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The discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW) with step-dependent (SD) scattering operator is implemented on quantum computer. The probabilities of different states, with their respective fidelities, are calculated. This is done by generalizing the coin with a rotation gate using the quantum gate model. The CNOT gates in the shift operator are replaced with the alternative to CNOT gates Rx( π). They are applied on a quantum device and a quantum simulator (QS). The fidelities varied around 50% and the probability distribution of SD-DTQW for the angle π/4 spread symmetrically, while the step-independent DTQW (SI-DTQW) tended to peak at one side. The symmetric probability distribution of SD-DTQW can help in better control of the walk on QS. In the case of angle π/2, the SI-DTQW spread equally across the states with four peaks, while the SD-DTQW spread with two peaks to one side.

Background: COVID-19 pandemic had affected majority of the population across the world. Majority of the cases still complaining of post COVID symptoms. This study was undertaken to study the various pattern of post COVID-19 manifestations in this region in a group of patients attending hospital. Methods: An observational study was undertaken in a group of 120 patients attending a tertiary care hospital. The patients were subjected for a detailed history and thorough physical examination and the details were entered in to a proforma. The data thus obtained was compiled and analysed. Results: This study had shown than majority of cases were aged more than 50 years and most of them were females. The common post COVID-19 manifestations included joint pain, continued loss of taste and smell, dyspnoea, Anxiety/ depression and sleep disturbances in this study. Conclusions: This study had observed continued symptoms from the episode of disease varying from mild to severe manifestations. This study urges for a comprehensive rehabilitation program for all COVID-19 patients.

Phosphorus (P) is one of the major essential macronutrients for plants, applied to soil in the form of phosphatic fertilizers and organic manures. The application of PSB to soils can replace or partially reduce use of inorganic P fertilizers and could be one of the cost effective, highly efficient, and sustainable approaches to conserve P resources. The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of PSB in phosphorus (P) availability from organic, mineral and natural sources. For this purpose, a laboratory incubation experiment was conducted at the University of Agriculture Peshawar. The experiment was consisting of four sources of P [poultry manure (PM), farm yard manure (FYM), rock phosphate (RP) and single supper phosphate (SSP)] for obtaining 45 mg P2O5 kg-1 and two types of inoculation (control and PSB) arranged in two factorial complete randomized design with three replications. Resultantly, PSB inoculation significantly improved. P availability at all incubation interval except day zero. A 3.4%, 5.4%, 12% and 16 % increased were observed in P as compared to control, at day 7, 14, 28 and 56 respectively. Similarly, significant differences were observed in P release for P sources at all incubation intervals. Initially higher P release was observed for SSP but at day 14 onward PM and FYM proved to be the best P releasable sources as compared to mineral P sources. RP released the lowest P at all incubation intervals however it performed statistically at par to SSP at 56 days. The significant interactive effect of P sources and PSB at day 28 and 56 demonstrated that soil receiving P from organic sources inoculated with PSB released higher P than other treatments combination. Thus, it is suggested that P must be applied from organic P sources (PM and FYM) along with PSB inoculation for better P nutrition and crop yield.

This study had been conducted in north eastern area of Pakistan, Baltistan region constituting the larger portion of Kashmir region. Which is one of the moist zone of the western Himalayas. While growing fruit point of view the land is suitable for fruit like apples, plum, cherry and apricot production. Climatically Baltistan region soils have recognized as best for quality cherry production. However, limited information is available about the existing soil fertility status and fruit quality of cherry orchards. Soil fertility evaluation is a key factor towards sustainable fruit production of cherry orchard soils. Improvement of soil productivity and fruit quality depends on the knowledge of the soil fertility. Therefore, study was designed to investigate the soil fertility status of cherry orchards of District Skardu, Kharmang, Shigar, and Ganache. Soil samples were evaluated for pH, EC, Organic matter, Texture, N, P, K, and micronutrients. While leaf and fruits samples were analyzed for N, P, K and pH, TSS, TA, Ascorbic acid, and Sugar contents respectively. Results revealed that the soil samples were slightly alkaline and non-saline sandy loam and sandy clay loam texture with adequate organic matter ranging from 1.19-2.15%, Low to marginal (NO3-N), low extractable P, and marginal to adequate K with high micronutrients concentrations (Cu, Zn, Fe, and Mn). While leaf samples showed marginal to high N, low P, and K and sufficient to high micronutrients. The parameters of fruit samples were in the optimum range with a yield of 5-50 Kgplant-1.

