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Listeriosis, caused by Listeria monocytogenes (Lm), has zoonotic implications and has a wide host range. It has unique potential to cross blood brain barrier and placental barrier which results in encephalitis, meningitis and abortions. Initially only animals were considered as its victim but later on it emerged as an important food borne human pathogen and so far, it has been isolated from various food samples and environmental samples too. The current study is based upon the determination of genome-based distribution of L. monocytogenes (hly gene) in various soil samples collected from selected districts of Punjab province, Pakistan. The selection of the districts was based on historical information about simultaneous prevalence of the soil borne human and animal diseases... A total of 970 soil samples were processed independently by real-time PCR and an association between occurrences in soil was correlated to several categorical variables. The genome was detected in 17 samples (1.75%, 95 % CI: ±0.5), each originating from different location across districts under study. A greater number of positive soil samples for Lm genome were detected in district Attock followed by Sheikhupura, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Sahiwal and Lahore. The odds for occurrence of Lm were more at places near to water sources [2.85, CI:95% (0.9256, 8.831) p=0.05] and having more than 1000 animals per village [3.32, CI:95% (1.077, 10.27) p=0.02]. In conclusion, DNA of Lm is distributed in the soil of several districts of Punjab and fodder grown on such contaminated soil could be a potential risk factor to health of both animals and humans. Future studies are required to identify a causal relationship between presence of bacterium in soil to seroconversion in animal and human and prevalent serotypes across a wide geographical range across Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All the countries are in needs of renewable energy (RE) penetration into their power system. As Bangladesh power system (BPS) depends on fossil fuel by 99% of its total generation capacity, it is very much focusing on having RE. In its Western grid, it has planned to install 55 MW wind turbine generator (WTG) and 100 MW solar photovoltaic generator (SPVG). It is expected that the system will be upset from stability perspective. To increase the power system security, contingency analysis is needed. But the power system operation parameters are always variable, with conventional load flow method, it is impossible to carry out contingency analysis according to such variations in parameters. So, this present work adopts machine learning (ML) to predict the contingency analysis by determining the performance indices (PI) with variable operating conditions in a quick time. Decision tree (DT), random forest (RF) and extra tree (ET) methods based supervised learning will be used to predict the result for the contingency analysis. Comparison among these methods will be carried out to get the most suitable one. Also, due to RE penetration, the system will be vulnerable to voltage due to reduction in reactive power. Adoption of static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) will help to reduce the voltage stress of the system. Effective location of it is very essential, so that it can enhance the voltage stability. In this paper, modal analysis technique will be used to find out the optimal location for a STATCOM and to calculate the enhancement in stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A biometric passport includes demographic information and biometric details. It contains some applications that are currently and probable concerning national security such as frontier protection, illegal immigration, criminals, terrorists, and fake passport. Over the fifteen years, most of the countries have adopted biometric-passports based on International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD) standardization. However, the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system contains a threat scenario that exists in privacy violation issues such as identity theft, data leakage threats, host listing, and tracking. To overcome these issues, this paper proposed a face recognition based on facial blemishes detection and encrypted into the High Capacity Color 2-Dimensional (HCC2D) code for biometric passport security. This includes facial blemishes features detection to generate the template and encrypted by applying the Secure Force (SF) algorithm to secure biometric information. Facial blemishes are detected by applying the Active Appearance Model (AAM) using Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and Canny edge detector with Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) detection algorithm. The proposed technique attained a 93.06% accuracy level for the dataset Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK). This technique will enhance biometric passport security to protect the biometric information from an intruder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bovine brucellosis, caused by Brucella abortus, is an economically significant bacterial disease causing enormous economic losses in developing countries. Due to emerging antibacterial resistance in current use of antibiotics and insufficient immunity by WHO recommended vaccine strategies, it is recommended to cull the positive animals to control the disease. In such circumstances, use of host specific bacteriophages could be an alternate option to control the disease. In present study, brucellaphages were isolated