Relationship of Common Vascular Anatomy to Cannulated Catheters.

Superficial veins of the upper extremity are the primary location for placement of peripheral IV catheters (PIVC). It is believed that a significant portion of PIVCs placed may cross or abut valves and branching veins or occlude a significant portion of the vein, limiting the ability to aspirate blood from the PIVC. Two separate clinical investigations using ultrasound were performed to understand the potential interaction between PIVCs and the vein lumen and the venous valves and branches of the superficial veins of the upper extremity. One study with 35 adult volunteers interrogated 210 vein segments where a PIV would likely be placed. A second pediatric study evaluated 35 vein segments central to indwelling PIVCs. The combined data from the two studies showed that over 80% of adult veins and 85% of pediatric veins can properly accommodate 20-gauge and 22-gauge PIVC, respectively. Venous valves are frequent findings, either immediately peripheral to branching veins or at periodic 5 to 7 cm points. Antegrade blood flow can be restricted by a placed PIVC, while retrograde flow is very likely to be restricted by venous valves. Together, these findings may explain the difficulty in reliable aspiration of blood from PIVC

Studies on Effect of Electrostatic Spraying in Orchards

Evaluation of an electrostatic sprayer (Make ESS, USA) was conducted on a pear orchard planted at 2.5 m row spacing and distance between plant to plant was 1.5 m. The water sensitive paper stripes were placed on each test plant at the upper and underside of the leaves at the different heights of the plant. Effect of charging on droplet density, area covered by droplets, volume of spray deposition, uniformity coefficient and droplet size were observed during the evaluation of the electrostatic sprayer and comparison was made between two different types of nozzle i.e. twin and single nozzle. It was found that droplet density on the upper and under sides of leaves by twin nozzle (Charged) was significantly (p = 0.0005) higher than twin nozzle (Uncharged) by 57.53 and 59.60% respectively. Droplet density on the upper and underside of leaves by single nozzle (Charged) was significantly (p = 0.0011) higher than single nozzle (Uncharged) by 58.15 and 54.65% respectively. The maximum droplets, i.e. 45 numbers were of size 44 microns observed for the twin nozzle (Charged). But in case of twin nozzle (Uncharged), the maximum droplets, i.e. only 13 numbers of drops were of 44 microns. Similarly maximum droplets, i.e. 32 numbers were of size 44 microns observed for the single nozzle (Charged) and in case of single nozzle (Uncharged), the maximum droplets, i.e. only 11 numbers of drops were of 44 microns. Area covered by droplets on the upper and under sides of leaves by twin nozzle (Charged) was significantly (p = 0.0017) higher than twin nozzle (Uncharged) by 50.19 and 67.86% respectively. Area covered by droplets on the upper and under sides of leaves by single nozzle (Charged) was significantly (p = 0.0007) higher than single nozzle (Uncharged) by 45.07 and 67.53% respectively. Volume of spray deposition on the upper and underside of leaves by twin nozzle was not significantly different single nozzle. Overall results showed that charging of nozzles has increased spraying efficiency significantly than the spraying done by uncharged nozzles for orchards

Evaluation of yield monitoring system installed on indigenous grain combine harvester for rice crop

Precision agriculture is a methodology to identify and exploit variability within an agricultural field.  In India, a yield is measured during marketing of harvested crop and as a gross yield of the land owned by the farmer.  The yield monitor mounted over grain combine harvester measures and records information such as grain flow, grain moisture, area covered and location.  An automated yield monitoring system consisting of a yield sensor, global positioning system (GPS), field computer with custom software was mounted on a self propelled indigenous grain combine harvester for real-time crop yield mapping along with moisture data.  By means of optical sensors (light emitter and detector), the height of the grain on the elevator paddles was measured and converted in the grain mass flow.  Three rice fields were harvested to evaluate the performance of the yield monitor for grain yield and moisture mapping of harvested grains.  The actual yield maps were generated by using Arc GIS software from the data collected for three different rice fields.  The total area harvested by using indigenous combine harvester fitted with yield monitor and moisture sensor was 0.84 ha comprising three fields (1, 2 and 3) having areas 0.3, 0.22 and 0.32 ha respectively.  On an average, yields for all the three fields (1, 2 and 3) were 4,325.91, 5,093.14 and 4,287.66    kg ha-1 with moisture content of 21.42%, 22.78% and 20.42% (wet basis) recorded respectively.  On an average, yield variations recorded for all the three fields (1, 2 and 3) were having 30.59%, 40.80% and 40.39% coefficient of variation respectively.  The minimum and maximum yields recorded within all the fields harvested were 577.08 and 7,661.48 kg ha-1 with an average yield of 4,287.66 kg ha-1 having 37.26% coefficient of variation (CV) in all the three fields.   Keywords: Combine harvester, precision agriculture, sensor; yield maps, yield monito

Attribute Based Coding, Review and Gap Analysis of Cotton Harvesting Processes and Machines

