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Javed Ihsas is a prominent contemporary Pashto poet, critic, and columnist. He writes poetry with the new spirit and style of the modern critical theories of literature and philosophy. In his verses, we can observe the elements of Modernism and Post-modernism as well. In this study, we explored the post-modernist elements in his poetry, especially in his Pashto poetic collection titled Ayina. The word 'Ayina' is a Pashto word that means 'The Mirror'. The very title of the collection gives a symbolic representation in the sense that it depicts a realistic picture of society. This study is an attempt to examine the Post-modernist elements in his poetry by using a post-modernist approach. The poet touches on the elements of post-modernism in his poetry such as the element of social construction; the notion that ideas, politics, and language are socially constructed, consumerism, postponement, etc. This study explores the post-modernist elements in Javed Ihsas’ poetry which are will prove a beacon light for the young poets.

Private or additional tutoring has a greater impact on learning. It is more frequent among the secondary school students of Science and Mathematics. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of additional tutoring on the academic achievements of Grad 9 students in Mathematics. In this study, there was one independent variable i. e. additional tuition, and one dependent variable academic achievement. A self-developed questionnaire was administered to conveniently sampled students of three public and one private school from district Sargodha. In total 118 students responded. The research hypothesis was ‘there is no significant relationship between additional tuition and academic achievement’. Collected data were analyzed at α=0.05 (the level of significance) to test the hypothesis. Although nonparametric statistic (Spearman rho and Kruskal-Wallis) was suitable to the type of data we had; nevertheless, we calculated parametric statistic (Pearson r and ANOVA) as well, using SPSS to have a comparative look at the two different types of statistic. Based on our analyses we reject the null hypotheses i. e. there is no significant relationship between additional tuition and academic achievement. We, henceforth, conclude that the additional tuition has a greater impact on the achievement of 9th graders in Mathematics. Thus, we recommend increasing the sample size. A similar investigation in other institutes of higher education could also be an extension to our study. The study may be carried out by adding more variables to academic achievement.

Summary Clinical governance is the structured approach to maintaining and improving the quality of patient care and is a vital part of global surgery. BFIRST and BSSH closely collaborate with local doctors on a number of overseas projects, seeking to strengthen and develop local knowledge and skills, aiming for an independent local practice in reconstructive and upper limb surgery. Thoughts on essential requirements, improvements and pitfalls in the ethical approach to global collaboratives are presented.

Introduction: Pilonidal sinus is a commonly encountered problem with multiple surgical options. With Z- plasty, primary closure ensues faster healing while the alteration of local anatomy reduces recurrence. The extremely low recurrence rate following Z-plasty for pilonidal sinus results from the fact that the operation was planned with the true physiology of the disease in mind. It is the deep natal cleft which predisposes to pilonidal sinuses and this architecture is altered with multiple Z -plasty. Materials and methods: A prospective, observational study was conducted into department of Plastic Surgery and burn, Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. Here 18 patients with pilonidal sinus were treated by Z – plasty between 2013 to 2018. Result: There was only one recurrence during the follow up time. There were no necrosis of flaps and no wound dehiscence. Conclusion: The Z-plasty technique is an effective procedure for treating pilonidal sinus in terms of both faster healing and lower recurrence rate. J Dhaka Medical College, Vol. 28, No.2, October, 2019, Page 164-171

Introduction: Free flaps offer a great variable of available tissues to cover larger, multifocal or multistructural defects. The choice among different free flap is dependent upon their recipient site requirement. Reconstruction with latissimus dorsi flap is now versatile tool in coverage. It can resurface large wound with reliable vascularity, consistent anatomy ,long pedicle length, opportunity for tailoring of flap. It has less donor site morbidity and has very little post-operative complications. Objective: To evaluate the versatility of free Latissimus dorsi flap for soft tissue reconstruction. Materials and methods: A prospective, observational study design was used in Department of Plastic Surgery of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. Here 20 patients with soft tissue defect of variable sizes over lower limb, head neck and trunk underwent coverage with microvascular surgery. The study was carried out from July 2017 to June 2018. Result: Regarding the age distribution, the mean age was 35.65with an SD of + 10.81. The lowest age was 20years and the highest age was 56 years, Male female ratio was 3:2.The major cause (65.0%) of soft tissue defect of the samples was RTA. The flap was used to reconstruct the soft tissue defect over lower leg in 13 (65%)cases, on scalp 05 (25%) cases and over anterior trunk in two cases. The mean flap dimension was 229.25cm2 and its range was between 120 – 384 cm2. The standard myocutaneous flap was harvested in 80% cases, chimeric (10%) and partial Latissimus muscle flap in two cases. The donor site in all the 20 (100%) cases was closed primarily. The outcome of reconstruction was excellent in 16(80%), good in 02 (10%) cases and poor in 02 (10%) cases. There was no significant complication during the three months postoperative period. Conclusion: The Latissimus dorsi flap is a versatile option for resurfacing the soft tissue defect in different areas of the body with variable flap components and with minimal donor site morbidity. J Dhaka Medical College, Vol. 28, No.2, October, 2019, Page 142-152

Corduroy yarn is generally introduced in a fabric structure of garments due to developing different designs in terms of appearance of fabric which is called corduroy garment. In this study, both corduroy and denim garments have been made to develop a denim-like wash effect on corduroy garments that will create a new fashion, value addition and sustainability in washing technology. Both the garments are treated with the same washing process. Also, some physical properties have been investigated for both washed garments such as Washing Effect Test, Tear Strength Test, GSM Test, and Rubbing Test. Then a comparative study has been done on both washed garments. The appearance of washed corduroy garments is satisfactory. The physical properties also show a better result. Finally, a satisfactory result is achieved from this work.

This experiment is generally based on the three types of engineering stripe fabrics named single jersey, full feeder lycra single jersey, and single lacoste fabric. In Bangladesh, conventional practices of engineering stripe fabric hardly seen. As the textile engineer, we focused to identify the basic difference between these fabrics. We kept the repeat length constant for all three fabrics. In these circumstances, how stitch length, yarn count, gsm, fabric dia, machine settings, machine maintenance, machine rpm varies into those three mentioned fabrics. It is the main motto of these experiments to make them more favourable into the trendy fashion world.

