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Wireless physical layer security (WPLS) is a powerful technology for current and emerging mobile networks. Physical layer authentication (PLA), antenna selection (AS), and relay node selection are the main elements that add diversity and strength to the paradigm of WPLS. However, heterogeneity, ultra-density, and high mobility requirements make the work difficult for the security of wireless networks. Recently, machine learning has emerged as a promising tool to alleviate the increasing complexity of wireless networks. Hence, this paper introduces intelligent WPLS by concentration on PLA, AS, and relay node selection. First, it presents the background and types of WPLS and ML. Then, revisit the three basic methods of WPLS enhancement, i.e., relay node selection, AS, and authentication, and their integration with ML. Furthermore, several key challenges faced by intelligent WPLS were discussed along with the comprehensive investigation of its different applications in the wireless networks such as the internet of things, device-to-device communication, cognitive radio, non-orthogonal multiple access, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Finally, the appendix includes a detailed survey of ML techniques for WPLS. This article proposes to motivate and help interested readers to easily and rapidly understand the state-of-the-art of WPLS and intelligent WPLS.

Production of non-centrifugal sugar (NCS) is a traditional business, practiced for a few centuries, however, mainly restricted to small-scale production. It is produced by concentrating sugarcane juice by evaporation. At present, the NCS production is declining owing to many drawbacks, mainly drudgery-driven labor-intensive work and energy-inefficient process. The revival of the NCS production process requires overcoming such challenges by developing the scientific understanding of each step. However, the reported scientific studies on NCS as a product and its production process are very limited. In this paper, we describe the current manufacturing practices involved in NCS production and presented data from field and laboratory experiments to provide a scientific basis behind each process. They include sugarcane selection, juice clarification, thermochemical treatments, crystallization, molding, etc. The role of these steps on the product quality is discussed in detail. Various experiments were conducted to understand the logic behind the artisanal skill used by producers for qualitative assessment of raw material, processing parameters, and product quality. The understanding provides more clarity on the influence of critical parameters related to the traditional process and so on the final product. Few recommendations have been provided to produce NCS of desired quality and longer shelf life. The understanding opens up avenues to improve the current process, scales it up to avail benefits of economy of scale, and also applies automation in the production for the consistent quality products with lesser drudgery.

Introduction Fosfomycin and nitrofurantoin are increasingly being prescribed in outpatients for the oral treatment of urinary tract infection (UTI). Although ample literature is available on the in vitro sensitivity pattern of fosfomycin and nitrofurantoin in UTI cases, clinical data are scant. Methodology Voided midstream urine, collected from patients ≥ 16 years of age of both genders with suspected sign and symptoms, was plated on cystine lactose electrolyte-deficient agar. Uropathogen was defined as an organism known to be associated with the signs and symptoms of UTI with > 105 colony forming units/mL of urine. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was determined by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Further, for fosfomycin, agar dilution method was also performed. Results A total of 143 patients, 47 treated with fosfomycin and 96 with nitrofurantoin, were followed for clinical outcome. The most common isolated uropathogen was Escherichia coli. In vitro susceptibility rate of uropathogens against fosfomycin and nitrofurantoin was 99.3% and 81.2%, respectively. Overall, the clinical cure rate with fosfomycin and nitrofurantoin treatment groups was 80.85% and 90.06% respectively (not statistically significant). Conclusion Fosfomycin and nitrofurantoin showed good in vitro activity against uropathogens from lower UTI and can be used for empirical therapy in our area. Multiple confounding factors may have contributed to the discrepancy between in vitro susceptibility and clinical cure, which needs to be studied further.

The modern and emerging wireless communication technologies are benefiting from relaying techniques, which is already adopted in long term evolution (LTE) Release 10. The relay technology has great potential to improve the communication distance and system capabilities. However, due to the use of short-range frequencies for communication and increasing user density, relay technology requires the integration of machine learning and physical layer security (PLS) to attain its full potential. Therefore, this paper presents the machine learning (ML) algorithms for relay selection (RS) to improve the physical layer security of a dual-hop non-regenerative wireless cooperative network. The secure RS is converted into a prediction and decision-making problem. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to study the secured RS as a prediction and decision-making problem. We propose two reinforcement-learning techniques, namely the physical layer secured Q-learning algorithm for RS (PQL-RS) and the modified physical layer secured Q-learning algorithm for RS (MPQL-RS) for different scenarios. Markov decision process (MDP) is used with the introduced algorithms to select a single relay from a group of relays and multiple eavesdroppers. RS without requiring the prior data and network model knowledge are the unique advantages of the proposed algorithms. The introduced algorithms are compared to the different RS schemes and simulation results show that the MPQL-RS can deliver the best performance and save the convergence time. Moreover, the secrecy performance of different modulation techniques is also analyzed for the proposed algorithms. It is shown that the secrecy of the system improves by 7% on average for every double in modulation order.

