Vomiting, electrolyte disturbance, and medications; the perfect storm for acquired long QT syndrome and cardiac arrest: a case report

Background Acquired long QT syndrome is an important and preventable cause of cardiac arrest. Certain medications and electrolyte disturbance are common contributors, and often coexist. In this case, we report five contributors to cardiac arrest. Case presentation This case is of a 51-year-old Caucasian female patient who presented with vomiting associated with hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia. She subsequently received ondansetron and metoclopramide, on the background of chronic treatment with fluoxetine. She then suffered an in-hospital monitored cardiac arrest, with features of long QT and torsades de pointes retrospectively noted on her prearrest electrocardiogram. She was diagnosed with acquired long QT syndrome, and her QT interval later normalized after removal of offending causes. Conclusions This case highlights the importance of proper consideration prior to prescribing QT prolonging medications, especially in patients who have other risk factors for prolonged QT, such as electrolyte disturbances and pretreatment with QT prolonging medications.

DEVSECOPS METHODOLOGY FOR NG-IOT ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE – ASSIST-IOT PERSPECTIVE

Current software projects require continuous integration during their whole lifetime. In this context, different approaches regarding introduction of DevOps and DevSecOps strategies have been proposed in the literature. While DevOps proposes an agile methodology for the development and instantiation of software platforms with minimal impact in any kind of operations environment, this contribution proposes the introduction of DevOps methodology for Next Generation IoT deployments. Moreover, novelty of the proposed approach lies in leveraging DevSecOps in different stages and layers of the architecture. In particular, the present work describes the different DevSecOps methodology tasks, and how the security is included on pre-design activities such as planning, creation or adaptation, the design and implementation, as well as on post-implementation activities such as detection, response. Without proper consideration of security and privacy best practices identified in this article, the continuous delivery of services using DevOps methodologies may create risks and introduce different vulnerabilities for Next Generation IoT deployments.

Mathematical and Scriptural aspect of Mekhala in the Construction of Yagya Kund

Yagya kund has five parts - Khat, Nabhi, Kant, Mekhla and Yoni. The construction of Yagya kund shall be done with proper consideration of all of its parts. The final shape and appearance of the Yagya kund came after the construction of Mekhala. Mekhala is an object which surrounds another object by keeping that object in the middle. For Yagya kund, Mekhala surrounds the fire pit which provides the shape to the Yagya kund. The present paper attempts to describe the mathematical and scriptural aspects of Mekhala i.e. description of Mekhala and Khat, shape, number of Mekhala, and significance. The number of Mekhala varies by the size of Yagya Kund, the number of offerings, and the purpose of Yagya. The study also described the dimension of all types the Mekhala construction for 1 hast Kund indicating the important role of Mekhala in the Yagya Kund construction.

EARTH AS PRIMORDIALLY HYDROGEN-RICH PLANET: HYPOTHESIS AND REALITY

The article is focused on the role of natural hydrogen in the Earth geodynamics and energy potential. With a proper consideration of the physical parameters of the Earth’s core and mantle, we discuss the aspects of the Hydridic Earth (or Primordially Hydrogen-Rich Planet) theory, which is currently used as a fundamental hypothesis in modern projects aimed at hydrogen energetics.A probability of finding natural hydrogen deposits in sedimentary traps is estimated. It is shown that the volume of deep degassing of hydrogen can be calculated from various cosmological, petrophysical and geochemical data, and an average volume is two orders of magnitude less than the amount predicted by the Hydridic Earth hypothesis. This hypothesis gives grounds to conclude that the major part of Earth’s mantle is a metal sphere; however, this conclusion is not supported by the geological and geophysical data.

