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Cobalt is a key metallic element required in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries in the electric car industry, which has led to increased demand for cobalt globally. Cobalt is found associated with laterite nickel deposits but generally at lower levels. This study aims to analyze the distribution of cobalt in the laterite zone, determine cobalt-rich zones, determine cobalt-forming minerals in the limonite, saprolite and bedrock zones. As well as determining the average cobalt content in each nickel laterite zone, and determining the correlation between Co and Ni in the laterite zone. The research methodology was carried out by conducting petrographic analysis on bedrock samples to determine cobalt-forming minerals. Furthermore, X-Ray Diffraction analysis was carried out on limonite and saprolite zone samples to determine the mineral content and cobalt-forming minerals. Furthermore, conduct X-Ray Fluorescence analysis at 12 drill points to determine the percentage of cobalt elements in each laterite zone. Based on the research results, it is known that the distribution of cobalt at 12 drill points has levels in the limonite zone ranging from 0.05-0.12% Co, saprolite zone 0.02-0.05% Co, and the bedrock zone ranges from 0.01-0.04% Co. So it can be concluded that the highest cobalt distribution is in the limonite zone and the average cobalt content in the limonite zone is 0.082%; saprolite zone is 0.029%; and bedrock zone is 0.02%. The mineral identified as the cobalt-forming mineral in the bedrock samples in the study area is the mineral antigorite. The Co-Ni correlation coefficient values range from 0.01 to 0.22.

In the industrial revolution 4.0, everything is becoming digital. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the difficulty of meeting face to face at that time, pushed everything to be done electronically or online. This is no exception for notaries, who have difficulty adapting to this all-electronic era. This research is doctrinal research which uses materials, namely literature and statutory regulations. The research results show that the Information and Electronic Transactions Law has accommodated the existence of electronic documents and information, but the Law on Notary Positions cannot expressly recognize the existence of electronic documents to be included in authentic deeds. Where other countries have adapted this cyber notary, Indonesia has not been able to apply it due to obstacles in these regulations. The exceptions contained in the Information and Electronic Transactions Law can be removed to provide space for cyber notaries in Indonesia, but the Notary Position Law must also be adjusted to provide clear guidelines for the implementation of cyber notaries.

Abstract Reservoir simulation is crucial for understanding the flow response in underground reservoirs, and it significantly helps reduce uncertainties in geological characterization and optimize methodologies for field development strategies. However, providing efficient and accurate solutions for the strong heterogeneity remains challenging, as most of the discretization methods cannot handle this complexity. In this work, we perform a comprehensive assessment of various numerical linearization techniques employed in reservoir simulation, particularly focusing on the performance of the nonlinear solver for problem dealing with fluid flow in porous media. The primary linearization methods examined are finite difference central (FDC), finite forward difference (FDF), and operator-based linearization (OBL). These methods are rigorously analyzed and compared in terms of their accuracy, computational efficiency, and adaptability to changing reservoir conditions. The results demonstrate that each method has distinct strengths and limitations. The FDC method is more accurate particularly in complex simulations where strong heterogeneity are introduced but is generally slower in convergence. The OBL on the other hand, is more efficient and converges quickly, which makes it suitable for scenarios with limited computational resources and simple physics, while the FDF method provides a balanced combination of precision and computational speed, contingent upon careful step size management of the derivative estimations. This paper aims to guide the selection of appropriate linearization techniques for enhancing nonlinear solvers’ accuracy and efficiency in reservoir simulation .

Abstract Revolutionizing construction, the concrete blend seamlessly integrates human hair (HH) fibers and millet husk ash (MHA) as a sustainable alternative. By repurposing human hair for enhanced tensile strength and utilizing millet husk ash to replace sand, these materials not only reduce waste but also create a durable, eco-friendly solution. This groundbreaking methodology not only adheres to established structural criteria but also advances the concepts of the circular economy, representing a significant advancement towards environmentally sustainable and resilient building practices. The main purpose of the research is to investigate the fresh and mechanical characteristics of concrete blended with 10–40% MHA as a sand substitute and 0.5–2% HH fibers by applying response surface methodology modeling and optimization. A comprehensive study involved preparing 225 concrete specimens using a mix ratio of 1:1.5:3 with a water-to-cement ratio of 0.52, followed by a 28 day curing period. It was found that a blend of 30% MHA and 1% HH fibers gave the best compressive and splitting tensile strengths at 28 days, which were 33.88 MPa and 3.47 MPa, respectively. Additionally, the incorporation of increased proportions of MHA and HH fibers led to reductions in both the dry density and workability of the concrete. In addition, utilizing analysis of variance (ANOVA), response prediction models were created and verified with a significance level of 95%. The models' R2 values ranged from 72 to 99%. The study validated multi-objective optimization, showing 1% HH fiber and 30% MHA in concrete enhances strength, reduces waste, and promotes environmental sustainability, making it recommended for construction.

Child care involves parents, namely father and mother, as parties who have responsibility for their children. As time goes by, sometimes disputes occur between husband and wife which result in divorce. The purpose of this writing is to find out about child maintenance after divorce according to statutory regulations. Child care after divorce is regulated in Law Number 35 of 2014 concerning Child Protection and Law Number 1 of 1974 concerning Marriage. Child maintenance after marriage in the case study of Decision Number 395/Pdt.G/2021/PN Jkt.Utr. It started with the Plaintiff (Wife) and the Defendant (Husband) who divorced, they had two sons, namely Brother A and Brother B. In this case there has been a divorce, then the parents, either father or mother, are obliged to provide maintenance for their children. until they are adults or able to stand on their own. These children's rights are supported by Article 14 of the Child Protection Law where children have the right to meet directly or have personal contact with their parents, children have the right to receive care, maintenance, education and protection for the growth and development process from their parents according to their abilities, talents and interests, the right to receive living expenses from both parents, and the right to obtain other children's rights. So that the two children of the Plaintiff and Defendant are entitled to receive maintenance in the form of a place to live with the mother because she is the closest person to the child and receives support and education from father to adult.

Randomized response scrambling techniques have been in existence for over fifty years. These scrambling methods are very useful in sample surveys where researchers deal with sensitive variables. Out of many available scrambling techniques, survey researchers often need to evaluate these techniques to choose the best technique for real-world surveys. In the current literature, only a limited number of model-evaluation metrics are available for analyzing the performance of different scrambling methods. This leaves a big research gap for the development of new unified evaluation measures which can quantify all aspects of a scrambling technique. We develop a novel unified metric for evaluation of randomized response models and compare it with the existing unified measure. The proposed measure can quantify the efficiency and the level of the respondents’ privacy of any scrambling technique. Being less sensitive to sample sizes than the existing unified measure, the proposed measure can be used with small sample sizes to evaluate models.

