Search

Band gap energy of more than 3.5 eV for CeO2 nanostructures restricts their efficacies in visible light harvesting. But, reduction in the optical band gap and efficient separation of photogenerated charge carriers can be achieved by forming heterojunction of CeO2 with suitable narrow band gap semiconductors such as CdS and CdSe. In this way, the energy application of CeO2 nanostructured thin films can be extended to visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. For the above purpose, we deposited CeO2/CdS nanocomposite thin films on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates by sol-gel spin coating followed by chemical bath deposition (CBD) process. The structure, phase, morphology, surface topography, as well as interface charge transfer dynamics of the nanocomposites were systematically investigated by various characterization techniques. The CeO2/CdS thin films with CdS bath deposition time of 60 min showed a polydispersity index of 0.19 with an average particle size of 8.8 nm. The observed band gap for one of the CeO2/CdS thin films was 2.19 eV which was well below the bulk band gap for CeO2. The prolongation of carrier lifetime (~8.24 μs) in CeO2/CdS thin film was established from photoluminescence decay analysis. The dominance of radiative recombination in the nanocomposite implies a reduction in the rate of non-radiative re-combinations. This situation favors the separation of more number of e--h+ pairs. The interface formed between the two phases facilitates transportation of separated carriers. An enhancement in the electrical conductivity of the CeO2 occurred when a surface CdS layer was added. A narrowed band gap, prolonged carrier lifetime, and improved electrical conductivity of CeO2/CdS films may lead to enhanced charge transportation ability. The significant values of Jsc and Voc obtained from the photoelectrochemical solar cell measurements prove that CeO2/CdS thin films are suitable for photovoltaic applications.

A vast fraction of the population of India considers agriculture as its primary occupation. The production of crops plays an important role in our country. Bad quality crop production is often due to either excessive use of fertilizer or using not enough fertilizer. The proposed system of IoT and ML is enabled for soil testing using the sensors, is based on measuring and observing soil parameters. This system lowers the probability of soil degradation and helps maintain crop health. Different sensors such as soil temperature, soil moisture, pH, NPK, are used in this system for monitoring temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and soil pH along with NPK nutrients of the soil respectively. The data sensed by these sensors is stored on the microcontroller and analyzed using machine learning algorithms like random forest based on which suggestions for the growth of the suitable crop are made. This project also has a methodology that focuses on using a convolutional neural network as a primary way of identifying if the plant is at risk of a disease or not.

Background and Aim: One of the most common human skeleton fractures is middle shaft clavicular fracture. it had been traditionally treated non operatively. The present study was undertaken to study the part of surgical treatment in fresh displaced or communited clavicular fracture. Materials & Methods: A total of 25 patients with midshaft clavicular fractures were included in the study. All the patients were planned to be treated with locking compression plates and screws. Results:Of the total 25 patients; 20 patients had direct injury to the clavicle as the cause of the fracture whereas 5 patients had indirect injury to the clavicle. The functional outcome of the treatment: 85% had excellent outcome, 10% had good functional outcome and 5% had fair outcome. Conclusion: This study shows rigid fixation with locking compression plate and screws for fresh displaced or comminuted middle third clavicle fracture gives immediate pain relief and prevents the development of shoulder stiffness and non union

Background and Aim: The fracture of the clavicle has been treated conservatively for years as non-union of clavicle fracture is rare, shown as low as 0.12-08% with conservative treatment. Mal-union was considered to be of radiographic importance. This study aims to compare the patient’s oriented outcome after non-operative with operative treatment for fracture clavicle. Material and Methods: This is a prospective observational study conducted in the department of Orthopedics at tertiary care institute for the period one year. Total 60 patients of displaced fracture of clavicle (AO B1 & B2) were divided into two groups that is operative and non-operative. Operative patients were discharged after 3 days. The non-operative cases were discharged same day. The operated cases were called for suture removal after 10 days and movements were started gradually as per the pain permitted. Results: Of all 60 patients the age varied between 18-70 years with mean age was 35.5 years. The non-operative groups 22 were males and 8 were females while in operative group 25 were male and 5 were females. Average time taken for union in non-operative cases was 16.5 weeks, whereas in operative group it was 10.40 weeks. Overall in non-operative patients 19 were satisfied, 6 were partially satisfied and 5 were not satisfied, in operative group 25 were satisfied while 5 were unsatisfied. Conclusion: Though operative treatment is better in terms of early mobilization, union, absence of mal-union, cosmetically well accepted, it has its own complication which should also be taken into consideration while choosing between the two modalities. Seeing at satisfaction level in patient related to functional outcome the conservative treatment plays a vital role in poor patients. Keywords: clavicle, fracture, mal-union, satisfaction

