Exploring the Link Between Servant Leadership, Procedural Justice, Conflict Management, and Innovative Work Behavior in the Pakistani Textile Industry

Purpose: The drive of this study is to explore the serial mediation role of procedural justice (PJ) and organizational conflict management (OCM) between servant leadership (SL) and innovative work behavior (IWB).   Theoretical framework: Previous studies have proved that there is a positive relationship between SL & PJ, OCM & SL, PJ & IWB, and SL & IWB. But there is a gap in validation for a serial mediation role of PJ and OCM between SL and IWB.   Design/methodology/approach: A sample of approximately 250 personnel employed in the textile industry in Pakistan was graphed to gather the data. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the data.   Findings:  This study revealed that SL had a substantial and beneficial effect on IWB, whereas PJ had a noteworthy and favorable effect on OCM. Additionally, OCM had a noteworthy and favorable effect on IWB.   Research, practical & social implications:  The study is beneficial for the growth of the textile industry, where administrative management is recommended to play the role of servant leadership for innovative work behavior of employees. It is also suggested to create an environment of conflict management and procedural justice to boost innovative work behavior.   Originality/Value:  There is a substantial and beneficial serial mediating effect of PJ and OCM between SL and IWB

Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of Desiccant Air Conditioning System for Storage of Agricultural Products

The study emphasizes on the use of desiccant air conditioning (DAC) system for the storage of agricultural products. The chilling sensitivity of the tropical fruits and vegetables makes this system more promising for their optimal storage. The desiccant air conditioning system assisted by Maisotsenko cycle evaporative cooler is proposed in the study to achieve the latent and sensible load of air conditioning. In this regard, the dehumidification evaluation of the honeycomb like polymer based hydrophilic desiccant blocks are carried out by the means of an open-cycle experimental unit. The representative ideal storage zones of three temperature and relative humidity compatible groups of fruits and vegetables are established on the psychrometric chart on the basis of published data. The ideal DAC cycle analysis is accomplished at low regeneration temperature (55°C) for case-I (T = 31°C; RH = 21%) and case-II (T = 13°C; RH = 70%). The dehumidification analysis of the desiccant blocks recommended the time ratio between regeneration and dehumidification modes as 1:1 and 2:3 for the case-I and case-II respectively. The suggested time ratios ensure the dehumidification of the process air up to 2 g/kg of dry air and 4 g/kg of dry air in case-I and case-II respectively. The COP of the system was calculated as 0.90-0.43 and 0.55-0.25 at 30-90 minutes dehumidification with regeneration heat supplies of 1.7-2.3 kW and 2.5-3.5 kW in case-I and case-II respectively. The promising dehumidification by the desiccant blocks resulted in achieving the latent load itself followed by flat plate heat exchanger and Maisotsenko cycle evaporative cooler to achieve the sensible load. However, in case of high sensible loads hybrid DAC system is being recommended in this study

Identical parallel-machine scheduling and worker assignment problem using genetic algorithms to minimize makespan

dentical parallel machine scheduling problem for minimizing the makespan is a very important production scheduling problem which has been proven to be NP-hard. The problem further compounds with additional constraints. Genetic algorithms (GA) have shown great advantages in solving the combinatorial optimization problem in view of its characteristic that has high efficiency and that is fit for practical application. In this chapter we present a spreadsheet based GA approach for minimizing the makespan for scheduling of a set of tasks for identical parallel machines and worker assignment to machines. The results obtained from the proposed approach are compared with two sets of benchmark problems consisting of 100 problems each. It has been demonstrated that the performance of proposed approach is superior to the results that have been obtained earlier. The proposed approach produces optimal solution for almost 95% of the problems demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach. An empirical analysis of GA parameters has also been carried out to see the effect on the performance of the proposed algorithm

Bacterial ventriculoperitoneal shunt infections: changing trends in antimicrobial susceptibility, a 7-year retrospective study from Pakistan

