DAM BREAK-A Review

The Dams are essential structures compiling numerous advantages for the development and sustenance of society, on the contrary breaking of dam can prove to be fatal in the same proportion. The study of dam breach and modelling of dam break scenario thus becomes very important for mapping of floods and preparation of emergency action plans. Failure of a dam differs from one type of dam to other. Dam failure may be broadly classified as instantaneous and gradual. The masonry or rigid concrete dams fail instantly due to failure of monolith on the other hand the earthen dam fail gradually by erosion due to overtopping over crest and piping failure beneath the dam structure. With the advancement in computational techniques various types of software are now available which enables simulation of dam break scenarios and help in preparation of inundation maps. This paper reviews the study of dam break scenario and important types of dam breach parameters. Various guidelines regarding dam breach parameters have been compiled and the capabilities of different types of software available for simulation of dam break scenarios have also been discussed

Diagnostic accuracy of FNAC in diagnosis for causes of lymphadenopathy: a hospital based analysis

Introduction: The lymphadenopathy consist wide range of etiology from inflammatory process to a malignant condition and it is most common clinical presentation in outpatient department. Fine needle aspiration cytology is a simple, safe, reliable, rapid and inexpensive method of diagnosis in lymph nodes.Aims and objectives: To find out diagnostic accuracy of FNAC in lymphadenopathy and common pattern of lymphadenopathy in our institute. Methods: This prospective study was carried out in the department of Pathology of Index Medical College Hospital and research Centre, Indore, India from June 2011 to May 2013. The patients with palpable lymph nodes were included in this study. The slides were stained with Papanicolaou and May Grunewald Geimsa stain.Special stain like Ziel Neelson, Alcian blue was done whenever is required. A detailed analytic study was performed for correlation of Cyto-histopathological diagnosis. Results: The result shows male to female ratio of 1.0:0.8. The age of the patients ranges from 2 to 79 year with mean age of 32 years. The study shows reactive hyperplasia 149 (33.38%), tubercular lymphadenitis 177 (39.77%), granulomatous lymphadenitis 32(7.1%), lymphoma 25 (5.5%), metastatic carcinoma 40 (8.9%) and others 22 (4.9%). We found cyto-histpathological concordant in 161 (95.8%) cases and discordant in 7 (4.2%) cases.Conclusion: The sensitivity of FNAC in lymphoma and metastatic tumors is 81.48% and 97.5% with test accuracy of 96.5% and 99.4% respectively. Hence FNAC should be used as preliminary screening investigation in all forms of lymphadenopathy and interpretation should be done in conjunction with clinical picture of the patients

Study of altered platelet morphology with changes in glycaemic status

Background: Diabetes is a pandemic causing very high morbidity and mortality due to its complications which are a result of micro and macro angiopathy. Platelets play a key role in the vascular complications. These complications are attributed to platelet activation which can be recognised by an increase in platelet volume indices (PVI) including mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet distribution width (PDW). Platelet indices can be potentially useful surrogate markers for the early diagnosis of thromboembolic and cardiovascular complications in diabetes.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted for 2 years with total 930 subjects. The patients were segregated in 03 groups on basis of HbA1C as (a) Diabetic, (b) Non-Diabetic and (c) FG. Samples for HbA1C and platelet indices were collected using EDTA (ethylene diamine tetracetic acid) as anticoagulant and were processed on autoanalysers.Results: The study revealed a stepwise increase in the PVI from non-diabetics to IFG to diabetics. MPV and PDW were increased in the IFG cases as compared to the non-diabetic and were markedly increased in the diabetic patients. MPV and PDW of diabetics, IFG and non-diabetics were 17.60±2.04, 11.76±0.73, 9.93±0.64 and 19.17±1.48, 15.49±0.67, 10.59±0.67 respectively with a significant p value 0.00. Significant positive correlation between PVI with glycaemic levels and duration of diabetes across the groups (MPV-HbA1c r = 0.951; PDW-HbA1c r = 0.875). However, the total platelet count was found to decrease with the increasing glycaemic levels with a p value <0.001. A significant negative correlation was found between glycaemic levels and total platelet count (PC- HbA1c r = -0.164).Conclusions: This study showed that platelet morphology is altered with increasing glycaemic levels. These changes can be known by measurements of PVI which is an important simple and effortless tool can be used more extensively to predict the acute vascular events and thereby help curb morbidity and mortality.

Road Rage Menace: A Cross-sectional Study to Assess Driver Anger Level in Public Motor Vehicle Drivers in a City in Central India

Introduction: Road rage and aggressive driving is a prevalent condition in today’s society due to motorists’ frustrations during heavy traffic volumes. Objective: This study was done to assess the level of anger amongst the drivers of public transport vehicles in Indore, using Driving Anger Scale (DAS by Deffenbacher et. al.) and various factors affecting it. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 135 drivers of Public transport vehicle drivers (Star bus, City-van and star cab drivers) in Indore to assess their anger level using Driving Anger Scale. The participants were required to record the amount of anger they would experience in response to each item in the scale (1=not at all angry, 2=a little angry, 3=some anger, 4=much anger, 5=very much angry). Results: The mean DAS score in Indore was found to be 3.013 and in the three organizations namely Star bus drivers, City van drivers and Star cab drivers was 2.92, 3.08 and 3.04 respectively. The DAS score of drivers with respect to the 6 sub-scales were: hostile gestures (Star bus -3.42,City van -3.67,Star cab -3.38), slow driving (Star bus -2.73,City van driv-2.78,Star cab-3.17), traffic obstructions (Star bus-2.85,City van -3.25,Star cab-3.18), discourtesy (Star bus -3.23,City van-3.33,Star cab -3.25)and police presence (Star bus -2.15,City van -1.99,Star cab -2.78), illegal driving (Star bus -3.04,City van -3.14,Star cab -2.89). The DAS scores of the drivers did not vary significantly with age group, experience, and educational qualification. Conclusion: Though DAS scores did not vary between the three groups of drivers, however average level anger for various given circumstances commonly found in the Indian traffic scenario was on the higher side

