12 research outputs found
Analyzing The Contemporary Developments and Challenges in Teaching English Language in Pakistani Schools
No full textEnglish phraseology is a required subject taught at the Pakistan graduate level. Even after surveying the English terminology for over 14 years, the plurality of learners arriving from non-elite organizations, need the basic grip in English language skills to maintain their elevated schooling and proficient fields. With this reasoning, the recent investigation concentrated on developing English composition and assignment techniques, and in Karachi private non-elite organizations confronted the difficulties while developing these techniques at the SSC (Secondary School Certificate) level. Qualitative as well as quantitative method has been used. The variety of the investigation included 20 SSC level students, 12 SSC level English language teachers of non-elite private schools, and 5 student notebooks. Characteristics were composed through open-ended votes, committees’ consultations, and tablet examination. Data were examined adopting subjective analysis. The conclusions disclosed that developing English language assignment strategies involve reading the passage aloud, paraphrasing the passage, furnishing the basic suggestion and significance of tough phrases to the students. The prominent difficulties struggled by the instructors in instructing reading skills are learners’ absence of attention in reading, absence of pursuit, and soft reading cognition skills. The investigation also indicated methods of teaching writing skills such as the requirement of standard texts and appropriate terminology sections. The main dilemmas while developing writing skills include a shortage of pre-writing recreations, beginners’ deficient grip over vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, and spelling, voluble syllabus, and restricted time
Biodegradation Study of Used Engine Oil by Free and Immobilized Cells of the Pseudomonas oleovorans Strain NMA and Their Growth Kinetics
No full textArtificial Jellyfish Search Algorithm-Based Selective Harmonic Elimination in a Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter
No full textThis paper used an artificial jellyfish search (AJFS) optimizer suitable for selective harmonic elimination-based modulation for multilevel inverter (MLI) voltage control application. The main objective was to remove the undesired lower-order harmonics in the output voltage waveform of an MLI. This algorithm was motivated by the behavior of jellyfish in the ocean. Jellyfish have the ability to find the global best position where a large quantity of nutritious food is available. The paper applied AJFS algorithm on five, seven, and nine levels of CHB-MLI. The optimum switching angle was calculated for the entire modulation range for the desired lower-order harmonics elimination. The problem formulated to achieve the objective was solved in a MATLAB environment. The total harmonic distortion (THD) values of five-, seven-, and nine-level inverters for various modulation indexes were computed using AJFS and compared with the powerful differential evolution (DE) algorithm. The comparison of THD results clearly demonstrated superior THD in the output of CHB-MLI of the AJFS algorithm over DE and GA algorithm for low and medium values of modulation index. The experimental results further validated the better performance of the AJFS algorithm
Study of the drug release profile of novel polymer-drug matrix formulations prepared by hot melt extrusion /
No full textThis publication has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland under Grant number 16/RC/3872. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission’.Hot Melt Extrusion (HME) is an emerging technology in the pharmaceutical industry for manufacturing
drug delivery devices. In the HME process, the polymer and drug are melted and mixed with the help of
heat and mechanical stresses. HME offers various advantages compared to other pharmaceutical
processes; it is a solvent-free process, it is possible to manufacture different dosage forms including
implants, tablets, granules, pellets, it can enhance the solubility and bioavailability of poorly water-soluble
drugs, and it is a continuous process. However, due to the involvement of heat and shear stresses, the
processing of heat-sensitive polymers, e.g. PLA, with drugs is challenging. Polylactide (PLA) is a
bioresorbable FDA approved biopolymer. In recent years PLA has gained particular interest in the medical
industry, and PLA-based drug-eluting implants are used in many different applications, including dental,
cardiac, orthopaedic and tissue engineering applications. The benefit of using PLA-based drug-eluting
implants is that they slowly release the entrapped drug and degrade naturally into non-toxic by-products
over time, excluding the need for any surgical method for their removal. However, despite the advantages
of HME processing, achieving consistent quality products can be challenging. One of the challenges faced
by the pharmaceutical industry is that large ratios of new drug entities belong to class BCS II, which are
poorly water-soluble drugs. Poor solubility of drugs has been a major hindrance to the development of
more effective drug delivery methods. Soluplus (polyvinyl-caprolactam polyvinyl-acetate copolymer
polyethylene glycol graft) is an amphiphilic polymer and has the ability to solubilise the poorly water soluble drugs and has been developed to enhance the bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs.
