Schiff Bases and Their Metallic Derivatives: Highly Versatile Molecules with Biological and Abiological Perspective

1998 onwards, a span reporting thousands of research articles describes the ever-increasing applicability of Schiff bases and their metallic complexes; this chapter comprehensively examines the literature of the last 20 years. The structural diversity of these molecules made them available for a very wide range of biological and abiological applications. Schiff bases are excellent chelators and due to this unique property have found their place in qualitative and quantitative determination of metals in aqueous media. The structural diversity of metal chelates proved these to be outstanding catalysts and displayed interesting fluorescence effect. Finally, Schiff base moieties have found a unique position during the in vitro and in vivo experiments for drug development against a huge number of biological entities including bacteria, fungi, cancer cells, viruses, parasites, etc

Economic burden of mental illnesses in Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: The economic consequences of mental illnesses are much more than health consequences. In Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) the economic impact of mental illnesses is rarely analyzed. This paper attempts to fill the gap in research on economics of mental health in LMIC. We provide economic burden of mental illness in Pakistan that can serve as an argument for reorienting health policy, resource allocation and priority settings. AIM: To estimate economic burden of mental illnesses in Pakistan. METHODS: The study used prevalence based cost of illnesses approach using bottom-up costing methodology. We used Aga Khan University Hospital, Psychiatry department data set (N = 1882) on admission and ambulatory care for the year 2005-06. Healthcare cost data was obtained from finance department of the hospital. Productivity losses, caregiver and travel cost were estimated using socio-economicfeatures of patients in the data set and data of national household survey. We used stratified random sampling and methods of ordinary least square multiple linear regressions to estimate cost on medicines for ambulatory care. All estimates of cost are based on 1000 bootstrap samples by ICD-10 disease classification. Prevalence data on mental illnesses from Pakistan and regional countries was used to estimate economic burden. RESULTS: The economic burden of mental illnesses in Pakistan was Pakistan Rupees (PKR) 250,483 million (USD 4264.27 million) in 2006. Medical care costs and productivity losses contributed 37% and 58.97% of the economic burden respectively. Tertiary care admissions costs were 70% of total medical care costs. The average length of stay (LOS) for admissions care was around 8 days. Daily average medical care cost of admitted patients was PKR 3273 (USD 55.72). For ambulatory care, on average a patient visited the clinic twice a year. The estimated average yearly cost for all mental illnesses was PKR 81,922 (USD 1394.65) and PKR 19,592 (USD 333.54) for admissions and ambulatory care respectively. In the sensitivity analysis productivity losses showed high variability (from USD 1022.17 million to USD 4007.01 million). Assuming a gate keeping role of primary healthcare (PHC) demonstrated a saving of USD 1577.19 million in total economic burden. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICY: This study set out to generate evidence using a low cost innovative approach relevant to many LMICs. In Pakistan, like many LMICs, patients access tertiary care directly, even for illness that can be efficiently managed at PHC level. In economic terms the non-medical consequences of mental illnesses are far greater than medical consequences. Based on these finding we recommend, firstly, that mental illnesses should be prioritized equally as other illnesses in health policy and secondly there needs to be integration of mental health in primary health care in Pakistan

Multiple social network integration framework for recommendation across system domain

A recommender system is a special software that recommends items to a user based on the user’s history. A recommender system comprises users, items and a rating matrix. Rating matrix stores the interactions between users and items. The system faces a variety of problems among which three are the main concerns of this research. These problems are cold start, sparsity, and diversity. Majority of the research use a conventional framework for solving these problems. In a conventional recommender system, user profiles are generated from a single feedback source, whereas, Cross Domain Recommender Systems (CDRS) research relies on more than one source. Recently researchers have started using “Social Network Integration Framework”, that integrates social network as an additional feedback source. Although the existing framework alleviates recommendation problems better than the conventional framework, it still faces limitations. Existing framework is designed only for a single source domain and requires the same user participation in both the source and the target domain. Existing techniques are also designed to integrate knowledge from one social network only. To integrate multiple sources, this research developed a “Multiple Social Network Integration Framework”, that consists of two models and three techniques. Firstly, the Knowledge Generation Model generates interaction matrices from “n” number of source domains. Secondly, the Knowledge Linkage Model links the source domains to the target domain. The outputs of the models are inputs of the techniques. Then multiple techniques were developed to address cold start, sparsity and diversity problem using multiple source networks. Three techniques addressed the cold start problem. These techniques are Multiple Social Network integration with Equal Weights Participation (MSN-EWP), Multiple Social Network integration with Local Adjusted Weights Participation (MSNLAWP) and Multiple Social Network integration with Target Adjusted Weights Participation (MSN-TAWP). Experimental results showed that MSN-TAWP performed best by producing 47% precision improvement over popularity ranking as the baseline technique. For the sparsity problem, Multiple Social Network integration for K Nearest Neighbor identification (MSN-KNN) technique performed at least 30% better in accuracy while decreasing the error rate by 20%. Diversity problem was addressed by two combinations of the cold start and sparsity techniques. These combinations, EWP + MSN-KNN, TAWP + MSN-KNN and TAWP + MSN-KNN outperformed the rest of the diversity combinations by 56% gain in diversity with a precision loss of 1%. In conclusion, the techniques designed for multiple sources outperformed existing techniques for addressing cold start, sparsity and diversity problem. Finally, an extension of multiple social network integration framework for content-based and hybrid recommendation techniques should be considered future work

