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An experiment was carried out at the main farm of Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (BTRI) to find the residue levels of commonly used two organophosphate insecticides, namely chlorpyrifos and quinalphos in green leaf and black tea, at various plucking intervals after spraying during 2017-2018. The safe harvest interval was also calculated based on the degradation of pesticide residue from green leaf to processed tea. Pesticides were applied in the experimental plots following BTRI recommended dose (Chlorpyrifos 48 EC @ 1.0 L ha-1 and Quinalphos 25 EC @ 0.5 L ha-1). Green leaf and black tea samples were analyzed for pesticide residue of the above insecticides at the pesticide analytical laboratory (ISO/IEC 17025 accredited lab) of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI). The samples were extracted and cleaned up using the QuEChERS extraction method. Flame Thermionic Detector (FTD) with ATTM-1 capillary column (30 m x 0.25 mm x 0.25 µm) was used to determine the pesticide residue. The initial (0 days) pesticide residue of chlorpyrifos was 7.822 mg kg-1 in green leaf and 0.893 mg kg-1 in black tea, respectively. These were reduced to an undetectable level in the green leaf on the 10th day and 0.013 mg kg-1 in the black tea on the 7th day. On the other hand, quinalphos residue levels were initially (0 day) detected in green leaf and black tea at 4.973 and 0.193 mg kg-1, respectively. It decreased to undetectable levels on the 5 and 10 days in both cases. The result showed that pesticide residue decreased considerably in the process stage. Chlorpyrifos and quinalphos had pesticide residue degradation rates ranges from 70.70-92.07% and 94.21-96.12%, respectively.

A study was conducted to assess the occurrence of plant parasitic nematodes (PPNs) and their relationship with soil properties from July 2015 to December 2015 at the Lackatoorah, Malnicherra, and Ali Bahar tea estates in the North Sylhet region of Bangladesh. Rhizosphere soil samples were taken at a depth of 23 cm from the primary nursery bed, secondary nursery bed, first-year plantation, and second-year plantation of the selected tea estates. Root samples were also collected from four locations of the above tea estates. Nematodes were extracted from the soil samples using the Baermann funnel method. Physico-chemical properties of the soil like textural class, sand (%), silt (%), clay (%), pH, and organic matter (%) from different locations of the aforementioned tea gardens were also determined to find out their relationship with nematodes population. The result revealed that out of 60 collected soil samples from different locations of selected tea estates, 47 were infested with PPNs with frequencies of 78.33%. The average frequency of occurrence was maximum (90.00%) and minimum (65.00%) in the soil samples of the Malnicherra and Lackatoorah tea estates, respectively. The highest frequency of PPNs was observed in the soil samples of the secondary nursery bed of selected tea gardens, with a frequency of 93.00%. The maximum frequency of occurrence (80.00%) was observed in the root samples of the secondary nursery bed, and that was the minimum (26.67%) in the second-year plantation. The highest numbers of PPNs were observed in the soil of the Malnicherra tea estate, followed by Lackatoorah and Ali Bahar tea estates. The mean numbers of PPNs were lowest in soil and root samples of second-year plantations from all the tea estates. According to pH, the selected tea estates were under moderately acidic soil with a range of 4.3-5.0. Three types of soil texture were found in different tea estates: sandy, sandy loam, and sandy clay loam. The highest nematode population was observed in sandy loam soil, and the lowest was in sandy soil. Maximum PPN was found in the sand, silt, and clay within the range of 70-80%, 8-13%, and 9-18%, respectively. The population of PPNs was linearly and positively correlated with soil pH and organic matter (%) in all three tea estates.

