Search results for: Ashraf Nawaz Khan

Authors: Neelma Ashraf

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Actinomycetes, particularly genus Streptomyces is of great importance due to their role in the discovery of new natural products, particularly antimicrobial secondary metabolites in the medicinal science and biotechnology industry. Different Streptomyces strains were isolated from Helianthus annuus plants and tested for antibacterial and antifungal activities. The most promising five strains were chosen for further investigation, and growth conditions for antibiotic synthesis were optimised. The supernatants were extracted in different solvents, and the extracted products were analyzed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and biological testing. From one of the potent strains Streptomyces globusus sp. BR123, a compound lavendamycin was identified using these analytical techniques. In addition, this potent strain also produces a strong antifungal polyene compound with a quasimolecular ion of 2072. Streptomyces sp. BR123 was genome sequenced because of its promising antimicrobial potential in order to identify the gene cluster responsible for analyzed compound “lavendamycin”. The genome analysis yielded candidate genes responsible for the production of this potent compound. The genome sequence of 8.15 Mb of Streptomyces sp. isolate BR123 with a GC content of 72.63% and 8103 protein coding genes was attained. Many antimicrobial, antiparasitic, and anticancerous compounds were detected through multiple biosynthetic gene clusters predicted by in-Silico analysis. Though, the novelty of metabolites was determined through the insignificant resemblance with known biosynthetic gene clusters. The current study gives insight into the bioactive potential of Streptomyces sp. isolate BR123 with respect to the synthesis of bioactive secondary metabolites through genomic and spectrometric analysis. Moreover, the comparative genome study revealed the connection of isolate BR123 with other Streptomyces strains, which could expand the knowledge of this genus and the mechanism involved in the discovery of new antimicrobial metabolites.

Keywords: streptomyces, secondary metabolites, genome, biosynthetic gene clusters, high performance liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry

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Authors: Amna Khan, Zareena Kausar, Saad Malik

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Bio Mechatronics has extended applications in the field of rehabilitation. It has been contributing since World War II in improving the applicability of prosthesis and assistive devices in real life scenarios. In this paper, classification accuracies have been compared for two classifiers against five positions of elbow. Electromyography (EMG) signals analysis have been acquired directly from skeletal muscles of human forearm for each of the three defined positions and at modified extreme positions of elbow flexion and extension using 8 electrode Myo armband sensor. Features were extracted from filtered EMG signals for each position. Performance of two classifiers, support vector machine (SVM) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) has been compared by analyzing the classification accuracies. SVM illustrated classification accuracies between 90-96%, in contrast to 84-87% depicted by LDA for five defined positions of elbow keeping the number of samples and selected feature the same for both SVM and LDA.

Keywords: classification accuracies, electromyography, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), Myo armband sensor, support vector machine (SVM)

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Authors: Noshaba Dilbar, Hina Ashraf

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Medicinal plants are considered as rich source of ingredients which can be used in drug development and synthesis. Moreover, these plants play a vital role in the development of human culture of using ayurvedic medicines around the whole world. Among all plants, dessert plants are being proved as effective source of ayurvedic medicines and remedy against many diseases. Considering the fact, two plant species Limium indicum and Euphorbia granulata were taken from Cholistan dessert of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Firstly, phytochemical screening was done by making dry and fresh plant extracts in five different solvents i.e Petroleum ether, benzene, chloroform, ethanol and methanol. Standard confirmation tests for all compounds were applied for analysis. Results revealed the presence of high range of bioactive compounds such as alakaloids, terpenoids, glycosides, steroids, flavonoids, saponins, phytosterols, oxalic acid, anthocyanin and quinone in both plants. Best results were obtained by methanolic, chloroform and petroleum ether extracts and methanolic, ethanolic and benzene extracts of Limium indicum and Euphorbia granulate respectively. Considering the results, methanolic extracts of both plants were further analysed for antibacterial activity. Plants were analysed against four pathogens including Escherchia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aruginosa using disc diffusion method. Limium indicum showed highly significant activity against all pathogens while Euphorbia granulata showed significant activity against Klebsiella pneumonia and Proteus vulgaris but lesser against Escherchia coli and Pseudomonas aruginosa. MIC of extracts against each positive bacterium was calculated and recorded. Present plants can be considered for making useful drugs but further studies are needed to isolate active agents from plant extracts for drug development.

