A comparative study between electrocautery and steel scalpel in making abdominal wall incision in caesarean section

Background: Electrocautery is commonly used in surgical practice. However, its use has been limited in skin due to the fear of tissue scarring, impaired wound healing and wound infection due to damaged tissue. To evaluate and compare the use of electrocautery and steel scalpel in making abdominal skin and deeper tissue incisions in caesarean section pfannenstiel incision with regard to operating time and postoperative wound complication rate.Methods: The study was a prospective randomized type conducted in the Department of Gynaecology, Government Hospital, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu. 120 patients undergoing caesarean section were divided into two groups, scalpel group in which skin and deeper tissue of abdominal wall were cut by scalpel and cautery group with electrocautery. Comparison was made between the two groups based on the above objectives.Results: In this study, we find that the operating time was less in electrocautery group and postoperative wound complications were comparable between two groups.Conclusions: The study demonstrates that electrocautery can be used as an alternative to steel scalpel for making abdominal skin incisions

Effect of swirl on the interaction between laterally placed tidal turbines using actuatordisc based numerical simulations

Much of the future potential for tidal energy lies in tidal channels, where turbines can be arranged in an array in such a way as to exploit the effects of channel blockage and thus increase performance. One such strategy employed by researchers has been to have an array of turbines which only partially blocks the channel width. Previous work, employing mass and momentum conservation and considering the turbines as simple actuator disks, has shown that the local arrangement of the turbines can be altered in a way that optimises the power output of the whole array. However, real turbines also impart swirl to the flow. When this swirl imposed on the flow by the turbines is taken into account by modelling the turbines with Blade ElementMomentum Theory (BEMT) discs, further interaction effects become apparent. These effects depend on the proximity of the turbines to one another and can have a significant impact on the optimal arrangement of the devices in a given channel. This report demonstrates the key effects by comparing sets of actuator disc simulations with and without BEMT, and makes the case for taking swirl effects into account when designing tidal arrays computationally. The other benefit of using BEMT discs is that they rely only on known, physical characteristics of the turbines (i.e. lift and drag performance curves) as opposed to estimated quantities (i.e. the momentumextraction coefficient). This means that real turbines can be simulated with more accuracy. It will be argued in this paper that these twin advantages of increased realism in both the flow field and the turbine outweigh the negligible increase in computing power required to undertake BEMT simulations and so these simulations should be theminimum standard for tidal array designs

Smart Airport App

We are going to make an app that can be used by people traveling through or from ORD airport (Chicago), which will provide live time update for security check line (in terms of time), change of gate for the flight and whether or not the flight is on time. The reason for developing this application is to simplify and improve the passenger’s overall airport experience in order to make it more enjoyable, informative, and time efficient while decreasing the current negative mentality towards traveling. Resources needed to create the prototype would include softwares that help in creating wireframes of the applications like Balsamiq and app developing softwares like Android studio and Xcode. The anticipated beneficiaries of this project would be the consumers that are being provided a smoother airport experience, as well as the airport operators who will be able to provide a better service to the customers with the data collected. An expected result of this app is that fewer passengers will miss their flights; by focusing on waiting times, flight schedules, flight locations, and other airport operations, it can be assumed that users of this app will have more control in the travel process and therefore will make educated decisions based on real time data to make their flight on time. The constraints for this app will be that it is only available on Android-OS compatible phones. Only O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois will be functional at the time of app release while the team learns about the learning capabilities of the ap