Background: Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is the most frequent form of anaemia in human population. For diagnosing IDA usually conventional laboratory tests such as serum iron, serum ferritin and transferrin saturation are used. However, both ferritin and transferrin proteins are markedly influenced by inflammation, behaving as acute-phase reactants and making it difficult to diagnosis iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) when it is combined with any inflammatory condition. Soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) is a truncated extracellular form of the membrane transferrin receptor produced by proteolysis. Concentrations of serum sTfR are related to iron status and erythropoiesis in the body. Serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) levels are raised in iron deficiency but are not influenced by inflammatory changes. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the significance of soluble transferrin receptors in diagnostic work up of iron deficiency. Materials and Methods: It was a prospective observational study carried out from June 2021 to November 2021 at the Department of Haematology and Biochemistry of Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Dhaka Cantonment. A total of 50 blood sample were collected and subjected to diagnose as microcytic hypochromic anaemia through complete blood count (CBC) and peripheral blood film (PBF). Then serum iron profile and serum sTfR was done by automated analyzer to evaluate differentials of microcytic hypochromic anaemia. Results: Among 50 cases 5 (10%) were male and 45 (90%) were female. Most of the patients were between 31-40 years age group (34%). Out of 50 patients 42 (84%) showed mild anaemia,6 (12%) showed moderately anaemia and 2(4%) showed severely anaemia according to reference range. Then serum iron profile was done. Among 50 samples 37 (74 %) had low serum iron, 18 (36 %) had high TIBC and 45 (90%) had low serum ferritin in comparison with reference range. Also this study revealed high serum sTfR than normal in 48 (96%) patients. While evaluating the frequency of sTfR level in perspective of both male and female anaemic patients, p-value was found < 0.0001 which was statistically significant. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that sTfR level in conjunction with other biochemical markers of iron deficiency anaemia is very useful in evaluating iron status. Serum sTfR is a new diagnostic tool for evaluating of iron deficiency anemia when it is associated with other inflammatory condition.

Sulfasalazine (SAS) is a repurposed antitumor drug which inhibits the proliferation and survival of cancer cells by inhibiting the xCT cellular antioxidant system. Recent clinical studies have shown that, due to poor bioavailability, the antitumor effects of SAS monotherapy are minimal. Therefore, we hypothesized that DSF, another repurposed drug that has demonstrated anticancer effects, or its complex with copper (DSF-copper, DSF-Cu) could potentiate the antilung cancer effects of SAS. Exposure of non-small cell lung cancer cells to therapeutically achievable concentrations of SAS-induced low-to-moderate cytotoxic effects (20–40% reduction in cell viability) and, unexpectedly, induced the antioxidant protein NRF2 and its downstream effectors xCT and ALDH1A1. However, combinations of SAS and DSF-Cu, but not SAS and DSF, induced a significantly higher cytotoxic effect (64–88% reduction in cell viability), apoptosis and generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species as compared with SAS or DSF-Cu alone. Moreover, DSF-Cu abrogated SAS-induced NRF2, xCT and ALDH1A1 expression. In a mouse model of lung tumor, SAS + DSF-Cu showed a higher efficacy than the individual drugs in reducing the number and size of tumors as well as the incidence and multiplicity of lung adenocarcinoma. Taken together, our findings indicate that the observed antilung cancer effects of SAS plus DSF-Cu are mediated, at least in part, via impairment of reactive oxygen species defense and ­enhancement of oxidative stress and provide evidence for the preventive/therapeutic potential of this combinatorial approach against lung cancer.

Cloud computing has grown as a computing paradigm in the last few years. Due to the explosive increase in the number of cloud services, QoS (quality of service) becomes an important factor in service filtering. Moreover, it becomes a nontrivial problem when comparing the functionality of cloud services with different performance metrics. Therefore, optimal cloud service selection is quite challenging and extremely important for users. In the existing approaches of cloud service selection, the user’s preferences are offered by the user in a quantitative form. With fuzziness and subjectivity, it is a hurdle task for users to express clear preferences. Moreover, many QoS attributes are not independent but interrelated; therefore, the existing weighted summation method cannot accommodate correlations among QoS attributes and produces inaccurate results. To resolve this problem, we propose a cloud service framework that takes the user’s preferences and chooses the optimal cloud service based on the user’s QoS constraints. We propose a cloud service selection algorithm, based on principal component analysis (PCA) and the best-worst method (BWM), which eliminates the correlations between QoS and provides the best cloud services with the best QoS values for users. In the end, a numerical example is shown to validate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed methodology.

