Ethnomedicinal Importance of Family Lamiaceae and Family Rosaceae Among Local Communities of Dir Kohistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

The present study was conducted to document the medicinal uses of Family Lamiaceae and Rosaceae in Dir Kohistan during the summer of 2016. Field visits were arranged to different resource-based areas of Dir Kohistan and plants were identified according to their phytogeographic locations. The study revealed that nine species of the family Lamiaceae and seven species of the family Rosaceae are used by the local community for the treatment of human ailments. They utilized these plants through personal experiences and ancestral prescriptions. The plants were used for different health disorders like kidney pain, lung infections, jaundice, as carminative, antimicrobial, antifungal, antiseptic, laxative, febrifuge, sedative and astringent agent. The study revealed that the medicinal flora of the area is under high pressure and was threatened locally due to population growth, habitat degradation, tourism, marketing pressure, over exploitation and unscientific methods of collection from their natural habitat

Effectiveness of Open Surgery for Supratentorial Gliomas in Terms of Improvement in Karnofsky Performance Score

Introduction: Glioma is a primary brain tumor derived from neuralgia cells like astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and ependymal cells. It is a non curable malignant tumor. Therefore, the objective of the treatment is mainly to improve quality of life.Objective: To determine the effectiveness of open surgery for supra-tentorial glioma in terms of improvement in Karnofsky performance score.Materials and Method: This Descriptive case series study was conducted at Neurosurgery Department PGMI / LRH Peshawar from January 2012 to December 2012 (1 year). Total 144 consecutive patients with supra-tentorial glioma of more than 18 years of age who underwent open surgery (craniotomy with tumor resection) were included. Pre and postoperative Karnofsky performance score was recorded.Results: Total of 144 patients were included in the study, of which 101 were males and 43 females. Age ranged from 19 years to 65 years with 36.8% of the patients in the 3rd decade of life. Majority of the patients had supra-tentorial glioma in the frontal lobe making 38.9% of the whole. In 63.9% of the patients, the procedure was effective. It was more effective in young individuals as compared to patients of middle and old age. Furthermore, the success rate was more in patients with frontal lobe tumor followed by those with parietal glioma.Conclusion: Open surgery with total or partial resection of tumor is an effective procedure for the treatment of supra-tentorial glioma. Its effectiveness is influenced by the age of patient, location of the tumor and preoperative Karnofsky performance score

Internal Model Control (IMC)-Based Active and Reactive Power Control of Brushless Double-Fed Induction Generator with Notch Filter

The increase in demand for electricity and, in particular, green energy has put renewable energy systems at the focal point of energy policy worldwide. The higher reliability of brushless doubly fed induction generators (BDFIGs) makes them suitable for offshore and remote wind energy generation (WEG) applications. Besides, controlling the active and reactive powers in an electrical power system is critical for optimal voltage regulation, reduced power losses, and enhanced utilization of installed equipment. However, the existing literature on BDFIG’s active and reactive power control highlights the poor dynamic response and high transients with harmonic generation during inductive load insertion. It is because the Ziegler technique was employed to select PI gains, and the instantaneous reactive power theory was used to mitigate harmonics. Considering that, this paper proposes a vector control (VC) method for BDFIGs in wind turbines, in which the proportional-integral (PI) gains for internal model control (IMC) are optimized to improve the dynamic response of the active and reactive power during inductive load insertion. The proposed method reduces the complexity, time consumption, and uncertainty in making the optimal choice. In addition, to reduce a double fundamental frequency component to the point-of-common-coupling (PCC) voltage, the excellent characteristics of the notch filter are utilized in the grid-side converter (GSC)-based vector control scheme. The simulation results in MATLAB/ Simulink show that the proposed IMC-based vector control scheme with a notch filter provides satisfactory results with a minimum peak value compared to existing techniques

Histomorphometrical Investigations on the Heart, Kidneys and Adrenal Glands in Normal Teddy Goats (Capra hircus) Using Image Analysis System

