Density Controlled Divide-and-Rule Scheme for Energy Efficient Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

Cluster based routing technique is most popular routing technique in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Due to varying need of WSN applications efficient energy utilization in routing protocols is still a potential area of research. In this research work we introduced a new energy efficient cluster based routing technique. In this technique we tried to overcome the problem of coverage hole and energy hole. In our technique we controlled these problems by introducing density controlled uniform distribution of nodes and fixing optimum number of Cluster Heads (CHs) in each round. Finally we verified our technique by experimental results of MATLAB simulations.Comment: 26th IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE2013), Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, 201

Effect of quinoa biomass and biocontrol fungi on expression of IPER gene in mung bean in Macrophomina phaseolina contaminated soil

Background: Mung bean is a pulse crop of economic significance, grown in Pakistan for its edible seeds. Its production is severely affected by Macrophomina phaseolina, a necrotrophic pathogen. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of different biocontrol fungi on expression of IPER gene in mung bean plants inoculated with M. phaseolina.Methods: Pot trials were carried out by adding different concentration of dry biomass of quinoa (DBQ) and six antagonistic fungi viz. Aspergillus flavipes, Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium digitatum, Penicillium italicum, Trichoderma pseudokoningii and Trichoderma viride in M. phaseolina infected soils. After four weeks of germination of mung bean seeds, RNA was extracted from roots and leaves by using TRIzol method and cDNA was prepared by using SuperScriptTM IV First-Strand Synthesis Kit. IPER gene expression was studied on qRT-PCR and ACT was used as a housekeeping gene.Results: The expression of IPER gene was higher in positive control (only inoculated with M. phaseolina) than in negative control (no amendment). Moreover, 1 and 2% doses of DBQ showed slightly higher Ct values than in 3% dose where it was dropped down indicating the allelopathic stress of DBQ treated soils. The treatments either with sole application of antagonistic fungi or together with DBQ showed much higher Ct values indicating no stress at all.Conclusion: Plants only inoculated with M. phaseolina showed the highest disease incidence as compared to the negative control. The soils amended with DBQ and antagonistic fungi significantly alleviated the effect of M. phaseolina. The treatments with increased pathogen stress showed reduced Ct values and vice versa.Keywords: Biocontrol; IPER gene; Gene expression; Macrophomina phaseolina; Mung bean

Clinico-epidemiological profile and treatment outcome of lip cancer: a retrospective study from north India

Background: Aim of present study to evaluate the Clinico-epidemiological profile and treatment outcome of Lip Cancer. Methods: This was a retrospective study performed in our hospital. All necessary clinical and epidemiological details of the 11 cases diagnosed with lip cancer from January 2016 to December 2021 were analysed. Results: The total number of new malignant cases diagnosed as lip cancer between January 2016 and December 2021 were 11, which comprised 6 male (55%) and 5 (45%) female. The male-to-female ratio was (1.2:1). The most common histological type was SCC, i.e., in 9 (81.8%) of the total number of cases and BCC was in 2 patients (18.2%). Overall survival at 5 years was 89% in our study. Conclusions: In conclusion, we have reported higher levels of lip cancer among men and those above 45 years of age. The important prognostic factors for overall survival in these patients were cancer stages. Better survival is achieved with surgery alone in the early stages and with adjuvant radiotherapy in the later stages

Knowledge about asthma: A cross-sectional survey in 4 major hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan

Objective: To determine knowledge and misconceptions about asthma among the local population..Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at four tertiary care hospitals; Aga Khan University Hospital, Civil Hospital Karachi, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, Karachi, from October to November 2016, and comprised hospital attendants. The questionnaire used in the study comprised 26 questions answered with a true, false or not sure answer.SPSS 20 was used for data analysis.Results: There were 400 participants. The overall mean age was 41.2±14.2 years, and 214(53.5%) of the participants were males. Moreover, 75(19%) participants thought that asthma was a psychological disorder while 181(45%) considered it an infectious disease. Nearly 174(43.5%) believed that inhaled medications had significant side effects. Besides, 264(66%) participants considered steam inhalation to be an effective treatment for asthma, 269(67%) thought that patients with asthma should avoid rice in their diet and 167(42%) considered milk as a common trigger.CONCLUSIONS: Participants\u27 knowledge about asthma was poor and misconceptions were common about the condition

Management of commode injuries of Achilles tendon: a newly established tertiary care hospital-based study

Background: The Achilles tendon is the largest and strongest tendon in the body, formed by the union of gastrocnemius and soleus. Despite its strength, the Achilles tendon is vulnerable to injury, due to its subcutaneous position and the high tensions placed on it. Common mode of Achilles tendon injury nowadays in India is slipping of the foot in Indian type of commode and is often fraught with complications due to the potential contamination of wound at the time of injury. The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical outcome and complications of open Achilles tendon injury with an Indian type commode.Methods: 30 patients who presented with open Achilles tendon injury between the ages of 10 to 55 years were included. All the patients were treated with emergency debridement, thorough washing and primary repair within 24 hours using Krackow technique.Results: Out of the 30 patients meeting the inclusion criteria, there was 1 case of superficial infection which resolved with antibiotics and serial dressings. Foreign body sensation was present in 3 patients at final follow-up. Hypertrophic scar formation was seen in one patient. There were no cases of re-rupture in our study. Mean ROM at ankle in saggital plane at final follow-up was 66.13 degrees.Conclusions: Commode injury is the most common cause of open Achilles tendon injury in Indian population. The complications can be minimized by early primary repair and should only be undertaken after thorough washing and debridement under proper antibiotic cover to contain the infection

