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Background: Depression is a psychiatric illness that affects the overall life quality of an individual. In depression along with other symptoms, one of the features affecting the personal life of individuals is loss of libido which is influenced by the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis. This study was aimed to determine the serum levels of Follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing hormone (LH) in depressed male patients. Methodology: This comparative cross sectional study was done at Islamic International Medical College and Armed Forces Institute of Mental Health, Military Hospital Rawalpindi after being approved by ethical review committee. After informed consent, 96 male individuals having 18 – 60 years of age participated in the current study. Participants were segregated into groups A and B. Gender and age-matched healthy subjects in a quantity of 24 were taken in group A whereas group B consisted of 72 male depressed patients. Serum gonadotropins levels of both groups were compared by using an independent student t-test in SPSS 21. Results: Serum FSH (2.66 ± 0.34 mIU/ml) and LH (2.67 ±0.18 mIU/ml) levels of Group A have shown no significant difference as compared to serum FSH (3.32 ± 0.43 mIU/ml) and LH (3.12 ± 0.19 mIU/ml) levels of Group B. Conclusion: It is concluded from the study that serum FSH and LH levels were not significantly decreased in individuals with depression. Keywords: Depression, Follicle stimulating hormone, Luteinizing hormone

Background: Psychological stress activates Hypothalamic- Pituitary- Adrenal axis (HPA) and Sympathoadrenal (SMA) axis”. Exercise has stress buffering action and it improves HRV and normalizes the cortisol response to stress. Aim: To evaluate the effect of moderate exercise in stabilizing autonomic and neuro-endocrine response to Psychological stress”. Study design: Randomized experimental study. Methodology: 100 MBBS students were engaged through DASS (Depression anxiety stress scale) proforma. They were divided into two groups; stress and control. HRV and serum cortisol levels were obtained. Stressed group did regular moderate exercise for 06 weeks. Independent t test was employed to see the difference in two parameters among the two groups. A p value of ≤ 0.05 was taken as significant. Results: After the intervention stressed group exhibited prominent decrease in LF/HF, LFnu, LFms2” and serum cortisol (0.009,0.033,.027 and 0.007 respectively. HFnu was significantly improved post exercise (.004). Significant reduction in serum cortisol was observed in stressed group after exercise (.007). Conclusion: Exercise can be employed to buffer the effect of psychological stress as it normalizes HPA axis” and autonomic response. Keywords: Heart rate variability, Psychological Stress, Exercise and Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Axis’.

Background: Various medicinal herb plants are being used in place of metformin for treatment of polycystic ovarian disease for their less harmful effects. Withania coagulans (WC) is a herb known for its insulin sensitizing and weight reducing properties. The present study was done to determine the influence of aqueous extract of Withania coagulans (aqWC) and metformin on ovarian weight and ovarian folliculogenesis in polycystic ovarian disease-induced rats. Material and Methods: An experimental animal study was carried out at the Physiology Department of Islamic International Medical College, Rawalpindi from April 2016 to March 2017. Forty female Sprague Dawley rats were divided initially into two groups. Group A (Normal Control) and Disease induced group. Standardized laboratory diet was fed to Group A while the disease induced group was given standardized laboratory diet and letrozole solution orally (1mg/kg) for 21 days to induce Polycystic ovary syndrome, which was established by observing estrous cycle of rats. Disease induced group was then split into group B (PCOS control), C (Aqueous Withania coagulans treated) and D (Metformin treated) and observed after 14 days. Groups A and B underwent ovarian dissection after 21 days and groups C and D underwent dissection at the end of experiment (after 35 days). Independent sample t-test was used for the comparison between the control and disease induced group. Results: Group B showed a significant increase in ovarian weight in comparison to group A rats (P < .05). Treatment with Withania coagulans and metformin significantly decreased ovarian weight (P < .05) and increased primary, Graafian, antral follicular count and corpus luteum along with reduction in cystic follicular count in letrozole-induced polycystic ovarian disease rats. Improved folliculogenesis was also observed in the same groups (groups C & D). Conclusions: Withania coagulans can be a substitute for improvement of ovarian follicular development in polycystic ovarian disease.

