External validation of Tzanakis scoring system in acute appendicitis in a rural hospital

Background: Acute appendicitis is one of the most common cause of acute abdomen surgery. Several scoring systems have been adopted by physicians to aid in the diagnosis and decrease the negative appendicectomy rate. Tzanakis scoring system is one such score. Objective of present study was the validation of this scoring system in our population and compare its accuracy with histopathological examination (HPE).Methods: A retrospective study was carried out at the Department of Surgery at Mohammad Afzal Beigh Memorial Hospital Anantnag India. Tzanakis score was calculated in 288 patients who underwent appendicectomy from September 2016-2018 and HPE results were analysed.Results: 276 patients were eligible for the study. The sensitivity and specificity of Tzanakis score in diagnosing appendicitis was 90.66% and 73.68% respectively. The overall diagnostic accuracy was 86.23% with positive predictive value of 97.89% and negative predictive value of 36.84%.Conclusions: Tzanakis scoring system is an accurate modality in establishing the diagnosis of acute appendicitis and preventing a negative laparotomy

Frontal recession of Parkachik Glacier between 1971-2015, Zanskar Himalaya using remote sensing and field data

Parkachik Glacier is located in the Suru sub-basin of the Upper Indus River, Zanskar Himalaya. The Glacier has been analysed using Corona KH-4B (1971), Landsat-TM (1999), field survey (2015), Google EarthTM (2015) and ASTER GDEM (2015) for frontal recession and area changes. Overall, from 1971 to 2015, the Glacier has retreated by 127 ± 0.09 m i.e. (0.75 ± 0.07%) at a rate of 2.9 ± 0.004 ma−1 with a simultaneous decrease in area from 49.5 to 48.8 km2 i.e. 740 ± 0.7 m2 (1.5 ± 0.09%) at a rate of 74 ± 0.7 m2a−1. However, during recent decade (1999–2015), the rate of glacier recession of 3.9 ± 0.004 ma−1 with a corresponding area loss of 500 ± 0.74m2 (1 ± 0.1%) was higher than the retreat rate of 2.3 ± 0.001 ma−1 and an area loss of 240 ± 0.02m2 (0.48 ± 0.08%) during 1971–1999. In the field, the evidences of glacier recession are present in the form of separated dead ice blocks from the main Glacier, recessional dumps/moraines, active ice calving activity and a small proglacial pond/lake at the terminus/snout of the Glacier. However, the recession over the studied period has been very slow and is controlled by its topographic configuration, particularly the large altitudinal range (6030–3620 m), almost northerly aspect and steep slope (average ~ 30°)

Glacier and glacial lake classification for change detection studies using satellite data: a case study from Baspa basin, western Himalaya

Using high-resolution Google EarthTM images in conjunction with Landsat images, the glaciers and lakes in the Baspa basin are classified to explore the recent changes. A total number of 109 glaciers (187 ± 3.7 km2) are mapped and subsequently classified as compound valley glaciers, simple valley glaciers, cirques, niches, glacieretes and ice aprons. The compound and simple valley glaciers contribute 67.1 ± 1.3% and 19.8 ± 0.3% to the total glacier cover of the basin. Similarly, a total number of 129 glacial lakes (0.360 ± 0.007 km2) are identified. From 1976 to 2011, the compound valley glaciers have lost a small area of 10.3 ± 0.03% at a rate of 0.41 ± 0.002 km2 a-1, whereas the niche glaciers have lost higher area of 40.1 ± 0.001% at a rate of 0.04 ± 0.0001 km2 a-1. Change detection of two benchmark glacial lakes revealed a progressive expansion during recent decades. The Baspa Bamak proglacial lake has expanded from 0.020 ± 0.0004 km2 (2000) to 0.069 ± 0.001 km2 (2011). Due to the complete loss of source ice, another glacial lake has expanded from 0.09 ± 0.001 km2 (1994) to 0.10 ± 0.002 km2 (2011). During the study period, the mean annual temperature that is Tavg, Tmin and Tmax have increased significantly at the 95% confidence level by 1.5 oC (0.070 °C a-1), 1.8 oC (0.076 °C a-1) and 1.6 oC (0.0071 °C a-1) from 1985 to 2008. However, the precipitation has decreased significantly from 1976 and 1985 to 2008

