A comparative study of positive pressure ventilation via laryngeal mask airway and endotracheal tube

Objective: To investigate the use of Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA) and its comparison with the endotracheal tube for positive pressure ventilation.SETTING: A tertiary care teaching hospital.Methods: Fifty adult ASA I and II patients undergoing peripheral limb surgery were randomly allocated to 2 groups for LMA or endotracheal tube insertion. A standardized anaesthetic technique was used. The groups were then compared regarding haemodynamic changes on insertion as well as removal of LMA and ETT and any complications that occurred were noted.Results: The haemodynamic response to insertion was significantly attenuated (p \u3c 0.05) in LMA group as compared to ETT group. The cardiovascular response to extubation was not significantly different between the groups. A higher incidence of coughing and mild hypoxaemia at extubation was noted in ETT group as compared to LMA group (p \u3c 0.05) and blood was detected in 4 cases after LMA removal.CONCLUSION: It is concluded that the use of LMA during positive pressure ventilation is safe in selected cases. There is an attenuated haemodynamic response to insertion of LMA as compared to endotracheal tube which will be beneficial in certain patients e.g., those with ischaemic heart disease, vascular disease and hypertensives

Impact of Hindiya Dam on the Limnological Features of Euphrates River to the North of Babil Governorate, Iraq

تم اختيار خمسة مواقع في شمال محافظة بابل لمعرفة الخصائص الفيزيائية والكيميائية لنهر الفرات وتأثير سد الهندية عليها خلال عام 2019. اذ يقع المواقع الثاني بالقرب من السد لتعكس السمات البيئية له، في حين أن المواقع الأخرى، S1 يقع عند اعلى السد كموقع مرجعي. علاوة على ذلك، تم تحديد الموقعين الآخرين S3 وS4 تحت تأثير السد. أظهرت نتائج الدراسة وجود علاقة قوية بين درجة حرارة الهواء والماء في جميع المواقع. كما توجد فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية في متوسط ثلاثة عشر من أصل ثمانية عشر خاصية، أذ انخفضت درجة حرارة الماء والقاعدية الكلية والبيكربونات والأوكسجين المذاب ونسبة الاشباع بالأوكسجين والعسرة الكلية والمغنيسيوم من 22.76◦م و203.33 ملغم/لتر و146.75 ملغم/ لتر و8.8 ملغم/لتر و100.023٪، 438ملغم/لتر و35.55ملغم/لتر على التوالي في موقع S2 إلى 22.66◦م و200.28ملغم/لتر و145.58 ملغم/ لتر و8.35 ملغم/لتر و95.45٪ و 422.66 ملغم/لتر و28.81 ملغم/لتر على التوالي في الموقع أسفل السد. ينما زادت قيم كل من الكدرة وTSS و Ca + 2 وSO2 + 4 وNO3-2 وPO4-2 من 13.32 NTU و23.08 ملغم/ لتر و116.89ملغم/لتر و107.5ملغم/لتر و1.027 ملغم/لتر و0.019 ملغم/لتر،على التوالي في موقع S2 إلى 26.574NTU و 26.83 ملغم/لتر و 119.23 ملغم/ لتر و 137.5 ملغم/لتر و1.145 ملغم/لتر و0.032 ملغم/لتر على التوالي في الموقع أسفل السد. ومع ذلك، لم يسجل أي تأثير واضح للسد في EC وS وTDS وpHعند نهر الفرات. كما ولم تظهر فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية في جميع الخصائص بين المواقع باستثناء االعــكورة و TSSو Mg + 2وSO + 4 وPO4-2. يمكن أن يعّد مياه نهر الفرات عسر وقليلة الملوحة وذو قاعدية خفيف وجيدة التهوية وغير عكر. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، تجاوزت قيم العكارة والمواد الصلبة الذائبة الحدود المسموح بها لنوعية المياه للحياة المائية في معظم العينات خاصة في الموقع أسفل السد. ومع ذلك، عَدّ النهر مشكوك فيه في نقاوته من خلال قيم BOD5. كما كانت قيم الكالسيوم والمغنيسيوم والنترات والفوسفات في هذه الدراسة ضمن الحدود المسموح بها.          Five sites were chosen to the north of Babil Governorate in   order to identify the limnological features and the impact of the Hindiya Dam during 2019. Site2 was located near the dam to reflect the ecological features of this site, whereas other sites, S1 was located at the upstream of the dam as a control site. Moreover, the two other sites S3 and S4 were located down the dam. The results of  the  study  showed  a  close  correlation  between air and water temperature at all sites. Also there were significant differences in average of thirteen out of eighteen water parameters.Water temperature, total alkalinity, bicarbonate, DO, POS, TH and Mg+2  ions  decreased from 22.76˚C, 203.33 mg/L, 146.75 mg/L, 8.8 mg/L, 100.023%, 438 mg/L, 35.55mg/L, respectively on S2  to 22.66 ˚C, 200.28 mg/L, 145.58 mg/L, 8.35 mg/L, 95.45%, 422.66 mg/L,  28.81 mg/L, respectively at site below the dam. While, turbidity, TSS,  Ca+2,  SO2+4, NO3-2 and PO4-2 increased from 13.32 NTU, 23.08 mg/L, 116.89 mg/L, 107.5 mg/L, 1.027 mg/L and 0.019 mg/L, respectively on S2  to 26.574 NTU, 26.83 mg/L, 119.23 mg/L, 137.5 mg/L, 1.145 mg/L and 0.032 mg/L, respectively at the site below the dam.  However, no apparent dam effect was reported in EC, S, TDS, pH values at Euphrates River. No significant differences of all characteristics were found among sites except, turbidity, TSS, Mg+2,  SO+4 and PO4-2. It can be considered that the Euphrates River is very hard, oligohaline, slightly alkaline, well ventilated and clear to turbid. In addition, the turbidity and TSS values exceeded permissible limits of water quality for aquatic life in most samples especially in site below the dam. However, the river was considered by BOD5 to be doubtful in its cleanliness water. Calcium, magnesium, nitrate and phosphate values in this study were within permissible limits