Background: There have been a wide variety of clinical publications on coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) focused on specific biomarkers. Acute-phase reactants, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, serum amyloid A (SAA), and procalcitonin, have been identified as sensitive markers of acute COVID-19 illness, even though they are nonspecific markers. Objective: The purpose of this study is to summarize the role of several biomarkers in the stratification of COVID-19 disease severity. Methods: This study followed systematic literature review method. The systematic review followed the review process as it was well developed and planned to reduce biases and eliminate irrelevant and low-quality studies. The steps for implementing a systematic review include correctly formulating the COVID-19 question to answer, developing a protocol based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, performing a detailed and broad literature search and screening the abstracts of the studies identified in the search and subsequently of the selected complete texts. After selecting the study, the next steps were synthesis of the evidence like extract the necessary data into a form designed in the protocol to summarise the included studies, assess the biases of each study, identifying the quality of the available evidence, and develop tables and text that synthesise the evidence. The secondary sources of data for this study included different published topics from national & international journals. Good number of Journal articles was taken regarding “Role of Biomarkers in the Stratification of COVID-19”. Published articles were collected from renowned indexing data source like PubMed, Medline, and Scopus. Etc. Conclusion: Significantly increased white blood cell count, lymphopenia, decreased CD3, CD4, or CD8 T-lymphocyte counts, high neutrophil count, thrombocytopenia, and dramatically elevated inflammatory biomarkers were all linked to severe disease and the probability of developing sepsis as the disease progressed. Progressive decreases with lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia, elevated CRP, procalcitonin, increased liver enzymes, impaired renal function, and coagulation derangements were more common in critically sick patients and were linked to a higher rate of clinical sequelae. In seriously and critically ill patients, elevated interleukin levels and significantly increased SAA were most frequently reported. The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, the systemic immune inflammation index, and the COVID-19 Severity Score are all indicators of systemic inflammation that can be used to predict disease severity, outcome, and death.

We examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the administrative interventions on stock returns across 21 sectors in India. Almost all sectors reacted negatively to the pandemic announcement on 11 March 2020. The early lockdown resulted in negative abnormal returns. However, this effect was transitory as investors gained confidence and some sectors quickly revived. The unlocking led to positive abnormal returns across all sectors, except chemical products.

OBJECTIVE: Various studies have suggested that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects bone metabolism. One of the most significant factors is hypoxia which induces certain transcription factors that stimulate bone osteoclastic activity. It also induces respiratory acidosis and oxidative stress which enhances bone resorption. Leptin and melatonin secretions are regulated by the circadian system which is affected due to sleep fragmentation in OSA. Other comorbidities associated with OSA such as vitamin D deficiency, hypogonadism, obesity, and insulin resistance are indirect mechanisms that affect bone mineral density (BMD). MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a prospective case–control study. All patients having symptoms of sleep-related breathing disorder (excluding post-menopausal females or patients with known case of osteoporosis or any other clinical illness which is a direct cause of osteoporosis) attending the Sleep Out Patient Department (OPD) were screened for OSA as per the STOPBANG questionnaire scoring system. Participants having score >2 constituted the final study population and were subjected to the polysomnography test. Participants with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) > 5 in polysomnography were considered as cases and those with AHI

Objective of the current study was to evaluate the clinical features and severity of chest x-ray and its association with outcome in patients of Covid-19 in terms of hospital stay, discharge or death during hospital stay. A total of 100 patients above the age of 15 years diagnosed with Covid-19 by RT PCR of nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal samples were included in the study. History of symptoms at onset was recorded, Chest-x-ray and hematological investigations were done. Chest x-ray findings were divided into three zones upper, middle and lower and each zone was given a score. Each zone involvement of either lung was given a score of 1. Maximum score was 6 with involvement of all zones of both lungs and minimum score was zero in patients with normal chest x-ray. These patients were followed up during their hospital stay in terms of oxygen requirement, Non invasive ventilation (NIV) requirement, Invasive mechanical ventilation, number of days of hospital stay and the outcome in terms of discharge or expired. Among the total of 100 patients, 58 were male and 42 were female patients. Maximum numbers of patients were in age group 45-60 years. Most common presenting complaint was fever followed by shortness of breath. Most common co morbidity was diabetes mellitus. We found that hypoxia at presentation, rate of intubation, and mortality was highest in patients with higher chest x-ray score and minimum in patients with chest x-ray score of zero. Discharge rate was highest in patient in lowest chest x-ray score. We conclude from the current study that chest x-ray score at the time of presentation has a predictive role in determining the risk of intubation and outcome in patients of covid-19.

