Comparison of Mobile and Native Technologies for Mobile MES Applications

The MES (manufacturing execution system) is mostly used from desktop based terminals in a factory. These terminals are distant from the machines and materials used on the factory floor. To access the information available through MES from anywhere in the factory floor, use of mobile terminal instead of desktop computers has been proposed. To evaluate two alternative implementation technologies, Web and native, we have de-veloped and compared two prototypes of the MES application. In addition, we have studied the advantages of native and Web approaches through the literature and survey. Mobile devices are categorized by its different platforms and screen sizes. Android, iOS, and Windows phone are most common among them. Mobile applications are platform dependent and an application made for one platform does not work on others. Web ap-plications are platform independent that work on all devices. HTML5 has introduced some APIs through which a Web app can behave like a native app and can compete with the native app. So, in this thesis we have tried to compare Web and native app and tried to find out which is better for MES applications. A general answer to this question is native because of its better performance. In this thesis, we have analyzed some of the factors that are responsible for the performance difference between a Web app and native app. In addition to this, we have had an online survey to find out what developers think about the development, testing, maintenance and deployment of Web and native technologies. Based on all the data, i.e. literature review, some experiments, feedback from participants and online survey, we made a conclusion that native app is the best solution for mobile MES because native app is more responsive and more secure. However, native apps require more time, effort, cost and skills to be developed and maintained

Areca nut chewing and the risk of re-hospitalization and mortality among patients with acute coronary syndrome in Pakistan

Objectives: Areca nut is widely consumed in many parts of the world, especially in South and Southeast Asia, where cardiovascular disease (CVD) is also a huge burden. Among the forms of CVD, acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Research has shown areca nut chewing to be associated with diabetes, hypertension, oropharyngeal and esophageal cancers, and CVD, but little is known about mortality and re-hospitalization secondary to ACS among areca nut users and non-users. Methods: A prospective cohort was studied to quantify the effect of areca nut chewing on patients with newly diagnosed ACS by categorizing the study population into exposed and non-exposed groups according to baseline chewing status. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the associations of areca nut chewing with the risk of re-hospitalization and 30-day mortality secondary to ACS. Results: Of the 384 ACS patients, 49.5% (n=190) were areca users. During 1-month of follow-up, 20.3% (n=78) deaths and 25.1% (n=96) re-hospitalizations occurred. A higher risk of re-hospitalization was found (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 2.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.29 to 3.27; p=0.002) in areca users than in non-users. Moreover, patients with severe disease were at a significantly higher risk of 30-day mortality (aHR, 2.77; 95% CI, 1.67 to 4.59; p<0.001) and re-hospitalization (aHR, 2.72; 95% CI, 1.73 to 4.26; p<0.001). Conclusions: The 30-day re-hospitalization rate among ACS patients was found to be significantly higher in areca users and individuals with severe disease. These findings suggest that screening for a history of areca nut chewing may help to identify patients at a high risk for re-hospitalization due to secondary events

Prevalence of Stunted Growth in Pakistan: A Socio-economic Phenomenon.

This study attempts to examine the relationship between the stunted growth with socioeconomic variables such as growth rate, fiscal expenditures on health and education, level female education and poverty level for the last two decades. In a developing country like Pakistan where the prevalence of stunted growth is nearly 50%, that is around fifty percent of the children under the age of five are suffering from malnutrition and the expenditures on health is approximately 2.5% of the GDP, it is expected to have a significant relationship between the expenditures on health and stunted growth. Similarly, the female education rate is expected to have significant impact on the malnutrition of a child under-5 years of age. Pearson correlation estimates will be used to investigate the relationship; along with the multivariate regression analysis will be employed to measure the association, between the variables. The study finds the female education, poor living conditions and poverty as significant variables associated with stunted growth. Managing and controlling factors such as preventative healthcare focus on female adult education, access to clean drinking water and poverty alleviation, should be used to influence levels of stunting, in light of Pakistan Key Words: Stunted growth; Poverty; Female literacy rate; Pearson correlation test DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/9-4-10 Publication date: April 30th 201

Element-Free Galerkin Method Based on Block-Pulse Wavelets Integration for Solving Fourth-Order Obstacle Problem