Arsenic (As), a carcinogenic metalloid, is a serious threat to humans due to increased exposure through contaminated water and food. Rice is a staple food and feeds over half of the World's population. Among cereals, rice is more efficient in As uptake and its acquisition into rice grains adversely affect the quality of rice as well as the consumer’s health. The exploitation of genetic variation between rice genotypes for their ability to tolerate water limitations and As accumulation in grains is crucial. The study aimed to investigate the genetic potential of seven rice genotypes for their ability to withstand water limitation (aerobic cultivation) and As toxicity (As-100 µM). The results revealed that under aerobic cultivation system rice genotypes showed less As accumulation in the grains as compared to anaerobic cultivation. Moreover, among all the rice genotypes, less As accumulation in grains was observed in DHAN 140A (2.36 and 3.65 µg g−1) and Shaheen Basmati (2.92 and 3.55 µg g−1), respectively, under aerobic and anaerobic cultivation at high As soil contamination (As-100). Rice genotypes differentially responded against As stress and the cultivation conditions in terms of growth attributes and elemental composition of the plants. Moreover, health risk indices (i.e. ILTCR and HQ) indicate high carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks associated with rice consumption grown under high As stress. However, the risks were several folds higher in anaerobically than aerobically cultivated rice genotypes. Among all the genotypes, DHAN 140A indicated less risk, irrespective to the cultivation condition due to decreased As uptake and accumulation of in the grains. The study demonstrated that aerobic water management and selection of genotypes with low As accumulation could be appropriate options to minimize the health risk to human beings.

In this study, structural, electrical and optical properties of doped and un-doped TiO2 were investigated. Calculations for the analysis of all properties were carried in density functional theory implemented in Wien2k code. Comparison of all the properties was carried of un-doped TiO2, and Ni & Eu doped TiO2. The FP-LAPW was used for description of Kohn-Sham (KS) and properties related to ground state were analyzed. Deformation in the structure was observed due to the ionic radii and electronic configuration of dopant atoms. While analyzing electrical properties, change in the density of the states was observed attributed to the fact of replacement of Ti by Ni and Eu. Band gap was reduced in mono-doped and co-doped TiO2 as a result of which co-efficient of absorption was increased in region of visible light thus making it a potential candidate for applications in the field of solar energy.

In this study, Ba0.5Zn0.2Co0.3Fe12-yLayO19 (y = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) nano-hexaferrites were prepared through the co-precipitation route. The synthesized powder was sintered at 1100 °C for 6 h to assist the crystallization process. The formation of single-phase hexagonal structure was confirmed by XRD. The size of prepared crystals of nano-hexaferrites was estimated in the range of 12.5–28.1 nm. The FTIR spectra also confirmed the formation of M-type hexagonal phase with the characteristic band of hexagonal structure observed at about 560 cm−1. The current voltage measurements were performed to study the electrical nature of prepared samples in the temperature range 300–900 K. At room temperature, the highest values 2 × 1011 Ω cm and 0.5 eV of electrical resistivity and activation energy, respectively, are found for the sample with La concentration y = 0.2. The enhanced dc electrical resistivity due to La substitution shows that the synthesized hexaferrites are efficient to reduce the eddy current losses for device fabrication in the high-frequency range.

Co0.5Cd0.5-xCuxFe1.95Ce0.05O4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) nanoferrites were successfully synthesized via sol-gel-assisted autocombustion method. The effects of Cu substation in the spinel matrix on structural, optical, and dielectric properties have been studied. XRD data confirms the successful synthesis of single phase cubic spinel structure. FTIR spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy further confirm the formation of single phase spinel structure. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy is used to measure the energy bandgap of the prepared samples. The energy bandgap is found in the range 1.02 to 1.96 eV and decreases when Cu concentration increases. Dielectric parameters like dielectric constant, tangent loss, and ac impedance are determined as a function of frequency of applied field and are described with the help of Koop’s theory. It is observed that all these parameters decrease with increase in frequency and become independent of frequency above 1 MHz. The dielectric properties of Cu-substituted Co-Cd spinel ferrites make these ferrites potential candidate for applications in high frequency range.