A Literature Review on Agile Methodologies Quality, eXtreme Programming and SCRUM

most applied methods in the software development industry. However, agile methodologies face some challenges such as less documentation and wasting time considering changes. This review presents how the previous studies attempted to cover issues of agile methodologies and the modifications in the performance of agile methodologies. The paper also highlights unresolved issues to get the attention of developers, researchers, and software practitioners

SPATIAL SPEED-ACCURACY TRADE-OFF IN INTERNATIONAL BADMINTON PLAYERS PERFORMING THE FOREHAND SMASH

Speed and accuracy of the badminton smash are critical components for successful performance. Fifty-two participants data were collected using a Vicon 3D Motion capture system (400 Hz) at the BWF Glasgow World Championships (2017). The purpose of this study was to identify and compare spatial speed-accuracy trade-off (SATO) relationships amongst international badminton players performing the forehand smash, under two conditions: maximal speed (MS) in the direction of a target; and maximal speed aiming to hit the centre of a target (TAR). Exploratory and confirmatory cluster analyses revealed three groupings: Fitts’ inverse relationship (FIR), no relationship (NR) and alternate inverse relationship (AIR). Findings indicate that for international badminton players 80–99% of maximum speed is the threshold for achieving the highest levels of spatial accuracy

Class-Agnostic Counting

Nearly all existing counting methods are designed for a specific object class. Our work, however, aims to create a counting model able to count any class of object. To achieve this goal, we formulate counting as a matching problem, enabling us to exploit the image self-similarity property that naturally exists in object counting problems. We make the following three contributions: first, a Generic Matching Network (GMN) architecture that can potentially count any object in a class-agnostic manner; second, by reformulating the counting problem as one of matching objects, we can take advantage of the abundance of video data labeled for tracking, which contains natural repetitions suitable for training a counting model. Such data enables us to train the GMN. Third, to customize the GMN to different user requirements, an adapter module is used to specialize the model with minimal effort, i.e. using a few labeled examples, and adapting only a small fraction of the trained parameters. This is a form of few-shot learning, which is practical for domains where labels are limited due to requiring expert knowledge (e.g. microbiology). We demonstrate the flexibility of our method on a diverse set of existing counting benchmarks: specifically cells, cars, and human crowds. The model achieves competitive performance on cell and crowd counting datasets, and surpasses the state-of-the-art on the car dataset using only three training images. When training on the entire dataset, the proposed method outperforms all previous methods by a large margin.Comment: Asian Conference on Computer Vision (ACCV), 201

Overexposure analysis of pulsed distributed feedback laser source

The goal of this study is to assess the risk of overexposure, when DFB dye laser is used for medical treatment in pulsed mode operation. Results of experimental study showing an unexpected rise of energy in pulses of distributed feedback dye laser (DFDL) output due to temperature phase gratings in dye cell during passively Q switched and mode-locked operation is reported. This unintended increase in the number of pulses, pulse duration, per pulse energy may cause side effects, when used for selective photothermolysis. To probe this phenomenon the most commonly used Rh6G dye was excited with 10–20 pulses of second harmonic of a passively Q switched and mode-locked Nd:yttrium–aluminum–garnet(YAG) laser. The outputs of DFDL and Nd:YAG laser were recorded by an Imacon-675 streak camera. The peak of DFDL output pulses was found delayed proportionally from the peak of the Nd:YAG pulses by more than an inter-pulse period of excitation laser. A computer program was used to simulate the experimentally measured results to estimate the thermal decay constants and energy retained by medium. The delay between peaks of Nd:YAG (input) and DFDL (output) pulses was found to vary from 10 to 14 ns for various cavity lengths. It was interesting to note that for smaller inter-pulse periods the effect of gradual gain buildup satisfied the threshold conditions for some of the pulses that otherwise cannot lase. This may lead to unintended increase in energy fluence causing overexposure-induced bio effects

Effects of Aluminium Exposures on Growth, Photosynthetic Efficiency, Lipid Peroxidation, Antioxidant Enzymes and Artemisinin Content of Artemisia annua L.