Arsenic (As) contamination of agricultural soils poses a serious threat to crop productivity and food safety. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) have emerged as a potential amendment for mitigating the adverse effects of As stress in plants. Soybean crop is mostly grown on marginalized land and is known for high accumulation of As in roots than others tissue. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of ZnONPs in ameliorating arsenic toxicity in soybean. Our results demonstrated that ZnOB significantly improved the growth performance of soybean plants exposed to arsenic. This improvement was accompanied by a decrease (55%) in As accumulation and an increase in photosynthetic efficiency. ZnOB also modulated hormonal balance, with a significant increase in auxin (149%), abscisic acid (118%), gibberellin (160%) and jasmonic acid content (92%) under As(V) stress assuring that ZnONPs may enhance root growth and development by regulating hormonal signaling. We then conducted a transcriptomic analysis to understand further the molecular mechanisms underlying the NPs-induced As(V) tolerance. This analysis identified genes differentially expressed in response to ZnONPs supplementation, including those involved in auxin, abscisic acid, gibberellin, and jasmonic acid biosynthesis and signaling pathways. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis identified 37 potential hub genes encoding stress responders, transporters, and signal transducers across six modules potentially facilitated the efflux of arsenic from cells, reducing its toxicity. Our study provides valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms associated with metalloid tolerance in soybean and offers new avenues for improving As tolerance in contaminated soils.

Abstract Background Early pregnancy nutritional status can be associated with adverse birth outcomes such as small-for-gestational age (SGA) and low birth weight (LBW). BMI (Body Mass Index) and MUAC (Mid-upper arm circumference) are easy to use assessments and are indicative of the pre-pregnancy nutritional status if obtained in the first trimester. This study primarily assesses the association of maternal nutritional status using BMI and MUAC with SGA in a community-based cohort of Pakistani women. It also aims to determine the predictive ability of MUAC and BMI in predicting SGA. Secondarily, we assessed the association between maternal nutrition and large for gestational age (LGA) and LBW. Methods This study is a secondary analysis of an ongoing pregnancy cohort “Pregnancy Risk Infant Surveillance and Measurement Alliance (PRISMA)“in Ibrahim Hyderi and Rehri Goth, Karachi. PRISMA participants who were enrolled between January 2021 to August 2022 were included given they had a gestational age

Hypertension is the leading risk factor for preventable cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality globally, with majority of the hypertension-attributed deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries like India. Several international and national clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) provide evidence-informed recommendations to achieve optimal control. CPGs produced by the World Health Organization, International Society for Hypertension, American (AHA/ACC-2017), and European (ESC/ESH-2018) are “major” as they are widely used and are highly cited. We compared the main recommendations for the pharmacological management of hypertension among the major CPGs and the two existing Indian CPGs for similarities and shortcomings. Several deviations from the major CPGs were observed among Indian CPGs. Important shortcomings pertain to Indian CPGs’ low priority for initial combination therapy and the use of single pill combinations. Having multiple CPGs providing conflicting recommendations might discourage the adoption of evidence-based practices. There is a need for updating Indian CPGs based on up-to-date evidence.

Abstract Background The growth and development of rice (Oryza sativa L.) are affected by multiple factors, such as ROS homeostasis and utilization of iron. Here, we demonstrate that OsUGE2, a gene encoding a UDP-glucose 4-epimerase, controls growth and development by regulating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and iron (Fe) level in rice. Knockout of this gene resulted in impaired growth, such as dwarf phenotype, weakened root growth and pale yellow leaves. Biochemical analysis showed that loss of function of OsUGE2 significantly altered the proportion and content of UDP-Glucose (UDP-Glc) and UDP-Galactose (UDP-Gal). Cellular observation indicates that the impaired growth may result from decreased cell length. More importantly, RNA-sequencing analysis showed that knockout of OsUGE2 significantly influenced the expression of genes related to oxidoreductase process and iron ion homeostasis. Consistently, the content of ROS and Fe are significantly decreased in OsUGE2 knockout mutant. Furthermore, knockout mutants of OsUGE2 are insensitive to both Fe deficiency and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) treatment, which further confirmed that OsUGE2 control rice growth possibly through Fe and H2O2 signal. Collectively, these results reveal a new pathway that OsUGE2 could affect growth and development via influencing ROS homeostasis and Fe level in rice.

In recent decades, the randomized response technique has attracted researchers due to its usefulness in sensitive surveys. The randomized response procedure is used for the collection of responses on sensitive issues such as cheating in examination, income earned through illegal sources, expenditure on luxury items, and amount of tax paid, etc. This study introduces a new variant of quantitative randomized response models for use with sample surveys where the variable of interest is quantitative. The properties of a mean estimator based on the new technique have been studied. Further, the combined and separate evaluation metrics for efficiency and privacy level have also been derived and compared with those of the existing methods. Further, a simulation study has been conducted to prove the improvement in the degree of privacy protection and efficiency. The findings reveal that the suggested randomized response technique is not only more efficient than the existing techniques, but also improves the joint measure of efficiency and respondents’ privacy, making it preferable over the existing techniques. A real-world example of a sample survey through the suggested model is also presented which illustrates its usefulness in practical surveys on sensitive issues.

The imperative to mitigate industrial CO2 emissions amidst global climate change has led to the development of innovative strategies that align economic growth with environmental sustainability. This study introduces a comprehensive CO2 allocation and utilisation framework, designed to reduce the environmental impact on the production of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Demploying a multi-objective Linear Programming (LP) approach, the study introduces a system that dynamically allocates CO2 from a major source to several sinks, each with unique characteristics and requirements. Focusing on the State of Qatar, a major player in the global LNG market, advanced simulation tools, such as Aspen HYSYS and QASR Simulator are utilised to define the parameters of these sinks, ensuring precise and efficient CO2 allocation. An integral component of the model is the incorporation of a carbon tax, considered for both the source and the sinks. The results demonstrate that the profit maximisation objective generated a $23.6 billion annual profit, although with high emissions of 23.37 Mt/year. In contrast, the emission minimisation objective curbed emissions to 19.01 Mt/year at a profit of $1.4 billion. The multi-objective approach garnered $18.6 billion annually with emissions at 22.37 Mt/year. The CO2/LNG metric was used to gauge LNG's environmental footprint. Objective 1 yielded a ratio of 0.3033, while objective 2 achieved the best score at 0.2463. The multi-objective approach balanced both, with a ratio of 0.2905. These findings illuminate the feasibility of optimising industrial practices for producing low-carbon LNG through deliberate CO2 allocation and within a circular economy framework.

