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Byline: Rakesh. Gupta, Mousmi. Agrawal, Archana. Keche, Satyaki. Ganguly Primary cutaneous blastomycosis is very rare in non-endemic regions like India. Only few cases have been reported from India. Herein, we [...]

Introduction India aims to achieve universal health coverage, with a focus on equitable delivery of services. There is significant evidence on extent of inequities by income status, gender and caste. In this paper, we report geographic inequities in coverage of reproductive, maternal and child health (MCH) services in Haryana state of India. Methods Cross-sectional data on utilization of maternal, child health and family planning services were collected from 12,191 women who had delivered a child in the last one year, 10314 women with 12-23 months old child, and 45864 eligible couples across all districts in Haryana state. Service coverage was assessed based on eight indicators - 6 for maternal health, one for child health and one for family planning. Inter- and intra-district inequalities were compared based on four and three indicators respectively. Results Difference in coverage of full ante-natal care, full immunization and contraceptive prevalence rate between districts performing best and worst was found to be 54%, 65% and 63% respectively. More than one-thirds of the sub-centres (SCs) in Panchkula, Ambala, Gurgaon and Mewat districts had their ante-natal care coverage less than 50% of the respective district average. Similarly, a significant proportion of SCs in Mewat, Panipat and Hisar districts had full immunization rate below 50% of the district average. Conclusion Widespread inter- and intra-district inequities in utilization of MCH services exist. A comprehensive geographical targeting to identify poor performing districts, community development blocks and SCs could result in significant equity gains, besides contributing to quick achievement of sustainable development goals., Author(s): Shankar Prinja [sup.1] , Deepak Balasubramanian [sup.1] , Atul Sharma [sup.1] , Rakesh Gupta [sup.2] , Saroj Kumar Rana [sup.1] , Rajesh Kumar [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 [...]

