Social marketing of insecticide-treated bednets: The case for Pakistan

With an estimated half a million cases of malaria annually in Pakistan, and drug resistant cases on the increase, more practical preventive measures such as insecticide-treated bednets are essential. Social marketing through commercial channels has become an important cost-effective means to deliver health products and services to low income people and to motivate them to use these services. It has been demonstrated that social marketing of insecticide-treated bednets has saved the lives of millions of people in malaria-endemic regions at a cost as low as U.S. $2 per person. Social marketing could be an effective strategy for getting insecticide-treated nets to poor communities in Pakistan who are most vulnerable to malaria

Building Optimisation: Re-commissioning Your Building to Deliver Peak Performance

Every building undergoes changes over time. As departments are created and dissolved, people are moved around, spaces are repurposed, and interior structures are adjusted. While good for business, these changes can negatively impact building performance, resulting in lower productivity and higher energy and building maintenance costs. To address this problem, many companies are "recommissioning" their buildings as a way to fine-tune and update building performance. This type of project is typically a small investment, yet often has a noticeable and immediate impact on the bottom line in terms of energy savings. In addition, enormous returns are realized by improving employee productivity, which studies show is correlated to building performance. By following a proven process, building owners can optimize their facilities based on a sound understanding of what needs to be done, the associated costs, and the expected returns. For many building owners, the savings are significant

Intelligent Building Automation: A Demand Response Management Perspective

In recent years intelligent Building Automation Systems, based on best practice open technology, have succeeded in helping facilities reduce their infrastructure, installation and operating costs. The idea was - 'the less the human intervention and the more automated the system then the more efficient the building'. With that in mind a question may arise as to whether this philosophy has been successful in educating the consumer on the importance of energy efficiency or has it actually alienated him? Would it be more effective if the consumer were to be part of the efficiency process? What about if the energy savings could be passed on to the consumer directly depending on how efficient he was? Demand response is a mechanism by which consumers change the energy consumption in response to energy price fluctuations, demand charges, or a direct request to reduce demand when the power grid reaches critical levels. However, in order for a demand response regime to be effective the building will need to have a number of 'pre-requisites' in place

Importance of Measurement: The Impact of Power Quality in Energy Efficiency

To implement sustainable and green initiatives in a building it is vital to have a means of measuring and verifying its performance. This is done by the introduction of intelligent utility and energy metering to the facility that would become its eyes and ears. The principle is you cannot control what you cannot measure. Looking closer at the power side, the inefficiencies caused by power quality issues such as power factor and harmonics have often been easily overlooked due to the traditional focus on equipment performance optimisation, rather than on the quality of power which is essential for the operation of any electrical equipment. This paper analyses power factor and harmonics problem areas and offers practical approaches for improvements

Cognitive Approach to Hierarchical Task Selection for Human-Robot Interaction in Dynamic Environments

In an efficient and flexible human-robot collaborative work environment, a robot team member must be able to recognize both explicit requests and implied actions from human users. Identifying "what to do" in such cases requires an agent to have the ability to construct associations between objects, their actions, and the effect of actions on the environment. In this regard, semantic memory is being introduced to understand the explicit cues and their relationships with available objects and required skills to make "tea" and "sandwich". We have extended our previous hierarchical robot control architecture to add the capability to execute the most appropriate task based on both feedback from the user and the environmental context. To validate this system, two types of skills were implemented in the hierarchical task tree: 1) Tea making skills and 2) Sandwich making skills. During the conversation between the robot and the human, the robot was able to determine the hidden context using ontology and began to act accordingly. For instance, if the person says "I am thirsty" or "It is cold outside" the robot will start to perform the tea-making skill. In contrast, if the person says, "I am hungry" or "I need something to eat", the robot will make the sandwich. A humanoid robot Baxter was used for this experiment. We tested three scenarios with objects at different positions on the table for each skill. We observed that in all cases, the robot used only objects that were relevant to the skill.Comment: To Appear In International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Detroit, MI, USA, Oct 202

Distal radius fractures: a prospective study of the clinical and radiological outcomes in surgically managed patients