Mechanical cotton harvesters, i.e. strippers and pickers are commercially available, but these cannot be used for cotton harvesting from varieties presently grown in India due to design constraints and agronomic practices. Higher initial cost and field capacity make cotton harvesters unsuitable and unaffordable for small and medium farms. Hence, a comprehensive review of cotton harvesting mechanisms developed till date was carried out. Different attributes relating to problem have been expressed in matrix form to identify of crop and machine parameters which could be utilized by Researchers, Engineers and Manufacturers for development and refinement of mechanical cotton harvesters for small and medium farms. The matrix depicts on academic work of each paper and each attribute. Coding/grading of these attributes was done according to their importance in the research publications. Summation of coded attributes has been done publication-wise as well as category-wise so that the value of each attribute and each publication gets identified for the development of a need based mechanical cotton harvester. For publication-wise attribute coding, a total of 19 publications with 21 attributes were reviewed and related with the mechanical cotton harvesters. A publication with all the 21 selected attributes had been discussed in detail and was assigned a score of 105. Under the category-wise attribute coding, attributes such as crop variety, yield, row spacing, plant height and plant population were considered and assigned grade more than 20 as most of the authors discussed these attributes in their studies. Other parameters like limb length, plant canopy (spread width) along and across the rows, height of lower and upper boll were accorded less importance as their grade was less than 10 out of a total 95 score. Defoliant attributes were discussed in 14 out of 19 papers reviewed and had 28 grade points as compared to desiccant, which was discussed in only 2 papers and assigned a grade of 5 only. Under the machine parameters, type of mechanism was assigned a grade point i.e. 66 as mechanical harvester performance was mainly dependent on this attribute. So far, as the performance of harvester was concerned, various parameters like picking efficiency, trash content, lint turnout and losses were discussed in different studies.

Ultrasound-guided introital drainage of pyometrocolpos

Pyometrocolpos can be caused by congenital malformations such as distal vaginal atresia and imperforate hymen. Patients usually present with obstructive urinary tract infections, acute kidney injury, or sepsis. Percutaneous drainage of the infected fluid can help treat the patient; however, recurrence is of concern. In this case report, we present a case of a child with recurrent pyometrocolpos due to distal vaginal atresia despite initial percutaneous drainage. To our knowledge, this is the first report of ultrasound-guided introital drainage of pyometrocolpos with relief of symptoms obviating the need for repeat drainage or immediate surgery. © 201

Long-term biocompatibility, imaging appearance and tissue effects associated with delivery of a novel radiopaque embolization bead for image-guided therapy

The objective of this study was to undertake a comprehensive long-term biocompatibility and imaging assessment of a new intrinsically radiopaque bead (LC Bead LUMI™) for use in transarterial embolization. The sterilized device and its extracts were subjected to the raft of ISO10993 biocompatibility tests that demonstrated safety with respect to cytotoxicity, mutagenicity, blood contact, irritation, sensitization, systemic toxicity and tissue reaction. Intra-arterial administration was performed in a swine model of hepatic arterial embolization in which 0.22–1 mL of sedimented bead volume was administered to the targeted lobe(s) of the liver. The beads could be visualized during the embolization procedure with fluoroscopy, DSA and single X-ray snapshot imaging modalities. CT imaging was performed before and 1 h after embolization and then again at 7, 14, 30 and 90 days. LC Bead LUMI™ could be clearly visualized in the hepatic arteries with or without administration of IV contrast and appeared more dense than soluble contrast agent. The CT density of the beads did not deteriorate during the 90 day evaluation period. The beads embolized predictably and effectively, resulting in areas devoid of contrast enhancement on CT imaging suggesting ischaemia-induced necrosis nearby the sites of occlusion. Instances of off target embolization were easily detected on imaging and confirmed pathologically. Histopathology revealed a classic foreign body response at 14 days, which resolved over time leading to fibrosis and eventual integration of the beads into the tissue, demonstrating excellent long-term tissue compatibility

NewsPanda: Media Monitoring for Timely Conservation Action

Non-governmental organizations for environmental conservation have a significant interest in monitoring conservation-related media and getting timely updates about infrastructure construction projects as they may cause massive impact to key conservation areas. Such monitoring, however, is difficult and time-consuming. We introduce NewsPanda, a toolkit which automatically detects and analyzes online articles related to environmental conservation and infrastructure construction. We fine-tune a BERT-based model using active learning methods and noise correction algorithms to identify articles that are relevant to conservation and infrastructure construction. For the identified articles, we perform further analysis, extracting keywords and finding potentially related sources. NewsPanda has been successfully deployed by the World Wide Fund for Nature teams in the UK, India, and Nepal since February 2022. It currently monitors over 80,000 websites and 1,074 conservation sites across India and Nepal, saving more than 30 hours of human efforts weekly. We have now scaled it up to cover 60,000 conservation sites globally.Comment: Accepted to IAAI-23: 35th Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence. Winner of IAAI Deployed Application Award. Code at https://github.com/NewsPanda-WWF-CMU/weekly-pipelin