Prediction of the Population at Risk of Atherothrombotic Disease: A Three Step Approach

The mainstay of the prevention of atherothrombotic disease (ATD, which is atherosclerotic disease, with emphasis on the thrombosis that so often precipitates the acute ATD event, such as acute myocardial infarction, acute cerebral infarction, aortic aneurysm, etc) is the prediction of the population at risk of ATD. There are many predictive tools, all of which use the same general risk factors, but the one favored by the author is the Bowling Green Study (BGS) graph.. This graph is based on the ATD risk factor constellations of 870 people in Bowling Green, Ohio, the county seat of Wood County, in northwest Ohio. (There is one other patient who has full lipid data and blood pressure data, but whose cigarette smoking status is not known.) The ordinate of the graph is the lipid arm and consists of the Cholesterol Retention Fraction (CRF, defined as [LDL-HDL]/LDL). HDL refers to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and LDL refers to low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The abscissa of the graph is the blood pressure arm, represented by the systolic blood pressure (SBP). This graph was initially developed in 1981 (using the LDL:HDL ratio) then modified in 1983 (using the CRF), and, by 1988, the author was able to generate a threshold line, which separated the main stream of ATD patients’ CRF-SBP plots from those of a few outliers. (The threshold line is not a regression line, but rather a divider, based on the principle of the fewest false negatives.) The 1988 threshold line was modified in 2000 to its present location at CRF-SBP loci (0.74, 100) and (0.49, 140). Many of the various ATD risk predictors are complex and difficult to use, whereas the graph is simple to use and based on the risk factor constellations of actual ATD patients, wherein lies its value.

Evaluation and Re-estimation of Instream Flow Considering the Water Quality and Aquatic Ecosystem of the Seomjingang River Watershed

In this study, the appropriateness of the current publicly announced and managed instream flow in the Seomjingang River watershed was evaluated based on the water quantity, water quality, and state of the aquatic ecosystem. The stream flow was evaluated based on the observed water flow rate at the Gurye-gun (Songjeong-ri) station that is the main point of the Seomjingang River flow management and located at the lowest downstream of the main stream of the Seomjingang River. Another important reason for choosing this station was that observational data from before the construction of the major dam to the present day were available. The water quality and aquatic ecosystem conditions were reviewed based on the data measured over the past 20 years, and the achievement ratio of instream flow was compared with that of stations in the other major river systems. Based on the evaluation result, the instream flow was re-estimated for the 11 important stations of the Seomjingang River and its two branches. Based on the currently permitted water use of the Seomjingang River, the amount of water required to supply for the instream flow deficit during dry seasons was predicted and presented as a reference for water management work.

Madaris in Pakistan: Religious and Social Challenges

Purpose: The nature and extent of religious and social challenges posed by the madaris have been studied by scholars on a micro level, but there is a need of methodologically investigating of the problems on a macro and global levels by using a multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach to readdress these issues. The purpose of this research paper is to find out the role of for causing militancy in Pakistan and to recommend measures/strategies for de-radicalization in Pakistan. Design/Methodology/Approach: Agenda setting, priming and farming theories were used in this study. Qualitative content analysis method was used in this study to analyze the editorial policy of these three newspapers. Findings: The results revealed that all these three newspapers gave significant coverage to the peace talks issue but Nation gave more coverage to the issue. Findings also revealed that Dawn and The News, most of the time showed neutral behavior but tilted towards unfavorable position regarding peace talks. Nation showed strongly unfavorable behavior regarding peace talks. Implications/Originality/Value: So it is concluded that the government should take steps to take madaris in main stream education system in Pakistan. The funding should be checked and audited.

Secure Information Transfer Using Two Keyless Cryptography Methods

In the current paper, some methods of information security protocols based on physical layer security are considered. It is proved that well known Shamir’s protocol can be applied to RSA cryptosystem but not to Rabin, Mac-Ellice and trellis based cryptosystems.The main stream of this paper is a description of key sharing protocol on constant public and noiseless channels (like Internet). It is shown that it is able to provide a high reliability and control of security in terms of Shannon’s information providing nothing-additional requirements to communication channels and without any cryptographic assumptions.

Reviewing Teledentistry Usage in Canada during COVID-19 to Determine Possible Future Opportunities

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the limited in-person availability of oral health care providers resulted in an unprecedented utilization of the teledentistry tool. This paper reviews how Canadian organizations supported teledentistry and what can be expected about its usage in the post-pandemic era. An environmental scan across relevant Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial organizations was conducted to review pertinent publicly available documents, including dental regulators’ or associations’ COVID-19 guidance documents, government documents, and media articles. Almost all jurisdictions promoted teledentistry for triaging dental emergencies and screening patients for COVID-19 symptoms but not even half of them have developed guidelines in terms of modalities of usage, handling of personal information, informed consent process, or maintaining standards of practice. During the COVID-19 recovery phase, these advances across Canada will support in developing a comprehensive guidance for teledentistry and possibly specific codes for its utilization. This can create a niche for teledentistry as an adjunct to the main stream dental care delivery where some visits can always be accommodated virtually, reducing disparities in oral healthcare between rural and urban communities. Ultimately, this can potentially make oral health care delivery more effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly in Canada.

