The German owned Kramski Stamping and Moulding Private Limited (KSMPL) based in Pallikonda has, for the first time, been awarded the Star Performer Award for their outstanding export performance for the year 2012-13 from the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) under the ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Kramski manufactures high precision miniaturized stampings and plastic injection moldings (such as insert and outsert moldings, Reel-to-Reel moldings and Robot integrated Moldings) that are exported to Japan, Korea, Germany, China, Turkey and Brazil besides catering to the domestic market.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by V. NarayanaMurthy / January 08th, 2015
Do you want to clear your skin as well as keep it cool? Then this sari made of the lantana camara plant is your best bet.
City-based weaver C Sekar has made a sari out of the fibre taken from the stem of lantana camara, a flowering plant. He specialises in making garments out of natural fibre.
While lantana is an ornamental plant, native to the tropical regions of America, various studies show that it also has medicinal properties. It can provide relief from itchy skin, soothes skin inflammations and has a cooling effect.
The weaver from Anakaputhur, a city suburb, began the process by blending the lantana fibre with that of a cotton yarn.
Before this, the cotton yarn is dunked in hot water mixed with salt and later in cold water to soften the yarn. Then, the yarns of both the fibres are dipped in dye.
Sekar creates the dyes by combining various herbal ingredients. He said he makes yellow dye with a combination of extracts from lantana leaf, tamarind and neem leaf. “I can make about five colours; like purple with jamun fruit and tulsi, and red with hibiscus. A colour fixer is also added to it,” he said.
After dipping it in dye, Sekar dries it and finally weaves it into a sari. “Tamarind, neem leaf and lantana leaf have antibiotic properties,I decided to weave a sari out of lantana fibre only because it has medicinal value,” said Sekar. Priced at 3,500, Sekar says he takes about a week to weave one sari. , adding that he is expecting orders from fashion boutiques in Chennai and Delhi.
He has earlier created clothes out of 25 natural fibres like banana, pineapple, beetroot, aloe vera, jute and bamboo. “Manufacturers in fashion industry should change with the trend. With this sari, I not just want to create a trend but also add more value to the product with the use of natural ingredients,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India /Home> City> Chennai / TNN / December 29th, 2014
R. Vetrivel and his wife Killiammal first noticed there was something wrong with their eight-year-old son when he felt dizzy at school.
The couple, from Tiruppattur in Vellore district, took him to several government hospitals, before being referred to the neurosurgery department at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
There, doctors found the young boy had a rare condition — a paediatric brain aneurysm — a condition in which a portion of the artery which supplies blood to the brain bulges and becomes weak. If the aneurysm ruptures, it releases blood into the skull, causing a stroke.
“We performed a microsurgery on the child, delved deep into the brain, found the artery and clipped the protuberant portion, so that it does not pose a risk. This was only possible as we have recently bought two state-of-the-art microscopes costing Rs. 1 crore each. We also bought three aneurysm clips, each costing Rs. 20,000. The surgery was performed free, and it was only possible as we had funds from the Chief Minister’s comprehensive health insurance scheme,” said Ranganathan Jothi, head of the neurosurgery department.
This is just one of the many complex procedures the department can now perform thanks to high-tech equipment, Dr. Jothi said, speaking at a press meet recently. “Now we perform three of four such surgeries every month,” he said.
For 72-year-old Michael Raj, a surgery has changed his life. The retired driver suffered from uncontrolled twitching in the face accompanied by shooting pain. He had tried all kinds of medication but nothing had relieved him. “It was so bad that I couldn’t even brush my teeth,” he said. After a private hospital told him the surgery would cost Rs. 2 lakh, Mr. Raj came to GH.
“An MRI scan revealed that a blood vessel was compressing a nerve. We performed a surgery to separate the nerve and the blood vessel, and now, even six months later, he is fine,” Dr. Jothi said.
Two other complex surgeries were also performed recently on patients with problems in their vertebrae. “Since the screws, plates and rods required are patented products, they are all very expensive. But we were able to acquire them,” he said.
