A Review of Current Heart Failure Apps

Background: Heart disease is the second leading cause of death in Canada, with tremendous economic impacts on the healthcare system. Currently, there are several smartphone based heart failure (HF) apps available for patients. These apps provide information to patients regarding HF, and how to monitor and manage their condition. This review describes the current literature on HF apps, and describes the features offered by these apps. Methods and Results: Peer-reviewed literature was searched and revealed only a limited number of studies (8) related to HF apps, including HeartMapp, SUPPORT-HF and CardioManager.  A Google-based grey literature search was conducted, and Google Play and the Apple Store were also searched to identify additional HF-related apps. These searches revealed several other HF-related apps (total 11), the features of which are described in the current review. Conclusion: This review will help healthcare providers select apps for themselves and recommend HF apps to their patients that provide the most suitable disease and management information and monitoring capability. The insight will also help software developers design apps in the future that will provide better support to patients with HF and help the healthcare providers monitor their condition better

A User Programmable Electro-optic Device for Testing Laser Seekers

Laser-guided munitions are weapons of great importance in the present day warfare scenario because of their precision and efficacy. Both weapon specific and generic test systems are commercially available to perform functionality checks on laser guided munitions. None of the designs reported in literature addresses the issues of universality of test systems and their ability to evaluate the device-under-test in actual battlefield scenario. This paper presents the design of an electro-optic device that offers significant improvement over the features of both commercial test systems as well as the designs reported in recent literature. The proposed design enables generation of user programmable laser signatures in terms of pulse repetition frequency (PRF) code, PRF code resolution and laser power density that allows testing in dynamic conditions not possible with the test systems in the state-of-the-art. The concept is hardware implemented and used to evaluate performance of a typical laser seeker. The seeker is tested for PRF code compatibility, immunity to false PRF codes, sensitivity, field-of-view and performance in dynamic conditions. The test results are also presented.Defence Science Journal, Vol. 64, No. 1, January 2014, DOI:10.14429/dsj.64.485

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Not AvailableSeed is recognized to be the cheapest source, yet most critical single input for enhancing vegetable productivity. Use of good quality seeds can result in 15–20% yield increase. The Indian vegetable seed sector is established with tremendous potential to grow beyond boundaries of domestic market. Being high value per unit weight, vegetable seed segment has a significant share in the overall seed market in monetary terms. Although the price of vegetable seeds in market is very high, farmers are facing problem of spurious seed, low germination percentage and unavailability of quality seeds on time. Research and development interventions are required to overcome these problems and an effort has been made to identify the priority areas where interventions are required in vegetable seed sector. This study was undertaken during 2014-16 by conducting a survey of vegetable and seed experts in which major constraints in vegetable seed sector were identified. The constraints are rank ordered as perceived by the respondents like exorbitantly high price of private sector hybrids (Score-680, Rank-1), unavailability of quality seeds of recommended/released hybrids and OP varieties of vegetables (Score-658, Rank-2) and many more which have been discussed and will draw attention on the issues related to the vegetable seed sector which needs priority in further research.Not Availabl

Congenital epidermoid cyst of penis with hypospadias: A case report

The epidermoid cysts are the most common cutaneous cysts and may develop from any parts of the human body. Primary epidermoid cyst with hypospadias in the penis is very rare. Here, we present the case of a slow growing, mobilized; non-tender frenulum of the penis mass in a 44-year-old male patient. Complete excision of the cyst was performed under spinal anesthesia. Histopathological examination confirmed the mass to be an epidermoid cyst. Care must be given during examination to rule out another entity. If thereis any indication, complete excision and hypospadias repair is the best treatment

Prevalence and Causes of Blindness and Visual Impairment and Their Associated Risk Factors, in Three Tribal Areas of Andhra Pradesh, India

