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Objective: To determine the impact of lifestyle on the optimization of blood pressure in adult hypertensive patients Study Design: Quasi-experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: Pak Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan, Aug 2019 to Jan 2020 Methodology: The study population comprised of 200 hypertension patients reporting for routine follow-up. Patients were divided into two groups. Group-A (controls) had the patients with the continuation of the routine anti-hypertensive medication. At the same time, Group-B (cases) received lifestyle modifications (salt restriction, quitting smoking and daily step count by using a pedometer) in addition to the routine anti-hypertension medication. Control of blood pressure among the groups was compared three months after the start of the study. Results: Mean age of the patients was 46.50±3.56 years. The mean duration of hypertension in the study participants was 5.12±3.24 years. Optimal blood pressure was achieved in 103(51.5%), while this was not achieved in 97(48.5%). With the help of binary logistic regression analysis, we found a statistically significant difference in achieving optimal blood pressure control among the cases and controls. Gender was also statistically significant in achieving control of blood pressure (pvalue

Objective: To assess the association of fatty liver with type 2 diabetes and other socio-demographic factors among the patients at Pak Emirates military hospital Rawalpindi. Study Design: Cross-sectional analytical Study. Place and Duration of Study: Pak Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan from Aug 2019 to Jan 2020. Methodology: This study was conducted on 300 patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus reporting for a routine checkup at the medical Outpatient department. Fatty liver was diagnosed on ultrasound by a consultant radiologist. Results: Out of three hundred patients with diabetes mellitus included in the final analysis, 225(75.0%) were males, and 75(25.0%) were females. 176(58.6%) had fatty liver on ultrasound, while 124(41.4%) had no fatty liver on ultrasound examination at the time of the study. we found that increasing age, long duration of diabetes and poor control of illness had a statistically significant relationship with the presence of fatty liver among the target population (p

The present study based on petrophysical computations assess the conventional fuel resources of the Yageliemu Formation. The Yageliemu Formation was evaluated using log data from four wells (YK19, YK20, YK21, and YK32) and observed over the entire reservoir interval. Yageliemu Formation originates from the Lower Cretaceous reservoir, which is located in the Yakela gas condensate field, Kuqa Depression of Tarim Basin China. The studied gas bearing zones are primarily composed of sandstone, with small amounts of shale and clay contents. The petrophysical properties of the gas-bearing zones were carefully examined, which are rated to be better quality sand layers with average effective porosities varying from 7 to 10%, permeability varying from 3 to 8.6 mD, average water saturation values ranging from 43 to 59%, and the average range of gas saturation is 40–57%. The Yageliemu Formation cutoff outcomes for shale volume (Vsh), effective porosity, water saturation, and permeability were characterized at 40% and 5%, 65%, and 0.1 mD, respectively. Thomas Stieber model was used to successfully identify shale structural behavior in reservoirs and it revealed that the dominant shale is mainly laminated with a minor volume of structural and dispersive shale. Lithofacies and axial variations of reservoir properties are assessed by constructing self-organizing maps, isoparametric maps of the petrophysical properties, and litho-saturation cross-plots, respectively. The reservoir characteristics of the Yageliemu Formation demonstrate that the prospective region for hydrocarbons accumulation trends is in the southwestern and northwestern parts of the research area. The study techniques can be used in the Tarim Basin and similar basins around the world to estimate the petrophysical properties of oil and gas wells and comprehend reservoir prospects.

The present study was aimed to determine the potential cultivated lands for rice crop production in Vietnam. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TQPSIS) were employed in order to analyze the structure of an ideal solution in agriculture that focuses mainly on environmental, economic, and social sustainability. A final ranking of alternative development solutions was also accomplished. Three major factors were taken into consideration during the process, including the economics, social concerns, and the environment, in order to develop a sustainable plan for rice and other grain crops in the future. The obtained results demonstrate that the area under investigation in Quang Tri province, which encompasses 192.49 km2 of land area, was extremely conducive to growing rice crops, with the majority of the arable lands suitable for cultivating rice varieties concentrated in Trieu Long District (63.14 km2) and Hai Lang District (56.87 km2). The main findings of the present work indicated that, it can link decision makers with the influencing variables of rice crop growing utilizing a hybrid method that can be successfully used based on GIS technique. To expand production, chemical soil characteristics and agricultural development strategies should be investigated further, particularly in the studied areas with greater success potential.

Aim: We aimed to review our experience of managing Wilms tumor in our center over a period of fifteen years with regards to disease characteristics, outcome and see how well we are doing as compared to rest of the world. Methods: All children admitted at King Abdullah Specialist Children's Hospital, Riyadh from Jan 2001 to Dec 2015 with the diagnosis of Wilms tumor were included. Out of 39 eligible patients, 36 were included for final analysis whose treatment and follow up details were available. Results: Median age at diagnosis was 3 years, median duration of follow up was 7.2 years and 44% were male. Two (6%) patients had underlying hereditary predisposition syndromes. Abdominal distension was the most common symptom in 35(97%) patients and hypertension in 12(33%). Ten (28%) patients had stage I disease, 2(6%) had stage II, 13 (36%) had stage III, 8(22%) had stage IV while 3(8%) patients presented with stage V disease. Lung was the commonest metastatic site. Thirty-one (86%) patients had upfront nephrectomy. Anaplasia was present in 5(14%) of nephrectomy specimens. One patient had positive LOH for chromosomes 1p and 16q. All 6(17%) patients died of disease progression. Five year OS and EFS was 83% and 74% respectively. Anaplasia showed strong association with risk of relapse (p 0.0003). Conclusions: OS and EFS are comparable with rest of the developing world but we need to adopt modern tumor genetics based risk stratification to match the survival figures reported from developed world.

In this article, structural, mechanical, optical and electronic properties of MAX phase ternary Mo2Ga2C, Mo2GaC and Mo3GaC2 carbides are reported. Theoretical calculations are performed by applying OLCAO method within the density functional theory. All three carbides fulfill the structural stability criteria mechanically. The calculated formation energies of all three ternary carbides indicate the structural stability of these carbides. The Mo2GaC and Mo3GaC2 carbides are found less resistant to thermal shock as compared to Mo2Ga2C carbide. Band structure plots reveal conducting behavior of Mo2Ga2C, Mo2GaC and Mo3GaC2 carbides. DOS spectra of Mo2Ga2C, Mo2GaC and Mo3GaC2 carbides show an increasing number of energy states at Fermi level. The calculations of localization index reveal highly delocalized energy states near Fermi level, EF. Effective charge (Q∗) calculations reveal that the Mo atoms have charge losing trend in these carbides. Bond order (BO) calculations show dominant role of covalent nature of Mo–C bonds in the stability and cohesion of all three carbides. Optical behavior of carbides shows anisotropic characteristics up to energy ≤9.0 eV. Above 9.0 eV, carbides exhibit isotropic behavior. Theoretical results suggest that these carbides can of interest for electronic and optical applications.