Maternal and fetal outcome among pregnant women presenting with thrombocytopenia

Background: Thrombocytopenia complicates about 7-8% of all pregnancies. It is an under-explored condition in Indian women during pregnancy, so the study was planned to find out the prevalence and causative factors of thrombocytopenia during pregnancy and to review management strategies for the best feto-maternal outcome.Methods: This prospective study was conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College Kangra at Tanda, Himachal Pradesh. 546 antenatal women were screened, 65 women who were diagnosed with thrombocytopenia, were included in the study.Results: The incidence of maternal thrombocytopenia in our study was 8.4%. 63% of the women had mild thrombocytopenia while 35.4% and 1.5% of women were moderate and severe thrombocytopenic respectively. The mean maternal platelet count was 106907±30136.52/µL whereas the mean neonatal platelet count was 175307.7±33834.87/µL. The incidence of fetal thrombocytopenia was 3.1%. Amongst 65 thrombocytopenic women 1.5% had HELLP Syndrome, 26.3% had PIH and 68.2% had gestational thrombocytopenia. 27.7% were delivered by LSCS and 72.3% were delivered vaginally. The most common indication of LSCS was acute fetal distress with MSL (55%) followed by breech (25%), failed induction (10%), and the rest (10%) for other obstetrical indications. 30% women required induction of labor with misoprostol for various obstetrical indications. The most common indication for induction was mild pre-eclampsia (45%) followed by IUGR (25%), PROM (15%) and post-date (15%).The mean baby weight in our study was 2.84±0.32 kg. Out of 65 neonates, 6.15% neonates required NICU admission. One neonate died at first post - op day because of respiratory distress syndrome. APGAR score <7 in 1 and 5 min were seen in 6.15% of neonates. Only 8% neonates were small for gestational age.Conclusions: In pregnancy with thrombocytopenia, gestational thrombocytopenia is the commonest and benign condition which does not alter the obstetrical management. Still a vigil should be kept on maternal platelet count in antenatal period to prevent unfavorable outcome in serious conditions that may require specific and urgent management (HELLP syndrome, severe pre-eclampsia, TTP, HUS and acute fatty liver of pregnancy)

TRC120038, a Novel Dual AT1/ETA Receptor Blocker for Control of Hypertension, Diabetic Nephropathy, and Cardiomyopathy in ob-ZSF1 Rats

In hypertensive subjects, angiotensin II and endothelin participate in a manner involving closely interwoven pathways in increasing blood pressure (BP) and inducing end organ damage. The primary objective of this study was to determine the effect of TRC120038, a novel dual AT1/ETA receptor blocker on BP, in obese Zucker spontaneously hypertensive fatty rats (ob-ZSF1), an animal model of moderate hypertension, diabetes with progressive renal and cardiac dysfunction. Ob-ZSF1 rats loaded with 0.5% salt were treated with TRC120038 (11.8 mg/kg bid.) or candesartan cilexetil (0.3 mg/kg od.) or vehicle control. Blood pressure (by radio-telemetry) and renal functional markers were monitored throughout the study. Cardiac function was assessed terminally by pressure volume catheter. Markers for renal dysfunction were measured and changes were evaluated histopathologically. TRC120038 showed greater fall in both systolic and diastolic BP in comparison to candesartan at its maximum antihypertensive dose. TRC120038 also reduced the severity of renal dysfunction and preserved cardiac function in ob-ZSF1 rat

Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) in dentistry: a review

Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) is a non-pharmacological method which is widely used by medical and paramedical professionals for the management of acute and chronic pain in a variety of conditions. Similarly, it can be utilized for the management of pain during various dental procedures as well as pain due to various conditions affecting maxillofacial region. This review aims to provide an insight into clinical research evidence available for the analgesic and non analgesic uses of TENS in pediatric as well as adult patients related to the field of dentistry. Also, an attempt is made to briefly discuss history of therapeutic electricity, mechanism of action of TENS, components of TENs equipment, types, techniques of administration, advantages and contradictions of TENS. With this we hope to raise awareness among dental fraternity regarding its dental applications thereby increasing its use in dentistry