Underreporting hampers the accurate estimation of the numbers of infant and maternal deaths and stillbirths In India. In Haryana state, a surveillance-based model--the Maternal Infant Death Review System--was launched in 2013 to try to resolve this issue. The system is a mixture of routine passive data collection and active surveillance by specially recruited and trained field volunteers. The volunteers gather the relevant data from child day-care centres, community health centres, cremation grounds, hospitals, the municipal corporation's offices and primary health centres and regularly visit health subcentres. The collected data are triangulated against the standard death registers and discussions with relevant community members. The details of any unregistered death are rapidly uploaded on the system's web-based platform. In April 2014, we made field observations, reviewed records and conducted in-depth interviews with the key stakeholders to see if the system's performance matched the state government's planned objectives. The data collected indicate that implementation of the system has led to quantitative and qualitative improvements in reporting of infant and maternal deaths and stillbirths. Completeness and consistency in the reporting of deaths are essential for focused policy and programmatic interventions and there remains scope for Improvement in Haryana via further reform and changes In policy. The model in its current form is potentially sustainable and scalable in similar settings elsewhere. En Inde, le sous-signalement empeche d'estimer correctement le nombre de deces infantiles et maternels et de mortinaissances. Dans l'Etat d'Haryana, un modele base sur la surveillance--le Maternal Infant Death Review System--a ete lance en 2013 afin de tenter de resoudre ce probleme. Ce systeme melange recueil passif de donnees de routine et surveillance active par des benevoles de terrain specialement recrutes et formes a cet effet. Ces derniers recueillent des donnees aupres de garderies, de centres de sante communautaires, de crematoriums, d'hopitaux, de centres de soins primaires et des bureaux des municipalites et se rendent regulierement dans des centres de soins secondaires. Les donnees ainsi recueillies sont triangulees par rapport aux registres standards des deces et aux discussions avec des membres de la communaute. Les details de tout deces non enregistre sont rapidement charges sur la plate-forme Internet du systeme. En avril 2014, nous avons effectue des observations de terrain, examine des registres et mene des entretiens approfondis avec les principales parties prenantes afin de voir si les performances du systeme repondaient aux objectifs du gouvernement de l'Etat. Les donnees recueillies indiquent que-la mise en oeuvre de ce systeme a entraine une amelioration quantitative et qualitative du signalement des deces infantiles et maternels ainsi que des mortinaissances. Lexhaustivite et la coherence du signalement des deces sont essentielles pour avoir des politiques ciblees et des interventions programmatiques, et l'Etat d'Haryana presente d'autres possibilites d'amelioration, via d'autres reformes et des changements strategiques. Le modele, dans sa forme actuelle, est potentiellement utilisable a long terme et transposable dans des lieux similaires. La escasez de informes obstaculiza una estimacion exacta de las cifras de muertes maternas e infantllesy mortinatos en India. En 2013, en el estado de Haryana, se lanzo un modelo basado en el seguimiento (el Sistema de Analisis de la Mortalidad Infantil y Materna) para tratar de resolver este problema. El sistema combina una recopilacion de datos rutinarios pasivos y un seguimiento activo realizados por voluntarios contratados capacitados en este campo. Los voluntarios reunen informacion relevante de guarderias, centros de salud, terrenos destinados a incineraciones, hospitales, oficinas de la'corporacion municipal y centros de atencion primaria, y visitan con asiduidad subcentros de salud. Los datos-recopilados se triangulan segun los registros normalizados de fallecimientos y analisis con miembros relevantes de la comunidad. Los detalles sobre todas las muertes no registradas se Introducen con rapidez en la plataforma en linea del sistema. En abril de 2014, se realizaron observaciones de campo, se analizaron los registros y se llevaron a cabo entrevistas en profundidad con las partes interesadas fundamentales para comprobar que el rendimiento del sistema se equiparaba con los objetivos planificados por el gobierno estatal. Los datos recopilados indican que la implementadon del sistema logro mejoras cuantitativas y cualitativas a la hora de redactar informes sobre la mortalidad infantil y materna y los mortinatos. Es fundamental que los informes sobre los fallecimientos sean minuciosos y coherentes para poder realizar Intervenciones politicasy programaticas, y sigue existiendo margen para Implementar mejoras en Haryana mediante mas reformas y cambios de las politicas. El modelo actual puede mantenerse y ampliarse en otras ubicaciones similares., Introduction Each year in India, there are approximately 28 million pregnancies, 26 million live births, 67 000 maternal deaths and a million neonatal deaths. (1) There are about 42 infant [...]

Byline: Sanghamitra. Ray, Rakesh. Gupta, Deepti. Jain Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is a transfusion-related adverse effect associated with high mortality, manifesting with acute respiratory distress and with features of [...]

Byline: Radha. Verma, Sunita. Ahlawat, Rana. Patir, Rakesh. Gupta Sir, A 53-year old gentleman presented on 21/10/2012 with an episode of generalized tonic and clonic seizure. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [...]

Byline: Vaibhav. Varshney, Rakesh. Gupta, Sundeep. Saluja, Ila. Tyagi, Pramod. Mishra, Vineeta. Batra INTRODUCTION: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. We analyzed [...]

Byline: Jitender. Saini, Pradeep. Gupta, Praveen. Gupta, Ravi. Yadav, Nishtha. Yadav, Rakesh. Gupta Background: Perilesional gliosis is an important substrate for seizures in patients harboring a calcified neurocysticercosis (NCC) lesion [...]

Abstract We examine the extent to which cash flows into the Australian superannuation funds are affected by the past performance of the fund, the riskiness of the fund, the choice [...]

Byline: Rakesh. Gupta, Vineeta. Batra, Suniti. Pahwa, Shaam. Bodeliwala, Anita. Jagetia, Daljit. Singh, Hukum. Singh Sir, Giant cell tumors (GCTs), also known as osteoclastomas, are rare primary bone tumors comprising [...]

