Retroperitoneal Ancient Schwannoma

Schwannomas are rare tumors which arise from nerve sheath and are mostly benign in nature. They are usually located in the head, neck and flexor surfaces of extremities. Schwannomas are very rare in the retroperitoneal region. Amongst all schwannomas 0.7% of benign ones and 1.7% of malignant ones are located in the retroperitoneum. Preoperative diagnosis is difficult because of vague symptoms. We report a case of retroperitonal schwannoma in a 70 years female patient because of its rarity and unusual location

Effect of weld parameter on mechanical and metallurgical properties of dissimilar joints AA6082–AA6061 in T6 condition produced by FSW

The effect of processing parameters on the mechanical and metallurgical properties of dissimilarjoints of AA6082–AA6061 produced by friction stir welding was analysed in this study. Different FSW sampleswere produced by varying the welding speeds of the tool as 50 and 62 mm/min and by varying the alloypositioned on the advancing side of the tool. In all the experiments the rotating speed is fixed at 1600rpm. Allthe welds were produced perpendicularly to the rolling direction for both the alloys. Microhardness (HV) andtensile tests performed at room temperature were used to evaluate the mechanical properties of the joints. Inorder to analyse the microstructural evolution of the material, the weld’s cross-sections were observed opticallyand SEM observations were made of the fracture surfaces. The corrosion tests of base alloy and welded jointswere carried out in 3.5%NaCl solution at a room temperature. Corrosion current and potential were determinedusing potentiostatic polarization measurements. It was found that the corrosion rates of welded joints werehigher than that of base alloy

Variable - temperature scanning optical and force microscope

The implementation of a scanning microscope capable of working in confocal, atomic force and apertureless near field configurations is presented. The microscope is designed to operate in the temperature range 4 - 300 K, using conventional helium flow cryostats. In AFM mode, the distance between the sample and an etched tungsten tip is controlled by a self - sensing piezoelectric tuning fork. The vertical position of both the AFM head and microscope objective can be accurately controlled using piezoelectric coarse approach motors. The scanning is performed using a compact XYZ stage, while the AFM and optical head are kept fixed, allowing scanning probe and optical measurements to be acquired simultaneously and in concert. The free optical axis of the microscope enables both reflection and transmission experiments to be performed.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, submitted to the journal "Review of Scientific Instruments

Vehicle to Vehicle Communication System for Smart Cities

A Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication system for smart cities is proposed here. The V2V communication system is an advance wireless technology to reduce the number of fatal roadway accidents by providing early warning messages. For development of smart cities V2V and V2R are important to reduce road accidents on highways. It gives ease of access by providing different facilities such as ATM transaction, accidents safety messages to the transport or central unit. Based on a careful analysis of application requirements, an effective protocol can be used, which comprising congestion control policies, service differentiation mechanisms and methods for emergency warning dissemination. The proposed protocol achieves low latency in delivering emergency warnings and use of efficient bandwidth in stressful road scenarios. This system uses WSN for communication between two vehicle modules

EFFICACY OF SUPPLEMENTATION OF PROBIOTICS ALONG WITH ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS IN VULVOVAGINAL INFECTIONS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to ascertain the efficacy of probiotics along with antimicrobials in the treatment of vulvovaginitis and to evaluate the rate of recurrence. Methods: The study was done on 60 patients who were randomly selected and divided into two groups of 30 each. Prior permission from the Institutional Ethics Committee and higher authorities was obtained before conducting the study. One group received standard treatment including antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal as per the gynecologist discretion and in other group along with standard treatment, probiotic capsules containing combination of Saccharomyces boulardii, Lactobacillus sporogenes (50 million), Streptococcus faecalis (30 million), Clostridium butyricum (2 million), and Bacillus mesentericus (1 million) given orally twice daily and followed up for a period of 3 months. The drugs were started on the 5th day after menstruation taking starting of the bleeding as day 1. Results: The parameters compared were symptoms and signs (significantly reduced – p-value), clue cells (significantly reduced in number), and recurrence rates (significantly reduced), in 80% of patients smears which were not consistent with BV. Maximum number of patients showed negative KOH mount (71.5%), saline wet mount was negative in 80% of patients in antimicrobial agents + probiotics group. Conclusion: From the present interventional study, probiotics along with antimicrobial agents showed better improvement than antimicrobial agents alone. Hence, supplementation of probiotics along with antimicrobial agents provides better efficacy than antimicrobial agents alone in treating vulvovaginal infections

Proximate analysis and mineral characterization of Barringtonia species

The study about material contained in Barringtonia seeds were conducted at the first time using the standard procedure of AOAC. For present work, two species of Barringtonia were selected viz., B. acutangula and B. racemosa . The proximate composition and mineral constituents of Barringtonia seeds were evaluated. The B. acutangula seeds contained ash 4.24%, crude protein 9.23%, crude lipids 0.68%, crude fibre13.54% and carbohydrates 66.17%. While in seeds of B. racemosa, ash 4.02%, crude protein 12.09%, crude lipids 0.75%, crude fibre15.18% and carbohydrates: 64.67% were observed. Both the species have a high energy value on dry basis. Comparing the mineral content with recommended dietary allowances (RDA), the results indicated that seeds of B. acutangula fruits could be a good supplement for some nutrients such as calcium, fibre and carbohydrates, whereas the B. racemosa seeds could be a good supplement for some nutrients such as fibre, potassium, zinc and carbohydrates. The seeds of Barringtonia could be promoted as a carbohydrate supplement. Hence, this piece of work acclaims the potential of Barringtonia species indicating its proximate and mineral composition

Hyperuricemia and maternal outcome in pregnancy induced hypertension: prospective study in a tertiary care center in Mumbai, India

Background: Pregnancy induced hypertension, preeclampsia, eclampsia are serious complications of pregnancy. They are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world and one of the leading causes for perinatal mortality also. It is the systemic disease affecting all vital organs including the fetus. Estimation of biochemical markers can give us the indication of the severity and prediction of the outcome. Serum uric acid is the end product of purine metabolism, amongst others like creatinine, LDH, transaminases. Methods: It was a type of prospective descriptive study. The present study was conducted in department of obstetrics and gynecology, Tertiary care hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Results: Pregnancy induced hypertension was most common in age group of 20-25 years, most common complication was preterm delivery which accounts for 43% of maternal complications. 60% of the cases with IUFD had serum uric acid level 8-8.9 mg/dl, 3% of the patients had HELLP syndrome. Conclusions: We found severity of complication associated with raise in serum uric acid levels.

Experimental investigation of the response of a harmonically excited hard Duffing oscillator

A single degree-of-freedom torsional vibratory system, which constitutes a third-order dissipative dynamical system, has been fabricated as a mechanical analogue of hard Duffing equation with strong nonlinearity. The forced response of the system reveals complicated and chaotic motion at low frequency regime. Besides usual jump phenomenon, unpredictable jump phenomenon with two and three coexisting periodic attractors is also observed