Shoulder impingement syndrome: Outcome of arthroscopic subacromial decompression

Objective: To describe the outcome of cases with subacromial impingement syndrome managed with arthroscopic subacromial decompression. Study Design: Quasi-experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: Section of Orthopaedics, Department of Surgery, The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi from April 2005 to March 2006. Methodology: Thirty patients with impingement syndrome who underwent arthroscopic subacromial decompression after failed conservative treatment were included. The Constant and Murley shoulder scoring system was used for the clinical assessment of pain and function pre-operatively and 1, 6 and 24 weeks postoperatively.Results: The postoperatively significant improvement was observed in the Constant and Murley scores in all the patients (by mean 40 points, p \u3c 0.01), which was progressive over six months. Lower scores were noted in patients over 40 years of age, with advanced stage of impingement and partial tears of the rotator cuff. Conclusion: Arthroscopic subacromial decompression was effective in reducing pain and improving function in the studied patients with subacromial impingement syndrome

An Improved Infrared/Visible Fusion for Astronomical Images

An undecimated dual tree complex wavelet transform (UDTCWT) based fusion scheme for astronomical visible/IR images is developed. The UDTCWT reduces noise effects and improves object classification due to its inherited shift invariance property. Local standard deviation and distance transforms are used to extract useful information (especially small objects). Simulation results compared with the state-of-the-art fusion techniques illustrate the superiority of proposed scheme in terms of accuracy for most of the cases

Compulsive Buying Behavior: Antecedents, Consequences and Prevalence in Shopping Mall Consumers of an Emerging Economy

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship of compulsive buying with its antecedents and consequences and estimates the prevalence of compulsive buying behavior among shopping mall visitors of Pakistan. Data was collected data from 895 systematically selected fashion-clothing consumers from shopping malls through mall intercept method. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) was applied via AMOS to test the hypothesis. Stress and self-esteem were the most robust antecedents of compulsive buying behavior. Results indicate that compulsive buyers tend to feel positive after buying and tend to hide their purchases. 26.1 % of shopping mall consumers were classified as compulsive buyers. Significantly higher percentage of women was found to be compulsive as compared to men. Psychologists, therapists and financial councilors may use universal classification scheme developed in this study to identify and devise intervention strategies and recommend financial management or psychological treatment to consumers accordingly. This study revised compulsive buying index (Revised-CBI) that provides higher reliability, validity and applicability to the emerging economies. This study devised a universal classification scheme of compulsive buyers (normal, recreational, borderline, compulsive and addictive), unlike previous dichotomous classification. This study also provides the first estimate of compulsive buying prevalence in Pakistan

Augmented cytotoxic, mutagenic and genotoxic response triggered by carvedilol and celecoxib combinations

It is understood that drugs regardless of their order of administration can exhibit drug interactions. Established on the fact that treatment of hypertension may last for decades and prolong usage of multiple drug regimen may induce substantial pathophysiological changes. Hence, This study was designed to evaluate the possible synergistic toxic effects of anti-hypertensive (carvedilol), and anti-inflammatory drug (celecoxib) alone and in combinations. Well-established MTT assay, Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis (SCGE) and Ames assay were employed to evaluate the toxicity at cellular level. Results from MTT assay on Vero cell line revealed that drug combinations have more pronounced anti-proliferative activity with combine IC50 value of 13.7:47.8 µg/mL. Likewise, exposure of peripheral blood mononuclear cells with drug combinations revealed significant (

Effect of organic and inorganic regimes on growth, production and quality characteristics of cauliflower

Increasing crop yield through balanced use of fertilizers in combination with organic acids is a need of the time to limit the use of costly chemical fertilizers as well as to minimize the environmental pollution in Pakistan.This trial aimed to investigate the benefits of organic and inorganic regimes application on growth, yield and quality of cauliflower. In this study, organic (Farmyard manure (FYM), Poultry manure (PM), Spent mushroom Compost (SMC) at the rate of (15:3:6 t ha-1), inorganic (NPK @ 100:60:60 kg ha1) regimes and Cauliflower cultivars (Kohat local, Hollywood, Lucky, White beauty and Pearl) were used. The organic regime showed highest value for number of leaves plant-1, leaf area, chlorophyll content, plant height, curd diameter, curd weight, curd dry matter content and total yield of the cauliflower. Regarding cultivars, the minimum days to germination, maximum number of leaves plant-1, chlorophyll content, curd diameter, curd weight, curd dry matter content and total yield were recorded in cultivar Lucky. While cultivar White beauty showed maximum leaf area, plant height and curd pH. From the results it is concluded that cultivar Lucky performed well in organic regimes and recommended for better quality and high yield production in Peshawar valley.111

