Analysis of Generic Structure of Business Letters Written by Native and Non- Native Employees: A Study in ESP Context

The study aims at analyzing generic features of business correspondence transcribed by non-native and native employees. The purpose is to underscore mutual differences to develop business writing competence of the non-native employees presently working in a Pakistani organization but likely to be shifted in a foreign setting. The text comprised 20 Quotation call letters (hence forth, QC letters) collected from both present and target situation and analyzed by applying a genre-based approach established by Swales (1990) and Bhattia (1993). The specific moves and steps in both varieties of text were identified and classified separately. The rhetorical structure of QC letters written by Pakistani employees comprised three major moves: Quotation call - Item description - Terms and conditions, further realized in several steps. The rhetorical structure of QC letters of native variety consisted of four major moves: Quotation call - Item description - Technical specification - Terms and condition, and their realization in multiple kind of steps. Findings revealed remarkable dissimilarities in both varieties. QC letters written by native employees embraced more detailed, clear, and elaborated descriptions pertaining to the number and content of moves and steps, as compared to the Pakistani variety of text. The similarities and dissimilarities of the contextual patterns and strategies may be utilized systematically as ESP materials for the training of Pakistani employees

Diagnostic Accuracy of Ultrasound in Detecting Hepatocellular Carcinoma Keeping Histopathology as Gold Standard

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of USG in detecting hepatocellular carcinoma. Methodology: A total of 70 patients with liver cirrhosis with mass and age 18-60 years of either gender were included. Nodular lesion <3 cm in size, non-specific vascular profile, poor visualization and FNA / biopsy can cause complications were excluded. All the patients were then underwent first ultrasound and then histopathology. The ultrasonography findings were recorded presence or absence of HCC and correlated with CT scan findings. Results: In USG positive patients, 31(44.28%) (88.8%)True Negative had no hepatocellular carcinoma on histopathology (p=0.0001). Overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound in detecting hepatocellular carcinoma keeping histopathology as gold standard was 88.57%, 91.43%, 91.18%, 88.89% and 90.0% respectively. Conclusion: This study concluded that grey scale ultrasound along with Doppler ultrasound  is a simple, non-invasive, economical, readily available imaging modality with high sensitivity and accuracy in diagnosing hepatocellular carcinoma.

The Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of 2019 Novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) in Balochistan, Pakistan

Background: The unprecedented outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) drastically spread worldwide. The study was aimed to articulate the findings of a descriptive and clinical characteristic, also to access the potential risk factors link with the spread of COVID-19. Method: The COVID-19 cases reported through April 30, 2020, were extracted from Balochistan’s COVID-19 Electronic Dashboard. All cases from March to April 2020 were included. The results of the laboratory finding as well as data acquired through COVID-19 Dashboard were cleaned; descriptive exploratory analysis and chi-square were calculated to demonstrate the association using Epi- Info. Results: A total of 1381 patient records extracted and screened. Of these, 1218 suspected cases and 1049 confirmed cases contributed to the analysis. Among confirmed cases, 77% (811) were male. The most affected age group was 60 – 69 years (attack rate 1.90/10,000), mean age was 36 ±17.11 SD with age range 2 months-94 years.  District Quetta 82% (864) and district Pishin 5% (55) remained the epi-center for high attack rates. Among confirmed cases, a total of 14 deaths occurred for an overall Case fatality rate of 1.33%. The epi surge was peaked around March 19, April 5, and April 24, 2020. Among high-risk personals, those who had contact with infected individuals’ showed a high association of 97% (323/333) than without any contact 87% (221/254). Those who had travel history showed a prevalence of 86% (87/101) than in those who did not 59% (60/104) while those admitted in hospital with comorbid conditions showed a prevalence of 70% (26/37) than in those who did not 13% (6/46). Conclusion: COVID-19 epidemic has spread rapidly in the province. A series of multidimensional public health interventions, a cost-effective surveillance system, and the adoption of safe working practice, awareness sessions are necessary to control the COVID-19 outbrea

Computational model to explore the endocrine response to trastuzumab action in HER-2/neu positive breast cancer