Keywords: antibacterial activity, Euphorbia granulata, Limium indicum, medicinal plants, phytochemical screening

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Authors: Ejaz Ashraf, Raheel Babar, Muhammad Yaseen, Hafiz Khurram Shurjeel, Nosheen Fatima

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Main purpose of this study was to assess adoption level of farmers for quinoa cultivation after they had been taught through training and visit extension approach. At this time of the 21^st century, population structure, climate change, food requirements and eating habits of people are changing rapidly. In this scenario, farmers must play their key role in sustainable crop development and production through adoption of new crops that may also be helpful to overcome the issue of food insecurity as well as reducing poverty in rural areas. Its cultivation in Pakistan is at the early stages and there is a need to raise awareness among farmers to grow quinoa crops. In the middle of the 2015, a training and visit extension approach was used to raise awareness and convince farmers to grow quinoa in the area. During training and visit extension program, 80 farmers were randomly selected for the training of quinoa cultivation. Later on, these farmers trained 60 more farmers living into their neighborhood. After six months, a survey was conducted with all 140 farmers to assess the impact of the training and visit program on adoption level of respondents for the quinoa crop. The survey instrument was developed with the help of literature review and other experts of the crop. Validity and reliability of the instrument were checked before complete data collection. The data were analyzed by using SPSS. Multiple regression analysis was used for interpretation of the results from the survey, which indicated that factors like information/ training, change in agronomic and plant protection practices play a key role in the adoption of quinoa cultivation by respondents. In addition, the model explains more than 50% of variation in the adoption level of respondents. It is concluded that farmers need timely information for improved knowledge of agronomic and plant protection practices to adopt cultivation of the quinoa crop in the area.

Keywords: farmers, quinoa, adoption, contact, training and visit

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Authors: Milad Pirali, Sohrab Keyhani, Mohhamad Ali Sanjari, Ali Ashraf Jamshidi

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Purpose: The effect of hamstring antagonist activity on the knee extensors torque of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament reconstruction (ACLR) is not clear and persistent muscle weakness is common after ACLR. Hamstring activation when acting as antagonist is considered very important for knee strengths. Therefore the purpose of this study was to examine hamstring antagonist coactivation during maximal effort of the isokinetic knee extension in ACLR athletes with hamstring autograft. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 20 professional athletes who underwent primary ACLR (hamstring tendon autograft)with 6-24 months postoperative and 20 healthy subjects as control group. Each subjects performed maximal effort isokinetic knee extension and flexion in 60/˚ s and 180/˚ s velocities for the involved and uninvolved limb. Synchronously, surface electromyography (EMG) was recorded of vastus medialis (VM), vastus lateralis (VL), rectus femoris (RF) and biceps femoris (BF). The antagonist integrated EMG (IEMG) values were normalized to the IEMG of the same muscle during maximal isokinetic eccentric effort at the same velocities and ROM. Results: A one-way analysis of variance designs shows significantly greater IEMG coactivation of hamstring and decreased activation of Vm in ACLR when compared to uninvolved and control group leg in 60/˚ s and 180/˚ s velocities. Likewise peak torque to body weight was decreased in ACLR compared to uninvolved and control group during knee extension in both velocities (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Decreased extensors moment caused by decreased quadriceps inhibition and increased hamstring coactivation. In addition, these result indicated to decrease of motor unit recruitment in the VM (as a kinesiologicmonitore of the knee). It is appearing that strengthening of the quadriceps to be an important for rehabilitation program after ACLR for preparation in athletes endeavors. Therefore, we suggest that having more emphasis and focus on quadriceps strength and less emphasis on hamstring following ACLR.

Keywords: ACLR-coactivation, dynamometry, electromyography, isokinetic

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Authors: Zoya Khan, Amina Muzaffar

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Social media based brand communities are communities that are developed around a brand. In the highly globalized world of today, Facebook is undoubtedly being regarded and has been widely recognized as a trendy and well-accepted medium of marketing. By means of a Facebook fan page, organizations can effectually create, enhance, and sustain customer-brand relationship. In this article, we explore whether brand communities based on social media (a special type of online brand communities) have positive effects on the main community elements and value creation practices in the communities as well as on brand trust and brand loyalty. A survey was conducted and 201 valid responses were used for analysis. The results of structural equation modeling show that brand communities established on social media have positive effects on value creation practices. Brand use, impression management practices and brand identification has an impact on brand trust and this brand trust then further leads to brand loyalty.

Keywords: relationship quality, impression management practices, brand identification, brand trust, brand loyalty

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Authors: A. H. Shaikat, M. B. Hossain, S. K. M. A. Islam, M. M. Hassan, S. A. Khan, A. K. M. Saifuddin, M. N. Islam, M. A. Hoque

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A total of eighteen (18) sex reversed chickens with unusual phenotypic characteristics of male birds were identified over 2000 Hyline layer chickens at Motaher Poultry Farm, Ramu, Cox’s Bazar. Chickens were subdivided into two groups (case = 18, control = 20) based on the appearance of sex-reversed secondary sexual characteristics. Phenotypic traits of studied chickens were measured with farm management details. Hormone assay using ELISA, autopsy followed by gross examination of viscera was performed. The study found higher body weight (gm) (1579.3; 95% CI: 1561.7-1596.8), comb length (cm) (12.2; 11.5-12.8), comb width (cm) (7.9; 7.7-8.2), wattle length (cm) (4.9; 4.8-5.1) distinct spur, and shortened pubic bones distance, suggesting decrease oviposition in sex-reversed chickens. Testosterone concentration (ng/ml) (8.5; 6.4-10.6) was significantly higher (p<0.001) along with decrease estrogen (pg/ml) (5.1; 4.9-5.5) and progesterone concentration (pg/ml) (310.9; 289.4-332.5) in sex-reversed chickens. Mass abdominal fat deposition with atrophied ovary was found upon exploration of viscera.

