Effect of the size and stability of soil aggregates on germination, emergence, establishment and subsequent growth of wheat

Thesis (M.Ag.Sc.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Agronomy, 198

Dental Caries experience of Haemophilic children aged 1-6 years

Objective: To determine the dental caries experience in haemophilic children aged 1-6 years.Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Dental Department of Children’s Hospital, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, Pakistan between April 2015 and September 2019 after the Ethical Review Board approval.. All the participants were screened for dental caries using the DMFT index. Examiners were trained & calibrated prior to the screening process. A dental record form was developed for recording the details; this was validated through a pilot study. Descriptive analysis of the data was carried out using SPSS v.20.0.Results: Caries prevalence was found to be 82.8% with a mean dmft score of 3.99 (± 3.07) of which decayed teeth constituted 3.55. The mean dmft scores for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6-years old were 0.80 (±1.42), 2.83 (± 2.39), 3.93(±3.41), 4.11 (± 3.76), 4.42 (± 2.89) and 4.44 (± 2.85) respectively. Among the sample of 273 children 43 (15.8%) children claimed that they regularly brush their teeth twice a day, 134 (49.1%) brushed once a day while 96 (35.2%) children stated that they did not brush their teeth at all. Conclusion: Dental Caries is more prevalent in haemophilic children as compared to their normal healthy counterparts. The need for preventive measures & better healthcare facilities was also realized

development of a solar cavity receiver with a short term storage system

Abstract The technological progress carried out in the development of high-temperature materials has led to the design of new concentrated solar power plants, like Dish-Micro Gas Turbines (Dish-MGTs). This study proposes a novel cavity receiver for small-scale Dish-MGT plants with a phase-change material storage system integrated inside the receiver container. Such a storage system provides a proper thermal inertia to the component, to level the effects of short-term solar radiation fluctuations which can reduce plant performance and, in the worst cases, damage seriously the MGT. In the paper, results related to CFD steady-state and transient (charge and discharge storage phases) analyses are presented and discussed

Codeswitching of bilingual preschoolers in Pakistan: A study of Arabic and Urdu alphabets

Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, while Arabic is the language of the Holy Quran, Muslims' sacred book. Pakistan, as a Muslim country with a religious bond, makes it obligatory for Muslims to recognize and interpret Allah's commandments, as well as to pray and recite the Holy Quran. The most effective skill is oral communication. It has become one of the fundamental language learning skills, alongside listening, reading, and writing. Pronunciation is the process of processing speech sounds to communicate. The current research study focuses on the codeswitching of bilingual preschoolers while learning the Arabic and Urdu alphabets. The study demonstrates why preschool children fail to recognize images of simple words in Arabic and Urdu at the same time and how this challenge can be tackled with the ingenuity of a committed teacher. The researcher used the Oral Proficiency Test (OPT) to assess the quality of the children's pronunciation, and he processed the data using Setiyadi’s (2020) Triangulation of method, which includes three data collection techniques: observation, interview, and questionnaire. The observation focused on how the teacher pronounced both alphabets and how the children responded by pronouncing the same at the top of their voices to make good use of articulators. Later, an interview and a questionnaire were conducted to collect data that could be used to ensure the validity of the observational results. Creswell & Baez’s (2020) Model of the Structure of Study was implemented. The research on bilingual preschoolers is significant in that it reveals that the children had difficulty in discerning resembling sounds from the Arabic and Urdu alphabets and that this difficulty caused them to deviate from one alphabet to the other. Speech therapists, pathologists, psychologists, bilingual scholars, and researchers will all benefit from the research

Maulana Tariq Jameel’s supplication for safety against COVID-19: A Pragmatic analysis

Supplication, the symbol of man's humility, is at the core of all religions, with Allah regarded as the Supreme Being who listens to people's prayers and rewards them accordingly, regardless of religion. The purpose of this qualitative research is to look into the unique service provided by Maulana Tariq Jameel to God for protection from COVID-19, which is currently wreaking havoc on people's lives. On April 21, 2020, the program was broadcast live on the ARY News Channel's Shab-e- Meeraj programme, hosted by Waseem Badami, and was available to watch online. Devout Muslims from all over the world gathered for a specially organised 'Dua' to demonstrate their heartfelt humility and unwavering faith in Allah, who they believe will alleviate their deathly affliction as a result of their prayers. The video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSRuAo14NEI provided the data. The data was assessed using Aristotle's three modes of persuasion. The researchers paid close attention to the supplication during the study and coded the most relevant phrases before translating them from Urdu to English and analysed them from a pragmatic standpoint. The discussion section included references to prayers from a variety of religious traditions from various countries to integrate the study's findings. The study's findings show that when individuals, societies, or nations of any faith face a major calamity, they are more likely to be prone to Allah for protection than to other sources of protectionKeywords: Du’a, Persuasion, Religion, Staunch Faith, The sovereignty of Alla

Design of power-blocks for medium-scale supercritical carbon dioxide plants

For power production, the emerging technologies of supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) cycles show potential advantages if compared to conventional plants. The current bottleneck in exploiting such cycles is the development of novel components such as turbomachines and heat-exchangers. This paper focuses on the layout arrangement and machinery design of a novel power block for a 10 to 15 MW supercritical carbon dioxide plant. The applied design procedure involves 0D and 1D models implemented using an in-house Fortran code, and 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses using ANSYS-CFX. Novel configurations of the power block were designed, starting with the same primary thermal source. At nominal conditions, expected overall output powers from 13.2 to 16.2 MW were found. Finally, some qualitative considerations were included in the discussion to compare the analysed arrangements