In recent years, the frequentoccurrence of natural calamities in the world has gained much attention due to infrastructure and life losses. Increase in global temperature has threatened the earth’s climate, causing unpredictable and extremeweatherevents more often. These events were both short-termas well as long-term. In spite of insufficient monitoring coverage of inner areas and high altitudes, an intensification of average yearly temperature has been observed after the 20thcentury inmany regions of Asia. Pakistan has faced a number of natural disasters including severe floods, devastating earthquakes, disturbing droughts, distressing smog, extreme temperature and torrential rainfall patterns. These calamities have affected people economically, socially, physically and mentally by posing a threat to earth, its species and their livelihood. This paper was aimed to document the natural calamities in Pakistan since the beginning of 21stcentury till date. The country is facing the problemof intense and longer summers and has witnessed two intenseheat waves. Moreover, in some areas, extensive droughts are threatening crops, freshwater supply and wildlife. In recent years, the problem of smog has emerged in Pakistan, especiallyin Punjab. The problem is getting worse in every coming year due to overpopulation, cities expansion, increased emission of greenhousegases, open burning of crop residues and extreme reliance on fossil fuels for energy purpose. So far in this century, Pakistan has faced 3 droughts, 2 heat waves, 10 severe floods, 27 major earthquakes, 2 consecutive sessions of severe smog and extreme high and lowtemperatureevents. Some of the deadliest events were; 2005 Kashmir earthquake claiming 87,350 human lives and 2010 flood impacting nearly 20 million people with 1,781 causalities. Change in climate is posing a severe threat to species, livelihood of the human beingsand the earth. Global warming is causing warming of oceans and consequently rise in sea level. Climate change affects average as well as extreme temperatures hence increasing the probability climate-relateddisasters.Thus,global warming is causing a chain of catastrophic events that makethe problem even more complex to understand.

A number of endocrine hormones play a significant role in glycemic control of the body. Insulin and glucagon are two contrasting hormones which work in close association to maintain a normal fuel balance. Thyroid hormones also have a key role in regulating blood glucose levels. Several studies have suggested that type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have increased incidence of thyroid abnormalities. Objectives: To determine correlation between insulin to glucagon ratio and thyroid hormones levels in the two groups. Study Design: Randomized Control Trial. Settings: Physiology Department of Army Medical College, Rawalpindi and National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad. Period: 6 months (from 1st January 2017 to 30th June 2017). Material & Methods: A sample of sixty apparently healthy Sprague Dawley rats was selected randomly. It was divided into two groups i.e control and diabetic. It was ensured that all the rats were euglycemic and euthyroid at the start of the study by investigating serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and serum glucose levels. The control group was given with normal pellet diet whereas, STZ induced rats were fed on high fat diet while. The control group were injected with saline injection intraperitoneally after 2 weeks, while low dose of streptozotocin was injected to diabetic rats. The induction of diabetes mellitus was affirmed by checking plasma glucose levels and homeostatic model for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). The specific diet was continued for another five weeks in both the groups. The terminal sample was investigated for plasma glucose using glucose oxidase method and serum insulin, TSH, T3 and T4 levels using ELISA technique. Results: The serum insulin and glucose levels were elevated in diabetic group as compared to the control group. HOMA-IR was also raised significantly in the diabetic group. The serum TSH and T4 levels were considerably higher (p˂0.001) while serum T3 was comparable in both the groups. There was no correlation between Insulin to Glucagon Ratio and TSH, T3 and T4 both in control and diabetic groups. Conclusion: Serum glucose, serum insulin and HOMA-IR were raised in the diabetic group. Serum TSH and T4 levels were also increased while no change in serum T3 levels. IGR and thyroid hormones were not correlated in either group.

Introduction: Stress is a non-specific reaction over organic entities initiated. Adapting for stress (coping) may be portrayed concerning illustration that fruitful management from claiming issues and particular distressing circumstances. The aim of this study is to assess the level of stress and coping strategies in nurses working at DHQ teaching hospital Dera ghazi khan Punjab Pakistan. Method: In this study, quantitative cross-sectional study design is used. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to assess the job-related stress level and coping strategies among nurses. The data was analyzed by SPSS version-18. Results: Out of 100 nurses, only (02) 2% nurses show severe level of stress, (76) 76% show moderate level of stress and remaining (22) 22% were mildly stressed. The level of stress attains maximum value r = +1, the coping strategy is r = 0.218 in one-tailed in term of two-tail its value become .030 having negative correlation one variable increase other decreased and vice versa. Conclusions: This study concluded that as the coping level of nurse’s increase the stress level goes down and when nurses fail to cope the stress level become increased. The night shift enhances the work load and cause stress and qualified nurses cope with stress more effectively than diploma holders.

In this paper, La3+ substituted M-type Ba–Ni hexaferrite nanoparticles having composition Ba0.8Ni0.2Fe12-xLaxO19 (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8) were prepared by co-precipitation route. The phase of the grown NPs was confirmed using X-ray diffraction analysis and results reveal the growth of M-type hexaferrite NPs as a major phase. The energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was employed to determine the elemental composition of prepared samples. The FTIR spectra of synthesized samples confirm the bond formation of M-type hexaferrites. The optical bandgap was determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy and the results exhibit an increase in optical bandgap with decreasing crystallite size. The vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) technique was used to analyze the effect of dopant on the magnetic properties like coercivity, saturation magnetization, and remanence of the synthesized samples. The electrical resistivity was measured by two probe method and it was observed that the activation energy shows a decreasing trend with increase in La content. The highly resistive nature of prepared nano ferrites indicates the potential to use these ferrites for high-frequency applications.

