Category Archives: Science & Technology

Mega health camp for thalassaemia patients

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, Science & Technology

A mega health camp, the first of its kind in Andhra Pradesh, is being conducted in the Krishna District Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition Society premises beside The Hindu office in Autonagar exclusively for thalassaemia patients from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on February 28.

Thalassaemia patients, most of them children, are born with a defect in their blood. Their body cannot make haemoglobin, a compound that helps in the transport of oxygen. Children with thalassaemia have to continuously get haemoglobin from somewhere else.

Blood transfusion is the only way they can get taemoglobin so they need to get blood transfusion frequently. Babies that are one year old or less may need blood transfusions once in a month, but as they grow they will need it once in two weeks. But the frequent transfusions cause several complications.

Iron overload is one of the treacherous complications. Too much iron in the body results in damage to the heart, liver and endocrine system, which includes glands that produce hormones that regulate most processes in the body.

Another dangerous complication of frequent transfusions was enlarged spleen. The spleen helps the body fight infection and filtered out unwanted materials such as old or damaged blood cells. Thalassaemia is often accompanied by the destruction of a large number of red blood cells, making the spleen work harder than normal, causing the spleen to enlarge making the anaemia worse. The only solution to the problem was the removal of the spleen.

For more details, dial 939296779 or 9393096779.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – February 26th, 2015

City endocrinologist shares novel scoring system in Paris

Science & Technology
Sunil Kota, endocrinologist from Vijayawada, at the Advanced Technologies and Treatments for Diabetes conference held in Paris. —Photo: By Arrangement
Sunil Kota, endocrinologist from Vijayawada, at the Advanced Technologies and Treatments for Diabetes conference held in Paris. —Photo: By Arrangement

City-based endocrinologist presented a paper on metabolic surgery at a three-day international conference, ‘Advanced Technologies and treatment for Diabetes’ in Paris.

Dr Sunil Kumar Kota shared with the colleagues at the conference his novel ‘Metabolic Surgery Score’ system that used six pre-operative parameters of a diabetic to predict the success rate of the remission of diabetes following the bariatric surgery. Dr Sunil Kumar also discussed with other participants his experience with anti-diabetic drug – Saroglitazar — discovered by Indian scientists.

His paper was about the results he obtained in seventy type 2 diabetics who underwent “Ileal interposition with Sleeve Gastrectomy/diverted sleeve gastrectomy,” a type of modified bariatric or weight loss surgery.

Dr Sunil Kumar was the only participant from Andhra Pradesh and one of 11 participants from India at a conference attended by 450 delegates from all over the world.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – February 24th, 2015

eGovWatch: Wipro, Andhra Pradesh ink deal to build Enterprise Architecture

Business & Economy, Science & Technology
The vision of the state of Andhra Pradesh is to use eGovernance as a tool to provide integrated services to its citizens through a free flow of information
The vision of the state of Andhra Pradesh is to use eGovernance as a tool to provide integrated services to its citizens through a free flow of information

Andhra Pradesh Government has signed an MoU with Wipro for building and implementing the State Enterprise Architecture (APSEA).

The APSEA aims to be a lever for transformational change in the way government services are conceived, designed, delivered and consumed, state’s IT, Electronics and Communications Secretary B Sreedhar said, adding the Bangalore-headquartered IT major would be engaged for a two-year period.

“The vision of the state of Andhra Pradesh is to use eGovernance as a tool to provide integrated services to its citizens through a free flow of information. APSEA is an essential first step to achieve the vision of the State of Andhra Pradesh,” the MoU said.

APSEA intends to make the state government “future-ready” by changing from departmental stovepipes to a citizen-centred approach to government services achieved through transformation of the front, middle and back office operations, it was stated.

Sreedhar said APSEA necessitated collaborative working and information sharing between departments, forming a virtual/digital network of departments organised around citizen services and their outcomes.

APSEA shall follow a multi-level approach to account for different layers of government bodies.

To ensure relevancy and pragmatism, government services will be taken up progressively, based on their priority.

