Simultaneous Determination of Dimethomorph and Chlorothalonil in Pesticide Formulation: HPLC Method Development and Validation

The identification and accurate quantification of pesticides is important to verify the recommendedconcentration of active content of each pesticide in formulated products to avoid adverse effects on human life due toover dosage. In this study, method of quantitative determination of Dimethomorph and Chlorothalonil in pesticideformulation was developed and validated by using ICH guidelines. Chromatographic separations with good resolutionwere performed on Beckman C-18 column (5 µm x 150 mm x 4.6 mm), using 80:20, v/v – (CH3CN:H2O) as mobilephase in isocratic mode at 230 nm. The retention time for Dimethomorph and Chlorothalonil at flow rate 1.2 mL/minwas 6.21 and 9.63 minutes, respectively. Calibration curves of both studied fungicides (Chlorothalonil andDimethomorph) were linear showing coefficient of determination greater than 0.996. %RSD value of inter-dayprecision was found to be less than 3 for both pesticides and for intra-day precision these values were less than 2. Interlaboratory comparison (ILC) method was applied to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed method and Z-score valueswere found to be less than 2. The proposed method is therefore efficient, accurate, and cost-effective and can suitablybe used for simultaneous quantitative determination of Dimethomorph and Chlorothalonil in pesticide formulatedproducts

Elucidation of physico-chemical characteristics and mycoflora of bovine milk available in selected area of Karachi, Pakistan.

ISO 14000 has opened the field for enhancing the awareness towards healthy environment and gives the ideology of regular assessment of threshold values not only of nutrients but contaminants as well. Under this statement microbiological studies in terms of mycoflora followed by physical characteristics and level of some essential elements Mg, Fe, Cu and Zn, and deleterious metal Cd were analyzed in fresh milk samples (FMS) and tetra pack milk or UHT processed milk samples (PMS) available in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town, Karachi for the residents. Samples were collected in the morning time during winter season. Physical parameters like pH, conductivity, density, viscosity, surface tension and refractive index were observed very soon after sample collection. Percentage of ash and total dissolved solids (TDS) were also measured. For fungal flora studies PDA (Potato Dextrose Agar) and Sabourouds Agar were used for the fungal growth. The concentrations of metals considered were estimated after wet digestion of samples using atomic absorption spectroscopy. The ranges of average concentration of Mg, Fe, Cu and Zn were found to be 77.120 \u2013 141.915mg/l, 0.580 \u2013 7.320mg/l, 0.004 \u2013 0.070mg/l and 2.574 \u2013 4.872mg/l. The level of Cd was estimated in the samples between 0.0050 \u2013 0.053mg/l, but was not observed in most of the samples. Among the fungi, the highest diversity was that of Aspergillus spp. that produces aflatoxins. \ua9JASE

Extrapulmonary tuberculosis in Pakistan- A nation-wide multicenter retrospective study

Background Pakistan is fifth among high burden countries for tuberculosis. A steady increase is seen in extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB), which now accounts for 20% of all notified TB cases. There is very limited information on the epidemiology of EPTB. This study was performed with the aim to describe the demographic characteristics, clinical manifestations and treatment outcomes of EPTB patients in Pakistan. Method We performed descriptive analysis on routinely collected data for cohorts of TB patients registered nationwide in 2016 at health facilities selected using stratified convenient sampling. Findings Altogether 54092 TB including 15790 (29.2%) EPTB cases were registered in 2016 at 50 study sites. The median age was 24 years for EPTB and 30 years for PTB patients. The crude prevalence of EPTB in females was 30.5% (95%CI; 29.9–31.0) compared to 27.9% (95%CI; 27.3–28.4) in males. The likelihood of having EPTB (OR), was 1.1 times greater for females, 2.0 times for children, and 3.3 times for residents of provinces in the North-West. The most common forms of EPTB were pleural (29.6%), lymphatic (22.7%) and abdominal TB (21.0%). Pleural TB was the most common clinical manifestation in adults (34.2%) and abdominal TB in children (38.4%). An increase in the prevalence of pleural and osteoarticular and decline in lymphatic and abdominal TB was observed with advancing age. Diversity in demography and clinical manifestations were noted between provinces. The treatment success rate for all type EPTB was significantly high compared to bacteriology confirmed PTB with the exception of EPTB affecting CNS with a high mortality rate. Conclusions The study provides an insight into demography, clinical manifestations and treatment outcomes of EPTB. Further studies are needed to explain significant diversities observed between provinces, specific risk factors and challenges concerning EPTB management.publishedVersio

