State of Bridge Management in Canada

Bridges are key elements of all horizontal transportation networks. The primary objective of this paper is to investigate and document bridge-management practices in Canada at the federal, provincial/territorial, and municipal levels. The research methods used include a literature review, data collection (surveys), data analysis, and conclusions. The survey was sent to all provincial/territorial and federal jurisdictions. Nine of ten provincial, three of three territorial, and two of nine federal agencies responded to the survey. Currently, only four provinces have computerized Bridge Management Systems (BMS). The Ontario Structure Inspection Manual (OSIM), developed by province of Ontario, is the most widely used bridge inspection system in Canada. At present, five provinces employ this system to conduct bridge inspections. This paper identified six important municipal bridge-management challenges. It is recommended that higher tier of government, i.e., federal and provincial, should play a larger role to support municipalities with bridge management

Role of anterior decompression with internal fixation in dorsal spine tuberculosis

This observational study was conducted in the Department of Neurosurgery Lady Reading HospitalPeshawar from July 2010 to June 2012 (2 years).There were 38 patients with dorsal spine tuberculosis who underwent anterior decompression and fusion using anterior spinal instrumentation and allograft replacement. We included those patients in our study, who undergone anterior decompression with internal fixation for dorsal spine tuberculosis, of both genders irrespective of their age. We excluded those patients who were unfit for surgery, treated conservatively, involved spine other than dorsal spine or undergone procedure other than anterior approach for Carrie’s spine.Clinical outcome of the patients was assessed using the frankle grade. The patients were observed for post-operative complications, neurological improvement and bony fusion

Surgical Outcome of Posteriour Fossa Tumors in Children

Posterior fossa tumors are most common in children than adults accounting for 54 to 70% of all childhood brain tumours. Out of them 30% are brain stem tumors. Most common posterior fossa tumors are Medulloblastoma, Astrocytoma, Ependymoma, and Brain Stem tumours. While dermoid, epidermoide and teratoma are the rare tumours. All focal and Cystic brain stem tumors in posterior fossa show better results with redical surgery than more diffused tumours that had stereotactic biopsy. Key words:  Posterior Fossa Tumors

Role of MAG1 proteins in invasiveness of human colorectal cancer cells

Introduction: MAGI -1 plays an essential role in cancer metastasis. We aimed to study the expression of MAGI -1, -2 and -3 in colorectal cancer tissue with specific focus on the role of MAGI -1 in colorectal cancer metastasis, through its function in the maintenance of cell-to-cell tight junctions. Materials and Methods: MAGI -1, -2 and -3, expression was determined in colorectal cancer tissue by using Q-PCR and RT-PCR. MAGI -1 knockdowns were created in cancer cell lines by electroporation method and were confirmed on RT- PCR, morphology and immunofluorescence. The impact of aberrantly expressed MAGI -1 on adhesion, invasion and migration of colorectal cancer tissue was studied by using trans-epithelial resistance (TER) and electrical cell impedance (ECIS) assays. Results: Q-PCR was consistent with the reduced expression of MAGI-1, -2 and -3 in colorectal cancer tissue. Survival curves showed reduced survival in cohort with reduced MAGI expression. MAGI -2 lacked expression on RT-PCR. MAGI -1 KDs showed decrease trans-epithelial resistance in the KDs. Reduced electrical resistance across epithelial cell lines in MAGI -1 KDs and also reduced adhesion and increase in migratory function was observed in MAGI -1 KDs on Trans-epithelial resistance (TER) and electronic cell impedance sensing (ECIS) experiments respectively. Conclusion: Our experimental work suggests that MAGI-1 plays a vital role in maintaining the barrier function of tight-junctions in colorectal cancer tissue, which when knocked down, has a significant implication in colorectal cancer metastasis

Bilateral spontaneous non-traumatic rupture of the Achilles tendon: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>We present an interesting case of spontaneous non-traumatic bilateral rupture of the Achilles tendons, which is a rare condition. Delayed or missed diagnosis of Achilles tendon ruptures by primary treating physicians is relatively common.</p> <p>Case report</p> <p>A 78-year-old Caucasian woman presented with spontaneous non-traumatic bilateral rupture of the Achilles tendons. Her symptoms started two days after she took ciprofloxacin 500 mg twice daily for a urinary tract infection and prednisolone 30 mg once daily for chronic obstructive airway disease.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This case report aims to increase the awareness of this rare condition, which should be borne in mind with regard to patients who are on steroid therapy and are concurrently started on fluoroquinolones.</p

Blood image analysis to detect malaria using filtering image edges and classification

Malaria is a most dangerous mosquito borne disease and its infection spread through the infected mosquito. It especially affects the pregnant females and Children less than 5 years age. Malarial species commonly occur in five different shapes, Therefore, to avoid this crucial disease the contemporary researchers have proposed image analysis based solutions to mitigate this death causing disease. In this work, we propose diagnosis algorithm for malaria which is implemented for testing and evaluation in Matlab. We use Filtering and classification along with median filter and SVM classifier. Our proposed method identifies the infected cells from rest of blood images. The Median filtering smoothing technique is used to remove the noise. The feature vectors have been proposed to find out the abnormalities in blood cells. Feature vectors include (Form factor, measurement of roundness, shape, count total number of red cells and parasites). Primary aim of this research is to diagnose malaria by finding out infected cells. However, many techniques and algorithm have been implemented in this field using image processing but accuracy is not up to the point. Our proposed algorithm got more efficient results along with high accuracy as compared to NCC and Fuzzy classifier used by the researchers recently

Analyzing the Rate of Complications after Endoscopic Transsphenoidal Surgery for Removal of Pituitary Adenomas

Objective: Analyzing the rate of complications after endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery for removal of pituitary adenomas in neurosurgery department lady reading hospital Peshawar.Materials and Methods: Retrospective study of 58 patients who underwent endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary adenomas between July 2013 and June 2016. The Criteria for diagnosis of complications were clinical and radiological.Results: 11 (18.96%) of the 58 patients who underwent endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery developed per-operative or postoperative complications most of which were managed successfully resulting in good outcome.Conclusion: The rate of complications observed in our hospital are comparable to those in the international literature. There is a drop in the rate of complications with increasing experience of the neurosurgeon

The Challenges Faced By Dental Students in Studying Oral Pathology Online During Covid-19: A Cross-Sectional Study

OBJECTIVES The way of practising and teaching dentistry has changed significantly worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact on dental education should not be neglected. Therefore, sharing experiences about online teaching from in-person education is essential to a better learning process during this period. This study aimed to assess the challenges faced by dental students in studying oral pathology online during covid-19: a cross-sectional study. METHODOLOGY It was a descriptive cross-sectional study in the Department of oral pathology at Altamash Institute of dental medicine to assess the challenges students faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 110 participants were approached, and among them, 105 participants responded. Of 105 participants, 78% were females, and 22% were males. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23.RESULTSAlmost 93.3% of the students felt in-person lectures are more effective than online lectures. Fourth-year students showed higher satisfaction with the number of online tutorial / practical classes taken to provide an in-depth view of the subject than 3rd year students (8.8% vs 91.2%, p=0.045). Fourth-year students showed significantly higher satisfaction with several online theory classes to provide an in-depth view of the subject than 3rd year students (p=0.045). CONCLUSION The present study concluded that most students prefer in person classes over virtual learning and face a lack of online interaction with the faculty.