The first report of the genus and species of the scale insect, Exaeretopus tritici (Hem.: Cocciodea: Coccidae), from Iran

Scale insect specimens collected on Hordeum sp. (Poaceae), dated 24. V. 2003 in Khorram Abad, Lorestan province were identified as Exaeretopus tritici Williams. This species, which the genus and species is newly recorded from Iran, is related to E. harpazi Ben-Dov, differing mainly in the number of the stigmatic setae and extension of paraopercular pores

Nutritional Status, Dietary Practices and Physical Activities of Adolescents in Public and Private Schools of Karachi, Pakistan

A comparative study was undertaken to assess the nutritional status, dietary practices and physical activities of school going adolescents in public and private schools (PPSs) of Karachi, Pakistan. A sample of 101 boys and 100 girls from PPSs was randomly selected for their weight,height, waist and hip circumferences, percent body fat and lean body mass measurements. Adolescent boys and girls were interviewed for their dietary practices, socio-economic status, frequency and type of physical activities and their responses were recorded. Results by gender and school type revealed that both the boys and girls of private schools had a significantly lower mean age but significantly higher mean height-for-age Z-score, waist and hip circumferences than the public school adolescents. Food frequency results revealed that the frequency and patterns of breakfast, break-time snack, lunch and dinner of private school going adolescents were more diverse and nutritiously rich. Skipping breakfast was more common among adolescents being higher in girls than boys. Parents of adolescents belonging to private schools had a higher education and socio-economic status. Private school adolescents were physically more active (p<0.05) in terms of frequency and type of physical activities. The study concludes that the adolescents of private schools had a better nutritional status, consumed food and beverages of better quality and were physically more active. However, boys and girls of both the public and private schools failed to meet the national and international dietary guidelines of recommended food servings

Mismatches in stakeholder communication: The case of the Leslie and Ferrand transit stations, Toronto, Canada

Using content analysis, an approach is presented to help extract topics of interest to local community during project planning. This is helpful for fine-tuning and customizing the language used in communication with the public. Hopefully, reducing communication mismatches can help support constructive dialogue that is not “lost in translation”. The extraction of community issues/interest is becoming important also to help guide the development of plans/projects and their features in a manner that meets their needs. The two cases used in this study presented a suitable target for developing and showcasing the proposed approach. There was a reversal of public decision based on community debates/objections. This allowed us to study the mismatches before and after the decision. The proposed approach used a context-based taxonomy of terms and content analysis to compare terms/topics contained in a related twitter account, relevant news articles, and documents/presentations used in public meetings—before and after the decision. The proposed approach was designed to be mostly automatic to help future re-use. Of course, the use of such approach is only one step in a much bigger qualitative and context-specific process. Specific to the two cases, it was observed that news media articles and the contents of twitter chats had higher matching levels in the topics/themes they covered. Contents of public meetings had some levels of mismatching. Particular to the two cases, public official tended to emphasize the technical aspects of the projects with limited/clear analysis of their functions or impacts on community. It is argued that, as a result, public officials should study twitter chats and news articles as they prepare official public documents and presentations to citizens; attempt to specifically address prevalent issues in them; and even use the same nomenclature. Using a (semi) automated tool can be very helpful in this regard

Nutritional Status, Dietary Practices and Physical Activities of Adolescents in Public and Private Schools of Karachi, Pakistan

A comparative study was undertaken to assess the nutritional status, dietary practices and physical\ud activities of school going adolescents in public and private schools (PPSs) of Karachi, Pakistan.\ud A sample of 101 boys and 100 girls from PPSs was randomly selected for their weight,height, waist and hip circumferences, percent body fat and lean body mass measurements. Adolescent boys and girls were interviewed for their dietary practices, socio-economic status,\ud frequency and type of physical activities and their responses were recorded. Results by gender and school type revealed that both the boys and girls of private schools had a significantly lower mean age but significantly higher mean height-for-age Z-score, waist and hip circumferences\ud than the public school adolescents. Food frequency results revealed that the frequency and patterns of breakfast, break-time snack, lunch and dinner of private school going adolescents were more diverse and nutritiously rich. Skipping breakfast was more common among adolescents\ud being higher in girls than boys. Parents of adolescents belonging to private schools had a higher education and socio-economic status. Private school adolescents were physically more active (p<0.05) in terms of frequency and type of physical activities. The study concludes that the\ud adolescents of private schools had a better nutritional status, consumed food and beverages of better quality and were physically more active. However, boys and girls of both the public and private schools failed to meet the national and international dietary guidelines of recommended\ud food servings

Stateflow-based energy management strategy for hybrid energy system to mitigate load shedding

This study investigates the potential application of Stateflow (SF) to design an energy management strategy (EMS) for a renewable-based hybrid energy system (HES). The SF is an extended finite state machine; it provides a platform to design, model, and execute complex event-driven systems using an interactive graphical environment. The HES comprises photovoltaics (PV), energy storage units (ESU) and a diesel generator (Gen), integrated with the power grid that experiences a regular load shedding condition (scheduled power outages). The EMS optimizes the energy production and utilization during both modes of HES operation, i.e., grid-connected mode and the islanded mode. For islanded operation mode, a resilient power delivery is ensured when the system is subjected to intermittent renewable supply and grid vulnerability. The contributions of this paper are twofold: first is to propose an integrated framework of HES to address the problem of load shedding, and second is to design and implement a resilient EMS in the SF environment. The validation of the proposed EMS demonstrates its feasibility to serve the load for various operating scenarios. The latter include operations under seasonal variation, abnormal weather conditions, and different load shedding patterns. The simulation results reveal that the proposed EMS not only ensures uninterrupted power supply during load shedding but also reduces grid burden by maximizing the use of PV energy. In addition, the SF-based adopted methodology is envisaged to be a useful alternative to the popular design method using the conventional software tools, particularly for event-driven systems

Synthesis, Antiphospholipase A2, Antiprotease, Antibacterial Evaluation and Molecular Docking Analysis of Certain Novel Hydrazones

Some novel hydrazone derivatives 6a–o were synthesized from the key intermediate 4-Chloro-N-(2-hydrazinocarbonyl-phenyl)-benzamide 5 and characterized using IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, mass spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The inhibitory potential against two secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2), three protease enzymes and eleven bacterial strains were evaluated. The results revealed that all compounds showed preferential inhibition towards hGIIA isoform of sPLA2 rather than DrG-IB with compounds 6l and 6e being the most active. The tested compounds exhibited excellent antiprotease activity against proteinase K and protease from Bacillus sp. with compound 6l being the most active against both enzymes. Furthermore, the maximum zones of inhibition against bacterial growth were exhibited by compounds; 6a, 6m, and 6o against P. aeruginosa; 6a, 6b, 6d, 6f, 6l, 6m, 6n, and 6o against Serratia; 6k against S. mutans; and compounds 6a, 6d, 6e, 6m, and 6n against E. feacalis. The docking simulations of hydrazones 6a–o with GIIA sPLA2, proteinase K and hydrazones 6a–e with glutamine-fructose-6-phosphate transaminase were performed to obtain information regarding the mechanism of action