Moderna (mRNA-1273) Covid-19 Vaccine, “A Systematic Review”

A Global pandemic, declared by WHO, caused due to a deadly virus known as a “SARS-Cov-2”, has resulted in 4.3 million deaths. Its RNA based genome and lack of proofreading ability has made this virus more prone to get the frequent mutations and results in the formation of new variants and increased pathogenicity. Scientists had been trying hard to develop the ways through which this lethal virus could be eradicated, from the day the genome of SARS CoV-2 was first reported. In order to prevent from this viral infection more than 90 vaccines were developed but few of them were approved by FDA for the human trials. Moderna Inc came up with “mRNA-1273” vaccine which was given EUA approval on 18th December, 2020 by the FDA. The vaccine is based on active mRNA, translated into spike proteins of virus, is developed by the help of nanotechnology. The clinical trials have proved an efficacy of 94.1%. Moreover, the vaccine is able to prevent disease caused by the alpha, beta, gamma and delta variant of SARS-Cov 2 in recent studies. In this review article the composition, technology, mode of action, immune responses, clinical trials and efficacy as well as the comparison of moderna vaccine with other available covid-19 vaccines has been discussed

Meconium stained liquor and its neonatal outcome

Objective: To determine the maternal factors and neonatal outcome of pregnancy complicated by meconium stained amniotic fluid. Methods: This one year retrospective study was conducted at the Agha Khan Hospital for Women-Garden Campus, it is a secondary care private teaching hospital. Demographics information included gestational age, gender and birth weight of baby, medical and obstetric complications during pregnancy, mode of delivery, neonatal outcome (Meconium Aspiration Syndrome (MAS) and need for admission in nursery) were recorded on a pre-designed proforma. Results: In our study the frequency of meconium stained amniotic fluid (MSAF) was 7.85%, out of them 12 % babies developed MAS. There was significant association between grades of meconium and MAS, babies with thick meconium were prone to develop MAS (P = 0.02). Emergency cesarean section was significantly associated with MAS. Gestational diabetes (GDM) and pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) were the significant factors associated with MAS. Conclusion: Thick Meconium stained amniotic fluid was associated with low APGAR score, high rate of emergency cesarean section and meconium aspiration syndrome. Anemia during pregnancy, PIH and GDM were important risk factor associated with MAS

Gaussian mixture model based probabilistic modeling of images for medical image segmentation

In this paper, we propose a novel image segmentation algorithm that is based on the probability distributions of the object and background. It uses the variational level sets formulation with a novel region based term in addition to the edge-based term giving a complementary functional, that can potentially result in a robust segmentation of the images. The main theme of the method is that in most of the medical imaging scenarios, the objects are characterized by some typical characteristics such a color, texture, etc. Consequently, an image can be modeled as a Gaussian mixture of distributions corresponding to the object and background. During the procedure of curve evolution, a novel term is incorporated in the segmentation framework which is based on the maximization of the distance between the GMM corresponding to the object and background. The maximization of this distance using differential calculus potentially leads to the desired segmentation results. The proposed method has been used for segmenting images from three distinct imaging modalities i.e. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), dermoscopy and chromoendoscopy. Experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed method giving better qualitative and quantitative results when compared with the current state-of-the-art. INDEX TERMS Gaussian Mixture Model, Level Sets, Active Contours, Biomedical Engineerin

Toxicity, Antioxidant Activity, and Phytochemicals of Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) Leaves Cultivated in Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is one of the most common aromatic herbs, a rich source of bioactive compounds, and is used extensively to add aroma and flavor to food. The leaves, both in fresh and dried form, are used as a culinary ingredient in different cultures. O. basilicum is also famous for its therapeutic potential and preservation effects. The present study investigated the cytotoxicity of basil at three different growth stages (GS), i.e., GS-1 (58 days of growth), GS-2 (69 days of growth), and GS-3 (93 days of growth) using the brine shrimp lethality assay. The results revealed that cytotoxicity was influenced by GS and the concentration of extracts. Aqueous extracts of basil at a concentration of 10 to 1000 µg/mL did not show notable toxicity. The lowest mortality rate, i.e., 8.9%, was recorded for GS-2 at the highest tested dose of basil extracts. The mortality rate at GS-1, GS-2, and GS-3 was found to be 26.7 ± 3.34%, 8.91 ± 0.10%, and 16.7 ± 0.34%, respectively, at 1000 µg/mL. GS-2 basil powder with the lowest toxicological risk was extracted with different solvents, viz., n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethanol, and water. The highest concentration of plant secondary metabolites including total phenolic acid, flavonoids, and tannin content was observed in ethanol extracts. Ethanol extracts also exhibited the highest antioxidant activity in DPPH, FRAP and H2O2 assays. LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis presented ethanol extracts of basil as a promising source of known health-promoting and therapeutic compounds such as rosmarinic acid, ellagic acid, catechin, liquiritigenin, and umbelliferone. The results suggest basil, a culinary ingredient, as a potential source of bioactive compounds which may offer an array of health promoting and therapeutic properties

