Use of Machine Learning (ML) methodologies in optical communications has paved a new pathway. In this paper, firstly, we discuss the use of ML methodologies for reducing optical fiber nonlinearities, nonlinearity compensation, fault detection and optical performance monitoring. Then we present our recent work where we compare RL-SARSA and SVM based method with conventional method. The results show that RL-SARSA and SVM methods are successful candidates in mitigating the nonlinearities in proposed system as compared to conventional optical communication system.

We propose a 10-Gb/s 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal-based Radio over Fiber (RoF) system for 50 km of standard single mode fiber length which utilizes Reinforcement Learning (RL) SARSA based decision method to indicate an effective decision which mitigates nonlinearity. By utilizing RL-SARSA algorithm, the results demonstrate that significant reduction can be obtained in terms of bit error rate.

Machine learning (ML) methodologies have been looked upon recently as a potential candidate for mitigating nonlinearity issues in optical communications. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate a 40-Gb/s 256-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal-based Radio over Fiber (RoF) system for 50 km of standard single mode fiber length which utilizes support vector machine (SVM) decision method to indicate an effective nonlinearity mitigation. The influence of different impairments in the system is evaluated that includes the influences of Mach-Zehnder Modulator nonlinearities, in-phase and quadrature phase skew of the modulator. By utilizing SVM, the results demonstrated in terms of bit error rate and eye linearity suggest that impairments are significantly reduced and licit input signal power span of 5dBs is enlarged to 15 dBs.

Agricultural intensification has been adopted as a viable option for Poverty eradication and hunger, attainment of food security, socio-economic wellbeing as well as sustainable livelihood across the West Africa sub-humid and semi-arid zones. Thus, there is need to identify and address the challenges of sustainable livelihoods in the agriculture-intensive semi-arid and dry sub-humid zones of West Africa. This was addressed through review of relevant literature and analysis of environmental parameters from recent research by the authors to unveil the environmental uncertainties that threaten the sustainability of agriculture and human livelihoods across the ecologically fragile regions of West Africa, using pointers from Nigeria. The research identified the fundamental challenges, adaptation and mitigation approaches to environmental constraints, and requirements for reducing risk, enhance agricultural resilience as well as livelihoods in the zones. This was based on the premise that primarily, the use of adequate and accurately derived environmental information is crucial for increased agricultural productivity, sustainability of economic diversification and human livelihoods and by implication, enhanced regional and national security.

We investigate the behavior of thermal quantum coherence in the Heisenberg XXX model for a two-qubit system placed in independently controllable Inhomogeneous magnetic fields applied to two qubits respectively. We discuss the behavior of quantum coherence by systematically varying the coupling parameter, magnetic field, and temperature for both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic cases. The results show the interesting behavior of quantum coherence in a certain range of parameters. Generally, it is observed that quantum correlations decay with temperature, but in the ferromagnetic case with uniform magnetic interaction, it rises with temperature up to a certain threshold value and ultimately it decreases its value to zero. Moreover, it is observed that preserving the quantum coherence for small temperatures is very hard with the increasing magnetic field because, at small temperatures, quantum coherence decays sharply with the increase in magnetic field whereas at larger temperatures it decays completely at fairly large values of the magnetic field. The variation of quantum coherence with uniform magnetic field in the antiferromagnetic case is observed to be Gaussian for larger temperature but at zero or nearly zero temperature, it behaves as a constant function for uniform magnetic field up to a threshold value and then decays to zero with an infinite slope. This shows the signature of quantum phase transition from quantum nature to classicality.

The recently emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused a major outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and instigated a widespread fear and has threatened global health security. Although phenomenal efforts are in progress to effectively combat this COVID-19 outbreak. Still, no licensed antiviral drugs or vaccines are available, and treatment is limited to supportive care and few repurposed drugs. In this urgency situation, computational drug discovery methods provide both an alternative and a supplement to tiresome high-throughput screening, particularly in the hit-to-lead-optimization stage. Identification of small molecules that specifically target viral replication apparatus has shown the most successful strategy in antiviral drug discovery. The present study deals with the identification of potential compounds that specifically interact with SARS-CoV-2 vital proteins, including main protease (Mpro), Nsp12 RNA-dependent-RNA-polymerase (RdRp) and Nsp13 helicase. A constructive and integrated virtual screening efforts together with molecular dynamics simulations identified potential binding modes and favourable molecular interaction profile of corresponding compounds. Moreover, structurally important binding site residues in conserved motifs located inside the active site are elucidated, which displayed relative importance in ligand binding based on residual energy decomposition analysis. Although the current study lacks experimental validation, the structural information obtained from this computational study paved the way to identify and design specific targeted inhibitors to combat COVID-19 outbreak.

The contemporary landscape of eHealth is characterized by major concerns related to electronic medical records (EMRs). In an EMR, critical patient health information gets its own repository, which is the core of the eHealth system. Notably, the EMR not only retrieves health information generated in ambulatory clinical settings but also includes court-generated records. These overlapping records assume the role of a foundational data source for a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR). This scholarly review sheds light on recent trends in medical records and associated challenges, while at the same time providing insights into Saudi Arabia’s targeted approaches to healthcare delivery. Additionally, the talk expands to include a description of blockchain technology and its underlying conceptual framework. This demonstration positions blockchain technology as a promising approach that requires consideration for future use in the healthcare system.

Hyperlipidemia is an identified risk factor for metabolic syndrome, obesity and cardiovascular complications characterized by elevated levels of lipids in blood. The present study aimed to inhibit HMG-CoA reductase with 15-oxoursolic acid through in-vivo and in-silico assessments. HFD-induced hyperlipidemia in rats was developed with a marked increase in total cholesterol (58.34 ± 0.21 mg/dl), triglycerides (45.45 ± 0.39 mg/dl), LDL-c (66.12 ± 0.10 mg/dl), VLDL-c (19.34 ± 0.16 mg/dl), and a decrease in HDL-c (10.34 ± 0.18 mg/dl). The oral administration of 15-oxoursolic acid at a concentration of 30 mg/Kg b.w significantly reduced the serum concentration of total cholesterol (42.65 ± 0.54 mg/dl), triglycerides (32.33 ± 0.16 mg/dl), LDL-c (50.34 ± 0.15 mg/dl) and VLDL-c (13.15 ± 0.45 mg/dl) respectively and an increased in the serum HDL-c (18.56 ± 0.34 mg/dl). 15-oxo ursolic acid also caused a decrease in the coronary risk index and atherogenic risk index. In-silico studies of 15-oxoursolic acid with HMG-CoA reductase showed significant interaction capability with binding energy (-9.26805 Kcal/mol). It is concluded that 15-oxoursolic acid could significantly reduce the total cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL levels in HFD-induced hyperlipidemia rats which might lead to new medication with significant hypolipidemic potential.

Measuring pulmonary nodules accurately can help with early diagnosis of lung cancer, which can improve a patient’s chances of survival. Many methods for segmenting nodules have been developed, but they all rely on input from radiologists in the form of a 3D volume of interest (VOI) or use a constant region of interest (ROI) and only consider the presence of nodule within the given VOI. These approaches limit the networks’ ability to detect nodules outside the given VOI and can also include unnecessary structures in the VOI, leading to potentially inaccurate segmentation. In this work, we propose a novel approach for 3D lung nodule segmentation by using 2D region of interest (ROI) inputted from radiologist or computer-aided detection (CADe) system. Particularly, we design a dual-encoder-based hard attention network (DEHA-Net) which incorporates the full slice of thoracic computed tomography scan along with the ROI mask to produce an accurate segmentation mask of lung nodule in the given slice. The proposed architecture exploits the adaptive region of interest (A-ROI) algorithm to automatically investigates the penetration of lung nodule into surrounding slices while eliminating the need to drawing separate ROIs in each slice. Further, the framework performs the multi-view analysis, i.e., in sagittal and coronal views, to improve the segmentation performance. The proposed scheme has been rigorously evaluated on the lung image database consortium and image database resource initiative (LIDC/IDRI) dataset and an extensive analysis of results have been performed. The quantitative analysis shows that the proposed method not only improves the existing state-of-the-art in term of dice score but also, significantly robust against the different types, shape and dimensions of lung nodules.

Rapidly changing dynamics of globalization and increasing market competition are causing the companies all around the world confronting several new challenges and opportunities. To be competitive and successful apart from relative importance of physical resources, companies must adapt modern strategies and policies regarding market flexibility and development. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the relationship between intellectual capital and firm value. Furthermore, the moderating role of managerial ownership has been evaluated with the help of regression analysis. The sample included the panel data taken from non-financial firms listed on Pakistan stock exchange (PSX) covering the period 2010-2015. A sample of 79 firms out of 384 firms have been selected with the help of systematic sampling technique. VAIC (Value Added Intellectual Coefficient) model has been used for the calculation of intellectual capital. Tobin's Q has been taken as a measure of firm value. Managerial ownership has been tested as moderator. Based on data analysis, it is concluded that the relationship between intellectual capital and firm value is positively significant. It is also concluded that managerial ownership moderates the relationship between intellectual capital and firm value negatively.

Human displacement is on the rise globally, and the increase in the burden of tuberculosis (TB) is also attributed to migrations worldwide. A significant number of such displacement occur in regions with considerably higher areas of TB burden. Displacements may delay in TB diagnosis and treatment, which possibly will lead to TB transmission among healthy individuals. In this study, we assessed the association of existing determinants after a protracted internal displacement of people with the delay in TB diagnosis and treatment outcomes. A cross-sectional study was conducted on internally displaced TB patients registered at selected health facilities in three urban districts of Pakistan from March 2019 to February 2020. The univariate and multivariate logistic regression model was used to assess the delay in diagnosis and treatment outcomes. IDPs with delay in initiation of treatment beyond 30 days were at high possibility of unsuccessful TB treatment outcomes (adjusted odds ratio AOR,2.60; 95% CI 1.06-6.40). Analysis of factors that affect health seeker behavior and timely treatment showed a significant association (p<0.05) in-between age group 55-65 years (AOR, 2.66; 95% CI 1.00-7.07), female patients (AOR, 2.42; 95% CI 1.21-4.81), visited non-formal health provider (AOR, 8.81; 95% CI 3.99-19.46), self-medication (AOR, 2.72; 95 % CI 1.37-5.37), poor knowledge of TB (AOR, 11.39; 95% CI 3.31-39.1), and perceived stigma (AOR, 8.81; 95% CI 3.99-19.4). Prolong delay in treatment was associated with unfavorable treatment outcomes among IDPs, more specifically. As migrants and IDPs are more likely to experience an interruption in care due to overall exclusion from social and health care services. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the barriers in providing public health care services, particularly in preventing and treating TB.

This paper presents a symmetrical topology for the design of solid-state transformer, made up of power switching converters, to replace conventional bulky transformers. The proposed circuitry not only reduces the overall size but also provides power flow control with the ability to be interfaced with renewable energy resources (RESs) to fulfill the future grid requirements at consumer end. Solid state transformer provides bidirectional power flow with variable voltage and frequency operation and has the ability to maintain unity power factor, and current total harmonic distortion (THD) for any type of load within defined limits of IEEE standard. Solid State Transformer offers much smaller size as compared to that of the conventional iron core transformer. MATLAB/Simulink platform is adopted to test the validity of the proposed circuit for different scenarios by providing the simulation results evaluated at 25 kHz switching frequency.

Recently there is a growing concern regarding potential health hazards linked with 5G deployment and radio frequency emitted by these stations. It becomes fundamentally important to scientifically address these concerns. In this paper, the health risks incorporated with 5G are discussed critically in the light of scientific work and debunk these tittle-tattles where required. We confute scientifically the “5G appeal”, discuss effects of 5G on health, its implications on privacy, pandemics, ecosystem and role of world health organization in fighting these narratives. Finally, we provide future direction to negate these false claims linked with 5G.

Sugarcane is an important industrial crop of semitropical and tropical areas. Due to the importance of this crop it is cultivated on nearly 20 million hectares by more than 90 countries. This crop belongs to family Poaceae, a grass family which is economically vital tracheophyte family that has properties much like that of wheat, maize, rice and sorghum. The Poaceae family is globally vital for providing dietary macromolecules, carbohydrates, and different nutrients. The most important item of sugarcane for the consumption is sucrose that gets accumulated in the stalk internodes. Sucrose is taken out and refined by different mills which is used as a sweetener in human food industries and in the fermentation industry. Large production of alcohol is attained by Brazilian sugarcane industries.

Patients satisfaction with fast and high-quality services is the most important in the healthcare settings and specially in outpatient departments and private clinics. High quality services on health sector are indicated by continuous quality improvement (CQI). CQI is a progressive incremental process focused on safety of all participants, outcomes, systematic process, regulated and improved working environment at the later than earlier stages. Among the various suggested strategies, we adopted the patents feedback to improve the quality of services our clinic. All of the patient visited hospital were sent a massage on mobile and requested to provide their feedback on our services. Roughly around 5% of all visitors responded and filled up questionnaire. Majority of them were satisfied with the services in various department. However, they provided us some suggestions to identify the further gaps and improve the services in improving patients experience at our clinic. We considered their feedback, identified problems, redesigned the policies and implemented. After implementation of new strategies, we preliminary again evaluated the patients’ feedback on our services. Patients feedback explores that optimized methods of services for the has considerably increased the patients’ satisfaction. Taken together, our this shows that patients’ feedback is very important factor to improve patients’ experience at outpatient clinics using continuous quality improvement tools. For that reason, this study would serve as reference for public health stack holders, administrators and researchers.

