EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS ON CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF SOIL IN VILLAGE DINGI, DISTRICT HARIPUR

The present report is an outcome of research work conducted in Dingi village, District Haripur in 2012. The research aimed to assess and analyze the effects of industrial effluents on the soil fertility of the village, investigate contributing factors responsible for soil pollution and underlying causes creating the problems. Data analysis revealed that area had problems pertaining to water and soil quality. The key factors affecting soil fertility were the careless discharge of the untreated industrial effluents from Hattar Industrial Estate (HIE) into the natural stream passing through village. The results were compared with the soil standards set by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and European Committee Commission (ECC) and all of these were exceeding the permissible limits and affecting the soil fertility. The soils were found not fit for agriculture. The investigation highlighted the need to take some effective steps to manage the monitoring program set for checking of industries by the government according to set rules and regulation

The effect of different treatments on improving seed germination characteristics in medicinal species of Descurainia sophia and Plantago ovata

Creating optimal conditions for germination of medicinal plants seed is essential for their cultivation. Therefore, to evaluate the effect of different treatments on seed germination of two medicinal species, Descurainia sophia and Plantago ovata collected in 2009 from Tehran Province, an experiment with a factorial randomized complete block design in 6 treatments with 4 replications was conducted. Treatments included KNO3 with concentrations of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3%, acetylsalicylic acid with levels of 50 and 100 mg/l, prechilling (4°C for 10 days), thiourea with levels of 0.1 and 0.2%, boiling water for 5 and 10 min. To compare, distilled water was used as control. Results showed that the effect of different treatments on germination percentage of two medicinal species was significantly different (p < 0.05). It was shown that prechilling was the most effective treatment on seed germination of both species.Key words: Descurainia sophia, Plantago ovata, germination, acetylsalicylic acid, prechilling, thiourea and KNO3

Support through Social Media and Online Class Participation to Enhance Psychological Resilience

Social support was an important factor in minimizing the effect of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. This research aimed to study the role of online class participation and social media usage to link the social support available from family and friends to psychological resilience among pre-service special education teachers against the negative psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. A survey was conducted with 377 pre-service special needs education (SNE) teachers enrolled at universities in Pakistan. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied using Smart-PLS 3.2.8. Results revealed that social media and online class participation played a mediating role between social support and psychological resilience in the pre-service special needs education (SNE) teachers studied. Teacher education institutions can devise strategies to develop social media platforms for student socialization during an emergency to help build resilience against the negative psychological effects of social isolation. Future studies could be conducted to adapt instructions and curricula to social media environments for education in an emergency.Peer reviewe

Magnetic micro-swimmers propelling through bio-rheological liquid bounded within an active channel

The dynamics of a micro-organism swimming through a channel with undulating walls subject to constant transverse applied magnetic field is investigated. The micro-organism is modeled as self-propelling undulating sheet which is out of phase with the channel waves while the electrically conducting biofluid (through which micro-swimmers propel) is characterized by the non-Newtonian shear-rate dependent Carreau fluid model. Creeping flow is mobilized in the channel due to the self-propulsion of the micro-organism and the undulatory motion of narrow gapped walls. Under these conditions the conservation equations are formulated under the long wavelength and low Reynolds number assumptions. The speed of the self-propelling sheet and the rate of work done at higher values of rheological parameters are obtained by using a hybrid numerical technique (MATLAB routine bvp-4c combined with a modified Newton-Raphson method). The results are validated through an alternative hybrid numerical scheme (implicit finite difference method (FDM) in conjunction with a modified Newton-Raphson method). The assisting role of magnetic field and rheological effects of the surrounding biofluid on the swimming mode are shown graphically and interpreted at length. The global behavior of biofluid is also expounded via visualization of the streamlines in both regions (above and below the swimming sheet) for realistic micro-organism speeds. The computations reveal that optimal swimming conditions for the micro-organism (i.e., greater speed with lower energy losses) are achievable in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) environments including magnetic field-assisted cervical treatments. Keywords: Micro-organism; peristaltic (active) channel; Carreau fluid; Swimming speed; biomagnetohydrodynamics (bioMHD); Rate of work done; Hybrid numerical method, Newton-Raphson method; Cervical magnetic therap

