Civil Engineering

Nanofiltration (NF) is a promising drinking water treatment technology for arsenic removal; however, most of the research on NF treatment of arsenic has used synthetic water. In this investigation, a pilot membrane system treated groundwater naturally contaminated with arsenic to test the performance of two NF membranes and one reverse osmosis (RO) membrane, both with and without oxidizing pretreatment using manganese dioxide (MnO 2 ). The arsenic concentration in the groundwater was ~ 40 µg/L, mostly present as arsenite, a neutral species. Without the oxidizing pretreatment, the two NF membranes provided almost no removal whereas the RO membrane provided ~ 25 to 50% arsenic removal, depending on operating conditions. Following pretreatment with MnO 2 , the treated arsenic concentration dropped to < 4 µg/L (90% removal) for all three membranes. The substantially improved performance for these negatively charged membranes was attributed to the oxidation of the neutrally charged arsenite to negatively charged arsenate. These results indicate that where arsenite is present, facilities with RO or NF processes can dramatically enhance their arsenic removal by adding a membrane-compatible oxidation step such as MnO 2 filtration.

Background: Interactive methods like role play, recorded video scenarios and objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) are being regularly used to teach and assess communication skills of medical students in the western world. In developing countries however, they are still in the preliminary phases of execution in most institutes. Our study was conducted in a naïve under resourced setup to assess the impact of such teaching methodologies on the counseling skills of medical students. Methods: Fifty four 4 th year MBBS students were identified to be evaluated for communication skills by trained facilitators in a pre-intervention OSCE. The same group of students was given a demonstration of ideal skill level by means of videos and role playing sessions in addition to real life interaction with patients during hospital and community rotations. A post-intervention evaluation was carried out six months later through OSCE and direct observation through structured checklist (DOS) in hospital and community settings. The combined and individual performance levels of these students were analyzed. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the communication skills of students when assessed in the post-intervention OSCE (p = 0.000). Individual post-intervention percentages of study participants displayed improvement as well (n = 45, p = 0.02). No difference was observed between the scores of male and female students when assessed for two specific competencies of antenatal care and breast feeding counseling (p = 0.11). The mean DOS (%) score of 12 randomly selected students was much lower as compared to the post-intervention (%) score but the difference between them was statistically non significant, a result that may have been affected by the small sample size as well as other factors that may come into play in real clinical settings and were not explored in this study (59.41 ± 7.8 against 82.43 ± 22.08, p = 0.88).

Background: Interactive methods like role play, recorded video scenarios and objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) are being regularly used to teach and assess communication skills of medical students in the western world. In developing countries however, they are still in the preliminary phases of execution in most institutes. Our study was conducted in a naïve under resourced setup to assess the impact of such teaching methodologies on the counseling skills of medical students. Methods: Fifty four 4 th year MBBS students were identified to be evaluated for communication skills by trained facilitators in a pre-intervention OSCE. The same group of students was given a demonstration of ideal skill level by means of videos and role playing sessions in addition to real life interaction with patients during hospital and community rotations. A post-intervention evaluation was carried out six months later through OSCE and direct observation through structured checklist (DOS) in hospital and community settings. The combined and individual performance levels of these students were analyzed. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the communication skills of students when assessed in the post-intervention OSCE (p = 0.000). Individual post-intervention percentages of study participants displayed improvement as well (n = 45, p = 0.02). No difference was observed between the scores of male and female students when assessed for two specific competencies of antenatal care and breast feeding counseling (p = 0.11). The mean DOS (%) score of 12 randomly selected students was much lower as compared to the post-intervention (%) score but the difference between them was statistically non significant, a result that may have been affected by the small sample size as well as other factors that may come into play in real clinical settings and were not explored in this study (59.41 ± 7.8 against 82.43 ± 22.08, p = 0.88).

patients and 78% of NMO patients showed early presentation of optic neuritis during disease course. Conclusions: With longitudinal follow up, small portion of patients with LETM progressed to NMO (21%) and had positive AQP-4 antibody results (15.8%) in Korea. LETM with more than 6 segments lesion are at high risk for relapse. In addition, AQP-4 antibody and early presentation of optic neuritis have predictive value of development of NMO.

Objectives: To find out the seroprevalence of Hepatitis B and C virus among the healthy blood donors at Fauji Foundation Hospital, Rawalpindi. Study design: A prospective observational study Place and duration of study: From April 2005 to September 2005 at Fauji Foundation Hospital, Rawalpindi. Subjects and Methods: All healthy blood donors reporting to blood bank were screened for Hepatitis B and C. Results: Total number of 1428 donors were screened, among them 97.05% were males. Prevalence of Hepatitis B was 2.45% with a male predominance of 2.38%. Seroprevalence of Hepatitis C was 2.52% with male predominance of 2.52%.

Some times high uranium contents are present in the phosphate rocks used for the manufacturing of fertilizer. In view of the harmful e ects on human health due to the processing and use of such fertilizers in agriculture, it is important to analyse phosphate rocks for uranium content determination. Ten representative rock samples from Kakul phosphate deposit exposed near Abbotabad, Pakistan which are used for the manufacturing of fertilizers were studied for uranium content determination with the help of ÿssion track and neutron activation analysis techniques. Each sample was split into three parts. The ÿrst and second parts (solid slabs and pellets) were subjected to ÿssion track analysis, while the third part was analysed using neutron activation analysis technique for comparison. On the average a uranium content of 37 ppm was found in the phosphate rocks. The results of uranium content determinations with the help of ÿssion track and neutron activation analysis techniques show a remarked resemblance up to ±0:1%. This indicates that the ÿssion track analysis technique of uranium content determination is a reliable method inspite of its simplicity. The uranium content in the Kakul deposits is within the permissible limit allowed for the mining and processing of the phosphate rocks for the manufacturing of fertilizers.