This study was conducted to elucidate the effects of age and sex on the histometrical values of blood pressure related organs including heart, kidneys and adrenal glands in teddy goats. The hearts, kidneys and the adrenal glands of 36 teddy goats, divided in three age-groups; kids (6-12 months), adults (13-21 months) and adults (22-24 months), were processed for histometrical studies. Mean diameters, volumes and Intramural connective tissue contents of right atrium, left atrium, right ventricle and left ventricle were recorded from cardiac specimens. Age affected none of the parameters of the heart significantly. Mean diameters and volumes of subcapsular and juxtamedullary glomeruli were recorded from kidney specimens. All parameters of the kidney invariably showed a consistent rise with advancing age. Thicknesses of the zona glomerulosa, zona fasciculata and zona reticularis of the right adrenal gland were measured. Thickness of different zones of the adrenal cortex showed significant (P<0.05) changes with age. It is conceivable from these findings that the development of heart, kidneys and adrenal showed an increase parallel to the advancing age to adjust with the increasing blood pressure due to physiological development process. Sex, however, played a secondary role

Controllable Emphasis with zero data for text-to-speech

We present a scalable method to produce high quality emphasis for text-to-speech (TTS) that does not require recordings or annotations. Many TTS models include a phoneme duration model. A simple but effective method to achieve emphasized speech consists in increasing the predicted duration of the emphasised word. We show that this is significantly better than spectrogram modification techniques improving naturalness by $7.3\%$ and correct testers' identification of the emphasized word in a sentence by $40\%$ on a reference female en-US voice. We show that this technique significantly closes the gap to methods that require explicit recordings. The method proved to be scalable and preferred in all four languages tested (English, Spanish, Italian, German), for different voices and multiple speaking styles.Comment: In proceeding of 12th Speech Synthesis Workshop (SSW) 202

The asymmetric effects of oil price on sectoral Islamic stocks: New evidence from quantile-on-quantile regression approach

This study extends the existing literature by examining the impact of oil prices on the Dow Jones (DJ) Islamic index and sectoral stock indices. In particular, enhanced empirical estimations are used to provide an in-depth understanding of the sensitivity of stock indices towards oil price fluctuation. Quantile unit root test and quantile cointegration tests are used to examine the integrating properties of the underlying variables. Moreover, we use Quantile-on-Quantile (QQ) approach to examine the impact across diverse quantiles of explanatory and outcome variables. Findings of the QQ estimate indicates that lower (upper) quantiles of oil prices negatively affect the upper (lower) quantiles of the DJ Islamic index. In addition, either upper or lower quantiles of both markets indicate a positive relationship. The findings for financial sector, healthcare sector, consumer goods, consumer services, oil & gas sector, utility sector, and industrial sector are consistent with the findings of DJ Islamic index. Finally, for basic material, technology and telecommunication sectors, a positive relationship is found across different quantiles. This study provides policy implications based on the findings of these enhanced methodologies

Glyceryl trinitrate-induced vasodilation is inhibited by ultraviolet irradiation despite enhanced nitric oxide generation: evidence for formation of a nitric oxide conjugate

ABSTRACT Our objective was to determine whether a stabilized form of nitric oxide (NO) such as an S-nitrosothiol, rather than NO itself, is the vasoactive metabolite produced when glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) interacts with vascular smooth muscle. In a control study, NO formation was measured by a chemiluminescenceheadspace gas method during the incubation of a prototype S-nitrosothiol, namely, S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP), in Krebs&apos; solution. NO formation from SNAP was increased when the incubation was carried out in the presence of UV light, indicating that homolytic photolysis of the S-nitrosothiol had occurred. When GTN was incubated with bovine pulmonary artery (BPA) in the absence of UV light, NO was not measurable until 5 min of incubation. By contrast, in the presence of UV light, NO was measurable as early as 0.5 min, and by 5 min, it was higher than that observed in the absence of UV light. BPA rings were relaxed with SNAP and GTN in the absence of UV light, and EC 50 values of 0.24 Ϯ 0.28 M and 10 Ϯ 6 nM, respectively, were observed. In the presence of UV light, the vasodilator response of BPA to SNAP and GTN was attenuated, and EC 50 values of 2.7 Ϯ 3.0 M and 49 Ϯ 23 nM, respectively, were observed. Our results are consistent with the idea that GTN biotransformation by vascular smooth muscle results in the production of a stabilized form of NO, possibly an S-nitrosothiol, and that degradation of this metabolite by UV light results in NO formation accompanied by decreased vasodilation