Outcome of Non-Invasive Ventilation in Severe Corona Virus Disease of 2019 Patients; A Prospective Cohort Study

Objective: To determine the Outcome of non-invasive ventilation in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Methodology: A prospective cohort study was conducted at Pak Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, from 4th June to 30th Dec 2021. This study included 87 patients between the ages of 45 and 75 who were admitted due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV2) infection.Infection was confirmed by SARS-COV-2 PCR (polymerase Chain reaction). These patients were symptomatic with radiological evidence consistent with COVID-19 pneumonia requiring non-invasive ventilation (NIV) trial. The primary outcome was to analyze the success and failure of using NIV, the need for invasive ventilation, as well as the mortality rate. SPSS 21 was used to enter and analyze the data. Results: The mean age was 62.89 ±7.55 years. There were 65(74.7%) males and 22(25.3%) females. NIV was successful in 33 (37.9%) patients, while 54 (62.1%) patients required endotracheal intubation (invasive ventilation). Out of these 54 patients, 44 (81.4%) died after intubation. The mean duration of NIV support was observed as 6.2 ± 3.9 days. Conclusion: NIV can prevent intubation in less than half of the patients, according to our findings

Clothing-Integrated Human-Technology Interaction

Due to the different disabilities of people and versatile use environments, the current handheld and screen-based digital devices on the market are not suitable for all consumers and all situations. Thus, there is an urgent need for human- technology interaction solutions, where the required input actions to digital devices are simple, easy to establish, and instinctive, allowing the whole society to effortlessly interact with the surrounding technology. In passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, the tag consists only of an antenna and a simple integrated circuit (IC). The tag gets all the needed power from the RFID reader and can be thus seamlessly and in a maintenance-free way integrated into clothing. In this thesis, it is presented that by integrating passive UHF RFID technology into clothing, body movements and gestures can be monitored by monitoring the individual IDs and backscattered signals of the tags. Electro-textiles and embroidery with conductive thread are found to be suitable options when manufacturing and materials for such garments are considered. This thesis establishes several RFID- based interface solutions, multiple types of inputs through RFID platforms, and controlling the surrounding and communicating with RFID-based on/off functions. The developed intelligent clothing is visioned to provide versatile applications for assistive technology, for entertainment, and ambient assistant living, and for comfort and safety in work environments, just to name a few examples

Possibilities of a 3D printing pen in fabrication of RFID tags

The main objective of this thesis is to use eco-friendly and cost effective material to fabricate radio frequency identification technology (RFID) platforms with wide range of applications. The innovation which is desired is to use only one type of material in making the platforms and even the conductive glue shouldn’t be used to make a contact in between the conductive thread and integrated circuitry (IC), the only two components used inside the 3D printed wireless platform. The motive was to achieve enough bending reliability of the platform so it could be used in various wearable applications. There should be a design which have enough bending reliability and should give a good read range result while the tag being used as an application in water. So making a tag water proof is another objective of this thesis to achieve. The aim is to perform two reliability tests, the bending and water and check out the performance of tags after these tests. To make the flexible passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID platforms the used material is 3D printed biodegradable plastic. So in this process a 3D printing pen with non-toxic Bisphenol A (BPA)-free material is used. The platforms are made by hand using 3D printing pen and initially three designs are proposed and drawn accordingly. A bending reliability test is performed and two of the designs sustained the bending test and showed good result so these two designs are finalized for further tags making and testing. In the process of making tag on these substrates one of the problem encountered is that it isn’t possible to make the tag on that substrate with proposed antenna specifications due to the design malfunction. So another substrate is designed and bending reliability is checked with test. The bending reliability test is performed at three different cases with different radius of thermago (a round shaped solid material) and epdm (non-conductive paper like material) is used to increase the radius so the conditions might fulfill the desired criterion. Both substrates sustained the bending at the minimum radius of 3.7 cm and maximum radius of 6.3 cm for 3 minutes which is more than enough to use in wearable application. In the process of making tags a conductive thread, IC and BPA free material is used instead of conductive glue. After making the tags of both substrates of type D and type E which are named to make the proper sense of results, each type have three samples for good results and comparison. Tags are analyzed on the basis of read range which are taken for results. Read ranges are taken before bending for both types and after bending at three radius. Then a layer is 3D printed on top of the conductive thread and same tests are performed. Another reliability test is performed in water for both types and after that dry test is also performed to have a comparison of results. Both D and E type tags performed very well in reliability tests of bending and water and even after drying. Both types are analyzed with a layer drawn on the conductive thread. All of the performed tests and results of read ranges for both types are really convincing. Although D type tags have varying results but fair enough to make the decision that achieved results are executable. While E type tags have very constant results in all tests. For measurement purpose anechoic chamber and Tagformance software an RFID measurement system is used to carry out the results of read range. E type tags have average read range of 6 m while D type have average read range of 5 m. The measurements are taken in the frequency range of 800-1000 MHz

