Life style related risk factors for cardiovascular disease among patients at a teaching hospital in Karachi

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause for morbidity and mortality all over the world. It is important to study life style related, modifiable cardiovascular risk factors among patients, in order to devise preventive strategies. METHODS: We surveyed family practice patients visiting the out-patient clinics of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. The interview was questionnaire-based and recorded the demographic profile of the patients, in addition to information on life style related cardiovascular risk factors. The ethical requirements for the study were met. SPSS computer software was used for data management. RESULTS: Fifty patients were surveyed and included 28 (56%) men and 22 (44%) women. Thirty seven (74%) respondents were married, nineteen (38%) had graduate education, twenty five (50%) were in private service, and twelve (24%) were housewives. Twenty six (52%) respondents were overweight or obese. Butter, cream, margarine and red meat was consumed by 17 (34%) and 32 (64%) respondents respectively. White meat, fresh fruits and vegetables were consumed by 30 (60%), 29 (58%) and 38 (76%) respondents respectively. Oil from vegetable sources was used by 49 (98%) respondents. Addition of table salt was found occasionally and always in 18 (36%) and 09 (18%) respondents respectively. Twenty seven (54%) respondents exercised at least twenty minutes, three times a week, while eleven (22%) were current smokers. CONCLUSIONS: Life style related modifiable risk factors are prevalent in patients reporting to our hospital. This offers an opportunity for preventive strategies, to prevent cardiovascular disease. Such surveys, followed by interventional strategies, are recommended to be followed by all Primary care facilities

Observation of a Cooperative Radiation Force in the Presence of Disorder

Cooperative scattering of light by an extended object such as an atomic ensemble or a dielectric sphere is fundamentally different from scattering from many point-like scatterers such as single atoms. Homogeneous distributions tend to scatter cooperatively, whereas fluctuations of the density distribution increase the disorder and suppress cooperativity. In an atomic cloud, the amount of disorder can be tuned via the optical thickness, and its role can be studied via the radiation force exerted by the light on the atomic cloud. Monitoring cold $^{87}\text{Rb}$ atoms released from a magneto-optical trap, we present the first experimental signatures of radiation force reduction due to cooperative scattering. The results are in agreement with an analytical expression interpolating between the disorder and the cooperativity-dominated regimes

Cavity-enhanced superradiant Rayleigh scattering with ultra-cold and Bose-Einstein condensed atoms

We report on the observation of collective atomic recoil lasing and superradiant Rayleigh scattering with ultracold and Bose-Einstein condensed atoms in an optical ring cavity. Both phenomena are based on instabilities evoked by the collective interaction of light with cold atomic gases. This publication clarifies the link between the two effects. The observation of superradiant behavior with thermal clouds as hot as several tens of $\mu\textrm{K}$ proves that the phenomena are driven by the cooperative dynamics of the atoms, which is strongly enhanced by the presence of the ring cavity.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

Cooperative Scattering by Cold Atoms

We have studied the interplay between disorder and cooperative scattering for single scattering limit in the presence of a driving laser. Analytical results have been derived and we have observed cooperative scattering effects in a variety of experiments, ranging from thermal atoms in an optical dipole trap, atoms released from a dark MOT and atoms in a BEC, consistent with our theoretical predictions.Comment: submitted for special issue of PQE 201

How to manage and minimize food waste in the hotel industry? An exploratory research

Purpose – The hospitality industry is responsible for significant amounts of waste, more than one-third of which is food waste. Through the comparison between an Italian and a Romanian hotel, this paper aims to provide a better understanding of food waste management trends in the hotel industry as well as to highlight hotel kitchens and hotel food services weaknesses and opportunities to minimize food waste. Design/methodology/approach – In-depth interviews, personal communication and observations were conducted to investigate food service planning, food procurement and food waste management, as well as to better comprehend current individuals’ understanding and attitudes, infrastructures, legislative culture and opportunities either from the managerial and the employees’ perspective. Data were analyzed according to a content analysis approach. Findings – Three critical hot spots emerged from the analysis: prediction and check of guests’ attendance, communication and transparency with local suppliers and among departments within the unit and purchasing frequency and perishable food provisioning. The accurate forecasting of the number of guests and their nationality is fundamental in avoiding food waste at food service, as well as implementing transparency and communication with local suppliers. Originality/value – Although academia and authorities have recognized the crucial importance of food waste management, food waste research in the hotel industry remains under-researched. The present exploratory research contributes to the scarce empirical studies about hotels’ food waste, giving theoretical and managerial recommendations for supporting further studies, highlighting the need for formal deals between hotels and local suppliers (food procurement), as well as the importance of foodnetworks that holds together companies, retailers and charities (food donation)

Geometric and homological finiteness in free abelian covers

We describe some of the connections between the Bieri-Neumann-Strebel-Renz invariants, the Dwyer-Fried invariants, and the cohomology support loci of a space X. Under suitable hypotheses, the geometric and homological finiteness properties of regular, free abelian covers of X can be expressed in terms of the resonance varieties, extracted from the cohomology ring of X. In general, though, translated components in the characteristic varieties affect the answer. We illustrate this theory in the setting of toric complexes, as well as smooth, complex projective and quasi-projective varieties, with special emphasis on configuration spaces of Riemann surfaces and complements of hyperplane arrangements.Comment: 30 pages; to appear in Configuration Spaces: Geometry, Combinatorics and Topology (Centro De Giorgi, 2010), Edizioni della Normale, Pisa, 201

Modification of radiation pressure due to cooperative scattering of light

Cooperative spontaneous emission of a single photon from a cloud of N atoms modifies substantially the radiation pressure exerted by a far-detuned laser beam exciting the atoms. On one hand, the force induced by photon absorption depends on the collective decay rate of the excited atomic state. On the other hand, directional spontaneous emission counteracts the recoil induced by the absorption. We derive an analytical expression for the radiation pressure in steady-state. For a smooth extended atomic distribution we show that the radiation pressure depends on the atom number via cooperative scattering and that, for certain atom numbers, it can be suppressed or enhanced.Comment: 8 pages, 2 Figure

Complication rates in managing hepatic trauma: a cross-sectional study stratifying their outcomes

Background: Liver trauma is the most commonly observed injured organ in abdominal trauma. The objectives of this study was to determine and evaluate the rates of complication in the management of liver traumaMethods: This cross-sectional observational study using non-probability convenient sampling technique was done at surgical unit of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, for 06 months. After ethical approval from Institute’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), patients presenting to surgical emergency of the hospital between ages 16 to 60 years having blunt or penetrating liver trauma within 04 hours of incident, either road traffic accident, sustaining a fall, sporting injury, knife or stab wound were include while patients of liver trauma conservatively managed or had severe co-morbid, not fit for anesthesia, with multiple organs lesions (polytrauma) and all hepatic injury patients that were hemo-dynamically stable were excluded. SPSS version 23 was used for data analysis keeping p-value <0.05 as significant.Results: Among 136 patients with mean age 32.33±11.23 years, 120(88.2%) were males. 122(89.7%) of the patients were admitted due to liver trauma of blunt variety while 14(10%) with penetrating liver injury. Overall mean duration of hospital stay was 13.1±4.58 days. 41(30%) patients reported intra-abdominal sepsis, followed by recurrent hemorrhage in 33(24%) of patients while in 22(16%) of patients, biliary leakage was observed. An insignificant difference persisted in either surgical intervention in terms of the complication rates.Conclusions: Higher complication rates were observed in patients with peri-hepatic packing, however outcome of both surgical techniques in terms of complication rates were found to be insignificant. Further studies are needed to shed light upon the findings or this study