FUNCTIONAL STATUS AMONG PATIENTS WITH STAGE III PARKINSON’S DISEASE

Aims Of Study: The purpose of the study was to assess the functional capabilities of patients with Stage III Parkinson's disease (PD). Functional status of PD patients declines due to impaired postural reflexes and characteristic loss of balance which became evident at Stage III thus activities of daily living (ADLs) are compromised as the severity of the disease increases. Methodology:  Descriptive case series was conducted on stage III PD patients (n=64). Patients with age ranges from 45 to 75 years were recruited and patients with other neurological issues were excluded. They were assessed using a Functional independence measure scale having reliability 0.95. Results: Out of 64 patients, 75% required minimal assistance and 9.4% required supervision while performing the ADLs. Whereas, 81% of patients need 2 hours of personal care assistance according to burden of care. Limitations & Future Implications: Only functional status of PD patient is determined no exercise regime or intervention were incorporated to assess their impact on the PD patient functional activities. Thus, future studies should be carried out to find the correlation between aerobic exercises and their impact on PD patient level of functional independence. Originality: Information added was all taken from databases and reduced to similarity index and was not submitted to any other journal. Conclusion: Stage III Parkinson’s disease patient required minimal level of assistance while performing tasks of daily living. However, majority of these patients required 2 hours of personal care assistance on average per day to compete with daily living.

Analyzing Effects of Air Decks on Fragmentation and Economics of Bench Blasting

The airdeck blasting technique has been used in the past to reduce the explosive charge and to improve the rock fragmentation. However, the mining and construction industry of Pakistan has always been reluctant to use airdecks in their blasting operations. This is due to the fact that researchers and practitioners have a divided opinion about the efficiency of this technique. In fact, several attempts in the past have been made to find out the best position and optimum length of airdeck for better fragmentation. Since, in the previous studies most of experiments were carried out under varying geological conditions, it was very difficult to suggest the best possible location and optimum length for airdeck in an explosive column for better fragmentation. In order to find out the best position of airdeck in explosive column that yields better fragmentation, it was necessary to carry out all experiments on homogeneous material and in controlled geological conditions. So that research findings indicate a correlation between the concerned variables only and a benchmark research could be established. Therefore, special homogeneous concrete blocks were designed for this research. These concrete blocks eliminated the heterogeneity and anisotropy of rock material, such as the fractures, folds, faults and joints of rock. Such factors have been found to play a very crucial role in the size of debris produced from the blasted rock material. This research will address two fundamental questions; the technical and the economic efficiency of the airdeck blasting technique. All the blasting experiments in this study were carried out in two phases. In the first phase, a series of small scale experiments was conducted using homogeneous concrete blocks. In order to find out the proper position and optimized length of the airdeck, it was ensured that the concrete blocks had almost the same uniaxial compressive strength. More than 40 tests with concrete blocks were performed for this purpose. The evaluation of fragmentation by sieve analysis revealed that an improved rock fragmentation was achieved when the airdeck was placed in the center of the explosive column. Moreover, it was also observed that the mean blasted rock fragment size increased with the increase in airdeck size and the best results were achieved at 20% airdeck length. In the second phase of this research, the results of experimentation on concrete blocks were validated on relatively homogeneous limestone at two cement quarries: DG. Cement Chakwal and Askari Cement Nizampur. Several test blasts were carried out with full column charge without airdeck and with 20% airdeck length placed at middle of explosive column. The analysis of fragmentation for the benches after blast was done using Split Desktop software. Subsequently it was deciphered that at both the cement quarries, better fragmentation was achieved by placing airdeck at middle of explosive column as compared to when there was no airdeck in the full column charge. This research work also includes the use of multiple airdeck lengths placed at middle position of explosive column for the limestone quarry and the results indicate improved fragmentation. The results of this research work clearly indicate that airdeck, when placed at middle position of an explosive column produce more uniform blasted rock size distribution compared to that at other positions. Moreover, the optimum length of airdeck is 20% of the total length of explosive column and it improves environmental factors like fly rocks, air blast, ground vibrations etc. The underlying reason behind this is that the airdeck at middle position results in multiple impacts of shock wave that leads to an efficient transfer of explosive energy in the surrounding rocks. Economic analysis of explosive cost at both quarries was also conducted in this study. From economic analysis at DG Cement Chakwal, it was observed that up to 2.5 rupees per tonne of explosive cost could be saved by adopting 20% mid-airdeck length in the explosive column as compared to the cost incurred for conventional blasting techniques. By using above mentioned technique, saving per tonne can be increased by 16% and rupees 750,000 can be saved at the DG. Cement quarry monthly assuring an annual saving of rupees 9 million. Similarly, the economic analysis conducted from the results of blasting at Askari Cement Nizampur, it was observed that 2.6 rupees per tonne of explosive cost can be saved by adopting 20% mid-airdeck length in the explosive column to enhance the fragments as compared to the cost incurred for conventional blasting techniques. Therefore, using 20% mid-airdeck length in explosive column, saving per tonne can be increased by 10.4% and rupees 468,000 can be saved at the Askari Cement quarry monthly assuring an annual saving of 5.6 million rupees. By using 20% airdeck lengths in explosive column, Rs. 44.33 million can be saved annually for explosive used by Punjab, province of Pakistan. This amount can be calculated for other provinces of the Pakistan as well. There are many other minerals is Pakistan which require blasting for their production. If we could use the improved airdeck blasting technique for the production of those minerals, billions of rupees can be saved annually. Moreover, by incorporating the effect of even fragmentation from blasting on downstream processes like crushing, milling etc. millions of rupees can be saved. It is anticipated that this study will provide answers and guide lines to researchers and practitioners who were confused about best location and optimum length of airdeck to be used in explosive column for achieving the optimum fragmentation.