Background Home fortification of complementary foods with multiple micronutrient powders (MNPs) is recommended to reduce child anemia in resource-poor settings. However, evidence of program effectiveness in India to guide policies and programs is lacking. Objectives We implemented a large-scale intervention of MNPs in Bihar, India. The primary outcome was MNP consumption and change in hemoglobin concentration among children aged 6-18 mo between baseline and endline (12 mo). Secondary outcomes were change in child weight and length and infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices (initiation, diversity, and feeding frequency). Ad hoc analyses included changes in anemia; stunting; underweight; wasting; and reported diarrhea, fever, and hospitalization. Methods We conducted a cluster-randomized, effectiveness trial in >4000 children within the context of ongoing health and nutrition programs implemented by CARE, India. Seventy health subcenters were randomly assigned to receive either MNPs with IYCF counseling (intervention) or IYCF counseling only (control). We used an adjusted difference-in-difference approach using repeat cross-sectional surveys at baseline and endline to evaluate impact. Results At baseline, 75% of intervention and 69% of control children were anemic and 33% were stunted. By endline, 70% of intervention households reported their child had ever consumed MNPs, and of those, 64% had consumed MNPs in the past month. Relative to control, hemoglobin concentration increased (0.22 g/dL; 95% CI: 0.00, 0.44 g/dL) and anemia declined by 7.1 percentage points (pp) (95% CI: -13.5, -0.7 pp). There was no impact on anthropometry nor IYCF practices. However, there was a decline of 8.0 pp (95% CI: -14.9, -1.1 pp) in stunting among children aged 12-18 mo. Diarrhea prevalence in the past 2 wk was reduced by 4.0 pp (95% CI: -7.6, -0.4 pp). Conclusions Home fortification of complementary foods within a government-run program in Bihar had moderate compliance and caused modest improvements in hemoglobin and reductions in anemia and diarrhea prevalence.

Hanging is that form of violent asphyxial death which is caused (i) either by the exclusion of air from lungs or oxygenated blood from the brain, (ii) by means of ligature around the neck, (iii) the constricting force is the weight of the body. It is the second most commonly used suicide methods in India and has a high mortality. The materials required are easily available, and a wide range of ligatures can be used. Hanging is the most common form of asphyxial death that forensic experts come across in their practice. The present study was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology of Sri Aurobindo Medical College & PGI, Indore, from January 2013 to December 2017. Total 113 cases of hanging were found in this duration. The different aspects of hanging cases like sex ratio, age group involved, residence, ligature material used, type of hanging, place of hanging, salivary stain marks, the position of the knot and other Postmortem findings have been discussed in detail in this study. Keywords: Suicide, Hanging, Ligature mark.

Introduction: In this modern civilization, acute poisoning is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality and really becoming a burden for our community. Trends of poisoning are increasing as well as changing day by day due to the introduction of more and more chemicals. This study has been taken to understand the trends of poisoning and will be used to plan how to provide healthcare facility and educate the people. Only those cases that came to the Emergency Department and Mortuary with a history of acute poisoning were included in this study. Materials and Methods: A total of 120 poisoning cases were included from October 2015 to May 2017. The cases were analyzed on various epidemiological, clinical and investigational and postmortem findings through a pre-designed proforma after taking valid consent from the patients or their relatives. Samples were collected and analyzed in Analytical Toxicology lab. Result: Out of 120 acute poisoning cases, 75 were males and 45 were females. Maximum numbers of patients fall in 21-30 years age group. Most common poison was Organophosphorus (OPP) followed by Aluminium phosphide (Celphos). The mortality rate as per this present study was 21.67%. Conclusion: Due to the easy availability of insecticides, pesticides and household poisons; there is more exposure accidently or intentional, which creates a huge burden on hospitals. The government, WHO and other organizations have to make strict rules or to ban highly toxic chemicals. Education camps must be organized to train farmers how to use insecticides and pesticides in a proper way. Keywords: Aluminium Phosphide, Analytical toxicology lab, Insecticides, Mortuary, Organophosphorus, Pesticides, Poisoning.

The Cognitive Radio (CR) network provides the solution to the spectrum deficiency problem by enhancing the spectrum utilization. In recent years, Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has also gained significant interest as a popular access technique for 5G networks. It also helps to improve the user’s quality of service requirement by allocating the available resources dynamically. The simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is a technique for the transfer of wireless information and power simultaneously for the power-limited wireless networks. In this paper, we are focusing on the optimization of the sensing time in NOMA based CR networks with SWIPT for maximizing the throughput of the available spectrum.

The fast and accurate detection of the blood components is very necessary before initiating the treatment of patients. In this article, a decagonal Solid Core Photonic Crystal Fiber (SC-PCF) sensor with very high sensitivity and low confinement loss for efficiently detecting the blood cells is proposed. The solid core with air hole ring gives an extra edge for sensing the biomedical analytes due to the easy infiltration of liquid in the holes of the core. The material used in the background of the PCF is TOPAS. A Perfectly Matched Layer (PML) is used as boundary condition in outer layer of cladding. The Full-Vectorial Finite Element Method (FV-FEM) is used for solving the Maxwell equation and numerical analysis of the model in the THz regime. In results, the highest sensitivity in the terahertz spectrum for glucose, plasma, WBC and RBC are 84.55%, 85.09%, 85.62% and 87.68% respectively. Specifically, more than 85.09% sensitivity for all the blood components makes this sensor very useful for rapid blood sensing. This paper also analyzes the low confinement loss (CL), high effective mode area, low birefringence and beat length at operating frequency in the terahertz spectrum (1THz–4THz) for all the blood components.

