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Climate change has pushed the natural limits of our environment, creating extreme weather events that are more frequent and more intense in certain locations around the globe. There is evidence of increasing trends in temperature extremes in most countries of South Asia, while in a few regions, temperature extremes have been decreasing. Heatwaves have intensified, which has contributed to accelerating drought and extreme flood events in most South Asian countries. Overall changes in rainfall and temperature have led to alterations in water availability in this region. With few exceptions, the general phenomenon in most South Asian countries is that rainfall intensity has increased, but with a reduced number of wet days. Studies that associate rainfall and temperature in the region of South Asia are scarce and rainfall extremes have been studied more extensively than temperature extremes. In fact, temperature trends are spatially less coherent than rainfall trends in most south Asian countries. It is more likely correlated for the teleconnection and South Asian climate for influencing the temperature and rainfall pattern, rather than any other factors. When it comes to trend estimations, statistical slope detection metrics, such as simple linear regression, have been commonly used to detect and quantify mean trends for countries in the regions of South Asia. However, application lacks in usage of robust nonparametric statistical tests to quantify temperature and rainfall extremes in many countries of South Asia. Statistical downscaling is recommended for better prediction accuracy as well as to find spatial coherence in trends.

Chromium (III) complex [Cr (hq)3;C2H5OH] of 8-hydroxyquinoline (hq) was prepared and its structure was resolved by X-ray diffraction analysis at low-temperature, showing that Cr3+ ion presents in distorted octahedral geometry, and it is consistent with the DFT optimized structure. It was observed that solvent ethanol is involved a hydrogen bond with 8-hydroxyquinoline anion. Furthermore, the molecular orbital contributions to spectral bands observed for the complex were determined by TD-DFT. The interaction of [Cr (hq)3;C2H5OH] with glutamine (Gln) or asparagine (Asn) shows that the complex binds effectively with glutamine through hydrogen bonding (H2N+-H⋅⋅⋅Oethanol) to form a possible stable adduct [Cr (hq)3;C2H5OH)Gln], yielding its binding constant 10,000 times greater (1.4315 M-1) than that for Asn (5.0 × 10−4 M−1). This is apparently due to the formation of stable secondary coordination sphere through the hydrogen bond between the metal complex with Gln. This observation is good agreement with the total molecular energy as well as with the molecular orbital study, i.e. in the DFT calculation, a lower total molecular energy (−8299,549.441 kcal/mmol) for [Cr (hq)3;C2H5OH) Gln] was obtained than that resulted for [Cr (hq)3;C2H5OH)Asn] (−8194,799.867 kcal/mmol), establishing ethanol effectively stabilizes the interaction between glutamine and the complex. Finally, antibacterial properties of [Cr (hq)3;C2H5OH] against Gram positive Bacillus cereus and Gram negative Escherichia coli was also studied, and compared its bacterial growths for its adducts of glutamine or of asparagine.

Few studies have investigated the patient experience of unsuccessful medical interventions, particularly in the epilepsy surgery field. The present review aimed to gain insight into the patient experience of seizure recurrence after epilepsy surgery by examining the broader literature dealing with suboptimal results after medical interventions (including epilepsy surgery). To capture the patient experience, the literature search focused on qualitative research of patients who had undergone medically unsuccessful interventions, published in English in scholarly journals. Twenty-two studies were found of patients experiencing a range of suboptimal outcomes, including seizure recurrence, cancer recurrence and progression, unsuccessful joint replacement, unsuccessful infertility treatment, organ transplant rejection, coronary bypass graft surgery, and unsuccessful weight-loss surgery. In order of frequency, the most common patient experiences included the following: altered social dynamics and stigma, unmet expectations, negative emotions, use of coping strategies, hope and optimism, perceived failure of the treating team, psychiatric symptoms, and control issues. There is support in the epilepsy surgery literature that unmet expectations and psychiatric symptoms are key issues for patients with seizure recurrence, while other common patient experiences have been implied but not systematically examined. Several epilepsy surgery specific factors influence patient perceptions of seizure recurrence, including the nature of postoperative seizures, the presence of postoperative complications, and the need for increased postoperative medications. Knowledge of common patient experiences can assist in the delivery of patient follow-up and rehabilitation services tailored to differing outcomes after epilepsy surgery.

Oxidative acid eluents comprising of H 2 O 2 and H 2 SO 4 have been proven to be effective in eluting base metal cyanide complexes from strong base resins. This study found that the repeated cycling between alkaline cyanide conditions and oxidative acid conditions does not affect the strong base or the total base capacity of strong base resins. However, it was found that a significant reduction of net operating capacity of the ion exchange resin bed, along with a small reduction of the total base capacity of the resin, takes place when this eluent is repeatedly used to elute resins loaded with a mixture of metal cyanide complexes. The reduction of the total base capacity is thought to be due to the oxidation of the resin by the oxidant in the presence of Cu 2+ ions. A precipitate of copper hexacyanoferrate was detected in resin loaded with a mixed copper and iron cyanide solution. While the formation of this precipitate did not appear to have an impact on the total base capacity of the resin, it affected the net operating capacity of resin beds. These two processes gave rise to an approximately 1–3% reduction of the net operating capacity of the ion exchange resin columns per loading/elution cycle.

