Assessing Water Consumption of Major Crops in the Command Area of Malwah Distributary, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sindh.

Soil and water are vital natural resources on which agriculture sector growth and village livelihood depend and having the proper knowledge of the Soil, Plant, and water relationship are extremely important to achieve sustainable agricultural productivity. Pakistan has entered the 21st century with the rising challenge to meet food and fiber requirements for its population for domestic consumption and export. Without having appropriate knowledge about the intense water need of plants, most of the agricultural land in Pakistan is still being irrigated by conventional methods, which in turn produces so many problems and reduces the agricultural productivity putting extra stress on the country’s economy, so to avoid these issues, it is extremely necessary to provide the required quantity of water to plant, which will only be possible by consideration and accurate estimation of Evapotranspiration of plant so to enhance awareness and practice of water-saving agriculture in Pakistan to increase the agricultural commodities. In this study, estimation of Actual Evapotranspiration ( ETa ) of Malwah Distributary located in Shaheed Benazirbad, Sindh was selected from Command area of Rohri Canal, ET of four different crops; Cotton, Fallow, Rice and Sugarcane for the period of Rabi 2019-2020 and Kharif 2020 was estimated by using satellite-based evapotranspiration mapping tool namely METRIC REFLUX. The actual ET for each season was obtained using the Reference ET fraction (ETrf) of satellite data and reference ET(ETr) obtained from the literature. The classified crop mask was obtained using maximum likelihood classification on bands 8,4, and 3 of sentinel-2 images of the year 2020. The overall accuracy obtained is 93% with a kappa coefficient 0.921841. The average Actual Evapotranspiration of different crops namely, banana, cotton, rice, and sugarcane were found to be 1527.2 mm, 536.6 mm, 386.80 mm, and 814.02 m

A genome-wide association study in Europeans and South Asians identifies five new loci for coronary artery disease

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Genome-wide association identifies nine common variants associated with fasting proinsulin levels and provides new insights into the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: Proinsulin is a precursor of mature insulin and C-peptide. Higher circulating proinsulin levels are associated with impaired β-cell function, raised glucose levels, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Studies of the insulin processing pathway could provide new insights about T2D pathophysiology. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We have conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association tests of ∼2.5 million genotyped or imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and fasting proinsulin levels in 10,701 nondiabetic adults of European ancestry, with follow-up of 23 loci in up to 16,378 individuals, using additive genetic models adjusted for age, sex, fasting insulin, and study-specific covariates. RESULTS: Nine SNPs at eight loci were associated with proinsulin levels (P < 5 × 10(-8)). Two loci (LARP6 and SGSM2) have not been previously related to metabolic traits, one (MADD) has been associated with fasting glucose, one (PCSK1) has been implicated in obesity, and four (TCF7L2, SLC30A8, VPS13C/C2CD4A/B, and ARAP1, formerly CENTD2) increase T2D risk. The proinsulin-raising allele of ARAP1 was associated with a lower fasting glucose (P = 1.7 × 10(-4)), improved β-cell function (P = 1.1 × 10(-5)), and lower risk of T2D (odds ratio 0.88; P = 7.8 × 10(-6)). Notably, PCSK1 encodes the protein prohormone convertase 1/3, the first enzyme in the insulin processing pathway. A genotype score composed of the nine proinsulin-raising alleles was not associated with coronary disease in two large case-control datasets. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified nine genetic variants associated with fasting proinsulin. Our findings illuminate the biology underlying glucose homeostasis and T2D development in humans and argue against a direct role of proinsulin in coronary artery disease pathogenesis

Diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori. Improving the sensitivity of CLOtest by increasing the number of gastric antral biopsies

Background and Goal: The rapid urease CLOtest is commonly used during endoscopy to diagnose the presence of Helicobacter pylori. The aim of this study was to determine whether the sensitivity of the CLOtest can be improved by increasing the number of gastric antral biopsies from 1 to 4. Methods: The study included 100 adult patients who were referred for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and tested positive for H. pylori infection on 13C urea breath test (gold standard). These 100 patients were then randomly divided into 4 equal groups (groups 1 to 4), and underwent an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Patients in group 1 had 1 gastric antral biopsy during endoscopy, whereas those in groups 2, 3, and 4 had 2, 3, and 4 biopsies, respectively. The biopsies were placed in the rapid urease CLOtests, which were incubated at room temperature for up to 24 hours, and read for positive results at 1, 6, and 24 hours. Results: About half of the patients (52%) had a positive CLOtest in group 1, compared to 68% in group 2, 76% in group 3, and 96% in group 4 (group 1 vs. 4 P<0.01). After 1 hour of incubation 96% of the patients in group 4 had a positive CLOtest, compared to 40% in group 3, 12% in group 2, and 4% in group 1. Conclusions: Increasing the number of gastric antral biopsies from 1 to 4 significantly improves the sensitivity of the CLOtest, eliminates sampling error, and hastens the time needed by the test to become positive for the diagnosis of H. pylori infection

Ultrasound Biosafety During Pregnancy: What Do Operators Know in the Developing World? National Survey Findings From Pakistan