Young Indian women may be at risk of poor bone health due to malnutrition. The aim of this study was to examine the effects on bone metabolism of a nutritional supplement in women aged 25 to 44. The nutritional supplement was a protein-rich beverage powder fortified with multi-micronutrients including calcium (600 mg), vitamin D (400 IU), and vitamin K (55 mcg) per daily serving, while a placebo supplement was low-protein non-fortified isocaloric beverage powder. This 6-month randomised, controlled trial showed favorable changes in bone turnover markers (decreased) and calcium homeostasis, such changes in older adults have been associated with slowing of bone loss and reduced fracture risk. For example, serum CTX decreased by about 30% and PINP by about 20% as a result of the increase in calcium intake. There were also changes in the ratio of carboxylated to undercarboxylated osteocalcin and such changes have been linked to a slowing of bone loss in older subjects. For example, the ratio increased by about 60% after 3 months as a result in the improvement in vitamin K status. Finally, there were improvements in the status of B vitamins, and such changes have been associated with reductions in homocysteine, but it is uncertain whether this would affect fracture risk. The product was generally well tolerated. This study shows the nutritional supplement holds promise for improved bone health among young Indian women.

This paper introduces a reinforcement learning-based physical layer secured relay selection (RS) scheme for the dual-hop non-regenerative relaying system. The physical layer security (PLS) techniques are either used to boost the performance of the upper layer security techniques or as an alternative to the classical security techniques. The PLS-based relay selection degrades the performance of the adversaries and hence enhances the secrecy of the system. The emerging and future wireless technologies are moving toward machine learning, and consequently, we proposed a Markov decision process-based Q-learning algorithm to train the agent for best relay selection in cooperative wireless networks. Q-learning is a less complex ML algorithm that introduces self-learning in each relay node and requires a small amount of information exchange between the nodes. The benefit of the proposed algorithm has been verified through simulation results.

Respiratory disorders are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality affecting people of all ages and are a major global health concern. The respiratory system is highly susceptible to a variety of pathophysiological insults which could be inflammatory, infectious, immunological, or traumatic in origin. Current treatment modalities are generally symptomatic, have safety concerns, and recently refractory cases have also been observed. Hence the onus is now on using disease-alleviating strategies where natural substances play a crucial role. Nutraceuticals like food supplements, vitamins, minerals, and herbal products are increasingly being used by healthcare providers as they are not only safer but also efficacious in some specific situations, particularly in chronic diseases. In addition to their efficacy and safety, the pharmacoeconomic viability of such agents has led to an increase in popularity in developing countries. Food and nutrients, probiotics and prebiotics, vitamins and minerals, polyunsaturated fatty acids, medicinal plant extracts and their important phytoconstituents, etc., are being extensively used by both traditional and modern systems of medicine for the treatment of various disease states including respiratory illnesses. This chapter provides an update on some of the issues relating to nutraceuticals and their applications in respiratory and allied diseases.

In the era of globalization, manufacturing industries are facing intense pressure to prevent unexpected breakdowns, lower maintenance costs and improve machine availability. Due to the increasing trend of Condition Monitoring (CM), numerous sensors deployed on industrial apparatus around the world and several monitoring techniques available for fault diagnosis of induction motors are growing at a rapid pace. This article provides a state-of-art review of past and recent developments taking place in wavelet analysis-based CM and failure diagnosis in three-phase induction motors. The utilization of different CM techniques in data processing and application of wavelet-based automatic failure prediction in induction motors for timely scheduling of the maintenance holds great research potential in the future.

Cognitive Radio (CR) networks offer the solution to the problem of spectrum deficiency by increasing the use of the spectrum. In CR networks, Cooperative Spectrum Sensing (CSS) aids to improve the sensing performance by utilizing spatial diversity and enhances the spectrum access possibilities for Secondary Users (SUs) or unlicensed users. With the help of this CR and CSS, the aim is to enhance the utilization of the available spectrum. In this paper, a mathematical model has been developed for optimizing the number of SUs to participate in the CSS to maximize the spectrum utilization.

The increase in the use of Internet-connected digital devices poses a large demand for reliable and fast Internet access in high-speed trains which is not fully accomplished by radio frequency (RF) technology and free-space optical (FSO) technology when considered independently. Hence, a Hybrid RF/FSO scheme in high-speed trains is proposed, where an RF link can be used as a backup link in case of poor visibility. The effect of fog and scintillation loss on the maximum capacity of the high-speed train Hybrid RF/FSO communication system is discussed in this paper. The performance of the system is analyzed through analytical results.

Dental fluorosis changes the colour and/or structure of enamel, leading to an unaesthetic appearance. One of the main goals in the treatment is aesthetic improvement of the affected teeth. Two clinical cases of patients with white spot fluorosis lesions on frontal teeth are presented. All treated teeth are infiltrated with low-viscous light-curing resin (ICON, DMG). A significant improvement in the aesthetic appearance of all the treated tooth surfaces is visible immediately after resin infiltration, and in most of the teeth - a complete disappearance of the white spots. Resin infiltration is an alternative micro-invasive approach for treatment of white spot lesions of different origin. It allows a quick and natural recovery of the affected teeth.

