Heterosis and inbreeding depression for yield and oil traits of sunflower genotypes under water stress conditions

The mean squares from analysis indicated significant differences was observed between treatments, inbred parents, F1 hybrids and F2 progenies for agronomic, oil and protein traits. The noteworthy variances between parents vs. hybrids indicated the importance of heterosis breeding. heterotic effects were found as potential hybrids for earliness, seed yield, oil and protein content in both the environments. The hybrids such as Thatta × UC-666, Mehran × Peshawar-93 and HO.1 × B-2 which have articulated high hybrid vigor in F1s for majority of the traits in normal and adverse conditions may be recommended for further commercial exploitation. The F2 progenies manifested high inbreeding depression for phenological traits and plant height signified that earlier maturing and dwarf plants resistant to lodging can achieved from filial generations

Population Trend of Canola Aphid, Lipaphis Erysimi (Kalt) (Homoptera: Aphididae) And It’s Associated Bio-Control Agent, Coccinella Septempunctata (Linnaeus) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in Different Brassica Lines

Studies regarding the determination of population trend of Lipaphis erysimi (Kalt) and its associated bio-control agent, Coccinella septempunctata (Linnaeus) in different brassica lines, were conducted at the New Developmental Farm, The University of Agriculture Peshawar during cropping season (2012-2013). Four different brassica lines IBGE-I, IBGE-II, IBGE-III and IBGE-IV were used, which were replicated four times in Randomized Complete Block Design. The data revealed that aphid’s infestation invariably started in all four varieties during 2nd week of February 2013 (1st observation). The peak population of 2.47 aphid’s leaf -1 was recorded during 3rd week of March and lowest population of 1.67 aphid’s leaf -1 was recorded during 2nd week of April. The specie of ladybird beetle (Coccinella septempunctata) was first time appeared on 14th February with mean number of (0.22 ladybird beetle plant -1). At the time when aphid’s population started to increase, the peak population of C. septempunctata (1.32 ladybird beetle plant-1) was recorded on the 3rd week of March. Among all the Brassica lines, IBGE-I showed comparatively more resistance by recording least number of aphids on it as compared to IBGE-III, IBGE-IV and IBGE-II. IBGE-II showed least resistance against Lipaphis erysimi, which was found to be most susceptible cultivar by recording highest mean number of aphid’s population on it. IBGE-I was also found superior in terms of bio-control agents. Maximum number of bio-control agents was recorded on IBGE-I followed by IBGE-III and IBGE-IV. Lowest number of beetles was recorded on IBGE-II. Keywords: Lipaphis erysimi, Coccinella septempunctata, Brassica lines

Transient modelling and simulation of a switched reluctance machine in different operating modes

An appropriate numerical computational method and simplest model captures the performance of Switched Reluctance Machines (SRMs). Several papers and computer software-based simulation models are reported in the literature. Each model has its own merits and demerits. This paper proposes a mathematical model, based on a combination of voltage and mechanical equations, suitable for the transient running of a switched reluctance machine. The simulation results of current, torque and speed profile of SRM are produced under current chopping control and voltage pulse width modulation control. The proposed work has used experimental data of flux linkage and static torque in the mathematical model for best performance and control of the machine. The obtained simulation results are verified with experimental results. This model can be extended to a range of rotor position where the machine can be switched at decreased and increased inductance region which gives motoring and generating operation mode

Macrovascular Complications and their risk factors in Type 2 Diabetic Patients in Hyderabad, Pakistan.

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM), is the universally occurring non-communicable disease as well as exemplary health problem affecting peo-ple worldwide.1 The number of cases of DM are rising at an enormous pace irrespective of any age, gender, economic status or ethnicity around the globe.Objective: To evaluate the macro-vascular complications and its correlation with different risk factors among type-2 diabetic patients.Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Red Crescent General Hospital Latifabad Hyderabad from October 2018 to October 2020. Type 2 diabetics of either gender, between age 20 and 70 years, on diabetic medication visited during the study duration were included in the study. Data related to socio-demographic details and clinical features was collect-ed from the participants using a written questionnaire. Collected data was analyzed using SPSS ver. 22.Results: Significant association (p<0.05) was demonstrated between Coro-nary artery diseases and the risk factors like; age of patient, the duration of diabetes mellitus, diastolic as well as systolic blood pressures, body mass index and serum triglycerides levels. While the statistically significant asso-ciation (p<0.05) of peripheral vascular diseases with the duration of diabe-tes mellitus, systolic blood pressure and serum triglyceride levels. Whereas, cerebrovascular disease was associated (p<0.05) with age, systolic and diastolic BP.Conclusion: The coronary artery disease seems to be most frequent macro-vascular complication among the type 2 diabetic patients. Whereas the risk factors including; advancing age, duration of diabetes mellitus, hyperten-sion, BMI as well as serum triglycerides levels are the most significant fac-tors for these complications.Key Words: Coronary artery disease, Cerebrovascular Disease, Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, Peripheral vascular diseas

