6 research outputs found
Antiproliferative Activity of Lignans from Olea ferruginea: In Vitro Evidence Supported by Docking Studies
No full textPotential of soil amendments (Biochar and Gypsum) in increasing water use efficiency of Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench
No full textWater being an essential component for plant growth and development, its scarcity poses serious threat to crops around the world. Climate changes and global warming are increasing the temperature of earth hence becoming an ultimate cause of water scarcity. It is need of the day to use potential soil amendments that could increase the plants resistance under such situations. Biochar and gypsum were used in the present study to improve the water use efficiency (WUE) and growth of Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench (Ladys Finger). A 6 weeks experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions. Stress treatments were applied after 30 days of sowing. Plant height, leaf area, photosynthesis, transpiration rate (Tr), stomatal conductance and WUE were determined weekly under stressed [60% field capacity (F.C.)] and non-stressed (100% F.C.) conditions. Stomatal conductance and Tr decreased and reached near to zero in stressed plants. Stressed plants also showed resistance to water stress upto 5 weeks and gradually perished at sixth week. On the other hand, WUE improved in stressed plants containing biochar and gypsum as compared to untreated plants. Biochar alone is a better strategy to promote plant growth and WUE specifically of A. esculentus, compared to its application in combination with gypsum
dental school
No full textIntroduction: Analysis of the diversity of reading lists on courses offered by universities is one way to assess what is being taught and how it shapes our understanding of the world. Very little work has been carried out so far within dentistry on decolonising the curriculum. Existing work looks at the representation of women or ethnic minorities but not at the dental curriculum per se. This article starts to address this. Methods: The reading lists within the 5 year Bachelor of Dental Surgery curriculum in a large UK dental school were collected and assessed. A data extraction spreadsheet was developed and journal articles on every course reading list across the 5 year curriculum were read in detail. Information on authorship and author affiliations, alongside patient and population representation within the article itself, were collected and collated. Results: We found that there are 2.5 times more male authors than female authors, and almost three times more male lead authors in the articles evaluated. The majority of journal articles included in the reading lists are written by academics and/or clinicians affiliated with institutions in the United Kingdom and most articles are from the global north. In addition, 65% of articles do not specify the focus patient or population group studied. Discussion: It is unlikely that current reading lists within dentistry fully reflect the composition of the profession itself, the variety of knowledge needed to provide evidence-based practice in a globalised oral health arena or the heterogeneous nature of the patient population.</p
Analysis of the Urduization Trend in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Novels
No full textThe study investigated the trend of Urduization in Bapsi Sidhwa’s novels; “The Crow Eaters” (1978) and “Water” (2006), with a focus on the use of Urduized nouns in the two novels. Urduization is the process of adding words from Urdu into the English language (Ali & Ijaz, 2009). Pakistani literature in English began to make its presence felt both nationally and internationally in the 1970s. A significant feature of this literature was the language used by the Pakistani writers. The unrestrained use of local words and expressions, reflected a new confidence in the use of the English language by the Pakistani writers. Pakistani English (PE) as a non-native variety displayed the unique characteristics and features of cultural influence of the society. The borrowing of words from Urdu and the regional languages and incorporating them into structures and expressions signified the independent development of PE. A mixed method approach was employed and data was collected from a corpus of Urduized nouns, developed following the research pathway of Ahmed and Ali (2014), by creating contextualized categories of the nouns used in the two novels. Documentary evidence in the form of author interviews also formed part of the analysis. Findings showed that the extent of urduization remained the same with the author’s use of urduized words in both her novels very nearly following similar trends. Most words were added to provide contextual clarity and create interest, demonstrating a consistency in her writing style over three decades. Keywords: Urduization; Pakistani English; Cultural influence; Contextualized categories; Writing Style DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-11-06 Publication date: April 30th 2021
Natural Language Description of Videos for Smart Surveillance
No full textAfter the September 11 attacks, security and surveillance measures have changed across the globe. Now, surveillance cameras are installed almost everywhere to monitor video footage. Though quite handy, these cameras produce videos in a massive size and volume. The major challenge faced by security agencies is the effort of analyzing the surveillance video data collected and generated daily. Problems related to these videos are twofold: (1) understanding the contents of video streams, and (2) conversion of the video contents to condensed formats, such as textual interpretations and summaries, to save storage space. In this paper, we have proposed a video description framework on a surveillance dataset. This framework is based on the multitask learning of high-level features (HLFs) using a convolutional neural network (CNN) and natural language generation (NLG) through bidirectional recurrent networks. For each specific task, a parallel pipeline is derived from the base visual geometry group (VGG)-16 model. Tasks include scene recognition, action recognition, object recognition and human face specific feature recognition. Experimental results on the TRECViD, UET Video Surveillance (UETVS) and AGRIINTRUSION datasets depict that the model outperforms state-of-the-art methods by a METEOR (Metric for Evaluation of Translation with Explicit ORdering) score of 33.9%, 34.3%, and 31.2%, respectively. Our results show that our framework has distinct advantages over traditional rule-based models for the recognition and generation of natural language descriptions
By-product distribution and cytotoxicity assessment of ZnO-assisted photocatalytic degradation of reactive blue 250 dye
No full textThis research examined the effectiveness and feasibility of utilizing ultraviolet (UV) assisted photo-catalysis to treat wastewater effluents from textile production containing reactive blue 250 (RB 250) dye. Molecular oxygen and active species like O2•−, HO2•, H2O2 and •OH play crucial roles in the degradation process. Additionally, the degradation of dyes is influenced by several factors, including dye concentration, duration of UV irradiation, pH levels, concentration of H2O2, and the catalyst. The concentration of H2O2 and catalyst dose for the decolorization was studied at 0.6 mL and 0.5 g respectively. The discoloration was higher at low dye concentration, high H2O2 concentration, acidic conditions and high catalyst concentration. The maximum degradation (97 %) of RB 250 dye was obtained in the presence of zinc oxide nanoparticles within 90 min. The extent of decolorization of the dye was determined by UV–Vis spectroscopy. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was employed to analyze the changes in functionalities after degradation. The disappearance of characteristic peaks associated with specific groups within the dye molecule confirmed the extensive degradation of RB 250 dye. LCMS analysis was conducted to examine the intermediates and a mechanistic degradation pathway was subsequently proposed. The cytotoxicity of the irradiated dye samples was evaluated through a hemolytic test both pre and post-treatment. The findings suggest that the UV/H2O2/ZnO treatment represents a promising approach for effectively degrading RB 250 dye