from slurry samples (n=50) of livestock farms. Seven samples were found positive in spot method, while two samples gave the positive plaques of pinpoint size (0.5 mm) with round and clear appearance in plaque assay. Isolated brucellaphages (BaP1 and BaP2) did not produce plaques against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus, Bacillus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Pasteurella multocida. Physicochemical characterization revealed that lytic activity of phages was present up to 60oC which started to decrease at 70oC and maximum stability was between 7 to 9 pH. Exposure of sunlight, normal fluorescent and UV light inactivated these phages within 3 hours, 24 hours and 15 minutes, respectively. Phages become inactivated in 15 minutes when treated with Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate, chloroform, Lysozyme, and Proteinase K, however, no effect of EDTA, normal saline, Trypsin and RNAse was observed on brucellaphages. In conclusion, the results have laid the foundation to standardize practical applications of brucellaphages after detailed in-vitro and in-vivo experimental evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a kind of production line, the mixed-model assembly line (MMAL) has been progressively adopted by industries to satisfy the diversification of customer demands. This study applied an MMAL sequencing problem for a make-to-order (MTO) strategy. Using the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) approach, this study sorted customer orders, satisfying these by a desired due date being the main feature in MTO systems. This MMAL problem was investigated to achieve three minimization objectives: total set-up cost, number of work overload situations, and total earliness and tardiness costs, according to the specified priority of orders. Accordingly, a multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm was developed for the proposed NP-hard model and the algorithm parameters were tuned by applying the Taguchi technique to the experimental design. The computational results of a comparison between the proposed MOPSO model and four multi-objective algorithms confirmed its advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article solar power systems architecture along with the brief overview of the DC to AC inverters and their utilization as a power electronics device in solar photovoltaic systems is provided. The study provides details regarding the types of the inverters, single phase half bridge inverters, single phase full phase inverters and three phase inverters. As pulse width modulation (PWM) is widely used in inverters which works as a solar charge controllers so the principles of PWM along with carrier based and carrier less modulation techniques is also mentioned. A comprehensive simulation and implementation of a three phase PWM inverter in Simulink Matlab is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key Clinical Message Spindle cell lipoma is a histological variant of oral lipomas. In this report, we present the first case from the Gulf region with the most comprehensive literature review. Clinicians should consider rare tumors in the differential diagnoses of oral masses.

We investigated the direct relationship between feedback seeking behavior (FSB) and performance, considering two dimensions of FSB (frequency and content) and two types of performance (goal achievement and behavior-related performance). The purpose is to identify new explanations for the inconclusive results of the direct relationship reported in the literature. FSB is important during performance conversations, which are critical for the effectiveness of performance management. Data from a sample of 306 employees were gathered from two distinct sources on three occasions. Our data were analyzed using the hierarchical regression method. The relationship between FSB frequency and goal achievement was statistically significant. The diagnostic FSB content was positively related to individual work performance (IWP), representing behavior-related performance. We identified no similar relationship with other types of FSB content. This paper provides evidence that while a direct relationship between FSB and performance may not generally exist, it depends on the type of FSB content and expected types of performance. Organizations can use the results to improve the effectiveness of FSB.

Anthrax is a deadly and highly contagious, zoonotic disease caused by Bacillus anthracis. It is an acute, febrile disease of warm-blooded animals and humans. This study was conducted to investigate antibodies against anthrax (Protective-antigen) in four species of domestic animals (cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat) in nine districts of Punjab, Pakistan. The serum samples of the animals (n=680) were processed using indirect ELISA to determine antibodies against Bacillus anthracis protective-antigen (PA). The results showed that 23/120 (19.2%) cattle, 37/101 (36.6%) buffaloes, 124/285 (43.5%) goats and 74/174 (42.5%) sheep have protective level of anti-PA antibodies. Overall, seroprevalence of anti-PA antibodies was 37.9 % in 680 animals. Maximum seroprevalence was recorded in Lahore (82.4%) followed by Gujranwala (80.4%), Sahiwal (72.7%), Chakwal (63.6%), Sargodha (54.3%), Faisalabad (15.2%), Sheikhupura (14.1%), DG Khan (5.5%) and Attock (0%), respectively. It was concluded that eight out of nine districts of Punjab had animals positive for antibodies against PA of B. anthracis and all of the four species of domestic animals were seropositive. Continuous monitoring of animals for