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OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of Endodontic Postgraduate trainees regarding clinically relevant situations where an antibiotic cover is needed and is focused on the prescription patterns of various antibiotics depending on the clinical evaluation of the patients. METHODOLOGY: A cross sectional study was performed in which data was collected from five different dental institutes offering post-graduate residency in endodontics all over Karachi, Pakistan. Preferred antibiotic for odontogenic infections and the duration for the antibiotic coverage were evaluated amongst postgraduate clinicians. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed out of which only 82 questionnaires came back with responses. The study was conducted for a period of one month from August 2018- September 2018. The data collected was analyzed by SPSS version 21. RESULTS: A combination of amoxicillin with Clavulanic acid was the first choice of antibiotic in patients with no known allergies to penicillin (40.6%), whereas erythromycin was the first choice of antibiotic in patients having allergic reactions to penicillin (39.3%). The duration of treatment on average was 5 days. In clinical situations of irreversible pulpitis, with or without apical periodontitis, 74.3% and 67% of the respondents prescribed antibiotics. 78 % of respondents have prescribed antibiotics in cases of necrotic pulp with acute apical periodontitis. CONCLUSION: Our study concludes that antibiotic over prescription is very common amongst post graduate trainees and is contributing towards a larger issue of antibiotic resistance. Proper protocols of prescription should be followed by professionals and further refinement is required focusing on need, duration and choice of the antibiotic being used. KEYWORDS: Antibiotics, Odontogenic infections, Endodontics, Microbial resistance

Smart grid systems play a significant role in improving the resilience of distribution systems (DSs). In this paper, two strategies are proposed for implementation of a smart grid application: (a) a network reconfiguration and (b) a network reconfiguration with mobile emergency generator (MEGs) deployment. An improved set of resilience metrics to quantify and enhance the resiliency of distribution systems (DSs) is developed for the proposed optimization. The metrics aim to determine a suitable strategy and the optimal number and capacity of MEGs to restore the disconnected loads through the development of several microgrids. These metrics are then aggregated with the proposed strategy to develop an automated solution provider. The objective is to maximize system resilience considering the priority loads. The proposed resilience metrics are tested on the IEEE 33-Bus radial DSs. The case studies conducted proved the performance of the proposed power outage management strategy and resilience metrics in maximizing system resiliency for smart grids.

Since countermeasures of floods in Korea are focused only on facility restoration, recovery from flood damage cannot be repaired quickly. Then, it is necessary to reduce vulnerability to flooding and restore the state before the flood. Since there is no application of flood resilience to rural areas, it is necessary to introduce the FRI (Flood Resilience Index) and to apply flood resilience assessment to systematically and efficiently recover and manage flood damage in rural areas as well as in cities. In this study, the discharge was calculated by HEC-HMS (Hydrologic Engineering Center-Hydrologic Modeling System) and the hydraulic analysis was conducted by HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center-River Analysis System) and MIKE 21 for Dal Stream flood damage upstream of Goesan Dam in 2017. A flood map was made using three models and GIS (Graphic Information System), and then the FRI of Dal Stream was calculated. The calculated FRI values suggest methods that can be applied to the resilience to flood damage in rural areas as well as cities.

Technology advancement in the last few decades allows large penetration of renewable energy resources in the distribution network (DN). The integration of such resources has shown a substantial impact on DN through power loss reduction and improved network reliability. Besides this, the existing protection system has encountered coordination challenges due to the bidirectional power flow, different types and capacity of generation sources, and changes in fault levels due to network operating modes (grid-connected or islanded). Such conditions may cause the relays to malfunction and imperil the effectiveness of the existing protection scheme. Therefore, an efficient and robust protection coordination scheme is imperative to avoid network reliability and stability issues to the grid. This review paper presents a comparative analysis of various protection techniques implemented to alleviate the impact of integrated resources into DN. Moreover, a comparison of classical and modified protection approaches in terms of advantages, shortcomings, and implementation costs is presented. The prime objective of this study is to highlight the prominence of utilizing user-defined programmable relays for modern DNs. Moreover, recommendations are presented by considering the application of user-defined relay characteristics that can be proved as a robust protection scheme to cope with the protection challenges in existing and future power systems developments.

