Search

The study empirically investigates the determinant factors of happiness in Afghanistan using ordered logistic and probit regression models. In the study, cross-sectional data collected from 74,351 people in the 2019 survey of the Asia Foundation in 34 provinces of Afghanistan was employed. Our findings confirm that age, marital status, employment, education level, income, foreign language ability, perception of the country’s future direction, and change in the household economic situation are the key variables affecting the happiness of individuals in the country. The positive impact of the family size variable on happiness has been the study’s key finding.

Flavonoids are present naturally in many fruits and vegetables including onions, apples, tea, cabbage, cauliflower, berries and nuts which provide us with quercetin, a powerful natural antioxidant and cytotoxic compound. Due to antioxidant property, many nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals products contain quercetin as a major ingredient nowadays. Current review enlightened sources and quercetin's role as an antioxidant, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, anticancerous and anti-inflammatory agent in medical field during last 5 to 6 years. Literature search was systematically done using scientific for the published articles of quercetin. A total of 345 articles were reviewed, and it was observed that more than 40% of articles were about quercetin's use as an antioxidant agent, more than 25% of studies were about its use as an anticancer agent, and articles on antimicrobial activity were more than 15%. 10% of the articles showed anti-inflamamatory effects of quercetin. Literature search also revealed that quercetin alone and its complexes with chitosan, metal ions and polymers possessed good antidiabetic properties. Thus, the review focuses on new therapeutic interventions and drug delivery system of quercetin in medical field for the benefit of mankind.

Inhibition of melanogenesis by quercetin and vitamin E are extensively reported in the literature, independently, with the limitations of their antioxidant potential owing to less permeation, slight solubility in water, decreased bioavailability and reduced stability. Aim of the present study was to enhance antioxidant properties of quercetin by the incorporation of zinc and copper that was proved by docking study, along with investigating the synergistic effect of vitamin E loaded nanoformulation. Optimized metallic complexes of quercetin was additionally used in graftingnovel transdermal absorbable nanoparticles of polycaprolactone with Vit. E (PCL-NPs, Q-PCL-NPs, Zn-Q-PCL-NPs, Cu-Q-PCL-NPs). Physiochemical analysis was used to characterize nanoparticles, polyphenol-metal-Vitamin E conjugation was strengthened by FTIR, zetasizer and PDI. Percentage release of vitamin E was 80 ± 0.54% in case of Cu-Q-PCL-NPs-E which may be due to increase in particle size even after 8h. Non-cellular antioxidant effect by DPPH was observed 93 ± 0.23% in Cu-Q-PCL-NPs-E which was double as compared to Zn-Q-PCL-NPs-E. Reactive oxidative spices (ROS) for cellular antioxidant properties on MCF-7 cell was observed 90 ± 0.32% with the addition of its anticancer behavior 89 ± 0.64% of Cu-Q-PCL-NPs-E after 6 and 24h. Interestingly, 80 ± 0.53% inhibition of melanocytes cells and 95 ± 0.54% increases of keratinocytes cells that proved the tyrosinase enzyme inhibition of Cu-Q-PCL-NPs-E with their 17 months shelf life. Conclusively, use of pure quercetin and its copper complex in simple and in vitamin E loaded nanoparticles, can provide better antioxidant properties with inhibition of melanin, which can be utilized in treatment of melanogenesis disease.

Antibacterial properties of curcumin (Cur) and ciprofloxacin (Cip) against urinary tract bacterial infections can be improved by using self-emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS). Previously prepared Cur-SEDDS (lauroglycol FCC, tween 80, transcutol HP) alone and its combination with ciprofloxacin (Cip) were used to investigate the antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), dose response curve, checkerboard assay and time kill assay were performed to investigate the synergistic effect of Cur and Cip. FTIR, polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential, permeability coefficient (Kp), cell viability assay of Cur, Cip and Cur-Cip containing SEDDS were performed. Average PDI of all SEDDS was 0.3±0.97 with negative charge -10.56±0.67mV at pH 6.8 and encapsulation efficiency 93.88%. Interestingly, Cur and Cip showed synergistic behavior at average MIC of 72±0.45 and 0.33±0.98 against three microorganisms. Stability analysis using Rgui software (R 4.1.3 version) estimates shelf life of 16 months. Improvement in the permeation rate was up to 10 times of Cur and 3 times of Cip in case of SEDDS as compared to their pure form. Enhanced permeation through SEDDS and synergistic antibacterial effect will help in establishing its therapeutic usefulness especially for bacterial urinary tract infections in humans.

