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Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and factors associated with the use of psychoactive drugs amongst medical undergraduate and postgraduate students. Study Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire to obtain information on the consumption patterns of psychoactive substances. Study Place and Duration: The study was carried out at Department of Psychiatry, Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, over a period of twelve months from January, 2022 to December, 2022. Methods: A total of 2,500 medical students, comprising 1,800 undergraduates and 700 postgraduates, were randomly selected from the participating institution. The questionnaire collected data on demographics, academic performance, substance use, and factors contributing to the consumption of psychoactive drugs. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and logistic regression models. Results: The overall prevalence of psychoactive drug use among the medical students was found to be 35.8%, with a higher rate among postgraduate students (42.1%) compared to undergraduates (32.6%). The most commonly used substances were stimulants, followed by opioids and sedatives. Factors significantly associated with psychoactive drug use included high levels of stress, academic pressure, and peer influence. Students who reported using psychoactive drugs had a higher incidence of poor academic performance and mental health issues. Gender differences were also observed, with male students showing a higher prevalence of substance use than female students. Conclusion: The study highlights the alarming prevalence of psychoactive drug use among medical undergraduate and postgraduate students, which can adversely impact their academic performance, mental health, and future professional lives. It is imperative for educational institutions and policymakers to implement targeted interventions to address the underlying factors contributing to substance use, such as stress management and peer support programs. Furthermore, fostering a culture of open dialogue and increasing awareness about the consequences of psychoactive drug use can help mitigate this growing public health concern. Keywords: psychoactive drugs, medical students, undergraduate, postgraduate, prevalence, substance use, academic performance, stress, mental health.

Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. It is expected to increase up to 7.7% and will affect almost 439 million adults globally by 2030. The main aim of the study was to assess the demographic details of diabetic patients and their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding diabetes in Lahore, Pakistan. The prospective cross sectional study was done to know the level of KAP of diabetic population of the city; we visited different hospital’s endocrinology and diabetes departments. Face to face interview was done by using structured questionnaire comprises of total 26 questions. Of the 350 participants 221(63.1%) were women and 129(36.9%) were men. The major age groups were of years 83(23.7%) and of 40-49years 89(25.4%). Around 185(52.9%) have done graduation and 29(8.3%) are illiterate. About 231(66%) have type 2 diabetes and 119(34%) suffering from type 1 diabetes. Almost 228(65.1%) admits that they have family history of diabetes. Major cause of diabetes as participants’ claims is hereditary and obesity, both 118(33.7%). The frequent urination and increased thirst and hunger is the symptoms (62.9%). About 187(53.4%) of participants do exercise regularly and 194 (55.4%) follow planned diet. About 157(44.9%) had never any eye examination and 97(27.7%) had never any urine test. Around 236(67.4%) had never any lipid profile test. The study shows that participants have good knowledge of diabetes and have positive attitude towards DM but they have low or average practice scores.

Western Himalayan region is a rich repository of common bean genetic resources evolved over generations of farmer selection. The bean variability encompasses various use categories such as dry, snap and shelled beans. The present study aimed to characterize 40 small-seeded red common bean genotypes collected from different districts of Kashmir valley as well as Poonch, Rajouri and Bhaderwah areas of Jammu which are world famous for their beans. Based on 5-year evaluation, there was substantial variability for various qualitative traits as well as quantitative traits. Among variability parameters, higher PCV and GCV values were recorded for plant height, seed yield per plant and number of pods per plant and low for days to maturity, seed length and pod length. High heritability was recorded for all the traits ranging from 78.72 to 94.87%. There was substantial variability in root traits scored in laboratory and greenhouse as well as canopy temperature depression and relative water content. Various genotypes were found resistant to bean common mosaic virus (WB-N-1, WB-N-11, WB-1318, WB-401, WB-451, WB-1634); anthracnose (WB-1634 WB-83, WB-258, WB-1282, WB-1304); angular leaf spot (WB-6, WB-1634, WB-258, WB-451, N-1 and N-10); Fusarium wilt (WB-341, WB-451, WB-N-1 and WB-1587) and Ascochyta blight (WB-6). Similarly WB-92 was highly resistant to shattering. The genotypes WB-341, WB-1634, WB-N-1 performed better under water stress, WB-N-1 and WB-1634 were resistant to multiple diseases and WB-1634 had better cooking quality. The genotypes identified can be used in bean improvement programmes and have also been submitted to NBPGR for long-term storage.

