Genomic analysis of tyrosine hydroxylase gene sequence variations and its association with D-9- tetrahydrocannabinol dependence in addicts

Purpose: To elucidate the genetic basis of drug addiction by conducting a genetic analysis of TH (tyrosine hydroxylase) gene and the novel polymorphisms that might help in understanding addiction and its molecular basis. Methods: Forty-two subjects were recruited into three groups for this study. DNA was isolated from the individuals. PCR amplification of TH gene was carried out and amplicons were sequenced. Genomic characterization of TH gene provided five polymorphic loci – TH 1, TH 2, TH 3, TH 4 and TH 5 which were found among all the groups. Results: According to Shannon’s diversity index, the studied population was between 0.0762 and 0.6032. Heterozygosity index depicted that TH 1 locus was less heterozygous (0.3288), followed by TH 5 (0.3152). TH 1 (0.1462) was the least heterozygous. Genotypic analysis predicted that among these five loci, TH 4 (p = 0.039898) and TH 2 (p = 0.851716) were non-significant (p > 0.05) and obeyed Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) law. There are few genetic changes in the studied population that can statistically be associated with drug addiction. Still, their genotypic distribution in the gene pool was very low. Conclusion: On the basis of these findings, drug addiction in the studied population is more likely a social issue rather than a genetic one. Keywords: Tyrosine hydroxylase, SNP, Drug dependenc

Some Physical and Computational Features of Unloaded Power Transmission Lines' Switching-off Process

The paper presents results of research some physical and computational features of unloaded power transmission lines switching-offs. It was stated that there are not monotonous dependence between magnitudes of transitional voltages at switching-off high voltage aerial lines and their lengths. There was studied influence of the circuit-breaker type (SF6 or vacuum ones) on transitional voltages. Features of use the ordinary differential equations' solvers at computer simulation from the point of view stability of solutions and simulation time consuming were investigated in the presented research

Red shifting of absorption maxima of phenothiazine based dyes by incorporating electron-deficient thiadiazole derivatives as π-spacer

AbstractThis study was carried out to design phenothiazine based dyes by incorporating electron-deficient thiadiazole derivatives as π-spacer. Density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory calculations of the geometries, electronic structures and absorption spectra of the dyes before and after binding to titanium oxide were carried out. Effects of the electron-deficient units on the spectra and electrochemical properties have been investigated. Compared with the reference compound CS1A, Dyes 1–4 display remarkably enhanced spectral responses in the red portion of the solar spectrum. The newly designed dyes demonstrate desirable energetic and spectroscopic parameters, and may lead to efficient metal-free organic dye sensitizers for DSSCs

Impact of GIS on Performance of Cellular Companies in Pakistan

Abstract: The aim of this research study is to determine the impact of GIS on cellular companies in Pakistan. The research has a profound background containing the performance and IT levels in the companies. An efficient exploitation of IT has become decisive in improving inclusive operations. This research study is based upon the concept of a service-product bundle consisted of three elements: IT applications, dedicated IT departmental study and explicit study of companies globalization level. Thorough Quadrant Analysis data was analyzed to determine the impact of Global information system of companies with its impact ratio. Results based on the analysis illustrate the significance of GIS in the cellular companies with the IT applications

Measuring the patient safety culture at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan using the hospital survey on patient safety culture (HSOPSC)

Background: Patient safety is a top priority for many healthcare organisations worldwide. However, most of the initiatives aimed at the measurement and improvement of patient safety culture have been undertaken in developed countries. The purpose of this study was to measure the patient safety culture at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC).Methods: The HSOPSC was used to measure the patient safety culture across 12 dimensions at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. 2,959 individuals, who had been working at the hospital, were administered the HSOPSC in paper form between June and September 2019.Results: The response rate of the survey was 50%. In the past 12 months, 979 respondents (33.1%) had submitted at least one event report. Results showed that the personnel viewed the patient safety culture at their hospital favourably. Overall, respondents scored highest in the following dimensions: \u27feedback and communication on error\u27 (91%), \u27organisational learning and continuous improvement\u27 (85%), \u27teamwork within units\u27 (83%), \u27teamwork across units\u27 (76%). The dimensions with the lowest positive per cent scores included \u27staffing\u27 (40%) and \u27non-punitive response to error\u27 (41%). Only the reliability of the \u27handoffs and transitions\u27, \u27frequency of events reported\u27, \u27organisational learning\u27 and \u27teamwork within units\u27 was higher than Cronbach\u27s alpha of 0.7. Upon regression analysis of positive responses, physicians and nurses were found to have responded less favourably than the remaining professional groups for most dimensions.Conclusion: The measurement of safety culture is both feasible and informative in developing countries and could be broadly implemented to inform patient safety efforts. Current data suggest that it compares favourably with benchmarks from hospitals in the USA. Like the USA, high staff workload is a significant safety concern among staff. This study lays the foundation for further context-specific research on patient safety culture in developing countries

Wind farms selection using geospatial technologies and energy generation capacity in Gwadar

