Extent of 2014 Flood Damages in Chenab Basin Upper Indus Plain

This chapter analyzes the extent of flood damages in the Chenab basin upper Indus plain. The upper Indus plain is a fertile area and supports millions of human population and diverse economic activities. Every year in summer, the combined action of monsoon rain water and meltwater (melting of snow and glaciers) augment rivers discharge leading to damaging flood. The study region is prone to floods. The upstream areas of Chenab basin are mountainous and experiences characteristics of flash floods, whereas riverine floods dominate the lower reach. In wake of observed climate change, there is a rising trend in temperature, which indicates the early and rapid melting of snow and glaciers in the catchment areas. The analysis reveals that the spatial and temporal scales of violent weather events have also been grown during the past three decades. The substantial increase in heavy precipitation events and rapid melting of snow in the headwater region, siltation in river channels, human encroachments on the active flood plain and bursting of embankments have further escalated the flooding events. Analysis further reveals that in the study region, almost every year, the floodwater overflows the levees and cause damages to standing crops, infrastructure and sources of livelihood, and incurs human casualties

Edge detection in unorganized 3D point cloud

The application of 3D laser scanning in the mining industry is increasing progressively over the years. This presents an opportunity to visualize and analyze the underground world and potentially save countless man- hours and exposure to safety incidents. This thesis envisions to detect the “Edges of the Rocks” in the 3D point cloud collected via scanner, although edge detection in point cloud is considered as a difficult but meaningful problem. As a solution to noisy and unorganized 3D point cloud, a new method, EdgeScan method, has been proposed and implemented to detect fast and accurate edges from the 3D point cloud for real time systems. EdgeScan method is aimed to make use of 2D edge processing techniques to represent the edge characteristics in 3D point cloud with better accuracy. A comparisons of EdgeScan method with other common edge detection methods for 3D point cloud is administered, eventually, results suggest that the stated EdgeScan method furnishes a better speed and accuracy especially for large dataset in real time systems.Master of Science (MSc) in Computational Science

The Assessment of Self Care Practices amongst Diabetic Patients of Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic disease and with rapidly increasing prevalence, it requires continuous diabetic care beyond just glycemic control. It needs continuous self-management and multi factorial risk reduction strategies. This study aims to assess the self-care practices of diabetic patients living in Rawalpindi and to determine the relationship of sociodemographic characteristics with their self-care practices. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted in two private diabetic clinics of Rawalpindi from February to July 2022. A validated structured questionnaire using Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (SDSCA) scale was administered to assess self-care practices of the study participants. A total of 230 participants through convenience sampling aged 25 to 86 years were recruited in the survey. SPSS version 22 was used to carry out the statistical analysis. Results: The current study comprised of 107(46.5%) males and 123 (53.5%) females with mean age of 54.85 ±12.41 years.  Among them, 65.2% had adequate self-care practices. It was found that marital status (p=0.004), educational status (p=0.002), monthly income (p=0.001) and duration of diabetes (p=0.006) were significantly associated with self-care practices of the participants. Conclusion: More than half of the participants had adequate self-care practices. Sociodemographic variables like marital status, education, monthly household income and duration of diabetes were significantly associated with the self-care practices of diabetic patients. Key words: Diabetes Mellitus, Pakistan, Self-Care, Self- Management, Surve

A 14-years old boy having excessive overjet and traumatic bite

This article has no abstract. The first 100 words appear below: A 14-year-old male came to the outpatient Department with the complaints of proclination of the tooth and inability to close his lips. The patient was psychologically depressed for his facial appearance. Extraoral clinical examination showed a mesocephalic symmetrical face with convex facial profile as well as his lower lip was trapped The  nasolabial angle was acute. His mandibular movement was normal and there was no temporomandibular joint dysfunction

Nicotine smoking is associated with impaired cognitive performance in Pakistani young people

