Objective To determine whether goserelin (ZoladexTM; AstraZeneca, London, UK), plus surgery offers advantages over surgery alone in the management of ovarian endometriomas. Design Prospective, multicentre, randomized, open‐label, parallel‐group study. Interventions Following preoperative aspiration of endometriomas, they were sized by ultrasound, a diagnosis of endometriosis confirmed by laparoscopy and its severity assessed. Patients were stratified according to endometrioma size and randomly allocated to one of two groups: group 1 (G1; n = 21) received a monthly (every 28 days) subcutaneous injection of goserelin 3.6 mg for 3 months (12 weeks); group 2 (G2; n = 27) received no treatment. At 3 months, the size of endometriomas was reassessed in both groups before definitive excision. Both groups were reassessed at 6 months postsurgery. Main outcome measures Change in size of the largest endometrioma from entry to just prior to excision. Results The mean change in endometrioma size was −2.29 cm in G1 and −1.29 cm in G2. The resulting (adjusted) mean difference of −1.25 cm was statistically significant in favour of G1 (P = 0.036, 95% CI −2.42 to −0.08 cm). Very difficult surgery was reported in four (22%) patients in G1 and 10 (46%) patients in G2. Mean duration of surgery was 74.2 min in G1 and 86.4 min in G2. There was a trend towards a greater reduction in mean Additive Diameter of Implants (ADI) score at 6 months postsurgery in G1 compared with G2 (−65.9 vs. −56.6). Both groups were comparable in terms of the number of complete excisions of their endometrial cysts at surgery, blood loss at surgery, Revised American Fertility Society (R‐AFS) scores and pelvic symptoms. Goserelin was well tolerated. Conclusions Laparoscopic aspiration of endometriomas followed by a monthly goserelin 3.6 mg depot for 3 months compared with laparoscopic aspiration alone results in significantly smaller endometriomas at 3 months and a trend towards a greater reduction in ADI score.

Snow water equivalent is the amount of water contained within a snowpack. It is important to have accurate and timely winter precipitation information for agriculture and especially for flood and stream flow forecasting. Moreover, if the density of the snow is known, then the snow water equivalent data can be used to determine snow depth which is an important parameter for avalanche forecasting (McClung and Schaerer, 1993). In this paper, the design of a new tipping bucket rain gauge (TBRG) and an antifreeze-based attachment have been discussed which would measure rain as well as snow precipitation. The TBRG and the antifreeze-based attachment have been designed to reduce the shortcomings of commercial TBRGs and antifreeze-based attachments. Our TBRG provides faster rain and snow water equivalent data. The highest measurement rate for rain and snow water equivalent is found to be 375 mm/hr and 16.4 mm/hr respectively. The design considerations, field and laboratory trials and results of the TBRG and the antifreeze-based attachment have been discussed in detail in this paper.Keywords: tipping bucket rain gauge; TBRG; proximity sensor; antifreeze attachment; snow precipitation measurement.Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Das, R.K. Design of an improvised tipping bucket rain gauge 45Research and Development Organisation, Government of India. Instruments developed by him include: contact-less tipping bucket rain gauge, improvised anti-freeze-based attachment for tipping bucket rain gauges, stand-alone snow temperature profiler, hand-held portable snow temperature profiler, instrument for measurement of extinction coefficient of snow, datalogging system for radiometers, solar charging system for WSN motes and 3-axis sonic wind sensor.Neelam Rup Prakash received her BE, ME and PhD from the PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh, India. Presently, she is working as Professor in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering at the PEC. She is an expert in the field of digital system design, computer aided diagnostic systems and digital communication. She has guided more than ten PhD and MTech theses.