Assessment of Antimicrobial Competence of Epiphytes and Endophytes from Osmium basilicum and Trigonella foenum graecum

Plant-associated bacteria are an unexplored group of microorganisms that has enormous potential. These bacteria are the source of finding new antimicrobial substances. The present study aimed to isolate and characterize the epiphytes and endophytes from Osmium basilicum and Trigonella foenum graecum plants and to determine their antimicrobial potential against pathogenic bacteria from Nishtar Hospital Multan, Pakistan. The sum of 18 stems and roots along leaf specimens were assembled as of the plant\u27s Osmium basilicum plus Trigonella foenum graecum as of the distinct locales of the Multan city. Overall 73 bacterial strains were isolated and their colony morphology, gram staining, spore staining, and characterization were done. Further 10 epiphytic strains and 14 endophytic strains were selected based on their antimicrobial potential intended for a thorough examination. The activity of the selected microbial isolates was determined against pathogenic bacteria K.pneumoniae, MRSA, E.coli, S .aureus, S.typhimurium as of Nishtar hospital. Out of all strains, only one epiphytic and two endophytic bacterial isolates (methanolic extracts) (obr, obl3, and tfen2 were isolated from root, leaf, and root of Osmium basilicum and Trigonella foenum graecum correspondingly inhibited altogether gram-positive besides gram-negative pathogenic microbes involved in this investigation. The hunt to find novel compounds from plant bacteria will open new horizons in the industrial and agricultural sectors

Prediction of Rutting in Flexible Pavements using Finite Element Method

In this research study three dimensional (3D) finite element analysis are performed on a flexible pavement section for different material properties, temperature and loading conditions. The main objective of this study is to predict the rut depth under different conditions of temperature, loadings and material properties. Three dimensional finite element model of flexible pavement is developed using ABAQUS to predict rut depth. The pavement system is assumed to be an elastic multi-layers system with each layer being isotropic, homogeneous with specified Resilient Modulus (Mr) and Poisson ratio (µ). With the exception of the bottom subgrade layer, each layer is extending to an unlimited horizontal extent and has a finite thickness. The pavement system analyze in this study for a cyclic load of 10000 cycles taken as 0.01sec per cycle. Standard Axle Load (ESAL) of 18 kips (80 kN) loading on an axle with a dual set of tires, the wheel spacing is 13.78 in (350 mm) with a tire contact pressure of 100 psi (0.69 MPa) is used. After performing a series of analysis the results showed that rut depth increases with increase in temperature and loading and decreases by using base stabilizer. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091727 Full Text: PD

Seed Treatment of Capsicum annuum with Two Different Fungicides to Evaluate the Seed Germination Rate

Chili (Capsicum annuum L.) is the fruit of plants, the Chili is susceptible for several diseases and seed borne fungi Phytophthora capsici which produces collar rot and root of chili. Seed borne pathogens are associated with untreated seeds of chili which are also significantly reduced the germination of seed. This experiment was conducted to find out the seed borne fungi and enhanced the germination of chili (Capsicum annuum) with two fungicides known as Mancozeb 80% WP and Carbendazim 50% WP. Effectiveness of these two fungicides were measured when the seeds planted on blotter paper in petri plates at 270C under lab conditions. These two fungicides significantly reduce the effect of seed borne fungi associated with chili seeds. Mancozeb 80% WP was found most effective to reduce the effect of seed borne fungi and increase the seed germination. Considering the results of the experiment, Mancozeb 80% WP was noted to be a best fungicide against the seed borne fungi. Keywords: Capsicum annuum, Mancozeb, Carbendazim, seed borne fungi, blotter paper. DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/10-4-04 Publication date: February 29th 2020

ANALYSIS OF HYPOALBUMINEMIA AS PROGNOSTIC INDICATOR IN GUILLAIN-BARRÉ SYNDROME (GBS) PATIENTS AMONG LOCAL POPULATION OF PAKISTAN

Introduction: Despite the use of plasma exchanges and intravenous immunoglobulins, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) still carries non-negligible morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, the psychosocial consequences of GBS may persist longer than expected. Aims and objectives: The basic objective of the study is to analyze the level of hypoalbuminemia as prognostic indicator in GBS patients among local population of Pakistan. Material and methods: This descriptive study was conducted in Mayo Hospital, Lahore during March 2018 till October 2018. The data were collected from 50 patients of GBS which also include adults and child. The data were divided into two parts one include adults and one group include children. Venous blood samples were drawn from all patients within the first 24 hours after admission. Complete blood count, renal function test, and hepatic function test were performed within 24 hours of hospital admission and before the treatment, and serum CRP, albumin, neutrophil, lymphocyte, thrombocyte, CRP, NLR, and PLR levels were recorded. Results: The data were collected from 50 GBS patients. The mean age was 48.5±18.95 years in adults and 5±8.21 years in GBS-P. No significant relationship was found between NLR, PLR, CRP, and albumin levels and the demyelinating and axonal subtypes in both the GBS-A and GBS-P patient groups. In the GBS-P group, on the other hand, the mean NLR level at third month was significantly higher in the HDS≥3 group, but there was no significant difference with the other inflammatory markers. Conclusion: It is concluded that inflammatory markers including and albumin levels may be used a