Development of Threshold Levels and a Climate-Sensitivity Model of the Hydrological Regime of the High-Altitude Catchment of the Western Himalayas, Pakistan

Water shortages in Pakistan are among the most severe in the world, and its water resources are decreasing significantly due to the prevailing hydro-meteorological conditions. We assessed variations in meteorological and hydrological variables using innovative trend analysis (ITA) and traditional trend analysis methods at a practical significance level, which is also of practical interest. We developed threshold levels of hydrological variables and developed a non-parametric climate-sensitivity model of the high-altitude catchment of the western Himalayas. The runoff of Zone I decreased, while the temperature increased and the precipitation increased significantly. In Zone II, the runoff and temperature increased but the precipitation decreased. A two-dimensional visualization of the Pardé coefficient showed extreme drought events, and indicated greater sensitivity of the hydrological regime to temperature than to precipitation. The threshold levels of runoff for Zones I and II were 320 and 363 mm using the Q80 fixed method, while the mean runoff amounts were estimated to be 79.95 and 55.61 mm, respectively. The transient threshold levels varied by month, and the duration of droughts in Zones I and II ranged from 26.39 to 78.98 days. The sensitivity of the hydrological regime was estimated based on a modified climate-elasticity model (εp = 0.11–0.23, εt = −0.04–2.39) for Zones I and II, respectively. These results highlight the sensitivity of the hydrological regime to temperature, which influences the melting process. However, it is important to establish thresholds for hydrological variables and understand the climate sensitivity of the hydrological regime of the entire basin, so that policy makers and water managers can make sustainable water-resource-management decisions for this region

Study of Multi-Classification of Advanced Daily Life Activities on SHIMMER Sensor Dataset

Today the field of wireless sensors have the dominance in almost every person’s daily life. Therefore researchers are exasperating to make these sensors more dynamic, accurate and high performance computational devices as well as small in size, and also in the application area of these small sensors. The wearable sensors are the one type which are used to acquire a person’s behavioral characteristics. The applications of wearable sensors are healthcare, entertainment, fitness, security and military etc. Human activity recognition (HAR) is the one example, where data received from wearable sensors are further processed to identify the activities executed by the individuals. The HAR system can be used in fall detection, fall prevention and also in posture recognition. The recognition of activities is further divided into two categories, the un-supervised learning and the supervised learning. In this paper we first discussed some existing wearable sensors based HAR systems, then briefly described some classifiers (supervised learning) and then the methodology of how we applied the multiple classification techniques using a benchmark data set of the shimmer sensors placed on human body, to recognize the human activity. Our results shows that the methods are exceptionally accurate and efficient in comparison with other classification methods. We also compare the results and analyzed the accuracy of different classifiers

