Safety & reliability are of prime importance when it is referred to a nuclear power plant. In Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) it is achieved by the Safety Grade Decay Heater Removal (SGDHR) ...system which is the ultimate safety feature of PFBR. After reactor shutdown the residual fission product decay heat in PFBR is removed through this special system which is completely passive in natural convection mode using atmospheric air where no power is required. This paper details the Instrumentation & Control (I&C) designed for SGDHR system which is classified as a safety related system to monitor & control the important parameters of SGDHR with an emphasis on system design philosophy and software development methodologies.
Distributed Digital Control System (DDCS) Architecture is followed for plant control and automation of PFBR catering to the geographical distribution of control systems with reduced cabling. As per ...this architecture several sensors and actuators are interconnected to centralized servers via switched local area network. These networks are isolated from each other networks for security and safety purpose. Local Control Panels (LCP) are used in PFBR for facilitating local operations of various safety class applications. The LCPs in Fuel Building consist of PLC, Industrial Display Station, FIZIDS, Industrial Camera and other sub-modules specific to the facility pertaining to safety class-3 functionality. As per plant design guidelines, the servers and display stations are based on open source Linux platforms and hence the operator interface software is designed for such environment. This paper describes the development of Qt based GUI software for PLC interface and local display station interface for fresh subassembly inspection facility (FSIF) of PFBR. Modbus TCP/IP interface for PLC communication and display station software design with interlocks & diagnostics processing for all the facilities of FSIF is described.
Due to the workload and lack of a critical mass of trained operational researchers within their ranks, health systems and programmes may not be able to dedicate sufficient time to conducting ...operational research (OR). Hence, they may need the technical support of operational researchers from research/academic organisations. Additionally, there is a knowledge gap regarding implementing differentiated tuberculosis (TB) care in programme settings. In this 'how we did it' paper, we share our experience of implementing a differentiated TB care model along with an inbuilt OR component in Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India. This was a health system initiative through a collaboration of the State TB cell with the Indian Council of Medical Research institutes and the World Health Organisation country office in India. The learnings are in the form of eleven tips: four broad principles (OR on priority areas and make it a health system initiative, implement simple and holistic ideas, embed OR within routine programme settings, aim for long-term engagement), four related to strategic planning (big team of investigators, joint leadership, decentralised decision-making, working in advance) and three about implementation planning (conducting pilots, smart use of e-tools and operational research publications at frequent intervals). These may act as a guide for other Indian states, high TB burden countries that want to implement differentiated care, and for operational researchers in providing technical assistance for strengthening implementation and conducting OR in health systems and programmes (TB or other health programmes). Following these tips may increase the chances of i) an enriching engagement, ii) policy/practice change, and iii) sustainable implementation.
To reduce TB deaths in resource-limited settings, a differentiated care strategy can be used to triage patients with high risk of severe illness (i.e., those with very severe undernutrition, ...respiratory insufficiency, or inability to stand without support) at diagnosis and refer them for comprehensive assessment and inpatient care. Globally, there are few examples of implementing this type of strategy in routine program settings. Beginning in April 2022, the Indian state of Tamil Nadu implemented a differentiated care strategy called Tamil Nadu-
(TN-KET) for all adults aged 15 years and older with drug-susceptible TB notified by public facilities. Before evaluating the impact on TB deaths, we sought to understand the retention and delays in the care cascade as well as predictors of losses. During April-June 2022, 14,961 TB patients were notified and 11,599 (78%) were triaged. Of those triaged, 1,509 (13%) were at high risk of severe illness; of these, 1,128 (75%) were comprehensively assessed at a nodal inpatient care facility. Of 993 confirmed as severely ill, 909 (92%) were admitted, with 8% unfavorable admission outcomes (4% deaths). Median admission duration was 4 days. From diagnosis, the median delay in triaging and admission of severely ill patients was 1 day each. Likelihood of triaging decreased for people with extrapulmonary TB, those diagnosed in high-notification districts or teaching hospitals, and those transferred out of district. Predictors of not being comprehensively assessed included: aged 25-34 years, able to stand without support, and diagnosis at a primary or secondary-level facility. Inability to stand without support was a predictor of unfavorable admission outcomes. To conclude, the first quarter of implementation suggests that TN-KET was feasible to implement but could be improved by addressing predictors of losses in the care cascade and increasing admission duration.
Abstract
Background:
This research paper reports on the first statewide implementation of differentiated Tuberculosis (TB) care in routine health system settings in India and possibly globally. This ...pilot aimed to assess the feasibility in routine health system settings and to identify the predictors of triaging and the burden of triage positive.
Methods/Design:
An observational study involving cross-sectional and longitudinal descriptive design. This differentiated TB care was implemented amongst all public notified adults (≥15 years) with TB (not known to be drug resistant at diagnosis) in routine health system settings involving the existing workforce in Tamil Nadu, India (except Chennai).
Results:
Of 2,382 adults with TB notified during 14-27 March 2022, 1,636 (69%) were triaged for severe illness and 290 (18%) were triage positive. Of these 298, a total of 160 (55%) were comprehensively assessed after referral. Of 136 confirmed as severely ill, 116 (85%) were admitted and 103 were discharged. The median admission duration was 4 days. From diagnosis, the median time interval to admit a severely ill patient was 1 day. Adults diagnosed by rapid molecular test, with extrapulmonary TB and transferred out of district, were less likely to be triaged.
Conclusion:
To reduce TB deaths, the losses in the care cascade should be reduced and the admission duration increased. The findings of this pilot exercise guided the eventual implementation starting 01 April 2022.
Prediction of stock market trends has been an area of great interest both to those who wish to profit by trading stocks in the stock market and for researchers attempting to uncover the information ...hidden in the stock market data. Traditional techniques such technical analysis and signal processing techniques such as moving averages and regression have had limited success in predicting markets, which could be attributed to the dynamic behavior of the markets. In signal processing, adaptive filters have been widely used for efficient filtering of signals. However, the utilization of adaptive filters for prediction, especially of financial signals, has not received much attention in literature. In this study, hybrid adaptive filters are introduced for prediction to obtain highly accurate results. The hybrid filters used are DCT-LMS, DCT-NLMS, DCT-RLS and Kalman filters. The proposed method is used to predict the values of five of the largest stock markets, namely, BSE100, NASDAQ, NIKKEI225, S&P NIFTY, and FTSE100. The performance of hybrid adaptive filters is compared against the conventional filters like autoregressive (AR), Moving Average (MA) filters and adaptive filters like LMS, NLMS etc. The base technique considered is the Random Walk (RW) process which acts as the benchmark technique. The results show a high degree of prediction accuracy for the hybrid adaptive filters, which is very high when compared to conventional filters, thus indicating that hybrid adaptive filters can be successfully used for stock market prediction.
