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Tillage is an important factor affecting different soil properties and crop yields. Tillage relates to applying forces to soil using different implements for preparation of a proper seed bed. For rice crop, land preparation is a rigorous and time consuming operation that needs special attention for preparing a puddled soil condition to transplant the weak and tender rice seedlings. A field experiment was established under agro-ecological conditions of Sheikhupura to evaluate different land preparation techniques during fall in 2017 and 2018 years. The experiment was performed at Adaptive Research Farm Sheikhupura. It was laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four different land preparation techniques including T1= Cultivator (4 times) + Planking (2 times) (Farmer’s Practice), T2=MB plough (1 time) + Disc Harrow (1 time) + Planking (2 Times), T3=MB plough (1 time) + Cultivator (2 times) + Planking (2 Times) and T4= Rotavator (1 time) + Disc Harrow (1 time) + Planking (2 Times), each treatment replicated thrice during both the years. All the other agronomic and crop husbandry operations were kept uniform throughout the growing season every year. The results revealed that preparing land with MB plough (1 time), Disc Harrow (1 time) and Planking (2 times) is the best land preparation method can increase the paddy yield 13.5-17.5% as compared to the traditional method practised by the farmers. Moreover, highest plant height (134.00 cm and 132.00 cm), number of tillers (224 and 220 m-2), number of grains per spike (130 and 116) and 1000-grain weight (23.0 and 22.0 g) respectively during Kharif-18 and Kharif-19 was also recorded in the same treatment. So, preparation of land for paddy in agro-ecological conditions of Sheikhupura using MB plough (1 time), Disc Harrow (1 time) and Planking (2 times) can significantly enhance the paddy yield.

The use of a left ventricular assist device has increased and is a primary surgical treatment for heart failure. However, one major complication of left ventricular assist device support is an obstruction in the blood flow pathway. Pump thrombosis and outflow graft occlusion are some of the common causes of such obstructions. Here, we describe a unique case of HeartMate II (Abbott Laboratories) inflow cannula obstruction from a membranous structure without evidence of thrombus. The histology showed evidence of fibrous tissue and heart muscle tissue in the membrane. The patient underwent a successful device exchange with a HeartMate 3 (Abbott Laboratories) and is doing well., Rao, et al. A Unique Case of Inflow Cannula Obstruction by a Tissue Membrane. The VAD Journal. 2022;8(1):e2022818. https://doi.org/10.11589/vad/e2022818.

A field experiment for 3 consecutive years was conducted at Adaptive Research Farm, Sheikhupura during Rabi (2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19) to mitigate the yield reduction in wheat due to late sowing through the application of different priming materials. The experiment comprised the different priming materials including (control, hydro-priming, potassium chloride @2% for 24 hours, Water (20 L) + Compost (5 kg) + Raw Sugar (4 kg) for 08 hours, Water (20 L) + Compost (5 kg) + Raw Sugar (4 kg) + Cow Urine (4 L) for 08 hours and Bacteria Inoculum (Biozote 10 kg per 50 kg wheat seed) for 10 minute applied to early and late sown wheat each year. the experiment was arranged in Randomized complete block design (Split plot) with 03 replications. Data regarding germination count, plant height, number of tillers, and number of grains per spike, 1000-grain weight and grain yield was recorded. The statistical analysis of data revealed that the application of different priming materials for seed treatment significantly enhanced the germination count, number of tillers, number of grains per spike, 1000-grain weight and the grain yield of wheat. So, it is recommended that in rice wheat cropping system, wheat seed should be sown after treatment with bacterial inoculum or raw sugar and compost to ensure a speedy germination and uniform crop establishment even if the obstacle of late sowing is present. It compensates the yield losses well due to delayed sowing.9

