Seasonal variations among admitted paediatric patients at tertiary care hospital, Gadap Town, Karachi, Pakistan

Background: In pediatrics, the season is one of the elements contributing to the etiological factors of community based diseases. Awareness of this variation can help the physicians for prevention and counseling of the patients. A cross-sectional observational study was designed with non-probability convenient sampling technique to determine the frequency of patients admitted to the paediatric ward of the hospital in a whole calendar year and to ascertain which disease presentation is most common. Methods: Study conducted at paediatric ward of Al-Tibri Medical College and Hospital Karachi, Pakistan having patients admitted during May 2018 to April 2019. After ethical approval and informed consent from their parents/ guardian, a total of 734 paediatric patients that were admitted from paediatric OPD/ emergency were selected for the study. Paediatric patients that were referred, in emergency/ ICU and surgical paediatric patients were excluded from the study. Chi-square test was applied to evaluate the statistical variation among the patients.Results: From the 734 patients, 357 (48.6%) patients were of acute gastroenteritis, 104 (14.2%) of respiratory illness, 86 (11.7%) of viral fever, 67 (9.1%) of urinary tract infection, 36 (4.9%) of neurological illness, 29 (4.0%) of protein calorie malnutrition, 25 (3.4%) of enteric fever, 20 (2.7%) of haematological illness and 10 (1.4%) patients were admitted due to sepsis.Conclusion: Our study concluded that majority of the patients admitted were of acute gastroenteritis / admitted due to gastric issues, therefore further studies in the vicinity would help to better understand the issues and help plan a strategy to combat the diseases

Promiscuous hydrogen in polymerising plasmas

Historically, there have been two opposing views regarding deposition mechanisms in plasma polymerisation, radical growth and direct ion deposition, with neither being able to fully explain the chemistry of the resultant coating. Deposition rate and film chemistry are dependent on the chemistry of the plasma phase and thus the activation mechanisms of species in the plasma are critical to understanding the relative contributions of various chemical and physical routes to plasma polymer formation. In this study, we investigate the roles that hydrogen plays in activating and deactivating reactive plasma species. Ethyl trimethylacetate (ETMA) is used as a representative organic precursor, and additional hydrogen is added to the plasma in the form of water and deuterium oxide. Optical emission spectroscopy confirms that atomic hydrogen is abundant in the plasma. Comparison of the plasma phase mass spectra of ETMA/H2O and ETMA/D2O reveals that (1) proton transfer from hydronium is a common route to charging precursors in plasma, and (2) hydrogen abstraction (activation) and recombination (deactivation) processes are much more dynamic in the plasma than previously thought. Consideration of the roles of hydrogen in plasma chemistry may then provide a more comprehensive view of deposition processes and bridge the divide between the two disparate schools of thought.Solmaz Saboohi, Hans J. Griesser, Bryan R. Coad, Robert D. Short and Andrew Michelmor

Study of growth, survival rate and final harvesting of Litopenaeus vannamei impact of 25, 35 and 50 (per/m^2) stocking densities

For the first time in research program and species diversity the white legged shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) was introduced in Iran in 2005 by Iranian Fisheries Research Organization. In two recent years two projects was carried out successfully in Hele Research Station and according of these projects study of growth, survival rate and final harvesting of Litopenaeus vannamei impact of 25, 35 and 50 (per/m^2) stocking densities was done .Nine 0.4 ha earthen ponds were stocked from 26 June 2006 to 11 November 2006 and the rate of stocking was 100000,140000 and 200000 Pl in 25, 35 and 50 per /m^2 respectively. We also carried out daily test of pH, temperature and dissolve oxygen two times per day but transparency, depth and salinity one time per day. The mean weight in 120 days was 17/84±2/6, 16/03±1/9 and14/09±2/3 grams in 25, 35 and 50 per /m^2 respectively and highest weight was seen in 25 density. Results demonstrated that there was a significant relation (P<0.05) between mean weight. The yield were 1745, 2055 and 2425 kg/pond although 4/3, 5/1 and 6 ton/ha in 25, 35 and 50 per /m^3 respectively. The maximum and minimum survival rate 97/96 and 88/46 was seen in 25 and 50 per/m^2. The minimum FCR 1.43 was seen in 25 per /m^2. For economical calculating just by using the cost of larva and feeding indicates that the highest benefit percentage was seen in 25 density. The average of salinity, pH, temperature and dissolve oxygen were 36.1-37 ppt, 8.1, 30.2-30.6 degrees centigrade and 5.9- 6.4 mg/l

Climatic Characteristics of the Natural Habitats of Astragalus gossypinus Fisher in Isfahan Province

The relationship between plant species and climatic factors has always been an important subject in plant ecology and the use of multivariate statistical methods might be effective in detecting the relationship between climatic factors and the distribution of plant species. In the present study, climatic characteristics of Astragalus gossypinus Fisher producing tragacanth stretched in a relatively vast area in Isfahan province (approximatley seven percent of natural habitat of Isfahan province) to shed lights on determinant climatic factors on distribution of this species were investigated. In this study, 56 climatic variables were evaluated in the months of January, March, and July in the annual interval and to reduce the number of variables and determine the most important factors. Factor analysis was applied using principal components analysis. The results showed that four factors, namely cooling temperature-humidity, precipitation-storm, cloudiness, and windiness account for 39.05%, 32.77%, 11.44%, and 8.63%, and totally 91.88% of the variance of the data, respectively. Also, the cooling temperature-humidity factor has the greatest impact on presence of this species, therefor, in areas where this species can be seen, the cooling temperature-humidity factor is positive and vice versa

