Study of PVDF/ (Co-ZnFe2O4 and Cu-ZnFe2O4) nanocomposite for the piezo-phototronics applications

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer is considered as a promising piezoelectric material whose optical properties need to be improved. Zinc ferrite is an excellent photoelectric material, in the present work it was doped separately by both cobalt and copper. Co-ZnFe2O4 and Cu-ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized to be used as PVDF fillers, aiming to improve its optical properties. The optical properties as well as, the piezoelectric response of the prepared PVDF/ (Co-ZnFe2O4 and Cu-ZnFe2O4) nanocomposites were investigated. A remarkable improvement in the PVDF relative permittivity, optical conductivity, refractive index, non-linear susceptibility, and a great reduction in the band gap energy value is obtained by adding Co-ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles to it. However, Cu-ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles have limited improvement of the PVDF optical properties compared to the Co-ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles. The piezoelectric response of the PVDF polymer is clearly increased by the addition of both Co-ZnFe2O4 and Cu-ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles.

Prevalence of Modifiable Risk Factors among Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background and Objectives: Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) is one of the major causes for mortality and morbidity among the cardiovascular diseases in India. In this study the modifiable risk factors leading to ACS are considered and its prevalence in a Tertiary care hospital is studied. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective type of study conducted in a tertiary care hospital. A total of 100 patients diagnosed with ACS were taken in this study. Their data was taken, and results were formulated in excel data sheet. Results: Among the UA patients, 65% were found to be dyslipidaemic, 60% as obese, 45% as diabetics, 47.5% as hypertensive and 40% as smokers. Among the NSTEMI patients, 66.67% were found to be dyslipidaemic, 52.78% as hypertensive, 44.44% as smokers, 30.56% as diabetics and 27.78% as obese. Among the STEMI patients, 37.50% were found to be dyslipidemic, 25% as both diabetic and obese, 20.83% as hypertensive,12.5% as smokers. Hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking and obesity showed significance. Conclusion: The prevalence of modifiable risk factors is a major concern for developing ACS and when they are modified there will be a great reduction in the incidence of ACS.

Prevalência de mordida aberta anterior em escolares de Porto Alegre

It was studied the open bite prevalence at four different steps of human dentition by epidemiological research in the school population in Porto Alegre. The open bite prevalence was bigger in the temporary dentition (38,11%) than in permanent or mixed dentition. ln the young permanent dentition the prevalence was 8,09% and 4,35% in the permanent one. It was verified by comparative study of the four evolution stages of human dentition, the great reduction of open bite prevalence from temporary to permanent dentition.

When size matters: the first comprehensive anatomical study of a species of “Condylocardiidae”, an extremely miniaturized bivalve

‘Miniaturization’ is a widespread phenomenon among the Metazoa. In the molluscan class Bivalvia, records of miniaturization are numerous. Among the Archiheterodonta, Warrana besnardi (Klappenbach, 1963) has attracted attention for its tiny size, which does not exceed 1.5 mm in shell length, and because it belongs to a group with limited anatomical information and often-debated status, the “Condylocardiidae” (which recent molecular studies place deeply nested within the family Carditidae). All species of Warrana Laseron, 1953 are small-bodied, and so miniaturization presumably occurred from a large-bodied ancestor within the Carditidae sensu lato. South American W. besnardi is here studied in detail. Its small size and the enlargement of the anterodorsal region during growth, reflects (and likely led) to infaunal habit, living as a burrowing bivalve that passively feeds on deposit particles entering the pallial cavity anteriorly. Mantle glands, previously reported as a common feature of other archiheterodonts, are missing in W. besnardi, but spongiform tissue in the antero-ventral portion of the mantle lobes presumably represents a blood sinus that might compensate for the great reduction of the ctenidia. Lecithotrophy is reported, with yolky oocytes bearing a thick non-cellular capsule layer; brooding was not observed, and it is here hypothesized that the extreme miniaturization, with the great reduction of ctenidia, is responsible for a shift in the reproductive mode of condylocardiids, contrasting with the commonly reported ovoviviparity of the carditids.

