Natural infection of the sand fly Phlebotomus kazeruni by Trypanosoma species in Pakistan

The natural infection of phlebotomine sand flies by Leishmania parasites was surveyed in a desert area of Pakistan where cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic. Out of 220 female sand flies dissected, one sand fly, Phlebotomus kazeruni, was positive for flagellates in the hindgut. Analyses of cytochrome b (cyt b), glycosomal glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase (gGAPDH) and small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) gene sequences identified the parasite as a Trypanosoma species of probably a reptile or amphibian. This is the first report of phlebotomine sand flies naturally infected with a Trypanosoma species in Pakistan. The possible infection of sand flies with Trypanosoma species should be taken into consideration in epidemiological studies of vector species in areas where leishmaniasis is endemic

Bullying of medical students in Pakistan: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

Background: Several studies from other countries have shown that bullying, harassment, abuse or belittlement are a regular phenomenon faced not only by medical students, but also junior doctors, doctors undertaking research and other healthcare professionals. While research has been carried out on bullying experienced by psychiatrists and psychiatry trainees in Pakistan no such research has been conducted on medical students in this country. Methodology/Principal Findings: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey on final year medical students in six medical colleges of Pakistan. The response rate was 63%. Fifty-two percent of respondents reported that they had faced bullying or harassment during their medical education, about 28% of them experiencing it once a month or even more frequently. The overwhelming form of bullying had been verbal abuse (57%), while consultants were the most frequent (46%) perpetrators. Students who were slightly older, males, those who reported that their medical college did not have a policy on bullying or harassment, and those who felt that adequate support was not in place at their medical college for bullied individuals, were significantly more likely to have experienced bullying. Conclusion: Bullying or harassment is faced by quite a large proportion of medical students in Pakistan. The most frequent perpetrators of this bullying are consultants. Adoption of a policy against bullying and harassment by medical colleges, and providing avenues of support for students who have been bullied may help reduce this phenomenon, as the presence of these two was associated with decreased likelihood of students reporting having being bullied

Hydrothermal carbonization of oil palm shell

Palm shell is one of the most plentiful wastes of the palm oil mill industry. This study identifies the capability of hydrothermal carbonization process (HTC) to convert palm shell into high energy hydrochar. The influence of reaction time and reaction temperature of the HTC process was investigated. The process parameters selected were temperature 200 °C to 240 °C, time 10 to 60min, and water to biomass ratio was fixed at 10 : 1 by weight %. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), elemental, proximate, Burner Emmett and Teller (BET), thermo-gravime tric (TGA) analyses were performed to characterize the product and the feed. The heating value (HHV) was increased from 12.24 MJ/ kg (raw palm shell) to 22.11 MJ/kg (hydrochar produced at 240 °C and 60 min). The hydrochar yield exhibited a higher degree inverse proportionality with temperature and reaction time. Elemental analysis revealed an increase in carbon percentage and a proportional decrease in hydrogen and oxygen contents which caused higher value of HHV. The dehydration and decarboxylation reactions take place at higher temperatures during HTC resulting in the increase of carbon and decrease in oxygen values of hydrochar. The FESEM results reveal that the structure of raw palm shell was decomposed by HTC process. The pores on the surface of hydrochar increased as compared to the raw palm shell

An overview of microwave hydrothermal carbonization and microwave pyrolysis of biomass

© 2018, Springer Nature B.V. Biomass utilization has received much attention for production of high density solid fuels. Utilization of cheap and naturally available precursors through environmentally friendly and effective processes is an attractive and emerging research area. Pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) are well-known technologies available for production of solid biofuel using conventional or microwave heating. Microwave heating is a simpler and more efficient heating method than conventional heating. This study presents a critical review on microwave pyrolysis and microwave HTC for solid fuel production in terms of yield and quality of products. Moreover, a brief summary of parameters of microwave pyrolysis and microwave HTC are discussed. The fuel, chemical, structural and thermal weight loss characteristics of solid fuels produced from different biomass are discussed and compared