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Recently food shortage has become the major flagging scenario around the globe. To resolve this challenge, there is dire need to significantly increase crop productivity per unit area. In the present study, 24 genotypes of rice were grown in pots to assess their tillering number, number of primary and secondary branches per panicle, number of grains per panicle, number of grains per plant, and grain yield, respectively. In addition, the potential function of miR156 was analyzed, regulating seed sequence in rice. Furthermore, OsSPL14 gene for miR156 was sequenced to identify additional mutations within studied region. The results demonstrated Bas-370 and L-77 showed highest and lowest tillers, respectively. Bas-370, Rachna basmati, Bas-2000, and Kashmir Basmati showed high panicle branches whereas, L-77, L-46, Dilrosh, L-48, and L-20 displayed lowest panicle branches. Bas-370 and four other studied accessions contained C allele whereas, L-77 and 18 other investigated accessions had heterozygous (C and T) alleles in their promoter region. C-T allelic mutation was found in 3rd exon of the OsSPL14 gene. The sequence analysis of 12 accessions revealed a novel mutation (C-T) present ~2bp upstream and substitution of C-A allele. However, no significant correlation for novel mutation was found for tillering and panicle branches in studied rice accessions. Taken together present results suggested novel insight into the binding of miR156 to detected mutation found in 3rd exon of the OsSPL14 gene. Nevertheless, L-77, L-46, Dilrosh, L-48, and L-20 could be used as potential breeding resource for improving panicle architecture contributing yield improvement of rice crop., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

This research examines the thin-film nanomaterial movement in three dimensions over a stretchable rotating inclined surface. Similarity variables are used to transform fundamental systems of equations into a set of first-order differential equations. The Runge-Kutta Fourth Order approach is utilized for numerical computations. The impact of embedded parameters (variable thickness, unsteadiness, Prandtl number, Schmidt number, Brownian-motion, and thermophoretic) is examined carefully. Physically and statistically, the indispensable terms namely Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are also investigated. Results indicated that, as the dimensionless parameter S raises, the temperature field decreases. In reality, as the values of S increases, heat transmission rate from the disc to the flowing fluid reduces. Internal collisions of liquid particles are physically hampered at a low rate. The momentum boundary layer is cooled when the parameter S is increased, as a consequence local Nusselt number rises. Sherwood number decreases as the parameter S increases because of inter collision of the microscopic fluid particles. Enhancing in the apparent viscosity and concentrations of the chemical reactions, a higher Schmidt number, Sc, lowers the Sherwood number. With increasing values of Prandtl number the Nusselt number decreases. For validation purpose, the RK4 method is also compared with homotopy analysis method (HAM). The results are further verified by establishing an excellent agreement with published data., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The influence of the chemical interaction and dynamic micropolar convective heat transfer flow of Casson fluid caused by a moving wedge immersed in a porous material was explored. The Joule heating owing to magnetized porous matrix heating was also deliberated. The mathematical formulation for mass conservation, momentum, energy, and concentration profiles was expressed in the form of partial differential equations. The dimensionless set of ordinary equations was reduced from modeled equations via a transformation framework and then solved by the RK4 built-in function in MATLAB SOFTWARE by taking a step size of Δη=0.01. The existing work was compared with the published work. The iteration procedure was stopped until all of the nodes in the η-direction met the convergence condition 10 -5 . The physical appearance of material parameters on the flow field, temperature, concentration, drag force, and Nusselt number was discussed through plots. The numerical results were obtained for limiting circumstances. The unsteadiness factor thinned the velocity boundary layer but decreased the thermal and concentration boundary layers. By increasing the Eckert number, the nondimensional temperature profile was enhanced. The novelty of the present study is that no one has numerically investigated the magnetized Casson fluid over a moving wedge in the presence of a chemical reaction and thermal radiation.

Surgical site infection (SSIs) in lower extremity vascular procedures is a major contributor to patient morbidity and mortality. Despite previous advancements in preoperative and postoperative care, the surgical infection rate in vascular surgery remains high, particularly when groin incisions are involved. However, successfully targeting modifiable risk factors reduces the surgical site infection incidence in vascular surgery patients. We conducted an extensive literature review to evaluate the efficacy of various preventive strategies for groin surgical site infections. We discuss the role of preoperative showers, preoperative and postoperative antibiotics, collagen gentamicin implants, iodine impregnated drapes, types of skin incisions, negative pressure wound therapy, and prophylactic muscle flap transposition in preventing surgical site infection in the groin after vascular surgical procedures., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Herein, we studied two strains of halophilic fungi (Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus penicillioides) as potential potent sources of hydrolases under solid-state fermentation conditions. We found that the co-culture of these two fungal species was associated with maximal CMCase, FPase, xylanase, and β-xylosidase activity under optimized fermentation conditions. These enzymes functioned optimally at pH values from 9.0 to 10.0, at temperatures from 50 °C to 60 °C, and in the presence of 15-20% NaCl. These enzymes were also stable in metal salt solutions and the presence of ionic liquids. Reducing sugar yields following the cellulase-hemicellulase co-treatment of untreated, alkaline-pretreated, and ionic liquid-pretreated bamboo were higher than those associated with separate cellulase and hemicellulase treatments, thus confirming the synergistic activity of cellulase-hemicellulase co-treatment in the context of bamboo saccharification. These results indicate that these two fungi are promising hydrolase producers that can facilitate the bioconversion of bamboo biomass., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Polymer flow during wire coating dragged from a bath of viscoelastic incompreesible and laminar fluid inside pressure type die is carried out numerically. In wire coating the flow depends on the velcocity of the wire, geometry of the die and viscosity of the fluid. The governing equations expressing the heat transfer and flow solved numerically by Runge-Kutta fourth order method with shooting technique. Reynolds model and Vogel's models are encountered for temperature dependent viscosity. The umerical solutions are obtained for velocity field and temperature distribution. It is seen that the non-Newtonian parameter of the fluid accelerates the velcoty profile in the absence of porous and magnetic parameters. For large value of magnetic parameter the reverse effect is observed. It is observed that the temperature profiles decreases with increasing psedoplastic parameter in the presence and absence of porous matrix as well as magnetic parameter. The Brinkman number contributes to increase the temperature for both Reynolds and Vogel'smmodels. With the increasing of pressure gradient parameter of both Reynolds and Vogel's models, the velocity and temperature profile increases significantly in the presence of non-Newtonian parameter. The solutions are computed for different physical parameters. Furthermore, the present result is also compared with published results as a particular case.