The construction industry's rapid growth poses challenges tied to raw material depletion and increased greenhouse gas emissions. To address this, alternative materials like agricultural residues are gaining prominence due to their potential to reduce carbon emissions and waste generation. In this context this research optimizes the use of banana leaves ash as a partial cement substitution, focusing on durability, and identifying the ideal cement-to-ash ratio for sustainable concrete. For this purpose, concrete mixes were prepared with BLA replacing cement partially in different proportions i.e. (0 %, 5 %, 10 %, 15 %, & 20 %) and were analyzed for their physical, mechanical and Durability (Acid and Sulphate resistance) properties. Compressive strength, acid resistance and sulphate resistance testing continued for 90 days with the intervals of 7, 28 and 90 days. The results revealed that up to 10 % incorporation of BLA improved compressive strength by 10 %, while higher BLA proportions (up to 20 %) displayed superior performance in durability tests as compared to the conventional mix. The results reveal the potentials of banana leave ash to refine the concrete matrix by formation of addition C–S–H gel which leads towards a better performance specially in terms of durability aspect. Hence, banana leaf ash (BLA) is an efficient concrete ingredient, particularly up to 10 % of the mix. Beyond this threshold, it's still suitable for applications where extreme strength isn't the primary concern, because there may be a slight reduction in compressive strength.

Indonesia is a large island country with a wide variety of ethnic groups. As part of the thalassemia country belt, Indonesia has alleles that are as distinctive as those found in other parts of Southeast Asia. The journey of ancestors in the prehistoric period and the massive increase in human exchange in the last decade have formed the current population of Indonesia. The mutants of the beta-thalassemia allele brought by those predecessors can be seen from the traces of their journey. This paperdescribes the flow gene according to the type of mutations of beta-thalassemia in the country.

Objective: To compare painting related variables for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and musculoskeletal wrist pain among students of calligraphy and figurative painting. Methodology: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted on 212 participants from 21 January to 25 May 2023. The data was collected from the fine arts departments of public and private universities in Sialkot, Pakistan. Phalen’s clinical test was used to screen the CTS and Boston carpal tunnel questionnaire was used as an outcome measuring tool. SPSS version 22 was used to analyze the data. Mean, Standard deviation and Independent-t-test was used to compare the groups at significance level (p=0.05). Results: Out of 212, (N=148, 69.81%) were participants in figurative painting (group A) and (N=64, 30.18%) were in calligraphy (group B) with positive Phalen test. The total mean score of symptom severity scale for CTS was (26.49 ± 6.25) and functional status (21.26±7.58) which determines moderate difficulty with routine tasks. The symptom severity scale for CTS among groups A and B had mean scores (27.83 ± 6.20) and (23.40, ± 5.20) whereas the functional status scale among group A; had mean scores (23.20 ± 7.67) and B (16.79, ± 5.13) respectively. Factors that showed significant difference between painters and calligraphers BCTQ were working hours, medium of paints, size of paint brushes and types of paint brushes (p-value= 0.00). Conclusion: The results of this study showed an overall 'moderate' symptom severity and functional difficulty level among participants with CTS but figurative painters were more affected in some factors than calligraphers. Keywords: Painters, figurative, calligrapher, Carpal tunnel syndrome

In sampling theory, a majority of the available estimators of population variance are designed for use with non-sensitive variables only. Such estimators cannot perform efficiently when the variable of interest is of sensitive nature, such as use of drugs, illegal income, abortion, cheating in examination, the amount of income tax payable, and the violation of rules by employees, etc. In the current literature, the shortage of research studies on variance estimators of a sensitive variable has created a big research gap and a room for improvement in the efficiency of such estimators. In this paper, a new randomized scrambling technique is proposed, along with a new estimator of population variance. The new estimator achieves improvement in efficiency over the available variance estimators. The proposed estimator is designed for use with simple random sampling and uses the information on an auxiliary variable. The improvement in efficiency is shown for different choices of constants. Besides efficiency, improvement in the unified measure of estimator quality is also achieved with the proposed estimator under the new randomized response model.

Neurodegenerative diseases are often associated with the accumulation of oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. Edible bird’s nest (EBN) is a glycoprotein (sialylated mucin glycopeptides) found to be beneficial against neurodegenerative diseases. Antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic properties of EBN in preserving neuronal cells were widely researched using in vitro and in vivo models. Functional effects of EBN are often linked to its great number of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory glycopeptides. Bioactive compounds in EBN, especially sialic acid, add value to neurotrophic potential of EBN and contribute to neuronal repair and protection. Various studies reporting the neuroprotective effects of EBN, their molecular mechanisms, and neuroactive composition were gathered in this review to provide better insights on the neuroprotective effects of EBN.

Drought is a persistent and devastating obstacle to crop production, affecting both humanity and livestock. The application of selenium (Se) effectively mitigates various types of abiotic stresses and enhances crop yield under unfavorable conditions. However, our understanding of how nano-Se (nSe) alleviates drought stress (DS) in soybeans is still limited. To address this gap, our study focused on assessing the effectiveness of foliar nSe application during the reproductive stage of soybeans. Three concentrations of nSe were applied to plants grown in pots filled with clay loam soil, simulating DS conditions. Our findings reveal that nSe spraying significantly promoted the accumulation of above-ground dry biomass and enhanced relative water content (RWC) and photosynthetic pigment over alone-DS treatment. Furthermore, nSe application boosted the activity and contents of protective enzymes and osmolytes, resulting in a dose-dependent reduction in electrolyte leakage (EL), reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, and malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Additionally, nSe improved stomatal characteristics and mesophyll cell ultrastructure, further mitigating the adverse effects of drought stress. These findings suggest the potential of nSe as an effective strategy to enhance soybean tolerance and potentially improve crop yields under drought conditions.

Fitua phenomenology (tasawuf) has such an important meaning in the Bima community, it is known as the old recitation or called tasawuf for the elders. It contains pata ruma (knowing Allah SWT), knowing one's true self (Pata Weki). Phenomenology of Fitua (tasawuf) from the perspective of Islamic education in the Bima community, namely what is known as the old Koran or its fitua. So that the old Koran is almost lost among the Bima community. In fact, this old Koran is only found among the elderly who really study the three sciences, namely fiqh, usul and tasawuf. So fitua can contain several elements that can be interpreted by the author, including; Revealing the phenomenology of Sufism models that existed in Bima in the past; Revealing the phenomenology of fitua (tasawuf) from the perspective of Islamic Education in the present-day Bima society.

Machine Learning (ML) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach that allows systems to adapt to their environment based on past experiences. Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques are commonly used in sentiment analysis and Information Retrieval Techniques (IRT). This study supports the use of ML approaches, such as K-Means, to produce accurate outcomes in clustering and classification approaches. The main objective of this research is to explore the methods for sentiment classification and Information Retrieval Techniques (IRT). So, a combination of different machine learning algorithms is used with a dataset from amazon unlocked mobile reviews and telecom tweets to achieve better accuracy as it is crucial to consider the previous predictions related to sentiment classification and IRT. The datasets consist of user reviews ratings and algorithms utilized consist of K-Means Clustering algorithm, Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), and Decision Tree (DT) algorithms. The amalgamation of each algorithm with the K-Means resulted in high levels of accuracy. Specifically, the K-Means combined with Logistic Regression (LR) yielded an accuracy rate of 99.98%. Similarly, the K-Means integrated with Random Forest (RF) resulted in an accuracy of 99.906%. Lastly, when the K-Means was merged with the Decision Tree (DT) Algorithm, the accuracy obtained was 99.83%.We exhibited that we could foresee efficient, effective, and accurate outcomes.