This review paper aims to suggest policy directions to secure the effective implementation of disaster preparedness policy by minimizing vulnerability for disaster and building disaster resilience in the event of large-scale disasters. Disaster preparedness refers to activities undertaken prior to the onset of a disaster to improve the response capacities of individuals, households, organizations, communities, and countries. The roles of these units include assessing their disaster vulnerabilities, anticipating problems that may arise in the event of disasters, and improving the ability to reduce disaster impact and ensure efficient and effective responses. In this context, we reviewed the theoretical framework underlying disaster preparedness, vulnerability, and resilience in disaster situations and then examined some of the problems that hinder proper preparation for a prompt and efficient response to the disaster. Based on the findings of the review, we recommended the government to develop programs to ensure effective implementation of disaster preparedness policies for vulnerability reduction and resilience building.

Made available in DSpace on 2020-12-10T19:43:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019-11-19 University of Malaya Research Grant Deregulation in the electrical industry has led utility companies to ensure high quality of power supply at the customer side. It is of utmost importance for utility companies to operate at maximum efficiency and minimise voltage deviation and power losses. Distributed network reconfiguration (DNR) and integration of distributed generation (DG) are commonly employed to mitigate power loss and voltage deviation. DNR is a complex combinatorial problem which requires radiality verification. Implicit radiality verification increases computational overhead and may lead to local optima. Whereas, improper selection of DG size poses direct consequences on the distribution network mainly on increased voltage deviation and power losses. Therefore, simultaneous optimal integration of DNR and DG is considered in this study to improve the overall performance of the distribution network. Explicit radiality verification is proposed based on Hamming dataset approach to significantly reduce the search space and the computational time, as well as to improve the quality of the solution. Subsequently, firefly algorithm is applied to attain near-optimal solution for NR and DG size. Four cases are considered to validate the effectiveness of the proposed technique including investigation on small, medium, and large-scale distribution network. The results show that the proposed technique is able to consistently attain near optimal-solutions. Univ Malaya, Fac Engn, Dept Elect Engn, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia Univ Kuala Lumpur, Elect Technol Sect, British Malaysian Inst, Bt 8 Jalan Sungai Pusu, Gombak 53100, Selongor Darul, Malaysia Sao Paulo State Univ, Campus Rosana, BR-19274000 Rosana, SP, Brazil Natl Cheng Kung Univ, Coll Elect Engn & Comp Sci, Dept Elect Engn, Tainan 70101, Taiwan Sao Paulo State Univ, Campus Rosana, BR-19274000 Rosana, SP, Brazil University of Malaya Research Grant: GPF055A-2018

Mobile emergency truck generators (METGs) are possible solution to counter the damages inflicted by unprecedented stochastic weather events in distribution systems (DSs). It plays an important role in enhancing the resiliency of DSs. However, there are no metrics that can be used to effectively dispatch the optimal number of METGs and quantify the resilience of DSs. In this regard, a dynamic metric consisting of Network Reconfiguration, including METGs, is proposed to achieve an effective restoration strategy. A decision-making variable method is implemented to sequentially dispatch the right number of METGs to restore critical loads by creating multiple microgrids. The aim is to maximize the load restored following the disturbance to the weighted critical load. To validate the performance of the proposed metrics, the IEEE 33-Bus test system is employed. The test results confirmed the efficiency of the solution proposed in decreasing the interruption of customer electricity.

Microgrid (MG) with optimal operating (OC) and capital cost (CC) is highly required. This study presents dual-mode energy management system (DM-EMS) operation with the objective of minimising the overall OC of the MG. DM-EMS determines the best mode to operate battery and fuel cell at a particular time and its duration to operate MG with minimum cost. The CC of an MG is mainly depending on battery size and battery life. In this study, novel battery sizing method by using the proposed life cycle cost (LCC) function is introduced. Considering the impact of battery size and life in the OC and CC of an MG, the proposed DM energy management strategy and novel battery sizing are concurrently optimised by using the proposed LCC function. The proposed strategy is validated using an MG system consisting of wind, battery storage and fuel cell. The results show that better optimal OC and CC with an accurate optimal battery capacity of an MG are achieved. In addition, analysis on the optimal battery size variations for different battery level [state of charges (SOCs)] is conducted. Changes in OCs and CC for the different range of initial battery SOC are also assessed.