Studing the Acclimation of Bromus Tomentellus in Esfahan Province

Bromus tomentellus is one of the drought resistant species that has a relatively well developed in Esfahan province, therefore, in the present study some of the important factors that influence the distribution of this species are studied. In this study, 17 climatic variables from 43 synoptic and climatology stations were selected within and adjacent areas of Esfahan province which the stations managed by Weather Organization of Iran. To reduce the number of variables and determining effective factor was used factor analysis using by principal components analysis with varimax rotation, then the average factor scores in the habitat of this species and the areas without it were calculated and the spatial distribution of the factor scores were plotted in Surfer ver8. The results of the factor analysis identified three factors of precipitation, temperature and wind and sunshine hours. These factors are included 69.70%, 11.98% and 10.14%, respectively and 92% of the total variance of the data. Also, the results showed that both precipitation and cooling temperature are the important factors to presence of these species as dominant and following species and wind and sunshine hours has the least effect on it. Generally, the climate vegetative of Bromus tomentellus can be named in Isfahan province, semi-steppe vegetation region in Fereidan, Freydoonshahr, Semirom, Golpayegan, Khonsar, Meimeh up around the Shahreza and alpine steppe of Natanz and Kashan

Synthesis of highly functionalised plasma polymer films from protonated precursor ions via the plasma alpha-gamma transition

Chemically functionalized surfaces may be produced via plasma polymerization, however a high degree of functional group retention is often difficult to achieve. Here, the plasma polymerization of three structurally related ester precursors, ethyl isobutyrate (EIB), methyl isobutyrate (MIB) and ethyl trimethylacetate (ETMA) is compared at low and high pressure. In moving from a low pressure to higher pressure regime, significant changes in the plasma chemistry and resulting plasma polymer deposit were observed with much higher retention of chemical functionality at the higher pressure observed. Until now these changes would have been attributed to a decrease in the energy/molecule, however we show by direct measurement of the chemistry and physics of the plasma that there is fundamental shift in the properties of the plasma and surface interactions which explain the results. At low pressure (a regime) precursor fragmentation and neutral deposition dominate resulting in poor functional group retention. Increasing the pressure such that the sheath region close to surfaces becomes collisional (g regime) favours production of protonated precursor ions which retain functionality and dominate the deposition process rather than radical species.Solmaz Saboohi, Bryan R. Coad, Hans J. Griesser, Andrew Michelmore and Robert D. Shor

Hyperthermal intact molecular ions play key role in retention of ATRP surface initiation capability of plasma polymer films from ethyl alpha-bromoisobutyrate

We report a systematic study of the plasma polymerization of ethyl alpha-bromoisobutyrate (EBIB) to produce thin film coatings capable of serving as ATRP initiation surfaces, for which they must contain alpha-bromoisobutyryl functional groups. In the deposition of polymeric coatings by plasma polymerization there generally occurs considerable fragmentation of precursor ("monomer") molecules. in the plasma; and the retention of larger structural elements is challenging, particularly when they are inherently chemically labile. Empirical principles such as low plasma power and low pressure are usually utilized. However, we show that the alpha-bromoisobutyryl structural moiety is labile in a plasma gas phase and in low pressure plasma conditions, below the collisional threshold, there is little retention. At higher pressure, in contrast, fragmentation of this structural motif appears to be reduced substantially, and coatings useful for ATRP initiation were obtained. Mass spectrometry analysis of the composition of the plasma phase revealed that the desired structural moiety can be retained through the plasma, if the plasma conditions are steered toward ions of the precursor molecule. 'Whereas at low pressure the plasma polymer assembles mainly from various neutral (radical) fragments, at higher pressure the deposition occurs from hyperthermal ions, among which the protonated intact molecular ion is the most abundant. At higher pressure, a substantial population of ions has low kinetic energy, leading to "soft landing" and thus less fragmentation. This study demonstrates that relatively complex structural motifs in precursor molecules can be retained in plasma polymerization if the chemical and physical processes occurring in the plasma phase are elucidated and controlled such that desirable larger structural elements play a key role in the film deposition

Comparison of plasma polymerization under collisional and collision-less pressure regimes

While plasma polymerization is used extensively to fabricate functionalized surfaces, the processes leading to plasma polymer growth are not yet completely understood. Thus, reproducing processes in different reactors has remained problematic, which hinders industrial uptake and research progress. Here we examine the crucial role pressure plays in the physical and chemical processes in the plasma phase, in interactions at surfaces in contact with the plasma phase, and how this affects the chemistry of the resulting plasma polymer films using ethanol as the gas precursor. Visual inspection of the plasma reveals a change from intense homogeneous plasma at low pressure to lower intensity bulk plasma at high pressure, but with increased intensity near the walls of the chamber. It is demonstrated that this occurs at the transition from a collision-less to a collisional plasma sheath, which in turn increases ion and energy flux to surfaces at constant RF power. Surface analysis of the resulting plasma polymer films show that increasing the pressure results in increased incorporation of oxygen and lower cross-linking, parameters which are critical to film performance. These results and insights help to explain the considerable differences in plasma polymer properties observed by different research groups using nominally similar processes