Selenite detoxification by Bacillus spp isolated from indigenous polluted sites

This investigation was proposed to monitor the ability of isolated Bacillus spp. to transform toxic forms of selenium (selenium oxyanions) to non toxic selenium. These strains reduced up to 89% selenite on average at 37ºC after time of incubation. At higher initial concentrations (100, 200, 400, 600 and 800 µg ml-1), reduction value dropped to 31%. In the presence of other metals stresses (Co, Hg and Cr at a concentration of), the average selenite reduction percentage was 48%. This reduction value shifts from 87% to 94% with the increase in incubation time (from hrs to hrs). Reduction potential of these strains decreased 81% to 27% at various initial selenium concentrations in N-broth and acetate minimal media, respectively. With the increase in the sodium concentration of the media, the measured selenite reduction was above 95%. After exposure to the UV treatment B. pichinoty lost its ability to reduce selenite while B. endophyticus and B. foraminis reduced up to 96% and 71%, of selenite, respectively. Keywords: Selenite, bacteria, Bacillus, Bioremediation, heavy metal

5 × 5 MIMO Antennas for Future 5G mm-Wave Communication

A suggested MIMO antenna's goal is to function in one of the Federal Communication Commission's designated 5G spectral bands (FCC). Due to its propensity to handle both many inputs and numerous outputs, MIMO technology may effectively address issues with large amounts of transportation and high data rates. The overall dimension of a single-element antenna is 10 x 10 mm2, The proposed MIMO antenna design consists of twenty-five elements and the resonance frequency of each antenna element is 37 GHz. The maximum gain and directivity of an antenna are greater than 6 dB. For the designing and simulation of the proposed twenty-five element MIMO antennas is CST Studio Suite software. The proposed antenna will be a candidate for future mm-Wave communication applications in terms of compactness

Towards a women\u27s entrepreneurship century: The uae case study

Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE\u27s founding father, has said, Women have the right to work everywhere. Emirati Women play a vital role in family life, and they are part of the ongoing evolution of the UAE. The UAE is remarkable in having the highest rate, around 77%, of women in higher education in the entire world. They have proved that they attain better academic results at every educational level than men. It is no wonder that this increasing number of educated women in the UAE is reflected in the number women entrepreneurs produced, which can affect the economic growth and development of the UAE. Although the context in the UAE encourages women to become entrepreneurs, the participation of men in business growth is greater than that of women, due to the family commitments of women and the long working hours needed to run a business. In this paper, we look at how technology could be used to raise awareness about entrepreneurship among women in the UAE. Interviews have been conducted, the results of surveys have been analyzed, and an interactive application has been developed for this purpose

rac-2-Iodo-3,4-dihydro­naphthalen-1(2H)-one

In the title compound, C10H9IO, the asymmetric unit contains two mol­ecules, in which the iodo-bearing six-membered rings adopt envelope conformations [displacements of the flap atoms = 0.419 (3) and 0.431 (3) Å]. In both mol­ecules, the I atoms are disordered over two set of sites in 0.54 (4):0.46 (4) and 0.71 (3):0.29 (3) ratios. In the crystal, the packing features a weak C—H⋯π inter­action

Quality Of Life of Women, Pre- and Post-Operative Breast Cancer Surgery

Objective: To evaluate the Quality of Life (QoL) of women with breast cancer who came for treatment in surgery department before diagnosis and post-operative time period. Methodology: A prospective cohort study was conducted at General surgery Department, Islamabad Medical complex, NESCOM, from October 2021 to March 2022. Seventy four diagnosed breast cancer patients, above 18 years of age, who underwent surgical treatment (MRM and Axillary clearance), were selected. QoL was assessed with the help of EORTC QLQ C-30 and EORTC BR-23 questionnaire. Data was collected on opd follow up and through telephone. SPSS 20 was used to analyze the data and Wilcoxon test and Kruskal-Wallis test were performed. Results: The QoL assessed at pre and post operative stage showed positive results only in the future prospects and emotional function domain. Whereas, negative results were scored in rest of the domains, which are symptoms in the arm, body image, financial concerns, sexual pleasure, cognitive function and physical function. Conclusion: The need for a multidisciplinary approach for breast cancer patients is required regarding different dimensions that can improve their QoL

Development of an on-job mentorship programme to improve nursing experience for enhanced patient experience of compassionate care

Background: Evidence suggests improvement in nursing staff satisfaction, competence, and retention after implementation of evidence-based mentorship programmes. When guided by a framework of compassion, mentoring as a caring action can not only build healthy, transformative relationships but a similar behavior is reciprocated to patients which subsequently can drive patient experience of care. However, examples of on-job mentorship programs for nurses in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) are limited.Objective: The objective of the study was to develop an on-job nursing mentorship programme using a compassionate framework aimed at improving nurses\u27 experience and thus enhancing patient experience in a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.Methods: Designed as an intervention development study, it was completed between January 2018-December 2019. The programme was developed by a team composed of service and nursing leadership, director patient experience of care and a compassion specialist using a theory of change model. The package followed a series of steps, a) identification of a framework, b) creation of working group c) needs assessment and d) multiple meetings to frame the model followed by implementing the preconditions for roll-out of the programme with the frontline staff.Results: The eventual outcome was improving the patient\u27s experience of compassion while the intermediate outcome was to have nurses demonstrate compassionate care. The pre-conditions were identified as: recruitment of staff with appropriate skills for pediatric care, provision of compassionate experience to the frontline nurses by addressing their specific pain points, development of competent head nurses as supervisors and creation of a compassionate culture. To ensure the pre-conditions, various interventions were planned with some implemented through the course of the study while others are in the process of being rolled out. These involved, inclusion of pediatric compassion specific module during orientation of new hires, creation of space to talk about compassionate skills with staff, provision of trainings and mentorship to create competent head nurses, and creating a culture that promoted and recognized compassionate care values.Conclusion: The approach helped to delineate feasible pathways for an on-job compassionate mentorship programme enhancing routine supervisors\u27 role as facilitators of compassionate care

