CGPD: Cancer Genetics and Proteomics Database - A Dataset for Computational Analysis and Online Cancer Diagnostic Centre

Cancer Genetics and Proteomics Database (CGPD) is a repository for genetics and proteomics data of those Homo sapiens genes which are involved in Cancer. These genes are categorized in the database on the basis of cancer type. 72 genes of 13 types of cancers are considered in this database yet. Primers, promoters and peptides of these genes are also made available. Primers provided for each gene, with their features and conditions given to facilitate the researchers, are useful in PCR amplification, especially in cloning experiments. CGPD also contains Online Cancer Diagnostic Center (OCDC). It also contains transcription and translation tools to assist research work in progressive manner. The database is publicly available at http://www.cgpd.comyr.com

Expatriate Performance in the Host Country: How to Maximize the Cultural Adjustments?

In today's era of globalization, companies from different nationalities are trying to capture new markets and proving their presence all over the globe the value of expatriates increase substantially. Every global organization is trying to maintain a department of cosmopolitan managers that can be used to achieve the required degree of globalization. However, the history evident that the success ration of expatriates is very low and lot of efforts had been done on this area to incorporate new ideas and dimensions to minimize the failure of expatriates. The significant impediment of expatriate's success in the host country is the cultural adjustment. This paper specifically proposes a model to increase the probability of expatriate's cultural adjustments in the host country. After reviewing different previous studies on this topic, we propose that three variables are very important for the adjustment of expatriates. These variables are cultural training, international experience and cultural distance. Keywords Expatriate, Culture, Cultural Training, Experience, Host Culture, Cultural Adjustmen

構造物-地盤の相互作用を考慮した整合する地震応答解析の構築のためのメタモデリング理論の適用

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : （主査）東京大学教授 堀 宗朗, 東京大学准教授 楠 浩一, 東京大学准教授 市村 強, 東京大学准教授 ウィジャラトネ ラリス, 東京大学特任講師 蘇 迪University of Tokyo(東京大学

Stress and coping among surgery residents in a developing country

Objective: Stress during residency training in surgical disciplines not only hampers professional development but can also compromise patient care and personal health. The purpose of this study was to measure the stress level among the surgical residents, identify factors within the learning and work environment that cause stress, and identify different strategies that the residents use habitually to cope with these stresses.Methodology: This mix method study was conducted in the department of Surgery at Aga Khan University, Pakistan. Residents\u27 stress level was measured using Perceived Stress Scale (PSS); focus group discussions (FGDs) with faculty and residents explored stressors during residency training, while Brief COPE Inventory identified the residents\u27 preferred coping strategy.Results: A total of 68 (83%) surgery residents completed the survey of which 19% had high stress scores while only one resident had perception of low stress. Females had significantly higher stress scores (25.7±3.0; p=0.008) as compared to male counterparts. Planning (87.8%) and Self-distraction (65%) were the most commonly used adaptive and maladaptive strategies respectively. The reliability of the PSS and BCI measured by Cronbach\u27s alpha was 0.73 and 0.82 respectively. Work-life imbalance, workload and contradicting programme and hospital policies were identified in FGDs as major stressors during residency.Conclusions: Although surgical residency programmes are very stressful, coping strategies are not formally taught during surgical training. Academia and hospital should join hands in developing interventions to enable residents cope with the situation

Cloning and expression of hepatitis B surface gene in E. coli

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is among the smallest DNA viruses resulting in ~800,000 deaths each year. Pakistan is considered a country affected by HBV. In Pakistan, the most dominant genotype is D. HBV is an enveloped virus of 3.2 kb. The study's goal was to express hepatitis B surface antigen in a bacterial host to produce a recombinant protein.Method: Blood samples were collected in EDTA coated vacutainer from patients after their consent. DNA was extracted from serum through the phenol-chloroform method; Hepatitis B surface gene was cloned in TA cloning vector, subclone in pET 28a expression vector. An expression vector containing the Surface gene was then transformed into a competent bacterial host BL21 and inducted with IPTG at 0.1-0.2mM concentration for expression. The expressed proteins (soluble and pellet form) were analyzed on SDS PAGE.Results: Hepatitis B Surface gene of 681bp after PCR were detected under UV light then successfully cloned and subcloned in pET 28 expression vector. The restricted fragment indicating the gene of interest was 681bp when analyzed on 1.2% Agarose gel under UV light. The required protein of 25kDa was obtained in soluble form when detected on 12% SDS PAGE after staining with Coomassie Blue dye.Conclusion: Hepatitis B surface gene was successfully expressed in both insoluble and pellet forms using E.coli. The expression of surface protein needs to maximize through optimizing conditions to be used as potent candidate for vaccine production to prevent hepatitis B infection.Keywords: Hepatitis B virus; Surface gene; Cloning vector; pET expression vector  

