Maternal genital tract colonisation by Group-B Streptococcus: A hospital based study

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of Group B Streptococcus genital tract infection in pregnant women and to determine the risk factors for its colonisation.Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi and Sobhraj Hospital, Karachi, from May to August 2007. Pregnant women at 35-37 weeks gestation attending antenatal clinic at these hospitals constituted the study population. Based on stratified sampling, 405 patients were recruited. High vaginal swabs of these patients were taken in order to calculate the prevalence of infection at each hospital. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the risk factor association. SPSS 11.5 was used for statistical analysis.Results: The overall prevalence of colonisation was 17% (n=69) (95% CI: 13.4-20.7). Of the 155(38.27%) women at the Aga Khan Hospital, 35(22.6%) were positive, while among the 250 (61.72%) women at Sobhraj Hospital, the prevalence was 13.6% (n=34). The colonisation was found to be significantly associated inversely with the body mass index of the patient (OR 0.91; 95% CI: 0.08-1.0).Conclusion: Group B Streptococcus screening should be an integral part of antenatal care and should be offered to all pregnant women

Knowledge, attitudes and practices survey on organ donation among a selected adult population of Pakistan

Background: To determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding organ donation in a selected adult population in Pakistan. Methods: Convenience sampling was used to generate a sample of 440, 408 interviews were successfully completed and used for analysis. Data collection was carried out via a face to face interview based on a pre-tested questionnaire in selected public areas of Karachi, Pakistan. Data was analyzed using SPSS v. 15 and associations were tested using the Pearson\u27s Chi square test. Multiple logistic regression was used to find independent predictors of knowledge status and motivation of organ donation. Results: Knowledge about organ donation was significantly associated with education (p = 0.000) and socioeconomic status (p = 0.038). 70/198 (35.3%) people expressed a high motivation to donate. Allowance of organ donation in religion was significantly associated with the motivation to donate (p = 0.000). Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that higher level of education and higher socioeconomic status were significant (p \u3c 0.05) independent predictors of knowledge status of organ donation. For motivation, multiple logistic regression revealed that higher socioeconomic status, adequate knowledge score and belief that organ donation is allowed in religion were significant (p \u3c 0.05) independent predictors. Television emerged as the major source of information. Only 3.5% had themselves donated an organ, with only one person being an actual kidney donor. Conclusion: Better knowledge may ultimately translate into the act of donation. Effective measures should be taken to educate people with relevant information with the involvement of media, doctors and religious scholars

Advancements in Indirect Evaporative Cooling Systems through Novel Operational Configuration

Rising global temperature has triggered the cooling demand in the last three decades with growing predictions for the future. The use of conventional energy-intensive and high global warming chemical-based cooling systems is working in a loop, increasing the global warming rate, emissions, and cooling system inventory. Therefore, the development of an innovative cooling system with high energy efficiency, low monetary cost, and environmentally sustainable. The indirect evaporative cooling-based systems have shown potential to serve the purpose because of low energy consumption, absence of energy, and cost-intensive equipment like compressors and water-based operation. A novel indirect evaporative cooler based on an innovative operational configuration is proposed, fabricated, and tested experimentally. The Proposed system has several advancements compared to the conventional indirect evaporative coolers like high operational reliability, low maintenance, and better control of the processes in the system. The study shows that the proposed system can achieve a temperature drop of as high as 14°C. The maximum cooling capacity of the system is calculated as 110 W, and the cooling performance index of 28. The performance of the cooler improves with increasing outdoor air temperature which makes it suitable for diverse climatic conditions. Moreover, the proposed design offers several benefits due to novel operational configurations by addressing limitations in the earlier systems