All the patients are reportedly doing well.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – December 19th, 2014
Surgeons at a government hospital in the city set right a neural disorder that causes an uncontrollable shivering of limbs by inserting an endoscope through the patient’s nose.
Manaangatti, 60, a labourer from Red Hills, could not find proper work for the past five months because of shivering in his hands and legs. He was admitted to the neurosurgery department of Stanley Medical College Hospital in October. Doctors diagnosed the condition as atlanto-axial dislocation.
“An MRI scan showed that his atlas bone in the spine was dislocated and causing severe compression of nerves. This caused shivering and loss of sensation in the lower part of his body,” said Dr Jacob Grand, head of the neurosurgery department.
In a procedure performed last month, surgeons inserted an endoscope (a device with a light used to look inside a body cavity or an organ) through his nose and corrected the dislocation by removing the C1 and part of the C2 vertebrae.
“Conventionally, this is done as a standard surgery through the mouth. We cut open the soft palette and perform the procedure. But in an attempt to avoid tissue loss, we decided to do a nasal endoscopy, which is minimally invasive and relatively painless,” said the doctor.
Since some bones in the spine had been removed, the doctors used a collar to maintain the position of the neck. Stanley dean Dr A L Meenakshi Sundaram said such minimally invasive procedures reduce blood loss, pain and the length of hospital stay. “Considering the age of the patient, doctors skipped the conventional open surgery and managed to achieve much better results.”
Three days after the procedure, doctors performed spinal surgery and attached titanium rods to stabilize the neck bone.
Within a few days, the patient regained sensation in his limbs and could move around normally.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / TNN / December 17th, 2014
Arock Joe, Motheswar and Shiva Manickam, who won second prize in the International Robot Olympiad held in Russia
Chennai :
With wind turbines based on the air velocity in Mars, track wheels based on the planet’s ground texture, sensors and spectrometers, the children who built the robot ambitiously hope to find solutions to the challenges in the Mars rovers. Now armed with second prize in the International Robot Olympiad held in Russia, the team of three from Chennai hope to go a long way.
Arock Joe (Class 9) of St Michael’s Academy, Adyar, Motheswar (Class 10) of Akshayah School, Velachery and Shiva Manickam (Class 9) of DAV Public School are the first Indian team to bag the prestigious prize in the event. The team received its training in Robotics under the Chennai-based trainer TechKnowledge Education Solutions Pvt Ltd.
Over 367 teams from 62 countries participated in the event held in association with the Ministry of Education & Science and Ministry of IT of the Russian Federation.
The theme for the year was ‘Robots and Space’, and the challenge these children took up was the issue of power failures in the Mars rovers in their prototype Infinity-M. “With our research we found that all of them had solar panels as the power source. We found that the wind velocity in Mars was enough to propel a small turbine so we installed a windmill, would supplement solar energy,” said Joe.
The robot built by the children
He said that they found that the wheels were getting stuck in some portions in the Curiosity rover, which they changed by using track wheels with larger surface area to reduce the pressure. The team began their work in May. “We did our research on the Internet and spoke to a scientist from ISRO,” says Joe. The judging was gruelling, with nine judges evaluating the students of whom three were ‘plainclothes’ judges who came to the stalls like visitors.
“There were some last minute challenges like Internet issues. And it was freezing in Russia!” said Siva. But the group made it to second place — a huge achievement. Indian teams have been participating for many years, but nobody has made it to the top three until now.
“Robots find their role in anything from making cars to packing pickles. There is a new wave in the school education system that is recently coming up — robotics for school children,” says Godwin Varghese, director, Development and Operations, Techknowledge Education.
