A Switched System Identification Approach to Spindle Modeling

Due to new advances in convex optimization, in particular, semidefinite programming, previously infeasible problems are now in the realm of possibility. Mainly, there have been new breakthroughs in the model- ing of signals as the output of switched dynamical systems where the switching indicates underlying events of interest. This method is known as hybrid system identification. These problems can be formulated as polynomial optimization problems by which, through algebraic refor- mulations, convex optimization approaches now exist. In this work, we explore the application of these new approaches, which lay at the intersection of systems and control with machine learning, for the detection of events in electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Our particular focus on EEG signals is twofold. First, these signals are routinely used to monitor the quality of sleep, which is critical to both physical and mental health. Second, the onset of the internet-of-things has driven industry to develop affordable, in home, EEG sleep monitors. Most of these devices will take advantage of cloud services where vast amounts of sleep data will be processed. There have been various attempts to develop automatic staging systems using mostly machine learning approaches such as Support Vector Ma- chines and Neural Networks. However, there is very limited research that explores the use of switched dynamical systems to model sleep wave- forms. This thesis work is the first step towards this direction. It focuses on modeling spindles, found in stage two of sleep, as switched Autoregres- sive (AR) models where the switching events are used to determine if a spindle occurred. Various aspects of the problem are considered, such as those related to error introduced by noise and the effect of model order. The results presented in this work reveal potential new approaches to unsupervised classification of spindles and event based feature detection in complex signals

Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty in Pakistan

We develop an economic policy uncertainty (EPU) index for Pakistan in accordance with Baker, Bloom and Davis (2016) by extracting newspaper articles from Websites (i.e., Web-scraping) and we divided this into two indices. The main index, is based on four leading English-language Pakistan newspapers for the period of January 2015 to April 2020. To cover more historical ground, we also present a second index which uses two of the four newspapers and for which Web harvesting is plausible for a longer period of August 2010 to April 2020. The two indices are highly correlated thus they move in tandem and between them they capture events such as: the great floods of 2010; high terrorism activity; heightened exchange rate volatility; political turmoil; reshuffling of economic managers; the IMF program of 2019, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic

Clinicopathologic Spectrum of Xanthogranulomatous Pyelonephritis: A Single Center Experience over 8 Years

Xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis (XGP) is a chronic pyelonephritis subtype in which destruction of the renal parenchymal occurs, resulting in progressive loss of kidney functions. Although middle age is the predominant age group affected, but it can be spotted at any age. There is accumulation of macrophages (lipid-laden), leading to renal parenchymal destruction and fibrosis. In this study, we present our data of 15 patients who had undergone nephrectomy and had biopsy-proven XGP. XGP constituted 4.53% of the 331 nephrectomies performed for infective causes over a period of 8 years. All our patients had undergone unilateral total nephrectomy. Demographic and clinical data were analyzed after taking consent from all the patients. The age range of patients in our study was 18–65 years with a mean age of 43.93 ± 13.86 years. Ten (66.6%) of our patients were females. Diabetes was present in 40% of the patients. Three patients had imaging, suggestive of pyonephrosis, 3 had perinephric collection and 9 patients (60%) had concomitant nephrolithiasis. All the kidneys were grossly enlarged and were nonfunctional on renal scintigraphy. XGP is a form of chronic pyelonephritis, which, although less common, is devastating because of destruction of the renal parenchyma and associated morbidity. Clinicoradiologic correlation cannot be overemphasized. Definitive diagnosis is established through histopathologic examination

ACC-deaminase producing plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and biochar mitigate adverse effects of drought stress on maize growth

Availability of good quality irrigation water is a big challenge in arid and semi arid regions of the world. Drought stress results in poor plant growth and low yield; however, the rhizobacteria, capable of producing 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC)-deaminase are likely to improve crop growth and productivity under drought stress. Similarly, biochar could also ameliorate the negative impacts of drought stress. Therefore, this pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the role of ACC-deaminase producing plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) alone and in combinations with timber-waste biochar in improving maize growth under drought stress. The ACC-deaminase producing rhizobacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter cloacae, Achromobacter xylosoxidans and Leclercia adecarboxylata were studied along with two rates (0.75 and 1.50% of the soil weight) of biochar under three moisture levels i.e., normal moisture, mild drought stress and severe drought stress. The E. cloacae in conjunction with higher rate of biochar produced a significant improvement i.e., up to 60, 73, 43, 69, 76 and 42% respectively, in grain yield plant-1, photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, chlorophyll a, total chlorophyll and carotenoids contents of maize as compared to the control under mild drought stress. Similarly, A. xylosoxidans with higher rate of biochar also enhanced grain yield plant-1, photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, chlorophyll a, total chlorophyll and carotenoids contents of maize up to 200, 213, 113, 152, 148 and 284%, respectively over control under severe drought stress. In conclusion, combination of ACC-deaminase containing PGPR, A. xylosoxidans and biochar (0.75%) proved an effective technique to improve maize growth and productivity under drought stress

