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Solar Photovoltaic (PV) cells convert an average of 10 to 15% of the incident solar radiation into electricity and remaining energy is wasted as unused heat energy. The performance of solar PV is largely dependent on its operating temperature, which is again dependent on solar irradiation. The efficiency of solar PV reduces the higher PV temperature due to charge carrier recombination. The solar PV efficiency drops considerably with increasing temperature. Dust deposition on the surface of solar PV cells reduce incident energy and no technology is commercially available to mitigate the problem. The objective of the present work is to enhance the energy conversion efficiency of solar PV by adopting Front Water (FW) cooling technique. The FW cooling technique maintains the cell temperature at Standard Test Conditions (STC) irrespective of ambient air conditions and also washes away dust deposits, thereby providing maximum energy conversion efficiency specified by the cell manufacturer during the operation with increased lifecycle of solar cells. The experiment was carried out on a 100 W solar panel for a period of 2 weeks and data acquisition system with Arduino controller was used to analyze and maintain STC of the panel to obtain maximum power. The mathematical model of the system was analyzed and obtained results were in good agreement with the experimental measurements. The solar PV panel with FW cooling yielded an efficiency improvement of 9% with 17 W of increased power output at Maximum Power Point (MPP). MATLAB Simulink software is used to model the FW cooling technique. The model is able to predict the power generated by the solar PV cells for the given irradiance with and without cooling. The developed model can now be utilized to design cooling systems for larger installation of solar PV systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the study of tectona grandis for adsorption of dyes, extraction of chemicals dissolved in it for pharma industries is studied from many years. Few researchers have explored the use of tectona grandis in thermo-chemical process such as torrefaction, and pyrolysis. But the study to use of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) to convert leaf litter to value added products of tectona grandis for varying process conditions is not performed. This research is focused to ascertain the role of HTC process parameters on hydrochar and biocrude produced from tectona grandis leaf litter. HTC experiments were conducted in a batch reactor. Various process parameters such as temperature and residence time which affects the yield of hydrochar is reported. HTC of yard waste is carried out at 210°C for a residence time of 20 min in a batch reactor which gives the hydrochar yield of 65% with higher heating value of 26.63 MJ/kg. Characterization of hydrochar performed with proximate analysis, ultimate analysis, SEM and FTIR showed that hydrochar properties are better compared to feedstock properties which can be effectively used as solid fuel. The liquid biocrude separated from solid hydrochar is analyzed using UV spectroscopy. It is found to contain the compounds such as 5-HMF, dibenzofuran, naphthalene and anthracene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study described the clinical and paraclinical features of south Indian patients with longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis (LETM) and contrasted the findings betweenaquaporin-4 positive versus negative patients. The subjects were recruited between2010 and 2013.The distinctive features among71 LETM patients were compared and it was observed that 56% of the total subjects were found to be AQP4-Ab positive. The ratio of female tomale was found to be higher in the AQP4-Ab positive group. Magnetic resonance imaging showed holocord involvement more commonly in AQP4- Abnegative than positive group. The presence of hypointense lesions did not correlate with severity. The main distinctive features between AQP4-Abpositive and negative cases include older onset age, higher proportion of female, low frequency of conus involvement and higher prevalence of coexisting autoimmune disorders in AQP4-Ab positive cases. Therewas no difference in attack severity, onset of optic neuritis, and spasms between the two groups. Our results suggest that the clinical and spinal cord neuro-imaging information can aid in distinguishing between the positive and negative group of patients with LETM. The early detection of AQP4-Ab positive status predicts the recurrence of LETM or occurrence of optic neuritis duringthe study period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Lichen planus (LP) is a chronic inflammatory pruritic dermatosis occurring infrequently in children. Very few studies are available on childhood LP from South India. Aim: This study aims to analyze the clinical profile of LP among children. Settings and Design: This was a retrospective study. Materials and Methods: Records of the children <16 years with LP attending our tertiary care center from January 2011 to April 2016 were tabulated and analyzed. Results: Of the 76 children with childhood LP, examined over a period of 5.4 years, 42 were boys and 34 were girls with a male: female ratio of 1.2:1. Childhood LP accounted for 17.7% of total LP cases. The mean age of the children was 10.7 years, and the lesions appeared earlier in boys than girls. Limbs were the common site of onset, and classical LP was observed in 56.6% (43) of cases followed by, linear LP (11, 14.4%), hypertrophic LP (10, 13.2%), eruptive LP, and actinic LP in 5.3% each. Koebner's phenomenon was noted in 37.3% and a positive history of infective foci before the onset was noted in 14.4% of children. Palmoplantar, oral mucosal, and nail involvement were noted in 7.8%, 14.4%, and 15.7% of children, respectively. Multiple morphological types were noted in 14.4% of children. Conclusion: Hence, as per our study, LP in children is relatively common, and it can sometimes be triggered by infection. Apart from classical LP, linear LP, annular LP, and palmoplantar involvement were frequently observed in the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Invasive fungal infections (IFI) in the intensive care unit (ICU) are an emerging problem owing to the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, immunosuppressive agents, and frequency of indwelling catheters. Timely diagnosis which is imperative to improve outcomes can be challenging. This position statement is aimed at understanding risk factors, providing a rational diagnostic approach, and guiding clinicians to optimize antifungal therapy., Objectives: To update evidence on epidemiology, risk factors, diagnostic approach, antifungal initiation strategy, therapeutic interventions including site-specific infections and role of therapeutic drug monitoring in IFI in ICU and focus on some practice points relevant to these domains., Methodology: A committee comprising critical care specialists across the country was formed and specific aspects of fungal infections and antifungal treatment were assigned to each member. They extensively reviewed the literature including the electronic databases and the international guidelines and cross-references. The information was shared and discussed over several meetings and position statements were framed to ensure their reliability and relevance in critical practice. The draft document was prepared after obtaining inputs and consensus from all the members and was reviewed by an expert in this field., Results: The existing evidence on the management of IFI was updated and practice points were prepared under each subheading to enable critical care practitioners to streamline diagnosis and treatment strategies for patients in the ICU with additional detail on site-specific infections therapeutic drug monitoring., Conclusion: This position statement attempts to address the management of IFI in immunocompetent and non-neutropenic ICU patients. The practice points should guide in optimization of the management of critically ill patients with suspected or proven fungal infections., How to Cite This Article: Bhattacharya PK, Chakrabarti A, Sinha S, Pande R, Gupta S, Kumar AAK, et al. ISCCM Position Statement on the Management of Invasive Fungal Infections in the Intensive Care Unit. Indian J Crit Care Med 2024;28(S2):S20-S41., Competing Interests: Source of support: Nil Conflict of interest: None, (Copyright © 2024; The Author(s).)