Advances in deep neural networks (DNNs) have led to impressive results and in recent years many works have exploited DNNs for anomaly detection. Among others, generative/reconstruction model-based methods have been frequently used for anomaly detection because they do not require any labels for training. The anomaly detection performance of these methods, however, varies a lot, due to the change of the intra-class variance and the difference in complexity of input samples. In addition, most previous state-of-the-art works on anomaly detection have empirically adjusted several hyperparameters to heighten their performance of anomaly detection. These sorts of procedures are known to be impractical and create obstacles in real world anomaly detection. To solve these problems, we propose a hybrid discriminator with a correlative autoencoder for anomaly detection. In the proposed framework, the discriminator implicitly estimates the conditional probability density function and the autoencoder has improved ability to control the reconstruction error. We provide theoretical foundation of our method and verify it through various experiments. We also confirm practical benefits of our interpretation of the conditional expectation and the proposed framework by comparing our results with other state-of-the-art methods.

Background: Cytotoxicity is the toxicity to cell. Any type of brain oedema producing raised intracranial pressure (ICP) which may be a fatal pathological state. Corticosteroid is contraindicated in cytotoxic brain oedema but in vasogenic oedema, it is beneficial. Cytotoxic oedema in its consequences induces vasogenic oedema where the corticosteroid may helpful. Objectives: To determine the effects of corticosteroid on tertiary vasogenic brain oedema from cytotoxic edema. Methods: Total of 328 patients was diagnosed as brain oedema and they had been first time reported & all were admitted in Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Dhaka, between Jan 2017 to Jun 2019. Out of 328 patients, brain oedema due to spontaneous ICHs was 219 (66.77%) and traumatic ICHs were 109(33.33%). Diagnosis was based upon history, clinical examination and non-contrast Computed Tomography (CT) scan of brain. Results: Total 328 admitted patients in CMH Dhaka from Jan 2017-Jun 2019 were included in our study who full-fill the criteria. Males were 231 (70.43%); females were 97(29.57%) and were aged between 1 to 95 year. Intracranial haemorrhage rate among age group less than 55 years old being 76 (34.70%) and 55 years or above 143 (65.30%) of total 219 patients. Traumatic ICHs were 109 and 1 to 44 years age is most vulnerable, 69(63.30%) and 45 years and above 40 (36.70%) patients. Corticosteroid was used after vasogenic brain oedema formation following cytotoxic oedema which was diagnosed mainly radiologically. Cytotoxic oedema induced by 24 hours and vasogenic oedema in two to four days of brain insult. Vasogenic oedema developed in 24 -48 hours, 65 (19.82%) patients and 117 (35.67 %) by 48-72 hours and above 72 hours rest 146 (44.51%) patients after brain insult. After vasogenic oedema formation, out of 164 patients that is 50% patients were treated with corticosteroid and GOS was assessed- GOS 4,5 -103(62.80%), GOS 3-34 (20.73%), GOS 2- 23(14.02%) and GOS 1-4(2.44%) whereas without corticosteroid treatment of rest vasogenic oedema 164 (50%) , GOS was- GOS 4,5 -85(51.83%), GOS 3-43 (26.22%), GOS 2- 27(16.46%) and GOS 1-9(5.49%) at 30 days of incidence. There is more than two times mortality without corticosteroid therapy than with steroid therapy. Conclusion: Cytotoxic brain oedema is contraindicated for steroid but we observed that corticosteroid gives better GOS in vasogenic oedema which develops after cytotoxic brain oedema. Outcome in cytotoxic oedema followed by vasogenic oedema is beneficial for corticosteroid. Bang. J Neurosurgery 2020; 10(1): 45-51

Background: Gall stones are the most common biliary pathology. Subclinical hypothyroidism is not an uncommon problem in the population with thyroid disease, several explanations for a possible relation between hypothyroidism and lipid metabolism with gall stone formation proved that prevalence of gall stones is increased in patients with hypothyroidism. Objective: To find the prevalence and correlation between the subclinical hypothyroidism and gall stone disease. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study was done in the Unit-II of department of Surgery of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical Hospital between July 2018 to June 2019, where 80 patients presented with gall stones. All the patients were assessed and prepared for cholecystectomy by detailed history, clinical examination, thyroid function test, abdominal ultrasound and others investigation needed for general anaesthesia. Results: Among 80 patients, 78.57% were in 40–59 year age group, 56 (70%) of them were female and 24 (30%) were male. Of the total number of patients, 14 of them (17.5%) had subclinical hypothyroidism and 66 (82.5%) were euthyroid. Most of patients in the subclinical hypothyroid group were showing female gender predominance with 78.57%. While the prevalence among males were found 21.43%. Dyslipidemia was present among 81.25% patients (p=0.03) having subclinical hypothyroidism and gall stones. Besides single stone was common (57.14%) among this hypothyroid group and all stones of this group were >1 cm. Conclusion: There is a gender speciûc relationship between subclinical hypothyroidism and gall stone disease. As this study sharing statistically significant in the prevalence of the subclinical hypothyroidism among females in age groupe³40 years, dyslipidemia and single gall stone. This subset of patients should be assessed for thyroid dysfunction. J Shaheed Suhrawardy Med Coll, December 2019, Vol.11(2); 130-133

Introduction: Intussusception is very common in childhood between the ages of 5 months to 1 year. In adults it is a rarity, in whom it commonly presents with a nonspecific, repeated, chronic or subacute intestinal obstruction. Ninety percent of them have a variable number of secondary pathological ‘lead point’- from benign lesion to malignant.5 Objective: This study aims to find out the variations & the commonest ‘Lead points’ in rare adult intussusceptions. Methodology: Study period was from January 2015 to June 2019. All patients of adult intussusceptions, admitted in Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical college Hospital, were examined, investigated, & analysed peri-operative findings with post-operative histopathological results, in this prospective observational study. Result: In this study, among 15 patients, GIST found to be the commonest (46%) Lead point in adult intussusceptions. Others include Adenocarcinoma, Leiomyomatous polyp, Meckel’s Diverticulum, intestinal TB, etc. Male was mostly sufferer (67%). Ileoileal (II) variety was found more in male & Ileocecal (IC) variety in female. J Shaheed Suhrawardy Med Coll, December 2019, Vol.11(2); 138-141