Acid soils are widely distributed at a global scale; under acidic conditions, the solubility of aluminium (Al) increases and the elevated concentration of toxic Al3+ in soil solution seriously limits crop production. There is no information on the effects of aluminium (Al) on Artemisia annua L., which is a most important antimalarial plant in the recent time being artemisinin; responsible for its antimalarial activity. In this report, we describe the effects of Al contamination on growth, photosynthetic efficiency, membrane damage, antioxidant enzyme activities and changes in artemisinin content in A. annua. Al addition to the soil medium significantly reduced the yield and growth of the plants. Lower values of net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, internal CO2 and total chlorophyll content were observed as a result of different Al concentrations applied. The activities of nitrate reductase (NR) and carbonic anhydrase (CA) were also found to be hampered by Al exposure to the plants. Al enhanced lipid peroxidation rate (TBRAS content) and activated the activities of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes in the treated plants. The elicitation in the endogenous ROS levels, due to the Al treatments, was also noticed in the present study. Furthermore, enhanced artemisinin content and yield was obtained at 0.10mM concentration of soil applied Al. Our study provides evidence that excess Al in soil hamper the growth and yield, slow down the activities of NR and CA, induce lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzymes but a low level of Al-toxicity can induce artemisinin content in A. annua plants.Key words: Aluminium (Al); Artemisia annua L.; Artemisinin; Lipid peroxidation; Reactive oxygen species (ROS)Tariq Aftab et al. Effects of Aluminium Exposures on Growth, Photosynthetic Efficiency, Lipid Peroxidation, Antioxidant Enzymes and Artemisinin Content of Artemisia annua L. J Phytol 2/8(2010) 23-37

Line × Tester analysis for morpho-physiological traits of Zea mays L seedlings

Background:  Zea mays L. is one of the most imperative cereal crop in world after wheat and rice. It is a used as food for human and feed for livestock. To meet the ever increasing demand, maize production can be increased by application of improved agronomic techniques to get varieties with higher qualitative and quantitative traits and resilience to abiotic stresses.Methods: The genetic material was comprised of 8 parents and 12 F1 hybrids. The genotypes were sown in the iron treys filled with sand in three replications following completely randomized design. The data was recorded for fresh root length (FRL), fresh shoot length (FSL), fresh root-to-shoot length ratio (FRSLR), fresh root weight (FRW), fresh shoot weight (FSW), total fresh weight (TFW), fresh root-to-shoot weight ratio (FRSWR), dry root weight (DRW), dry shoot weight (DSW) and total dry weight (TDW), dry root-to-shoot weight ratio (DRSWR), chlorophyll contents (Ch.C), leaf temperature (LT), transpiration rate (E), photosynthetic rate (A), stomata conductance (gs), water use efficiency (WUS) and sub-stomata CO2 concentration (Ci). GCA (general combining ability) and SCA (specific combining ability) were calculated by using Kepmthorn, (1957) technique.  Results: Higher GCA of B-336 variety was recorded for FRL, FRW, FSW, TFW, A and Ci. Higher SCA of EV-1097Q × Pop/209, Sh-139 × Pop/209, EV-1097Q × B-316 and Sh-139 × B-316 varieties was recorded for FRL, FSL, FRW, FSW, TFW, A, Ci, WUE, LT, E and gs.Conclusion: Higher heritability, genetic advance, GCA and SCA had decisive role in selection of drought tolerant maize varieties. F1 hybrids EV-1097Q × Pop/209, Sh-139 × Pop/209, EV-1097Q × B-316 and Sh-139 × B-316 showed higher SCA for all traits that persuaded that these hybrids may be used for higher grain and fodder yield under drought conditions.

EMERGENCE OF METABOLIC SYNDROME IN POLICE PROFESSIONALS: A LONGITUDINAL OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Objective: This is a longitudinal observation looking for the emergence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in a rapid response police unit. Methods: After taking informed consent, measurements were taken of blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, and fasting blood glucose periodically in 2019, 2021, and 2023 in January. 146 police officers enrolled out of 148 screened and 117 completed the study. Results: In four years, the proportion of individuals with MetS values exceeding the norm increased by 20-30% for each component with 56 new cases of impaired metabolic parameters and 13 new cases of MetS observed among 110 previously unaffected police officers. Conclusion: A significant increase in the number of Metabolic Syndrome was found, particularly via its effects on blood lipid levels in police personnel which a highly stressful for professionals. Future longitudinal studies with continuous stress monitoring and comparing with a control will more in-depth knowledge into it