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Oil spillages on a sea's or an ocean's surface are a threat to marine and coastal ecosystems. They are mainly caused by ship accidents, illegal discharge of oil from ships during cleaning and oil seepage from natural reservoirs. Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) has proved to be a useful tool for analyzing oil spills, because it operates in all-day, all-weather conditions. An oil spill can typically be seen as a dark stretch in SAR images and can often be detected through visual inspection. The major challenge is to differentiate oil spills from look-alikes, i.e., low-wind areas, algae blooms and grease ice, etc., that have a dark signature similar to that of an oil spill. It has been noted over time that oil spill events in Pakistan's territorial waters often remain undetected until the oil reaches the coastal regions or it is located by concerned authorities during patrolling. A formal remote sensing-based operational framework for oil spills detection in Pakistan's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Arabian Sea is urgently needed. In this paper, we report the use of an encoder–decoder-based convolutional neural network trained on an annotated dataset comprising selected oil spill events verified by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The dataset encompasses multiple classes, viz., sea surface, oil spill, look-alikes, ships and land. We processed Sentinel-1 acquisitions over the EEZ from January 2017 to December 2023, and we thereby prepared a repository of SAR images for the aforementioned duration. This repository contained images that had been vetted by SAR experts, to trace and confirm oil spills. We tested the repository using the trained model, and, to our surprise, we detected 92 previously unreported oil spill events within those seven years. In 2020, our model detected 26 oil spills in the EEZ, which corresponds to the highest number of spills detected in a single year; whereas in 2023, our model detected 10 oil spill events. In terms of the total surface area covered by the spills, the worst year was 2021, with a cumulative 395 sq. km covered in oil or an oil-like substance. On the whole, these are alarming figures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pregnancy leads to some physiological changes and anatomical changes within maternal and developmental fetus. Posterior pelvic pain usually arises in 20% of the pregnant ladies which may become a cause of adductor tightness during third trimester. Objective: The objective of the study was to find out the impact of pelvic pain on hip adductors in pregnant females during third trimester. Study type, settings & duration: A cross sectional study was conducted at Arif Memorial Teaching Hospital, General Hospital Lahore and Dr. Sadia Khan Clinic, Lahore from March to October 2019. Methodology: Total 206 pregnant women were enrolled. A non-probability convenient sampling method was used. Keeping the margin of error 0.05% and level of significance equal to 5%. Pain was measured by pelvic girdle questionnaire and hip adduction was measured by hip adduction test using goniometer. The standard normal range of hip adduction was 25. Results: Pelvic Pain during pregnancy was reported by 66 % of multigravida patients which was 135 out of 206. Data collector and data analyzer were blinded and main methodological problems were avoided by careful study planning to avoid biasness. Hip adduction tightness was up to 16 degree and found in the pregnant ladies; whereas normal range of hip adduction is 20 to 30 degree. Hip adductors tightness mostly found in multigravida patient with the mean age of 29 years. Conclusion: Study concluded that pregnant ladies who suffered from posterior pelvic pain during third trimester can also have hip adductor tightness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: The available studies on Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) prevalence among healthy asymptomatic population across Saudi Arabia suffers from significant limitations. We conducted this large population-based study to estimate the H. pylori seropositivity rate among apparently healthy children in Saudi Arabia, using anti-H. pylori immunoglobulin A (IgA) and IgG serology tests, and to study the influence of H. pylori infection on growth. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study to screen apparently healthy school aged Saudi children (aged 6–15 years), attending primary and intermediate schools in Riyadh between 2014 and 2016, for H. pylori seropositivity by checking for the presence of anti-H. pylori IgG and IgA antibodies in serum specimens. Results: Out of 3551 serum specimens, 1413 cases tested seropositive for H. pylori organism (40%): 430 (12.2%) were both IgG and IgA positive, 212 (6%) and 771 (21.7%) cases showed isolated positivity for IgG or IgA, respectively. Male gender, older age, lower levels of socioeconomic status (SES), and family members >10 were significantly associated with H. pylori seropositivity. The proportion of participants with short stature was significantly more in the H. pylori seropositive group than the seronegative group (OR1.249, confidence interval [1.020–1.531], P= 0.033). There was no significant association between H. pylori seropositivity and gastrointestinal symptoms. Conclusion: The prevalence of H. pylori seropositivity among apparently healthy Saudi children (40%) is intermediate compared with that in developed and developing countries. The Saudi pediatric population shows a predominant IgA-type immunological response to H. pylori infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]