Solitary vertebral plasmacytoma causing compression fracture in a patient with multiple vertebral hemangiomas: a diagnosis easily missed!

The imaging mimics, acute osteoporotic compression fractures, metastasis and malignant melanoma or plasmacytoma pathological fractures are the important clinical problems in geriatric age group that need to be differentiated due to their grossly differing prognostic and therapeutic implications. There are few suggestive features on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that help differentiate between these entities. Hemangiomas are very common benign spinal tumors that have characteristic features on MRI. In the setting of multiple vertebral hemangiomas causing cord compression in elderly patients, the scenario is even more complex with four different entities with different prognostic profiles. We report such a diagnostic dilemma we encountered in a middle aged female patient with multiple vertebral hemangiomas and compression fracture in D10 vertebra

Work Related Stressors and Teachers’ Performance: Evidence from College Teachers Working in Punjab

This study is conducted to determine the impact that job stress (job conflict, work overload, inadequate reward policy and job burnout) has on teacher’s job outcomes (employee loyalty and employee performance). In order to explain the relationship among the variables, hypothesis testing was used since the study is causal. This paper focuses on teachers of five best intermediate level colleges of Lahore and a sample size of 100 respondents. The independent variable of the study is work related stressors (job conflict, work overload, inadequate reward policy, and job burnout), while dependent variable is teachers’ performance (employee loyalty and employee performance). SPSS version 20 was used for the initial analysis of collected data (descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, and correlation). Furthermore, SEM using AMOS is applied for checking the fitness of the model as well as the relationship among dependent and independent variables. The analyzed results show impact of all independent variables on dependent variables. However, job conflict, job burnout, and inadequate reward policies have significant impact on teacher’s performance. The largest influence comes from job conflict and job burnout on employee loyalty and inadequate reward policy on employee performance

Comparative analysis of AC DC Microgrids for the Saudi Arabian distribution system

A Microgrid is a devised grouping of loads, generation sources and energy storage interfaced through fast response power electronics to form a small scale power network. The paper discusses the complexities that could be faced by the existing Saudi Arabian Grid when Distributed Generation Resources are introduced to it. Considering a case of small microgrid and simulating a network similar to T and D structure of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), comparative analysis of two different buses (AC and DC) for the microgrid is presented

Comparative analysis of AC DC Microgrids for the Saudi Arabian distribution system

A Microgrid is a devised grouping of loads, generation sources and energy storage interfaced through fast response power electronics to form a small scale power network. The paper discusses the complexities that could be faced by the existing Saudi Arabian Grid when Distributed Generation Resources are introduced to it. Considering a case of small microgrid and simulating a network similar to T and D structure of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), comparative analysis of two different buses (AC and DC) for the microgrid is presented

Multivariate analysis of effective dose and size-specific dose estimates for thorax and abdominal computed tomography

The study aimed to compute the effective dose (E) and size-specific dose estimate (SSDE) of routine adult patients undergoing thorax and abdominal computed tomography (CT) imaging and to present their multivariate analysis. All adult thorax and abdominal CT examinations conducted from March 2022 to June 2022 were prospectively included in this study. The Water Equivalent Diameter (Dw) and SSDE of all the examinations were computed from CT dose index volume (CTDIvol) and Dose length product (DLP) displayed on the dose report in the CT console. The multivariate statistical analysis was performed to investigate the correlation of SSDE and E on CTDIvol, Dw area of the region of interest (ROI) (AreaROI), body mass index (BMI), conversion factor (fsize) and hounsfield (HUmean) number in the ROI at 95% level of significance (P < 0.05). The linear regression analysis was performed to investigate the dependence of SSDE and E on other parameters for both abdominal and thorax patients. A total number of 135 (Abdomen = 61 and Thorax = 74) measurements were performed. The mean value of effective dose for abdomen and thorax patients was found to be 7.17 ± 3.94 and 4.89 ± 2.16 mSv, respectively. The SSDE was observed to be 13.24 ± 3.61 and 13.04 ± 3.61 mGy for thorax and abdomen respectively. The multivariate analysis suggests that SSDE for abdominal CT is found significantly dependent on CTDIvol, Dw and fsize with P < 0.05 and E is found to be significantly dependent on DLP, AreaROI, Dw and fsize at 95% level of confidence for abdominal CT imaging. SSDE for thorax CT was found significantly dependent on BMI, CTDIvol, HUmean, Dw and fsize at 95% level of confidence. Furthermore, E was observed dependent on DLP at P < 0.05. The linear regression analysis also shows that E is strongly correlated with DLP (r = 1.0) for both thorax and abdominal CT, further the SSDE was observed strongly correlated with CTDIvol with r = 0.79 and r = 0.86 for abdomen and thorax CT respectively. A strong correlation was observed between BMI and for Dw abdominal CT imaging (r = 0.68). The mean value of SSDE for thorax is slightly greater than abdomen. The average value of effective dose for abdomen and thorax measurements was found to be 7.17 ± 3.94 and 4.89 ± 2.16 mSv and , correspondingly. SSDE for both abdomen and thorax CT is significantly dependent on CTDIvol, Dw and fsize at 95% level of confidence. The strong correlation was also observed E on DLP and SSDE on CTDIvol for both Abdomen and Thorax CT. The strong dependence of Dw on BMI (r = 0.68) is due to the excessive fat concentration around the stomach and abdomen