PurposeThis study aims to explore an interpersonal predictor of coworkers-directed knowledge hiding behavior – the leader–member exchange social comparison (LMXSC). This study integrates leader–member exchange literature with social comparison theory to hypothesize that an individual’s upward LMXSC is positively correlated with coworkers-directed knowledge hiding and that an individual’s feelings of envy are mediated by the relationship between upward LMXSC and coworkers-directed knowledge hiding behavior. Also, this study proposes two-way and three-way interaction patterns of goal interdependence, which can influence LMXSC–envy relationships.Design/methodology/approachTwo independent studies are conducted to test the hypothesized relationships. In Study 1, the authors collected multi-wave data from a large public sector university in China (N = 1,131). The authors then replicated the Study 1 findings by collecting multi-source and multi-wave data from a telecom company based in China (n = 379).FindingsThe authors found support across both studies for the idea that upward LMXSC is a possible interpersonal predictor of coworkers-directed knowledge hiding behavior. More specifically, it was found that feelings of envy ensue from upward LMXSC, resulting in further coworkers-directed knowledge hiding behavior. Further, this study shows that the influence of upward LMXSC on knowledge hiding behavior via feelings of envy was weaker (stronger) when employees have high (low) cooperative goal interdependence with coworkers, respectively, and when employees have low (high) competitive goal interdependence with the coworkers, respectively.Originality/valueThis study extends current knowledge management literature by introducing LMXSC as an interpersonal predictor of coworkers-directed knowledge hiding behavior. This will help practitioners to curb such counterproductive behavior.

Background: Moringa oleifera Lam. has been used traditionally for the treatment of different cardio-metabolic disorders. So, the aim was to assess its leaf extracts in metabolic syndrome rat model.Methods: Out of the total 36-rats, 6 rats were given normal matched diet (NMD) while the rest were provided high-fat diet and 20% fructose (HFD-20%F). Moringa oleifera leaf extracts were administered orally for 30 days. Body weight, blood glucose, BMI, blood pressure, lipids, insulin, insulin resistance, MCP-1, visceral fat and liver weight were evaluated.Results: Sixty-days feeding with HFD-20%F produced the metabolic syndrome features like hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, and increase in low-density lipoprotein (LDL), visceral fat, and liver weight significantly (p

The objective of this work was to find out the bacteriological profile and risk factor for burn patients. Sixty burn patients were investigated during July 2014 to May 2015. Specimens were collected in the form of wound swabs. The prospective study showed that one third of the patients below 10 years old belong the highest burn infections. The rate of burn infections was higher (61.67%) in female compared to male patients. Respondents under primary level were the major victims (28.33%). On the basis of occupational status, student showed the highest (30%) infection. Maximum (48.33%) patients were injured by first degree burn. Hot liquids (scald) was found as one of the main causes of burn which was 50% prevalent. Forensic background explained maximum burn injuries were accidental (88.34%). Most of the children were the main victims during playing (36.67%) followed by working persons (25%). Pseudomonas spp (73%) was found to be the most common isolated microorganisms followed by Klebsiella spp (6.67%), Staphylococcus aureus (6.67%), Escherichia coli (6.67%), Proteus spp (5%) and Enterobacter (1. 6%). Some medical devices like floor, bed, water etc. were detected as positive sources of organisms. By antibiotic susceptibility tests it was found that Pseudomonas are resistant to ceftriaxone (100%) followed by ceftazidime (93%) and sensitive to colistin (90%). In the case of Staphylococcus aureus, 100% are resistant to amoxyclave and 100% are sensitive to ciprofloxacin. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. June 2019, 5(4): 336-342

Introduction: ToRCH is an acronym for four congenital infections that are sometimes difficult to distinguish: Toxoplasmosis, Rubella, Cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV). This group of organisms produces serious Central Nervous System (CNS) and other infections, which are potentially preventable and treatable. Methods: Neonates and infants with hydrocephalus (N = 65) identified via the outpatient department of the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital (NINS&H), were prospectively screened for ToRCH antibodies. Hydrocephalus secondary to Tumor or Trauma was excluded from this study. Results: Evidence of 75.38 % (p =

Vertical integration of two dimensional (2D) layered materials is indispensable in making van der Waals (vdWs) heterostructures for promising electronic and optoelectronic devices. Herein, we report excellent electrical and photoelectrical measurements where the current ON & OFF ratio of FET is increased by decreasing the temperature in the graphene/ReSe2/graphene heterojunction. We investigated the photoresponsivity in broad spectral range (UV-Vis-NIR) and achieved high photoresponsivity of 1.5 × 107 A W−1 and external quantum efficiency of ∼64% at λ = 220 nm. Further, the photovoltaic effect was examined, which significantly modulated the short circuit current (Isc) from 4.2 × 10−8 A to 2.6 × 10−7 A and open-circuit voltage (Voc) from 0.21 V to 0.44 V at different wavelengths (1064, 840, 514 and 220 nm), attributed to the photo-generation and recombination rate of the carriers. Moreover, photoresponsivity was observed near 1.2 × 106, 8.6 × 106 and 1.5 × 107 A W−1 by applying different gate biases (0, 20 and 40 V), respectively. Further, we have explored the photocurrent and photoresponsivity at different intensities of incident light (200, 260, 400, 620 and 850 μW cm−2). In addition, we calculated the rise and decay response times of photodetectors at different wavelengths and power densities, which depend upon the trap sites in the energy band of ReSe2. These devices opened up new ways to improve the performance of photodetectors from the UV to the NIR region.

openaire: EC/H2020/834742/EU//ATOP Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted vibrant interest for future solid-state device applications due to their unique properties. However, it is challenging to realize 2D material based high performance complementary devices due to the stubborn Fermi level pinning effect and the lack of facile doping techniques. In this paper, we reported a hybrid Gr/Ni contact to WS2, which can switch carrier types from n-type to p-type in WS2. The unorthodox polarity transition is attributed to the natural p-doping of graphene with Ni adsorption and the alleviation of Fermi level pinning in WS2. Furthermore, we realized asymmetric Ni and Gr/Ni hybrid contacts to a multilayer WS2 device, and we observed synergistic p-n diode characteristics with excellent current rectification exceeding 104, and a near unity ideality factor of 1.1 (1.6) at a temperature of 4.5 K (300 K). Lastly, our WS2 p-n device exhibits high performance photovoltaic ability with a maximum photoresponsivity of 4 × 104 A W-1 at 532 nm wavelength, that is 108 times higher than that of graphene and 50 times better than that of the monolayer MoS2 photodetector. This doping-free carrier type modulation technique will pave the way to realize high performance complementary electronics and optoelectronic devices based on 2D materials.