Biological interactions between carreau fluid and micro-swimmers in a complex wavy canal with MHD effects

The efficient magnetic swimming of actual or mechanically designed micro-swimmers within bounded regions is reliant on several factors. Few of which are: the actuation of these swimmers via magnetic field, rheology of surrounding liquid (with dominant viscous forces), nature of medium (either porous or non-porous), position (either straight, inclined or declined) and state (either active or passive) of the narrow passage. To witness these interactions, we utilize Carreau fluid with Taylor swimming sheet model under magnetic and porous effects. Moreover, the cervical canal is approximated as a two-dimensional complex wavy channel inclined at certain angle with the horizontal. The momentum equations are reduced by means of lubrication assumption, which finally leads to a fourth order differential equation. MATLAB's built-in bvp4c function is employed to solve the resulting boundary value problem (BVP). The solution obtained via bvp4c is further verified by finite difference method (FDM). In both these methods, the refined values of flow rate and cell speed are computed by utilizing modified Newton-Raphson method. These realistic pairs are further utilized, to calculate the energy delivered by the micro-swimmer. The numerical results are plotted and discussed at the end of the article. Our study explains that the optimum speed of the micro-organism can be achieved by means of exploiting the fluid rheology and with the suitable application of the magnetic field. The peristaltic nature of the channel walls and porous medium may also serve as alternative factors to control the speed of the propeller

Feasibility of Serverless Cloud Services for Disaster Management Information Systems

Serverless is the new generation of cloud services that supports the pay-per-use policy in true spirit by charging only for the execution time of the hosted code. Amazon introduced serverless service of Lambda in 2014 and it is consider as the most popular serverless cloud service till date. This paper focuses on the serverless cloud services of Lambda and elaborates the importance of Lambda based serverless cloud services for hosting the disaster management information systems (DMIS). We have identified two repeatedly occurring phases of the life cycle of a DMIS viz. low activity phase and high activity phase. Our findings state that serverless cloud services are well-suited for both of these phases of a DMIS. Serverless reduces the operational cost during the low activity phase by detaching the code from running containers and it improves the scalability during the high activity phase by quickly assigning the already available containers from the container pool. However, this all comes with the price of reduced QoS (Quality of Service) for initial requests after specific idle duration and our experimental results report the QoS degradation with respect to idle time for Lambda service

Population sensitivity of acute flaccid paralysis and environmental surveillance for serotype 1 poliovirus in Pakistan: an observational study.

BACKGROUND: To support poliomyelitis eradication in Pakistan, environmental surveillance (ES) of wastewater has been expanded alongside surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP). ES is a relatively new method of surveillance, and the population sensitivity of detecting poliovirus within endemic settings requires estimation. METHODS: Data for wild serotype 1 poliovirus from AFP and ES from January 2011 to September 2015 from 14 districts in Pakistan were analysed using a multi-state model framework. This framework was used to estimate the sensitivity of poliovirus detection from each surveillance source and parameters such as the duration of infection within a community. RESULTS: The location and timing of poliomyelitis cases showed spatial and temporal variability. The sensitivity of AFP surveillance to detect serotype 1 poliovirus infection in a district and its neighbours per month was on average 30.0% (95% CI 24.8-35.8) and increased with the incidence of poliomyelitis cases. The average population sensitivity of a single environmental sample was 59.4% (95% CI 55.4-63.0), with significant variation in site-specific estimates (median varied from 33.3-79.2%). The combined population sensitivity of environmental and AFP surveillance in a given month was on average 98.1% (95% CI 97.2-98.7), assuming four samples per month for each site. CONCLUSIONS: ES can be a highly sensitive supplement to AFP surveillance in areas with converging sewage systems. As ES for poliovirus is expanded, it will be important to identify factors associated with variation in site sensitivity, leading to improved site selection and surveillance system performance