These services representing the business of government would be analysed for inter-departmental linkages, for information, automation/digitisation and infrastructure requirements.

Service delivery would be supported by deep collaboration between departments in terms of information flow, application interaction and common infrastructures.

Services would be supported by deep collaboration between departments in terms of information flow, application interaction and common infrastructures.

Services would be evaluated for actual outcomes, rather than outputs.

Countries like South Korea, Singapore, the United States, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand have already embraced a holistic architectural approach to e-governance, according to him.

source: http://www.computer.financialexpress.com / Express Computer / Home> eGovWatch / by PTI / February 24th, 2015

 

Chandrababu to launch 4G services in Kuppam on Feb 24

Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology

Kuppam, the assembly segment in the tail of Andhra Pradesh in Chittor district which has been the apple of AP administration as assembly segment of Chandrababu Naidu has notched another credit now.

Andhra Pradesh will be the first in both Telugu states to have 4G services when the Chief Minister Chandrbabu Naidu kick starts the network services on Tuesday, Feb 24. He will formally launch  the newly installed mobile towers supporting the 4G services.

Reliance had come forward to bring 4G services to Andhra Pradesh provided the state had plans to upgrade the existing 502 towers in the state to offer high-speed internet services. Once the Reliance upgradation is through all over the state, the Facebook utility of internet services will be rolled over this network .

Kuppam is located at the intersection of three states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and boasts of Dravidian Universitty, Kuppam Engineering College, PES Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Dr.YC James Yen Rural Polytechnic College, MFC Govt College, Victory Boarding School for Hearing Impaired, Govt Vocational College and IRM Degree college.

Kuppam is also a seat of  unique agricultural initiatives unleashed  by an Isreali concern – BHC( Agro) India  as consultants to Andhra Pradesh in 200 and introduced micro irrigation in the country. And now it is becoming another trend setter  with 4G services.

source: http://www.thehansindia.com / The Hans India / Home / February 23rd, 2015

Rare brain surgery performed at King George Hospital

Records, All, Science & Technology

Visakhapatnam :

In what is perhaps for the first time in state-run hospitals of AP, a complicated neurosurgery (awake craniotomy) was performed at the King George Hospital (KGH) on a 30-year-old patient suffering from brain cancer. Awake craniotomy is an open surgery of the brain under which the patient is not being administered anaesthesia and is fully conscious but kept under analgesia to control the pain.

Appa Rao from Anakapalli underwent this surgery on January 8 for a low-grade Glioma (brain cancer). The tumour part was located in a very delicate area on the right side of his brain as it was surrounded by parts that control the movement of limbs. Any damage to these parts would have made the patient permanently paralytic and the damage could not have been gauged if general anaesthesia was given to him.

“The surgery had to be done under analgesia, during which the patient was awake so that we could constantly monitor his speech by talking to him and checking if he was stuttering (difficulty to talk). We also made him squeeze a toy to see his limbs were functioning. This was done so that if there was a problem, we could have halted the surgery and resumed it after the patient became normal. The patient was maintained under analgesia and in a conscious state using special medication and monitoring devices such as bispectral index,” explained Dr K Satyavara Prasad, head of the department of neurosurgery at KGH, who undertook the surgery along with his team.

The team included Dr BDBS Naik, Dr Vinay Bhushanam, Dr Sivarama Krishna, Dr Harshavardhan along with neuro-anesthesia team headed by Dr Murali Krishna, Dr Annapurna Sharma, Dr Ch Srinivas and Dr Satish.

KGH medical superintendent Dr M Madhusudhana Babu said the patient was conscious immediately after the surgery.

“The patient took oral fluids six hours after the surgery, was able to walk and carry out normal daily activities from the first post-operative day and will be discharged in two-three daysThis is a costly surgery that would have cost more than Rs 2 lakh in any corporate hospital,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Visakhapatnam / TNN / January 14th, 2015

Nayudamma Award for Two Women Scientists

Records, All, Science & Technology

Vijayawada :

Prestigious Nayudamma Award will be jointly conferred on two eminent women scientists — Dr Tessy Thomas, missile technologist and Geeta Varadan, expert in remote sensing — for the year 2014.