Introduction: Pattern of suicidal deaths reflects social as well as the mental status of a country. As per the present study, the maximum number of cases belonged to 25 to 28 years age group. Maximum numbers of cases belonged to the joint family and lower middle class. 45% of females died within 1 year of their marriage, with 38% deaths between 6 months to 1 year of marriage. The most common cause of death was burning i.e. 76%. Ill-treatment by the husband or his relatives for dowry was the most common reason for motivating females to commit suicide. Objective: The aim of the current study was to find out the various causes of suicidal deaths in females married within 7 years of their marriage. Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted in the Emergency Department and The Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology in which 114 autopsy cases with the history of suicide or attempted suicide in married females within seven years of their marriage were taken. The autopsy was conducted in Mortuary of Sri Aurobindo Medical College, Indore (MP) from June 2013 to February 2018. Results: The most common cause of death was burn (76%) followed by hanging (13.15%) and poisoning (8%). Conclusion: On one side women are respected as Goddess in our culture, but on the other side they are ill-treated. Creating problems for women for dowry and suffocating their lives is one of the most heinous crimes. Its elimination can be done only by educating and empowering woman and to make strict laws against such crimes. Keywords: Burn, Hanging, Married females, Mortuary, Poisoning, Suicidal deaths.

In this paper, a highly sensitive and low loss refractive index (RI) biosensor for high RI bio-analytes detection, such as for cholesterol, nicotine, and bacillus bacteria, is proposed. A novel, to the best of our knowledge, decagonal structure with porous core photonic crystal fiber (PC-PCF) is introduced. The porous core consists of a rectangular sensing hole. The analytes to be sensed are considered in liquid form and infiltrated into the sensing holes, which makes the sensing process simpler and more straightforward. Cladding of the PC-PCF consists of multilayer circular air holes arranged in a decagonal pattern. For durability and stability of the sensor, TOPAS is used as the fiber material. A perfectly matched layer is used for boundary conditions. The correlation among optical power, material, and structural properties is analyzed by the finite element method. The sensing performance of the designed sensor is observed at THz frequency (1.4–3.8 THz). The results under high RI of the analytes (1.52–1.55) are as follows: maximum sensitivity of 98.31% for x polarization and 98.26% for y polarization, very low confinement loss of 1.5 × 10 − 14 d B / m , narrow effective mode area of 1.92 × 10 − 7 m 2 , minimum effective material loss of 0.000164 c m − 1 , and very low waveguide dispersion of 0.002 ± 0.05 ps/THz/cm. In addition, the effect of variation of structural parameters on sensor performance is also analyzed. The proposed PC-PCF-based biosensor can be very useful for sensing higher RI biochemical analytes.

In today’s world, almost everything has been digitised and hence the cloud computing is emerging as a boom in its field. But the most disturbing fact is that the cloud computing also appears as a vulnerable platform and therefore the security becomes the most important aspect in the cloud computing applications. Security issues are mainly dealt with known and unknown threats, malware and network access by unknown or unauthorised users. Hence, it has become a fundamental feature to create a secure platform for the cloud computing technologies. In this scenario, we proposed a RTMDC (Reputation based Trust Management system with Data Colouring) systems, which builds and tests a secure platform using Reputation Based Trust Management technique. Reputation based trust factor is then calculated using the collective reviews given by the users. This research work focuses on the images that has been related to the cloud users.

The solar photovoltaic systems are becoming the most preferred choice for the renewable source of energy because of their easy installations and direct energy conversion. However with the increased number of grid connected solar units, soon in the coming future the grid stability will depend on solar photovoltaic units. In this paper a control scheme is proposed in which the photovoltaic generator participates in maintaining the frequency of the small utility system when subjected to load changes. To accommodate the climate dependent performance behavior of photovoltaic generator it is operated under the sample solar data of Chennai, India. In this paper, frequency control of the utility system is implemented by diverting the power of solar units to the utility system for the time periods the system is under stress. The proposed controller is based on the suggested algorithm and the simulation results indicate the reduction in oscillations in the frequency response of the utility system. The model performs better when the solar irradiance levels are highest. In the paper work has been carried out on the SIMULINK platform in MATLAB. Future work includes implementing the hardware model of the proposed control scheme.

Depression and diabetes mellitus are two chronic disorders, and both of which have occupied places in the WHO top 10 causes of global burden of diseases. These two disorders have more in common than what was previously thought. Several hypotheses involving biology, genetics and psychology have attempted to explain the link between the two, but it has proven to be elusive until now. Theories involving vascular factors, insulin and glucose metabolism, neurological changes and lifestyle aberrations have come close to forming a unitary explanation for this disease model. The understanding into the shared pathogenesis of depression as well as diabetes has opened up new frontiers into research of chronic disorders and how closely they interact with each other. This review attempts to break the descartian dichotomy between mind and body by highlighting the strong link between depression and diabetes.

Cognitive radio is a new paradigm in wireless communication for improving the spectrum utilization. Spectrum sensing is a fundamental component of cognitive radio networks. Among all the available spectrum sensing algorithms, energy detection scheme has gained more interest owing to its simple implementation. In this paper, we propose a threshold setting algorithm for energy detection scheme which aims at maximizing the spectrum utilization. A closed-form expression for adaptive threshold for maximal spectrum utilization is derived and analyzed. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional methods of determining the threshold.

