Fears and barriers: Problems in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in Pakistan

Background: Women in Pakistan lack appropriate awareness about diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer due to a range of multifaceted barriers. There is a dearth of literature examining the socio-cultural factors that inhibit women from breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment in Punjab, Pakistan. Addressing this gap, this qualitative study sought to identify and explore the barriers that hinder women from seeking timely screening and treatment.Methods: In this process 45 women (age = 18-50 years) with breast cancer were purposively sampled and interviewed from the Punjab Institute of Nuclear Medicine (PINUM) hospital, Faisalabad, Pakistan.Results: An inductive approach was used to analyze the data which resulted in the emergence of eight subthemes under the umbrella of three major themes that delineate individual, socio-cultural and structural barriers to seek screening and treatment of breast cancer in Punjab. Individual barriers included lack of awareness, hesitance in accepting social support, and spiritual healing. The identified socio-cultural factors included feminine sensitivity, stigmatization, and aversion to male doctors. Lack of financial resources and apathetic medical services were structural barriers that hinder screening and treatment.Conclusions: These barriers can be addressed through raising awareness and community mobilization about breast-self exam and treatment. The healthcare system should also pay attention to socio-psychological and cultural factors impeding women\u27s access to available health facilities

Facial antibioma formation: A case report.

Odontogenic infections are associated with a variety of microorganisms. Antibiotics are commonly used for the management of various dental infections and have a proven role in decreasing morbidity and mortality caused by infectious diseases. The frequent and over usage of antibiotics has been associated with a number of consequences such as the selection of drug resistant strains, and the formation of antibiomas. Antibiomas are characterized by the formation of a localized pathology surrounded by thick fibrous tissues in response to long term antibiotics use. An established antibioma is characterized by a tough fibrous swelling accompanied by painful or painless swelling, intermittent fever and constitutional symptoms. In this article, we are reporting the case of a facial antibioma formed due to prolonged use of antibiotics prescribed for a residual periapical infection following endodontic treatment. In addition, the association of using antibiotics in this context is discussed

DSLOT-NN: Digit-Serial Left-to-Right Neural Network Accelerator

We propose a Digit-Serial Left-tO-righT (DSLOT) arithmetic based processing technique called DSLOT-NN with aim to accelerate inference of the convolution operation in the deep neural networks (DNNs). The proposed work has the ability to assess and terminate the ineffective convolutions which results in massive power and energy savings. The processing engine is comprised of low-latency most-significant-digit-first (MSDF) (also called online) multipliers and adders that processes data from left-to-right, allowing the execution of subsequent operations in digit-pipelined manner. Use of online operators eliminates the need for the development of complex mechanism of identifying the negative activation, as the output with highest weight value is generated first, and the sign of the result can be identified as soon as first non-zero digit is generated. The precision of the online operators can be tuned at run-time, making them extremely useful in situations where accuracy can be compromised for power and energy savings. The proposed design has been implemented on Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGA and is compared with state-of-the-art Stripes on various performance metrics. The results show the proposed design presents power savings, has shorter cycle time, and approximately 50% higher OPS per watt.Comment: Presented at 2023 26th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design (DSD

Online assessments during COVID-19 pandemic - A paradigm shift in educational strategy

Objectives: Covid-19 pandemic has instigated changes in the teaching and assessment practices of institutions in many parts of the world, resulting not only in online teaching but also online assessments. The present study analyzes the perceptions of students regarding the first online assessments conducted at a medical college in Pakistan. Methodology: This Mixed method cross-sectional study was conducted in Wah Medical College, National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS), Rawalpindi, Pakistan from July to November 2020. The questionnaire was developed after collaboration of the authors and review of the pertinent literature on online examinations. Universal sampling was done and all students of WMC were invited to participate in the study. Data collection was done by google forms and analysis was performed on SPSS. Results: Students from all five years of the MBBS program participated almost equally in the study. Students of 1st, 3rd and 4th year were not contented with their performance in online exams whereas students of 2nd and 5th year were satisfied. Most students considered technological issues as a basis of their poor performance and proposed technical training before online exams. They also provided suggestions related to improvement of examination formats and tools. Conclusion: Majority of the students found the online assessment more effective and helpful in improving their performance in exams. Student perceptions provided valuable insights for improving the online examinations system at Wah Medical College. Key words: Online Assessments, Medical education, e-assessments, student perceptions, Higher Education institute

Online assessments during COVID-19 pandemic - A paradigm shift in educational strategy

Objectives: Covid-19 pandemic has instigated changes in the teaching and assessment practices of institutions in many parts of the world, resulting not only in online teaching but also online assessments. The present study analyzes the perceptions of students regarding the first online assessments conducted at a medical college in Pakistan. Methodology: This Mixed method cross-sectional study was conducted in Wah Medical College, National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS), Rawalpindi, Pakistan from July to November 2020. The questionnaire was developed after collaboration of the authors and review of the pertinent literature on online examinations. Universal sampling was done and all students of WMC were invited to participate in the study. Data collection was done by google forms and analysis was performed on SPSS. Results: Students from all five years of the MBBS program participated almost equally in the study. Students of 1st, 3rd and 4th year were not contented with their performance in online exams whereas students of 2nd and 5th year were satisfied. Most students considered technological issues as a basis of their poor performance and proposed technical training before online exams. They also provided suggestions related to improvement of examination formats and tools. Conclusion: Majority of the students found the online assessment more effective and helpful in improving their performance in exams. Student perceptions provided valuable insights for improving the online examinations system at Wah Medical College. Key words: Online Assessments, Medical education, e-assessments, student perceptions, Higher Education institute