Adolescent Friendly Health Corners (AFHCs) in selected government health facilities in Bangladesh: An early qualitative assessment

With high rates of early marriage, especially among girls, a significant proportion of adolescents in Bangladesh need sexual and reproductive health services (SRH), including contraceptive information. To address this gap and ensure that adolescents throughout the country, including unmarried adolescents, have access to SRH services through public health facilities, the Maternal and Child Health Services Unit of the Directorate General of Family Planning, with financial and technical assistance from development partners, has begun establishing Adolescent Friendly Health Corners (AFHCs) at selected government facilities at district and union levels. The Evidence Project/Population Council was asked to assess the implementation of the first of these AFHCs, including their performance and quality of services, to inform the effective scale-up of the model around the country. This report presents findings from a qualitative study of 10 AFHCs, with recommendations for improving the initiative going forward. The study found that unmarried adolescent girls are using AFHCs and that users expressed satisfaction with service providers. However, the study also noted limited awareness of AFHCs and a number of challenges associated with the physical setup of the facilities

COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ANALYSIS OF NOVEL MAPPING MULTIPLEXING (NMM) TECHNIQUE FOR LONG HAUL OPTICAL FIBER TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS

A new multiplexing technique based on mapping method called Novel Mapping Multiplexing (NMM) is proposed and well demonstrated. It is reported that spectral width occupied by 40 Gb/s NMM is 40 GHz with spectral efficiency of 1bit/sec/Hz that shows a clear advantage over the conventional NRZ-OOK and RZ-OOK with same data rate of 40Gbits/sec having spectral efficiency of 0.5bit/sec/Hz and 0.25bit/sec/Hz respectively. This technique features better chromatic dispersion (CD) tolerance and Q-Factor because of its narrow spectral width

Comparison of Urdu version of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL) amongst primary school children in Karachi

OBJECTIVE: To compare CBCL (Child Behaviour Check Llist) Urdu, with the validated Urdu version of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) used as gold standard among school children in Karachi, Pakistan, and to develop local cutoffs for CBCL using SDQ as a gold standard. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Schools of Karachi metropolitan area from January to December 2006. METHODOLOGY: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL) was completed by parents of 5-11 years old primary school children in Karachi. Appropriate cutoff points for total problem, internalizing and externalizing scales were obtained for CBCL. RESULTS: A total of 556 parents filled out both the SDQ Urdu version as well as CBCL. Scores from the parent rated total SDQ scores were highly correlated with the total CBCL scores (r=0.589). The local cutoffs derived for CBCL were considerably lower than USA norms. Slightly higher cutoff for males was found as compared to females for the total CBCL scores. CONCLUSION: Like the original English version, the Urdu version of CBCL and SDQ are both equally valid assessment tools to be used for both clinical and research purpose in Pakistani settings, where Urdu is widely spoken and understood

Numerical Solution and Analysis for Acute and Chronic Hepatitis B

In this article, we present the transmission dynamic of the acute and chronic hepatitis B epidemic problem to control the spread of hepatitis B in a community. In order to do this, first we present sensitivity analysis of the basic reproduction number R0. We develop a unconditionally convergent nonstandard finite difference scheme by applying Mickens approach φ(h) = h + O(h^2) instead of h to control the spread of this infection, treatment and vaccination to minimize the number of acute infected, chronically infected with hepatitis B individuals and maximize the number of susceptible and recovered individuals. The stability analysis of the scheme has been developed by theorems which shows the both stable locally and globally. Comparison is also made with standard nonstandard finite difference scheme. Finally numerical simulations are also established to investigate the influence of the system parameter on the spread of the disease

Internet of Things-Based Fire Alarm Navigation System: A Fire-Rescue Department Perspective

In the past few years, fire alarm systems have become increasingly sophisticated and more capable and reliable. The two main objectives are the protection of life and property. As a result of state and local codes, fire protection has become more concerned with life safety over the past two decades. Several safety measures have been implemented to address the problems caused by the fires and reduce the number of fatalities and property damage. Our project is to develop and review a fire alarm navigation system and application that uses the internet of things. Fire alarm systems are designed to warn people about fires in advance so that they can evacuate the fire-affected area and take immediate action to control the fire. There will be a GPS module, a flame sensor, a smoke sensor, buzzers, LEDs, and a GSM module to ensure early notification to authorities and fire stations. The aim is to reduce the loss of lives and property. A questionnaire was designed to conduct a brief survey in a multinational sports production company in Sialkot, Pakistan, regarding the IoT fire alarm navigation system. Besides installing the system in the factory, we compare the results with fire incident response time with and without this system at rescue 1122 fire head station.publishedVersio

Association of Hypomagnesaemia & Hypocalcemia with Intracerebral Hemorrhage and Outcome

