Prevalence and determinants of unintended pregnancies amongst women attending antenatal clinics in Pakistan

Background: Unintended pregnancies are a global public health concern and contribute significantly to adverse maternal and neonatal health, social and economic outcomes and increase the risks of maternal deaths and neonatal mortality. In countries like Pakistan where data for the unintended pregnancies is scarce, studies are required to estimate its accurate prevalence and predictors using more specific tools such as the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancies (LMUP). Methods: We conducted a hospital based cross sectional survey in two tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan. We used a pre tested structured questionnaire to collect the data on socio-demographic characteristics, reproductive history, awareness and past experience with contraceptives and unintended pregnancies using six item the LMUP. We used Univariate and multivariate analysis to explore the association between unintended pregnancies and predictor variables and presented the association as adjusted odds ratios. We also evaluated the psychometric properties of the Urdu version of the LMUP. Results: Amongst 3010 pregnant women, 1150 (38.2%) pregnancies were reported as unintended. In the multivariate analysis age \u3c 20 years (AOR 3.5 1.1-6.5), being illiterate (AOR 1.9 1.1-3.4), living in a rural setting (1.7 1.2-2.3), having a pregnancy interval of = \u3c 12 months (AOR 1.7 1.4-2.2), having a parity of \u3e2 (AOR 1.4 1.2-1.8), having no knowledge about contraceptive methods (AOR 3.0 1.7-5.4) and never use of contraceptive methods (AOR 2.3 1.4-5.1) remained significantly associated with unintended pregnancy. The Urdu version of the LMUP scale was found to be acceptable, valid and reliable with the Cronbach\u27s alpha of 0.85. Conclusions: This study explores a high prevalence of unintended pregnancies and important factors especially those related to family planning. Integrated national family program that provides contraceptive services especially the modern methods to women during pre-conception and post-partum would be beneficial in averting unintended pregnancies and their related adverse outcomes in Pakistan

Research and Design of a Routing Protocol in Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

无线传感器网络，作为全球未来十大技术之一，集成了传感器技术、嵌入式计算技术、分布式信息处理和自组织网技术，可实时感知、采集、处理、传输网络分布区域内的各种信息数据，在军事国防、生物医疗、环境监测、抢险救灾、防恐反恐、危险区域远程控制等领域具有十分广阔的应用前景。 本文研究分析了无线传感器网络的已有路由协议，并针对大规模的无线传感器网络设计了一种树状路由协议，它根据节点地址信息来形成路由，从而简化了复杂繁冗的路由表查找和维护，节省了不必要的开销，提高了路由效率，实现了快速有效的数据传输。 为支持此路由协议本文提出了一种自适应动态地址分配算——ADAR（AdaptiveDynamicAddre...As one of the ten high technologies in the future, wireless sensor network, which is the integration of micro-sensors, embedded computing, modern network and Ad Hoc technologies, can apperceive, collect, process and transmit various information data within the region. It can be used in military defense, biomedical, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, counter-terrorism, remote control of haz...学位：工学硕士院系专业：信息科学与技术学院通信工程系_通信与信息系统学号：2332007115216

Role of insert material on process loads during FSW

In FSW, insert materials are often used to both control the loading conditions as well as to trace the nature of materials flow. This current study aims at understanding the role played by inserts materials by using two different materials, copper and tin as inserts. The copper and tin have higher and lower melting points respectively as compared to aluminum. The metal strips are sandwiched between aluminum plates and friction stir welded at two different rotational speeds. The process loads and torque were recorded during the welding and compared with that obtained for normal butt-welding of aluminum sheets. In the case of copper insert, copper gets distributed in the matrix and it is possible to trace the flow of copper inside the aluminum. In the case of tin, it melts during the welding. The molten tin is squeezed out of faying surface and coats tool shoulder. This lowers the friction and which in turn lowers the torque (55%) and the consequent heat generation. The resultant reduction of temperature in the weld leads to higher tangential and normal loads. Compared to the case without insert, the normal loads for FSW processing with tin insert were higher by 2.2 times and tangential loads were higher by 5.5 times

