Rampant food adulteration in Bangladesh: Gross violations of fundamental human rights with impunity

Food adulteration in Bangladesh is rampant and an increasingly serious concern for its residents. Several studies including those of the Directorate General of Health Services reveal that hundreds of people are getting killed every year eating adulterated foodstuffs and no one seems to have any real concern about such a life-threatening wrongful act. Food adulteration is criminally prohibited, but the wrongdoers care little about this proscription simply because of the continued apathy of the governmental agencies concerned and implicit acceptance or insensible ignorance of consumers. However, the current fragmented legal and regulatory regime for food safety in Bangladesh falls short of international standards. This article demonstrates that the Government of Bangladesh is obliged to prevent food adulteration and to punish perpetrators under its international as well as constitutional obligations. It is also submitted that effective regulation of such an endemic malfeasance entails weakening the offenders by adopting international standards and educating the consumers at the same time

Visible light communication using new Flip-FBMC modulation system technique

Filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC) modulation in the visible light communication (VLC) system is one of the most promising modulation systems in optical wireless communications (OWC), especially in 5G and 6G future applications. FBMC has a wide bandwidth compared to other modulation systems. One of the highest degree essential conditions for utilising the signal in VLC is that the signal is real positive, the signal is agreeable with intensity modulation/direct detection (IM/DD), where Hermitian symmetry (H.S) is utilised to get a real signal (RE) and to be unipolar direct current (DC)-bias is used. Here the challenge arises as this method increases complicating, due to the modulation of the N number of frequency symbols, these symbols need 2N inverse fast fourier transform (IFFT) and fast fourier transform (FFT), in addition to energy consumption. This research focused on the time domain and not the frequency domain by using the traditional complex FBMC generation signal, and to obtain the RE signal by placing the RE signal side by side with the imaginary signal (IMs) in a row, and then using new Flip-FBMC technology, which saves more energy. The proposed technologies provide approximately 57% of the number of IFFT/FFT. The use of Flip-FBMC technology consumes less energy than traditional technologies with better bit error rate (BER) performance

Designing social media to foster user engagement in challenging misinformation: a cross-cultural comparison between the UK and Arab countries

Challenging others who post misinformation is a type of social correction that complements algorithm-based approaches. However, participation rates in such social acts remain limited. In this paper, we study design techniques that leverage principles of persuasive system design and communication theories to foster such prosocial behaviour across two distinct cultural contexts: the British and the Arab. A total of 462 participants completed an online survey (250 UK, 212 Arabs). The study compared the two cultural contexts regarding willingness to challenge misinformation and the persuasiveness of seven design techniques to increase that willingness, namely predefined question stickers, thinking face reaction, sentence openers, fact checker badge, social norm messages, tone detector, and private commenting. Moreover, it explores the impact of individuals’ characteristics on their perception of the techniques as being more or less persuasive than a standard comment box. The study found that the willingness to challenge misinformation was significantly higher in the Arab context than in the UK context. Moreover, except for the private commenting, all techniques were more impactful in the Arab context than in the UK context. Some techniques, such as predefined question stickers, were more effective in both cultures compared to the standard comment box, while others, like the fact checker badge, were more effective only in the Arab context. However, in the UK, sentence openers had a lower impact. Furthermore, personality traits, age, and perspective-taking showed the potential but also the varying impacts on the persuasiveness of the techniques on users’ correction of misinformation across both cultural contexts while pointing to the need for considering both personal and cultural factors in designing social-correction-based solutions

Surgical Outcome of Open Carpal Tunnel Release Using Global Symptom Severity Score

Objective:  Purpose of conducting this study was to evaluate the surgical outcome of open carpal tunnel release using Global Symptom Severity score (GSS) in our local setting. Material and Methods:  This prospective analytical study was conducted in the Neurosurgery Department Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar. We operated consecutive 105 Carpal tunnel syndrome cases over a period of 2 years via open carpal tunnel release (OCTR) method. All of these cases were surgically indicated. All patients were evaluated preoperatively with clinical assessment and NCS. Cases were operated under local anesthesia as a day case surgery. Patients were evaluated at 3 months follow-up visit using global symptom severity score (GSS) and compared with pre operative GSS. The paired sample test was applied to obtain p value. Results:  Total 105 patients were operated during study period. 72 (69%) patients were women and 33 (31%) were men. The mean age of patients was 41 years. 70 (66.66%) procedures were done for the right hand and 35 (33.33%) were performed for left hand. Pre-op Mean GSS score was 27 ± 2.5 which decreased to 2.1 ± 0.43 postoperatively (P < 0.005). Conclusion:  Carpal tunnel syndrome is more commonly affecting the dominant hand of middle aged females. Open carpal tunnel release procedure is the safe and effective treatment for this compressive neuropathy

Frequency of Discitis in Lumbar Discectomy Patients: A Two Year Study

Objective: Aim of conducting the study was to evaluate the incidence of post op discitis in lumbo-sacral disc surgeries.Materials and Methods: This observational prospective study was carried out in Neurosurgery unit Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar for 12 months (1st July 2017– 30thJune 2019).A total of 250 patients operated for lumbar disc surgeries were enrolled in the study, both genders and age range of 16-60 were in inclusion criteria.Patients with co-morbidities e.g., poorly controlled diabetics and immunosuppressed patients were excluded from the study. All patients were followed to calculate the frequency of discitis. Results: Among the 250 cases, 11 (4.4%) were diagnosed with discitis. 15% cases had slight sign and symptoms, pain and surgical scar tenderness not warranting the diagnosis of discitis. The mean age in this study was 37 years with Standard Deviation of 13.769. Male cases were 133 (53.2%) while females were 117 (46.8%). Discitis was more common at L4-5.Conclusion: From this data it was concluded that incidence of discitis is slightly higher in our setup than international discitis incidence/rates. The possible reason could be (to some extent) due to inefficient/poorly resourced infection prevention committee and partly due to less standardized OT system in comparison to international OT complex standards