Pakistan has been a victim of energy crisis since last few decades. This energy crisis has adversely affected country’s socio-economic development and continues to do so. The continuously increasing demand–supply gap has negatively impacted the economic stability of the country. With the recent awareness and development of alternate energy resources like wind and solar, the current energy crisis can be minimized. However, proper planning is essential for successful execution of these renewable energy projects. This study aims to identify the suitable sites for wind farms in District Gwadar, Balochistan using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Web-based Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS). In this study, multi-criteria decision making is applied which assists breaking down the site selection complexity. Multi-Criteria evaluation methods provides different set of procedures that facilitate decision making by analyzing different alternatives. The underlying geospatial and ICT technologies used in this analysis form the core component of the planning process. Gwadar is currently drawing investor’s attention due to its geographical location, deep seaport, and proposed China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This research is useful for stakeholders of Wind Energy to explore the wind potentials using GIS as an interactive decision-making tool during the pre-feasibility stage.Furthermore, this research has considered the environmental, social and economic aspects during the decision-making process of wind farm development. This is the strength of multi-criteria evaluation as differently weighted scenarios provide different output, depending on the factors considered of highest importance. A detailed analysis of the sites in terms of their wind potential and energy generation capacity has also been reported in this study. This long coastline of Balochistan with huge wind energy potential has not been explored yet and therefore this study will assist researchers to further explore this area and can have a positive impact on CPEC.Qatar University Internal Grant No. IRCC- 2021-010

Kinetic and thermodynamic evaluation of effective combined promoters for CO₂ hydrate formation

The increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere raises earth's temperature. CO2 emissions are closely related to human induced activities such as burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. So, to make the environment sustainable, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is required to reduce CO2 emissions. In this study, CO2 hydrate (CO2:6H2O) formation has been explored as an approach to capture CO2 in the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) conditions. The formation of hydrate was experimentally investigated in an isochoric system with high-pressure volumetric analyzer (HPVA). The solubility of CO2 in water using experimental pressure–time (P-t) curves were analyzed to determine the formation of hydrate. Additionally, the effect of newly synthesized combined promoters and various driving forces were evaluated. The experimental results demonstrated that the CO2 uptake expanded as ΔP expanded and designated combined promoters type T1-5 and type T3-2 were the two best, acquiring a uptake of 5.95 and 5.57 mmol of CO2 per g of H2O separately. Ethylene glycol mono-ethyl ether (EGME) was demonstrated to be a good option to THF when linked with SDS, with a CO2 uptake of 5.45 mmol for the designated combined promoters T1A-2. Additionally, the total sum of CO2 devoured through hydrate development maximize as the measure of water inside mesoporous silica increased. All results of the studied parameters confirmed the reliability of experiments and successful implementation

Container Performance and Vulnerability Management for Container Security Using Docker Engine

Containers have evolved to support microservice architecture as a low-cost alternative to virtual machines. Containers are increasingly prevalent in the virtualization landscape because of better working; containers can bear considerably less overhead than the conventional hypervisor-based component virtual machines. However, containers directly communicate with the host kernel, and attackers can co-locate containers in the host system quicker than virtual machines. This causes significant security issues in container technology. The security hardening system is currently targeted at implementing universal access management regulations that make it difficult to assess the required procedure for accessing containers. Security mechanisms include an explicit awareness of the purpose and actions of the container and entail manual interaction and configuration. A user-friendly container protection scheme implemented an access policy to comply with its anticipated and legitimate application performance. In this study, container technology constraints have been overcome by proposing a unique Docker-sec mechanism. Docker-sec uses four mechanisms; the original collection has been improved during container runtime by additional rules that constrain the capacity of the container, further representing the applications in practice, file system, processes, network isolation, and vulnerability scanning of Docker images over different workload. Different vulnerabilities have been scanned with a CVE severity level. Results showed that inter-container communication with the system is more secure containers from zero vulnerabilities with an overhead of 3.45%.Qatar University Internal Grant - No. IRCC-2021-010

A new route to control texture of materials: Nanostructured ZnFe2O4 photoelectrodes

Studies were conducted to investigate the influence of deposition solution composition (methanol ≤ the deposition solvent ≤ ethanol) on their physical and chemical properties that matters in the aerosol formation and subsequent decomposition during the aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) of ZnFe2O4 electrodes. The FEGSEM studies found that the change of composition of deposition solution produced a dramatic change in the ZnFe2O4 electrode texture. The ZnFe2O4 electrodes deposited from methanol as well as predominately methanolic solvents had a relatively compact morphology. In contrast, the electrodes deposited from ethanol as well as predominately ethanolic solvents showed highly textured rod-like structure at nanoscale. The change in electrode texture is explained in terms of changes occurred in precursor decomposition pathways from heterogeneous and homogeneous when the composition of deposition solution is systematically varied. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties of all ZnFe2O4 electrodes were studied by recording JeV characteristics under AM1.5 illumination and the photocurrent spectra. The textured electrodes exhibited a significantly higher photocurrent compared to their compact counterparts. This is attributed to the improved photogenerated minority carrier collection at the ZnFe2O4/electrolyte interface as the average feature size gradually decreased. The photocurrent density (at 0.25 V vs. Ag/AgCl/3M KCl) increases rapidly when the electrode is deposited from the solvent containing 60% ethanol and above, which is in close agreement with the textural changes taken place in ZnFe2O4 electrodes.Web of Scienc