Critical issue to consider while developing SQL injection prevention mechanism

SQL injection vulnerability is the one of the most common web-based application vulnerabilities that can be exploited by SQL injection attack to gain access to restricted data, bypass authentication mechanism and execute unauthorized data manipulation language. Defensive coding is the simple and affordable way to tackle this problem, by applying secure coding in each an every queries used in application. In this paper we provide a detailed background of SQLI attack, we classify defensive coding into different categories, review existing techniques that are related to each technique, and also evaluate such techniques based on number of attacks they were able to stop.We also evaluated each category of approach based on it's deployment requirement related to inheritance. Currently, to the best of our knowledge no papers have classied defensive coding as we do

DNA-based Eye Color Prediction of Pakhtun Population Living in District Swat KP Pakistan

Background: Forensic DNA Phenotyping (FDP) or the prediction of Externally Visible Characteristics (EVCs) from a DNA sample has gained importance in the last decade or so in the forensic community. If and when the traditional forensic DNA typing via Short Tandem Repeats (STR) fails due to the absence of a reference sample, an individual can be traced by a DNA sample using FDP. Amongst the many available EVCs, eye color is one such character that can be predicted by employing previously developed IrisPlex system using Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) assay. In this study, we applied the IrisPlex system to samples collected from population of District Swat for prediction of eye colours from DNA.Method: Eye colour digital photographs and buccal swab samples were collected from 267 Pakhtun individuals of District Swat. Any person with eye disease was excluded from the study. Genomic DNA was extracted through Phenol-Chloroform extraction method. The amplified SNPs were typed using Multiplexed Single Base Extension (SBE). The genotypes were checked for eye color phenotypes through IrisPlex online tool and correlation were checked between SNPs, Gender, pie score and eye color.Result: Brown eye color was found prevalent as compared to intermediate and blue. Females have highly brown eye color compared to males while males have intermediate and blue. Three SNPs rs12913832 (in the HERC2), rs1393350 (TYR gene), rs1800407 (OCA2 gene) were strongly significant to eye color. Pie score was also significant to eye color and rs12913832 SNP. IrisPlex analysis in 20 individuals of District Swat was performed. The prediction accuracy of IrisPlex for blue or brown was 100% in the studied individuals. However, the IrisPlex tool predicted the intermediate phenotype incorrectly as brown or blue.Conclusion: It is concluded from the data that intermediate eye colour was not predicted accurately, therefore, inclusion of more SNPs in the IrisPlex system is needed to predict intermediate eye colour accurately.Keywords: Eye colour, IrisPlex, SNPs, Multiplex genotyping, DNA, District Swa

Impact of Different Potassium (K) Application on Seed Protein Content of Brassica under Different Levels of Irrigation in Field Condition

Pakistan is confronting a chronic scarcity of domestic edible oil requirements. One of the major issues with brassica oil seed production is the water requirement of the brassica crop. Field experiments were laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with split plot arrangements at Malakandher Research Farm Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University Peshawar Pakistan to study the effect of different levels of irrigation and potassium on seed protein content of Brassica. Four varieties Wester, Rainbow, Oscar and Legend were selected on the basis of their good response to potassium application in water stress conditions. The data revealed that maximum seed protein content (21.98%) was observed in those treatments where 100% irrigation level was applied and minimum seed protein content (19.37%) was produced by plants where 60% irrigation level was applied. Maximum seed protein content (21%) was in plants treated with 120 kg K ha-1 and minimum seed protein content (20.14%) with 60 kg K ha-1. The interaction between I x K showed maximum seed protein content (22.43%) in those plants treated with 100% irrigation level and 120 kg K ha-1 and minimum seed protein content (19.14%) was observed with 60 kg K ha-1 and 60% irrigation level. Maximum seed protein content (22.77%) was produced by variety Wester (V1) at 100% irrigation level and 120 kg K ha-1 while minimum seed protein content (18.80%) was given by variety Oscar (V3) when treated with 60 kg K ha-1 and 60% irrigation level. Keywords: Brassica, Oil Seed, Seed Protein, Variety, Irrigation, Potassium

