CELL CULTURE OPTIMIZATION AND REACTOR STUDIES OF GREEN AND BROWN MICROALGAE FOR ENHANCED LIPID PRODUCTION

Microalgae are a promising source of biofuels and other valuable chemicals. The low cell density and slow growth rate that have traditionally characterized microalgal cultures, however, have reduced their economical feasibility. To develop a sustainable microalgal process, it is necessary to increase culture productivity, maximize production yield, and reduce production costs

Epileptic Seizures Prediction Using Machine Learning Methods

Epileptic seizures occur due to disorder in brain functionality which can affect patient’s health. Prediction of epileptic seizures before the beginning of the onset is quite useful for preventing the seizure by medication. Machine learning techniques and computational methods are used for predicting epileptic seizures from Electroencephalograms (EEG) signals. However, preprocessing of EEG signals for noise removal and features extraction are two major issues that have an adverse effect on both anticipation time and true positive prediction rate. Therefore, we propose a model that provides reliable methods of both preprocessing and feature extraction. Our model predicts epileptic seizures’ sufficient time before the onset of seizure starts and provides a better true positive rate. We have applied empirical mode decomposition (EMD) for preprocessing and have extracted time and frequency domain features for training a prediction model. The proposed model detects the start of the preictal state, which is the state that starts few minutes before the onset of the seizure, with a higher true positive rate compared to traditional methods, 92.23%, and maximum anticipation time of 33 minutes and average prediction time of 23.6 minutes on scalp EEG CHB-MIT dataset of 22 subjects

Inter-District Inequalities in Social Service Delivery: A Rationalised Approach towards Funds Disbursement

For a less developed country, Pakistan has experienced a relatively high average per capita growth rate of 2.2 percent, for the period 1950-99 [Easterly (2003)]. Unfortunately, high growth rates have not trickled down sufficiently and the living condition of the general populace leaves a lot to be desired. The UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI) report released in 2010, ranked Pakistan at 144th on the HDI, out of 178 countries [Wasif (2010)]. The HDI conceptualises poverty to be a multi-dimensional construct and considers adult literacy and life expectancy to be key indicators of the quality of life. Given, that Pakistan has experienced high growth rates but ranks so poorly on the HDI, clearly indicates that despite economic growth, the country faces serious challenges in social service delivery. The coverage of social services is limited and varies across different regions of the country. Easterly (2003) points out that in terms of adult literacy there is a huge variation across provinces and female literacy is only 3 percent in rural Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa whereas it is 41 percent in urban Sindh. Zaidi (2005) shows that the situation is not much different in case of health outcomes. The study shows that across the country, nearly half of pregnant women suffer from anaemia and 35 percent of children under age five are malnourished. Moreover, the numbers for infant mortality vary across provinces considerably with urban Punjab having an infant mortality of 70.6 per 1,000 live births compared to the 120.6 of urban Balochistan.

A Meshless Numerical Solution of the Family of Generalized Fifth-order Korteweg-de Vries Equations

In this paper we present a numerical solution of a family of generalized fifth-order Korteweg-de Vries equations using a meshless method of lines. This method uses radial basis functions for spatial derivatives and Runge-Kutta method as a time integrator. This method exhibits high accuracy as seen from the comparison with the exact solutions

Prevalence of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease among Diabetic Patients at Sharif Medical City Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan

Background: Diabetes mellitus has been linked to various gastrointestinal motility disorders, including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).This study aimed to determine the proportion of GERD in patients with diabetes mellitus.Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the medical outpatient department of Sharif Medical City Hospital, Lahore, from October to December, 2020. Patients previously diagnosed with type II diabetes were included using non-probability consecutive sampling, and the GERDQ questionnaire was used to determine the frequency. IBM SPSS statistics version 23 was used for the analysis of data.Results: Of the 273 participants, 183 (67.0%) were male and the mean age was 51.13±12.8 years. The mean duration of diabetes was 6.97±4.76 years and oral hypoglycemic agents were used by 133 (48.7%) participants. Overall, 133 (48.7%) of the participants had GERD with a mean GERDQ score of 10.8(±1.4).Conclusion: Almost half (48.7%) of the participants have GERD; the most common symptom is regurgitation of stomach contents. Awareness should be raised, and early screening should be done to prevent long-term complications.

ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AND PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES: INVESTIGATING THE BUFFERING EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE

In current study, it was theorized that perceived fairness reduces the detrimental effects of perception of organizational politics on performance outcomes of organizations i.e. organizational commitment, managerial effectiveness and organizational performance. To test this exposition, data of 243 managerial employees of banking sector have been obtained and used to find out the moderating effect of organizational justice on perception of organizational politics and performance outcomes. The findings reached at the conclusion that distributive and procedural dimensions of the organizational justice safeguard the damaging effects of perception of organizational politics on performance but interactional justice has not verified as moderator. This study extends the fairness theory and recommends management to flourish fairness culture in organizations to reduce the injurious effects of organizational politics in the workplace