Byline: Rakesh. Gupta, Vineeta. Batra, Daljit. Singh, Mehar. Sharma, Vikas. Kumar Spindle cell oncocytoma (SCO) is a newly described rare entity simulating clinicoradiological features of a nonfunctional pituitary adenoma and [...]

Byline: Rakesh. Gupta Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI gives quantitative information about the integrity of the vascular system and has been used in brain tumors, infections and multiple sclerosis.[1],[2],[3],[4] It has [...]

Byline: Jayant. Vishal, Rana. Patir, Sunita. Ahlawat, Rakesh. Gupta We present an unusual case of primary diffuse craniospinal leptomeningeal gliomatosis (PGDL), who was initially diagnosed on the basis of imaging, [...]

Byline: Rakesh. Gupta Small vessel central nervous system vasculitis (SVCNSV) is a rare and poorly understood syndrome. Its diagnosis is challenging because of a wide spectrum of clinical presentations and [...]

The flow responses of aramid platelets (fibrids) suspended in a mixture of corn syrup and water at loadings of less than 1% were determined in steady shear, oscillatory shear, transient shear, and extensional flow. The effects of fibrid size, concentration, and suspending medium viscosity were examined. These suspensions exhibit a high zero-shear viscosity, strong shear thinning with power law indices as low as 0.2, an infinite shear viscosity, and thixotropy. Steady shear viscosity data over six decades of shear rate were described very well by traditional models such as the Carreau or Cross equations. The platelets appear to form an interacting, flocculated network at rest that is the reason for the large relative viscosity. The largest platelets, however, appear to curl or fold and offer the least flow resistance during shear flow. The structure formed at rest is easily destroyed, and this is the reason for the observed shear thinning. In extensional flow, large Trouton ratios are observed even at very low fibrid concentrations, and these increase with the true aspect ratio, indicating that the fibrids are fully unfurled in the strongly orienting extensional flow. These rheological properties make fibrid suspensions good candidates for thickeners in sealant, caulk, and adhesive applications. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 51:1933-1941,, INTRODUCTION Fumed silica is widely used as a rheology control agent at a loading level of about 5% for many applications such as sealants, adhesives, paints, inks, caulks, and coatings [...]

Abstract Against a backdrop of financial services reform and uncertain economic times, attention has been focused on the competence of financial advisers. This paper examines the current training and education [...]

Polymers have been combined with other plastics to form blends, mixed with talc and clay to give filled systems, and extruded and molded with fibers and other anisotropic reinforcements to [...]

Wood plastic composites (WPCs) are a new class of materials which combine the characteristics of plastic and wood. In appearance, they are similar to wood, but the low stiffness of plastics makes the composite modulus significantly lower than that of solid wood. Increasing the wood content in the WPCs can improve stiffness, but the rate of water absorption also goes up. Here, nanoclay was compounded with wood and plastic using a twin screw extruder to form a three-component composite to improve the stiffness of WPCs. To overcome the previously observed reduction in strength and increase in the rate of water absorption, different compounding procedures were used. It was found that pre-compounding wood flour with polymer followed by incorporation of clay in a second step resulted in an increase in stiffness, retention in strength, and a reduction in the rate of water absorption. Thus, adding nanoclays is an alternative for increasing properties instead of adding extra wood flour to a concentration in excess of 55 wt% as this involves processing difficulties. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 50:2013-2020, 2010.[C] 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers, INTRODUCTION Wood plastic composites (WPCs) containing wood particulates or wood fibers dispersed in a matrix of polymers such as polyethylene, polypropylene, or polyvinyl chloride have become the material of choice [...]

The goal of this study was to develop an understanding of the nature of wave loading on a wood-framed scale residential building model for a variety of building configurations and test conditions. Testing was performed on a 1/6th scale two-story wood-framed residential structure. The structure was impacted with waves and tested in both flooded and nonflooded conditions. The measured forces were mainly uplift forces due to wave loading, and resulting overturning moments. The qualitative analysis of the data showed that differences in structural stiffness throughout the structure will cause a different load distribution in the structure, e.g., overhanging eaves above the garage can provide unanticipated loading conditions, water traveling beneath the structure generates predominantly uplift forces, and the effect of waves breaking on or near the structure greatly increases the loading. The ratio of force from the windows closed condition to the windows open condition is approximately 2.5:1. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0000039 CE Database subject headings: Buildings, residential; Wood structures; Frames; Floods; Structural behavior.