Lung nodule segmentation in CT images and its subsequent volume analysis can help determine the malignancy status of a lung nodule. While several efficient segmentation schemes have been proposed, only a few studies evaluated the segmentation's performance for large nodules. In this research, we contribute a semi-automatic system which is capable of performing robust 3-D segmentations on both small and large nodules with good accuracy. The target CT volume is de-noised with an anisotropic diffusion filter and a region of interest is selected around the target nodule on a reference slice. The proposed model performs nodule segmentation by incorporating a mean intensity based threshold in Geodesic Active Contour model in level sets. We also devise an adaptive technique using image intensity histogram to estimate the desired mean intensity of the nodule. The proposed system is validated on both lung nodules and phantoms collected from publicly available diverse databases. Quantitative and visual comparative analysis of the proposed work with the Chan-Vese algorithm and statistic active contour model of 3D Slicer platform is also presented. The resulting mean spatial overlap between segmented nodules and reference nodules is 0.855, the mean volume bias is 0.10±0.2 ml and the algorithm repeatability is 0.060 ml. The achieved results suggest that the proposed method can be used for volume estimations of small as well as large-sized nodules., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To compare iatrogenic ulnar nerve injury in lateral entry pin fixation versus medial and lateral entry pin fixation in the treatment of supracondylar fractures of the humerus in children. Measurement of clinical parameters in terms of elbow range of motion and postop radiographic alignment was also targeted., Methods: The retrospective cohort study was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised data of paediatric patients who underwent closed reduction and percutaneous pin fixation for the treatment of displaced extension type supracondylar fractures of the humerus between July 2007 and June 2012. Data regarding socio-demographic status, disease and procedure variables was collected from patient files and was analysed using SPSS 19., Results: There were 71patients; 37(52%) in the lateral entry group and 34(48%) in the medial and lateral entry group. The two groups were similar in terms of mean age, gender distribution, and preoperative displacement, comminution, and associated vascular and nerve status (p> 0.05 each). There were no cases of iatrogenic ulnar nerve injury in either group and no significant differences between groups with respect to the elbow range of motion and radiological parameters (p> 0.05 each)., Conclusions: With the use of the specific techniques employed, both lateral entry pin fixation and medial and lateral entry pin fixation were effective in the treatment of displaced extension type supracondylar humerus fractures in children.

Objective: To compare radiological and functional outcome of external fixation and distraction with conservative Plaster of Paris (POP) cast for unstable intra-articular fractures of the distal radius., Methods: The study was conducted on 60 patients with unstable intra-articular fracture of distal radius who reported to emergency or outpatient Orthopaedic Surgery department of Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi, between March and August 2007. They were divided into two equal groups: Group A and Group B, treated by Plaster of Paris cast, and external fixation with distraction respectively. The functional outcome in terms of freedom from pain, range of movement, grip power and deformity, and the radiological outcome of radial length, incongruity and radio-ulnar joint position were analysed at three months follow-up using a 3-point scoring scale., Results: In Group A, 1 (3%) patient showed excellent result, 8 (27%) patients good results, 19 (63%) patients fair results and 2 (7%) patients poor result. In Group B, 14 (47%) patients showed excellent results, 11 (37%) patients good results, 4 (13%) patients fair results and 1 (3%) patient poor result. The outcome score of the Group B patients was significantly better compared to the Group A patients (p value < 0.05)., Conclusion: External fixation has definite advantages over conventional Plaster of Paris cast in the treatment of unstable intra-articular fractures of distal radius.

Background: The Gold standard treatment for symptomatic gallstone disease is laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) since 1990. LC can be performed safely as a day case procedure. The objective of this study was to evaluate the results of laparoscopic cholecystectomy in symptomatic gall stones disease in terms of length of hospital stay, complications, morbidity and mortality., Methods: This retrospective descriptive study was carried out in Department of General & Laparoscopic Surgery, AK CMH, Muzaffarabad. Notes of all patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the department over a 26 month period were reviewed from department register. Demographics as well as details of cases, conversion to open operation and complications of surgery and anaesthesia were reviewed from clinical notes and departmental register and noted on a designed Performa. Data were analysed using SPSS-18 and results compared with international studies., Results: Out of 500 patients, 443 (88.6%) were females and 57 (11.4%) were males. The mean age of the patients was 42.47 +/- 11.43 years. Mean operative time was 40.09 +/- 11.16 minutes. Seven (1.4%) patients developed port site wound infection. Sixteen (3.2%) cases were converted to open surgery in face of obscured anatomy of Calot's triangle. Two (0.4%) cases has cystic duct stoma leak secondary to missed Common duct stones and were dealt with ERCP and stone extraction. There was no case of bile duct injury, major haemorrhage or bowel injury. There was no mortality associated with laparoscopic cholecystectomy in our series., Conclusion: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a safe and effective management of gall stone disease. Better training, careful case selection, meticulous technique and high standard equipment are of paramount importance for ensuring good results in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.