Root cause analysis (RCA) of fractured ASTM A53 carbon steel pipe at oil & gas company

Incident involving failures of ASTM A53 carbon steel (CS) pipe, connected to pressure safety valve (PSV) and carrying raw gas has caused serious supply disruption. This study was performed to identify the most probable cause of the pipe failure. It was conducted by reviewing the existing design, construction data and pipe material analysis using non-destructive techniques such as VT, PT, MT and UT along with metallographic, hardness and microscopic analysis. The investigation revealed that excessive material loss has occurred in both failure and its adjacent regions due to abrasive grinding, resulting in the formation of a through thickness flaw. These grindings were performed to accommodate the pre-installed piping spool to avoid alteration in the pipe position. RCA demonstrated that this rapid thinning of the steel pipe body later led to its failure. Metallurgical study using photomicrograph shows that the morphology of the steel material was consistent and did not show any evidence of internal corrosion or micro fractures. Further damage to the surface of already excessively reduced thickness occurred due to nominal pipe vibration and atmospheric effect during service. The research work described in the paper has a significant meaning to recognize the root cause of such failures in CS pipes and through given recommendations to eliminate future such happenings

Analysis of chemical constituents in medicinal plants of selected districts of Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan

Alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins were determined in the Teraxacam officinale, Cichorium intybus and Figonia tritica. Quantative determinations of crude alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins (g kg-1) and their percentages (%) were determined in C. intybus, T. officinale and F. critica collected from Kohat, Mardan, Nowshera and Peshawar regions. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) study of the alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins were carried out with different solvent systems and color of the spot and Rf value of each constituent was determined. Among the samples of C. intybus, relatively higher contents of alkaloids (14 g kg-1) were found in the sample collected from Mardan region, followed by the sample gathered from Nowshera which is equal to 13.8g kg-1. Higher contents of flavonoids were found in C. intybus collected from Kohat region which was 23.48 g kg-1. The other remaining samples of C. intybus ranged in the decreasing order of 19.7, 17.2 and 10.0 g kg-1 for the ones collected from Nowshera, Mardan and Peshawar, respectively. The overall saponin contents remained almost low as compared to the alkaloid and flavonoid contents.Key words: Alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, TLC study, medicinal plants

Heavy metals and inorganic constituents in medicinal plants of selected Districts of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan

Heavy metals such as Cr, Fe, Zn, Mn, Ni, Pb, Cu and Cd, and inorganic ions like HCO3-, CO32-, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl-, Na+, SO42-, NO3-, Fe2+ and F- were investigated in medicinally important plants: Taraxacam officinale, Cichorium intybus and Figonia critica, applying atomic absorption spectrophotometer techniques. In the studied herbs, there were variable amounts of heavy metals and inorganic ions. The purpose of this study was to standardize heavy metals contamination in various indigenous medicinal plants and to create awareness among the public regarding its safe use at collection areas (containing high level of heavy metals) and their adverse health effects.Key words: Medicinal plants, inorganic constituents, heavy metals, atomic absorption spectrophotometer

Effect of different caloric values on the recovery of marasmic children

The effect of diets of different caloric values on the recovery of marasmic children was studied for 3 weeks in Pakistan. Sixty marasmic children of less than 5 years age were grouped in to 4; each group was having 15 children. For each group, two diets, one for early recovery and the other for catch up growth, were prepared from fresh buffalo milk, banana, soybean oil and glucose. The basal (reference) and test diets for early recovery and catch up growth were having constant protein and variable amount of calories. The basal diets and test diets for early recovery and catch up growth were assigned to group 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The early recovery diets were fed for the first 5 days and the catch up growth diets were fed for the remaining period. The recovery of the children was measured in terms of weight gain and weight was taken weekly. The combined average intake/day of the diets was calculated. The average protein intake of groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 2.4 ± 0.6, 2.1 ± 0.4, 2.3 ± 1.0 and 2.6 ± 1.0 g/kg body weight/day respectively. The average caloric intake of groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 128 ± 32, 129 ± 30, 150 ± 63 and 185 ± 71 Kcal/Kg body weight/day respectively. Children of all the groups gained weight but the groups of test diets gained more weight than the group of basal diet. Group 3 of test diets gained significantly (P< 0.05) more weight than group 1 of basal diet. The data revealed that the diet that provided 2.3 ± 1.0 g protein and 153 ± 63 Kcal/Kg body weight /day was better for the recovery of marasmic children

Isolated blunt abdominal aortic injury without concomitant abdominal injuries treated with endovascular stent grafting