Continuous increases in electrical energy demand and the deregulation of power systems have forced utility companies to provide high-quality and reliable services to maintain a sustainable operation and reduce electricity price. One way to continue providing the required services while simultaneously reducing operational costs is through minimizing power losses and voltage deviation in the distribution network. For this purpose, Network Reconfiguration (NR) is commonly adopted by employing the switching operation to enhance overall system performance. In the past, work proposed by researchers to attain switching sequence operation was based on hamming distance approach. This approach caused the search space to grow with the increase in total Hamming distance between the initial and the final configuration. Therefore, a method is proposed in this paper utilizing a Mixed Integer Second Order Cone Programming (MISOCP) to attain optimal NR to address this issue. The Hamming dataset approach is opted to reduce search space by considering only radial configuration solutions to achieve an optimal switching sequence. In addition, a detailed economic analysis has been performed to determine the saving after the implementation of the proposed switching sequence. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is validated through simulations on IEEE 33-bus distribution network and a practical 71-bus network in Malaysia. The result shows that the proposed method determined the optimal network configuration by minimizing the power losses for the 33 bus and 71-bus system by 34.14% and 25.5% from their initial configuration, respectively to maintain sustainable operation.

The forecasting of output solar power improves the quality, reliability and stability of power system. The aim of this research is day-ahead prediction of PV output power for 3 solar systems. The three PV systems are polycrystalline, monocrystalline and thin-film systems. A deep learning technique (RNN-LSTM) is proposed for day-ahead prediction of solar power output. The regression [GPR, GPR(PCA) and machine learning [SVR, SVR(PCA)] techniques are also developed. The forecasting accuracy is compared based on accuracy measurement parameters such as RMSE, MSE, correlation coefficient (R) and coefficient of determination (R2). One-year data for 2016 is considered for analysis. 70% of data is utilized for training and 30% for validation and testing. It is found that deep learning technique has better forecasting accuracy than other developed techniques in terms of lower (RMSE, MSE) and higher (R, R2), for day head forecasting of PV power output.

The integration of photovoltaic energy into a grid demands accurate power output forecasting. In this research, an hour ahead prediction of power output is performed on an annual basis over real data period (2016–2019) for three different PV systems based on polycrystalline, monocrystalline, and thin-film technologies. The solar radiation, ambient temperature, module temperature and wind speed are the considered input parameters, while the power output of each PV system is the output parameter. A hybrid deep learning (DL) method (SSA-RNN-LSTM) is proposed for an hour ahead prediction of output power for each PV system. The proposed technique is compared with GA-RNN-LSTM, PSO-RNN-LSTM and RNN-LSTM. The considered forecasting accuracy measurement parameters are RMSE, MSE, MAE and coefficient of determination (R2). The findings elaborate that SSA-RNN-LSTM has shown better forecasting accuracy with the lowest (RMSE and MSE), highest (R2) and highest convergence speed compared to other methods. The proposed model has shown testing (RMSE and MAE) of (19.14% and 21.57%), (15.4% and 10.81%) and (22.9% and 25.2%) lower than RNN-LSTM for polycrystalline, monocrystalline and thin-film PV systems respectively. Furthermore, the proposed model is found more robust in predicting the power output for three different PV systems over four years data period.