Background Despite the recent emergence of plasmid-mediated colistin resistance, the epidemiology and mechanisms of colistin-resistant Enterobacterales (CORE) infections remain poorly understood. Methods A case–case–control study was conducted utilizing routine clinical isolates obtained at a single tertiary health system in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Patients with CORE isolates from January 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017, were matched 1:1 with patients with colistin-susceptible Enterobacterales (COSE) and uninfected controls. Multivariable logistic regression was used to compare clinical and microbiologic features of patients with CORE and COSE to controls. A subset of available CORE isolates underwent whole-genome sequencing to identify putative colistin resistance genes. Results Of 16 373 tested clinical isolates, 166 (0.99%) were colistin-resistant, representing 103 unique patients. Among 103 CORE isolates, 103 COSE isolates, and 102 uninfected controls, antibiotic exposure in the antecedent 90 days and age >55 years were predictors of both CORE and COSE. Of 33 isolates that underwent whole-genome sequencing, a large variety of mutations associated with colistin resistance were identified, including 4 mcr-1/mcr-1.1 genes and 4 pmrA/B mutations among 9 Escherichia coli isolates and 5 mgrB and 3 PmrA mutations among 8 Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. Genetic mutations found in Enterobacter species were not associated with known phenotypic colistin resistance. Conclusions Increased age and prior antibiotic receipt were associated with increased risk for patients with CORE and for patients with COSE. Mcr-1, pmrA/B, and mgrB were the predominant colistin resistance–associated mutations identified among E. coli and K. pneumoniae, respectively. Mechanisms of colistin resistance among Enterobacter species could not be determined.

In this paper, we have discussed the design of the system that associates the Deep Convolutional Neural Network that can estimate the identity of the disease from the symptoms. Identifying the disease from plants and discovering the possibility that plant is either infected or not, will decrease the likelihood of risk due to such infection by taking appropriate steps against it. Proposed CNN is trained and build with higher precision and accuracy that associate the automatic detection of the disease from the plant leaves in preference of experienced human inspection. Designing the pure CNN that can identify the healthy plant species and infected plants with an accuracy of the 99% and which can avoid the significant loss of farmers. Proposed CNN includes the multiple layers that are trained intensely to identify the convoluted features of the images. The composition of the CNN model is done over the 35,000 training images with testing set from the same distribution with 4400 images. Detailed results are discussed in the paper.

Context: Vascular tumors of infancy and childhood consist of a number of clinicopathologically distinct entities. Infantile hemangiomas (IH) constitute the bulk of these tumors. As they are seldom biopsied, we do not encounter an opportunity to study them, and this is evident from the paucity of reported cases in pathology literature from India. Clinicians and pathologists alike have traditionally tended to lump these tumors, under overly generic terms like capillary hemangioma which do little to guide proper clinical management. Aims: To delineate the morphological features that characterize IHs and outline the morphological changes seen in different phases of evolution of this tumor. Subjects and Methods: We characterized 21 cases of IHs over a period of 60-months. Mast cells were counted in 10 fi elds of high density, and mast cell density per square millimeter area was calculated. Results: Female to male ratio was 1:1.6. Head and neck were the most common region involved (71.4%). Morphological features were described. Mast cell density/square millimeter area ranged from 126.9 to 285.7. Spearman correlation coeffi cient was 0.681 (P = 0.676). Statistical Analysis: Spearman correlation coefficient was used to analyze the relationship between mast cell numbers and the age of the lesion. Conclusions: Morphological features seen on routine microscopy can easily help distinguish a lobular capillary hemangioma from an IH or a congenital hemangioma even in the absence of relevant clinical details, pointing to a need for looking beyond using a generic term of capillary hemangioma.