Association of CYP2C19*2 and *17 genetic variants with hypertension in Pakistani population

Purpose: To investigate the association of *2 and *17 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of CYP2C19 gene with hypertension in Pakistani population. Methods: The study was conducted on 527 hypertensive patients and 530 unrelated healthy controls from selected regions of Pakistan. DNA was extracted from leukocytes and all patients and controls were genotyped for two SNPs (rs4244285 and rs12248560) of CYP2C19 gene by allele specific polymerase chain reaction (AS-PCR). Results: Multi-allelic polymorphism in CYP2C19 identified four distinct phenotypes known as ultra-rapid metabolizer (UM), extensive metabolizer (EM), intermediate metabolizer (IM) and poor metabolizer (PM) in hypertensive patients and controls. For CYP2C19*2 polymorphisms, overall wild type and mutant allele frequency were 75 and 25 % in hypertensive patients, and 64.2 and 35.8 % in controls. For CYP2C19*17 polymorphisms, the overall wild type and mutant allele frequency were 66.6 and 33.4 % in hypertensive patients and 75.6 % and 24.4 % in controls. Significant difference in allele frequencies for CYP2C19*2 and *17 was demonstrated between hypertensive and non-hypertensive subjects. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on CYP2C19 frequencies in hypertensive Pakistani patients. The finds should help clinicians to determine a suitable optimal dosage of some drugs in order to reduce side effects

Therapeutic potential and bioactive phenolics of locally grown Pakistani and Chinese varieties of ginger in relation to extraction solvents

Current study compares the Therapeutic/nutra-pharmaceuticals potential and phenolics profile of Pakistani grown Pakistani and Chinese varieties of ginger. Crude yield of bioactive components from the varieties tested, using different extraction solvents including chloroform, ethyl acetate, ether, methanol, ethanol and distilled water. The crude bioactives varied from 14.1-82.5%. The highest extraction yield was noted for Pakistani species. The HPLC analysis revalued significant amounts of phenolics including vanillin, protocatechuic, vanillic, ferulic, sinapinic and cinnamic acids. The highest anti-inflammatory activity was shown by ethanolic extract of Pakistani variety (IC50: 26.5±1.8) whereas Chinese variety exhibited potent anticancer potential against MCF-7 cell line (Inhibition: 91.38 %). The Chinese variety in general showed higher phenolics and anticancer, while the Pakistani exhibited higher anti-inflammatory activity. Pakistani grown ginger and ethanolic extract of Chinese ginger showed highest antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa 18.0±0.02 & 15.00±0.02 mm respectively. Minimum results obtained with water for both varieties of ginger with range of 7.2±0.22 and 6±0.07 respectively. Moreover, the phenolics composition, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and anticancer activities of both tested varieties of ginger were notably affected as a function of extraction solvents. Our findings advocate selection of appropriate solvent for recovery of effective phenolic bioactive compounds from ginger verities to support the Nutra-pharmaceutical formulation

A Novel Dynamic Appliance Clustering Scheme in a Community Home Energy Management System for Improved Stability and Resiliency of Microgrids

Power scheduling of domestic appliances is a vital preference for bridging the gap between demand and generation of electricity in a microgrid. For a stable microgrid, an acceptable mechanism must reduce the peak to average ratio (PAR) of power demand with supplementary benefits for consumers as reduced electricity charges. Recent studies have focused on PAR and cost reduction for a small consumer population. Furthermore, researchers have mainly considered homogeneous consumer loads. This study focuses on residential power scheduling for electricity cost reduction for consumers and load profile PAR curtailment for a relatively large consumer population with non-homogeneous loads. A sample population of 1000 consumers from various classes of society is considered. The proposed dynamic clustered community home energy management system (DCCHEMS) allows the clustering of appliances based on time overlap criteria. Comparatively flatter power demand is attained by utilizing the clustered appliances in conjunction with particle swarm optimization under the influence of user-defined constraints. Modified inclined block rates with real-time electricity pricing strategies are deployed to minimize the electricity costs. DCCHEMS achieved higher efficiency rates in contrast to the traditional non-clustering and static clustering optimization schemes. An improvement of 21% in peak to average ratio, 4% in cost reduction, and 19% in variance to mean ratio is obtained

The co-presence of high-risk human papillomaviruses and Epstein-Barr virus is linked with tumor grade and stage in Qatari women with breast cancer.

High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) can be present and cooperate with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) to promote the onset and/or progression of various cancers including cervical, breast, head and neck as well as colorectal. In this investigation, we explored the co-prevalence of high-risk HPV and EBV in 74 breast cancer tissues from Qatari women using polymerase chain reaction. We found that high-risk HPV and EBV are present in 48/74 (65%) and 36/74 (49%) of the cases, respectively. While we noted that the presence of HPV presence is associated with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) ( = .008), however, the presence of EBV did not correlate with any breast cancer subgroup. Moreover, our data revealed that high-risk HPV and EBV are co-present in 35/74 (47%) of the samples and their co-presence is significantly associated with tumor grade ( = .04) and tumor stage ( = .04). These data indicate that HPV and EBV are commonly co-present in breast cancer and their association could be linked with a more aggressive tumor phenotype. Thus, further investigations are essential to understand the underlying mechanisms of HPV and EBV cooperation in breast carcinogenesis.grants from Qatar University [QUCG-CMED-2018/2019-3, QUHI-CMED-19/20-1 and QUCG-CMED-20/21-