An individual’s Chronotype, i.e. natural sleep time preference, determines that individual’s periods of alertness and wakefulness during the 24-hour day. Extremes of chronotype variations can cause a person difficulty in participating in normal academic or social activities if their preferred periods of sleep and wakefulness/alertness do not coincide with these scheduled activities. Numerous studies have also co-related different chronotype patterns with higher risks of developing health impairing behaviours and mental disorders. Hence, finding the prevalence of different chronotypes is important as extreme patterns can be considered as a risk factor for imbalances in health and daily life. This research also seeks to explore whether there was any appreciable difference in academic performance across the spectrum of chronotype patterns and observe any significant differences across genders and age. Material and Methods: A descriptive, cross sectional survey was conducted in which 384 medical students (MBBS, BDS and DPT), selected by convenience sampling, filled out the pre validated and internationally used Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (Horne & Ostberg, 1976), comprising 19 questions with a scoring key that grades individuals into morning, evening or intermediate types. Certain student demographics were also collected. First year medical students were excluded as percentage scored in last professional examination was taken as the criteria for student performance. Statistical data, thus obtained was analyzed using SPSS version 23. Results: Out of 384 students, 220 were females (57.29%) and 164 were males (42.71%) aged 19-26 years, with a mean age of 21.72 with SD 1.27. Out of these 384 students, 91 fell in the evening category (23.7%), 59 were in the morning category (15.4%) while 234 were in the intermediate category (60.9%). Females had a higher percentage of evening types (26.8%) as compared to males (18.9%), however this was found to be insignificant by Chi-square test. Age classes also didn’t seem to have significant difference of chronotype frequencies. However, some association was observed between academic performance and chronotypes. Conclusion: Medical students showed a higher percentage of the evening chronotype than the general population, and a lesser percentage of morning types. However, more than half lie in the Intermediate category, which is also a greater proportion as compared to the general population. Further research is required to thoroughly study the association between student performance and chronotype.

Background. The research objective was to assess suitability of tooth affliction (TA) mitigation drugs through and after the office dental dyeing method. Types of studies reviewed. Our current research was conducted at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore from November 2017 to May 2018. The creators chose randomized, randomized, controlled preliminaries in which examiners associated soothing medicines and fake treatment to assess the TA of dental discoloration in the office. The creators conducted an electronic tracking using PubMed, ScienceDirect and Embase. In addition, the creators consulted other websites, such as ClinicalTrials.gov, to recognize ongoing research. Results. The researchers comprised 8 preliminary measured and randomized (336 grown-ups) in study. As the separate information indicates, the creators conducted the meta-examination using the proportions of chance and their 96% certainty or using the mean distinction with a provisional 96% certainty. The creators used the Cochrane Collaboration's device to assess the quality of the studies. After the evaluation, the creators considered that 7 reviews were of high caliber and that a solitary report was of low quality. The general sequelae of the evaluation procedure highlighted the non-appearance of a clinically critical impact of calming drugs. Aims and practical implications. The consequences of this diagnostic procedure have shown that calming drugs do not have a medically substantial impact on the TS that happens owing to discoloration in the office. Users should deliberately consider these results, given the obstacles to this verification, for example, the small size of the examples and the heterogeneity of the surveys at certain stages of assessment procedure. The consequences of this investigative review are essential for progressive medical investigations to achieve high resolution since SC is one of maximum significant goals behind end of death cure. Keywords: Tooth hypersensitivity; randomized controlled trial, anti-inflammatory drugs; in-office bleaching; meta-analysis.

Background. The research objective was to assess suitability of tooth affliction (TA) mitigation drugs through and after the office dental dyeing method. Types of studies reviewed. Our current research was conducted at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore from November 2017 to May 2018. The creators chose randomized, randomized, controlled preliminaries in which examiners associated soothing medicines and fake treatment to assess the TA of dental discoloration in the office. The creators conducted an electronic tracking using PubMed, ScienceDirect and Embase. In addition, the creators consulted other websites, such as ClinicalTrials.gov, to recognize ongoing research. Results. The researchers comprised 8 preliminary measured and randomized (336 grown-ups) in study. As the separate information indicates, the creators conducted the meta-examination using the proportions of chance and their 96% certainty or using the mean distinction with a provisional 96% certainty. The creators used the Cochrane Collaboration's device to assess the quality of the studies. After the evaluation, the creators considered that 7 reviews were of high caliber and that a solitary report was of low quality. The general sequelae of the evaluation procedure highlighted the non-appearance of a clinically critical impact of calming drugs. Aims and practical implications. The consequences of this diagnostic procedure have shown that calming drugs do not have a medically substantial impact on the TS that happens owing to discoloration in the office. Users should deliberately consider these results, given the obstacles to this verification, for example, the small size of the examples and the heterogeneity of the surveys at certain stages of assessment procedure. The consequences of this investigative review are essential for progressive medical investigations to achieve high resolution since SC is one of maximum significant goals behind end of death cure. Key Words. Tooth hypersensitivity; randomized controlled trial, anti-inflammatory drugs; in-office bleaching; meta-analysis.