Purpose Drawing on social learning and social cognitive theories, this study aims to examine a multi-level moderated mediation model that tests the mediating effect of moral disengagement (MD: Level 1) between perceived organisational politics (POP: Level 1) and employee knowledge hiding from coworkers (EKHC: Level 1). The authors further propose that supervisor knowledge hiding from employees (SKHE: Level 2) moderates this mediation effect. Design/methodology/approach The authors obtained multi-sourced, multi-timed and multi-level data regarding 294 employees, working under 80 supervisors, from multiple organisations operating in Pakistan. The authors analysed these data using multi-level structural equation modelling via Mplus. Findings The results show that employee MD significantly mediates the direct relationship between POP and EKHC. The mediation effect is further positively moderated by SKHE, which amplifies the mediation effect. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study that examines both EKHC and SKHE together in a single research model and provides a thorough understanding of why, how and when POP leads to EKHC.

This is an exploratory research study that aimed at capturing students’ learning experience in a public sector university campus in a remote region in Pakistan. The sample included students in the last semester of their two years Master’s program in Education Data were generated through a questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews, and whole-class discussions with Master’s students of Education. Findings showed that the students saw their learning embedded inrelation to the interaction with the faculty members, availability of resources, and interactive teaching approaches. It surfaced that remoteness of the context and unavailability of the Internet, lack of relative skills, and English language deficiencies, were key challenges.

There are several previous studies on the association of vitamin E with prevention of stroke but the findings remain controversial. We have conducted a systematic review, meta-analysis together with trial sequential analysis of randomised controlled trials to evaluate the effect of vitamin E supplementation versus placebo/no vitamin E on the risk reduction of total, fatal, non-fatal, haemorrhagic and ischaemic stroke. Relevant studies were identified by searching online databases through Medline, PubMed and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. A total of 18 studies with 148 016 participants were included in the analysis. There was no significant difference in the prevention of total stroke (RR (relative risk)=0.98, 95% CI 0.92–1.04, p=0.57), fatal stroke (RR=0.96, 95% CI 0.77–1.20, p=0.73) and non-fatal stroke (RR=0.96, 95% CI 0.88–1.05, p=0.35). Subgroup analyses were performed under each category (total stroke, fatal stroke and non-fatal stroke) and included the following subgroups (types of prevention, source and dosage of vitamin E and vitamin E alone vs control). The findings in all subgroup analyses were statistically insignificant. In stroke subtypes analysis, vitamin E showed significant risk reduction in ischaemic stroke (RR=0.92, 95% CI 0.85–0.99, p=0.04) but not in haemorrhagic stroke (RR=1.17, 95% CI 0.98–1.39, p=0.08). However, the trial sequential analysis demonstrated that more studies were needed to control random errors. Limitations of this study include the following: trials design may not have provided sufficient power to detect a change in stroke outcomes, participants may have had different lifestyles or health issues, there were a limited number of studies available for subgroup analysis, studies were mostly done in developed countries, and the total sample size for all included studies was insufficient to obtain a meaningful result from metaanalysis. In conclusion, there is still a lack of statistically significant evidence of the effects of vitamin E on the risk reduction of stroke. Nevertheless, vitamin E may offer some benefits in the prevention of ischaemic stroke and additional well-designed randomised controlled trials are needed to arrive at a definitive finding. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020167827.

The depletion of non-renewable fossil fuels and a surge in their prices have led researchers to seek alternative, renewable energy sources; among them, biodiesel is a good option, especially in the...

Introduction: The therapeutic use of oxygen under pressure is known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and has been used to assist wound healing for almost 40 years. The purpose of the present study was to see the outcome of hyperbaric oxygen therapy following its use in non healing wounds. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Plastic Surgery, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, from March 2016 to February 2017 for a period of 12 (twelve) months. The study was carried out on patients with non healing wounds. Patients were initially assessed with detailed history, clinical examination and investigations, and then treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy for 90 minutes per session in 6 days a week for 25 cycles. Wound was assessed clinically, and with transcutaneous oximetry and laboratory investigations. Results: Eighty patients were included, where 52 (65.0%) patients had diabetic ulcer, followed by post traumatic wound (14) and venous ulcer (7). Fifty nine (73.75%) patients had initial wound size of < 50 cm2 with mean size 14.78 ± 12.5 cm2. Wound size reduction rate after 15 cycles of HBOT was 42.78%, and after 25 cycles of HBOT it was 61.21%. Among the 80 patients, 60 (75.0%) had moderate amount of discharge before HBOT; 19 (31.67%) & 25 (41.67%) reduced to small & no discharge after 25 cycles of HBOT respectively. 39 (48.75%) patients had serosanguineous discharge before HBOT, followed by 36 (45.0%) and 5 (6.25%) patients with purulent and serous discharge. Among the 39 patients with serosanguineous discharge, 15 (38.46%) & 20 (51.28%) patients had serous & no discharge after 25 cycles of HBOT respectively. Before starting HBOT, mean transcutaneous oximetry was 58.26 ± 3.84 mmHg, and it was 62.1 ± 6.27 mmHg and 66.92 7.52 mmHg after 15 and 25 cycles of HBOT respectively. Conclusion: So it can be stated that the hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a good option in treating different non healing wounds. J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2019; 37(3): 109-118

The existing literature establishes that there exists inefficiency in energy consumption in Pakistan. In particular, with regard to electricity consumption, the problem of moral hazard is prevalent in the public sector. In this study, we observe this aspect by focusing on the behaviour of consumers once they are held liable to monitoring with the associated punishment mechanism. By providing evidence from a field experiment, we make three conclusions. First, individuals respond to both the monetary and non-monetary punishments. Alternatively, with the introduction of punishments, they reduce moral hazard with respect to electricity consumption. Second, the habitual violators of rules reform their behaviour after they are made accountable for their actions. Third, if appropriate monitoring systems along with the associated punishment mechanism are introduced, we can have beneficial effects in terms of resolving the energy crisis on the aggregate level. JEL Classification: H83, D12, D00, D03, D04 Keywords: Moral Hazard, Monitoring, Punishment, Electricity Consumption, Public Sector