Clinico-epidemiological profile and treatment outcome of pituitary adenomas: a retrospective study

Background: Aim of this study was to evaluate the clinico-epidemiological profile and treatment outcome of pituitary adenomas. Methods: This was a retrospective study performed in the department of Radiation Oncology, Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, Srinagar, India, in which 30 cases diagnosed with pituitary adenoma from January 2016 to December 2021 were studied.  There clinical and epidemiological features, treatment, overall survival and follow-up data was analyzed. Results: Most patients were female in gender 17 (57%), and the incidence rate was higher in female patients than male. Microadenoma was seen in just 4 (13%) patients. Macroadenoma in 12 (40%) and giant tumours in 14 (47%). At three and five years, the overall survival rate was 92% and 83%, respectively. Additionally, patients who got adjuvant radiation had a higher overall survival rate (84% versus 76%, p=.833) than those who did not. Conclusions: Radiotherapy is an effective treatment for pituitary adenomas, able to achieve excellent disease control. Patients with pituitary adenomas should be identified at an early stage so that effective treatment can be implemented. Initial therapy is generally transsphenoidal surgery with irradiation reserved for patients who do not achieve adequate reduction in tumor size after surgery

An Enhanced Energy Balanced Data Transmission Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks.

This paper presents two new energy balanced routing protocols for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs); Efficient and Balanced Energy consumption Technique (EBET) and Enhanced EBET (EEBET). The first proposed protocol avoids direct transmission over long distance to save sufficient amount of energy consumed in the routing process. The second protocol overcomes the deficiencies in both Balanced Transmission Mechanism (BTM) and EBET techniques. EBET selects relay node on the basis of optimal distance threshold which leads to network lifetime prolongation. The initial energy of each sensor node is divided into energy levels for balanced energy consumption. Selection of high energy level node within transmission range avoids long distance direct data transmission. The EEBET incorporates depth threshold to minimize the number of hops between source node and sink while eradicating backward data transmissions. The EBET technique balances energy consumption within successive ring sectors, while, EEBET balances energy consumption of the entire network. In EEBET, optimum number of energy levels are also calculated to further enhance the network lifetime. Effectiveness of the proposed schemes is validated through simulations where these are compared with two existing routing protocols in terms of network lifetime, transmission loss, and throughput. The simulations are conducted under different network radii and varied number of nodes

Potential health-related phytoconstituents in leaves of Chenopodium quinoa

Background: Chenopodium quinoa Willd. or quinoa is an important food crop, having many pharmacological properties. It is recently introduced in Pakistan. In the present study, a phytochemical profile of its leaf extract was assessed through GC-MS analysis, and the health-related compounds were identified through a literature survey.Methods: Quinoa was grown in Lahore, Pakistan, and its leaves were collected at maturity, dried, ground, and extracted in methanol. GC-MS analysis of this extract was done that showed the presence of 30 compounds.Results: The most abundant compound was α-linolenic acid (12.13%), followed by n-hexadecanoic acid (11.51%), ergosta-5,7-dien-3-ol, (3β)- (10.99%), phytol (10.25%), and stigmast-7-en-3-ol, (3.beta.,5.alpha.,24S)- (7.33%). Moderately occurring compounds included DL-proline, 5-oxo-, methyl ester (6.01%), hydroxylamine, O-pentyl- (5.38%), neophytadiene (4.36%), 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (3.96%), 2-isopropoxyethyl propionate (3.84%), vitamin E (2.52%), and linolenic acid, methyl ester (2.46%). The remaining compounds were less abundant, having peak areas of less than 2%.Conclusion: Literature survey revealed that α-linolenic acid; n-hexadecanoic acid; phytol; squalene, vitamin E and linolenic acid, and methyl ester; present in leaf extract of quinoa possess various health-related properties such as antibacterial, antifungal, cardio-protective, anti-inflammatory, hypocholesterolemic, antihistaminic, antiandrogenic and antieczemic.                    Keywords: Amaranthaceae; Bioactive compounds; Leaf extract; Pakistan; Quinoa 

Human Gait Recognition Subject to Different Covariate Factors in a Multi-View Environment

Human gait recognition system identifies individuals based on their biometric traits. A human’s biometric features can be grouped into physiologic or behavioral traits. Biometric traits, such as the face [1], ears [2], iris [3], finger prints, passwords, and tokens, require highly accurate recognition and a well-controlled human interaction to be effective. In contrast, behavioral traits such as voice, signature, and gait do not require any human interaction and can be collected in a hidden and non-invasive mode with a camera system at a low resolution. In comparison with other physiological traits, one of the main advantages of gait analysis is the collection of data from a certain distance. However, gait is less powerful than physiological traits, yet it still has widespread application in surveillance for unfavorable situations. From traditional algorithms to deep learning models, a gait survey provides a detailed history of gait recognition