OCTA is an imaging modality used in the assessment of the retinal vasculature. It operates on the principle of coherence tomography used in standard OCT with the addition of delineating the retinal vascular. This provides a modern non-invasive retinal vascular imaging method compared to conventional dye-based imaging. High quality depth resolution of the superficial and deep capillary networks is possible on OCTA whereas this was not possible prior. OCTA may be limited by image quality degradation from factors such as motion artefact or media opacities, and therefore may not be the investigation of choice for all patient groups. There are multiple potential clinical applications for OCTA in retinal and choroidal vascular disease. Ongoing research is necessary to substantiate the more widespread use of OCTA due to its significant cost burden compared to current modalities.

Purpose: We aimed to report the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related health policies and restrictions on the provision and efficacy of macular hole (MH) surgery. Methods: We carried out a retrospective cohort study. Two MH patient cohorts, those treated during the COVID-19 pandemic (12 months) and the pre-COVID-19 period (12 months before the lockdown) were reviewed and compared. Patient characteristics, time to consultation and surgery, MH size, baseline and postoperative visual acuity (VA) and failure rate were recorded and analysed. Results: A reduction of 43% in MH surgery occurred during the COVID-19 period (93 eyes vs. 53 eyes). Mean time to consultation and time to surgery increased significantly (52.7 days vs. 86.3 days, p < 0.01 and 51.3 days vs. 83.6 days, p = 0.01, respectively), while mean baseline and postoperative vision was significantly lower in the COVID-19 group (0.75 LogMAR vs. 0.63 LogMAR, p < 0.01 and 0.61 LogMAR vs. 0.44 LogMAR, p < 0.01, respectively). The median MH size was significantly larger in the COVID-19 group (296 μm vs. 365 μm, p = 0.016), and the failure rate increased from 7.6% to 15.4% (odds ratio 2.2 (95% CI: 0.72–6.8)). Conclusions: Our findings suggest the COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant reduction in MH surgery, increased waiting times and led to poorer surgical outcomes. For future pandemics, better strategies are required that allow semi-elective and elective surgery to continue in a timely fashion. Health providers should preserve the delivery of ophthalmological care, with enhanced encouragement to seek medical help for acute symptoms.

To assess the proportion of patients with raised intraocular pressure (IOP) (≥ 30 mmHg) on the first postoperative day following pars plana vitrectomy (PPV), encirclement and endotamponade and assess the number requiring alteration in management to address elevated IOP. To establish whether review on day one is required. Retrospective case note review of consecutive patients who underwent 23-gauge PPV, 276-encirclement and endotamponade under the care of a single surgeon. All patients as standard received prophylactic anti-glaucoma medication post-surgery (eye drops) to take home but initiate only after day-one review. Statistical analysis was carried out using student t tests and Fisher’s exact tests. Sixty-six patients were examined over a 2-year period. Mean day-one IOP was 22.2 mmHg (SD 7.3, 95% CI 20.4–24.0). Eleven patients (16.7%) had IOP ≥ 30 mmHg. Five patients (7.6%) had management changing decisions made at the day-one postoperative visit. Lens status, endotamponade, preoperative IOP, surgeon grade, cryopexy versus laser retinopexy or preoperative administration of once only 500 mg dose of intravenous acetazolamide did not influence IOP, with no significant difference between these subgroups. No cases of hypotony occurred. A significant minority of patients had elevation of IOP above 30 mmHg, a number of whom required treatment changes to address this. No preoperative risk factors were identified indicating those at risk of high IOP. It is important to identify these potentially harmful IOP elevations, and therefore day-one review is imperative and should be continued.

