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Small-scale solar thermal contaminated water purification is a promising green energy based decentralized process especially for rural area. The present work describes thermal performance estimation of a Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) suitable for contaminated water purification. Contaminated drain water is pressurized through a slow sand filter and PTC with glass cover enclosing a copper tube. The diameter of the copper tube was estimated as 26 mm and that of the glass cover was 50 mm. The rim angle and width of the parabola were 60° and 1.2 m respectively. The PTC focal length, concentration ratio, overall heat loss coefficient was 493.4 mm, 13.93 and 7.39 W/m2K respectively. The maximum modeled and experimental thermal efficiency were about 60% and 55% respectively. Around water flow rate of 0.002 kg/s and solar radiation 750 W/m2, both water temperature and useful heat gain were maximum. The exergetic efficiency of the system increases with the increase of inlet temperature of water for different solar intensity. The solar purified water had all other parameters within acceptable limit except residual chlorine (0.24 mg/L).

Introduction: Snake bite is a common problem in North East India as most of the demography includes forests, cultivated land and tea gardens which are a natural habitat to various species of snakes. Snake bite comprises a significant number of hospitalizations with fatalities in this part of the country. We studied all the cases of snake bite poisoning that came to our hospital during the monsoon seasons in the department of medicine of a tertiary care hospital. Materials And Methods: All adult patients coming to the department of Emergency or out patients department in Assam Medical College and Hospital over a period of 1 year from July 2014 to June 2015 were include in our prospective observational study. A detailed clinical history was taken, local examination was done and all necessary laboratory examinations especially those related to bleeding and coagulation profile was done. Results And Observations: 116 patients were included in the study which included 70 (60.3%) male and 46 (39.7%) female patients, the male to female ratio being 1.52:1. Out of 116, 42 (36.2%) were poisonous snake bites and 74 (63.8%) were non poisonous. Out of the 42 cases of poisonous snake bites, 34 (80.9%) patients presented with hematologic symptoms, 8 (19.1%) patients had neurological symptoms and 4 (9.5%) patients expired during their hospital stay. Most common symptom was fright which was noted in 107 (92.2%) patients. This was followed by local swelling (78.4%), tingling and numbness (65.5%) and pain at the site of bite (58.6%). Only 9.5% patients reached tertiary care center within 4 hours of snake bite and majority (55.2%) were delayed by more than 12 hours. The whole blood clotting time, prothrombin time and INR was significantly high in patients with hematotoxic snake bite poisoning. Polyvalent Anti Snake venom (PASV) was administered in 22 (52.4%) cases out of 42 poisonous snake bite cases. 16 (47%) cases of hematotoxic snake bite and 6 (75%) cases of neurotoxic snake bite received PASV. 18 (52.9%) cases of hematotoxic snake bite received only fresh frozen plasma (FFP), 9 (26.5%) received FFP and PASV, 7 (20.6%) received only PASV. Two patients developed reaction to PASV which was managed successfully with adrenalin and steroids. Neostigmine was used in all 8 cases of neurotoxic snake bite poisoning. Conclusion: Though most of the snake bites were non poisonous, use of tourniquet and other alternative medicines caused morbidity. Hematotoxic snake bite was more common but was managed by use of polyvalent anti snake venom (PASV) and/or fresh frozen plasma. Neurotoxic snake poisoning were less common and managed by PASV and neostigmine. Two patient of hematotoxic snake bite died due to renal failure and two cases of neurotoxic snake bite died due to respiratory failure. Keyword : Snake bite poisoning, Polyvalent Anti Snake Venom, Hematotoxic snake, Neurotoxin snake

Objectives: Sputum conversion rates (SCR) at the end of intensive phase of treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis varies and knowledge of factors involved is, inadequate. It has been reported that presence of a BCG scar was associated with greater rate of sputum conversion at the end of intensive phase (IP) of treatment. Hence, this study was undertaken with aim of studying the relationship between BCG vaccination status and sputum conversion rate in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients. Materials And Methods: This was a hospital based observational study done at Assam Medical College and Hospital, Dibrugarh from July 2012 to June 2013. All new sputum smear positive (SSP-PTB) patients were put on antitubercular therapy under DOTS and followed up with repeat sputum microscopy at the end of intensive phase. A comparative study on the outcome was done between BCG scar positive and negative cases and statistical analysis done. Results: All the 102 new SSP-PTB cases successfully completed intensive phase treatment under DOTS. Out of these 19 patients had to be put on extended IP of 1 month. BCG scar was present in 64.17% cases and absent in 35.29%. Overall, 81.37% of new sputum positive (NSP) cases converted at the end of second month IP on DOTS. In BCG scar present group, sputum conversion rate (SCR) was 90.90% whereas in scar absent group it was 63.89%, showing a significant ‘p’ value of 0.0013.In the extended IP group 94.48% cases with scar converted, while 22.22% without BCG scar remained non-converted with a significant ‘p’ value of 0.0009. Conclusion: New SSP-PTB patients with evidence of previous BCG vaccination, show a significantly better sputum conversion rate at the end of intensive phase of DOTS.