Influence of Different Potassium (K) Application On Seed Glucosinolate Content Of Brassica Under Stress Condition In The Field

Field experiments were laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with split plot arrangements at Malakandher Research Farm Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University Peshawar Pakistan to study the effect of different levels of irrigation and potassium on seed protein content of Brassica. Four varieties Wester, Rainbow, Oscar and Legend were selected on the basis of their good response to potassium application in water stress conditions. maximum GSL content (49.2 ?mol g-1) was observed in treatments of 100% irrigation while minimum GSL content (16.4 ?mol g-1) was produced by plants where 60% irrigation was applied. potassium showed maximum GSL content (34.7 ?mol g-1) with 60 kg K ha-1 and minimum GSL content (31.0 ?mol g-1) was observed in treatments with 120 K kg ha-1. The data shown in appendix A29 suggested that maximum GSL content (40.7 ?mol g-1) was produced by variety Wester (V1) when applied with 60 kg K ha-1 and minimum GSL content (25.7 ?mol g-1) was given by variety Legend (V4) when treated with 120 kg K ha-. case of interaction between I x K, maximum GSL content (50.7 ?mol g-1) was noted in plants treated with 60 kg K ha-1 and 100% irrigation level while minimum GSL content (14.1 ?mol g-1 ) with 120 kg K ha-1 and 60% irrigation level. Further, the data given in appendix A29 indicated that maximum GSL content (56.5 ?mol g-1) was produced by variety Wester (V1) when treated with 100% irrigation level and 60 kg K ha-1 while minimum GSL content (8.9 ?mol g-1) was also given by variety Wester (V1) at 120 kg K ha-1 and 60% irrigation level.Keywords. Glucosinolate, Potassium, Irrigation, Variety, Treatmen

Neotectonic Activity in Quetta-Ziarat Region, Northwest Quetta City, Pakistan

Geomorphic parameters are very helpful as they can quickly explain the concerned area, which is going through a tectonic adjustment. For this purpose, four indices were applied to examine the active tectonics in the QuettaZiarat region. These indices include: sub-basins asymmetry (Af), transverse topography (T-Factor), hypsometric integral (HI) and stream-length gradient (SL). The calculation of the three indices as denoted by Af, HI and SL show low active tectonics, whereas T-Factor suggests moderate to high level of tectonic activity. While index of active tectonics (IAT) indicated a low to moderate level of active tectonics. In addition, these indices are compared with lithological and climatic consequences to detect the final neotectonics judgement

Assessment of antimicrobial, antialgal and cytotoxic activities of crude extracts from rhizospheric and freshwater cyanobacterial strains

Background: This study describes the evaluation of antimicrobial, antialgal and cytotoxic activities of crude extracts from cyanobacterial strains isolated from rhizospheric and freshwater environment.Methods: Four cyanobacterial strains were isolated from freshwater and rhizospheric samples collected from various sites of University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Selected strains were identified by 16S rDNA ribotyping as species of genera, Cyanothece (CY1), Synechococcus (CY2), Leptolyngbya (CY3) and Synechococcus (CY4). The organic extracts i.e., methanolic, ethanolic and acetonic of selected cyanobacterial strains were checked for antibacterial and cytotoxic activity. Antibacterial and antialgal activities of cyanobacterial extracts were determined against, four Gram positive and three Gram negative bacteria using Muller-Hinton (MH) agar well diffusion assay and two algal species using 96-well microtiter plate respectively. Cytotoxic activity was determined against Vero cells and Huh-7 cells.Results: The results showed that all cyanobacterial extracts showed activities against Gram positive bacteria while some of the extracts showed activity against Gram negative bacteria. Acetonic extract of CY4 and CY2 showed moderate discoloration against Chlamydomonas sp. and Chroococcus sp. respectively. In cytotoxicity bioassay, methanolic extracts of strain CY1 and CY2 were most active with an IC50 of 0.625 mg/ml against Vero cells while acetonic extract of strain CY1 showed highest activity against Huh-7 cells (p<0.05).Conclusion: The data of current study conclusively suggest that selected cyanobacteria may be an excellent source for further fractionation to obtain novel antibacterial, antialgal and anticancer substances.Keywords: Cyanobacteria; MTT bioassay; Microtiter plates; Antimicrobial activity; Cytotoxicity