Keywords: ovary, phenotypic traits, sex hormone, sex reversal

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Authors: Rizwan H. Khan, Saima Nusrat

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Despite the fact that amyloid associated neurodegenerative diseases and non-neuropathic systemic amyloidosis have allured the research endeavors, as no curative drugs have been proclaimed up till now except for symptomatic cure. Therapeutic compounds which can diminish or disaggregate such toxic oligomers and fibrillar species have been examined and more are on its way. In the present study, we had reported an extensive biophysical, microscopic and computational study, revealing that L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-Dopa) possess undeniable potency to inhibit heat induced human lysozyme (HL) amyloid fibrillation and also retain the fibril disaggregating potential. L-Dopa interferes in the amyloid fibrillogenesis process by interacting hydrophobically and also by forming hydrogen bonds with the amino acid residues found in amyloid fibril forming prone region of HL as elucidated by molecular docking results. L-Dopa also disaggregates the mature amyloid fibrils into some unorganised species. Thus, L-Dopa and related compounds can work as a promising inhibitor for the therapeutic advancement prospective against systemic amyloidosis.

Keywords: amyloids, disaggregation, human lysozyme, molecular docking

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Authors: Tahira Pirzada, Zahra Ashrafi, Saad Khan

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We present a facile and sustainable solid templating approach to fabricate highly porous, flexible and superhydrophobic aerogels of composite nanofibers of cellulose diacetate and silica which are produced through sol gel electrospinning. Scanning electron microscopy, contact angle measurement, and attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry are used to understand the structural features of the resultant aerogels while thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry demonstrate their thermal stability. These aerogels exhibit a self-supportive three-dimensional network abundant in large secondary pores surrounded by primary pores resulting in a highly porous structure. Thermal crosslinking of the aerogels has further stabilized their structure and flexibility without compromising on the porosity. Ease of processing, thermal stability, high porosity and oleophilic nature of these aerogels make them promising candidate for a wide variety of applications including acoustic and thermal insulation and oil and water separation.

Keywords: hybrid aerogels, sol-gel electrospinning, oil-water separation, nanofibers

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Authors: Waheed Gul, Muhammad Zeeshan, Ahmad Raza Khan, Muhammad Khurram

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Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSNs) have developed significantly over the years and have significant potential in diverse applications in the fields of science and technology. The inadequate energy accompanying WSNs is a key constraint of WSN skills. To overcome this main restraint, the development and expansion of effective and reliable energy harvesting systems for WSN atmospheres are being discovered. In this research, low-power acoustic energy harvesters are designed and developed by applying different techniques of energy transduction from the sound available in the surroundings. Three acoustic energy harvesters were developed based on the piezoelectric phenomenon, electromagnetic transduction, and hybrid, respectively. The CAD modelling, lumped modelling and Finite Element Analysis of the harvesters were carried out. The voltages were obtained using FEA for each Acoustic Harvester. Characterization of all three harvesters was carried out and the power generated by the piezoelectric harvester, electromagnetic harvester and Hybrid Acoustic Energy harvester are 2.25x10-9W, 0.0533W and 0.0232W, respectively.

Keywords: energy harvesting, WSNs, piezoelectric, electromagnetic, power

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Authors: Khanday Pervaiz Ahmad

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It was in 19th century when the Indian educated class started to reform their socio-religious set up as an imperative to respond to the challenges put forward by the colonial empire. The colonial discourse on India from the very beginning was gendered, as the colonized society was feminized and its ‘effeminate’ character, as opposed to ‘colonial masculinity’ was held to be a justification for its loss of independence. The ‘women health figure’ is prominently in these gender discourses. The women’s health received a much place in the colonial discourse. Lack of health consciousness, illiteracy, and belief in myths, rituals and superstitions were deemed the main factors taken as an indicator of miserable condition of Indian women’s health. As the low position of women caused shame to the natives, reforming the condition of women, its health occupied a major place in their intellectual as well as activist engagements. Magazines (journals) for women began to appear in various Indian languages in the mid to late 19th century with Bengal leading the front. These sources (Magazines) like Harm, Tehzib un Niswan, Saheli, Khatoon etc. are essential for the study of the emergence of an ideology of respectable domesticity in Indian Muslim upper middle class. Similarly for the study of development of Women’s health consciousness, women’s magazines are very essential. These earliest women Urdu magazines were first started by men, and then followed by the women’s own magazines. Various health issues, like pregnancy, child-rearing, menstruation, midwives training, Pardah, and health etc. were discussed at a time when it was impossible to discuss them in public sphere. These women magazines were brave pioneers, expanding the frontiers of women’s roles, and consciousness at a time when those frontiers were severely limited. This paper will try to focus on how women responded to the question of colonial discourse about their bodies. How health consciousness developed among Indian Muslim women and in what way it contributed in the development of feminist consciousness in South Asian Muslim Women community.

