients. Because of difficulty in finding out location of the lesion in 3 patients FNAC was negative. In 2 cases of phylloids tumour FNAC was unable to diagnose correctly. All other cases FNAC was consistent with histopathological examination. Out of the 49 patients Ultrasound showed positive diagnosis for 46 patients with a sensitivity of 93.9%. Whereas mammography was positive was only in 33 patients with a sensitivity of 67.3%. Statistical test of proportion showed that Z value is 3.3 with the corresponding p value less than 0.001. Hence it is concluded that ultrasound produces statistically significant higher sensitivity compared to mammography. We compared sensitivity of ultrasound and mammography keeping gold standard as histopathological examination. It is found that ultrasound in general shows the sensitivity of 92.8% (positive results for 64 patients out of 69 examined), whereas mammography showed the sensitivity of 66.7% (Positive results for 46 out of 69 patients examined). This difference is statistically significant because the z value is 3.8. Hence the corresponding p value is less than 0.001. CONCLUSION: Mammography is superior to ultrasound in the detection of Microcalcification. Sonography is complementary to mammography in patients with palpable abnormalities of the breast. Sonography’s superiority over mammography is in its ability to show the presence and extent of lesions that are obscured by Dense breast tissue and in characterising palpable lesions that are mammographically not visible or occult. Ultrasonogram is most helpful in characterising cystic Lesions and studying the internal component of these lesions. Three dimensional ultrasound is helpful in additionally Characterising most of the lesions that cause greater degrees Of architectural distortion. Compression pattern proves to be more specific for benign Lesions. Three dimensional ultrasound is not very specific for Lesions causing lesser degrees of architectural distortion

Flow Visualization During Droplet Evaporation on Hydrophobic and Superhydrophobic Surfaces

The flow behavior inside an evaporating droplet on a hydrophobic (initial contact angle ~120 deg) and superhydrophobic surface (initial contact angle ~ 150 deg) is studied using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Water droplets (with initial volume ~ 3 μL) are considered with suspended fluorescent polystyrene particles for visualization. An axisymmetric counter-rotating vortex pair is observed in the vertical plane of the droplet as it evaporates on the hydrophobic surface. The flow direction is upwards along the vertical axis of the droplet signifying a buoyancy-induced flow field. A single-directional vortex structure occurs in the droplet evaporating on superhydrophobic surface. An image-correction algorithm based on the ray-tracing technique is employed to correct the distortion caused due to refraction of light at the surface of the droplet, and yield an accurate quantitative estimation of the velocity vectors. Centrally localized deposition of suspended particles observed for droplet evaporation on hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces as opposed to the circumferential deposition seen in the case of hydrophilic surfaces is explained in terms of the observed convection flow characteristics

Evaporation-Driven Micromixing in Sessile Droplets for Miniaturized Absorbance-Based Colorimetry

We demonstrate the use of an evaporating, sessile droplet on a nonwetting substrate as a miniature micromixing device to conduct sample−dye reactions for absorbance-based colorimetry. The nonwetting substrate supports buoyancy-induced mixing inside the droplet for rapid completion of the measurement. The Bradford assay is used as a proof of concept, where a protein-containing sample is reacted with a reagent dye to measure the protein concentration. Viability of absorbance measurement through the droplet is first established using droplets in which the reactants are mixed prior to their deposition onto the substrate. In a second set of experiments involving in situ mixing, the reagent is directly added to a sessile droplet of the protein-containing sample, allowing the reactants to mix while the absorbance is being measured. Interplay between buoyancyinduced mixing, protein−reagent reaction, and protein adsorption onto the substrate leads to a complex temporal absorbance measurement signal. Videos corresponding to the signal data show that each of these mechanisms dominates during different phases of droplet evolution, causing a signal pattern containing peaks and valleys having a strong monotonic trend with the protein concentration. Overall, the second absorbance peak at which the reaction nears completion is the most sensitive to sample concentration. Heating of the substrate is demonstrated to dramatically speed up the mixing process. These protein concentration measurements, obtained with a simpler system and low reactant volumes, demonstrate that this droplet micromixing concept is a viable alternative to microtiter plates for colorimetric applications