This study investigates the critical firm-level strengths and weaknesses that explain cross-sectional variations in abnormal stock returns of Hospitality and Tourism (HT) firms during different phases of a crisis. We used the event study and multivariate regression framework for analysing the Indian HT firms’ data around the COVID-19 crisis. While reporting a significant negative influence of COVID-19, we identified the early crisis, market crash and continuation of the crisis periods. Furthermore, we observe that during the early-crisis period, business diversity, financial stability and board diversity improved HT firms’ strength to withstand the risk, while business group affiliation was of little help. During the market crash and continuation of the crisis phase, better capital intensity and financial stability proved helpful. The managers of HT firms can take cues from this study to understand firm-level characteristics that provide resilience to their firms’ value in managing different phases of the crisis. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

In this work, we propose a framework to assess the many cloud services based on the QoS criteria value in fuzzy environment. Here, we uses the Fuzzy-AHP method to define the architecture of overall...

The present study investigates the changes in G20 stock market dynamics and their interlinkages in the aftermath of COVID-19. It utilizes the Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis (DCCA) along with ...

On June 2010 the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) – the Indian market regulator, mandated the listed firms to increase their Minimum Public Shareholding (MPS) to 25%. Present study utilises this regulatory intervention as a natural experimental setup of an exogenous shock to free-floating stocks to examine the impact on stock liquidity. The study employs univariate Event Study and multivariate Difference-in-Difference regression analysis. Findings suggest that the MPS regulation significantly improved different stock liquidity measures and established the causality of stock free float to stock liquidity.

Global software development (GSD) organisations are currently adopting agile frameworks in order to efficiently develop a software product. The main objective of this study is to identify the success factors (SFs), which could possibly have a positive impact on scaling agile practices in a GSD environment and develop their taxonomy based on their prioritisation using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach. This study is conducted in four stages: problem identification and goal of the study (1), identification of SFs and their categorisations (2), validation of the SFs using questionnaire survey (3), and application of AHP to prioritise the SFs and develop the taxonomy of the SFs and their respective categories (4). The results of this study indicated that ‘technology’ is the most significant category as compared to the other categories of the SFs. Similarly, rich technological infrastructure is identified as a most important factor. Based on the findings of this study, authors can conclude that the contribution of this study is not only limited to development of the taxonomy of the SFs, but also their proper prioritisation by introducing AHP approach, which assists software organisations to scale agile methods effectively in the GSD environment.

Introduction: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death worldwide. Indacaterol is a new once daily inhaled bronchodilator, recently approved for the treatment of COPD. Once daily dosing is an important step to improve the adherence and compliance of the patients. Methods: Efficacy and Safety of Indacaterol and Tiotropium in Patients of COPD with Stage-2 and Stage-3 GOLD criteria were compared. Total 119 patients were divided into Indacaterol group and Tiotropium group receiving 150 mcg daily of Indacaterol and 18 mcg daily of Tiotropium in each group respectively. Efficacy treatment was determined by assessment of Pulmonary function test (PFT), Symptom score and SGRQ (St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaires) score at day zero (before therapeutic intervention) and at two weeks of interval till 24 weeks. Results: The treatment with inhaled indacaterol 150 mcg once daily and inhaled tiotropium 18 mcg once daily improved spirometric variable, FEV1, decrease in mean Symptoms score and in mean SGRQ in Grade-2 and Grade-3 COPD patients. Conclusion: Indacaterol (150 mcg/day) is non-inferior to tiotropium (18 mcg /day) in efficacy and safety profile of Grade-2 and Grade-3 patients with COPD.