The purpose of the current studies was to develop ocular insert of betaxolol hydrochloride (BXH), using arabinoxylan (AX) as a film former. The inserts were prepared by sandwiching I mg of BXH between two films of AX. Six different formulations of ocular inserts were prepared in such a way that first three formulations contained varying concentrations of AX along with glycerol as plasticizer, whereas, rest of the formulations were added with 0.5mg of sodium alginate, sandwiched between two films of AX along with 1mg of BXH. Chemical compatibilities of the ingredients were assessed by using FTIR. Prepared ocular inserts were subjected to various physicochemical characterizations. The dissolution studies showed that ocular inserts containing sodium alginate with the AX showed sustained release effect better than the formulations with AX alone. Addition of sodium alginate resulted in inhibition of sudden release in initial phase and further sustained the release of drug from ocular inserts. Ocular inserts were pH compatible to the eyes as well as there was no interaction among the drug and excipients, suggesting that the selected excipients were suitable for the development of sustained release ocular inserts of BXH.

Particulate matter has a detrimental consequence on the health of living organisms throughout the world and predicting their concentration is very imperative to assess their impact on human health. Faridabad is the most populated and largest city of Haryana, India, and the current study was designed to foresee the PM2.5 content by different modeling techniques: (1) support vector machine (SVM), (ii) random forest (RF), (iii) artificial neural network (ANN), (iv) M5P model, and (v) Gaussian process regression (GP). Collected data (659 observations) from May 2015 to May 2018 were used to develop the models. Parameters such as temperature (T), ground-level ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitric oxide (NO), NOx, wind speed (WS), wind direction (WD), relative humidity (RH), bar pressure (BP), and solar radiation (SR) are used as input parameters for prediction of PM2.5. The results of all the models suggested that RF model with testing correlation coefficient (CC) 0.8312, mean absolute error (MAE) 30.7757, R2 (correlation of determination) 0.6909, and root mean square error (RMSE) 44.6947 is the best estimator for appraisal of PM2.5 followed by SVM, GP, M5P, and ANN models. The sensitivity analysis results indicated that wind speed is the utmost influencing parameter for the estimation of PM2.5. Abilities of different models were compared and RF was established as the best technique based on assessment criteria. We recommend more studies employing RF and other techniques as hybrids that lead to better models.

The Stock market trend prediction is an efficient medium for investors, public companies and government to invest money by taking into account the profit and risk. The existing studies on the development of stock-based prediction systems rely on data acquired from social media sources (sentiment-based) and secondary data sources (financial-sites). However, the data acquired from such sources is usually sparse in nature. Moreover, the selection of predictor variables is also poor, which ultimately degrades the performance of prediction model. The problems associated with existing approaches can be overcome by proposing an effective prediction model with improved quality of input data and enhanced selection/inclusion of predictor variables. This work presents the results of stock prediction by applying a multiple regression model using R software. The results obtained show that the proposed system achieved a prediction accuracy of 95% on KSE 100-index dataset, 89% on Lucky Cement, 97% on Abbot Company dataset. Furthermore, user-friendly interface is provided to assist individuals and companies to invest or not in a specific stock.

The study empirically investigates the determinant factors of happiness in Afghanistan using ordered logistic and probit regression models. In the study, cross-sectional data collected from 74,351 people in the 2019 survey of the Asia Foundation in 34 provinces of Afghanistan was employed. Our findings confirm that age, marital status, employment, education level, income, foreign language ability, perception of the country’s future direction, and change in the household economic situation are the key variables affecting the happiness of individuals in the country. The positive impact of the family size variable on happiness has been the study’s key finding., Bu çalışmanım amacı Afganistan’da mutluluğu belirleyen faktörleri sıralı lojistik ve probit regresyon modelleri kullanarak deneysel olarak araştırmaktır. Çalışmada, Asya Vakfı tarafından Afganistan'ın 34 ilinde 2019 yılında 74.351 kişiden toplanan yatay kesit verileri kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada yaş, medeni durum, istihdam, eğitim düzeyi, gelir, yabancı dil yeteneği, coğrafi farklılıklar, bireylerin uzlaşmaya ve ülkenin gelecekteki yönüne ilişkin algısı ve hane ekonomik durumundaki değişimin ülkedeki bireylerin mutluluğunu etkileyen temel değişkenler olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Aile büyüklüğünün mutluluk üzerindeki olumlu etkisi bu çalışmanın ana bulgusu olmuştur.