Nicotine smoking is the most common mode of tobacco smoking among young people. It affects the areas of the brain associated with memory, attention, and learning. This study has investigated the effect of nicotine smoking on cognitive performance. One hundred male volunteers (50 nicotine smokers and 50 nonsmokers) aged 18–30 years with similar socioeconomic backgrounds were recruited for this study. Clinical history of participants was obtained using a questionnaire. Their brain health and handedness were determined using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI), respectively. The dependent variables examined in the study were attention-switching tasks (AST), pattern recognition memory (PRM), and choice reaction time (CRT). These parameters were assessed using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Automated Battery (CANTAB). The average ages of participating smokers and nonsmokers were 24.02 ± 3.41 years (mean ± standard deviation) and 22.68 ± 1.87 years, respectively. MMSE and EHI scores of smokers were 28.42 ± 1.09 and 99.75 ± 1.77, respectively; for nonsmokers, these scores were 28.54 ± 1.34 and 98 ± 1.91, respectively. The mean score for AST correct latency/delay was significantly higher (p = 0.050) in smokers (620.26 ± 142.03) than in nonsmokers (570.11 ± 108.39). The percentage of correct AST trials was significantly higher (p = 0.000) in nonsmokers (96.95 ± 2.18) than in smokers (83.75 ± 11.22). The PRM percent correct were significantly higher (p = 0.000) of nonsmokers (93.42 ± 8.34) than of smokers (79.75 ± 13.44). The mean correct latency for CRT was significantly higher (p = 0.009) in smokers (509.87 ± 129.83) than in nonsmokers (455.20 ± 65.73). From this data, it can be concluded that nicotine smoking is linked with impaired cognitive functions in smokers

Acidic and enzymatic saccharification of waste agricultural biomass for biotechnological production of xylitol

Abstract Background The plant biomass and agro-industrial wastes show great potential for their use as attractive low cost substrates in biotechnological processes. Wheat straw and corn cob as hemicellulosic substrates were acid hydrolyzed and enzymatically saccharified for high xylose production. The hydrolysate was concentrated and fermented by using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces for production of xylitol. Results Acid hydrolysis of wheat straw and corn cob in combination with enzymatic hydrolysis showed great potential for production of free sugars from these substrates. Kluyveromyces produced maximum xylitol from acid treated wheat straw residues with enzymatic saccharification. The percentage xylitol yield was 89.807 g/L and volumetric productivity of 0.019 g/L/h. Kluyveromyces also produced maximum xylitol from corn cob acid hydrolyzed liquor with xylitol yield 87.716 g/L and volumetric productivity 0.018 g/L/h. Conclusion Plant and agro-industrial biomass can be used as a carbohydrate source for the production of xylitol and ethanol after microbial fermentation. This study revealed that wheat straw acid and enzyme hydrolyzed residue proved to be best raw material for production of xylitol with S. cerevisiae. The xylitol produced can be utilized in pharmaceuticals after purification on industrial scale as pharmaceutical purposes

Extending 'Contact Tracing' into the Community within a 50-Metre Radius of an Index Tuberculosis Patient Using Xpert MTB/RIF in Urban, Pakistan: Did It Increase Case Detection?

Currently, only 62% of incident tuberculosis (TB) cases are reported to the national programme in Pakistan. Several innovative interventions are being recommended to detect the remaining 'missed' TB cases. One such intervention involved expanding contact investigation to the community using the Xpert MTB/RIF test.This was a before and after intervention study involving retrospective record review. Passive case finding and household contact investigation was routinely done in the pre-intervention period July 2011-June 2013. Four districts with a high concentration of slums were selected as intervention areas; Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Islamabad. Here, in the intervention period, July 2013-June 2015, contact investigation beyond household was conducted: all people staying within a radius of 50 metres (using Geographical Information System) from the household of smear positive TB patients were screened for tuberculosis. Those with presumptive TB were investigated using smear microscopy and the Xpert MTB/RIF test was performed on smear negative patients. All the diagnosed TB patients were linked to TB treatment and care.A total of 783043 contacts were screened for tuberculosis: 23741(3.0%) presumptive TB patients were identified of whom, 4710 (19.8%) all forms and 4084(17.2%) bacteriologically confirmed TB patients were detected. The contribution of Xpert MTB/RIF to bacteriologically confirmed TB patients was 7.6%. The yield among investigated presumptive child TB patients was 5.1%. The overall yield of all forms TB patients among investigated was 22.3% among household and 19.1% in close community. The intervention contributed an increase of case detection of bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis by 6.8% and all forms TB patients by 7.9%.Community contact investigation beyond household not only detected additional TB patients but also increased TB case detection. However, further long term assessments and cost-effectiveness studies are required before national scale-up

Flow chart to explain the flow of patients in TB Reach project, Pakistan

<p>Flow chart to explain the flow of patients in TB Reach project, Pakistan</p