Enteroenteric fistulae in ccute bowel ischemia

Gastrointestinal fistulae are classified as enteroenteric or enterocutaneous. Most gastrointestinal fistulae are formed after surgical procedures for inflammatory bowel disease or malignancy. For spontaneous enteroenteric fistulae, ischemia has been reported as a possible etiology. We report two cases of spontaneous enteroenteric fistulae arising after bowel ischemia; a 38-year male with a 10-day history of severe abdominal pain with fever and vomiting, and a 22-year female with a one-week history of abdominal pain and diarrhea. Arterial and venous thrombi in association with enteroenteric fistulae were identified on computed tomography. These cases point towards acute mesenteric ischemia as a rare cause of spontaneous enteroenteric fistulae. Surgical management of these fistulae can be effective in resolving this complication

Axial compressive behaviour of circular CFFT: Experimental database and design-oriented model

Concrete Filled Fibre Reinforced Polymer Tube (CFFT) for new columns construction has attracted significant research attention in recent years. The CFFT acts as a formwork for new columns and a barrier to corrosion accelerating agents. It significantly increases both the strength capacity (Strength enhancement ratio) and the ductility (Strain enhancement ratio) of reinforced concrete columns. In this study, based on predefined selection criteria, experimental investigation results of 134 circular CFFT columns under axial compression have been compiled and analysed from 599 CFFT specimens available in the literature. It has been observed that actual confinement ratio (expressed as a function of material properties of fibres, diameter of CFFT and compressive strength of concrete) has significant influence on the strength and ductility of circular CFFT columns. Design oriented models have been proposed to compute the strength and strain enhancement ratios of circular CFFT columns. The proposed strength and strain enhancement ratio models have significantly reduced Average Absolute Error (AAE), Mean Square Error (MSE), Relative Standard Error of Estimate (RSEE) and Standard Deviation (SD) as compared to other available strength and strain enhancement ratios of circular CFFT column models. The predictions of the proposed strength and strain enhancement ratio models match well with the experimental strength and strain enhancement ratios investigation results in the compiled database

Bacterobilia in acute cholecystitis: bile cultures\u27 isolates, antibiotic sensitivities and antibiotic usage. a study on a Pakistani population.

Abstract Acute cholecystitis is one of the most common acute surgical conditions. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy remains the mainstay of treatment. In patients managed non-operatively, antibiotics play an important role in the treatment of cholecystitis. The current retrospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, and comprised medical records of patients admitted between 2008 and 2014with acute cholecystitis and in whom bile cultures were obtained. Of the 509 patients with a mean age of 51.15 ± 13.4years, early laparoscopic cholecystectomy (within 72hours) was performed on 473(92.9%) cases, while the rest underwent percutaneous cholecystostomy. Bile cultureswere positive in 171(33.6%) patients. Predominantly gram-negative organisms were isolated among a total of 137(27%), with E.coli 63(46%) being the most commonly isolated organism. Of the gram-positive organism, enterococcus 11(8%) was the most common. Antibiotic sensitivities were determined.Based on our findings gram-negative coverage alone should be sufficient in our segment of the population

Bacterobilia in acute cholecystitis: bile cultures\u27 isolates

Abstract Acute cholecystitis is one of the most common acute surgical conditions. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy remains the mainstay of treatment. In patients managed non-operatively, antibiotics play an important role in the treatment of cholecystitis. The current retrospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, and comprised medical records of patients admitted between 2008 and 2014with acute cholecystitis and in whom bile cultures were obtained. Of the 509 patients with a mean age of 51.15 ± 13.4years, early laparoscopic cholecystectomy (within 72hours) was performed on 473(92.9%) cases, while the rest underwent percutaneous cholecystostomy. Bile cultureswere positive in 171(33.6%) patients. Predominantly gram-negative organisms were isolated among a total of 137(27%), with E.coli 63(46%) being the most commonly isolated organism. Of the gram-positive organism, enterococcus 11(8%) was the most common. Antibiotic sensitivities were determined.Based on our findings gram-negative coverage alone should be sufficient in our segment of the populatio

An Ethnobotanical study of Medicinal Plants in high mountainous region of Chail valley (District Swat- Pakistan)

BACKGROUND: This paper represents the first ethnobotanical study in Chail valley of district Swat-Pakistan and provides significant information on medicinal plants use among the tribal people of the area. The aim of this study was to document the medicinal uses of local plants and to develop an ethnobotanical inventory of the species diversity. METHODS: In present study, semi-structured interviews with 142 inhabitants (age range between 31–75 years) were conducted. Ethnobotanical data was analyzed using relative frequency of citation (RFC) to determine the well-known and most useful species in the area. RESULTS: Current research work reports total of 50 plant species belonging to 48 genera of 35 families from Chail valley. Origanum vulgare, Geranium wallichianum and Skimmia laureola have the highest values of relative frequency of citation (RFC) and are widely known by the inhabitants of the valley. The majority of the documented plants were herbs (58%) followed by shrubs (28%), trees (12%) and then climbers (2%). The part of the plant most frequently used was the leaves (33%) followed by roots (17%), fruits (14%), whole plant (12%), rhizomes (9%), stems (6%), barks (5%) and seeds (4%). Decoction was the most common preparation method use in herbal recipes. The most frequently treated diseases in the valley were urinary disorders, skin infections, digestive disorders, asthma, jaundice, angina, chronic dysentery and diarrhea. CONCLUSION: This study contributes an ethnobotanical inventory of medicinal plants with their frequency of citations together with the part used, disease treated and methods of application among the tribal communities of Chail valley. The present survey has documented from this valley considerable indigenous knowledge about the local medicinal plants for treating number of common diseases that is ready to be further investigated for biological, pharmacological and toxicological screening. This study also provides some socio-economic aspects which are associated to the local tribal communities

