Morbidity profile of chronic diseases in geriatric patients.

A cross sectional study was conducted in the Medical wards of Services Hospital Lahore from 17th May 2017 to 12th June 2017 to study the morbidity profile of chronic diseases in geriatric patients. Semi-structured questionnaires were used which were translated into the local language. In all 601 morbidities were documented by 171 subjects, with mean number of morbidities per person as 3.51±1.69. The most prevalent disease observed was Hypertension 105(61.4%), 42(50.6%) in males and 63(71.6%) in females. The 2nd most common was anaemia 80(46.8%), 20(24.1%) in males and 60(68.2%) in females. The 3rd most common morbidity was diabetes mellitus 59(34.5%), 20(24.1%) males and 39(44.3%) females. This study has assisted in understanding the patterns of health problems among the elderly, which will help to address the prevailing geriatric morbid conditions and application of appropriate interventions thereafter. Thus, it will help active ageing to be maximally functional in our society.

Changes in the quality of river water before, during and after a major flood event associated with a La Niña cycle and treatment for drinking purposes.

The treatment of organics present in the lower reaches of a major river system (the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia) before (March-July 2010), during (December 2010-May 2011) and after (April-December 2012) a major flood period was investigated. The flood period (over 6months) occurred during an intense La Niña cycle, leading to rapid and high increases in river flows and organic loads in the river water. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) increased (2-3 times) to high concentrations (up to 16mg/L) and was found to correlate with river flow rates. The treatability of organics was studied using conventional jar tests with alum and an enhanced coagulation model (mEnCo©). Predicted mean alum dose rates (per mg DOC) were higher before (9.1mg alum/mg DOC) and after (8.5mg alum/mg DOC) than during the flood event (8.0mg alum/mg DOC), indicating differences in the character of the organics in raw waters. To assess the character of natural organic matter present in raw and treated waters, high performance size exclusion chromatography with UV and fluorescence detectors were used. During the flood period, high molecular weight UV absorbing compounds (>2kDa) were mostly detected in waters collected, but were not evident in waters collected before and afterwards. The relative abundances of humic-like and protein-like compounds during and following the flood period were also investigated and found to be of a higher molecular weight during the flood period. The treatability of the organics was found to vary over the three climate conditions investigated.

Analyzing risky behaviors among different minority and majority race in teenagers in the USA using latent classes.

Objective: This study is to ascertain any inconsistencies in the trend of co-occurrence by sex of teenage health risk behavior patterns such as smoking, behaviors contributing to deliberate and unintentional injuries, risky sexual behavior, and sedentary lifestyle. Methods: The study's purpose was accomplished using Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) 2013 data. A Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was conducted for the entire sample of teenagers as well as separately for each sex. Results: In this subset of youths, marijuana use was acknowledged by more than half of them, and smoking cigarettes was far more likely. More than half of the individuals in this subset engaged in risky sexual practices, like not using a condom during their most recent encounter. Males were split into three categories based on their involvement in risky behavior, while females were split into four subgroups. Conclusion: Regardless of gender, various risk behaviors among teenagers are connected. However, gender variations in the higher risk of particular trends, such as mood disorders and depression among females, underline the significance of creating treatments that take adolescent demographics into account.

The role of gut microbiota in depression: an analysis of the gut-brain axis.

The gut-brain axis is a communication pathway that allows a two-way exchange of information between the microbiota of the gastrointestinal tract and the nervous system of humans. The vagus nerve, which is responsible for facilitating communication, provides support for this axis. The gut-brain axis is currently the subject of research, but studies into the diversity and stratification of the gut microbiota are just getting started. Researchers have discovered several positive trends by analyzing numerous studies examining the gut microbiota's impact on the effectiveness of SSRIs. It is common knowledge that a specific group of measurable, microbial markers has been recognized as being present in the feces of individuals suffering from depression. Specific bacterial species are a common denominator among therapeutic bacteria used to treat depression. It can also play a role in determining the severity of disease progression. Evidence that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) rely on the vagus nerve to exert their therapeutic effects has provided further support for the importance of the vagus nerve in the gut-brain axis, which is necessary for beneficial changes in the gut microbiota. This review will analyze the research linking gut microbiota to depression.