Heart rate variability analysis for the prediction of EEG grade in infants with hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy within the first 12 h of birth

Background and aims: Heart rate variability (HRV) has previously been assessed as a biomarker for brain injury and prognosis in neonates. The aim of this cohort study was to use HRV to predict the electroencephalography (EEG) grade in neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) within the first 12 h. Methods: We included 120 infants with HIE recruited as part of two European multi-centre studies, with electrocardiography (ECG) and EEG monitoring performed before 12 h of age. HRV features and EEG background were assessed using the earliest 1 h epoch of ECG-EEG monitoring. HRV was expressed in time, frequency and complexity features. EEG background was graded from 0-normal, 1-mild, 2-moderate, 3-major abnormalities to 4-inactive. Clinical parameters known within 6 h of birth were collected (intrapartum complications, foetal distress, gestational age, mode of delivery, gender, birth weight, Apgar at 1 and 5, assisted ventilation at 10 min). Using logistic regression analysis, prediction models for EEG severity were developed for HRV features and clinical parameters, separately and combined. Multivariable model analysis included 101 infants without missing data. Results: Of 120 infants included, 54 (45%) had normal-mild and 66 (55%) had moderate-severe EEG grade. The performance of HRV model was AUROC 0.837 (95% CI: 0.759–0.914) and clinical model was AUROC 0.836 (95% CI: 0.759–0.914). The HRV and clinical model combined had an AUROC of 0.895 (95% CI: 0.832–0.958). Therapeutic hypothermia and anti-seizure medication did not affect the model performance. Conclusions: Early HRV and clinical information accurately predicted EEG grade in HIE within the first 12 h of birth. This might be beneficial when EEG monitoring is not available in the early postnatal period and for referral centres who may want some objective information on HIE severity

Temporal evolution of electrographic seizures in newborn infants with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy requiring therapeutic hypothermia: a secondary analysis of the ANSeR studies

Background: Despite extensive research on neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy, detailed information about electrographic seizures during active cooling and rewarming of therapeutic hypothermia is sparse. We aimed to describe temporal evolution of seizures and determine whether there is a correlation of seizure evolution with 2-year outcome. Methods: This secondary analysis included newborn infants recruited from eight European tertiary neonatal intensive care units for two multicentre studies (a randomised controlled trial [NCT02431780] and an observational study [NCT02160171]). Infants were born at 36+0 weeks of gestation with moderate or severe hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy and underwent therapeutic hypothermia with prolonged conventional video-electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring for 10 h or longer from the start of rewarming. Seizure burden characteristics were calculated based on electrographic seizures annotations: hourly seizure burden (minutes of seizures within an hour) and total seizure burden (minutes of seizures within the entire recording). We categorised infants into those with electrographic seizures during active cooling only, those with electrographic seizures during cooling and rewarming, and those without seizures. Neurodevelopmental outcomes were determined using the Bayley's Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (BSID-III), the Griffiths Mental Development Scales (GMDS), or neurological assessment. An abnormal outcome was defined as death or neurodisability at 2 years. Neurodisability was defined as a composite score of 85 or less on any subscales for BSID-III, a total score of 87 or less for GMDS, or a diagnosis of cerebral palsy (dyskinetic cerebral palsy, spastic quadriplegia, or mixed motor impairment) or epilepsy. Findings: Of 263 infants recruited between Jan 1, 2011, and Feb 7, 2017, we included 129 infants: 65 had electrographic seizures (43 during active cooling only and 22 during and after active cooling) and 64 had no seizures. Compared with infants with seizures during active cooling only, those with seizures during and after active cooling had a longer seizure period (median 12 h [IQR 3–28] vs 68 h [35–86], p<0·0001), more seizures (median 12 [IQR 5–36] vs 94 [24–134], p<0·0001), and higher total seizure burden (median 69 min [IQR 22–104] vs 167 min [54–275], p=0·0033). Hourly seizure burden peaked at about 20–24 h in both groups, and infants with seizures during and after active cooling had a secondary peak at 85 h of age. When combined, worse EEG background (major abnormalities and inactive background) at 12 h and 24 h were associated with the seizure group: compared with infants with a better EEG background (normal, mild, or moderate abnormalities), infants with a worse EEG background were more likely to have seizures after cooling at 12 h (13 [54%] of 24 vs four [14%] of 28; odds ratio 7·09 [95% CI 1·88–26·77], p=0·0039) and 24 h (14 [56%] of 25 vs seven [18%] of 38; 5·64 [1·81–17·60], p=0·0029). There was a significant relationship between EEG grade at 12 h (four categories) and seizure group (p=0·020). High total seizure burden was associated with increased odds of an abnormal outcome at 2 years of age (odds ratio 1·007 [95% CI 1·000–1·014], p=0·046), with a medium negative correlation between total seizure burden and BSID-III cognitive score (rS=–0·477, p=0·014, n=26). Interpretation: Overall, half of infants with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy had electrographic seizures and a third of those infants had seizures beyond active cooling, with worse outcomes. These results raise the importance of prolonged EEG monitoring of newborn infants with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy not only during active cooling but throughout the rewarming phase and even longer when seizures are detected. Funding: Wellcome Trust, Science Foundation Ireland, and the Irish Health Research Board