Background: Carvedilol has an established role in Chronic Liver disease (CLD) associated Portal Hypertension, however its role in specific subclasses of CLD has not been studied, neither the factors leading to non-response thereby predisposing such patients to variceal bleed with empiric therapy. Aims and Objectives: The purpose of this study was. 1. To evaluate the hemodynamic response to Carvedilol and optimum dosage in patients of CTP Class A Cirrhosis. 2. To determine any clinical variables that would help in differentiating responders from non-responders. Materials and Methods: In forty-three consecutive patients of chronic liver disease Child Turcotte Pugh (CTP) Class A with esophageal varices, Hepatic Venous Pressure Gradient (HVPG) was measured at baseline, 90 minutes after initial administration of 12.5 mg of Carvedilol and after 3 months of dose optimization. Results: Twenty-one (48.8%) patients demonstrated Acute Response and after dose optimization Chronic Response was seen in 29 (67.4%) patients with additional 8 (18.6%) patients responding to dose optimization. Fourteen (32.55%) patients failed to show any response. Low pre-drug Cardiac Output (CO), High pre-drug mean arterial pressure (MAP), more than 2.5mmHg drop in HVPG acutely, higher dose toleration of more than 18.5mg and lower change in HR predicted response. Conclusion: Patients with CTP Class A Cirrhosis with Portal Hypertension and Esophageal Varices tolerate Carvedilol well and nearly two-thirds show hemodynamic response when dose is optimized over a period of time, including patients who initially show no acute response. Nearly one-third of patients show no response even after dose optimization.

Objective: To determine the association of malabsorption in celiac disease with anaemia and other sociodemographic factors at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan. Study Design: Cross sectional study Place and Duration of Study: Department of General Medicine Military Hospital Rawalpindi from Jul to Dec 2019. Methodology: A total of 300 adults were included in the study, 150 cases were patients with the diagnosis of celiac disease, and the other 150 were controls without celiac disease. Celiac disease was diagnosed based on biopsy findings by a consultant gastroenterologist. Defined was defined based on haemoglobin levels. In addition, the relationship between age, gender, anaemia, and the presence of comorbidities was assessed with the presence of celiac disease among the adults included in the study. Results: Out of 300 cases and controls, 116 (38.7%) patients were males, and 184 (61.3%) were females. One hundred and forty-eight (49.3%) did not show the presence of anaemia, while one hundred and fifty-two (50.7%) showed the presence of anaemia. we found a statistically significant difference in cases and controls regarding the presence of comorbidities and the presence of anaemia (p

Persian spirituality exerted a profound influence on the religious culture of Kashmir. The local Hindu Shaivite monism that went back to the ninth century was propagated by the Rishi ascetics. This paper aims to examine the influence of Sufism on the popular Islamic culture in Kashmir, in particular the role of the fourteenth-century figure of Nund Rishi or Shaykh Nūruddīn. The findings will be based on the qualitative analysis of the historical sources pertaining to the period concerned, with a focus on the Sanskrit epic of Rajatarangini and the poetry of Nund Rishi which explicitly refers to famous Persian mystics. This study has valid implications for the research on the causes of the socio-cultural transformation of Kashmir that were not only initiated but also taken to its completion and fruition by the local Rishi order.

This paper proposes a Cooperative-Relay Neighboring-Based Energy-Efficient Routing (CR-NBEER) protocol with advanced relay optimization for MUSN. The utilization of the relay nodes, among all other sensor nodes, makes it possible to achieve node-to-node deployment. The proposed method focuses only on cooperation and relay optimization schemes. Both schemes have previously been implemented, and thus the proposed method represents the extended version of the Neighboring-Based Energy-Efficient Routing (NBEER) protocol. Path loss, end-to-end delay, packet delivery ratio, and energy consumption parameters were considered as part of the performance evaluation. The average performance was revealed based on simulations, where the overall average EED of Co-UWSN was measured to be 35.5 ms, CEER was measured to be 26.7 ms, NBEER was measured to be 27.6 ms, and CR-NBEER was measured to be 19.3 ms. Similarly, the overall EC of Co-UWSN was measured to be 10.759 j, CEER was measured to be 8.694 j, NBEER was measured to be 8.309 j, and CR-NBEER was measured to be 7.644 j. The overall average PDR of Co-UWSN was calculated to be 79.227%, CEER was calculated to be 66.73.464%, NBEER was calculated to be 85.82%, and CR-NBEER was calculated to be 94.831%. The overall average PL of Co-UWSN was calculated at 137.5 dB, CEER was calculated at 230 dB, NBEER was calculated at 173.8 dB, and CR-NBEER was calculated at 79.9 dB. Based on the simulations and evaluations, it was observed that the cooperation and relay optimization scheme outperformed previous schemes.

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) have gained prominence in wireless sensor technology, featuring resource-limited sensor nodes deployed in challenging underwater environments. To address challenges like power consumption, network lifetime, node deployment, topology, and propagation delays, cooperative transmission protocols like co-operative (Co-UWSN) and co-operative energy-efficient routing (CEER) have been proposed. These protocols utilize broadcast capabilities and neighbor head node (NHN) selection for cooperative routing. This research introduces NBEER, a novel neighbor-based energy-efficient routing protocol tailored for UWSNs. NBEER aims to surpass the limitations of Co-UWSN and CEER by optimizing NHNS and cooperative mechanisms to achieve load balancing and enhance network performance. Through comprehensive MATLAB simulations, we evaluated NBEER against Co-UWSN and CEER, demonstrating its superior performance across various metrics. NBEER significantly maximizes end-to-end delay, reduces energy consumption, improves packet delivery ratio, extends network lifetime, and enhances total received packets analysis compared to the existing protocols.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of recombinant factor VIII FC fusion protein in haemophilia A patient receiving on demand treatment only. Study Design: Comparative cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Hematology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and Pakistan Hemophilia Welfare Society, Rawalpindi, from Jun to Dec 2017. Methodology: Eighty-nine male patients of Hemophilia A already receiving recombinant factor VIII (20-30 Units/kg) on demand, with no history of inhibitors were included in study. Patients were divided as per age into paediatric and adult group and also on the basis of their basal factor VIII levels into severe, moderate and mild groups. Same patients were switched to recombinant factor VIII FC fusion protein (20-30 Units/kg) and its efficacy was measured and compared with recombinant Factor VIII in terms of dose requirement, injections, bleeds in six month period, presence of inhibitors and side effects. Results: Eighty nine male patients were studied. There was significant reduction in dose from median value of 5750 units for group I to 4000 units for group II. Number of bleed in six month period were reduced from 5.3 in group I to 4.5 in group II. Number of injections were reduced on average to 1-2 injection per bleed in group II. No inhibitors were detected in group II. Conclusion: rFVIII Fc fusion protein has prolong activity and results in reduction of total dose, number of bleed, dose per bleed and has reduced antigenecity.

