Novel banana peel/graphene oxide derived biosorbent for water purification

More than 100 million tons of banana peels are produced annually, and about 40 million banana peels (40% of total weight) remain greatly unused. Hence, exploring banana peels’ ability to clean contaminated water would bring an additional value to the current “waste” product. One of the most common aspects of water pollution currently is heavy metal contamination, which is particularly dangerous for humans due to its high toxicity. Banana peels contain a high concentration of carbohydrates, the two most abundant being cellulose and starch, which has multiple hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups. Banana peels are an easily available and cost-effective adsorbent that can adsorb different kinds of heavy metal ions. This research primarily focuses on improving the current efficiency of this technique through the development of a banana peel/graphene oxide hybrid adsorbent. The cross-linking graphene oxide possess numerous hydroxyl, carbonyl, carboxyl, and epoxide functional groups that can be used to induce chemical reactions with banana peel carbohydrates, providing the graphene oxide with additional functional groups. This modification can potentially increase the adsorption capacity of banana peel derived adsorbents. It is evident through FTIR analysis that banana peel powder and graphene oxide have many functional groups of similar types. Thus, reactions can readily occur to combine the two substances. The TGA analysis of both compounds, however, indicates different patterns of thermal decomposition. Further thermal analysis is required for the hybrid adsorbent. After the development and characterization of this hybrid adsorbent, the next step is to complete a water purification analysis. In the future, banana peel/graphene oxide derived adsorbent may serve as a sustainable and efficient solution for water purification

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

Bilateral Implantation of Scleral-Fixated Cionni Endocapsular Rings and Toric Intraocular Lenses in a Pediatric Patient with Marfan's Syndrome

The management of ectopia lentis in Marfan's syndrome is challenging. Multiple disease-associated factors conspire to deprive these patients of adequate vision. While optical correction with glasses and contact lenses is usually advocated early on, the irregular astigmatism and even partial aphakia that accompanies advanced cases generally warrant surgical intervention. Several surgical strategies have been devised to manage these challenging cases, including the combination of endocapsular or pars plana lensectomy and iris or scleral fixation of the intraocular lens (IOL) or IOL-bag complex. All of the reported cases have been implanted with IOLs that correct for myopia only. With toric lenses, it is now possible to correct for corneal astigmatism in these patients as well, provided that the capsular bag is maintained and can be properly centered. We report the combination of scleral-fixated Cionni endocapsular rings and toric IOLs in a pediatric patient with bilateral ectopia lentis secondary to Marfan's syndrome

Keeping their own and integrating the other: medicinal plant use among Ormurs and Pathans in South Waziristan, Pakistan

BackgroundIn multicultural societies, traditional knowledge among minorities faces several challenges. Minority groups often face difficult situations living in specific peripheral geographies and striving to retain their biocultural heritage, including medicinal plant knowledge and practices. Folk medicinal plant knowledge is a dynamic eco-cultural complex influenced by various environmental, socio-cultural, and political factors. Examining medicinal plant knowledge among minorities has been an increasingly popular topic in cross-cultural ethnobiology. It also helps understand the dynamics of local/traditional ecological knowledge (LEK/TEK) change within a given community. The current study was designed to investigate the status of medicinal plant knowledge among two linguistic groups, i.e. Ormurs and Pathans, living in a remote valley of West Pakistan.MethodsWe recruited 70 male study participants from the studied groups for semi-structured interviews to record the medicinal plant use of their communities. Data were compared among the two studied communities using the stacked charts employing the presence or absence of data with Past 4.03 and Venn diagrams. Use reports (URs) were counted for each recorded taxon.Results and DiscussionA total of seventy-four medicinal plants were quoted as used as ethnomedicines by the researched communities. Most of the reported plants were used to treat digestive and liver problems. The cross-cultural comparison revealed a considerable homogeneity of medicinal plant knowledge (the two groups commonly used more than seventy plants); however, comparing uses recorded for the widely utilised medicinal plants showed numerous idiosyncratic uses among Ormurs but very few among Pathans. Ormurs reported a higher number of cultivated, wild, and imported plant uses than did Pathans. These results indicate that, compared to Pathans, the Ormur linguistic minority retain more folk medicinal plant knowledge, which may be explained by the fact that they have incorporated different folk remedies: their "own knowledge" plus that of Pathans, with whom they have lived together for centuries. Moreover, the local plant nomenclature among Ormurs was highly affected by the plant nomenclature of Pathans.ConclusionThe current study revealed that living together for a few centuries has not implied sharing plant knowledge (as the Pathans do not seem to have learnt from the Ormurs) or, in other words, that plant knowledge exchanges have been unidirectional. The findings show that the Pashto dominant culture may have possibly put pressure on the minority groups and affected local plant-centred cultural practices, as we see in the case of local plant nomenclature hybridisation among Omuri speakers. Hence, it is imperative to employ diverse educational strategies to revitalise the decline of medicinal plant knowledge in the studied communities, especially among Ormurs, who need more attention as they face more challenges than the other group. Locally based strategies should be devised to restore the fading connection with nature, which will be advantageous for revitalising plant knowledge

