Adoption intensity of soil and water conservation practices by smallholders: Evidence from Northern Ghana

Soil and water conservation practices are being promoted in Ghana as a way of sustainably managing the environment to support agricultural production. Despite the important role the adoption of the practices plays in conserving the environment, very few studies have been conducted to analyse the factors influencing their intensive adoption. This study analyses the determinants of intensity of adoption of soil and water conservation practices using data from a cross-section of smallholder producers in Northern Ghana. Count data models are used for the analysis. The empirical results show that access to information, social capital, per capita landholding and wealth play an important role in smallholder producers’ decision to intensively adopt soil and water conservation practices

Comparison of Fracture Delineation Methods in Anteroposterior Pelvic Radiographs

Pelvic fractures are very difficult to detect due to the visual complexity of the pelvic bone. Pelvic fracture occurs less frequently, only when there is a high energy event such as fall from a height or vehicle collision. In elder people and in osteoporosis patients even a low energy incident may cause fracture. The paper includes the comparison of three different fracture detection methods – GLCM and ANN based, Statistical curve fitting and classifier based and finally statistical curve fitting and ANN based method

MICROANGIOGRAM VIDEO COMPRESSION USING ADAPTIVE PREDICTION

Coronary angiography is an X-ray examination of the heart\u27s arteries. This is an essential technique for diagnosis of heart damages. Image sequences from digital angiography contain areas of high diagnostic interest. Loss of information due to compression for regions of interest (ROI) in angiograms is not tolerable. Since Commercially available technology such as JPEG and MPEG do not satisfy medical requirements due to their severe blockartifacts. In this paper, a new compression algorithm that achieves high compression ratio and excellent reconstruction quality for video rate or sub-video rate angiograms is developed. The proposed algorithm exploits temporal spatial and spectral redundancies in backward adaptive fashion with Extremely low side information. An experimental result shows that the proposed scheme provides significant improvements in compression efficiencies

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF VALSARTAN FAST DISINTEGRATING TABLETS BY VACUUM DRYING TECHNIQUE

ABSTRACTObjective: The main objective present research work an attempt has been made to prepare fast dissolving tablets of Valsartan by using vacuumdrying technique. Camphor, Urea and Menthol are used as a sublimating agent. Valsartan is an oral antihypertensive agent, with problems of variablebioavailability and bioequivalence related to its poor water solubility. Valsartan is an angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist indicated in thetreatment of hypertension. Methods: The prepared tablets Valsartan fast dissolving tablets were evaluated for various parameters like weight variation, hardness, friability,disintegration time, drug content, water absorption ratio, wetting time, in- vitro drug release, FTIR, DSC studies and short term stability studies. Theblend was examined for the pre-compressional and post-compressional parameter. Results and Discussions: The values of pre-compression parameters evaluated were within prescribed limits and indicated good free flowingproperty. All the post-compressional parameter are evaluated were prescribed limits and results were within IP acceptable limits. Based on the invitrodisintegrationtime and dissolution studies formulationsSC2 andSC3werefoundtobe promisingandshowedadisintegrationtime of 24secand16 secrespectively.FormulationSC3 containingcamphor showedhighestdrug release99.4% within10 min.IR spectralanalysisandDSC studyshowedthattherewasno drug interactionwith formulationadditivesofthetablet asthereis novariationand shift inthe position ofcharacteristicabsorptionbands it canbejustifiedthereis no interactionbetweendrug and polymer.Short termstability studieson the formulationsindicatedthatthereareno significant change in hardness,friability,drug contentand in-vitrodrug release(p<0.05). Conclusion: The results concluded that fast dissolving tablets of Valsartan showing enhanced dissolution may lead to improved bioavailabilityand effective therapy by using sublimation method.Keywords: Fast dissolving tablet, Valsartan, Crospovidone, Camphor, Urea, Disintegration time

Unscarred uterine rupture: a retrospective analysis

Uterine rupture is an obstetrical emergency associated with significant maternal and fetal mortality and morbidity. Spontaneous rupture of an unscarred uterus, though rare, can occur in developing countries. Many risk factors for uterine rupture, as well as a wide range of clinical presentations, have been identified. The aim of the study was to analyze the incidence, predisposing factors and to determine the maternal and perinatal outcomes of unscarred uterine rupture. A retrospective analysis of cases of unscarred uterine rupture was conducted at the department of obstetrics and gynecology, Andhra Medical College/King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam from 01 October 2020 to 31 October 2021. Out of the 8657 deliveries in our hospital during the study period, there were 11 cases of ruptured unscarred uteri giving an incidence of 0.127%. All of these (100%) were unbooked cases. Most of them (90.9%) were multigravida. Uterine rupture occurred at term in 9 cases and 2 were pre term. Maternal mortality was 18.18% (2 cases) and perinatal mortality was 72.72% (8 cases). Sub-total hysterectomy was done in 4 and laparotomy with repair of the rent was performed in the remaining 7 cases. Unscarred uterine rupture though a rare complication of pregnancy, can occur commonly in developing countries. Obstructed labour, mismanaged labour, injudicious use of oxytocin and grand multiparity are the common risk factors associated with unscarred uterine rupture

Case report on perioperative management of combined factor V and VIII deficiency in a patient with prolapse uterus

Combined factor V and factor VIII deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive disorder with incidence of one in 10,00,000. We reported a case of seventy-one-year-old patient with third degree uterovaginal prolapse, diagnosed as combined factor V and VIII deficiency and the successful perioperative management during vaginal hysterectomy. With our experience in this, we conclude that for the patient's with factor V and VIII deficiency that the correction should be given for at least 2 weeks post operatively

Studies of vitamin A deficiency in children

The clinical features of 319 children with vitamin A deficiency observed in Coonoor and forty-nine children studied in Hyderabad have been discussed in detail. Estimations of the contents of vitamin A and carotene in the serum and the in vitro destruction of vitamin A by lysed red blood cells were carried out. There was a lack of association between the incidence of night blindness and other ocular signs of vitamin A deficiency. Although signs of vitamin A deficiency were always associated with a low dietary intake of carotene and vitamin A, the reverse did not always occur. The proportion of patients with vitamin A deficiency who had keratomalacia was much greater in Hyderabad than in Coonoor. Levels of vitamin A and carotene in the serum were low in all children with vitamin A deficiency. Levels of vitamin A in the serum of subjects with kwashiorkor but without clinical signs of vitamin A deficiency were also found to be significantly lower than the levels in apparently normal children. Treatment with a high protein diet without vitamin A supplementation brought about a significant increase in the levels of vitamin A in the serum in the latter. The in vitro destruction of vitamin A by lysed red blood cells of children suffering from vitamin A deficiency appeared to be higher than that of the normal controls Treatment with vitamin A lowered this abnormal in vitro destruction