Blood Transfusions: Are They Life Saving or Transfusing Infections?

Introduction: There is a risk of 1 - 2 per 1000 recipients receiving contaminated blood with viral, bacterial and parasitic agents.TTI’S are the most commonly encountered complications in transfusion medicine. The objective of the study was to determine the seroprevalence of TTI’s among blood donors, who represent healthy population at large. Materials & methods: A total of 33,658 blood units were received from voluntary and replacement donors over a period of 5 years. Surface antigen of HBV and antibodies to HIV and HCV were determined using ELISA. Syphilis was detected using TPHA test. Results: 947 (2.81%) blood units tested positive for HBV, HCV, HIV and / or syphilis. Overall prevalence was HBV – 1.77%, HCV – 0.13%, HIV – 0.63% and Syphilis – 0.28%. Nine (0.03%) donors had coinfections. Conclusion: The screening of blood donors is the corner stone in assuring the safety of blood transfusion

No-Sense: Sense with Dormant Sensors

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have enabled continuous monitoring of an area of interest (body, room, region, etc.) while eliminating expensive wired infrastructure. Typically in such applications, wireless sensor nodes report the sensed values to a sink node, where the information is required for the end-user. WSNs also provide the flexibility to the end-user for choosing several parameters for the monitoring application. For example, placement of sensors, frequency of sensing and transmission of those sensed data. Over the years, the advancement in embedded technology has led to increased processing power and memory capacity of these battery powered devices. However, batteries can only supply limited energy, thus limiting the lifetime of the network. In order to prolong the lifetime of the deployment, various efforts have been made to improve the battery technologies and also reduce the energy consumption of the sensor node at various layers in the networking stack. Of all the operations in the network stack, wireless data transmission and reception have found to consume most of the energy. Hence many proposals found in the literature target reducing them through intelligent schemes like power control, reducing retransmissions, etc. In this article we propose a new framework called Virtual Sensing Framework (VSF), which aims to sufficiently satisfy application requirements while conserving energy at the sensor nodes.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Twentieth National Conference on Communications (NCC-2014

Temporal and spatial avian community composition in urban landscapes of the Bengaluru region, India

A study was undertaken to know the abundance, diversity and species richness of bird communities in urban landscapes of Bengaluru region, India. One hundred and eighteen species of birds belonging to 43 families under 78 genera was documented. Of them, Gyps indicus, Neophron percnopterus and Parus nuchalis were critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable species. Among 19 landscapes, the mean population density (number of birds seen/km2) was highest at Bannerghatta National Park and lowest at Kempegowda Bus Station. Species diversity, species evenness and richness of bird communities were significantly different between landscapes. Seasonal occurrence of bird species was not significantly different. The mean population density of birds was positively correlated with tree density and negatively correlated with canopy coverage, human population density and buildings

Occurrence of House Sparrow, Passer Domesticus Indicus in and around Bangalore

Birds are often common denizens of the ecosystem and have been considered as an indicator species of inhabited areas1. Studies showed that depressed abundance of various bird species in most parts of the world today, especially in urban areas, is of particular concern as many cities are growing rapidly both in area and population2,3. Among the various species of birds, the house sparrow Passer domesticus indicus (Passeriformes: Ploceidae) is one of the familiar species that has followed man everywhere and is inseparable from human habitations. The nonmigratory sparrows are widely distributed in the Indian subcontinent and occur worldwide

Abundance of Indian Grey Mongoose Herpestes Edwardsii (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1818) (Carnivora: Herpestidae) in the Bengaluru Region

Indian Grey Mongoose, Herpestes edwardsii is common throughout the Indian subcontinent. To investigate the abundance of this species, a study was conducted in different urban locations of the Bengaluru, Karnataka State of South India. A significant difference was found among the relative percentage abundance of mongooses in various study locations. The highest abundance of mongoose was recorded from prohibited places, mostly in the rural and suburban regions, and the least in the urban region depending upon the availability of food and protected shelter in the reed beds and thickets of aquatic vegetation, particularly during the breeding season. They usually breed on the ground and need shelter from direct sunrays as well as potential predators during this period. This mongoose species also prefers shelter in the reed beds and thickets of aquatic vegetation and the suburban and rural region for diurnal activities

Impact of threats on avifaunal communities in diversely urbanized landscapes of the Bengaluru city, south India

Identification of threats contributing to occurrence and range distribution of avifaunal communities is poorly known in diversely urbanized landscapes of the Bengaluru city, south India. For the first time, we investigated the disturbance scores along the low (LDS) to high disturbance sites (HDS) with respect to various parameters, i.e. canopy cover, vegetation structure and its composition. We examined their habitat associations and the potential effects on them corresponding to various threats including human development pressure and other habitat suitability indices in urban landscapes of the Bengaluru region. HDS with a lower number of bird species harbour more threat scores than the LDS with the highest number of bird species. Habitat alteration, practice of monoculture plantations, improper waste management and grass cutting were more commonly observed threats in landscapes of the Bengaluru region. The maximum number of perching plant species was characteristic of low disturbance sites with a greater fraction of moist deciduous species. Canopy coverage of plants/trees and the structure of canopy cover were the highest in LDS with the highest strata of the vegetation cover. Human development pressure was the highest in HDS. Management further includes several approaches for the maintenance of urban landscapes for avian communities to minimize bird problems and promote management options that favour bird diversity. © 2017 Nature Research Centre

Community Composition of Aquatic Birds in Lakes of Bangalore, India

Observations were made on the occurrence, abundance, richness, and diversity of waterbirds in 15 major lakes in Bangalore city during 2008 - 2009. During the study period 35 species of aquatic birds were recorded. The number of aquatic bird species recorded at various lakes ranged from 23 to 35. The percent abundance of waterbirds recorded in the study lakes ranged from 2.46 to 21.49 and it was significantly different (p<0.05). The diversity and species evenness of waterbirds in the lakes ranged from 2.07 to 3.16 and 0.32 to 0.76, respectively. There was a significant difference (p0.05). There was a variation in number of waterbird species recorded during summer, monsoon and winter seasons. Of the 35 waterbird species, Bubulcus ibis showed cent percent frequency, whereas less frequently (4.44%) observed species was Anas platyrhynchos. Among various waterbird species, Bubulcus ibis, Fulica atra, Tringa hypoleucos, Motacilla maderaspatensis, Phalacrocorax niger, Egretta garzetta, Charadrius dubius, Ardeola grayji, Halcyon smyrnensis and Motacilla alba were frequently encountered in most of the study lakes