Antioxidant Effect of Ocimum basilicum Essential Oil and Its Effect on Cooking Qualities of Supplemented Chicken Nuggets

A commonly observed chicken meat issue is its lipid oxidation that leads to deterioration of its organoleptic and nutritional properties and its further-processed products. Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is one of the traditional culinary herbs exhibiting food preservation properties. The current study investigated the essential oil composition, antioxidant activity and in vitro cytotoxic capacity of the essential oil of basil indigenous to Pakistan. GC–MS analysis of the essential oil revealed the presence of 59 compounds that constituted 98.6% of the essential oil. O. basilicum essential oil (OB-EO) exhibited excellent antioxidant activity, i.e., IC50 5.92 ± 0.15 µg/mL as assayed by the DPPH assay, 23.4 ± 0.02 µmoL Fe/g by FRAP, and 14.6 ± 0.59% inhibition by H2O2. The brine shrimp lethality assay identified an average mortality of ~18% with OB-EO at 10–1000 µg/mL, while that of the same concentration range of the standard drug (etoposide) was 72%. OB-EO was found to be non-toxic to HeLa and PC-3 cell lines. TBARS contents were significantly decreased with increase of OB-EO in chicken nuggets. The lowest TBARS contents were recorded in nuggets supplemented with 0.3% OB-EO, whereas the highest overall acceptability score was marked to the treatments carrying 0.2% OB-EO. The results suggest OB-EO as a promising carrier of bioactive compounds with a broad range of food preservation properties, and which has a sensory acceptability threshold level for chicken nuggets falling between 0.2-0.3% supplementation. Future research must investigate the antibacterial impact of OB-EO on meat products preserved with natural rather than synthetic preservatives

Scheduling and Sizing of Campus Microgrid Considering Demand Response and Economic Analysis

Current energy systems face multiple problems related to inflation in energy prices, reduction of fossil fuels, and greenhouse gas emissions which are disturbing the comfort zone of energy consumers and the affordability of power for large commercial customers. These kinds of problems can be alleviated with the help of optimal planning of demand response policies and with distributed generators in the distribution system. The objective of this article is to give a strategic proposition of an energy management system for a campus microgrid (µG) to minimize the operating costs and to increase the self-consuming energy of the green distributed generators (DGs). To this end, a real-time based campus is considered that currently takes provision of its loads from the utility grid only. According to the proposed given scenario, it will contain solar panels and a wind turbine as non-dispatchable DGs while a diesel generator is considered as a dispatchable DG. It also incorporates an energy storage system with optimal sizing of BESS to tackle the multiple disturbances that arise from solar radiation. The resultant problem of linear mathematics was simulated and plotted in MATLAB with mixed-integer linear programming. Simulation results show that the proposed given model of energy management (EMS) minimizes the grid electricity costs by 668.8 CC/day ($) which is 36.6% of savings for the campus microgrid. The economic prognosis for the campus to give an optimum result for the UET Taxila, Campus was also analyzed. The general effect of a medium-sized solar PV installation on carbon emissions and energy consumption costs was also determined. The substantial environmental and economic benefits compared to the present situation have prompted the campus owners to invest in the DGs and to install large-scale energy storage

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

Histological changes in the liver of diabetic rats: A review of pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in type 1 diabetes mellitus

Abstract: Abundant knowledge is present over nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus but no attention has been given to the same aspect with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in humans. However, various animal modeled studies are documented having induced T1DM using chemical induction by alloxan (ALX) or streptozotocin (SZ) to investigate and comprehend the nature and pathophysiology of NAFLD in T1DM. The objectives of this review were to assess whether T1DM induced by ALX or SZ could cause histological (morphological and ultrastructural) changes in rat liver to illustrate the effects of these drugs and diabetes, and pathophysiology of NAFLD in T1DM. To achieve these objectives, we systematically searched the studies from EconLit, Embase, Google Scholar, Medline, PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus, Springer Link, and Science Direct databases. Initially, 150 studies were retrieved. Out of these, 107 studies were removed as these failed to provide relevant details. Finally, 43 articles were selected for this review. This review concluded that diabetes induced by ALX or SZ, cause biochemical alterations in blood and pathophysiological variations in the liver of rats. These changes can vary from steatosis to steatohepatitis and liver fibrosis, and are similar to the modifications observed in human liver