Savior: A Reliable Fault Resilient Router Architecture for Network-on-Chip

[EN] The router plays an important role in communication among different processing cores in on-chip networks. Technology scaling on one hand has enabled the designers to integrate multiple processing components on a single chip; on the other hand, it becomes the reason for faults. A generic router consists of the buffers and pipeline stages. A single fault may result in an undesirable situation of degraded performance or a whole chip may stop working. Therefore, it is necessary to provide permanent fault tolerance to all the components of the router. In this paper, we propose a mechanism that can tolerate permanent faults that occur in the router. We exploit the fault-tolerant techniques of resource sharing and paring between components for the input port unit and routing computation (RC) unit, the resource borrowing for virtual channel allocator (VA) and multiple paths for switch allocator (SA) and crossbar (XB). The experimental results and analysis show that the proposed mechanism enhances the reliability of the router architecture towards permanent faults at the cost of 29% area overhead. The proposed router architecture achieves the highest Silicon Protection Factor (SPF) metric, which is 24.4 as compared to the state-of-the-art fault-tolerant architectures. It incurs an increase in latency for SPLASH2 and PARSEC benchmark traffics, which is minimal as compared to the baseline router.This work was supported by the Spanish 'Ministerio de Ciencia Innovacion y Universidades' and FEDER program in the framework of the 'Proyectos de I+D d Generacion de Conocimiento del Programa Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento y Fortalecimiento Cientifico y Tecnologico del Sistema de I+D+i, Subprograma Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento' (ref: PGC2018-095747-B-I00).Hussain, A.; Irfan, M.; Baloch, NK.; Draz, U.; Ali, T.; Glowacz, A.; Dunai, L.... (2020). Savior: A Reliable Fault Resilient Router Architecture for Network-on-Chip. Electronics. 9(11):1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9111783S118911Borkar, S. (1999). Design challenges of technology scaling. IEEE Micro, 19(4), 23-29. doi:10.1109/40.782564Latif, K., Rahmani, A.-M., Nigussie, E., Seceleanu, T., Radetzki, M., & Tenhunen, H. (2013). Partial Virtual Channel Sharing: A Generic Methodology to Enhance Resource Management and Fault Tolerance in Networks-on-Chip. Journal of Electronic Testing, 29(3), 431-452. doi:10.1007/s10836-013-5389-5Borkar, S. (2005). Designing Reliable Systems from Unreliable Components: The Challenges of Transistor Variability and Degradation. IEEE Micro, 25(6), 10-16. doi:10.1109/mm.2005.110Ali, T., Noureen, J., Draz, U., Shaf, A., Yasin, S., & Ayaz, M. (2018). Participants Ranking Algorithm for Crowdsensing in Mobile Communication. ICST Transactions on Scalable Information Systems, 5(16), 154476. doi:10.4108/eai.13-4-2018.154476Ali, T., Draz, U., Yasin, S., Noureen, J., shaf, A., & Zardari, M. (2018). An Efficient Participant’s Selection Algorithm for Crowdsensing. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 9(1). doi:10.14569/ijacsa.2018.090154Poluri, P., & Louri, A. (2016). Shield: A Reliable Network-on-Chip Router Architecture for Chip Multiprocessors. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 27(10), 3058-3070. doi:10.1109/tpds.2016.2521641Valinataj, M., & Shahiri, M. (2016). A low-cost, fault-tolerant and high-performance router architecture for on-chip networks. Microprocessors and Microsystems, 45, 151-163. doi:10.1016/j.micpro.2016.04.009Kim, J., Nicopoulos, C., Park, D., Narayanan, V., Yousif, M. S., & Das, C. R. (2006). A Gracefully Degrading and Energy-Efficient Modular Router Architecture for On-Chip Networks. ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News, 34(2), 4-15. doi:10.1145/1150019.1136487Polian, I., & Hayes, J. P. (2011). Selective Hardening: Toward Cost-Effective Error Tolerance. IEEE Design & Test of Computers, 28(3), 54-63. doi:10.1109/mdt.2010.120Mohammed, H., Flayyih, W., & Rokhani, F. (2019). Tolerating Permanent Faults in the Input Port of the Network on Chip Router. Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications, 9(1), 11. doi:10.3390/jlpea9010011Wang, L., Ma, S., Li, C., Chen, W., & Wang, Z. (2017). A high performance reliable NoC router. Integration, 58, 583-592. doi:10.1016/j.vlsi.2016.10.016Shafique, M. A., Baloch, N. K., Baig, M. I., Hussain, F., Zikria, Y. B., & Kim, S. W. (2020). NoCGuard: A Reliable Network-on-Chip Router Architecture. Electronics, 9(2), 342. doi:10.3390/electronics9020342Poluri, P., & Louri, A. (2015). A Soft Error Tolerant Network-on-Chip Router Pipeline for Multi-Core Systems. IEEE Computer Architecture Letters, 14(2), 107-110. doi:10.1109/lca.2014.2360686Feng, C., Lu, Z., Jantsch, A., Zhang, M., & Xing, Z. (2013). Addressing Transient and Permanent Faults in NoC With Efficient Fault-Tolerant Deflection Router. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 21(6), 1053-1066. doi:10.1109/tvlsi.2012.2204909Liu, J., Harkin, J., Li, Y., & Maguire, L. P. (2016). Fault-Tolerant Networks-on-Chip Routing With Coarse and Fine-Grained Look-Ahead. IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 35(2), 260-273. doi:10.1109/tcad.2015.2459050Runge, A. (2015). FaFNoC: A Fault-tolerant and Bufferless Network-on-chip. Procedia Computer Science, 56, 397-402. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2015.07.226Binkert, N., Beckmann, B., Black, G., Reinhardt, S. K., Saidi, A., Basu, A., … Wood, D. A. (2011). The gem5 simulator. ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News, 39(2), 1-7. doi:10.1145/2024716.202471

