A simple approach to forest structure classification using airborne laser scanning that can be adopted across bioregions

Reliable assessment of forest structural types (FSTs) aids sustainable forest management. We developed a methodology for the identification of FSTs using airborne laser scanning (ALS), and demonstrate its generality by applying it to forests from Boreal, Mediterranean and Atlantic biogeographical regions. First, hierarchal clustering analysis (HCA) was applied and clusters (FSTs) were determined in coniferous and deciduous forests using four forest structural variables obtained from forest inventory data – quadratic mean diameter (QMD), Gini coefficient (GC), basal area larger than mean (BALM) and density of stems (N) –. Then, classification and regression tree analysis (CART) were used to extract the empirical threshold values for discriminating those clusters. Based on the classification trees, GC and BALM were the most important variables in the identification of FSTs. Lower, medium and high values of GC and BALM characterize single storey FSTs, multi-layered FSTs and exponentially decreasing size distributions (reversed J), respectively. Within each of these main FST groups, we also identified young/mature and sparse/dense subtypes using QMD and N. Then we used similar structural predictors derived from ALS – maximum height (Max), L-coefficient of variation (Lcv), L-skewness (Lskew), and percentage of penetration (cover), – and a nearest neighbour method to predict the FSTs. We obtained a greater overall accuracy in deciduous forest (0.87) as compared to the coniferous forest (0.72). Our methodology proves the usefulness of ALS data for structural heterogeneity assessment of forests across biogeographical regions. Our simple two-tier approach to FST classification paves the way toward transnational assessments of forest structure across bioregions

Assessing emergency medical care in low income countries: A pilot study from Pakistan

Background: Emergency Medical Care is an important component of health care system. Unfortunately it is however, ignored in many low income countries. We assessed the availability and quality of facility-based emergency medical care in the government health care system at district level in a low income country - Pakistan. Methods: We did a quantitative pilot study of a convenience sample of 22 rural and 20 urban health facilities in 2 districts - Faisalabad and Peshawar - in Pakistan. The study consisted of three separate cross-sectional assessments of selected community leaders, health care providers, and health care facilities. Three data collection instruments were created with input from existing models for facility assessment such as those used by the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Hospitals and the National Center for Health Statistics in USA and the Medical Research Council in Pakistan. Results: The majority of respondents 43/44(98%), in community survey were not satisfied with the emergency care provided. Most participants 36/44(82%) mentioned that they will not call an ambulance in health related emergency because it does not function properly in the government system. The expenses on emergency care for the last experience were reported to be less than 5,000 Pakistani Rupees (equivalent to US$ 83) for 19/29(66%) respondents. Most health care providers 43/44(98%) were of the opinion that their facilities were inadequately equipped to treat emergencies. The majority of facilities 31/42(74%) had no budget allocated for emergency care. A review of medications and equipment available showed that many critical supplies needed in an emergency were not found in these facilities. Conclusion: Assessment of emergency care should be part of health systems analysis in Pakistan. Multiple deficiencies in emergency care at the district level in Pakistan were noted in our study. Priority should be given to make emergency care responsive to needs in Pakistan. Specific efforts should be directed to equip emergency care at district facilities and to organize an ambulance network

A validated stability-indicating HPLC method for determination of varenicline in its bulk and tablets

A simple, sensitive and accurate stability-indicating HPLC method has been developed and validated for determination of varenicline (VRC) in its bulk form and pharmaceutical tablets. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C8 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., particle size 5 μm, maintained at ambient temperature) by a mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile and 50 mM potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer (10:90, v/v) with apparent pH of 3.5 ± 0.1 and a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. The detection wavelength was set at 235 nm. VRC was subjected to different accelerated stress conditions. The degradation products, when any, were well resolved from the pure drug with significantly different retention time values. The method was linear (r = 0.9998) at a concentration range of 2 - 14 μg/ml. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.38 and 1.11 μg/ml, respectively. The intra- and inter-assay precisions were satisfactory; the relative standard deviations did not exceed 2%. The accuracy of the method was proved; the mean recovery of VRC was 100.10 ± 1.08%. The proposed method has high throughput as the analysis involved short run-time (~ 6 min). The method met the ICH/FDA regulatory requirements. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of VRC in bulk and tablets with acceptable accuracy and precisions; the label claim percentages were 99.65 ± 0.32%. The results demonstrated that the method would have a great value when applied in quality control and stability studies for VRC

Diagnosis of enteric fever in the emergency department: a retrospective study from Pakistan