Antioxidant, haemolytic activities and GC-MS profiling of Carissa carandas roots

The antioxidant potential of the plant Carissa carandas roots extracted with different polarity based solvents was assessed. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by the measurement of total phenolic contents (TPC), total flavonoid contents (TFC), reducing power, DPPH radical scavenging, IC50 and antioxidant activity in linoleic acid system. The plant material contained the TPC (1.79-4.35 GAE mg/g of dry extract), TFC (1.91-3.76 CE mg/g of dry extract), DPPH radical scavenging activity, IC50 (12.53-84.82 %) and % inhibition of peroxidation in linoleic acid (41.0-89.21 %) system respectively. Furthermore the antioxidant effectiveness of extracts was assessed using corn oil (CO) as the oxidation substrate. The oxidative alterations were evaluated by the measurement of conjugated diene (CD), conjugated triene (CT), p-anisidine, free fatty acid (FFA) and peroxide values (PV). The cytotoxicity of  the plant extracts were assessed against human red blood cells (RBCs) and the % lysis was found to be in the range of 1.01-6.10 %. The GC-MS analysis of n-hexane extract was also profiled.  It was concluded that extracts of plant roots may be used as potential source of antioxidant agents in food industries

Surgical Outcome of Open Carpal Tunnel Release Using Global Symptom Severity Score

Objective:  Purpose of conducting this study was to evaluate the surgical outcome of open carpal tunnel release using Global Symptom Severity score (GSS) in our local setting. Material and Methods:  This prospective analytical study was conducted in the Neurosurgery Department Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar. We operated consecutive 105 Carpal tunnel syndrome cases over a period of 2 years via open carpal tunnel release (OCTR) method. All of these cases were surgically indicated. All patients were evaluated preoperatively with clinical assessment and NCS. Cases were operated under local anesthesia as a day case surgery. Patients were evaluated at 3 months follow-up visit using global symptom severity score (GSS) and compared with pre operative GSS. The paired sample test was applied to obtain p value. Results:  Total 105 patients were operated during study period. 72 (69%) patients were women and 33 (31%) were men. The mean age of patients was 41 years. 70 (66.66%) procedures were done for the right hand and 35 (33.33%) were performed for left hand. Pre-op Mean GSS score was 27 ± 2.5 which decreased to 2.1 ± 0.43 postoperatively (P < 0.005). Conclusion:  Carpal tunnel syndrome is more commonly affecting the dominant hand of middle aged females. Open carpal tunnel release procedure is the safe and effective treatment for this compressive neuropathy

Machine learning-based prediction of specific energy consumption for cut-off grinding

Cut-off operation is widely used in the manufacturing industry and is highly energy-intensive. Prediction of specific energy consumption (SEC) using data-driven models is a promising means to understand, analyze and reduce energy consumption for cut-off grinding. The present article aims to put forth a novel methodology to predict and validate the specific energy consumption for cut-off grinding of oxygen-free copper (OFC–C10100) using supervised machine learning techniques. State-of-the-art experimental setup was designed to perform the abrasive cutting of the material at various cutting conditions. First, energy consumption values were predicted on the bases of input process parameters of feed rate, cutting thickness, and cutting tool type using the three supervised learning techniques of Gaussian process regression, regression trees, and artificial neural network (ANN). Among the three algorithms, Gaussian process regression performance was found to be superior, with minimum errors during validation and testing. The predicted values of energy consumption were then exploited to evaluate the specific energy consumption (SEC), which turned out to be highly accurate, with a correlation coefficient of 0.98. The relationship of the predicted specific energy consumption (SEC) with material removal rate agrees well with the relationship depicted in physical models, which further validates the accuracy of the prediction models.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

In vitro evaluation of antimicrobial and cytotoxic potential of Epimedium grandiflorum hydroethanolic extract as natural medicine

Medicinal plants are used as fundamental and low-cost source for remedy of numbers of infectious and metabolic diseases in developing and developed countries. Current research work was planned to evaluate the antibacterial, antifungal, and cytotoxic potential of hydroethanolic extract of E. grandiflorum. It was found that selected natural medicinal herb have significant (p<0.05) antibacterial activities tested against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Pasteurella multocida, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter species, Pseudomonas Species and Salmonella Species. The results of bacterial biofilm inhibition also explored that selected natural herb has significant (p<0.05) capacity to prevent the microbial biofilm particularly at higher dose. The results of antifungal activities showed that selected medicinal plant has significant (p<0.05) antifungal potential evaluated against Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus terreus, Fusarium solani, Alternata alternaria, and Schizophyllum species. Moreover, the results of mutagenicity test and DNA damage preventive test explored that selective medicinal plant has significant (p<0.05) DNA protective capacity or in other words it is non-mutagenic or cytotoxic in nature. It could be concluded that E. grandiflorum could be a potential candidate as therapeutic agent to manage infectious diseases especial bacterial and fungal infections with non-toxic nature

Analysis of generalized compressor characteristics on surge phenomena in axial compressors

The paper discusses the effect of compressor characteristic on surge phenomena in axial flow compressors. Specifically, the effect of nonlinearities on the compressor dynamics is analyzed. For this purpose, generalized multiple time scales method is used to parameterize equations in amplitude and frequency explicitly. The pure surge case of the famous Moore-Greitzer model is used as the basis of the study. The compressor characteristic used in the Moore-Greitzer model is generalized to evaluate the effect of the parameters involved. Subsequently, bifurcation theory is used to study the effect of nonlinear dynamics on surge behavior. It has been found that the system exhibits supercritical Hopf bifurcation under specific conditions in which surge manifests as limit cycle oscillations. Key parameters have been identified in the analytical solution which govern the nonlinear dynamic behavior and are responsible for the existence of limit cycle oscillations. Numerical simulations of the Moore-Greitzer model are carried out and found to be in good agreement with the analytical solution