The SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic a Global Emergency: The Journey from Bats to Humans

Bats are considered as the reservoirs of coronaviruses (CoVs) which resulted in severe disease outbreaks in humans. Zoonotic coronaviruses responsible for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), were originated from bats and remain highly pathogenic to humans during the last two decades. Recently, an acute respiratory disease outbreak which spread in Wuhan, China was caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) also known as 2019-nCoV, received worldwide attention. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the COVID-19 epidemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 as a public health emergency. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has been considered as the third highly pathogenic epidemic of the 21st century. The SARS-CoV-2 belongs to β-coronavirus group with highly identical genome to bat coronavirus RaTG13, assuming bat as the natural host. According to WHO as of December 21, 2020, approximately 75,479,471 persons were infected with 16,86,267 deaths in 222 countries. Whereas the in Pakistan according to WHO as of December 21, 2020, around 4 57,288 persons were infected with 9, 330 death reported in the country. Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; 2019-nCoV; Bats; Human; Epidemic; Pandemic DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/105-07 Publication date: February 28th 202

Application of Pretreatments on Banana Slices for Improving Drying Characteristics

The banana slices were subjected to pretreatment solutions for improving drying, physico-chemical and sensory characteristics.  The pretreatments were applied with four different solutions including ascorbic acid, lemon juice, sodium chloride and honey. The banana slices were cut into 5 mm and 7 mm in size, about 120 g banana slice samples were dip in each pretreatment solution for ten min. The banana slice samples were dehydrated in dehydration chamber and dried at temperatures of 60 °C for 12 to 16 hrs. Each sample was observed for physico chemical characteristics such as pH, TSS, vitamin C, total sugar and ash % and sensory analysis of their color, aroma, taste, texture and overall acceptability were observed. The results obtained showed that the banana slices treated with ascorbic acid and honey solution has the highest value of vitamin C. The results obtained for sensory analysis showed the significant difference in aroma, taste, texture and overall acceptability scores recorded for the samples pretreated with honey solutions for ten min. It is concluded from the present study that pretreatment solutions have important role in determining the final quality characteristics of dried banana slices and it has great potential application in food industries. Keywords: Banana; slices; pretreatment; ascorbic acid, honey, drying characteristics; sensory evaluation. DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/103-06 Publication date: December 31st 202

Viable forecasting monthly weather data using time series methods

The main object of the research was to assess the forecast values of the weather parameters by using three-time series methods such as Decomposition of time series, Autoregressive (AR) model with seasonal dummies and Autoregressive moving average (ARMA) /Autoregressive Integrated moving average (ARIMA) model. A recent phenomenon in weather changing has disturbed the world in general and Pakistan in particular. In Pakistan due to climate change, flood and heat stroke have taken many lives. Stationarity was measured through the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test; results showed that some variables are I(0) and some are I(1). The reliability of the forecast results was examined through the goodness of fit test. For finding the best fit model, the performance measures of various models: Root Mean Squire Error, Mean Absolute Error and Mean Absolute Percentage Error were considered. The model in which the above statistics are the minimum was chosen as the appropriate model. After model analysis and validation, it was observed that AR-model with seasonal dummies was found to be the best fit model between the three models. Meanwhile, the forecasting for the period Jan.2018 to Dec.2018 was made based on the best fit model. Given the future forecasting results, the temperature will be normal at selected stations. The wind and rainfall will also be present. Overall, it was suggested that the obtained findings of meteorological stations' weather might be normal for the coming few months over there, and no chance of heatstroke and flood might be expected. Future studies must be carried out to provide the awareness to well-being regarding ecological hazardous to minimize their economic loss through mass media

Impact of Cooking Methods on Physicochemical and Sensory Attributes of Apple Gourd

An investigation was carried out to examine the influence of some cooking methods on physicochemical and sensory characteristics of apple gourd during 2016-17. For this purpose, vegetable was procured, washed, peeled, sliced and distributed in five equal lots. Four of these lots were used for individual cooking treatments (i.e. T2=boiling, T3=steaming, T4=frying and T5=microwaving), however, last lot was treated as control (i.e. T1=raw/without treatment). After cooking, all samples were used for analysis. It was found that all organic acids (%) i.e. acetic acid, citric acid, oxalic acid and tartaric acid remained significantly higher (

Loaf Characteristics and Sensory Properties of whole Wheat Bread Fortified with Sorghum and Rice Flour

Bread is a common staple food in developing countries and also in many other regions of the world. The loaf characteristic and sensory attributes of bread samples prepared by using different composite flours in which ratio of whole wheat flour, sorghum flour and rice flour kept as 100:0:0 (F1), 80:10:10 (F2) and 60:20:20 (F3) was evaluated. The composite flours F1, F2 and F3 were subsequently used for making bread samples i.e. whole wheat bread (WWB), sorghum rice bread-1 (SRB-1) and sorghum rice bread-2 (SRB-2), respectively. The results indicated that significantly higher loaf weight (g) was recorded in SRB-2 followed by SRB-1 and WWB. Significantly higher bread height (cm) was noticed in SRB-1 followed by WWB and SRB-2. The bread sample WWB was found to have significantly higher volume and specific volume followed by SRB-1 and SRB-2. It was also revealed that significantly higher average score for bread crust color was perceived by WWB. However, bread sample SRB-1 perceived significantly higher score (

Loaf Characteristics and Sensory Properties of whole Wheat Bread Fortified with Sorghum and Rice Flour

Bread is a common staple food in developing countries and also in many other regions of the world. The loaf characteristic and sensory attributes of bread samples prepared by using different composite flours in which ratio of whole wheat flour, sorghum flour and rice flour kept as 100:0:0 (F1), 80:10:10 (F2) and 60:20:20 (F3) was evaluated. The composite flours F1, F2 and F3 were subsequently used for making bread samples i.e. whole wheat bread (WWB), sorghum rice bread-1 (SRB-1) and sorghum rice bread-2 (SRB-2), respectively. The results indicated that significantly higher loaf weight (g) was recorded in SRB-2 followed by SRB-1 and WWB. Significantly higher bread height (cm) was noticed in SRB-1 followed by WWB and SRB-2. The bread sample WWB was found to have significantly higher volume and specific volume followed by SRB-1 and SRB-2. It was also revealed that significantly higher average score for bread crust color was perceived by WWB. However, bread sample SRB-1 perceived significantly higher score (