B. anthracis is highly recommended for keeping the threat under control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Bovine viral diarrhea virus; BVDV; Sero-prevalence; Risk factors; Southern Punjab EN Bovine viral diarrhea virus BVDV Sero-prevalence Risk factors Southern Punjab INTRODUCTION Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is an enveloped positive-sense, single-stranded, RNA virus of approximately 12.5 kb in length (Richter et al. 2017). As during the first round of sampling, no sample was found positive for BVDV antigen, so it was not possible to go for the second round of sampling for the detection for BVDV PI animal. Distinctive consideration should be given for addressing identified risk factors of BVDV, such as checking the status of BVDV before allowing entry of newly purchased animals into herds, discouraging the workers visiting other farms and encouraging the culling of animals with more abortion history. Sero-prevalence and risk factors associated with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) infection in non-vaccinated dairy and dual purpose cattle herds in Ecuador. [Extracted from the article]

An e-passport contains the personal and biometric information of a person. It has some current and possible applications relating to national security and law enforcement such as border security, illegal immigration, terrorism, criminals, fake passport, and so on. In the past decade, a number of countries have implemented the e-passport based on Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standardization. However, there is a threat scenario in the privacy infringement problem due to Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) such as data leakage threats, identity theft, tracking, and host listing. In this article, a multimodal biometric, secure encrypted data and encrypted biometric encoded in the Quick Response Code (QR code) based e-passport authentication method is proposed for national security application. Further, Personal information and biometric data are encrypted by applying the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) 256 algorithm. More specifically, face recognition based on facial marks size detection and hand geometry detection is used for a biometric passport to enhance and secure the authentication level. The proposed method achieved an accuracy level of 92% for IITK (Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur) dataset, an accuracy level of 93% for FEI (Fundação Educacional Inaciana) dataset in mark size detection and an accuracy level of 96.67% achieved in the hand geometry detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this study was to compare reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in order to determine their analytical sensitivity and specificity using local characterized Pestivirus A. In order to compare the sensitivity of RT-LAMP and RT-PCR, serial 10 fold dilutions containing 9.91×1010 to 9.91×10-2 copies of cDNA of Pestivirus A, were prepared and tested. RT-LAMP proved more sensitive and was able to detect 9.91×100 copies of cDNA compared to RT-PCR (9.91×101). Both RT-LAMP and RT-PCR were found equally specific as no cross reaction with bovine herpes virus was observed. Present study showed that RT-LAMP assay is highly sensitive, specific, rapid and can be used as an alternative to conventional RT-PCR, for the detection of Pestivirus A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial food safety has become a worldwide public health concern. The indiscriminate use of antimicrobials in poultry had rendered bacteria resistant to multiple drugs. The dissemination of resistant genes through the food chain has probably lead to multidrug resistant strains of Escherichia coli in chicken meat. With this background in mind, the current study was conducted to ascertain the current antimicrobial susceptibility and multiple drug resistance patterns in E. coli recovered from retailed chicken meat. About 100 chicken meat samples were collected from different retail meat shops located across Lahore city. About 85 samples (85%) were found positive for E. coli. Further confirmation was done through PCR by amplifying their universal stress protein (uspA) gene. As per Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method, E. coli displayed the susceptibility towards gentamicin (86%) and ciprofloxacin (67%). The 100% resistance was observed towards chloramphenicol, colistin, tylosin each, 93% against doxycycline and 92% against ampicillin, and oxytetracycline, each. Significant resistance was observed against the quinolone group (enrofloxacine, 81.1%). All the isolates were resistant to more than 8 drugs belonging to 3 or more than 3 different classes of drugs. About 23.5% of the isolates were resistant against nine different antimicrobials and 15.3% showed resistance against eleven different drugs. The results of the in vitro susceptibility testing and multidrug resistance pattern observed in the study may provide valuable guidance to adopt good hygienic practices and curb unnecessary antimicrobial usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important decisions in hybrid make-to-stock/make-to-order (MTS/MTO) production systems is capacity coordination. This paper addresses capacity coordination of hybrid MTS/MTO production systems which deal with MTS, MTO and MTS/MTO products. The proposed model is developed to cope with order acceptance/rejection policy, order due-date setting, lot-sizing of MTS products and determining required capacity during the planning horizon. Additionally, a backward lot-sizing algorithm is developed to