Single cell proteins are the dead dried cells of microorganisms or purified protein isolated from microorganism’s cell culture, used as a food supplement to humans’ food and animals feed. World suffer from malnutrition particularly developing countries, due to rapid increase in population, increased the demand for protein and nutrients requirement. Bacteria is potential microorganism for SCP production due to high protein content, fast generation time, bio-active secondary metabolites production and can grow on various substrates. Actinobacteria species and strain have capability to produce biological active compounds, produced about two-thirds of antibiotics available in the market, actively used as antibiotics, antiprotozoal, antifungal, antiviral, anticancer, anticholesterol, antihelminth and immunosuppressant. Actinomycetes can be used as probiotic as well as single cell protein that will deal with antibiotic as well as protein source.

In this paper, we discuss voltage control method for buck converter operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM) using analog feedback system. The aim of this work is to control the output voltage of a buck converter during the variation in load current. This is obtained using analog feedback made with operational amplifier (Opamp). However, the same technique can be applied to other DC-DC converters (e.g boost, buck-boost, cuk converter, etc) in CCM mode, but for the purpose of analysis buck converter is chosen as an example.

The paper discusses how joint damage and deterioration affect the seismic response of existing reinforced concrete frames with sub-standard beam-column joints. The available simplified modeling techniques are critically reviewed to propose a robust, yet computationally efficient technique for simulating the nonlinear behavior of substandard beam-column joints. Improvements over the existing models include simulation of the cyclic deterioration of joint stiffness and strength as well as pinching in the hysteretic response, implemented considering a deteriorating hysteretic rule. A fibre-section forced-based inelastic beam-column element is developed; considering improved material models and fixed-end rotation due to bond failure, rebars-slip and inelastic extension, to simulate the deteriorating cyclic behavior of existing pre-cracked beam-column members. For the assessment of frames with substandard exterior beam-column joints, a nonlinear model for the exterior joint is developed and validated through a full-scale quasi-static cyclic test performed on a substandard T-joint connection. The proposed model allows considering structural performance in risk assessment while accounting for true inelastic mechanisms at the joints.

Voltage Stability & Control, is very crucial compared to other Power System (PS) Quality and Stability issues. Long-Vertical-Power-Flows in Conventional Grids, causes voltage drops which in turn causes huge power losses, especially in the Medium Voltage (MV) and Low Voltage (LV) Distribution Networks. Such technical losses in abysmally-planned weak distribution networks, lead to substantial loss of revenues to the utility grid. Apart from classic Voltage Regulation (VR) techniques, with the rise of Distributed Generation (DG) based on Renewable Energy Sources (RES), Horizontal-Power-Flows can be introduced in the network, through various Smart Grid techniques. Coupling such sources, near load centers shall mitigate long flows from expensive conventional sources at times of huge demands, improving feeders’ Voltage Profile. This Ancillary Service of Voltage Support from DG RESs shall thereby alleviate revenue losses caused by long-power-flows in weak distribution grids. For a developing country like Pakistan, loss of revenue from an already expensive utility gives huge blow to the economy. So, a similar technique for voltage support is proposed for an 11-kV feeder, which faces similar problem, and the results are remarkable. The technique is implemented using OpenDSS Tool by modelling 3MWp PV Penetration along with some future storage.

: Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen involved in number of hospital acquired infections such as catheter-associated urinary tract infections, bacteremia, septicemia, skin infections and ventilator-associated pneumoniae. Biofilm formation is an important trait implicated in chronic infections, such as cystic fibrosis and chromic pulmonary obstruction. Method: A total of 266 isolates were collected from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP). Antibiotic susceptibility was assessed by double disk synergy testing. ESBL and Modified Hodge testing was performed for phenotypic confirmation of carbapenemases. Molecular screening of the genes was done by PCR. Micro-dilution broth method was used to determine minimum inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics. Biofilm formation was done by micro-titer plate assay. Results: Overall, 20% of the P. aeruginosa isolates were extensively drug resistant (XDR-PA) and 25% were multi-drug-resistant (MDR-PA). Likewise, 43% of the isolates were ESBL producers and carbapenemase production was detected in 40% of the isolates. Molecular analysis confirmed occurrence of different resistant factors in ESBL positive isolates; 67% carried bla-TEM, 62% bla-CTXM-15, 41% bla-SHV, 34% bla-CTXM-14 and 33% bla-OXA-1. In addition, 68% of carbapenem-resistant isolates were positive for bla-NDM-1, 25% for bla-OXA-48 and 22% for bla-KPC-2. Biofilm formation was tested for 234 isolates, out of which 28% were strong biofilm formers. Moderate and weak biofilm formers were 46% and 23% respectively. Overall, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and cefepime showed inhibitory effects on P. aeruginosa biofilms. Antibiotics in combination showed strong synergistic effects (ciprofloxacin &amp; cefepime); while gentamicin and cefepime resulted into complete eradication of P. aeruginosa biofilm. Conclusion: We confirm strong synergistic effects of gentamicin and cefepime that completely eradicated P. aeruginosa biofilm. We further confirm inhibitory effects of ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and cefepime on P. aeruginosa biofilms.

The ubiquitin-specific protease 2 (USP) belongs to the family of deubiquitinases and plays a critical role in tumors cells’ survival and therefore signifies an important therapeutic target. Previous studies have indicated promising efficacies of potent human USP2 inhibitors including, thiopurine analogues against SARS-CoV papain-like proteases (PLpro). The PLpro have significant functional implications in the innate immune response during SARS-CoV-2 infection and considered an important antiviral target. Both proteases share strikingly similar USP fold with right-handed thumb–palm–fingers structural scaffold and conserved catalytic triad Cys-His-Asp/Asn. In this urgency situation of COVID-19 outbreak, there is a lack of in-vitro facilities readily available to test SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors in whole-cell assays. Therefore, we adopted an alternate route to identify potential USP2 inhibitor through integrated structure-based virtual screening efforts. After a subsequent virtual screening protocol, the best compounds were selected and tested. The compound Z93 showed significant IC₅₀ value against Jurkat (9.67 µM) and MOTL-4 cells (11.8 µM). The binding mode of Z93 was extensively analyzed through molecular docking, followed by MD simulations, and molecular interactions were compared with SARS-CoV-2. The relative binding poses of Z93 fitted well in the binding site of both proteases and showed consensus π-π stacking and H-bond interactions with histidine and aspartate/asparagine residues of the catalytic triad. These results led us to speculate that compound Z93 might be the first potential chemical lead against SARS-CoV-2 PLpro, which warrants in-vitro evaluations.

Objective: The private healthcare providers (PHCP) are believed to improve access to healthcare services in Public-Private Mix (PPM) projects, as they are considered first point of contact for healthcare. The purpose of this study was to know the satisfaction level of TB patients. Design: A questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study was carried out during November and December 2017 for 572 under-treatment patients registered with PHCPs in the PPM project. Lot quality assurance sampling technique was used to randomly select 19 districts from sample frame of 75 districts. In each selected district, data collector retrieved TB register of 8 months (Jan – Aug 2017) and systematically selected patients by fixed periodic interval. SPSS (version 24.0) was used to analyze the data. Results: Study included 53% (n=301) of males and 47% (n=271) of females, with mean age of 38 years (SD, ±18). Almost half of the participants were illiterate (51%, n=289) and 64% (n=365) were non-earning members of the family. In practice, most of the participants visit private providers (71%, n=407), including private hospital/clinic (44%) and traditional practitioners (27%; n=153). 55% of participants visited the current doctor because of clinic’s proximity to residence. 82% of the participants (n=469) were satisfied with the TB care services and 85% (n=488) said that they would recommend this clinic to others. Conclusion: PHCPs are preferred providers for individuals, which is consistent with findings of other studies. Though they are satisfied with TB care and services, interventions should be introduced to reduce the financial burden on the patient. Partnering PHCP is a way forward to ensure universal health coverage, health system strengthening and better health outcomes of the population.

The governance of public sector infrastructure projects became an important topic of interest in the project, programme and portfolio management literature during the last decade. Today, it is becoming a central focus for policymakers seeking to ensure success in selecting, designing and implementing government-sponsored programme of multi-projects. Due to the multiple underlying risks and complexities, the governance of infrastructure programme constitutes a critical element in strategic planning in developing countries. This paper has analyzed infrastructure development programme and revealed shortcomings in the areas of appraisal, decision-making, quality assurance and stakeholder management. Approaches to remedy these shortcomings have been proposed.

Silybum marianum L. is a well-known medicinal herb, primarily used in liver protection. Light strongly affects several physiological processes along with secondary metabolites biosynthesis in plants. Herein, S. marianum was exploited for in vitro potential under different light regimes in the presence of melatonin. The optimum callogenic response occurred in combination of 1.0 mg/L α-naphthalene acetic acid and 0.5 mg/L 6-Benzylaminopurine under photoperiod. Continuous light associated with melatonin treatment increased total flavonoid content (TFC), total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant potential, followed by photoperiod and dark treatments. The increased level of melatonin has a synergistic effect on biomass accumulation under continuous light and photoperiod, while adverse effect was observed under dark condition. More detailed phytochemical analysis showed maximum total silymarin content (11.92 mg/g DW) when placed under continuous light + 1.0 mg/L melatonin. Individually, the level of silybins (A and B), silydianin, isolsilychristin and silychristin was found highest under continuous light. Anti-inflammatory activities were also studied and highest percent inhibition was recorded against 15-LOX for cultures cultivated under continuous light (42.33%). The current study helps to better understand the influence of melatonin and different light regimes on silymarin production as well as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities in S. marianum callus extracts.

Keywords: Electrical power systems, Support vector machines, Random Forest, Machine learning, Wavelet transform, Transmission lines fault, Electrical power quality, Short circuit, Classification of faults, Localization of faults, Decision trees, Ensemble learning, K-nearest neighbors.

The outbreak of 2019-novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes severe respiratory infection (COVID-19) has spread in China, and the world health organization declared it pandemic. However, no approved drug or vaccines are available, and treatment is mainly supportive and through a few repurposed drugs. In this urgency situation, development of SARS-CoV-2 based vaccines is immediately required. Immunoinformatic and molecular modelling are generally used time-efficient methods to accelerate the discovery and design of the candidate peptides for vaccine development. In recent years, the use of multiepitope vaccines is proved to be a promising immunization strategy against viruses and pathogens, which induce more comprehensive protective immunity. The current study demonstrated a comprehensive in-silico strategy to design stable multiepitope vaccine construct (MVC) from B-cell and T-cell epitopes of essential SARS-CoV-2 proteins with the help of adjuvants and linkers. The integrated molecular dynamics simulations analysis revealed the stability of MVC and its interaction with human Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which trigger an innate and adaptive immune response. Later, the in-silico cloning in a known pET28a vector system also estimated the possibility of MVC expression in E. Coli. Despite this study lacks validation of this vaccine construct in terms of its efficacy, the current integrated strategy encompasses the initial multiple epitope vaccine design concepts. After validation, this MVC can present to be a better prophylactic solution against COVID-19.

Glaciers in northern Pakistan are a prime source of fresh water, providing headwater in the Indus River System and serving as a lifeline to millions of people in the region. These glaciers undergo continuous changes by melting due to global warming or accumulation due to snowfall/precipitation at higher altitudes. In this study, we used remote sensing data to quantify glacier changes in spatiotemporal variability in the past three decades. Five glaciers in the Gilgit region (near the junction of the Hindukush and Karakoram Mountains) with an extent of less than 5 square kilometers were selected, namely Phakor glacier, Karamber glacier, East Gammu glacier, Bhort glacier, and Bad-e-Swat glacier. The fluctuations in these glaciers were monitored using a digital elevation model (DEM) and a cloud-free continuous series of Landsat satellite pictures from the minimal snow cover season. The annual climatic trends were studied through spatially interpolated gridded climate data WοrldClim version-1 climate database for 1970 – 2000. We used it to study the variations of minimum and maximum temperature, solar radiation, and precipitation by preparing sub-sets from the original global grids. The temporal assessment of Bhort, Bad-e-Sawat, East Gammu, Karamber, and other rivers was also carried out. It is observed that the glaciers in the Gilgit watershed are rather stable. The little variability of glaciers is due to their geographic condition, altitude, topography, and orientation. The mapped glacier classes have been validated to check the accuracy assessment through an error matrix method. The kappa coefficient from the error matrix has been calculated to be 84 %. The study makes a critical input to a greater understanding of watershed controlling and hydrological processes in the upper Indus catchment's Gilgit watershed.

The study focused on investigating the natural incidence of deoxynivalenol (DON) in corn and products from corn producing districts of Punjab, Pakistan. The analysis was carried out using HPLC with UV detector and immunoaffinity cleanup columns. The detection limit (LOD) and limit of quantification were 25 and 50 µg/kg, respectively. Total 1220 samples of corn and products were analyzed to detect the DON, and 539 (44.2%) samples were observed to be contaminated with DON (n ≥ LOD). Furthermore, 92 (7.5%) samples of corn & products have DON levels, elevated than the proposed limits of the EU. The data is significantly different from a normal distribution for DON in corn and products samples and from different locations (p < 0.05) for Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogorov-Smirnov values. However, a significant difference in DON levels was found between corn and corn derived-products types (p ≤ 0.05). The lowest and highest exposure & hazard quotient (HQ) of 0.92 and 9.68 µg/kg bw/d were documented in cornflour samples.

