Clinical and biochemical profile of hyponatremia and the role of vaptans in comparison to other standard modalities of therapy

Background: This study, conducted from August 2014 to August 2015, investigated hyponatremia in 228 in-hospital patients, aiming to discern its clinical and biochemical features and compare the efficacy of vaptans against standard treatments. The null hypothesis assumed no significant disparity in outcomes, while the alternate hypothesis posited otherwise. Methods: Using an open-label, non-blinded, observational, prospective comparative design, we assessed 228 hyponatremia patients. We scrutinized their clinical and biochemical profiles and made comparisons between moderate and profound hyponatremia cases, along with different treatment approaches. Results: Our findings revealed that patients aged 61-80, primarily females, dominated the cohort. Moderate hyponatremia occurred in 56.6% of cases, with severe hyponatremia in 43.4%. Common symptoms included drowsiness, nausea, and vomiting. Euvolemic hyponatremia was predominantly due to SIADH, while heart failure led to most hypervolemic cases. Various treatments were employed, with fluid restriction and normal saline being common. Tolvaptan and 1.6% hypertonic saline significantly increased serum sodium levels at 24 and 48 hours. Hospital stay duration didn’t significantly differ, and no osmotic demyelination cases emerged. Mortality stood at 10.5%, notably higher in profound hyponatremia cases. Conclusions: This study provides insights into hyponatremia’s clinical and biochemical aspects and compares vaptans to standard treatments. Tolvaptan and hypertonic saline displayed promise in raising serum sodium levels. Nevertheless, further research is warranted to validate these findings and explore additional factors impacting hyponatremia treatment outcomes

Epidemiology of sepsis and its various characteristics in a tertiary care adult-multidisciplinary ICU in South India: a retrospective study

Background: The incidence of sepsis is increasing, especially in elderly populations with more comorbidities. It is now estimated that sepsis is a leading cause of mortality and critical illness worldwide. The Epidemiological data regarding sepsis, septic shock and organ involvement is mainly from western literature. Data from India, especially south India, are less when compared to western data. In this background authors conducted a retrospective study in tertiary care hospital in south India. Objectives of the study was epidemiology of sepsis and its various characteristics in a tertiary care adult-Multi disciplinary ICU in South India.Methods: This study was a retrospective observational study, conducted during the time period of June 2016 and May 2017. The study population was patients above 18 yrs admitted in MDICU with sepsis. The study was conducted in a tertiary care adult -Multidisciplinary ICU in South India. Various characteristics like age group, comorbidities, organ involvement, septic shock, sofa score, need for ventilatory support, RRT support and outcome data was collected.Results: In this study, 497 patients who satisfied the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines were included. The majority of the patients (59.8%) were male; the majority was above 60 yr (range 18 to 92 yr). 76.3% Patients had comorbid disease. Hypertension was the most common co-morbid (62%) followed by diabetes mellitus (51.3%). Chronic Kidney Disease was found in 132 patients (26.6%) and Coronary artery disease in 121 patients (24.3%). 186 patients (46.5%) had single organ involvement 140(35%) patients had 2 organ involvement. 74(18.5%) patients had more than 2 organ involvement. Septic shock was found in 155 patients (31.2%). Renal involvement was the most common organ involvement found in 279 patients(59.9%). Most common source for sepsis was the respiratory system found in 230 patients (46.3%), followed by urinary tract infection in 117 patients (23.5%). The study shows a significant association between SOFA score and mortality (p-value 0.001) 52% of mortality happened in group of patients with SOFA score more than 15 and mortality was 28 % in group with a SOFA score of 10-15.Conclusions: In this retrospective study of sepsis, authors found that the most common source of sepsis was pneumonia (46.3%) followed by urinary tract infection (23.5%). Majority of the patients had one organ involvement (46.5%). Among the organ involvement, Acute Kidney injury was the most common organ involvement (56.1%) followed by septic shock (31.2%) and respiratory support (29.6%). Mortality in this study was higher with higher SOFA score

Experimental and numerical investigation on gas turbine blade with the application of thermal barrier coatings