Blunt injury of the abdominal aorta is a rare event, seen in only 0.07% to 0.17% of all blunt traumas. These injuries are frequently associated with other intra-abdominal injuries, with high rates of morbidity and mortality. We present a case of isolated blunt abdominal aortic trauma to the infrarenal aorta without concomitant abdominal or spinal injuries. The patient was treated with endovascular aortic stent grafting and is without complications 12 months after the procedure

Phytochemical analysis of selected medicinal plants

Four medicinal plants including Ranunculus arvensis, Equisetum ravens, Carathamus lanatus and Fagonia critica were used for the study. All the plants were biologically active and were used for different types of ailments. Keeping in view their importance, this work was carried out to investigate the quantitative determination of their crude phytochemicals, vitamins and protein contents. The quantitative determination of crude phytochemicals (alkaloids, total phenols, flavonoids and saponins) vitamins (riboflavin, vitamin C, niacin and pectin) and protein were determined in the aforementioned herbs. The phytochemicals including alkaloids, total phenols, flavonoids and saponins were determined quantitatively using literature methods. Vitamins were measured using a UV/ visible spectrophotometer (UV- 1601 Shamidzu) and the protein was determined by the Micro KJeldahl’s method (Horwitz et al., 2000). The studied plants showed variable amounts of phytochemicals, vitamins and protein contents. The study is very important, in that it intended to show the contents of the studied medicinal herbs and also provide a scientific data base line which is of particular importance for the local practioners as well as for the local people using these herbs for a variety of body disorders.Key word: Phytochemical analysis, medicinal plants, Pakistan

m7824 msb0011359c a bifunctional fusion protein targeting pd l1 and tgf β in patients with post platinum esophageal adenocarcinoma eac preliminary results from a phase i cohort

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Oral health behind the bars: oral health seeking behavior among jail prisoners at central jail of Peshawar, Pakistan: a cross-sectional study

Background: The oral health care-seeking behavior among prison inmates is an overlooked area, often leading to deteriorating general health due to the prisoners’ limited awareness of oral hygiene practices. It is crucial to address this issue and understand the factors associated with oral healthcare-seeking behavior in prisons. Objective: To assess the oral healthcare-seeking behavior of prison inmates at Central Prisoner Jail, Peshawar Pakistan and to look the factors associated with their dental care utilization. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Central Prisoner Jail, Peshawar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan from November 2021 to April 2022. A consecutive sampling technique was used to collect data from both convicted and under-trial prisoners by using a pre-tested WHO Basic Oral Health Survey 2013 tool. Our outcome variable was “Visit to a dentist in the last 12 months (Never/Once or more than one visit). Chi-square test was used to determine univariate association with other explanatory variables while multivariable logistic regression was performed to adjust for potential confounders. Result: A total of 225 participants were recruited to the study with a mean (SD) age of 32.9(11.4). More than two-thirds of 200(88.9%) of the participants were males. One-third of the sample never visited the dentist75(33.3). Participants who completed college/university education and never visited the dentist in the last 12 months constituted a smaller proportion (17.6%) compared to those who visited the dentist once or more than once n = 28(82.4%, p-value = 0.003). Individuals who were using toothbrushes were most frequently visiting the dentist n = 130(72.6%=p value = 0.001) as compared to never visitors. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that Participants who experienced teeth pain or discomfort had 0.42 times lower odds of visiting the dentist compared to those who did not experience any pain or discomfort [AOR 0.42 (95% CI 0.17–0.80), p = 0.04]. Similarly, Participants who do not use any denture have 4.06 times higher odds[AOR 4.06(95% CI 1.76–9.36), p = 0.001] of visiting the dentist compared to those who use a denture. Conclusion: Our result demonstrates that those prisoners who were experiencing tooth pain or discomfort and not using dentures were the strong predictors with lower dental visit frequency to seek oral health care

Volatile Decision Dynamics: Experiments, Stochastic Description, Intermittency Control, and Traffic Optimization

The coordinated and efficient distribution of limited resources by individual decisions is a fundamental, unsolved problem. When individuals compete for road capacities, time, space, money, goods, etc., they normally make decisions based on aggregate rather than complete information, such as TV news or stock market indices. In related experiments, we have observed a volatile decision dynamics and far-from-optimal payoff distributions. We have also identified ways of information presentation that can considerably improve the overall performance of the system. In order to determine optimal strategies of decision guidance by means of user-specific recommendations, a stochastic behavioural description is developed. These strategies manage to increase the adaptibility to changing conditions and to reduce the deviation from the time-dependent user equilibrium, thereby enhancing the average and individual payoffs. Hence, our guidance strategies can increase the performance of all users by reducing overreaction and stabilizing the decision dynamics. These results are highly significant for predicting decision behaviour, for reaching optimal behavioural distributions by decision support systems, and for information service providers. One of the promising fields of application is traffic optimization.Comment: For related work see http://www.helbing.or