Network of Recurrent events - A case study of Japan

A recently proposed method of constructing seismic networks from 'record breaking events' from the earthquake catalog of California (Phy. Rev. E, 77 6,066104, 2008) was successfull in establishing causal features to seismicity and arrive at estimates for rupture length and its scaling with magnitude. The results of our implementation of this procedure on the earthquake catalog of Japan establishes the robustness of the procedure. Additionally, we find that the temporal distributions are able to detect heterogeneties in the seismicity of the region.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Oscillation Criteria of Second-Order Quasi-Linear Neutral Delay Difference Equations

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 39A10.The oscillatory and nonoscillatory behaviour of solutions of the second order quasi linear neutral delay difference equation Δ(an | Δ(xn+pnxn-τ)|α-1 Δ(xn+pnxn-τ) + qnf(xn-σ)g(Δxn) = 0 where n ∈ N(n0), α > 0, τ, σ are fixed non negative integers, {an}, {pn}, {qn} are real sequences and f and g real valued continuous functions are studied. Our results generalize and improve some known results of neutral delay difference equations

Trends in salmonella enteric serovar typhi in Nairobi, Kenya from 2004 to 2006

Background: Typhoid fever is a global health problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the current annual global burden of typhoid is approximately 22 million new cases, 5% of which are fatal. Methodology: To assess the trends in antibiotic resistance in 100 Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi strains were isolated from the blood of patients in Nairobi, Kenya, from 2004 to 2006. All isolates were tested against ampicilin, chloramphenic, nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, cotrimoxazole, cefuroxime, cefriaxone, amoxycillin/clavulanic acid, tetracycline and gentamycin. Susceptibility and resistance were determined using MIC and disk diffusion tests. Results: From 2004 to 2006 a total of 100 strains were studied; 70% of the isolates were multidrug resistant (MDR) while 15% of the isolates were sensitive to all drugs tested. Of 13 isolates that were resistant to ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid by disk diffusion, 11 had an MIC of 0. 25 μg/ml while two isolates had an MIC of 1.00 μg,/ml. Resistance in ampicillin decreased from 88% in 2004 to 64% in 2005; this increased to 76% in 2006. Similar trends were observed for four other antibiotics tested. Conclusion: The prescription of first-line antibiotics used in the treatment of S. Typhi should be stopped temporarily. Drugs such as cipfloxacin would be useful in the treatment of typhoid caused by MDR S. Typhi. There is need to monitor the resistance in flouroquinolones as resistance to these drugs has been observed and they are the current drugs used to treat typhoid

A Study on Homoeopathic Management of Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Children