A Unique Training Strategy to Enhance Language Models Capabilities for Health Mention Detection from Social Media Content

An ever-increasing amount of social media content requires advanced AI-based computer programs capable of extracting useful information. Specifically, the extraction of health-related content from social media is useful for the development of diverse types of applications including disease spread, mortality rate prediction, and finding the impact of diverse types of drugs on diverse types of diseases. Language models are competent in extracting the syntactic and semantics of text. However, they face a hard time extracting similar patterns from social media texts. The primary reason for this shortfall lies in the non-standardized writing style commonly employed by social media users. Following the need for an optimal language model competent in extracting useful patterns from social media text, the key goal of this paper is to train language models in such a way that they learn to derive generalized patterns. The key goal is achieved through the incorporation of random weighted perturbation and contrastive learning strategies. On top of a unique training strategy, a meta predictor is proposed that reaps the benefits of 5 different language models for discriminating posts of social media text into non-health and health-related classes. Comprehensive experimentation across 3 public benchmark datasets reveals that the proposed training strategy improves the performance of the language models up to 3.87%, in terms of F1-score, as compared to their performance with traditional training. Furthermore, the proposed meta predictor outperforms existing health mention classification predictors across all 3 benchmark datasets

Internal mammary artery flow in different racial groups of Pakistan

Objective: To find out any differences in free flow of internal mammary artery among different ethnic groups.Methods: This observational, cross-sectional study was conducted at the Civil Hospital, Karachi, from January 2013 to December 2015, and comprised patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting. The participants were divided into 5 groups, i.e. Sindhi, Muslim migrants from India, Punjabi, Pathan and Balochi patients. Free flow of internal mammary artery was measured immediately after harvesting within a syringe, and its flow was measured in 30 seconds. SPSS 18 was used for data analysis.Results: Of the 158 patients, 44(27.8%) were Sindhi, 33(20.9%) Punjabi, 8(5%) Baloch, 21(13.3%) Pathan and 52(32.9%) were migrants. The overall mean age was 52±8 years and the mean flow was 11.6±9.6ml per 30 seconds. The flow was 9.3±6 ml, 10±8ml, 13±11ml, 17±14ml and 15±13 ml in 30 seconds among migrants, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pathan and Baloch patients, respectively, with significant higher flow in Pathan patients compared to Sindhi and migrant patients (pConclusions: Internal mammary artery flow was higher in Pathan and Baloch patients and low in migrants and Sindhis

Importance of environmental policy on firm performance for the textile industry: A contextual study of Pakistan

Global warming and air pollution are severe threats to humans and ecosystems. While some of these issues, particularly those on a small scale requiring low-cost behaviors, may be relieved by developing and implementing environmental policies, it is clear that legislative measures and behaviors requiring a significant degree of sacrifice are required. The goal of this research is to highlight the aspects that can contribute to improve organizational performance in Pakistan’s textile industry. Through the moderating function of environmentalism, the study examines the impact of public participation, government regulation, and organizational environmental management systems (EMSs) on environmental and organizational performance The findings show that public participation, government regulation, and the organizational EMS all have a significant impact on both environmental and organizational success. Data were collected via a survey questionnaire. Smart-PLS-3 was used to evaluate the data. Furthermore, if environmentalism is regarded as a moderator, the overall influence on organizational performance will be greater. Public participation, government regulations, and an organization’s EMS are all seen to have a substantial influence on both environmental and organizational success

Antecedents of halal brand equity: a study of halal food sector of Malaysia

Purpose – Islamic marketing is an emerging field with a lot of potentials, so it is worthwhile to explore it. This paper aims to conduct research on the unexplored relationship of antecedents of the equity, image and consumers’ trust and satisfaction of halal brands. Design/methodology/approach – A structured questionnaire was designed to conduct research to analyze the halal brand equity and its antecedents. Data were collected from 250 halal consumers of Kota Samarahan and Kuching, Malaysia through a self-administered questionnaire using a convenience sampling method. Findings – The study finds a positive relationship of three antecedents of brand equity, which confirms a strong relationship between the image and satisfaction of halal brand equity. The results further showed that halal brand image is linked with halal brand trust, but the relationship between halal brand trust and its equity could not be proved. Research limitations/implications – This has been a cross-sectional study that was limited to Malaysia, a Muslim majority country. Researchers can conduct a longitudinal study and can conduct it in non-Muslim societies to comprehend their diversity and wider impact. Additionally, this study was limited to halal food brands in Malaysia. Originality/value – Islamic marketing has received great attention of researchers, academicians and practitioners that has rather been unexplored earlier particularly the relationships among antecedents of the equity, image and consumers’ trust and satisfaction of halal brand