The engine parts material used in gas turbines (GTs) should be resistant to high-temperature variations. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) for gas turbine blades are found to have a significant effect on prolonging the life cycle of turbine blades by providing additional heat resistance. This work is to study the performance of TBCs on the high-temperature environment of the turbine blades. It is understood that this coating will increase the lifecycles of blade parts and decrease maintenance and repair costs. Experiments were performed on the gas turbine blade to see the effect of TBCs in different combinations of materials through the air plasma method. Three-layered coatings using materials INCONEL 718 as base coating, NiCoCrAIY as middle coating, and La2Ce2O7 as the top coating was applied. Finite element analysis was performed using a two-dimensional method to optimize the suitable formulation of coatings on the blade. Temperature distributions for different combinations of coatings layers with different materials and thickness were studied. Additionally, three-dimensional thermal stress analysis was performed on the blade with a commercial code. Results on the effect of TBCs shows a significant improvement in thermal resistance compared to the uncoated gas turbine blade

Persistence of chloramphenicol in the fish flesh patin (Pangasius hypothalamus) and tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Introduction: Increasing antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a serious global problem. This study was aimed to extract the antibiotic Chloramphenicol (CAP) from different parts of the fish flesh. Methods: Fish fleshes were excised from two commercially important fishes: Oreochromatis niloticus.(Red Tilapia) and Pangasius hypothalamus (Patin). The fleshes were chosen form head and tail region where generally antibiotics are spiked to avoid bacterial contamination while kept in cold storages of supermarkets. Each fish fleshes were weighed and spiked with 20,40,80 and 160ppm of CAP and stored at 4°C. The CAP residue from the flesh was extracted immediately after the first spiking was considered as Day-1. The whole extraction processes were done for 1,7,14 and 28 days. HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) was used to determine the presence of CAP residue in the tested fish flesh. Results: The results showed variations on the percentage of antibiotic residue recoveries at different concentration. In this study, CAP did not degrade and showed variations on the presence of antibiotic residue in the fish flesh. The recoveries of the entire CAP spiking samples ranged from 4.0% -100%. It also revealed the presence of antibiotic residue in Malaysian freshwater cultured fishes. Thus, the relevant authorities should take immediate action regarding this issue in order to prevent the harmful effects especially to human. Conclusions: Nevertheless, the study portrays that antibiotic residues can be sustained long time in the food products under storage conditions, which might have harmful effects on human when they consumed these frozen fishes

Robust human locomotion and localization activity recognition over multisensory

Human activity recognition (HAR) plays a pivotal role in various domains, including healthcare, sports, robotics, and security. With the growing popularity of wearable devices, particularly Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) and Ambient sensors, researchers and engineers have sought to take advantage of these advances to accurately and efficiently detect and classify human activities. This research paper presents an advanced methodology for human activity and localization recognition, utilizing smartphone IMU, Ambient, GPS, and Audio sensor data from two public benchmark datasets: the Opportunity dataset and the Extrasensory dataset. The Opportunity dataset was collected from 12 subjects participating in a range of daily activities, and it captures data from various body-worn and object-associated sensors. The Extrasensory dataset features data from 60 participants, including thousands of data samples from smartphone and smartwatch sensors, labeled with a wide array of human activities. Our study incorporates novel feature extraction techniques for signal, GPS, and audio sensor data. Specifically, for localization, GPS, audio, and IMU sensors are utilized, while IMU and Ambient sensors are employed for locomotion activity recognition. To achieve accurate activity classification, state-of-the-art deep learning techniques, such as convolutional neural networks (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM), have been explored. For indoor/outdoor activities, CNNs are applied, while LSTMs are utilized for locomotion activity recognition. The proposed system has been evaluated using the k-fold cross-validation method, achieving accuracy rates of 97% and 89% for locomotion activity over the Opportunity and Extrasensory datasets, respectively, and 96% for indoor/outdoor activity over the Extrasensory dataset. These results highlight the efficiency of our methodology in accurately detecting various human activities, showing its potential for real-world applications. Moreover, the research paper introduces a hybrid system that combines machine learning and deep learning features, enhancing activity recognition performance by leveraging the strengths of both approaches