Incoherent and Online Dictionary Learning Algorithm for Motion Prediction

Accurate model development and efficient representations of multivariate trajectories are crucial to understanding the behavioral patterns of pedestrian motion. Most of the existing algorithms use offline learning approaches to learn such motion behaviors. However, these approaches cannot take advantage of the streams of data that are available after training has concluded, and typically are not generalizable to data that they have not seen before. To solve this problem, this paper proposes two algorithms for learning incoherent dictionaries in an offline and online manner by extending the offline augmented semi-non-negative sparse coding (ASNSC) algorithm. We do this by adding a penalty into the objective function to promote dictionary incoherence. A trajectory-modeling application is studied, where we consider the learned atoms of the dictionary as local motion primitives. We use real-world datasets to show that the dictionaries trained by the proposed algorithms have enhanced representation ability and converge quickly as compared to ASNSC. Moreover, the trained dictionaries are well conditioned. In terms of pedestrian trajectory prediction, the proposed methods are shown to be on par (and often better) with the state-of-the-art algorithms in pedestrian trajectory prediction

Securing Synchrophasors Using Data Provenance in the Quantum Era

Trust in the fidelity of synchrophasor measurements is crucial for the correct operation of modern power grids. While most of the existing research on data provenance focuses on the Internet of Things, there is a significant need for effective malicious data detection in power systems. Current methods either fail to detect malicious data modifications or require certain Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) to be physically secured. To solve these issues, this paper presents a new protocol to establish data provenance in synchrophasor networks. The proposed protocol is based on Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and harnesses the principles of quantum unreality and uncertainty. It aims not only to verify the source of data but also to provide robust protection against data tampering. The proposed protocol serves the purpose of devising new protocols to protect our critical infrastructure sectors in the quantum era. Security and performance analyses, along with experiments conducted on IBM’s Qiskit platform, demonstrate that the protocol offers a strong defense against cyberattacks while maintaining a lightweight profile. In particular, the proposed protocol has a worst-case computational complexity of O(1), an execution time per packet bounded by the time required to compute a cryptographically secure hash, and an upper bound for the per packet communication overhead of 256-bits. In terms of storage overhead, the proposed protocol requires each PMU to store the output of a cryptographically secure hash function, while the PDC needs to store one challenge-response pair (CRP) for each PMU

EFFECT OF EXOGENOUS GROWTH REGULATORS APPLICATION ON JUNE FRUIT DROP AND FRUIT QUALITY IN CITRUS SINENSIS CV. BLOOD RED

Two plant growth regulators gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) and 2,4-D were exogenously applied in different concentrations alone and their combinations on Blood Red sweet orange trees two months after fruit set. June fruit drop and different fruit quality parameters were studied to evaluate the optimum concentration of the growth regulators. Fruit drop was non significant among treatments with a range of 10.87 % to 33.82 %. Fruit diameter and seed health was not affected by any of the treatments. Fruit weight was decreased by most of the growth regulator treatments compared with control. Juice quantity, TSS, total sugars and reducing sugars were improved by most of the treatments compared with control but in case of acidity and vit. C, there was not any clear cut trend of treatment effect

