Emotional Qualities of VR Space

The emotional response a person has to a living space is predominantly affected by light, color and texture as space-making elements. In order to verify whether this phenomenon could be replicated in a simulated environment, we conducted a user study in a six-sided projected immersive display that utilized equivalent design attributes of brightness, color and texture in order to assess to which extent the emotional response in a simulated environment is affected by the same parameters affecting real environments. Since emotional response depends upon the context, we evaluated the emotional responses of two groups of users: inactive (passive) and active (performing a typical daily activity). The results from the perceptual study generated data from which design principles for a virtual living space are articulated. Such a space, as an alternative to expensive built dwellings, could potentially support new, minimalist lifestyles of occupants, defined as the neo-nomads, aligned with their work experience in the digital domain through the generation of emotional experiences of spaces. Data from the experiments confirmed the hypothesis that perceivable emotional aspects of real-world spaces could be successfully generated through simulation of design attributes in the virtual space. The subjective response to the virtual space was consistent with corresponding responses from real-world color and brightness emotional perception. Our data could serve the virtual reality (VR) community in its attempt to conceive of further applications of virtual spaces for well-defined activities.Comment: 12 figure

Van Der Knaap Disease in a 3-year-old Male Child: A Case Report

Van der Knaap disease or megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts is a leukodystrophy with autosomal-recessive inheritance caused by mutation in the gene MLC1 which is localized on chromosome 22q. It is characterized by macrocephaly, motor developmental delay, seizures, spasticity, ataxia, and mild mental deterioration. On neuroimaging, involvement of cerebral white matter along with subcortical cysts in frontal and temporal lobes are hallmarks of the disease. There is no definite treatment of this disease. We report a case of Van Der Knaap disease in a 3-year-old male child who presented with seizures and delayed developmental milestones

Systematic review of the global epidemiology, clinical and laboratory profile of enteric fever

Background: Children suffer the highest burden of enteric fever among populations in South Asian countries. The clinical features are non-specific, vary in populations, and are often difficult to distinguish clinically from other febrile illnesses, leading to delayed or inappropriate diagnosis and treatment. We undertook a systematic review to assess the clinical profile and laboratory features of enteric fever across age groups, economic regions, level of care and antibiotic susceptibility patterns.Methods: We searched PubMed (January 1964-December 2013) for studies describing clinical features in defined cohorts of patients over varying time periods. Studies with all culture-confirmed cases or those with at least 50% culture-confirmed cases were included. 242 reports were screened out of 4398 relevant articles and 180 reports were included for final review.Results: 96% of studies were from an urban location, 96% were hospital-based studies, with 41% of studies were from South Asia. Common clinical features in hospitalized children include high-grade fever, coated tongue, anaemia, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly neutrophilia, abdominal distension and GI bleeding. In adults\u27 nausea/vomiting, thrombocytopenia and GI perforation predominate. The case-fatality rate in children under 5 years is higher than school aged children and adolescents, and is highest in Sub Saharan Africa and North Africa/Middle East regions. Multi-drug resistant enteric fever has higher rates of complications than drug sensitive enteric fever, but case fatality rates were comparable in both.CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate variability in disease presentation in adults compared to children, in different regions and in resistant vs sensitive cases. Majority of studies are from hospitalized cases, and are not disaggregated by age. Despite higher complications in MDR enteric fever, case fatality rate is comparable to sensitive cases, with an overall hospital based CFR of 2%, which is similar to recent global estimates. This review underscores the importance of further epidemiological studies in community settings among children and adults, and the need for further preventable measures to curtail the burden of disease

Exclusive Breastfeeding Knowledge among Primiparous Mothers

OBJECTIVES The study’s objective was to assess the knowledge of primiparous mothers for exclusive breastfeeding to babies for the first six months on their first postnatal follow-up. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional descriptive was conducted at Pediatrics Department, KRL Hospital Islamabad, for six months over 100 women from October 2022 to March 2023. A self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information from the study participants. Females with primi gravida were selected, and interviews were conducted on a specific breastfeeding awareness questionnaire. The participant with correct and incorrect responses scored 1 and 0, respectively. Participants with scores of 0-4 were regarded as having poor knowledge, 4-7 as average and 7-10 as good knowledge regarding breastfeeding. The latest SPSS version analyzed Data. RESULTSResults show that the mean age was 24 years SD ± 1.2. Forty-one per cent of mothers were illiterate, 42% had Primary education, 15% had secondary school education, and only 2 % were university educated. Fifty-nine per cent of mothers were housewives, 29% were students, and 12% were working women. Moreover, 21% of mothers had poor knowledge of breastfeeding, 12% had average knowledge of breastfeeding, and 67% had good knowledge of breastfeeding. CONCLUSION Our study concludes that the knowledge of the primiparous mothers about breastfeeding was adequate

A comparative study on dyeing capability of conventional and organic cotton fabrics

Cotton fiber, which is the most widely used natural fiber in the textile and paper industries, has a crucial environmental impact. Cultivation of conventional cotton consumes a lot of water and requires the usage of a higher amount of pesticides. Organic cotton is a more environmentally friendly alternative to its growing conditions. The characteristics of cotton change with the differences in growing conditions. In this study, the properties of yarns obtained from both conventionally and organically grown cotton were tested and analyzed. The properties of these yarns in the fabric structure were compared in terms of fabric performance. The produced fabrics were dyed in the cold-pad batch method with 5 different colors of reactive dyes, which are the most demanding colors in the ready-made garment industry. The physical properties and the fastness test results of the dyed organic and conventional cotton fabrics were investigated in detail to highlight the plant growing effects on the fabric behavior. Comparative color analysis and evaluation of the fabrics were made to discuss the performance of the fabrics. It is found that organically grown cotton is not only superior in quality but also has no negative eff ECT on fabric properties