Role of project planning and project manager competencies on public sector project success

Even though the world has progressed exponentially, the core reasons for the failure of many public sector projects remain the same, i.e., the poor planning and competency of a project manager. Therefore, it becomes essential even in the contemporary world to assess and evaluate a model that determines the effect of planning and the project manager’s competency on the success of public sector projects. Moreover, the present study aims to assess the role of project planning and the project manager’s competency in project success in the context of project management methodology defined by the Project Management Institute. In the current survey-based study, a sample of 260 project engineers, from the public sector organizations operating in Balochistan, that were engaged in projects was taken in order to understand the relationship between the constructs. Quantitative data were collected to address the proposed hypotheses using the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique. It was inferred from the findings that planning and competency have a significant positive impact on the success of public sector projects. Among the two, it was determined that planning for public sector projects has a greater role in the success of projects. Therefore, it is concluded based on the results of the study that in future, due consideration should be given to planning and the abilities of a project manager

User’s hand effect on efficiency of 2-port 5 GHZ mobile terminal antennas

In this paper, the influence of user’s hand on mobile terminal antenna when it placed approximately on top of Multiple Input Multiple Output radiating element antennas (PIFAs) is studied extensively. The antenna is designed to operate at 5 GHz with 1.5 GHz of -6 dB bandwidth. The effect of user’s hand with different finger positions are studied at seven positions on slit at the ground plane, seven differences height above the antenna and nine different locations around the radiating element at 2 mm height from antenna. The losses due to presence of hand are studied in terms of scattering parameters, radiation efficiency and matching efficiency. The maximum loss in term of isolation in the presence of user’s hand is found at 6 mm on the slit and it decreased as the hand move away from the slitted area on the ground plane. The maximum efficiency loss is observed when the finger is placed right on top of the radiating element with -5.85 dB compare to antenna without the presence of user’s hand. On the other hand, the result for matching efficiency indicates approximately 0.2 dB losses occurred when the fingers are varied at different height and position

Prevalence of AntiHelicobacter pylori Antibodies among Students of Cihan University, Erbil

Helicobacter pylori is resident in human stomach and causes chronic disease (peptic ulcer and gastritis). The mouth and colon were both known to host a large number of microbes. This study was carried out to investigate the seroprevalence of H. pylori infection among Cihan University students. A total of 197 blood samples were collected from the students (53 females and 144 males) from 13 departments of Cihan University, Erbil, and tested for anti-H. pylori antibodies, using rapid immunochromatography assay. Among 197 students tested, 44 (22.3%) showed positive reaction for H. pylori, 32 males and 12 females. It was non-significantly higher among students with ages ranged between 29 and 32 years old. Twenty-one of infected students were using tap water for drinking. Twenty-six (59.1%) of positive students experienced no symptoms and 18 (40.9%) were symptomatic (13.63% epigastric pain and 27.2% abdominal pain)

Ethnobotanical Profile of Weed Flora of District Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

District Charsadda is a very important center of plant biodiversity in the central plain of Peshawar valley, Pakistan. The present study was carried out during March 2015 to April 2016 to investigate the ethnobotanical profile of common weed flora present in district Charsadda, KP, Pakistan. The study revealed that there were 40 weed species belonging to 21 families. Among them 25 weeds were annual herb, 9 weeds were perennial herb, three were annual grass, one was climbing herb, one was the parasitic weed, and one was rhizomatic grass. The dominant families were Asteraceae, Fabaceae and poaceae having 5 species (12.5%) each followed by Ranunculaceae 3 species (7.5%). plants were systematically arranged into botanical names, local names, families, habit, habitat, partly used, flowering periods, locality and ethnobotanical uses. The main aim of the study is the documentation and ethnobotanical information of the weed flora growing in the area

AI in drug discovery and its clinical relevance

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the need for novel drug discovery process. However, the journey from conceptualizing a drug to its eventual implementation in clinical settings is a long, complex, and expensive process, with many potential points of failure. Over the past decade, a vast growth in medical information has coincided with advances in computational hardware (cloud computing, GPUs, and TPUs) and the rise of deep learning. Medical data generated from large molecular screening profiles, personal health or pathology records, and public health organizations could benefit from analysis by Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches to speed up and prevent failures in the drug discovery pipeline. We present applications of AI at various stages of drug discovery pipelines, including the inherently computational approaches of de novo design and prediction of a drug's likely properties. Open-source databases and AI-based software tools that facilitate drug design are discussed along with their associated problems of molecule representation, data collection, complexity, labeling, and disparities among labels. How contemporary AI methods, such as graph neural networks, reinforcement learning, and generated models, along with structure-based methods, (i.e., molecular dynamics simulations and molecular docking) can contribute to drug discovery applications and analysis of drug responses is also explored. Finally, recent developments and investments in AI-based start-up companies for biotechnology, drug design and their current progress, hopes and promotions are discussed in this article.  Other InformationPublished in:HeliyonLicense: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/See article on publisher's website: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17575 </p