Professional Secrecy and Privileged Communication in Medical Practice

A medical professional has the faith and confidence of society in him/her. It is his utmost duty and responsibility to uphold the ethical standards of confidentiality, set forth in the Hippocratic Oath, the Declaration of Geneva, the International Code of Medical Ethics and the World Health Organization. Communication between the physician and his patient is privileged. This information can only be divulged, in part, under special circumstances

Nanopackaging of Silver using Spice Extract and their Characterization

The aim of the present study was to synthesize silver nanoparticles using spice extracts as reducing agents and further evaluate their anti-microbial activities. Silver has been shown to possess antimicrobial activity. The silver nanoparticles were prepared by solvent evaporation method. The silver nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The functional groups present in the phyto-constituents on the plant extract were determined by FT-IR studies. The particle size of the silver nanoparticles was determined by Dynamic Light Scattering and was found to be 143, 50 and 56 nm for cloves, cinnamon and neem silver nanoparticles respectively. They exhibited antibacterial property against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhi strains, tested using Well Diffusion method. Plant extracts however reduce the antimicrobial activity of the nanoparticles. In conclusion, antimicrobial activities of silver nanoparticles were reduced by plant extracts certifies vital potential in biomedical application.Keywords: Silver nanoparticles Neem Cinnamon Clove

Deep Learning Approach for Building Detection Using LiDAR-Orthophoto Fusion

© 2018 Faten Hamed Nahhas et al. This paper reports on a building detection approach based on deep learning (DL) using the fusion of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data and orthophotos. The proposed method utilized object-based analysis to create objects, a feature-level fusion, an autoencoder-based dimensionality reduction to transform low-level features into compressed features, and a convolutional neural network (CNN) to transform compressed features into high-level features, which were used to classify objects into buildings and background. The proposed architecture was optimized for the grid search method, and its sensitivity to hyperparameters was analyzed and discussed. The proposed model was evaluated on two datasets selected from an urban area with different building types. Results show that the dimensionality reduction by the autoencoder approach from 21 features to 10 features can improve detection accuracy from 86.06% to 86.19% in the working area and from 77.92% to 78.26% in the testing area. The sensitivity analysis also shows that the selection of the hyperparameter values of the model significantly affects detection accuracy. The best hyperparameters of the model are 128 filters in the CNN model, the Adamax optimizer, 10 units in the fully connected layer of the CNN model, a batch size of 8, and a dropout of 0.2. These hyperparameters are critical to improving the generalization capacity of the model. Furthermore, comparison experiments with the support vector machine (SVM) show that the proposed model with or without dimensionality reduction outperforms the SVM models in the working area. However, the SVM model achieves better accuracy in the testing area than the proposed model without dimensionality reduction. This study generally shows that the use of an autoencoder in DL models can improve the accuracy of building recognition in fused LiDAR-orthophoto data

Preventing transition to turbulence: a viscosity stratification does not always help

In channel flows a step on the route to turbulence is the formation of streaks, often due to algebraic growth of disturbances. While a variation of viscosity in the gradient direction often plays a large role in laminar-turbulent transition in shear flows, we show that it has, surprisingly, little effect on the algebraic growth. Non-uniform viscosity therefore may not always work as a flow-control strategy for maintaining the flow as laminar.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Relevant Problem of a Hydraulic Jump at Diyala Weir and the Proposed Remedy

This study aims to analyze the Diyala weir problems and compares it with the safe limit and proposes the treatment for these problems. One of the most influencing problems in the site of weir was the formation of the hydraulic jump, it was found that the scour occurs due to the position of the hydraulic jump and the sequence depth of the jump is higher than the tail water depth. Some treatment procedures are suggested, these treatments cover this problem by presenting a suitable stilling basin as well as recommended to use a low weir at end of basin to produce a back water curve that should be increase the stage of tail water and ensuring the stability of a hydraulic jump

Suicide and deliberate self-harm in Pakistan: A scoping review

Background: Suicide is a major global public health problem with more than 800,000 incidents worldwide annually. Seventy-five percent of the global suicides occur in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Pakistan is a LMIC where information on suicidal behavior is limited. The aim of the review is to map available literature on determinants, risk factors and other variables of suicidal behavior in Pakistan.Method: This study was based on Arksey and O\u27Malley\u27s methodological framework of scoping review, combining peer reviewed publications with grey literature. Ten databases including Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA), Cochrane Trials Register (CRG), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL), National Library of Medicine Gateway (NLMG), ExcerptaMedica (EMBASE), National Library of Medicine\u27s MEDLINE (PUBMED), PSYCHINFO, Social Science Citation Index and Science Citation Index (SCI) and Pakmedinet.com were searched from the beginning of their time frames until December 2016 using a combination of key terms. The inclusion criteria included studies of various study designs covering different aspects of suicidal behavior in English language.Results: Six hundred and twenty three articles were initially retrieved from all ten databases. Two independent reviewers screened the titles and abstracts for relevance. One hundred and eighteen articles were read in full, out of which 11 were excluded because they did not fit the eligibility criteria. One hundred and ten articles, including two student theses and one report, were included in the final review. Most studies were descriptive in nature, with only three that used a case-control design. Majority of the studies were from urban areas, and addressed determinants rather than risk factors. Gender differences and age were predominantly reported, with more males committing suicide. Suicidal behavior was more common among individuals younger than 30 years of age. The three most common methods for suicides were hanging, poisoning and use of firearms. Mental illness as a risk factor for suicides was mentioned in only three studies.Conclusions: This review is the first attempt to synthesize available literature on suicidal behavior in Pakistan. The evidence is limited, and calls for more robust analytical research designs, along with a focus on risk factors

