Students' Feedback of Written Examination: A Public Sector Medical University Experience

Objective: To determine the students’ perceptions regarding the examination in a public sector medical university. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University Islamabad. An examination feedback proforma was developed to collect the feedback from students appearing for the written exam for MD/MS/MTA during 2015. Multiple variables were assessed and descriptive analysis was done. Results: The feedback proforma was distributed to 98 candidates with response rate was 68.36%. Overall feedback from students about the examination was positive. Majority of the students were satisfied with the process and arrangements of the examination. However a large number of students did not comment on some important issues. Conclusion: Collecting students’ feedback about examination was a good effort to identify our deficiencies and indication for areas of improvement. This study revealed a positive response from students regarding overall management of the examination process

Thermal Analysis of a New Neutron Shielding Vacuum Multiple Glass

The neutron shielding glass is widely used in nuclear/fusion plants. To improve its temperature resistance and heat insulation, a Gadolinium (Gd)-containing laminate vacuum multiple glass is proposed by using the vacuum insulation method. A 3D finite element model validated by theoretical calculation was developed to analyse the heat transfer path and numerical simulation of the multiple glass was carried out to obtain the temperature distribution and the maximum temperatures of the organic glass in relation to dynamic working temperatures, the sealing agent width, view size, and vacuum thermal conductivity. The results show that the vacuum layer between common glasses can make the work temperature of neutron shielding glass increase. The multiple glass has good heat-shielding performance and it is expected to work in a high-temperature environment. In addition, the vacuum layer between the common glasses and the sealing agent width decay with respect to the view size and vacuum thermal conductivity show an increase in the working temperature of the neutron shielding glass. It was concluded that the order of affecting the temperatures of the organic glass follows the pattern of: view size; vacuum thermal conductivity; sealing agent width

Impact of Ground Truth Annotation Quality on Performance of Semantic Image Segmentation of Traffic Conditions

Preparation of high-quality datasets for the urban scene understanding is a labor-intensive task, especially, for datasets designed for the autonomous driving applications. The application of the coarse ground truth (GT) annotations of these datasets without detriment to the accuracy of semantic image segmentation (by the mean intersection over union - mIoU) could simplify and speedup the dataset preparation and model fine tuning before its practical application. Here the results of the comparative analysis for semantic segmentation accuracy obtained by PSPNet deep learning architecture are presented for fine and coarse annotated images from Cityscapes dataset. Two scenarios were investigated: scenario 1 - the fine GT images for training and prediction, and scenario 2 - the fine GT images for training and the coarse GT images for prediction. The obtained results demonstrated that for the most important classes the mean accuracy values of semantic image segmentation for coarse GT annotations are higher than for the fine GT ones, and the standard deviation values are vice versa. It means that for some applications some unimportant classes can be excluded and the model can be tuned further for some classes and specific regions on the coarse GT dataset without loss of the accuracy even. Moreover, this opens the perspectives to use deep neural networks for the preparation of such coarse GT datasets.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, The Second International Conference on Computer Science, Engineering and Education Applications (ICCSEEA2019) 26-27 January 2019, Kiev, Ukrain

Clinics in diagnostic imaging (102)

A 19-year-old man presented with cough and haemoptysis of ten days duration. He also had mild right hypochondrial pain. Chest radiograph and computed tomography (CT) showed a rounded soft tissue density opacity with an air crescent sign. CT showed multiple cystic lesions in the liver with a daughter cyst in its lateral wall. Diagnosis of hydatid disease of lung and liver was made. The contents of the liver cyst were aspirated, hypertonic saline instilled, re-aspirated, and absolute alcohol injected. Hydatid disease is endemic in certain parts of the world. Although the lungs and liver are most frequently affected, the disease can arise in any part of the body and should be kept in differential diagnosis whenever a cystic lesion is encountered. Hydatid cysts typically demonstrate characteristic imaging findings, however, the appearances may become complicated due to cyst rupture or secondary infection. Ultrasonography is the imaging modality of choice particularly in hepatic disease. CT best demonstrates cyst wall calcification and cyst infection

Treated residential greywater and its effect on shoot dry matter and nutrient uptake in maize (Zea mays)

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Shortage of freshwater resources and limited fertilizer usage due to cost related issues in agriculture are the basic limiting factors in food production. This study evaluated the effect of greywater application on shoot dry mater and uptake of maize crop. The experiment included five treatments canal water, untreated greywater and treated greywater through reed bed technology using Cyperus iria, Phragmites karka and Typha elephantina, arranged in a randomized complete block design. All the treatments received a basal doze of NPK fertilizer. The soil used in the experiment was silty clay in texture with 55% clay, pH - 7.70, EC - 1.07 dS m-1 , CaCO3 - 12.50% organic matter - 0.17%, NO3-N – 4.60 mg kg-1 , NH4-N – 1.68 mg kg-1 , ammonium bicarbonate diethylene triamine penta acetic acid (AB-DTPA) extractable P and K as 0.18 and 270 mg kg-1 , respectively. The treated greywater had a highly significant effect on shoot dry matter and N, P and K uptake in maize. The highest contents were found in treatments applied with greywater, treated under reed bed technology using Cyperus iria and the lowest in canal water applied treatments. Part of applied fertilizer was supplemented through greywater application

Septic emboli of the lung due to Fusobacterium necrophorum, a case of Lemierre\u27s syndrome

© 2019 The Authors Fusobacterium necrophorum plays a causal role in a rare and life-threatening condition, Lemierre\u27s syndrome. It is characterized by infection involving the posterior compartment of the lateral pharyngeal space complicated by septic suppurative thrombophlebitis of the internal jugular vein with F. necrophorum bacteremia and metastatic abscesses, primarily to the lung and pulmonary septic emboli. Herein, we present a very rare case of oropharyngeal infection complicated by Lemierre\u27s syndrome with characteristic septic emboli to the lungs presenting as sore throat in a previously healthy patient. A 23-year-old woman presented with sore throat and was found to be in sepsis and acute kidney injury. She was found to have septic emboli in lung and Streptococcus anginosus and F. necrophorum in blood. She was diagnosed with Lemierre\u27s syndrome and successfully treated with antibiotics. Lemierre\u27s syndrome should be included in the differential diagnosis in young patients who deteriorate in the setting of a sore throat. If the suspicion is high, throat swabs from young patients with nonstreptococcal group A tonsillitis should be cultured anaerobically on selective medium to detect the presence of F. necrophorum. While clinicians of the infectious disease team may be familiar with this condition other departments including internal medicine and critical care team may less so. Unless clinicians are aware of this syndrome, diagnosis and treatment can be delayed leading to higher morbidity and mortality