Convalescent Plasma Therapy in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Patients: A Brief Review

The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has reevaluated effectiveness of the convalescent plasma therapy (CPT). This review was carried out to assess the usefulness of CPT in critically COVID-19 patients, based on the published data to date. To the best of our knowledge, this is the second review of the usefulness of CPT in COVID-19 patients. PubMed, Google Scholar, Medline and EMBASE databases were searched for the relevant reports up to June 21, 2020. All the records of the published data were analyzed according to eligibility criteria protocols. Five different studies on CPT for COVID-19 critically ill patients were included in this review. The significant findings from the records are: (a) the CPT may help to reduce mortality in the seriously ill patients (b) administration of CPT increased antibodies titer and reduced the level of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA beyond detection limit (c) transfusion of convalescent plasma (CP) subsided clinical symptoms. Based on the currently available data, the CPT in the COVID-19 patients seems effective, safe and reduces mortality. There is urgent need of performing well-designed, multicenter clinical trials for establishing efficacy of the CPT in COVID-19 patients

COVID-19 and the Unseen Benefits of Dexamethasone

According to World Health Organization (WHO) current updates, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread all over the globe affecting 216 countries and caused 8,860,331 confirmed cases and 465,740 deaths last followed by 24 June 2020. Many countries cannot afford the nucleic acid tests to confirm COVID-19 infected patients; as a result, people cannot know the COVID-19 status of the people living around them. The use of dexamethasone in COVID-19 hospitalized patients for up to 10 days lower 28-day mortality as compared to the patients taking usual care and also receiving mechanical ventilation at randomization (by age-adjusted percentage points 12.3, approximately one third of proportional reduction) and those patients receiving oxygen without invasive mechanical ventilation (by age-adjusted percentage points 4.1, approximately one fifth of proportional reduction)

Chemically cross-linked poly(acrylic-co-vinylsulfonic) acid hydrogel for the delivery of isosorbide mononitrate.

We report synthesis, characterization, and drug release attributes of a series of novel pH-sensitive poly(acrylic-co-vinylsulfonic) acid hydrogels. These hydrogels were prepared by employing free radical polymerization using ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) and benzyl peroxide (BPO) as cross-linker and initiator, respectively. Effect of acrylic acid (AA), polyvinylsulfonic acid (PVSA), and EGDMA on prepared hydrogels was investigated. All formulations showed higher swelling at high pHs and vice versa. Formulations containing higher content of AA and EGDMA show reduced swelling, but one with higher content of PVSA showed increased swelling. Hydrogel network was characterized by determining structural parameters and loaded with isosorbide mononitrate. FTIR confirmed absence of drug polymer interaction while DSC and TGA demonstrated molecular dispersion of drug in a thermally stable polymeric network. All the hydrogel formulations exhibited a pH dependent release of isosorbide mononitrate which was found to be directly proportional to pH of the medium and PVSA content and inversely proportional to the AA contents. Drug release data were fitted to various kinetics models. Results indicated that release of isosorbide mononitrate from poly(AA-co-VSA) hydrogels was non-Fickian and that the mechanism was diffusion-controlled

Resolving Conflicts: Conflict Management Strategies in Higher Education Institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

The paper aimed to highlight a perennial conflict issue between faculty and administration staff in higher education institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan. Keeping in view the development of education sector and maintaining conducive environment in universities, the study was rightly undertaken to first discover and then present some viable solution for it.  The research used the private sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkha (KPK) province Pakistan for its analysis. For collecting the relevant data, the study used questionnaire which was distributed in six universities of KPK. The results show that age, gender, qualifications and designation matters in the issue of conflicts. Further, it was concluded that there is significant relationship between the nature of conflict, causes of conflict, consequences, demographic features and solution of conflicts. Our study found a lack of coordination and formal set-up for conflict resolution in the private sector universities. HEIs are the key players of education system in KPK, that’s why it is imperative to resolve the conflicts of HEIs for the betterment of students, faculty and administration.  Finally, our study provides useful suggestions to the universities’ human resource management, faculty, administration staff, regulators, Higher Education Department of KPK and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan to take corrective actions and manage the conflicts to safeguard the future of young generation. Keywords: Conflict, Human Resources Management, Faculty, Administration, Private Sector Universities, Conflict Management Strategie

MinION as a Teaching tool in a Graduate course in Pakistan

Genomics is a rapidly evolving field of study that is increasingly being utilized as a tool to detect ethnic and tribal-specific mutations that may be the key to rare and common diseases with higher prevalence in the population under study [1]. However, researchers and science educators in remote areas can often find it difficult to access the latest genetic technologies, probably due to its high costs and lack of suitable infrastructure. Recent technological innovations are resulting in portable, low-cost instruments that enable next-generation sequencing in remote environments, offering new opportunities to generate a more widespread network of trained geneticists [2]. We need to formalize educational efforts to teach students and young researchers with hands-on training to excel in molecular and bioinformatics knowledge. Here, we report our experience of using the MinION pocket size sequencer in a graduate course. The graduate course had some theoretical lectures that explained the basic principles of genomics followed be practical sessions. We hope that the training material developed during this course will provide the community with useful tools to help educate future generations of genome scientists in Pakistan.