In this paper, we have developed models based on Deep-Learning Neural Network (DNN) for accurately predicting lattice constants of half-Heusler alloys. A commercial software WIEN2k employing the Density Functional Theory (DFT) is first used to generate data of the lattice constants of 377 half-Heusler alloys for the training, testing and validation of the models. These models use elemental symbols or/and ionic radii as input parameters. The model that uses only symbols of the constituent element and the model that uses symbols in combination with the radii of the ions predict lattice constants of half-Heusler alloys with an average error of less than 1% to the data obtained from the WIEN2k calculations. The average error stays below 2% in the prediction by the model that uses radii of the ions alone. These results show a great promise for these models to be extended for the prediction of structural and elastic properties of not only new half-Heusler alloys but also other new materials such as full-Heusler, spinels, perovskites, etc. with greater convenience, saving hours of computation time.

Three models based on the principle of Artificial Neural Network (ANN), predicting the lattice constants of full-Heusler alloys from the ionic radii, symbols of the constituent elements, and the combination of ionic radii and symbols are reported. The model predicted values of the lattice constants are compared with the theoretically simulated values using the Density Functional Theory (DFT) based commercial software WIEN2k. A statistical linear regression model is also employed for comparison. The average absolute error in the regression model is equal to 7.33%, which reduces to about 4.67% in the ANN model using ionic radii, 3.00% for the model using symbols, and 3.67% for the combined model. These models are simple and efficient and can be easily extended to compute parameters other than the lattice constant of not only full-Heusler alloys but also half-Heusler, Perovskite, and other crystalline materials.

The present research trail was carried out after harvest of maize crop on calcareous soil (19% lime on w/w basis) of Pakistan, District Nowshera soil series [Piedmont alluvium, silty clay loam, Ustochrept] to study its chemical properties as affected by application of organic manures of different sources integrated with urea. The treatments of the present study were divided into 3 groups based on the combination ratios such as 1:1, 3:1 and 1:0. Total 13 treatments such as: T1=alone Urea (control), T2 [Urea+SSB (1:1)], T3 [Urea+SCB (1:1)], T4 [Urea+PL (1:1)], T5 [Urea+FYM (1:1)], T6 [Urea+SSB (3:1)], T7 [Urea+SCB (3:1)], T8 [Urea+PL (3:1)], T9 [Urea+FYM (3:1)], T10=alone SSB, T11=alone SCB, T12=alone PL, T13=alone FYM were used and each treatment was replicated thrice. The combination ratios of the treatments were based on %N (required amount of N is 120 kg/ha) received from Urea and organic manures. Results of the experiment revealed that all the treatments have significantly affected (P>0.05) the soil chemical properties such as pH, E. C, total nitrogen content and organic matter content while bulk density was non-significant. By comparing various treatments groups, treatments having 1:1 combination ratio (T2, T3, T4 and T5) have shown best results in case of pH, E. C and nitrogen content of post-harvest soil. They have mediated the pH and E. C to levels favorable for plant growth and N uptake. While in case of organic matter content maximum results were obtained for treatments having combination ratio of 1:0 i-e (T10, T11, T12 and T13). From the present study it was concluded that all the treatments except control have altered the chemical status of soil to a favorable soil enviro responsive microbial activity and plant growth. Such studies on different soil series under different climatic conditions is advised for wide spread application and authorization of results.