Chulalongkorn Medical Journal, 64, 2, 193-204

The central aim of this study is to contribute to the encroachment of knowledge on impact of tourism on environmental pollution by CO2 emissions ASEAN-3 namely Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore during 1990-2014. The FMOLS results reveal that the impact of tourism variable on environmental pollution is significantly positive, while for Thailand and Singapore, it is found negative and statistically significant. Empirical findings suggest that sustainable economic development should be ensured by implementing prudent public policy, where tourism industry needs to be expanded further but fulfilment of its responsibility towards maintaining green and sustainable environment must be top most priority.

Electric vehicles have gained popularity in the recent years due to green transportation, high energy efficiency, reduction in fossil fuels and less noise pollutions. With the increasing proportion of EV, the issues of uncoordinated charging may lead to system imbalance and transformer overloading. The coordinated charging of EV restricts the system to maximum loading capacity and minimizes the total power loss. This work proposes hybrid particle swarm optimization (HPSO) algorithm for coordinated EV charging with network reconfiguration to improve system performance and charging higher number of EVs even during peak consumption. The IEEE modified 33 bus distribution networks is used in the paper to check the efficiency of the system.

Pesticides contamination is a global environmental and public health concern due to their carcinogenic and highly toxic nature for all kind of living organisms including plants, animals and humans. Pakistan as an agriculture-based country, annually use a huge amount of organochlorine pesticides (OC) to control insect pests and different diseases of crops, resulting in environmental contaminations and their subsequent exposure to humans. Unfortunately, more than half million people are endured annually from OC pesticides and other agro-chemicals poisoning in Pakistan. However, recent data on the uses, contamination and exposure of pesticides in Pakistan are largely unavailable. This review summarizes the recent information and provides data on consumption and contamination of pesticides with a particular focus on their exposure to humans in Pakistan. Studies must be conducted to precisely determine the current use, contamination level and exposure of pesticides in Pakistan.

This research aims to evaluate the performance of grid-connected photovoltaic systems based on three PV technologies along with a composite PV system installed at the rooftop of the engineering tower building, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The grid-connected PV systems are based on poly-crystalline (p-si), mono-crystalline (m-si), and thin-film (amorphous silicon (a-si)) technologies. The performance evaluation is based on the monthly and annual data that is monitored from January 2016 to December 2019. A comprehensive analysis is conducted on eleven performance parameters such as; performance ratio, capacity factor, array yield, final yield, PV array efficiency, PV system efficiency, inverter efficiency, AC energy, array losses, system, and the overall losses. Results show that p-si based PV system performs better with high annual average (array yield (1309.7 h), array efficiency (12.17%), and system efficiency (11.33%)) accompanied by less degradation in eleven parameters as compared to a-si and m-si PV systems. Moreover, the performance ratios of p-si and a-si PV systems are found higher than the values reported in some of the existing literature studies, subjected to similar and different climatic conditions. The results also indicate that environmentally the composite PV system has the potential to avoid 28143.7 kg of CO2 emissions in four years. This research is expected to deliver valuable statistics to individuals and organizations about the real performance of grid-integrated PV systems in Malaysia, including other tropical climate regions in the world.

