Effect of Fluxing Additive on Sintering Temperature, Microstructure and Properties of BaTiO\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e

Various fluxing materials are added to technical ceramics in an attempt to lower their sintering temperatures and make their processing economical. The effect of 0·3wt% Li2CO3 addition on the phase, microstructure, phase transition temperatures and dielectric properties of BaTiO3 was investigated in the present study. The addition of 0·3wt% Li2CO3 was observed to lower the optimum sintering temperature by ∼200◦C with no second phase formation and cause a five-fold reduction in grain size. Rhombohedral-to-orthorhombic and tetragonal-to-cubic phase transitions at the expected temperatures were evident from the Raman spectra, but the orthorhombic-totetragonal phase transition was not clearly discernible. The persistence of various phase(s) at higher temperatures in the flux-added materials indicated that the phase transitions occurred relatively slowly. A decrease in dielectric constant of Li2O-added BaTiO3 in comparison to pure BaTiO3 may be due to the diminished dielectric polarizability of Li+ in comparison to Ba2+

Dynamic Wireless Information and Power Transfer Scheme for Nano-Empowered Vehicular Networks

In this paper, we investigate the wireless power transfer and energy-efficiency (EE) optimization problem for nano-centric vehicular networks operating over the terahertz band. The inbody nano-sensors harvest energy from a power station via radio-frequency signal and then use the harvested energy to transmit data to the sink node. By considering the properties of terahertz band (i.e., sensitivity to distance and frequency over the communication path), we adopt the Brownian motion model to develop a time-variant terahertz channel model and to describe the mobility of the nano-sensors. Thus, based on the channel model and energy resources, we further develop a long-term EE optimization problem. The EE optimization is further converted into a series of energy-efficient resource allocation problems over the time slots via equivalent transformation method. The resource allocation problem for each timeslot, which is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP), is solved based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method. In addition, a dynamic PSO-based EE optimization (DPEEO) algorithm is developed to obtain the sub-optimal solution for the EE optimization problem. By exploiting the special structure of the reformulated problem, an improved DPEEO algorithm, is presented which can handle the problem’s constraints quite well, decreases the research space, and greatly reduces the length of the convergence time. Simulation results validate the theoretical analysis of our system

Psychosocial factors of deliberate self-harm in Afghanistan: A hospital based, matched case-control study

Background: Deliberate self-harm is not only a major global public health problem but also an important index of psychological distress and a risk factor for suicide.Aims: We aimed to determine the psychosocial risk factors for deliberate self-harm in patients aged ≥ 16 years presenting to tertiary care hospitals in Kabul, Afghanistan.Methods: A matched case-control study was conducted from February 2015 to May 2015. We recruited 185 cases (patients with deliberate self-harm) and 555 age- and sex-matched controls (patients with general medical conditions) from 4 tertiary care hospitals in Kabul. We developed a questionnaire to record the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, history of domestic violence, drug abuse and details about the act of deliberate self-harm, including the methods used. To assess depression and anxiety, we used the WHO self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ-20). Matched odds ratios with 95% confidence interval using conditional logistic regression were used to determine statistically significant associations between psychosocial factors and deliberate self-harm.Results: Family conflicts, domestic violence, interpersonal arguments and living in extended families were found to be significantly associated with deliberate self-harm.Conclusions: In Afghanistan, deliberate self-harm appears to be predominately related to interpersonal problems and family conflicts. About two-thirds of females and more than half of males scored positive for depression, yet none were receiving treatment for this. These findings have important policy implications for mental health and suicide prevention programmes in the country

Clinical study of open versus laparoscopic management for gastroduodenal perforation

Background: This study was organized to compare the clinical efficacy of laparoscopic and open repair of gastroduodenal perforation, and to provide the impressive surgical method of treatment for gastroduodenal perforation.Methods: The present study was conducted with 174 consecutive patients treated for gastroduodenal perforations. These patients included 121 with perforated gastric ulcers, 53 with perforated duodenal ulcers, Whereas 31 patients were treated laparoscopically, and 143 patients underwent conventional (open) surgery.Results: A total of 174 patients were studied with men and women ratio of 4:1. This observational study revealed 80% male preponderance, with mean age of 48 years. Gastric perforations (n=77, i.e., 84.62%) were more common than duodenal perforations (n=14, i.e., 15.38%). Simple closure with omental patch (n=74, i.e., 81.32%) was the most common surgical method for duodenal perforation. While for gastric perforations were repaired primarily with two layered sutures.  The mean operating time of open were 61 min and 86 min for laparoscopic surgery. Wound infection was the commonest post-operative complication which was seen in 31 (17.81%) patients.Conclusions: Laparoscopic gastroduodenal perforation repair is safe and reliable, has good clinical efficacy, the incidence of complications compared with open surgery does not increase, and has less surgical trauma, less bleeding, advantages of fast recovery of gastrointestinal function and short hospitalization time, Thus it has great clinical significance and should be promoted in surgery

