Clinical and etiological profile of neonatal seizures: a tertiary care hospital based study

Background: The most vulnerable period of life to develop seizures is the neonatal period. These events very often signify serious damage or malfunction of the immature developing central nervous system. Neonatal seizures may arise as a result of diverse etiologies and can have varied presentations. Objective: Our study was aimed at finding the incidence, etiological factors, and time of onset, clinical types and various biochemical abnormalities in neonatal seizures.Methods: A hospital based prospective observational study was undertaken in a tertiary care paediatric hospital of Government Medical College Srinagar. A total of 100 consecutive neonates presenting with seizures from September 2013 to August 2014 were enrolled in the study. Detailed antenatal history and baseline characteristics of convulsing neonate were recorded at admission. Clinical details of each seizure episode reported by the mother and subsequently observed by the resident doctors on duty were recorded. Venous blood was collected as soon as possible and blood glucose, total serum calcium levels, Na+, K+, Mg and P-levels were done immediately after baby had seizures and before instituting any treatment. Data was described as mean ± SE and %age. SPSS 16.0 and MS Excel software were used for data analysis.Results: Cumulative frequency of 3.9% was recorded in neonatal seizures in our setup. Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy was the commonest etiology of neonatal seizures. Intracranial haemorrhage followed by Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy was the commonest seizure etiology in preterm neonates. Majority of Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy patients presented with seizures in the first 72 hrs. of life. Focal clonic and subtle seizures were the commonest seizure types encountered. 17 neonates (31%) had primary metabolic seizures. Hypocalcaemia was the commonest biochemical abnormality in primary metabolic seizures and was present in 70% neonates in this group. Hypoglycaemia was the next commonest abnormality and was present in 41% neonates within this group.Conclusions: Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy was the commonest etiology with focal clonic and subtle seizures being the commonest clinical types encountered. Hypocalcaemia was the most frequent biochemical abnormality found.

Optimising HYBRIDJOIN to Process Semi-Stream Data in Near-real-time Data Warehousing

Near-real-time data warehousing plays an essential role for decision making in organizations where latest data is to be fed from various data sources on near-real-time basis. The stream of sales data coming from data sources needs to be transformed to the data warehouse format using disk-based master data. This transformation process is a challenging task due to slow disk access rate as compare to the fast stream data. For this purpose, an adaptive semi-stream join algorithm called HYBRIDJOIN (Hybrid Join) is presented in the literature. The algorithm uses a single buffer to load partitions from the master data. Therefore, the algorithm has to wait until the next disk partition overwrites the existing partition in the buffer. As the cost of loading the disk partition into the buffer is a major cost in the total algorithm’s processing cost, this leaves the performance of the algorithm sub-optimal. This paper presents optimisation of existing HYBRIDJOIN by introducing another buffer. This enables the algorithm to load the second buffer while the first one is under join execution. This reduces the time that the algorithm wait for loading of master data partition and consequently, this improves the performance of the algorithm significantly

Grammatical and Syntactical Functions of Auxiliaries in English and Urdu

The current study investigates grammatical and syntactical functions of auxiliaries in Urdu and English to draw certain distinctions regarding the behavior, syntactic representation and semantic content auxiliaries add to the main verbs (Vs) through the X-bar theory as a theoretical framework within the minimalist program (MP). The data of the current research were collected from authentic sources (Urdu and English text books and grammars) to consider a diverse range of possible usage of Urdu and English auxiliaries. 200 sentences extracted from textbooks and grammars were analyzed grammatically in terms of morphology, and syntax (through tree-representation and their movement). The findings indicate sharp differences related to the syntactic position of auxiliaries in Urdu and English. In Urdu, auxiliaries always occupy their position after the main verbs in a sentence and their position is fixed and also have the ability to mark number (singular & plural) and gender (masculine & feminine). In contrast, English auxiliaries can only mark number. Another sharp difference is observed in the question formation process. In Urdu, unlike English, auxiliaries cannot be moved from its latent position towards the specifier position at the beginning of the sentence to construct question structures, because, if it happens, the sentence is considered ungrammatical which may result in the violation of MP. The findings of the study would prove helpful for understanding the semantic, grammatical and syntactical nature and behavior of auxiliaries comparatively in Urdu and English

An Assessment of the Smart COVID-19 Approach to Lockdown and its Empirical Evidence

COVID-19 is a new and contagious disease that has changed human lifestyle and habits globally according to the directions provided by the World Health Organization (WHO). Until some authentic remedy or vaccine becomes available, every country is providing instructions to its public to follow precautionary measures. These measures may include lockdown, social distancing, restricting movement, and educating public about COVID-19. Lockdown is the most applied and successful way to control the virus spread and it remains helpful in curtailing the spike. However, it adversely affects developing countries like Pakistan. All types of lockdown disrupt the life of the poor and the middle class. In this paper, an intelligent-smart approach is suggested for developing countries as against complete lockdown to handle the pandemic. This approach will show the long-term results needed for controlling COVID-19 without creating any major disturbance in the economy. In this paper, evidence based approaches were used to evaluate the short-term and long-term effects of the daily increasing number of cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan. The results showed that Sindh, which has the maximum number of COVID-19 cases, is better in implementing smart lockdown as compared to other administrative regions of Pakistan. As the risk of the second wave of COVID-19 is enhanced, it would be effective to continue the intelligent-smart approach with mild SOPs to avoid the disastrous effects of COVID-19 in the future. Received Date: May 14, 2020, Last Received:  December 10, 2020 Acceptance:  December  25, 2020 &nbsp