The role of tidal peritoneal dialysis (TPD) has been the subject of several studies over the past 30 years. The use of the newest generation of cyclers combined with the increasing number of chronic peritoneal dialysis (CPD) patients being maintained on cycler therapy has stimulated a reexamination of the role of TPD in the care of CPD patients. Several studies over the past decade have examined solute clearances with TPD in patients. These studies suggest that TPD does not result in an increase in clearances when compared to conventional intermittent peritoneal dialysis (IPD). TPD is now primarily used for comfort in patients who experience pain at the start of inflow and/or at the end of outflow. In TPD, the presence of at least some fluid in the abdomen during the exchanges generally eliminates these episodes of pain. It has recently been suggested that accurate assessment of drain and fill phases during automated PD may be helpful in redefining a role for TPD in CPD patients. If the 'slow' drainage time can be kept to a minimum, then it is possible that the efficiency of PD could be enhanced. Defining the critical volume and then optimizing the TPD regimen could perhaps increase the clearances noted with TPD.

This article reports the results of a pilot plant test on the use of ion exchange resins for the treatment of cyanide contaminated liquors arising from gold cyanidation. The tests were conducted on 14,000 m 3 of contaminated liquor, leftover from a previous operation in a gold mine in Australia. Prior to treatment, the liquor contained 45–65 mg/l CN TOT (total cyanide). Purolite A500 strong base ion exchange resin was used to adsorb cyanide species from the liquor. After adsorption, an oxidative acid eluent containing H 2 O 2 and H 2 SO 4 was used to regenerate the resin. The treatment reduced the cyanide contamination in the liquor to less than 2.5 mg/l CN TOT . Precious metals in the liquor were recovered and the revenue from precious metals contributed to offset the cost of cyanide detoxification. Base metals in the contaminated liquor were concentrated in the spent eluent stream. Resin deterioration, marked by a gradual reduction of the loading capacity of the resin was observed, most likely due to the precipitation of copper–iron cyanide on the resin. The deterioration of resin is drawback of this process and could hinder commercialisation of it. Hence further work should be undertaken to determine techniques to minimise the deterioration of resin.

This work investigates the use of oxidative acid eluents for the elution of base metals from strong base ion exchange resins. Eluents composed of a mixture of H 2 O 2 and H 2 SO 4 were tested for eluting base metals from resins loaded with mixtures of base and precious metal cyanides. This process removed 100% of Cu and Zn loaded on the resin, without affecting the precious metal loading. It was found that copper could be removed separately from the other base metals. The elution technique was not effective for removing iron from the resin. Cyanide associated with base metals was recovered as NaCN. Some oxidation of cyanide was noticed, subject to the elution conditions. This oxidative acid elution process could be used in commercial operations for the selective elution of base metals from a strong base ion exchange resin bed operating in alternative adsorption/base metal elution cycles. Thus, virtually all metal cyanide species could be recovered from cyanide leached solutions or slurries to give relatively clean tailings without compromising precious metal recovery efficiency. The process also caters for cyanide recovery and recycling.

The concept of moving surface boundary-layer control has proved quite successful in increasing lift and delaying stall of slender bodies such as airfoil sections. This paper assesses the effectiveness of the concept in reducing drag of bluff bodies such as a two-dimensional flat plate at large angles of attack, rectangular prisms and three-dimensional models of trucks through an extensive wind tunnel test program. Results suggest that injection of momentum through moving surfaces, achieved here by the introduction of bearing-mounted, motor-driven, hollow cylinders, can significantly delay separation of the boundary layer and reduce the pressure drag. A flow visualization study, conducted in a closed-circuit water tunnel using slit lighting and polyvinylchloride tracer particles, complements the wind tunnel tests. It shows, rather dramatically, the effectiveness of the moving surface boundary-layer control.

Summary This paper describes the design approach to a four-stage Savonius-rotor-based irrigation system suitable for a small farm of ~ 5 acres. The rotor construction is based on an optimum configuration of the blade geometry and aspect ratio, as given by an extensive wind-tunnel test program. The essential features of the full-scale system, including the microprocessor-based braking and load-matching procedures, are described. The prototype, designed specifically for field tests, is provided with appropriate performance and meteorological information-monitoring instrumentation to permit their correlation. Based on the wind-tunnel data, the wind turbine is expected to deliver 10 000 1 of water per day to a head of 4 m in a 20 km h -1 wind.

Infections following cesarean section are a serious complication in obstetrics; organisms causing these infections have generally been from the normal flora of the female genitourinary tract. Two cases of postcesarean infections caused by Haemophilus influenzae are reported from our institution. This organism has been considered unusual in this setting, although it has been implicated in nonpuerperal endometritis, salpingitis, and tubo-ovarian abscess, in addition to infections in the postpartum period. A discussion of the pathogenesis and treatment of this infection is presented; clinicians should be aware of the possibility that H. influenzae can be a causative agent in obstetric complications.