CORRELATION OF BODY MASS INDEX WITH SELECTED PHYSICAL FITNESS PARAMETERS AMONG ADOLESCENTS OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN

The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation of Body Mass Index and Postural balance, Handgrip Strength, Speed and Agility among school going children (Boys), aging 11 to 15 years from secondary schools of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Studies are evident that the fitness level of today’s youth is becoming center of interest, as 12% of the total population of the world is obese, 33% are suffering from hypertension, and 10% of the adults are diabetic. This scenario is compelling the world leaders and policy makers to focus on enhancing the health and fitness of their youth. The sample of 1595 children (11 to 15years of age) was taken from eight districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The analysis showed mean values of 17.43 + 3.25 kg/m2for BMI, 8.83+ 4.7for postural balance in unipodal support (falls per minute (FPM)), 31.18 + 15.63 for hand grip strength, and 13.51+ 1.22 sec for the 10 x 5m Shuttle Run(SR). BMI was found inversely correlated with FPM (r= -0.049, P=0.039); and SR r= -.141, P< 0.001) and directly correlated with HGS r = .219, P<0.001.The average BMI being a predictor of wellbeing of the sampled population is relatively low for unknown reasons but it has been assumed that the physical development of children as per national education policy has not been properly visualized and poorly implemented, therefore, serious efforts required at national level to review and revisit the entire physical development plan of the children

Survey of medicinal plants and patterns of knowledge in district Swabi/ Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

To investigate and document the indigenous knowledge on the medicinal flora of the native communities in Swabi district, Pakistan. A field survey was carried out and data was based on semi-structured interviews, group discussions, and questionnaire from 8 villages. 180 local individual of local communities were interviewed and collected data were analyzed by quantitative and descriptive index. During the survey, 81 species belonging to 45 families were reported. Solanaceae was the leading family with 7 species. Herb (48%) was the dominant plant habit and leaf (24%) was the most preferred used part for indigenous medicine. Moreover, decoction (28.93%) was the most prestigious method. According to the result, the highest use value was documented for Jaundice ailment (1.00-0.81). Besides, 11 plants added to the endangered species list. Local experts of Swabi district practice a huge variety of ethnomedicinal plants in treating a wide spectrum of disorders, especially those plants used to cure jaundice. Our finding suggest that the pharmacological potential across some of these plants has been therapeutically validated however still need to explore the pharmacological properties of other species. Hence, the present investigation, aside from being a source of new insight for ethnobotanical and pharmacological cure of many disorders, might contribute to upgrade the sustainability, conservation, and management of medicinal flora in the Bachai Sikandari, district Swabi

Post-focus compression in Brahvi and Balochi

Previous research has shown that post-focus compression (PFC) - the reduction of pitch range and intensity after a focused word in an utterance, is a robust means of marking focus, but it is present only in some languages. The presence of PFC appears to follow language family lines. The present study is a further exploration of the distribution of PFC by investigating Brahvi, a Dravidian language, and Balochi, an Indo-Iranian language. Balochi is predicted to show PFC given its presence in other Iranian languages. Dravidian languages have not been studied for prosodic focus before and they are not related to any languages with PFC. We recorded twenty native speakers from each language producing declarative sentences in different focus conditions. Acoustic analyses showed that, in both languages, post-focus f 0 and other correlates were significantly reduced relative to baseline neutral-focus sentences, but post-focus lowering of f 0, and intensity was greater in magnitude in Balochi than in Brahvi. The Balochi results confirm our prediction, while the Brahvi results offer the first evidence of PFC in a Dravidian language. The finding of PFC in a Dravidian language is relevant to a postulated origin of PFC, which is related to the controversial Nostratic Macrofamily hypothesis

Virtual Pseudonym-Changing and Dynamic Grouping Policy for Privacy Preservation in VANETs

Location privacy is a critical problem in the vehicular communication networks. Vehicles broadcast their road status information to other entities in the network through beacon messages to inform other entities in the network. The beacon message content consists of the vehicle ID, speed, direction, position, and other information. An adversary could use vehicle identity and positioning information to determine vehicle driver behavior and identity at different visited location spots. A pseudonym can be used instead of the vehicle ID to help in the vehicle location privacy. These pseudonyms should be changed in appropriate way to produce uncertainty for any adversary attempting to identify a vehicle at different locations. In the existing research literature, pseudonyms are changed during silent mode between neighbors. However, the use of a short silent period and the visibility of pseudonyms of direct neighbors provides a mechanism for an adversary to determine the identity of a target vehicle at specific locations. Moreover, privacy is provided to the driver, only within the RSU range; outside it, there is no privacy protection. In this research, we address the problem of location privacy in a highway scenario, where vehicles are traveling at high speeds with diverse traffic density. We propose a Dynamic Grouping and Virtual Pseudonym-Changing (DGVP) scheme for vehicle location privacy. Dynamic groups are formed based on similar status vehicles and cooperatively change pseudonyms. In the case of low traffic density, we use a virtual pseudonym update process. We formally present the model and specify the scheme through High-Level Petri Nets (HLPN). The simulation results indicate that the proposed method improves the anonymity set size and entropy, provides lower traceability, reduces impact on vehicular network applications, and has lower computation cost compared to existing research work

