Purple Urine Bag Syndrome: An Alarming Hue? A Brief Review of the Literature

Purple urine bag syndrome (PUBS) is a unique disease entity characterized by an alarming purple discoloration of the urine secondary to recurrent urinary tract infections with indigo- and indirubin-producing bacteria. It is usually associated with prolonged urinary catheterization and chronic debilitated states. We hereby present a concise review of this rare phenomenon with historic perspectives, epidemiology, emphasizing on current concepts of etiology, pathogenesis, relevant clinical associations, treatment modalities, prognosis, and future directions in PUBS. In addition, we highlight an interesting occurrence of this intriguing phenomenon in a 39-year-old gentleman at our institution

Diverse Spectrum of Presentation of Coronary Slow Flow Phenomenon: A Concise Review of the Literature

The coronary slow flow phenomenon (CSFP) is a disease entity characterized by slow progression of angiographic contrast in the coronary arteries in the absence of stenosis in the epicardial vessels. CSFP has a diverse presentation from mild chest discomfort to ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. It can also have severe morbidity and mortality implications and can significantly hamper the quality of life of those affected. In this paper we present two patients with CSFP highlighting the diverse spectrum of presentation. A concise review of the literature is also provided emphasizing the epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnostic parameters, treatment modalities, and clinical significance of this phenomenon

Privatizing Public Irrigation Tubewells in Pakistan: An Appraisal of Alternatives

As part of its broader groundwater privatization programme, the Government of Pakistan is seeking to transfer to the private sector the management, operation, and maintenance functions of the system of public tubewells (called "SCARPs") which were installed to control waterlogging and salinity. This paper presents a micro level analysis of alternative privatization strategies. linear programming models of representative farms in SCARP I area of Punjab Province were developed to explore the efficiency and equity implications of various transition options. Net benefits of supplemental water available from SCARP tubewells were estimated at about Rs 800 per acre, which are about three times higher than the existing level of O&M expenditure. Even without considering the long-term benefits of waterlogging control, this result implies that the SCARP programme has a high social rate of return. For particular SCARP tubewells which are uneconomical to repair and operate, replacing these tubewells with farmer-owned small tubewells appears likely to improve agricultural productivity and reduce government outlays. Operable SCARP tubewells should be kept in service unless they are replaced by equal or greater alternative pumping capacity in the private sector to prevent waterlogging. Rural institutions should be strengthened to ensure efficient local level groundwater management.

Ecological niche model comparison under different climate scenarios: a case study of Olea spp. in Asia

Ecological niche modeling (and the related species distribution modeling) has been used as a tool with which to assess potential impacts of climate change processes on geographic distributions of species. However, the factors introducing variation into niche modeling outcomes are not well understood: To this end, we used seven algorithms to develop models (Maxent, GARP, BIOCLIM, artificial neural networks, support‐vector machines, climate envelope, and environmental distance) to estimate the potential geographic distribution of olives (Olea europaea sensu lato, including Olea ferruginea) under two climatic data sets (current 2000 and future 2050). Five general circulation models and two representative concentration pathway scenarios were used as predictor variables in future projections of the geographic potential of this species; models were fit at global extents (10′ spatial resolution) but transferred and interpreted for a region of particular interest in Central Asia, which largely avoids problems with truncation of niche estimates. We found marked differences among approaches in predicted distributions and model performance, as well as in the future distributional pattern reconstructed, from one algorithm to another. These general approaches, when model‐to‐model variation is managed appropriately, appear promising in predicting the potential geographic distribution of O. europaea sensu lato and thus can be an effective tool in restoration and conservation planning for wild populations, as well as possible commercial plantations of this species

Knowledge and practice of healthy lifestyle and dietary habits in medical and non-medical students of Karachi, Pakistan