A Scalable Implementation of Anonymous Voting over Ethereum Blockchain

We considered scalable anonymous voting on the Ethereum blockchain. We identified three major bottlenecks in implementation: (1) division overflow in encryption of voting values for anonymity; (2) large time complexity in tallying, which limited scalability in the number of candidates and voters; and (3) tallying failure due to “no votes” from registered voters. Previous schemes failed at tallying if one (or more) registered voters did not send encrypted voting values. Algorithmic solutions and implementation details are provided. An experiment using Truffle and Remix running on a desktop PC was performed for evaluation. Our scheme shows great reduction in gas, which measures the computational burden of smart contracts to be executed on Ethereum. For instance, our scheme consumed 1/53 of the gas compared to a state-of-the-art solution for 60 voters. Time complexity analysis shows that our scheme is asymptotically superior to known solutions. In addition, we propose a solution to the tallying failure due to the “no vote” from registered voters.

Optimization of 210Po determination in soil

In recent years, naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) have become an important topic from the perspective of environmental protection. The list of isotopes that should be monitored in the environment is constantly growing as new amendments to international legislation are introduced. One of the often studied NORM elements is 210Po. In this study, a process of elaborating of a new method of 210Po determination in soil was presented. In the proposed method, several analytical aspects, like the influence of silica decomposition or optimization of an electrode material, were revised. The obtained procedure allows performance of complete radiochemical analysis in a single day, with the chemical efficiency of over 85% and great reduction of costs. Further, the influence of the use of phosphate fertilizers on polonium concentration in soil was also confirmed.

A Latency-Optimized Network-on-Chip with Rapid Bypass Channels

Network-on-Chips with simple topologies are widely used due to their scalability and high bandwidth. The transmission latency increases greatly with the number of on-chip nodes. A NoC, called single-cycle multi-hop asynchronous repeated traversal (SMART), is proposed to solve the problem by bypassing intermediate routers. However, the bypass setup request of SMART requires additional pipeline stages and wires. In this paper, we present a NoC with rapid bypass channels that integrates the bypass information into each flit. In the proposed NoC, all the bypass requests are delivered along with flits at the same time reducing the transmission latency. Besides, the bypass request is unicasted in our design instead of broadcasting in SMART leading to a great reduction in wire overhead. We evaluate the NoC in four synthetic traffic patterns. The result shows that the latency of our proposed NoC is 63.54% less than the 1-cycle NoC. Compared to SMART, more than 80% wire overhead and 27% latency are reduced.

Fenton-like oxidation of Hydroxypropyl guar gum catalysed by Cu(II) complex at high pH

Large amounts of wastewater containing hydroxypropyl guar gum (HPGG), polyacrylamide (PAM) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) are produced in the process of fracturing. In the work, a Fentonlike system in the presence of H2O2 was employed to degrade wastewater. The effects of oxidant concentration, catalyst dosage, the temperature and pH on the degradation efficiency of the polymer were studied in detail. Results showed that the prepared complex (Cu(II)L) exhibited a great catalytic effects in the range of pH 7-12. It was also found that under the conditions of 45℃ and pH=10, when the amount of H2O2 was 5.0% (mass ratio to hydroxypropyl guar gum) and the amount of Cu (II)L complex was 10%, HPGG had a great reduction rate, and its viscosity value can be reduced from 18 to 6.47.

Orthopaedic Services during Nationwide COVID-19 Lockdown: Dhulikhel Hospital, Kathmandu University Hospital Experience and Review

Background The Nepal government issued a nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 from 24 March to 21 July 2020. This halted elective medical services in our hospital. A number of modifications in the orthopaedic practices at our department were made. Objective This article discusses the impact on orthopaedic load at the Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, Dhulikhel Hospital, Kathmandu University Hospital during the lockdown. Method This is a longitudinal observational study done during the nation-wide lockdown including all the patients who presented to the hospital requiring orthopaedic consultation. For comparison purposes, the patient numbers from the same date in previous year (2019) were retrieved. Result We received no COVID-19 cases requiring orthopaedics consultation. A total of 1828 patients were seen in the Orthopaedic Outpatient Department, 1077 trauma patients in the Emergency Department, 216 patients were admitted and 210 orthopaedics procedures were performed at the operation theatre. There was 82.21% decrease in OPD patients and 56% less surgeries in OT compared to the same duration of last year. Conclusion There was a great reduction in the patient numbers visiting the hospital, which reflected in decreased number of admission and surgery. A greater part of our work during the lockdown was trauma.

Lasers: light in the dental office

Lasers have been largely used in the field of dentistry, they provide a high quality, precision treatment modality with and a great reduction or lack of posttreatment pain, making the patient experience somewhat easier. Lasers play an integral part in treating oral mucosal lesions. Its use is not only limited to oral mucosal lesions alone but also stepping into the field of endodontics and periodontics. Lasers have already established itself in the field of surgery.