Background: The number of COVID-19 patients is exponentially increasing worldwide since December, 2019. Management in intensive care units (ICU) has become a major challenge; therefore, time demanding laboratory markers for early recognition of morbid forms is utmost important for timely triaging of patients. Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the role of haemotological and Coagulation profile in the assessment of disease severity of COVID-19. Methods: The current study is an observational study done prospectively in Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) during the period of 28 March 2020 to 15 May 2020. The study subjects were haematological and coagulation profile data of 100 COVID-19 patients grouped in non-ICU and ICU at the baseline and at 4th day of admission in Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Dhaka. All the data were recorded and analyzed by SPSS 20.0 programme. Results: Here subjects with featured of lymphopenia were detected prominently in our COVID-19 ICU patients with a median nadir ALC of 0.9 x109/L. The most common pattern of coagulopathy observed in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 is characterized by elevation in fibrinogen and Ddimer levels, particularly significantly higher in ICU group. Conclusion: The present study is a reflection of significant anomalies in haematological and coagulation parameters during the disease process with COVID-19. J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2020; 38(0): 61-66

Pancreaticopleural fistula is one of the rarest complication of acute pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic pseudocyst. Diagnosis requires a high index of clinical suspicion in alcoholic patients presenting with pancreatitis and associated recurrent pleural effusion. Diagnosis is delayed as patients usually present with predominant pulmonary symptoms of dyspnea and chest pain. Hereby authors presented a case, where a 50-year-old chronic alcoholic male presented with chief complains of shortness of breath and chest pain. Based on the chest radiograph, Computed Tomography (CT) scan and pleural fluid analysis diagnosis of pancreaticopleural fistula was made. The patient was managed with intercoastal tube drainage and symptomatic treatment for other complains. Medical management, endoscopic and surgical interventions bring out a good prognosis in pancreaticopleural fistula.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health problem. India accounts for the one-fourth of the global TB burden. For resource-limited countries like India having high burden of TB, smear microscopy is the most commonly used method for microbiological diagnosis. Although culture being highly sensitive and specific method, it is time-consuming. Under Revised National TB Control Program (RNTCP), Ziehl–Neelsen (ZN) stain-based microscopy and light-emitting diode-based fluorescent microscopy (LED-FM) are being recommended. Aim: The present study was done to determine the sensitivity and specificity of ZN stain-based microscopy and FM (LED-FM) keeping solid culture as gold standard. Materials and Methods: A total of 1503 sputum samples were collected from suspected cases of pulmonary TB (new or previously treated). They were processed and subjected to ZN (conventional light microscopy), Auramine-O (AO) staining (LED-FM) and solid culture on Lowenstein–Jensen medium for detection of acid-fast bacilli. Positive smears were graded according to RNTCP guidelines. Results: Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of ZN staining technique were 84.93%, 95.74%, 96.50%, and 82.16%, respectively, and that of FM was 95.25%, 91.33%, 93.81%, and 93.31%, respectively. Conclusion: LED-FM being more sensitive, especially in detecting the paucibacillary cases and less time-consuming, has advantage over ZN method. Nation-wide implementation will lead to improved diagnosis, thus better control of TB.

Healthy aging is associated with a decline in cognitive function, and is a major risk factor for many neurodegenerative diseases. Although, there are several evidence that brain mitochondrial function is altered with aging its significance at the cellular level is elusive. In this study, we have investigated mitochondrial TCA cycle and neurotransmitter cycle fluxes associated with glutamatergic, GABAergic neurons and astroglia in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus of young (6 months) and aged (24 months) C57BL6 mice by using 1 H-[13 C]-NMR spectroscopy together with timed infusion of 13 C-labeled glucose and acetate. The ratio VCyc /VTCA was determined from a steady-state [2-13 C]acetate experiment. Metabolic fluxes were obtained by fitting a three-compartment metabolic model to 13 C turnover of amino acids from glucose. Levels of glutamate, aspartate and taurine were reduced in the cerebral cortex, while glutamine and choline were elevated in the hippocampus of aged mice. Interestingly, the rate of acetate oxidation increased in the cerebral cortex, while the flux of mitochondrial TCA cycle of glutamatergic neurons decreased in the cerebral cortex (P < .0001) and hippocampus (P = .025) of aged mice. The glutamate-glutamine neurotransmitter cycle flux was reduced in the cerebral cortex (P < .0001). The GABAergic TCA cycle flux was reduced in the cerebral cortex (P = .0008), while GABA-glutamine neurotransmitter cycling flux was also reduced in the cerebral cortex (P = .011) and hippocampus (P = .042) of aged brain. In conclusion, the reduction in excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter activity of glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus correlates qualitatively with declined cognitive function in aged mice.

