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An electrocardiogram showing atrial flutter in which varying ratios of AV conduction and the cyclical recurrence of varying QRS morphologies are observed is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on topographic hollows, their flow direction and flow accumulation characteristics, and highlights discharge of hillslope seepage so as to understand porewater pressure development phenomena in relation with slope failure in topographic hollows. For this purpose, a small catchment in Niihama city of Shikoku Island in western Japan, with a record of seven slope failures triggered by typhoon-caused heavy rainfall on 19–20 October 2004, was selected. After extensive fieldwork and computation of hydro-mechanical parameters in unsaturated and saturated conditions through a series of laboratory experiments, seepage and slope stability modellings of these slope failures were done in GeoStudio environment using the precipitation data of 19–20 October 2004. The results of seepage modelling showed that the porewater pressure was rapid transient in silty sand, and the maximum porewater pressure measured in an area close to the base of topographic hollows was found to be higher with bigger topographic hollows. Furthermore, a threshold relationship between the topographic hollow area and maximum porewater pressure in this study indicates that a topographic hollow of 1000 sq. m area can develop maximum porewater pressure of 1.253 kPa. However, the porewater pressures required to initiate slope instability in the upper part of the topographic hollows is relatively smaller than those in the lower part of the topographic hollows. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this work, we prepare and replicate a deterministic slope failure hazard model in small-scale catchments of tertiary sedimentary terrain of Niihama city in western Japan. It is generally difficult to replicate a deterministic model from one catchment to another due to lack of exactly similar geo-mechanical and hydrological parameters. To overcome this problem, discriminant function modelling was done with the deterministic slope failure hazard model and the DEM-based causal factors of slope failure, which yielded an empirical parametric relationship or a discriminant function equation. This parametric relationship was used to predict the slope failure hazard index in a total of 40 target catchments in the study area. From ROC plots, the prediction rate between 0.719–0.814 and 0.704–0.805 was obtained with inventories of September and October slope failures, respectively. This means September slope failures were better predicted than October slope failures by approximately 1%. The results show that the prediction of the slope failure hazard index is possible, even in a small catchment scale, in similar geophysical settings. Moreover, the replication of the deterministic model through discriminant function modelling was found to be successful in predicting typhoon rainfall-induced slope failures with moderate to good accuracy without any use of geo-mechanical and hydrological parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Globally, millions of surgeries are performed each year to compliment and manage a diverse set of medical conditions. Adverse surgical outcomes constitute a major proportion of avoidable death and disabilities in the hospital, especially in low-income countries like Nepal. A comprehensive study on the standards of surgical procedures and its institutional regulations is missing. We discuss here the importance of surgical regulation based on it's financial as well as healthcare implications in the Nepalese healthcare system. Keywords: health care facilities; safety; surgery; surgical procedures; WHO.