Background: Due to lack of training in emergency care, basic emergency care in India is still in its infancy. We designed All India Institute of Medical Sciences basic emergency care course (AIIMS BECC) to address the issue. Aim: To improve the knowledge and skill of healthcare workers and laypersons in basic emergency care and to identify impact of the course. Materials and Methods: Prospective study conducted over a period of 4 years. The target groups were medical and nonmedical personnel. Provider AIIMS BECC is of 1 day duration including lectures on cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, choking, and special scenarios. Course was disseminated via lectures, audio-visual aids, and mannequin training. For analysis, the participants were categorized on the basis of their education and profession. A pre- and a post-course evaluation were done and individual scores were given out of 20 and compared among all the groups and P value was calculated. Results: A total of 1283 subjects were trained. 99.81% became providers and 2.0% were trained as instructors. There was a significant improvement in knowledge among all the participants irrespective of their education level including medicos/nonmedicos. However, participants who had higher education (graduates and postgraduates) and/or belonged to medical field had better knowledge gain as compared to those who had low level of education (≤12th standard) and were nonmedicos. Conclusion: BECC is an excellent community initiative to improve knowledge and skill of healthcare and laypersons in providing basic emergency care.

A sixteen-year-old girl reported to department of Gastroenterology, Manipal Hospital, Jaipur with history of chronic diarrhoea, this diarrhoea was there for 3 months, with watery stool, diarrhoea having no relation to food intake, times of the day, not relieving with any medicine tried, patient seen my many gastroenterologists earlier normal duodenoscopy and full colonoscopy, no ileoscopy done. There was a history of laparoscopic cholecystectomy a few months back for symptomatic gall stones, she could clearly describe that after cholecystectomy one week was uneventful, then she developed diarrhoea, they met the surgeon, as many people develop bile acid induced diarrhoea after cholecystectomy same diagnosis was kept, she was given few days cholestyramine, antimotility drugs and metronidazole but with no benefit.

Background Dietary practices in India often fail to provide adequate nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life. Objective To explore the acceptability and utility of a low-cost and simple-to-use feeding toolkit consisting of a bowl with marks to indicate meal volume and frequency, a slotted spoon, and an illustrated counseling card to cue optimal dietary practices during the first 1,000 days. Methods In Samastipur District, Bihar, India, we conducted 16 focus group discussions and 8 key informant interviews to determine community acceptability and obtain feedback on design and delivery of the feeding toolkit. We conducted 14 days of user testing with 20 pregnant women, 20 breast-feeding women 0 to 6 months postpartum, and 20 mothers with infants 6 to 18 months of age. Results The toolkit, which is made of plastic, was well accepted by the community, although the communities recommended manufacturing the bowl and spoon in steel. The proportion of pregnant and breast-feeding women taking an extra portion of food per day increased from 0% to 100%, and the number of meals taken per day increased from two or three to three or four. For children 6 to 18 months of age, meal frequency, quantity of food consumed during meals, and thickness of the foods increased for all age groups. Children 6 to 8 months of age who had not yet initiated complementary feeding all initiated complementary feeding during the testing period. Conclusions Simple feeding tools are culturally acceptable and can be appropriately used by families in Bihar, India, to improve dietary practices during the first 1,000 days of life. Research is needed to assess whether the tools promote dietary and nutritional improvements over and above counseling alone.

DRDE-07, a newly synthesized amifostine analog currently under clinical investigation in a phase I trial, is a potent antidote against sulfur mustard toxicity. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the pharmacokinetic profile of DRDE-07 in female Swiss Albino mice after a single oral dose of 400 or 600 mg/kg. The physicochemical properties of DRDE-07, including solubility, pKa, Log P, plasma protein binding and plasma/blood partitioning, were determined to support the pharmacokinetic characterization. DRDE-07 concentration was determined by an HPLC-UV method. The profile of plasma concentration versus time was analyzed using a non-compartmental model. Plasma protein binding was assessed using ultrafiltration. DRDE-07 appeared rapidly in plasma after oral administration with peak plasma levels (Cmax) observed in less than 15 min. There was a rapid decline in the plasma levels followed by a smaller second peak about 90 min after dosing. The plasma protein binding of DRDE-07 was found to be less than 25% at all concentrations studied. Plasma clearance of DRDE-07 is expected to be ~1.5 fold higher than the blood clearance of DRDE-07. The probable metabolite of DRDE-07 was identified as phenyl-S-ethyl amine., Graphical abstract

Introduction: Trauma-hemorrhagic shock (THS) is a leading cause of death. Female rats and women experience better outcomes in terms of survival after major trauma as compared to males. There are limited data in Indian population. Authors studied the gender-based outcome of patients with Class IV hemorrhagic shock due to blunt trauma and the distribution of factors among males and females which are known to affect outcome. Materials and Methods: It was a retrospective study with data of trauma victims between January 2008 and July 2013. Road traffic crash (RTC), fall, or assault of all ages with Class IV hemorrhagic shock on arrival was included in the study, and data were collected on demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters. Drowning, burns, penetrating injuries, and septic, neurogenic, and cardiogenic shock were excluded from the study. Results: Seven hundred and eighty-one patients were analyzed under three groups: (i) overall group including all patients (n = 781), (ii) male group (n = 609), and (iii) female group (n = 172). After adjusting all variables, mortality was significantly lower in females as compared to males following THS (P < 0.05). Age, blood pressure, pulse, male gender, and fall and RTC as mode of injury (MOI) were independent predictors of mortality (P < 0.05) in overall group. Among males, age, pulse, and RTC as a MOI were significant (P < 0.05), while in females, only systolic blood pressure (SBP) was independent predictor of mortality. Conclusion: Females had better survival as compared to males following THS. SBP was an independent predictor of mortality in females with THS.