Soil enzymes activity: Effect of climate smart agriculture on rhizosphere and bulk soil under cereal based systems of north-west India

In agriculture production system, soil enzymes are important indicators of soil quality. Measurements of soil quality parameter changes are essential for assessing the impact of soil and crop management practices. Keeping this in view, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the enzyme activities namely dehydrogenase (DHA), β-glucosidase, acid and alkaline phosphatase (AcP & AlP), fluorescein diacetate hydrolases (FDH), cellulase, urease and aryl sulphatase in rhizosphere and bulk soil after 8 years of different management regimes. Soil organic carbon (SOC), moisture content and few enzyme indices such as enzymatic pH indicator (AcP/AlP), alteration index three (Al3) and geometric mean (GMea) were also measured. The treatments were conventional rice-wheat system (termed as scenario (Sc1), CT system), partial conservation agriculture (CA)-based rice-wheat-mungbean system (Sc2, PCA-RW), partial climate smart agriculture (CSA)-based rice-wheat-mungbean system (Sc3), partial CSA-based maize-wheat-mungbean system (Sc4), full CSA-based rice-wheat-mungbean system (Sc5), and full CSA-based maize-wheat-mungbean system (Sc6). Soil samples were collected from rhizosphere and away from roots (bulk soil) at 0-15 cm soil depth before sowing (from rhizosphere of previous crops), at maximum tillering, flowering, and after harvesting of wheat crop. Results showed that DHA activity was higher before sowing (59.8%), at maximum tillering (48.4%), flowering (8.6%) and after harvesting (19.1%) in rice based CSA systems (mean of Sc3 and Sc5) over maize based CSA systems (mean of Sc4 and Sc6) in rhizospheric soil. On average, β-glucosidase activity was significantly higher in rhizospheric soils of rice based system over maize based CSA system. Before sowing of wheat, significantly higher (21.4%) acid phosphatase activity was observed in rhizosphere over bulk soils of maize based CSA system. Significantly higher alkaline phosphatase activity was observed before sowing of wheat in bulk soils of rice (25.3%) and maize (38.5%) based CSA systems over rhizospheric soils. Rice based CSA systems showed 27% higher FDH activity than maize based systems. Significant interaction effect was observed between the managements and enzymes. SOC played an important role in regulating the enzymes activity both in rhizosphere and bulk soil. Significant variation in AcP/AlP, Al3 and GMea was observed among the managements. Therefore, CSA managements are beneficial in improving enzyme activities not only in rhizosphere but also in bulk soil where residues are retained thereby may help in improving nutrient cycling

Not Available

Not AvailableIn agriculture production system, soil enzymes are important indicators of soil quality. Measurements of soil quality parameter changes are essential for assessing the impact of soil and crop management practices. Keeping this in view, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the enzyme activities namely dehydrogenase (DHA), β-glucosidase, acid and alkaline phosphatase (AcP & AlP), fluorescein diacetate hydrolases (FDH), cellulase, urease and aryl sulphatase in rhizosphere and bulk soil after 8 years of different management regimes. Soil organic carbon (SOC), moisture content and few enzyme indices such as enzymatic pH indicator (AcP/AlP), alteration index three (Al3) and geometric mean (GMea) were also measured. The treatments were conventional rice-wheat system (termed as scenario (Sc1), CT system), partial conservation agriculture (CA)-based rice-wheatmungbean system (Sc2, PCA-RW), partial climate smart agriculture (CSA)-based rice-wheat-mungbean system (Sc3), partial CSA-based maize-wheat-mungbean system (Sc4), full CSA-based rice-wheat-mungbean system (Sc5), and full CSA-based maize-wheat-mungbean system (Sc6). Soil samples were collected from rhizosphere and away from roots (bulk soil) at 0–15 cm soil depth before sowing (from rhizosphere of previous crops), at maximum tillering, flowering, and after harvesting of wheat crop. Results showed that DHA activity was higher before sowing (59.8%), at maximum tillering (48.4%), flowering (8.6%) and after harvesting (19.1%) in rice based CSA systems (mean of Sc3 and Sc5) over maize based CSA systems (mean of Sc4 and Sc6) in rhizospheric soil. On average, β-glucosidase activity was significantly higher in rhizospheric soils of rice based system over maize based CSA system. Before sowing of wheat, significantly higher (21.4%) acid phosphatase activity was observed in rhizosphere over bulk soils of maize based CSA system. Significantly higher alkaline phosphatase activity was observed before sowing of wheat in bulk soils of rice (25.3%) and maize (38.5%) based CSA systems over rhizospheric soils. Rice based CSA systems showed 27% higher FDH activity than maize based systems. Significant interaction effect was observed between the managements and enzymes. SOC played an important role in regulating the enzymes activity both in rhizosphere and bulk soil. Significant variation in AcP/AlP, Al3 and GMea was observed among the managements. Therefore, CSA managements are beneficial in improving enzyme activities not only in rhizosphere but also in bulk soil where residues are retained thereby may help in improving nutrient cycling.Not Availabl