The microenvironment of most tumors is complex, comprising numerous aspects of immunosuppression. Several studies have indicated that the adrenergic system is vital for controlling immunological responses. In the context of tumor microenvironment, Nor-Adrenaline (NA) is poured-in by innervating nerves and tumor tissues itself. The receptors for nor-adrenaline are present on the surface of cancer and immune cells and are often involved in activation of pro-tumoral signaling pathways. β2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR) is an emerging class of receptors that are capable of modulating the functioning of immune cells. β2-AR is reported to activate the regulatory immune cells and inhibit the effector immune cells. Blocking β2-AR increases activation, proliferation and cytokine release of T lymphocytes. Moreover β2-AR deficiency during metabolic reprograming of T cells increases mitochondrial membrane potential and biogenesis. In the view of available research data, immunosuppressive role of β2-AR in T cells presents it a targetable checkpoint in CAR-T cell therapies. In this review, we have abridged contemporary knowledge about adrenergic stress mediated β2-AR activation on T lymphocytes inside tumor milieu.

The extended finite element method (XFEM) is now widely used in crack simulations and the direction of propagation of the XFEM crack in SS-304 has been quite interesting. This paper discusses the direction,θ(+ve in anti-clockwise direction), of the XFEM crack (under mode-I) propagation based on the von Mises stress-field around the crack-tip for static loading under the light water reactors (LWRs) conditions. The Mises core region from the crack-tip is chosen for β=〖90〗^o, the angle between the load and the initial crack. Experimental data for LWRs’environment is obtained and the simulations have been carried out applying three different static loads and results for the direction of the crack are calculated by measuring the stress-field around the crack-tip. It has been found that the direction of the XFEM varies inversely as the stress-field around the crack tip is increased. The computational results have been compared with the numerical results based on the minimum strain energy density criterion[S-criterion].

A new class of tetrasubstituted imidazole based compounds was synthesized using a multicomponent one-pot synthesis scheme through a cyclo condensation reaction of benzil, aromatic primary amines, aldehydes and ammonium acetate in glacial acetic acid. The synthesized compounds have been analyzed and characterized by melting point, color, conductivity method, CHN analysis, FT-IR, and UV-Visible. The reaction proceeding was examined by TLC after regular intervals of period. To test biological activity, the synthesized compounds have been examined against various bacterial strains. From the analysis of the antibacterial activity of these synthesized compounds demonstrated that all three imidazole compounds have considerable to significant activity against the strains, and compound K2 was found potent comparatively.

The technical capabilities of modern Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 are rather vast and growing exponentially daily. The present-day Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) combines manifold underlying technologies that require real-time interconnections and communications among heterogeneous devices. Smart cities are established with sophisticated designs and control for seamless Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication to optimize resources, costs, performances, and energy distribution. All the sensory devices within a building interact to maintain a sustainable climate for residents and intuitively optimize the energy distribution to optimize energy production. However, it encompasses quite a few challenges for devices that lack compatible and interoperable designs. Conventional solutions are restricted to limited domains or rely on engineers to design and deploy translators for each pair of ontologies. This is a costly process in terms of engineering efforts and computational resources. The issue persists that a new device with a different ontology must be integrated into an existing IoT network. We propose a self-learning model that can determine the taxonomy of devices given their ontology meta-data and structural information. The model finds matches between two distinct ontologies using the Natural Language Processing (NLP) approach for learning linguistic contexts. Then, by visualizing the ontology network as a knowledge graph, it is possible to learn the structure of the meta-data and understand the device's message formulation. Finally, it can align entities of both ontology graphs similar in context and structure. Furthermore, the model performs dynamic M2M translation without requiring extra engineering or hardware efforts.

A total of 744 samples of vegetable seeds and oil (soybean, sunflower, canola, olive, corn, and mustard) were collected for the presence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and total aflatoxins (AFs). The results have shown that 92 (56.7%) samples of branded and 108 (57%) samples of non-branded edible seeds were observed to be contaminated with AFs. The maximum mean of AFB1 and total AFs in non-branded soybean seeds was 21.01 ± 4.70 and 36.37 ± 6.10 µg/kg, respectively. Furthermore, all samples of edible seeds have concentrations of AFB1 greater than the proposed limit of European Union (EU, 2 µg/kg) and 12 (7.40%) samples of branded seeds and 14 (7.40%) samples of non-branded seeds were found in the range ≥ 50 µg/kg. About 78 (43.3%) samples of branded edible oil and 103 (48.3%) sample of non-branded edible oil were observed to be positive with AFs, and the elevated average of AFB1 (14.29 ± 2.51 µg/kg) and total AFs (25.61 ± 7.50) µg/kg were found in non-branded soybean oil samples. Furthermore, 16 (8.88%) and 6 (3.33%) samples of branded vegetable oil have levels of total AFs in a range (21 - 50 µg/kg) and ≥ 50 µg/kg, respectively. The findings have indicated significant difference of AFs levels between branded and non-branded vegetable oil samples (t = 22.274 and p = 0.000) at α = 0.05 and significant difference of AFs levels in vegetable seeds and oil samples ( t = -17.75, p = 0.000) at α =0.05. The highest dietary intake was found in non-branded sunflower oil sample (0.90 µg/kg/day) in female individuals (16-22 age group), followed by the dietary intake of 0.69 µg/kg/day body weight in male individuals (16-22 age group).

The increasing demand by consumers for popular healthy fruits, such as the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), generate substantial bio-wastes, making it imperative to harness the value of these by-products. Watermelon has low-calorie content and several other nutritional benefits that make it suitable for weight management and heart-healthy diets. Within this article, the nutritional composition and bioactives of watermelon which are strongly linked to the prevention of cardiovascular disorders (CVD), cancer, and age-related conditions, will be thoroughly reviewed. In addition, the therapeutic potential effects of watermelon consumption, such as anti-inflammatory, cardio-protective and anti-cancer properties, are also examined, with emphasis to the importance of incorporating watermelon into regular diets for overall health improvement. Additionally, the study explores various applications of watermelon by-products in functional foods, contributing to meeting recommended daily nutrient allowances, as well as in other functional products like cosmetics, with health promoting properties. In conclusion, this comprehensive review underscores the role of watermelon and its by-products for the development of products that can contribute to the prevention of chronic diseases and promote overall well-being

This study endeavors the preparation and evaluation of Phenol Furfural Resin (PFR) from bagasse and its nanocomposites for Electrically Conductive Adhesives (ECAs) application. PFR was prepared with the furfural extracted from bagasse using modified acid digestion method. Three different formulations of PFR nanocomposites with conductive nanoparticles i.e., PFR-silver, PFR-graphite, and PFR-silver + graphite were prepared using 20-60 w/w% of fillers via impregnation method. Resultant products were characterized by FT-IR, SEM, EDS and XRD spectroscopy. Electrical conductivity was measured using four probe technique while band gap was calculated via Tauc plot. Virgin PFR has shown poor conductivity up to 2.6 × 10^-4 Scm^-1 while the highest conductivity achieved was 8.2 × 10^-1 Scm^-1 for nanocomposite constituted silver, graphite, and PFR with 40:30:20 ratios respectively. This synergism was exhibited because graphite and Ag NPs supply excellent junctions for building networks. Both tend to coalesce due to van der Waals forces and high surface energies, therefore conductive pathways numbers can be increased, and contact area can be effectively enlarged. This ternary composite has exhibited the lowest bandgap energy value i.e., 3.1 eV. Thermogravimetric temperatures T₀ and T_deg values were increased up to 120 °C and 484 °C respectively, showing significant increase in thermal stability. Therefore, the resultant nanocomposite material has good potential to be employed as ECAs in electronic industry.

Irrigation water management components evaluation is mandatory for sustainable irrigated agriculture production in the era of water scarcity. In this research spatio-temporal distribution of irrigation water components were evaluated at canal command area in Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) using remote sensing based geo-informatics approach. Satellite derived MODIS product-based Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) was used for the estimation of the Actual Evapotranspiration (ETa). Satellite derived SEBAL based ETa was calibrated and validated using the ground data-based advection aridity method (AA). Statistical analysis of the SEBAL based ETa and AA shows the mean 87.1 mm and 47.9 mm and, 100 mm and 77 mm, Standard deviation of 27.7 mm and 15.9 mm and, 34.9 mm and 16.1 mm, R of 0.93 and 0.94, NSE of 0.72 and 0.85, PBIASE -12.9 and -4.4, RMSE 34.9 and 5.76 for the Kharif and Rabi season, respectively. Rainfall data was acquired from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). TRMM based rainfall was calibrated with the point observatory data of the Pakistan Metrological Department Stations. Canal water data was collected from the Punjab Irrigation department for the assessment of canal water availability. Water The water balance approach was applied in the unsaturated zone for the quantification of the gross and net Groundwater irrigation. Mmonthly variation of ETa with the minimum average value of 63.3 mm in January and the maximum average value of 110.6 mm in August was found. While, the average annual of four cropping years (2011-12 to 2014-15) ETa was found 899 mm. Average of the sum of Net Canal Water Use (NCWU) and Rainfall during the study period of four years was only 548 mm (36% of ETa) and this resulted the 739.6 mm of groundwater extraction. While the annual based variation in groundwater extraction of 632 mm and 780 mm was found. Seasonal analysis revealed 39% and 61% of groundwater extraction proportion during Rabi and Kharif season, respectively. The variation in four cropping year’s monthly groundwater extraction was found 28.7 mm to 120.3 mm. This variation was high in the 2011-12 to 2012-13 cropping year (0 mm to 148.7 mm), dependent upon the occurrence of rainfall and crop phenology. Net groundwater irrigation, estimated after incorporating the efficiencies was 503 mm year-1 on average for the four cropping years.

Conventional plant breeding methods exploit already existing genomic variation in plants to develop a variety in 8 to 10 years, which can decrease the genetic variability of the plant’s genome. The ever-increasing food demand for cereals crops cannot be met by traditional breeding methods. In order to increase food production in less time, there is a dire need to improve breeding methods. Several conventional and molecular breeding methods are being used to improve the crops traits. Molecular researchers have developed new genome editing tools like CRISPR/Cas9, CRISPR/Cpf1, prime editing, base editing, dcas9 epigenetic modification, and several other transgene-free genomes editing approaches. These genome editing tools can improve the desired traits precisely and efficiently. Moreover, a newly developed breeding method “Speed Breeding” has revolutionized the agriculture by shortening the crop cycle. It can produce 5-6 generations of cereals in a year. In this review, we have summarized all these conventional and molecular breeding approaches to improve cereal crops.

The objectives of the current research were to determine the levels of deoxynivalenol (DON) in four different cultivars of corn and subsequently to investigate the fate of DON during pro-cessing steps involved for the production of cornbread. The samples (n = 30) of each cultivar which were found positive were selected for the study. The average level of DON was ranged from LOD to 650 µg/kg. The amount of DON in cornflour samples were ranged from LOD to 630 µg/kg and insignificantly lower than the levels found in corn grain samples (p ≥ 0.05). Further-more, the levels of DON in corn dough samples were insignificantly higher than the levels in cornflour samples (p ≥ 0.05), with levels ranged from LOD to 645 µg/kg. However, the amount of DON in cornbread samples was significantly different from the levels found in corn grains sam-ples (p ≤ 0.05), with levels ranged from LOD to 611.5 µg/kg. The percentage reduction of DON in grains to cornbread samples was 22.4%, 35.6%, 44.5%, and 42.6% in type 1, type 2, type 3, and type 4 cultivars, respectively. The highest dietary exposure and hazard quotient (HQ) of DON was 0.13 and 0.17 µg/kg bw/d, in male and female individuals resulted from the consumption of cornbread samples, respectively.

Deep Neural Network (DNN) inference demands substantial computing power, resulting in significant energy consumption. A large number of negative output activations in convolution layers are rendered zero due to the invocation of the ReLU activation function. This results in a substantial number of unnecessary computations that consume significant amounts of energy. This paper presents ECHO: Energy-efficient Computation Harnessing Onilne Arithmetic - A MSDF-based accelerator for DNN inference, designed for computation pruning, utilizing an unconventional arithmetic paradigm known as online/ most-significant digit first (MSDF) arithmetic which performs computations in a digit-serial manner. The MSDF digital serial computation of online arithmetic enables overlapped computation of successive operations leading to substantial performance improvements. The online arithmetic, coupled with a negative output detection scheme, facilitates early and precise recognition of negative outputs. This, in turn, allows for the timely termination of unnecessary computations, resulting in a reduction of energy consumption. The implemented design has been realized on the Xilinx Virtex-7 VU3P FPGA and subjected to a comprehensive evaluation through a rigorous comparative analysis involving widely used performance metrics. Experimental results demonstrate promising power and throughput improvements compared to contemporary methods. In particular, the proposed design achieved an average improvement in power consumption of up to 81%, 82.9%, and 40.6% for VGG-16, ResNet-18, and ResNet-50 workloads compared to the conventional bit-serial design, respectively. Furthermore, significant average speedups of 2.39×, 2.6×, and 2.42 were observed when comparing the proposed design to conventional bit-serial designs for VGG-16, ResNet-18, and ResNet-50 models respectively.

