BackgroundThe inappropriate use of antibiotics in hospitals increases resistance, morbidity, and mortality. Little is currently known about appropriate antibiotic use among hospitals in Lahore, the capital city of Pakistan.MethodsLongitudinal surveillance was conducted over a period of 2 months among hospitals in Lahore, Pakistan. Antibiotic treatment was considered inappropriate on the basis of a wrong dosage regimen, wrong indication, or both based on the British National Formulary.ResultsA total of 2022 antibiotics were given to 1185 patients. Out of the total prescribed, approximately two-thirds of the study population (70.3%) had at least one inappropriate antimicrobial. Overall, 27.2% of patients had respiratory tract infections, and out of these, 62.8% were considered as having inappropriate therapy. Cephalosporins were extensively prescribed among patients, and in many cases, this was inappropriate (67.2%). Penicillins were given to 283 patients, out of which 201 (71.0%) were prescribed for either the wrong indication or dosage or both. Significant variations were also observed regarding inappropriate prescribing for several antimicrobials including the carbapenems (70.9%), aminoglycosides (35.8%), fluoroquinolones (64.2%), macrolides (74.6%) and other antibacterials (73.1%).ConclusionEducational interventions, institutional guidelines, and antimicrobial stewardship programs need to be developed to enhance future appropriate antimicrobial use in hospitals in Pakistan. Policies by healthcare and Government officials are also needed to minimize inappropriate antibiotic use.

A detailed model is developed for analyzing fiber grating external cavity lasers for both static and small-signal modulation conditions. The chip and package parasitics and leakage current induced distortion are included. The composite system is solved analytically in the small-signal regime using a Volterra functional series expansion method. As an application of the model, a thorough analysis of the appearance of nulls close to the harmonics of the cavity resonance frequency in the noise and modulation spectra is given. We show that the appearance of these nulls can be explained using the interplay of amplitude and phase coupling between laser diode and external resonant cavity. A signal flow graph approach is introduced which identifies methods of minimizing the nulls.

Background There is growing evidence of the need to consider cultural factors in the design and implementation of digital health interventions. However, there is still inadequate knowledge pertaining to the aspects of the Saudi Arabian culture that need to be considered in the design and implementation of digital health programs, especially in the context of home health care services for patients who are chronically and terminally ill. Objective This study aims to explore the specific cultural factors related to patients and their caregivers from the perspective of physicians, nurses, and trainers that have influenced the pilot implementation of Remotely Accessible Healthcare At Home, a connected health program in the Home Health Care department at King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods A qualitative study design was adopted to conduct a focus group discussion in July 2019 using a semistructured interview guide with 3 female and 4 male participants working as nurses, family physicians, and information technologists. Qualitative data obtained were analyzed using a thematic framework analysis. Results A total of 2 categories emerged from the focus group discussion that influenced the experiences of digital health program intervention: first, culture-related factors including language and communication, cultural views on using cameras during consultation, nonadherence to web-based consultations, and family role and commitment and second, caregiver characteristics in telemedicine that includes their skills and education and electronic literacy. Participants of this study revealed that indirect contact with patients and their family members may work as a barrier to proper communication through the Remotely Accessible Healthcare At Home program. Conclusions We recommend exploring the use of interpreters in digital health, creating awareness among the local population regarding privacy in digital health, and actively involving direct family members with the health care providers.

We report a method that enables an external-cavity semiconductor laser to be actively mode locked at multiples of the radio frequency (rf) drive frequency. The key to this method is the choice of the relationship between the external cavity resonance frequency and the rf drive frequency. The repetition rate of the output pulses is the lowest common multiple of the external cavity resonance frequency and the rf modulation frequency. The method has been demonstrated in a laser with a cavity resonance frequency of 1 GHz; 17 GHz pulse streams were generated using rf drive frequencies of 8.49 and 5.67 GHz.

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