Prospects of microalgal biodiesel production in Pakistan – a review

Biodiesel is an alternative, renewable, biodegradable and environmentally friendly fuel for transportation, with properties like petroleum-derived diesel, and can be used directly in a compression ignition engine without any modifications. The world's fossil fuel and crude oil reserves are going to dry up in the next few decades, but, contrariwise, an attractive, high quality, readily available and economically extractable oil from microalgae is a substitute feedstock to produce alternative biodiesel fuel for the transportation sector in the future. Microalgae have a higher biomass productivity (tons/hectare/year) and lipid yield (kg/kg of algal biomass) as compared to vegetable oil crops. To overcome the problem of energy deficiency in developing countries, like Pakistan, and boost their economic growth, alternative fuels are proving very important for environment-friendly and sustainable development, especially in the last few decades. Different research studies on microalgae cultivation, characterization of microalgae oil (lipids), and evaluations of its socio-economic feasibility to produce renewable biodiesel have been conducted in the past in Pakistan for its future prospects. This review paper includes the overall summary and compilation of the microalgae research conducted in Pakistan on biodiesel production and includes the algal biodiesel production cost analysis. The studies showed promising results for harnessing microalgae and using its lipids to produce biodiesel with favourable properties that were comparable to the conventional diesel in Pakistan. The information related to the microalgae research will help stakeholders and governmental organisations working in the renewable energy sector to consider its cultivation on a large scale, using waste water as a feedstock to produce biodiesel to meet the target set by the Government of Pakistan of using 10% blended biodiesel by the year 2025 in Pakistan

A different strategy for management of a case of adenoid cystic carcinoma of bartholin gland

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the Bartholin gland is a rare vulval cancer. Available literature suggests an aggressive nature with protracted clinical symptoms and local recurrence despite adequate surgical excision with or without adjuvant radiotherapy. This case demonstrates the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and interstitial brachytherapy with less radical surgery, in the treatment of adenoid cystic carcinoma of the Bartholin gland. A 63-year-old woman presented in the clinic four months after the removal of vulvar mass with histopathology report showing adenoid cystic carcinoma of the Bartholin gland with positive margins. Clinical examination and imaging showed local disease extension up to the levator ani and abutting anal margin. She was given four cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by ipsilateral hemivulvectomy with inguino-femoral lymphadenectomy followed by 25 cycles of external beam radiation and three cycles of interstitial brachytherapy. The patient has been disease free for more than 30 months. The use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in treatment of Bartholin carcinoma along with conser vative surgery and radiotherapy can be a good treatment strategy as it reduces the morbidity associated with radical surgery without recurrence to date

Peristaltic transport of Johnson–Segalman fluid in a curved channel with compliant walls

The present investigation deals with the peristaltic flow of an incompressible Johnson–Segalman fluid in a curved channel. Effects of the channel wall properties are taken into account. The associated equations for peristaltic flow in a curved channel are modeled. Mathematical analysis is simplified under long wavelength and low Reynolds number assumptions. The solution expressions are established for small Weissenberg number. Effects of several embedded parameters on the flow quantities are discussed

Attachment, perceived social support and mental health problems in women with primary infertility

Background: Infertility is one of the fastest growing concerns when it comes to reproductive health and most often, women get the blame. Consequently, females suffer from major psycho-social and emotional problems that may lead to serious mental health concerns.Methods: To fill the gap in literature, a cross-sectional research design was used to measure the attachment styles with spouse, perceived social support, and predict mental health problems in women attending infertility clinics with ages ranging from 19-45 (M 27.21, SD 4.79). Adult Attachment Questionnaire, Multidimensional Perceived Social Support, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale were used among experimental subjects selected through purposive sampling technique.Results: About 32% women reported themselves as secure, 49% as ambivalent, and 19% as avoidant in their attachment style with spouse. The results revealed that a significant negative correlation exists between perceived social support and mental health problems among women with infertility. Moreover, women who identify their attachment pattern as Ambivalent perceive less social support and experience more mental health problems.Conclusions: Education is one of the strongest predictors of how likely infertility is to cause mental health issues while Attachment style is another strong indicator since infertile women with secure attachment pattern have fewer mental health problems. However, the sample size was modest to make any wide-scale assumptions, so further trials with larger participant pools must be performed. Additionally, future studies should include both rural and urban samples with different psychological variables to find the similarities and differences between various groups of people with diverse backgrounds

