Haemodynamics during Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy in Spinal Anaesthesia with Two Doses of Hyperbaric Bupivacaine (0.75%)

To compare variation in haemodynamics during percutaneous nephrolithotomy in spinal anaesthesia with two doses of hyperbaric bupivacaine (0.75%). Methods: In this randomized comparative study 60 patients, undergoing percutaneous nephrolithotomy, were included. It was done to compare the variation in haemodynamic parameters after spinal anaesthesia using two different doses of local anaesthetic before and after keeping patients in prone position. Patients were divided into two groups: Group A(n=30) (22.5 mg hyperbaric Bupivacaine 0.75%) and Group B (n=30)(30 mg hyperbaric Bupivacaine 0.75%). Spinal block was performed in sitting position. Hemodynamic measurements were carried out at different time points while patients were in supine and prone position.Results: Decrease in heart rate was significant in Group B than in Group A after 10 minutes of spinal block while in supine position (p<0.001) and the drop in heart rate was significant statistically in Group B when patients were turned to prone position (p<0.001).Systolic and diastolic blood pressures decreased in Group B at 5 and 10 minutes in supine position which further decreased following prone positioning and the decrease was highly significant statistically(p=<0.001).Conclusion: 22.5 mg of injection hyperbaric Bupivacaine is haemodynamically safer as compared to 30 mg of the same drug during spinal anaesthesia in percutaneous nephrolithotomy

The impact of cash holding, and exchange rate volatility on the firm’s financial performance of all manufacturing sector in Pakistan

Exchange rate movement is a mostly debatable issue amongst economists and strategic financial planners in the economies as a vital phenomenon, of every economy in the developing the world. This study sets out to examine the impact of cash conversion cycle, Size, Age, and exchange rate movement on firms’ financial decisions. The estimation used techniques of static panel data analysis in this study; pooled OLS, random effects, and fixed effects. Interaction techniques are applied to check the impact of the exchange rate by multiplying this variable with the main variables of cash conversion cycle, that is receivable in days and payables in days. The results depict there is a significant negative relationship between return on assets and exchanger rate during the period of review while the beta of cash conversion cycle has negative value; age and size are positive and significant at 1% level with return on assets. Therefore, it is recommended that organizations that have some measure to agreement in foreign currencies can adopt some advanced hedging technique to occupy the exchange rate movements risk to improve firm’s performance

Effect of Condensate Flow Rate on Retention Angle on Horizontal Low-Finned Tubes

This article is in an Open Access journalThe paper reports experimental results using simulated condensation on eight horizontal integral finned tubes with different fin spacing but same root diameter. Condensation was simulated with low approaching zero vapor velocity of condensate using three liquids (water, ethylene glycol and R141b) supplied to the tube via small holes between the fins along the top of the tubes. Controlling parameters of the investigation were fin spacing of condensation tubes, flow rate of condensate and surface tension to density ratio of the condensate. The results indicate that the retention angle (measured from the top of the tube to the position where the inter-fin space is completely filled with liquid) increases with the increase in fin spacing. Also, retention angle increases as the density of the condensate increases but retention angle decreases with increase in surface tension. Interesting finding is seen as retention angle remains constant with increase in condensate flow rate, starting from very low (nearly zero) flow rate to the flow rate at which the tube gets fully flooded. The critical flow rate for eight tubes of defined fin density against three working fluids is measured. Results obtained from simulated condensation for almost zero condensate velocity are in good agreement with earlier data and theoretical model for retention angle on such tubes

QuSecNets: Quantization-based Defense Mechanism for Securing Deep Neural Network against Adversarial Attacks

Adversarial examples have emerged as a significant threat to machine learning algorithms, especially to the convolutional neural networks (CNNs). In this paper, we propose two quantization-based defense mechanisms, Constant Quantization (CQ) and Trainable Quantization (TQ), to increase the robustness of CNNs against adversarial examples. CQ quantizes input pixel intensities based on a "fixed" number of quantization levels, while in TQ, the quantization levels are "iteratively learned during the training phase", thereby providing a stronger defense mechanism. We apply the proposed techniques on undefended CNNs against different state-of-the-art adversarial attacks from the open-source \textit{Cleverhans} library. The experimental results demonstrate 50%-96% and 10%-50% increase in the classification accuracy of the perturbed images generated from the MNIST and the CIFAR-10 datasets, respectively, on commonly used CNN (Conv2D(64, 8x8) - Conv2D(128, 6x6) - Conv2D(128, 5x5) - Dense(10) - Softmax()) available in \textit{Cleverhans} library

Stagnate Economic Analysis of Regime Change & Administration shuffling Impact on Pakistan economy

Pakistan has faced a political instability since its creation. The country remains under the undemocratic dictatorship of Military rulers for more than three decades. This has made it difficult to strengthen the democratic values and system of the country. Like every other country, the political instability in the country upset the trust of investors and also put bad impacts on the performance of stock market. Although Pakistan performed economically well during Musharraf regime, the economic indicators told that after that Pakistan faced a decline in economic growth, this decline was countered after the merger of stock exchange in 2016 and after that in 2017, Pakistan stock exchange was awarded as best performing stock exchange of Asia. The amount of FDI increased significantly, exports and other economic factors such as GDP growth at 6 percent was a remarkable of achievement of PTI led government. But soon after change of regime in Pakistan, country faced several economic and political problems which leads towards a severe economic crisis, resulting the threats of being on the edge of default. The current study, analyzed the basic empirical data of economic performance of both PTI led and PDM led governments and tried to established an opinion that the regime change has negatively impacted the economy and also it has damaged the economic growth of Pakistan

Isolation of Caffeine from Carbonated Beverages

The work presented on the isolation of naturally occurring alkaloid from carbonated beverages. The extensive presence of caffeine in different plants plays an important role in the long-standing acceptance of caffeine-containing products. Caffeine (3,7-dihydro-1, 3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione or 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) is an alkaloid belongs to Methylxanthine family. Liquid-liquid extraction methods were used in the assay of research work. Chloroform was taken as extracting solvent. Solid residue of caffeine was recrystallized from 95% ethanol using 5ml/gram (5ml per gram). It is declared to raise caffeine, effects a number of different drugs include Paracetamol, Benzodiazepines and Aspirin and amount of plasma free Fatty acids increases. While inform that in regular sleeping interaction caffeine take place and raise the absorption of certain drugs. Changes in drug metabolizing enzymes, acts as an agent in a microsomal system of the body. The highest amount of caffeine dry crystal is extracted in sting sample while the 7up sample is free from caffeine

A systemic literature review of the effect of proton pump inhibitors on gallbladder function

Objective: To determine the association between proton pump inhibitors and gallbladder function Methods: A systematic search of Medline, Embase and CENTRAL (inception to April 2020) was conducted to capture the relevant studies. A comprehensive inclusion-exclusion criterion was developed and implemented to screen the titles and abstracts. . We, however, found no eligible studies. Results: The systematic search identified 38 unique articles for title and abstract screening. Of which, five were included as potentially relevant studies. However, upon full-text screening, none of them met our inclusion criteria. This review is, therefore, an empty systematic review. Conclusion: There are no good quality studies determining the effect of proton pump inhibitors on gallbladder function. Given the common use of proton pump inhibitors and their potential impact on gallbladder function, there is an urgent need for conducting clinical studies to address this gap in the evidence