The aim of the research is to identify the reality of the physical education and sports activities lesson in middle and middle school for boys from the point of view of the principals of middle and secondary schools in the center of Nineveh Governorate. On five axes: the first axis (the lesson of physical education), the second axis (the physical education teacher), the third axis (sports activities), the fourth axis (school teams) and the fifth axis (the capabilities and tools) and each phrase of the questionnaire is considered a specific practice and the research community consists of middle school principals And the preparatory for boys school for the center of Nineveh Governorate, whose number is (215 ) Director The research sample consisted of (50) principals working in middle and middle schools in the city of Mosul inside, and the researcher concluded that the degree of importance of the physical education lesson according to the five axes was medium.

In social surveys on sensitive characteristics, optional randomized response models give the respondents the option to either report the true response or report the scrambled response. If any respondent finds that the question being asked does not feel sensitive, he/she reports the true response. In the existing variants of optional randomized response models, the researcher doesn’t know whether the respondent opted for the correct response or for a scrambled response. In practice, some of the respondents may have no problem in disclosing to the researcher that they are giving the true response and hence not opting for scrambling. This paper presents an alternative procedure to optional scrambling randomized response models, where each respondent has the choice whether or not to disclose to the researcher that he/she is giving the true response. Alternative modified versions of three existing scrambling randomized response models are presented. It is found that the efficiency of the quantitative randomized response models improves if the exact number of respondents who are opting for scrambling, is known to the researcher. Besides improvement in efficiency, the level of the respondent-privacy is the same as that of the existing models, thus resulting in an improvement in the overall quality of the existing models.

Abstract A novel antibacterial immunostimulant using Platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) and lectin from Metapenaeus dobsoni (Md-Lec) was developed. The Md-Lec and PtNPs (Pt-lec) hybrid formed through non-covalent interaction exhibits antimicrobial activity against fish specific pathogens by affecting membrane integrity and producing excess reactive oxygen species. The therapeutic efficacy of Pt-lec was demonstrated through rescuing Aeromonas hydrophila infected Nile Tilapia. Pt-lec prevents the infection spreading and reduces the bacterial bioburden in less than 12 h, and as a result of this the fish were restored to normalcy. To assess immunostimulation, we studied the expression of three different immune related genes, namely LEC, Myd88 and COX-2 in the gills, liver, spleen and kidney of fish under various experimental conditions. Our results showed that Pt-lec treatment appeared to be better when compared to lectin alone in enhancing the expression of Myd88 and COX-2, but LEC was not as expected. These results suggest that Pt-lec has the ability to protect Nile Tilapia against bacterial infection by restricting bacterial bioburden through their direct effects on the bacterial membrane and indirectly through their effects on host immune-related gene expression. This hybrid could have potential “green” application in fish farming in rescuing infected animals when compared to widely and unregulated antibiotics.

Two recent large trials showed the potential of single pill combinations (SPCs) with ≥3 low-dose components among people with hypertension who were untreated or receiving monotherapy. In both trials, these ‘hypertension polypills’ were superior to usual care, achieving >80% BP control without increasing withdrawal due to side effects. However, there are no such products available for prescribers. To address this unmet need, George Medicines developed GMRx2 with telmisartan/amlodipine/indapamide in three strengths (mg): 10/1.25/0.625, 20/2.5/1.25; 40/5/2.5. Two pivotal trials are ongoing to support FDA submission for the treatment of hypertension, including initial treatment. These assess efficacy and safety of GMRx2 compared to: placebo, and each of the three possible dual combinations. Regulatory submissions are planned for 2024, with the aim of providing access to GMRx2 in developed and developing regions. Wider implementation of GMRx2-based treatment strategies will be guided by further research to inform access and appropriate scale up.

Background: The ability of the body to perform effectively and efficiently, enjoy leisure activities, stay healthy, fend off sickness, and handle emergency circumstances is known as physical fitness Objective: To evaluate physical fitness and its association with BMI among undergraduate students of allied health sciences. Methodology: This cross-sectional study with analytical design was carried out at Imran Idrees Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences, Sialkot from May to October 2022. The sample was raised using convenient sampling technique. The data was collected from 154 undergraduate students of allied health students aged 19-26 years. Clinical tests were used to evaluate physical fitness namely Harvard step test, pushups test, wall squat test, flexible test and toe touch. SPSS Version 16 was used for data analysis. Results: The results of this study indicated that the mean age of the participants was 19.70±1.97 and the mean BMI was 23.70±3.48. Out of total,77(50%)participants had normal weight, overweight was (n=6,39%) Underweight 17(11%).Harvard step test showed 80(51.9%) of the recruited participants had poor physical fitness, below average were 40(26%), average 23(14.9%), good 6(3.9%). Chi-square test showed a strong association between BMI and physical fitness variables (Harvard step p=0.00, left shoulder flexibility p=0.0006, right shoulder flexibility p=0.01,pushups p=0.00,wall squat p=0.00) computed as p< 0.05. Conclusion: It was concluded in this study that was associated with physical fitness and its variables among allied health students Keywords: Harvard Test, Physical Fitness, Strength

There has been a significant increase in the attention paid to resource management in smart grids, and several energy forecasting models have been published in the literature. It is well known that energy forecasting plays a crucial role in several applications in smart grids, including demand-side management, optimum dispatch, and load shedding. A significant challenge in smart grid models is managing forecasts efficiently while ensuring the slightest feasible prediction error. A type of artificial neural networks such as recurrent neural networks, are frequently used to forecast time series data. However, due to certain limitations like vanishing gradients and lack of memory retention of recurrent neural networks, sequential data should be modeled using convolutional networks. The reason is that they have strong capabilities to solve complex problems better than recurrent neural networks. In this research, a temporal convolutional network is proposed to handle seasonal short-term energy forecasting. The proposed temporal convolutional network computes outputs in parallel, reducing the computation time compared to the recurrent neural networks. Further performance comparison with the traditional long short-term memory in terms of MAD and sMAPE has proved that the proposed model has outperformed the recurrent neural network.

Objectives: To determine the association between common comorbidities, ICU mortality and antimicrobial consumption among critically ill COVID 19 patients in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A retrospective observational study of patients admitted to the ICU from March 1st, 2020, through August 31st, 2021. We excluded patients who stayed

There is considerable diversity and variation in the land-based and agricultural income tax rates across the provinces in Pakistan. The annual landbased tax revenues from the cultivated land, including orchards, are estimated at Rs. 5 billion in Punjab, 2.5 billion in Sindh, one billion in KP, and less than half a billion in Balochistan. Based on the 2017-18 GDP estimates from crops, two sets of income tax revenues were estimated: one at the provincial rates and the other at the FBR tax rates for non-salaried persons. Tax revenues from crop income, at the current provincial rates, work out to Rs. 34 to 37 billion in Punjab, 7 to 8 billion in Sindh, 7 to 9 billion in KP, and 4 to 5 billion in Balochistan. Revenue estimates at the FBR rates are Rs. 112 to 134 billion in Punjab, 25 to 30 billion in Sindh, 9 to 10 billion in KP and 21 to 24 billion in Balochistan. These estimates are indicative of the revenue potential from taxation of crop incomes and need to be kept in perspective along with the cost of tax collection while designing policy instruments for taxing agricultural incomes.