Objective To determine degree of adherence to guidelines for seizure prophylaxis following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Setting Tertiary care level 1 trauma center and affiliated inpatient rehabilitation facility. Participants A total of 173 individuals with TBI who required inpatient rehabilitation from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2013. Design Retrospective medical record review. Main measures Overutilization rate of prophylactic antiepileptic drugs (AEDs); failure to stop rate of AED utilization upon admission to and during inpatient rehabilitation; and duration of overutilization. Results Of the 173 participants included, 77 were started on seizure prophylaxis at hospital presentation and 96 were not. Of the 77 participants, 11 had a posttraumatic seizure. Of the 66 remaining, 18 participants (10.4%) were continued on AEDs for more than 7 days after injury. Of these 18 participants, 12 were continued on AEDs without indication upon admission to inpatient rehabilitation. Finally, 8 of the 12 were continued on AEDs at discharge from rehabilitation, resulting in a failure to stop rate of 66.67%. Conclusion Despite existing guidelines for stopping seizure prophylaxis after TBI, some patients remain on AEDs and may be inappropriately exposed to possible medication side effects. These findings highlight the importance of communication at the time of rehabilitation transfer and the need for ongoing education about AED guidelines.

Purpose To review the clinical features and outcomes of pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) in patients with retained lens fragments after phacoemulsification and compare the results with those in previous studies. Setting Department of Ophthalmology, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom. Methods This retrospective chart review comprised 82 consecutive eyes of 82 patients who had vitrectomy for retained lens material after phacoemulsification between January 2000 and June 2006. Data on demographics, preexisting eye conditions, cataract surgery details, findings at presentation, interval between phacoemulsification and vitrectomy, details of vitrectomy, details of follow-up visits, and postoperative complications were collected. Results The incidence of raised intraocular pressure (IOP) was 46.3%. Anterior vitrectomy was associated with a lower incidence of increased IOP (P = .006). There was no association between late vitrectomy and a worse visual outcome. There was a much lower rate of complications than in other studies; the incidence of retinal detachment and of cystoid macular edema was 4.9%, and there were no cases of endophthalmitis. Conclusion The incidence of raised IOP in patients who had anterior vitrectomy at the time of cataract surgery was low. The visual outcomes were good, and the incidence of complications was low irrespective of the timing of the PPV.

Objective first eye cataract surgery reduces the risk of falling. Most cataracts in elderly people are bilateral. Some binocular functions (e.g. stereopsis) are associated with falls. We aimed to determine if second eye cataract surgery reduces the risk of falling and to measure associated health gain. Study design and setting we randomised 239 women over 70, who had been referred to a hospital ophthalmology department, with one unoperated cataract, to expedited (approximately 4 weeks) or routine (12 months wait) surgery. Falls were ascertained by diary, with follow-up every 3 months for 12 months. We measured health status after 6 months. Results visual function (especially stereopsis) improved in the operated group. Over 12 months follow-up, 48 (40%) operated participants fell at least once, 22 (18%) fell more than once. Forty-one (34%) unoperated participants fell at least once, 22 (18%) fell more than once. Rate of falling was reduced by 32% in the operated group, but this was not statistically significant (rate ratio 0.68, 95% CI 0.39, 1.19, P = 0.18). Confidence, visual disability and handicap all improved in the operated compared with the control group. Conclusion second eye cataract surgery improves visual disability and general health status. The effect on rate of falling remains uncertain.

Background/aim: A third of elderly people fall each year. Poor vision is associated with increased risk of falls. The authors aimed to determine if first eye cataract surgery reduces the risk of falling, and to measure associated health gain. Methods: 306 women aged over 70, with cataract, were randomised to expedited (approximately 4 weeks) or routine (12 months wait) surgery. Falls were ascertained by diary, with follow up every 3 months. Health status was measured after 6 months. Results: Visual function improved in the operated group (corrected binocular acuity improved by 0.25 logMAR units; 8% had acuity worse than 6/12 compared with 37% of controls). Over 12 months of follow up, 76 (49%) operated participants fell at least once, and 28 (18%) fell more than once. 69 (45%) unoperated participants fell at least once, 38 (25%) fell more than once. Rate of falling was reduced by 34% in the operated group (rate ratio 0.66, 95% confidence interval 0.45 to 0.96, p = 0.03). Activity, anxiety, depression, confidence, visual disability, and handicap all improved in the operated group compared with the control group. Four participants in the operated group had fractures (3%), compared with 12 (8%) in the control group (p = 0.04). Conclusion: First eye cataract surgery reduces the rate of falling, and risk of fractures and improves visual function and general health status.