Higher education is important for the social and economic development of an economy. In the recent past, the higher education sector has developed many folds in Pakistan. However, many aspects of the higher education sector are unexplored and need scientific examination. For example, how far the administrative services which aim to facilitate students and academic staff are efficient? The efficiency of administrative services is vital for the generation of human capital in the form of students with enhanced capabilities. In addition, efficient administrative services lead to efficient academic services leading to the growth of quality research and development in the country. The current study aims to examine the efficiency of administrative services between academia and students. Data is collected through a survey from seven female hostels of International Islamic University (IIU), Islamabad, Pakistan. Efficiency is examined through students’ perceptions about the quality of administrative services being provided. Students’ response reveals their views about administrative services in IIUI. The analysis includes several relevant dimensions of administrative service such as accommodation facilities, social services like sports and health, general aspects like cafeteria and foods, library, and laboratory facilities, etc. Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) is used to evaluate the efficiency perception and importance of academic services. Based on the empirical results, the nature of inefficiencies is identified to find possible dimensions for improvements.

Purpose: In efforts to realize the dividend of demographic transition, elimination of child labor has become an utmost challenge for the relevant international bodies. Knowing the importance of this issue, children are now the center of the vision of sustainable development as SDG 8.7 and 16.2 are directly related to children and their lives. In this context, the purpose of the current study is to analyze the linkages between demographic variables (such as working-age population, labor force participation rate, labor force growth rate, life expectancy, and dependency ratio and population growth) and child labor along with some other macroeconomic determinants of child labor. Design/Methodology/Approach: A panel of 45 developing countries covering the period 2000 – 2019 is used for empirical analysis. Dynamic panel GMM technique is utilized for empirical results. Findings: The results show that increase in the working-age population, GDP per capita, age dependency old and young, and health expenditures increase the child labor but increase in life expectancy and educational expenditures reduce the child labor in developing countries. Population growth rate reduces child labor in overall developing countries and high-income developing economies but increases child labor in low income developing countries. The increase in labor force growth rate increases child labor in a panel of developing economies and low-income developing economies but reduces child labor in high-income developing economies. Implications/Originality/Value: Public expenditures in health and education along with increasing the female labor force participation rate is recommended to reduce the child labor in developing countries.

Background: sex identification by morphological assessment of various bones of the skeleton had been one of the oldest approaches in forensic anthropology and medico-legal cases. Aim and Objective: The aim of this study was to make the morphometric measurements of the foramen magnum in determining the feasibility of sex determination using computed tomography (CT). Materials and Methods: The data for our study was obtained from 100 patients having CT scan of the head and neck region (Siemens Somatom 256 slice CT scanner) with 1mm contiguous axial scans using bone window settings (2000 HU with 400 HU in centre), scan time of one second and exposure parameters 140 kVp and 70mA. The different measurements taken include the antero-posterior (AP) diameter, transverse diameter and area of the foramen magnum. Results: There were 50 males and 50 females with the age range of 18 to 75 years. Males have a higher average value than females in all of the parameters measured on foramen magnum. By using Student's T-test, all the measured parameters showed significant difference between the sexes (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The expression of sexual dimorphism in the foramen magnum region shows significant difference between the sexes, therefore this area of the skull should be considered a useful area in the identification of sex.

Background: Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are considered the most common orofacial pain conditions of nonodontogenic origin. The current perspective regarding TMD is multidimensional. If the pain becomes chronic, it can have a great impact on the social and emotional behavior of the patient. Materials and Methods: A total of 40 patients between the age groups of 18 and 45 years were included in the study. These patients were divided into two groups comprising 20 patients each. Group I was prescribed gabapentin and was advised to take the medicine twice daily. Group II was prescribed gabapentin along with nortryptyline twice daily. Patients in each group were evaluated at the end of every week using a visual analog scale (VAS) score for pain, maximum interincisal mouth opening, and several muscle tenderness sites for 3 weeks, and a comparison was made. Results: The age range in group I was 19–45 years, whereas in group II it was 18–45 years with a P value of 0.711. Female predominance was observed in both groups as 65% of patients were females in group I and 60% were females in group II and P value obtained was 0.74. VAS score decreased more rapidly in group II than group I. The P value obtained was

Macrophages are professional phagocytic cells that play a critical role in initiating immune responses by presenting antigen and phagocytic clearance. The macrophages can be targeted for immunomodulation by beneficial microbes, such as probiotics. The aim of this study is to investigate the protective effect of Saccharomyces boulardii against Clostridium perfringens infection in avian macrophage cell line HD11. In this study, HD11 macrophages were prestimulated with S. boulardii for 6 h and then infected with C. perfringens for 3 h. Results showed that S. boulardii enhanced phagocytosis and bactericidal capacity against C. perfringens by HD11 cells. The S. boulardii effectively promoted the mRNA expression of CD80, CD83, and CD197 cell-surface molecules in C. perfringens-infected HD11 cells. Moreover, we found that prestimulation with S. boulardii reduced the mRNA expression of CD40, toll-like receptor [TLR] 4, and TLR15 induced by C. perfringens and thereby downregulated the mRNA expression of myeloid differentiation primary response 88, TNF receptor associated factor 6, nuclear factor kappa-B p65 subunit, and c-Jun N-terminal kinase genes in HD11 cells. The upregulation of cytokines (interleukin [IL]-6, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and IL-10) and inducible nitric oxide synthase mRNA expression in C. perfringens-infected HD11 cells were noticeably inhibited by S. boulardii pretreatment. Conclusively, these results might provide a new insight into the role of S. boulardii in regulating avian immune defense against C. perfringens invasion and immune escape.