Frequency of Discitis in Lumbar Discectomy Patients: A Two Year Study

Objective: Aim of conducting the study was to evaluate the incidence of post op discitis in lumbo-sacral disc surgeries.Materials and Methods: This observational prospective study was carried out in Neurosurgery unit Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar for 12 months (1st July 2017– 30thJune 2019).A total of 250 patients operated for lumbar disc surgeries were enrolled in the study, both genders and age range of 16-60 were in inclusion criteria.Patients with co-morbidities e.g., poorly controlled diabetics and immunosuppressed patients were excluded from the study. All patients were followed to calculate the frequency of discitis. Results: Among the 250 cases, 11 (4.4%) were diagnosed with discitis. 15% cases had slight sign and symptoms, pain and surgical scar tenderness not warranting the diagnosis of discitis. The mean age in this study was 37 years with Standard Deviation of 13.769. Male cases were 133 (53.2%) while females were 117 (46.8%). Discitis was more common at L4-5.Conclusion: From this data it was concluded that incidence of discitis is slightly higher in our setup than international discitis incidence/rates. The possible reason could be (to some extent) due to inefficient/poorly resourced infection prevention committee and partly due to less standardized OT system in comparison to international OT complex standards

Challenging others when posting misinformation: a UK vs. Arab cross-cultural comparison on the perception of negative consequences and injunctive norms

This study investigates the factors influencing the willingness to challenge misinformation on social media across two cultural contexts, the United Kingdom (UK) and Arab countries. A total of 462 participants completed an online survey (250 UK, 212 Arabs). The analysis revealed that three types of negative consequences (relationship cost, negative impact on the person being challenged, futility) and also injunctive norms influence the willingness to challenge misinformation. Cross-cultural comparisons using t-tests showed significant differences between the UK and the Arab countries in all factors except the injunctive norms. Multiple regression analyses identified differences between the UK and Arab participants concerning which of the factors predicted the willingness to challenge misinformation. The findings suggest that participants’ self-reported injunctive norms play a significant role in shaping their willingness to engage in corrective actions across both cultural contexts. Moreover, UK participants’ reporting of how others perceive negative impact on the person being challenged and injunctive norms were significant predictors, while for the Arabs, only the perceived relationship costs emerged as a significant predictor. This study has important implications for policymakers and social media platforms in developing culturally sensitive interventions encouraging users to correct misinformation

Low complexity DCO-FBMC visible light communication system

Filter Bank Multicarrier (FBMC) is a new waveform candidate in the visible light communication system (VLC). FBMC is a distinctive kind of multi-carrier modulation that can be regarded as an alternative to orthogonal frequency Division Multicarrier (OFDM) with CP (cyclic prefix). DCO-FBMC (DC-bias optical FBMC) has recently been used in VLC, because it overcomes all defects in the optical-OFDM system and has high spectral efficiency. but at the same time the traditional DCO-FBMC suffers from high complexity due to the use of Hermitian Symmetry for real signal, by using 2N-point subcarrier IFFT (Inverse Fast Fourier Transformer) in the modulator, and the output is N-point subcarrier FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) in the demodulator. In this paper, for the first time, the possibility of minimizing complexity and generating a real signal without the use of Hermitian Symmetry or any other technique has been verified. The proposed technology provides 50% of the size of the IFFT / FFT and this results in a significant reduction in power consumption and occupied chip area

Association between perioperative hypothermia and surgical site infection after elective abdominal surgery: A prospective cohort study

Introduction: Surgical site infections (SSIs) account for 14-16% of nosocomial infections and are one of the major causes of increased morbidity, hospital stay, cost of care, and even mortality. Hypothermia as a risk factor for SSI is debated but there is lack of conclusive evidence. The present study explores the association of hypothermia with SSI.Methodology: This is a prospective cohort study conducted on adult patients who underwent elective laparotomy. Patients were divided into two cohorts, the Hypothermia Cohort and the Normothermia Cohort, based upon episodes of hypothermia of \u3c360C in the perioperative period. SSI was diagnosed based upon criteria defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Postoperative follow-up to detect SSI was done until 30 days after the operation.Results: A total of 183 patients met the selection criteria and were included in the study. Ninety patients (49%) had perioperative hypothermia and were followed in the Hypothermia Cohort, while 93 patients (51%) who remained normothermic in the perioperative period were followed in the Normothermia Cohort. Mean age of the patients was 49.77 +/- 14.82 years. Almost two-thirds of the participants were females (63.9%). Patients who developed hypothermia were significantly older and had lower BMI. Also the proportion of female patients was significantly higher in the Normothermic Cohort.Rate of SSI was similar in both groups (10% versus 10.8%) with p-value of 0.867. Multivariable regression analysis also failed to show any significant association between hypothermia and SSI.Conclusion: Our study failed to show any statistically significant association between hypothermia and surgical site infection