Diversity of macrofungal genus Russula and Amanita in Hirpora Wildlife Sanctuary, Southern Kashmir Himalayas

Pala SA, Wani AH, Mir RA. 2012. Diversity of macrofungal genus Russula and Amanita in Hirpora Wild Life Sancturary. Biodiversitas 13: 65-71. The Hirpora Wildlife Sanctuary that extends over an area of 114 km2 lies in the Pir Panjal range at a distance of 70 km in south-west of summer capital Srinagar. It is rich in biodiversity including macrofungal diversity. The Sanctuary has been subjected to high ecological and anthropogenic disturbance due to the construction of Mughal road which is major threat for its biodiversity. Since there is hardly any report of documentation of macrofungi from this sanctuary. In this back drop a survey was carried out during the year 2010 and 2011 to explore and invetorise macrofungal diversity of the sanctuary. During the survey a no of macrofungi were documented, among which Amanita and Russula were dominant genus represented by 7 species each. All the 14 species viz. Amanita ceciliae (Berk. & Broome) Bas. Amanita flavoconia G.F. Atk., Amanita muscaria var. formosa Pers., Amanita pantherina (Fr.) Krombh., Amanita phalloides (Fr.) Link., Amanita vaginata (Bull. ex Fr.) Vitt., Amanita virosa (Fr.) Bertillon, Russula aeruginea Fr., Russula atropurpurea (Krombh.) Britz., Russula aurea Pers., Russula cyanoxantha (Schaeff.) Fr., Russula delica Fr. Russula emetica (Schaeff. ex Fr.) Gray. and Russula nobilis Velen. are ectomycorrhizal in nature and among them Russula aeruginea Fr. is reported first time from the Kashmir

Conservative management of emphysematous pyelonephritis

Emphysematous pyelonephritis, though uncommon, is a severe necrotizing kidney infection common in patients with diabetes. Surgical treatment has been advocated as the treatment of choice in most of the patients. We present the clinical course of an elderly lady who presented with emphysematous pyelonephritis and was successfully managed with medical treatment despite the presence of adverse prognostic factors like acute renal failure and thrombocytopenia

Polycythemia, increased erythropoietin levels in a patient with renal lymphoma

A young male presented to our clinic with 3 months history of shortness of breathness and progressive distension of abdomen. On investigations, patient had renal failure, polycythemia and nephromegaly. A diagnosis of non-Hodgkin′s lymphoma was made on renal and lymph node biopsy. Serum erythropoietin concentrations were physiologically inappropriate. - Erythropoietin immunohistochemistry on renal tissue samples demonstrated positive staining for tumor cells. This patient was managed as a case of infiltrative lymphoproliferative disorder with kidney involvement having polycythemia owing to paraneoplastic Erythropoietin production and possibly local hypoxia produced by tumor cells. With maximum efforts, we could not find such an association in the literature

Habitat Suitability Modelling of Endangered Kashmir Grey Langur (Semnopithecus ajax) in North Kashmir, India