Photon-counting detectors for digital radiography and X-Ray computed tomography

We report on the adaption of new particle physics gas proportional microdetectors filled with a xenon/methane gas mixture at high pressure as image receptors for medical x-ray imaging. Currently in radiology, all detectors used clinically merely integrate the energy deposited by the beam. The next generation of detectors for digital radiography and computed tomography (CT) will obtain extra information by counting individual photons and measuring their energy. This will enable (i) implementation of single exposure dual-energy radiography, (ii) for CT, reconstruction of images free of spectral artefacts, and (iii) for the same quantum efficiency, reduced image noise compared with images obtained by energy integration. The new gas microdetectors can measure individual photon energies at radiological fluence rates and have high spatial resolution. Prototype systems in our laboratory have demonstrated a limiting spatial resolution of 7.0 lp mm-1 for a 30 kV x-ray spectrum and 11.9 1p mm-1 for 50 kV. The energy resolution at 4 atm was 10% at 17.7 keV and 8% at 59.6 keV. The counting rate ability for unfiltered 30 kV x rays was > 2 x 106 mm-2 s1 at 3 atm of Xeimethane corresponding to an exposure rate > 25 mR s-1. Future systems in which the readout anodes are parallel to the photon direction will be capable of even higher rates

Charged-particle measurement

However, for all types of charged particles of concern here, ionization of the target atoms is the dominant mode of excitation of the detection medium. This process is also the main source of radiation damage in biological tissue

Climate Smart Agriculture Influences Soil Enzymes Activity under Cereal-based Systems of North-West India

Soil enzyme activities are important indicators of changes in management practices in crop production systems. Measurements of different soil quality parameters are essential for assessing the impact of soil and crop management practices. Keeping this in view, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the enzyme activities namely, dehydrogenase (DHA), β-glucosidase, acid and alkaline phosphatase, fluorescein diacetate hydrolases (FDH), cellulase, urease and arylsulphatase in soil after 7 years of the experimentation with same management practices. The treatments were conventional rice-wheat system (Sc1), partial conservation agriculture (CA)-based rice-wheat-mungbean system (Sc2), partial climate smart agriculture (CSA)-based rice-wheat-mungbean system (Sc3), partial CSA-based maize-wheat-mungbean system (Sc4), full CSAbased rice-wheat-mungbean system (Sc5), and full CSA-based maize-wheat-mungbean system (Sc6). Soil samples were collected before sowing, maximum tillering, flowering, and at harvest of wheat crop from surface layer (0-15 cm soil depth). Partial CA-based system (Sc2) exhibited higher DHA activity over others. Also DHA activity in soil was higher at maximum tillering (16%), flowering (11%) and after harvesting (3%) in rice-based CSA systems (mean of Sc3 and Sc5) over maize-based systems (mean of Sc4 and Sc6). On average, β-glucosidase and alkaline phosphatase activity was significantly higher in soils of maize based systems than rice based systems. On average, improved practices (CA and CSA) based scenarios (Sc2-Sc6) recorded 15 per cent higher FDH activity over farmers’ practice/ CT (Sc1). Significant interaction effect was observed between the managements and enzyme activities. The CSA managements were found beneficial in improving soil enzyme activities and thereby helping in improving nutrient cycling besides influencing other soil properties in long run