A generalized approach for computation of near field radiation pattern of an antenna

A generalized procedure in the form of an analytical formulation for the determination of radiation pattern of an antenna at any arbitrary distance which covers the near field as well as far field is presented in this paper. With the prior knowledge of either the current or field distribution on the radiating aperture, the proposed near field analysis is generic and can be applied for wide variety of antenna elements. The underlying principle of the generalized procedure is tantamount to considering the radiating aperture as an array of point electric and magnetic dipoles. The validity and novelty of the proposed new approach have been substantiated considering an open ended circular cylindrical waveguide and a conical horn as case studies and treating the far field as a special case of near field with pertinent distance criterion. The effect of change in the distance of observation ranging from reactive near field to far field on the radiation patterns of these antennas has also been discussed. The simulation studies reveal that the depicted normalized phase patterns of both the circular waveguide and conical horn follow the changes in the profile of the corresponding amplitude patterns

A study on fetomaternal outcome in eclampsia in a tertiary care institute

Background: Eclampsia is a life threatening emergency that continues to be a major cause of maternal and perinatal mortality. The present study was undertaken to analyse the maternal and fetal outcome in patients of eclampsia and to evaluate various factors influencing this outcome. Methods: A retrospective observational epidemiological study was undertaken in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mysore Medical College and Research Institute, Mysore, for a period of three years from January 2020 to December 2022. All women who presented as eclampsia or developed eclampsia during hospital stay were included in the study. Data analysed included various maternal parameters, fetal parameters, and the outcome of pregnancy. Results: The incidence of eclampsia was 7.14% which is relatively high, attributing to the fact that being tertiary care centre many cases are referred. Higher incidence seen in primigravida (72.4%) and low maternal age (48%). Caesarean section was indicated in 50% deliveries indicating immediate action was necessary for better fetomaternal outcome. 58.6% had an uneventful maternal outcome.There was 7.65% maternal mortality most common cause of death was intracranial hemorrhage. 53% were preterm deliveries and 29.4% stillbirths, respiratory distress in the newborn was seen as the major complication (41.9%). Conclusions: In our study, maternal complications were recorded in 41.3% of the patients with a case fatality rate of 7.65%. Respiratory distress, prematurity, growth restriction and low birth weight are the neonatal complications to be anticipated. We infer from our study that better antenatal care, early recognition of disease, timely referral, early initiation of treatment and termination of pregnancy in eclamptic women could improve maternal and fetal outcome

When things matter: A survey on data-centric Internet of Things

With the recent advances in radio-frequency identification (RFID), low-cost wireless sensor devices, and Web technologies, the Internet of Things (IoT) approach has gained momentum in connecting everyday objects to the Internet and facilitating machine-to-human and machine-to-machine communication with the physical world. IoT offers the capability to connect and integrate both digital and physical entities, enabling a whole new class of applications and services, but several significant challenges need to be addressed before these applications and services can be fully realized. A fundamental challenge centers around managing IoT data, typically produced in dynamic and volatile environments, which is not only extremely large in scale and volume, but also noisy and continuous. This paper reviews the main techniques and state-of-the-art research efforts in IoT from data-centric perspectives, including data stream processing, data storage models, complex event processing, and searching in IoT. Open research issues for IoT data management are also discussed

Development of a real-time quantitative PCR assay for detection of a stable genomic region of BK virus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>BK virus infections can have clinically significant consequences in immunocompromised individuals. Detection and monitoring of active BK virus infections in certain situations is recommended and therefore PCR assays for detection of BK virus have been developed. The performance of current BK PCR detection assays is limited by the existence of viral polymorphisms, unknown at the time of assay development, resulting in inconsistent detection of BK virus. The objective of this study was to identify a stable region of the BK viral genome for detection by PCR that would be minimally affected by polymorphisms as more sequence data for BK virus becomes available.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Employing a combination of techniques, including amino acid and DNA sequence alignment and interspecies analysis, a conserved, stable PCR target region of the BK viral genomic region was identified within the VP2 gene. A real-time quantitative PCR assay was then developed that is specific for BK virus, has an analytical sensitivity of 15 copies/reaction (450 copies/ml) and is highly reproducible (CV ≤ 5.0%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Identifying stable PCR target regions when limited DNA sequence data is available may be possible by combining multiple analysis techniques to elucidate potential functional constraints on genomic regions. Applying this approach to the development of a real-time quantitative PCR assay for BK virus resulted in an accurate method with potential clinical applications and advantages over existing BK assays.</p

Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA (ddcf-DNA) and Acute Antibody-Mediated Rejection in Kidney Transplantation

Monitoring kidney transplant recipients for evidence of allograft rejection is essential to lower the risk of graft loss. The traditional method relies on serial checks in serum creatinine with a biopsy of the allograft if dysfunction is suspected. This is invasive, labor-intensive and costly. As such, there is widespread interest in the use of biomarkers to provide a noninvasive approach to detecting allograft rejection. One such biomarker is donor-derived cell-free DNA (ddcf-DNA). Here, we review the methodology for the determination of the amount/fraction of ddcf-DNA, evaluate the available data of its use in kidney transplantation and render an opinion in the clinical decision-making of these patients