COVID-19 presenting with spontaneous pneumothorax

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease mainly affects respiratory system. Its common clinical findings include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Characteristic radiological features of the disease include peripherally distributed, bilateral ground-glass opacities, predominantly involving the lower lung zones. In this report, we present a case of COVID-19 disease presenting with spontaneous pneumothorax. A 26-year male patient was admitted to the Emergency Department with fever, dry cough, shortness of breath and right-sided chest pain. Radiographic imaging of the patient revealed pneumothorax on the right and peripherally distributed non-homogenous opacification. The patient underwent right lateral tube thoracostomy. COVID-19 was diagnosed on testing of nasopharyngeal swab. In conclusion, spontaneous pneumothorax is one of the rare presentations of COVID-19 pneumonia and should be kept in mind in patients presenting with shortness of breath and chest pain

Brain abscess caused by lactococcus lactis in a young male

Lactococcus lactis cremoris is one of the gram positive cocci, not known to be pathogenic in humans. We report a case of brain abscess due to lactococcus lactis in an adolescent. An 18-year male with congenitally corrected transposition of great arteries and dextrocardia was admitted with fever, headache and right-sided numbness. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a well circumscribed irregular heterogeneous abnormal signal intensity lesion in left temporo-parietal lobe having central area of diffusion restriction and peripheral wall enhancement on post-contrast images. He underwent mini-craniotomy for abscess drainage. Pus culture revealed growth of lactococcus lactis. He was treated with ceftriaxone and remained disability-free on six month follow-up. To our knowledge, this is one of the few reports of brain abscess caused by lactococcus lactis. Key Words: Brain abscess, Lactococcus lactis, Adolescent

Volatility, Global Proxy Index, V-A-R: Empirical Study on Pakistan And China Stock Exchanges

This study postulates that propose global proxy index is a significant conduit to evaluate the shocks in volatile stock markets i.e. PSX and SSE, alike. The two separate models i.e. Log-GARCH (1, 1) and ARMA-GARCH (1, 1) have been used along with the value at risk (V-a-R) @ 5% criteria for choosing best-fitted model. The study results showed Log-GARCH (1, 1) model proves to the best. This study results are not driven by political-level risks and thus independent study can be conducted to evaluate the detrimental consequences on investment opportunities under volatile environments

LUNG FUNCTION EVALUATION THROUGH SPIROMETRY IN SMOKERS OF BALOCHISTAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Objectives:The objective of the research was to evaluate lung feature amongst students who smoke and nonsmokers. Material and Method:The exploration was led in the University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan. The self-planned examination form and Spirometer were utilized. The total 100 male student’s age amass between 20-45 years who smoking one year or more were chosen. The students were isolated into two gatherings as takes after; (1). Test/Case Group; which comprise of 50 students. (2). Control group; this gathering additionally comprise of 50 students. The meeting was led and Spirometry test was performed for both gatherings' students of University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan. The spirometer considerations; FVC, FEV1, PEFR, FEV1/FVC proportion and FEF25-75% were originated and investigated. The frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation were perceived for smokers and the non-smokers by methods for SPSS 22. Result:The anticipated mean±standard deviation estimation of FVC for smokers was 62.54±17.048 and estimation of FVC for non-smokers was 66.56±12.654. The estimation of FEV1 for smokers was 46.00±13.595 and FEV1 for non-smokers was 74.60±12.638. The estimation of FEV1/FVC proportion for smokers was 74.20±11.433 and FEV1 for non-smokers was 113.58±12.634. The estimation of PEF for smokers was 61.42±19.037 and the estimation of PEF for non-smokers was 87.10±13.368. The estimation of FEF2575 for smokers was 81.16±28.287 and the estimation of FEF2575 for non-smokers was 104.44±23.213. Conclusion:Smoking deleteriously affects the wellbeing, essentially on aspiratory capacities. Consequently, the danger of respirational mortality or dismalness is extraordinary by way of smoking. The investigation inferred that the smoker's students were on more danger of lung illnesses than the non-smokers students and along these lines elevates smoking suspension endeavors to lessen the weight of COPD in the group. Keywords: Spirometry, Lung Function, Smokers, Non-Smokers, Students, University of Balochistan, Pakista

Probabilistic Analysis of Strength of Structural Concrete for Post-Code Buildings in Developing Countries

Code compliance and quality construction remain a point of interest for developing countries. For structural vulnerability studies on reinforced concrete buildings, researchers usually adopt random strength parameters to represent the compressive strength of concrete for various structural members. This matter becomes a challenge if researchers are dealing to quantify the structural response of code-compliant buildings. Since the research on the response of code-compliant buildings is limited hence this paper aims at data collection and presenting the probabilistic trends in compressive strength variation of structural concrete being used or has been used in multiple projects of the federal capital city of Pakistan for code-compliant buildings. The data has been collected from well-reputed academic and commercial testing labs in the area for past 10 years (the timeline after implementation of BCP 2007). Compressive strength testing records of concrete cylinders for 28 days strength have been sorted for different structural members i.e., beams, columns, shear walls, slabs and footings separately. From the selected data, histograms have been plotted for each member category and mean values with standard deviations have been highlighted. Obtained results are further compared with anticipated design compressive strengths which were obtained from different tagged reports, design offices and resident engineers of the sites. The produced results would lead to true representation of structural strength of concrete for code-compliant buildings, to be further studied for structural vulnerability and risk assessments of the desired areas in developing countries

