The role of semantic web technologies for IoT data in underpinning environmental science

The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has the potential to generate a huge amount of heterogeneous data at different geographical locations and with various temporal resolutions in environmental science. In many other areas of IoT deployment, volume and velocity dominate, however in environmental science, the more general pattern is quite distinct and often variety dominates. There exists a large number of small, heterogeneous and potentially complex datasets and the key challenge is to understand the interdependencies between these disparate datasets representing different environmental facets. These characteristics pose several data challenges including data interpretation, interoperability and integration, to name but a few, and there is a pressing need to address these challenges. The author postulates that Semantic Web technologies and associated techniques have the potential to address the aforementioned data challenges and support environmental science. The main goal of this thesis is to examine the potential role of Semantic Web technologies in making sense of such complex and heterogeneous environmental data in all its complexity. The thesis explores the state-of-the-art in the use of such technologies in the context of environmental science. After an in-depth assessment of related work, the thesis further examined the characteristics of environmental data through semi-structured interviews with leading experts. Through this, three key research challenges emerge: discovering interdependencies between disparate datasets, geospatial data integration and reasoning, and data heterogeneity. In response to these challenges, an ontology was developed that semantically enriches all sensor measurements stemmed from an experimental Environmental IoT infrastructure. The resultant ontology was evaluated through three real-world use-cases derived from the interviews. This led to a number of major contributions from this work including: the development of an ontology tailored for streaming environmental data offering semantic enrichment of IoT data, support for spatio-temporal data integration and reasoning, and the analysis of unique characteristics of environmental science around data

Anaesthesia at remote location: use of modified Bain circuit (Mapleson D) at Kunri Christian Hospital (KCH)

OBJECTIVE: To develop a safe general anaesthesia technique for remote areas with lack of facilities. METHODS: Four types of anaesthesia techniques using TIVA and modified Bain circuit were planned. Monitoring facility was limited to manual sphygmomanometer, palpation of radial pulse and monitoring of colour of skin and blood. Depth of anaesthesia was assessed using EVANs, RPST scoring system. Patients were asked in recovery room for awareness. RESULTS: Surgeries done were cesarean sections, laparotomies, gynaecological, urological, hernia and burn contractures. Six patients had RPST score of 5 or more and three patients in recovery room complained of awareness. Cost per Anaesthesia was Rs225. CONCLUSION: TIVA with modified Bain circuit provided effective anaesthesia in remote area at low cost

Impact of Community Orgnizations (CO’S) on Rice Productivity in District Malakand Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan

The research study was conducted in selected villages of district Malakand to study the impact of Community Organizations (CO’s) on rice productivity. A total of 70 respondents having different characteristics were interviewed. The main dependent variable was rice productivity which was studied in relation to other variables, inputs and in their application. Contact with various government departments and private sector by (CO’s) to the respondents. The results of the research study show that 7% of the farmers stated the problem of low productivity due to insect/pest attack, reasons were increase cost of the of the insecticides and pesticides. Majority of the respondents as 42.9 % purchased their seed for growing rice crop while the second dominant group was those with their own seed numbered about 32.9 %. Some of the respondents were those who used to grow seed of their own as well they also purchased some of the seed from market, were about 22.9 %. Majority of the sample respondents stated that their source of information regarding various inputs was (CO’s) following by Agri. Extension and fellow farmers. The satisfaction level of the sampled respondents was 81.4 % while 82.9 % sampled respondents stated that their production was increased due to the assistance and credit provided to them by (CO’s). The statistics of the paired T-test shows that the result was highly significant at the rate of 5% sample size and the production was increased by 10.39 % which show the effectiveness of (CO’s) activities in the area. It was concluded from the study that majority of respondents were literate, got proper technical assistance from (CO’s), agricultural extension departments and private companies. On the basis of findings it was recommended that all type of farmers should be involved in such activities and state should encourage the organizations to increase the productivity of various crops, the same techniques of assistance and credit should be adopted for other regions of the country. Keywords: Community Organizations, Rice productivity, variables, statics, technical assistance

Cathetar Related Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern in Intensive Care Unit Patients: A Single Centre Study

Background Urinary catheter is the most common cause of urinary tract infection (UTI) which has been associated with three fold increase risk in mortality. A high level of resistance was noted among the admitted patients for cephalosporin. The primary aim of the study is to known the strain of pathogens; its drugs sensitivity and resistance in intensive care unit (ICU) patients which help the physician in proper management and reduces the mortality and morbidity in urinary catheter related complication. Methods            This study was conducted in Intensive care unit patients of Hayatabad medical complex Peshawar Pakistan over a period of 1 year from 1st January to 31st December 2019. Medical charts were reviewed and 100 patients were selected based on inclusion criteria and  their urine culture and sensitivity reports were noted to know about the most common pathogens, its drugs sensitivity and resistance in these patients. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) used for uropathogen by culture and Disc diffusion method to determined antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. The data were shifted from excel sheet to SPPS 21 IBMS version. Results    The mean age (standard deviation) of patients was 51.60+26.59 years (Median age 58.50 years). Of the total, 64 were female and the remaining were male patients. It was found that most common pathogens in urine sample was E. coli. Maximum pathogens were sensitive to intra venous meropenem (65%), and fosfomycin (55%). Conclusion It is concluded that resistance patterns of uropathogens changes which results in treatment failure. Further, based on clinical practice, meropenem, fosfomycin, and cefepime had high sensitivity profile against catheter related infection in ICU

Occurrence of a Likely Tuff Bed between the Middle and Upper Siwaliks, Taunsa area, Dera Ghazi Khan, Eastern Sulaiman Range, Pakistan