Keywords: Ashraf class, khatoon, haram women, feminism

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Authors: Iltaf Khan, Munzir H. Suliman, Muhammad Usman

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The rapid growth of modern industries has led to increased energy demand and worsened fossil fuel depletion, resulting in global warming, while organic pollutants pose significant threats to aquatic environments due to their stability, insolubleness, and non-biodegradability. So, scientists are investigating high-performance materials to resolve these issues. In this study, we prepared LaFeO₃ nanosheets (LFONS) employing a solvothermal method via a soft template such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The LFONS have good performance regarding surface area and charge separation as compared to LaFeO₃ nanoparticles (LFONP). To improve the efficiency of LFONS, it was further modified with Ag and ZIF-67 and utilized for CO₂ conversion. Herein, the results confirm that Ag-doped and ZIF-67 coupled LFONS (ZIF-67/Ag-LFONS) exhibit superior performance compared to pristine LFONP. In addition, the stability tests confirm that our optimal sample is the most active and stable one among various nanocomposites. Ultimately, our studies will open a new pave for cost-effective, eco-friendly, and electroactive nanomaterials for CO₂ conversion.

Keywords: LaFeO₃ nanosheets, Ag incorporation, MOFs coupling, CO₂ conversion

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Authors: Muhammad N. Khan, Syed O. Gillani, Mohsin Jamil, Tarbia Iftikhar

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With the increasing demand of bandwidth and data rate, there is a dire need to implement antenna systems in mobile phones which are able to fulfill user requirements. A monopole antenna system with multi-antennas configurations is proposed considering the feasibility and user demand. The multi-antenna structure is referred to as multi-input multi-output (MIMO) antenna system. The multi-antenna system comprises of 4 antennas operating below 6 GHz frequency bands for 4G/LTE and 4 antenna for 5G applications at 28 GHz and the dimension of board is 120 × 70 × 0.8mm3. The suggested designs is feasible with a structure of low-profile planar-antenna and is adaptable to smart cell phones and handheld devices. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first design compared to the literature by having integrated antenna system for two standards, i.e., 4G and 5G. All MIMO antenna systems are simulated on commercially available software, which is high frequency structures simulator (HFSS).

Keywords: high frequency structures simulator (HFSS), mutli-input multi-output (MIMO), monopole antenna, slot antenna

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Authors: Salma Mirza, Syeda Asma Naqvi, Khalid Mohammed Khan, M. Iqbal Choudhary

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In this study twenty-five (25) newly synthesized compounds substituted aryl thiazoles (SAT) 1-25 were synthesized, and in vitro cytotoxicity of these compounds was evaluated against four cancer cell lines namely, MCF-7 (ER+ve breast), MDA-MB-231 (ER-ve breast), HCT116 (colorectal), and, HeLa (cervical) and compared with the standard anticancer drug doxorubicin with IC50 value of 1.56 ± 0.05 μM. Among them, compounds 1, 4-8 and 19 were found to be active against all four cell lines. Compound 20 was found to be selectively active against MCF7 cells with IC50 value of 40.21 ± 4.15 µM, whereas compound 19 was active against only MCF7 and HeLa cells with IC50 values of 46.72 ± 1.8 and 19.86 ± 0.11 μM, respectively. These results suggest that aryl thiazoles 1 and 4 deserve to be investigated further in vivo as anti-cancer agents.

Keywords: anticancer agents, breast cancer cell lines (MCF7, MDA-MB-231), colorectal cancer cell line (HCT-116), cervical cancer cell line (HeLa), Thiazole derivatives

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Authors: Hafiza Javaria Ashraf, Asim Abbasi, Muhammad Hussnain Babar, Muhammad Sufyan

