Evaluating the efficacy of tuberculosis advocacy, communication and social mobilization (ACSM) activities in Pakistan : a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a major public health and development problem within many low- and middle-income countries. Although Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilization (ACSM) activities have been undertaken in high TB burden countries to remediate these issues, there is little empirical evidence of the efficacy of these approaches. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine the efficacy of an ACSM program undertaken within Pakistan. Pakistan was chosen because it has received considerable funding for ACSM related activities and is one of 22 high-burden TB countries. METHODS: The program was evaluated by surveying a stratified random sample of 2,400 participants across 57 districts of Pakistan. Participants were categorized into one of three groups: aware of both media and community ACSM activities (Aware(Media)&(Community)), aware of ACSM media activities only (Aware(Media)), or unaware of any ACSM activities (Unaware(Media)&(Community)). RESULTS: Independent measures ANCOVA revealed complex differences in knowledge, attitudes, and intended behaviors towards TB between the three groups. In general, Unaware(Media)&(Community) cases had a poorer understanding of TB and its treatment, whilst awareness of ACSM activities was highest among literate and urban dwelling Pakistanis. Preferred sources of TB information were also found to vary by gender, geographic location, and literacy. CONCLUSIONS: Whilst highlighting improvements in knowledge and attitudes toward TB, the results also provide invaluable insights into areas where further work needs to be done to address deficits in TB understanding, particularly among rural and illiterate Pakistanis. Equally important, the findings have implications for future TB ACSM initiatives in Pakistan in terms of leveraging the preferred media channels of key demographic segments and exploring the degree to which exposure to multiple channels of communication may have an additive effect on health knowledge

Deformation and Mechanical Characteristics of Compacted Binary Mixtures of Plastic (Microcrystalline Cellulose), Elastic (Sodium Starch Glycolate), and Brittle (Lactose Monohydrate) Pharmaceutical Excipients.

This work studies the tensile strength, coherence, elastic, and plastic energy of single and bi-component compacted tablets consisting of (i) microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) PH 102 as a plastic material, (ii) (SSG) as an elastic material, and (iii) alpha lactose monohydrate as a brittle material by direct compression. Compacted tablets were studied with various mass ratios formed at an ultimate compaction stress of 150 MPa. The loading and unloading stages of the compaction process for the single and binary tablets were evaluated based on the energies derived from the force-displacement data obtained. The resulting tablet quality was measured in terms of the tensile strength. Material that exhibit predominantly plastic deformation (MCC) shows a dominant property over elastically deforming sodium starch glycolate (SSG) and brittle (lactose) materials during the loading and unloading stages of the compaction process. In conclusion, the tensile strength of the formed tablets depends directly on the plastic energy and indirectly on the elastic energy and is negatively affected by the presence of a brittle material

Oil palm EFB/Kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy hybrid composites: dimension stability behaviours

In recent years, natural fibres composites have gained increasing interest as a most promising material in different applications due to its attractive properties such as eco-friendly, cost-effectiveness and light weight. Though extensive research has been made on the performance evaluation of natural fibres composite materials, not much data is available on the dimension stability which restricts their use in exterior applications. In this study, hybrid composites were fabricated by hand lay-up technique by reinforcing oil palm empty fruits bunch (EFB) and kenaf fibre mats with epoxy matrix. Experiments are evaluated to study dimension stability that includes water absorption, thickness swelling, density and void content. Increasing the kenaf fibre into EFB composite totally improves the dimension stability of the hybrid composites thus indirectly leads to reduction in voids compared to oil palm EFB composites which is presented lowest percentage of dimension stability and higher void content

Ground water quality of selected areas of Punjab and Sind Provinces, Pakistan: Chemical and microbiological aspects

The assessment of groundwater is essential for the estimation of suitability of water for safe use. An attempt has been made to study the groundwater of selected areas of Punjab (Sheikhupura & Sahiwal) and Sindh (Sindh, Jawar Dharki and Dharki), Pakistan. The results indicate that pH, color and odor were all within limits of WHO that is pH ranges 6.5–8.5, colorless and odorless respectively. The high values of suspended solids were observed in the Sindh-1 and Dharki samples. Microbiologically only Sahiwal and Jawar Dharki were found fit for drinking purpose. Trace metals analysis of Sheikhupura-1 and Sindh-1 has showed that they do not fall within limits of WHO for Iron. The ionic concentration analysis showed that high bicarbonate (HCO3-), ions are present in the samples of Sahiwal and Dharki; Sindh-1 and Jawar Dharki samples have showed very high concentration for chloride ions, all samples were satisfactory level for sulphate (SO42-), sodium, magnesium and phosphate ions except samples of Sindh-1 and Jawar Dharki. High concentration of calcium and potassium ions noticed in samples of Sindh-1 while all samples were found fit for drinking purposes in respect of nitrate, nitrite and ammonium ions. The high concentration of Fluoride was found only in Sheikhupura-2 samples