Adhesion Failures Determine the Pattern of Choroidal Neovascularization in the Eye: A Computer Simulation Study

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) of the macular area of the retina is the major cause of severe vision loss in adults. In CNV, after choriocapillaries initially penetrate Bruch's membrane (BrM), invading vessels may regress or expand (CNV initiation). Next, during Early and Late CNV, the expanding vasculature usually spreads in one of three distinct patterns: in a layer between BrM and the retinal pigment epithelium (sub-RPE or Type 1 CNV), in a layer between the RPE and the photoreceptors (sub-retinal or Type 2 CNV) or in both loci simultaneously (combined pattern or Type 3 CNV). While most studies hypothesize that CNV primarily results from growth-factor effects or holes in BrM, our three-dimensional simulations of multi-cell model of the normal and pathological maculae recapitulate the three growth patterns, under the hypothesis that CNV results from combinations of impairment of: 1) RPE-RPE epithelial junctional adhesion, 2) Adhesion of the RPE basement membrane complex to BrM (RPE-BrM adhesion), and 3) Adhesion of the RPE to the photoreceptor outer segments (RPE-POS adhesion). Our key findings are that when an endothelial tip cell penetrates BrM: 1) RPE with normal epithelial junctions, basal attachment to BrM and apical attachment to POS resists CNV. 2) Small holes in BrM do not, by themselves, initiate CNV. 3) RPE with normal epithelial junctions and normal apical RPE-POS adhesion, but weak adhesion to BrM (e.g. due to lipid accumulation in BrM) results in Early sub-RPE CNV. 4) Normal adhesion of RBaM to BrM, but reduced apical RPE-POS or epithelial RPE-RPE adhesion (e.g. due to inflammation) results in Early sub-retinal CNV. 5) Simultaneous reduction in RPE-RPE epithelial binding and RPE-BrM adhesion results in either sub-RPE or sub-retinal CNV which often progresses to combined pattern CNV. These findings suggest that defects in adhesion dominate CNV initiation and progression

Correlation of lipid profile in diabetes patients: The potential for risk reducing of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

Aim: To determine the pattern of dyslipidemia and the extent to which lipid therapy may reduce the risk of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) in individuals with Diabetes. Study design: A retrospective study. Place and Duration:This study was conducted at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Karachi from march 2021 to March 2022. Methodology: During the study, biochemical, clinical, and pharmaceutical profiles of every patient with Diabetes were compiled. After removing patients with lipid-lowering medication and those withthyroid dysfunction the prevalence of different lipid disorders was calculated. The patients' triglyceride levels, HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol and other clinical records were assessed. Based on recommendations from the American Diabetes Association, the effectiveness of statin therapy was evaluated. Results: The total number of 367patients was incorporated into the study. Forty percent of them had hyperlipidemia. Elevated LDL cholesterol was the most prevalent lipid abnormality. LDL cholesterol levels were shown to be correlated with increased HbA1C and fasting blood glucose readings. Twenty-seven percent of individuals were receiving statin medication. A total of 42.6 percent of individuals on statins had LDL cholesterol levels under 100 mg/dL.&nbsp

Improved Whale Optimization Algorithm for Transient Response, Robustness, and Stability Enhancement of an Automatic Voltage Regulator System

The proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is one of the most robust and simplest configuration controllers used for industrial applications. However, its performance purely depends on the tuning of its proportional (KP), integral (KI) and derivative (KD) gains. Therefore, a proper combination of these gains is primarily required to achieve an optimal performance of the PID controllers. The conventional methods of PID tuning such as Cohen-Coon (CC) and Ziegler–Nichols (ZN) generate unwanted overshoots and long-lasting oscillations in the system. Owing to the mentioned problems, this paper attempts to achieve an optimized combination of PID controller gains by exploiting the intelligence of the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and one of its recently introduced modified versions called improved whale optimization algorithm (IWOA) in an automatic voltage regulator (AVR) system. The stability of the IWOA-AVR system was studied by assessing its root-locus, bode maps, and pole/zero plots. The performance superiority of the presented IWOA-AVR design over eight of the recently explored AI-based approaches was validated through a comprehensive comparative analysis based on the most important transient response and stability metrics. Finally, to assess the robustness of the optimized AVR system, robustness analysis was conducted by analyzing the system response during the variation in the time constants of the generator, exciter, and amplifier from −50% to 50% range. The results of the study prove the superiority of the proposed IWOA-based AVR system in terms of transient response and stability metrics