A Critical Appraisal: Development and Use of Perceived Stress Scale in U.S. Immigrants

Few studies have critically appraised Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) in immigrants. The purpose of the article is to determine if PSS is adequately developed and properly used with U.S. immigrants. Searching via PubMed and PsycINFO databases resulted in 10 research papers published between 2009 and 2019 that met the selection criteria and were integrated for this review. Most of the studies do not have adequate theoretical models and do not have proper consideration of socio-cultural factors. Five studies used the PSS translated into different languages but only one study validated the translated version. Six studies reported the reliability of the PSS. The PSS-14 and PSS-10 may be appropriately used in immigrants to measure psychological stress. Some issues, such as the PSS's reliability and validity, need to be addressed in future use in immigrants.

Strain-Softening Analyses of a Circular Bore under the Influence of Axial Stress

Strain-softening analyses were performed around a circular bore in a Mohr–Coulomb rock mass subjected to a hydrostatic stress field in cross section and out-of-plane stress along the axis of the bore. Numerical procedures that simplify the strain-softening process in a step manner were employed, and on the basis of the theoretical solutions of the elastic–brittle–plastic(EBP) medium, the strain-softening results of the displacements, stresses and the plastic zones around the circular bore were obtained. The numerical solution was validated based on the fact that the strain-softening process became EBP when the softening slope was very steep and elastic-perfectly plastic(EP) when the softening slope was near zero. The results illustrated that the stresses and displacements in the rock mass surrounding the bore was affected by axial stress and that a proper consideration of out-of-plane stress is necessary. Moreover, the presented results can be used for the verification of numerical codes.

Tolerancing for an Apple Pie

Tolerancing began with the notion of limits imposed on the dimensions of realized parts both to maintain functional geometric dimensionality and to enable cost-effective part fabrication and inspection. Increasingly however, component fabrication depends on more than part geometry as many parts are fabricated as a result of a “recipe” rather than dimensional instructions for material addition or removal. Referred to as process tolerancing, this is the case, for example, with IC chips. There has emerged an extensive literature on both geometric and process tolerancing, much of it with a focus on tolerance optimization. In the case of tolerance optimization, a typical objective is cost minimization while achieving required functionality or “quality.” This paper takes a different look at tolerances, suggesting that rather than ensuring merely that parts achieve a desired functionality at minimum cost, the underlying goal of product design is to make money, and tolerances comprise additional design variables amenable to optimization in a decision theoretic framework. We recognize that a theory of tolerancing must apply equally to processes and procedures, and note that tolerances introduce additional product attributes that relate to product characteristics such as consistency, quality, reliability and durability. These important attributes complicate the computation of the expected utility of candidate designs, requiring additional computational steps for their determination. Nonetheless, their proper consideration is an important element in the evaluation of product design alternatives. The resulting theory of tolerancing presented here is illustrated using the example of tolerancing for an apple pie.

Portfolio Risk Management of Project Network Interdependency (on the Example of Agroholding)

The article is devoted to the problem of portfolio risk management of network project interdependencies in an agricultural company, as the lack of existing methods of project portfolio risk assessment and proper consideration of interdependencies are traced. During the study, we conducted an in-depth interview with the CFO of the company to identify the pool of ongoing projects of the company, determine the types of interproject dependencies, the likelihood of the corresponding risk in the project and the level of losses in monetary terms. Using the method of expert assessments and the noisy-OR gate tool, calculations were made in the GeNIe software product to determine the overall risk of the project portfolio after identifying high-risk projects and then recommendations were given for the application of a dynamic portfolio risk management model based on the software product used in the company.

Public R&D and European agriculture: impact on productivity and return on R&D expenditure

While higher effort in research is advocated for agriculture, there continues to be a lack of measurement of its impact in economic terms, at least in Europe. This paper seeks to assess the economic impact of public agricultural R&D investments in Europe. Different panel models are applied on 16 European countries, by employing productivity and investment data. Results show positive impacts with returns on public R&D investments on agricultural productivity of between 6.5% and 15.2%, varying according to model specifications and computation techniques. These values confirm that research expenditure in agriculture is well justified in economic terms. However, the results are highly dependent on the analytical approach and limited by the paucity of expenditure data. Further research is recommended to take into account the role of other important determinants of impact, such as climate, spill overs and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). However, a proper consideration of these variables will first require a major improvement of data availability.