INTRODUCTION: Behavioural problems is defined as the symptomatic expression of emotional inadequate adjustment especially in children. Oppositional defiant disorder is one of the behavioural problems under descriptive behavioural disorder. Oppositional defiant disorder is one of the mental health problems in children and adolescents. Evidence suggests that between 1 and 16% children have oppositional defiant disorder. It is a pattern of disobedient, hostile, argue with adult. Child is angry, irritable, recent ful, they blamed other for her mistakes, non obedient, argumentative and defiant behaviour, repeated tantrum throwing, verbal aggression, spiteful or vindictive. This type of behaviour may be due to certain factors such as hereditary, emotional, pre natal factors. If oppositional defiant disorder is not treated it can progress to conduct disorder and child can changes to an anti social adult. NEED OF THE STUDY: Essential features of oppositional defiant disorder are a recurrent pattern of negativistic, defiant ,and hostile behaviour towards authoritative figures. Whereas the essential features of conduct disorder are a repetitive and persistent pattern of behaviour in which the basic rights of others and rules are violated. If Oppositional defiant disorder is not treated properly the personalities will be changed in to conduct disorder. Oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder continue to be predominant juvenile disorders in mental health. Research in recent years shows that the course of antisocial behaviour from child hood through adult hood. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. To study the efficacy of homoeopathic management of oppositional defiant disorder in children. 2. To assess the clinical course of oppositional defiant disorder during homoeopathic treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: STUDY SETTING: A sample of 30 cases presenting with oppositional defiant disorder obtaining from school health program conducted by Sarada Krishna Homoeopathic Medical College and also from the OPD, IPD and rural centers of Sarada Krishna Homoeopathic Medical College. SELECTION OF SAMPLES: • Sample Size - 30 cases. • Sampling Technique – Simple Random Sampling. INCLUSION CRITERIA: • Patients of age group between 3-17 years of age which are diagnosed as oppositional defiant disorder. • Children of both sexes. EXCLUSION CRITERIA: • Patients below 3yrs and above 17 years of age. • Patients with chromosomal disorder. • Patients of unwilling parents. STUDY DESIGN: • Screening will be done in school based on Vanderbilt parent rating scale. The study will be carried out in Sarada Krishna Homoeopathic Medical College Hospital and rural centers of Sarada Krishna Homoeopathic Medical College. • Data will be collected according to pre-structured SKHMC case format. • Pre and post treatment analysis is done using Vanderbilt parent rating scale. • Medicines will be prescribed according to the individualization of the case. • The patients will be monitored before and after administration of medicine. • It is a 6 month to one year study, therefore the data will be assessed at regular intervals. Results will be subjected to statistical analysis and hypothesis will be tested using paired t- test. RESULTS: A sample of thirty cases obtained by screening the students from the patients who attend the OPD and IPD of Sarada Krishna homoeopathic medical college and hospital was taken for this study. The children with the positive result in Vanderbilt parent rating scale for screening of oppositional defiant disorder. And start constitutional medicine. Again screen for 6 months. All the thirty cases were follow up for a period of 6 months and were subject to statistical study. The results are presented on the basis of data obtained from study group. The following tables and charts reveal the observations and results of this study. CONCLUSION: A sample of 30 cases selected after screening studentsfrom different for school health programs and patients who visited the OPD of Sarada Krishna homoeopathic medical college and hospital were selected as per the inclusion criteria. Conclusions were made after a statistical analysis of cases with oppositional defiant disorders. The following conclusions were drawn from the study as follows: • Majority of patients belong to age groups 11 years to 14 years. • Majority of screened students were males19 males and 11 were females. • Calcarea carb is the most suited constitutional remedies • Homoeopathy shows effectiveness in managing oppositional defiant disorder. • Limited number of researches are reported in oppositional defiant disorder. so more research needed in this field

Traditional Knowledge on Medicinal Plants Used by the Irula Tribe of Hasanur Hills, Erode District, Tamil Nadu, India

An ethnobotanical survey was carried out among the ethnic groups (Irula) in Hasanur Hills (Southern Western Ghats). The tribal communities of Irulas nurture rich knowledge about medicinal plants and its uses. Therefore, we have done an exhaustive ethnobotanical survey in this area. In this present investigation, it is observed that the tribal’s use 70 wild valuable plant species belonging to 42 families were identified with relevant information and documented in this paper with regard to their botanical name, family, local name, parts used and utilization by the local tribal people for different human ailments. The common diseases treated by the herbal practitioner were asthma, digestive problems, paralyzes, skin diseases and diabetes

MARKER CONTROLLED WATERSHED SEGMENTATION USING BIT-PLANE SLICING

Image segmentation is the basis for computer vision and object recognition. Watershed transform is one of the common methods used for region based segmentation. The previous watershed methods results in over segmentation. In this paper we present a novel method for efficient image segmentation by using bit-plane slicing and marker-controlled watershed. Bit-Plane slicing method produces the sliced image by taking the most significant bit of the image as the input to the bit-plane slicing algorithm. The output of the Bit-Plane slicing algorithm is used to produce the gradient image .The watershed segmentation algorithm is applied to the average of the marker image and the gradient image so as to get efficient segmentation result. Experimental results, shows that the proposed method reduces the memory consumption and computation

Network of Earthquakes and Recurrences Therein

We quantify the correlation between earthquakes and use the same to distinguish between relevant causally connected earthquakes. Our correlation metric is a variation on the one introduced by Baiesi and Paczuski (2004). A network of earthquakes is constructed, which is time ordered and with links between the more correlated ones. Data pertaining to the California region has been used in the study. Recurrences to earthquakes are identified employing correlation thresholds to demarcate the most meaningful ones in each cluster. The distribution of recurrence lengths and recurrence times are analyzed subsequently to extract information about the complex dynamics. We find that the unimodal feature of recurrence lengths helps to associate typical rupture lengths with different magnitude earthquakes. The out-degree of the network shows a hub structure rooted on the large magnitude earthquakes. In-degree distribution is seen to be dependent on the density of events in the neighborhood. Power laws are also obtained with recurrence time distribution agreeing with the Omori law.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure