High performance blended membranes using a novel preparation technique

The possibility of applying novel microwave (MW) technique in the dissolution of polyethersulfone (PES) and lithium halides in aprotic solvent is studied. The lithium halides additives used are lithium fluoride (LiF), lithium bromide (LiBr) and lithium chloride (LiCl) and a comparison is made with conventional method. PES was dissolved in dimethylformamide (DMF) in the single solvent whilst for the double solvent (DS); PES was dissolved in a mixture of two different solvents DMF and acetone. The concentrations of lithium halide in both solvents were varied from 1 to 5 wt%. In order to illuminate the mechanism through which lithium halide influences the kinetic membrane performance in both techniques, rheological, FTIR, contact angle and water uptake analysis were performed. The performances of the membranes were evaluated in terms of pure water permeation (PWP), permeation rate (PR) and separation rates of various polyethylene glycols. Result revealed that the hollow fiber MW membrane with the 3 wt% LiBr additive exhibits both high permeation rates of 222.16 Lm-2hr-1 and separation rates of 99% and molecular weight cutoff (MWCO) of 2.6 kDa. In general, the MW membranes exhibited higher permeation and separation rates compared to conventional electrothermal heating (CEH) membranes. The FTIR, contact angle and water uptake measurement revealed that the LiCl and LiBr have enhanced the hydrophilic properties of the PES membranes thus producing membrane with high permeation and separation rates

ASSESSMENT OF THE PREVAILING BARRIERS IN PROMOTING PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AMONG THE INTER LEVEL COLLEGE STUDENTS OF DISTRICT PESHAWAR

Participation of college students in physical activities is necessary for their mental, developmental and academic growth. Understanding of the significance and guidance provided by mentor play a key role in promotion of students’ participation in physical activities.  Nevertheless, there are several factors which offer hindrances to active involvement of college students in physical activities. In this study, we investigated the prevailing barriers in participation of college students of district Peshawar (n = 400) in physical activities. Respondents were selected from all the Government colleges of District Peshawar (male and female). Results indicated that there were significant effect of the barriers regarding lack of facilities, playgrounds, sports gears, lack of parental and student’s interest in their participation in sports in colleges. Based on students’ responses, the most prevalent barriers in promoting physical activities at college level were busy study schedule (86 %), lack of parental and social interest (84 %), parental preference of academic achievements over physical activities (82%) and negligence of sports activities in college time table (79 %).

Enhancing Vehicle Classification Accuracy: A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) Based Model

Using the convolutional neural network (CNN) fine-tuned method, this article introduces a vehicle categorization system. The system's goal is to properly categorize popular vehicle types in the domestic market, which will help with traffic control, monitoring, and traffic accident prevention. The efficacy of VGG-16 and Inception V3 architectures is demonstrated by their evaluation of a real-world dataset consisting of 2000 photos of vehicles. While VGG-16 attains an accuracy of 99.11%, Inception V3 reaches an accuracy of 96.43%. In terms of overall accuracy, VGG-16 outperforms Inception V3, highlighting the importance of architectural decisions in achieving accurate vehicle classification. The suggested technique significantly improves computer vision applications in the domain of vehicle classification, making valuable contributions to traffic management and accident prevention efforts

Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction of Employees in Telecom Sector of Pakistan

The telecom industry plays an important role in the underpinning of a country’s economy. This study is aimed at getting a clearer view of the level of satisfaction of the employees in various telecom companies. The main concerns are the relative importance and need of different job satisfaction factors and how they contribute to the overall satisfaction of the employees. Another field of focus is the impact of different things, such as experience, age and sex on job satisfaction. The results deduced represent employee relations, salary, fringe supervision, and efficiency as the most important factors influencing job satisfaction. It was seen that job satisfaction was good in telecommunication companies This paper was utilized in understanding the importance of the environment in which the employees work, pay, fairness, promotion, job security, supervisors, and co-worker relationships and their effect on job satisfaction. All telecom companies Ufone, Zong, Telenor, Warid telecom, Pakistan Telecommunication and Mobilink were visited to collected data. Data was quantitatively collected through close-ended questionnaires with a sample size of 200 telecom sector employees. Data was analyzed through correlation and multiple regression using SPSS software and results were significant. The overall job satisfaction of the employees in the telecom sector is at the positive level. Hence, this research was mainly undertaken to investigate on the significance of factors such as working conditions, pay and promotion, job security, fairness, relationship with co-workers and supervisors in affecting the job satisfaction. This paper presents a comprehensive diagnosis of job satisfaction indices of telecom sector, the factors causing the dissatisfaction & suggestions to improve them. Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Job Dissatisfaction, employees, telecom sector, Pakistan

Efficacy of leeching (Ta‘līq al-‘Alaq) in patients with vitiligo (baras): a comprehensive case study

Vitiligo is a hypomelanotic skin disorder in white patches appear on the skin surface and also involve the hair. The disease is idiopathic, acquired and effects 1-4 percent of the world population. It is belived that there is immunologic influence in the pathogenesis of vitiligo and there is evidence of early cell death in vitiligo melanocytes related to their increased sensitivity to oxidative stress. In Ayurveda the vitiation of three doshas results deraignment of rasa, rakta, mamsa and medadhuta which results in vitiligo patches on skin. In Unani System of Medicine (USM) the deraignment of body humours result in the Fasad-e-Ikhlat which results in the Baras (vitiligo). Since both in Ayurveda and USM leech has been used for various dermatalogicalailments including vitiligo. In this study leeching (hirudotherapy) were done in vitiligo patients of both sexes with single and multiple patches and successful results were observed

Fabrication and Evaluation of 2-Hydroxyethyl Methacrylate-co-Acrylic Acid Hydrogels for Sustained Nicorandil Delivery

Purpose: To fabricate and evaluate oral 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate co-acrylic acid hydrogels as a drug delivery system for sustained release of nicorandil.Methods: HEMA-co-AA hydrogels using different monomer concentrations were prepared by free radical polymerization. N, N-methylene bis acrylamide (MBA) was used as crosslinker and potassium persulphate (KPS) as initiator. Nicorandil (20 mg) loaded hydrogels were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) . Swelling ratio, equilibrium swelling (ES), gel content (gc), porosity measurement (P) and in vitro drug release of the delivery system were evaluated.Results: Swelling ratio and ES decreased as AA concentration (%) was reduced from 3.173 to 2.93 (pH 1.2) and 16.42 to 15.01 (pH 7.4) and 68.49 to 65.90 (pH 1.2) and 93.91 to 93.34 (pH 7.4), respectively, while HEMA and MBA showed opposite effects. Gel content (%) and porosity (%) ranged from 83.76 to 88.0, respectively from F1 to F9. With increase monomer content (AA), drug release increased from 85.99 to 89.38 %. However, when the concentrations of HEMA and MBA were raised, drug release decreased.Conclusion: HEMA-co-AA hydrogels are potential pH-sensitive and sustained-release system for nicorandil.Keywords: Hydrogel, 2-Hydroxyethyl Methacrylate-co-acrylic Acid, Sustained Drug Release, Monomer, Nicorandil, Swelling Ratio, Porosit

4-Ethyl-3-(3-pyrid­yl)-1H-1,2,4-triazole-5(4H)-thione 0.095-hydrate

The title compound, C9H10N4S·0.095H2O, consists of discrete 4-ethyl-3-(3-pyrid­yl)-1H-1,2,4-triazole-5(4H)-thione mol­ecules and a disordered mol­ecule of water of hydration with partial occupancy, lying on a twofold rotation axis. The dihedral angle between the pyridine and triazole rings is 41.73 (8)°. In the crystal structure, mol­ecules are hydrogen bonded via triazole NH groups and pyridyl N atoms, forming chains parallel to the a axis