EFFECTIVE INTENSITY OF EXERCISE FOR IMPROVING THE MODIFIABLE RISK FACTORS OF CVD IN OVERWEIGHT ADULT MALES

The leading cause of death is CVD worldwide. Physical activity has been labeled as the single most important modifiable risk factor that alters majority of the other risk factors. However, the existing literature about the effective intensity of exercise to influence other modifiable risk factors is obscure and contradictory. Therefore, this study is aimed to find out the effective exercise intensity beneficial enough to influence the other modifiable risk factors. Methodology:After ethical approval and written informed consent 20 male overweight and apparently healthy participants, (age = 31 ± 6.1 years) were recruited. Participants attended the lab for 4 days one week apart. On day 1, height, weight,  blood pressure,  heart rate,  waist and hip circumference, and body composition was measured using Tinnita body analyzer was measured. Based on submaximal exercise testing the intensity for 50%, 60% and 70% of the predicted maximum heart rates were calculated. On subsequent visits, blood samples for fasting sugar, fasting lipid and insulin were taken. The participants performed exercise test on the treadmill as per calculated intensity for 30mins. Exercise induced thermogenesis and substrate metabolism was calculated using breath by breath analyzer. Post exercise blood sampling for lipid, blood sugar and insulin were taken immediately after intervention. Results: A dose response relationship of exercise with majority of the parameters was found. Exercise intensity of 60% and above were found to be significantly influencing the other modifiable risk factors including cholesterol (0.04 &amp; &lt;0.001), HDL (0.03), Triglyceride (0.023 &amp; &lt;0.01), insulin (0.12 &amp; 0.05) and blood sugar level (0.02 &amp; 0.001). Conclusion: Exercise intensity need to be in the influential range for affecting the other modifiable risk factors. If well planned even a single bout of exercise can be proved beneficial and add towards prevention of CVDs

Evaluation of incidence and severity of postoperative hypoxemia in neurosurgical patients during transportation from operation theater to surgical intensive care unit in a tertiary care unit, Kashmir, India

Background:Postoperative hypoxemia during transportation from operation theater to intensive care unit is common among neurosurgical patients. Methadology: Arterial oxygen saturation (Spo2) and arterial blood gas analysis was performed postoperatively before and after shifting a group of sixty patients with ASA I and ASA II status undergoing various elective neurosurgical procedures under general anesthesia at Sheri-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Srinagar , Kashmir. Statistical analysis: The data was analyzed using SPSS version 13. The chi-square test was used for categorical variables and student’s t test was used for continuous variables with normal distribution. The data was collected, compiled and statistically analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The values were expressed as mean±SD and a p value <0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results: SpO2 before and after transporting the patients to SICU in group I was 98.90±0.45 and 86.70±3.85 respectively, whereas in group II, the SpO2 values were 98.80±0.52 and 93.95±3.99 respectively. In group III the mean SpO2 before and after transportation was 97.60±1.96 and 83.95±8.64 respectively. The difference in SpO2 in all the three groups before and after transportation was statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: We recommend supplemental oxygen administration in all neurosurgical patients during transportation from operation theater to intensive care unit

Ensuring the Role and Impact: Reaching the Poorest While Alleviating the Poverty by Micro Finance in Dera Ismail Khan KPK Pakistan

Micro Finance is used as one of the tools for poverty alleviation.  Micro Financial Institutions provide small loans to poor people, farmers and small enterprises. It is the best solution of removing poverty. This research study provides an overview on Micro finance and poverty alleviation at D.I.Khan district KPK Pakistan.This study is based on both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in order to find out the feasible solution of thisresearch question:what are improvements achieved in the reduction of poverty in the fields of income, employment, education, communication, health care, children’s education and housing etc? Stratified random sampling techniques were used to get a total of 96 respondents. Data were collected through close ended questionnaires, semi structured interviews, observations and documentary reviews. Data analysis was based on descriptive statistics using various statistical tools like regression, correlation, t- test and ANNOVA with the help of tables. The Study findings show thatprovision of Micro-finance is very useful in poverty reduction. The result of the study also show that microfinance helps in poverty alleviation of different categories of poor people and has the positive significant impact on the dependent variable i.e. Poverty Reduction. Key words: Micro finance, poverty, MFIs, income, employment and education

WIRELESS POWER TRANSMISSION THROUGH MAGNETIC RESONANCE COUPLING

This work contains the formulation and implementation of the concept of transmission of electoral power wirelessly by using the principal of resonant coupling. In order to implement the idea of transmission of electrical power wirelessly, a power transmitter circuit on the sending side and a power receiver circuit on the receiving side has been designed. We used self-resonating Royer oscillator in the power transmitter circuit on the sending side. Both the power transmitter and power receiver circuits has been designed to operate at a similar frequency to accomplish the phenomenon of resonance on both sides. The common operating frequency is 1.2 MHz on both power transmitting and power receiving sides. Rectification and filtration circuits were also included in the power receiving circuitry to operate electrical appliances on the receiving side. Primarily, we charged the batteries of cell phone and emergency light of low wattage using this wirelessly transmitted received power. As our designed circuitry was of medium range, thus it worked efficiently within a range of 01 meter. The process of Wireless power transmission was not affected even when we placed a thick and opaque obstacle between the wireless power transmitter and wireless power receiver