Breast cancer is a very frequent type of cancer and much attention is paid to therapy with considerable efforts both in the pharmacological and clinical fields.The present work aims to create a non-linear dynamic model of action of the drug Trastuzumab against HER-2 + breast cancer, mainly considering its action of ADCP (antibody-dependent phagocytosis) killing of cancer cells. The model, while also considering the other therapeutic effects induced by Trastuzumab, shows how the action of this monoclonal antibody in the induction of ADCP through the action of macrophages, is strictly connected to the formation of a multi-complex “Trastuzumab -HER-2 - macrophage” that shows a prolonged action over time, responsible for the increase in the Overall Survivor (OS) parameter reported in various. The model shows the correlation between the various therapeutic effects and the killing action of cancer cells through the variation of the dynamic fluctuation of the representative ”c” parameter

Synthesis and in silico study of 2-furyl(4-{4-[(substituted)sulfonyl]benzyl}-1-piperazinyl)methanone derivatives as suitable therapeutic agents

In the study presented here, a new series of 2-furyl(4-{4-[(substituted)sulfonyl]benzyl}-1-piperazinyl)methanone derivatives was targeted. The synthesis was initiated by the treatment of different secondary amines (1a-h) with 4-bromomethylbenzenesulfonyl chloride (2) to obtain various 1-{[4-(bromomethyl)phenyl]sulfonyl}amines (3a-h). 2-Furyl(1-piperazinyl)methanone (2-furoyl-1-piperazine; 4) was then dissolved in acetonitrile, with the addition of K2CO3, and the mixture was refluxed for activation. This activated molecule was further treated with equi-molar amounts of 3a-h to form targeted 2-furyl(4-{4-[(substituted)sulfonyl]benzyl}-1-piperazinyl)methanone derivatives (5a-h) in the same reaction set up. The structure confirmation of all the synthesized compounds was carried out by EI-MS, IR and 1H-NMR spectral analysis. The compounds showed good enzyme inhibitory activity. Compound 5h showed excellent inhibitory effect against acetyl- and butyrylcholinesterase with respective IC50 values of 2.91±0.001 and 4.35±0.004 μM, compared to eserine, a reference standard with IC50 values of 0.04±0.0001 and 0.85±0.001 μM, respectively, against these enzymes. All synthesized molecules were active against almost all Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains tested. The cytotoxicity of the molecules was also checked to determine their utility as possible therapeutic agents

Future changes in growing degree days of wheat crop in Pakistan as simulated in CORDEX South Asia experiments

Climate change has become a global phenomenon having severe ramifications on socio-economic sectors such as agriculture, water resources, environment and health. The effects of changing climate are much more prominent on developing economies as compared to the implications on well-developed industrial powers. Pakistan is one of the struggling agricultural economies confronting the issues of food insecurity as a consequence of profound climatic conditions. Notable changes in climatic factors such as temperature can have a direct effect on Growing Degree Days (GDD) and may alter the growing season length (GSL). Growing season length is an important factor in ensuring that each crop developmental stage has a sufficient period for the transition to the next developmental stage. Lengthening or shortening of GSL can have dire threats to crop development and ultimately, production. This study has been conducted to assess the changes in GSL in response to the variability in daily maximum and minimum temperatures with a base temperature of 5°C across Northern, Central and Southern Pakistan. RCP 4.5 and 8.5 have shown an increase of 2°C and 5.4°C in minimum and maximum temperatures, respectively

Ginger ring compounds as an inhibitor of spike binding protein of alpha, beta, gamma and delta variants of SARS-CoV-2: An in-silico study