Graphic memoirs have gained a critical attention only after Spiegalman’s foundational work Maus. The merge of images and text produces unique literary experience for the readers. The paper is an attempt to explore the gripping graphic memoirs of Sarah Glidden and Guy Delisle and the emergence of dialogical self and multiple I positions within the text. Dialogical Self theory is a research module that showcases the self expanding its definition. Unlike the Cartesian approach to self that believes its sharp distinction with other. Dialogical Self theory proposes the idea of a heterogeneous and dense self where the self involves in a dialogue with itself. This gives space for multiplicity of voices/narrations within the self and thus bridges the gap between self and other. How to understand Israel in 60 days or less and Jerusalem: chronicles from the holy city are works centered on the pertaining Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The creative format of a comic allows the respective authors to illustrate the different selves in a single panel. It fosters the concept of other as an extended self on the subjective level. The paper investigates how the protagonists Sarah and Delisle go on a trip to Jerusalem and gains a better understanding of themselves and of others. Keywords: graphic memoirs, dialogical self, multiple I position, self, other, Israeli Palestinian conflict

The accurate forecasting of time series is difficult and for exchange rate more difficult as well. Because it is difficult to predict as they continuously fluctuate during trading hours. Exchange rate forecasting plays a vital financial problem in recent era. It is extensively acknowledged that exchange rate stability implies that macroeconomic stability. In this study, a hybrid model is proposed to forecast exchange rates. Bayesian regularized neural network (BRNN) model is assembled with Autoregressive integrated moving average model (ARIMA) and develop hybrid BRNN-ARIMA model. Furthermore, the comparison of proposed hybrid model has been done with standalone BRNN, standalone ARIMA and random walk model. Quarterly exchange rate data from 1970Q1 to 2021Q2 of six countries comprises developed (UK, Canada, and Singapore) and developing (Pakistan, India, and Malaysia) are forecast. To evaluate the performance of these models RMSE, MAE and MAPE are applied. The results indicate that the proposed hybrid BRNN-ARIMA model outperforms the other studied model in forecasting exchange rates.

Eastern countries are a major source of medicinal plants, which set up a rich source of ethnopharmacologically known medicines used in the treatment of various diseases. These traditional medicines have been known as complementary, alternative, or nonconventional therapy across globe for ages. Tuberculosis (TB) poses a huge global burden and leads to maximum number of deaths due to an infectious agent. Treatment of TB using Directly Observed Treatment Short‐course (DOTS) therapy comprises multiple antibiotics is quite lengthy and causes serious side‐effects in different organs. The length of the TB treatment leads to withdrawal from the patients, which paves the way for the emergence of drug resistance in the bacterial population. These concerns related to therapy need serious and immediate interventions. Traditional medicines using phytochemicals has shown to provide tremendous potential in TB treatment, mainly in the eradication of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), increasing natural immunity, and managing the side effects of anti‐TB drugs. This review describes the antituberculosis potential of selected ethnopharmacologically important phytochemicals as potential immune‐modulator and as an adjunct‐therapy in TB. This review will be a useful reference for researchers working on ethnopharmacology and will open the door for the discovery of novel agents as an adjunct‐therapy to tuberculosis., The different modes of action of phytochemicals in adjunct therapy for the treatment of TB.

Transdermal Drug Delivery Systems- in the form of patch is treated as a special drug candidate to transdermal administration. The required properties of suitable drugs for patches were high hepatic- first pass effect, and its high lipophilicity, low molecular weight means i.e., having high capacity to cross the skin membrane. A matrix type design is suitable with patch- because of ease manufacturing. So, possible for transdermal patch to release the drug slowly via skin membrane for prolonged period of time and decreases the the frequency of dose administration, which is helpful for the treatment of various diseases. Thus, objective of this study is to provide knowledge on transdermal patches

Epigenetics involves changing the gene function without any change in the sequence of the genes. In the case of tuberculosis (TB) infections, the bacilli, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), uses epigenetics as a tool to protect itself from the host immune system. TB is a deadly disease-causing maximum death per year due to a single infectious agent. In the case of TB, there is an urgent need for novel host-directed therapies which can effectively target the survival and long-term persistence of the bacteria without developing drug resistance in the bacterial strains while also reducing the duration and toxicity associated with the mainstream anti-TB drugs. Recent studies have suggested that TB infection has a significant effect on the host epigenome thereby manipulating the host immune response in the favor of the pathogen. M.tb alters the activation status of key genes involved in the immune response against TB to promote its survival and subvert the antibacterial strategies of the host. These changes are reversible and can be exploited to design very efficient host-directed therapies to fight against TB. This review has been written with the purpose of discussing the role of epigenetic changes in TB pathogenesis and the therapeutic approaches involving epigenetics, which can be utilized for targeting the pathogen.