Introduction: Oral cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer reported globally which includes lip, tongue, mouth, and throat. Developing countries face several challenges to identify and remove potential risk factors. Chewing tobacco/pan masala is considered to be the most potential risk factor for oral precancerous lesions and oral cancer. Objective: To study the clinical-epidemiological profile of oral cancer cases and potential risk factor associated with it. Materials and Methods: This is cross-sectional study which includes all major tertiary hospital in Lucknow district. Five hundred and eight cases of oral cancer reported in all major tertiary hospitals in Lucknow district during 2013–2016. Study Variable: Clinicoepidemiological characteristics of oral cancer cases. Statistical Analysis: percentages, proportions. Results: Out of 508 cases, majority of the subjects included in the study belonged to 18–75 years age group. Reported cases of oral cancer in males were higher as compared to females. Most of the subjects belonged to lower middle and upper lower socioeconomic group. It was found that 199 (39.2%) subjects consumed smokeless tobacco. Buccal mucosa was the common site of oral cancer being present in 50.4% of the subjects. Histopathologically, 256 cases of buccal mucosa, 17 cases of lip, 33 cases of alveolar region, 16 cases of mandible region, 156 cases of tongue region, 7 cases of gingival buccal sulcus region, and 23 cases of palate were diagnosed as oral squamous cell carcinoma. Conclusion: In the present study, the most affected site was buccal mucosa (50.4%), tongue (30.7%), and other diagnosis was

The litchi is one of the chief fruits of the Asian continent. It is grown almost half of the year and is enjoyed by people for its sweet juice as well as its soft pulp. Also, it is very rich in vitamin C and important minerals and antioxidants. Modern farming does not use chemical fertilizers; thus, bio-fertilizers are used, exploiting the relationship of microbial interactions to plant growth. Mycorrhizal fungi associations are found in the litchi rhizosphere, and these fungi acquire their nutrition from the associated host plants and consequently enhance access to phosphorus and nitrogen. The association between fungi and trees such as the litchi is recognized as vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM). In soil habitat, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are present in symbiosis with litchi roots and cause increase in root length by secreting plant hormones. Availability of appropriate temperature and nutrients will strongly influence the association of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi with plant growth. Thus, the present chapter focuses on understanding how microbial flora interaction with the litchi rhizosphere helps to enhance the potential productivity of the litchi.

Introduction Enterococci are part of the normal intestinal flora and have been recognized as important human pathogens. Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) are global threat as this resistance is transmissible and also poses a challenge for infection control. Aim This study was undertaken to study phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of VRE from clinically significant infections among hospitalized patients and their association with gut colonization. Materials and methods Clinically significant isolates of enterococci (n=250) were studied. Species confirmation was done by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) for vancomycin was determined by E-test. PCR for VanA, VanB and VanC1 gene was done for genotypic characterization. MIC for teicoplanin, linezolid, tigecycline, daptomycin and quinupristin-dalfopristin was determined by E test. Patients with VRE infection were screened for gut colonization using vancomycin screen agar (6 μg/mL). Continuous data was analysed using the Student's t-test. Categorical data was assessed using Pearson's Chi-square test. A value of p ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results There was good correlation between the phenotypic and genotypic methods used for species identification and detection of vancomycin resistance. E. faecium (162, 64.8%) was most common followed by E. faecalis (82, 32.84%) and E. gallinarum (6, 2.4%). Overall higher resistance was observed among E. faecium. Vancomycin MIC ≥ 2 μg/mL was noted in 63 (25.2%) isolates. Fifty seven isolates showed presence of vanA and vanC1 was detected in six isolates of E. gallinarum. Isolates with VanB genotype was not detected in the present study. MIC50 (μg/mL) for teicoplanin, linezolid, tigecycline, daptomycin and quinupristin-dalfopristrin was 24, 0.75, 0.064, 2 and 0.064 respectively. Resistance to linezolid (1, 1.6%) and tigecycline (2, 3.2%) was rare. Majority (33/47, 70.2%) patients with clinically significant VRE infection showed gut colonization. Conclusion Vancomycin resistance among enterococci is emerging. Emergence of tigecycline and linezolid resistance is also posing a challenge for clinicians. Thus, further investigations are warranted to control vancomycin resistance among pathogens.

Invasion, spread and predominance of alien invasive fishes were studied in 950-km-long stretch of the Yamuna River. The fish yield ranged between 32 t/km/yr to 240 t/km/yr and the catch of alien invasive fishes dominated over local fishes in the fishery, which was over 96% at Etawah. The calculated Invasion Coefficient Index (Ixi) of alien invasive fishes was in the range of 0.12 to 0.31 indicating a major loss to the local fish diversity. The calculated Pearson’s correlation coefficient was found to have positive correlation of 0.757 and 0.710 for common carp and tilapia respectively with locally captured Indian major carps (IMC). The results of this study highlighted how unintentional spread of alien invasive fishes due to rapid aquaculture diversification and intensification has invaded into the Yamuna River causing severe loss to the local fishery. The invasion of alien fishes has been mapped for the Yamuna River at different locations using GIS tools. The results of this study invite attention on the management and sustainability of the local fishery and ecosystem health of the river.