Pressure Driven Adsorption Cycle Integrated with Thermal Desalination

The canned food market is growing at an annually average rate of 3.6% due to easy access and awareness of dietary requirements, leading to a surge in water withdrawal and an estimated supply-demand gap of 40% by 2030. The conventional desalination processes are not sustainable due to high energy requirements and chemicals injection. The adsorption cycle is an emerging technology for desalination due to its temperature operation. It has many advantages over conventional desalination processes including integration synergy to improve overall performance. The conventional AD cycle processes, however, have lower performance due to inefficient packing of adsorbent in the beds and heat transfer losses to their massive heat exchangers. In this article, we propose an innovative pressure driven adsorption (PDAD) cycle to overcome conventional AD cycle limitations. In PDAD, firstly, low pressure steam is used to regenerate the adsorbent which eliminates the huge infrastructure requirement of water circulation and secondly, steam selectively extracts water vapours from pores, reducing energy consumption. We have tested the PDAD pilot and showed successful regeneration of silica gel at motive steam pressure of 2–5 bar. We also demonstrate that discharge steam from the PDAD at 65 °C can be used as a heat source for a multi effect desalination system when operating in hybrid mode to overcome its operational limitations. Our experiments show that the MED + PDAD cycle increases water production by up to 22% as compared to an earlier hybrid MEDAD cycle. The proposed system has excellent thermodynamic synergy with the combined CCGT power and desalination plant, where low-pressure bleed steam can be utilized more efficiently

حسن رضا گردیزی: شخص و شاعر

Hassan Raza Gardezi is a notable saraiki poet. He hailed from very influencial and illustrious Gardezi family of Multan which had an important role in Multan's history and culture. However, Gardezi's mother tongue was Saraiki but he was very much literatre about the literature in Urdu, Arabic, Persian and English. But he used Saraiki language to show his taste in poetry. "Dhabey Dhodry", Hasan Raza's poetry work, has been published by a prominent publishing house of Multan namely Bazm e Saqafat. Prof. Dr. Aashiq Muhammad Khan Durrani, the retired vice chancellor of Bahauddin Zakaria University, Multan and a renowned historian, wrote the prologue to "Dhabey Dhodry". This article presents the human side of Hasan Raza Gardezi in the light of his saraiki poetry and a critical review of the said poetry work as well

Aflatoxin Contamination of Milk Marketed in Pakistan: A Longitudinal Study

A longitudinal one-year study was conducted to determine aflatoxin M1 levels in different types of milk marketed in Pakistan. Processed and raw liquid milk from 21 sources, two milk powder and six tea whitener brands were sampled on monthly basis from Islamabad. The aflatoxin M1 levels in liquid milk were lower (p < 0.05) in summer (April to July) compared with the levels in winter (January, November and December). The mean aflatoxin M1 levels were 254.9, 939.5, and 1535.0 ng/L in UHT, pasteurized, and raw milk, respectively (differing at p < 0.001). The mean toxin level in powdered milk after reconstitution was 522.1 ng/L. Overall, 12.9, 41.0, 91.9 and 50.0% of the UHT, pasteurized, raw and powdered milk samples, respectively, exceeded the Codex maximum tolerable limit of 500 ng of aflatoxin M1/L. It was estimated that consumers of raw and processed milk were exposed to 11.9 and 4.5 ng aflatoxin M1, respectively, per kg of body weight daily. The study indicates potential aflatoxin M1 exposure risks for the consumers of raw milk in the country. The levels of the toxin though comparatively lower in milk powder, requires attention as this type of milk is consumed by infants

Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of EAT-26 questionnaire in Urdu

EAT-26 questionnaire is used globally to screen people for the risk of eating disorders. In addition to this, the EAT-26 is being used in its original English version in research and clinical settings due to unavailability of the Urdu version. Therefore, the aim of this study was to introduce the Urdu version of EAT-26 to clinicians and academicians in Pakistan, interested in the assessment of population at risk of eating disorders. After getting the formal permission for translation by Dr. D. M. Garner, WHO guidelines were followed for the translation and adaptation process. Two independent translators with psychological background worked under the supervision of a lead to produce the definitive version following six steps of translation and adaptation. Cognitive interviews and focused group discussions helped in the assessment process for the understanding level of translated Urdu version. The pre-final version showed comprehension and acceptability during initial pilot testing. • The final translated version of EAT-26 in Urdu will be available on Internet to use. It is expected that the use of EAT-26 will be widespread in Pakistan, aiming at the assessment of eating disorders. • The Urdu version of EAT-26 is finalized, and ready to use by researchers and clinicians in Pakistan

Collection and prevalence of ticks in cattles and buffaloes from free-range management systems of Islamabad