Abstract Reticuloendotheliosis is an important immunosuppressive disease, associated with avian reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) infection, and causes notable economic losses worldwide. Glycoprotein gp90 is an important structural protein of REV, and considered to be the most important immunogenic antigen, which can induce neutralizing antibodies against REV. In this study, an optimized suspension culture system was developed and applied to secretory express the immunogenic surface antigen gp90. To achieve an optimal glycosylation, the gp90 was designed to secretory expressed into the supernatant of the cell culture, which also occurs in the natural protein maturation procedure of REV. Serum-free culture medium was introduced to simplify the purification process and reduce the production costs. Based on the purified glycosylated gp90, an oil-emulsion subunit REV vaccine candidate was developed and evaluated in chickens. The subunit gp90-based vaccine induced fast immune responses, high levels of antibodies (REV-specific antibody, gp90-specific antibody, and neutralizing antibody against REV), and preferential T helper 2 (Th2) (interleukin-4 secretion) not Th1 (interferon-γ secretion) response. Furthermore, the viremia induced by REV infection was significantly reduced in chickens immunized with the glycosylated gp90. Overall, an optimized secretory expression system for glycosylated gp90 was developed, and the glycosylated gp90 obtained in this study retained good immunogenicity and could be an attractive vaccine candidate to protect chickens against REV horizonal infection.

Infectious bursal disease (IBD), caused by IBD virus (IBDV), is one of the most devastating and immunosuppressive diseases of the poultry and has been a constraint on the sustainable poultry production around the globe including Pakistan. While the disease is threatening the poultry industry, the nature of predominant strains of IBDV in Pakistan remained ill-defined. In this study, an epidemiology survey was conducted in the main chicken-farming regions of Pakistan. The batch of Pakistan IBDVs genes simultaneously covering both VP1 and VP2 were amplified, sequenced, and analyzed. The unique segment-reassortant IBDVs (vv-A/Uniq-B), carrying segment A from vvIBDV and segment B from one unique ancestor, were identified as one important type of circulating strains in Pakistan. The data also discovered the characteristic molecular features of Pakistan IBDVs, which will contribute to scientific vaccine selection and effective prevention of the disease.

Novel Zn0.90Co0.10O and Zn0.90Co0.05M0.05O (M = Ca, Ba, Cr, Pb) nanocrystals were synthesized by co-precipitation method and studied its structural, optical and electrical properties along with their photocatalytic activity. The XRD confirmed that Ca, Ba, Cr, and Pb have been incorporated without modifying ZnO hexagonal wurtzite structure. The microstructural parameters were calculated using Scherrer, W–H, and SSP methods. FTIR confirmed the existence of Zn–O vibrational modes. UV–vis spectra used to calculate the energy bandgap by using Tauc’s plot, Energy equation, Vegard’s law, and Derivative method. Optical parameters such as Urbach energy, refractive index, dielectric constant, extinction coefficient and optical conductivity were also studied. The IV measurements demonstrated that electrical conductivity was increased significantly by co-doping. The photocatalytic activity for the decolorization of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) dyes under sunlight revealed the highest degradation efficiency for co-doped nanocrystals against MB as compared to MO in 100 min illumination. The grown nanocrystals are propitious sunlight driven photocatalyst to eradicate organic toxins.

Background: Surgical site wound infection (SSI) imposes a great challenge worldwide. It is the third most commonly reported nosocomial infection. The objective of the study was to assess the frequency of postoperative wound infections in a newly developed health organization. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2017 to May 2018 in Bakhtawar General Hospital, Jamshoro, Pakistan. A total of 364 cases of surgery, from Obstetrics and Gynecology and General Surgery department were included. Surgical interventions involving an incision were assessed. Infection (SSI) rate was noticed and data was analyzed by SPSS version 18. Results: Healthy discharge rate was 97%. The overall surgical site wound infection rate was 3.1%. These infections were high in genitourinary surgeries (9.09%). Among Obstetrics & Gynecology surgeries, maximum number of SSIs were reported in cases of emergency Lower Segment Cesarean Section (LSCS). Conclusion(s): The overall rate of SSI for different types of surgeries performed at Bakhtawar General Hospital, Jamshoro was only 3.1%. Frequency of SSI was highest in genitourinary surgeries followed by gastrointestinal and obstetrics and gynecology surgeries, respectively.

Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is the most emerging and fast-expanding technology in the last two decades. One of the major issues and challenging areas in MANET is the process of routing due to dynamic topologies and high mobility of mobile nodes. The efficiency and accuracy of a protocol depend on many parameters in these networks. In addition to other parameters node velocity and propagation models are among them. Calculating signal strength at the receiver is the responsibility of a propagation model while the mobility of nodes is responsible for the topology of the network. A huge amount of loss in performance is occurred due to the variation of signal strength at the receiver and obstacles between transmissions. In this paper,it has been analyzed to check the impact of different propagation models on the performance of Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) in Sparse and Dense scenarios in MANET. The simulation has been carried out in NS-2 by using performance metrics as average packet drop average latency and average Throughput. The results predicted that propagation models and mobility have a strong impact on the performance of OLSR in considered scenarios.

This paper contains a new human capital paradigm that measures Pakistan's economic development and human capital formation. The aim of this paper is to empirically estimate the impact of economic growth on human capital formation in Pakistan. Human capital is used as the dependent variable with govt. expenditures on secondary education, expenditures on tertiary education, current health expenditure and GROSS fixed capital formation as the independent variables. Data is taken from WDI and the P.W.T (10) for the period of 1990-2020. This study is based on time series analysis. In this study ADF unit root and ARDL techniques are used to analyze. gross fixed capital formation, tertiary education and health expenditures are necessary tools for human capital. Tertiary education enhances the productivity of individuals in Pakistan. Findings of this analysis argued that Pakistan has paid much attention to the quality of tertiary education and on current health expenditures and also try to the improvement of the net investment. It will be beneficial for the entire country.

What determines success in academia? Both researchers and academics have disagreements regarding the notion of success and its determinants in academia. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of political skill on employees’ subjective career success and the mediating and moderating role of mentoring and career adaptability in the said relationship respectively. The hypothesized relationships were tested utilizing a representative stratified random sample of 362 faculty members employed in the public sector universities of Pakistan. Results revealed that political skill positively influences subjective career success. The mediation model was supported and as expected: mentoring mediated the link between political skill and career success. The moderated relationship between mentoring and career success was stronger for individuals with higher career adaptability. The study adds to the understanding of underlying mechanisms involved in the political skill-career success nexus. Moderating role of career adaptability in the relationship between political skill and subjective career success was also probed, which further adds to the theoretical contribution of the study. The findings suggest that academics must realize that they need to be politically skilled, should be proactive in seeking mentoring relationships and should better equip themselves to cope with the work uncertainties.

