A Rare Case of Foreign Body Ingestion, Mimicking as Mesenteric Cyst. "Case Report"

Background: Foreign body ingestion by children is a commonly encountered problem and accounts for a significant emergency visits among pediatric population. Although these ingested foreign bodies pass spontaneously and uneventfully, a subset of such bodies may become trapped in the digestive tract, eventually leading to significant injury. Most of these bodies are radio-opaque and detectable radiologically, but some radio-lucent may become a diagnostic dilemma and subtle management issue. Case Report: We report a case of a one-year girl who presented after accidental ingestion of foreign body with signs and symptoms of acute intestinal obstruction. Initially we were unable to diagnose the cause, but later the radiological investigation suspected a mesenteric cyst. After failure to respond to conservative measures she underwent exploratory laparotomy, and a jelly ball was removed from the gut. The patient had uneventful post-operative recovery and was kept on follow-up for three months without any complication. Conclusion: These patients do not respond to conservative measures and need surgery on an emergency basis. It is likely that if left untreated may have caused Intestinal perforation and irreversible shock. Radiolucent foreign bodies are difficult to diagnose and need high level of suspicion. Need of the hour is to educate the parents to be extra vigilant as “prevention is better than cure”

Use of black soldier fly larvae composter bin to reduce household food waste

Food waste is the largest component in municipal solid waste (MSW). About 1.3 billion tons of food, which is equivalent to one third of global food production is lost or wasted every year along the food supply chain [1]. In Malaysia, total generation of MSW is 15,000 tons. This MSW consists of 50% food waste, of which 70% is disposed at the landfill sites [2]. It was reported that in average a household in Malaysia throw away around 0.5-0.8 kg uneaten food per day [3]. This food waste is recognized as huge problem worldwide and it becomes particularly severe to developing country. There are many methods that can be carried out to reduce the food waste generation. Composting method is one of the methods to convert food waste into valuable product with minimum cost

ASSESSMENT OF SURFACE WATER QUALITY OF RIVER KORANG

Water quality of fresh water basins in Pakistan is being degraded because of human actions. Surface water quality at Angoori road, Phulgaran, Baheria golf city which are the main tributaries of river Korang, Rawal Lake and WASA filtration plant were investigated during June and April. Physico-chemical parameters including heavy metal detection of the water samples and possible sources of contamination were analyzed. The study showed that the pollution level in all the sampling sites is rising because of discharge of domestic wastes, poultry waste, agricultural activities and solid waste dumping directly into the sites. Parameters like COD, DO, TA and TSS and metals like lead and cadmium exceeded the permissible limits as compared with USEPA, PakEPA and WHO standards. The contamination level is higher in June as compared to April. The two station Angoori road and Rawal Lake are more contaminated as compared to other sites. Moreover WASA filtration plant is working efficiently it decreases the amount of contaminants coming from all sites and the water quality is fit for drinking

Efficient Detection of Skin Cancer Using Deep Learning Techniques and a Comparative Analysis Study

Many skin lesions may result in the wrong diagnosis of skin cancer, leading to delays and ultimately making the cure impossible. Framed within this statement, this article proposes an efficient skin cancer detection model and compares the six pre-trained models, used for transfer learning in ISIC 2019 dataset. Three most common types of skin cancer—melanoma, nevus, and basal cell carcinoma—are classified by using the transfer learning on the pre-trained models of the ISIC 2019 dataset, to conclude the most accurate detection results with training and test accuracy of 99.73% and 93.79%, respectively