Plant growth-promoting bacterial consortia improved the physiology and growth of maize by regulating osmolytes and antioxidants balance under salt-affected field conditions.

This study was undertaken to see how microbial consortia influenced maize development and yield under salt-affected conditions. The efficacy of the pre-isolated bacterial strains Burkholderia phytofirmans, Bacillussubtilis, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Pseudomonas syringae and Pseudomonas fluorescens to decrease the detrimental effects of salt on maize was tested in four distinct combinations using Randomized Complete Block Design with three replicates. The results revealed that these strains were compatible and collaborated synergistically, with an 80% co-aggregation percentage under salt-affected conditions. Following that, these strains were tested for their ability to increase maize growth and yield under salt-affected field conditions. The photosynthetic rate (11-50%), relative water content (10-34%), and grain yield (13-21%) of maize were all increased by these various combinations. However, when Burkholderia phytofirmans, Enterobacter aerogenes and Pseudomonas fluorescens were combined, the greatest increase was seen above the un-inoculated control. Furthermore, as compared to the un-inoculated control, the same combination resulted in a 1.5-fold increase in catalase and a 2.0-fold increase in ascorbate concentration. These findings showed that a multi-strain consortium might boost maize's total yield response as a result of better growth under salt stress.

A novel data balancing approach and a deep fractal network with light gradient boosting approach for theft detection in smart grids.

Electricity theft is the largest type of non-technical losses faced by power utilities around the globe. It not only raises revenue losses to the utilities but also leads to lethal fires and electric shocks at distribution side. In the past, field operation groups were sent by the utilities to conduct inspections of suspicions electric equipments stated by the public. Advanced metering infrastructure based recent development in the smart grids makes it easy to detect electricity thefts. However, the conventional supervised learning techniques have low theft detection performance mainly due to imbalance datasets available for training. Therefore, in this paper, we develop a novel theft detection model with twofold contribution. A unique hybrid sampling technique named as hybrid oversampling and undersampling using both classes (HOUBC) is proposed to balance the dataset. HOUBC first performs undersampling and then oversampling using both the majority (normal) and minority (theft) classes. A new deep learning method, fractal network is applied with light gradient boosting method to extract and learn important characteristics from electricity consumption profiles for identifying electricity thieves. The proposed model relies on smart meter's data for theft detection and hence, a rapid and widespread adaption of this model is feasible, which shows its main advantage. The performance of the model is evaluated with real-world smart meter's data, i.e., state grid corporation of China. Comprehensive simulation results describe the effectiveness of the proposed model against conventional schemes in terms of electricity theft detection.

Prevalence of inflammatory back pain and radiographic axial spondyloarthritis in a semi-urban community of Lahore, Pakistan.

AIMS: To determine the prevalence of inflammatory back pain (IBP) and radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) in a semi-urban community of Lahore, Pakistan. METHODS: This cross-sectional household survey was designed as per the Community Oriented Program for the Control of Rheumatic Diseases (COPCORD) model. In Phase 1, the subjects were interviewed for musculoskeletal (MSK) pain in the last 7 days by clinical assistants. In Phase 2, physiotherapists identified subjects with spinal/back pain and interviewed for Assessment in Spondyloarthritis International Working Group (ASAS) criteria for IBP. In Phase 3 subjects having IBP or chronic back pain (CBP) with an age at onset ≤45 years, were assessed and further investigated. RESULTS: A total of 4922 subjects with a mean age of 35.3 ± 14.5 years, including 2770 (56%) women were surveyed in Phase 1. MSK pain in last 7 days was reported by 1407 (28.6%) of whom 1034 (21%) had spinal pain. The ASAS criteria for IBP were met in 329 (6.7%, 95% CI 6.0-7.0). In Phase 3, 222 with IBP and 83 having CBP with age at onset ≤45 years were evaluated. Out of this total of 305, 144 (2.9%) were confirmed to have IBP by rheumatologists as per at least 1 of the 3 criteria. ASAS criteria were met in 107 (2.2%, 95% CI 1.8-2.6). ASAS criteria for radiographic axial SpA were met in 47 (1%, 95% CI 0.7-1.3) of the surveyed population. CONCLUSION: Inflammatory back pain was reported in 6.7% by physiotherapists, confirmed in 3% by rheumatologists. The prevalence of radiographic axial SpA was 1%.