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Brevicoryne brassicae (Aphid) is not only the major biotic constraint of rapeseed crop but also transmits 20 different viral pathogens that cause diseases in crucifers. Aphids cause major losses to rapeseed by stunting growth and yield, with real damage being contamination of harvested heads. The misuse of pesticides has led to tremendous economic losses and hazards to human health and environmental pollution. Thus, newer approaches for pest control are continuously being sought. The naturally occurring, biologically active plant-based products seem to have a prominent role in the development of future commercial pesticides not only for increased productivity but their eco-friendly nature. The present experiment was carried out in Research Area of Ayub Agriculture Research Institute, Faisalabad to check the efficacy of different botanicals against rapeseed aphid. The tested botanicals were, neem seed extract, neem leaf extract, dathora seed extract, kaner leaf extract and aak leaf extract. Insecticide, advantage 20 EC served as the positive control in the experiment. Data was recorded before and after 1, 3 and 7 days of treatment application. The results of the experiment revealed that neem seed extract exhibited maximum mortality (48.42%) followed by dathora (45.54%) and kaner leaf extract (40.29%) after 7 days of treatment application. However minimum mortality i.e. 26.64% was observed in case of aak leaf extract. Advantage encountered maximum mortality i.e. 86.14%. All treatments caused maximum mortality after 7 days of treatment application. In case of pollinators maximum population reduction was observed in case of insecticide (74.29%) while minimum reduction was observed in neem leaf extract (11.57%). Hence it was concluded that unlike insecticides, plant based products can be a better option for regulating pests and conserving beneficial insect fauna.

Keywords: Aphid, mortality, plant based, pollinators

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Authors: Daehyoung Kim, Pervez Khan, Hoon Kim

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Efficient utilization of spectrum resources is a fundamental issue of wireless communications due to its scarcity. To improve the efficiency of spectrum utilization, the spectrum sharing for unlicensed bands is being regarded as one of key technologies in the next generation wireless networks. A number of schemes such as Listen-Before-Talk(LBT) and carrier sensor adaptive transmission (CSAT) have been suggested from this aspect, but more efficient sharing schemes are required for improving spectrum utilization efficiency. This work considers an opportunistic transmission approach and a dynamic Contention Window (CW) adjustment scheme for LTE-U users sharing the unlicensed spectrum with Wi-Fi, in order to enhance the overall system throughput. The decision criteria for the dynamic adjustment of CW are based on the collision evaluation, derived from the collision probability of the system. The overall performance can be improved due to the adaptive adjustment of the CW. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme outperforms the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) mechanism of IEEE 802.11 MAC.

Keywords: spectrum sharing, adaptive opportunistic transmission, unlicensed bands, heterogeneous networks

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Authors: Mohsin Talib Mohammed, Zahid A. Khan, Arshad N. Siddiquee

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The wide use of titanium (Ti) materials in medicine gives impetus to a search for development new techniques with elevated properties such as strength, corrosion resistance and Young's modulus close to that of bone tissue. This article presents the most recent state of the art on the use of equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) technique in evolving mechanical characteristics of the ultrafine-grained bio-grade Ti materials. Over past few decades, research activities in this area have grown enormously and have produced interesting results, including achieving the combination of conflicting properties that are desirable for biomedical applications by severe plastic deformation (SPD) processing. A comprehensive review of the most recent work in this area is systematically presented. The challenges in processing ultrafine-grained Ti materials are identified and discussed. An overview of the biomedical Ti alloys processed with ECAP technique is given in this review, along with a summary of their effect on the important mechanical properties that can be achieved by SPD processing. The paper also offers insights in the mechanisms underlying SPD.

Keywords: mechanical properties, ECAP, titanium, biomedical applications

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Authors: Yasir Khan

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The continued growth in international students coming to China for higher education had a significant positive impact on trade and GDP in China. Student mobility may expend trade with their country of origin, owing to superior knowledge, or preferential access to market opportunities. We test this hypothesis using Chinese trade data from 1999 to 2017. In fully-modify (OLS) and dynamic (OLS) testing estimation, we find that a 1.24 percent increase in student inward mobility is associated with a 1 percent increase in Chinese export trade. On the other hand, we find that a 1.18 percent increase in the student inward mobility to China is associated with a 1 percent increase in import trade. In addition, we find that a 1.13 percent increase in international student inward mobility is associated with a 1 percent increase in the GDP. The outcome suggests that international students have a strong influence on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), exports and imports trade. However, the study holds that the government should attach great attachment and importance to the role of international students in the export and import trade.

Keywords: international student mobility, China, export, import, GDP, FMOLS, DOLS

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Authors: Muhammad Naeem, Amina Zubari, Abdus Salam, Syed Ali Ayub Bukhari, Naveed Ahmad Khan

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Seventy three wild Labeo bata of different body sizes, ranging from 8.20-16.00 cm total length and 7.4-86.19 g body weight, were studied for the analysis of body composition parameters (Water content, ash content, fat content, protein content) in relation to body size and condition factor. Mean percentage is found as for water 77.71 %, ash 3.42 %, fat 2.20 % and protein content 16.65 % in whole wet body weight. Highly significant positive correlations were observed between condition factor and body weight (r = 0.243). Protein contents, organic content and ash (% wet body weight) increase with increasing percent water contents for Labeo bata while these constituents (% dry body weight) and fat contents (% wet and dry body weight) have no influence on percent water. It was observed that variations in the body constituents have no association to body weight or length.