Synthesis, antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity of new fused pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine and pyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazine derivatives from new 5-aminopyrazoles

New 5-aminopyrazoles 2a–c were prepared in high yields from the reaction of known α,α-dicyanoketene-N,S-acetals 1a–c with hydrazine hydrate under reflux in ethanol. These compounds were utilized as intermediates to synthesize pyrazolo[1,5-a]-pyrimidines 3a–c, 4a–d, 5a–c, and 6a–c, as well as pyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazines 7a–c and 8a–c, by the reaction of 2-[bis(methylthio)methylene]malononitrile, α,α-dicyanoketene-N,S-acetals 1a–b, acetylacetone, acetoacetanilide as well as acetylacetone, and malononitrile, respectively. Furthermore, cyclization of 2a–c with pentan-2,5-dione yielded the corresponding 5-pyrrolylpyrazoles 9a–c. Moreover, fusion of 2a–c with acetic anhydride resulted in the corresponding 1-acetyl-1H-pyrazoles 10a–c. The antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity against Vero cells of several selected compounds are also reported

Benchmarking Pre-trained Large Language Models' Potential Across Urdu NLP tasks

Large Language Models (LLMs) pre-trained on multilingual data have revolutionized natural language processing research, by transitioning from languages and task specific model pipelines to a single model adapted on a variety of tasks. However majority of existing multilingual NLP benchmarks for LLMs provide evaluation data in only few languages with little linguistic diversity. In addition these benchmarks lack quality assessment against the respective state-of the art models. This study presents an in-depth examination of prominent LLMs; GPT-3.5-turbo, Llama2-7B-Chat, Bloomz 7B1 and Bloomz 3B, across 14 tasks using 15 Urdu datasets, in a zero-shot setting, and their performance against state-of-the-art (SOTA) models, has been compared and analysed. Our experiments show that SOTA models surpass all the encoder-decoder pre-trained language models in all Urdu NLP tasks with zero-shot learning. Our results further show that LLMs with fewer parameters, but more language specific data in the base model perform better than larger computational models, but low language data

Surface Modification Of Titanium Implants By Grit-blasting With Novel Bioactive Glasses

PhDIntroduction: The survival of dental implants depends on osseointegration. Modifications to the implant surface are attractive for promoting the success of the implant. Abrading the surface of the implant with bioactive glass is an attractive option for improving the speed of osseointegration. Aims: To develop a bioactive glass that has the ability to enhance the surface roughness of the implant by embedding particles into the surface and to investigate the effect of grit blast parameters on the removal of the titanium from the surface. Methods: Three glasses based on SiO2-CaO-Na2O-P2O5-CaF2 were synthesized by a melt quench technique. The glasses were characterised and investigated for their bioactivity. Titanium discs were abraded with coarse glass particles by using a grit blast technique with different parameters, such as, distance, air pressure and speed. The depth, width of the abraded line and surface roughness (Ra) were measured by light profilometer. The distribution of the glasses on the titanium surface was measured by SEM-EDX. The biocompatibility of the abraded discs was tested in vitro using MC3T3-E1 cell line. Results: All glasses exhibited an amorphous structure with varied bioactivity. Changing the abrasion parameters influenced the amount of titanium removed and the surface coverage. The harder the glass the lower the amount of titanium removed and the wider the width of the abraded area. The Ra was significantly increased from 0.1μm to 1.6μm. The SEM-EDX analysis confirmed that the glasses were widely distributed and a higher coverage was seen with the harder glass. The abraded discs showed good biocompatibility in vitro. Conclusions: The designed compositions were successfully modifying the surface of the titanium. They are abrasive enough to significantly embed into the titanium surface by using the grit blast technique and increase their surface roughness. TheIntroduction: The survival of dental implants depends on osseointegration. Modifications to the implant surface are attractive for promoting the success of the implant. Abrading the surface of the implant with bioactive glass is an attractive option for improving the speed of osseointegration. Aims: To develop a bioactive glass that has the ability to enhance the surface roughness of the implant by embedding particles into the surface and to investigate the effect of grit blast parameters on the removal of the titanium from the surface. Methods: Three glasses based on SiO2-CaO-Na2O-P2O5-CaF2 were synthesized by a melt quench technique. The glasses were characterised and investigated for their bioactivity. Titanium discs were abraded with coarse glass particles by using a grit blast technique with different parameters, such as, distance, air pressure and speed. The depth, width of the abraded line and surface roughness (Ra) were measured by light profilometer. The distribution of the glasses on the titanium surface was measured by SEM-EDX. The biocompatibility of the abraded discs was tested in vitro using MC3T3-E1 cell line. Results: All glasses exhibited an amorphous structure with varied bioactivity. Changing the abrasion parameters influenced the amount of titanium removed and the surface coverage. The harder the glass the lower the amount of titanium removed and the wider the width of the abraded area. The Ra was significantly increased from 0.1μm to 1.6μm. The SEM-EDX analysis confirmed that the glasses were widely distributed and a higher coverage was seen with the harder glass. The abraded discs showed good biocompatibility in vitro. Conclusions: The designed compositions were successfully modifying the surface of the titanium. They are abrasive enough to significantly embed into the titanium surface by using the grit blast technique and increase their surface roughness. The glass abraded discs show both good bioactivity and biocompatibility in vitro.Ministry Of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Iraq (MOHER)