Determine if hypomagnesemia & hypocalcemia on admission was associated with ICH and outcome. Magnesium is a vascular smooth muscle relaxant and appears to provide protection against cellular injury in experimental stroke models. The implication of low serum magnesium in primary ICH is not well defined. All patients with a primary ICH presented to PIMS, Islamabad prospectively analyzed in a pilot study. Demographics, initial lab values, ICH location, Mg+2 level, NIHSS & MRS at presentation were recorded. All patients with INR \u3c= 1.5 were included in this study. We took normal serum magnesium in our study was 1.8 - 2.5 mEq/dL. Statistical significance was determined using linear regression adjusting for admission systolic blood pressure (SBP). We identified 66 patients who met the inclusion criteria. The mean age was 52.76 years with minimum and maximum age was 25 and 80 years respectively. Total male and female patients were 40 (61%) and 26 (39.4%). The total number of patients with hypomagnesemia was 23 (30%) and with hypocalcemia was 54 (65%). All patients having hypomagnesemia (30%) also had subsequent hypocalcemia. Mean systolic Blood pressure (SBP) was 156.65 mmHg and 55patients (84.62%) presented with high SBP. All patients with hypomagnesemia presented with high SBP (p=0.001). Hypomagnesemia and hypocalcemia both were showed statically significant association with poor MRS & NIHSS score (p=0.013 and p=0.001). Hypomagnesemia was not showed statistically significant relation with the outcome (p=0.11) while hypocalcemia showed a remarkable association with outcome (p=0.001)

A Conceptual Model for Blockchain-Based Agriculture Food Supply Chain System

In agriculture supply chain management, traceability is a crucial aspect to ensure food safety for increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction. Lack of quality assurance in centralized data storage makes us move towards a new approach based on a decentralized system in which transparency and quality assurance is guaranteed throughout the supply chain from producer to consumer. The current supply chain model has some disadvantages like a communication gap between the entities of the supply chain and no information about the travel history and origin of the product. The use of technology improves the communication and relation between various farmers and stakeholders. Blockchain technology acquires transparency and traceability in the supply chain, provides transaction records traceability, and enhances security for the whole supply chain. In this paper, we present a blockchain-based, fully decentralized traceability model that ensures the integrity and transparency of the system. This new model eliminated most of the disadvantages of the traditional supply chain. For the coordination of all transactions in the supply chain, we proposed a decentralized supply chain model along with a smart contract.publishedVersio

A Concurrence Study on Interoperability Issues in IoT and Decision Making Based Model on Data and Services being used during Inter-Operability

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) has become an important topic among researchers owing to its potential to change the way we live and use smart devices. In recent years, many research work found in the world are interrelated and convey via the existing web structure which makes a worldwide system called IoT. This study focused on the significant improvement of answers for a wider scope of gadgets and the Internet of Things IoT stages in recent years. In any case, each arrangement gives its very own IoT framework, gadgets, APIs, and information configurations promoting interoperability issues. These issues are the outcome of numerous basic issues, difficulty to create IoT application uncovering cross-stage, and additionally cross-space, trouble in connecting non-interoperable IoT gadgets to various IoT stages, what's more, eventually averts the development of IoT innovation at an enormous scale. To authorize consistent data sharing between various IoT vendors, endeavors by a few academia, industrial, and institutional groups have accelerated to support IoT interoperability. This paper plays out a far-reaching study on the cutting-edge answers for encouraging interoperability between various IoT stages. Likewise, the key difficulties in this theme are introduced

Compliance of Financial Statements of Islamic Banks of Pakistan with AAOIFI Guidelines in General Presentation and Disclosure

Objective - This study intends to investigate the extent of voluntary financial reporting compliance made by Islamic banks of Pakistan as suggested by Islamic accounting standards (i.e. AAOIFI).  Design/Methodology - The study is based on an empirical evaluation of financial statements of Islamic banks of Pakistan. Data sample consists of financial statements for the years 2009, 2015, 2016 and 2017 relating to of all four full-fledged Islamic banks in Pakistan. The first standard in Islamic accounting standards suggests a total of 111 items for compliance while preparing a financial statement of Islamic Banks. As per existing regulatory requirements, Islamic banks in Pakistan are required to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards while preparing their financial statements.  Findings - However, the analysis suggests Islamic banks in Pakistan are in compliance of more than 50% of requirements as suggested by Islamic accounting standards.  Implications – The insights will help the industry decision makers to increase the voluntary disclosures by the Islamic banks

Bile acid profiling reveals distinct signatures in undernourished children with environmental enteric dysfunction

Background: Intestinal inflammation and malabsorption in environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) are associated with early childhood growth faltering in impoverished settings worldwide.Objectives: The goal of this study was to identify candidate biomarkers associated with inflammation, EED histology, and as predictors of later growth outcomes by focusing on the liver-gut axis by investigating the bile acid metabolome.Methods: Undernourished rural Pakistani infants (n = 365) with weight-for-height Z score (WHZ) \u3c -2 were followed up to the age of 24 mo and monitored for growth, infections, and EED. Well-nourished local children (n = 51) were controls, based on consistent WHZ \u3e 0 and height-for-age Z score (HAZ) \u3e -1 on 2 consecutive visits at 3 and 6 mo. Serum bile acid (sBA) profiles were measured by tandem MS at the ages of 3-6 and 9 mo and before nutritional intervention. Biopsies and duodenal aspirates were obtained following upper gastrointestinal endoscopy from a subset of children (n = 63) that responded poorly to nutritional intervention. BA composition in paired plasma and duodenal aspirates was compared based on the severity of EED histopathological scores and correlated to clinical and growth outcomes.Results: Remarkably, \u3e70% of undernourished Pakistani infants displayed elevated sBA concentrations consistent with subclinical cholestasis. Serum glycocholic acid (GCA) correlated with linear growth faltering (HAZ, r = -0.252 and -0.295 at the age of 3-6 and 9 mo, respectively, P Conclusions: Dysregulated bile acid metabolism is associated with growth faltering and EED severity in undernourished children. Restoration of intestinal BA homeostasis may offer a novel therapeutic target for undernutrition in children with EED. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03588013