Spatiotemporal Infrared Measurement of Interface Temperatures During Water Droplet Evaporation on a Nonwetting Substrate

High-fidelity experimental characterization of sessile droplet evaporation is required to understand the interdependent physical mechanisms that drive the evaporation. In particular, cooling of the interface due to release of the latent heat of evaporation, which is not accounted for in simplified vapor-diffusion-based models of droplet evaporation, may significantly suppress the evaporation rate on nonwetting substrates, which support tall droplet shapes. This suppression is counteracted by convective mass transfer from the droplet to the air. While prior numerical modeling studies have identified the importance of these mechanisms, there is no direct experimental evidence of their influence on the interfacial temperature distribution. Infrared thermography is used here to simultaneously measure the droplet volume, contact angle, and spatially resolved interface temperatures for water droplets on a nonwetting substrate. The technique is calibrated and validated to quantify the temperature measurement accuracy; a correction is employed to account for reflections from the surroundings when imaging the evaporating droplets. Spatiotemporally resolved interface temperature data, obtained via infrared thermography measurements, allow for an improved prediction of the evaporation rate and can be utilized to monitor temperature-controlled processes in droplets for various lab-on-a-chip applications

ON THE NEW QUANTIFIERS AND THEIR USE IN MULTICRITERIA DECISION FUNCTIONS VIA ORDERED WEIGHTED AGGREGATIONS

The goal of this paper is to present new and different quantifiers for ordered weighted aggregation and illustrate their applicability by a real-life example. The role of these operators in the formulation of multicriteria decision making functions, using the concept of quantifier guided aggregation, is also discussed

Rapid detection of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) of Penaeus monodon by latex agglutination test using monoclonal antibodies

Latex beads were sensitized with monoclonal antibodies (MAb) rose against VP28 of WSSV. The optimum concentration of MAb required to sensitize the latex beads was 125 µg/ml. The sensitized latex beads were used to detect WSSV from PCR-positive stomach tissue homogenates obtained from infected shrimp. Stomach tissue homogenates from WSSV-infected shrimp agglutinated the sensitized latex beads within 10 minutes, while uninfected samples did not produce any agglutination, although non-specific agglutinations were observed in some samples. The analytical sensitivity, analytical specificity, diagnostic sensitivity and diagnostic specificity of the (LAT) agglutination test were assessed. The analytical sensitivity of the test was 40 ng of purified WSSV (2 µg/ml). The sensitized latex beads did not agglutinate with normal shrimp tissue or MBV-infected tissue homogenate. The test has a diagnostic sensitivity of 70 and 45%, respectively, compared to single-step and nested PCR. The diagnostic specificity of the test was 82%. This test is a simple and rapid on-farm test which can be used to corroborate clinical signs for the detection of WSSV in grow-out ponds

Numerical Simulation for Freeze Drying of Skimmed Milk with Moving Sublimation Front using Tri-Diagonal Matrix Algorithm

Freeze drying is a highly advanced dehydration technique used for preserving pharmaceuticals, human organs transplanted to others and highly heat sensitive food products. During the freeze drying, there are two layers formed namely dried region and frozen region. In this present work, a numerical model is developed to estimate the temperature distribution of both regions. The sample object considered is skimmed milk. The transient heat conduction equations are solved for both regions of dried and frozen region. The interface layer between the two region is considered as moving sublimation front as same as the realistic case. Radiative boundary condition at the top and convective boundary condition at the bottom are considered. The model has been solved by finite difference method and the scheme used is backward difference in time and central difference in space (implicit scheme), which generates set of finite difference equations forming a Tri-Diagonal Matrix. A computer program is developed in MATLAB to solve the tri-diagonal matrix. The temperature distribution along the length of the product with varying chamber pressures and the sublimation front temperature with time are estimated. The transient effect of sublimation front movement was estimated with different applied chamber pressure. It was noticed that at lower pressure the sublimation rate is very fast

The effectiveness of emergency obstetric referral interventions in developing country settings : a systematic review

Peer reviewedPublisher PD