The available drugs against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVOD-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), are limited. This study aimed to identify ginger-derived compounds that might neutralize SARS-CoV-2 and prevent its entry into host cells. Ring compounds of ginger were screened against spike (S) protein of alpha, beta, gamma, and delta variants of SARS-CoV-2. The S protein FASTA sequence was retrieved from Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data(GISAID) and converted into “.pdb” format using Open Babel tool. A total of 306 compounds were identified from ginger through food and phyto-databases. Out of those, 38 ring compounds were subjected to docking analysis using CB Dock online program which implies AutoDock Vina for docking. The Vina score was recorded, which reflects the affinity between ligands and receptors. Further, the Protein Ligand Interaction Profiler (PLIP) program for detecting the type of interaction between ligand-receptor was used. SwissADME was used to compute druglikeness parameters and pharmacokinetics characteristics. Furthermore, energy minimization was performed by using Swiss PDB Viewer (SPDBV) and energy after minimization was recorded. Molecular dynamic simulation was performed to find the stability of protein-ligand complex and root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) as well as root-mean-square fluctuation (RMSF) were calculated and recorded by using myPresto v5.0. Our study suggested that 17 out of 38 ring compounds of ginger were very likely to bind the S protein of SARS-CoV-2. Seventeen out of 38 ring compounds showed high affinity of binding with S protein of alpha, beta, gamma, and delta variants of SARS-CoV-2. The RMSD showed the stability of the complex was parallel to the S protein monomer. These computer-aided predictions give an insight into the possibility of ginger ring compounds as potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 worthy of in vitro investigations

Synthesis and in silico study of 2-furyl(4-{4-[(substituted)sulfonyl]benzyl}-1-piperazinyl)methanone derivatives as suitable therapeutic agents

Abstract In the study presented here, a new series of 2-furyl(4-{4-[(substituted)sulfonyl]benzyl}-1-piperazinyl)methanone derivatives was targeted. The synthesis was initiated by the treatment of different secondary amines (1a-h) with 4-bromomethylbenzenesulfonyl chloride (2) to obtain various 1-{[4-(bromomethyl)phenyl]sulfonyl}amines (3a-h). 2-Furyl(1-piperazinyl)methanone (2-furoyl-1-piperazine; 4) was then dissolved in acetonitrile, with the addition of K2CO3, and the mixture was refluxed for activation. This activated molecule was further treated with equi-molar amounts of 3a-h to form targeted 2-furyl(4-{4-[(substituted)sulfonyl]benzyl}-1-piperazinyl)methanone derivatives (5a-h) in the same reaction set up. The structure confirmation of all the synthesized compounds was carried out by EI-MS, IR and 1H-NMR spectral analysis. The compounds showed good enzyme inhibitory activity. Compound 5h showed excellent inhibitory effect against acetyl- and butyrylcholinesterase with respective IC50 values of 2.91±0.001 and 4.35±0.004 μM, compared to eserine, a reference standard with IC50 values of 0.04±0.0001 and 0.85±0.001 μM, respectively, against these enzymes. All synthesized molecules were active against almost all Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains tested. The cytotoxicity of the molecules was also checked to determine their utility as possible therapeutic agents

Trackable CEMB-Klean Cotton Transgenic Technology: Afforadable Climate Neutral Agri-biotech Industrialization for Developing Countries

Background: Transgenic technology reflects the incorporation of novel useful traits in crop plants like cotton for economic benefits by overcoming the problems including insects' pests and weeds in special. The present study is the success story of the continuous effort of CEMB team started back in the 1990s. Methods: This study includes characterization of a large number of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) strains taken from local soil and subjected to direct transformation of isolated BT genes into local cotton cultivars. Protocols for transformation into cotton plants were optimized and validated by the development of double gene codon optimized (Cry1Ac and Cry2A) transgenic cotton varieties. Results: The resulting GMOs in the form of CEMB-33, CA-12, CEMB-66 have been approved by Punjab Seed Council in 2013 and 2016 respectively. Double Bt and weedicide resistant cotton harboring CEMB-Modified and codon optimized cp4EPSPS (GTGene). These varieties can tolerate glyphosate spray @ 1900ml per acre without the appearance of necrotic spots/shedding and complete removal of all surrounding weeds in the cotton field is a significant advance to boost cotton production without spending much on insecticides and herbicides. Conclusion: In the current report, two unique sets of primers which amplify 1.1 Kb for CEMB-double Bt genes and 660 bp product for CEMB-Modified cp4EPSPS (GTGene) were tested. CEMB cotton variety CKC-01 is specially designed as low cost and easy to use by local farmer's technology has the potential to revolutionize the cotton growing culture of the country.Higher Education Commission (HEC) of PakistanOpen access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]