Growth and production of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus Lin.) in irrigated Boro rice under floodplain environment

The experiment was conducted at BRRI Regional Station, Habiganj during 1994-95 to evaluate the growth and economic performance of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, fish reared in the field of irrigated boro rice with different fertilizer levels. Grain yield of rice was not affected by fish culture. It was observed that 50% of recommended fertilizer was enough to produce increased rice yield (8-10 t/ha) at floodplain environment and additional yield was obtained with the increasing fertilizer rates. Results further indicated that O. niloticus could successfully be reared in the field of irrigated boro rice with recommended fertilizer level. Larger size of fingerlings at release had improved recovery percent, body weight gain and higher fish yield. Results also revealed that rice + fish production system produced higher net return than the system with rice alone

Synthesis of nitrogen-doped Ceria nanoparticles in deep eutectic solvent for the degradation of sulfamethaxazole under solar irradiation and additional antibacterial activities

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. In this study, highly crystalline, mesoporous, small sized, stable, and efficient nitrogen-doped (N-doped) Ceria nanoparticles were synthesized using deep eutectic solvent (DES) and used for the photocatalytic degradation of sulfamethaxazole (SMX), a widely used human medication and emerging water contaminant. The N-doped Ceria resulted in 96% removal of SMX versus 59% by Ceria under solar irradiation at 150 min time using [SMX]0 = 10 mg/L and [Ceria]0 = [N-doped Ceria]0 = 0.5 g/L. The solar irradiation of the photocatalysts produced [rad]OH which was proved with electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy and radical scavenger studies and the resulting [rad]OH caused the degradation of SMX. The [rad]OH showed high second-order rate constant with SMX, e.g., 4.9 × 109 M−1 s−1. The photocatalytic degradation of SMX was influenced by pH, concentrations of SMX and photocatalysts, inorganic anions, and natural organic matter. The kinetics of the photocatalytic degradation of SMX was found to be pseudo-first-order. The SMX degradation resulted into several products which were identified by UPLC-MS/MS and the resulting products were used to establish degradation pathways of SMX. The synthesized Ceria and N-doped Ceria also showed good antimicrobial activities towards Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The treatment of SMX showed high reusability of N-doped Ceria, low leaching of cerium ions into reaction solution, and high decline in toxicity of SMX which suggests high potential of the synthesized nanoparticles towards SMX degradation

Effect of early tranexamic acid administration on mortality, hysterectomy, and other morbidities in women with post-partum haemorrhage (WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Post-partum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Early administration of tranexamic acid reduces deaths due to bleeding in trauma patients. We aimed to assess the effects of early administration of tranexamic acid on death, hysterectomy, and other relevant outcomes in women with post-partum haemorrhage. Methods In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited women aged 16 years and older with a clinical diagnosis of post-partum haemorrhage after a vaginal birth or caesarean section from 193 hospitals in 21 countries. We randomly assigned women to receive either 1 g intravenous tranexamic acid or matching placebo in addition to usual care. If bleeding continued after 30 min, or stopped and restarted within 24 h of the first dose, a second dose of 1 g of tranexamic acid or placebo could be given. Patients were assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight numbered packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Participants, care givers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. We originally planned to enrol 15 000 women with a composite primary endpoint of death from all-causes or hysterectomy within 42 days of giving birth. However, during the trial it became apparent that the decision to conduct a hysterectomy was often made at the same time as randomisation. Although tranexamic acid could influence the risk of death in these cases, it could not affect the risk of hysterectomy. We therefore increased the sample size from 15 000 to 20 000 women in order to estimate the effect of tranexamic acid on the risk of death from post-partum haemorrhage. All analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. This trial is registered with ISRCTN76912190 (Dec 8, 2008); ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00872469; and PACTR201007000192283. Findings Between March, 2010, and April, 2016, 20 060 women were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive tranexamic acid (n=10 051) or placebo (n=10 009), of whom 10 036 and 9985, respectively, were included in the analysis. Death due to bleeding was significantly reduced in women given tranexamic acid (155 [1·5%] of 10 036 patients vs 191 [1·9%] of 9985 in the placebo group, risk ratio [RR] 0·81, 95% CI 0·65–1·00; p=0·045), especially in women given treatment within 3 h of giving birth (89 [1·2%] in the tranexamic acid group vs 127 [1·7%] in the placebo group, RR 0·69, 95% CI 0·52–0·91; p=0·008). All other causes of death did not differ significantly by group. Hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (358 [3·6%] patients in the tranexamic acid group vs 351 [3·5%] in the placebo group, RR 1·02, 95% CI 0·88–1·07; p=0·84). The composite primary endpoint of death from all causes or hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (534 [5·3%] deaths or hysterectomies in the tranexamic acid group vs 546 [5·5%] in the placebo group, RR 0·97, 95% CI 0·87-1·09; p=0·65). Adverse events (including thromboembolic events) did not differ significantly in the tranexamic acid versus placebo group. Interpretation Tranexamic acid reduces death due to bleeding in women with post-partum haemorrhage with no adverse effects. When used as a treatment for postpartum haemorrhage, tranexamic acid should be given as soon as possible after bleeding onset. Funding London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Pfizer, UK Department of Health, Wellcome Trust, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