Background: Around 130 million infections of hepatitis C virus with 3% overall prevalence are there worldwide. There are approximately 4–5 million persons coinfected with HIV. The main objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of HCV among HIV-positive individuals and to assess the predictors involved in the outcomes of HIV-HCV coinfected patients. Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted on patients enrolled from 2007 to 2012 at Infectious Disease Unit, Hospital Palau Pinang, Pinang, Malaysia. Sociodemographic da%)ta as well as clinical data were collected with the help of a valid data collection form from the patients’ records. Data were entered and analyzed by using statistical software SPSS version 20.0, and p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The overall prevalence of hepatitis C among 708 HIV-infected patients was 130 (16.1 including 541 (76.4%) males and 167 (23.6%) females. High prevalence of HIV-HCV coinfection was significantly observed in males (122 [17.2%]) compared to females (8 [1.1%]) (p < 0.001). The main route of transmission among HIV-HCV coinfected patients was heterosexual contact (98 [13.8%]), followed by homosexual contact (4 [0.4%]). The statistically significant predictors involved in treatment outcomes of HIV-HCV coinfected patients are gender (OR = 2.015, p = 0.002) and intravenous drug users (OR = 2.376, p ≤ 0.001). Conclusion: The current study shows that HCV infection has an impact on the recovery of CD4 cells of the patients on HAART. Screening of HCV among HIV patients who were smokers and intravenous drug users should be monitored before starting HAART.

Plants are sensitive to pollution and especially air pollution can alter the physiological processes of plants affecting growth patterns. Study was carried out to determine the IAA production and response of plants exposed to vehicular emission. Two plant species namely Tecoma stans and Ixora coccinea which were exposed to roadside vehicular pollution were taken and control plants were collected from the college campus (unpolluted zone) and Estimation of IAA is carried out using Salkowski reagent, which upon reaction with IAA, yields pink color, due to AA complex formation and reduction of Fe+3. A decrease and increase in IAA concentration was observed in Tecoma stans and Ixora cocenia respectively growing in pollution zones as compared to control zones clearly demonstration air pollution stress.

COVID-19 has disrupted not only human lives but also the quality of education especially in developing countries of the South- Asian region. This study elaborates the impact of COVID-19 on education sector and also illustrate the strategies followed by the management of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The systematic review of 23 most relevant research studies shows that the Pandemic has affected students� learning, mental, physical, social and economical conditions badly. Particularly, students who do not afford the use of technological appliances are suffering more. HEIs need to have a smart online syllabus for various subjects. Furthermore, HEIs need to review their communication channel and technical assistance. The strategies implemented by HEIs during COVID-19 are useful and should be continued to keep offering quality education during upcoming academic sessions.

Biofilms are microbial colonies that remain enclosed in an organic polymeric matrix substance on biotic and abiotic surfaces, allowing them to colonize medical equipments and involved in most device associated life intimidating infections. Due to their antimicrobial resistance there is an urgent need to discover novel biofilm preventive and therapeutic agents.ZnO NPs were synthesized using cyanobacteria Gleocapsa gelatinosa cell extract through green and cost-effective approach. Physiochemical characterization was done to determine their morphologies and size distribution. Antibiofilm and eradication activity of ZnO NPs was determined. Cell viability and internalization ability of ZnO NPs into biofilm was analyzed by flow cytometry. Confocal microscopy was done to visualize the disrupted biofilm morphology treated with ZnO NPs.It was observed that ZnONPs were spherical in shape with 31-35 nm size and were moderately dispersed. ZnO NPs exhibited high antibiofilm activity against B. cereus and E. coli with minimum biofilm inhibitory concentration (MBIC) of ZnO NPs at 46.8 µg mlThis study emphasizes the potential mechanisms underlying the selective bactericidal properties of ZnO NPs and highlighted the strong interaction of ZnO NPs with intracellular components leading to biofim destruction. Therefore, ZnO NPs could be considered as a promising antibiofilm agent and thus could expand the possibility to use as therapeutic agent.