A comparative study of DC servo motor parameter estimation using various techniques

A lot of research is being carried out on the Direct Current (DC) servo motor systems due to their excessive applications in various industrial sectors owing to their superior control performance. Parameters of the DC servo motor systems to be used in the simulation software are usually unknown or change with time and have to be determined accurately for obtaining the precise simulation response. In this paper, three different estimation techniques for multi-domain DC servo motor model parameters are discussed namely the Compare Coefficient Method, MATLAB Parameter Estimation Toolbox, and System Identification Toolbox. The paper performs a comparison of these methods to identify the one that gives the most accurate results. Experimental data has been used for the comparison of the estimated response from the techniques. The results show that the parameters obtained from the parameter estimation method give the most accurate simulation results with the least error against the experimental results. The study is significant for guiding researchers to prefer this method for estimation purposes of DC servo motor simulation model parameters. The presented technique, i.e. parameter estimation technique, is relatively less complex and requires less computational cost as compared to other techniques found in the literature

How growing tumour impacts intracranial pressure and deformation mechanics of brain

Brain is an actuator for control and coordination. When a pathology arises in cranium, it may leave a degenerative, disfiguring and destabilizing impact on brain physiology. However, the leading consequences of the same may vary from case to case. Tumour, in this context, is a special type of pathology which deforms brain parenchyma permanently. From translational perspective, deformation mechanics and pressures, specifically the intracranial cerebral pressure (ICP) in a tumour-housed brain, have not been addressed holistically in literature. This is an important area to investigate in neuropathy prognosis. To address this, we aim to solve the pressure mystery in a tumour-based brain in this study and present a fairly workable methodology. Using image-based finite-element modelling, we reconstruct a tumour-based brain and probe resulting deformations and pressures (ICP). Tumour is grown by dilating the voxel region by 16 and 30 mm uniformly. Cumulatively three cases are studied including an existing stage of the tumour. Pressures of cerebrospinal fluid due to its flow inside the ventricle region are also provided to make the model anatomically realistic. Comparison of obtained results unequivocally shows that as the tumour region increases its area and size, deformation pattern changes extensively and spreads throughout the brain volume with a greater concentration in tumour vicinity. Second, we conclude that ICP pressures inside the cranium do increase substantially; however, they still remain under the normal values (15 mmHg). In the end, a correlation relationship of ICP mechanics and tumour is addressed. From a diagnostic purpose, this result also explains why generally a tumour in its initial stage does not show symptoms because the required ICP threshold has not been crossed. We finally conclude that even at low ICP values, substantial deformation progression inside the cranium is possible. This may result in plastic deformation, midline shift etc. in the brain

Reorganising for COVID-19 pandemic: A review of structural modifications by the department of internal medicine in low to middle-income countries

Scientists classified the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as a novel coronavirus on January 7, 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the SARS-CoV-2 outburst a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020. Since its origin, this virus has disrupted the best healthcare systems, economies, and strained financial resources; and for underdeveloped countries\u27 healthcare systems, the virus has become a crisis. To tackle the potential hazards from this virus, our Department restructured the services that not only helped us to cope with the pandemic, but also provided an example to copy for other contemporary institutes. This article aims to describe the measures and structural changes undertaken by the Internal Medicine Department, Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Karachi, Pakistan. Key Words: COVID-19, Internal medicine, Structural modifications, Pandemic

Safety and efficacy of ketamine xylazine along with atropine anesthesia in BALB/c mice

Anesthetics are an indispensable prerequisite for surgical intervention and pharmacological animal studies. The objective of present study was to optimize the dose of ketamine (K) and xylazine (X) along with atropine sulfate (A) in order to achieve surgical tolerance in BALB/c mice. Several doses of ketamine (100, 150, 200 mg/kg) and xylazine (10, 15, 20 mg/kg) were mixed and combination of nine doses (K/X: 100/10, 100/15, 100/20, 150/10, 150/15, 150/20, 200/10,200/15,200/20) were evaluated (n=9 per combination). A constant dose of atropine (0.05 mg/kg) was also used to counter side effect. Timerelated parameters were evaluated on the basis of reflexes. KX at dose 200/20 mg/kg produced surgical tolerance in all nine mice with duration 55.00±6.87 minutes. The induction time 0.97±0.09 minutes, sleeping time 90.67±5.81 minutes and immobilization time (102.23±6.83 minutes) were significantly higher than all combination. However, this combination was considered unsafe due to 11 % mortality. While, KX at dose 200/15 mg/kg results in none of the mortality, so was considered as safe. Moreover, this combination produces surgical tolerance in 89 % mice with duration (30.00±7.45 minutes). It was concluded that KX at dose 200/15 mg/kg along with atropine 0.05 mg/kg is safe for performing surgical interventions in BALB/c mice