Design and optimization of a magnet pole for Magnetic Resonant Imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices require a uniform magnetic field in the measuring area to capture the high-quality images. Permanent magnets are widely used as the main field source in the MRI devices. The field produced by such magnets is not uniform. Therefore, different field correction methods are usually employed to increase the uniformity of the magnetic field. In this thesis, a two dimensional (2-D) and three dimensional (3-D) numerical model of an MRI device is developed. The design and optimization of the poles for a low field MRI device is performed by using 2-D finite element (FE) method to increase the magnetic field uniformity. The pole faces are modelled by using non-uniform rational b-splines (NURBs). The particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to optimize the pole faces and magnet design of the MRI device. The optimization of different parameters of the pole surface is performed and compared for the homogeneity of the magnetic field in the measuring area. Finally, the best choice is made based on the field uniformity and minimum weight of the assembly. The final optimized design achieved from the 2D FE model is further compared with the 3D FE model. Moreover, the selected design is subjected to the sensitivity analysis to account for the magnetic field tolerances. Furthermore, the structural analysis is performed to take into account the effect of the stress ensuring that the designed structure is stiff enough to sustain the heavy mass without causing any deformation

Model of eco-socially conscious consumer behaviour related to choice and use of personal cars: evidence from an emerging economy

This thesis focuses on developing a model of eco-socially conscious consumer behaviour related to choice and use of personal cars. It presents empirical evidence relating to the factors that must be considered when promoting environmentally friendly cars (noted as alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) throughout the thesis), especially in an emerging economy such as Pakistan. The rationale and motivation behind this project is that there is an increasing rate of environmental problems such as air pollution and CO₂ in emerging economies and relatively lower competence in developing strategies aimed at improving climate change resilience. Together with changing the climate, anti-environmental anthropogenic activities make it more difficult for affected communities to prosper. To curb these environmental problems, studies reported in the academic literature have suggested taking measures to reduce the impact of human activities on the environment and regulating consumption of environmentally harmful products. In response to these emerging demands, marketers have invested heavily, regarding both product development and promotion of pro-environmental behaviours, in various domains of commercial interest. One such area is the use of personal cars, a sector that is proliferating and, given that CO₂ emissions from cars are one of the most significant sources of environmental problems (particularly global warming), there is a need to promote alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) and eco-social behaviours in the use of personal cars. This thesis reports on two major studies to answer three underlying research questions. The first study focuses on two research questions. The first research question, RQ1, explores how automobile industry consumers (those in the personal cars segment) define eco-socially conscious behaviour (ESCCB) related to the choice and use of personal cars in Pakistan. The second research question, RQ2, attempts to identify the profiles of different customer segments based ESCCB defined in RQ1. The second study is focused on the theoretical explanation of factors that are suggested in the literature to affect ESCCB related to the choice and use of personal cars. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Value-Beliefs-Norms Theory (VBN) have been converged to provide a holistic explanation of ESCCB. Based on scientific methodologies recommended for new scale development, the results reported in this thesis suggest that ESCCB related to choice and use of personal cars is a latent construct manifested in three underlying dimensions: eco-social use, eco-social purchase and eco-social conservation. A market segmentation approach using cluster and discriminant analysis suggests that three consumer segments exist in the Pakistani automobile market based on response towards eco-social behaviour and inclination towards choosing AFVs. The first segment, the conservatives, are not concerned about the environmental issues, prefer conventional cars, and are least sensitive to the eco-social use of personal cars. The second segment, the indifferents, are unsure whether they should buy AFVs and whether this will positively affect the environment. The third segment, and the largest one (51%), the enthusiasts, are highly inclined towards purchasing AFVs and eco-social use of personal cars to reduce the impact of the use of personal cars on the environment. The findings of Study 1 hold significant implications for marketing practitioners and policymakers. Some conceptual and methodological limitations are highlighted. The results of Study 2 suggest that the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Value- Belief-Norm (VBN) Theory and the integrated model, were all found to be very strong in explaining not only ESCCB intentions but also actual behaviour, related to purchase of environmentally friendly cars and conservation of fuel. Results showed that the integrated model based on TPB and VBN was stronger in predicting ESCCB-conservation (49.7 per cent variance) than TPB (46.7 per cent variance) and VBN (26.7 per cent variance). A similar pattern of results was evident for ESCCB-purchases (integrated model: 14.8 per cent variance, TPB: 12.5 per cent variance, VBN: 10.8 per cent variance). However, the predictive power of the three models for actual eco-socially conscious consumer behaviour (ESCCB) had slightly different results. TPB was found stronger to predict actual ESCCB (33.4 per cent variance), followed by the integrated model based on TPB and VBN (31.9 per cent variance) and VBN (15.7 per cent variance). This study contributes to both theoretical and practical aspects linked with ecosocially conscious consumer behaviour related to choice and use of personal cars. These contributions extend the theoretical literature related to eco-social behaviours and provides policy measures for marketing practitioners and public policy makers. The study findings not only provide guidelines for automobile related behaviours but can also be generalised in other areas

Non-compaction of the left ventricle and associated ventricular septal defect.