The award will be presented at a special function to be held at Tenali, the home town of Y Nayudamma, on March 1. Prof Shantha Sinha, Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient and former Head of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and Founder, Manidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation, will present the award.

According to  P Vishnu Murthy, founder and managing trustee of the Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Trust,  it is the first time that the trust is honouring  two eminent women scientists concurrently. They will be the second and third women awardees, the first being Dr. V. Shanta of the Adyar Cancer Research Institute, Chennai.

The award, instituted in 1986 by the Dr. Yelavarthy Nayudamma Memorial Trust in Tenali (Andhra Pradesh), to commemorate the distinguished Scientist and internationally renowned leather technologist Nayudamma, is annually given away to persons chosen for their outstanding contribution to science and technology.

Dr Tessy Thomas, who has earned sobriquets like ‘Agniputri’ and ‘Missile Woman of India’ for her outstanding efforts in successfully launching the prestigious Agni series missiles, including the latest Agni-V, is the Director of the Advanced Systems Laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Hyderabad. She has been associated with Agni Programme right from its developmental flights.

Making a mark in missile technology, a traditionally male bastion, she has designed the guidance scheme for long range missile systems which is used in all Agni missiles. An energy management guidance scheme was designed and developed for the first time in the country for an all-solid propelled long range systems by her, for which she was conferred with Agni Self-Reliance Award in 2001.

Geeta Varadan is a renowned scientist and technocrat in the field of remote sensing. She is the first woman to head an ISRO centre as Director of the Advanced Data Processing Research Institute, Secunderabad.

As ISRO’s Programme Director (Special Projects), she conceptualised and operationalised the Cartosat 2A/2B and the  GSAT-7 programmes for remote sensing and communications respectively. In addition, she has pioneered the development of a real time satellite data processing system using state-of-the-art GP/GPU technology.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / February 15th, 2015

When cops played good Samaritan

Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Science & Technology

Visakhapatnam :

A kidney harvested from a brain dead patient in Guntur travelled 400 km by road to the Port City recently to give a fresh lease of life to a 51-year-old man suffering from chronic kidney disease in Visakhapatnam, thanks to the police department playing the good Samaritan.

In a rare case of perfect coordination, the kidney, which was harvested from the accident victim at 2 am on January 31, was carried by the paramedical team in an ambulance that was escorted by the traffic police and police department personnel on its road journey from Guntur to Vizag via Vijayawada.

“The police department in all the three cities provided 10 patrol cars at strategic points to escort the ambulance that was carrying the kidney from Guntur. Thanks to this support, the ambulance could travel 400 km without any delays on the highway and the kidney reached our hospital on time at 8 am, where the 51-year-old patient was already awaiting the organ in the operation theatre,” said Dr P Sriram Naveen, consultant nephrologist at Manipal Hospitals, Visakhapatnam, who headed the operation along with his team.

“The kidney transplant was done successfully and the condition of the patient monitored the next few days. He is now doing fine,” Dr Naveen added.

On January 30, 2015, at 6 pm, the 54-year-old road accident patient was declared ‘brain dead’ at a private hospital in Guntur. After his family members decided to donate his organs, Jeevandan Organisation, which manages the cadaver transplantation scheme, allotted a kidney to Manipal Hospitals, Visakhapatnam, from where a team of skilled paramedics was sent to the Guntur Hospital.

Attributing the success of the surgery largely to the support of the police department, G Sukesh Reddy, unit head at Manipal Hospitals, Visakhapatnam said the kidney was able to travel 400 km in just six hours only because of the police personnel in the three cities of Guntur, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. “Time is of essence in organ transplants, which should be done within 24 hours of retrieval of the organ, provided it is preserved appropriately,” he added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Visakhapatnam / TNN / February 05th, 2015

Pilot project of CFMS in Guntur, Chittoor

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

As part of efforts to leverage the advantages offered by the IT in governance, the State government has decided to operationalise a Comprehensive Financial Management System for establishing state of the IT applications for effective public financial management.