Keywords: Labeo bata, body size, body composition, condition factor

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Authors: Amjad Khan

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The security of Vehicular ad hoc networking is of great importance as it involves serious life threats. Thus to provide secure communication amongst Vehicles on road, the conventional security system is not enough. It is necessary to prevent the network resources from wastage and give them protection against malicious nodes so that to ensure the data bandwidth availability to the legitimate nodes of the network. This work is related to provide a non conventional security system by introducing some constraints to minimize the DoS (Denial of services) especially data and bandwidth. The data packets received by a node in the network will pass through a number of tests and if any of the test fails, the node will drop those data packets and will not forward it anymore. Also if a node claims to be the nearest node for forwarding emergency messages then the sender can effectively identify the true or false status of the claim by using these constraints. Consequently the DoS(Denial of Services) attack is minimized by the instant availability of data without wasting the network resources.

Keywords: black hole attack, grey hole attack, intransient traffic tempering, networking

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Authors: Sanjay M. Gulhane, Athar Ravish Khan, Umesh W. Kaware

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Orthogonal frequency and code division multiplexing (OFCDM) has received large attention as a modulation scheme to realize high data rate transmission. Multiband (MB) Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) Ultra Wide Band (UWB) system become promising technique for high data rate due to its large number of advantage over Singleband (UWB) system, but it suffer from coherent frequency diversity problem. In this paper we have proposed MB-OFCDM UWB system, in which two-dimensional (2D) spreading (time and frequency domain spreading), has been introduced, combining OFDM with 2D spreading, proposed system can provide frequency diversity. This paper presents the basic structure and main functions of the MB-OFCDM system, and evaluates the bit error rate BER performance of MB-OFDM and MB-OFCDM system under UWB indoor multi-path channel model. It is observe that BER curve of MB-OFCDM UWB improve its performance by 2dB as compare to MB-OFDM UWB system.

Keywords: MB-OFDM UWB system, MB-OFCDM UWB system, UWB IEEE channel model, BER

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Authors: Abhishek Kumar Chandra, Kaushal Kishor, Wasim Khan, Dhananjay Singh, M. S. Alam

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Single phase fluid flow through series of uniform microchannels connected via transition section (converging-diverging section with or without throat) was analytically and numerically studied to characterize the flow within the channel and in the transition sections. Three sets of microchannels of diameters 100, 184, and 249 μm were considered for investigation. Each set contains 10 numbers of microchannels of length 20 mm, connected to each other in series via transition sections. Transition section consists of either converging-diverging section with throat or without throat. The effect of non-uniformity in microchannels on pressure drop was determined by passing water/air through the set of channels for Reynolds number 50 to 1000. Compressibility and rarefaction effects in transition sections were also tested analytically and numerically for air flow. The analytical and numerical results show that these configurations can be used in enhancement of transport processes. However, converging-diverging section without throat shows superior performance over with throat configuration.

Keywords: contraction-expansion flow, integrated microchannel, microchannel network, single phase flow

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Authors: Saif Khan Sunny, Md. Masud-ul-alam

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This study presents the association of photosynthetic pigment: chlorophyll-a (chl-a) and physical parameters: sea surface temperature (SST), dissolved oxygen (DO), sea surface salinity (SSS), and total dissolved solids (TDS) in the northeastern Bay of Bengal. At 15 sampling stations in the bay near the eastern coast of Teknaf, photosynthetic pigment and environmental variables were measured for surface water where acetone extraction was used for ch-a. Samples of seawater were taken in March 2021, where chlorophyll-a content varies from 0.554 to 9.696 mg/m3 in surface water over the sampling site. Higher concentrations may be attributable to the nutrient supply of hatcheries and the delivery of fluvial input. The observed SST, DO, SSS, and TDS in the north-eastern Bay of Bengal are 26.65 to 28.6 °C, 6.26 to 8.03 mg/l, 29.3 to 33.1 PSU, and 22.4 to 25.3 ppm, respectively. Temperature and chl-a had a positive association (0.18), according to an analysis of the cross-correlation matrix. Again, a negative correlation (0.34) between dissolved oxygen and temperature is significant at p < 0.05. Total dissolved solids and dissolved oxygen have a significant negative correlation (0.70) where p is < 0.001.