The importance and frequency of invasive fungal infections in different organs, including the gastrointestinal tract, has increased due to excessive use of aggressive immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory drugs in malignant diseases and organ transplantations as well as increased infections with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Fungal infections in the small intestine or colon are usually part of a disseminated disease process and reach these organs through the bloodstream. Two of the patients were infants 10 and 15 days of age, while one was 23 years old. Patients presented with abdominal pain, intestinal obstruction, and rectal bleeding. Hirchsprung disease was suspected in the two infants. In the adult patient, the diagnosis was unclear. Mucormycosis was diagnosed in two out of three cases. It is imperative for clinicians to consider invasive mycosis in the differential diagnosis in patients of all ages with treatment-resistant severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and fever.

This paper examines the Zipf’s law for the size distribution of Pakistani cities using the five census data from 1951 to 1998. We observe that Zipf’s law does not hold in any of the five census years at national level. Next, we consider the city size distribution of four Pakistani provinces and find that Zipf’s law is more likely to hold for cities at province-level. We attribute these findings to the coherence property of the urban system. In Pakistan the urban systems within provinces are more coherent in terms of common language, common culture and common rules as compared to the urban system as a whole at national-level.

BReast CAncer gene 1 (BRCA1)—a tumor suppressor gene plays an important role in the DNA repair mechanism. Several BRCA1 variants perturb its structure and function, including synonymous and nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In the present study, we performed in-silico analyses of nonsynonymous SNPs (nsSNPs) of the BRCA1 gene. In total, 122 nsSNPs were retrieved from the NCBI SNP database and in-silico analyses were performed using computational prediction tools: SIFT, PROVEAN, Mutation Taster, PolyPhen-2, MutPred, and ConSurf. Of these tools, SIFT, PROVEAN, and Mutation Taster predicted 61 out of 122 nsSNPs as “damaging”, based on structural homology analysis. PolyPhen-2 classified 22 nsSNPs as “probably damaging”. These nsSNPs were further analyzed by MutPred to predict basic molecular mechanisms of amino acid alteration. ConSurf analysis predicted eleven conserved amino acid residues with structural and functional consequences. We identified five amino acid residues in the RING finger domain (L22, C39, H41, C44, and C47) and two in the BRCT domain (P1771 and I1707) with the potential to deter the BRCA1 protein function. This study provides insights into the effect of nsSNPs and amino acid substitutions in BRCA1.

Biopsies from ‘head and neck’ region which include ‘oral cavity’ and ‘oropharynx’ with a plethora of ‘proliferative squamous lesions’, sinonasal and nasopharyngeal lesions and above all a larger variety of ‘odontogenic cysts’ and ‘odontogenic neoplasms’ among others. Salivary gland biopsies particularly neoplasms are also frequent in diagnostic clinical practice and may pose significant diagnostic challenge. New entities are also regularly being described and incorporated requiring updated literature and expertise. In this chapter, it is attempted to incorporate most entities one is likely to encounter in routine practice from this anatomical region in a compact yet comprehensive manner.

Liver biopsies are common in clinical practice for a variety of reasons in the work-up of diverse disorders ranging from congenital disorders like ‘storage diseases’ to inflammatory conditions in particular for grading and staging of ‘chronic hepatitis’ to autoimmune disorders affecting intrahepatic bile ducts. Another common challenge on core needle biopsies of the liver is to differentiate ‘hepatocellular carcinoma’ from liver metastases which may originate from a large number of organs in both genders. As liver transplantation is getting pace biopsies from live allografts are also becoming common. As for gall bladder, almost all biopsy specimens are ‘cholecystectomies’, performed due to gall stones, and only occasionally associated dysplasia or malignancy is seen. Pancreatic biopsies or resections are also not uncommon for both more commonly seen ‘pancreatic adenocarcinoma’ arising from pancreatic ducts to ‘neuroendocrine tumours’. In this chapter all common and relatively uncommon entities from this anatomical region are described with salient light microscopic features and ancillary testing where necessary.

