Alarming frequency and after effects of maternal anemia in Pakistan

Anemia is caused due to usually iron based nutritional deficiency in blood. Its severity varies from mild to fatal. Recent reported data of Pakistan indicates that anemia cannot be ignored as it may affect fetus or maternal health or may cause death of any of them. The frequent symptoms are poor fetal growth, gastrointestinal bleeding, spontaneous abortion, low infant weight, less placental size and fetal or sometimes maternal death. Moreover, current data highlights that maternal anemia is common among females of province Sindh up to alarming level than in other provinces of Pakistan. As its diagnosis is usually delayed. People ignore the symptoms and still there is lack of awareness among masses. It should be controlled by government and concerned authorities by spreading general public awareness related to preventive measures, handling and cure of maternal anemia and to ensure the lives and health of both mother and developing fetus

Underutilized Grasses Production: New Evolving Perspectives

Globally, over-reliance on major food crops (wheat, rice and maize) has led to food basket’s shrinking, while climate change, environmental pollution and deteriorating soil fertility demand the cultivation of less exhaustive but nutritious grasses. Unlike neglected grasses (grass species restricted to their centres of origin and only grown at the subsistence level), many underutilized grasses (grass species whose yield or usability potential remains unrealized) are resistant and resilient to abiotic stresses and have multiple uses including food (Coix lacryma-jobi), feed (Eragrostis amabilis and Cynodon dactylon), esthetic value (Miscanthus sinensis and Imperata cylindrica), renewable energy production (Spartina pectinata and Andropogon gerardii Vitman) and contribution to ecosystem services (Saccharum spontaneum). Lack of agricultural market globalization, urbanization and prevalence of large commercial enterprises that favor major grasses trade, improved communication means that promoted specialization in favor of established crops, scant planting material of underutilized grasses and fewer research on their production technology and products development are the prime challenges posed to underutilized grasses promotion. Integration of agronomic research with novel plant protection measures and plant breeding and molecular genetics approaches for developing biotic and abiotic stresses tolerant cultivars along with the development of commercially attractive food products hold the future key for promoting underutilized grasses for supplanting food security and sustainably multiplying economic outcomes

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

A novel frame design for integrated communication and sensing based on position modulation

In this paper, a novel frame design for integrated communication and sensing is proposed. The proposed frame structure consists of Barker radar sequence and binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulated data bits. The temporal position of the radar sequence is determined by a subset of incoming information bits. Therefore, in addition to target sensing; the radar sequence also carries data bits in the form of position modulation. Moreover, during the reception process channel estimation is also performed using the radar sequence thereby leveraging the function of pilots. The simulation results verify that the dynamic location of radar sequence does not effect the sensing performance; however, sensing is sensitive to the length of radar sequence. Moreover, the proposed scheme results in reduced bit error rate (BER) when compared to radar-communication frame without any position modulation

A novel method for joint sensing and communication at terahertz frequencies by exploiting rough surfaces

In this paper, a novel method for joint sensing and communication (JSAC) is proposed by exploiting the scattering properties of a rough surface present in the environment in the terahertz (THz) frequency range. At higher frequencies, the transmitted signals are more likely to be obstructed by a blockage owing to their shorter wavelength. Therefore establishing an alternate connection between the communicating nodes is highly desired. In case when the direct line-of-sight (LOS) link is unavailable between transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx), the proposed framework provides a true non-line-of-sight (NLOS) connection via a rough surface. The transmitted signal interacts with the rough surface present in the environment. The scattering pattern of the reflected signal from the rough surface is exploited to realize a JSAC system. Specifically, the high-powered specular component reflected by an intermediate rough surface is used for communication whereas, a moderate-powered diffused reflected component is exploited for target sensing. Finally, simulation results are provided to analyze communication and sensing performance along specular and diffused components reflected from a rough surface

Radio environment monitoring

The high number of wireless devices available and the inherent relationship between electromagnetic wave propagation and the physical environment have made these devices and their network architectures ideal sources of information for noncommunication-related applications, such as home monitoring and heart beat detection. The number and significance of wireless sensing use-cases highlight the importance of a framework to acquire information on the radio environment. This chapter introduces such a framework, goes over relevant technologies, and provides a case study for environment sensing. The most well-studied area of radio environment map (REM) is perhaps the radio frequency map construction. The chapter provides this as an example for the working of the REM architecture. The generalized radio environment monitoring framework enables information gathering and radio and physical environment awareness, behaving as an independent entity capable of feeding information to other entities

Physical layer security for wireless sensing and joint radar and communications

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A novel frame design for non-terrestrial network based integrated sensing and communication

In this paper, a novel frame design is proposed which realizes integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) while developing synergy among non-Terrestrial (NTN) and terrestrial networks. Conventional time division duplexing (TDD) based systems suffer from high latency in sensing and communication performance which further aggravates with the increasing distance between transmitter and receiver as in the case of NTN. Therefore, to overcome the issue of latency, a spectrum efficient frame design is proposed that exploits the waiting period of a pulsed radar to perform interference free communication and sensing. The communication transmitter and radar transceiver embedded in high altitude platforms (HAPs) uses pulsed radar for sensing. Due to high altitudes, the target echo is reached at the HAPS after a long delay. This delay time is exploited to embed fixed and opportunistic communication in the proposed ISAC frame design. The numerical analysis explains spectrum efficiency of the proposed frame design compared to TDD mode of JRC systems, with reliable communication and accurate target detection.Turkcell Technology and Istanbul Medipol Universit

OTFS-FMCW waveform design for low complexity joint sensing and communication

Joint sensing and communication (JSAC) systems are becoming attractive technologies since they can map the radio environment while performing communication using the same frequency bands. This is achieved by radar signal processing of the received signal that is composed of a known waveform. However, varying the waveform used for JSAC will create a trade-off between throughput and computational complexity. In this paper, we propose a joint orthogonal time-frequency space (OTFS)-frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) waveform design to perform JSAC to achieve high data rates due to OTFS and low-complex simple radar receiver thanks to FMCW. This is done by exploiting the simultaneous locality property of the FMCW in both time-frequency and delay-Doppler domains to orthogonally superimpose OTFS and FMCW, and use them for communication and sensing, respectively. Then, we provide an analysis of the computational complexity of the proposed design. The conducted simulation results demonstrate that the proposed waveform design can achieve accurate low-complexity radar parameters estimation while preserving high data rates

Synthesis of a cobalt-based photoluminescent coordination complex to study quenching mechanisms of nitro compounds

<p>A cobalt metal coordination complex was synthesized using the bipyridyl spacer ligand along with a dicarboxylate as secondary ligand. The coordination complex was characterized using FTIR, ¹H NMR, elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, and powder XRD. The structure shown from single-crystal XRD revealed that each Co(II) cation in the cluster can be described as trigonal bipyramidal. Luminescence properties of the complex were investigated using different solvents. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra depicted change in band gap for THF and DCM. The complex was further investigated for ligand-based photoluminescence properties and thus used for sensing of nitro compounds. The static and dynamic quenching mechanism of nitro compounds was identified through the Stern–Volmer model.</p