Herein we foremost detailed the numerical modeling of the double absorber layer- methyl ammonium lead iodide– carbon nitride layer solar cell and subsequently provided in-depth insight on the active layer associated with dominant radiative and non-radiative recombination losses limiting the efficiency ( ) of the solar cell. Under recombination kinetics phenomena, we explored the influence of Radiative recombination, Auger recombination, Shockley Read Hall recombination, the energy distribution of defects; Band Tail recombination (Hoping Model), Gaussian distribution, metastable defect states including single donor (0/+), single acceptor (-/0), Double Donor (0/+/2+), double acceptor (2/-/0-), and the interface layer defects on the output characteristics of the solar cell. Setting defect (or trap) density to with uniform energy distribution of defects for all the layers, we achieved the of 24. 16 %. A considerable enhancement in power conversion efficiency was perceived as we reduced the trap density to for the absorber layers. Further, it was observed that for the absorber layer with double donor defect states, the active layer should be carefully synthesized to reduce crystal order defects to keep the total defect density as low as to achieve efficient device characteristics

This study endeavors the preparation and evaluation of Phenol Furfural Resin (PFR) from bagasse and its nanocomposites for Electrically Conductive Adhesives (ECAs) application. PFR was prepared with the furfural extracted from bagasse using modified acid digestion method. Three different formulations of PFR nanocomposites with conductive nanoparticles i.e., PFR-silver, PFR-graphite, and PFR-silver + graphite were prepared using 20-60 w/w% of fillers via impregnation method. Resultant products were characterized by FT-IR, SEM, EDS and XRD spectroscopy. Electrical conductivity was measured using four probe technique while band gap was calculated via Tauc plot. Virgin PFR has shown poor conductivity up to 2.6 × 10-4 Scm-1 while the highest conductivity achieved was 8.2 × 10-1 Scm-1 for nanocomposite constituted silver, graphite, and PFR with 40:30:20 ratios respectively. This synergism was exhibited because graphite and Ag NPs supply excellent junctions for building networks. Both tend to coalesce due to van der Waals forces and high surface energies, therefore conductive pathways numbers can be increased, and contact area can be effectively enlarged. This ternary composite has exhibited the lowest bandgap energy value i.e., 3.1 eV. Thermogravimetric temperatures T0 and Tdeg values were increased up to 120 °C and 484 °C respectively, showing significant increase in thermal stability. Therefore, the resultant nanocomposite material has good potential to be employed as ECAs in electronic industry.

Gwadar is essential for Pakistan's financial stability. The third deep-water port in Pakistan, Gwadar, plays a significant part in trade between the Gulf countries, Africa, China, United Arab Emirates, and Cordillera Administrative Region. However, the load Shedding of 12-16 hours in Gwadar is the most concerning issue. Pakistan imports 70 MW of electricity from Iran. The wind and solar system are already installed but for a limited residential area. In Gwadar, there are enough renewable energy resources that can be utilized for electricity generation. In this context, a Techno and Economic Analysis is performed using the Hybrid Optimization Model for Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) Pro. Two models are considered for this study. Model-1 includes PV/Wind Turbine/ and Battery while Model-2 consists of PV/Wind Turbine/Converter and Grid. The yearly energy generated by Model-1 and Model-2 is 57.37 GWh and 81.5 GWh, respectively. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for Model-1 and Model-2 is respectively $0.401/kWh and $0.0347/kWh. It is shown that the simple payback of Model-1 is of 6.70 years, and the simple payback of Model-2 is 7.77 years. Due to the high LCOE of Model-1, its payback year is lesser than model-2. All of these facts indicate that Model 2 is the most optimal solution.

This article will provide an overview on internet of things (IoT), 5G communication System and Distributed Clouds. The basic concepts and benefits will be briefly presented, along with current standardization activities. In a nutshell, but the research will focus on relating internet of things, 5G and Distributed Cloud Computing.

Originating in the Mediterranean, B. oleracea is grown all over the world and is highly valued for its nutritional value and variety in cooking. Its susceptibility to pests, diseases, and environmental stressors, however, poses significant challenges to sustaining consistent crop quality and productivity. The BASIC PENTACYSTEINE gene significantly impacts plant growth and responses to abiotic stresses. Nevertheless, little is known about its precise role and the underlying biological processes in B. oleracea. Eleven BPC genes in B. oleracea were identified by a thorough genome-wide investigation and categorized into three categories according to their structural traits and gene motifs. There were eight different chromosomes on which these BoBPCs were located. Comparative synteny analysis was used to reveal the evolutionary traits of potatoes, Arabidopsis, and B. oleracea. The BoBPC family genes in B. oleracea were found to have specific cis-elements linked to growth, stress responses, and hormone regulation when their promoter regions were studied. Cuticular wax synthesis expression revealed that all BoBZR1 genes, from wild to mutant, expressed at varied amounts in distinct types. Moreover, distinctive BoBPC gene expression patterns were found in the seven distinct tissues that were studied. Our thorough analysis shows that the BoBPC family is widely involved in B. oleracea developmental processes. The present findings provide an established theoretical basis for further exploration into the composition and roles of BoBPC in B. oleracea.

Guava is a vital fruit worldwide, especially in Pakistan, and due to its nutritional value famous in each age group. Due to a very short shelf life, the marketing and export of this fruit faced severe constraints. Therefore, in the current study, edible coating of chitosan (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0%) was evaluated on postharvest shelf life when guava fruits were stored (room temperature and 4 °C temperatures) for 12 days. The chitosan treated coating fruits have shown reduced total sugars and malondialdehyde levels compared to untreated control samples. However, a significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) in total sugar and malondialdehyde levels exists between samples stored in m compared to refrigerated temperature (4 °C). The chitosan-coated samples have shown a greater amount of vitamin C, quercetin, rutin, and total phenolic contents than control samples. However, these nutritional parameters' levels were significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) in samples stored at room than samples stored at refrigerated temperature. However, the levels of crude fiber, potassium, and sodium were found statistically nonsignificant (p ≥0.05) in control versus chitosan treated coating treatments. The findings have documented that the coatings of 1.5 and 2.0% were most effective for extension in shelf life and maintaining the nutritional attributes of guava fruit.

Load variations in any power system result in losses escalation and voltage drops. With the sensible and optimal allocation of distributed generators (DGs), these problems could be considerably mitigated. It has been seen in the priorly existing methods that ideally allocation of DGs has been carried out during fixed loads and constant power requirements. However, in real scenarios the loads are always variable and allocation of DGs must be done in accordance to the variations of the connected load. Therefore, the current paper addressed the aforementioned problem by distinctive optimal allocation of DGs for each variability of 24hour load horizon. However, the single exclusive solution is considered among all allocations of 24 hours. The min-max regret concept has been utilized in order to deal with such methodology. Altogether, 24 scenarios are analyzed wherein each scenario corresponds to a specific hour of the respective day. The optimal allocation of DGs in terms of their optimal sizing and placement has been carried out by using three algorithms including battle royal optimization (BRO), accelerated particle swarm optimization (APSO) and genetic algorithm (GA). The multi-objective optimization problem is evaluated on the basis of minimum value criterion of the multi-objective index (MO). MO comprises of active and reactive power losses and voltage deviation. Hence, in order to find robustness of proposed technique, Conseil international des grands réseaux electriques (CIGRE’s) MV benchmark model incorporating 14 buses has been considerably used as a test network. In the end the results of three proposed algorithms have been compared.

Nowadays, more than 180 million people believe that the Holy Qur'an was sent by the Almighty Allah through Prophet Muhammad in 610-632 A.D in Mecca and Medina. However, the word Mecca (Q: 48:24) is mentioned only once in the entire Holy Qur'an, which is not related to the birth of the Prophet or any worship. Conventional Islam is mostly based on the hearsay of some Islamic narrators published in the eighth and ninth centuries. To think deeply and conduct research on the verses of the Holy Quran has been mentioned (special urge) directly and indirectly by this Holy Scripture itself many times but it would not be wrong to say that there is no scholarship on the verses of the Quran based on the research method described in the Holy Quran until the present century. Therefore, this paper has been dared to carry out by combining the methods of research followed in the Holy Quran and the academically accepted research methodology. The analysis shows that the results of almost fourteen hundred years of mythological history of conventional Islamic narrators are opposites. First of all, the proper name of the Prophet revealed by the Holy Quran is Ahmed, but Muhammad is an adjective and there are many such names. Secondly, this prophet was not born in Mecca, KSA, nor in 570/571 A.D, but in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, between the third and fourth centuries. Thirdly, the Muslim Hajj (pilgrimage) of Mecca is celebrated entirely according to the Lahwal Hadith (idle tales) (Q: 31:6) in the language of the Holy Quran. Originally the place designated for pilgrimage was in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon. This article will have a double influence on the Muslim world, that is, Islamic scholars will think again deeply and research new ways of scholarship of the Holy Quran, instead of based on the hearsay of idle tales (Lahwal Hadith). On the contrary, those who are stubborn Islamic narrators, since they have already rejected the Holy Quran, will not hesitate to violently attack the researchers and they will not be positively motivated by this paper. This article specifically urges Islamic scholars to conduct in-depth studies on the most important issues of Islam using the Holy Quranic research method.

A total of 779 samples of edible nuts (melon seeds, watermelon seeds, pumpkin seeds, and cantaloupe seeds) from southern cities of Punjab, Pakistan were collected from the summer and the winter seasons. The natural occurrence of aflatoxins (AFs) and vitamin E (tocopherols) levels were investigated using HPLC. The results have shown that 180 (43.4%) samples from the winter season and 122 (33.4%) samples from the summer season were found positive with AFs. The elevated average levels of total AFs (20.9±3.10 µg/kg) were observed in watermelon seeds without shell and the lowest average amount (15.9±3.60 µg/kg) were documented in melon seeds without shell samples from the winter season. The elevated average amount of total AFs 17.3±1.50 µg/kg were found in pumpkin seeds available as without shell. The results have documented a significant difference in total AFs levels in edible seeds available as shells versus without shells (α = 0.05 & 0.01). The highest dietary intake of 6.30 µg/kg/day was found in female individuals from pumpkin seeds (without shell) in the winter season and the value of 3.00 µg/kg/day were found in pumpkin seed without shell in summer season in female individuals. The highest amount of total tocopherol levels of 22.2 ± 7.70 ng/100g in pumpkin seeds samples from winter season and 14.5 ± 5.50 mg/100g were found in melon seeds samples from summer season. The variation of total tocopherol levels in edible seeds among the winter and summer seasons showed significant difference (p ≤ 0.0054), except watermelon seeds samples which shown non-significant difference (p ≥ 0.183).

In this work, we report the engineering of a sub-70 nm nanocomposite of ZnO/Zn2TiO4 using a low-temperature solution-phase method. Titanium isopropoxide and zinc acetate were used as precursors, and isopropyl alcohol and water were used as solvents. The investigation focused on the growth of nanocomposites by varying the concentrations of precursors and surfactants, as well as their efficiency within different pH ranges. All three ZnO/Zn2TiO4 nanocomposites consist of hexagonal wurtzite ZnO and Zn2TiO4 structures in the three nanocomposites. The crystallite size in three ZnO/Zn2TiO4 nanocomposites, with a hexagonal wurtzite ZnO structure, were measured to be 62.67, 40.34, and 39.50 nm. The crystallite size values in three ZnO/Zn2TiO4 nanocomposites were 26.15 nm, 25.36 nm, and 21.24 nm, respectively, with Zn2TiO4. Morphological observations, conducted using FESEM, reveal the formation of three ZnO/Zn2TiO4 nanocomposites across the entire sample. These nanocomposites resemble dispersed cotton packets, with sizes ranging from 18 to 350 nm. Peaks in the range of 610-1250cm-1 are attributed to Ti-O bond formation and peak located at 1350-1450 cm-1 are attributed to Zn-O bond formation. Also, EDX spectrum reveals peaks for various sample components such as Ti, O and Zn. UV spectrums confirmed the formation of three nanocomposite of ZnO/Zn2TiO4 as showing two peaks for each sample. Photocatalytic investigation carried out by analyzing the UV-Visible absorption spectra of methylene blue dye on the surface of ZnO/Zn2TiO4 nanocomposites, dye degradation at various irradiation time intervals, dye degradation at varied catalyst concentrations and the influence of pH on dye-degradation. Furthermore, the said nanocomposites were used to degrade environmental pollutant (Methylene blue dye). Different sets of experiments were conducted under ambient conditions which show an excellent photo catalytic degradation efficiency.

Uncertainties in initial water saturation and early water breakthroughs of un-known sources and paths, which occurred in the low resistivity Lower Haushi sand-stone (LHS) reservoir at the beginning of oil production, imply that the bypassed oil can yet remain in the reservoir. In addition, the upper part of LHS is a tight oil reser-voir, which can still contain a significant amount of unrecovered oil. This opens the opportunity to produce the remaining oil instead of abandoning this reservoir. Low resistivity can exaggerate water saturation, leading to misinterpretation and premature water flooding due to inadequate oil-water contrast. Our analysis revealed a correlation between low resistivity and robust porous network connectivity, along-side elevated formation water salinity in highly porous layers. In regions of high po-rosity, sufficient oil-water contrast facilitates precise water saturation determination, affirming oil presence in all wells. However, within tight oil zones, near-complete wa-ter saturation contradicts actual oil presence. Factors contributing to saturation un-certainty and water breakthroughs were reassessed. Utilizing a 1:1 verti-cal-to-horizontal permeability ratio derived from core data enhanced simulation alignment with water production rates. Investigation into the impact of relative per-meabilities on water production was conducted. Water saturation maps were gener-ated to pinpoint remaining oil reserves. Depletion around wells is evident in lower po-rous regions, while oil persists across the entire tight reservoir, notably in two unex-plored sections.

