Search

Background: Concrete, a fundamental construction material, stands as a significant consumer of virgin resources, including sand, gravel, crushed stone, and fresh water. It exerts an immense demand, accounting for approximately 1.6 billion metric tons of Portland and modified Portland cement annually. Moreover, addressing extreme conditions with exceptionally nonlinear behavior necessitates a laborious calibration procedure in structural analysis and design methodologies. These methods are also difficult to execute in practice. To reduce time and effort, ML might be a viable option. Material and Methods: A set of keywords are designed to perform the search PubMed search engine with filters to not search the studies below the year 2015. Furthermore, using PRISMA guidelines, studies were selected and after screening, a total of 42 studies were summarized. The PRISMA guidelines provide a structured framework to ensure transparency, accuracy, and completeness in reporting the methods and results of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The ability to methodically and accurately connect disparate parts of the literature is often lacking in review research. Some of the trickiest parts of original research include knowledge mapping, co-citation, and co-occurrence. Using this data, we were able to determine which locations were most active in researching machine learning applications for concrete, where the most influential authors were in terms of both output and citations and which articles garnered the most citations overall. Conclusion: ML has become a viable prediction method for a wide variety of structural industrial applications, and hence it may serve as a potential successor for routinely used empirical model in the design of concrete structures. The non-ML structural engineering community may use this overview of ML methods, fundamental principles, access codes, ML libraries, and gathered datasets to construct their own ML models for useful uses. Structural engineering practitioners and researchers may benefit from this article's incorporation of concrete ML studies as well as structural engineering datasets. The construction industry stands to benefit from the use of machine learning in terms of cost savings, time savings, and labor intensity. The statistical and graphical representation of contributing authors and participants in this work might facilitate future collaborations and the sharing of novel ideas and approaches among researchers and industry professionals. The limitation of this systematic review is that it is only PubMed based which means it includes studies included in the PubMed database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To find the frequency of obstructive and restrictive lung disease in various blood groups in young students of Aziz Fatimah Medical and dental college. Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted at Aziz Fatima Medical and Dental College, Faisalabad from 1st January to 31st March 2022. It included 80 participants of first-year MBBS comprising both genders between 18 to 22 years. Ethical approval was taken from the institutional ethical committee of the institute. After fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria blood grouping was done by conventional slide method and Spirometry was performed to access lung function parameters to determine obstructive and restrictive lung diseases. Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 26. Results: The study population included 36 males (45%) and 44 females (55%). Mean±SD age of participants was 20 ± 1.07 years. The most frequent blood group was B followed by O, A and AB. Restrictive lung disease ( FEV1/FVC ratio ≥ 0.8) was found in 19(23.8%) participants while obstructive lung disease ( FEV1/FVC ratio <0.8) was found in 46(57.5%) participants. Obstructive lung diseases were more frequently found in subjects with blood group AB while restrictive lung diseases were more commonly noticed in subjects with blood group O. Mean±SD of FEV1/FVC% of subjects with obstructive and restrictive lung diseases were 45.15± 19.04 and 81.79±8.25 respectively. Conclusion: Blood group AB is more prone to have Obstructive lung disease with decreased FEV1/FVC ratio. Restrictive lung disease was more commonly seen in blood group O. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To find an association between circulating Estradiol and thyroid autoimmunity in females with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and its impact on their health. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at Aziz Fatimah Medical and Dental College, after obtaining ethical approval from Institutional Ethical Committee (letter No. DME/568-19) from April to September 2017. Hundred PCOS females enrolled in the age range 17-35 years were taken who fulfilled inclusion and exclusion criteria. Blood samples were drawn and stored at Aziz Fatima Hospital, Faisalabad. All blood samples were analyzed for the levels of Estradiol, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (FT3), free tetra-iodothyronine (FT4), and thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPO-Ab). The data was analyzed using SPSS 23. Results: Of the total population, TPO-Ab was positive in 26% of study participants. It was observed that 64% and 40% of TPOAb positive subjects were in the Estradiol quartiles E3 and E4 respectively and none of them were found to be in E1 and E2 quartiles. We have found a significant association of the E2 with TSH, FT4, and TPO-Ab, however, no significant correlation was found between TSH and TPO-Ab. Beta coefficient (ß) of 1.006 shows that higher E2 was significantly related