Control of Aflatoxin Production Using Herbal Plant Extract

The aflatoxins are a group of chemically similar poisonous, carcinogenic fungal secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, and A. nomius, which are abundant in warm and humid regions of the world. They are probably the most intensively researched toxins in the world due to their carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. Aflatoxins have also been identified as a potential biological weapon for food and water contamination. The four major aflatoxins commonly isolated from different foods and feed stuffs are AFB1, AF B2, AFG1, and AFG2. Aflatoxin contamination of food and feed has gained global significance as a result of its deleterious effects on human as well as livestock health including gastrointestinal dysfunction, reduced feed utilization, anemia, jaundice, liver damage and immunity suppression. The profitability and marketing of various agricultural products are adversely affected by either contamination of aflatoxins or aflatoxin‐producing fungi. The foods at highest risk of aflatoxin contamination are maize, chilies, peanuts, and cotton seeds. There are various physical, chemical, and natural methods investigated to prevent aflatoxin production and the growth of aflatoxin‐producing fungus in various agricultural products. Here, we describe various natural plant extracts that would be potential source of controlling aflatoxin production in agricultural products

A Novel Variant Of Regenerating Iα Gene (REG) In Type II Diabetics Among Pakistani Targeted Population

Abstract Objective: Regeneration of pancreatic β-cells, is an essential step towards diabetes management. The regenerating (REG) Iα gene is secreted from damaged β-cell for the synthesis of β-cell. This study aimed to identify REG Iα gene polymorphisms and their association with Type II diabetes (T2DM). Methods: Patients (110) with T2DM and age-related controls were selected from PNS Shifa Hospital, Karachi. DNA was extracted PCR was performed and amplified products were sequenced to identify polymorphisms. For six exons of the REG 1a gene, 6 sets of primers were designed. The selected (51) samples were amplified and sequenced for 306 (51x6) times. Odds ratios were calculated through logistic regression analysis. The correlation was used to find an association between REG Iα and diseases. p< 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Blood samples were drawn from 90 finalized patients, including 70 diabetics and 20 controls with an M: F ratio of 12:8. Twenty patients opted to withdraw. The REG Iα and disease duration in type II diabetics showed a negative correlation (r= -0.355, p=0.005). The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of eight sites were detected: g.-385T>C, g.-243T>G, g.-145G>A, g.+142A, g.+209G>T, g.+226A>G, g.+2199G>A, g.+2360A>G.  The novel SNP g.-145G>A was found in all patients (controls, T2DM). Among all SNPs, only g.+209G>T showed a positive association (OR= 2.4, p=0.01) with T2DM. Whereas, g.-243T>G showed a positive association (OR=8.06, p=0.0003) with smoking. Conclusion: A novel variant g.-145G>A REG Iα gene was found among all participants. The SNPs g.+209G>T had a significant positive association with T2DM and SNP g.-243T>G showed an increased risk of the disease among smokers

Development of a Scale for Assessing Emotional and Behavioral Problems of School Children

To develop a scale to assess emotional and behavioral problems in school children, a list of 109 most frequently occurring problems after validation by 20 experienced school psychologists was administered to 853 school children (grades 8-10) along with Youth Self Report (YSR; Keywords: emotional and behavioral problems, school children, reliability, validity Adolescence is known as the period that demands continual adjustment with the ever changing developmental process. During the normal growth and development, adolescents face many challenges and difficulties including changing physical growth, parental expectations, role identification and becoming a member of a society Throughout the world, extensive research has been conducted to determine the prevalence rate of emotional and behavioral problems of children and adolescents Sadia Saleem and Dr. Zahid Mehmood, Clinical Psychology Department, GC University, Lahore, Pakistan. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sadia Saleem, Clinical Psychology Department, GC University, Lahore. Email: [email protected] There have been few sporadic studies carried out in Pakistan to look at the emotional and behavioral problems of school children. Javed

Mid-upper arm circumference assessment and comparison with weight for length Z-score in infants ≤6 months as an indicator of severe acute malnutrition

Objective: To assess the frequency of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and to determine the validity of mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) as compared to weight for length z-score (WLZ-score) as an indicator of the nutritional status in this age group.Methods: A cross-sectional study, with a purposive sampling was conducted from March 2018 to November 2018 to enroll 540 infants ≤6 months of age from three different sites in Karachi, Pakistan. The anthropometric measurements (MUAC, length and weight) were taken by experienced community health workers. The data were analyzed using SPSS. MUAC was compared with WLZ-score for sensitivity and specificity to observe the concordant among the two diagnostic measures. The Youden Index was used to determine the ideal cut-off for infants less than 6 months of age in this population and the Kappa coefficient was also calculated to assess the agreement between MUAC and WLZ-score.Results: The study findings revealed that SAM was found in 13.6% (n=74) of the children. MUAC cut-off ≤11.5 cm yielded the Youden Index of 0.31 with 59.5% sensitivity and 71.4% specificity. The total area under receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.70 (95% CI: 0.63, 0.77; P \u3c 0.001). The degree of agreement between mid-upper arm circumference and weight for length z-score to diagnose SAM ranged from 0.2 to 0.3.Conclusion: The Youden index implied that a MUAC cut-off of ≤11.5 cm can be used as an indicator with acceptable validity for diagnosing SAM in children ≤6 months of age in a low middle income developing country like Pakistan