Requirements Change Management (RCM) is one of the challenges faced by Global Software Development (GSD) organisations as requirements evolution is inevitable due to dynamic business and o...

Development and operations (DevOps) practices significantly accelerate and automate the continuous delivery and deployment of software systems. However, adopting DevOps concepts is not a s...

Nowadays, software organizations are deploying agile methods in the geographically distributed environment to get several benefits i.e. significant return on investment it produces, fast project delivery, and managing the dynamic behavior of the project development. The execution of agile practices in Global Software Development (GSD) is more complex than collocated environment (single site development). The objectives of this study is to explore the factors which positively and negatively impact on scaling program of agile development in the GSD context and propose a framework based on the factors for successful scaling of agile programs in GSD context. This study is carried out in two stages. In the first stage, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) protocol was adopted to investigate the factors. In the second stage, the SWOT analytical framework was followed to classify the factors into four categories: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. In the SWOT framework, the factors in strengths and weaknesses categories represent the internal aspects of the organizations while the opportunities and threats categories indicate the external aspects of organization. The findings of this study reported 24 factors. The identified 13 factors positively and 11 factors negatively impact on scaling program of agile development respectively. Moreover, a framework based on SWOT analysis is proposed that provided the classification of factors into four categories. Based on the research outcomes, we can conclude that the identified factors and their classification into SWOT categories provide a robust framework that will assist the agile practitioners for successfully scale agile development in the GSD organizations.

Pirfenidone has been approved for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis due to its anti-fibrotic activity. It has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties apart from being an anti-fibrotic agent. Cytokine storm, severe inflammation and oxidative stress leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiorgan failure are factors causing mortality in patients of COVID-19. This article reports two cases of 35 years and 60-year-old male patients of COVID-19, those were diagnosed by real time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) using nasopharyngeal samples. They were started on pirfenidone 400 mg BD, later increased to 600 mg TDS along with empirical antibiotics, dexamethasone, supplemental oxygen and non-invasive ventilator support. Both the patients improved and were discharged. Both the patients were followed by telemedicine after one week, did not require oxygen at rest and were comfortable at rest in contrast to earlier complaints. Thus, the authors conclude that pirfenidone can be a possible cure for COVID-19 patients, larger trials are required to confirm its efficacy.

Pulmonary involvement is common in patients with systemic sclerosis. The most common underlying histology is Non Specific Interstitial Pneumonia (NSIP). Disrupted immunity from the disease or associated medication may render such patients prone to develop tuberculosis infection. A 55-year-old female patient presented with chief complaints of shortness of breath from past five years which was gradually progressive, cough initially dry later with minimal expectoration, low grade fever from past two months. She also gave history of bluish discolouration of fingers tips on exposure to cold water. On examination there was restrictive mouth opening, thickened skin over hands, forearm, face, neck and trunk on pinching. Sclerodactyly was present with clubbing grade 2. On auscultation bilateral fine crepts were present. Serum ANA was highly raised and Scl 70 was positive. PFT was suggestive of restrictive ventilatory abnormality. Sputum smear for AFB was found to be positive. HRCT thorax was suggestive of NSIP. Patient was put on antituberculer treatment under DOTS category 1; nifedipine, pentoxyphylline and nitroglycerine gel was started for raynauds phenomenon. Chemotherapy for systemic sclerosis was given with cyclophosphamide infusion in six cycles every four weeks.