Doing business with the poor: the rules and impact of the microfinance institutions

Of the total global population, at least 14.5% are living on less than $1.25 a day, 34% of the females in the least developed countries are unable to complete their primary education, and some 805 million are believed to be food insecure. To bring these numbers into accordance with the Millennium Development Goals, there are at least a dozen of different programmes operating around the world. Microcredit, being one of those programmes, is considered superior to the rest for being the only participatory approach and for being general enough to cater for a number of policy interventions. Microcredit or credit to the poor is provided under two very different mechanisms; the welfarist mechanism and the institutionalist mechanism. Each of these mechanisms has its advocates, as well as, its critics. The current paper empirically evaluates the two approaches in a systematic way. By using purposively collected data from the North West Pakistan and vigorous methodologies, we show that commercialization of microfinance institutions has indeed shifted the focus from either poverty reduction or women’s empowerment. Instead, the focus is now on more secure and profitable advances. Moreover, we also show that the welfarist approach in eradicating poverty and empowering women is superior to the now popular financial system approach

Predictors of Acute Stent Thrombosis After Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

OBJECTIVES To identify the specific predictors of acute stent thrombosis in patients after primary percutaneous coronary intervention.METHODOLOGY This retrospective study was carried out at the Department of Cardiology Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar from 1st January to 30th June 2022. All consecutive patients with an angiographically confirmed stent thrombosis were enrolled. Patients gave informed consent for the inclusion of data in this registry. Stent thrombosis was categorized according to the timing of the event as acute (occurrence within the first 24 hours after the index procedure).RESULTSA total of 400 patients were included in the study. Age ranged between 35-70 years, with a mean age of 52.5. There were 260(65%) males and 140(35%) females, with male to female ratio of 1.8:1. All patients underwent primary PCI with stent implantation. According to the elapsed time since stent implantation, 42(10.5%) patients presented with acute stent thrombosis after primary percutaneous coronary intervention. The mean time to develop acute stent thrombosis after primary PCI was ±4.5 hours (range 3-6 hours). In most STEMI patients, 340(85%) received a loading dose of clopidogrel at the time of the index PCI. In 23(54.7%) patients, acute stent thrombosis occurred within 6 hours, 10(23.8%) within 12 hours, 6(14.2%) within 18 hours and 3(7.1%) after clopidogrel loading.CONCLUSIONInadequate stent expansion or mal-opposition, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and female gender were the strong predictors of acute stent thrombosis

Virtual Pseudonym-Changing and Dynamic Grouping Policy for Privacy Preservation in VANETs

Location privacy is a critical problem in the vehicular communication networks. Vehicles broadcast their road status information to other entities in the network through beacon messages to inform other entities in the network. The beacon message content consists of the vehicle ID, speed, direction, position, and other information. An adversary could use vehicle identity and positioning information to determine vehicle driver behavior and identity at different visited location spots. A pseudonym can be used instead of the vehicle ID to help in the vehicle location privacy. These pseudonyms should be changed in appropriate way to produce uncertainty for any adversary attempting to identify a vehicle at different locations. In the existing research literature, pseudonyms are changed during silent mode between neighbors. However, the use of a short silent period and the visibility of pseudonyms of direct neighbors provides a mechanism for an adversary to determine the identity of a target vehicle at specific locations. Moreover, privacy is provided to the driver, only within the RSU range; outside it, there is no privacy protection. In this research, we address the problem of location privacy in a highway scenario, where vehicles are traveling at high speeds with diverse traffic density. We propose a Dynamic Grouping and Virtual Pseudonym-Changing (DGVP) scheme for vehicle location privacy. Dynamic groups are formed based on similar status vehicles and cooperatively change pseudonyms. In the case of low traffic density, we use a virtual pseudonym update process. We formally present the model and specify the scheme through High-Level Petri Nets (HLPN). The simulation results indicate that the proposed method improves the anonymity set size and entropy, provides lower traceability, reduces impact on vehicular network applications, and has lower computation cost compared to existing research work

Impact of Stress on Software Engineers Knowledge Sharing and Creativity (A Pakistani Perspective)

Software development involves technology as well as human efforts. Software engineering is supportive to create a quality of product by adopting the process of sharing knowledge. A lot of research was conducted on the technical side but human side of software development disregarded. Knowledge and creativity considered major factors for improving the software quality. Currently professionals working in the field of software engineering are under impressive pressure which cause stress for the Software engineers. It is highly desirable to conduct an empirical study on impact of stress on software engineers knowledge sharing & creativity. The major motivation for this study is to investigate the impact of job stress factors which can affect the software engineering knowledge sharing capabilities and creativity. The research is based on industrial assessment. For conducting this study we developed a questionnaire based on Stress Factors. Statistical analyses are performed through SPSS tool. On the basis of the results from the survey, we proposed some strategies for those factors that have high impact on software engineers and try to mitigate their affect. These results highlight stress factors and their impact on software engineers knowledge sharing and creativity, working in Pakistani software industry