Design of Data Acquisition (DAQ) system is always remains topic of research and development for custom requirements from the environments. This paper represents exploratory analysis of the various system components and their performance parameters. The baseline performance parameters are power requirement, computing capabilities, interface data rates, miniaturization requirements and others. Based on the baseline performance requirements of DAQ system, major system components are quantified and proposed design has adopted Xilinx Zynq 7000 based System on Chip(SoC) which consists of dual-Cortex A9 CPU and an Artix-7 family Field Programmable Gate Arrays(FPGA). At the end of paper, the design of compact instrument based on Zynq7000 SoC is finalized, which satisfies the functional needs and specifications of data acquisition, storage, processing and communication for high speed data acquisition system in a compact package.

This paper proposed the design and implementation of high speed communication link between two FPGAs using LVDS driver using 100 MHz clock. Initially Asynchronous and Synchronous communication are discussed and then synchronous communication is used for LVDS data communication. The speed of the communication is sensitive to the noise and sampling of the data at the receiver end. Therefore, the differential signal voltage level and sampling at the falling edge of clock are proposed in the design to maintain the high speed.

ZYNQ 7000 Embedded Processing Platform SOC is chips includes ARM dual core A9-MPCore Processor Processing System-(PS-Microprocessor) along with Xilinx Programmable Logic (PL)-Artix 7 FPGA on a single die. ZYNQ SoC provides the high performance and computing throughput at low power using PS along with the flexibility of PL. ZYNQ SoC incorporates independent interfaces for communication of data control signals between PL and PS in various configurations to access the system resources. This paper describes the performance evaluation of such interfaces in terms of resource utilization and power consumption. Here, in this paper, data transfer from PL to PS using low speed AXI GP port and high speed bus like AXI HP port and ACP (Accelerator Coherency) port is discussed. The paper includes design, implementation and testing results on Zynq-7000 SoC based Avnet Zed board.

XX-1 is a newly drilled well in Ravva field in eastern coast of India deviated to 70 deg and completed with a 6? Open-hole section. The initial completion plan for the sand prone well was to complete with stand alone screens for a single pay zone. During drilling, additional pay zones were encountered which necessitated completing the well with zonal selectivity using sand-screens with SSD. Selective completion required thru tubing intervention to operate the SSDs and produce selectively. Due to high deviation, intervening with slick line was very challenging whereas coiled tubing operations had its own limitations which are discussed in the paper. Hence it was decided to use Electro-hydraulic stroking tool along with motorable tool sections to convey tools in the high angle well. While shifting SSDs with hydraulic stroking tool, frequent held ups and stuck points were observed across all SSDs which made it difficult to confirm shifting key location with reference to SSD sleeve profile and hence confirm SSD opening. This resulted in unsuccessful attempts and tool failures. A detailed analysis was carried out to ascertain the probable cause of multiple held ups within the screen SSDs and to find out other ways to shift the sleeve. Trouble shooting was performed by combining video recording of shifting attempts at surface in an unused screen section along with engineering drawings of the screen. Based on trouble shooting results, shifting procedures were modified accordingly to precisely engage the shifting tool with SSD profile and SSDs were successfully opened. The stroker system also proved useful in opening a circulation SSD which enabled the well to be brought on line. This paper describes operational difficulties encountered and innovative ideas implemented to shift SSDs. It also reviews job planning, trouble shooting and execution, as well as reports the lessons learnt to derive best practices for future similar operations.

Structure and optical properties of cadmium sulphide-zinc oxide composite nanorods have been evaluated by suitable characterization techniques. The X-ray diffraction spectrum contains a series of peaks corresponding to reflections from various sets of lattice planes of hexagonal ZnO as well as CdS. The above observation is supported by the Micro-Raman spectroscopy result. The optical reflectance spectra of CdS-ZnO is compared with that of ZnO where we observe an enhanced absorption and hence diminished reflection from CdS-ZnO compared to that from only ZnO. A very small intensity of the visible photoluminescence peak observed at 550 nm proves that the ZnO nanorods have very low concentrations of point defects such as oxygen vacancies and zinc interstitials. The photocurrent in the visible region has been significantly enhanced due to deposition of CdS on the surface of the ZnO nanorods. CdS acts as a visible sensitizer because of its lower band gap compared to ZnO.