Background:Enteric fever is one of the top differential diagnoses of fever in many parts of the world. Generally, the diagnosis is suspected and treatment is initiated based on clinical and basic laboratory parameters.Aims: The present study identifies the clinical and laboratory parameters predicting enteric fever in Patients visiting the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.Methods:This is a retrospective chart review of all adult Patients with clinically suspected enteric fever admitted to the hospital through the emergency department during a 5-year period (2000-2005).Results:A total of 421 emergency department Patients were admitted to the hospital with suspected enteric fever. There were 53 cases of blood culture-positive enteric fever and 296 disease-negative cases on culture. The mean age in the blood culture-positive group was 27 years (SD: 10) and in the group with negative blood culture for enteric fever, 35 years (SD: 15) with a male to female ratio of 1:0.6 in both groups. Less than half (48%) of all Patients admitted with suspected enteric fever had the discharge diagnosis of enteric fever, of which only 13% of the Patients had blood culture/serologically confirmed enteric fever. None of the common clinical and laboratory parameters differed between enteric fever-positive Patients and those without it.Conclusion:Commonly cited clinical and laboratory parameters were not able to predict enteric fever

Incidence, patterns and severity of reported unintentional injuries in Pakistan for persons five years and older: results of the National Health Survey of Pakistan 1990–94

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>National level estimates of injuries are not readily available for developing countries. This study estimated the annual incidence, patterns and severity of unintentional injuries among persons over five years of age in Pakistan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>National Health Survey of Pakistan (NHSP 1990–94) is a nationally representative survey of the household. Through a two-stage stratified design, 18, 315 persons over 5 years of age were interviewed to estimate the overall annual incidence, patterns and severity of unintentional injuries for males and females in urban and rural areas over the preceding one year. Weighted estimates were computed adjusting for complex survey design using <it>surveyfreq </it>and <it>surveylogistic </it>option of SAS 9.1 software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall annual incidence of all unintentional injuries was 45.9 (CI: 39.3–52.5) per 1000 per year; 59.2 (CI: 49.2–69.2) and 33.2 (CI: 27.0–39.4) per 1000 per year among males and females over five years of age, respectively. An estimated 6.16 million unintentional injuries occur in Pakistan annually among persons over five years of age. Urban and rural injuries were 55.9 (95% CI: 48.1–63.7) and 41.2 (95% CI: 32.2–50.0) per 1000 per year, respectively. The annual incidence of injuries due to falls were 22.2 (95% CI: 18.0–26.4), poisoning 3.3 (95%CI: 0.5–6.1) and burn was 1.5 (95%CI: 0.9–2.1) per 1000 per year. The majority of injuries occurred at home 19.2 (95%CI: 16.0–22.4) or on the roads 17.0 (95%CI: 13.8–20.2). Road traffic/street, school and urban injuries were more likely to result in handicap.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is high burden of unintentional injuries among persons over five years of age in Pakistan. These results are useful to plan further studies and prioritizing prevention programs on injuries nationally and other developing countries with similar situation.</p

Distinguishing Asthma Phenotypes Using Machine Learning Approaches.

Asthma is not a single disease, but an umbrella term for a number of distinct diseases, each of which are caused by a distinct underlying pathophysiological mechanism. These discrete disease entities are often labelled as asthma endotypes. The discovery of different asthma subtypes has moved from subjective approaches in which putative phenotypes are assigned by experts to data-driven ones which incorporate machine learning. This review focuses on the methodological developments of one such machine learning technique-latent class analysis-and how it has contributed to distinguishing asthma and wheezing subtypes in childhood. It also gives a clinical perspective, presenting the findings of studies from the past 5 years that used this approach. The identification of true asthma endotypes may be a crucial step towards understanding their distinct pathophysiological mechanisms, which could ultimately lead to more precise prevention strategies, identification of novel therapeutic targets and the development of effective personalized therapies

Investigation of highly unsaturated fatty acid metabolism in the Asian sea bass, Lates calcarifer

Lates calcarifer, commonly known as the Asian sea bass or barramundi, is an interesting species that has great aquaculture potential in Asia including Malaysia and also Australia. We have investigated essential fatty acid metabolism in this species, focusing on the endogenous highly unsaturated fatty acid (HUFA) synthesis pathway using both biochemical and molecular biological approaches. Fatty acyl desaturase (Fad) and elongase (Elovl) cDNAs were cloned and functional characterization identified them as ∆6 Fad and Elovl5 elongase enzymes, respectively. The ∆6 Fad was equally active towards 18:3n-3 and 18:2n-6, and Elovl5 exhibited elongation activity for C18-20 and C20-22 elongation and a trace of C22-24 activity. The tissue profile of gene expression for ∆6 fad and elovl5 genes, showed brain to have the highest expression of both genes compared to all other tissues. The results of tissue fatty acid analysis showed that the brain contained more docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) than flesh, liver and intestine. The HUFA synthesis activity in isolated hepatocytes and enterocytes using [1-14C]18:3n-3 as substrate was very low with the only desaturated product detected being 18:4n-3. These findings indicate that L. calcarifer display an essential fatty acid pattern similar to other marine fish in that they appear unable to synthesize HUFA from C18 substrates. High expression of ∆6 fad and elovl5 genes in brain may indicate a role for these enzymes in maintaining high DHA levels in neural tissues through conversion of 20:5n-3