Summary Background Tranexamic acid reduces surgical bleeding and reduces death due to bleeding in patients with trauma. Meta-analyses of small trials show that tranexamic acid might decrease deaths from gastrointestinal bleeding. We aimed to assess the effects of tranexamic acid in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding. Methods We did an international, multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 164 hospitals in 15 countries. Patients were enrolled if the responsible clinician was uncertain whether to use tranexamic acid, were aged above the minimum age considered an adult in their country (either aged 16 years and older or aged 18 years and older), and had significant (defined as at risk of bleeding to death) upper or lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Patients were randomly assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Patients received either a loading dose of 1 g tranexamic acid, which was added to 100 mL infusion bag of 0·9% sodium chloride and infused by slow intravenous injection over 10 min, followed by a maintenance dose of 3 g tranexamic acid added to 1 L of any isotonic intravenous solution and infused at 125 mg/h for 24 h, or placebo (sodium chloride 0·9%). Patients, caregivers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. The primary outcome was death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation; analysis excluded patients who received neither dose of the allocated treatment and those for whom outcome data on death were unavailable. This trial was registered with Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN11225767, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01658124. Findings Between July 4, 2013, and June 21, 2019, we randomly allocated 12 009 patients to receive tranexamic acid (5994, 49·9%) or matching placebo (6015, 50·1%), of whom 11 952 (99·5%) received the first dose of the allocated treatment. Death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation occurred in 222 (4%) of 5956 patients in the tranexamic acid group and in 226 (4%) of 5981 patients in the placebo group (risk ratio [RR] 0·99, 95% CI 0·82–1·18). Arterial thromboembolic events (myocardial infarction or stroke) were similar in the tranexamic acid group and placebo group (42 [0·7%] of 5952 vs 46 [0·8%] of 5977; 0·92; 0·60 to 1·39). Venous thromboembolic events (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) were higher in tranexamic acid group than in the placebo group (48 [0·8%] of 5952 vs 26 [0·4%] of 5977; RR 1·85; 95% CI 1·15 to 2·98). Interpretation We found that tranexamic acid did not reduce death from gastrointestinal bleeding. On the basis of our results, tranexamic acid should not be used for the treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding outside the context of a randomised trial. Funding UK National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme.

Promoting health is a key component of nursing practice- By helping nurses change individuals, society and healthcare system by promoting the health of individuals, families, communities and populations. The aim of the study was to show the understanding of nursing student’s perception regarding health education and health promotion. Cross sectional study design was carried out in Lahore School of Nursing, the University of Lahore for 4 months from September 2019 to December 2019. This study was done on 135 nursing students selected through convenient sampling method from Lahore School of Nursing, the University of Lahore. Data was collected by modified questionnaire adopted from (Halcomb, 2010) to understand the perception of nursing students regarding health promotion and health education. This study finds out that 90% n=122 participants have positive perception regarding health promotion and health education. Although there were some signs that nursing students were introduced to the concept of health promotion as a socio-ecological strategy that integrates changes in the economy, policy, organization and climate. This socio-ecological approach was not viewed by the majority of student nurses as having a role modeling faculty or nurses. Students nurses to be recognized as future high quality health promoters, collaborates with wellbeing advancement leaders, and effectively teach nursing education. There is a need to made changes in the nursing curriculum to reflect appropriate and accurate health promotion concepts and performed health promoting behaviors which have strong impact on individual health. &nbsp

In this study, long term preservation of butter oil was achieved through ethanolic extract of date palm fruit (Phoenix dactylifera L.). Butter oil was supplemented with date palm fruit extract (DPFE) at three different concentrations i.e. 250, 500 and 750 ppm (T1, T2 and T3) and compared with a control. Total phenolic content, DPPH free radical scavenging activity and inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation of the DPFE was 5.19 GAE, 74.2 and 81%, respectively. IC50 value of date extract for the inhibition of DPPH and linoleic acid peroxidation was 2.45 and 0.82 mg/mL, respectively. The loss of oleic acid and linoleic acid in control after six months of storage was 16 and 52% as compared to T3 which was 4% and 14%. T3 yielded the lowest concentration of primary and secondary oxidation products with no effect on sensory attributes. DPFE can be used to enhance the shelf life of butter oil at ambient temperature.

For the present study, two species of lactating animals, that is, Bubalusbubalis (Buffalo) and Bosindicus (Cow) was selected. In both types of milk, highest curd yield at 34°C was obtained at 60 min of cutting time after the addition of rennet followed by 39°C at 60 min of cutting time while at 28°C and 60 min of cutting time the yield was low and cutting times. This may be due to the improper rearrangements of casein network and the minimum curd fat retention level. The % total solids of curd were maximum at 28°C and at 60 min of cutting time may be due to the lower fat losses in whey and %TS were lower at 34°C when the cutting time was 90 min after the rennet addition because of the higher moisture content retention in the casein network due to the elongation in the protein network rearrangement time. The whey fat losses and curd fat retention values were minimized and maximized, respectively, between 28 and 39°C. The whey fat losses (WFL) and curd fat retention (CFR) were minimum at 28°C and maximum at 39°C. Increasing cutting time at 28°C results in firm gel with a good capability of fat retention and will decrease fat losses in whey. However, at temperature more than 30°C, coarsening of the milk gel occurs more rapidly, permeability of the gel is greater and the microsyneresis can occur at longer aging times. All these factors decreased the ability of the curd to retain fat. These results showed that the retention of fat is dependent on relative rigidity and structure of network at cutting. Below 28°C, there will be less gel firmness before cutting, therefore, increase in temperature will increase the rate of curd firming at best gel will be formed at 35°C. Above 35°C, the network becomes more rigid, rapid coarsening occur and the gel is more porous and all these assists the release of fat in whey and also the fat has high mobility at higher temperature which results in increase fat losses. Key word: Gelation temperature, optimum cutting time, curd yield and quality.