PURPOSE To report a case of silicone oil-induced corneal perforation following complex retinal detachment surgery. METHODS Case report. RESULTS Two months following a second retinal detachment repair, the patient presented to eye casualty with a corneal perforation secondary to silicone oil keratopathy. CONCLUSION The pathophysiology of silicone oil-related perforation is not clearly understood. Poor corneal nutrition due to the presence of oil may be an important contributory factor. Close monitoring of patients for early signs of silicone oil keratopathy could preempt perforation.

To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of first eye cataract surgery compared with no surgery from a health service and personal social services perspective.An economic evaluation undertaken alongside a randomised controlled trial of first eye cataract surgery in secondary care ophthalmology clinics. A sample of 306 women over 70 years old with bilateral cataracts was randomised to cataract surgery (expedited, approximately four weeks) or control (routine, 12 months wait); 75% of participants had baseline acuity of 6/12 or better. Outcomes included falls and the EuroQol EQ-5D.The operated group cost a mean pounds sterling 2004 (bootstrapped) more than the control group over one year (95% confidence interval (CI), pounds sterling 1363 to pounds sterling 2833) (p0.001), but experienced on average 0.456 fewer falls, an incremental cost per fall prevented of pounds sterling 4390. The bootstrapped mean gain in quality adjusted life years (QALYs) per patient was 0.056 (95% CI, 0.006 to 0.108) (p0.001). The incremental cost-utility ratio was pounds sterling 35 704, above the currently accepted UK threshold level of willingness to pay per QALY of pounds sterling 30 000. However, in an analysis modelling costs and benefits over patients' expected lifetime, the incremental cost per QALY was pounds sterling 13 172, under conservative assumptions.First eye cataract surgery, while cost-ineffective over the trial period, was probably cost-effective over the participants' remaining lifetime.

We report an unusual case of unilateral spontaneous lens dislocation in a 52-year-old woman with a posterior polar cataract. We postulate that the increasing lens size secondary to nuclear sclerosis may have exerted pressure on a thinned posterior capsule, causing the capsule to rupture spontaneously. The unusual weak posterior capsule in posterior polar cataract is a well-recognized risk factor in phacoemulsification surgery. We believe this is the first report case of spontaneous lens dislocation secondary to posterior capsule rupture in posterior polar cataract.

PURPOSE. To investigate the relative contribution of visual and other factors to quality of life among elderly women with bilateral cataract. METHODS. Data were analyzed from a trial of first-eye cataract surgery. Visual parameters, general health, and social variables, and disease-specific (VF-14 Index of Visual Function), generic (Euroqol: EQ-5D, London Handicap Scale, Barthel), and intermediate (anxiety, depression, and activity) outcomes were measured at baseline and 6 months later, when approximately half the group had had surgery. RESULTS. Three hundred six participants provided data at baseline, and 289 at 6 months. At baseline, acuity, stereopsis, and contrast sensitivity were all associated with quality of life. Acuity and stereopsis were most strongly and consistently associated. Change in VF-14 was associated with changes in stereopsis and contrast sensitivity, while change in handicap was associated with change in stereopsis. CONCLUSIONS. Acuity, stereopsis, and contrast sensitivity each contributed to quality of life, across a range of measures, in elderly women with cataract. Acuity was marginally the most consistently and generally the most strongly associated, but in some analyses stereopsis was more important. Change in quality of life was associated with change in stereopsis and contrast sensitivity.