We present the first reported case of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) pump thrombosis in the setting of the coronavirus pandemic. We describe the clinical features of the case which helped to differentiate coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) from LVAD pump thrombosis. The patient is 56-year-old female supported by destination LVAD therapy. She was originally implanted with a HeartMate II device in 2015 and underwent two pump exchanges in 2017 and 2019 for pump thrombosis, despite medication adherence. Shortly after routine lab work revealed near doubling of her lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, she tested positive for COVID-19. She then developed power spikes and symptomatic heart failure, which prompted hospital admission. An initial computed tomography (CT) scan showed bilateral ground glass opacities, but repeat testing was negative for COVID-19. Her LVAD pump thrombosis was treated with aspirin, unfractionated heparin, and cangrelor, which was guided by thromboelastogram. Over several weeks, her LDH returned to baseline, and she was transitioned from cangrelor to ticagrelor and from heparin to warfarin. A repeat CT scan after several days of IV diuresis showed resolution of the ground glass opacities., Frick WH, et al. Unusual Case of Pump Thrombosis in LVAD Patient with COVID-19. The VAD Journal. 2020; 6(2):e2020622.https://doi.org/10.11589/vad/e2020622

Computer security is something that brings to mind the greatest developers and companies who wish to protect their data. Major steps forward are being taken via advances made in the security of technology. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a view of different mechanisms and algorithms used to ensure big data security and to theoretically put forward an improvement in the health-based environment using a proposed model as reference. A search was conducted for information from scientific databases as Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, Science Direct, Web of Science, and Scopus to find information related to security in big data. The search criteria used were “big data”, “health”, “cloud”, and “security”, with dates being confined to the period from 2008 to the present time. After analyzing the different solutions, two security alternatives are proposed combining different techniques analyzed in the state of the art, with a view to providing existing information on the big data over cloud with maximum security in different hospitals located in the province of Valladolid, Spain. New mechanisms and algorithms help to create a more secure environment, although it is necessary to continue developing new and better ones to make things increasingly difficult for cybercriminals.

Multimedia applications are gradually becoming an essential—and flourishing—part of our daily lives. The area of wireless sensor networks is not an exception to this trend, as multimedia data have attracted the attention of researchers. Their importance is due to the shift of focus from traditional scalar sensors to sensors equipped with multimedia devices, as well as to the next-generation wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs). The highly sensitive nature of multimedia traffic makes data routing with security even more important in WMSNs. This paper discusses the challenges of secure routing in WMSNs, where most of the proposed works in the literature deal with routing and security as individual issues. A critical and comprehensive review of state-of-the-art routing and security approaches for WMSNs is presented, followed by the discussion of their limitations and features. It is hoped that this extensive review and discussion ultimately identifies the future research directions and the open challenges of secure routing approaches in WMSNs.

This study considers the linkage of the Russian equity market to the world market, examin-ing the international transmission of the Russia's 1998 financial crisis utilizing the GARCH-BEKK model proposed by Engle and Kroner (1995). We find evidence of direct linkage between the Russian equity market and the world markets with regards to returns and volatility. While the weakness of the linkage suggests that the Russian equity market was only partially integrated into the world market at the time of the crisis, evidence of contagion is clear.

In this paper we study international asset pricing models and pricing of global and local sources of risk in the Russian stock market using weekly data from 1999 to 2006. In our empirical specification, we utilize and extend the multivariate GARCH-M framework of De Santis and Gérard (1998), by allowing conditional local influence as well. Similar to them we find global risk to be time-varying. Currency risk also found to be priced and highly time varying in the Russian market. Moreover, our results suggest that the Russian market is partially segmented and local risk is also priced in the market. The model also implies that the biggest impact on the US market risk premium is coming from the world risk component whereas the Russian risk premium is on average caused mostly by the local and currency risk components.

Ant colony system (ACS) is a combinatorial optimization method motivated by the behaviour of real ants. In this paper, we present a novel image coding method based on ACS vector quantization of groups of wavelet coefficients. The generation of codebook using ACS is facilitated by representing the coefficient vectors in a bidirectional graph, followed by defining a suitable mechanism of depositing pheromone on the edges of graph. Experimental results show that the quantization of zerotree vectors using ACS outperforms, in most cases, its traditionally used Linde-Buzo-Gray (LBG) counterpart.