In this work, we explore the production of drug-loaded PLA and Soluplus products with a HME process.
Two different drugs, including ibuprofen and dexamethasone, are extruded with PLA. Further, ibuprofen
which is a poorly water-soluble drug (melting point 77°C) is extruded with Soluplus. The purpose is to
investigate the processability as well as the effect of drug loadings and processing conditions, including
temperature and screw speed, on the drug release profile. DSC is used to study the miscibility of the
polymer-drug matrix, FTIR is used to study the interaction of polymer-drug matrix, and drug-dissolution
tester is used to study the percentage drug releaseye
G-C3N4/Ag@CoWO4: A novel sunlight active ternary nanocomposite for potential photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B dye
No full textPresent study reports the fabrication of novel sunlight active heterogeneous photocatalyst, i.e. Ag@g-C3N4/CoWO4 for potential degradation of rhodamine B dye. The ternary nanocomposite was fabricated using thermal condensation of melamine to prepare g-C3N4 followed by coupling with silver doped cobalt tungstate (Ag@CoWO4) using the hydrothermal method. The novel composite photocatalyst (Ag@g-C3N4/CoWO4) along with pristine photocatalysts (g-C3N4 and Ag@CoWO4) were well characterized in term of morphology (scanning electron microscopy), structure (Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy), crystallinity (X-ray diffraction), and composition (energy dispersive X-ray). The energy band gaps of catalysts were calculated using UV–visible spectroscopic analysis (Tauc plot). The characterization analysis supports the successful assembly of Ag@CoWO4 nanoparticles on the surface of g-C3N4 nanosheets with good crystallinity. The photocatalytic potential of novel catalysts was examined through the degradation of rhodamine B dye in water. The engineered heterojunction promotes photocatalytic activity and improves photo-generated charge separation. The results of the proposed research showed boosted sunlight active photocatalytic efficiency (97% in 120 min at pH 6) of novel composite against rhodamine B dye degradation. The kinetics of the reaction was determined using different models and RSM was used as a statistical tool for interaction and individual effects of influencing parameters. The numerical values of optimized parameters endorsed the results of RSM i.e. composite dose = 10mg/100 mL, H2O2 = 15 mM, and pH = 6.Dr. Muhammad Zahid (corresponding author) is thankful to TWAS (Grant No. 15-410 RG/MSN/AS_C–FR3240288961 under TWAS-COMSTECH joint Research Grant) for equipments and the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan for facilities to conduct this research. The valuable support from Central Lab, LUMS Pakistan for characterization of samples is highly acknowledged
Author Correction: Proline-mediated redox regulation in wheat for mitigating nickel-induced stress and soil decontamination
No full textCoal fly ash supported CoFe2O4 nanocomposites: Synergetic Fenton-like and photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue
No full textRapid industrialization is causing a serious threat for the environment. Therefore, this research was aimed in developing ceramic cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) nanocomposite photocatalyst coated with coal fly ash (CFA-CoFe2O4) using facile hydrothermal synthesis route and their applications against methylene blue. The pristine cobalt ferrite photocatalyst was also prepared, characterized, and applied for efficiency comparison. Prepared photocatalyst were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS). Optical response of catalysts was check using photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). pH drift method was used for the surface charge characteristics of the material under acidic and basic conditions of solution pH. The photocatalytic degradation potential of all the materials were determined under ultra-violet irradiations. The influencing reaction parameters like pH, catalyst dose, oxidant dose, dye concentration, and irradiation time, were sequentially optimized to obtain best suited conditions. The 99% degradation of 10 ppm methylene blue was achieved within 60 min of reaction time under pH = 5 and 7, catalyst dose = 10 and 12 mg/100 mL, oxidant = 12 mM and 5 mM for cobalt ferrite and CFA-CoFe2O4 photocatalysts, respectively. Afterwards, the radical scavenging experiments were conducted to find out the effective radical scavengers (˙OH, h+, and e−) in photocatalytic