Persistent mullerian duct syndrome (PMDS) is usually an accidental finding either during orchipexy or during routine inguinal hernia repair in male patients presenting with maldescended or crytorchid testes. It is caused by a defect in the mullerian inhibiting substance system. Intraoperatively, mullerian remnants consisting of an infantile uterus and fallopian tubes are usually found. Familiarity with PMDS is necessary to diagnose the condition. We report a case of PMDS in a 14-year-old male presenting with bilateral undescended testes.

Today, there is a generalized standard usage of internet for all.The devices via multiple technologies that facilitates to provide few communication methods to scholars to work with. By forming multiple paths in the data center network, latest generation data centers offer maximum bandwidth with robustness. To utilize this bandwidth, it is necessary that different data flows take separate paths. In brief, a single-path transport seems inappropriate for such networks. By using Multipath TCP, we must reconsider data center networks, with a diverse approach as to the association between topology, transport protocols, routing. Multipath TCP allows certain topologies that single path TCP cannot use. In newer generation data centers, Multipath TCP is already deployable using extensively deployed technologies such as Equal-cost multipath routing. But, major benefits will come when data centers are specifically designed for multipath transports. Due to manifold of technologies like Cloud computing, social networking, and information networks there is a need to deploy the number of large data centers. While Transport Control Protocol is the leading Layer-3 transport protocol in data center networks, the operating conditions like high bandwidth, small-buffered switches, and traffic patterns causes poor performance of TCP. Data Center TCP algorithm has newly been anticipated as a TCP option for data centers which address these limitations. It is worth noting that traditional TCP protocol.

GaAs nanocrystal-generated thin films were synthesized by a low-temperature electro-deposition technique. The structure and the optical properties of the above nanocrystalline thin film were systematically investigated and compared with the corresponding properties of bulk GaAs. We attempted to dope the GaAs nanocrystals with yttrium by an electro-deposition technique. Yttrium-doped GaAs nanocrystals show infrared photoluminescence even at room temperature. We suggested that the photoluminescence was probably due to the deep defects created by yttrium. The micro-Raman spectrum of GaAs nanocrystalline thin film contained defect associated phonon mode ascribed to possible structural disorder.

Intubation in critical care unit patients is a difficult proposition due to multiple limiting factors like full stomach, hemodynamic instability,emergency circumstances, difficult positioning, all leading to increased adverse events during intubation.

Nanostructured thin films of Sb 2 O 3 clusters having sizes in the range of 3–17 nm were synthesized by the low-energy cluster beam deposition technique. The crystallite size was found to decrease with increase in rate of flow of the carrier gas. The high-resolution transmission electron microscope image and the selected-area diffraction pattern show the formation of a core shell structure with Sb core and Sb 2 O 3 shell at moderate oxygen flow pressure. Optical absorption spectra exhibit semiconductor characteristics for the samples prepared at intermediate oxygen flow pressure, and insulating features were observed in case of samples prepared at higher oxygen flow pressure. Room-temperature Raman spectra consist of a pair of broad peaks, red shifted with respect to the corresponding peaks of the bulk Sb 2 O 3 .

GaAs nanocrystalline thin films containing 7–15 nm size crystallites were synthesized by an electrodeposition technique. A thin surface Ga2O3 layer was detected due to atmospheric oxidation of the GaAs nanocrystals. The above films were electrically characterized by the capacitance–voltage studies of the Au/nano-GaAs Schottky junctions. The effect of the nanostructure was fairly realized in the capacitance–voltage characteristics by the observation of capacitance peaks arising due to the trapping of the charge carriers by the surface states. The capacitance–voltage characteristics were recorded both at low and high frequencies of the impressed ac signal in order to identify the effect of the surface states on the behavior of the capacitance of the device.