Ḥikmah (wisdom) pedagogy and students’ thinking and reasoning abilities

This research drew on the authors’ long experience in the implementation of the “Hikmah Pedagogy” which is based on the Philosophy for Children’s teaching method. Specifically, the study examined the influence of the pedagogy on the participants’ perceptions of and feelings about their thinking and reasoning skills. The sample comprised 188 Malaysian and international students from an international secondary school in Malaysia. This consisted of students in four Grade levels, ranging from Grades 7 to 10. An instrument named “Hikmah Feedback Survey - HFS” was employed for data collection. The findings were supportive of the positive influence of the pedagogy on students’ abilities to think and reason better after experiencing the programme. Furthermore, the participants demonstrated a considerable improvement in their cognitive and social-communicative skills, as evidenced in the scores obtained for the post-programme’s test. This affirms the fact that the ḥikmah pedagogy is highly recommended in Malaysia’s march towards its Vision 2020 developmental goals. Implications of the study were discussed and suggestions were proposed to educators and stakeholders in secondary school education

AN UNUSUAL MASS OF THE CHEST WALL IN A 7 YEARS OLD CHILD: AN ASKIN'S TUMOUR

Askin’s tumour is a primitive neuroectodermal tumour developing from the soft tissues of the chest wall. It is commonly misdiagnosed due to features similar to other round blue cell tumours. The approach for its diagnosis and treatment is complex and requires a multidisciplinary team. The recommended treatment is chemotherapy and surgical excision mainly. The prognosis is dependent on many factors. We managed a child of Askin’s tumour using modalities such as neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgical excision and found a good response.Key words: Chest wall mass, Askin’s tumour, Ewing sarcom

Relationship between decision making styles and consumer behavior

The objective of this study is to identify the different factors that impact on consumer behavior on the bases of decision making style. The sample size of this study was two hundred and fifty. Data was collected through five point Likert scale questionnaire. SPSS was used to analyze the data. Correlation and multiple regression was performed to measure the relationship between independent and dependent variables and independent sample t-test was applied to test difference between male and female decision making style. This study concludes that there is significant relationship between male and female decision making style and female respondents are more agreed that decision making styles influence the consumer behavior. All the independent variables have significant and positive relationship with consumer behavior

Capital Structure Theories and Speed of Capital Adjustment towards Target Capital Structure along Life Cycle Stages of Asian Manufacturing Firms

Purpose: Firms have different costs and benefits and asymmetric information across their life cycle stages and hence each stage has different financial pattern and speed of adjustment towards target capital. Methodology: We use System GMM to test the hypotheses. We use market leverages proxies for the capital structure, life cycle proxies: introduction, growth, mature, shakeout and decline and the control determinants of capital structure such as profitability, tangibility, firm size and growth opportunities. We estimate the financial pattern and speed of adjustment along life cycle stages of manufacturing firms from eleven Asian economies over the period of 2010-2018. Findings: The results show that firms in earlier stages have more long term debt than mature stage. The speed of adjustment towards target capital structure is highest in mature stage than the other stages. The control determinants significantly affect market leverages. Implications: The findings suggest that management has to consider life cycle stages of their firms in order to adjust capital structure. Stockholders should consider stage of firm with relation to profitability and capital structure for long term prospects

Review on EMG Acquisition and Classification Techniques: Towards Zero Retraining in the Influence of User and Arm Position Independence

The surface electromyogram (EMG) is widely studied and applied in machine control. Recent methods of classifying hand gestures reported classification rates of over 95%. However, the majority of the studies made were performed on a single user, focusing solely on the gesture classification. These studies are restrictive in practical sense: either focusing on just gestures, multi-user compatibility, or rotation independence. The variations in EMG signals due to these conditions present a challenge to the practical application of EMG devices, often requiring repetitious training per application. To the best of our knowledge, there is little comprehensive review of works done in EMG classification in the combined influence of user-independence, rotation and hand exchange. Therefore, in this paper we present a review of works related to the practical issues of EMG with a focus on the EMG placement, and recent acquisition and computing techniques to reduce training. First, we provided an overview of existing electrode placement schemes. Secondly, we compared the techniques and results of single-subject against multi-subject, multi-position settings. As a conclusion, the study of EMG classification in this direction is relatively new. However the results are encouraging and strongly indicate that EMG classification in a broad range of people and tolerance towards arm orientation is possible, and can pave way for more flexible EMG devices