For almost one and a half year the world is facing the pandemic called COVID-19, which is an acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2). This disease has already engulfed many lives and has not been tamed so far. Physicians all over the world still, trying to get a hold of this global health issue, are faced with another life-threatening challenge associated with COVID-19, called black fungus-Mucormycosis. Within a span of few weeks, we have encountered three cases of black fungus in our institute which has stirred a serious concern among physicians in Pakistan. Keywords: Mucormycosis, Black fungus, COVID-19, Pandemic.

Small and medium-sized towns in the high mountain regions of South Asia are characterised by rapid and mostly unplanned urbanisation processes, regularly resulting in an increased risk of urban agglomerations being exposed to natural hazards. After the administrative capital of Leh, Kargil town is the second-largest urban centre in the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh. This article discusses the development and dynamics of the Trans-Himalayan town in terms of its historical development, expansion and population; land use and land cover (LULC) change; and the specific role of tourism. Based on a multi-temporal approach using high-resolution satellite images, statistical data and field surveys, the urban landscape dynamics of Kargil town are analysed. The total population of this town increased almost tenfold from 1681 in 1961 to 16,338 in 2011, which resulted in an increase in the urban population from 3.7% to 11.6%, while the population of the entire Kargil district only tripled from 45,064 to 140,802 over the same period. Migration from rural villages to Kargil town has been a major cause for the construction and growth of new residential colonies and settlements. The built-up area increased more than ninefold from 0.25 km2 (1.3%) to 2.30 km2 (11.7%) between 1965 and 2020. During the same period, irrigated land and hygrophilous vegetation increased considerably from 4.51 km2 (23.0%) to 8.56 km2 (43.6%) due to the construction of new water channels. Similarly, the barren area decreased significantly from 14.88 km2 (75.8%) to 8.78 km2 (44.7%) between 1965 and 2020. Moreover, the massive increase in tourist arrivals has led to the construction of more hotels, guesthouses and travel agencies. These key factors play a significant role in the emergence, growth and development of this high-mountain town.

Objective: To determine the correlation of femoral vein diameter with central venous pressure. Study Design: Cross-sectional analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Peshawar, Pakistan from March 2021 to July 2021. Materials and Methods: This study was done on patients aged ≥18 years who were admitted to the intensive care unit and had a central venous line passed. Patients with lower extremity deep vein thrombosis, conditions associated with raised intra-abdominal pressure like pregnancy or recent laparotomy and those unable to lie supine were excluded. Central venous pressure was measured by a manual manometer. Femoral vein diameter was also measured in horizontal and vertical dimensions at the bedside and the mean was calculated. Results: There were 150 patients, including 109 (72.7%) males and 41 (27.3%) females, with a mean age of 36.53 ± 13.83 years. Mechanical ventilation was given to 17 (11.33%) patients. The mean central venous pressure and femoral vein diameter were 8.82 ±3.87 cm and 9.36 ± 3.14 cm, respectively. The overall regression was statistically significant (r=0.407, p

In medical environments, a wireless body sensor network (WBSN) is used to operate remotely, and sensor nodes are employed. It consists of sensor nodes installed on a human body to monitor a patient’s condition, such as heartbeat, temperature, and blood sugar level, and are functionalized and controlled by remote devices. A WBSN consists of nodes that are actually sensors in nature and are operated with a short range of communication. These sensor nodes are fixed with limited computation power and the main concern is energy consumption and path loss. In this paper, we propose a new protocol named energy-efficient distance- and link-aware body area (EEDLABA) with a clustering mechanism and compare it with the current link-aware and energy-efficient body area (LAEEBA) and distance-aware relaying energy-efficient (DARE) routing protocols in a WBSN. The proposed protocol is an extended type of LAEEBA and DARE in which the positive features have been deployed. The clustering mechanism has been presented and deployed in EEDLABA for better performance. To solve these issues in LAEEBA and DARE, the EEDLABA protocol has been proposed to overcome these. Path loss and energy consumption are the major concerns in this network. For that purpose, the path loss and distance models are proposed in which the cluster head (CH) node, coordinator (C) node, and other nodes, for a total of nine nodes, are deployed on a human body. The results have been derived from MATLAB simulations in which the performance of the suggested EEDLABA has been observed in assessment with the LAEEBA and DARE. From the results, it has been concluded that the proposed protocol can perform well in the considered situations for WBSNs.

In this manuscript, a series of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated as a function of post-processing temperature based on mesoporous CuO@Zn(Al)O-mixed metal oxides (MMO) in conjunction with dye N719 as the main light absorber; the proposed CuO@Zn(Al)O geometry was, in turn, attained using Zn/Al-layered double hydroxide (LDH) as a precursor via combination of co-precipitation and hydrothermal techniques. In particular, the dye loading amount onto the deposited mesoporous materials was anticipated via regression equation-based UV-Vis technique analysis, which evidently demonstrated a robust correlation along with the fabricated DSSCs power conversion efficiency. In detail, of the DSSCs assembled, CuO@MMO-550 exhibited short-circuit current (JSC) and open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 3.42 (mA/cm2) and 0.67 (V) which result in significant fill factor and power conversion efficiency of 0.55% and 1.24%, respectively. This could mainly be due to the relatively high surface area of 51.27 (m2/g) which in turn validates considerable dye loading amount of 0.246 (mM/cm−2).

For efficient energy distribution, microgrids (MG) provide significant assistance to main grids and act as a bridge between the power generation and consumption. Renewable energy generation resources, particularly photovoltaics (PVs), are considered as a clean source of energy but are highly complex, volatile, and intermittent in nature making their forecasting challenging. Thus, a reliable, optimized, and a robust forecasting method deployed at MG objectifies these challenges by providing accurate renewable energy production forecasting and establishing a precise power generation and consumption matching at MG. Furthermore, it ensures effective planning, operation, and acquisition from the main grid in the case of superior or inferior amounts of energy, respectively. Therefore, in this work, we develop an end-to-end hybrid network for automatic PV power forecasting, comprising three basic steps. Firstly, data preprocessing is performed to normalize, remove the outliers, and deal with the missing values prominently. Next, the temporal features are extracted using deep sequential modelling schemes, followed by the extraction of spatial features via convolutional neural networks. These features are then fed to fully connected layers for optimal PV power forecasting. In the third step, the proposed model is evaluated on publicly available PV power generation datasets, where its performance reveals lower error rates when compared to state-of-the-art methods.

