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Background: Surgical site wound infection (SSI) imposes a great challenge worldwide. It is the third most commonly reported nosocomial infection. The objective of the study was to assess the frequency of postoperative wound infections in a newly developed health organization.Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2017 to May 2018 in Bakhtawar General Hospital, Jamshoro. A total of 364 cases of surgery, from Obstetrics and Gynecology and General Surgery department were included. Surgical interventions involving an incision were assessed. Infection (SSI) rate was noticed and data was analyzed by SPSS version 18.Results: Healthy discharge rate was 97%. The overall surgical site wound infection rate was 3.1%. These infections were high in genitourinary surgeries (9.09%). Among Obstetrics & Gynecology surgeries, maximum number of SSIs were reported in cases of emergency Lower Segment Cesarean Section (LSCS).Conclusions: The overall rate of SSI for different types of surgeries performed at Bakhtawar General Hospital, Jamshoro was only 3.1%. Frequency of SSI was highest in genitourinary surgeries followed by gastrointestinal and obstetrics and gynecology surgeries, respectively.Key words: General Surgery, Genitourinary surgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology surgery, Post-operative wound contamination

Drought tolerance in the wheat crop is a multifaceted trait and controlled by the expressions of many genes from an intricated hexaploid genome. Such expressions have been identified as various drought adaptive mechanisms in the wheat crop and subjected in the breeding programs for the development of resilient wheat varieties to mitigate drought losses. This chapter summarizes various drought adaptive mechanisms including osmoregulation, molecular markers, molecular techniques (molecular breeding, molecular assisted selection, marker-assisted breeding, and molecular assisted back processing) and mainly focusing the synthesis and mode of action of transcription factors (ZFPs, C2H2 zinc finger proteins; bZIP, basic leucine zipper; WRKY, worky; NAC; NF-Y, nuclear factor Y; MYB; ERB, ethylene response factor; and DREBs, dehydration responsive element binding factors). Furthermore, different changes and molecular makeup in the plants during drought adaptive mechanisms such as detoxification, chaperone function, water transport, and lipid transfer proteins are also discussed.

Among a diverse set of properties, graphene is also noted for its electrochemical and catalytic capabilities. These can also be influenced by functionalization of graphene. This study reports the chemical functionalization of graphene oxide (GO) with an aromatic compound 4-hydroxy-4′-n-pentylbiphenyl, by an esterification reaction. Formation of new coupled product was investigated through scanning electron microscopy, X-rays diffractometer, Fourier-transform infrared, and UV–Vis spectrometry studies. UV–visible spectrometry also indicated an increase in band gap energy, likely due to the Burstein–Moss effect. Electrochemically, the esterified product was found to be better than GO in terms of triiodide reduction, which gives plausible worth to exploring this functionalization strategy further for the development of counter electrode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells.

In bulk phase, liquid crystalline molecules are organized due to non-covalent interactions and due to delicate nature of the present forces; this organization can easily be disrupted by any small external stimuli. This delicate nature of force balance in liquid crystals organization forms the basis of Liquid-crystals based sensing scheme which has been exploited by many researchers for the optical visualization and sensing of many biological interactions as well as detection of number of analytes. In this review, we present not only an overview of the state of the art in liquid crystals based sensing scheme but also highlight its limitations. The approaches described below revolve around possibilities and limitations of key components of such sensing platform including bottom substrates, alignments layers, nature and type of liquid crystals, sensing compartments, various interfaces etc. This review also highlights potential materials to not only improve performance of the sensing scheme but also to bridge the gap between science and technology of liquid crystals based sensing scheme.

Organo-metallic lead halide-based solar cells have emerged as the main contenders for meeting the alternate energy needs of present times. Major costs associated with this technology are the requirement of controlled processing conditions and high cost of hole transport materials. Cost of this technology can be reduced by developing low-cost ambient air synthesis protocol for hole transport layer-free device architecture. We report here on methyl ammonium lead iodide-based solar cell employing zinc oxide as electron transport layer prepared under ambient conditions of high humidity of 50% without hole transport layer. Stabilized power conversion efficiency of 3.03% is achieved. This approach affords the possibility of simplified device geometry and cost effectiveness paving way for rapid commercialization.

Organo-metallic lead halide based solar cells have ushered in a new era of research in renewable energy technologies. Solution processing and earth abundant materials promise a reliable source for our energy needs. Challenges of controlled environment processing hinder the commercialization of this technology. We report a low cost synthesis protocol for these devices. Employing hole transport layer free architecture, we have tailored the synthesis to ambient air conditions of high humidity. Solution processed zinc oxide has been used as electron selective contact offering a stabilized efficiency of 3.03 %. This approach has the potential to lower the cost of this technology promising rapid commercialization.

Ambient air synthesis offers the possibility to reduce the cost of production for perovskite solar cells. We have investigated the morphological and charge transport properties of CH3NH3PbI3 under dark and one sun illumination. Synthesis of CH3NH3PbI3 was carried out using different concentrations of CH3NH3I employing two step ambient air synthesis process in order to find an optimum concentration for such synthesis. Effect of different operating temperatures on photoconductive properties of perovskite films has also been investigated by varying the temperature from 300 to 340 K. Our investigations conclude that compactness of perovskite film plays more crucial role in determining charge transport properties, especially under illumination and at varying temperature. The process parameter i.e. low concentration of CH3NH3I, which leads to large crystal size, also creates more voids/pin holes under ambient air synthesis. Present investigation shows that an optimum concentration of 0.050 M of CH3NH3I achieves best grain size to voids ratio and optimum photoconductive properties.

Perovskite absorbers have witnessed a remarkable efficiency increase in last couple of years. To meet the commercialization challenge, reduced cost and improved efficiency are the two critical factors. We report on a hole transport layer free device synthesized under ambient air conditions of high humidity of 50% using TiO2-graphene oxide nanocomposite as electron selective contact. The devices achieved a power conversion efficiency of 5.9%. We introduce a novel synthesis route for TiO2-graphene oxide (GO) composite allowing superior charge transport properties. Incorporation of GO in TiO2allows achieving higher power conversion efficiencies while working under ambient air conditions. Ambient air synthesis with hole transport free architecture has the potential to reduce the cost of this technology leading to commercial viability.

In the present contribution, perovskite absorbers have been combined with few layer thick MoS2 semiconductor to put together a solar cell allowing broad spectrum harvesting of solar radiations. Such modification allows to achieve solar light harvesting at the band edges, addressing a drawback of CH3NH3PbI3 absorbers. We recorded an improved efficiency from 3.7% to 4.3% on the back of this methodology. We have also worked out a novel methodology to synthesize TiO2/MoS2 nanocomposite by in situ dispersion of liquid exfoliated MoS2 sheets in the sol gel reaction.