The overall goal of this study is to gain an insight into the load sharing aspect between oriented strand board (OSB) and gypsum wall board (GWB) in shear wall assembly during racking load. Sixteen standard 2,440 x 2,440 mm walls were tested monotonically, in total, out of which 11 (Type A) were sheathed on both sides (OSB on one side and GWB on the other), while five walls were tested without GWB (Type B). Digital image correlation (DIC) was used for data acquisition and analysis which is a full-field, noncontact technique for measurement of displacements and strains. The system returns full-field three-dimensional displacement and strain data measured over the visible specimen surfaces. Overall, these tests suggest that initially during loading of a wall the load is shared between OSB and GWB. However, the proportion of load sharing is not known. As GWB fails first at about 60% of ultimate load capacity of the wall, the load shifts to the OSB panel which resists it until the failure of the wall. The tests also revealed that the load path in wall Types A and B is different and so is the failure pattern. Strains were locally concentrated around the fasteners, while the strains in the field of the panel were below the detection limit of DIC system. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(2009)135:6(666) CE Database subject headings: Shear walls; Wood structures; Frames; Strain distribution.

An internal mixer was used to prepare polycarbonate (PC)-based nanocomposites containing carbon fibers, carbon nanofibers (CNF), and mixtures of the two fillers. The influence of the filler volume fraction, the relative amounts of the two fillers, and the filler orientation relative to the direction of heat flow on the thermal conductivity was examined. Filler orientation was obtained by the extrusion of strands of the nanocomposite. The thermal conductivity was measured using a steady-state heat conduction technique. The CNF were fragile, and their aspect ratio could be decreased during processing. In general, the composite thermal conductivity increased with increasing filler content. Fiber alignment in the heat flux direction resulted in a significant increase in thermal conductivity. Mixing of nanofibers with microfibers resulted contacts between the microfibers. This, together with fiber alignment provided large increases in the thermal conductivity. POLTM. ENG. SCI., 48:2474-2481, 2008. [C] 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers, INTRODUCTION Nanomaterials are increasingly being used as additives to polymers to simultaneously enhance a variety of properties without sacrificing any qualities of the base polymer. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) and carbon [...]

Byline: David Statler JR (Department of Chemical Engineering, West Virginia University PO Box: 6102, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA); Evan Stajduhar (Department of Chemical Engineering, West Virginia University PO Box: 6102, [...]

Packet radio networks use spatial time-division multiple-access to enable multiple network stations to communicate via the same frequency within the same time slot. Stations in close proximity are not allowed […]

Byline: Rakesh. Gupta, Harshad. Patil Sir, A 45-year-old female patient came to our hospital, with the chief compliants of numbness in both the upper limbs for the last 3 months [...]

Organizations maintain informational websites for wired devices. The information content of such websites tends to change slowly with time, so a steady pattern of usage is soon established. User preferences, […]

We consider the problem of grooming in all-optical networks to maximize traffic. We present an integer-programming formulation while constraining the number of optical transceivers at each node, the link load, […]

We consider the problem of designing quality-of-service (QoS)-constrained routes for a set of multicast groups in an all-optical network. We present an integer goal programming formulation with the objectives of minimizing the cost of the multicast solution and minimizing the maximum link load of the network. Based on the structural properties of the problem, we develop a variable-fixing heuristic which is easy to implement, requires a modest amount of CPU time, and provides high-quality solutions. An extensive computational study is presented to justify our claims. Index Terms--Communication system routing, multicast channels, optical fiber cables, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM).