EFFECTIVENESS OF READING ALOUD STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING READING HABITS

Read aloud strategy is essential; it determines the success of the future. The focus of present study was on read-aloud strategy and other reading strategies. Mainly the purpose of this study was to check the effectiveness of different reading strategies, which could be helpful at elementary level. The present study was based on reading habits of students at elementary level. The study was conducted in a Govt. Girls Elementary School Fateh Wala, Multan. Data was collected from grade 8 students. Data was collected with the help of questionnaire; pretest, posttest was also used to collect data from students. A sample size of 25 students was taken in which ten were female, and 15 male students had participated. Ten teachers also participated in this research work in which 5 were male teachers and five were female. A comparative analysis was conducted for students reading habits with reading-aloud and silent reading strategy. Atlas ti 8 updated version was used for literature review. Results include the finding that read aloud strategy is better than silent reading and other reading strategies at elementary level.  Article visualizations

Experimental and Numerical Seismic Evaluation of RC Walls Under Axial Compression

Recent studies show that code-based equations usually do not provide an accurate estimate for the shear strength of short reinforced concrete (RC) walls due to the negligence of many important factors including the beneficial effect of axial compression. In the current study, quasi-static reversed cyclic testing is conducted for two RC wall specimens, one under axial load and one without axial load to assess the effect of the axial compression on the shear strength of RC walls in high-rise buildings. The results of the experimental study show that the axial compression load significantly improves the shear strength of RC walls. Results are also compared with the performance-based seismic evaluation code practices. Based on the experimental findings, recommendations are made for improvements in the existing codes. The experimental results are further compared with different numerical models to explore the suitable computer modeling options for non-linear response prediction of RC walls

Go Together: Bridging the Gap between Learners and Teachers

After the pandemic, humanity has been facing different types of challenges. Social relationships, societal values, and academic and professional behavior have been hit the most. People are shifting their routines to social media and gadgets, and getting addicted to their isolation. This sudden change in their lives has caused an unusual social breakdown and endangered their mental health. In mid-2021, Pakistan's first Human Library was established under HelpingMind to overcome these effects. Despite online sessions and webinars, HelpingMind needs technology to reach the masses. In this work, we customized the UI or UX of a Go Together Mobile Application (GTMA) to meet the requirements of the client organization. A very interesting concept of the book (expert listener or psychologist) and the reader is introduced in GTMA. It offers separate dashboards, separate reviews or rating systems, booking, and venue information to engage the human reader with his or her favorite human book. The loyalty program enables the members to avail discounts through a mobile application and its membership is global where both the human-reader and human-books can register under the platform. The minimum viable product has been approved by our client organization

Ultrasound Assisted Pleural Biopsy with Abram Needle is a Valuable Tool in diagnosing Exudative Lymphocytic Pleural Effusions

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of US assisted pleural biopsy using Abram Needle. Study Design: A non-randomized prospective study. The study was approved by Ethical Board of Gulab Devi Chest hospital Lahore. Methodology: The study was conducted at the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Gulab Devi Chest Hospital Lahore. 141 male patients with undiagnosed, unilateral, exudative, lymphocytic pleural effusion were included in the study during Jan. 2014 to Nov. 2015. Pleural biopsy was performed with Abram needle after an informed consent, having localized the biopsy point by chest radiographs & sonography.  Tissue samples underwent histopathological evaluation. Diagnosis was made on histopathology reports. Statistics was applied. Results: Six samples were inadequate while 135 were adequate.  31.11% cases were malignant while 68.88% were nonmalignant. Out of 93 nonmalignant cases, 7.52 % were normal pleurae, 46.23% were caseous granulomatous inflammation, 25.80% were chronic nonspecific pleuritis, 10.75 % cases were chronic pleuritis with fibrous thickening, 9.67 % cases were acute pleuritis. Biopsy success rate was 95.74%. All patients tolerated the procedure well. No serious complication occurred. Conclusions:  Abram needle pleural biopsy using ultrasound assistance is very safe and excellent diagnostic tool in diagnosing exudative lymphocytic pleural effusions.  &nbsp