The competition, however, had to be funded by the students themselves, and building a robot over months and a trip to Russia did not come cheap. Scholarships and sponsorships could go a long way in encouraging robotics.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Student / by Express News Service / December 10th, 2014
Children need to be allowed to play on the beach—barefoot,” says 61-year-old K Shanmugam, founder of Eldam’s Orthotic Centre. “A majority of children these days have flat foot, and there are multiple reasons— hereditary, incorrect footwear and much more. But we need to detect it early and correct it; otherwise it will pave the way for secondary ailments when they grow up.” Shanmugam who opened Chennai’s second orthotic clinic for civilians explains that children in rural areas are less affected by flatfoot, because they walk barefoot on different surfaces and hence their feet get exercised.
Seated in his small shed-workshop-consultation room just off Eldams Road, Shanmugam explains that when he started this unit in 1985, he was the second person in the city offering orthotic care for civilians. “There was only one centre in Pune that offered artificial limbs to those whose hands and legs were affected during service. My professor M Natarajan decided that civilians also required this service and created a course to train students,” he says. Shanmugam explains that initially artificial limbs were created by carpenters, blacksmiths and tailors; however his professor believed that to understand the dynamics of the human body, you need to be certified and trained. So, Shanmugam signed up for the course in 1975, which had only six students.
Post graduation, he took voluntary retirement from Stanley Government Hospital and with the assistance of his wife Geetha Rani, started this small unit. “Initially I would create artificial limbs and aesthetic hands by myself. Soon I hired physically challenged people in my workshop to create these products,” he explains. There were two reasons why he hired physically challenged people to do the job—it empowered them and they understood clearly the requirements and factors that needed to be addressed when creating limbs. “I train these people in my workshop for a year and help them find opportunities elsewhere. Since my wife and I do this as a service, our income generation is limited. So, after training we send these people to bigger enterprises where they can earn sufficient income,” he says. This year, Shanmugham has two deaf and mute men working in his workshop and assisting him create mechanical hands.
“Over the last few years, I have seen a lot of children and diabetic patients coming in. The feet are the most neglected part of the human body. Since childhood, children need to be taught to care for their feet. It goes beyond wearing slippers; they need to wash it twice everyday, apply an oil or lotion to control dry skin, massage the feet, clean the web-spaces and trim the nails—it is a routine that needs to be followed,” he emphasises. “Ask your children to wash their feet and make an impression just like how you do it on Gokulashtami. Check if there is an arch, and if you don’t see one, visit your doctor and get corrective footwear. Ignoring it will lead to secondary issues like swollen ankles, bunions, bone issues etc,” he warns.
Shanmugham adds that modifications in the footwear can be done—from creating a new footwear to adding insoles, everything can be done to curb the problem. Besides this, Shanmugam and team are constantly designing new tools and apparatus for patients with unique requirements. “A five-year-old girl fell and fractured her jaw line. Everything healed, however the child was not able to open her mouth and was on liquid diet. After discussion with her doctor, we created a mouth exercise tool putting together steel rods and springs. After the first session she was able to open her mouth wide enough to allow two fingers. Everything in this workshop is customised,” he says.
At the moment, Shanmugham has roughly 100 people who come in every month with feet and hand issues. “We have been focussing on creating mechanical hands of late. Earlier there were aesthetic hands that were famous. These look like real hands, yet have no other use. With mechanical hands, the user can actually write and do normal things like all of us,” he elaborates. Recently a person he had created and fitted a mechanical hand has found himself a job as a writer. “He writes and documents things for his company,” Shanmugham says, adding that these differences he makes to peoples’ lives is what motivates him to go on.
He has not been inspired to shift location, nor create a glossy office like his counterparts. “I got several offers to go abroad and work. My uncle came and asked me whether there were no physically challenged people in India who needed help. I thought over it and decided to stay her and help those who need prosthetics and orthotics care,” he smiles. He adds that there are so many vacancies in this field, yet very few takers.