Habitat Suitability Modelling of Endangered Kashmir Grey Langur (Semnopithecus ajax) in North Kashmir, India Zaffar Rais Mir1*, Junid Nazeer Shah2, Riyaz Ahmad3, Khursheed Ahmad1, Athar Noor4, Intesar Suhail5. 1Division of Wildlife Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology- Kashmir, 190025, Jammu and Kashmir, India. 2Natural Resources Conservation Section, Environment Department, Dubai Municipality, Dubai. 3Wildlife Trust of India, Noida, India,201301. 4Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand India, 248007. 5Department of Wildlife Protection Jammu and Kashmir, India, 190001. Abstract: The Kashmir Grey Langur (Semnopithecus ajax), distributed along some parts of Pakistan, Nepal and India, is endangered [1] mainly due to habitat loss. Its distribution limits are still uncertain and need to be resolved in order to determine its true conservation status. Here, we studied the distribution and the status of this threatened species in North Kashmir, India (Area ~ 10000 km2). From April to July 2016, we surveyed several protected and non-protected forests to collect primary as well as secondary information pertaining to distribution and threats of Kashmir Grey Langur. Program ‘Maxent’ was used for modelling and mapping the current distributional range of the langur in North Kashmir. Rainfall, elevation, slope, aspect, human foot print and other climatic variables were used as environmental layers for running ‘Maxent’. Best model was selected on the basis of highest AUC value. Results indicated that Kashmir Grey Langur is distributed in all the protected areas of North Kashmir including some non protected areas with encounter rates ranging from 0.21 to 5.67 individuals/km. Langur probability distribution map was produced using presence point data and environmental variable raster data in the ‘Maxent’ program. The predictive map indicated probability values ranging from 0.0 – 0.87, indicating different levels of habitat suitability and hence different langur presence probabilities. Based on these considerations, we propose the extension of present distributional range of langur to Kashmir Valley. Key Words: Maxent, Langur distribution, Habitat suitability, Predictive modeling. References: 1. IUCN (2017) IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. http://www.iucnredlist.org/. Accessed 24 December 2017 *Email-Address: [email protected]

High resolution inventory and hazard assessment of potentially dangerous glacial lakes in upper Jhelum basin, Kashmir Himalaya, India

In the Himalayan Mountain region, a large number of glacial lakes have developed in the recent past due to glacier recession under the influence of climate change. In this study, we used high resolution satellite data such as Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) LISS-IV (5.8 m) and Google earth images supplemented with field survey to generate an updated glacial lake inventory of Upper Jhelum Basin (UJB) of Kashmir Himalaya. The Sentinel-2A (10 m), Landsat-OLI (30 m) and MSS (60 m), and Cartosat-DEM (30 m) were additional data sources used for glacial lake mapping and change detection analysis. A total of 393 glacial lakes covering an area of 21.55 ± 3.8 km2 were identified, mapped and inventoried. The lake inventory includes 102 proglacial lakes, 13 supraglacial lakes and 278 unconnected glacial lakes. Using the weighted index-based method, 21 glacial lakes were found as Potentially Dangerous Glacial Lakes (PDGLs). Out of these, 7 lakes were classified as High, 9 as Medium and 5 as Low hazard glacial lakes as per the hazard assessment. Change detection analysis of PDGLs from 1980 to 2020 revealed an increase in area from 5.92 km2 to 8.46 km2 thereby, indicating a growth of 2.51 ±0.9 km2(30%) at a rate of 0.063 km2/year. The formation and growth of glacial lakes in this area is attributed to continuous glacier recession under the warming trend of temperature and declining nature of precipitation. In this study, the findings showed that Tavg and Tmin are rising significantly at a rate of 0.004ºC/year and 0.013ºC/year respectively. This study provides an important database for future GLOF studies in the region

Delineation of landslide susceptible zones using Frequency Ratio (FR) and Shannon Entropy (SE) models in northern Rif, Morocco

This study describes the findings of landslide susceptibility modelling and hazard analysis in the coastline Mediterranean between Tetouan-Bou Ahmed and its hinterlands North Morocco. The study was carried out using Frequency Ratio (FR) and Shannon Entropy (SE) models with the aid of GIS tools and remote sensing data sources supported by extensive field surveys. A methodology was developed for modelling and identifying the landslide susceptible zones and for generating an updated landslide inventory map to delineate the most sensitive landslide prone areas as well as to predict and reduce their impacts. For building these models, a total of 905 landslide incidences and eleven main landslide causative factors were used based on multi-collinearity diagnosis test. The validation of the model results showed good prediction ability (>76%) for both the models. However, the accuracy prediction indicated that the FR is about 3% more precise than SE model in landslide susceptibility delineation. Furthermore, more than 60% of the area was found as high risk zone that is predicted highly susceptible to the landsliding hazards under suitable triggering factors. The findings of this study constitutes a major and suitable database for local and national authorities for providing stratigies for landslide hazard mitigation and making better policies for sustainable development in the region. Sustainable adaptive solutions and measures are required to prevent the stability of this mountainous region which is under the impact of wide anthropogenic activities for developmental purposes