BACKGROUND: Ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt infections in adults represent a severe complication and make treatment more challenging. Therefore, drug susceptibility patterns are crucial for therapeutic decisions and infection control in neurosurgical centers. This 7-year retrospective study aimed to identify the bacteria responsible for adult VP shunt infections and determine their drug susceptibility patterns. METHODS: This single-center study was performed from 2015 to 2021 in Lahore, Pakistan, and included CSF cultures from VP shunt infections. Demographic data, causative organisms, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing results were collected. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and two-sample t-tests were used to analyze and compare the antibiotic sensitivity trends over the study period. RESULTS: 14,473 isolates recovered from 13,937 CSF samples of VP shunt infections were identified and analyzed for their susceptibility patterns to antimicrobials. The proportion of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria were 11,030 (76%) and 3443 (24)%, respectively. The predominant bacteria were Acinetobacter species (n = 5898, 41%), followed by Pseudomonas species (n = 2368, 16%) and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) (n = 1880, 13%). 100% of Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) and CoNS were sensitive to vancomycin and linezolid (n = 2580). However, 52% of S. aureus (719/1,343) were methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Acinetobacter showed maximum sensitivity to meropenem at 69% (2759/4768). Pseudomonas was 80% (1385/1863 sensitive to piperacillin-tazobactam, Escherichia coli (E. coli) showed 72% to amikacin (748/1055), while Klebsiella spp. was 57% (574/1170) sensitive to piperacillin-tazobactam. The sensitivity of piperacillin-tazobactam and meropenem for Gram-negative bacteria decreased significantly (p < 0.05) over 7 years, with 92.2% and 88.91% sensitive in 2015 and 66.7% and 62.8% sensitive in 2021, respectively. CONCLUSION: The significant decrease in the effectiveness of carbapenem and beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitor combination drugs for the common Gram-negative causative agents of VP shunt infections suggests that alternative antibiotics such as colistin, fosfomycin, ceftazidime/avibactam, ceftolozane/tazobactam, and tigecycline should be considered and in consequence included in testing panels. Additionally, it is recommended to adopt care bundles for the prevention of VP shunt infection

Clinical Decision Support System for Unani Medicine Practitioners

Like other fields of Traditional Medicines, Unani Medicines have been found as an effective medical practice for ages. It is still widely used in the subcontinent, particularly in Pakistan and India. However, Unani Medicines Practitioners are lacking modern IT applications in their everyday clinical practices. An Online Clinical Decision Support System may address this challenge to assist apprentice Unani Medicines practitioners in their diagnostic processes. The proposed system provides a web-based interface to enter the patient's symptoms, which are then automatically analyzed by our system to generate a list of probable diseases. The system allows practitioners to choose the most likely disease and inform patients about the associated treatment options remotely. The system consists of three modules: an Online Clinical Decision Support System, an Artificial Intelligence Inference Engine, and a comprehensive Unani Medicines Database. The system employs advanced AI techniques such as Decision Trees, Deep Learning, and Natural Language Processing. For system development, the project team used a technology stack that includes React, FastAPI, and MySQL. Data and functionality of the application is exposed using APIs for integration and extension with similar domain applications. The novelty of the project is that it addresses the challenge of diagnosing diseases accurately and efficiently in the context of Unani Medicines principles. By leveraging the power of technology, the proposed Clinical Decision Support System has the potential to ease access to healthcare services and information, reduce cost, boost practitioner and patient satisfaction, improve speed and accuracy of the diagnostic process, and provide effective treatments remotely. The application will be useful for Unani Medicines Practitioners, Patients, Government Drug Regulators, Software Developers, and Medical Researchers.Comment: 59 pages, 11 figures, Computer Science Bachelor's Thesis on use of Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Decision Support System for Unani Medicine

Frondoside A suppressive effects on lung cancer survival, tumor growth, angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis

A major challenge for oncologists and pharmacologists is to develop less toxic drugs that will improve the survival of lung cancer patients. Frondoside A is a triterpenoid glycoside isolated from the sea cucumber, Cucumaria frondosa and was shown to be a highly safe compound. We investigated the impact of Frondoside A on survival, migration and invasion in vitro, and on tumor growth, metastasis and angiogenesis in vivo alone and in combination with cisplatin. Frondoside A caused concentration-dependent reduction in viability of LNM35, A549, NCI-H460-Luc2, MDA-MB-435, MCF-7, and HepG2 over 24 hours through a caspase 3/7-dependent cell death pathway. The IC50 concentrations (producing half-maximal inhibition) at 24 h were between 1.7 and 2.5 mu M of Frondoside A. In addition, Frondoside A induced a time- and concentration-dependent inhibition of cell migration, invasion and angiogenesis in vitro. Frondoside A (0.01 and 1 mg/kg/day i.p. for 25 days) significantly decreased the growth, the angiogenesis and lymph node metastasis of LNM35 tumor xenografts in athymic mice, without obvious toxic side-effects. Frondoside A (0.1-0.5 mu M) also significantly prevented basal and bFGF induced angiogenesis in the CAM angiogenesis assay. Moreover, Frondoside A enhanced the inhibition of lung tumor growth induced by the chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin. These findings identify Frondoside A as a promising novel therapeutic agent for lung cancer

Outcomes of Multi-Trauma Road Traffic Crashes at a Tertiary Hospital in Oman : Does attendance by trauma surgeons versus non-trauma surgeons make a difference?

Objectives: Trauma surgeons are essential in hospital-based trauma care systems. However, there are limited data regarding the impact of their presence on the outcome of multi-trauma patients. This study aimed to assess the outcomes of multi-trauma road traffic crash (RTC) cases attended by trauma surgeons versus those attended by non-trauma surgeons at a tertiary hospital in Oman. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in December 2015. A previously published cohort of 821 multi-trauma RTC patients admitted between January and December 2011 to the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman, were reviewed for demographic, injury and hospitalisation data. In-hospital mortality constituted the main outcome, with admission to the intensive care unit, operative management, intubation and length of stay constituting secondary outcomes. Results: A total of 821 multi-trauma RTC cases were identified; of these, 60 (7.3%) were attended by trauma surgeons. There was no significant difference in mortality between the two groups (P = 0.35). However, patients attended by trauma surgeons were significantly more likely to be intubated, admitted to the ICU and undergo operative interventions (P &lt;0.01 each). The average length of hospital stay in both groups was similar (2.6 versus 2.8 days; P = 0.81). Conclusion: No difference in mortality was observed between multi-trauma RTC patients attended by trauma surgeons in comparison to those cared for by non-trauma surgeons at a tertiary centre in Oman

Decoherence Effects in a Three-Level System under Gaussian Process

When subjected to a classical fluctuating field characterized by a Gaussian process, we examine the {purity} and coherence protection in a three-level quantum system. This symmetry of the three-level system is examined when the local random field is investigated further in the noiseless and noisy regimes. In~particular, we consider fractional Gaussian, Gaussian, Ornstein--Uhlenbeck, and~power law noisy regimes. We show that the destructive nature of the Ornstein--Uhlenbeck noise toward the symmetry of the qutrit to preserve encoded {purity and coherence} remains large. Our findings suggest that properly adjusting the noisy parameters to specifically provided values can facilitate optimal extended {purity and coherence} survival. Non-vanishing terms appear in the final density matrix of the single qutrit system, indicating that it is in a strong coherence regime. Because~of all of the Gaussian noises, monotonic decay with no revivals has been observed in the single qutrit system. In~terms of coherence and information preservation, we find that the current qutrit system outperforms systems with multiple qubits or qutrits using purity and von Neumann entropy. A~comparison of noisy and noiseless situations shows that the fluctuating nature of the local random fields is ultimately lost when influenced using the classical Gaussian noise