Oxidative Stress: A Double Edged Sword

Oxidative stress (OS) in simple words is defined as a state of imbalance between antioxidant and pro-oxidants defenses. The purpose of this article is to find out the connection of oxidative stress and free radical species with different aspects of human health. Owing to its harmful effects on proteins and nucleic acids, oxidative stress causes chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and cancer. It highlights the impacts of antioxidants and pro-oxidants particularly on fertility and infertility. It also focuses on the adverse effects caused by the long-term exposure to pro-oxidant factors leading to structural defects of mitochondrial DNA. As modern life style consists of more reliance on the processed foods and lack of physical activity, a nutrition deficiency, which is common in the present lifestyle, is also one of the reasons for oxidative stress to cause inflammation. However, this review also focuses on how diet affects and triggers inflammation. Redox mechanism with potential threats to health of mankind is discussed, how mere stress can provoke biological stress responses leading to development of disease or metabolic errors. Methods for reduction of oxidative stress are discussed in this review. It also highlights mitochondria as an aging factor as many ROS, particularly mitochondria ROS contribute directly to aging in human body. We will be discussing the recent findings in the oxidative stress field and its negative and positive impacts on human health

Riba Free Loan in Islamic Finance: Key to Social Development and Welfare

Worldwide Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) do not offer loan for avoiding interest/usury, confine their Shariah interpretations to a particular school of thought and offer products for rich people only. Loans are however demanded by the underdeveloped social actors in economy for welfare and development. As per Islam usury (Riba) free loan (Qard – e – Hassan or Dain) is a key to social development. Modern implicit and explicit shapes of master-servant relation among individuals and institutions are legal phenomena with diversified standards and patterns. As per Jaferia school of thought, Islam allows presetting Hadya (gift) in loans among master-servant. These options were utilized by our study for proposing a Pro-Hadya Riba Free Loan among master-servant. Such model of loaning can help stakeholders of Islamic finance improving the existing landscape from pro-commercial creed to pro - social development approach. It is further a potential replacement of fixed rate of interest/usury with Hadya. Such loan can be utilized for turning pension, gratuity, provident fund and other investment schemes Shariah based easily by taking advantage of master-servant setup. Findings and recommendations of this study contributes novel and further invites future research on its engineered model of loaning

Formulation and evaluation of fluconazole loaded nanospongies for improved topical drug delivery

Fluconazole (an antifungal drug) loaded nanosponges (NS) were prepared by an emulsion solvent diffusion method using ethyl cellulose as the polymer. Prepared formulations were evaluated for various physicochemical parameters and in-vitro drug release. NS of fluconazole were discrete, free flowing nanosized particles with perforated orange peel-like morphology as shown by SEM analysis. A topical hydrogel formulation based on the drug loaded NS showed a prolonged release profile for the drug. Kinetic modelling on release data showed that the best fitted model was Higuchi model and release mechanism was by Fickian diffusion. FTIR and PXRD results confirmed the absence of any drug polymer interaction and stability of drug in the delivery system

A morphospace of functional configuration to assess configural breadth based on brain functional networks

The best approach to quantify human brain functional reconfigurations in response to varying cognitive demands remains an unresolved topic in network neuroscience. We propose that such functional reconfigurations may be categorized into three different types: i) Network Configural Breadth, ii) Task-to-Task transitional reconfiguration, and iii) Within-Task reconfiguration. In order to quantify these reconfigurations, we propose a mesoscopic framework focused on functional networks (FNs) or communities. To do so, we introduce a 2D network morphospace that relies on two novel mesoscopic metrics, Trapping Efficiency (TE) and Exit Entropy (EE), which capture topology and integration of information within and between a reference set of FNs. In this study, we use this framework to quantify the Network Configural Breadth across different tasks. We show that the metrics defining this morphospace can differentiate FNs, cognitive tasks and subjects. We also show that network configural breadth significantly predicts behavioral measures, such as episodic memory, verbal episodic memory, fluid intelligence and general intelligence. In essence, we put forth a framework to explore the cognitive space in a comprehensive manner, for each individual separately, and at different levels of granularity. This tool that can also quantify the FN reconfigurations that result from the brain switching between mental states.Comment: main article: 24 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. supporting information: 11 pages, 5 figure

Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern in a Tertiary Care Institution

Background: Isolation of different types of organisms from urine, high vaginal swab (HVS), pus and blood and determining their sensitivity and resistance pattern. Methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Pathology (Microbiology Section) Rawalpindi General Hospital. Four thousand and seventy five (4075) indoor and outdoor patients were analyzed by taking their different samples i.e. Blood, Urine, HVS and Pus, which were then cultured on different media i.e. MacConkey’s and Blood agar. CLED media was preferred for urine. Results: Out of 4075 samples, 515 cultures yielded growth. These included 170 samples of HVS, 163 of pus, 158 of urine and 24 of blood. Escherichia coli (29.8%), Staphylococcus species (26.52%) and Pseudomonas (18.66%) were the most common organisms isolated. Conclusion: Due to high resistance, antibiotic use policy should, strictly adhere to WHO guidelines and their unnecessary use should be discouraged

Ethyl (3E)-3-[2-(4-bromo­phenyl­sulfon­yl)hydrazin-1-yl­idene]butano­ate

The asymmetric unit of title compound, C12H15BrN2O4S, contains two mol­ecules (A and B), with slightly different conformations: the bromo­phenyl rings and the SO2 planes of the sulfonyl groups are oriented at dihedral angles of 50.2 (2) (mol­ecule A) and 58.24 (7)° (mol­ecule B), and the ethyl acetate groups make dihedral angles of 63.99 (19)° (A) and 65.35 (16)° (B) with their bromo­phenyl groups. In the crystal, both mol­ecules exist as inversion dimers linked by pairs of N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, which generate R 2 2(14) loops. The dimers are linked by C—H⋯O inter­actions

Impact of Net Stable Funding Ratio Regulations on Net Interest Margin: A Multi-Country Comparative Analysis

We empirically investigate the impact of liquidity framework proposed under Basel III, namely Net Stable Funding Ratio on Net Interest Margin for 385 banks in SAARC countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) along with five developed countries i.e. Australia, Canada, China, Japan and United State over 2003-2013. The NSFR in Basel III liquidity necessity intended to limit funding risk emerging from maturity conflicts between assets and liabilities of overall countries. The results indicate that there is also a gap between developing and developed countries to managing the stability of their funding source as well as liquidity of its assets is a benefit to them and is also transformed into net interest margin by comparison of developing and developed countries. In addition, this study also proved the findings of previous researches in developed countries that are relevant to bank determinants and net interest margin in the world

2-[(2-Amino­phen­yl)sulfan­yl]-N-(4-meth­oxy­phen­yl)acetamide

In the title compound, C15H16N2O2S, the dihedral angle between the 4-meth­oxy­aniline and 2-amino­benzene­thiole fragments is 35.60 (9)°. A short intra­molecular N—H⋯S contact leads to an S(5) ring. In the crystal, mol­ecules are consolidated in the form of polymeric chains along [010] as a result of N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, which generate R 3 2(18) and R 4 3(22) loops. The polymeric chains are interlinked through C—H⋯O inter­action and complete R 2 2(8) ring motifs

Analysis and Forecast of Mining Fatalities in Cherat Coal Field, Pakistan

Mineral exploitation contributes to the economic growth of developing countries. Managing mineral production brought a more disturbing environment linked to workers' causalities due to scarcities in the safety management system. One of the barriers to attaining an adequate safety management system is the unavailability of future information relating to accidents causing fatalities. Policymakers always try to manage the safety system after each accident. Therefore, a precise forecast of the number of workers fatalities can provide significant observation to strengthen the safety management system. This study involves forecasting the number of mining workers fatalities in Cherat coal mines by using Auto-Regressive Integrating Moving Average Method (ARIMA) model. Workers' fatalities information was collected over the period of 1994 to 2018 from Mine Workers Federation, Inspectorate of Mines and Minerals and company records to evaluate the long-term forecast. Various diagnostic tests were used to obtain an optimistic model. The results show that ARIMA (0, 1, 2) was the most appropriate model for workers fatalities. Based on this model, casualties from 2019 to 2025 have been forecasted. The results suggest that policymakers should take systematic consideration by evaluating possible risks associated with an increased number of fatalities and develop a safe and effective working platform