Advances in Nematode Identification: A Journey from Fundamentals to Evolutionary Aspects

Nematodes are non-segmented roundworms evenly distributed with various habitats ranging to approximately every ecological extremity. These are the least studied organisms despite being the most diversified group. Nematodes are the most critical equilibrium-maintaining factors, having implications on the yield and health of plants as well as well-being of animals. However, taxonomic knowledge about nematodes is scarce. As a result of the lack of precise taxonomic features, nematode taxonomy remains uncertain. Morphology-based identification has proved inefficacious in identifying and exploring the diversity of nematodes, as there are insufficient morphological variations. Different molecular and new evolving methodologies have been employed to augment morphology-based approaches and bypass these difficulties with varying effectiveness. These identification techniques vary from molecular-based targeting DNA or protein-based targeting amino acid sequences to methods for image processing. High-throughput approaches such as next-generation sequencing have also been added to this league. These alternative approaches have helped to classify nematodes and enhanced the base for increased diversity and phylogeny of nematodes, thus helping to formulate increasingly more nematode bases for use as model organisms to study different hot topics about human well-being. Here, we discuss all the methods of nematode identification as an essential shift from classical morphometric studies to the most important modern-day and molecular approaches for their identification. Classification varies from DNA/protein-based methods to the use of new emerging methods. However, the priority of the method relies on the quality, quantity, and availability of nematode resources and down-streaming applications. This paper reviews all currently offered methods for the detection of nematodes and known/unknown and cryptic or sibling species, emphasizing modern-day methods and budding molecular techniques

Diagnostic yield of colonoscopy in patients with symptoms compatible with Rome IV functional bowel disorders

Background There is little data on the diagnostic yield of colonoscopy in patients with symptoms compatible with functional bowel disorders (FBDs). Previous studies have only focused on diagnostic outcomes of colonoscopy in those with suspected irritable bowel syndrome using historic Rome I-III criteria, whilst having partially assessed for alarm features and shown markedly conflicting results. There is also no colonoscopy outcome data for other FBDs, such as functional constipation or functional diarrhea. Aims Using the contemporaneous Rome IV criteria we determined the diagnostic yield of colonoscopy in patients with symptoms compatible with a FBD, stratified diligently according to the presence or absence of alarm features Methods Basic demographics, alarm features, and bowel symptoms using the Rome IV diagnostic questionnaire were collected prospectively from adults attending out-patient colonoscopy in 2019. Endoscopists were blinded to the questionnaire data. Organic disease was defined as the presence of inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, or microscopic colitis. Results 646 patients fulfilled symptom-based criteria for the following Rome IV FBDs: IBS (56%), functional diarrhea (27%) and functional constipation (17%). Almost all had alarm features (98%). The combined prevalence of organic disease was 12%, being lowest for functional constipation and IBS-constipation (∼6% each), followed by IBS-mixed (∼9%), and highest amongst functional diarrhea and IBS-diarrhea (∼17% each); p=0.005. The increased prevalence of organic disease in diarrheal versus constipation disorders was accounted for by microscopic colitis (5.7% vs. 0%, p<0.001) but not inflammatory bowel disease (7.2% vs. 4.0%, p=0.2) or colorectal cancer (4.2% vs. 2.3%, p=0.2). However, one-in-four chronic diarrhea patients - conceivably at risk for microscopic colitis - did not have colonic biopsies taken. Finally, only 11 of 646 (2%) patients were without alarm features, in whom colonoscopy was normal. Conclusion Most patients with symptoms of FBDs who are referred for colonoscopy have alarm features. The presence of organic disease is significantly higher in diarrheal versus constipation disorders, with microscopic colitis largely accounting for the difference whilst also being a missed diagnostic opportunity. In those patients without alarm features, the diagnostic yield of colonoscopy was nil