Measurement of quarkonium production at forward rapidity in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

The inclusive production cross sections at forward rapidity of J/ψ , ψ(2S) , Υ (1S) and Υ (2S) are measured in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.35 pb‾¹ . Quarkonia are reconstructed in the dimuon-decay channel and the signal yields are evaluated by fitting the μ+μ− invariant mass distributions. The differential production cross sections are measured as a function of the transverse momentum pT and rapidity y , over the ranges 0<pT<20 GeV/c for J/ψ , 0<pT<12 GeV/c for all other resonances and for \(2.5 . The measured cross sections integrated over pT and y , and assuming unpolarized quarkonia, are: σJ/ψ=6.69±0.04±0.63 μ b, σψ(2S)=1.13±0.07±0.19 μ b, σΥ(1S)=54.2±5.0±6.7 nb and σΥ(2S)=18.4±3.7±2.9 nb, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second one is systematic. The results are compared to measurements performed by other LHC experiments and to theoretical models

Transverse momentum dependence of inclusive primary charged-particle production in p–Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV

The transverse momentum ( pT ) distribution of primary charged particles is measured at midrapidity in minimum-bias p–Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC in the range \(0.15 GeV/ c . The spectra are compared to the expectation based on binary collision scaling of particle production in pp collisions, leading to a nuclear modification factor consistent with unity for pT larger than 2 GeV/ c , with a weak indication of a Cronin-like enhancement for pT around 4 GeV/c . The measurement is compared to theoretical calculations and to data in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=2.76 TeV

Production of charged pions, kaons and protons at large transverse momenta in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.76 TeV

Transverse momentum spectra of $\pi^{\pm}, K^{\pm}$ and $p(\bar{p})$ up to $p_T$ = 20 GeV/c at mid-rapidity, |y| $\le$ 0.8, in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV have been measured using the ALICE detector at the LHC. At intermediate $p_T$ (2-8 GeV/c) an enhancement of the proton-to-proton ratio, (p + \bar{p})/(\pi^+ + \pi^-\(), with respect to pp collisions is observed and the ratio reaches 0.80 in central Pb-Pb collisions. The measurement of the nuclear modification factors for \(\pi^{\pm}, K^{\pm} and $p(\bar{p})$ indicates that within the systematic and statistical uncertainties they are the same at high $p_T$ (> 10 GeV/c), suggesting that the chemical composition of leading particles from jets in the medium is similar to that of vacuum jets.publishedVersio

Multiplicity dependence of the average transverse momentum in pp, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC

The average transverse momentum versus the charged-particle multiplicity $N_{ch}$ was measured in p-Pb collisions at a collision energy per nucleon-nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV and in pp collisions at collision energies of $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9, 2.76, and 7 Tev in the kinematic range 0.15 with $N_{ch}$ is observed, which is much stronger than that measured in Pb-Pb collisions. For pp collisions, this could be attributed, within a model of hadronizing strings, to multiple-parton interactions and to a final-state color reconnection mechanism. The data in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions cannot be described by an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions and pose a challenge to most of the event generators.publishedVersio

Energy dependence of the transverse momentum distributions of charged particles in pp collisions measured by ALICE

Differential cross sections of charged particles in inelastic pp collisions as a function of $p_T$ have been measured at $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV at the LHC. The $p_T$ spectra are compared to NLO-pQCD calculations. Though the differential cross section for an individual $\sqrt{s}$ cannot be described by NLO-pQCD, the relative increase of cross section with $\sqrt{s}$ is in agreement with NLO-pQCD. Based on these measurements and observations, procedures are discussed to construct pp reference spectra at $\sqrt{s}$ = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV up to $p_T$ = 50 GeV/c as required for the calculation of the nuclear modification factor in nucleus-nucleus and proton-nucleus collisions.publishedVersio