Polyvinyl alcohol capped GaAs nanocrystals, assembled in thin film form, have been synthesized by a simple electrochemical technique. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study reveals the presence of 20–50 nm size GaAs nanoparticles embedded in the polymer host. Selected area diffraction pattern contains a series of spotted rings indicative of textured nature of the thin film. The excitonic peak broadening and the blue shift of its spectral position with respect to the bulk band gap depend upon the concentration of the polyvinyle alcohol. The X-ray photoelectron spectrum shows C(1s) peak corresponding to the surface bonded polyvinyl alcohol along with the Ga3d and As3d peaks of the GaAs core. Room temperature micro-Raman spectrum shows one surface phonon mode that shifts to the lower energy side with decrease in the crystallite size.

GaAs nanocrystals have been synthesized by an electrochemical route from the acidic solutions of metallic gallium and arsenic oxide. Structural analysis by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), reveales the presence of orthorhombic phase, in contrast to the usual cubic phase of bulk GaAs. Well separated GaAs nanocrystals having sizes in the range of 7 to 15 nm are identified in the TEM micrograph. Optical absorption shows a strong excitonic absorption band on account of quantum size effect associated with GaAs nanocrystals. Photoluminescence, recorded at 300 K under ultraviolet excitation (369 nm ) , shows the HOMO-LUMO transition band as well as the red shifted bands. Micro-Raman analysis shows a phonon mode centered at 250 cm −1 associated with a point defect.

Businesses offering video-on-demand (VoD) and downloadable-CD sales are growing in the Internet. Batching of requests coupled with a one-to-many delivery mechanism such as multicast can increase scalability and efficiency. There is very little insight into pricing such services in a manner that utilizes network and system resources efficiently while also maximizing the expectation of revenue. In this paper, we investigate simple, yet effective mechanisms to price content in a batching context. We observe that if customer behavior is well understood and temporally invariant, a fixed pricing scheme can maximize expectation of revenue if there are infinite resources. However, with constrained resources and potentially unknown customer behavior, only a dynamic pricing algorithm can maximize expectation of revenue. We formulate the problem of pricing as a constrained optimization problem and show that maximizing the expectation of revenue can be intractable even when the customer behavior is well known. Since customer behavior is unlikely to be well known in an Internet setting, we develop a model to understand customer behavior online and a pricing algorithm based on this model. Using simulations, we characterize the performance of this algorithm and other simple and deployable pricing schemes under different customer behavior and system load profiles. Based on our work, we propose a pricing scheme that combines the best features of the different pricing schemes and analyze its performance.

Addition is one of the essential operations in Digital Signal Processing (DSP) applications which includes Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Digital filters, multipliers etc. With the advancements in technology, research is still going on to design a adder that performs addition in flash of time. One of such high speed adder is Carry Save Adder (CSA). In this paper we have designed High Speed Carry Save Adder (CSA) using Carry Look ahead adder in the final stage instead of using conventional ripple carry adder [1] so that speed increases by 27.5%.

A detailed case study of $\gamma$-hadron segregation for a ground based atmospheric Cherenkov telescope is presented. We have evaluated and compared various supervised machine learning methods such as the Random Forest method, Artificial Neural Network, Linear Discriminant method, Naive Bayes Classifiers,Support Vector Machines as well as the conventional dynamic supercut method by simulating triggering events with the Monte Carlo method and applied the results to a Cherenkov telescope. It is demonstrated that the Random Forest method is the most sensitive machine learning method for $\gamma$-hadron segregation., Comment: Accepted to RAA

Abdominal cocoon or sclerosing encapsulated peritonitis is a rare cause of intestinal obstruction often seen in adolescent girls. We present a case of an abdominal cocoon in a 14-year-old female presenting as a surgical emergency. The patient underwent excision of the involved segment of small bowel along with a part of ascending colon. Gross morphology revealed intestinal coils wrapped within a thick fibrous membrane. Diagnosis of this condition is seldom possible on radiological imaging. Characteristic gross appearance is showcased in our case, to create more awareness of this finding.

A prototype fiber optic current sensor (FOCS) based on Sagnac interferometer is designed and tested for monitoring of current up to 4000 amperes for electric power industry application. Sensor is tested for nominal current one ampere as well as current up to eight hundred amperes. The output of sensor has nonlinearity of ±0.5% is presented.