Aluminum (Al) and manganese (Mn) toxicity are the top two constraints to crop production in acid soil. Crops have evolved common and specific mechanisms to tolerate the two stresses. In the present study, the responses (toxicity and tolerance) of wheat near-isogenic lines (ET8 and ES8) and their parents (Carazinho and Egret) to Al and Mn were compared by determining physiolog-ical parameters and transcriptome profiling of roots. The results showed that: (1) Carazinho and ET8 exhibited dual tolerance to Al and Mn as compared with Egret and ES8, indicated by higher relative root elongation and SPAD; (2) After entering into roots, Al was mainly distributed in the root and fixed in the cell wall, while Mn was mainly distributed in the cell sap and then trans-ported to leaves. Both Al and Mn stresses decreased the contents of Ca, Mg, and Zn; Mn stress al-so inhibited the accumulation of Fe, while Al showed an opposite effect; (3) Transcriptomic analy-sis identified 5581 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under Al stress and 4165 DEGs under Mn stress. Among these, 2774 DEGs were regulated by both Al and Mn stresses, while 2280 and 1957 DEGs were exclusively regulated by Al and Mn stress, respectively. GO and KEGG analyses indi-cated that cell wall metabolism responds exclusively to Al, while nicotianamine synthesis exclu-sively responds to Mn. Pathways such as signaling, phenylpropanoid metabolism, and metal ion transport showed commonality and specificity to Al and Mn. TFs, such as MYB, WRKY, and AP2 families, were also regulated by Al and Mn, and WGCNA identified PODP7, VATB2, and ABCC3 as the hub genes for Al tolerance and NAS for Mn tolerance. The identified genes and pathways can be used as targets for pyramiding genes and breeding multi-tolerant varieties.

This paper investigates how Islamic tolerance contributes to solve religious conflict today that has impacted on various aspects such as economic collapse, insecurity in life, lack of professional society, academic retrogressions, and so on. Knowledge of these issues has become an urgent to build a community that is full of peace, harmony and unity. The paper suggests that Quranic views on tolerance should be understood and practiced in order to avoid disunity in society which is due to failure to appreciate tolerance values in association. The paper concludes problems or misunderstandings always occur in different religious societies, since every religion has its own teachings and principles, as well as each of them is interpreted in different ways.

The transition from undergraduate dental student to the actual practicing dentist is a crucial phase and ensuring the preparedness of graduates for the complexity and demands of contempo-rary dental practice is a challenging task. This study aimed to evaluate the self-perceived prepar-edness of undergraduate dental students and house officers in the dental colleges of Pakistan. Cross-sectional national study was planned to collect the information from dental students and new graduates in Pakistan. The pre-validated Dental Undergraduates Preparedness Assessment Scale (DU-PAS) was used. Purposive sampling technique was utilized to recruit house officers and undergraduate dental students from 27 dental schools in Pakistan. The data analysis was car-ried out using the R statistical environment for Windows (R Core Team, 2015). The total of 862 responses with 642 females and 219 males were analyzed in the study. Overall, clinical skills score was 30.56+9.08 and score for soft skills was 30.54+10.6. The mean age of the participants was 23.42+1.28. Deficiencies were reported in various soft skills and clinical skills attributes.The results highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of dental students and new graduates in Pakistani den-tal institutions. The findings may be used to further develop and strengthen teaching and training of dental students in Pakistan.

The environmental impact and associated health issues have been seen as a significant global challenge. Efforts have been made to make solar cookers efficient to reduce the health risk and environmental impact of traditional cooking energy supplies used in rural areas. The solar cookers effectiveness for cooking purposes must be assessed in a specific area before installation. In essence, this paper assesses the experimental efficiency of German Scheffler, small mirror pieces, and aluminum foil based solar cookers. The solar cookers performances are evaluated at international standards by analyzing the figure of merits such as standard cooking power, sensible heating time, and exergy efficiency by using 1.7652 kg water and 1-liter oil as a heating material. The regression analysis is also performed to observe experimental data compliance with regression line. The time required to attain a water temperature of 95˚C by German Scheffler and small mirror pieces is 25 min and 1 hour with their exergy efficiency of 48.51% and 19.16% respectively, while the aluminum foil solar cooker achieves maximum water temperature of 74˚C within 2 hours and 5 minutes with 13.47% exergy efficiency. Similarly, the highest oil temperature of 275˚C is observed for the German Scheffler solar cooker. From experimental and regression results, it is revealed that German Scheffler possesses more cooking power relative to other solar cookers and their performances are highly dependent on following factors such as solar radiations, ambient temperature, environment (dust particles concentration and wind speed), radiation reflective material, aperture area, and heat losses respectively.

Emerging pollutants (EPs) encompass natural or synthetic substances in the environment that pose potential risks but have only recently been recognized or monitored. EPs consist of various categories including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, hormones, mycotoxins, and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Through several pathways, EPs can access food, potentially leading to health impacts when their safe concentrations are exceeded. Milk, being a highly nutritious and a heavily consumed food product by many consumers of different ages, is a crucial food matrix where EPs should be regularly monitored. In literature, large number of studies was dedicated for the determination of different EPs in dairy milk, employing different analytical techniques. Chromatographic based techniques were the most prevalent means for analysis of EPs in milk, which demonstrated significant efficiency, sensitivity and accuracy for this specific purpose. Prior to chromatographic analysis, extraction of EPs from a complex matrix like milk, is essential. This review comprehensively covers relevant research papers on extraction and subsequent detection and determination of EPs in milk by chromatographic methods from 2018 and until 2023.

In Sub-Saharan African Countries such as Nigeria with high prevalence rate, Child HIV/AIDs acquired through Mother-to-Child transmission (MTCT) can be largely prevented by using a well-established prevention programme and scheme. This study examined factors that can enhanced Prevention of Mother-to-Child transmission (PMTCT) in Nasarawa State. To achieve this, structured questionnaire were used to collect data from one hundred and sixteen (116) women attending two (2) primary facilities and two (2) secondary facilities in the State. This study utilized methods of Poisson Regression, Negative Binomial Regression and Logistic Regression Analyses. Results revealed that women with at least a secondary school education, women with husband in military and women with perceived confidentiality of their HIV status significantly enhanced PMTCT of HIV in Nasarawa State while significant proportion of the women attest to the fact that drugs are available in the facilities (p-value=0.0000<0.05) . Other factors include mother income level, willingness to continue with PMTCT programme and women in support group can also enhanced PMTCT though they are not significant. This study recommends that the factors identified should be explored by NGOs, Ministry of Health and, Support groups and other relevant agencies since they have the capacity to enhanced PMTCT of HIV in Nasarawa State, Nigeria.

The main aim of this article is to examine the inter-relationships among the top cryptocurrencies on the crypto stock market in the presence and absence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nine chosen cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Eos, BitcoinCash, Binance, Stellar, and Tron and their daily closing price data are captured from coinmarketcap over the period from 9/13/2017 to 9/21/2020. To determine the order of integration, the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), Phillips-Perron (PP), and Kwiatkowski, Phillips, Schmidt, and Shin (KPSS) unit root tests were carried out, and all of the cryptocurrencies were found to be integrated of order 1 i.e. I(1). It has been found that there is strong evidence of a long-run relationship between Bitcoin and altcoins irrespective of whether it is pre-pandemic or pandemic period. Hence these cryptocurrencies' prices and their inter-relationship are resilient to the pandemic.

Background: Women in rural districts of Pakistan face numerous barriers to healthcare, rendering gender-responsive health programming important, including for Tuberculosis (TB). This study was conducted to assess the general understanding of TB and of access to healthcare for women, as a first step towards implementation of a gender responsive TB programme in TandoAllayar, a rural district of Pakistan. Methods: A total of 36 participants were interviewed. The focus group discussion guide comprised of questions on: (1) family/household dynamics (2) community norms (3) healthcare system (4) women’s access to healthcare (5) TB Awareness;, and (6) women’s access to TB Care. Results: Limited autonomy in household financial decision-making, disapproval of unassisted travel, long travel time, lack of prioritization of spending on women’s health and inadequate presence of female health providers, were identified as barriers to access of healthcare for women, higher in younger women. Facilitators to access of TB care included a reported lack of TB-related stigma, moderate knowledge about TB disease, and broad understanding of tuberculosis as a curable disease. Other suggested facilitators include health facilities closer to the villages and the availability of higher quality services. Conclusion: Significant barriers are faced by women in access to TB care in rural districts of Pakistan. Programme implementers in high burden countries, should shift towards improved gender-responsive TB programming.

Scientific studies on the impact of wood species on solid fuel production, performance, and sustainability are grossly inadequate. The knowledge of this is imperative as users of solid fuels are increasing rapidly, especially in Africa. On this note, it becomes necessary to explore measures that will improve its efficiency and sustainability as an energy source. This study investigates some properties of selected wood species used as an energy source in Nigeria and their pelleting potential. Nine (9) samples were characterized and assessed for suitability of pelleting following four wood pellet quality standards. The findings revealed Anogeissus leiocarpus as the species with the best rating score in terms of fuel properties while Vitellaria paradoxa as the lowest. However, in terms of conformity with the four wood pellets standards, Khaya senegalensis, Parkia biglobosa and Anogeissus leiocarpus having presented density, calorific value, sulfur, arsenic, cadmium, and lead within the limits of the wood pellet quality standards were considered the best wood species in terms of fuel suitability and pelleting potential. The findings therefore suggest that not all wood species are suitable as fuel. Thus, for species that do not meet the standard wood pellet requirements, alternatives such as the use of biomass blends, additives, or process adjustments can be employed to adapt the quality to the standards or by using the fuels in improved cookstoves.

We introduce the notion of generalized contraction on dualistic partial metric spaces. A fixed point theorem for mappings satisfying above mentioned contraction is obtained. Some consequences of our result are obtained. We construct an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of our result among the corresponding results in partial metric spaces. Our results provide substantial generalizations and improvements of several well known results existing in the comparable literature. We discuss an application of our fixed point results to show the existence of solution of functional equations.

A Zn(II) perchlorate complex has been prepared and characterized by single X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and UV-vis spectroscopy. The complex crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21/c (Z = 4) with a pentacoordinated zinc center. Interestingly, the Zn complex was found be to a potential fluorophore that could sense acetone and other ketones with high selectivity and sensitivity.

The 10-valent pneumococcal vaccine was introduced in Pakistan’s Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in 2013 as a 3+0 schedule without catchup. We conducted three annual cross-sectional surveys from 2014-2016 to measure vaccine-type (VT) carriage in infants from a rural part of Pakistan. Nasopharyngeal specimens were collected by random sampling of infants from 2 union councils of Matiari. Samples were then transported to Infectious Disease Research Laboratory (IDRL) at the Aga Khan University within 6-8 hours of collection. Serotypes were established using sequential multiplex PCR. Of the 665 children enrolled across three surveys, 547 were culture positive for pneumococcus. VT carriage decreased from 21·8% in 2014 to 12·7% in 2016 (p-value for trend <0·001). Those who were not vaccinated or partially vaccinated were found to be at higher risk of carrying a VT serotype (aOR 2·53, 95% CI 1·39, 4·63 for non-vaccinated) and (aOR 3·35, 95% CI 1·82, 6·16 for partially vaccinated). On the other hand, being enrolled in the most recent survey was negatively associated with VT-carriage (aOR 0·51, 95% CI 0·28, 0·93). We found that PCV10 was effective in decreasing the carriage of vaccine-type serotypes in Pakistani infants.

For a graph G, let P(G, λ) be its chromatic polynomial. Two graphs G and H are said to be chromatically equivalent if P(G,λ) = P(H,λ). A graph is said to be chromatically unique if no other graph shares its chromatic polynomial. In this paper, chromatic polynomial of the necklace graph N_n, for n ≥ 2 has been determined. It is further shown that N₃ is chromatically unique.

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is associated with fatigue and physio-somatic symptoms. The aims of this study are to delineate the associations between severity of fatigue and physio-somatic symptoms and glomerular filtration rate, inflammatory biomarkers, and Wnt/catenin-pathway proteins. The Wnt-pathway related proteins β-catenin, Dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK1), R-spondin-1, and sclerostin were measured by ELISA technique in 60 ESRD patients and 30 controls. The Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (FF) Rating Scale was used to assess severity of FF symptoms. ESRD is characterized by a significant increase in the total FF score, muscle tension, fatigue, sadness, sleep disorders, GI symptoms, and a flu-like malaise. The total FF score was significantly correlated with serum levels of urea, creatinine, phosphate, and copper (positively), and β-catenin, eGFR, hemoglobin, albumin, and zinc (inversely). The total FF score was associated with the number of total dialysis and weekly dialysis sessions, and these dialysis characteristics were more important in predicting FF scores than eGFR measurements. Partial Least Squares analysis showed that the FF score comprised two factors which are differently associated with biomarkers: a) 43.0% of the variance in fatigue, GI symptoms, muscle tension, sadness, and insomnia is explained by hemoglobin, albumin, zinc, β-catenin, and R-spondin-1; and b) 22.3% of the variance in irritability, concentration and memory impairments by increased copper and cations/chloride ratio, and male sex. ESRD patients show high levels of fatigue and physio-somatic symptoms which are associated with hemodialysis and mediated by dialysis-induced changes in inflammatory pathways, the Wnt/catenin pathway, and copper.

