Effects of Transshenoidal Surgery on Patients with Nonfunctioning Pituitary Tumours

Objective:   The present study was undertaken to assess the effect of surgical removal of adenoma on peripheral adenohypophyseal hormones. In addition, the pituitary hormones have also been measured directly in the adenoma tissue following its surgical removal. Materials and Methods:  The present study initially included 22 consecutive patients 18 men and 4 women, of 22-55 (44 ± 2.3) years of age operated for NFMA between 2005 and 2008 at Lahore General Hospital, Lahore. Three of these patients 2 men and 1woman died during the follow-up period and were excluded from the study.  Results:  Radiological imaging revealed a macroadenoma in all patients, with suprasellar extension in 96% and parasellar/infrasellar extension in 32% of cases. Visual field defects were present in 95% of the patients and improved in 84% of cases after surgery (complete recovery 3/19 (15%); partial recovery 13/19 (68%). The results demonstrate that in a subset of 4 of the 16 male patients with NFPAs the presurgical serum FSH values (45.1 ± 0.7 mIU/ml) were markedly and significantly greater than those of the remaining 12 patients (7.9 ± 0.7 mIU/ml) and of control subjects (8.8 ± 0.6 mIU/ml).  Conclusions:  The present study suggests that pituitary tumours diagnosed as NFPAs constitute a heterogenous group of adenomas with regard to their secretory activity of intact adenohypophyseal hormones. Whereas some of these adenomas activity may synthesize one or more pituitary hormones, peripheral concentrations may not be sufficient to produce overt clinical symptoms of hormone hypersecretion.&nbsp

Serum Hormone Levels of Prolactin and Prolactin Content of Nonfunctioning Pituitary Adenomas and Normal Pituitary Glands

Objective and Study Design:   The present study was undertaken to assess the effect of surgical removal of adenoma on peripheral prolactin (PRL) hormone. In addition, the pituitary PRL hormone has also been measured directly in the adenoma tissue following its surgical removal and in the normal pituitary glands. Material and Methods:  The present study is based on 19 patients (16 males and 3 females), 30-50 year of age, diagnosed for NFPAs on the basis of clinical and radiological evidence. An equal number of age matched healthy subjects were included as controls.  Results:  The mean serum PRL concentration in male patients before removal of the adenoma were significantly higher (P<0.05) than values obtained after surgical removal of the adenoma and those of control subjects. In 5 of these 16 patients (PA1, PA10, PA14, PA28, PA30) serum PRL concentrations were markedly above the normal limit of circulating PRL levels (>17.0 ng/ml), the levels being ~ 2-fold of the mean control levels. The PRL levels returned to normal range following ablation of adenoma in these patients. The individual and mean serum PRL levels in the remaining 11 (68.75%) patients were in normal range before and after surgery.  Conclusions:  Taken together, the present data suggest that a significant proportion of NFPAs may actively synthesize and secrete pituitary hormones such as PRL, in amounts that may not be sufficient to produce any overt clinical signs of hormone hypersecretion

Nexus between Financial Development and Investment in Pakistan:A Vector Auto-regressive Model Approach

This study has been conducted to analyze the impacts of Financial Development on Investment in Pakistan. The objectives of this study are to generate Financial Development Index for Pakistan and to analyze the impact of Financial Development on Investment along with key explanatory variables. The time period for this study is from 1975 to 2011. An index has been constructed for exact measurement of financial development by using five main indicators, and for calculation of financial development index weighted average method has been used. In our investment’s model VAR model has been for results because of different order of integration and no proves of cointegration in our data, we have also applied the causality test on our model. It has been observed by the causality test that during the period of our study financial development cause investment and investment causes financial development. By the help of impulse response function it has also been observed that the impulse of financial development has decreased the investment in Pakistan and it could be due to a fact that Pakistan is at early stage of financial development and the saved resources are not properly mobilized to investment

Remote diagnostics

No abstract available

Microstructural Characterisation of Splat-Substrate Interface Interaction in Thermal Spray Coatings by Various Microscopy Techniques

Thermal spray describes a broad family of coating techniques, which is used for surfacing and resurfacing of engineering components without compromising the substrate’s material properties. In thermal spray, the coating particles impact the substrate surface either in the molten or semi-molten state, depending on the spray process used. The bonding and adherence of the spray particles (called splats) to the substrate surface significantly influence the overall quality of the finished product. This thesis investigates the deposition behaviour of various feedstock particles, including Ni, Ni-20Cr, Ni-5Al and a Fe-based metallic glass sprayed on to different substrates, including mild steel, stainless steel and chromium subjected to different surface pre-treatments (polishing, oxidation and thermal). The splat-substrate bonding mechanisms were investigated across different spray methods such as plasma spray, high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) and cold spray (CS) through a range of microscopy techniques. Substrate preheating, prior to deposition, lowered the moisture contents on the substrate surface and reduced splashing and fragmentation and promoted the formation of disk-shaped splats by improving substrate wettability. Substrate surface chemistry and thermal properties (in particular thermal conductivity) influenced the splat solidification process and hence, the splat morphology. In the plasma spray process, the feedstock particles impacted the substrate in a fully molten state, so splat-substrate interfacial bonding was metallurgical and localised substrate melting, along with interdiffusion, was observed between the splat and the substrate. The addition of Cr to Ni promoted better adherence of the splat to the substrate and modified splat formation by reducing splat fragmentation. Substrate melting resulted in ‘jets’ of substrate material entrapped within the splat. Local oxidation of the splats occurred in flight resulted in oxide layers around splats. Whereas, in the HVOF process, the feedstock particles impacted in the molten and semi-molten states and both metallurgical and mechanical bonding were observed owing to the high particle kinetic energy involved in this process. In the CS process, the feedstock particles impacted the substrate in the solid state. Interfacial bonding between the substrate and the splat was generated through severe plastic deformation of the substrate by the impinging particles and bonding was attributed solely to mechanical interlocking