While wide-area video surveillance is an important application, it is often not practical, from a technical and social perspective, to have video cameras that completely cover the entire region of interest. For obtaining good surveillance results in a sparse camera networks requires that they be complemented by additional sensors with different modalities, their intelligent assignment in a dynamic environment, and scene understanding using these multimodal inputs. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic scheme for opportunistically deploying cameras to the most interesting parts of a scene dynamically given data from a set of video and audio sensors. The audio data is continuously processed to identify interesting events, e.g., entry/exit of people, merging or splitting of groups, and so on. This is used to indicate the time instants to turn on the cameras. Thereafter, analysis of the video determines how long the cameras stay on and whether their pan/tilt/zoom parameters change. Events are tracked continuously by combining the audio and video data. Correspondences between the audio and video sensor observations are obtained through a learned homography between the image plane and ground plane. The method leads to efficient usage of the camera resources by focusing on the most important parts of the scene, saves power, bandwidth and cost, and reduces concerns of privacy. We show detailed experimental results on real data collected in multimodal networks.

A two-way relay channel in which two users communicate with each other over a relay terminal is considered. In particular, a ldquoseparatedrdquo two-way relay channel, in which the users do not receive each other's signals is studied. Various achievable schemes are proposed and corresponding achievable rate regions are characterized. Specifically, a combination of partial decode-and-forward and compress-and-forward schemes is proposed. In addition, compress-and-forward relaying with two layered quantization, in which one of the users receive a better description of the relay received signal is studied. Extension of these achievable schemes to the Gaussian separated two-way relay channel is presented. It is shown that the compress-and-forward scheme achieves rates within half bit of the capacity region in the Gaussian setting. Numerical results are also presented for comparison of the proposed achievable schemes in the Gaussian case.

For the first time, tensile and compressively stressed nitride contact liners have been simultaneously incorporated into a high performance CMOS flow. This dual stress liner (DSL) approach results in NFET/PFET effective drive current enhancement of 15%/32% and saturated drive current enhancement of 11%/20%. Significant hole mobility enhancement of 60% is achieved without using SiGe. Inverter ring oscillator delay is reduced by 24% with DSL. Overall yield for the DSL process is comparable to that of a similar technology without DSL. Single and multi-core SOI microprocessors are being manufactured using the DSL process in multiple, high-volume fabrication facilities.

There exists a huge demand for multimedia goods and services in the Internet. Currently available bandwidth speeds can support sale of downloadable content like CDs, e-books, etc. as well as services like video-on-demand. In the future, such services will be prevalent in the Internet. Since costs are typically fixed, maximizing revenue can maximize profits. A primary determinant of revenue in such e-content markets is how much value the customers associate with the content. Though marketing surveys are useful, they cannot adapt to the dynamic nature of the Internet market. In this work, we examine how to learn customer valuations in close to real-time. Our contributions in this paper are threefold: (1) we develop a probabilistic model to describe customer behavior, (2) we develop a framework for pricing e-content based on basic economic principles, and (3) we propose a price discovering algorithm that learns customer behavior parameters and suggests prices to an e-content provider. We validate our algorithm using simulations. Our simulations indicate that our algorithm generates revenue close to the maximum expectation. Further, they also indicate that the algorithm is robust to transient customer behavior.

Background: HIV/AIDS (Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) continues to be a major threat to the community. Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC) provides a key entry point in HIV prevention and care. Objectives: 1. To study socio-demographic profile and risk behaviour pattern of HIV positive ICTC visitors. 2. To know the common sources of referral to ICTC. 3. To know HIV status of spouse / partner. Study design: A cross-sectional record based study. Methodology: The present record based cross-sectional study was conducted in November and December 2010 by going through the records of HIV positive cases who visited the ICTC of BIMS Hospital, Belgaum, Karnataka, from January 2007 to December 2009. Results: The study included all 3,447 HIV positive cases with 43.1% females. 2,532 (73.4%) study subjects belonged to 15-49 years. 1537 (78.3%) males and 1244 ( 83.8%) females were married. 869 (25.2%) subjects had visited the ICTC voluntarily. 1367 (39.7%) were referred by doctors from government and private health care facilities. 1242 (36.1%) subjects did not disclose their risk behaviour pattern. Majority of the responded subjects (74.3%) had heterosexual partners. In 74.2% couples, both partners were HIV infected. Conclusion: The present study revealed high prevalence of HIV positivity in the visitors of ICTC Belgaum. People have begun using ICTC facilities which reflects greater awareness and change in the attitude towards HIV in the community.

