Two Types of Conformal Antennas for Small Spacecrafts

Conformal antennas have widespread applications in communication systems for vehicular bodies, aircrafts, and spacecrafts etc. They are non-protruding and can arbitrarily take any shape on the surface where they are etched. This thesis is a summary of two main projects. The first project employs a conformal array of four S-band and four GPS-band antennas for sub-payload of a sounding rocket. The sub-payload is a small cylinder and therefore the eight conformal antennas are based on curved patch geometry. The second project employs a conformal antenna for a CubeSat. The antenna is based on a cavitybacked slot and therefore can be conveniently integrated around the surface-mount solar cells of the CubeSat. Such an integration has enormous merits for CubeSat because there is no competition between the antennas and solar cells for the limited surface real estate. The antenna design operates UHF band with circular polarization, making it the first UHF nondeployed antenna for CubeSats. For both projects, problems such as isolation, impedance bandwidth, axial ratio bandwidth, and EMI shielding have been analyzed and resolved. This thesis work yields a prototype-ready design for the first project, and a final prototype and measurements for the second project

Risk Factors of End Stage Renal Disease in Peshawar, Pakistan: Odds Ratio Analysis

AIM: The basic aim of this study was to discover the association of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) with various risk factors. End Stage Renal Failure is the last stage of the chronic renal failure in which kidneys become completely fail to function.MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data were collected from the patients of renal diseases from three major hospitals in Peshawar, Pakistan. Odds ratio analysis was performed to examine the relationship of ESRD (a binary response variable) with various risk factors: Gender, Diabetic, Hypertension, Glomerulonephritis, Obstructive Nephropathy, Polycystic kidney disease, Myeloma, SLE Nephritis, Heredity, Hepatitis, Excess use of Drugs, heart problem and Anemia.RESULTS: Using odds ratio analysis, the authors found that the ESRD in diabetic patients was 11.04 times more than non-diabetic patients and the ESRD were 7.29 times less in non-hypertensive patients as compared to hypertensive patients. Similarly, glomerulonephritis patients had 3.115 times more risk of having ESRD than non-glomerulonephritis. Other risk factors may also, to some extent, were causes of ESRD but turned out insignificant due to stochastic sample.CONCLUSION: The authors concluded that there is a strong association between ESRD and three risk factors, namely diabetes, hypertension and glomerulonephritis

Outcome in Surgically Treated Patients with Dorsal and Dorsolumbar Spinal Tuberculosis: A Retrospective Study of 40 Cases

Objective:  To determine the influence of disease severity and surgical treatment in patients with dorsal and dorsolumbar spinal tuberculosis with severe neurological deficit. Methods:  In this retrospective study (2005 – 2009) medical records of all patients with dorsal and dorsolumbar spinal tuberculosis treated surgically by Zafar Iqbal were analyzed. The clinical features, disease severity, operative procedures and outcome and factors affecting outcome were analyzed. Results:  A total of 42 patients with dorsal and dorsolumbar spinal tuberculosis with severe neurological deficit were treated surgically during this period. Two patients had follow-up of less than 3 months and were excluded from this study. Their age ranged from 18 to 65 years, with a mean age of 31 years. Male to female ratio was 3:2. Presenting symptoms were local pain in 34 (85%), radicular pain in 5 (12.5%),  Conclusion:  This study indicates that a significant proportion of patients with spinal tuberculosis and severe motor deficits get remarkable improvement after surgical decompression and hence should undergo surgery even though they may be suffering from paraplegia of considerable duration. We found that age less than 50 years, radical surgery and spasticity are favourable prognostic factors

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

189 ID Design

Abbreviations: ESRD = End Stage Renal Disease; S = Sex; D = Diabetes; H = Hypertension; O = Obstructive Nephropathy; G = Glomerulonephritis; Pk = Polycystic kidney diseases; M = Myeloma; SLE = SLE nephritis; A = Anemia; Hd = Heredity; Ht = Hepatitis; Ed = Excess use of drug; Hp = Heart problem; β = coefficient; Exp (β) = e β = odd ratio; S.E = Standard Error; Wald = Wald Statistic; df = degree of freedom; Sig = p-value. Abstract BACKGROUND: End Stage Renal Failure (ESRD) is the last stage of the chronic renal failure in which kidneys become completely fail to function