Epitaxial Growth and Processing of Compound Semiconductors

Contains an introduction and reports on three research projects.MIT Lincoln LaboratoryU.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant F49620-96-1-0126National Science Foundation Grant DMR 94-00334Joint Services Electronics Progra

Global, regional, and national burden of chronic kidney disease, 1990–2017 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background Health system planning requires careful assessment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) epidemiology, but data for morbidity and mortality of this disease are scarce or non-existent in many countries. We estimated the global, regional, and national burden of CKD, as well as the burden of cardiovascular disease and gout attributable to impaired kidney function, for the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017. We use the term CKD to refer to the morbidity and mortality that can be directly attributed to all stages of CKD, and we use the term impaired kidney function to refer to the additional risk of CKD from cardiovascular disease and gout. Methods The main data sources we used were published literature, vital registration systems, end-stage kidney disease registries, and household surveys. Estimates of CKD burden were produced using a Cause of Death Ensemble model and a Bayesian meta-regression analytical tool, and included incidence, prevalence, years lived with disability, mortality, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). A comparative risk assessment approach was used to estimate the proportion of cardiovascular diseases and gout burden attributable to impaired kidney function. Findings Globally, in 2017, 1·2 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1·2 to 1·3) people died from CKD. The global all-age mortality rate from CKD increased 41·5% (95% UI 35·2 to 46·5) between 1990 and 2017, although there was no significant change in the age-standardised mortality rate (2·8%, −1·5 to 6·3). In 2017, 697·5 million (95% UI 649·2 to 752·0) cases of all-stage CKD were recorded, for a global prevalence of 9·1% (8·5 to 9·8). The global all-age prevalence of CKD increased 29·3% (95% UI 26·4 to 32·6) since 1990, whereas the age-standardised prevalence remained stable (1·2%, −1·1 to 3·5). CKD resulted in 35·8 million (95% UI 33·7 to 38·0) DALYs in 2017, with diabetic nephropathy accounting for almost a third of DALYs. Most of the burden of CKD was concentrated in the three lowest quintiles of Socio-demographic Index (SDI). In several regions, particularly Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, the burden of CKD was much higher than expected for the level of development, whereas the disease burden in western, eastern, and central sub-Saharan Africa, east Asia, south Asia, central and eastern Europe, Australasia, and western Europe was lower than expected. 1·4 million (95% UI 1·2 to 1·6) cardiovascular disease-related deaths and 25·3 million (22·2 to 28·9) cardiovascular disease DALYs were attributable to impaired kidney function. Interpretation Kidney disease has a major effect on global health, both as a direct cause of global morbidity and mortality and as an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. CKD is largely preventable and treatable and deserves greater attention in global health policy decision making, particularly in locations with low and middle SDI

Optics and Quantum Electronics

Contains table of contents on Section 3 and reports on nineteen research projects.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Grant F49620-96-0126Joint Services Electronics Program Grant DAAH04-95-1-0038National Science Foundation Grant ECS 94-23737U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Contract F49620-95-1-0221U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-95-1-0715Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/National Center for Integrated Photonics TechnologyMultidisciplinary Research InitiativeU.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific ResearchNational Science Foundation/MRSECU.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (MFEL) Contract N00014-91-J-1956National Institutes of Health Grant R01-EY11289U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (MFEL) Contract N00014-94-0717Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Contract N66001-96-C-863

Optics and Quantum Electronics

Contains table of contents for Section 3, reports on twenty-one research projects and a list of publications and meeting papers.Joint Services Electronics Program Contract DAAL03-92-C-0001U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Contract F49620-91-C-0091Charles S. Draper Laboratories Contract DL-H-441692MIT Lincoln LaboratoryNational Science Foundation Grant ECS 90-12787Fujitsu LaboratoriesU.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-92-J-1302National Center for Integrated Photonic TechnologyNational Science Foundation Grant ECS 85-52701U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (MFEL) Grant N00014-91-C-0084U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (MFEL) Grant N00014-91-J-1956National Institutes of Health Grant R01-GM35459-08U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant F49620-93-1-0301MIT Lincoln Laboratory Contract BX-5098Electric Power Research Institute Contract RP3170-2