Background: Globally, HIV/ AIDS continue to be a major public health priority as it is one of the major financial burdens on health care system worldwide. Objectives: To explore the general clinical profile, CD4 status & frequency of opportunistic infections & non-infectious opportunistic diseases among expired HIV/AIDS cases. Method: The present retrospective record based case study was conducted in BIMS Hospital - a tertiary care center in North Karnataka during January to February, 2011 after going through the records of all HIV/AIDS cases expired in the hospital, from January 2008 to December 2010. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 17. Results: Of 361 cases expired during their hospital stay in the study period, majority (64.8%) were males and 213 (59.0%) were belonging to the age group of 26 to 40 years. Mean hemoglobin level was found to be 7.69 (± 2.21) gm%. Among those cases whose CD4+ T lymphocyte status was known (38.8%), more than 3/4th (77.1%) were having less than 200 cells /μL. Common signs and symptoms recorded were weight loss (99.4%), weakness (97.2%), cough (61.5%), fever (60.4%), altered sensorium (32.4%), general wasting syndrome (67.6%), pallor (91.7%), candidiasis (38.2%), etc. Common opportunistic infections/ diseases recorded were Tuberculosis (61.5%), Septicemia (13.6%), Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (6.9 %) etc. Conclusions: TB remains the commonest opportunistic infection among HIV positive cases. Findings in the present study might help hospital / health managers understand the major predictors of HIV related mortality.

We report a bandpass ultraviolet photon detector for inverse photoemission spectroscopy with energy resolution of 82 ± 2 meV. The detector (Sr(0.7)Ca(0.3)F(2)/acetone) consists of Sr(0.7)Ca(0.3)F(2) entrance window with energy transmission cutoff of 9.85 eV and acetone as detection gas with 9.7 eV photoionization threshold. The response function of the detector, measured using synchrotron radiation, has a nearly Gaussian shape. The n = 1 image potential state of Cu(100) and the Fermi edge of silver have been measured to demonstrate the improvement in resolution compared to the CaF(2)/acetone detector. To show the advantage of improved resolution of the Sr(0.7)Ca(0.3)F(2)/acetone detector, the metal to semiconductor transition in Sn has been studied. The pseudogap in the semiconducting phase of Sn could be identified, which is not possible with the CaF(2)/acetone detector because of its worse resolution.

Crystalline ZnO nanorods have been grown on various substrates by a low cost aqueous chemical growth technique. The effect of substrates on the properties of ZnO nanorods has been investigated systematically. The nanorods deposited on silicon are observed to be structurally and optically different from that grown on GaN. Due to a higher rate of nucleation on the silicon substrate, the surface density of nucleation centres is very high. As a result, we get randomly oriented nanorods on the silicon substrate. Arrays of standing, single crystalline nanorods could be deposited on n-GaN/Al2O3 and p-GaN/Al2O3 substrates due to a good lattice match between GaN and ZnO. In order to grow standing nanorods on ITO, we had to deposit a layer of nanoseeds of ZnO on the ITO/quartz substrate by electro-deposition in the presence of a surfactant.

Arrays of standing nanorods of ZnO were successfully grown on indium tin oxide coated quartz substrates by an inexpensive aqueous chemical growth technique. The electrical properties of individual nanorod were investigated with the conducting tip of an atomic force microscope. The effect of ultraviolet irradiation on the conductivity of single nanorods was investigated. We observed a persistency of the photoconductivity, most probably ascribable to the oxygen vacancies in ZnO nanorods.

The VISION 2002 Network architecture provides the modularity and power required of distributed control systems. Given that a user's needs continually change the software oriented design delivers the flexibility to satisfy any situation. It is particulary suitable for plantwide applications because of the inherent global database and the ease of using it. Plant optimization, reporting, data logging and the linking of the process database with data processing applications are a natural extension to the processing needs. It does allow a user to start small-with a instrumentation or reporting system, and allows the system to grow to any size.