We introduce improved element-free Galerkin method based on block pulse wavelet integration for numerical approximations to the solution of a system of fourth-order boundary-value problems associated with obstacle, unilateral, and contact problems. Moving least squares (MLS) approach is used to construct shape functions with optimized weight functions and basis. Numerical results for test problems are presented in this article to elaborate the pertinent features for the proposed technique. Comparison with existing techniques shows that our proposed method based on integration technique provides better approximation at reduced computational cost

Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion: Operative Technique and Post-Operative Complications – An Experience in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background and Objective: The most common spinal procedure in our set up to address various disorders of the cervical spine like prolapsed intervertebral disc, trauma, and degenerative disc disease is an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). As there is no technique without complication, this procedure is also related with certain important complications. We evaluated post-operative complications of ACDF in our institution.Material and Methods: The preoperative data of 148 patients who were operated in last 3 years for ACDF isincluded in the study. Patients with previous neck surgery are excluded.Results: The most commonly performed surgical interventions is single level ACDF (65%). Dysphagia is mostsignificant (16%) complication. After which neurological deterioration (9%) with equal incidence of RecurrentLaryngeal Nerve Palsy and wound infection that is 8% each.Conclusion: The most common post-operative complications are dysphagia and worsening of preexistingneurology and multilevel ACDF is identified as the most common risk factor. Early recognition of complicationsand management may help to reduce mortality and morbidity

The Surgical Results in Pure Endoscopic Endonasal Trans-sphenoidal Surgeries in 403 Pituitary Adenomas: An 8-Years of Experience from a Single Neurosurgical Unit

Objective:  To review and report the results in pure endoscopic endonasal trans-sphenoidal surgery done at our unit for pituitary adenomas (PAs) in last 8 years. Material and Methods:  We reviewed 403 consecutive patients who underwent pure endoscopic endonasal trans-sphenoidal surgery for newly diagnosed pituitary adenomas between August 2012 and July 2020 at our neurosurgical unit. Endocrinological, demographic features and outcomes, their complications, and duration of stay in hospital were assessed in these patients who were operated in our neurosurgical Unit. The Mean Follow-up on average was 3.5 months. Results:  403 consecutive cases were reviewed. Majority of cases were in the 4th decade of life at presentation. 227 (56%) were non-functioning pituitary tumors and 176 (44%) were hormone secreting pituitary adenomas. Thirty-one (7.7%) complications were observed in 28 post-operative patients. The most frequently observed complication was diabetes insipidus (temporary in 19 (5%) and permanent in 3 (0.7%) cases), cerebrospinal fluids leaks (5 cases) (5.7%), Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (1 case) (0.2%), internal carotid injury (1 case) (0.2%), Empty Sella syndrome (1) (0.2%) and post-operative cardiac complication (1 case) (0.2%). The Follow-up on average was 3.5 months. Conclusions:  The pure endoscopic endonasal trans-sphenoidal surgery of pituitary adenomas provides acceptable and reasonable results representing a safe alternative procedure to the traditional Trans-sphenoidal microscopic approach

Non-invasive assessment of esophageal varices

The assessment of non-invasive parameters for the prediction of large esophageal varices among patients with liver cirrhosisis is of utmost importance. In this study, non-invasive parameters for prediction of large esophageal varices were retrospectively evaluated. The presence of esophageal varices grade III and IV was classified as large esophageal varices positive while no varices or grade I and II were classified as large esophageal varices negative. There were 473 (90.09%) patients with ascites [mild 38 (8.03%), moderate 257 (54.33%) and severe 178 (37.63%)]. Frequency of esophageal varices was found to be higher (n=415, 79.04%). Whereas, large esophageal varices were found in 251 (47.81%) patients. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predicted value, negative predicted value and test accuracy of thrombocytopenia in predicting large esophageal varices were found to be 88.05%, 59.85%, 66.77%, 84.54% and 73.33% respectively. A significant association for large esophageal varices was observed for low platelet counts (AOR : 0.98, 95% CI : 0.97-0.99), high bilirubin level (AOR : 1.22, 95% CI : 1.07-1.39), ascites (AOR : 1.98, CI : 1.02-3.85) and Child score A (AOR : 0.26, 95% CI : 0.09-0.75) and Child Score B (AOR : 0.42, 95% CI : 0.28-0.61). In conclusion, low platelet count, high bilirubin level and ascites are found to be non-invasive predictive factor for large esophageal varices