Data mining techniques being used for web information extraction are unbelievable systems and suggested for the protection of extremely susceptible data. By the web sources huge amount of data is maintained and can be easily retrieved by using the web mining techniques as the techniques are applied exactly based on the needs of the users. ECommerce and online shopping noticed a huge growth in business industry. This facility has been mostly employed in western countries during the last two decades. In east online shopping is increasing as most of the business is running through web site as well as in west. This business can be boost by feature analysis of different successful running online web stores. This study is going to present analysis of different features of successful online business website and of those which are not that much popular and accessed infrequently, their features will be extracted and compared to get the reasons of popularity of frequently accessed online shopping websites and after that recommendations will be made to increase the traffic of unpopular online shopping websites to dominate online business in Pakistan. According to the presented work it has been concluded that unpopular websites lack some features that are included in popular websites such as brands, as people are more conscious about brands and labels so they visit and shop from the websites which offer them best quality famous brands, moreover it has been observed that unpopular websites have less categories they must broaden their variety of products especially related to sports, fitness, bathroom accessories, technology and cosmetics. Apart from these another interesting fact that has been found is that popular websites mostly attract their customers by giving them offers such as buy one get one free, free home delivery and free gifts, such offers are always attracting new and more customers. Unpopular websites can improve their business by including the features discussed above. The results of research on this dataset also show that the Naïve bayes is better than j48 in terms of efficiency and accuracy respectively.

Web log files are the greatest source of knowledge now days, which keeps all the information about users interaction to web. This interaction provides us the usage patterns of the user by using web usage mining. These files contain all the information about visitors of the web which is used as input for analysis. These files are converted to required formats after completing the preprocessing so Web Usage Mining (WUM) techniques can apply on these logs. Web usage mining gives us the details of user patterns. In this study we are going discover different behaviors patterns from the web proxy server log file of an educational organization with web usage mining technique. Results are based on the interest of users towards educational websites.

This study provides a systematic review of the existing literature on Zipf’s law for city size distribution. Existing empirical evidence suggests that Zipf’s law is not always observable even for the upper-tail cities of a territory. However, the controversy with empirical findings arises due to sample selection biases, methodological weaknesses and data limitations. The hypothesis of Zipf’s law is more likely to be rejected for the entire city size distribution and, in such case, alternative distributions have been suggested. On the contrary, the hypothesis is more likely to be accepted if better empirical methods are employed and cities are properly defined. The debate is still far from to be conclusive. In addition, we identify four emerging areas in Zipf’s law and city size distribution research including the size distribution of lower-tail cities, the size distribution of cities in sub-national regions, the alternative forms of Zipf’s law, and the relationship between Zipf’s law and the coherence property of the urban system.

This paper examines whether the risk-taking behavior of foreign affiliates of multinational banks is more influenced by the national culture of their parent banks’ home country or the national culture of foreign affiliates’ host country. The study uses a dataset of 292 foreign affiliates (i.e., subsidiaries or branch operations) operating in 66 countries having parent banks in 26 countries for empirical analysis. National culture of both home and host countries is measured with four dimensions—uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity and power distance—of Hofstede's framework of national culture. Findings suggest that the national culture of parent banks’ home country has higher impact on the risk-taking behavior of foreign affiliates of multinational banks than the national culture of their host country. Specifically, foreign affiliates’ risk-taking is higher if parent banks’ home country has low uncertainty avoidance, high individualism and low power distance cultural values. This study extends our understanding that how informal institutions, such as the national culture, influence the financial decisions in multinational banks.

Fibrous dysplasia (FD) is a rare fibro-osseous lesion in which normal bone is replaced by abnormal fibrous tissue. Although a congenital disorder, a single case report of traumatic etiology had been described in the literature. We report a case of monostotic FD of the parietal calvarium in a 21-year-old female patient who presented to us with a single swelling in the parietal region been noticed after head injury sustained at the age of 7 years. After imaging investigations, the lesion was excised via craniotomy followed by cranioplasty in the same sitting. The histopathological evidence was suggestive of FD. To the best of our knowledge, this is the second case of a posttraumatic cranial FD and the first case describing the growing mass in the parietal bone secondary to head injury.

Image mining has a very emerging sub-domain, namely, web image mining, and researchers are warmly excited towards it. This study presents a deep detail of former studies and ideas that we come up with, i.e. what is Image Mining and what are Web Image Mining techniques. In the domain of web image mining, this study also proposes an idea to recognize and cope with the deceptive images found on the web. It further helps in banning the fraudulent and annoying web users along with solutions in enhancing the users’ behavior in social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, etc., in blogs, and in e-shopping websites like eBay, Amazon, Daraz.pk, Kaymu.pk, etc. Apart from this, the study also mentions nearly of the conceivable future directions for the researchers in aforementioned domain.