Statistical Study of Risk Factors of End Stage Renal Failure in Peshawar, Pakistan

BACKGROUND: End Stage Renal Failure (ESRD) is the last stage of the chronic renal failure in which kidneys become completely fail to function.AIM: The basic aim of this study was to discover the important risk factors of ESRD and to construct a model for prediction of the ESRD patients in various hospitals of Peshawar, Pakistan.MATERIAL AND METHODS: The data were collected from the patients of renal diseases from three major hospitals of Peshawar. Brown method was used to obtain initial model, then backward elimination logistic regression analysis was performed to find the significant variables (risk factors). The response variable (ESRD) in this study is binary; therefore, logistic regression analysis is used to identify the significant variables. A Statistical Package GLIM and SPSS were used for fitting the model and for finding the significant variables.RESULTS: The backward elimination procedure selects predictor variables diabetic, hypertension, glomerulonephritis and heredity, for males. Thus, these variables are the main causes of ESRD. For females, the predictor variables selected are hypertension & (Diabetic*Hypertension), which means that hypertension and hypertensive diabetic are significant causes of ESRD.CONCLUSION: Our main conclusion from this analysis is that diabetic, hypertension and glomerulonephritis are the significant risk factors of ESRD

Biological Basis for the Use of Botanicals in Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Review

Osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee and hip is a debilitating disease affecting more women than men and the risk of developing OA increases precipitously with aging. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the most common form of inflammatory joint diseases, is a disease of unknown etiology and affects ∼1% of the population worldwide, and unlike OA, generally involves many joints because of the systemic nature of the disease. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the first drugs of choice for the symptomatic treatment of both OA and RA. Because of the risks associated with the use of NSAIDs and other limitations, the use of alternative therapies, such as acupuncture and medicinal herbs, is on the rise and according to reports ∼60–90% of dissatisfied arthritis patients are likely to seek the option of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This paper reviews the efficacy of some of the common herbs that have a history of human use and their anti-inflammatory or antiarthritic properties have been evaluated in animal models of inflammatory arthritis, in studies employing well defined and widely accepted in vitro models that use human chondrocytes/cartilage explants or in clinical trials. Available data suggests that the extracts of most of these herbs or compounds derived from them may provide a safe and effective adjunctive therapeutic approach for the treatment of OA and RA. This, in turn, argues for trials to establish efficacy and optimum dosage of these compounds for treating human inflammatory and degenerative joint diseases

Endoscopic Transsphenoidal Surgery for Acromegaly

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the preoperative predictors of the extent of resection and endocrinological remission following endonasal endoscopic removal of growth hormone (GH) – secreting pituitary adenomas. Trans-sphenoidal surgery is the preferred treatment modality for growth hormone (GH) – secreting pituitary adenomas. In many series, the reported postoperative remission is based mainly on achieve-ment of GH levels less than 2 ng/ml. Strict criteria for insulin – like growth factor I normalization and even lower GH levels (< 1 ng/ml) are now suggested to define cure of acromegaly, but the evidence does not yet support such low GH levels in epidemiological follow-up. We analyzed our postoperative results in a sample of local popu-lation with acromegaly. Methods: Seven patients harboring GH – secreting adenomas (07 macroadenomas) underwent transsphenoidal surgery between 2005 and 2007 in Lahore General Hospital. The patient group included 03 women and 04 men of 23 – 50 years of age. All the patients were operated for the first time. Biochemical remission was defined as a repeated fasting or glucose – suppressed GH level of 2 ng/ml or less, and a normal insulin – like growth factor I level. Results: The majority of acromegalic patients (83%) had macroadenomas > 1 cm in maximum diameter. Gross – total resection was achieved in 05 (71%) of 07 patients. Notably, endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery allowed complete resection of all lesions without cavernous sinus invasion, regardless of the suprasellar extent. Biochemical remission was achieved in 06 (85%) of 07 patients. A postoperative reduction in GH serum levels were associated with a higher rate of biochemical cure (p < 0.05). Significant differences were observed between pre- and postsurgical serum GH levels in male patients with Acromegalic tumors. Although mean serum GH concentrations were discernibly higher in patients as compared to controls (30.2 ± 3.1 vs 0.4 ± 0.1). In all the three premenopausal female patients included in the study, the individual presurgical serum GH levels were greater than those following surgery. The mean value was significantly higher than of the controls (38.9 ± 10.3 vs 0.2 ± 0.6 ng/ml, respectively).These values exceeded the normal serum GH concentrations described for healthy women (7 ng/ml or less). Following surgical removal of the adenoma, serum GH concentrations showed a marked decline of GH levels in all patients. Conclusion: A purely endoscopic endonasal trans-sphenoidal adenoma resection leads to a high rate of gross – total tumor resection and endocrinological remission in acromegalic patients, even those harboring macro-adenomas with wide suprasellar extension. Extended approaches and angled endoscopes are useful tools for increasing the extent of resection.&nbsp