O efeito moderador da pressão do tempo sobre os elementos de embalagem e o comportamento de compra do consumidor: um caso da Nestlé Paquistão

The purpose of this study to measure whether three product packaging Elements Wrapper Design, Packaging Material and Printed Information Influences Consumer Buying Behavior or does Time Pressure shows a moderating relationship. This study determines the importance of these elements when they purchase Nestle products during short time period. In this research highlighted that companies cannot afford to ignore the importance of time constraints and packaging elements of the products on consumer Buying Behavior. The study was conduct in District Vehari, Punjab Pakistan. Data was collecting to the students of Higher Educational Institution in District Vehari. Structured Questionnaire was used that consist on five point Likert Scale. Multiple Regression Analysis, ANOVA, coefficient was used to test the variables.El propósito de este estudio es medir si el diseño de envoltorio de tres elementos, el material de empaque y la información impresa influyen en el comportamiento de compra del consumidor o si la presión del tiempo muestra una relación moderada. Este estudio determina la importancia de estos elementos cuando compran productos Nestle durante un período de tiempo corto. En esta investigación, se destacó que las empresas no pueden permitirse ignorar la importancia de las limitaciones de tiempo y los elementos de empaquetado de los productos en el comportamiento de compra del consumidor. El estudio fue realizado en el Distrito Vehari, Punjab Pakistán. Los datos fueron recolectados a los estudiantes de la Institución de Educación Superior en el Distrito Vehari. Se utilizó un cuestionario estructurado que consta de una escala Likert de cinco puntos. El análisis de regresión múltiple, ANOVA, coeficiente se utilizó para probar las variables.O objetivo deste estudo é medir se três elementos de embalagem, design de invólucro, material de embalagem e informações impressas influenciam o comportamento de compra do consumidor ou se a pressão no tempo apresenta uma relação de moderação. Este estudo determina a importância desses elementos quando eles compram produtos da Nestlé durante um curto período de tempo. Nesta pesquisa destacou que as empresas não podem ignorar a importância das restrições de tempo e elementos de embalagem dos produtos no comportamento de compra do consumidor. O estudo foi realizado no Distrito Vehari, Punjab Paquistão. Data estava coletando para os estudantes da Instituição de Ensino Superior no Distrito Vehari. Utilizou-se Questionário Estruturado que consiste na Escala Likert de cinco pontos. Utilizou-se o coeficiente de Análise de Regressão Múltipla, ANOVA, para testar as variáveis

Necrotizing Keratitis after Laser Refractive Surgery in Patients with Inactive Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Two cases of necrotizing keratitis following laser refractive corneal surgery, with stable and controlled Crohn's disease are described. A 40-year-old woman developed bilateral stromal inflammation and inferior thinning in the right eye along the flap edge within 1 day of uneventful bilateral IntraLase laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis. The other case is a 30-year-old man who also developed bilateral inferior stromal infiltrates 2 days following photorefractive keratectomy. Both cases were aggressively treated with systemic and topical corticosteroids. The infiltrates in both patients gradually resolved, with one relapse during the 7 months period of follow-up in the first case. These cases highlight the importance of taking precautions considering this and similar autoimmune conditions as a relative contraindication to refractive surgery

Growth, Yield and Fruit Quality of Strawberry (Frageria ananasa Dutch) under Different Phosphorus Levels

Strawberry fruit takes less time for production and is easily multiplied. Fruiting is an exhaustive process and depletes nutrients especially phosphorus as it is highly immobile in the soil. An experiment was conducted in The University of Peshawar, Pakistan to evaluate different level of Phosphorous on growth, yield and fruit quality of Strawberry Cv Chandler. Results show that Phosphorus at 90 kg ha-1 significantly influenced the days to flowering (102.66) of strawberry plants while, at 80 kg ha-1 significantly affected days to fruit set (2.98), days to fruit maturity (20.05), Number of fruits (7.50) and Total fruit yield tons ha-1(3.61). Fruit size (6.42 cm3) was significantly affected at 70 kg ha-1. Similarly, Ascorbic acid (62.61), percent acidity (0.64) and Total soluble solids (7.83) were significantly affected by phosphorus at 60 kg ha-