The performance of Requirement Engineering is like groundwork for software development process. All-inclusive software has four mainstays of requirement engineering processes i.e. Functional and non-functional requirements, design, implementation and testing build the complete software fortification on top of the mainstays. Therefore, requirement engineers have to face numerous challenges to develop successful software. Requirements Engineering (RE) leads software development process. During this process different constraints and needs of users are explored as well as hitches in previous system are depicted. The scope of this study is to exemplify the difficulties of the users which are faced during the most maiden phase of RE Requirements Elicitation and a framework is presented as well. A survey was conducted in different campuses of University in Pakistan for this purpose. During this study, questionnaire of relevant questions was distributed among project development students of various disciplines to gather and highlighted the problems during Requirements Elicitation. Finally the predictive statistical software SPSS was used to input the collected data for more precise calculations, the results of which are discussed in section 3.

Theory suggests that national culture influences bank risk-taking behavior directly by conditioning the decision-making of human participants. This study uses an international sample of banks from 75 countries and examines the direct effects of national culture on bank risk-taking behavior. We measure national culture with four dimensions – uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity and power distance – from Hofstede's framework of national culture. We find strong evidence that bank risk-taking is significantly higher in countries which have high individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, and low power distance cultural values. We confirm main results using alternate cultural dimensions from House et al. (2004. Culture, Leadership, and Organizations. Sage)’s framework of national culture, using alternative bank risk-taking proxies, and using instrumental variables analysis for endogeneity issues. This paper adds to our understanding by finding that cultural values lead to bank risk-taking decisions that may deviate in systematic and geographically predictable ways.

A series of Cd0·5Cu0.5-xMgxFe1.95La0·05O4 (x = 0.0, 0.125, 0.25, 0.375, 0.5) nano ferrites was synthesized via sol-gel auto combustion route. XRD analysis confirmed the development of spinel ferrites. Different structural parameters like lattice constant, tetrahedral and octahedral radii, oxygen ion parameter, tolerance factor, bond lengths, edge lengths and interionic distances were calculated from XRD data. It was observed that by increasing the Mg2+ concentration, lattice constant and crystallite size were increased. Energy band gap was measured using UV–vis spectroscopy and found in the range 1.79–2.36 eV. Dielectric properties of the prepared samples were also studied and it was found that dielectric constant and ac conductivity were decreased with increase in Mg2+ content. The study indicates that Cd0·5Cu0.5-xMgxFe1.95La0·05O4 nano ferrites have great potential to be utilized in high frequency devices as microwave absorbing material and in optoelectronic devices.

Background: Ectopic pregnancy (EP) is an important cause of maternal morbidity as well as mortality in the 1st trimester. This study was done to compare outcome in medical versus expectant management in patients with unruptured tubal pregnancy having β-hCG 1000-3000 IU/L.Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 82 (41 in each group) women with tubal ectopic pregnancy (TEP) having β-hCG levels between 1000-3000 IU/L and 18 to 40 years of age were enrolled. Women having non-tubal pregnancy, ruptured ectopic pregnancy, heterotopic pregnancy, hypersensitivity to methotrexate were excluded. Included women were randomly assigned to either Group-A (expectant management) or Group-B (medical management). Outcome was measured after one week and considered successful if patient had β-hCG levels negligible i.e.

This study investigated the use of a deep eutectic solvent (DES) for promoting the yield and stability of ceria nanoparticles used for the degradation of flumequine (FLU) under UV-C irradiation. The characterization by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and BET surface area analysis revealed the synthesis of highly stable, highly crystalline, and mesoporous ceria nanoparticles using DES which led to the high removal, i.e., 50 % and 94 % of FLU using DES-Ceria and UV-C/DES-Ceria, respectively. Removal of FLU by the UV-C mediated ceria nanoparticles was due to OH and thus factors that influenced the reactivity and yield of OH retarded the removal efficiency of FLU. The pH of aqueous solution affected the removal of FLU by the photocatalysts and removal of FLU was inhibited at highly alkaline and acidic pH. The degradation pathways of FLU were established from the pattern of its degradation and nature of the degradation products. Acute and chronic toxicities of FLU as well as its products were measured. The photocatalyst synthesized in DES was found to be environmentally benign and showed significant potential in the remediation of FLU.