Lifestyle changes and glycemic control in type 1 diabetes mellitus: A trial protocol with factorial design approach

Background: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) has been increasing globally over the past three decades. Self-monitoring of blood glucose is a challenge in both developed as well as developing countries. Self-management guidelines include maintaining logbooks for blood glucose, physical activity, and dietary intake that affect glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and a multitude of life-threatening acute complications. Innovative, cost-effective interventions along with beneficial lifestyle modifications can improve home-based self-monitoring of blood glucose in T1D patients. The overall objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between maintaining log books for blood glucose levels, reinforcement by e-messages, and/or daily step count and changes in HbA1c.Methods/design: A randomized controlled trial will enroll participants aged 15 years and above in four groups. Each group of 30 participants will be working with a newly designed standard log book for documenting their blood glucose. The first group will be entirely on routine clinical care, the second group will be on routine care and will receive an additional e-device for recording step count (fit bit), the third group will receive routine care and daily motivational e-messages to maintain the log book, and the fourth group along with routine care will receive an e-device for measuring step count (fit bit) and e-messages about maintaining the log book. Patients will be enrolled from pediatric and endocrine clinics of a tertiary care hospital in Karachi. All groups will be followed up for a period of 6 months to evaluate outcomes. Log book data will be obtained every 3 months electronically or during a patient\u27s clinic visit. HbA1c as a main outcome will be measured at baseline and will be evaluated twice every 3 months. A baseline questionnaire will determine the socio-demographic, nutritional, and physical activity profile of patients. Clinical information for T1D and other co-morbidities for age of onset, duration, complications, hospitalizations, habits for managing T1D, and other lifestyle characteristics will be ascertained. Behavioral modifications for maintaining daily log books as a routine, following e-messages alone, fit bit alone, or e-messages plus using fit bit will be assessed for changes in HbA1c using a generalized estimated equation.Discussion: The proposed interventions will help identify whether maintaining log books for blood glucose, motivational e-messages, and/or daily step count will reduce HbA1c levels

Optimal trees selection for classification via out-of-bag assessment and sub-bagging

The effect of training data size on machine learning methods has been well investigated over the past two decades. The predictive performance of tree based machine learning methods, in general, improves with a decreasing rate as the size of training data increases. We investigate this in optimal trees ensemble (OTE) where the method fails to learn from some of the training observations due to internal validation. Modified tree selection methods are thus proposed for OTE to cater for the loss of training observations in internal validation. In the first method, corresponding out-of-bag (OOB) observations are used in both individual and collective performance assessment for each tree. Trees are ranked based on their individual performance on the OOB observations. A certain number of top ranked trees is selected and starting from the most accurate tree, subsequent trees are added one by one and their impact is recorded by using the OOB observations left out from the bootstrap sample taken for the tree being added. A tree is selected if it improves predictive accuracy of the ensemble. In the second approach, trees are grown on random subsets, taken without replacement-known as sub-bagging, of the training data instead of bootstrap samples (taken with replacement). The remaining observations from each sample are used in both individual and collective assessments for each corresponding tree similar to the first method. Analysis on 21 benchmark datasets and simulations studies show improved performance of the modified methods in comparison to OTE and other state-of-the-art methods

Exposure to low concentrations of heavy metals alone and in combination induces histopathological and genotoxic effects in fish (Labeo rohita)

Background: The terrestrial and agro-aquatic ecosystems are continuously at the pity of human's negative impacts. Extensive and indiscriminate application of agrochemicals like heavy metals, industrial wastes, germicides, drug residues and different feed additives has become serious threats to public health. The current experimental trial was executed to investigate genotoxic potential of different heavy metals in fresh water fish (Labeo rohita).Methods: A total of 120 active, healthy, free from  disease and internal parasites fish having three months of age were procured from local fish breeding center and were kept in glass aquarium having 100 liter water. After two weeks of acclimatization, fish were arbitrarily distributed and placed in different eight groups (A-H). Prior to start of experiment, acute toxicity of various heavy metals alone such as lead, cadmium, chromium and in combination (Pb +Cr), (Cr+Cd), (Cd+Pb) and (Pb+Cr+Cd) mixture were determined in-term of 96-h LC50 and lethal doses for Labeo rohita. After assessment of acute toxicity, all the fish were exposed to three sub-lethal concentrations (5, 7 and 9%) of heavy metals alone and in combinations for a period of 30 days in triplicate experiments.Results: Different clinical ailments like, increased surface breathing, loss of coordination, rapid opercular movement, erratic swimming, air gulping, jerking movement and tremors were noted in fish. Histopathological observations of gills of various fish exhibited severe microscopic alterations. Results on micronucleus assay exhibited increased frequency of formation of micronuclei in red blood cells, while comet assays showed significantly increased DNA damage in peripheral erythrocytes in-term of arbitrary units of comets, average percentile rate of damaged cell and genomic damage index.Conclusion: From the results of our experimental study, it can be concluded that fresh water fish are useful and reliable bio-indicators of heavy metal toxicity. Micronucleus and comet assays showed that heavy metals alone and in combination induced DNA damage in fish.Keywords: Labeo rohita; Heavy metals; Histopathology; Erythrocytes; DNA damag