Endocrine Accompaniments in Acromegaly Patients Before and After Surgery

Background and Aim: The aim of this study was to illustrate the present role of transsphenoidal surgery as primary therapy in GH – secreting adenomas. 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.Methods: The present study is based on 07 patients (04 males and 3 females), 30-50 year of age, diagnosed for Functional Pituitary Adenomas (FPAs) on the basis of clinical and radiological evidence. An equal number of age matched healthy subjects were included as controls. Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) were determined in serum before and following trans-sphenoidal adenomectomy. The GH, FSH, TSH and PRL content of the excised adenoma tissue was also measured in male patients. All hormone determinations were carried out using commercially available immuno-assay kits (ELISA and IRMA) in duplicate.Results: The results demonstrate that the mean serum GH levels in the 04 male and 03 female patients with FPAs were found to be significantly higher before surgical removal as compared to those obtained following surgery. Significant differences were observed between pre- and postsurgical serum GH levels in male and female patients with FPA. GH content was also determined in the male adenoma tissue. Following removal of the adenoma in these 4 male and 03 female patients, peripheral serum GH levels fell within the normal range. The adenoma tissue GH content in patients with initial higher serum GH levels was also significantly greater than that of the other patients. The mean serum PRL concentration in male patients before removal of the adenoma and values obtained after surgical removal of the adenoma and those of control subjects were not significantly different. The mean PRL concentration of the adenoma tissue in all the male patients was not significantly different from the control pituitary tissue. However, the presurgical mean serum PRL concentration were significantly higher in 2 of the 3 female patients included in this study as compared to the control values. Following removal of adenoma, normal serum levels were attained in those patients. In the remaining one female patient serum PRL concentra-tion was within the normal range before and following surgical removal of the adenoma. The mean serum FSH levels in the 04 male patients with FPAs were not significantly different before and after surgical removal of ade-noma tissue. However, an examination of individual values reveals higher FSH levels in 02 of the male patients and in 01 of the three premenopausal female patients. Following surgical removal of the adenoma, serum FSH concentrations showed a marked decline of FSH levels in those patients. However, the remaining two females showed normal FSH levels before and after surgery. The adenoma FSH content of these patients was not signifi-cantly higher than those of the control pituitary tissue. No significant differences were observed between pre and post-surgical serum TSH levels. The TSH content of adenoma tissue was either non-detectable or in the low range as compared to the TSH content determined in control pooled pituitary tissue.Conclusion: Transsphenoidal surgery is thought to be an effective primary treatment for GH-secreting pituitary adenomas according to the most recent criteria of cure. Because the remission rate in cases with cavernous sinusEndocrine Accompaniments in Acromegaly Patients Before and After Surgery invasion is very low, early detection of the tumor before it extends into the cavernous sinus and a long-term endocrinological and radiological follow-up are necessary in order to improve the remission rate of acromegaly