“Usually during a medical check at school, the vision, heart and hearing is checked, but never the feet. I insist that feet should also be checked thoroughly,” he says and adds earlier when they said get yourself checked head to toe, they meant it literally.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Lifestyle> Health / by Jayanthi Somasundaram / December 06th, 2014
Finding the exact day of any given date in 110 years is not an easy task for most people, but N Priyanka, a 14-year-old girl affected with cerebral palsy, can accomplish that within a five seconds. This extraordinary talent has brought national recognition to the Trichy girl, who has just got back from meeting the Indian President.
Priyanka, daughter of N Kannan and B Banu, won the ‘national award for the empowerment of persons with disabilities’ last week, presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at New Delhi. She met the collector and received accolades from the district administration and a cross-section of people on Monday.
She showed off some of her talent at the grievance day hall here in the presence of district collector Jayashree Muralidharan, instantly calculating the day for the dates mentioned between 1941 and 2050. Her questioners needed to check the calendars to ascertain the answer, but Priyanka never required any outside help
Though she is affected with cerebral palsy and mental retardation, this Class 8 student of Ramakrishna middle school in Puthur has an extraordinary memory power. The discovery of her talent was purely accidental. Her mother, K Banu, tells the story, which took place sometime in June this year.
“I was trying to figure out the day of August 17, 2014 to apply for a leave to attend a function. To my surprise, my daughter said that it was Sunday within a few seconds. When I cross checked with the calendar, her answer was perfectly correct,” she said, who is a caretaker in a private school in the city.
Unlike some normal people who have such talent, but who may have to depend on some formula to find out the day, Priyanka relies solely on her memory power.
When her teacher asked her how she could find out the answer within a fraction of second, she simply said with a smile, “I don’t know, madam.”
She is also capable of listing out the dates of a day in all weeks in a month. For instance, if we want to know the dates of ‘Wednesday’ in a month, she will list out the dates within few seconds.
Her father Kannan, who is an auto rickshaw driver, proudly says that this is only the first step for his daughter, ahead of a brilliant future.
“It takes only two to three seconds for my daughter to find out the days. I feel her talent can help children like her. My aim is to make her a doctor to serve the poor people,” said Kannan.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Trichy / TNN / December 09th, 2014
Dr Mohan Kameswaran, MD, Madras ENT Research Foundation, speaking to mediapersons | R SATISH BABU
Chennai :
Over 600 representatives from leading academic institutions, including the Armed Forces Medical Services, in the country, will discuss the growing problems of deafness in children, sleep apnea and increasing ENT problems due to environmental pollution, at the ‘Indian Academy of ENT Surgeons Meet’ to be held here on December 12-14.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, Dr Mohan Kameswaran, managing director and chief ENT surgeon, Madras ENT Research Foundation, said that the meeting would be the first of its kind with over 15 international experts from the United States, UK, Germany, Turkey, Malaysia, Israel and Japan, interacting with academicians and scientists from India. Representatives from SAARC countries would also participate in the conference.
“The meeting will discuss the growing problems of congenital deafness in children. India has one of the highest incidences of such cases in the world,” Dr Kameswaran pointed out.
The problems of sleep apnea and snoring, increasing incidence of common disorders such as nasal allergies and sinusitis, head and neck cancer were among the other topics scheduled for discussion, he added. Eight medical institutions in the city — Madras Medical College, Stanley Medical College, Kilpauk Medical College, Institute of Child Health, SRM Institute of Medical Sciences, Savitha Medical College, Sundaram Medical Foundation and Madras ENT Research Foundation — would conduct a pre-congress workshop and updates on different topics to apprise ENT surgeons across the country of the recent developments in the field. Former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi will be inaugurating the meet.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / December 10th, 2014
Considering that more than 500 people die annually in the city from burn injuries, a local hospital has set up a skin bank which will go a long way in bringing these numbers down. The second skin bank in the state, it will harvest cadaver skin and use it as a biological dressing for burn victims.
The government hospital sees at least two to three new admissions to the burns ward daily, with at least half of them suffering from more than 50 per cent burns. “Mortality is very high among patients who come in with 50% or more burns, because they lose proteins and fluids. With much of their bodies exposed, they usually get an infection and die,” says the assistant resident medical officer, Dr A Soundaravel.