Numerous camera sensors have been recently proposed to estimate the depth of objects in the scene. However, many of these sensors either require multiple imaging elements or an active illuminant. In this paper, we propose a new depth camera, termed offset aperture (OA) camera, which provides depth of the scene with a single shot without an active illuminant. The camera is based on a 4-color sensor that senses the infrared (IR) signal along with the visible RGB signals. Separate OAs are used for IR and RGB images. A depth-dependent disparity is generated between the IR and RGB images. There is no disparity across the R, G, and B channel images, which allows the RGB image to be well-aligned. Numerous techniques are used in this work to observe good-quality depth maps and images. Leakage compensation has been proposed to remove crosstalk between the IR and RGB images. A comparison with another 4-color sensor called Dual Aperture camera shows that OA camera provides 88% improvement in depth sensitivity and 45% improvement in color quality, on average. The proposed OA camera can be used for numerous applications including occlusion handling in stereo, selective focus, and night vision. The advantages of the proposed OA camera include competitive image quality, capability of depth extraction, well-aligned RGB images, and small footprint of the camera, which make OA camera a suitable candidate for mobile applications.

Slow-light performance based on photonic-crystal coupled-cavity waveguide (PC-CCW) is investigated with low-dispersion pulse transmission. A chain of periodically arranged specific defect cavities of air holes are created along the axis of the waveguide and each of the cavities looks like an irregular hexagon with arrow-like left and right sides to form the PC-CCW. By changing the radius and position of certain defects, slow light modes are achieved. Through optimization, we obtained a highest compromise value for an operating bandwidth of 12.9 nm with an average group index of 70.75 and a normalized delay-bandwidth product (NDBP) of 0.5873. This value of NDBP with low group velocity dispersion is higher than that in other structures based on waveguides or coupled cavities reported previously. The arrow-like shape of the cavity sides is shown to be perfect for reducing the transmission loss of the waveguide. The proposed structure with high NDBP is beneficial for buffering applications and slow light devices.

A high-capability micro-optical buffer (MOB) based on a hexagonal cavity in a photonic crystal waveguide is investigated. The MOB is proposed by breaking the translational symmetry of the periodicity three times after introducing different types of cavities. In each time, we attained ultrahigh group index and highly Q-factor with highest delaying time. Ultrahigh group index of 21030 is obtained with Q-factor of 4309, delaying time of 70.1 ns, and buffer capacity of 8.41 bit. On the other hand, the bit rate and storage density turn into 117.73 Gb/s and 0.06121 bit/µm, corresponding to approximately 16.33 µm occupied by 1 bit for optical communication wavelength. Coupling a number of different types of cavities, higher Q-factor than that of an individual cavity can be obtained. It is shown that by coupling two cavities, the Q-factor is heightened to be 1.748 × 105 in low translational-symmetry case. We proposed a structure for promising application in optical signal processors and random access memories. Furthermore, we get longer delaying time and high Q-factor, which have important applications in low-threshold lasers, high finesse filters and high-speed switching.

This study expands the behavioral ethics literature by unraveling how and when the malevolent side of organizational identification promotes unethical work behaviors (i.e., pro-organizational and self-interested). Specifically, we examine whether employees’ engagement in unethical pro-organizational behaviors may be caused by overidentifying with their organization, which yields a sense of psychological entitlement that fosters careerist orientation and counterproductive work behaviors. We also hypothesize that psychological entitlement has an indirect effect contingent on employees’ manipulative personality. We used a multi-wave, two-source research design and collected data from 306 employees and their peers in Pakistan’s service sector. The data support the mediated effect between organizational identification and unethical pro-organizational behaviors through enhanced feelings of psychological entitlement. We also found that the impact of organizational identification on psychological entitlement was more pronounced among employees with higher manipulative personality scores.

A five-line (5L) photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) capable of realizing compact, optical buffering and low-distortion data interconnection of picosecond pulse is presented and studied through plane-wave expansion and finite-difference time-domain methods. By appropriately modifying the radii of defects in the 5L PCW, high buffering performance and low-distortion slow light transmission of picosecond pulses are achieved, which are guaranteed by an optimized value of normalized delay bandwidth product (NDBP) of 0.6811 for the proposed PCW. The largest buffering storage capacity and bandwidth obtained are about 219.73 bit and 19.55 nm, respectively . It is found that the distortion of pulse transmission in a PCW is greatly affected by the waveguide length. With these optimized parameters, a relative pulse distortion per unit length of 1.15×10−4 μm−1 is obtained for a 2.19-ps pulse, meaning that for a signal pulse with a dutyfactor of 0.5, the proposed structure can process optical digital pulse signals at the speed of 0.22831 Tb/s. Moreover, the NDBP value of 0.6811 obtained is much higher than that of all other structures based on waveguides reported in the literature previously so that high performance of the proposed PCW can be achieved. The waveguide proposed is suitable for data interconnections among chips or among processing units within a chip in optical signal processing, and computations where the size of the transmission line or interconnector is highly limited.

Background: Cerebellum is ovoid in shape, but is constricted in the median plane, flattened from above downwards and widest from side to side. The cerebellum occupies the posterior cranial fossa, where it is covered by the tentorium cerebelli and lies behind the fourth ventricle, the pons and the medulla oblongata. Objective: The study was done to assess the transverse diameter of cerebellum in relation with age and sex in Bangladeshi people. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was performed on 60 (32 of male and 28 of female) postmortem. The specimens were collected from morgue in the department of Forensic Medicine, Mymensingh Medical College by purposive sampling technique. All the specimens were grouped into four categories: group A (20 to 29 years), group B (30 to 39 years), group C (40 to 49 years), group D (50 to 59 years). Dissection was performed according to standard autopsy techniques. Transverse diameter of cerebellum was measured with the help of slide caliper. For statistical analysis, differences between age groups were analyzed by using unpaired student't' test. Results: The mean (±SD) transverse diameter of cerebellum was 10.53 ± 0.55 cm in group A, 10.09 ± 0.51 cm in group B, 10.03 ± 0.44 cm in group C, 9.72 ± 0.40 cm in group D. The mean differences of the transverse diameter of cerebellum between groups A & C, A & D, A & B, B &D were statistically significant, differences between B & C, D & C were non significant. Conclusion: The study would help to increase the information pool on the transverse diameter of cerebellum of Bangladeshi people. KYAMC Journal Vol. 9, No.-4, January 2019, Page 159-162