Improved Whale Optimization Algorithm for Transient Response, Robustness, and Stability Enhancement of an Automatic Voltage Regulator System

The proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is one of the most robust and simplest configuration controllers used for industrial applications. However, its performance purely depends on the tuning of its proportional (KP), integral (KI) and derivative (KD) gains. Therefore, a proper combination of these gains is primarily required to achieve an optimal performance of the PID controllers. The conventional methods of PID tuning such as Cohen-Coon (CC) and Ziegler–Nichols (ZN) generate unwanted overshoots and long-lasting oscillations in the system. Owing to the mentioned problems, this paper attempts to achieve an optimized combination of PID controller gains by exploiting the intelligence of the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and one of its recently introduced modified versions called improved whale optimization algorithm (IWOA) in an automatic voltage regulator (AVR) system. The stability of the IWOA-AVR system was studied by assessing its root-locus, bode maps, and pole/zero plots. The performance superiority of the presented IWOA-AVR design over eight of the recently explored AI-based approaches was validated through a comprehensive comparative analysis based on the most important transient response and stability metrics. Finally, to assess the robustness of the optimized AVR system, robustness analysis was conducted by analyzing the system response during the variation in the time constants of the generator, exciter, and amplifier from −50% to 50% range. The results of the study prove the superiority of the proposed IWOA-based AVR system in terms of transient response and stability metrics

Persistence and Degradation of Imidacloprid in Wheat Crop

Present study was conducted to investigate the levels and persistence of imidacloprid residues in wheat grains and straw of field crop samples grown from treated seed and foliar application. Objective of the study was to assess the best practices that may be used to produce safe grains and straw. Residual uptake of imidacloprid was measured after seed treatments at four dosage levels of seed. Each sample of 25g treated seed was sown in a separate 5ft2 plot.The absorption of imidacloprid residues was investigated by spraying the crops with 1ml and 5ml of 6 mgmL-1 solution of 200SL Confidor (imidacloprid). The results helped in determining the maximum allowable limits of imidacloprid application (foliar or seed treatment) on wheat, which would prevent the residues from exceeding the MRL. The quantitative determination of imidacloprid suggested that the lowest seed treatment level (i.e. 0.015g/25g seed) may be used to produce a residues-free crop

A Modified Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Power Sharing and Transient Response Improvement of a Grid-Tied Solar PV Based A.C. Microgrid

The increasing penetration of Distributed Generators (D.G.) into the existing power system has brought some real challenges regarding the transient response of electrical systems. The injection of D.G.s and abrupt load changes may cause massive power, current, and voltage overshoots/undershoots, which consequently affects the equilibrium of the existing power system and deteriorate the performance of the connected electrical appliances. A robust and intelligent control strategy is of utmost importance to cope with these issues and enhance the penetration level of D.G.s into the existing power system. This paper presents a Modified Particle Swarm Optimization (MPSO) algorithm-based intelligent controller for attaining a desired power-sharing ratio between the M.G. and the main grid with an optimal transient response in a grid-tied Microgrid (M.G.) system. The proposed MPSO algorithm includes an additional parameter named best neighbor particles (rbest) in the velocity updating equation to convey additional information to every individual particle about all its neighbor particles, consequently leading to the increased exploration capability of the algorithm. The MPSO algorithm optimizes P.I. parameters for transient and steady-state response improvement of the studied M.G. system. The main dynamic response evaluation parameters are the overshoot and settling time for active and reactive power during the D.G. connection and load change. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed controller is compared with the PI-PSO-based MG controller, which validates the effectiveness of the proposed M.G. control scheme in maintaining the required active and reactive power under different operating conditions with minimum possible overshoot and settling time