Comparing the Effects of Choline with Clozapine and Fluoxetine for Improving Cognitive Behavior in Rats

Background: Cognitive behavior therapy is an important treatment for various psychiatric and psychological problems. Different psychotherapeutic treatments are used for improvement in patients. The study aimed to compare Clozapine and Fluoxetine with Choline on the progress of cognition and cognitive behavior in rats. Methods: This experimental study was conducted in the pharmacology department of Karachi University on locally bred male albino rats (n=24). These were divided into four treatment groups (Saline, Fluoxetine, Clozapine, and Choline) and measured the output at the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th weeks. Familiar and Novel object recognition test and Passive avoidance test was used to observe learning and memory as well as the mechanism of cognition. One way-ANOVA and post-hoc analysis was done between groups. The p-value <0.05 and < 0.001 were considered statistically significant and highly significant respectively. Results: The comparative mean preference index percentage between saline, choline, clozapine, and fluoxetine at week one was non–significant (p>0.05) in the Novel and Familiar Object Recognition test. However, at week three it was highest for Fluoxetine (58.15±3.35) compared to Choline, Clozapine and Saline for the novel object. However, in Familiar objects, it was found highest for Clozapine (58.88±3.05) (p <0.05). Furthermore, the mean step-through latency time of the Passive Avoidance test was significant (p<0.05) at weeks three, five and seven. It was highest for choline (92.5±1.36) than fluoxetine and clozapine. Conclusion: Fluoxetine has a significant effect (p<0.001) on memory and learning compared to Clozapine. Clozapine and choline showed statistically same results on cognitive behavior.  Keywords: Cognitive Behavior; Choline; Clozapine; Fluoxetine; Effect; Compare.

Privacy Requirements for mobile e-Service in the Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD)

© 2016 Infonomics Society. The Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD) mobile e-Service is a smartphone or smart device installed with the HAAD mobile app. This connects to one or more e-services at the HAAD Cloud to facilitate healthcare services for the residents at the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A mobile device in this context can be effectively considered Internet of Things (IoT), which can provide advanced online services to both healthcare provider and requestor under the control and monitor of the HAAD. Health information is among the most sensitive information of an individual that can be collected and shared. The information that needs to be protected in the healthcare sector is often referred to as Protected Health Information (PHI). Service providers with a good reputation for privacy protection will find it easier to build a trusted relationship with their users. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) defines a set of security and privacy rules to be followed by healthcare providers in the United States of America. The HIPAA standards are designed for protecting health information. This paper discusses related privacy requirements for Mobile e-Service at the HAAD in accordance with the HIPAA privacy requirements

Effect of the Source toSubstrate Distance on Structural, Optoelectronic, and Thermoelectric Properties of Zinc Sulfide Thin Films

Zinc sulfide ZnS thin films with variable structural, optical, electrical, and thermoelectric properties were obtained by changing the source to substrate SSD distance in the physical vaporthermal coating PVTC system. The films crystallized into a zinc blede cubic structure with 111 preferred orientation

A novel histological index for evaluation of environmental enteric dysfunction identifies geographic-specific features of enteropathy among children with suboptimal growth