WORK RELATED INJURIES IN SMALL SCALE METAL PRESS INDUSTRIES OF SHAHDRAH TOWN, LAHORE, PAKISTAN

The work place injuries have to pay both direct and indirect cost of the accidents. With a population of 169 million, Pakistan has no reported estimate of the national impact of workplace injuries. This study presented a profile of workplace injuries associated with small medium enterprises of metal press cottage industries in Shahdra Town, Lahore (Pakistan) and determined the impact on the country’s economy besides to recommend strategies for delineating these important problems. The in-house accident investigation technique was used to collect the data from randomly selected small scale metal press cottage industries of study area for all types of injuries principally from minor to major ones. It was observed that role of human error in occupational injuries is momentous and keeping in view the necessity of proper safety training of the metal workers, thre is a dire need to institute an information system to evaluate the true impact of injuries and develop national safety standards

In vitro anti-leishmanial and anti-fungal effects of new SbIII carboxylates

Ring opening of phthalic anhydride has been carried out in acetic acid with glycine, β-alanine, L-phenylalanine, and 4-aminobenzoic acid to yield, respectively, 2-{[(carboxymethyl)amino]carbonyl}benzoic acid (I), 2-{[(2-carboxyethyl)amino]carbonyl}benzoic acid (II), 2-{[(1-carboxy-2-phenylethyl)amino]carbonyl}benzoic acid (III), and 2-[(4-carboxyanilino)carbonyl]benzoic acid (IV). Compounds I-IV have been employed as ligands for Sb(III) center (complexes V-VIII) in aqueous medium. FTIR and 1H NMR spectra proved the deprotonation of carboxylic protons and coordination of imine group and thereby tridentate behaviour of the ligands as chelates. Elemental, MS, and TGA analytic data confirmed the structural hypothesis based on spectroscopic results. All the compounds have been assayed in vitro for anti-leishmanial and anti-fungal activities against five leishmanial strains L. major (JISH118), L. major (MHOM/PK/88/DESTO), L. tropica (K27), L. infantum (LEM3437), L. mex mex (LV4), and L. donovani (H43); and Aspergillus Flavus, Aspergillus Fumigants, Aspergillus Niger, and Fusarium Solani. Compound VII exhibited good anti-leishmanial as well as anti-fungal impacts comparable to reference drugs

Effect of early tranexamic acid administration on mortality, hysterectomy, and other morbidities in women with post-partum haemorrhage (WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Post-partum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Early administration of tranexamic acid reduces deaths due to bleeding in trauma patients. We aimed to assess the effects of early administration of tranexamic acid on death, hysterectomy, and other relevant outcomes in women with post-partum haemorrhage. Methods In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited women aged 16 years and older with a clinical diagnosis of post-partum haemorrhage after a vaginal birth or caesarean section from 193 hospitals in 21 countries. We randomly assigned women to receive either 1 g intravenous tranexamic acid or matching placebo in addition to usual care. If bleeding continued after 30 min, or stopped and restarted within 24 h of the first dose, a second dose of 1 g of tranexamic acid or placebo could be given. Patients were assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight numbered packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Participants, care givers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. We originally planned to enrol 15 000 women with a composite primary endpoint of death from all-causes or hysterectomy within 42 days of giving birth. However, during the trial it became apparent that the decision to conduct a hysterectomy was often made at the same time as randomisation. Although tranexamic acid could influence the risk of death in these cases, it could not affect the risk of hysterectomy. We therefore increased the sample size from 15 000 to 20 000 women in order to estimate the effect of tranexamic acid on the risk of death from post-partum haemorrhage. All analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. This trial is registered with ISRCTN76912190 (Dec 8, 2008); ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00872469; and PACTR201007000192283. Findings Between March, 2010, and April, 2016, 20 060 women were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive tranexamic acid (n=10 051) or placebo (n=10 009), of whom 10 036 and 9985, respectively, were included in the analysis. Death due to bleeding was significantly reduced in women given tranexamic acid (155 [1·5%] of 10 036 patients vs 191 [1·9%] of 9985 in the placebo group, risk ratio [RR] 0·81, 95% CI 0·65–1·00; p=0·045), especially in women given treatment within 3 h of giving birth (89 [1·2%] in the tranexamic acid group vs 127 [1·7%] in the placebo group, RR 0·69, 95% CI 0·52–0·91; p=0·008). All other causes of death did not differ significantly by group. Hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (358 [3·6%] patients in the tranexamic acid group vs 351 [3·5%] in the placebo group, RR 1·02, 95% CI 0·88–1·07; p=0·84). The composite primary endpoint of death from all causes or hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (534 [5·3%] deaths or hysterectomies in the tranexamic acid group vs 546 [5·5%] in the placebo group, RR 0·97, 95% CI 0·87-1·09; p=0·65). Adverse events (including thromboembolic events) did not differ significantly in the tranexamic acid versus placebo group. Interpretation Tranexamic acid reduces death due to bleeding in women with post-partum haemorrhage with no adverse effects. When used as a treatment for postpartum haemorrhage, tranexamic acid should be given as soon as possible after bleeding onset. Funding London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Pfizer, UK Department of Health, Wellcome Trust, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Design and Optimization of a Brushless Wound-Rotor Vernier Machine

In this paper, a permanent magnet (PM)-less, brushless, wound-rotor vernier machine (BL-WRVM) is proposed for variable speed applications such as electric vehicles and washing machines. The wound rotor is excited through an already existing brushless topology, which requires a dual inverter configuration to generate an additional subharmonic component in the stator magnetomotive force (MMF). Different from permanent magnet vernier machines (PMVMs), the proposed BL-WRVM provides easy regulation of the rotor flux for variable speed operation. A 24-slot, 4-pole stator, and 44-pole outer rotor were designed, and 2D finite element analysis (FEA) was carried out to determine the performance of the proposed machine. To improve the performance of the proposed machine, optimization of the rotor and stator winding turns was done. The optimized model was further analyzed for wide-speed operation, and its performance was then compared with that of an equivalent permanent magnet vernier machine (PMVM). The proposed machine has the advantage of low cost due to its PM-less structure and is suitable for variable speed applications