Hyperphosphatemia-a predictor of poor prognosis among patients with sepsis or septic shock

Background: Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction resulting from dysregulated host responses to infection. Serum phosphorus level was closely related to the occurrence and prognosis of kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. It is of vital importance to re-evaluate the association between serum Phosphorus level and mortality in patients with sepsis and different septic subgroups. This study aims to examine the association of serum phosphorous levels with clinical outcomes among patients with sepsis. Methods: This study included 100 cases and was conducted at KIMS hospital Bangalore. Patients were included in the study as per inclusion criteria. SOFA scoring and APACHE-II scoring was done on first day of admission and serum phosphorus levels were sent. Patients were categorised according to phosphorous levels normal range (2.5-4.5mg/dl).  Patients were followed up till primary and secondary outcome. Results: Of the 100 patients in this study 53 patients had normophosphatemia, 17 patients had hypophosphatemia, 30 patients had hyperphosphatemia. Comparison of mean APACHE-II scores, mean length of ICU stay (in days), mean length of hospital stay (in days), serum creatinine levels, between 3 groups was statistically significant.  Conclusions: Hyperphosphatemia on first ICU admission day indicates poor clinical outcome among patients with sepsis or septic shock. Therefore, when patients are on ICU admission and under treatment, clinicians should pay more attention to the change of serum phosphate

Prevalence of splenomegaly and factors contributing to splenomegaly among pancytopenia patients: a facility-based cross-sectional study

Background: The spleen is an organ that cannot be clinically felt in a normal individual. Splenomegaly is a significant diagnostic indicator of the presence of underlying pathology. It is associated with a number of diseases like hematological, infectious, portal hypertension and immunological problems. However, it’s unclear what exactly causes hypersplenism. The objective was to assess the prevalence of splenomegaly in people with pancytopenia and the contributing factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among adult patients diagnosed with pancytopenia in a tertiary care hospital in Bengaluru, Karnataka. We have considered only inpatients who accessed care at the facility over a period of 12 months from Aug 2021 to July 2022 among those who have given written informed consent. Socio-demographic details, smoking status, alcohol consumption history, existing comorbidities, and other biological parameters were assessed by accessing the medical records. The abdominal ultrasound of the admitted patients was used to diagnose splenomegaly. Results: Splenomegaly was present in 25 (56.8%) of patients out of 44 we enrolled. Among those patients, 17 (38.6%) had mild, while 4 (9.1%) had moderate and massive splenomegaly respectively. The majority were females (28 versus 16 males) and the mean age was 44.84 years (±15.45 SD). The age ranges from 24-80 years. We observed that patients aged 36-50 years and comorbidities like hypertension and hypothyroidism were the associated factors for splenomegaly. Conclusions: The prevalence of splenomegaly among pancytopenia patients is high. This is a significant clinical indication that requires careful investigation. Ageing, hypertension, and hypothyroidism are contributory factors for splenomegaly in patients with pancytopenia

Dataset for classification of computer graphic images and photographic images

The recent advancements in computer graphics (CG) image rendering techniques have made it easy for the content creators to produce high quality computer graphics similar to photographic images (PG) confounding the most naïve users. Such images used with negative intent, cause serious problems to the society. In such cases, proving the authenticity of an image is a big challenge in digital image forensics due to high photo-realism of CG images. Existing datasets used to assess the performance of classification models are lacking with: (i) larger dataset size, (ii) diversified image contents, and (iii) images generated with the recent digital image rendering techniques. To fill this gap, we created two new datasets, namely, ‘JSSSTU CG and PG image dataset’ and ‘JSSSTU PRCG image dataset’. Further, the complexity of the new datasets and benchmark datasets are evaluated using handcrafted texture feature descriptors such as gray level co-occurrence matrix, local binary pattern and VGG variants (VGG16 and VGG19) which are pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) models. Experimental results showed that the CNN-based pre-trained techniques outperformed the conventional support vector machine (SVM)-based classifier in terms of classification accuracy. Proposed datasets have attained a low f-score when compared to existing datasets indicating they are very challenging

Microstructural evolution in hot compressed TiHy 600 titanium alloy

TiHy 600 alloy is a near alpha titanium alloy, widely used for gas turbine engine applications such as disc and blades for high pressure compressors. One drawback of this alloy is that it is susceptible to cold dwell fatigue, which is due to the presence of micro-textured zones. Thus, appropriate processing parameters (i.e. temperature, strain and strain rate) are required to reduce the size of the micro-textured region. In order to find out the optimized processing parameters, hot compression tests were performed up to 50% engineering strain at temperatures range of 900oC-1050oC and strain rate range of 10-3 to 101 s-1 using thermo-mechanical simulator (Gleeble 3800®). Flow behavior characteristics were studied from the data obtained during hot compression and processing map was developed at true strain of 0.6 using Dynamic Materials Modeling (DMM) approach. Microstructural examination of deformed TiHy 600 titanium alloy were carried out at a particular strain rate of 10-3 s-1 and temperatures of 900oC, 950oC, 975oC, 1000oC and 1050oC. Microstructural examination consists of orientation image mapping along compression direction using electron backscatter diffraction. Hot compression mostly resulted into new dynamic recrystallized (DRX) alpha grains at 900oC, mixture of deformed large alpha grains containing subgrain boundaries and transformed beta phase consisting of secondary alpha laths at 950oC and 975oC and alpha laths transformed from deformed beta grains at 1000oC and 1050oC

Micro Forming and its Applications: An Overview

A Micro forming was primarily developed in order to view the usage and significance of micro metal forming technology. It is implemented for the manufacturing and production of micro metallic devices like micro pump, micro gears (Polyoxymethylene polymer), Biodegradable implants (Polylactic acid) etc. The die assembly is provided with a DLC (Diamond like coating) coating during work study to resolved small size dimensional accuracy issue and enhanced tribological properties. Various High Energy Metal Forming processes (HERF) is discussed like ultrasonic vibration, explosive forming, magnetic forming, electro hydraulic forming, ultrasonic vibration and heating process for enhancement in formability and accuracy to the product of micro scale dimension. The detailed review of Micro forming and its applications in various fields that utilized the various high energy processes is discussed in this paper. Keywords: Biodegradable, Tribological Properties, HERF (High Energy Rate forming), Formability.</jats:p