Viral infections in Pakistan: Prevalence, factors affecting spread, and recommendations for control

Pakistan is endemic to a number of viral infections, owing to its humid climate, topographical variation, soaring population, and lack of education and awareness. These viruses may have several different modes of transmission, including respiratory or airborne transmission, sexual transmission, blood-borne, fecal-oral transmission, vector-borne transmission, and transmission following an organ transplant. Although several different microorganisms are responsible for causing these infections, a few viruses are found more commonly in Pakistan and are primarily responsible for causing infections. In this study, we present a review of the most recent studies on different viruses, transmitted through various transmission routes, found commonly in Pakistan, along with the prevalence of each, and recommend control measures required against these viruses

A Comparative Analysis of Active Learning for Biomedical Text Mining

An enormous amount of clinical free-text information, such as pathology reports, progress reports, clinical notes and discharge summaries have been collected at hospitals and medical care clinics. These data provide an opportunity of developing many useful machine learning applications if the data could be transferred into a learn-able structure with appropriate labels for supervised learning. The annotation of this data has to be performed by qualified clinical experts, hence, limiting the use of this data due to the high cost of annotation. An underutilised technique of machine learning that can label new data called active learning (AL) is a promising candidate to address the high cost of the label the data. AL has been successfully applied to labelling speech recognition and text classification, however, there is a lack of literature investigating its use for clinical purposes. We performed a comparative investigation of various AL techniques using ML and deep learning (DL)-based strategies on three unique biomedical datasets. We investigated random sampling (RS), least confidence (LC), informative diversity and density (IDD), margin and maximum representativeness-diversity (MRD) AL query strategies. Our experiments show that AL has the potential to significantly reducing the cost of manual labelling. Furthermore, pre-labelling performed using AL expediates the labelling process by reducing the time required for labelling

Recent Developments in Optical and Thermal Performance of Direct Absorption Solar Collectors

Solar energy is the most promising green energy resource, as there is an enormous supply of solar power. It is considered a good potential solution for energy crises in both domestic and industrial sectors. Nowadays, many types of solar systems are used for harvesting solar energy. Most of the research is focused on direct absorption solar collectors (DASCs) due to their ability to capture more solar energy. The effectiveness of DASCs is dependent on various factors, such as working fluid properties, geometry, and operating parameters. This review summarizes the impact of different design and operating parameters on the performance of DASCs. Many effective parameters are considered and their impact on optical and thermal properties is summarized. The influence of working fluid parameters, such as base fluid type, nanoparticle type, nanoparticle size, nanoparticle shape, and nanoparticle concentration on heat transfer performance, was discussed and their optimum range was suggested. The effects of collector dimensions and many novel design configurations were discussed. The effect of the most important operating parameters, such as temperature, flow rate, flow regime, and irradiance on collector performance, was briefly summarized

Arsenic and Heavy Metal Concentrations in Drinking Water in Pakistan and Risk Assessment: A Case Study

<div><p>ABSTRACT</p><p>The present study was performed to assess drinking water quality and potential health risk in the Nowshera District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. For this purpose drinking water samples were collected from local available sources and analyzed for physico-chemical characteristics, arsenic (As) and heavy metals. Results revealed high levels of toxic heavy metals such as chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and As contaminations in the drinking water. Results were evaluated for chronic risk including average daily intake (ADI) and hazard quotient (HQ). Among heavy metals the HQ values were highest for Cd (5.80) and As (2.00). Therefore, populations in the study area may be at a low level of chronic toxicity and carcinogenic risk. Statistical analyses showed that contribution of different drinking water sources to the mean contaminant levels in the study area was insignificant (<i>p =</i>.53). Correlation analysis further revealed that anthropogenic activities were the main sources of contamination, rather than geogenic. This study strongly recommends the treatment of urban and industrial wastewater in the vicinity of the study area and provision of safe drinking water.</p></div