The costliest natural disaster in U.S. history was Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005 at 7:10 a.m. EDT (6:10 CDT, local time) in Plaquemines Parrish, La. Tragically, Katrina caused widespread damage and loss of life but also provided an opportunity to collect data on wood-frame construction which will be useful for design engineers and building code officials in order to design safer and stronger buildings in the future. The objective of this study was to gather and process perishable wind damage data on residential wood-frame structures in nonflooded regions of Mississippi that can be used by the research and design code development community to improve the performance of wood-frame structures to strong wind loading. This study consisted of 3 days of data acquisition of wind damage to wood-frame structures along the U.S. Gulf Coast and was funded by the National Science Foundation. A total of 27 case studies, ranging from entire subdivisions to individual wood-frame structures, were examined in detail. This paper presents both general and specific observations during data reconnaissance. It was generally found that most residential wood-frame construction in the regions inspected are built using conventional construction practices, when engineered or prescriptive construction should be used. The paper is divided into (1) structural; (2) nonstructural; and (3) general observations. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0887-3828(2007)21:2(108) CE Database subject headings: Framed structures; Wood structures; Hurricanes; Damage; Gulf of Mexico.

The objectives of this study were: (1) to evaluate the effect of reference displacement on wall behavior under fully reversed cyclic loading using the Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREE) test protocol and (2) to assess damage accumulation for the imposed drift levels. Three walls were tested under monotonic loads to determine reference displacements. Four sets of tests, each consisting of two wall specimens, were conducted using the CUREE protocol with four different reference displacements. Results show that the reference displacement can influence wall strength by up to 15% while there was little or no effect on stiffness and area under the backbone curve. Three additional tests were conducted using a segmented version of the CUREE protocol to provide a way to correlate visible damage and stiffness degradation to imposed drifts. Results show that while visible damage was minimal at drifts as high as 1%, (8% of nails slightly damaged), a 52% reduction in secant stiffness had occurred. CE Database subject headings: Seismic response; Wooden structures; Cyclic tests; Damage; Shear walls; Building frames; Stiffness.

Handoff and cabling costs play key roles in the design of cellular telecommunications networks. Efficient homing of cells to switches can have a significant impact on each of these costs. In the presence of capacity constraints at the switches, the problem of assigning cells to switches becomes a difficult one to solve, with all effective solution approaches being based on heuristic techniques. This paper presents a hybrid heuristic which integrates ideas from linear programming into a simulated annealing framework. Extensive computational results are presented comparing the performance of the heuristic with the lower bound obtained from the linear programming relaxation. These results indicate that this price influenced simulated annealing (PISA) procedure is extremely efficient, usually providing solutions with gaps around 1% in less than 1 s. Index Terms--Cell-to-switch assignment, linear programming, mobile networks, simulated annealing, wireless.

In this paper, we investigate the efficacy of artificial intelligence (AI) based meta-heuristic techniques namely genetic algorithms (GAs), for the product line design problem. This work extends previously developed methods for the single product design problem. We conduct a large scale simulation study to determine the effectiveness of such an AI based technique for providing good solutions and bench mark the performance of this against the current dominant approach of beam search (BS). We investigate the potential advantages of pursuing the avenue of developing hybrid models and then implement and study such hybrid models using two very distinct approaches: namely, seeding the initial GA population with the BS solution, and employing the BS solution as part of the GA operator's process. We go on to examine the impact of two alternate string representation formats on the quality of the solutions obtained by the above proposed techniques. We also explicitly investigate a critical managerial factor of attribute importance in terms of its impact on the solutions obtained by the alternate modeling procedures. The alternate techniques are then evaluated, using statistical analysis of variance, on a fairy large number of data sets, as to the quality of the solutions obtained with respect to the state-of-the-art benchmark and in terms of their ability to provide multiple, unique product line options. Index Terms--AI, attribute importance, beam search, GA, hybrid genetic algorithms, marketing, meta-heuristic techniques.

Integrated Lagrangian relaxation methodology with heuristic model is used to solve problems of service location-allocation in manufacturing.