Abstract Smart grids and smart homes are getting people’s attention in the modern era of smart cities. The advancements of smart technologies and smart grids have created challenges related to energy efficiency and production according to the future demand of clients. Machine learning, specifically neural network-based methods, remained successful in energy consumption prediction, but still, there are gaps due to uncertainty in the data and limitations of the algorithms. Research published in the literature has used small datasets and profiles of primarily single users; therefore, models have difficulties when applied to large datasets with profiles of different customers. Thus, a smart grid environment requires a model that handles consumption data from thousands of customers. The proposed model enhances the newly introduced method of Neural Basis Expansion Analysis for interpretable Time Series (N-BEATS) with a big dataset of energy consumption of 169 customers. Further, to validate the results of the proposed model, a performance comparison has been carried out with the Long Short Term Memory (LSTM), Blocked LSTM, Gated Recurrent Units (GRU), Blocked GRU and Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN). The proposed interpretable model improves the prediction accuracy on the big dataset containing energy consumption profiles of multiple customers. Incorporating covariates into the model improved accuracy by learning past and future energy consumption patterns. Based on a large dataset, the proposed model performed better for daily, weekly, and monthly energy consumption predictions. The forecasting accuracy of the N-BEATS interpretable model for 1-day-ahead energy consumption with “day as covariates” remained better than the 1, 2, 3, and 4-week scenarios.

The swiftlet’s nest is an edible bird’s nest (EBN) produced from dried gelatinized saliva secreted by swiftlets during the breeding season. It is widely used in industries for its high nutritional values and health benefits. However, the utilization of ESN is restricted due to its physicochemical properties, such as insolubility. The recently invented bioactive ESN hydrolyzate is reported to improve the ESN’s solubility, functional and nutritional properties to broaden its application. This study has produced bioactive ESN hydrolyzates with different hydrolysis periods to investigate the optimum conditions to achieve maximized degree of hydrolysis (DH) and to compare the physicochemical differences. The result revealed that optimum ESN hydrolysis was at 90 minutes, in which the DH and enhanced solubility (three folds) indicated a complete breakdown of glycoprotein into bioactive glycopeptide. This result is in line with the physicochemical analyses result. The hydrolysis has significantly decreased (p ≤ .05) the ESN protein content, while the levels for peptide, glycopeptide, polysaccharides, and sialic acid showed the opposite. Interestingly, the amino acid from raw ESN and hydrolyzates in all incubation periods showed no significant difference (p ≤ .05). This result suggests that the ESN biological properties remained unchanged with alcalase hydrolysis. Therefore, the findings in this study confirm the feasibility of bioactive ESN hydrolyzate as a versatile product suitable for various industries in utilizing ESN in whole instead of as extracts.

This study was conducted to recover edible bird’s nest (EBN) hydrolysates from different grades of EBN, including the industrial by-products, using enzymatic treatment. The nutrient, physicochemical properties and antioxidant activities of the recovered hydrolysates at different hydrolysis times were evaluated. Results showed that the recovery yield of enzymatic hydrolysis was above 89 % for all grades of EBN and the degree of hydrolysis increased over time. Nitrite content (0.321–0.433 mg/L) was below the permissible tolerance level for all samples. Interestingly, the antioxidant activities (DPPH and ABTS scavenging activities and ferric reducing antioxidant powder (FRAP) activity) were significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) in hydrolysates recovered from EBN by-products (EBNhC and EBNhD) as compared to the high grade EBN hydrolysates (EBNhA and EBNhB). The in-vitro probiotic activity of EBN and its hydrolysates were examined using the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus plantarum. Evidently, EBN by-products hydrolysate (EBNhD) recorded the highest number of L. plantarum (1.1 × 1011 CFU/mL), indicating that low grade EBN has the potential as prebiotic material that promotes probiotic activity. This study demonstrated the concept of using EBN by-products hydrolysates for various applications, such as functional ingredients with enhanced bioactivities, to improve its economic value.

Based on the 2016–2017 farm survey data, this study examines technical efficiency in the production of wheat, rice, and maize in Punjab province in Pakistan. Technical efficiency, under varying returns to scale, in wheat farming averaged 0.65; in rice, it averaged 0.74, and in the case of maize, it was 0.92. A great majority of the sample farmers were estimated to be operating under increasing returns to scale. Estimations of scale inefficiency in wheat cultivation hovered around 18%; in rice, it ranged from 16% to 21%, and in maize, it varied from 7% to 17%. These estimates are indicative of the scope and the potential for increasing technical and scale efficiencies in the production of all food grains, albeit to varying degrees for different crops.

Background: Faulty and poor posture has been a cause of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among dentists. Due to the nature of their work, they are more prone to develop upper limb MSDs in the upper limbs. Objectives: To find out the frequency of work-related musculoskeletal disorders of upper limbs among dentists of division Gujranwala. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted in Gujranwala Division, Pakistan, from April 2022 to July 2022. Convenience sampling technique was used to collect the data. The study included 250 male and female dentists, aged 25-40 years, having working hours > 5 hours and with work experience of at least 1-2 years, both from the public and private sectors of the Gujranwala Division. The work-related musculoskeletal disorders were determined using Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 23. Results: Among the study participants, there were 127(50.8%) females and 123 (49.2%) males. The mean age of the participants was 32.77±6.23 years. Musculoskeletal disorders of the upper limbs were found in 231(92.2%) participants. The most common region involved were; the shoulder in 141 (56.4%), the wrist in 82 (32.2%) followed by the elbow in 8 (3.2%). Among the participants, 141(56.4%) worked in different work slots of 8-10 hours. One hundred and seventy-one participants were habitual of working in a sitting posture. Conclusion: Upper Limb Musculoskeletal disorders are highly prevalent among dentists of the Gujranwala Division with the major regions involved being the shoulder and wrist