Objectives:The Purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of ultrasound users toward safety aspects during routine obstetric examinations. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was given to all registered participants of the 10th Annual International Radiological Conference in Karachi, Pakistan. Results: A total of 306 participants completed the questionnaire (response rate, 70%), including 170 consultant radiologists (55%), 90 radiology residents (30%), 31 sonographers (10%), and 15 others (5%). The mean sonography experience of the end users (+/-) SD was 5.1 +/- 5 years. Around half of the participants (45.5%) reported that there should be limitations on the use of ultrasound during low-risk pregnancy. Overall, safety knowledge was inadequate among the participants. However, those who were concerned about limitations on the use of ultrasound during pregnancy were 2.5 times more likely to be familiar with the mechanical index (P \u3c .001) and 1.8 times more likely to be familiar with the thermal index (P \u3c .001). Conclusions: Increased training for professionals on safety issues of ultrasound procedures during pregnancy is needed. Furthermore, the concept of the absolute safety of ultrasound procedures without knowledge of safety parameters such as the mechanical and thermal indices needs to be changed, and more clarity is required when defining parameters under which the procedures can be safely performed

Cross-Term Suppression in Time Order Distribution for AWGN Signal

A technique of cross-term suppression in WD (Wigner Distribution) for a multi-component signal that is embedded WGN (White Gaussian Noise) is proposed. In this technique, an optimized algorithm is developed for time-varying noisy signal and a CAD (Computer Aided Design) simulator is designed for Numerical simulations of synthetic signal. In proposed technique, signal components are localized in tf (time frequency) plane by STFT (Short Time Fourier Transform). Rectified STFT is computed and Spectral Kurtosis is used to separate a signal components from noise in t-f plane. The t-f plane is segmented and then signal components are filtered out by FFT (Fractional Fourier Transform). Finally, WD (free of cross terms) of isolated signal component is computed to obtain high resolution in t-f plane

Factors Influencing Physician Counseling on Cardiovascular Risk

Background and Importance: A significant reduction in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality is related to aggressive management of modifiable CVD risk factors. Therefore, patients at increased risk for CVD should not only benefit from standard pharmacotherapy but also from counseling regarding lifestyle behavioral changes. Objective: To determine the patient factors that influence provision of cardiovascular risk reduction counseling from physicians, as well as the frequencies of counseling. Design, Setting, and Participants: Secondary analysis of a prospective, randomized trial among an underserved inner-city and rural population (n = 388) with a 10% or greater CVD risk (Framingham 10-year risk score). Subjects were followed for 1 year and were seen for quarterly assessments, which included evaluation of weight, blood pressure, lipid, and glucose status. At each of the 4 quarterly visits, subjects were asked if their physician had discussed or made recommendations regarding lifestyle behaviors, specifically diet, weight loss, and exercise. Results: The average patient age was 61.3 ± 10.1 years, average A1c was 6.7 ± 1.6%, average total cholesterol was 201 ± 44 mg/dL. The average body mass index (BMI) was 31.8 ± 6.4 kg/m 2 , and the average blood pressure was 146 ± 18/82 ±11 mm Hg. Using binary logistic regression analysis, BMI ( P < .025) was the only clinical factor related to physician lifestyle counseling. All other risk factors showed no statistical relationship. Conclusion: The data indicate that BMI is the major factor associated with whether or not physicians provide counseling regarding nutrition and weight loss. Physicians may be missing important opportunities to influence behavior in patients at high risk for CVD by limiting their focus to obese patients

Assessment of psychiatric comorbidities and serotonergic or noradrenergic medication use on blood pressure using 24‐hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring

Abstract In this study, the authors aimed to assess both nighttime and daytime blood pressure (BP) variability using 24‐hour ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) in persons with and without psychiatric conditions and with or without selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or serotonin‐norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) treatment. In this retrospective study, patients who underwent psychiatric evaluation and ABPM within 6 months of each other between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2017 were identified using billing data. Participants were divided into three groups—participants with no psychiatric diagnosis and no psychiatric medicine (−Diagnosis/−Medication), those with psychiatric diagnosis and on SSRIs/SNRIs (+Diagnosis/+Medication), and psychiatric diagnosis but no psychiatric medications (+Diagnosis/−Medication). Day and nighttime systolic and diastolic BPs were compared between groups controlling for relevant variables using multivariable linear regression models. A total of 475 participants met inclusion criteria including 135 in the −Diagnosis/−Medication group, 232 in the +Diagnosis/+Medication group, and 108 in the +Diagnosis/−Medication group. In adjusted multivariable analysis, the +Diagnosis/+Medication group had higher nighttime systolic BP (median 120 vs 110 mm (Hg); p = .01) and nighttime diastolic BP (median 68 vs 63 mm (Hg); p = .006) as compared to −Diagnosis/−Medication. No statistically significant differences in BPs between the −Diagnosis/−Medication and +Diagnosis/−Medication groups were observed, after adjustment. Use of SSRIs/SNRIs was associated with significantly higher nocturnal systolic and diastolic BP among patients with psychiatric diagnosis using SSRIs/SNRIs but not associated with psychiatric diagnosis without SSRI/SNRI use. SSRIs/SNRIs use may be associated with higher BP levels and this merits future prospective studies using ABPM to assess day and nighttime BP changes with SSRIs/SNRIs use