Effects of Perception of Organizational Politics on Employee’s Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Trust and Interpersonal Conflicts

Perception of organizational politics (POP) is a critical issue for all organizations. Most of the researchers indicate that it has a negative effect on employee’s performance. This study finds the relationship between POP and employee’s well-being (EWB) by using interpersonal conflicts at work (ICW) and interpersonal trust at work (ITW) as mediators. The well-being of employees is an important factor to be studied because it covers overall happiness of employees which includes job satisfaction, performance, job loyalty etc. Therefore, without concerning the employee’s well-being, no organization can compete or lead in the competitive environment. So there is a research gap which needs to conduct a research study on employee’s well-being with the reference to perception of organizational politics. The main focus of this study is to find out the relationship between employee’s well-being and perception of organizational politics with the mediating effect of interpersonal conflicts at work and interpersonal trust at work. The sample size of this study is in a number of 223 with cross-sectional study and conducted in the famous city Lahore, Pakistan

Dynamic Load Sharing at Domestic Level Using the Internet of Things

At the domestic level, load management plays a vital role as the consumer line gets overloaded due to the various load categories. The fully loaded line consumes more energy units, which increases the electricity bill of the consumer. To circumvent the issue of load unbalancing, an automated load management system is developed that shifts the load from one line to another. The proposed system is developed by making use of current and potential sensing transformers and the Arduino Mega board. Moreover, the proposed system also provides an internet of things (IoT) based monitoring facility to the user. The sensed information from the system is uploaded to the webserver with the help of Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) from where the user can access this information at any time through appropriate applications. Based on the monitoring data, the user can take necessary decisions regarding switching off unnecessary load. Both simulation and hardware results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system

SEAHORSE procedure improvement system

Standardisation of operating procedures has been used in variety of different sectors with the aim of achieving more reliable operations hence operational safety. Likewise, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been adopted by the maritime sector and enforced through the regulatory framework in an attempt to achieve safer shipping operations. Despite the fact that regulations enforce the SOPs, it is often observed that during shipping operations these procedures are not followed due to various reasons. One of the most common reasons for not following the SOPs is because shipping companies suffer from poorly designed procedures, which are impractical, unclear or sometimes factually wrong. These poorly designed procedures are disregarded by crew members, which prevent the practical implementation of these SOP's during shipping operations. Therefore, it is of key importance that a systematic approach is needed to identify and improve the current SOP's as well as preventing potentially harmful workarounds. The EU FP7 SEAHORSE project is developing a "Procedure Improvement System" which will be actively used by the crew members any time anonymously. In order to achieve this, over 400 questionnaires have been collected from seafarers across Europe where they were asked to report on impractical SOPs and common workarounds conducted on board ships. These questionnaires were organised and a risk benefit analysis was conducted. This paper will report the initial results, as well as demonstrating the overall methodology for the SEAHORSE Project's procedure improvement system

Emotional Regulation, Level of Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Alcohol Abusers and Non-Abusers

The study was to examine the levels of depression anxiety and stress, as well as emotion regulation strategies among alcohol abusers and non-abusers. One hundred and fifty alcohol abusers who were admitted in department of psychiatry ward in hospital and one hundred and fifty normal people who were in general population were enrolled in the study. Depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-42) and emotional regulation questionnaires were used to assesses the depression, anxiety and stress reaction and emotional regulation of alcohol abusers and non-abusers. Alcohol abusers had higher level of depression, anxiety and stress reaction, as well as lower level of cognitive reappraisal and higher level of suppression compared with normal people. Cognitive reappraisal and suppression had significantly negative correlation with depression, anxiety and stress reaction in healthy people while they had no significantly correlation with depression, anxiety and stress reaction in abuser group. Further, both cognitive reappraisal and suppression significantly predicated depression, anxiety and stress reaction in healthy people while they did not predicate depression, anxiety and stress in alcohol abusers. Alcohol abusers had obvious depression, anxiety and stress reaction, as well as inappropriate copying strategies. Both cognitive reappraisal and suppression could predicate negative emotion and stress reaction in normal population but the emotional regulation failed to predicate negative emotion and stress reaction in alcohol abusers

Emotional Regulation, Level of Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Alcohol Abusers and Non-Abusers

The study was to examine the levels of depression anxiety and stress, as well as emotion regulation strategies among alcohol abusers and non-abusers. One hundred and fifty alcohol abusers who were admitted in department of psychiatry ward in hospital and one hundred and fifty normal people who were in general population were enrolled in the study. Depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-42) and emotional regulation questionnaires were used to assesses the depression, anxiety and stress reaction and emotional regulation of alcohol abusers and non-abusers. Alcohol abusers had higher level of depression, anxiety and stress reaction, as well as lower level of cognitive reappraisal and higher level of suppression compared with normal people. Cognitive reappraisal and suppression had significantly negative correlation with depression, anxiety and stress reaction in healthy people while they had no significantly correlation with depression, anxiety and stress reaction in abuser group. Further, both cognitive reappraisal and suppression significantly predicated depression, anxiety and stress reaction in healthy people while they did not predicate depression, anxiety and stress in alcohol abusers. Alcohol abusers had obvious depression, anxiety and stress reaction, as well as inappropriate copying strategies. Both cognitive reappraisal and suppression could predicate negative emotion and stress reaction in normal population but the emotional regulation failed to predicate negative emotion and stress reaction in alcohol abusers