With the growing concerns on the energy depletion and the reduction of CO2 emission, electric vehicles (EVs) have gained popularity in transport sector due to clean and reliable energy source. However, the charging of EVs has imposed significant load in the electrical distribution system. The stability of power network is disturbed with uncoordinated charging. This work aims to investigate the optimal EV coordination with vehicle to grid (V2G) technology for the cost-benefit analysis. However, the cost of EV battery replacement due to degradation is of paramount concern for the EV users, which constitute the most important ingredient to ensure active participation in V2G energy exchanges. Therefore, battery degradation cost is formulated for real time analysis taking depth of discharge at each time interval. The firefly algorithm has been used to optimize the system cost. The performance of the proposed system is tested on modified 33 bus distribution system in the presence of renewable energy sources (RES). The impact of system cost and energy losses are analysed for different RES penetration, EV capacities and travelling distances. The simulation results show significant reduction in operating cost when RESs are integrated into distribution network. Moreover, V2G technology is beneficial for EV consumers with high penetration of RES.

This paper presents a mixed integer quadratic programming to minimize the operation cost of isolated microgrid using diesel generator and energy storage. The deployment of energy storage with the distributed generators is an effective method for storing the energy for utilization during high load periods. The proposed method is applied on a power system with 3 diesel generators and energy storage serving as backup to meet the required load. The cost of microgrid is optimized by optimal dispatch of generators and power discharged by energy storage during peak load periods. The results show that the optimum cost of microgrid is achieved when the diesel generators dispatch the maximum power to load and the energy storage is used only during the peak load periods when the generators capacity is insufficient to fulfil the load demand.

A novel hybrid polymer nanocomposite coating of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) reinforced with nanoclay (C15A) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has been developed to protect metallic mating surfaces in tribological applications. The hybrid nanocomposite coatings were deposited on aluminum substrates using an electrostatic spraying technique. Ball-on-disk wear tests using a 440C stainless steel ball as the counterface were conducted on the coatings under dry conditions to determine the optimum amount of the loadings of the nanofillers and evaluate their tribological performance at different normal loads and linear velocities. Micro-indentation, raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and optical profilometry techniques were used to characterize the coatings in terms of hardness, dispersion of the nanofillers, morphology, and wear mechanisms, respectively. Results showed that the UHMWPE hybrid nanocomposite coating reinforced with 1.5 wt % of C15A nanoclay and 1.5 wt % of CNTs did not fail even until 100,000 cycles at a normal load of 12 N and a linear speed of 0.1 m/s showing a significant improvement in wear resistance as compared to all other coatings evaluated in this study.

In this paper, we study the dynamical instability of a collapsing object in the framework of generalized teleparallel gravity. We assume a cylindrical object with a specific matter distribution. This distribution contains energy density, isotropic pressure component with heat conduction. We take oscillating states scheme up to first order to check the instable behavior of the object. We construct a general collapse equation for underlying case with non-diagonal tetrad depending on the matter, metric functions, heat conducting term and torsional terms. The Harrison-Wheeler equation of state which contains adiabatic index is used to explore the dynamical instability ranges for Newtonian and post-Newtonian constraints. These ranges depend on perturbed part of metric coefficients, matter parts and torsion., Comment: 21 pages, Accepted for publication in AHEP

Environmental degradation and climate change are the main challenges encountered to achieve the predominant objective of sustainable development. There has been voluminous work done in this area, but the policies adopted and the empirical relationship between the determinants of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions are not clear to handle the problem. There exists a theoretical and empirical contradiction in the literature on the relationship between the variables under the study. Thus, the current study investigates the relationship between CO2 emissions and its determinants namely economic growth, energy consumption, financial development, and technological innovations (TIs) for Malaysia between 1985 and 2012. To achieve the objective of long-run relationship the autoregressive distributed lagged model is used for parameter estimation. The empirical results reveal that TI is having a negative but insignificant relationship with environmental pollution in Malaysia during the period under study. The study also indicates that higher economic growth improves the environmental quality in the long-run and is in line with the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. In a similar vein, the results indicate that financial sector development will lessen the CO2 emissions, thus, improving the quality of the environment in Malaysia. The short-run results reveal no evidence of the validation EKC hypothesis. Furthermore, the study applied Granger causality approach for causal relationship and found bidirectional causality running between economic growth and CO2 emissions and between TI and CO2 emissions in the long-run. The study also found that the impact of energy consumption in the short-run is environmentally friendly. Moreover, the results indicate a short-run bidirectional causality running between energy consumption and economic growth and also between economic growth and TI.