The CFMS is aimed at providing seamless and dynamic interface with all stakeholders and facilitate real time resources management both financial and human. The CFMS is expected to usher in automation of all government process relating to preparation of budget, release of funds, incurring of expenditure, processing of bills by officials concerned at district level and treasuries. It would also help in preparation of accounts, maintenance of employee data, employee attendance, leave position and other aspects.

New initiative

The new initiative will use the Commercial of the Shelf based SAP platform for complete integration of all the activities including budget, expenditure, human resources management systems, revenue, accounts, ways and means and debt management. Guntur and Chittoor districts had been selected for the implementation of the pilot project of the new initiative and the CFMS would cover budget, expenditure, receipt, account and human resource management aspects in the two districts.

Accordingly, it has been decided to identify “Power Users”, 30 members having computer knowledge, who would be trained as key users capable of acting as change agents. The power users would be trained extensively on the applications and they would, in turn, be deputed to train others. The training for first batch of officials involved in financial transactions and staff responsible for processing bills and receipts would be held in Guntur from Feb. 9 to 14 and for the second batch it would be from Feb. 23 to 28 in Tirupati.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by M. Rajeev / Vijayawada – February 04th, 2015

Andhra Pradesh farmer’s methods draw CM’s, scientists’ attention

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Science & Technology
“I have now taken up rearing of Bengal sheep and goats — there are 50 of them and they could fetch nearly `25,000 per head, if looked after well,” Prasad said. Prasad’s contributions have been so important that he has received accolades from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and even from top scientists.

“I have now taken up rearing of Bengal sheep and goats — there are 50 of them and they could fetch nearly `25,000 per head, if looked after well,” Prasad said. Prasad’s contributions have been so important that he has received accolades from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and even from top scientists.

Vijayawada: 

The story of 53-year-old Uppala Prasad, a farmer from Ghantasalapalem in Ghantasala mandal of Krishna district, is probably the best rags-to-riches story you will ever hear from the region. When most farmers are giving up agriculture due to mounting losses, Prasad’s journey from a mere two acres of land and two buffaloes in 1982 to farming in nearly 200 acres (10 his own and rest leased), and a herd of 300 high-quality buffaloes and cows, is remarkable

“It took innovative methods of farming and organising the sale of farm produce to get here. I have my own shop in Hyderabad and I also have an online presence,” said Prasad.Also, Prasad uses 100 acres of his land for organic farming with zero pesticide. He follows cutting-edge methods and uses advanced seeds, not only for paddy and pulses but also for raw materials used in cattle brazing. His big dairy, that produces nearly 800 liters of milk every day, has inspired others to start similar ventures.
“I have now taken up rearing of Bengal sheep and goats — there are 50 of them and they could fetch nearly `25,000 per head, if looked after well,” Prasad said. Prasad’s contributions have been so important that he has received accolades from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and even from top scientists.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / by A. Ravi Kumar / December 28th, 2014

Two Rajahmundry Kids Top Google Coding Contest

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology
KSG Chandra Sekhar (right) and B Abhiram | Express Photo
KSG Chandra Sekhar (right) and B Abhiram | Express Photo

Rajahmundry :

Two students of the historical city proved their mettle in the national-level ‘Code To Learn Competition-2014’ conducted by Google recently. Google engineers judged the project submissions made across the country. The students were selected as part of 10 finalists at the national level in seventh and eighth classes category.

Two projects designed by students of Sri Gowthami School KSG Chandra Sekhar and B Abhiram were selected in the competition. The two students designed the projects under the scratch category. Google is conducting the ‘Code to Learn Contest’ from 2013, to make programming fun and easy to learn for schoolchildren in India. It has been designed to encourage school students to exhibit their creativity using scratch,

APP inventor, java script, python programming languages in creating interactive stories, animations, games, music and art creations.

School correspondent SR Kumar said the management was implementing scratch programme in the school from 2012 and congratulated the winning students.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / December 20th, 2014