Introduction: The goals of this retrospective cohort study of 129,443 persons admitted to Calgary acute care hospitals 2013-2021 were to ascertain correlations of “potentially inappropriate medi-cations” (PIMs), “potential prescribing omissions” (PPOs) and other risk factors with readmissions and mortality. Methods: Processing and analysis codes were built in Oracle Database 19c (PL/SQL), R and Excel. Results: The percentage dying during their hospital stay rose from 3.03% during the first to 7.2% during the 6th admission. The percentage dying within 6 months of discharge rose from 9.4% after the first to 24.9 after the sixth admission. Odds ratios (adjusted for age, gender and comorbidities) for readmission were the post-admission number of medications (1.16; 1.12-1.12), STOPP PIMs (1.16; 1.15-1.16); AGS Beers PIMs (1.11; 1.11-1.11) and START omissions not corrected with a prescription (1.39 (1.35-1.42). Odds ratios for mortality were post-admission number of medications (1.04; 1.04-1.05), STOPP PIMs (0.99; 0.96-1.00); AGS Beers PIMs (1.08; 1.07-1.08) and START omissions not corrected with a prescription (1.56 (1.50-1.63). START omissions corrected with a prescription correlated with a dramatic reduction in mortality (0.51; 0.49-0.53). Odds ratios for readmissions for the second through 39th admission were consistently higher if START PPOs were not corrected for the second admission (1.41; 1.36-1.46), third (1.41;1.35-1.48); fourth 1.35;1.28-1.44); fifth 1.38; 1.28-1.49); sixth (1.47;1.34-1.62) and 7th through 39th admission (1.23; 1.14-1.34). For all admissions when a pre-scription was given to correct START PPOs ORs for mortality within six months of discharge were dramatically improved (0.51; 0.49-0.53). This was also true for the second (0.52; 0.50-0.55; fourth (0.56; 0.52-0.61; fifth (0.63; 0.57-0.68); sixth (0.68; 0.61-0.76); and 7th through 39th admissions (0.71; 0.65-0.78). Conclusions: PPOs should be corrected by prescriptions and teams of family physicians, pharmacists and nurses should focus on patients’ understanding of their illnesses, medications and ability for self-care.

Background. Wnt-pathway proteins play a vital role in kidney development and defects in the Wnt-pathway are associated with kidney disorders. However, the knowledge on the role of Wnt/β-catenin pathway proteins in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is limited.Aim of the study. To delineate the association of ESRD and Wnt-proteins including the agonistR-spondin 1, the transducer β-catenin and the antagonists Dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK1) and sclerostin.Methods. Serum Wnt-pathway proteins levels were measured by ELISA, while other biochemicals were measured spectrophotometrically in 60 ESRD patients and 30 normal controls.Results. DKK1 and sclerostin were significantly higher in ESRD than in controls, and β-catenin and the catenin + R-Sponin-1 / DKK1 + sclerostin ratio, reflecting the ratio of agonist and transducer on antagonists (AT/ANTA), were significantly lower in ESRD. Logistic regression analysis showed that ESRD was significantly predicted by increased levels of DDK1 and sclerostin and lowered β-catenin (p<0.001). eGFR was significantly associated with DKK1 and sclerostin (inversely), β-catenin (positively) and the AT/ANTA ratio (r=0.468, p<0.001). DKK1 levels were significantly and positively correlated with urea, creatinine, and copper. DKK1 and sclerostin were inversely associated with hemoglobin and packet cell volume. Catenin was significantly negatively associated with copper, urea and creatinine.Conclusion. Wnt/β-catenin pathway proteins show significant alterations in ESRD, indicating significantly increased levels of antagonists and, therefore, attenuated Wnt/β-catenin pathway activity. The latter is associated with lowered eGFR and increased serum copper levels. Wnt/β-catenin pathway proteins are possible drug targets to treat ESRD or its consequences.

Deep neural network (DNN) watermarking is a potential approach for protecting the intellectual property rights of DNN models. Similar to classical watermarking techniques for multimedia content, the requirements for DNN watermarking include capacity, robustness, and transparency, and other factors. Studies have focused on robustness against retraining and fine-tuning. However, less important neurons in the DNN model may be pruned. Moreover, although the encoding approach in renders DNN watermarking robust against pruning attacks, the watermark is assumed to be embedded only into the fully connected layer in the fine-tuning model. In this study, we extended the method such that the model can be applied to any convolution layer of the DNN model and designed a watermark detector based on a statistical analysis of the extracted weight parameters to evaluate whether the model is watermarked. Using a nonfungible token mitigates the overwriting of the watermark and enables checking when the DNN model with the watermark was created.

Big data has revolutionised science and technology leading to the transformation of our societies. High Performance Computing (HPC) provides the necessary computational power for big data analysis using artificial intelligence and methods. Traditionally HPC and big data had focused on different problem domains and had grown into two different ecosystems. Efforts have been underway for the last few years on bringing the best of both paradigms into HPC and big converged architectures. Designing HPC and big data converged systems is a hard task requiring careful placement of data, analytics, and other computational tasks such that the desired performance is achieved with the least amount of resources. Energy efficiency has become the biggest hurdle in the realisation of HPC, big data, and converged systems capable of delivering exascale and beyond performance. Data locality is a key parameter of HPDA system design as moving even a byte costs heavily both in time and energy with an increase in the size of the system. Performance in terms of time and energy are the most important factors for users, particularly energy, due to it being the major hurdle in high performance system design and the increasing focus on green energy systems due to environmental sustainability. Data locality is a broad term that encapsulates different aspects including bringing computations to data, minimizing data movement by efficient exploitation of cache hierarchies, reducing intra- and inter-node communications, locality-aware process and thread mapping, and in-situ and in-transit data analysis. This paper provides an extensive review of the cutting-edge on data locality in HPC, big data, and converged systems. We review the literature on data locality in HPC, big data, and converged environments and discuss challenges, opportunities, and future directions. Subsequently, using the knowledge gained from this extensive review, we propose a system architecture for future HPC and big data converged systems. To the best of our knowledge, there is no such review on data locality in converged HPC and big data systems.

For a considerable length of time synthetic composts are utilized to satisfy the dirt necessity of supplements and yield, however huge measure of these substance manures are hazardous for condition, advantageous microorganisms, creatures, and people also. In this way, natural inviting and savvy biofertilizers are utilized. Biofertilizer are the substances which contain microorganisms those microorganisms might be growths, microscopic organisms, and protozoa which have capacity to build ripeness of soil by Nitrogen obsession, Phosphorous solubilization, and Iron sequestration. These cycles convert insoluble type of supplements into solvent structure and make it accessible to the foundations of plant which effectively take them up and use them. There are assortment of the yields whose profitability can be expanded by applying biofertilizer, for example, rice, oat, and other grain crops. In this audit we experience the method of utilization of biofertilizers, and how the assistance the plants and in which they help.

With the advent of digitization, the integration of advanced technologies in operations and projects across all sectors is in progress. Accordingly, efforts are being made to utilize cutting-edge technologies to improve the circularity of the built environment. This study aimed to review the existing applications and limitations of building information modeling (BIM) tools for circular economy (CE) implementation from this perspective. A literature review was conducted to provide an overview of the use of BIM tools for conducting life cycle assessments, energy analysis, waste management, and formulation of material passports for buildings. It was found that BIM tools, which are available across all life cycle phases of building, have a great potential to improve the circularity of the sector. The overview provided on the use of various BIM tools may help stakeholders of the built environment understand the role of BIM for CE adoption in the sector.

Nowadays, emerging technologies have changed the places of work through computers and ICT tools, which have revolutionized teaching and learning environments in different ways. In spite of the fact that computers as ICT tools have become part and progressively instrument for teachers and instructors used in teaching and learning, but most educators can't incorporate them into their teaching and learning process, which results in students being ill-equipped or lacking some necessary skills in the world of work, which leads to low performance and poor handling of tools whose lead to low production. To tackle this issue, it is essential to develop the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system by determining the quality of technical and vocational education (TVE) teachers. In this paper, the literature concerning the competence required by TVET teachers towards computer-related instructional tech-nology for classroom teaching and learning was examined through the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) model. Sixty (60) questionnaires were ad-ministered to TVE teachers within six technical colleges of education in north-eastern Nigeria. The data was quantitatively analyzed using traditional linear models, namely multilinear regression (MLR) and artificial intelligence (AI) models, namely artificial neural networks (ANN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS), which were developed using MATLAB 9.3 (R2019a), while the classical linear MLR model was developed using SPSS software. The results from our classical study indicated that TVE teachers are competent in computer and some instructional technology usage and show a high correlation between competence and teaching experience and a lower correlation between competence and gender. The goodness of fit shows a good fit of the model. Future studies should examine the application of other linear and non-linear AI techniques.

High antioxidants level in food is gradually becoming popular because of the enhanced risk of oxidative stress in humans. Bread wheat is rich in vital antioxidants but its major bioactive compounds are not available for the human. This study was conducted with the aim to enhance the phytochemical constituents and antioxidative activity of wheat grains by fermenting it with the use of Bacillus subtilis KCTC 13241. The antioxidative potential was determined by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl- hydrazyl) and ABTS (3-ethyl-benzothiazo- line-6-sulfonic acid) radical scavenging assay as well by the concentration of amino acids, flavonoids, minerals, carbohydrates, and phenolic compounds. Different varieties showed different free radical scavenging potential on fermentation, which was significantly high with respect to their corresponding unfermented wheat varieties. The highest potential was found in a fermented wheat variety named Namhae and this combination can be used in the pharmaceutical and food industries.

In this work, quiescence is added to the Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) model with demography. In order to investigate consequences of quiescence in the infection process in more depth, we use stochastic simulations on the stochastic version of model that we built. This method provides a more accurate picture of the dynamics of infectious diseases by taking into consideration the inherent randomness in the disease processes. We examine the effects of quiescence on the number of infected people using simulations. The results, presented in histograms depicting the distribution of infected individuals, reveal a notable trend: the mean number of infected individuals is higher when quiescence is incorporated into the dynamics. These finding emphasizes the dynamic influence of quiescence on infectious disease spread. The higher mean number of infections during periods of quiescence highlights the need for public health strategies that are flexible enough to focused interventions during these times to reduce the possibility of an increase in infections.

The stability between the limited available energy resources and their consumption is an important concern of the modern world. The study deals with the development of the methods for measuring the energy performance of different renewable and non-renewable resources used for electricity generation with the help of an energy performance indicator called the Primary Energy Factor (PEF). This study takes account of all energy stages from the resources extraction to its transportation, conversion, combustion and then finally to utilization. The study conducted a comparative approach to calculate the PEF values of electricity generated in South Korea from the period of 1980 to 2017. Four different methodologies namely Eurostat methodology, Life cycle methodology, Modified Eurostat methodology, and upper-end methodology have been used. A set of Programs has been written in MATLAB to calculate the i. PEF values of electricity generated. ii. Impact of different renewable and non-renewable energy sources on PEF values. iii. Future trend of PEF values of electricity in South Korea At the national and local level, this study will help the government and other law-making institutions to make policies regarding annual purchase consumptions of energies by different industrial, residential, public and transportation sectors and at the Global level, the implementation of this study will be the catastrophe of maintaining the stability between the available energy resources, and consumptions. This, in turn, will lead to suitable living conditions for future generations

A new class of nano-cube core-shell heterostructures containing Ag coating on the top of WO₃ was fabricated. Physical vapor deposition was used to produce WO₃ based nano-heterostructures. All kind of wet toxic chemical process was avoided to make the process simple and contaminant free. Sputtering of WO₃ and a subsequent thermal annealing process was done to create nano-cubes of WO₃. After that, sputtering of Ag was performed to form the Ag-WO₃ core-shell nano-heterostructures (CSNH). The CSNHs were characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and UV-vis spectroscopy. The morphologies, elemental analysis, interfaces, crystallinity, phases, and chemical compositions were analyzed. The bottom-up growth of WO₃ nanocubes was studied using different time periods at 900°C. Ag coating was also studied before and after annealing. Finally, an optical property (band gap) was also analyzed using Tauc plot derive from absorption spectra. The tailoring the band gap of WO₃ from ~2.9eV to ~ 2.45 eV was observed while Ag-WO₃ CSNH formed.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the prediction of facial age due to its diverse applications in fields such as security, entertainment, and healthcare. The current scourge of underaged voting in Nigeria is a problem and this research delves into the realm of facial age prediction by employing four well-known convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures, namely VGG16, ResNet50, Mobile Net, and VGG19 to predict chronological ages from facial pictures of person. The objective is to achieve precise age estimation from facial images, utilizing two datasets: UTKFace and CASIA African Facial Datasets. The results of this investigation are noteworthy. Specifically, the VGG16 model which demonstrated remarkable performance, yielding a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 1.76 when applied to the UTK-Face dataset. Additionally, when utilizing Mobile-Net, an unprecedented MAE of 1.10 was achieved for the Casia Africa Face Dataset. Notably, this marks the first instance of employing the dataset for facial age detection with CNNs, and this approach outperformed previous works, yielding the lowest MAE among all the studies reviewed.

Historically, the lack of comprehensive and real-time data is the main challenge in city sustainability assessments. However, with the increase in the availability of crowdsourced data over the last decade, a rich and real-time data source provides detailed images of urban systems. This has opened up new opportunities for practitioners, including geographers, social researchers, and data scientists, to gather and utilize social media data as a core source for studying cities and assessing their sustainability. This paper proposes an assessment model for the sustainability of cities based on crowdsourced data and the principles of General System Theory. The model aims to utilize crowdsourced data for the analysis and decision-making processes to enhance the sustainability and resilience of smart future cities.