A case report of a 28-year-old patient, who presented with symptoms and signs of congestive heart failure and had clinical signs of ventricular septal defect as well. On further work-up echocardiogram showed non-compaction of the left ventricle with severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction and a ventricular septal defect. He was treated with standard treatment of heart failure and is doing well

Social marketing’s role in improving water quality on the Great Barrier Reef

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the implications of claimed detrimental impacts for the agricultural activity of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) ecosystem health in Queensland, Australia. The authors discuss the complex interaction of factors that have contributed to the decline in reef ecosystems and the challenges presented by multiple industries operating within the GBR catchment area. The authors then discuss measures employed to address agricultural run-off, claimed to be a significant factor in declining reef water quality. Design/methodology/approach – Surveys of land managers were undertaken in partnership with two of the six natural resource management (NRM) organizations operating in areas adjacent to the GBR identified as having very high risk of natural and anthropogenic runoff. The sample population was obtained from a membership database within the two regions. Participants include land managers from the both regions who engaged in sugar cane production (Region 1 and Region 2, included in this paper) and cattle production (Region 2, to be reported later). Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed including open-ended responses. Findings – A large-scale study of land managers reveals several reasons for the lack of success at reducing agricultural run-off. The authors discuss the rationale for a move to a theory-grounded social marketing approach to encouraging land manager behavior change, highlighting barriers, and potential enablers of sustained behavior change. Originality/value – This study is first of its kind that discusses the behavior of land managers in the GBR catchment area and highlights facilitators and impediments of land managers’ behavior change toward GBR protection actions

Cervical Spine Discectomy, Osteo-facetectomy by Noble Art of Cloward Procedure and Its Modification- A Single Centre study

Objectives: To analyze the surgical outcome of cervical spine osteo-facetectomy discectomy, and modified Cloward procedure.Materials and Methods: A prospective study was conducted at the Neurospinal & cancer care institute, Karachi. The duration of study was from 1st June 2017 to 25th November 2019. Patients having prolapsed intervertebral cervical discs included in the study, while those with trauma, cervical radiation, previous cervical surgery andmultiple level involvement were excluded. Pre and post-surgical data was collected. Titanium Hashmi cage was used in all operated patients at single level instrumentation.Results: A total of 113 patients satisfied the inclusion criteria and were considered in the study. Among them, 77 patients were male and 36 were female. The age range from 26 to 65 with a base age of 53 years ± 2.5. C5 – C6 was the commonest level for fusion C6 – C7, C3 – C4 and C4 – C5 were less common. For the outcome of theprocedure Odom’s criteria, was followed the results showed excellent improvement in 88 (77.87%), Good results in 18 (15.9%), fair in 5 (4.42%) and 2 patient had Poor (1.76%) results. Fusion was seen in 86 patients, superficial infection in two cases.Conclusion: Patients with single-level degenerative disc and treated with modified titanium Hashmi cage provided a good fusion with the relief of upper limb pain without donor site morbidity at anterior iliac spine

Correlation of histological changes with IgG and thyroid hormone concentrations in nodular toxic goiter patient's.

Background : Thyroid disease includes many physiological disorders Toxic nodular goiter one of these disease involves an enlarged thyroid gland that reflex rounded growths called nodules. These nodules  is abnormal and produce too much thyroid hormone. Methods: This study was conducted to determinate the macroscopical and microscopical changes occurring in thyroid gland affected with toxic nodular goiter of both sexes, males and females. A total number of patients was 80 patients. 15 patients out of 80 were affected with nodular toxic goiter (2 male and 13 female). Results: Macroscopical examination showed the presence of mono and multinodular lesion with hypertrophy of some follicles and atrophy for other. Calcifications, haemorrhage, bundles of fibers were found with the matrix of thyroid tissues. Concerning microscopical examinations, it had been found that appearance of lymphoid nodules, cellular hypertrophy, hyperplasia and increase number of follicles cysts. Measurements of epithelium, colloid and follicles diameter were significantly (P<0.05) taller than healthy tissues. These changes might be attributed to continuous stimulating effects of thyroid which interne increase the activity of gland and tissues hypertrophied. Conclusion :Presence of various form of toxic goiter nodules correlated with many histological and  hormonal alterations in addition to enhancements of antibody concentration  . Key words: nodular goiter  ,  hyperplasia , fibrosis .TSH. Ig

Outcome of Essential Tremors with Stereotactic Thalamotomy: Noble Art of Lesioning