The effect of various operational factors, such as sliding speed, normal load and temperature on the tribological properties of Date palm fruit syrup (DPFS) as an environmentally friendly lubricant, is investigated. Ball-on-disc wear tests are conducted on mild steel samples in the presence of DPFS as a lubricant under different conditions and the coefficient of friction and wear rate are measured. Scanning electron microscopy, stylus profilometry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy are used to evaluate the wear tracks to determine the underlying wear mechanisms. Results showed that DPFS has excellent tribological properties in terms of low friction and low wear rates making it a potential candidate to be used as a lubricant in tribological applications.

Background:Componeer (prefabricated direct composite veneer) is a nano-hybrid composite enamel veneer that combines the advantages of both, placing a direct composite resin and those of a prefabricated laminate veneer manufactured in a laboratory. Any structural defects or anomalies in the anterior teeth or ‘esthetic zone’ create a problem for the patient. Hence, composite laminate veneers focus on targeting such abnormalities where the dentist is in complete control of the outcome, despite the pre-existing color, shape, structure, contours or morphology of the tooth. The aim of the study was to determine the success rate of using prefabricated direct composite veneers for cases with minimal preparation and ‘prep-less’ technique and compare both outcomes for establishing a better and long-lasting restoration. Case presentation:The study presented two case reports, the first case was of a 46-year-old female with major complaints regarding spaces between upper teeth along with yellow discoloration. While the second i.e. Case 2 was of a 23 years old female with generalized spacing in her teeth due to microdontia and her chief complaint was the diastema present in between her upper front teeth. Management and Results:A minimal preparation technique for composite veneering was used in Case 1 to combat the problem of yellow discoloration along with generalized spacing whereas a ‘prep-less’ technique was used for Case 2. Both cases depict different methods of composite veneering and restorations for both minimally prepared or ‘prep-less’ technique showed no differences at the follow-up visit (after 6-month). Conclusion:Composite veneers have shown excellent results for restoring anterior defects while preserving tooth structure and surrounding tissues. It has proven to be the most time-efficient way of restorations meeting the high demands of superior esthetics and cost-effectiveness. Link: http://aeirc-edu.com/ojs14/index.php/IJEHSR/article/view/350/500

The Ethernet as we see it today is a result of many stages of evolution. As a result, the Ethernet frame format at the link layer also has seen many changes. One might expect a consistent format of link layer frames as we usually study in text books, in actual practice this is not the case. Please refer to the manuscript for complete abstract.

Revolution in the area of information technology has brought about changes in many spheres of life. Today, information systems are being used in very sensitive areas such as defence and missile control systems, nuclear plants, etc. Not only has it changed how business is conducted, it has also brought about entirely new paradigms like that of information and cyber warfare. Similarly, one of the many impacts that it has made, is how wars are fought. For all what it has contributed, the information stored on digital devices and computers has become a precious resource and special measures are taken to guard it against attacks from malicious users. These special measures are needed by any enterprise be it a business firm, a commercial entity, a government agency or a military organization. However, requirements and specifications for information security and assurance for a military organization are essentially different from those of commercial or business applications. This paper highlights and discusses various aspects related to the security of information resources of military importance and outlines certain parameters that should be taken into consideration when talking about the security of military information resources. W also describe the role satellite reconnaissance can play in cyber war. Authors proclaim that this paper is first such attempt to correlate cyber war with satellite reconnaissance.

This paper presents the verified methodology for wireless authentication system using infrared barcode based scanner. An alternate approach of scanning a barcode using an infrared communication is implemented here, comprises of a card on which a barcode is printed is illuminated with an infrared beam. The reflections from the card are received by an infrared receiver and transmit them to a remote machine over wireless channel where the retrieve information is further processed and converted into the corresponding barcode digits which are further matched against the database stored in the server and the authenticity of the user is established. The system developed is cost-effective, efficient, provide double security and robust.