While visual assessment is the standard technique for burn evaluation, computer-aided diagnosis is increasingly sought due to high number of incidences globally. Patients are increasingly facing challenges which are not limited to shortage of experienced clinicians, lack of accessibility to healthcare facilities, and high diagnostic cost. Certain number of studies were proposed in discriminating burn and healthy skin using machine learning leaving a huge and important gap unaddressed; whether burns and related skin injuries can be effectively discriminated using machine learning techniques. Therefore, we specifically use pre-trained deep learning models due to deficient dataset to train a new model from scratch. Experiments were extensively conducted using three state-of-the-art pre-trained deep learning models that includes ResNet50, ResNet101 and ResNet152 for image patterns extraction via two transfer learning strategies: fine-tuning approach where dense and classification layers were modified and trained with features extracted by base layers, and in the second approach support vector machine (SVM) was used to replace top-layers of the pre-trained models, trained using off-the-shelf features from the base layers. Our proposed approach records near perfect classification accuracy of approximately 99.9%.

We study the validity of quantum Fisher information (QFI) as a faithful quantum coherence and correlation quantier by drawing a comparison with subsystem's coherence measure, rst-order coherence (FOC) and the entanglement measure, Negativity to study the behavior of thermal quantum coherence and correlations in two qubit Heisenberg XXX model, placed in independently controllable magnetic eld by systematically varying the coupling parameter, magnetic eld and bath temperature for ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic case. After carefully observing the prole of quantum coherence and correlation measures, we propose an inequality relations which shows that there may exist a quantitative relationship between QFI, Negativity and FOC in which, the equality exists at zero temperature. We identify QFI to be a more useful coherence quantier, as it quanties coherence of individual subsystems and correlations among the subsystems. On the other hand, FOC identies coherence present in the individual subsystems only. A reciprocal relationship between Negativity and FOC is also observed in dierent cases. We also observe the existence of entanglement in ferromagnetic case, in contrast to simple Heisenberg XXX model in uniform magnetic eld. We show that in the ferromagnetic case, a very small inhomogeneity in magnetic eld is capable of producing large values of thermal entanglement. This shows that the behavior of entanglement in the ferromagnetic Heisenberg system is highly unstable against inhomogeneity of magnetic elds, which is inevitably present in any solid state realization of qubits.

Background: The incidences of COVID-19 related suicide among adolescents and youths have been reported across the world. There is no cumulative study focusing on nature, patterns, and causative factors that lead to the present investigation. Methods: A purposive sampling of google news between 15 February to 6 July was performed. After excluding duplicate reports, the final list comprised a total of 37-suicide cases across 11 countries. Results: More male suicides were reported (21-cases, i.e., 56.76%), and the mean age of the total victims was 16.6±2.7 years (out of a total of 29-cases). About two-thirds of the suicides were from three countries named India (11-cases), United Kingdom (8-cases), and the USA (6-cases). Out of 23-student victims, 14 were school-going students. Hanging was the most common suicide method accounting in 51.4% of cases. The most common suicide causalities were related to mental sufferings such as depression, loneliness, psychological distress, etc., whereas either online schooling or overwhelming academic distress was placed as the second most risk factors followed by TikTok addiction-related psychological distress, and tested with COVID-19. Conclusion: The finding of the temporal distribution of suicides concerning lockdowns may help in exploring and evolving public measures to prevent/decrease pandemic-related suicides in young people.

Cement industry is one of the highest energy consuming industries. The quantity of fuel and energy needed accounts for most of the cost of cement manufacturing. Thermal power plants generate electricity but are harmful and ineffective by nature. As a backup mechanism to account for main grid failures, batteries can be utilized. In this paper the first ever investigation on battery’s depth of discharge (DOD) for four different kinds of battery technologies is carried out in the framework of cement industry. The intended battery technologies are the lead-acid battery (LA), lithium-ion battery (Li-ion), vana-dium redox battery (VR), and nickel–iron battery (Ni-Fe). Four hybrid energy generation models (HEGMs) for five cement plants of Pakistan using the HOMER pro software are proposed. Cement plants includes Askari Cement Plant, Wah (ACPW); Bestway Cement Plant, Kalar Kahar (BCPKK); Bestway Cement Plant, Farooqia (BCPF); Bestway Cement Plant, Hattar (BCPH); and DG Cement Plant, Chakwal (DGCPC). HEGM-1 comprises of a diesel generator (DGen), a photovoltaic system (PV), a converter, and a battery system. HEGM-2 comprises of a PV system, a converter, and a battery system. HEGM-3 is the grid-connected version of HEGM-1 and HEGM-4 is the grid-connected version of HEGM-2. A base-model consisting of grid only is used as a reference. A multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is performed by formulating a cumulative objective function (COF) which includes net present cost (NPC), levelized cost of energy (LCOE), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The principal objective is the maximization of COF while simultaneously minimizing the objectives (NPC, LCOE and GHG emissions), based on optimal battery technology and DOD. The results reveal that VR is the most suitable battery technology with 10% DOD. It is achieved for DGCPC with HEGM-3 with 61.49% of NPC, 78.62% of LCOE and 84.00% of GHG emissions reduction as com-pared to the base model.

Structural design optimization (SDO) plays a pivotal role in enhancing various aspects of construction projects, including design quality, cost-efficiency, safety, and structural reliability. Recent endeavors in academia and industry have sought to harness the potential of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and optimization algorithms to optimize SDO and improve design outcomes. This review paper aims to synthesize these efforts, shedding light on how SDO contributes to project coordination. Furthermore, the integration of sustainability considerations and the application of innovative technologies and optimization algorithms in SDO necessitate more interactive early-stage collaboration among project stakeholders. This study offers a comprehensive exploration of contemporary research in integrated SDO employing BIM and optimization algorithms. It commences with an exploratory investigation, employing both qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques following the PRISMA systematic review methodology. Subsequently, an open-ended opinion survey was conducted among construction industry professionals in Europe. This survey yields valuable insights into the coordination challenges and potential solutions arising from technological shifts and interoperability concerns associated with widespread SDO implementation. These preliminary steps of systematic review and industry survey furnish a robust knowledge foundation, enabling the proposal of an intelligent framework for automating early-stage sustainable structural design optimization (ESSDO) within the construction sector. The framework ESSDO addresses the challenges of fragmented collaboration between architects and structural engineers. This proposed framework seamlessly integrates with the BIM platform, i.e., Autodesk Revit for architects. It extracts crucial architectural data and transfers it to the structural design and analysis platform, i.e., Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis (RSA), for structural engineers via the visual programming tool Dynamo. Once the optimization occurs, optimal outcomes are visualized within BIM environments. This visualization elevates interactive collaborations between architects and engineers, facilitating automation throughout the workflow and smoother information exchange.

As the number of infections and deaths caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic is increasing dramatically day-by-day, scientists are rushing towards developing possible counter-measures to fight the deadly virus, SARS-CoV-2. Although many efforts have already been put forward for designing and developing potential vaccines, however, most of them are proved to possess negative consequences. Therefore, in this study, the methods of immunoinformatics were exploited to design novel epitope-based subunit vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2, targeting four essential proteins of the virus i.e., spike glycoprotein, nucleocapsid phosphoprotein, membrane glycoprotein, and envelope protein. The highly antigenic, non-allergenic, non-toxic, non-human homolog and 100% conserved (across other isolates from different regions of the world) epitopes were used for constructing the vaccine. In total, fourteen CTL epitopes and eighteen HTL epitopes were used to construct the vaccine. Thereafter, several in silico validations i.e., the molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation (including the RMSF and RMSD studies), and immune simulation studies were also performed which predicted that the designed vaccine should be quite safe, effective, and stable within the biological environment. Finally, in silico cloning and codon adaptation studies were also conducted to design an effective mass production strategy of the vaccine. However, more in vivo and in vitro studies are required on the predicted vaccine to finally validate its safety and efficacy.

Microgrids are becoming popular nowadays because they provide clean, efficient, and low-cost energy. To use the stored energy in times of emergency or peak loads, microgrids require bulk storage capacity. Since microgrids are the future of renewable energy, the energy storage technology employed should be optimized to generate electricity. Batteries play a variety of essential roles in daily life and are used at peak hours and during a time of emergency. There are different types of batteries i.e., lion batteries, lead-acid batteries, etc. Optimal battery sizing of microgrids is a challenging problem, that limits modern technologies such as electric vehicles, etc. It is important to know different battery features such as battery life, battery throughput, and battery autonomy to get optimal battery sizing for microgrids. Mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) is an established technique for the integration and optimization of different energy sources and parameters for optimal battery sizing. A new MILP based dataset is introduced in this work. Support vector machine (SVM) is the machine learning application used to estimate the optimum battery size. The impact of feature selection algorithms on the proposed machine learning-based model is evaluated. The performance of the six best-performing feature selection algorithms is analyzed. The experimental results show that the feature selection algorithms improve the performance of the proposed methodology. Ranker search shows the best performance with a Spearman’s rank-ordered correlation constant of 0.9756, linear correlation constant of 0.9452, Kendall correlation constant of 0.8488 and root mean squared error of 0.0525.

The consumption and sale of fresh-cut products and salads have been growing tremendously in the present era. Therefore, the microbial safety of such products is of great concern. In the current study, a survey of general microbiological safety of fresh-cut produce and salads at quick-service restaurants (QSR) was undertaken across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These findings were compared with microbiological criteria for foodstuffs by Saudi standards, metrology, and quality organization SASO-GSO-1016. Of the 82 samples of fresh-cut produce, 7% of samples were found to be unsatisfactory or beyond the acceptable limits. TPC count was unsatisfactory at 22%, coliform at 48%, and Staphylococcus aureus at 4%. For 108 samples for fresh salads, 11% of samples were found to be unsatisfactory or beyond the acceptable limits,13%, 27%, 4%, and 27% of samples showed an unsatisfactory range of TPC, coliforms, S. aureus, and Escherichia coli, respectively. The fresh-cut produce and salads were microbiologically safe in the central region compared to the eastern region followed by the western region. The relatively higher count was found in green pepper, mixed vegetables, and lettuce followed by fresh-cut onions and coleslaw salads. No Salmonella was detected in both fresh-cut produce and salads. The restaurants should be more stringent in their processing to ensure the consumer safety. Washing and sanitization of produce is the only way to reduce the diffusion of food borne pathogens.

Pain is a multifaceted multisystem disorder that adversely affects neuro-psychological processes. This study compares the effectiveness of central-stimulation (tDCS) and peripheral-stimulation (TENS) in pain-inhibition during a cognitive-task in healthy volunteers and to observe potential neuro-cognitive improvements. Healthy eighty volunteers went through a complete experimental protocol comprising pain-induction (CPT), administration of tDCS/TENS, EEG-data acquisition, and cognitive assessments. The protocol for this study is categorized into 04-groups: G1(Control), G2(TENS), G3(Anodal-tDCS), and G4(Cathodal-tDCS). Paired t-tests (p

City zones have become increasingly overcrowded as a result of the extensive population widening ratio and the swift relocation of people from villages. The traffic monitoring process is a major issue in these areas due to the massive traffic flow on the roads. This research proposed a cluster-based improved authentication and communication scheme for an Intelligent Transportation System in Vehicular AdHoc Networks (VANETs). Our primary objective is to optimize resource sharing in vehicular communication. We enhanced the reliability, scalability, and stability of fast-moving VANETs by introducing cluster-based routing schemes for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications. We used a third-party certification authority for vehicle authentication to address security and privacy concerns. Our proposed schemes support minimizing the end-to-end (E2E) delay and route request, in addition to reducing link failure. Our schemes’ leading yield includes throughput enhancement, TCP Socket Initialization time minimization, TCP handshake response speedup, and DNS lookup improvement. The schemes are centred on short-range peer-to-peer (P2P) wireless communication in a 400-meter radius cluster. This includes innovative P2P wireless communications on VANET using minimized resources. The proposed schemes deliver a secure authentication mechanism with a securely generated vehicle authentication key provided by a certification authority. Furthermore, we have developed RESTful APIs in vehicular communication for implementation purposes, and also offered and implemented algorithms for resource sharing regarding V2V and V2I communication. Ultimately, we evaluated the performance of our experiments.

Drinking water supplies in the developing world often serve as a biosphere for various organisms. Viral gastroenteritis is a neglected area of research in Pakistan, there is no data for the prevalence of enteric viruses in drinking water of the largest city of Karachi. The present study aimed to provide a survey of the existence of enteric viruses: human adenovirus (HAdV), human enteroviruses (hEV), and genotype A rotavirus (GARV) in tap water. Using a simple PCR approach, we detected 20%, 43%, and 23% of HAdV, hEV, and GARV in tap water respectively. We have also shown an overall quality of tap water at the pumping station and consumer tap. Moreover, we assessed the efficiency of small-scale water treatment methods for the removal of viruses.

Biotic stressors pose serious threats to crop yield, jeopardizing food security and resulting in over US$220 billion per year losses to the agriculture industry. Plants activate innate defense mechanisms upon pathogen perception and invasion. The plant immune response comprises numerous concerted steps, including the recognition of invading pathogens, signal transduction, and activation of defensive pathways. However, pathogens have evolved various structures to evade plant immunity. Given these facts, genetic improvements of plants are required for sustainable disease management to ensure global food security. Advanced genetic technologies have provided new opportunities to revolutionize and boost plant disease resistance against devastating pathogens. Furthermore, targeting susceptibility (S) genes, such as OsERF922 and BnWRKY70, through CRISPR methodologies offers novel frontiers to disrupt the molecular compatibility of pathogens and introduce durable resistance against them in plants. Here, we provide a critical overview of advances in understanding disease resistance mechanisms. The review also critically examines management strategies under challenging environmental conditions and R gene-based plant genome engineering systems intending to enhance plant responses against emerging pathogens. This work underscores the transformative potential of modern genetic engineering practices in revolutionizing plant health and crop disease management while emphasizing the importance of responsible application to ensure sustainable and resilient agricultural systems.