This skin bank will provide cadaveric skin, as a more affordable replacement to collagenic grafts, which will be used to cover exposed parts. “Such skin grafts can remain on the body for up to three weeks, by which time the patient starts recovering,” says Dr S Raja Sabapathy, who has set up the skin bank at Ganga Hospital. “The main advantage of skin grafting is prevention of infections, the main cause of death,” he adds.
So far, doctors have been grafting skin from other parts of the patient’s body itself or large collagen strips are placed on the exposed parts to quicken the healing process. “But collagen strips are expensive. A small 10cm x 10cm piece costs Rs500, and might have to be repeatedly grafted every week,” says Dr Jayaraman, professor and HOD of plastic surgery at Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital (KMCH).
However, the success of a skin bank depends on the number of donors. So far, the state cadaver transplant program, considered the best in the country, has seen just 11 skin donations. “That is because we started taking donations only in the past one year, after Chennai-based Rights Hospital set up a skin bank,” said Dr J Amalorpavanathan, coordinator of the program. “Once Ganga Hospital’s skin bank gets registered, we will send out circulars to all the organ donation counsellors in the city to request for skin donations,” added Dr Amalorpavanathan.
While doctors say that people may be apprehensive about donating skin, the increasing organ donations are an encouraging sign. “People are more willing to donate organs than skin since the former is not visible,” says S R Vijaylakshmi, former HOD of Burns ward at KMCH. grafts include removing only the top layer of skin, within six hours of death. “The process of removing the skin with a Dermatom takes only 20 minutes,” says Dr Raja Sabapathy. “It can be placed on a person’s body without worrying about gender, blood groups or HLA matching because it is just a bio-dressing,” he says.
“Since skin can be donated after death, we are going to partner with eye donation groups,” says Dr Raja Sabapathy.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / by Pratiksha Ramkumar, TNN / December 10th, 2014
Doctors from the department of plastic surgery at Apollo Speciality Hospital have introduced a new endoscopic technique of carpal tunnel release for treating carpal tunnel syndrome.
This is an improvisation of the existing option of open surgery, performed under local anaesthesia, which results in a 5-6cm longitudinal scar running across the wrist on to the palmar skin (patterns that appear on the palms).
The new endoscopic technique by Dr G B Rajan ensures reduced scarring and hospital stay. The patient can return to work in eight days or even less.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a medical condition wherein people suffer from numbness, pain and discomfort on the hand accompanied by tingling, burning, numbness, weakness of hand grip or simply pain.
The symptoms are usually felt over the thumb, index and middle finger, though the pain may extend up to the shoulders.
One in every five people suffering from such symptoms can be expected to have CTS following a thorough clinical examination, imaging and electrophysiologic (nerve conduction) studies. If untreated, it may result in permanent nerve damage causing constant numbness, wasting of the muscles of the hand involved in thumb movements.
“This condition may affect both hands, though symptoms may predominate on one side. The symptoms are intermittent in early stages, usually occurring at night times. This could be due to the flexed position of the wrist joint during sleep. However, the numbness can be intense enough to wake one from sleep,” said Dr Rajan.
Non-surgical treatment includes the use of night splints, steroid injection, oral anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs. However, for acute cases, surgery is the only option.
“In this new procedure, with the aid of an optically linked video monitor, without cutting open the entire palmar skin, the surgeon precisely cuts the transverse carpal ligament from underneath, using a retractable blade within the smart release device. Once done, the blade retracts and the endoscopic instrument is withdrawn,” said the doctor.
Usually, the procedure itself doesn’t last more than half an hour, though mild sedation of the patient does help in making it quicker.
The less than 1cm skin incision is closed with absorbable sutures.
“The resultant cosmetically acceptable scar is small and concealed within the wrist skin crease,” said Dr Rajan.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by Janani Sampath / December 05th, 2014