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have become a worldwide hot topic due to their fascinating properties, including high carrier mobility, tunable bandgap, ultra-broadband optical absorption and response. The versatility of 2D materials enable it hold great potential to achieve high performance Terahertz (THz) optoelectronic devices. However, the THz radiation, range from infrared to microwave, known as the THz gap, much less investigated than that of other electromagnetic wave. Motivated by this lack of knowledge, we reviewed the recent advances of research into 2D materials based THz optoelectronic devices. Firstly, we introduced the background and motivation of this review. Then, the suitable 2D material candidates are exhibited, followed by a comprehensive review of their applications in THz generation devices, modulator, THz shielding, and photodetectors. Finally, the challenges and further development directions are concluded. We believe that some milestone investigations of 2D materials based THz optoelectronic devices will emerge soon, which will bring about great industrial revelations in 2D materials-based nanodevice commercialization.

A four-port high-frequency system for a 0.14-THz dual-sheet-beam hole-grating backward-wave oscillator (BWO) is presented in this paper. The hole-grating slow-wave structure consists of two back-to-back gratings and a diaphragm with a two-hole array, which ensures the electric fields in two electron beam tunnels symmetrical. S-parameter results indicate the four-port system has good transmission characteristics, which could demonstrate the coupling effect of the hole array and the symmetrical properties of the electric fields at two output/input ports. Particle-in-cell simulations show that this high-frequency system could produce stable output signals as long as the current density of one electron beam is higher than the minimum starting current density. It indicates that the four-port high-frequency system can help to reduce the requirement of the dual-beam electron gun and increase the feasibility of the dual-beam hole-grating BWO. The proof-of-principle experiment shows an excellent transmission performance of the system, which agrees well with the theoretical results. All analyses reveal that the four-port hole-grating system could be a feasible high-frequency system of a subterahertz backward-wave radiation source.

ObjectivesTo estimate COVID-19 infections and deaths in healthcare workers (HCWs) from a global perspective during the early phases of the pandemic.DesignSystematic review.MethodsTwo parallel searches of academic bibliographic databases and grey literature were undertaken until 8 May 2020. Governments were also contacted for further information where possible. There were no restrictions on language, information sources used, publication status and types of sources of evidence. The AACODS checklist or the National Institutes of Health study quality assessment tools were used to appraise each source of evidence.Outcome measuresPublication characteristics, country-specific data points, COVID-19-specific data, demographics of affected HCWs and public health measures employed.ResultsA total of 152 888 infections and 1413 deaths were reported. Infections were mainly in women (71.6%, n=14 058) and nurses (38.6%, n=10 706), but deaths were mainly in men (70.8%, n=550) and doctors (51.4%, n=525). Limited data suggested that general practitioners and mental health nurses were the highest risk specialities for deaths. There were 37.2 deaths reported per 100 infections for HCWs aged over 70 years. Europe had the highest absolute numbers of reported infections (119 628) and deaths (712), but the Eastern Mediterranean region had the highest number of reported deaths per 100 infections (5.7).ConclusionsCOVID-19 infections and deaths among HCWs follow that of the general population around the world. The reasons for gender and specialty differences require further exploration, as do the low rates reported in Africa and India. Although physicians working in certain specialities may be considered high risk due to exposure to oronasal secretions, the risk to other specialities must not be underestimated. Elderly HCWs may require assigning to less risky settings such as telemedicine or administrative positions. Our pragmatic approach provides general trends, and highlights the need for universal guidelines for testing and reporting of infections in HCWs.

The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has forced hospitals to prioritize COVID-19 patients, restrict resources, and cancel all non-urgent elective cardiac procedures. Clinical visits have only been facilitated for emergency purposes. Fewer patients have been admitted to the hospital for both ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMI) and non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarctions (NSTEMI) and a profound decrease in heart failure services has been reported. A similar reduction in the patient presentation is seen for ischemic heart disease, decompensated heart failure, and endocarditis. Cardiovascular services, including catheterization, primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI), cardiac investigations such as electrocardiograms (ECGs), exercise tolerance test (ETT), dobutamine stress test, computed tomography (CT) angiography, transesophageal echocardiography (TOE) have been reported to have declined and performed on a priority basis. The long-term implications of this decline have been discussed with major concerns of severe cardiac complications and vulnerabilities in cardiac patients. The pandemic has also had psychological impacts on patients causing them to avoid seeking medical help. This review discusses the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision of various cardiology services and aims to provide strategies to restore cardiovascular services including structural changes in the hospital to make up for the reduced staff personnel, the use of personal protective equipment in healthcare workers, and provides alternatives for high-risk cardiac imaging, cardiac interventions, and procedures. Implementation of the triage system, risk assessment scores, and telemedicine services in patients and their adaptation to the cardiovascular department have been discussed.

Students’ classroom presentations as teaching and assessment techniques are widely in practice at universities all over the world. Previous studies indicate that university students are provided unsatisfactory time for presentations. It frustrates them especially when teachers use the presentation as an assessment tool. The present study aimed to explore the views of teachers and students’ perceptions behind their dissatisfaction with the uses of presentations by teachers as a teaching method as well as an assessment tool. In this qualitative study, researchers usedsemi-structured interviews from 14 M. Phil students and three of their teachers. Both teachers’ and students’ practices were also observed during sessions as scheduled for presentation activity. The observations were made towards the end semester from the qualitative thematic analysis. It was found that students’ and teachers’ expectations from each other regarding many aspects of the presentation did not match. Especially, students felt unhappy about the time duration allowed toprepare presentations. Feedback was also regarded as useless and of low quality. Presentations were more frequently used at the end of the semester rather than through the semester. Teachers need to share criteria based on the possible time for an average student to understand and present the assigned tasks in class.

Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) has been investigated for the treatment of various dermatological disorders. Here, we investigate the efficacy of LLLT for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). This study comprised of 53 patients (total 123 lesions) with a confirmed diagnosis of CL via positive smear of LD-bodies. The CL lesions were classified in Grade I (ie, papule of size ≤1 cm) to Grade V (ie, vesicle formation, ulceration, and superadded infection of size >4 cm). All the patients were divided into group 1 with low grade (ie, Grade I and II) CL lesions and group 2 with high-grade disease (ie, Grade III-V). Red laser light (wavelength = 635 nm) was used for the lesion irradiation, with a light dose of 75 J/cm2 and at a low power of 300 mW. The treatment was divided into four sessions, one session per week. Disease assessment at 10 months follow-up revealed complete response in 91% and partial response in 9% patients of group 1, while no response was observed in patients of group 2. LLLT offers a promising treatment modality for patients presenting with early-stage (ie, Grade I and II) CL lesions.

Background: H1N1 is known to cause periodic seasonal flu in the Indian subcontinent since 2009. The clinical course and the underlying immunity of the host contribute to the development of secondary bacterial infections in the infected patients. Objectives: This study aims to analyze the secondary bacterial infections in confirmed H1N1 cases admitted in our hospital (from 2015 to 2018) with respect to the comorbidities, complications, associated bacteria with its antibiotic susceptibility pattern, and the outcome of such episodes. Material and methods: Data of 164 patients admitted in a tertiary care hospital with H1N1 was extracted from medical records using a semi-structured case report form. Data were entered and analyzed with SPSS version 17. A p-value of Results: Most patients were aged above 40 years with female preponderance. In our study, 42% of patients had comorbidities. Only 14 (8.53%) had secondary bacterial infection confirmed by culture. Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii were the most common bacteria that were isolated. They were treated based on the culture reports. There was no mortality in patients with a secondary bacterial infection. Conclusion: The early start of the antiviral agents and adherence to the antibiotic policy of the hospital contributed to lower secondary bacterial infections and zero mortality.

ObjectivesTo estimate COVID-19 infections and deaths in healthcare workers (HCWs) from a global perspective.DesignScoping review.MethodsTwo parallel searches of academic bibliographic databases and grey literature were undertaken. Governments were also contacted for further information where possible. Due to the time-sensitive nature of the review and the need to report the most up-to-date information for an ever-evolving situation, there were no restrictions on language, information sources utilised, publication status, and types of sources of evidence. The AACODS checklist was used to appraise each source of evidence.Outcome measuresPublication characteristics, country-specific data points, COVID-19 specific data, demographics of affected HCWs, and public health measures employedResultsA total of 152,888 infections and 1413 deaths were reported. Infections were mainly in women (71.6%) and nurses (38.6%), but deaths were mainly in men (70.8%) and doctors (51.4%). Limited data suggested that general practitioners and mental health nurses were the highest risk specialities for deaths. There were 37.17 deaths reported per 100 infections for healthcare workers aged over 70. Europe had the highest absolute numbers of reported infections (119628) and deaths (712), but the Eastern Mediterranean region had the highest number of reported deaths per 100 infections (5.7).ConclusionsHCW COVID-19 infections and deaths follow that of the general world population. The reasons for gender and speciality differences require further exploration, as do the low rates reported from Africa and India. Although physicians working in certain specialities may be considered high-risk due to exposure to oronasal secretions, the risk to other specialities must not be underestimated. Elderly HCWs may require assigning to less risky settings such as telemedicine, or administrative positions. Our pragmatic approach provides general trends, and highlights the need for universal guidelines for testing and reporting of infections in HCWs.Summary BoxWhat is already known on this topicIn China, studies documented over 3,300 confirmed cases of infected healthcare workers in early March. In the United States, as high as 19% of patients had been identified as healthcare workers. There are no studies that perform a global examination of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the health workforce.What this study addsTo our knowledge, this is the first study assessing the number of healthcare workers who have been infected with or died from COVID-19 globally. The data from our study suggest that although infections were mainly in women and nurses, COVID-19 related deaths were mainly in men and doctors; in addition, our study found that Europe had the highest numbers of infection and death, but the lowest case-fatality-rate, while the Eastern Mediterranean had the highest case-fatality-rate.

Neural Architecture Search (NAS) has gained attraction due to superior classification performance. Differential Architecture Search (DARTS) is a computationally light method. To limit computational resources DARTS makes numerous approximations. These approximations result in inferior performance. We propose to fine-tune DARTS using fixed operations as they are independent of these approximations. Our method offers a good trade-off between the number of parameters and classification accuracy. Our approach improves the top-1 accuracy on Fashion-MNIST, CompCars, and MIO-TCD datasets by 0.56%, 0.50%, and 0.39%, respectively compared to the state-of-the-art approaches. Our approach performs better than DARTS, improving the accuracy by 0.28%, 1.64%, 0.34%, 4.5%, and 3.27% compared to DARTS, on CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, Fashion-MNIST, CompCars, and MIO-TCD datasets, respectively., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

Anticipation of accidents ahead of time in autonomous and non -autonomous vehicles aids in accident avoidance. In order to recognize abnormal events such as traffic accidents in a video sequence, it is important that the network takes into account interactions of objects in a given frame. We propose a novel Feature Aggregation (FA) block that refines each object's features by computing a weighted sum of the features of all objects in a frame. We use FA block along with Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) network to anticipate accidents in the video sequences. We report mean Average Precision (mAP) and Average Time-to-Accident (ATTA) on Street Accident (SA) dataset. Our proposed method achieves the highest score for risk anticipation by predicting accidents 0.32 sec and 0.75 sec earlier compared to the best results with Adaptive Loss and dynamic parameter prediction based methods respectively.

Oxidative stress is involved in the pathogenesis of a number of diseases including hypertension and renal failure. There is enhanced expression of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADPH oxidase) and therefore production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) during renal disease progression. This study investigated the effect of apocynin, an NADPH oxidase inhibitor and catalase, an H2O2 scavenger on Cyclosporine A (CsA) nephrotoxicity in Wistar-Kyoto rats. Rats received CsA (25mg/kg/day via gavage) and were assigned to vehicle, apocynin (2.5mmol/L p.o.), catalase (10,000U/kg/day i.p.) or apocynin plus catalase for 14 days. Renal functional and hemodynamic parameters were measured every week, and kidneys were harvested at the end of the study for histological and NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) assessment. Oxidative stress markers and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were measured. CsA rats had higher plasma malondialdehyde (by 340%) and BUN (by 125%), but lower superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capacity (by 40%, all P

