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Nickel coated short carbon fiber reinforced polyester composite were made-up by using open moulding technique. Using the stir casting technique different weight percentages of nickel coated short carbon fiber (NCF) such as 0 wt%, 0.05 wt%, 0.1 wt% and 0.2 wt% is mixed with polyester, hardener and accelerator to fabricate the composite. Tensile and impact strength of fabricated composites was performed according to the ASTM Standards. The higher weight percentage of nickel coated short carbon reinforced composites enhanced better impact and tensile strength. The fractured surface is analysed using SEM.

The requirements for leading a proficient life is challenging for the rapid development of industries and they partially fulfil their tasks since many factors are not overcome by them successfully and one of that is safe disposal and utilization of waste generating at the end. All countries produces an enormous amount of different types of waste materials as by products from different sectors like industrial, agricultural etc. These waste materials if not deposited safely it may be hazardous. Also it is seen that for manufacturing of cement required huge amount of energy, causes releasing of huge CO2 in atmosphere resulting formation of environmental problems. So it is very important to use of industrial waste in construction industry especially for replacement of the cement in some proportion. Intension of this study is to inspect the performance of concrete by substituting cement by red mud. In this work, cement was partly replaced by red mud (RM) in different percentages (0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%, 12%, 14%, 16%, 18% and 20%), with 0.44 water cement (W.C) ratio with reference of Indian standard (IS) 10262:2019 guidelines, M30 grade concrete were prepared. Flow properties and strength properties like flexural, compressive, split tensile strength and chloride permeability tests were tested for 28 days on concrete with various mix proportions and test results were correlate with results of reference concrete. The study reveals that, partly replacing of 12% factory cement by red mud (RM) yields maximum strength, superior chloride permeability with better micro structure than conventional concrete.

Huge amount of E waste creates serious problem in all over the country. Recycle percentage of E waste is only 12.5. Due to limited natural resources, from printed circuit boards E-waste similar non-metal parts can be recuperated and mixed as an concrete constituent. So in various experiments E waste were used as replacement of fine and course aggregate. Utilizing E waste as ingredient of concrete reduces the use of natural ingredients as well as reduces the land fill using E waste and provide smart impact on environmental problems. Generation of the E-waste and use of concrete is rapidly increasing to meet the technological advancement and demand. Intension of this study is to inspect the performance of concrete by substituting manufactured sand by E- waste. In this research work, manufactured fine aggregate (M−sand) was partly replaced by E waste (E-sand) in different percentages (0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%), with 0.45 water cement (W.C) ratio. With reference of Indian standard (IS) 10262:2019 guidelines, M30 grade concrete were prepared. The flexural, compressive, split tensile strength and chloride permeability tests were performed on concrete with various mix proportions and test results were correlate with results of reference concrete. The study reveals that, partly replacing of 20% factory-made sand (M- sand) by E waste (E- sand) yields maximum strength, better chloride permeability with improved micro structure than conventional concrete.

Background Beginning in October 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued expanded guidance requiring accrediting organizations and state survey agencies to report serious infection control breaches to relevant state health departments. This project sought to characterize and summarize The Joint Commission's early experiences and findings in applying this guidance to facilities accredited under the ambulatory and office-based surgery programs in 2017. Methods Surveyor notes were retrospectively reviewed to identify individual breaches, and then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Infection Prevention Checklist for Outpatient Settings was used to categorize and code documented breaches. Results Of 845 ambulatory organizations, 39 (4.6%) had breaches observed during the survey process and reported to health departments. Within these organizations, surveyors documented 356 breaches, representing 52 different breach codes. Common breach domains were sterilization of reusable devices, device reprocessing observation, device reprocessing, disinfection of reusable devices, and infection control program and infrastructure. Eight of the 39 facilities (20.5%) were cited for not performing the minimum level of reprocessing based on the items' intended use, reusing single-use devices, and/or not using aseptic technique to prepare injections. Conclusion The CMS infection control breach reporting requirement has helped highlight some of the challenges faced by ambulatory facilities in providing a safe care environment for their patients. This analysis identified numerous opportunities for improved staff training and competencies as well as leadership oversight and investment in necessary resources. More systematic assessments of infection control practices, extending to both accredited and nonaccredited ambulatory facilities, are needed to inform oversight and prevention efforts.