Abstract Background In recent decades, parasitism has remained one of the major problems of dairy industry in Pakistan. In this context, the most common tick species prevailing is Hyalomma, Boophilus, Haemaphysalis, and Rhipicephalus. Result High prevalence was found in cow 20.83% as compared to buffaloes. Over all prevalence of ticks was found as 11.3% whereas no ticks were found from LRS (livestock research station), and Malpur showed higher prevalence (8.67%). Breed wise tick prevalence showed that crossbred cattle was heavily infested (39.53%) while pure bred indigenous cattle was mildly infested (3.03%). Three tick genera found were Hyalomma with high prevalence rate 6.63% and Rhipicephalus and Boophilus with low prevalence rate 1.53% while management system of LRS in Islamabad was found satisfactory with no tick prevalence and rural areas of Islamabad was not satisfactory with 23% of tick prevalence ration. It was concluded from the study that ticks were present in the crossbred cattles of pre-urban areas specially Malpur region of Islamabad with low management system, so there is a need of proper monitoring and management in the pre-urban areas. Conclusion Key steps should be taken for good managements regarding large animals while special care must be taken for small animals. Proper spray must be carried out for the removal of pathogenic species

Demystifying Integrated Power and Desalination Processes Evaluation based on Standard Primary Energy Approach

The energy efficiency of seawater desalination processes is usually expressed in terms of kWh electricity or low-grade heat per cubic meter of water produced. This energy efficiency evaluation criteria unfortunately omitted the embedded quality of derived energy input. To have fair comparison of assorted desalination processes, it is important to consider quantity as well as quality of derived energy input based on their generation mechanisms. The numerator (m3 of distillate produced) and denominator (kWhderived energy consumption) terms in energy efficiency evaluation are to be benchmark onto a common platform for fair evaluation and comparison. An inadequate comparison may result in an inferior adaptation of desalination methods that can lead to high economical destruction. In this article, a detailed thermodynamic framework has been developed to convert cogeneration-based electricity and heat into standard primary energy input. The proposed standard primary energy platform will help to demystify the quality and quantity aspects of derived energy supply. The thermodynamic based rigorous calculations show that 1.813 units of primary energy are required to produce one unit of electricity due to conversion efficiencies and loses involved in the power plant. On the other hand, one unit low-pressure steam to operate thermally driven desalination cycles need only 0.0944 units of primary energy. This stark difference clearly shows that omitting the grade of energy in performance evaluation can lead to an in-efficient installation decision. This proposed framework will provide a basic ground for future efficient processes selection and assorted processes evaluation at common platform

16th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HEAT TRANSFER, FLUID MECHANICS AND THERMODYNAMICS: 3D PRINTED MINIATURE COOLER FOR ELECTRONICS THERMAL MANAGEMENT ONLINE, 8 – 10 AUGUST 2022

Imtiaz, N., Wahid, M., A., Kamaruzaman, N., B., Ng, K., C., Xu, B., B., Shahzad, M., W., 16th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HEAT TRANSFER, FLUID MECHANICS AND THERMODYNAMICS: 3D PRINTED MINIATURE COOLER FOR ELECTRONICS THERMAL MANAGEMENT ONLINE, 8 – 10 AUGUST 2022The original publication is available at: hefat2022.orgThe global Central Processing Units (CPUs) are expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 3.6% by 2028. The major factors driving the growth are increasing demand for high processing power CPUs in various applications such as personal computers, servers, and portable computers, among others; growing adoption of enterprise systems that require high-performance CPUs with faster processing speed; and rise in the number of CPU cores per chip over time. However, thermal management is a crucial issue to maintain their performance with increasing processing speed and number of CPU cores per chip. The conventional fans/blowers are unable to maintain required temperature and hence deteriorate CPU performance. We proposed an innovative miniature indirect evaporator cooler for thermal management and local cooling of electronic boards, CPU and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). In proposed unit, the humidity of supply air is maintained by separating dry and wet channels via thin copper film that also provide good heat transfer properties. Thin water layer is maintained through wick surface in wet channel to extract heat from supply air flowing in dry channel. In order to achieve the objectives and evaluate the performance, miniature indirect evaporator cooler is designed and most of parts are fabricated using 3D printing facility. Extensive experiments are conducted at assorted temperature to map the performance for various electronic units applications. The result shows that the 200mm x 150mm cell with 5 dry and wet channels can achieve up to 40–45Watt cooling capacity. Based on 3D printed modular design, it has flexibility to improve capacity to match application requirements. The proposed miniature cooler can be employed for electronic thermal management and maintain low temperature to enhance their efficiency and improve processing speed.Publisher’s versio