In Thailand, renewable energy is an essential component in the choice of low-emissions economy growth. This study aims to investigate the factors of renewable energy consumption in Thailand. The data has been analyzed from 1980 to 2018 to identify the influencing factors for the overall energy use of renewable energy in Thailand using the Autoregressive Distributive Lag model (ARDL). The results demonstrate that renewable energy has a long-term relationship with fossil fuel consumption, financial expansion, foreign direct investment, trade openness, and GDP per capita. Further economic and financial development boosts renewables consumption of energy in Thailand. At the same time, trade and non-renewable energy (use of fossil fuel) detract from renewables consumption of energy. Hence the government of Thailand should elaborate on strategies that can increase the renewable energy amount because renewable energy plays a significant role in economic development without affecting the environment. It also increases the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption but less than renewable energy consumption.

In today's technological era, most new generations are using memes because the phenomenon of memes is rapidly gaining in popularity. In addition, various modifications and parodies use social and cultural phenomena to transform an original idea into another. Virus memes are sometimes called virus scripts and are the most widespread on the Internet. However, there is little scientific evidence for this assumption. This paper presents an innovative method to generate memes using machine learning algorithms that match the users' humorous and relevant captions. The VGG16 network is used to return the embedded image. We have collected feedback from citizens of more than five countries and received 37 feedbacks to find humorous memes. The obtained results from feedback are very encouraging from the generated memes.

A movie poster image is one of the important media in the filmmaking process, providing valuable information about the movie, such as movie titles, characters, and genres. Identifying a movie genre from a poster can be a daunting task, as it can relate to multiple genres. To solve this problem, this paper uses a deep feedforward neural network to classify movie genres from movie poster images. In this regard, we used and trained a state-of-the-art InceptionV3 deep neural network. The network is trained on our dataset consisting of 36,423 movie poster images taken from the IMDB website, which is categorized into 28 genres. The model predicts the top three classes with the highest probability of a particular movie poster.

The precise characterization of geological bodies in fracture-vuggy carbonates is challenging due to their high complexity and heterogeneous distribution. This study aims to present the hybrid of Visual Geometry Group 16 (VGG-16) pre-trained by Gradient-Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT) models as a novel approach for predicting and generating karst cavities with high accuracy on various scales based on uncertainty assessment from a small dataset. Seismic wave impedance images were used as input data. Their manual interpretation was used to build GBDT classifiers for Light Gradient-Boosting Machine (LightGBM) and Unbiased Boosting with Categorical Features (CatBoost) for predicting the karst cavities and unconformities. The results show that the LightGBM was the best GBDT classifier, which performed excellently in karst cavity interpretation, giving an F1-score between 0.87 and 0.94 and a micro-G-Mean ranging from 0.92 to 0.96. Furthermore, the LightGBM performed better in cave prediction than Linear Regression (LR) and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP). The prediction of karst cavities according to the LightGBM model was performed well according to the uncertainty quantification. Therefore, the hybrid VGG16 and GBDT algorithms can be implemented as an improved approach for efficiently identifying geological features within similar reservoirs worldwide.

Liquidity management is critical for a company's financial management and profitability. This study intends to analyze the effect of liquidity management on the functioning of 15 companies from the textile sector listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) for five years. The secondary data was obtained from the annual reports of these companies. Correlation and regression analysis were applied for data analysis. The results reveal that the current ratio and creditor payment period have a negative and considerable effect on the return on assets (ROA). In contrast, the quick ratio and inventory sales period positively correlate with profitability (ROA). Yet, the debtor collection period has a worse and exceptional impact on the firms' profitability. As a result, it is suggested that the textile industry in Pakistan should consider liquidity management as an important tool to increase profitability.

The meteorological parameters review the impact of refractivity on received signal strength for the one-fourth kilometre square area is confer for frequency 1800 to 1900 MHz. It is necessary to know the refractivity profile of radio frequencies in the surface layer of the atmosphere to predict the execution of a radio system for the consistent gradient of refractivity. The data were accumulated from the Atoll software and then an experimental setup was used on the same investigated area to compare both figures and find out the effect of refractivity on received signal strength. It has been analyzed that environmental parameter such as temperature, humidity, and height above the ground level play a major role in varying refractivity. The information recorded from the experimental arrangement shows that when refractivity is high (more particularly around the afternoon time and in the morning time, the humidity is high) the quality of the signal strength is degraded, while at that point when the refractivity is low (more particularly during the daytime when humidity is low due to high temperature) the quality of the signal strength is better. Refractivity and signal strength are inversely proportional to each other. It is essential to apply an accurate path loss prediction technique to demonstrate the need for a precise accounting of the refraction and ducting when planning future radio networks.

Recently, Cloud computing has emerged as one of the widely used platforms to provide compute, storage and analytics services to end-users and organizations on a pay-as-you-use basis, with high agility, availability, scalability, and resiliency. This enables individuals and organizations to have access to a large pool of high processing resources without the need for establishing a high-performance computing (HPC) platform. From the past few years, task scheduling in Cloud computing is reckoned as eminent recourse for researchers. However, task scheduling is considered an NP-hard problem. In this research work, we investigate and empirically compare some of the most prominent state-of-the-art scheduling heuristics in terms of Makespan, Average resource utilization (ARUR), Throughput, and Energy consumption. The comparison is then extended by evaluating the approaches in terms of individual VM level load imbalance. After extensive simulation, the comparative analysis has revealed that Task Aware Scheduling Algorithm (TASA) and Proactive Simulation-based Scheduling and Load Balancing (PSSLB) outperformed as compared to the rest of the approaches and seems to be optimal choice keeping in view the trade-of between the complexities involved and the performance achieved concerning Makespan, Throughput, resource utilization, and Energy consumption.

Introduction: Minor oral surgical procedures are very common. Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) generically known as aspirin is used clinically as an analgesic, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory and as a medication to prevent platelet aggregation. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine if aspirin or clopidogrel was associated with bleeding after minor oral surgical procedure. Patients and methods: One hundred patients who were planned for extraction of 3rd molar were divided into two groups. In group-A 50 patients on anti-platelets were included and in Group-B 50 patients who discontinued the drug prior to 5 days were included. The bleeding time of all patients was checked prior to extraction. The surgical procedure involved simple extraction of a single 3rd molar tooth under local anesthesia. The extraction socket was sutured with 3-0 silk. Pressure pack with gauze was given for 1h, bleeding after 1 h, 24 h, were compared between two groups. Chi-square test was used to compare the variables. Results: None of patients showed active bleeding in post-operative period. Conclusion: Minor surgical procedures like single tooth extraction can be carried out without discontinuation of the anti-platelet therapy.

