vikram singh

Salinity prompts heavy metals accumulation and adversely affects nutrient contents in soil and plants, thereby reducing crop yields. The assessment of domestic sewage sludge (SS) under saline conditions to boost crop productivity has become crucial. A field trial was conducted for two consecutive years (2017–2019) with three irrigation levels [canal water (0.35 dS m−1), I1; 8 dS m−1, I2; and 10 dS m−1 saline water, I3]; and five fertilization levels [control, F1; SS (5 t ha−1), F2; SS (5 t ha−1) + 50% RDF, F3; SS (5 t ha−1) + 75% RDF, F4; and RDF, F5]. The results revealed that treatment I3 (10 dS m−1) reduced the grain yield of pearl millet and wheat by an average of 31.2 and 32.6%, respectively, compared to I1 (0.35 dS m−1). However, among fertilizer treatments, F5 obtained significant highest grain and straw yields statistically at par with F4 treatment. Also, in the context of nutrients content in crops, a similar trend has been reported. In the addition, with the usage of saline irrigation (EC 8 and 10 dS m−1) and SS (5 t ha−1), the availability of heavy metals in crops and soil had increased (p = 0.05). The soluble ions in soil increased with increasing salinity levels of irrigation water. The extractability series of heavy metals were: Pb > Co > Ni > Cr > Cd. The addition of SS, however, recorded a higher concentration of DTPA-extractable metals in soil over control. The heavy metals content did not exceed toxicity levels in soil and plants. Hence, the incorporation of SS (5 t ha−1) resulted in saving 25% mineral fertilizers and, also combined use of SS with mineral fertilizers proved to be economically beneficial for crop production.

Polypharmacy and inappropriate prescriptions are the most highlighted health issues among geriatric population, as they have multiple comorbidities. The objective of this study was to assess prescriptions using the World Health Organization (WHO) core indicators and Beers Criteria to discover polypharmacy and inappropriate prescriptions. This was a prospective, cross-sectional study of geriatric patients (65 years and above) who were attending the medicine outpatients clinic of a tertiary care teaching hospital hospital from May to December, 2016. World Health Organization (WHO) indicators and updated Beers Criteria were used to assess the drug utilization pattern and the prevalence of potentially inappropriatemedications (PIMs), respectively. The prescriptions of 250 geriatrics patients with a distribution of 57.6% male and 42.4% female were assessed for this study. The total numbers of drugs recorded from the prescriptions were 1635 drugs, with an average of 6.54 drugs per person. According tothe Beers Criteria, it was found that nearly 23.05% of the total prescribed drugs were potentially inappropriate. Polypharmacy and use of inappropriate medicines presents a health risk to the geriatric population. Causes could include healthcare practitioner shortage, lack of awareness of PIMs, not understanding drug interaction, and the need for multiple drugs. Prescriber training and retraining is needed.

The binary states, i.e., success or failed stateassumptions used in conventional reliability are inappropriatefor reliability analysis of complex industrial systemsdue to lack of sufficient probabilistic information. For largecomplex systems, the uncertainty of each individualparameter enhances the uncertainty of the system reliability.In this paper, the concept of fuzzy reliability has beenused for reliability analysis of the system, and the effect ofcoverage factor, failure and repair rates of subsystems onfuzzy availability for fault-tolerant crystallization systemof sugar plant is analyzed. Mathematical modeling of thesystem is carried out using the mnemonic rule to deriveChapman–Kolmogorov differential equations. These governingdifferential equations are solved with Runge–Kuttafourth-order method.

This paper deals with the Markov modeling and reliability analysis of urea synthesis system of a fertilizer plant. This system was modeled using Markov birth–death process with the assumption that the failure and repair rates of each subsystem follow exponential distribution. The first-order Chapman–Kolmogorov differential equations are developed with the use of mnemonic rule and these equations are solved with Runga–Kutta fourth-order method. The long-run availability, reliability and mean time between failures are computed for various choices of failure and repair rates of subsystems of the system. The findings of the paper are discussed with the plant personnel to adopt and practice suitable maintenance policies/strategies to enhance the performance of the urea synthesis system of the fertilizer plant.

The presence of supernumerary teeth is not uncommon in the general population. They occur more frequently in patients with a family history of such teeth but it is rare to find multiple supernumeraries in individuals with no other associated disease or syndrome. There have been very few documented cases of bilateral maxillary and mandibular supernumeraries in premolar region. A 35 year-old male with unusually six Para premolars and complete dentition is presented.