Tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment practices of private physicians in Karachi, Pakistan

In a densely populated urban area of Karachi, Pakistan, a questionnaire survey was made of the knowledge and practices of 120 private general practitioners about the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB). The majority knew that cough, fever and weight loss were the main symptoms of TB, but less than half knew that blood in sputum, poor appetite and chest pain were associated with the disease. Only 58.3% of physicians used sputum microscopy for diagnosing TB and 35.0% used it as a follow-up test. Only 41.7% treated TB patients themselves, the remaining referring their patients to specialists. Around 73.3% of the doctors were aware of the 4 first-line anti-TB drugs. Efforts to improve the knowledge of private practitioners, and strategies to enhance public-private collaboration forTB control in urban areas are urgently required

OPTIMIZATION OF THE CROPPING PATTERN IN CENTRAL YASIN DISTRICT GHIZER, GILGIT-BALTISTAN

In this research study Linear Programming (LP) Model is applied to determine the maximum profit from the three major crops (wheat, maize and alfalfa) in Central Yasin District Ghizer, where agriculture is the main source of income, however, due to population growth the agricultural land is used to construct buildings, which has minimized the land for agricultural use. In such a challenging condition a method to suggest the cultivation of a maximum profitable crop is the need of time. Therefore, LP model is an appropriate method to decide the profitable crop and to maximize the profit. The study was conducted employing quantitative method of research, with the purpose to compare the maximum profit per annum from the major crops, and to determine the beneficial crop among the three major crops in Central Yasin. All the farmers of the study area who grow the crops were the target population of the study and samples from the target population were selected using random sampling technique. Data was collected by conducting survey in the study area, where self-made questionnaires were distributed among the samples individually and responses were noted on the spot. The raw data is organized and analyzed using Microsoft Excel for LP model formulation. The result showed that the average land used for the cultivation of wheat, maize and alfalfa in the study area is 0.924 acres, 0.664 acres and 0.75 acres respectively. Furthermore, results of the LP model showed that alfalfa is the optimal solution rather than wheat and maize, and it (alfalfa) gives an average annual net profit of Rs.195634.488

Prevalence and severity of depression among undergraduate students in Karachi, Pakistan: a cross sectional study

Purpose: To highlight the prevalence and severity of depression among undergraduate students in public and private universities in Karachi, Pakistan.Methods: In this cross-sectional study a total of 408 undergraduate students from both public and private universities in Karachi, Pakistan completed Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) questionnaire to appraise the presence and extent of depression among the participants. Their sociodemographic characteristics such as age, gender and course of study as well as drug use data were also collected and analyzed.Results: Depression prevalence was 53.43 % (38.07 % for males and 61.00 % for females). A significant disparity in the prevalence of depression across ethnicity was observed. Less than 50 % (n = 163) of the students were satisfied with their duration of degree course work while 111 (27.20 %) participants were not sure about this. The intensity of depression increased with declining satisfaction level (Gamma = 0.264, p = 0.001) which affected the performance and results of students during their studies. A majority of the participants (89 %, n = 358) of our study have never used medicines to alter their mood.Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight the importance of understanding the unique strains and mental health effect of university education on undergraduate students, especially female students.Keywords: Depression, Undergraduate students, Mood alteration, Zung self-rating depression scale (SDS), Mental health, Risk assessmen

Knot undulator to generate linearly polarized photons with low on-axis power density

Heat load on beamline optics is a serious problem to generate pure linearly polarized photons in the third generation synchrotron radiation facilities. For permanent magnet undulators, this problem can be overcome by a figure-8 operating mode. But there is still no good method to tackle this problem for electromagnetic elliptical undulators. Here, a novel operating mode is suggested, which can generate pure linearly polarized photons with very low on-axis heat load. Also the available minimum photon energy of linearly polarized photons can be extended much by this method

Using High Dimensional Computing on Arabic Language Speech to Text Classification

High-Dimensional Processing is the idea that mind register illustrations of neural activities which are not immediately related with numbers. The objective of the article is hyper- dimensional computation of data for categorization of text from two distinct speech datasets, namely the Arabic Corpus dataset and the MediaSpeech dataset with four languages (Arabic, Spanish, French, and Turkish). Through the use of an n-gram encoding scheme, hyper dimensional computing is used to conduct the analysis from the prior set of data. Using hyper dimensional computing, the MediaSpeech dataset accomplishes 100% accuracy for all 4-gram to 14-gram encoding schemes, while the Arabic Corpus dataset accomplishes 100% accuracy for 4-gram to 7-gram encoding schemes

MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF MAGNETIZED CHEMICALLY REACTIVE FLUID FLOW PAST OVER POROUS STRETCHED SHEET

The aim of this article to inspect the effect of nonlinear thermal radiation, heat joule, viscous dissipation and magnetic field on viscoelastic second grade fluid. Flow is generated due to stretching of sheet. Flow features are studied considering hydrodynamic boundary conditions. Chemical reaction on the surface is further accounted. The flow governing nonlinear partial system of differential equations is obtained incorporating boundary layer assumptions. The dimensional model is made dimensionless by taking suitable transformations and then tackled via HAM for convergent series solution. Effects of flow controlling parameters on velocity, concentration, temperature, local skin friction coefficient, Sherwood number and Nusselt numbers are discussed by plotting graphs. Main observations are listed at the end

Pneumothorax: a review of 146 adult cases admitted at a university teaching hospital in Pakistan

Objective: There is a lack of data on the etiology and outcome of pneumothorax among the Pakistani population. Our aim was to review the etiology, clinical course, management and outcome of patients presenting with pneumothorax.PATIENTS AND Methods: All adult cases with pneumothorax admitted to a University Teaching Hospital in Karachi, between January 1992 and June 1996, were reviewed and analyzed.Results: A total of 146 patients were reviewed. Their mean age was 46.3 years (SD +/- 17.8 years) with a male to female ratio of 3.7:1. Secondary pneumothorax was the commonest type seen (45%), followed by traumatic (21%), iatrogenic (18%) and primary (16%). Tuberculosis (47%) and COPD (45%) were most common lung diseases associated with secondary pneumothorax. Pneumothorax secondary to TB presented at an earlier age than that with COPD (49.6 vs. 60.1 years). Similarly, patients with primary pneumothorax were significantly younger than patients with secondary pneumothorax (42.3 vs. 51.7 years). Rib fracture was the most common cause of traumatic pneumothorax. Coronary artery bypass grafting, transthoracic fine needle aspiration and neck vein cannulations were the leading iatrogenic causes. The commonest symptoms of pneumothorax were dyspnea (68%) and chest pain (40%). Most cases (81%) were successfully managed by intercostal tube drainage.CONCLUSION: In our study population, secondary pneumothorax was the commonest variety seen. TB was the commonest cause of secondary pneumothorax, closely followed by COPD. Nearly 40% of pneumothorax were either traumatic or iatrogenic. Intercostal tube drainage remains the treatment of choice for pneumothorax