BackgroundKey findings from the World Health Organization Expert Meeting on Evaluation of Traditional Chinese Medicine in treating COVID-19 reported that TCMs are beneficial, particularly for mild-to-moderate cases. The efficacy of Jinhua Qinggan Granules (JHQG) in COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms has yet to be clearly defined.MethodsWe conducted a phase 2/3, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of treatment with JHQG in mild, nonhospitalized, laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 5g/sacket of JHQG or placebo granules orally thrice daily for 10 days. The primary outcomes were the improvement in clinical symptoms and proportion tested negative on viral PCR after treatment. Secondary outcomes were the time to recovery from clinical symptoms and changes in white blood cells (WBC) and acute phase reactants (C-reactive protein (CRP) and ferritin) 10-15 days after treatment.ResultsA total of 300 patients were randomly assigned to receive JHQG (150 patients) and placebo (150 patients). Baseline characteristics were similar in the two groups. In the modified intention-to-treat analysis, JHQG showed greater clinical efficacy (82.67%) after 10 days of treatment compared with the placebo group (10.74%) (rate difference: 71.93%; 95% CI 64.09 - 79.76). The proportion of patients with a negative PCR after treatment were comparable (rate difference: -4.67%; 95% CI -15.76 - 6.42). While all changes in WBC, ferritin, and CRP levels showed a statistically significant decline in JHQG (P≤0.044) after treatment, but not the latter in placebo (P=0.077). The median time to recovery of COVID-19 related symptoms including cough, sputum, sore throat, dyspnea, headache, nasal obstruction, fatigue, and myalgia were shorter in the JHQG group compared to the placebo group (PConclusionsJHQG is a safe and effective TCM for the treatment of mild COVID-19 patients.Clinical Trial RegistrationThe Trial was prospectively registered on www.clinicaltrials.gov with registration number: NCT04723524.

Beside many challenges that urban cities have to face, one of them is increasing traffic. Unfortunately, in developing countries like, for example, Pakistan, the traffic management infrastructure does not scale accordingly. This leads to two types of problems: congestion and long queues at traffic signals. This makes it difficult for emergency vehicles (EV) such as ambulances to reach their destination on time. Therefore, in this article, the authors have developed an intelligent path clearance system for emergency vehicles. The particular focus is on long queues at traffic signals. Given the GPS coordinates of an EV, a destination, a map, and the traffic light grid system, our system provides a signal free corridor to the priority vehicle by automatically manipulating traffic signals that fall in its path using cloud computing. The idea is to clear the path of the vehicle. The proposed system also makes decision based on the time of the day and current traffic conditions in real time. In case of multiple options, it also calculates the shortest path to the destination.

Background: Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) programs are increasingly implemented in healthcare facilities to reduce inappropriate use of antibiotics. Inappropriate use of antimicrobials is one of the leading causes of increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). As such, decreasing inappropriate use of antimicrobials can reduce AMR. The main objective of this systematic review was to identify the effectiveness of AMS interventions in reducing inappropriate antimicrobial use in residential aged care facilities (RACFs). Methods: Multiple databases were searched to identify studies evaluating the effectiveness of AMS interventions in RACFs. Descriptive studies and those, which did not report an outcome measure related to antibiotic usage, were excluded. Results: Overall, 6505 studies were identified and 17 were included. Most of the studies were randomized controlled trials and single faceted interventions. All of the interventions were education and training targeted at physicians, nurses or both about appropriate use of antimicrobials in RACFs. The studies reported a high success rate with 68% of interventions being successful while 32% of interventions were found to be ineffective. Conclusion: Educating and training nurses and physicians about evidence-based management of infectious diseases may lead to a reduction in inappropriate antimicrobial use in RACFs. The likelihood of success increases with targeting physicians - either as the sole recipient of the intervention or together- with nurses.

For economists and investors, it is necessary to understand the random and nonlinear pattern of the stock market volatility. High volatility directly affects the financial market that leads to unpredictability. China–Pakistan Economic Corridor attracts economists and investors worldwide. Therefore, predicting the volatility of the stock markets related to CPEC is important. In this study we consider the most important stock markets lying on the route of CPEC, namely KSE 100 (Pakistan), SSE 100 (China), TADAWUL (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), KASE (Kazakhstan), KLSE (Malaysia), BIST (Turkey), MOEX (Russia), FTSE (United Kingdom) and CAC40 (France). The daily returns of stock market indices consist of 1706 observations from December 2014 to July 2021. After the confirmation from the ARCH effect test, family GARCH models are employed, among them, based on AIC and BIC criteria, GARCH (1,1), EGARCH (1,1), and GARCH-M (1,1) are found suitable to forecast the volatility. The empirical study also suggests that the out-of-sample forecast GARCH-M (1,1) model is more appropriate as it has a minimum value of MAE, MSE, RMSE, MAPE, TheilU1, and Theil U2 among all the studied GARCH models. Furthermore, it is also found that the KSE-100 and SSE-100 have moderate and slow market average returns even though both stock markets are found to be the least risk-returns markets.