Gamma radiation has received increasing attention due to their high potential in degradation of recalcitrant pollutants. Thus in the present study, gamma radiation was used for degradation of congo-red (CR) dye, a highly toxic and carcinogenic pollutant, in the presence of H2O2 and S2O82−. The CR was significantly degraded by gamma radiation (i.e., 53%), however, presence of H2O2 and S2O82− promoted degradation of CR to 98 and 87%, respectively, at 1184 Gy absorbed dose. The radical scavengers and electron spin resonance studies revealed that gamma radiation decompose H2O2 and S2O82− into OH and SO4 − and both OH and SO4 − caused degradation of CR. The CR showed high reactivity, i.e., 3.25 × 109 and 8.50 × 108 M−1 s−1 with OH and SO4 −, respectively, and removal of CR was inhibited in the presence of OH and SO4 − scavengers. The removal of CR was promoted with elevating initial concentrations of H2O2 and S2O82− and decreasing initial concentrations of CR. pH of aqueous solution also significantly influenced removal of the dye. The proposed degradation pathways of CR were established from the OH mediated degradation of CR and nature of identified degradation products. The greater mineralization of CR, formation of small molecular mass degradation product, and decline in concentration of acetate after extended treatment suggest the gamma-ray mediated peroxide based process to be a promising alternative for potential degradation of CR.

Around the world, there is increasing need of extensive research in the field of prosthetic control signals. Today, 90% of prostheses used are either EMG controlled or conventional body-powered controlled. These prostheses are quite uncomfortable and require a lot of effort on the amputee's part. Majority of the currently existing prosthetic arms use EMG signals as their main control. Although effective to some extent, EMG controlled prosthetics have limited rotation and causes fatigue. An alternative suggestion to EMG signals is the voice controlled signals, which might deliver added functionality and comfortable usage by providing better control. The working and execution of Trans-Humeral prosthetic arm for the amputees with increased functionality using voice control is presented in this paper. The automation of a 6-DOF prosthetic arm is for the shoulder disarticulated type of amputees’ i.e. for those amputated from the shoulder. The design is meant to mimic a human arm with a targeted functional movement kept in motives. The human arm is interfaced with Arduino in a way that the servo’s signal pins are attached to Arduino pins and further Arduino is connected to a VR module for getting instructions from the user in order to control the prosthetic. The ground and power pins are further attached to the 5v power supply for powering the arm. The accuracy of detection by the module with and without noise was then interpreted. Module responded much better in an environment free of noise as compared to a noisy environment.

Background: Micropapillary carcinoma (MPC), a morphologically distinct subtype of invasive ductal carcinoma, of the male breast is an exceedingly uncommon disease. Case Report: Herein, we report a case of triple-positive MPC of the male breast with axillary lymph node involvement and no recurrence for over 2 years. Specifically, a 60-year-old male patient presented with a hard, elastic, and well-defined painless mass in the right breast. The patient underwent unilateral (right) modified radical mastectomy with axillary clearance. Histopathology revealed MPC grade 3 and metastasis in 16/16 lymph nodes. Hormone receptor analysis demonstrated strong positivity (total score 08) for estrogen/progesterone receptors and overexpression (score 3+) of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. The patient received adjuvant chemotherapy (6 courses of CAF: cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and 5-fluorouracil), radiation, and tamoxifen. The patient has remained disease-free for over 2 years. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that triple-positive MPC of the male breast as a rare malignancy appears to respond promisingly to multimodality treatment.

Aim. Antigenic expression in epithelial cells can be heterogeneous which may pose a problem in immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis of tumor markers, in particular, predictive markers like HER2. Studies have shown that epithelial cells have distinct apical and basolateral domains which are separated by tight junctions. The cell membrane in these two domains has a different composition of macromolecules and hence can have variable antigen expression on immunohistochemistry. In our study, we aimed to investigate this phenomenon of basolateral versus circumferential IHC staining of HER2 in gastric/GE adenocarcinoma. Methods. We selected 45 cases of gastric/GE adenocarcinoma and evaluated equal number of specimens (15 each) showing well-differentiated, moderately differentiated, and poorly differentiated morphology. All cases had 3+ HER2 score as per CAP guidelines. HER2-membrane staining pattern in all specimens was analyzed. Results. Cases with well-differentiated morphology showed only basolateral or lateral membrane staining in most cases. Poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma samples showed circumferential staining (both basolateral and luminal) in all cases with highly significant p value. Mixed staining pattern was observed in moderately differentiated cases. Diffuse expression of E-cadherin in well-differentiated adenocarcinoma and loss in poorly differentiated tumors were also statistically significant. Conclusion. These findings suggest that HER2 in gastric epithelium has a polarized distribution which is maintained by the fence function of tight junctions. With progression to high grade cancer, the glandular structural differentiation in gastric mucosa is lost, along with disruption of tight junctions. This leads to loss of cell polarity and migration of antigens across the membrane.