Background: Objective of the research was to evaluate radiological and functional outcome in fractures of the distal radius treated by various surgical methods.Methods: 89 patients with distal radius fractures were randomly divided into three groups according to a computer-generated table of randomization. 40 patients were managed by K wire fixation. 22 patients were managed by external fixator. 27 patients were managed by volar plating technique. Anatomical restoration was evaluated by posterior-anterior and lateral radiographs obtained preoperatively and at 09 months of follow up to evaluate radial height (RH), radial inclination (RI) and volar tilt (VT). Functional outcome was evaluated using Mayo scoring system.Results: According to Mayo score, in K-wire group 72.5% (n=29) patients had excellent to good outcome, 17.5% (n=7) had fair outcome while as 10% (n=4) patients had poor outcome. In external fixator group 72.7% (n=16) patients had excellent to good outcome while as 27.3% (n=6) had fair outcome. In volar plating group 81.5% (n=22) patients had excellent to good outcome while as 18.5% (n=5) had fair outcome.Conclusions: In our study we found that volar locked plating provides advantage in dorsally or volarly displaced intra-articular fractures with excellent to good radiological outcome. However, in type B (partial intra-articular fractures) fractures, volar locking compression plate (LCP) and external fixator provide almost equivocal results. Percutaneous pinning can be recommended for extra-articular or simple intra-articular fracture patterns, with a loss of volar and/or RI but without significant radial shortening

Mobility management across converged IP-based heterogeneous access networks

In order to satisfy customer demand for a high performance “global” mobility service, network operators (ISPs, carriers, mobile operators, etc.) are facing the need to evolve to a converged “all-IP” centric heterogeneous access infrastructure. However, the integration of such heterogeneous access networks (e.g. 802.11, 802.16e, UMTS etc) brings major mobility issues. This thesis tackles issues plaguing existing mobility management solutions in converged IP-based heterogeneous networks. In order to do so, the thesis firstly proposes a cross-layer mechanism using the upcoming IEEE802.21 MIH services to make intelligent and optimized handovers. In this respect, FMIPv6 is integrated with the IEEE802.21 mechanism to provide seamless mobility during the overall handover process. The proposed solution is then applied in a simulated vehicular environment to optimize the NEMO handover process. It is shown through analysis and simulations of the signalling process that the overall expected handover (both L2 and L3) latency in FMIPv6 can be reduced by the proposed mechanism by 69%. Secondly, it is expected that the operator of a Next Generation Network will provide mobility as a service that will generate significant revenues. As a result, dynamic service bootstrapping and authorization mechanisms must be in place to efficiently deploy a mobility service (without static provisioning), which will allow only legitimate users to access the service. A GNU Linux based test-bed has been implemented to demonstrate this. The experiments presented show the handover performance of the secured FMIPv6 over the implemented test-bed compared to plain FMIPv6 and MIPv6 by providing quantitative measurements and results on the quality of experience perceived by the users of IPv6 multimedia applications. The results show the inclusion of the additional signalling of the proposed architecture for the purpose of authorization and bootstrapping (i.e. key distribution using HOKEY) has no adverse effect on the overall handover process. Also, using a formal security analysis tool, it is shown that the proposed mechanism is safe/secure from the induced security threats. Lastly, a novel IEEE802.21 assisted EAP based re-authentication scheme over a service authorization and bootstrapping framework is presented. AAA based authentication mechanisms like EAP incur signalling overheads due to large RTTs. As a result, overall handover latency also increases. Therefore, a fast re-authentication scheme is presented which utilizes IEEE802.21 MIH services to minimize the EAP authentication process delays and as a result reduce the overall handover latency. Analysis of the signalling process based on analytical results shows that the overall handover latency for mobility protocols will be approximately reduced by 70% by the proposed scheme.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Mobility management across converged IP-based heterogeneous access networks

