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Background: Proteins are one of the strong pillars of sound physical health and cognitive abilities. Protein and micronutrient deficiency can hamper the health and growth of many children globally, delaying their physical and mental improvement and increase proneness to infections. The current research depicts the efficacy and safety of the children's health supplement with micronutrient fortification to promote growth, health, and wellbeing in children. A multicenter randomized controlled trial. Material and Methods: Two centers one being a teaching institute with a hospital and the second one private hospital. Total 105 subjects visiting the out patient department (OPD) section participated of which 100 completed the trial with five being dropped out as lost to follow-up. Children's health supplement (NRL/2019/5PNK) contains essential vitamins, minerals, herbal extracts together with a blend of whey, soy, pea, rice proteins, and milk solids. It was consumed as 90 days' treatment in a dose of 10 g daily with 150 mL milk. Children's health supplements improved anthropometric parameters and growth of children indicated by height-to-age and weight-to-age z-scores defined by world health organization (WHO). Results: There was a 45.70% increased physical endurance by children's health supplement. Enhanced immunity status indicated by reduced illness episodes and missed school days. Children's health supplements improved child's eating behavior and cognitive performance better than the marketed product. It was found better in improving digestive behavior in children. Conclusion: Children's health supplement found safe and effective in promoting growth, health, and wellbeing in healthy children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Women appear with gender specific nutritional requirements that may affect their well-being. The nutritional requirements are there for women in rural, suburban and urban regions altogether. Objective: Netsurf Communications Pvt. Ltd. has developed the NRL/2019/5PNW for the women to help manage their health and wellness. The current research is designed to assess safety and efficacy of the test product. Methods and Materials: The trial is randomized, controlled prospective clinical trial. In the present study, 110 subjects were screened. Total 100 subjects were considered evaluable cases at the end of the study 1:1 in test and Marketed product treated group. Results: Test product was better in activity than marketed product in improving energy levels of the subjects throughout the day, elevating mood, improving quality of sleep and reducing stress. Improved glycemic control and reduction in total cholesterol levels were significantly reduced in test group which has preventive potential of metabolic diseases. Less events of recurrent UTI/RTI in test treated group suggestive of improvement in immune status of females. Conclusion: NRL/2019/5PNW is safe and effective in promoting health and wellbeing in females in fertile age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multicore fiber (MCF) equipped spectrally-spatially flexible optical networks (SS-FONs), the inter-core crosstalk (XT) affects quality of transmission (QoT) of lightpaths if it exceeds threshold XT ($XT_{th}$). Thus, XT-management is of predominant concern in SS-FONs. In this work, we exploit the spatial dimension (i.e., core) of SS-FONs to calculate XT-aware routes, and propose a novel low-crosstalk-margin (LCM) routing scheme. The proposed LCM routing offers a proactive approach of XT-management, where two-dimensional (2D) routes leveraging core-switching are calculated and prioritized offline on the basis of XT-margins. Simulations indicate that the proposed LCM routing achieves up to 53.6% and 60.5% higher lightpath establishment as compared to the existing proactive XT-management methods, namely, XT-Avoid, and WC-XT, respectively. Further, the proposed LCM routing obtains near-optimal performance without the need of complex calculations that are performed dynamically by the optimal SXT-Check method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, survivability of optical communication networks against large-scale disaster failures has been studied. The survivability analyses done by most of the studies are based on arbitrary simplified disaster areas under the assumption of uniform disaster occurrence in a given area, and short-term evaluation of network robustness. However, for assessing the generic applicability and evaluating the performance of any protection, recovery, and/or topology design scheme irrespective of the varying geographical region and network topology, a stochastic model for disaster occurrence and optical network topology would be useful. In this paper, we propose a stochastic model to estimate the impact of earthquake disasters on a backbone optical network, namely, earthquake risk and backbone optical network (ERBON) model. We consider various stochastic distributions, real statistics, stochastic geometry, and graph theory to model seismic zonation, epicenter location and density, earthquake magnitudes, link/node failures, and network topology/connectivity. Furthermore, we propose an earthquake risk minimized node relocation (ERMNR) scheme that can improve the optical network's survivability. Performance of the proposed ERMNR scheme is evaluated under the proposed ERBON model and for real-world earthquake risk data from the U.S. and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Complex AO type C3 fractures of the distal femur are challenging injuries, fraught with complications such as malunion and stiffness. We prospectively evaluated a consecutive series of patients with complex AO type C3 distal femur fractures to determine the clinicoradiological outcome after fxation with a single locked plate using modifed swashbuckler approach. Materials and Methods: 12 patients with C3 type distal femur fractures treated with a lateral locked plate, using a modifed swashbuckler approach, were included in the study. The extraarticular component was managed either by compression plating or bridge plating (transarticular approach and retrograde plate osteosynthesis) depending on the fracture pattern. Primary bone grafting was not done in any case. The clinical outcome at 1 year was determined using the Knee Society Score (KSS). The presence of any secondary osteoarthritis in the knee joint was noted at fnal followup. Results: All fractures united at a mean of 14.3 ± 4.7 weeks (range 6-26 weeks). There were no signifcant complications such as nonunion, deep infection, and implant failure. One of the patients underwent secondary bone grafting at 3 months. The mean range of motion of the knee was 120° ± 14.8° (range 105°-150°). Seven patients had excellent, three patients had good and two patients had a fair outcome according to the KSS at 1 year. At a mean followup of 17.6 months, three patients showed radiological evidence of secondary osteoarthritis of the knee joint. However, only one of these patients was symptomatic. Conclusion: The results of complex C3 type distal femur fractures, fxed with a single lateral locked plate using a modifed swashbuckler approach, are encouraging, with a majority of patients achieving good to excellent outcome at 1 year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atorvastatin calcium (ATRC) is a poor water soluble drug used for treatment of hypercholesterolemia. This research is aimed to improve solubility and dissolution rate of ATRC by formulating into solid self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (S-SNEDDS) using N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) as cosolvent. Solubility of ATRC was determined in various vehicles. Ternary phase diagrams were constructed to identify stable nanoemulsion region. SNEDDS formulations were evaluated for robustness to dilution, thermodynamic stability study, % transmittance, self-emulsification time, globule size and transmission electron microscopy. The optimized liquid SNEDDS showed robust to all dilutions exhibiting no signs of phase separation or precipitation for 24 h. Liquid SNEDDS was transformed into S-SNEDDS using different adsorbents. Differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electron microscopy studies unravel the transformation of native crystalline state to amorphous state/solubilized state. In vitro dissolution study of S-SNEDDS was found to be significantly higher in comparison to that from plain drug, irrespective of pH ( p < 0.001). Furthermore, ex vivo permeation studies showed a 4.45-fold improvement in apparent permeability coefficient ( Papp) from S-SNEDDS compared to plain drug. In conclusion, S-SNEDDS prepared using NMP as cosolvent provides an effective approach for improved oral delivery of ATRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]