Social Media-Youth Nexus: Analysis of Pakistan’s General Election 2018

This study has examined the impact of social media on Pakistan’s General Elections 2018 campaign. (i) To study the affect of social media on young voters during the general electoral campaign 2018. (ii) To explore the impact of social media on general election 2018 results. Moreover, this study analyzed social media usage of three major national political parties namely PTI, PML-N and PPP using social media. Social media platform globally not only used for sharing of the information on upcoming public gathering, rallies, and events but majorly for responding the propaganda, keeping their followers informed, debates on controversial issues and sharing of videos, photos and links.In this study, descriptive survey design is used. Keeping in mind immense size of young Pakistani voters for the 2018 election, we have targeted most of urban youth studying in universities or doing jobs. Convenience sampling is used to select sample of 156 respondents. A total of 240 questionnaires were distributed out of which 156 are used successfully for the analysis. Data is analyzed by computer software SPSS. Frequency distribution is used to analyze the results. The finding reveals that although political parties included social media into their campaigns, they are yet to exploit its full potential. Still Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf(PTI) ranked as most influential party in election 2018, as it used the social media for their aggressive promotion.  Interestingly survey reveals that social media campaigns have “little or no effect” on matured respondents to getting them to the vote, while young voters especially who voted for the first time said they voted for the party they supported because of social media campaign. Further researches should be done in order to determine why social media was not able to increase the voter turnout

Acute Traumatic Subdural Hematoma: Series of Thirty Cases

Objectives: Acute Traumatic Subdural Hematoma (ASDH) is one of the most dangerous and challenging neurosurgical problems faced by neurosurgeons. Road traffic accidents (RTAs) and falls are the most common causes of ASDH. This study focused to evaluate the incidence, mode, and severity of the injury, treatment options, and determine outcomes in patients with ASDH. Material & Methods:  Thirty patients with ASDH were studied over a period of three years. Detailed history, general and neurological examination including GCS were noted, CT scans were done and patients managed according to said protocol. Results:  Twenty-three (76.66%) were male and Seven (23.33%) were female. The common mode of injury were road traffic accidents (66.66%) and falls (26.66%). Out of 30 patients, 53.33% had GCS 3-5. Overall, the mortality rate was 60%. 23.33% of patients survived with severe disability and 10% of patients showed moderate disability and good recovery. The mortality rate was higher in patients above 50 years of age. Conclusion:  Acute traumatic subdural hematoma is still very fatal and has a high mortality. Early CT scanning emergency, surgery and good postoperative ICU care can play a role in improving the outcome in patients with ASDH

A comparative analysis of the influence of welding current on microstructure and mechanical properties in TIG welded Ti5Al2.5Sn alloy

Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding was performed on a 1.6 mm thick Ti5Al2.5Sn alloy sheet to analyze the influence of welding current on the resultant microstructure and mechanical properties in the weldments. Fusion zone (FZ) width was observed to increase with increasing the welding current. The heat-affected zone (HAZ) showed acicular α, primary α and α' martensite phases depending upon the cooling rate. FZ was comprised of α´ martensite at the high cooling rate, acicular α at a low cooling rate and some retained β. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS), notch tensile strength (NTS) and impact toughness in all the weldments increased from 754 MPa to 810 MPa, 703 MPa to 785 MPa, and 2.3 J to 3.3 J, respectively, by increasing the welding current. However, percentage elongation decreased from 10% to 6.5% by increasing the welding current from 12 A to 18 A. Moreover, the impact toughness value was observed to increase by increasing welding current owing to the formation of a higher proportion in acicular α, α' martensite phases within the FZ. Furthermore, higher microhardness was achieved at higher currents

Grey-Taguchi Approach to Optimize Fused Deposition Modeling Process in Terms of Mechanical Properties and Dimensional Accuracy

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is a process that allows for the rapid production of functional parts through the deposition of fused material layers in a sequential manner. FDM has flexibility and the potential to create complicated parts. This study aims to optimize the FDM process parameters in terms of tensile strength, flexural strength, and longitudinal shrinkage using the Grey-Taguchi approach. The input parameters chosen to study the effects on dimension and mechanical properties are layer thickness, the raster angle, fill density, the number of contours, printing temperature, and printing speed. The Taguchi L27 orthogonal array is used as the statistical design of experiment (DOE) technique to assess how the FDM process behaves with the change in process input parameters selected. The ANOVA test was used to assess the contribution and implications of each response factor of the FDM process on the FDM process. Additionally, the optimization of multiple characteristics is done by Grey relational analysis. Optimal parameter settings that minimize longitudinal shrinkage and maximize tensile and flexural strengths concurrently are 0.2 mm of layer thickness, 90-degree raster angle, fill density of 30, 16 numbers of contours, 230℃ printing temperature, and a printing speed of 60 mm/s

Privacy Preserving Inference for Deep Neural Networks:Optimizing Homomorphic Encryption for Efficient and Secure Classification

The application of machine learning in healthcare, financial, social media, and other sensitive sectors not only involves high accuracy but privacy as well. Due to the emergence of the Cloud as a computation and one-to-many access paradigm; training and classification/inference tasks have been outsourced to Cloud. However, its usage is limited due to legal and ethical constraints regarding privacy. In this work, we propose a privacy-preserving neural networks-based classification model based on Homomorphic Encryption (HE) where the user can send an encrypted instance to the cloud and receive an encrypted inference from it to preserve the user’s query privacy. In contrast to existing works, we demonstrate the realistic limitations of HE for privacy-preserving machine learning by changing its parameters for enhanced security and accuracy. We showcase scenarios where the choice of HE parameters impedes accurate classification and present an optimized setting for achieving reliable classification. We present several results to demonstrate its effectiveness using MNIST dataset with highly improved inference time for a query as compared to the state of the art