By separating two photonic crystals with a distance of 2 3 a , where a is the lattice constant, shifting the positions of some discriminatory air holes in the upper and lower edges, and inserting a defect central row, a specific waveguide is set up, W3 photonic crystal waveguide (W3 PCW). An equivalent transmission line model is given, giving the theoretical basis of for the proposed waveguide to have a wider transmission bandwidth and thus higher normalized delay bandwidth product (NDBP). Slow-light properties and performance are studied by using plane-wave expansion and finite-difference time-domain methods. We obtained ultra-wideband of 65.70 nm with low group-velocity dispersion and at the same time a high NDBP of 0.496 through optimization which is a worthy indicator for slow light device performance. Wider bandwidth can allow shorter duration of pulse waves, causing higher field intensity and stronger nonlinear effect.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors. The authors further investigate how abusive supervision is linked with knowledge hiding behaviors, and why some subordinates, unlike others, tend to engage in more knowledge hiding behaviors in response to abusive supervision. The authors propose that interpersonal justice mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors, and that Islamic work ethics (IWE) weaken the hypothesized relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors. Design/methodology/approach The data were gathered in three time lags from 224 respondents working in the hospitality industry of Pakistan. Findings The results reveal that the abusive supervision is positively associated with a knowledge hiding behaviors. This relationship is mediated by perceptions of interpersonal justice, but the IWE moderated this relationship such that in the presence of high levels of IWE, the impact of abusive supervision on knowledge hiding behaviors is weak. Practical implications Employees’ values and beliefs can serve as a safeguard against reactions to abusive supervision. The impact of abusive supervision on employees’ behaviors may be minimized by building their ethical values around Islamic principles. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors. The authors integrate displaced aggression and social exchange theory with the IWE literature to offer new insights in-to the mechanisms and boundary conditions associated with the relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors.

We proposed a strategy with successive cavities as energy reservoirs of electromagnetic energy and light-speed reducers introduced in the first and second rows of rods on the walls of an intrinsic photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) for slow-light transmission in the PCW concerning applications for optical communication, optical computation and optical signal processing. Subsequently, plane-wave expansion method (PWE) is used for studying slow-light properties and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to demonstrate the slow-light propagating property of our proposed structure. We obtained group index as exceedingly large as 6123 with normalized delay bandwidth product (NDBP) as high as 0.48. We designed a facile but more generalized structure that may provide a vital theoretical basis for further enhancing the storage capacity properties of slow light with wideband and high NDBP.

Background: The medicinal uses of plants are in many cases based exclusively on traditional knowledge without enough scientific evidences. Different parts of Moringa oleifera were traditionally used for the treatment of wide variety of ailments including arthritis and joints pain. The present study had been designed to evaluate the anti-arthritic and anti-nociceptive activities of ethanol extract of Moringa leaves, this being the most abundant plant part suitable for commercial mass production of botanical medicinal products. Methods: Complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced arthritis in rats was used as disease model. CFA-induced inflammatory paw edema, body weight, arthritic index, X-ray radiography, hematological parameters, and walk track and locomotion analysis were all evaluated for the assessment of disease progression. In addition to that, anti-nociceptive activity was examined at different dose levels in both normal and arthritic-induced rats using Eddy's hot plate and tail flick thermal analgesia. Results: The analysis of various arthritic assessment parameters used in this study revealed that Moringa extract has a considerable effect in preventing development or ameliorate arthritis disease severity. Moreover, the ethanol extract of Moringa leaves revealed significant anti-nociceptive activity at in both normal and CFA-induced arthritis rats in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion: Ethanol extract of Moringa leaves appears to be a really promising as analgesic and arthritis medication, but a larger and more detailed preclinical and clinical studies especially in human is highly recommended. Keywords: Anti-nociceptive, Complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA), Moringa and Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)

Objective: To evaluate the correlation between sexual function of couples with and without stress urinary incontinence (SUI) partners, and to identify predictors of poor sexual function. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted involving sexually active women with or without SUI aged at least 21 years old, and their respective partners. Both partners completed the Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS), a 28-item multidimensional measure with separate forms for male and female designed to assess sexual satisfaction of both partners. Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used to analyze bivariate association, whereas multiple regression analysis was used to identify predictors for overall sexual function as measured using GRISS score. Results: Sixty-six couples with SUI partners and 95 couples with continent partners were recruited. Overall GRISS scores and thus sexual function of men and women were strongly correlated. The correlation coefficient was higher in couples with SUI partners (r = 0.702, P < .001) compared with couples with continent partners (r = 0.629, P < .001), indicating a stronger correlation in the sexual function of couples with SUI partners. In multivariate analysis, poorer sexual function (lower GRISS score) in women, increasing age, and less frequency of sexual intercourse were significant predictors of poorer overall GRISS score in couples (P < .001). Conclusion: Female sexual function is strongly correlated with male partners' sexual function, with a stronger correlation observed in couples with SUI partners. Poorer sexual function in women, increasing age, and less frequency of sexual intercourse are predictive of poorer sexual function in a couple. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

To assess the impact of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) on individual components of quality of life (QoL) using both condition-specific and generic questionnaires, and to compare the results of the 2 instruments with a control group.Women with or without SUI aged ≥21 years old were recruited. Subjects completed the International Consultation of Incontinence-Urinary Incontinence Short Form (ICIQ-UI-SF), International Consultation of Incontinence-Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Quality of Life (ICIQ-LUTSqol), and EQ-5D questionnaires.A total of 120 women with SUI and 145 controls participated. The ICIQ-LUTSqol total score (mean ± standard deviation) was significantly higher in the SUI group (38.96 ± 10.28) compared with the control group (20.78 ± 2.73) (P .001). When adjusted for significant confounders, the SUI group continued to have significantly poorer QoL compared with the control group (P .001). The negative effect of SUI on "physical activities" and "jobs" were the 2 most frequently reported and burdensome components of the ICIQ-LUTSqol, with approximately 50% of women with SUI affected "moderately" or "a lot." When measured using the EQ-5D questionnaire, there were significantly higher percentages of patients with SUI who had problems with usual activities, pain or discomfort, and anxiety or depression (P .05).Women suffering from SUI have significantly poorer QoL compared with continent women when measured using both condition-specific and generic QoL measures. Clinicians should pay closer attention to the impact of SUI on individual components of QoL, particularly limitations on physical activities and jobs, which were the 2 most impairing and frequently reported components of QoL.