Stabilization of Hydrodynamic Flows by Small Viscosity Variations

Motivated by the large effect of turbulent drag reduction by minute concentrations of polymers we study the effects of a weakly space-dependent viscosity on the stability of hydrodynamic flows. In a recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 87}, 174501, (2001)] we exposed the crucial role played by a localized region where the energy of fluctuations is produced by interactions with the mean flow (the "critical layer"). We showed that a layer of weakly space-dependent viscosity placed near the critical layer can have a very large stabilizing effect on hydrodynamic fluctuations, retarding significantly the onset of turbulence. In this paper we extend these observation in two directions: first we show that the strong stabilization of the primary instability is also obtained when the viscosity profile is realistic (inferred from simulations of turbulent flows with a small concentration of polymers). Second, we analyze the secondary instability (around the time-dependent primary instability) and find similar strong stabilization. Since the secondary instability develops around a time-dependent solution and is three-dimensional, this brings us closer to the turbulent case. We reiterate that the large effect is {\em not} due to a modified dissipation (as is assumed in some theories of drag reduction), but due to reduced energy intake from the mean flow to the fluctuations. We propose that similar physics act in turbulent drag reduction.Comment: 10 pages, 17 figs., REVTeX4, PRE, submitte

Unsteady flow of a nanofluid over a sphere with nonlinear Boussinesq approximation

A theoretical study is presented of transient mixed convection boundary layer flow of a nanofluid in the forward stagnation region of a heated sphere which is rotating with time dependent angular velocity. The effect of the non-linear Boussinesq approximation is taken into account. The nanofluid is treated as a two-component mixture i.e. nano-particles distributed homogenously in a base fluid (water or gas). The effects of the Brownian motion and thermophoresis are included for the nanofluid and constant wall temperature is imposed at the sphere surface. The first and second laws of thermodynamics are employed in order to study thermophysics as well as heat and mass transfer phenomena. By introducing appropriate similarity variables the governing equations are transformed into a system of dimensionless, nonlinear, coupled, ordinary differential equations which are solved numerically by applying the second-order accurate implicit finite difference Keller box method. The reliability and efficiency of the obtained numerical results are validated via comparison with the previously published results for special cases. The effects of various parameters on primary and secondary velocities, temperature, nanofluid volume fraction (concentration), primary and secondary shear stress functions, Nusselt number function (wall heat transfer rate) and Sherwood number function (wall nanoparticle mass transfer rate) are visualized. Furthermore the influence of non-linear temperature parameter, Brinkman parameter (ratio of Brinkman number to dimensionless temperature ratio), local Reynolds number and unsteadiness parameter on entropy generation number is computed. A strong elevation in entropy generation number is computed with both increasing Brinkman parameter and unsteadiness parameter. Primary and secondary surface shear stresses, Nusselt number and Sherwood number also increase with unsteadiness and rotation parameters. Primary shear stress is boosted with increasing mixed convection parameter and Brownian motion effect whereas secondary shear stress is depressed. Temperatures are suppressed with increasing nonlinear temperature parameter whereas nano-particle concentrations are elevated. Increasing thermophoresis parameter enhances both temperatures and nano-particle concentration values. The simulations find applications in rotating chemical engineering mixing systems and nano-coating transport phenomena

Disparities in cardiovascular research output and disease outcomes among high-, middle- and low-income countries - An analysis of global cardiovascular publications over the last decade (2008-2017)

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Health research is crucial to managing disease burden. Previous work has highlighted marked discrepancies in research output and disease burden between high-income countries (HICs) and low- and lower-middle-income countries (LI-LMICs) and there is little data to understand whether this gap has bridged in recent years. We conducted a global, country level bibliometric analysis of CVD publications with respect to trends in disease burden and county development indicators.Methods: A search filter with a precision and recall of 0.92 and 0.91 respectively was developed to extract cardiovascular publications from the Web of Science (WOS) for the years 2008-2017. Data for disease burden and country development indicators were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease and the World Bank database respectively.Results: Our search revealed 847,708 CVD publications for the period 2008-17, with a 43.4% increase over the decade. HICs contributed 81.1% of the global CVD research output and accounted for 8.1% and 8.5% of global CVD DALY losses deaths respectively. LI-LMICs contributed 2.8% of the total output and accounted for 59.5% and 57.1% global CVD DALY losses and death rates.Conclusions: A glaring disparity in research output and disease burden persists. While LI-LMICs contribute to the majority of DALYs and mortality from CVD globally, their contribution to research output remains the lowest. These data call on national health budgets and international funding support to allocate funds to strengthen research capacity and translational research to impact CVD burden in LI-LMICs