Objectives To summarize patient notifications resulting from unsafe injection practices by health care personnel in the United States and describe recommended actions for prevention and response. Patients and Methods We examined records of events involving communications to groups of patients, conducted from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2018, in which bloodborne pathogen testing was recommended or offered because of potential exposure to unsafe injection practices by health care personnel in the United States. Information compiled included: health care setting(s), type of unsafe injection practice(s), number of patients notified, number of outbreak-associated infections, and whether evidence suggesting bloodborne pathogen transmission prompted the notification. We compared these numbers with a similar review conducted from January 1, 2001, through December 31, 2011. Results From 2012 through 2018, more than 66,748 patients were notified as part of 38 patient notification events. Twenty-one involved exposures in non-hospital settings. Twenty-five involved syringe and/or needle reuse in the context of routine patient care; 11 involved drug tampering by a health care provider. The majority of events (n=25) were prompted by identification of unsafe injection practices alone, absent any documented infections at the time of notification. Outbreak-associated hepatitis B virus and/or hepatitis C virus infections were documented for 11 of the events; 8 involved patient-to-patient transmission, and 3 involved provider-to-patient transmission. Conclusions Since 2001, nearly 200,000 patients in the United States were notified about potential exposure to blood-contaminated medications or injection equipment. Facility leadership has an obligation to ensure adherence to safe injection practices and to respond properly if unsafe injection practices are identified.

The fluctuations in prices of agricultural commodities have an adverse effect on the GDP of a country. The farmers are emotionally and financially affected as their years of hard work go in vain. Prediction of the prices may help the agriculture supply chain in making necessary decisions in minimizing and managing the risk of price fluctuations. As a result of the reduction in agricultural production due to unstable climatic conditions, global warming etc., predictive analytics is expected to solve the problems of the common man. Arecanut is an important crop cultivated in India, with Kerala being second in terms of production. In recent years farmers in Kerala are shifting from arecanut cultivation to other crops because of price fluctuations and climate change. In this work, the monthly prices of arecanut in Kerala are predicted using time-series and machine learning models. The models SARIMA, Holt-Winter’s Seasonal method, and LSTM neural network were used, and their performance was evaluated based on the RMSE value on the arecanut dataset with prices from 2007 to 2017. LSTM neural network model was found to be the best model that fits the data.

Transparent electrodes and alignment layers are two essential parts of the liquid crystal (LC) cell fabrication. Conventionally, indium tin oxide (ITO) acts as transparent electrode and a polyimide film is used as alignment layer. In present study, both of these are replaced by using a monolayer graphene film deposited on glass substrate. The graphene film used to fabricate LC cell show excellent optical transmittance (~95%) over 450–800 nm range and electrical resistance of 328.77 Ω/square. Moreover, the alignment of FLC mesogens over graphene monolayer is achieved owing to the π-π electron stacking between benzene rings of FLC and honeycomb structure of graphene. Polarizing optical microscopy (POM) shows homogeneous planar alignment of filled FLC over graphene under crossed polarizers. The cell is switched between bright and dark states under the application of electric field to demonstrate the working of LC cell. Further, dielectric relaxation spectroscopy is used to measure the dielectric constant and absorption of FLC. This application of graphene would lead to thin and defect-free devices based on LC.

Though there are various types of multipliers presently, although fractional multipliers effectively planned through making a few sections working in equal, the structure of halfway convey spare multipliers is additionally testing. Earlier methodologies proposed a few arrangements using booth recoding with radix-4. The present system forms it conceivable to decrease the stature considerably, which is the utmost broad choice while planning, just simple products recommended. Bigger values of radix in addition decreases to the detriment in presence of products. So as to relieve the deferral, from the former studies, initially recommended to detach calculation utilizing the accessible leeway. Normally in binary multiplication and operation is used for partial products of multiplier and multiplicand. In case of Booth Multiplier the multiples are encoded. For n bit by n-bit multiplication, n/2 partial products are obtained for radix 4 and n/3 for radix-8. Thinking about this, encoding method is implemented so that partial products are reduced. In the proposed methodology we will use modified carry skip adder for high speed operation.

Gestational surrogacy policy in the USA varies by state, but information on state differences is lacking. This study used data from the National Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance System from 2010 to 2014 to calculate state differences in gestational carrier cycle characteristics. Of the 662,165 in-vitro fertilization cycles in the USA between 2010 and 2014, 16,148 (2.4%) used gestational carriers. Non-USA residents accounted for 18.3% of gestational carrier cycles, and 29.1% of gestational carrier cycles by USA residents were performed in a state other than the state of residence of the intended parent. USA gestational surrogacy practice varies by state, potentially impacting patients’ access to surrogacy services.

Here the theory of local fractional differential equations is extended to a more general class of equations akin to usual exact differential equations. In the process, a new notion has been introduced which is termed as α -exact local fractional differential equation. The theory of such equations parallels that for the first order ordinary differential equations. A criterion to check the α -exactness emerges naturally and also a method to find general solutions of such equations. This development completes the basic theory of the local fractional differential equations. The solved examples demonstrate how complex functions arise as solutions which will be useful in understanding the processes taking place on fractals.

This article reviews the imaging findings of pediatric mediastinal tumors and tumor-like lesions. The classification of the mediastinum is discussed with normal imaging appearance of the thymus in pediatric age group followed by a discussion on multiple mediastinal lesions in different compartments with emphasis on their imaging characteristics.