Hybrid evolutionary techniques for constrained optimisation design

This thesis a research program in which novel and generic optimisation methods were developed so that can be applied to a multitude of mathematically modelled business problems which the standard optimisation techniques often fail to deal with. The continuous and mixed discrete optimisation methods have been investigated by designing new approaches that allow users to more effectively tackle difficult optimisation problems with a mix of integer and real valued variables. The focus of this thesis presents practical suggestions towards the implementation of hybrid evolutionary approaches for solving optimisation problems with highly structured constraints. This work also introduces a derivation of the different optimisation methods that have been reported in the literature. Major theoretical properties of the new methods have been presented and implemented. Here we present detailed description of the most essential steps of the implementation. The performance of the developed methods is evaluated against real-world benchmark problems, and the numerical results of the test problems are found to be competitive compared to existing methods

Evaluation of serum hepcidin as a biochemical marker in diagnosis of anemia of chronic disease

Background: Anemia is a serious public health problem. It affects two billion people worldwide, particularly infants and young children mainly in developing countries where its etiology is multifactorial. Anemia in infancy is generally associated with impaired cognitive and behavioral development, impaired oxygen transport and a poorer prognosis in the context of many chronic diseases or chronic infections. The Present study aims to detect the serum hepcidin and ferritin levels in chronic disease anemia and correlate the values of serum hepcidin levels with their serum ferritin levels and IL-6 levels.Methods: A total of 86 individuals were enrolled in the study. Sample for hematological evaluations were collected and estimation was carried out for biomarker estimation by ELISA method(s) using specified kit(s) procured commercially. The statistical evaluation was done using SPSS version 24.0. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson's correlation tests were used to compare the variables and to see the correlation between the different variables.Results: In present study, we observed statistically significant lower values of RBC count, Hbgm/dl, MCV, MCH, MCHC in ACD group than the normal group. For serum hepcidin when ROC curves and Pearson’s scattered plot were made in case of ACD group; the ROC was recorded to be maximum &gt;0.869; with a sensitivity of 84.62% and specificity 94.12% while the confidence level was 95% with an interval of 0.779 to 0.932. Further, the cutoff point determined was &gt;72.93. Thus, the hepcidin level &gt; 72ng/mL and above is related to the ACD. These cut off points had strong confidence interval and valuable predictive potential.Conclusions: Serum Hepcidin can be used as a simple and cost effective diagnostic marker for identification of anemia

Serum hepcidin and interleukin-6 as biochemical markers in differentiation of iron deficiency anemia and anemia of chronic disease

Background: Iron deficiency (ID) is the most prevalent nutritional deficiency and the most common cause of anemia in the world. It is defined as a reduction in total body iron to an extent that iron stores are fully exhausted and even some degree of tissue iron deficiency results. The Present study aims to compare the serum hepcidin and IL-6 levels in anemia of chronic disease (ACD) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) groups and correlate the values of serum hepcidin levels with their serum ferritin levels and IL-6 levels.Methods: A total of 112 individuals were enrolled in the study. Samples for hematological evaluations were collected and estimation was carried out for biomarker using ELISA method(s) using specified kit(s) procured commercially. The statistical evaluation was done using SPSS version 24.0. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson's correlation tests were used to compare the variables and to see the correlation between the different variables.Results: In present study, we compared the values of RBC count, Hb gm/dl, MCV, MCH, MCHC in ACD and IDA group. Serum Hepcidin, a marker of iron deficiency anemia was significantly low in case of IDA 33.23±12.46ng/mL, on the contrary in case of ACD group the serum hepcidin level was elevated 98.36±24.29ng/mL. It is found that IL- 6 plays an important role in the regulation of hepcidin as reflected especially in ACD and IDA groups. In case of IDA the level of IL6 was significantly reduced to an average concentration 7.62±3.51ng/mL on the contrary in case of ACD group the serum IL-6 level was elevated to 115.82±33.7ng/mL. Thus, it provides for conclusive differentiation or diagnosis of iron deficiency anemia and anemia of chronic disease.Conclusions: Serum Hepcidin can be used as a simple and cost effective diagnostic marker for differentiation of iron deficiency anemia and anemia of chronic disease

Quantification of serum hepcidin as a potential biomarker in diagnosis of iron deficiency anaemia

Background: Iron deficiency (ID) is the most prevalent nutritional deficiency and the most common cause of anemia in the world. Present study aims to detect the serum hepcidin and ferritin levels in iron deficiency induced anaemia’s and compare and correlate the values of serum hepcidin levels with their Serum ferritin levels and IL-6 levels.Methods: A total of 94 individuals were enrolled in the study. Sample for hematological evaluations were collected and estimation was carried out for biomarker estimation by ELISA method(s) using specified kit(s) procured commercially. The statistical evaluation was done using SPSS version 24.0. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson's correlation tests were used to compare the variables and to see the correlation between the different variables.Results: Serum Hepcidin, a marker of iron deficiency anemia is significantly low in patients with IDA (33.23±12.46 ng/mL) than in normal with p-value <0.001 which is highly significant. In present study, we determined the cut off points differentiating IDA from healthy group which was ≤ 34.55; with AUC 0.845 (P<0.0001), 95% confidence interval was 0.755 to 0.911, and sensitivity was 98.33 % and specificity 52.94%. These cut off points had strong confidence interval and valuable predictive potential.Conclusions: Serum Hepcidin can be used as a simple and cost effective diagnostic marker for identification of anemia