OBJECTIVE: To objectively compare the differences in knowledge and practices regarding healthy lifestyle among medical and non-medical students of Karachi along with assessment of any perceived barriers.METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 350 students between ages 17-24 years from 6 private universities of Karachi--three medical and three non-medical Institutions. A self-reported questionnaire was employed to assess attitude and barriers to healthy practices among the simple random selection of students.RESULTS: On a 10-point scale, the average knowledge score of students on general and clinical nutritional knowledge was 5.7 +/- 1.51 and 4.4 +/- 1.77, respectively and the difference was statistically significant (p \u3c 0.01). Conversely the diet and lifestyle score (85-point scale) among medical (41.3) and non medical students (40.8) was not significant (p = 0.646). There was no difference between the perception of medical and non-medical students regarding \u27work-related stress\u27 in their life. \u27Lack of time\u27 was cited as the most important reason for skipping meals and as a barrier to exercising regularly among both groups.CONCLUSION: The knowledge, attitudes and practices of medical students in Karachi suggest that superior knowledge about healthy lifestyle does not necessarily result into better practices

Minimizing Thermal Stress for Data Center Servers through Thermal-Aware Relocation

A rise in inlet air temperature may lower the rate of heat dissipation from air cooled computing servers. This introduces a thermal stress to these servers. As a result, the poorly cooled active servers will start conducting heat to the neighboring servers and giving rise to hotspot regions of thermal stress, inside the data center. As a result, the physical hardware of these servers may fail, thus causing performance loss, monetary loss, and higher energy consumption for cooling mechanism. In order to minimize these situations, this paper performs the profiling of inlet temperature sensitivity (ITS) and defines the optimum location for each server to minimize the chances of creating a thermal hotspot and thermal stress. Based upon novel ITS analysis, a thermal state monitoring and server relocation algorithm for data centers is being proposed. The contribution of this paper is bringing the peak outlet temperatures of the relocated servers closer to average outlet temperature by over 5 times, lowering the average peak outlet temperature by 3.5% and minimizing the thermal stress

Using chemometrics to characterise and unravel the near infra-red spectral changes induced in aubergine fruit by chilling injury as influenced by storage time and temperature

The early non-destructive detection of chilling injury (CI) in aubergine fruit was investigated using spectroscopy. CI is a physiological disorder that occurs when the fruit is subjected to temperatures lower than 12 °C. Reference measurements of CI were acquired by visual appearance analysis, measuring electrolyte leakage (EL), mass loss and firmness evaluations which demonstrated that even before three days of storage at 2 °C, the CI process was initiated. An ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis (ASCA) was used to investigate the effect of temperature and storage time on the Fourier transform – near infra-red (FT-NIR) spectral fingerprints. The ASCA model demonstrated that temperature, duration of storage, and their interaction had a significant effect on the spectra. In addition, it was possible to highlight the main variations in the experimental results with reference to the effects of the main factors, and with respect to storage time, to discover any major monotonic trends with time. Partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used as a supervised classification method to discriminate between fruit based on chilling and safe temperatures. In this case, only significant spectral wavebands which were significantly influenced by the effect of temperature based on ASCA were utilised. PLS-DA prediction accuracy was 87.4 ± 2.7% as estimated by a repeated double-cross-validation procedure (50 runs) and the significance of the observed discrimination was verified by means of permutation tests. The outcomes of this study indicate a promising potential for near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) to provide non-invasive, rapid and reliable detection of CI in aubergine fruit

An approach to PLC in fast moving consumer goods: A case study from Pakistan

Fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) is possibly the toughest and most disciplined of all industries. The survival, market share and profitability of a FMGC organization rely on number of factors including innovative thoughts, focused consumer, competitor analysis and deep marketing knowledge. These factors are necessary considerations throughout the Product Life Cycle (PLC). PLC analysis is considered to be a valuable tool for strategic planning for organizations and was first introduced to track the product's progress in all phases from introduction to disposal. FMCG organizations gain a competitive edge by using a product life cycle approach over those who do not use it. This paper presents a case study of a local FMGC organization and its approach to PLC. The study revealed that the PLC approach has significant effects on the success of the product in the market