Moisture diffusion was studied through vinyl ester samples containing up to 5 wt% of organically treated montmorillonite. Two different kinds of clay surface treatment were employed to make the clay compatible with Derakane™ 411-350 vinyl ester resin. The nanocomposites were characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), mechanical property measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM pictures showed that the clay platelets were either exfoliated or intercalated, and the two different surface treatments resulted in different dispersion characteristics. All the samples were post cured, and the diffusivity of moisture was measured by soaking the samples in 25°C water and noting the increase in weight with increasing time of immersion. It was found that water diffusivity decreased with increasing clay content, and it was reduced to half its value in the neat resin when the clay content was only 1 wt% regardless of the nature of clay surface treat ment. However, the equilibrium moisture content, the glass transition temperature, and the elastic modulus all increased with increasing amounts of clay., INTRODUCTION Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites employing thermosetting polymer matrices--epoxy, vinyl ester or unsaturated polyester--are beginning to be used in the construction and repair of bridges and other civil [...]

Byline: Kalpana. Kumari, Mehar. Sharma, Aanchal. Kakkar, Prit. Malgulwar, Pankaj. Pathak, Vaishali. Suri, Chitra. Sarkar, Sarat. Chandra, Mohammed. Faruq, Rakesh. Gupta, Ravindra. Saran Background: Subependymal giant cell astrocytomas (SEGA) are [...]

Byline: Rakesh. Gupta It is well known that early diagnosis and treatment is the key to management of tuberculous meningitis (TBM). Cranial neuropathy, hydrocephalus and vasculitis are poor clinical predictors [...]

Byline: Rakesh. Gupta, Kaushik. Majumdar, Anita. Jagetia, Ravindra. Saran Sir, Primary Ewing's sarcoma (ES) of the cranial bone is uncommon and accounts for A 12-year-old male child was referred to [...]

Byline: Rakesh. Gupta, Harshad. Patil Parry-Romberg syndrome (PRS) is a rare, poorly understood degenerative condition characterized by atrophic changes affecting one side of the face. The cause of these changes [...]

The objective of the paper is to describe the behavior of metal-plate-connected (MPC) tensile and heel joints under seismic and cyclic loads. A proposed sequential phase displacement (SPD) loading standard was also used to determine dynamic characteristics (energy dissipation, damping ratio, and cyclic stiffness) of MPC joints. Strengths and stiffnesses of MPC joints after the seismic and SPD loadings were compared to those properties for a control group of joints tested to failure under a static ramp load. Strength degradation was not observed in tensile and heel joints as a result of the seismic loads. Stiffness degradation was observed in the heel joint as a result of the large artificial earthquake loads and in both tensile and heel joints as a result of the SPD loading. Dynamic properties from the SPD loading depended on the magnitude of displacement. The damping ratio and energy dissipation increased as the SPD loading progressed, whereas the cyclic stiffness decreased. Cyclic loading also showed a significant effect on the strength of MPC joints depending on the amplitude of the cycles.

The ability of sphingomyelin (SPM) to inhibit phosphatidylinositol 4,5-biphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) hydrolysis catalyzed by human phospholipase C-delta-1 (PLC-delta-1) in model membranes and detergent phospholipid mixed micelles was measured. Findings were very much in agreement with a model in which SPM inhibits PLC by increasing interlipid hydrogen bonding and by decreasing membrane hydration. Both factors raise the energy barrier for activation of PLC-delta-1 at the membrane/protein microinterface.

The isolated pleckstrin homology (PH) domain of phospholipase C-delta1 (PLC-delta1) binds polyphosphoinositides and inositol phosphates with an affinity and specificity comparable to that of the native protein. Results of the binding of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-biphosphatein phospholipid membranes affirm the hypothesis that the PLC-delta1 PH domain facilitates processive hydrolysis of PI(4,5)P2 by serving as a specific tether to the catalytic core of the protein to the membrane surface.