فعالية الوثب الطويل بشكل خاص يمكن ان يستخدم فيها وسائط تقنية متعددة من اجل خلق فرصة لتطوير اداء المتعلم من خلال اعداد بيئة تعليمية يمكن ان يتفاعل معها المتعلم ضمن برنامج تعليمي يتضمن معلومات فنية عن الاداء وعن ميكانيكية النهوض وما تتطلبة من اوضاع خاصة بالجسم تعتبر مؤثرة في تطبيق الاداء الفني وتحقيق الانجاز وبمساعدة طريق الحاسوب الاليكتروني الذي يعطي للمتعلم حق التحكم في المعلومات التي تظهر على الشاشة وزمن ظهورها وحرية التجول في البرنامج التعليمي.لذا فان اهمية البحث تأتي من ارتباط الوسائط التعليمية المتعددة السمعية والبصرية في برنامج تعليمي باستخدام الحاسوب وفقا لبيئة تعليمية خاصة ، وهذا الاتجاه في العملية التعليمية يعتقد انها لم يتم تناوله سابقا , ومن جهة اخرى يمكن ان تجيب على عدة تساؤلات , منها ما مدى الاختزال من الوقت التعليمي عند استخدام هذه البيئة. ومامدى درجة اتقان الاداء الفني والميكانيكي.فضلا عن الاقتصاد بالجهد. اعداد بيئة تعليمية من خلال تجميع وسائط تعليمية تتكامل مع بعضها من خلال الكومبيوتر لجعل التعليم اكثر فاعلية في مهارات القفز الطويل .لذا هدف البحث الى التعرف على تاثير هذه الوسائط في تطوير الاداء الفني وميكانيكية الارتقاء لمهارة الوثب الطويل للطلاب. وكذل التعرف على الفروق في مستوى الاداء قبل وبعد تطبيق البيئة التعليمية.وفرض الباحث في انه توجد فروق معنوية في نتائج الاختبارات القبلية والبعدية لمستوى اداء الوثب الطويل بعد استخدام البيئة التعليمية المقترحة, وكذلك توجد فروق معنوية في نتائج الاختبارات القبلية والبعدية لزوايا الانطلاق والوضع والاتجاه لحظة الارتقاء بعد استخدام البيئة التعليمية المقترحة. وطبق البحث على عينة من طلاب المرحلة الاعدادية لتربية الكرخ /1 بلغت (20) طالبقا قسموا الى مجموعتين. واجرى الباحث اختبارات الاداء الفني والتحليل الفيديوي لزوايا الانطلاق والوضع والاتجاه وطبق تمرينات تعليمية بمساعدة الحاسوب والصور الفوتوغرافية للفترة من 5/10 لغاية 27/11/ 2011، وخرج بعدة استنتاجات منها ان التغذية الراجعة باستخدام الاجهزة التقنية قد ساعدت على اتقان المراحل الفنية والانجاز بالوثب الطويل لعينة البحث .

تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى إيضاح واقع توظيف التقنيات في خدمة التعليم العام بالمدارس المتوسطة في محافظة بغداد.كما تهدف إلى تسليط الضوء على صعوبات توظيف التقنيات في خدمة التعليم الخاص بدروس بالتربية الرياضية ، وقد تم الحصول على المعلومات من أبحاث مختلفة تختص بالموضوع نفسه، ومن مقابلات مع بعض مديري المدارس ، ومن استبيان استند إلى عينة عشوائية مكونة من (30) مدرسا من بعض مدارس المتوسطة في تربية بغداد الكرخ /1 ، ومن (60) طالبا وطالبة من مدرستين متوسطتين من تربية الكرخ الاولى وأظهرت هذه الدراسة النتائج التالية :1.وعي المعلمين بأهمية استخدام الوسائل التعليمية بشكل مستمر وفي المقابل كانت نتائج بعض الاستجابات الخاصة بواقع استخدام التقنيات الحديثة بالمدارس غير مريحة إذ يجب أخذها بعين الاعتبار . 2.عدم توفر الدورات التدريبية للمعلمين التي تدربهم بكيفية إنتاج المواد التعليمية وتطويرها مما شكل هذا صعوبة عند محاولة المعلمين توظيف التقنيات في خدمة التعليم ولقد ذكرت هذه الصعوبة خصيصا باعتبارها أكبر صعوبة تواجه المعلمين لأن عدم توفر الدورات التدريبية تنبني عليها كل الصعوبات التي ظهرت من خلال الدراسة فهي المنبع الأساسي للصعوبات إذا لم يتم مواجهتها فتستمر الصعوبات بالظهور من خلالها .3.ازدياد وعي الطلاب بمعنى الوسائل التعليمية وأهميتها ولكن رغم ذلك نطمح إلى أكثر من ذلك من خلال توفير الأدوات والوسائل التعليمية داخل المدرسة ليستفيد منها الطلاب في العملية التعليمية،ويتغلبون على الصعوبات التي قد تواجههم في المواد الدراسية .

In survey sampling, systematic sampling design has attracted survey researchers in recent years due to its simplicity of use. We introduce a modified variant of systematic sampling scheme which improves the efficiency of a recently developed diagonal systematic sampling method. The suggested modification is also found to be more efficient than the other popular sampling designs in circumstances where the units of the population under consideration exhibit an increasing or decreasing perfect or near-perfect linear trend. Moreover, it is observed that the conditions for efficiency are mathematically strong and practically always hold, hence making the suggested sampling design preferable over the available sampling designs.

Meat comprises of important nutrients for human body. As population of human increases, the demand for meat also keeps increasing. Therefore, a new alternative is introduced by inventing a cultured meat obtained from the outer side of the animal's body and became the rumours in the 1930s. In spite of that, the idea of cultured meat invention was only realized in 2013 by a Dutch scientist which was invented a burger-shaped cultured beef. However, this invention did not exist in the time of the Prophet, his companions and the tābi'īn and it becomes a polemic among the Muslim community regarding of its halal status nowadays. The existence of cultured meat in the current society needs a clear explanation and procedure in fiqh because it is one of the new discoveries in food industry. This study is important as to provide a good understanding and new knowledge to the Muslim society. A clear fiqh approaches will give guidelines to the society whether considering it as a staple or alternative diet. Otherwise, they may avoid to consume cultured meat product as a precaution from haram and uncertainty (shubhah) and also may ensure of the purity of soul abreast with the main objective in sufism’s live. This study used qualitative descriptive research method by analyzing some previous studies as secondary sources that have been recorded elsewhere, processed, printed and disseminated to the public. The results found that cultured meat is a new discovery in Malaysia. Although the original law for this cultured meat is halal law, if it does not meet the shariah principles and criteria, it is considered haram. This review paper highlights on the halal status of cultured meat from fiqh and sufism in terms of the transformative form of Allah’s creation. Based on the primary sources of fiqh and sufism, the status of cultured meat is considered halal provided if in the condition of shortage of meat is affected the needs of population and also it causes no harm to people to consume as to enhance the prosperity of human beings. Further research must also be done to verify that it is also tayyiban and fulfils the maqasid in Islamic nutrition and the effects of consumption to consumers.