Objective:  Objective of study is to identify the effects of Stereotactic thalamotomy of the nucleus ventral intermediate (VIM) for treatment of essential tremor. Material and Methods:  This is a descriptive study.It was performed at NCCI, Karachi, duration of study was 7 years, from 2-10-2012 to 7-10-2019. Those patients were included who were with tremors refractory to medication, their duration of disease was > 3 years, and with grade 4 tremors. The thalamotomy was performed in all cases, and follow-up was conducted at 3, 6, and 12 months respectively. The success of the surgery was measured in the form of a reduction in medication number and reduction in dose >50% and by calculating the Essential Tremor Rating Assessment Scale (tetras). Results:  Total of 26 patients were included. All patients showed remarkable improvement post-procedure at 12 month follow-up. 20 (77%) patient required no medications. In 6 (23%) patients, the dose of medication was reduced to less than half post-treatment. The tetras score showed marked improvement in all a patient; 4 (15%) patients who had grade 4 tremor, showed the symptoms of minimal tremors graded 0.5 on last visit 3rd visit. Side effect post-procedure were mild transient numbness on the contralateral side was observed in 11 (42.3%) patient, 1 (3.8%) patient had dysarthria. Conclusion:  We concluded that stereostatic Ventral intermedius nucleus thalamotomy was effective in reducing tremor grades and improved all functionality with few mild side effects

Dual method cryptography image by two force secure and steganography secret message in IoT

With the go on the evolution of both computer and internet technology, videos, sounds, and scripts are used more and more often. It can be used in sundry techniques in ciphering and data concealing. The objective of this paper is leading to the suggestion of a new method of the combination between encryption and concealment of information so as to make it difficult to identify the transmitted datavia networks. This study has used two force secure (2FS) to encrypt the images, in other words, the SF is frequent twice on the image, to obtain powerful encryption then the concealing of the secret message is done inside the cryptography of the image has been performed using a secret key (cosine curve), and this stego-encryption image has been transformed forthe Internet of things storage in the database in IoT (data flow), when the user needs any information can be access inviaof internet of things (IoTs). The outcome of the proposed system is obtained tobe evaluated through different measures, such aspeak signal noise ratio (PSNR), mean square error (MSE), entropy,correlation coefficient, and histogram. The proposed system is good, efficient, fast, has high security, robustness, and transparency

Multimodality Treatment of Craniopharyngioma: Aspiration of Cystic Contents and Placement of Ommaya Reservoir Stereotactically Followed by Gamma Knife Radiosurgery – Single Center Study of 81 Cases

Objective:  The objective of this present study was to assess the accuracy, result, and safety measures of stereotactic biopsy. The study was conducted at the Neurospinal & Cancer Care Institute Karachi. Material and Methods:  After the approval from the ethical hospital committee, the study was conducted on 34 patients, in which 9 (26.4%) were females, and 25 (73.5%) were males. 34 consecutive patients with biopsy inclusion deep seated lesion, mid line pathology, eloquent area and operated surgery, previous radiation treatment were excluded, and after that, the biopsy report based surgery or radiotherapy treatment was decided. Result:  The biopsy underwent histopathological diagnosis proving Astrocytoma in 7 (20.5%) patients out of which four were in the Eloquent area, tuberculosis diagnosed in 5 (14.7%) patient, Oligodendroglioma diagnosed in 3 (8.8%) patients, metastasis in 5 (14.7%), Abscess in 4 (11.7%) patient which was aspirated to maximum and sent for culture, Malignant tumor (grade 3 & 4) 5 (14.7%), Lymphoma in 2 (5.8%) patient both were given radiation therapy Tumor necrosis 1 (2.9%) case,  and No tissue obtained in 2 (5.8%) which was repeated later. No major complication or side effects were observed in the patient. Conclusion:  Stereotactic Framed biopsy is safe and accurate and can be used in deep seated lesions with high success rate, minimal complication and decrease surgical morbidity for patients, and it is comparable to updated method

A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON RELATIONSHIP OF DIABETES MELLITUS (TYPE 2) AND OBESITY IN PAKISTAN

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is one of the most common public health issues worldwide and its incidence is on the rise, particularly in middle-income and low-income countries. Objectives of the study: The main objective of the study is to analyze the relationship of diabetes mellitus (type 2) and obesity in Pakistan. Methodology of the study: The cross sectional study was conducted at Allied Hospital Faisalabad during March 2018 till August 2018 The data was collected from 200 diabetic patients who visited the OPD of the hospital. The data was collected through a questionnaire. We assess the nutritional and economic health of patients by asking some survey questions. From the large pool of data we select health status, diet quality, lifestyle, food culture, food security, and demographic information of the selected patients. The economic and health status describe the level of awareness regarding disease. Results: The data were collected from 200 diabetic patients. We also collect the basic characteristics of patients and compared these values with normal values. So we can find that diseases person have more blood pressure value as compared to normal. The demographical conditions of the patients explains the co-efficient and standard error values. The level of confidence interval is 90 and 95 in this table for the significant value. Conclusion: It is concluded that T2DM patients require reinforcement of DM education including dietary management through stakeholders (health-care providers, health facilities, etc.) to encourage them to understand the disease management better, for more appropriate self-care and better quality of life