New horizons: COVID-19 and the burden of neuropsychiatric illness in Pakistan

This manuscript reviews the current state of knowledge about the burden of mental illness and assesses the impact of COVID-19 illness on mental health in Pakistan. For this we analyzed secondary data obtained from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study draws from a wide range of data sources to quantify global and regional effects of a disease. We also did a literature search on the effects of COVID-19 illness on mental health and the psychosocial effects of COVID-19 and other Corona virus related illnesses such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Data from the studies obtained was utilized to extrapolate the anticipated effects of COVID-19 illness on healthcare workers, COVID-19 patients and the general public in Pakistan. Mental illness poses a significant challenge to Pakistan\u27s under resourced health care system. COVID-19 has the potential to strain Pakistan\u27s healthcare system to the breaking point. So far, the general morbidity from COVID-19 illness in Pakistan has been low compared to other countries but this could change in the coming weeks and months. Hidden within this crisis are also some opportunities for both healthcare and education

Performance Analysis for Bit-Error-Rate of DS-CDMA Sensor Network Systems with Source Coding

One of the distinguished techniques used with wireless sensor networks to access the network is utilizing direct sequence-code division multiple access. However, amount of consumed energy and multiple access interference are still considered as the main problems with employing such networks. The consumed energy and interference are rising when number of users (receivers) increases. Therefore, this paper is conducted to investigate mitigating influence these factors through analyzing the minimum energy coding which exploits redundant bits for saving power with employing radio frequency link and on-off-keying modulation. These factors are analyzed and discussed for several levels of expected errors in the utilizing channel, through the bit error rates and amount of signal to noise ratio for different number of users.

Dynamic priority-based efficient resource allocation and computing framework for vehicular multimedia cloud computing

© 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works In intelligent transportation system, smart vehicles are equipped with a variety of sensing devices those offer various multimedia applications and services related to smart driving assistance, weather forecasting, traffic congestion information, road safety alarms, and many entertainment and comfort-related applications. These smart vehicles produce a massive amount of multimedia related data that required fast and real-time processing which cannot be fully handled by the standalone onboard computing devices due to their limited computational power and storage capacities. Therefore, handling such multimedia applications and services demanded changes in the underlaying networking and computing models. Recently, the integration of vehicles with cloud computing is emerged as a challenging computing paradigm. However, there are certain challenges related to multimedia contents processing, (i.e., resource cost, fast service response time, and quality of experience) that severely affect the performance of vehicular communication. Thus, in this paper, we propose an efficient resource allocation and computation framework for vehicular multimedia cloud computing to overcome the aforementioned challenges. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated in terms of quality of experience, service response time, and resource cost by using the Cloudsim simulator

Exchange Rate Behaviour after Recent Float: The Experience of Pakistan

Exchange rate is a price of traded goods in the world market. To maintain the commodities competitive in the market, exchange rate should be adjusted according to the change in prices. If it is adjusted accordingly, then we say that purchasing power parity (PPP) holds in that country. However, phenomenon of PPP is completely kicked out under floating exchange rate regime in the short run [see for example, Rogoff (1999); Mark and Choi (1997); MacDonald (1999); Obstfeld and Taylor (1997); Coleman (1995); O’Connel (1998) and Michael, et al. (1997)]. Recent statement by the President of the National Bank of Pakistan, that the exchange rate and the interest rate are two faces of the same coin [Bokhari (2004)], shows that the changes in the exchange rate is strongly associated with the changes in the interest rate differential.1 It is also argued that under free float the value of currency is determined by demand and supply of foreign exchange and to control the value of currency using open market operations interest rate is used as the key monetary policy tool. Moreover, deterioration of trade balance leads to deprecation in exchange to make the exports competitive in the market and vice versa

A Mathematical Theory for Studying and Controlling the Disinformation System Dynamics

This study explores the connection between disinformation, defined as deliberate spread of false information, and rate-induced tipping (R-tipping), a phenomenon where systems undergo sudden changes due to rapid shifts in ex-ternal forces. While traditionally, tipping points were associated with exceeding critical thresholds, R-tipping highlights the influence of the rate of change, even without crossing specific levels. The study argues that disinformation campaigns, often organized and fast-paced, can trigger R-tipping events in public opinion and societal behavior. This can happen even if the disinformation itself doesn't reach a critical mass, making it challenging to predict and control. Here, by Transforming a population dynamics model into a network model, Investigating the interplay between the source of disinformation, the exposed population, and the medium of transmission under the influence of external sources, the study aims to provide valuable insights for predicting and controlling the spread of disinformation. This mathematical approach holds promise for developing effective countermeasures against this increasingly prevalent threat to public discourse and decision-making.Comment: 8 Pages, 6 Figures, Accepted Paper, Proceedings of the ICMAAM-2023, Part of the Book Series: Springer Proceedings in Mathemat-ics & Statistic

INVESTIGATION OF Helicobacter pylori VIRULENCE GENOTYPE IN GASTRIC BIOPSIES BY PCR

  Background: Helicobacter pylori infections has been associated with the genetic diversity of their virulence factors, the virulence genotypes are valuable as molecular marker in the diagnosis of patients with bacterial infections . Our main objective was to analyze the frequency and allelic genotype of vacA , cagA also investigate another virulence genes of H. pylori. Methods: 75 biopsies of  patients with gastritis and peptic ulcer diseases were selected to investigate the presences of H. pylori and collected from them antrum biopsies, then  genomic DNA was extracted from  antrum biopsies using genomic DNA kit .Subsequently, the virulence genes of H. pylori   were amplified using specific primers including vacA , cagA, cagE and oipA and iceA by PCR in 49 cases that positive to 16SrRNA which previously investigated. Results: A high prevalence of genes cagA  (28.6%), vacAs1bm2 (56.8%), iceA2 (30.6%)  and oipA  (42.9%) was found, while  vacA s2m1  and iceA1 genotypes  was not found in our study.  There was significant correlation between the presence of cagA and cagE genotypes (p = 0.02), suggesting that these two genes almost used together as cag PAI integrity marker. The  presence of cagA gene was significantly associated with peptic ulceration (p ≤ 0.001), whereas different vacA genotypes or iceA2 genotype were no statistically significant  with clinical outcome.  Patients with peptic ulcer disease more likely to have oipA gene (61.9% ) than those with gastritis (38.1%), P = 0.037, also the presence oipA gene was statistically significant with presence iceA2. Conclusion : Most H. pylori genotypes which associated with peptic ulcer and gastritis were moderate virulent strains. Â