Background: Children with cleft palate oftenly present with otitis media with effusion. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of otitis media with effusion among cleft palate children. Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in the Department of ENT, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan from June 2017 to December 2018. Ninety patients were selected through consecutive sampling technique. All children 3-10 years of age with cleft palate were included. Patients with combined cleft palate and cleft lip were excluded. All patients underwent otoscopy and tympanometry. Type B tympanogram was considered as evidence of fluid in the middle ear. Later on patients with only Type B tympanogram underwent myringotomies. Results: Out of 90 (180 ears) patients 61 (67.78%) were males and 29 (32.22%) females. Mean age of the sample was 6.15±2.226 years (3-10, range 7 years). On otoscopic examination, 107/180 (59.45%) ears were suspected to have fluid in the middle ear. Type B tympanogram was detected in 125/180 (69.45%) ears. Only 38/90 (42.20%) patients (76/180 ears), underwent pure tone audiometry. Based on otoscopic, tympanometric and audiometric findings, myringotomies were performed in 125/180 (69.45%) ears. At myringotomy fluid was present in middle ear space of 98/180 (78.4%) ears. Out of total 180 ears the true frequency of otitis media with effusion was 98/180 (54.45%). Conclusions: The frequency of otitis media with effusion in patients with cleft palate is high. Tympanometry is fairly sensitive in diagnosing this condition in these patients.

A new species of tiphiid wasp, namely, Tiphia kashmirensis Hanima & Girish Kumar sp. nov. is described from Kashmir, India. Male of Tiphia khasiana is described for the first time. Key to species of Tiphia from the Indian subcontinent of Allen (1975) is modified here to accommodate the new species and male of T. khasiana.

The present study was aimed to assess the efficacy of individual and combined effects of novel fuller earth, rock phosphate, and biochar (grapefruit peel) at 1% dosage on maize plant growth, soil chemical properties anduptake of toxic metals (TMs), such as Cu, Zn, Fe, and Cd, by maize plant sown in Korangi (district of Karachi, Pakistan) heavily polluted and Korangi less polluted (K-HP and K-LP) soils. The obtained results indicate that the dry biomass of maize crop increased by 14.13% with combined (FE1% + GBC1%) on K-HP soil and 18.24% with combined (FE 1% + GBC 1%) effects on K-LP soil. The maximum immobilization of Cu, Zn, Fe, and Cd was observed by 36% with GBC1%, 11.90% with FE1%, 98.97% with combined RP1% + GBC1%, 51.9% with FE1% + GBC1% for K-HP, 11.90% with FE1%, 28.6% with FE1%, 22.22% with RP1% + GBC1%, and 57.05% with FE 1% + GBC 1% for K-LP soil. After the addition of proposed substances, modification of soil OM, SOC, TOC, and pH level appeared this lead to the changes in the phyto-availability of Cu, Zn, Fe, and Cd in maize plant. It was concluded that the application of individual and combined effects of novel fuller earth, rock phosphate, and biochar (grapefruit peel) have potential to stabilize pollutants from multi-metal polluted soils for safe crop production.

Car crashes are among the top ten leading causes of death; they could mainly be attributed to distracted drivers. An advanced driver-assistance technique (ADAT) is a procedure that can notify the driver about a dangerous scenario, reduce traffic crashes, and improve road safety. The main contribution of this work involved utilizing the driver’s attention to build an efficient ADAT. To obtain this “attention value”, the gaze tracking method is proposed. The gaze direction of the driver is critical toward understanding/discerning fatal distractions, pertaining to when it is obligatory to notify the driver about the risks on the road. A real-time gaze tracking system is proposed in this paper for the development of an ADAT that obtains and communicates the gaze information of the driver. The developed ADAT system detects various head poses of the driver and estimates eye gaze directions, which play important roles in assisting the driver and avoiding any unwanted circumstances. The first (and more significant) task in this research work involved the development of a benchmark image dataset consisting of head poses and horizontal and vertical direction gazes of the driver’s eyes. To detect the driver’s face accurately and efficiently, the You Only Look Once (YOLO-V4) face detector was used by modifying it with the Inception-v3 CNN model for robust feature learning and improved face detection. Finally, transfer learning in the InceptionResNet-v2 CNN model was performed, where the CNN was used as a classification model for head pose detection and eye gaze angle estimation; a regression layer to the InceptionResNet-v2 CNN was added instead of SoftMax and the classification output layer. The proposed model detects and estimates head pose directions and eye directions with higher accuracy. The average accuracy achieved by the head pose detection system was 91%; the model achieved a RMSE of 2.68 for vertical and 3.61 for horizontal eye gaze estimations.

Economic development typically faced many hurdles, like policymakers do not focus on the potential factors which create hurdles in economic development. One of the problems of economic development is climate change, which directly caused global warming. Climate change and global warming occurred due to human induced greenhouse gas production and the use of fossil fuel (manufacturing and industrial process) which produce a massive amount of carbon emission gas. Furthermore, climate change has many side effects like the rapid loss of glaciers, rising sea levels, severe heat waves, etc. Thailand is the land of tropical beaches but even the temperature increased to a certain high level in summer due to the effect of climate change. According to the intergovernmental panel report, the sea level increased over time due to climate change which is almost the average of 1.8 mm per year. So, this situation is unpredictable and the arid zone of this country is now facing the severity of droughts with increased frequency. So, the objective of this study is to examine the long run association between carbon emission, energy consumption, and financial development in Thailand. This study used the timer series data from 1980 to 2018 which is taken from (World Bank, 2020). The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was used to examine that long run relationship and the results indicate that there exists a uni-directional and long run relationship among financial development and carbon dioxide. So, policymakers highlight the issue of global warming and serious action against the excessive use of carbon emission because it is a serious obstacle to human wellbeing which results in an unproductive capacity of the employee. Furthermore, the government needs to establish policies that help companies to adopt environmentally-friendly equipment’s which produce less carbon emission.