Keywords: photosynthetic pigment, nutrient supply, chlorophyll, physical parameters

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Authors: Moustafa Ali Elwan, Ibrahim Salem Abdelrafa, Ashraf Moharm

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Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are among the most commonly prescribed oral and topical drugs worldwide. Moreover, NSAIDs are responsible for most of all adverse drug reactions. For several decades, there are numerous attempts to use the cutaneous layers as a gate into the body for the local delivery of the therapeutic agent. Transdermal drug delivery is a validated technology contributing significantly to global pharmaceutical care. Transdermal Drug Delivery systems can be improved by using therapeutic agents. Moreover, Transdermal Drug Delivery systems can be improved by using chemical enhancers like ultrasound or iontophoresis. Iontophoresis provides a mechanism to enhance the penetration of hydrophilic and charged molecules across the skin. Objective: to compare the drug administration by ‘iontophoresis’ versus the oral rule. Methods: This study was conducted at the Faculty of Physical Therapy, Modern University for technology and information, Cairo, Egypt, on 20 participants (8 female & 12 male) who complained of tennis elbow. Their mean age was (25.45 ± 3.98) years, and all participants were assessed in many aspects: Pain threshold was assessed by algometer. Range of motion was assessed by electro goniometer, and isometric strength was assessed by a portable hand-held dynamometer. Then Participants were randomly assigned into two groups: group A was treated with oral NSAID (diclofenac) while group B was treated via administration of NSAIDs (diclofenac) via an iontophoresis device. All the participants were subjected to blood samples analysis in both pre-administration of the drug and post-administration of the drug for 24 hours (sample/every 6 hours). Results: The results demonstrated that there was a significant improvement in group b, “iontophoresis NSAIDs group,” more than in group B,” oral NSAIDs group,” in all measurements ‘ pain threshold, strength, and range of motion. Also, the iontophoresis method shows higher maximum plasma concentrations (Cmax) and concentration-time curves than the oral method.

Keywords: diclofenac, iontophoresis, NSAIDs, oral, tennis elbow

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Authors: M. Khalid Alamgir, Javed Ahsan Bhatti, M. Zafarullah Khan

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Thin film of amorphous carbon (DLC) was deposited on 316 steel using Nd: YAG laser having energy 300mJ. Pure graphite was used as a target. The vacuum in the deposition chamber was generated in the range of 10-6 mbar by turbo molecular pump. Ratio of sp3 to sp2 content shows amorphous nature of the film. This was confirmed by Raman spectra having two peaks around 1300 cm-1 i.e. D-band to 1700 cm-1 i.e. G-band. If sp3 bonding ratio is high, the films behave like diamond-like whereas, with high sp2, films are graphite-like. The ratio of sp3 and sp2 contents in the film depends upon the deposition method, hydrogen contents and system parameters. The structural study of the film was carried out by XRD. The hardness of the films as measured by Vickers hardness tester and was found to be 28 GPa. The EDX result shows the presence of carbon contents on the surface in high rate and optical microscopy result shows the smoothness of the film on substrate. The film possesses good adhesion and can be used to coat surgical instruments.

Keywords: DLC, thin film, Raman spectroscopy, XRD, EDX

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Authors: Ali Raza, Shafiq Ur Rehman Khan, Raja Sher Afgun Usmani, Asif Raza, Basit Umair

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Detection of Fake news and missing information is gaining popularity, especially after the advancement in social media and online news platforms. Social media platforms are the main and speediest source of fake news propagation, whereas online news websites contribute to fake news dissipation. In this study, we propose a framework to detect fake news using the temporal features of text and consider user feedback to identify whether the news is fake or not. In recent studies, the temporal features in text documents gain valuable consideration from Natural Language Processing and user feedback and only try to classify the textual data as fake or true. This research article indicates the impact of recurring and non-recurring events on fake and true news. We use two models BERT and Bi-LSTM to investigate, and it is concluded from BERT we get better results and 70% of true news are recurring and rest of 30% are non-recurring.

Keywords: natural language processing, fake news detection, machine learning, Bi-LSTM

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Authors: Duane Booysen, Ashraf Kagee

Abstract:

There is a high prevalence of violent crime and trauma exposure in South African society. Considering the prevalence of continuous violent crimes and traumatization in South Africa, the public mental health sector is required to combat the burgeoning effect of traumatic stress in South Africa. Trauma counselors, especially, provide important mental health services at primary health care to persons affected by traumatic events. Therefore, the evaluation and implementation of evidence-based trauma therapies is essential at a primary health care level in treating traumatic stress. A single-case design was used to evaluate the treatment effect of a Brief Trauma Treatment Programme treating persons who present with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder at a primary care trauma centre in Cape Town, South Africa. The sample consisted of six adult participants who presented with symptoms of posttraumatic stress and were assessed at baseline, during treatment, post-intervention and at 3-month follow. All participants received six sessions of trauma therapy. Assessment measures included the posttraumatic stress disorder symptom scale interviews for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual fifth edition (DSM5), the posttraumatic disorder checklist for DSM5, Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory. Results demonstrate that participants had noticeable reduced symptoms for traumatic stress, anxiety and depression despite living in contexts of violent crime and trauma. In conclusion, the article critically reflects on the need to evaluate and implement evidence-based treatments for the South African context, and how evidence-based treatments are used in developing socio-economic and cultural diverse contexts with continuous levels of violence and traumatization.