tackle the lot-sizing problem. The proposed model presents a general framework to decide on capacity coordination without too many limiting mathematical assumptions. The model combines qualitative and quantitative modules to cope with the aforementioned problems. Finally, a real industrial case study is reported to provide validity and applicability of the proposed model. Having the model applied in the case study, considerable improvement was achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a novel hierarchical production planning (HPP) structure for make-to-order (MTO) companies. The proposed HPP structure contains three decision making levels: (1) the order entry level, (2) the order release level and (3) the order sequencing/dispatching level. The objective is to manage the delivery dates of arriving orders in order to reach short and reliable delivery dates using appropriate decision making techniques at each level. At the first level, the main decision concerns the acceptance or rejection of new arriving orders subject to some relevant limitations (e.g. capacity constraint). At this level, an extended version of our previously proposed model (Ebadian, M., et al., 2007. A new decision making structure for the order entry stage in make-to-order environments. International Journal of Production Economics, 111, 351-367.) is applied. Besides rejecting some of the low priority orders, determination of delivery dates and prices for the non-rejected orders constitute the other outputs of this level. The second level is related to releasing the accepted orders to the shop floor. The decision making problems at this level include which orders and when they can be released. We develop a new order release method which improves the delivery date performance through generating a smoothed production schedule. Finally, at the third level, a modified dispatching rule is proposed to sequence the existing orders at each workstation so that the previously agreed delivery dates can be met. The proposed models at the second and third levels are validated through a number of numerical experiments conducted by simulation studies and the corresponding results are discussed in details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: M. Rabbani, R. Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, H. Parsa This paper presents a distribution network design problem in a multi-product supply chain system that involves locating production plants and distribution warehouses as well as determining the best strategy for distributing the product from plants to warehouses and from the warehouses to customers. The goal is to select the optimum numbers, locations and capacities of plants and warehouses to open, so that all customer demands of all product types are satisfied at minimum total costs of the distribution network. Unlike most of the previous researches, our study considers a multi-product supply chain system. We develop a mixed-integer mathematical programming model for designing a supply chain distribution network. Finally, this paper presents a real-case study to investigate designing a pharmaceutical supply chain distribution network. A possible extension is also offered in the conclusion.

Lactobacilli (n = 24), isolated from human infants and yogurt, showed variable in vitro activity against Salmonella enteritidis (8.0 ± 1.0 to 16.6 ± 0.5 mm) and other gut pathogens (9.0 ± 1.0 to 15.3 ± 0.5 mm), as determined by a well diffusion assay. The isolates were identified as Limosilactobacillus fermentum (FY1, FY3, FY4, IL2, and IL5), Lactobacillus delbrueckii (FY6 and FY7), Lactobacillus sp. (IL7), and Lactobacillus gasseri (IL12). All isolates showed variable in vitro tolerance to acidic pH for 3 h and visible growth at pH 4 and in the presence of 0.3% ox-bile. The antibiotic susceptibility profile of Lactobacillus isolates indicated resistance against vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, and lincomycin. Isolates had variable auto-aggregation and showed variable capabilities to co-aggregate with S. enteritidis. Based on all tested parameters, L. fermentum IL2, L. fermentum IL5, and L. gasseri IL12 were selected for co-culture experiments, followed by in vivo evaluation in Balb/c mice. All the selected isolates resulted in a 100% reduction in S. enteritidis in broth. Lactobacillus isolates efficiently colonized mouse guts and inhibited S. enteritidis colonization. Overall, there was ≥99.06% and ≤4.32 Mean log10 reduction in Salmonella counts in mice feces within 7 days. The study, thus, provided characterized lactobacilli that could be considered as potential ingredients for probiotic formulations intended to prevent S. enteritidis infection in humans.

Byline: R. Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, M. Rabbani, A. Ghodratnama, P.K. Ahmed This paper investigates an allocation of parts to common and specific cells and it also presents a mathematical programming model comprising of constraints such as available time for common and special cells in each time horizon, and variables such as excess time required by each cell to process parts in each period. The objective of the model is to minimise the total tardiness in production of goods and the sum of idle times of machines in each cell. Due to its complexity, a simulated annealing (SA) method is utilised. To verify the quality and efficiency of the SA algorithm, ten test problems with different parameter values are used to analyse and test the efficiency of the proposed SA method. Finally, results are compared with solutions obtained by Lingo 6 and computation time for each test problem.