Background: A major limitation to understanding the etiopathogenesis of environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is the lack of a comprehensive, reproducible histologic framework for characterizing the small bowel lesions. We hypothesized that the development of such a system will identify unique histology features for EED, and that some features might correlate with clinical severity.Methods: Duodenal endoscopic biopsies from two cohorts where EED is prevalent (Pakistan, Zambia) and North American children with and without gluten sensitive enteropathy (GSE) were processed for routine hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) staining, and scanned to produce whole slide images (WSIs) which we shared among study pathologists via a secure web browser-based platform. A semi-quantitative scoring index composed of 11 parameters encompassing tissue injury and response patterns commonly observed in routine clinical practice was constructed by three gastrointestinal pathologists, with input from EED experts. The pathologists then read the WSIs using the EED histology index, and inter-observer reliability was assessed. The histology index was further used to identify within- and between-child variations as well as features common across and unique to each cohort, and those that correlated with host phenotype.Results: Eight of the 11 histologic scoring parameters showed useful degrees of variation. The overall concordance across all parameters was 96% weighted agreement, kappa 0.70, and Gwet\u27s AC 0.93. Zambian and Pakistani tissues shared some histologic features with GSE, but most features were distinct, particularly abundance of intraepithelial lymphocytes in the Pakistani cohort, and marked villous destruction and loss of secretory cell lineages in the Zambian cohort.Conclusions: We propose the first EED histology index for interpreting duodenal biopsies. This index should be useful in future clinical and translational studies of this widespread, poorly understood, and highly consequential disorder, which might be caused by multiple contributing processes, in different regions of the world

Impact of 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10) on nasopharyngeal carriage in children 2 years of age: Data from a four-year time series cross-sectional study from Pakistan

The dataset described in this paper was collected for a time-series cross-sectional study exploring the impact of 10-valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV10) on nasopharyngeal (NP) carriage in children under 2 years of age from a rural population in Sindh, Pakistan. The study was carried out in two union councils of Matiari - Khyber and Shah Alam Shah Jee Wasi (Latitude 25.680298 / Longitude 68.502711). Data was collected on socio-demographics, clinical characteristics and vaccination status using android phone-based application. NP samples were collected using standard World Health Organisation (WHO) techniques, culture and serotyping was done using sequential Multiplex PCR described by Centre for Disease Control, USA. We looked at the carriage rate of vaccine type (VT) and non-vaccine type (NVT) serotypes over time in vaccinated and unvaccinated children. We additionally looked at the predictors for pneumococcal carriage. The uploaded dataset, available on Mendeley data repository (Nisar, Muhammad Imran (2021), Impact of PCV10 on nasopharyngeal carriage in children in Pakistan , Mendeley Data, V1, doi:10.17632/t79h6g97gr.1), has 3140 observations in CSV format. Additional files uploaded include a data dictionary and the set of questionnaires. The dataset and accompanying files can be used by other interested researchers to replicate our analysis, carry similar analysis under varying set of assumptions or perform additional exploratory or metanalysis

Direct and indirect effect of 10 valent pneumococcal vaccine on nasopharyngeal carriage in children under 2 years of age in Matiari, Pakistan

Background: Pakistan introduced Ten-valent pneumococcal-conjugate-vaccine PCV10 in 2012 as a 3 + 0 schedule without catch-up.Methods: Children \u3c2 years old in Matiari, Sindh provided nasopharyngeal swabs between 2014 and 2018, which were cultured for pneumococcus and serotyped through multiplex PCR at the Aga Khan University Hospital. Carriage rates over time for Vaccine-Type (VT) and Non-VT (NVT) serotypes were used to estimate direct, indirect, total and overall effects of vaccination. Regression analysis was used to determine factors associated with VT carriage.Results: Pneumococcus was detected in 2370/3140 (75%). VT carriage decreased overall, 16.1-9.6% (p-trend \u3c0.001); vaccinated (all 3 doses of PCV10 received) 11.3-8.1% (p-trend 0.031) and unvaccinated (no PCV10 dose received) 17.4-10.3% (p-trend 0.003) with a decline in serotypes 6B, 9V/9A and 19F. Immunization increased from 41.0% to 68.4% (p-trend 0.001). Direct effect of vaccine was 32.8% (95% CI 14.7-47.0%) and indirect effect 44.6%(95% CI 40.6-48.6%). Factors associated with decreased VT colonization were education 1-5 years (aOR 0.7, 95%CI 0.6-1.0), history of difficulty breathing (aOR 0.7, 95%CI 0.5-1.0), exposure to smoke (aOR 0.8, 95% CI 0.6-1.0), child fully immunized (aOR 0.7, 95%CI 0.5-1.0) and enrolled in 3rd (aOR 0.6, 95%CI 0.4-0.8) and 4th (aOR 0.6, 95%CI 0.5-0.9) year of the study whereas history of runny nose (aOR 1.5, 95% CI 1.2-1.9) was positively associated.Conclusions: Decrease in VT pneumococcal carriage in vaccinated and unvaccinated children indicates herd immunity. Sustained increase in vaccine coverage and close long-term surveillance is warranted