Being developed countries both Pakistan and India are striving for the economic development. Pakistan and India share a 1610 km long border. They share same language, dress and culture and also six watercourses, namely the Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas, along with their numerous tributaries. Pakistan, like other countries of the region depends heavily on agriculture, with the greater part of the population relying on it for livelihood. As a result, water is not only vital for everyday needs, but a critical source for economic development. Water is a resource on which there is dependency of economy and no substitute. Pakistan and India are close neighbors and lied in South East of Asia. Apart from sharing border and history both the countries have various same customs and traditions.Both countries gained independence in 1947 from British Government, from the day of independence Pakistan has been facing lots of internal and external challenges. Apart from other conflicts, water issues also exist between Pakistan and India. After the nine years negotiation with the help of World Bank, they solved this issue but after some time it started again. Some kind of historical issues including water issues has been discussed in this paper. To judge the public opinion of the both countries, an interview survey was conducted by some international expert and from the people who are directly involved in these kind of profession of Indo-Pak relation. Analyses of interview with some statistic information and on the behalf of history some conclusions and suggestions were including at the end of this study.

This study was conducted at Department of Zoology, University of Gujrat, Pakistan during 2016- 2017 as a term paper for Master of Philosophy. The data regarding water pollution and human health was obtained and compiled through a thorough review of various published research articles of international reputed journal and relevant books. Water covers about 70% Earth’s surface. Safe drinking water is a basic need for all humans. The WHO reports that 80% diseases are waterborne. Industrialization, discharge of domestic waste, radioactive waste, population growth, excessive use of pesticides, fertilizers and leakage from water tanks are major sources of water pollution. These wastes have negative effects on human health. Different chemicals have different affects depending on their locations and kinds. Bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases like typhoid, cholera, encephalitis, poliomyelitis, hepatitis, skin infection and gastrointestinal are spreading through polluted water. It is recommended to examine the water quality on regular basis to avoid its destructive effects on human health. Domestic and agriculture waste should not be disposed of without treating.

In recent years, chaos has been extensively used in cryptographic systems. In this regard, one dimensional chaotic maps gained increased attention because of their intrinsic simplicity and ease in application. Many image encryption algorithms that are based on chaotic substitution boxes (S-boxes) have been studied in the last few years but some of them appear to be vulnerable to robustness. We, in this paper, propose an efficient scheme for image encryption that utilizes a composition of chaotic substitution based on tent map with the scrambling effect of the Arnold transform. The proposed construction algorithm for substitution box is, on one hand, straightforward and saves omputational labour, while on the other, it provides highly efficient performance outcomes. The understudy scheme uses an S-box, that is based on 1-D chaotic tent map. We partially encrypt the image using this S-box and then apply certain number of iterations of the Arnold transform to attain the fully encrypted image. For decryption we apply the reverse process. The strength of the proposed method is determined through the most significant techniques used for the statistical analysis and it is proved that the anticipated algorithm shows coherent results.

In response to the global financial crisis of 2007–2009, risk-based capital requirements have been reinforced in the new Basel III Accord to counter excessive bank risk-taking behavior. However, prior theoretical as well as empirical literature that studies the impact of risk-based capital requirements on bank risk-taking behavior is inconclusive. The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of risk-based capital requirements on bank risk-taking behavior, using a panel dataset of 21 listed commercial banks of Pakistan over the period 2005–2012. Purely regulatory measures of bank capital, capital adequacy ratio, and bank assets portfolio risk, risk-weighted assets to total assets ratio, are used for the main analysis. Recently developed small N panel methods (bias corrected least squares dummy variable (LSDVC) method and system GMM method with instruments collapse option) are used to control for panel fixed effects, dynamic dependent variables, and endogenous independent variables. Overall, the results suggest that commercial banks have reduced assets portfolio risk in response to stringent risk-based capital requirements. Results also confirm that all banks having risk-based capital ratios either lower or higher than the regulatory required limits, have decreased portfolio risk in response to stringent risk-based capital requirements. The results are robust to alternative proxies of bank risk-taking, alternative estimation methods, and alternative samples.