Plants, being sessile, have developed complex signaling and response mechanisms to cope with biotic and abiotic stressors. Recent investigations have revealed the significant contribution of phytohormones in enabling plants to endure unfavorable conditions. Among these phytohormones, jasmonic acid (JA) and its derivatives, collectively referred to as jasmonates (JAs), are of particular importance and are involved in diverse signal transduction pathways to regulate various physiological and molecular processes in plants, thus protecting plants from the lethal impacts of abiotic and biotic stressors. Jasmonic acid has emerged as a central player in plant defense against biotic stress and in alleviating multiple abiotic stressors in plants, such as drought, salinity, vernalization, and heavy metal exposure. Furthermore, as a growth regulator, JA operates in conjunction with other phytohormones through a complex signaling cascade to balance plant growth and development against stresses. Although studies have reported the intricate nature of JA as a biomolecular entity for the mitigation of abiotic stressors, their underlying mechanism and biosynthetic pathways remain poorly understood. Therefore, this review offers an overview of recent progress made in understanding the biosynthesis of JA, elucidates the complexities of its signal transduction pathways, and emphasizes its pivotal role in mitigating abiotic and biotic stressors. Moreover, we also discuss current issues and future research directions for JAs in plant stress responses.

Energy consumption prediction has always remained a concern for researchers because of the rapid growth of the human population and customers joining smart grids network for smart home facilities. Recently, the spread of COVID-19 has dramatically increased energy consumption in the residential sector. Hence, it is essential to produce energy per the residential customers' requirements, improve economic efficiency, and reduce production costs. The previously published papers in the literature have considered the overall energy consumption prediction, making it difficult for production companies to produce energy per customers' future demand. Using the proposed study, production companies can accurately have energy per their customers' needs by forecasting future energy consumption demands.Scientists and researchers are trying to minimize energy consumption by applying different optimization and prediction techniques; hence this study proposed a daily, weekly, and monthly energy consumption prediction model using Temporal Fusion Transformer (TFT). This study relies on a TFT model for energy forecasting, which considers both primary and valuable data sources and batch training techniques. The model's performance has been related to the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), LSTM interpretable, and Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) models. The model's performance has remained better than the other algorithms, with mean squared error (MSE), root mean squared error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) of 4.09, 2.02, and 1.50. Further, the overall symmetric mean absolute percentage error (sMAPE) of LSTM, LSTM interpretable, TCN, and proposed TFT remained at 29.78%, 31.10%, 36.42%, and 26.46%, respectively. The sMAPE of the TFT has proved that the model has performed better than the other deep learning models.

The enrichment with low amount of bioactive protein of spray-dried edible bird’s nest hydrolysates (EBNH) (3.0 %) in view of its cost and high solubility provided significant value added to the overall in vitro antioxidant capacity of soy-based powder drink mix (PDM). Its beverage (12.5 % concentration, consistency index 0.39 Pa.sn) antioxidant capacity as measured by ABTS and FRAP was comparable (p > 0.05) but significantly higher than antioxidant assays of FCR and DPPH. The respective antioxidant capacity of the PDM beverage in terms of trolox equivalent (TE) and gallic acid equivalent (GAE) were 21.95 TE mg/g, 20.75 TE mg/g, 2.93 TE mg/g and 14.72 GAE mg/g for FRAP, ABTS, DPPH and FCR. Depending on antioxidant assay, EBNH in beverage of PDM contributed an increase in the range of 3.7–9.3 % (which was significant (p

Q fever is a zoonotic infection caused by the organism Coxiella burnetii. It is transmitted by contracting the organism from it is most known reservoirs which include cattle, sheep, and goats. It is an endemic disease with very few cases reported in the Arabian Peninsula. It can present with a wide range of clinical presentations; however, the neurological manifestation of Q fever is rare and overlooked hence we present a case report of a 38-year-old man who presented with fever, headache, and jerky movements. He had a significant exposure to livestock animals mainly goats and sheep. The work up was negative apart from positive Coxiella burnetii serology and serum PCR suggestive of acute Q fever. He had shown remarkable improvement after a course of antimicrobial therapy with complete resolution of fever and neurological symptoms. Our case report highlights the importance considering Q fever as a cause of unusual neurological symptoms in Q fever endemic areas and patients with a significant zoonotic exposure.

BackgroundThe prevalence of stunting in South Sulawesi and West Sulawesi Province is relatively high. Studies reveal various household, parental, and child factors are associated with stunting. This paper aimed to determine the determinants of stunting among children under five in South and West Sulawesi Province using the 2013 and 2018 Indonesia Basic Health Survey.MethodsThis study was a secondary data analysis using the 2013 and 2018 Indonesian Basic Health Surveys. The unit of analysis was children under five years, and the study obtained 3641 and 4423 children in South Sulawesi Province from the 2013 and 2018 Indonesia Basic Health Survey, respectively, and 804 and 1059 children from the 2013 and 2018 Indonesia Basic Health Survey in West Sulawesi Province, respectively. The multivariable poisson regression model was conducted to determine the determinants of stunting.ResultsThe results showed that the mean age of children in South Sulawesi and West Sulawesi Province was 31.1 months and 30.8 months, respectively, on 2013 survey compare to 29.6 months and 29.1 months on the 2018 survey. The determinants of stunting in children under five in South Sulawesi Province in 2013 survey were household with two children under five (APR:1.24; 95% CI: 1.1-1.3; p-value = 0.006), maternal BMI (APR: 1.1; 95% CI: 1.03-1.1; p-value = ConclusionsThe determinants of stunting in children under five in South Sulawesi Province are number of children under five in the household, maternal education, maternal weight, maternal height, maternal BMI, child's age, and birthweight. Meanwhile, the determinants of stunting in children under five in West Sulawesi were wealth, maternal education, maternal weight, maternal BMI,, child's age, child's sex, and history of acute respiratory infection. Hence, intervention on household and child levels as well as maternal sociodemographic factors need to be addressed.

In estimation theory, the use of auxiliary information significantly improves precision while estimating population parameters. In this paper, an efficient class of ratio cum median estimators of the population median is suggested using simple random sampling without replacement. The expressions for bias and mean square error of the proposed class are derived theoretically. The condition for the asymptotic optimum estimator is obtained with its bias and mean square error expressions. Under certain realistic conditions, the asymptotic optimum estimator is more proficient, based on analytical and numerical comparisons with some existing estimators that are members of the suggested class of estimators. The superiority of the proposed ratio cum median estimators is shown through real data applications. Such a new proposed estimator will be useful in the future for data analysis and making decisions.