Providing healthcare workers with cost information about the medications they prescribe can influence their decisions, particularly when that information is provided at the very moment they are faced with a prescribing decision. The current study aimed to analyse the impact of nudges that presented cost information to prescribers through their organisation's electronic prescribing system. The nudges were co-created by the research team (composed of behavioural scientists) and the lead hospital pharmacist. One nudge provided simple cost information (percentage difference between two brands of Mesalazine – Asacol and Octasa). The second nudge provided the potential annual cost-saving that could result if the cheaper medication was selected across the organisation. While the statistical analyses revealed that these nudges were not effective, several administrative barriers were overcome, which may inform future research. For example, presenting aggregated cost information to the prescribers is possible even when the actual cost of medicine is confidential and can not be displaced. In addition, future research could reveal more behavioural factors that facilitate medication optimisation.

The present study investigates the relationship between the transmission of COVID-19 infections and climate indicators in Dhaka City, Bangladesh, using coronavirus infections data available from the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Bangladesh. The Spearman-ranked correlation test was carried out to study the association of seven climate indicators, including humidity, air quality, minimum temperature, precipitation, maximum temperature, mean temperature and wind speed with the COVID-19 outbreak in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. The study found that, among the seven indicators, only three indicators (air quality, minimum temperature and average temperature) have a significant relationship with new COVID-19 cases. The results of this paper will give health regulators and policymakers valuable information to lessen the COVID-19 infection in Dhaka and other countries around the world.

The fourth industrial revolution has resulted in the digitalization of projects and operations across all sectors. Accordingly, efforts are being made to utilize advanced technologies to improve the energy efficiency of the building sector. This study has reviewed the current application and limitations of cutting-edge technologies in this regard. An overview of the use of the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), digital twin (DT), and building information modeling (BIM) for energy efficiency of buildings has been provided. It has been found that the use of Industry 4.0 technologies, during the construction and operational phase of buildings, has a great potential to reduce energy consumption and emissions of the sector. This study may help stakeholders of the built environment to understand the role of industry 4.0 tools for energy efficiency of the sector.

The research aims to discover the natural occurrence of patulin (PAT) in selected citrus fruits from the central cities of Punjab and Pakistan's Northern cities. Total 2970 samples of twelve citrus fruits; kinnow, orange, grapefruits, bitter orange, mausami, red blood, pineapple, sweet orange, rough lime, sweet lime, kagzi lime and lemon were examined using liquid chromatography fitted with UV detector. The limit of detection (LOD) and quantification limit was 0.04 and 0.12 µg/kg, respectively. The results have shown that 56% of samples of citrus fruits from Punjab's central cities, Pakistan, were discovered to be infected from PAT. The elevated amounts of PAT ranging from 0.04 to 1150 µg/kg were found in citrus fruit samples from Multan cities. Furthermore, 31.7% of samples of citrus fruits from Northern cities of Pakistan were discovered to be infected with PAT, and the elevated amounts were found ranging from 0.04-320 µg/kg from Swat city. About 22.1% of samples of citrus fruits have levels of PAT greater than the suggested limits established by the European Union (EU). PAT's dietary intake levels ranged from 0.10-1.11 µg/kg bw/day from the central cities of Punjab, Pakistan, and 0.13-1.93 µg/kg bw/day were documented from Northern cities of Pakistan.

Construction 4.0 is witnessing exponential growth in Digital Twin (DT) technology developments and applications, revolutionizing the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and other emerging technologies used throughout the lifecycle of the built environment. BIM provides technologies, procedures, and data schemas representing building components and systems. At the same time, DT enhances this with real-time data for cyber-physical integration, enabling live asset monitoring and better decision-making. Despite being in the early stages of development, DT applications have rapidly progressed in the AEC sector, resulting in a diverse literature landscape due to the various technologies and parameters involved in fully developing the DT technology. The intricate complexities inherent in digital twin advancements have confused professionals and researchers. This confusion arises from the nuanced distinctions between the two technologies, i.e., BIM and DT, causing a convergence that hinders realizing their potential. To address this confusion and lead to a swift development of DT technology, this study presents a holistic review of the existing research focusing on the critical components responsible for developing DT applications in the construction industry. The study identifies five crucial elements: technologies, maturity levels, data layers, enablers, and functionalities. Additionally, it identifies research gaps and proposes future avenues for streamlined DT developments and applications in the AEC sector. Future researchers and practitioners can target data integrity, integration and transmission, bi-directional interoperability, nontechnical factors, and data security to achieve mature digital twin applications for AEC practices. This study highlights the growing significance of DTs in construction and provides a foundation for further advancements in this field to harness its potential to transform built environment practices.

Bifenthrin is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide. It is used worldwide against different agricultural pests. Nervous system (NS) is the primary target organ for the pyrethroid group of insecticide which causes hyper excitation. The aim of this study to determine the effects of bifenthrin on the brain of rabbits. The animals were treated for 14 days with three different doses (1/5th, 1/10th and 1/15th of LD50) of bifenthrin. Neurotransmitters and Histopathological alterations were observed at the end of the experiments. Neurochemical parameters were checked 24 hours after the last dose. Significant changes in the level of biogenic amines were observed. The levels of epinephrine (EPN), dopamine (DA), 3, 4 dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) were decreased as compared to controls group with the increase in insecticide. However, norepinephrine (NE) and homovanillic acid (HVA) levels were found to be significantly higher than those of the controls. A significant reduction in the activity of the acetyl cholinesterase enzyme was found in the frontal cortex’s erythrocyte, plasma and brain of rabbit with the increase in administered bifenthrin. The oxidative stress showed significantly decrease in the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione S- transferase (GST) with the increase in dose of bifenthrin. Histopathological study of brain tissues showed normal GC (glial cells) and NC (neuronal cells) in the frontal cortex of brain tissue of control groups while the treated groups showed evacuation (odema), elongation of pyramidal nucleus, glial cell damage and brain haemorrhage.

The efficiency of a new composite material of the layered double hydroxide (LDH) of ZnMgAl and rice husk biochar (RHB) for the removal of Cu(II) and Pb(II) ions from synthetic wastewater was investigated in this study. The images of scanning electron microscope showed extremely fine crystalline LDH particles decorated on the rough surface of the RHB while the succesful formation of the composite adsorbent (LDH/RHB) was confirmed by the corresponding energy dispersive X-ray and the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. An equilibrium contact time of 30 and 15 min for Cu2+ and Pb2+, respectively, was proposed for the optimum performance of the batch adsorption process. The dose of the LDH/RHB adsorbent was optimized at 0.4 g yielding maximum adsorption capacities of 117 and 124 mg g-1 for Cu2+ and Pb2+, respectively, with corresponding maximum removal efficiencies of nearly 94% and 99%. The initial meta concentrations was optimized at 50 or 60 mg L-1 corresponding to maximum removal efficiencies or adsorption capacities. For the changing initial metal’s concentration, the removal efficiencies remained unchanged for up to 50 mg L-1 and decreased by about 50% by increasing the initial concentrations from 50 to 100 mg L-1. The adsorption capacities observed a linear increasing trend by increasing the initial concentrations from 5 to 60 mg L-1 and remained unchanged afterward up to 100 mg L-1. A solution pH of 6.0 yielded optimum results with an increasing trend in adsorption capacities and percentage removal by changing the solution pH from 2.0 to 7.0. Based on the best-fit of the pseudo second-order kinetic model to the experimental data, the chemisorption was suggested to be the controlling mechanism of adsorption. The fitting of the Langmuir model suggested a monolayer sorption of Cu2+ and Pb2+ in addition to a heterogeneous adsorption as supported by the fitting of the Temkin isotherm. The application of the Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm proposed a physical adsorption (mean free energy of adsorption less than 8 kJ mol−1) of both heavy metal ions on the surface of the LDH/RHB adsorbent.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the emissary behind the worst global pandemic of the 21st century, is primarily a respiratory disease-causing virus called SARS-CoV-2 which is responsible for millions of new cases (incidence) and deaths (mortalities), worldwide. Many factors have played a role in the differential morbidity and mortality experienced by nations and ethnicities against SARS-CoV-2, such as the quality of primary medical health facilities or enabling economies. Nevertheless, the most important variable, i.e., the subsequent ability of individuals to be immunologically sensitive or resistant to the infection, was not properly discussed before. Therefore, an astounding issue arose when some developed countries experienced higher morbidity and mortality, compared with their relatively underdeveloped counterparts, despite having excellent medical health facilities. Hence this investigative review attempts to analyze the issue from an angle of previously undiscussed genetic, epigenetic, and molecular immune resistance mechanisms in correlation with the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 and varied ethnicity-based immunological responses against it. The biological factors discussed here include the overall landscape of human microbiota, endogenous retroviral genes spliced into the human genome, copy number variation, and how they could modulate the innate and adaptive immune systems, which put a particular ethnic genetic architecture at a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection than others. Considering an array of these factors in their entirety may help explain the geographic disparity of disease incidence, severity, and subsequent mortality associated with the disease while at the same time encouraging scientists to design new experimental approaches to investigation.

Biogeochemical models estimate soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration, crop growth, and yield. The DeNitrification and DeComposition (DNDC) model was used to simulate soil SOC dynamics and harvested C-biomass in rice-wheat rotation under organic/inorganic fertilizations with conventional tillage (CT) and reduced tillage (RT). Before calibration, DNDC under-predicted harvestable grain C-biomass of rice by 29.22% to 42.14% and over-simulated grain C-biomass of wheat by 55.01% with equal amounts of NPK and animal manure applied under CT. However, after calibration by adjusting default values of soil/crop parameters, DNDC simulated harvestable grain C-biomass of both crops very close to observed values (only -2.81% to -6.17% less). DNDC also predicted effects of nutrient management practices on grain C-biomass of rice/wheat under CT/RT using d-index (0.76 to 0.96) and the calculated root mean squared error (RMSE of 165.36 to 494.18 kg C ha-1). DNDC simulated SOC trends for rice-wheat using measured values of several statistical indices. Regression analysis between modeled and observed SOC dynamics was significant with R2 ranging from 0.35 to 0.46 (p < 0.01), and intercept ranging from 0.30 to 1.34 (p < 0.65). DNDC demonstrated that combined inorganic and organic fertilization may result in higher C-biomass and more SOC sequestration in rice-wheat systems.

Unicellular eukaryotes of the Trypanosomatidae family include human and animal pathogens that belong to the Trypanosoma and Leishmania genera. Diagnosis of the diseases they caused requires the sampling of body fluids (blood, lymph, peritoneal fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, etc.) or organ biopsies (bone marrow, spleen, etc.), which are mostly obtained through invasive methods. Body fluids or appendages can be alternatives to these invasive biopsies but appropriateness remains poorly studied. To further address this question, we perform a systematic review on clues evidencing the presence of parasites, genetic material, antibodies, and antigens in body secretions, appendages, or the organs or proximal tissues that produce these materials. Paper selection was based on searches in PubMed, Web of Science, WorldWideScience, SciELO, Embase, Google. The information of each selected article (n=333) was classified into different sections and data were extracted from 77 papers. The presence of Trypanosomatidae parasites has been tracked in most of organs or proximal tissues that produce body secretions or appendages, in naturally or experimentally infected hosts. The meta-analysis highlights the paucity of studies on Human African Trypanosomiasis and a the absence on animal Trypanosomiasis. Among the collected data high heterogeneity in terms of the I² statistic (100%) is recorded. A high positivity is recorded for antibody and genetic material detection in urine of patients and dogs suffering leishmaniasis, and of antigen for leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. Data on conjunctival swab can be analyzed with molecular methods solely for dogs suffering canine visceral leishmaniasis. Saliva and hair/bristle showed a pretty good positivity that support their potential to be used for leishmaniasis diagnosis. In conclusion, our study pinpoints significant gaps that need to be filled in order to properly address the interest of body secretion and hair or bristle for the diagnosis of infections caused by Leishmania and by other Trypanosomatidae parasites.

The comfort of human life depends on the quality, size, and reliability of the infrastructure projects. In the infrastructure systems, rapid growth is found, where the economic and sustainable impact has become a topic of significant concern for policies and government officials. To achieve con-straints of sustainable development, all the policies and actions over the infrastructure project's life cycle must be assessed. Decision-makers have adopted approaches for economic, social, and en-vironmental initiatives through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost Analyses (LCCA) of infrastructure projects. The purpose of this review is to highlight the impact of per-forming LCA and LCCA in infrastructure projects. To achieve this goal, a systematic literature review methodology is adopted in which renowned databases, i.e., Web of Science, Science Direct, Emerald and Scopus were selected to extract the relevant literature. Using the PRISMA approach, 1251 publications were identified which were then filtered and 55 documents were included in the final review. In the extracted publications most, researchers were biased toward LCA and LCA individually, whereas few focused on integrated LCA and LCCA. The researchers assessed the costs and impact associated with the infrastructure project while there were less focused on the environmental cost. Besides this, techniques of economic, social, and environmental growth of infrastructure projects have been emphasized during the design phase because of substantial relations between infrastructure design and operation management. Moreover, a conceptual framework has been developed that will assist the decision-makers to consider the effects of LCA and LCCA on various aspects of the infrastructure project and how it impacts sustainability. In the last, a case study was performed to assess the developed framework with the incorporation of environmental impact cost.