Safety of Supracostal Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy in Paediatric Population: A Single Centre Experience

Objective The objective of this study is assessment of safety and efficacy of supracostal mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy in pediatric patients. Methodology This is prospective study of patients whose kidney stones were treated with mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy through supracostal approach between February 2019 and Dec 2020.These patients were selected for supracostal puncture based on preoperative ultrasound and CT KUB findings and peroperative assessment of stone burden, stone location and anatomy of pelvicalyceal system. Results Of 80 patients 72(90%) were treated with only one supracostal puncture while additional 2nd puncture was used for 8(10%) patients. Overall stone clearance is 85% only with percutaneous nephrolithotomy and the stone clearance has reached to 95% with ancillary procedures.13% of patient had hydrothorax , 3.75% had urosepsis, 2.75% had bleeding and 1.25 % had perinephric fluid collection. Conclusion This study concludes that the safety and efficacy of supracostal percutaneous nephrolithotomy is same as subcostal pcnl if surgical boundaries are not violated

Self-Organized Disjoint Service Placement in Future Mobile Communication Networks

Future mobile communication networks will offer many ubiquitous services to its clients such as voice and video communication, access to data and files, use of virtual resources in cloud, etc. The provision of these services will have to face the different challenges posed by future wireless networks such as changing network topology, variable load conditions, clients’ distribution, QoS requirements etc. is a very difficult task and requires a high degree of self-organization in network operations. One important problem in this context is the self-organized service placement which refers to the problem of finding optimal nodes in the network that are most suitable for hosting a particular service type. An optimal placement of a service and its instances (replicas) not only minimizes the service costs but also reduces the overall network traffic and improves connectivity between clients and servers. This paper proposes a novel network service called Self-Organized Disjoint Service Placement (SO-DSP) service which manages other network services and their instances in order to achieve overall network optimization while keeping the individual service’s quality at the same level for its clients. The clients of SO-DSP are not the end-users of the network but the offered network service

N-[(Methyl­sulfan­yl)meth­yl]benzamide

In the title compound, C9H11NOS, the phenyl ring and formamide unit make a dihedral angle of 23.93 (14)°, whereas the (methyl­sulfan­yl)methyl group is oriented at a dihedral angle of 61.31 (8)° with respect to the phenyl ring. There are inter­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming C(4) chains along the [010] direction. These polymeric chains are linked by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form polymeric sheets in the (110) plane

Feminine and Masculine Brand Personalities and Consumer-based Brand Equity: An Explanation through Dual Mediation Model

Currently, it is difficult for marketers to excel by virtuously focusing on traditional marketing approaches. Thus, marketing managers are relying more on the gender of the brand, as individuals are more attracted towards those brands which are consistent with their personalities. It has been proposed that brand personality is a crucial source of consumer-based brand equity, but empirical research on the relationship between perceptions of brand personality and brand equity is sparse. Considering the importance of brand gender, this study has analyzed the effect of brand gender on consumer-based brand equity through two mediators (i.e., consumer-brand engagement and emotional brand attachment) through an empirical investigation of 299 respondents. The model was shadowed under self-congruity theory. Structural equation modelling was utilised to test hypotheses. Results show that if managers position their brands based on gender and when there is a match between consumer gender and brand gender, it will engage the customers more and attract them, which helps build consumer-based brand equity

3,3-Dibromo-1-ethyl-1H-2,1-benzo­thiazin-4(3H)-one 2,2-dioxide

In the mol­ecule of the title compound, C10H9Br2NO3S, the S atom is four-coordinated in distorted tetra­hedral configuration. The heterocyclic thia­zine ring adopts a twist conformation. An intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bond results in the formation of a non-planar five-membered ring. In the crystal structure, inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into infinite chains along the c axis

The effect of quantum memory on quantum games

We study quantum games with correlated noise through a generalized quantization scheme. We investigate the effects of memory on quantum games, such as Prisoner's Dilemma, Battle of the Sexes and Chicken, through three prototype quantum-correlated channels. It is shown that the quantum player enjoys an advantage over the classical player for all nine cases considered in this paper for the maximally entangled case. However, the quantum player can also outperform the classical player for subsequent cases that can be noted in the case of the Battle of the Sexes game. It can be seen that the Nash equilibria do not change for all the three games under the effect of memory.Comment: 26 pages, 7 ps figure

Short term outcome of primary un-cemented total hip arthroplasty in osteonecrosis of femoral head

Background: Osteonecrosis of femoral head (ONFH) is characterised by cell death in the subchondral bone caused by abnormalities of blood flow to the femoral head. About 5% to 13% of arthroplasties are performed yearly for ONFH in United States. Ficat and Arlet classification is the commonest system used for grading of ONFH. Advanced stages 3 and 4 are best managed with total hip arthroplasty (THA). THA restores hip range of movement and allows early ambulation in ONFH.Methods: After seeking approval from local institutional ethical committee 25 patients with stage 3 and stage 4 ONFH (Ficat and Arlet) were admitted from OPD of SKIMS MC and Hospital Bemina, Srinagar. The study was conducted from February 2018 to February 2020 in department of Orthopaedics SKIMS MC and Hospital Bemina, Srinagar.  25 patients with mean age of 50.64 years comprising of 13 females and 12 males with unilateral osteonecrosis of femoral head with collapsed head underwent uncemented total hip arthroplasty and were followed up to a minimum of 1 year post-operatively.Results: Outcome was evaluated by comparing pre-operative and post-operative Harris hip scores. The average Harris hip scores improved from 65.87 in the pre-operative group to 96.54 at 1-year follow-up post-operatively. Marked improvement was noted in pain scores. No revisions were performed during the study. One patient developed superficial surgical site infection which healed with supervised dressings and oral antibiotics.Conclusions: Uncemented THA has excellent short-term outcomes in advanced stages of ONFH. It provides mobile hip joint and pain free ambulation shortly after surgery

Product Packaging and Consumer Purchase Intentions

Packaged food products are now available in supermarkets which has increased consumer choice. In addition, competition between packaged food products has also increased. The consumers decision making process is strongly infl uenced by product packaging. Thus, the aim of the study is to measure the eff ect of product packaging (i.e. packaging color, packaging material, font style, packaging design and printed information) on consumer purchase intentions. Consumers of packaged foods in Karachi belonging to the age group of 18-35 years were surveyed through a questionnaire adapted from the earlier studies. The sample size for the study was 278 comprising a response rate of 95%. Preliminary statistical investigation consisted of reliability, validity and normality analyses. The developed hypotheses were empirically examined through regression analysis. The results suggest that all the hypotheses were accepted. The results also indicate that product packaging has a signifi cant eff ect on consumer purchase intentions. It was also found that packaging materialhas the strongest infl uence on consumer purchase intentions followed by packaging color, font style, packaging design and printed information. Future studies may investigate how consumer purchase intentions are infl uenced by other elements of packaging in the context of Pakistan.Keywords: Product packaging, packaging color, font style, packaging design, printed information, consumer buying behavior