Perfusion maps obtained from low-dose computed tomography (CT) data suffer from poor signal to noise ratio. To enhance the quality of the perfusion maps, several works rely on denoising the low-dose CT (LD-CT) images followed by conventional regularized deconvolution. Recent works employ deep neural networks (DNN) for learning a direct mapping between the noisy and the clean perfusion maps ignoring the convolution-based forward model. DNN-based methods are not robust to practical variations in the data that are seen in real-world applications such as stroke. In this work, we propose an iterative framework that combines the perfusion forward model with a DNN-based regularizer to obtain perfusion maps directly from the LD-CT dynamic data. To improve the robustness of the DNN, we leverage the anatomical information from the contrast-enhanced LD-CT images to learn the mapping between low-dose and standard-dose perfusion maps. Through empirical experiments, we show that our model is robust both qualitatively and quantitatively to practical perturbations in the data.

Accurate identification of anatomical landmarks is a crucial step in medical image analysis. While deep neural networks have shown impressive performance on computer vision tasks, they rely on a large amount of data, which is often not available. In this work, we propose an attention-driven end-to-end deep learning architecture, which learns the local appearance and global context separately that helps in stable training under limited data. The experiments conducted demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach with impressive results in localizing landmarks when evaluated on cephalometric and spine X-ray image data. The predicted landmarks are further utilized in biomedical applications to demonstrate the impact.

In this study we have performed pharmacophore modeling and built a 3D QSAR model for pyrido-indole derivatives as Janus Kinase 2 inhibitors. An efficient pharmacophore has been identified from a data set of 51 molecules and the identified pharmacophore hypothesis consisted of one hydrogen bond acceptor, two hydrogen bond donors and three aromatic rings, i.e. ADDRRR. A powerful 3D-QSAR model has also been constructed by employing Partial Least Square regression analysis with a regression coefficient of 0.97 (R(2)) and Q(2) of 0.95, and Pearson-R of 0.98.