Keywords: psychological interventions, public mental health, traumatic stress, single-case design

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Authors: Faheema Khan

Abstract:

We have investigated the effects of salt stress on the stability of plant growth, water relations, photosynthetic variables, lipid peroxidation and antioxidant system in salt-tolerant (PK-327) and salt-sensitive (PK-471) soybean genotypes. Ten-day-old salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive soybean plants were subjected to 0-150 mM NaCl for 15 days. While the growth of genotype PK-327 was not affected significantly up to 75 mM NaCl treatment, the growth of the PK-471 was reduced significantly beyond 25 mM NaCl treatments. Salt stress caused severe impairments in photosynthetic variables like photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll fluorescence and chlorophyll content, being more pronounced in salt-sensitive genotype than in salt-tolerant.The activities of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase) were higher in PK-327 than in PK-471 at various levels of salt treatments.It is concluded that tolerance capacity of PK-327 against salinity can be associated with the ability of this genotype in keeping an active photosynthetic system and strong antioxidant defence system.

Keywords: salt stress, soybean, antioxidant, photosynthesis

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Authors: Antoifi Abdoulhalik, Ashraf Ahmed

Abstract:

The ever growing threat of saltwater intrusion has prompted the need to further advance the understanding of underlying processes related to SWI for effective water resource management. While research efforts have mainly been focused on steady state analysis, studies on the transience of saltwater intrusion mechanism remain very scarce and studies considering transient SWI in heterogeneous medium are, as per our knowledge, simply inexistent. This study provides for the first time a quantitative analysis of the effect of both inland and coastal water level changes on the transition zone under transient conditions in layered coastal aquifer. In all, two sets of four experiments were completed, including a homogeneous case, and four layered cases: case LH and case HL presented were two bi-layered scenarios where a low K layer was set at the top and the bottom, respectively; case HLH and case LHL presented two stratified aquifers with High K–Low K–High K and Low K–High K– Low K pattern, respectively. Experimental automated image analysis technique was used here to quantify the main SWI parameters under high spatial and temporal resolution. The findings of this study provide an invaluable insight on the underlying processes responsible of transition zone dynamics in coastal aquifers. The results show that in all the investigated cases, the width of the transition zone remains almost unchanged throughout the saltwater intrusion process regardless of where the boundary change occurs. However, the results demonstrate that the width of the transition zone considerably increases during the retreat, with largest amplitude observed in cases LH and LHL, where a low K was set at the top of the system. In all the scenarios, the amplitude of widening was slightly smaller when the retreat was prompted by instantaneous drop of the saltwater level than when caused by inland freshwater rise, despite equivalent absolute head change magnitude. The magnitude of head change significantly caused larger widening during the saltwater wedge retreat, while having no impact during the intrusion phase.

Keywords: freshwater-saltwater transition-zone dynamics, heterogeneous coastal aquifers, laboratory experiments, transience seawater intrusion

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Authors: Ashraf Mohammadzadeh, Ahmad Shah Farhat, Azin Vaezi, Aradokht Vaezi

Abstract:

Background & Aim: Preterm infants born at less than 34 weeks postconceptional age are not as neurologically mature as their term counterparts and thus have difficulty coordinating sucking, swallowing and breathing. As a result, they are traditionally gavage fed until they are able to oral feed successfully. The aim of study was to evaluate comparative effect of orogastric and breast feeding on oxygen saturation in very low birth weight infant (<1500gm). Patients and Methods: In this clinical trial all babies admitted in the Neonatal Research Center of Imamreza Hospital, Mashhad during a 4 months period were elected. Criteria for entrance to study included birth weight ≤ 1500 grams, exclusive breastfeeding, having no special problem after 48 hours, receivinge only routine care and intake of milk was 100cc/kg/day. Each neonate received two rounds of orogastric and breast feeding in the morning and in the afternoon, during which mean oxygen saturation was measured by pulse-oxymetry. During the study the heart rate and temperature of the neonates were monitored, and in case of hypothermia, bradycardia(less than 100 per minute) or apnea the feeding was discontinued and the study was repeated the following day. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS. Results: Fifty neonates were studied. The average birth weight was 1267.20±165.42 grams and average gestational age was 31.81±1.92 and female/male ratio was 1.2. There was no significant statistical difference in arterial oxygen saturation in orogastric and breast feeding in the morning and in the afternoon. (p=0.16 in the morning and p=0.6 in the afternoon). There was no complication of apnea, hypothermia or bradycardia. Conclusion: There was no significant statistical difference between the two methods in arterial oxygen saturation. It seems that oral feeding (which is a natural route) and skin contact between the mother and neonate causes a strong emotional bonding between the two and brings about better social adaptation for the neonate. Also shorter period of stay in hospital is more preferred, and breast feeding should be started at the earliest possible time after birth.

Keywords: Very low birth weight (V.L.B.W), O2 Saturation, Breast Feeding, Tube Feeding

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