Existing Medical imaging techniques such as fMRI, positron emission tomography (PET), dynamic 3D ultrasound and dynamic computerized tomography yield large amounts of four-dimensional sets. 4D medical data sets are the series of volumetric images netted in time, large in size and demand a great of assets for storage and transmission. Here, in this paper, we present a method wherein 3D image is taken and Discrete Wavelet Transform(DWT) and Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transform(DTCWT) techniques are applied separately on it and the image is split into sub-bands. The encoding and decoding are done using 3D-SPIHT, at different bit per pixels(bpp). The reconstructed image is synthesized using Inverse DWT technique. The quality of the compressed image has been evaluated using some factors such as Mean Square Error(MSE) and Peak-Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR).

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major infectious disease worldwide. TB treatment displays a biphasic bacterial clearance, in which the majority of bacteria clear within the first month of treatment, but residual bacteria remain nonresponsive to treatment and eventually may become resistant. Here, we have shown that Mycobacterium tuberculosis was taken up by mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), where it established dormancy and became highly nonresponsive to isoniazid, a major constituent of directly observed treatment short course (DOTS). Dormant M. tuberculosis induced quiescence in MSCs and promoted their long-term survival. Unlike macrophages, where M. tuberculosis resides in early-phagosomal compartments, in MSCs the majority of bacilli were found in the cytosol, where they promoted rapid lipid synthesis, hiding within lipid droplets. Inhibition of lipid synthesis prevented dormancy and sensitized the organisms to isoniazid. Thus, we have established that M. tuberculosis gains dormancy in MSCs, which serve as a long-term natural reservoir of dormant M. tuberculosis. Interestingly, in the murine model of TB, induction of autophagy eliminated M. tuberculosis from MSCs, and consequently, the addition of rapamycin to an isoniazid treatment regimen successfully attained sterile clearance and prevented disease reactivation.

Industrial revolution has increased the level of pollution due to emission of carbon dioxide in the past fewdecades. Resulting changes in the world’s climate are seen in the form of an increase in temperature which causes heatwaves, diseases related to skin, cardiovascular and other respiratory illnesses in humans. According to a past study,overall contribution of continent Asia is 49% - 50% in the production of carbon dioxide. Therefore, data of carbondioxide emission, heat and electricity, manufacturing industries, residential and commercial buildings, transport andother sources of Asian countries namely: Japan, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Iran, Singapore, andNepal from 1971 to 2014 have been taken for the present study. Empirical analysis shows that heat and electricity arethe main cause to increase carbon dioxide emission in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran and Sri Lanka. Whereas thisemission is increased in China due to residential and commercial buildings and transport variables. On the other hand,for Nepal and Singapore, these variables do not play any significant role in CO2 emission. Simple exponentialsmoothing (SES) and ARIMA models are used to forecast CO2 emissions. Furthermore, simple exponential smoothingis found appropriate for Pakistan and Sri Lanka based on the minimum FMAE. Whereas, for Japan, China, India, Iranand Singapore, ARIMA model is found suitable as it has minimum FMAE value. In Nepal and Bangladesh, bothmodels have significant differences, so any one of them can be used for forecasting.

Globalization in the new millennium has brought a set of profound social, economic and political changes in the world. Pakistan and her neighboring country China have joined hands and has initiated China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is an ambitious project that focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among both the neighboring giants. The growing nexus between China and Pakistan through CPEC is going to strengthen their markets as well stock markets. Ultimately both the economies are bound to benefit consequently resulting in increased GDP of both the countries. In this piece of research, we have studied the impact of CPEC on Pakistan Stock Market (PSX) and SSE by employing GARCH and EGARCH model from January 2011 to March 2019 on daily basis which shows recent purchases of up to 45% of Pakistani shares owned by China. Empirical analysis shows that in PSX risk parameter is little bit higher in post-CPEC comparatively pre-CPEC period. Volatility of SSE has high in both pre and post-CPEC period as compared to PSX. It reveals that PSX market after the advent of CPEC is showing stability which is a sign of encouragement for businessmen, traders and investors to invest. Market stability has increased manifold and the findings are supported by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI). Recently Bloomberg has ranked Pakistan amongst the first 5 best performing stocks around the world. The research findings show PSX has a high potential for growth and is expected to become a lucrative market for businessmen, traders and investors.Read Complete Article at ijSciences: V82019032016 AND DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18483/ijSci.2016

In the present study previously isolated Weissella cibaria CMG DEX3 capable of producing high molecular weight, water soluble dextran (Ahmed et al., 2012) is characterized for most efficient less expensive carbon, nitrogen sources, micro and macro nutrients by utilizing a multifactorial Placket-Burman statistical design for optimization of dextran production. A twelve run Plackett-Burman experimental model with slight modification was utilized to evaluate the impact of ten diverse nutrients on the production of dextran by the bacterial isolate Weissella cibaria CMG DEX3.