The continuing advances in the biochemical research for the discovering an ideal biomarker for diagnosing myocardial injury have led to discovery cardiac Troponin, a biochemical gold standard for myocardial necrosis. Further with advances in the immunoassay techniques, the 99th percentile cutoff value of cardiac troponin required for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction decreased, with the latest available ultrasensitive cardiac troponin assay capable of measuring level as low as 0.005 ng/ml. Troponin have both diagnostic as well as prognostic significance in myocardial necrosis, but the cut off value by 99th percentile rule is useful only when applied to patients with a high pretest probability of Acute Coronary Syndrome(ACS) and also the results must be interpreted in the context of clinical history, ECG findings, and possibly cardiac imaging to establish the correct diagnosis. As cardiac troponins are also elevated in other cardiac conditions such as cardiomyopaties, the serial monitoring of the cardiac troponin level along with the absolute value would help to differentiate myocardial infarction from these many varied conditions, with the interval of serial assay being reduced to 3 hours. The aim of this review is to complement the advantages, to emphasize on proper interpretation of positive results, to appraise the challenges faced with the available cardiac troponin assays and need for further research to overcome them and build up the most ideal cardiac marker for diagnosing the myocardial infarction.

The power developed by the solar microgrid is not constant for a particular year, it depends upon the weather conditions around the year of the specific location where the solar microgrid is operating. It is however necessary to estimate the annual average power developed by the particular microgrid before physically installing microgrid at that location. The programming based model of the photovoltaic generator is developed by utilizing various governing equations of the photovoltaic cell and the microgrid model consisting of two such generators is then simulated for yearly solar insolation and temperature data of Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and New Delhi. The yearly average power curves are hence obtained and their comparisons are made based upon the analysis. The above analysis helps us to estimate the rating of the loads to be connected across the microgrid. The whole work of programming and simulations is carried out in Simulink in MATLAB 2014 software.

This paper represents a framework for on-chip delay measurement, which will be helpful in measuring the impact of device level variability on memory access time. Commercial frameworks for simulating circuit degradation due to device aging effects are not available. 1 KB SRAM is used as test setup for which on-chip read access time measurement is performed. On-chip delay measurement is performed using proposed novel architecture of 2-stage multi-resolution based vernier time-to-digital converter (TDC). TDC is designed for 2 ps resolution. Actual architecture of TDC is 5 bit, however entire range can be shifted with minimum steps of 40 ps to achieve desirable range. A novel design of programmable linear delay element (PLDE) is also presented in this paper, which is used as a key component of the TDC architecture. Two types of PLDEs are designed to provide delay with step size 2 ps and 40 ps. Use of PLDE in TDC architecture provides the facility of adjustment which makes it more robust to process and temperature variations. Overall design is laid out in 65 nm CMOS process and evaluated using post layout simulation.

Rapid growth of wireless services demands more and more spectrum, but spectrum is limited resource. Recent studies show that the spectrum which is allocated to licensed users or primary users (PUs) is not fully utilized. To address this problem Cognitive Radio (CR) comes into the picture, which will detect the vacant spectrum and use it when the same is available. But in the scenario of multiple unlicensed users or secondary users (SUs), which SU will access the spectrum is an issue in the cognitive radio networks. In this paper, two Fuzzy Logic Models i.e. Mamdani and Takagi-Sugeno are used for the selection of SU to access the spectrum based upon the input parameters: spectrum efficiency, mobility of SU and distance between PU & SU. On the basis of these input parameters, 27 fuzzy rules are framed. Based upon these rules, output is obtained which shows the selection possibility of a SU to access the spectrum. A comparison is shown between two models by computing the correlation value for each of the inputs parameter.

A rare case of sinonasal paraganglioma is described. A 40-year-old female patient presented with 2 years history of unilateral nasal obstruction and bleeding. CT scan demonstrated an expansile enhancing mass involving bilateral ethmoids, right nasal cavity and right maxillary sinus. Histopathological diagnosis was neuroendocrine tumor with possibility of paraganglioma. A subtotal maxillectomy with excision of mass performed. Primary nonchromaffin paraganglioma of nose and paranasal sinus is a very rare tumor, these lesion pose diagnostic challenge to clinicians and pathologist. Only twenty five cases are reported in review of literature. Surgical excision is the mainstay of treatment. How to cite this article Arora V, Verma P, Singh PP, Wadhwa N, Bhatia K. Sinonasal Paraganglioma: A Case Report and Review of Literature. Clin Rhinol An Int J 2014;7(2):87-89.

In opportunistic model of cognitive radio(CR) networks, secondary users(SUs) are allowed to access the licensed band provided they do not interfere with the primary users(PUs). To ensure this, SUs have to perform spectrum sensing to locate the spectrum holes. The performance of spectrum sensing is improved through cooperation among spatially distributed SUs in a clustered network. In this paper, we are proposing an algorithm to find the optimal radius, R of the clustered network to limit the number of SUs participating in cooperative spectrum sensing which would therefore also reduce the burden on band limited control channel. We have found the optimal value of R for single threshold energy detection method to be 1.1235 km and for double threshold energy detection to be 0.5476 km.