Conversion of adverse data corpus to shrewd output using sampling metrics.

An imbalanced dataset is commonly found in at least one class, which are typically exceeded by the other ones. A machine learning algorithm (classifier) trained with an imbalanced dataset predicts the majority class (frequently occurring) more than the other minority classes (rarely occurring). Training with an imbalanced dataset poses challenges for classifiers; however, applying suitable techniques for reducing class imbalance issues can enhance classifiers' performance. In this study, we consider an imbalanced dataset from an educational context. Initially, we examine all shortcomings regarding the classification of an imbalanced dataset. Then, we apply data-level algorithms for class balancing and compare the performance of classifiers. The performance of the classifiers is measured using the underlying information in their confusion matrices, such as accuracy, precision, recall, and F measure. The results show that classification with an imbalanced dataset may produce high accuracy but low precision and recall for the minority class. The analysis confirms that undersampling and oversampling are effective for balancing datasets, but the latter dominates.

The clinical association between free androgen index and erectile dysfunction in men.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the relation of sex hormone levels in men, as measured by Free Androgen Index (FAI), with severity of erectile dysfunction (ED) and with their response to treatment. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of men who consecutively attended the urology clinic with the complaint of ED between March 2004 and October 2007. The Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM) score was used as the main outcome measure in this study, and its variation was tested by certain variables using the Epi Info software. RESULTS: A total of 150 men were studied. The majority of patients (93%) had FAI in the normal range levels, and had shown no relation to the SHIM score even after adjustment for other factors. However, FAI was highly related to patients' response to treatment, with the higher the level the higher was the proportion of patients responded well to treatment. Age of the patient was the only factor influencing the SHIM score they could attain, as shown by the linear regression analyses. CONCLUSION: The FAI level is not related to the severity of ED. Its role however, is confined to the way patients are going to respond to medical treatment of ED. Further studies are therefore needed to assess the effectiveness of using this parameter as a reliable test of bioactive testosterone for men with ED.

Ureterocystoplasty: long-term functional results.

PURPOSE: Many institutions have reported varied levels of success with ureterocystoplasty. Recently, there have been concerns regarding the efficacy of ureterocystoplasty as a form of bladder augmentation. We report our long-term functional outcomes with the procedure based on the experience of a single surgeon. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 17 procedures were performed during a 12-year period. Of the patients 10 had posterior urethral valves, 3 had bladder exstrophy, 2 had a neuropathic bladder, 1 had a cloacal anomaly and 1 had a left ectopic ureter. Mean patient age at operation was 5.9 years (range 0.3 to 14.2). All patients underwent preoperative ultrasound, urodynamic studies and radionuclide scanning. Postoperative urodynamics were performed at 6 months. RESULTS: Followup ranged from 0.5 to 11.5 years (mean 4.5). Nine patients underwent ureterocystoplasty with preservation of the ipsilateral kidney, and 1 underwent ureterocystoplasty alone and had a solitary right kidney. The remaining 7 patients underwent ureterocystoplasty with ipsilateral nephrectomy. Postoperatively, the mean bladder capacity improved from 125 to 292 ml, while the mean end filling pressure decreased from 72 to 22 cm H(2)O. Mean preoperative system compliance was 2.1 ml/cm H(2)O, which increased to 16.2 ml/cm H(2)O postoperatively. A total of 13 patients did not require further augmentation surgery. The remaining 4 patients had high pressure and poorly compliant bladders, and underwent ileocystoplasty. Subsequent postoperative nucleotide scans in these 4 patients demonstrated stable upper tracts with good drainage. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, ureterocystoplasty provides durable functional urodynamic improvement in patients with a megaureter.