Introduction: Pleural effusions are one of the most common entities encountered by pulmonologists worldwide which have a very long list of causes. Initial workup of these patients begins with a chest X-ray and percutaneous or Ultrasound (USG) guided thoracocentesis followed by biochemical and cytological evaluation of the fluid to ascertain the cause of effusion. A 20 to 25% of cases remain undiagnosed even after thoracocentesis and closed pleural biopsy. Medical Thoracoscopy is emerging as a safe diagnostic procedure in these patients. Aim: To detect the diagnostic yield of medical thoracoscopy in cases of undiagnosed exudative lymphocytic pleural effusion and to study the complications associated with it. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective observational study, carried out in the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, JN Medical College and hospital, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, from August 2016 to August 2018. Undiagnosed exudative pleural effusion was defined as pleural effusion with Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) levels less than 70 IU/L and negative pleural fluid cytology for malignancy. Thoracoscopic examination of the pleural space using flexi-rigid thoracoscopy was done and biopsy was taken from suspected areas and the tissue obtained, was send for histopathological examination. The results were presented as mean±SD (Standard Deviation) or percentage. Differences in categorical data were compared using the chi-square test or the Fisher-exact test. A p-value of

Unilateral hyperlucency of the lung is not an uncommon finding which arises from a variety of conditions, like technical, congenital and acquired. Here, the author presents a case of diaphragmatic hernia which presented as unilateral hyperlucency on chest radiography. A 45-year-old female, presented with complaint of shortness of breath for 2-3 years, increased since 15 days and pain in abdomen for 2-3 years. She consulted a doctor where a chest X-ray was done and was advised Intercostal tube insertion with the diagnosis of left-sided pneumothorax and was referred to us for further management. Instead of her vitals were stable on examination. On auscultation, breath sounds were of decreased intensity. A chest X-ray was then done which showed unilateral hyperlucency of the left side with the presence of air fluid level. The CECT thorax showed a large diaphragmatic hernia through which the large intestine and stomach were occupying the left hemithorax. Therefore, a thorough evaluation should be done before reaching a definitive diagnosis in such patients.

Corrosion of reinforcing steel in marine environment is a major durability problem in reinforced concrete structures. This problem is exacerbated under hot weather conditions. Specialty steel bars ...

Requirements uncertainty and conflict are the two pervasive phenomena that are currently receiving more attention in the development of information system (IS) projects. The existing literature based on requirements engineering indicates that, as a result of frequent interactions between users and IS practitioners, requirements uncertainty can negatively affect team performance. However, the nature of conflicts and requirements uncertainty have limited exploratory power with regard to software team effectiveness. The main objective of this work is to obtain additional insight into this phenomena by examining the relationships between requirements uncertainty (which comprises both requirements instability and variability) and conflict (i.e. task and relationship conflict). Furthermore, the impact of task and relationship conflict on team effectiveness has also been investigated separately. In order to address these relationships, a theoretical research model was developed and validated through an empirical study based on an online questionnaire survey. We gathered 71 complete responses, mostly from experts within the Indian software industry. The findings of this study indicate that there is a strong positive relationship between requirements instability and variability and relationship conflict; however, task conflict task conflict was not found to have a significant relationship with these dimensions. Additionally, we have observed a strong stronger negative effect of relationship conflict on team effectiveness than that of task conflict during the requirements uncertainty.

The Indian securities market regulator intervened in June 2010 with a regulatory amendment in the listing requirement that mandated all the listed firms other than PSUs (government‐owned companies) to have a minimum public shareholding of 25%. The affected firms were given a 3‐year window to comply with the regulation. This study examines the impact of the new regulation on the affected firms’ value. We explore the relationship between improvement in firms’ value and stock liquidity. This regulatory intervention offers a natural experiment to examine direct causality between stock liquidity and firms’ value. The findings of the empirical analysis confirm the existence of a direct causal relationship between stock liquidity and firm value, stemming from an improved operating performance.