Diluents and various biological products have been used in different animal species, with promising outcomes in post-thaw sperm quality. Nevertheless, only a few reports are available for the semen of Arabian horses. Edible bird’s nest (EBN) – a product of the salivary secretions of swiftlet species is widely known to have both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Presently, there is no data available on the role of EBN supplemented in different extenders and its effect on semen quality in stallion semen. Two in vitro experiments were conducted to examine the effects of edible bird’s nest (EBN) on the quality of chilled and post-thawed cryopreserved Arabian stallion spermatozoa. In experiment one, 10 ejaculates were collected, divided into two equal parts, diluted using EquiPlus® and INRA 96® and supplemented with 0 % (control), 0.12 %, 0.24 % EBN concentrations. The semen samples were stored at 5 ℃ and observed at 0, 24, and 48 h. Sperm kinetics variables (% total motility [TM] and progressive motility [PM], curvilinear velocity; VCL, straightness; VSL, average path velocity; VAP) were analyzed using computerized assisted sperm analysis. For chilled semen, there was no significant difference in any of the sperm quality parameters between control (0 %), 0.12 %, and 0.24 % EBN supplementation either in INRA96® or EquiPlus®. In experiment two, nine ejaculates were diluted and cryopreserved using EquiPlus Freeze® and INRA Freeze® containing 0 %, 2.4 %, and 4.8 % EBN, and evaluated after thawing. Sperm kinetics, DNA integrity and antioxidant capacity - Biological Anti-oxidant Potential (BAP) and Reactive Oxygen Metabolites (d-ROMs) test were evaluated. In chilled semen, there was no significant difference in any of the sperm quality parameters between control (0 %), 0.12 %, and 0.24 % EBN supplementation either in INRA96® or EquiPlus®. For frozen semen supplemented with 2.4 % and 4.8 % EBN had higher sperm motility parameters compared to control in INRA Freeze® and EquiPlus Freeze®, but the values were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Also, EBN supplementation had no significant effects on the DNA integrity, biological antioxidant potential, and reactive oxygen metabolites. EBN supplementation had no significant effects on sperm quality and antioxidant status in chilled and frozen Arabian Stallion semen. Future studies might consider different methods of EBN preparation and concentrations to elucidate the potential biological impact of EBN in Arabian stallion semen.

R-trees have been popular for their support of multidimensional data and high-performing queries. FBR-tree is the state-of-the-art concurrent variant of the R-tree for Intel DC Persistent Memory (DCPM). However, its adoption on manycore servers is impeded by concurrency limitations due to lengthy, lock-based synchronization, including structure modification operations, split and merge. Additionally, emerging DCPM-based machines are equipped with multiple CPU sockets, forming a non-uniform memory access (NUMA) architecture. FBR-tree’s lack of NUMA-awareness induces further performance overhead from remote memory accesses. In this paper, we propose MPR-tree, a concurrent, NUMA-aware and persistent future-based R-tree for DCPM servers. MPR-tree focuses on insert operations due to their laborious nature. MPR-tree relies on per-thread local future objects and a global R-tree. To introduce NUMA-awareness and minimize remote memory accesses, MPR-tree adopts per-socket dedicated asynchronous evaluate threads to checkpoint future objects to the global R-tree. MPR-tree employs an in-memory hash table to mitigate the read overhead of key searches over the future objects. We implemented MPR-tree atop FBR-tree and evaluated its performance on a server with 40 physical cores for insert and lookup queries, and it showed that MPR-tree outperforms FBR-tree on average by $2\times $ on log10 scale.

A reconfigurable manufacturing system offers several manufacturing routes to produce the same product. Each manufacturing route considers different production, reconfiguration, and module changing time which can potentially impact the delivery time of a product to the customer location. This study considers the impact of different reconfigurable manufacturing routes and quality concerns on the efficiency of a vehicle routing problem. The reconfigurable manufacturing system produces different products while the vehicle routing problem distributes the products to different customer locations. The analysis is conducted by using two important reconfigurable manufacturing system characteristics i.e., modularity and scalability, to assess their impact on manufacturing and supply chain systems. A multi-objective model containing the objectives of the total cost, the total time, the scalability, and the modularity is proposed to analyze the problem. The model is subsequently implemented by using a two-phased meta-heuristic approach using automatic calibration. In the first phase, production analysis is examined by using different reconfigurable machines through the application of a non-sorting genetic algorithm embedded with an absorption policy and multiple crossover operators based on simulated annealing. The second phase considers the delivery of products to different customer locations through the application of a variable neighborhood search approach.

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems are complex systems that are prone to malfunctions and performance decay. Thus, such systems need to be safeguarded against quality issues and decline in production efficiency to ensure the optimal health of machines. The product quality and health of a reconfigurable manufacturing system can be analyzed by using the diagnosability characteristic. This study examines the diagnosability characteristic in a multi-stage reconfigurable manufacturing system. The aim is to understand the impact of time-based diagnostics on the functionality performance of a reconfigurable manufacturing system and the level of inventory used during production. The diagnosability is analyzed regarding product variation and system diagnosability. A mathematical model is proposed, and it is subsequently applied in deterministic and stochastic settings. The deterministic setting is examined through a set of two problem-specific heuristics. The stochastic setting, subject to the gamma process, is examined by using a simulation-based optimization approach. The results suggest that the use of line replacement units can restore a reconfigurable system to optimal functionality, reduce the level of inventory, and complete production in a minimum time at the expense of additional cost. These findings apply to the context of healthcare emergency response systems, reconfigurable supply chains, reconfigurable integrated manufacturing systems, etc. Finally, a conclusion and future research avenues are provided.

This study aims to determine the effects of various alkaline pHs on the nutritional and functional properties of protein isolated from defatted chia flour (DCF). The DCF isolated using alkali extraction method at pH 8.5, 10.0, and 12.0 were coded as CPI-8.5, CPI-10.0, and CPI-12.0, respectively. The highest extraction yield and protein recovery yield was demonstrated by CPI-12.0 (19.10 and 59.63%, respectively), with a total protein content of 74.53%, and glutelin showed the highest portion (79.95%). The CPI-12.0 also demonstrated the most elevated essential (36.87%), hydrophobic (33.81%), and aromatic (15.54%) amino acid content among other samples. The DCF exhibited the highest water (23.90 gg−1) and oil (8.23 gg−1) absorption capacity, whereas the CPI-8.5 showed the highest protein solubility (72.31%) at pH 11. DCF demonstrated the highest emulsifying capacity at pH 11 (82.13%), but the highest stability was shown at pH 5 (82.05%). Furthermore, CPI-12.0 at pH 11 shows the highest foaming capacity (83.16%) and stability (83.10%). Despite that, the CPI-10.0 manifested the highest antioxidant capacity (DPPH: 42.48%; ABTS: 66.23%; FRAP: 0.19), as well as ACE-I (35.67%). Overall, the extraction pH had significant effects in producing chia protein isolates (CPI) with improved nutritional and functional qualities.

Science learning in elementary schools using the PBL learning model can grow students' higher-order thinking skills, such as problem-solving and creative thinking skills. The purpose of correlational research was to analyze the relationship between problem-solving and creative thinking skills of elementary school students through the implementation of PBL. The predictor variables and criteria in the research were in the form of problem-solving and creative thinking skills, respectively. The population of this study was the fifth-grade elementary school students, totaling 120 students. This study’s sample was 33 students. The data retrieval used problem-solving and creative thinking skills tests on the concept of the human circulatory system. The data analysis was performed by linear regression. The results showed a correlation between creative thinking and problem-solving skills in learning with PBL. There is a strong relationship between problem-solving and creative thinking skills through PBL. The predictor variable contributed 37.8% to the criterion variable. This study recommends that it is essential to familiarize PBL in elementary schools learning to improve students' higher-order thinking skills.