to higher TPO-Ab titer with p-value = 0.002. Similarly, a significant but weak positive association was found between E2 and TSH. E2 was significantly negatively associated with FT4. Conclusion: OEstradiol is positively associated with TPO antibodies and TSH and negatively associated with FT4 in PCOS patients. Our findings suggest that thyroid autoimmunity is commonly found in PCOS females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease emerged acutely and suddenly, becoming a nightmare as it affected every country drastically. This disease engulfed the physical, mental as well as social lives of the individuals. The objective was to determine which blood group has a higher tendency to contract COVID-19 infection and to evaluate common presenting symptoms METHODOLOGY: This cross-sectional study was performed from August to September 2020 at Aziz Fatima Medical and Dental College, Faisalabad. A structured questionnaire was formed on a Google form. It was then conveyed through sharing link by WhatsApp among the COVID positive patients. Data was compiled and analyzed by SPSS 22. RESULTS: Our study comprised 415 subjects of age 20-50 years who got COVID-19 infection. Out of which 162(39%) comprise the male population and 253(61%) constituting of female population. Subjects of the age group of 20 to 30 years were most frequently infected with COVID-19. Our results reveal that COVID-19 was more among blood group B followed by O, AB & A. The most frequent symptom from which the subjects suffered was fever 305(73.4%) followed by smell and taste alteration comprising 180(43.3%), 154(37%) subjects suffered from sore throat. GIT symptoms were reported by 50(12.0%) while only 102(13%) remained asymptomatic. CONCLUSION: We conclude that COVID-19 was more prevalent among blood group B followed by O, AB, A, and the Rh-positive group. The most frequent symptom in our study was fever, followed by loss of taste and smell sensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on the inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI). Empirical results suggest that FDI gains of preferential trade are increasing with the market size of the preferential trading partners but not due to their economic and geographic closeness to the host country. It is also observed that the association between PTAs and inflows of FDI only exists for middle- and high-income countries, whereas this relationship disappeared for low-income countries. This study recommends that countries should offer various trade related benefits to overseas investors in order to attract higher inflows of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To determine the electrolyte disturbances in patients of dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever. Methods: In this cross sectional study 110 patients, with dengue fever , were included. Serum electrolytes levels were measured at fifth and sixth day of fever irrespective of stage of dengue infection (DF/DHF). Dengue was confirmed by NS1 or IgM/IgG positivity. DHF was labeled as per WHO criteria of Dengue Hemorrhagic fever. Dengue fever was confirmed in 110 patients by NS1 antigen and IgM/IgG positivity by ELISA. Serum sodium, potassium and chloride concentrations were measured by standard protocols. Results: Average age of patients was 34.02 years with majority of males (63.6%). Seventy (63.6%) patients were diagnosed as case of dengue fever (DF) and 40 (34.4%) patients were diagnosed as case of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). Out of total, 82 (74.5%) patients had NS1 positive, 54 (49.1%) patients had IgG positive and 33 (30%) patients had IgM positive. Although serum electrolytes were higher among patients with DHF as compared to DF but the association was insignificant. Conclusion: Hyponatremia was the most common disturbance in patients with Dengue fever as well as in patients of dengue hemorrhagic fever. No significant association was found in electrolyte disturbances between patients of dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervical cancer (CC), one of the most prevalent and detrimental gynaecologic cancers, evolves through genetic and epigenetic alterations resulting in the promotion of oncogenic activity and dysfunction of tumour-suppressing mechanisms. Despite medical advancement, the prognosis for advanced-stage patients remains extremely low due to high recurrence rates and resistance to existing treatments. Thereby, the search for potential prognostic biomarkers is heightened to unravel new modalities of CC pathogenesis and to develop novel anti-cancer therapies. Epitranscriptomic modifications, reversible epigenetic RNA modifications, regulate various biological processes by deciding RNA fate to mediating RNA interactions. This narrative review provides insight into the cellular and molecular roles of endogenous RNA-editing proteins and their associated epitranscriptomic modifications, especially N 6 -methyladenosine (m 6 A), 5-methylcytosine (m 5 C) and N 1 -methyladenosine (m 1 A), in governing the development, progression and metastasis of CC. We discussed the in-depth epitranscriptomic mechanisms underlying the regulation of over 50 RNAs responsible for tumorigenesis, proliferation, migration, invasion, survival, autophagy, stemness, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metabolism (glucose, lipid, glutamate and glutamine), resistance (drug and radiation), angiogenesis and recurrence of CC. Additionally, we provided a concise overview of the therapeutic potential of targeting the altered expression of endogenous RNA-editing proteins and aberrant deposition of RNA modifications on both coding and non-coding RNAs in CC.