A likely tuff bed lies along the gradational contact of the Middle and Upper Siwaliks in eastern Sulaiman Range, Taunsa area of Dera Ghazi Khan district, Pakistan. This tuffaceous unit is 0.5–3 m thick and extends for 10 km along the north-south strike in the eastern limb of the Zindapir anticline. It is greyish white to white on fresh surface, fine-grained to silty at the bottom and clayey at the top and thus shows a fining upward grain-size grading. The lower part of the ash bed shows a prominent lamination defined by megascopically visible abundant biotite, while the central and upper parts are so fine-grained that the individual minerals cannot be seen in hand sample. Unlike the lower well-laminated part, the central and upper parts are crudely laminated to apparently massive. The bulk samples analysed with X-ray diffraction consist of quartz, feldspar (plagioclase), biotite, clays, calcite and some ore mineral likely spinel, while the clay-size fractions contain illite, chlorite, biotite and probably their mixed-layered varieties. The colour, texture, presence of abundant biotite and stratigraphic position of the Taunsa tuff correlate with those reported from Potwar plateau and from Kashmir basin. However, the apparent absence of smectite from the XRD pattern makes the Taunsa ash bed different from both Potwar and Kashmir tuffs. The present stratigraphic position of the tuff bed corresponds to shallow diagenetic zone, while the absence of smectite in the tuff and crystallinity of illite suggest that the tuff is probably derived upon reworking from a deeper diagenetic zone belonging to a lower stratigraphic level. The Eocene or other older pre-Siwalik units in Pakistan may have or had some primary ashfall deposits as reported in the northwestern Himalayas of India. This older volcanic ash may have been reworked to its present site of occurrence along the gradational contact of the Middle and the Upper Siwaliks in Taunsa area of Dera Ghazi Khan. However, the primary source of the Taunsa tuff may belong more likely to Chagai arc in Pakistan than to Dacht-e-Nawar volcanic complex in Afghanistan

Study of drug release retardant capability of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose and carbopol in matrix tablets

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effect of nature of polymers like HPMC, carbopol-934P and their content levels on the release profiles of water soluble drug, diclofenac potassium. For this purpose, different tablets were prepared by wet granulation technique using HPMC-K15, carbopol-934P and blends of HPMC with carbopol-934P. Release kinetics was evaluated using USP apparatus II at 50 rpm in phosphate buffer pH 6.8 for 12 h. HPMC showed less release retardant effect compared to carbopol-934P at same concentration, while blends of these polymers gave an intermediate release profile, i.e. decreasing the quantity of carbopol-934P while increasing the amount of HPMC, increased the release of drug from matrix tablets. The release retarding capacity of two used polymers is as follows: Carbopol- 934P > HPMC-K15. Formulations containing HPMC exhibited first order release, while all other formulations showed zero order pattern. Present study showed that drug release retardant effect of carbopol was higher as compared to HPMC. It also confirmed that release rate of drug is mainly controlled by drugpolymer ratios.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Neural network-based adaptive global sliding mode MPPT controller design for stand-alone photovoltaic systems

The increasing energy demand and the target to reduce environmental pollution make it essential to use efficient and environment-friendly renewable energy systems. One of these systems is the Photovoltaic (PV) system which generates energy subject to variation in environmental conditions such as temperature and solar radiations. In the presence of these variations, it is necessary to extract the maximum power via the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller. This paper presents a nonlinear generalized global sliding mode controller (GGSMC) to harvest maximum power from a PV array using a DC-DC buck-boost converter. A feed-forward neural network (FFNN) is used to provide a reference voltage. A GGSMC is designed to track the FFNN generated reference subject to varying temperature and sunlight. The proposed control strategy, along with a modified sliding mode control, eliminates the reaching phase so that the sliding mode exists throughout the time. The system response observes no chattering and harmonic distortions. Finally, the simulation results using MATLAB/Simulink environment demonstrate the effectiveness, accuracy, and rapid tracking of the proposed control strategy. The results are compared with standard results of the nonlinear backstepping controller under abrupt changes in environmental conditions for further validation

Influence of maturity stages on postharvest physico-chemical properties of grapefruit (Citrus paradisi var. ‘Shamber Tarnab’) under different storage durations

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of maturity stages on the physicochemical characteristics of grapefruit (Citrus paradisi cv. ‘Shamber Tarnab’) under storage conditions for 60 days at ambient temperature (16±1 °C with 55-60% relative humidity). Grapefruits were harvested at different maturity stages, namely mature green (MG) and full ripe (FR). The fruits of both stages were assessed for different physical quality parameters at 15 days interval. The experimental results showed that ascorbic acid content, titratable acidity, fruit firmness, percent disease incidence was higher at FR stage. In contrast, weight loss, percent juice content, total soluble solid (TSS), and TSS/acid ratio at MG (mature green) were lower than that of FR fruits. Regarding storage durations, the fruit firmness, titratable acidity, percent juice content, ascorbic acid content decreased significantly, whilst total soluble solid, TSS/Acid ratio, weight loss, and percent disease incidence increased significantly with the extension of storage duration from 0 to 60 days. As concerned to its interactive effects, the highest ascorbic acid content, titratable acidity, percent juice content, and maximum fruit firmness were observed in fresh grapefruit, harvested at (MG) mature green stages, whereas the maximum total soluble solid, percent disease incidence, and TSS/Acid ratio were recorded in fruit harvested at (FR) full ripe stage, stored for 60 days at room temperature. Similarly, the Pearson’s Correlation Analysis (p> 0.05) of grapefruit was positive effect for most of the quality traits of grapefruit at different storage durations and maturity stages. It was concluded that grapefruit could be harvested at the mature green stage (MG) for sustaining quality attributes up to 60 days of storage at room temperature