Surface Water Quality Assessment of Panchagnaga River and Development of DO-BOD Relationship Using Empirical Approach

Surface water samples were collected from selected locations along river Panchaganga, from Kolhapur to Narsobawadi during April 2019. Physicochemical parameters were determined in the laboratory and chemical mass balance approach was adopted to estimate the individual ionic loads in the river water. Streeter-Phelps equation was applied to derive a relationship between DO and BOD5. Model parameters such as De-oxygenation Rate (Kd) and Re-aeration Rates (Kr ) were optimized using different empirical methods. The result of chemical mass balance showed an increase in the loading of various ions from upstream to downstream which could be attributed to agricultural and industrial wastes that enter the main stream. De-oxygenation rate and re-aeration constants were calculated using various empirical methods. DO sag curve was developed using Streeter Phelp’s model and compared with the observed parameters which showed a significant correlation. DO-BOD concentration observed along the course of the river indicated that the self-purification capacity of the river is high due to which the river regains the lost DO level at a distance less than 50 meters.

Metaknowledge Enhanced Open Domain Question Answering with Wiki Documents

The commonly-used large-scale knowledge bases have been facing challenges in open domain question answering tasks which are caused by the loose knowledge association and weak structural logic of triplet-based knowledge. To find a way out of this dilemma, this work proposes a novel metaknowledge enhanced approach for open domain question answering. We design an automatic approach to extract metaknowledge and build a metaknowledge network from Wiki documents. For the purpose of representing the directional weighted graph with hierarchical and semantic features, we present an original graph encoder GE4MK to model the metaknowledge network. Then, a metaknowledge enhanced graph reasoning model MEGr-Net is proposed for question answering, which aggregates both relational and neighboring interactions comparing with R-GCN and GAT. Experiments have proved the improvement of metaknowledge over main-stream triplet-based knowledge. We have found that the graph reasoning models and pre-trained language models also have influences on the metaknowledge enhanced question answering approaches.

Response Relationship between the Upward or Downward Moving Distance of Main Stream Zone and Water and Sediment Conditions in Wandering Channels

The change of water and sediment conditions in wandering channels has a great impact on the stability of river regime. The quantitative relationship between them is still unclear. The qualitative influence of water and sediment conditions on the river regime stability was analyzed by a model test. The response relationship between the upward or downward moving distance of the main stream zone and water and sediment conditions was quantitatively studied by using the measured water and sediment data and large-section data over the years. The results showed that when the upstream water and sediment inflow conditions change, the stability of a wandering channel with relatively stable river regime under the control of finite boundary will still change. When the river channel is at 1000 m3/s under the action of long-term small water, or silting thickness is about 0.53 m, the main stream next to the project moves upwards about 1170 m along the way. In the case of a large flood, such as 8000 m3/s, or scouring depth is about 0.39 m, the main stream next to the project moves downwards about 870 m along the way. The study provides a certain scientific basis for river regime stability and river flood control early warning, and provides a certain method reference for quantitative study of river regime evolution of other rivers at home and abroad.

Social determinants of health in male forensic patients admitted at a tertiary psychiatric hospital in South Africa

Introduction: Social factors are increasingly being used to determine health outcomes. The concept of social determinants of health has been used to shape policies that address disparities. There is a paucity of such studies in the forensic setting. This study aimed to use social determinants of health to identify social factors that are associated with being a male forensic patient. Methods: The study was a retrospective two-group (forensic and non-forensic) comparison clinical record review. Association was identified through independent and multivariate statistical analysis. Results: The study sample comprised of 296 patients, 56.4% ( n = 167) of which were non-forensic. The majority of the sample was black African, 50 years and older, single, unemployed and had attended main-stream schooling. Race ( p < .01), employment status ( p < .02), not completing high school ( p < .01), previous imprisonment ( p < .01), drug use ( p < .01) and not being on medication prior to admission ( p < .01) were significantly associated with being a forensic patient. Multivariate logistic regression analyses also confirmed these associations. Conclusion: Social determinants of health ought to be targeted to improve health outcomes of psychiatric patients. Collaborations between mental health, public health, law and policy makers as well as non-/governmental agencies may lead to change. Human rights of individuals with mental illness may thus be enhanced in the long run.

Integration of anammox into the MBR process for main stream sewage treatment

The integration of Anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) into the membrane bioreactor (MBR) process (AX-MBR) is proposed in this study to reduce operating costs. The temperature was not controlled during the study. Anammox, denitrification, and nitrification were studied in the AX-MBR for 210 days. The reactor was fed with mainstream sewage from Guilin City, China. The results showed that AX-MBR could run with reduced dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration, and COD, NH4+-N, and total nitrogen removal were maintained or improved. The microbial analysis results demonstrated that the added anammox sludge could survive in the AX-MBR, but the sludge microbial diversity decreased. Nitrospira, Candidatus Kuenenia, and Nitrosomonas dominated the anammox sludge. In a word, the AX-MBR developed in this study could treat mainstream sewage with the appropriate management, and the operation costs are expected to reduce by decreasing the amount of aeration.