Knowledge, attitude and perceptions of Muslim cancer patients regarding cancer treatment during Ramadan: Results from a tertiary care hospital Karachi

Objective: To assess the knowledge and attitude of Muslim cancer patients regarding cancer treatment during Ramadan.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from July to August 2015, and comprised cancer patients. .Adult Muslim cancer patients receiving active oncological treatment or on surveillance were included. Patients on only supportive treatment were excluded. SPSS 19 was used for data analysis.Results: Of the 265 patients, 87(32.8%) were males and 178(67.2%) were females. The overall mean age was 49±13.87 years. Besides, 184(70.9%) patients belonged to the middle class. Breast cancer was the most common cancer 106(40.6%). Overall, 153(57.9%) patients had stage II disease. Further, 201(80%) patients had 0-1 performance status. Moreover, 180(72%) patients were receiving different forms of chemotherapeutic agents. It was found that 113(54.3%) patients sought advice regarding fasting. Most of the patients who observed fast, i.e. 214(81%), had an early stage disease and 19(7.1%) were on hormonal therapy. Patients who did not fast mostly attributed this to fatigue 69(26.3%). Conclusion: Only half of the patients sought advice on fasting and those having early disease more.Conclusions: Only half of the patients sought advice on fasting and those having early disease more frequently observed fast

P2P, CSC and TE: A Survey on Hardware, Software and Data

Peer-to-Peer (P2P), Transactive Energy (TE) and Community Self-Consumption (CSC) are exciting energy generation and use models, offering several opportunities for prosumers, micro-grids and services to the grid; however, they require numerous components to function efficiently. Various hardware devices are required to transmit data and control the generation and consumption equipment, whereas software is needed to use the gathered information to monitor and manage the hardware and energy trading. Data can be gathered from a variety of origins from within the grid and external sources; however, these data must be well-structured and consistent to be useful. This paper sets out to gather information regarding the hardware, software and data from the several archetypes available, focusing on existing projects and trials in these areas to see what the most-common hardware, software and data components are. The result presents a concise overview of the hardware, software and data-related topics and structures within the P2P, TE and CSC energy generation and use models

System integration and data models to support smart grids energy trading

As smart grids gained relevance in the renewable energy landscape, the demand for new data management models became evident. Independently, whether emerging models are centralised on the Transmission System Operators (TSO), Distribution System Operators (DSO), or even on a third-party entity/aggregator (under proper regulatory supervision), the complexity of integration and interoperability of heterogeneous systems are worsened by the increase of renewable energy sources - given its potential reach and the diversity of solution providers. This work provides a detailed study of the main systems concerns present on TSO and DSO platforms alike, and main concerns in relation to renewable energy sources, sensor devices (e.g., smart meters and Internet of Things (IoT) devices) and processes. Furthermore, this work also carries out an analysis of the available integration studies - including a study case. Finally, this work proposes a top-level ontology-based standardisation for smart grid integration to support energy trading initiatives