Development and characterization of large-scale simple sequence repeats in jute

Jute is an important crop of the Indian subcontinent and comprises tossa jute (Corchorus olitorius) and white jute (C. capsularis). The yield and fiber quality of this crop remained stagnant for many years and could not be improved through conventional plant breeding. Also, no effort has been made to develop molecular markers on a scale required for marker-assisted selection (MAS) to supplement conventional plant breeding. As a first step toward deploying MAS for jute improvement, 2469 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were developed in tossa jute (JRO 524) using four SSR-enriched genomic libraries. A random subset of 100 SSRs (25 SSRs from each library) was used to detect polymorphism between the parental genotypes of each of the two recombinant inbred line (RIL) mapping populations. The RILs are being developed from JRO 524 × PPO4 (for fiber fineness) and JRC 321 × CMU 010 (for lignin content) crosses to prepare molecular maps and conduct quantitative trait loci (QTL) analyses. Both SSR length polymorphism and ± polymorphism (null alleles, i.e., presence and absence of specific SSR) were detected; 50 SSRs detected polymorphism between the two genotypes of tossa jute, whereas 45 SSRs detected polymorphism between the two genotypes of white jute. This SSR allelic polymorphism in jute is higher than that reported in other crops and is adequate for construction of genetic maps for QTL analysis. The large-scale SSRs will also prove useful in studying genetic diversity, population structure, and association mapping

The Smart Airport App, Transit.io: The Travel Optimizer

Jacqueline Andrews, Devin Burke, Uvika Chaturvedi, Jake Collins, Pranav Gupta, Vikrant Neb, Harsh Somani, and Alyssa Williams were all seniors in industrial engineering in the spring semester of 2016. They were members of Team 3 in the course titled Human Factors and Work Analysis (IE 486). This course explores the application of engineering, computer sciences, information sciences, and psychological principles and methods to the analysis and design of human work systems. In this article, the students describe their development of an application prototype to improve the airport travel experience

Litter Fall and Its Decomposition in Sapium sebiferum

Recognizing that high litter fall and its rapid decomposition are key traits of invasive species, litter fall and its decay in Sapium sebiferum Roxb. were studied in Palampur. For this, litter traps of dimension 50 × 50 × 50 cm3 were placed in under-canopy and canopy gap of the species. Litter fall was monitored monthly and segregated into different components. For litter decay studies, litter bags of dimension 25 × 20 cm2 with a mesh size 2 mm were used and the same were analyzed on a fortnightly basis. Litter fall in both under-canopy and canopy gap was highest in November (1.16 Mg ha−1 y−1 in under-canopy and 0.38 Mg ha−1 y−1 in canopy gap) and lowest during March. Litter production in under-canopy and canopy gap was 4.04 Mg ha−1 y−1 and 1.87 Mg ha−1 y−1, respectively. These values are comparable to sal forest (1.7 t C ha−1 y−1), chir pine-mixed forest (2.1 t C ha−1 y−1), and mixed oak-conifer forest (2.8 t C ha−1 y−1) of the Western Himalaya. The decay rate, 0.46% day−1 in under-canopy and 0.48% day−1 in canopy gap, was also fast. Owing to this the species may be able to modify the habitats to its advantage, as has been reported elsewhere

Structural and functional analysis of rice genome

Rice is an excellent system for plant genomics as it represents a modest size genome of 430 Mb. It feeds more than half the population of the world. Draft sequences of the rice genome, derived by whole-genome shotgun approach at relatively low coverage (4-6 X), were published and the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP) declared high quality (>10 X), genetically anchored, phase 2 level sequence in 2002. In addition, phase 3 level finished sequence of chromosomes 1, 4 and 10 (out of 12 chromosomes of rice) has already been reported by scientists from IRGSP consortium. Various estimates of genes in rice place the number at >50,000. Already, over 28,000 full-length cDNAs have been sequenced, most of which map to genetically anchored genome sequence. Such information is very useful in revealing novel features of macroand micro-level synteny of rice genome with other cereals. Microarray analysis is unraveling the identity of rice genes expressing in temporal and spatial manner and should help target candidate genes useful for improving traits of agronomic importance. Simultaneously, functional analysis of rice genome has been initiated by marker-based characterization of useful genes and employing functional knock-outs created by mutation or gene tagging. Integration of this enormous information is expected to catalyze tremendous activity on basic and applied aspects of rice genomics