Fungal volatile organic compounds (FVOCs) can act as intra- and inter-kingdom communication signals that influence the growth and behaviors of organisms involved in antagonistic or mutualistic relationships with fungi. There is growing evidence suggesting that FVOCs can mediate interactions between organisms within and across different ecological niches. Bark beetles have established mutualistic relationships with ophiostomatoid fungi which can serve as a food source and condition host plant tissues for developing beetle larvae. While the profiles (both composition and concentrations) of volatile emission from ophiostomatoid fungi can be influenced by abiotic factors, whether emissions from a given fungal species can be influenced by those from another is still unknown. Here, we analyzed FVOCs emitted from the two ophiostomatoid fungi, Grosmannia clavigera and Ophiostoma ips, associated with mountain pine beetle and pine engraver beetle, respectively, when each fungus was growing alone or in a shared headspace. We used two isolates of each fungus species. Overall, we detected a total of eight volatiles in both G. clavigera alone or in combination with O. ips including acetoin, ethyl acetate, cis-grandisol, isoamyl alcohol, isobutanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, phenethyl acetate, and phenethyl alcohol. The profiles of volatiles emitted differed between the two fungal species but not between the two isolates of the same fungus. Six compounds were common between the species, whereas two compounds were detected only when G. clavigera was present. Moreover, the majority of volatiles were detected less frequently and at lower concentrations when the two fungi were grown together in a shared headspace. These results are likely due to reduced volatile emissions from O. ips in the presence of G. clavigera. However, changes in the profiles of fungal volatiles did not correspond with the observed changes in the growth of either species. Overall, these results suggest that the similarities in fungal volatiles among different species of fungi may reflect a common ecological niche and that the differences may correspond to species-specific adaptation to their respective host beetles or genetic factors.

All pre-stressed structures called as tensegrity structures have been introducing into robotics, modern architectural designs, and medical necessities called as bio-tensegrity, space structure alternates, and many other emerging technologies because of its numerous useful properties. Six bar tensegrity ball robot structure has essential importance in the field of robotics due to its deployable, movable, deformable, and easily controllable capabilities. This structure has 6 rigid bars (in compression) and 24 flexible strings (in tension) that are connected in such a 12 nodes arrangement that provides the highest spatial symmetrical shape to this structure among most of the tensegrity structure. In this paper, the internal forces of bars and strings on each node have been studied, and the force equation on every node has been developed. The position of each node has been validated. Furthermore, the balance of all bars and strings forces on the whole structure has been analytically verified to assure the structure remains statically pre-stressed under the zero net effect of all internal forces applied by bars and strings.

Biological fouling has caused a lot of concern owing to their concerns in marine industries. The attachment of microorganisms including bacteria, algae and diatoms on a marine surface to create a biofilm causes negative impacts on the marine industry such as an increase in weights of hulls, low speed, and high fuel consumption. In the recent past, nanoparticles have attracted a lot of attention in the fields of material science, chemistry and biology owing to their rare biological properties. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been long known for its strong toxicity against a wide range of microorganisms. Herein, we synthesized the AgNPs via green synthesis approach known for its benefits such as one-pot, inexpensive and eco-friendly; by using Illicium verum (IV) extract as demoting and sustaining agent. Further, characterization tests of obtained AgNPs-IV were investigated including by UV-Vis, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM, AFM, and particle size distribution. The Uv-Vis result confirmed the AgNPs-IV formation with its surface Plasmon resonance peak. FTIR was tested to investigate the bio-functional groups liable for the AgNPs-IV synthesis. XRD peaks also meet with the standard of AgNPs (JCPDS: 41-1402). SEM, TEM and AFM analysis of AgNPs-IV showed the hexagonal structure with 14.56 nm mean size. The green synthesized AgNPs-IV showed excellent antidiatom activity against Paeodactylum Tricornutum marine diatom.

Bark beetles form symbiotic associations with multiple species of fungi that supplement their metabolic needs. However, the relative contributions of each symbiont to the nutrition of bark beetles have been largely unexplored. Thus, we evaluated the ability of three fungal symbionts of mountain pine beetle to concentrate nitrogen and produce ergosterol while infecting phloem of a novel host jack pine. Ergosterol was used as proxy to determine the fungal biomass (hyphal density) in the current study. We inoculated 80 trees in two forest stands with one of the three fungal species or a non-fungal (control) agar. Six weeks later, we collected phloem from the necrotic lesions induced by the fungi, uninfected tissues adjacent to lesions, and non-inoculated control trees. We found that nutritional contributions varied with fungal species. Nitrogen in lesions was higher in trees inoculated with Ophiostoma montium or control trees, relative to Grosmannia clavigera or Leptographium longiclavatum. Furthermore, concentrations of ergosterol were higher in O. montium lesions compared to other tissues or treatments. These results suggest that O. montium differs from G. clavigera and L. longiclavatum in terms of acquiring nitrogen from host tissues and producing ergosterol.

Mesoporous TiO2 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized via solvothermal. The morphology and crystal structure was characterized by UV–vis spectrum (UV-Vis), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). All the observations confirmed that the as-fabricated mesoporous TiO2 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized with surface Plasmon resonance peak between a range of 250-350 nm, and its pattern meets with the JCPDS Standard (card No. 21-1272). TEM confirmed the mesoporous structure morphology and shows the incredible gas sensing performance due to their large accessible surface area. Furthermore, the as-prepared TiO2 nanoparticles exhibited more rapid response/recovery and higher sensitivity towards ethanol at 180°C, distinguished with isopropyl alcohol and methanol. Besides, it can be affirmed that the synthesized mesoporous TiO2 nanoparticles are a promising applicant for fabricating high-performance ethanol gas sensor in real-time monitoring.

Introduction Vocal cord polyps commonly occur in those with a history of vocal abuse. Patients with large lesions generally undergo microlaryngeal surgery under general anaesthesia. This unique case report highlights a strange scenario where the patient coughed out a fleshy mass during his morning walk and which was later confirmed as a vocal cord polyp. Case Report A 62 year old male with a history of hoarseness of voice for 3 months presented to the ENT OPD holding a chunk of tissue which was apparently coughed out by him during his morning walk. After the incident, his symptoms had immediately improved. A videolaryngoscopy showed a congested spot on the right vocal cord being the probable site of origin of the lesion. On Histopathological examination, the tissue was reported as a vocal cord polyp. The patient was managed conservatively but the lesion recurred at the same site after a month for which a microlaryngeal excision was performed. Discussion Vocal cord polyps are fairly common in ENT practice and usually present to the clinic with hoarseness of voice. Polyps that are small are usually managed conservatively by voice therapy alone whereas large polyps require surgical excision. This unique case report highlights a strange clinical scenario where the patient coughed out a large vocal cord polyp (Auto-polypectomy) during a bout of acute cough. This event saved him a surgery at the first instance, but eventually had a recurrence and had to undergo an excision under GA.