Histopathological Spectrum of Nephrectomies; a Single Centre Experience of over 14 Years

Nephrectomy is conducted either as an open or a laparoscopic procedure for a variety of clinical indications. These include both neoplastic and non-neoplastic conditions, such as the non-functioning kidney. In many patients the final diagnosis is established on the histopathology of the retrieved kidney. In this study, retrospective analysis of data of last 14 years was studied pertaining to the number and indications of nephrectomy at the present study centre. Demographic and clinical details were assessed. Gross and microscopic histopathological details were recorded. Diagnosis was established on the basis of clinical features and histopathology. A total of 638 total nephrectomy specimens were received. Of these, 280 cases were of neoplastic and 358 of non-neoplastic lesions, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.21:1. The age range varied widely according to clinical manifestations. The age range in the present study was 5–84 years. Patients operated for non-neoplastic disorders were younger (mean age: 38.1 years) than those operated for neoplastic disorders (mean age: 54.4 years). Clear renal cell carcinoma (RCC) was the commonest RCC type (150 patients) followed by papillary RCC (51 cases). Nephrectomy is done due to both benign and malignant clinical indications as observed in this study. The most common indication was chronic pyelonephritis with the non-functioning kidney

Comparison of first dorsal metacarpal artery flap done by consultants and residents and guidelines for improving outcome for beginners

Background: Thumb alone constitutes about 40% of hand function and trauma to distal part of thumb will thus affect the overall hand function. The goals of correction of traumatic deformities of distal thumb are to maintain adequate length and sensation along with giving a supple and stable soft tissue cover. Among other options, first dorsal metacarpal artery (FDMA) flap raised from the dorsum of the proximal part of index finger is a simple and widely used flap.Methods: We compared the results of FDMA flap done by residents (M.Ch trainees) and consultants in our institute. Residents operated upon a total of 12 patients and consultants operated upon 16 patients.Results: Among 12 patients operated by residents 3 flaps were lost and 2 flaps had marginal necrosis whereas among the patients operated by consultants 1 flap was lost and 1 had partial necrosis in distal part of the flap.Conclusions: Although there was no statistical difference between the operating time taken by trainees and consultant specialists but the complication rate is higher among the residents. Sticking with the basics of plastic surgery, FDMA flap is an excellent technique for thumb reconstruction and results are excellent as and when more experience is gained

EFFICIENT REMOVAL OF HEAVY METALS BY PHYTOREMEDIATION TECHNIQUES

Direct and indirect disposal of different wastes either due to some accidental spillage or due to practicing of sewage sludge to agricultural fields for diverse reasons in the water reservoirs contributes towards contamination of our ecosystem. Physical removal or immobilization is required for making soil and water contaminant-free from such kind of heavy metals. The Earth crust is mainly composed of these heavy metals and as they are non-degradable in nature, so there is a greater risk of their entrance into the food web and lead to various health hazards. Phytoremediation is an innovative, environment friendly, cost-effective, and aesthetically pleasing approach to remove/immobilize heavy metals. Processes mainly involves the detoxification, removal, or stabilization of retentive pollutants via utilization of vegetation and is a green environmental-friendly tool for cleaning polluted soils. It is a broad-spectrum remediation mechanism in which several processes are involved as mentioned here includes phyto-stabilization, rhizo-filtration, rhizo-degradation, phyto-degradation, phyto-extraction, and phyto-volatilization. Use of aromatic non-edible plants is sustainable and the best treatment approach for the elimination of toxic metals. These plants are not removed directly by humans or animals like non-aromatic edible crops such as cereals, pulses, or vegetables. This research is entirely based on qualitative analysis with descriptive approach. The crops like mustard plant, sunflower, rapeseed etc. are effectively put in an application at sites with superficial contamination of organic or inorganic contaminants via the above-mentioned six techniques. Phytoremediation is a reliable reclaiming treatment and hence the most demanding remediation technology in the world

A Novel Dual Ultrawideband CPW-Fed Printed Antenna for Internet of Things (IoT) Applications

This paper presents a dual-band coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed printed antenna with rectangular shape design blocks having ultrawideband characteristics, proposed and implemented on an FR4 substrate. The size of the proposed antenna is just 25 mm × 35 mm. A novel rounded corners technique is used to enhance not only the impedance bandwidth but also the gain of the antenna. The proposed antenna design covers two ultrawide bands which include 1.1–2.7 GHz and 3.15–3.65 GHz, thus covering 2.4 GHz Bluetooth/Wi-Fi band and most of the bands of 3G, 4G, and a future expected 5G band, that is, 3.4–3.6 GHz. Being a very low-profile antenna makes it very suitable for the future 5G Internet of Things (IoT) portable applications. A step-by-step design process is carried out to obtain an optimized design for good impedance matching in the two bands. The current densities and the reflection coefficients at different stages of the design process are plotted and discussed to get a good insight into the final proposed antenna design. This antenna exhibits stable radiation patterns on both planes, having low cross polarization and low back lobes with a maximum gain of 8.9 dB. The measurements are found to be in good accordance with the simulated results