In order to satisfy customer demand for a high performance “global” mobility service, network operators (ISPs, carriers, mobile operators, etc.) are facing the need to evolve to a converged “all-IP” centric heterogeneous access infrastructure. However, the integration of such heterogeneous access networks (e.g. 802.11, 802.16e, UMTS etc) brings major mobility issues. This thesis tackles issues plaguing existing mobility management solutions in converged IP-based heterogeneous networks. In order to do so, the thesis firstly proposes a cross-layer mechanism using the upcoming IEEE802.21 MIH services to make intelligent and optimized handovers. In this respect, FMIPv6 is integrated with the IEEE802.21 mechanism to provide seamless mobility during the overall handover process. The proposed solution is then applied in a simulated vehicular environment to optimize the NEMO handover process. It is shown through analysis and simulations of the signalling process that the overall expected handover (both L2 and L3) latency in FMIPv6 can be reduced by the proposed mechanism by 69%. Secondly, it is expected that the operator of a Next Generation Network will provide mobility as a service that will generate significant revenues. As a result, dynamic service bootstrapping and authorization mechanisms must be in place to efficiently deploy a mobility service (without static provisioning), which will allow only legitimate users to access the service. A GNU Linux based test-bed has been implemented to demonstrate this. The experiments presented show the handover performance of the secured FMIPv6 over the implemented test-bed compared to plain FMIPv6 and MIPv6 by providing quantitative measurements and results on the quality of experience perceived by the users of IPv6 multimedia applications. The results show the inclusion of the additional signalling of the proposed architecture for the purpose of authorization and bootstrapping (i.e. key distribution using HOKEY) has no adverse effect on the overall handover process. Also, using a formal security analysis tool, it is shown that the proposed mechanism is safe/secure from the induced security threats. Lastly, a novel IEEE802.21 assisted EAP based re-authentication scheme over a service authorization and bootstrapping framework is presented. AAA based authentication mechanisms like EAP incur signalling overheads due to large RTTs. As a result, overall handover latency also increases. Therefore, a fast re-authentication scheme is presented which utilizes IEEE802.21 MIH services to minimize the EAP authentication process delays and as a result reduce the overall handover latency. Analysis of the signalling process based on analytical results shows that the overall handover latency for mobility protocols will be approximately reduced by 70% by the proposed scheme.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Types and clinical presentation of stroke

Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. In this study, authors worked on clinical presentation and types of stroke. The two main types of strokes are ischemic and haemorrhagic. Brain infarction is caused by decrease blood flow due to either narrowing of artery or complete obstruction to blood flow owing to embolism. While haemorrhage is caused by rupture of artery or aneurysms leading to accumulation of blood in the brain parenchyma.Methods: Cross sectional study of group of patients in Nishtar hospital Multan, Pakistan who presented with variety of neurological symptoms who were subsequently diagnosed as non-traumatic stroke. All patients were subjected to a detailed history and thorough clinical examination and investigations after obtaining informed consent.Results: Of 122 patient, 66 patients were male and 56 were female. Ischemic stroke was more common: present in 76 patients as compared to 46 patients with hemorrhagic stroke. Hypertension was present in 40.9% of ischemic stroke and 27.8% of hemorrhagic strokes. Most of the patients (67.2%) had altered sensorium at presentation followed by hemiplegia in 39.3 % of patients.Conclusions: Prevalence of ischemic strokes is higher than that of haemorrhagic stroke. Hypertension is associated with both types of these strokes. Moreover, hyperglycaemia and high blood pressure are common in early phase of stroke. Vomiting in stroke favors haemorrhagic stroke

Attenuation of camptothecin production and negative relation between hyphal biomass and camptothecin content in endophytic fungal strains isolated from Nothapodytes nimmoniana Grahm (Icacinaceae)

Endophytic fungi, a group of fungi living inside the host plant tissues without causing visible symptoms of disease, are known to occur ubiquitously in plants. Existing in a mutualistic association with their host plants, they have been shown to enhance the plant’s ability to tolerate abiotic and biotic stresses3. In culture, many endophytic species have been shown to produce a number of important secondary metabolites including anticancer,antidiabetic, antifungal and immunosuppressant compounds. Many of these compounds closely mimic those produced by the respective host plants, suggesting that the fungi could in fact potentially serve as an alternative source of plant secondary metabolites. Notwithstanding these findings, to date, there has been no major breakthrough in commercially exploiting the endophytic fungi as a source of important secondary metabolites. Among the reasons attributed is the severe attenuation of production of the secondary metabolite by the fungi in culture. Li et al. showed that successive cultures of an endophytic fungi Pericornia sp. isolated from Torreya grandifolia, resulted in the attenuation of taxol production, though the fungal growth itself was unaffected. Although the reasons for such attenuation are not extensively studied, it is conjectured that it could be due to lack of host stimulus in the culture media