Spectrum sensing is the primary essentiality to monitor the presence of primary user in cognitive radios. Among all the spectrum sensing techniques energy detection is preferable because it is simple and prior knowledge of primary user is not required, but conventional energy detection is not preferable in low SNR regions. In this paper we discuss a cooperative double threshold method with two thresholds which are decided by an uncertainty parameter. In the confusion region we use a weighted sequential energy detection (WSED) method which considers a fixed number of past observations. For making a decision in confusion region, both the current and past observations are weighted and aggregated. Equations for probability of detection and probability of false alarm in Rayleigh channel are derived for the discussed scheme. Numerical results shows that the scheme gives better performance as compared to the conventional method.

Cognitive Radio is a new paradigm in wireless communication to tackle the problem of spectrum underutilization. One of the important functions of cognitive radio is spectrum sensing. There are many spectrum sensing algorithms available in the literature out of which energy detection is widely used because it is easy to implement and it does not require prior information about PU (Primary User). However, the performance of the conventional energy detector deteriorates in low SNR region. Double threshold CSS (Cooperative Spectrum Sensing) was introduced to increase the reliability of decision but at the cost of some sensing information lost. In this paper, we are discussing a method of double threshold CSS in which each CR (Cognitive Radio) sends local decision or observed energy to the FC (Fusion Center) depending on the region in which the observed energy lies. FC then makes a final decision by combining local decisions and observed energy values. We have developed a simulation model to prove the superiority of the proposed algorithm and it has been observed that the proposed method outperforms the conventional CSS in low SNR region. There is almost a 10% improvement in the cooperative probability of detection at −8 dB SNR at 0.1 probability of false alarm.

Substance abuse has been defined as the use of chemical substances for non medical purposes in order to achieve alterations in psychological functioning. The substances commonly abused in India include nicotine, alcohol, cannabis and opioids. However, the use of solvents and propellants is also on the rise as these are inexpensive, legally available household, industrial, office and automobile products; which are more commonly available to children and adolescents. We hereby describe a 16-year-old boy with combined volatile and alcohol abuse; who presented with increasing ataxia, visual and hearing disturbances.

Laser ablated shock waves from compacted metal nanoenergetic powders of Aluminum (Al), Nickel coated Aluminum (Ni-Al) was characterized using shadowgraphy technique and compared with that from Boron Potassium Nitrate (BKN), Ammonium Perchlorate (AP) and Potassium Bromide (KBr) powders. Ablation is created by focused second harmonic (532 nm, 7 ns) of Nd:YAG laser. Time resolved shadowgraphs of propagating shock front and contact front revealed dynamics and the precise time of energy release of materials under extreme ablative pressures. Among the different compacted materials studied, Al nanopowders have maximum shock velocity and pressure behind the shock front compared to others.

As increasing the access of spectrum in current wireless environment needs the proper utilization of spectrum. Cognitive Radio is the one of the most technology for Spectrum utilization in wireless media. Sensing of the channel is prime objective in Cognitive Radio. Some most common spectrum sensing techniques like Energy based Detection, Matched Filter based Detection, and Cyclostationary Feature Detection. In this paper Energy Detection is used as spectrum sensing. Using Cooperative analysis of multi CR (Cognitive Radio) during channel sensing is studied. Also evaluate performance of Cooperative Spectrum Sensing with increasing no of CRs. At the last in this paper a comparison between a selected relay based on maximum value SNR and SNR of others relays in multi-channel is done. And evaluate the performance of all relays and selected relay based on SNR. For performance analysis using MATLAB software.

Dietary practices in India often fail to provide adequate nutrition during the first 1000 days of life. We used a life course approach to develop and qualitatively assess low cost and easy to use d...

The present paper reports electron impact total inelastic and ionization cross section for silicon, germanium, and tin tetrahalides at energies varying from ionization threshold of the target to 5000 eV. These cross section data over a wide energy domain are very essential to understand the physico-chemical processes involved in various environments such as plasma modeling, semiconductor etching, atmospheric sciences, biological sciences, and radiation physics. However, the cross section data on the above mentioned molecules are scarce. In the present article, we report the computation of total inelastic cross section using spherical complex optical potential formalism and the estimation of ionization cross section through a semi-empirical method. The present ionization cross section result obtained for SiCl4 shows excellent agreement with previous measurements, while other molecules have not yet been investigated experimentally. Present results show more consistent behaviour than previous theoretical est...

Background : Inhalant abuse is a growing concern in India among street children. Aim : To describe the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of 9 street children and adolescents with typewriter correction fluid abuse. Method : Nine street children who presented to the psychiatry department of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi for treatment of inhalant abuse were interviewed. Findings : The inhalant abusers were boys of 10 to 17 years, school dropouts who had run away from villages of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In two-third of children there was domestic violence and conflict in their family, along with physical abuse by family members; in one-third it was due to alcoholic fathers. They used to "huff" typewriter correction fluid, and abused other substances as well. Conclusion : There is a need to systematically study inhalant abuse in the street children in India.