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Lions (Panthera leo) and tigers (Panthera tigris) are nocturnal animals. Opportunistically, they may hunt during the daytime in the wild. In captivity, they spend most of their time sleeping, resting, or pacing and face different conditions seasonally as compared to their natural habitat. It alters their activity and may reduce agility. By studying the impact of seasonal variation on captive behavior, the temperature and other seasonally dependent factors can be optimized in the zoo. This study was designed to investigate the effect of summer and winter seasons on adult and juvenile carnivores’ captive behavior. The study was conducted in Lahore Zoological Garden, Pakistan, documenting the cage area and behavioral ethogram. The subjects were two African lions, six African lionesses, four lion cubs, two Bengal tigers, and two Bengal tigresses which were observed for auditory, aggression, feeding, moving, resting, and excretory behaviors by scan sampling method. The winter data were collected in February and summer data were collected in June for ten days each month in three sessions (8:00-10:00 am, 12:00-2:00 pm, and 4:00-6:00 pm). A total of 60 h of data were collected for each season. The activity budget of animals for both seasons was compared and the alteration in any behavioral category was analyzed. The results showed that the significantly altered behavior in all animal groups was moving (p<0.05). Seasonal variation had a significant impact on the resting (p<0.05) of Bengal tigers, Bengal tigresses, and lion cubs. Auditory behavior (p<0.05) of Bengal tigers and lion cubs while aggressive behavior (p<0.05) of Bengal tigers significantly varied in the summer and winter seasons. All other behaviors were not significantly affected by the seasonal change in each of the carnivore groups. This study revealed the impact of seasonal variations on the behavior of captive carnivores and can be beneficial to optimize captive conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the multitude of factors to consider, selecting a home to buy or rent is a significant decision, and consumer behaviour plays a crucial role in this process. This study aims to shed light on consumer needs, choices, and preferences that influence the decision-making of homebuyers in Islamabad, Pakistan. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire was designed that incorporated factors extracted from existing literature on household needs, neighbourhood characteristics, consumer engagement and marketing factors, and investment determinants. Data was collected from 450 households in selected housing schemes in Islamabad, Pakistan, using a random sampling technique. Descriptive analysis, Kendell's W, and chi-square tests to understand needs, choices, and preferences. Analysis revealed that water availability and a proper drainage system were critical factors consumers consider when purchasing a property, followed by the proximity to public transport, workplaces, shopping centres, and airports. The results indicate that billboard marketing significantly impacted people's decision to purchase a particular property, followed by social media, the brand reputation of the developer/builder, marketing through television channels, and newspaper advertisements. Regarding investment determinants, affordability was the most critical factor that consumers considered when making a purchasing decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus laniger) are natural inhabitants of deciduous forests. They live solitary in their natural habitat. Their captive behaviour was studied by taking two Asiatic black bear pairs as study subjects in Lahore Zoo, Pakistan. The study was based on the provision of environmental enrichments to the bear pairs. Each pair's pre-enrichment activity budget data was collected by scan sampling method of 70 h, documenting the cage area and behavioural ethogram. The observed behaviours were resting, eating, drinking, locomotion, aggression, urination, defecation, fighting, pacing, playing, foaming, cage exploration, and being out of view. Two different enrichments were installed for two pairs. The first pair was provided with a feeding enrichment consisting of a large wood log applied with small wooden branches on it, upon which food-filled plastic tires were hung. The second enrichment was installed in the second bear pair's cage, consisting of two wooden platforms attached to the ground with iron rods. A 20-h post-enrichment activity budget of both bear pairs was recorded and compared with their pre-enrichment activity budget. The results showed that there was a significant increase (p=0.003) in cage exploration by the installation of feeding enrichment while a significant increase was observed in cage exploration (p=0.04), drinking (p=0.04), and resting (p=0.001) behaviours by the installation of wooden platforms. All the other activities had no significant impact of both enrichments. This study revealed the significance of environmental enrichments on the activity budget of black bears in captivity and can be proved as footprints for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Syngas is a valuable entity for downstream liquid fuel production and chemical industries. The efficient production of syngas via catalytic partial oxidation of methane (CPOM) is an important process. In this study, partial oxidation of methane (POM) was carried out using CaO decorated TiO2 catalysts. The catalysts were synthesized employing the sol-gel method, while the decoration of TiO2 with CaO was achieved in an aqueous solution by wetness impregnation method. The prepared catalysts were characterized by employing XRD, Raman, TG-DTG, and SEM-EDX for structural and morphological analysis. On testing for POM, at 750 °C the catalysts demonstrate excellent CH4 conversion of 83.6 and 79.5% for 2% and 3% CaO loaded TiO2, respectively. While the average H2/CO ratio for both 2% and 3% CaO loaded TiO2, 2.25 and 2.28, respectively, remained slightly above the theoretical value (H2/CO = 2.0) of POM. The improved POM performance is attributed to the optimally loaded CaO on the TiO2 surface that promotes the reaction where TiO2 support ensure less agglomerated particles, resulting into a fine distribution of the active catalytic sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The co-occurrence of active tuberculosis (TB) in patients with moderate to severe asthma presents unique therapeutic challenges, particularly with the advent of biologics like dupilumab, which targets the interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-13 (IL-13) pathways in asthma treatment. Despite the general safety of biologics, concerns about immunosuppression and susceptibility to infections like TB persist. This case report discusses a male with severe, uncontrolled type 2 allergic asthma, who experienced multiple exacerbations despite maximal bronchodilator therapy and then concomitantly developed pulmonary TB. This case demonstrates a potential clinical scenario for co-administering dupilumab with anti-TB treatment, suggesting a beneficial approach for similar clinical scenarios and contributing to the literature on this topic., Competing Interests: Human subjects: Consent was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (Copyright © 2024, Shaikh et al.)

Flexible capacitive energy storage applications require polymer nanocomposites with high dielectric properties, which can be accomplished by addition of inorganic nanofillers to the polymer matrix. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE), known for its good dielectric characteristics and wide use in electrical insulation have been investigated for the desired applications. However, the improvement of its breakdown strength still continues with the use of various nanomaterials employed as nanofillers. In this study, a waste-derived material known as biomass fly ash (BFA) as a nanofiller to improve the dielectric properties of LDPE has been explored. BFA exhibits versatility in its composition with various metal oxides, making it an attractive choice as a nanofiller. The BFA-LDPE sheets were prepared using a conventional solvent mixing and subsequent hot-pressing process, incorporating BFA loadings ranging from 1 % to 4 wt%. The effects of different BFA loadings were carefully examined, and the synthesized nanocomposites were extensively characterized using various characterization methods, such as XRD, SEM, FTIR, TGA and dielectric constant measurements, to investigate the crystallographic properties, morphology, chemical composition, and thermal stability. Among all the nanocomposites, 4 wt%BFA-LDPE exhibited the highest dielectric constant, with a value of 11.58, compared to simple LDPE that had a dielectric constant of 8.33. This improvement is ascribed to the synergistic effects of different inorganic metal oxides (SiO 2 , MgO, and Fe 2 O 3 ) present in BFA. The results showed a significant enhancement in dielectric properties, indicating that the waste-derived BFA can be purposefully applied as an effective nanofiller in the LDPE-based composites with even less than 4% loading for electrical insulating applications in future studies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)