Objective: To assess the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment (VI), their associated causes and underlying risk factors in three tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh, India and compare this data in conjunction with data from other countries with low and middle income settings. Methods: Using a validated Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness methodology, a two stage sampling survey was performed in these areas involving probability proportionate to size sampling and compact segment sampling methods. Blindness, VI and severe visual impairment (SVI) were defined as per the WHO guidelines and Indian definitions. Results: Based on a prior enumeration, 7281 (97.1%) subjects were enrolled (mean age = 61.0+/−7.9 years). Based on the presenting visual acuity (PVA), the prevalences of VI, SVI and blindness were 16.9% (95% CI: 15.7–18.1), 2.9% (95% CI: 2.5–3.4), and 2.3% (95% CI: 1.9–2.7), respectively. When based on the Pinhole corrected visual acuity (PCVA), the prevalences were lower in VI (6.2%, 95% CI: 5.4–6.9), SVI (1.5%, 95% CI: 1.2–1.9) and blindness (2.1%, 95% CI: 1.7–2.5). Refractive error was the major cause of VI (71.4%), whereas, cataract was the major cause of SVI and blindness (70.3%). Based on the PVA, the odds ratio (OR) of blindness increased in the age groups of 60–69 years (OR = 3.8, 95% CI: 2.8, 5.1), 70–79 years (OR = 10.6, 95% CI: 7.2, 15.5) and 80 years and above (OR = 30.7, 95% CI: 19.2, 49). The ORs were relatively higher in females (OR = 1.3, 95% CI: 1.0, 1.6) and illiterate subjects (OR = 4.3, 95% CI: 2.2, 8.5), but lower in those wearing glasses (OR = 0.2, 95% CI: 0.1, 0.4). Conclusions: This is perhaps the first study to assess the prevalence of blindness and VI in these tribal regions and the majority of the causes of blindness and SVI were avoidable (88.5%). These findings may be useful for planning eye care services in these underserved regions

Heat stress tolerance in peas (Pisum sativum L.): Current status and way forward

In the era of climate change, the overall productivity of pea (Pisum sativum L.) is being threatened by several abiotic stresses including heat stress (HS). HS causes severe yield losses by adversely affecting several traits in peas. A reduction in pod yield has been reported from 11.1% to 17.5% when mean daily temperature increase from 1.4 to 2.2°C. High-temperature stress (30.5-33°C) especially during reproductive phase is known to drastically reduce both seed yield and germination. HS during germination and early vegetative stage resulted in poor emergence and stunted plant growth along with detrimental effects on physiological functions of the pea plant. To combat HS and continue its life cycle, plants use various defense strategies including heat escape, avoidance or tolerance mechanisms. Ironically, the threshold temperatures for pea plant and its responses are inconsistent and not yet clearly identified. Trait discovery through traditional breeding such as semi leaflessness (afila), upright growing habit, lodging tolerance, lower canopy temperature and small seeded nature has highlighted their utility for greater adaptation under HS in pea. Screening of crop gene pool and landraces for HS tolerance in a targeted environment is a simple approach to identify HS tolerant genotypes. Thus, precise phenotyping using modern phenomics tools could lead to increased breeding efficiency. The NGS (next generation sequencing) data can be associated to find the candidate genes responsible for the HS tolerance in pea. In addition, genomic selection, genome wide association studies (GWAS) and marker assisted selection (MAS) can be used for the development of HS tolerant pea genotypes. Additionally, development of transgenics could be an alternative strategy for the development of HS tolerant pea genotypes. This review comprehensively covers the various aspects of HS tolerance mechanisms in the pea plant, screening protocols, omic advances, and future challenges for the development of HS tolerant genotypes

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

DEFIYIELD: Exploitation of Open Blockchain Platforms

We analyze the most common security vulnerabilities in distributed ledger systems. We performed predictive analytics on the REKT database to predict the attack pattern using predictive algorithms, including logistic regression and random forests. The results show that the month of the attack and the cryptocurrency chain affected were significant predictors of the type of scam that occurred. The most important predictors were the Log of funds lost, the chain or platform of the cryptocurrency attacked, and the Log of funds returned after the attack. The study highlights the need for greater scrutiny and improved security measures in DeFi projects to mitigate the risks associated with the DeFi ecosystem

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Not AvailableSeed is recognized to be the cheapest source, yet most critical single input for enhancing vegetable productivity. Use of good quality seeds can result in 15–20% yield increase. The Indian vegetable seed sector is established with tremendous potential to grow beyond boundaries of domestic market. Being high value per unit weight, vegetable seed segment has a significant share in the overall seed market in monetary terms. Although the price of vegetable seeds in market is very high, farmers are facing problem of spurious seed, low germination percentage and unavailability of quality seeds on time. Research and development interventions are required to overcome these problems and an effort has been made to identify the priority areas where interventions are required in vegetable seed sector. This study was undertaken during 2014-16 by conducting a survey of vegetable and seed experts in which major constraints in vegetable seed sector were identified. The constraints are rank ordered as perceived by the respondents like exorbitantly high price of private sector hybrids (Score-680, Rank-1), unavailability of quality seeds of recommended/released hybrids and OP varieties of vegetables (Score-658, Rank-2) and many more which have been discussed and will draw attention on the issues related to the vegetable seed sector which needs priority in further research.Not Availabl