A wireless sensor network comprises of small sensor nodes each of which consists of a processing device, small amount of memory, battery and radio transceiver for communication. The sensor nodes are autonomous and spatially distributed in an area of investigation. Certain applications and protocols of wireless sensor networks require that the sensor nodes should be aware of their position relative to the sensor network. For it to be significant and to be of value, the data such as temperature, humidity and pressure, gathered by sensor nodes must be ascribed to the relative position from where it was collected. For this to happen, the sensor nodes must be aware of their relative positions. Traditional location finding solutions, such as Global Positioning System, are not feasible for wireless sensor nodes due to multiple reasons. Therefore, new methods, techniques and algorithms need to be developed to solve the problem of location and position estimation of wireless sensor nodes. A number of algorithms and techniques based upon different characteristics and properties of sensor nodes have already been proposed for this purpose. This chapter discusses the basic principles and techniques used in the localization algorithms, categories of these algorithms and also takes a more closer look at a few of the representative localization schemes.

In this study, the socio-economic impact of higher education in Pakistan are studied. The main objective of this study was to examine and analyse the casual relationship between socio/economic impacts in higher education. The study has also highlighted the firm relationship in higher education. The findings showed that there is positive relationship in higher education.

This research study has investigated the “Gender Differences in and Relationship between Group Identity and Conflict Resolution among University Students”. This research was based on cross sectional survey research design. The convenience sample was used by including 100 Students (50 male and 50 female) studying at University of Gujrat. The study variables were measured using Group Identification scale proposed by Cameron (2004) and Conflict Resolution scale by Springer (1992). The main objectives of this study were to measure the Group Identification, conflict Resolution and gender differences among University students. And it was hypothesized that higher the Group Identification Lower the Conflict and there will be negative relationship between group Identification and Conflict Resolution. Data was analyzed with statistical package for social sciences (SPSS-16 version). Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to find out the relationship between group Identification and Conflict Resolution. The t-test was computed to find out the gender differences. The result findings of the study supported that people with the sense of Group Identification have less indulge in Conflict related situation and Gender differences exist among the respondents.

The research based on international trade in china’s economic growth in china. Secondary data has been collected in year 2005 to 2014.The main purpose of this study was to examine the significance relationship of international trade with GDP. The study shows that there is a significant relationship of economic growth in china. China is a developing country and also has been developing most rapidly, it is sure that it will become developed country in next year.&nbsp

In this study, an effort has been made to explore the socio economic problems of bonded labor working at brick kiln in Gujranwala, in Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to find out the problems faced by bounded labor at brick kilns, so the only best technique of data collection was in-depth interviews with respondents. Interview guide was tool of data collection. In depth interviews were conducted with the respondents for a period of two months. During research, it was observed that respondents were illiterate and there were not even primary school education facilities available to workers. They were unaware of their basic rights and therefore were facing a lot of problems in their daily working life in general and whole life in particular. The findings show that economic, social and legal vulnerabilities of both females and males working in brick kiln. In the broader context both females and males were identified as victims in their own right but analysis of their interpersonal relations indicated more victimization of female workers. This article also gives recommendations for policy, practice and future research in this area.

Additional file 1. Transformation efficieny and Molecular analysis of putative transgenic crop.

Recent economic literature suggests that institutional quality factors exerted positive effect on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. The main focus of this study is to examine the role of institutional factors and macro economic policy factors on FDI inflows in a panel data of seven South Asian countries over the period of 12 years since 1996-2007. This study implies that a good institutional quality plays a key role in attractiveness of FDI inflows. A poor macroeconomic policy situation produces negative impact on FDI. Good Institutional quality and macroeconomic policy generate negative in a combined form on FDI. This study further implies that poor economic policy deteriorates institutional quality and creates negative effect on FDI inflows. Incredibility in trade liberalization policy may be a part of poor macro economic policy.

The objective of this study is to determine the risk and return relationship on the basis of univariate modeling approach. This study is helpful to analyze the asymmetric nature of data including the seasonal affect and non linear properties in risk and return relationship scenario. In this study, monthly data was used regarding gold price, cotton prices and sugar price along with KSE 100 index. The data span of all variables cover the time period from July 1998 to July 2008. The overall results indicate that asymmetric and seasonal effect is present in commodities market and stock market. But the asymmetric properties and seasonal effect is most dominant in stock market prices comparative to other commodities.