degradation process. The kinetic study of the process was done by applying 1st order, 2nd order, and BMG models. Statistical assessment of interaction effect among experimental variables was achieved using response surface methodology (RSM).Dr. Muhammad Zahid (corresponding author) is thankful to TWAS (Grant No. 15-410 RG/MSN/AS_C–FR3240288961 under TWAS-COMSTECH joint Research Grant) for equipment and the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan for facilities to conduct this research. The valuable support from Center of Nanotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Central Lab, LUMS Pakistan for characterization of samples is highly acknowledged
Author Correction: Assessment of drinking water quality using Water Quality Index and synthetic pollution index in urban areas of mega city Lahore: a GIS-based approach
No full textComputational prediction for designing novel ketonic derivatives as potential inhibitors for breast cancer: A trade-off between drug likeness and inhibition potency
No full textUnlike simple molecular screening, a combined hybrid computational methodology has been applied which includes quantum chemical methods, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulations to design some novel ketonic derivatives. The current study contains the derivatives of an experimental ligand which are designed as a trade-off between drug likeness and inhibition strength. We investigate the interaction of various newly designed ketonic compounds with the breast cancer receptor known as the Estrogen Receptor Alpha (ERα). The molecular structures of all newly designed ligands were studied quantum chemically in terms of their fully optimized structures, 3-D molecular orbital distributions, global chemical descriptors, molecular electrostatic potentials and energies of frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs). All ligands under study show good binding affinities with the ERα protein. The ligands CMR2 and CMR4 exhibit improved molecular docking interactions. The intermolecular interactions indicate that CMR4 demonstrates better hydrophobic and hydrogen bonding interactions with protein (ERα). Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations were conducted on ligands and reference drugs interacting with the ERα protein over a time span of 120 nanoseconds. The molecular dynamics results are interpreted in terms of ligand-protein stability and flexible behaviour based on their respective values of RMSD, RMSF, H-bonds, the radius of gyration, and SASA graphs. To analyse ligand-protein interactions throughout the entire 120 ns trajectory, a more advanced MM/PBSA method is utilized, where six selected ligands (CMR1, CMR2, CMR3, CMR4, CMR5 and CMR9) illustrate promising results for inhibition of the ERα receptor as assessed through MM/BBSA analysis. The CMR9 has the highest MM/BBSA binding free energy (−14.46 kcal/mol). The ADMET analysis reveals that CMR4 has maximum intestinal absorption (6.68) and clearance rate (0.1). All the compounds are non-toxic and safe to use. These findings indicate the potential of involving different computational techniques to design the ligand structures and to study the ligand-protein interactions for better understanding and achieving more potent synthetic inhibitors for breast cancer.The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University for funding the work. The author from University of Bisha is thankful to the Deanship of Graduate Studies and Scientific Research at University of Bisha for supporting the work through the Fast-Track Research Support Program. For computer time, this research used the resources of Supercomputing Laboratory at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper
A comprehensive analysis of agronomic practices for cultivation of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)
No full textCotton, a versatile natural resource, holds a significant place in global socioeconomic dynamics. As the foremost source of natural textile fiber and a substantial contributor to oilseed production, cotton's impact on various sectors is great. Pakistan, a major player in cotton production and consumption, faces challenges in optimizing its yield due to multiple constraints. To enhance production, strategic agronomic interventions are imperative. The Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI), Multan carried out a research study in 2023 to evaluate how sowing date and plant spacing affect different growth and yield characteristics in two cotton varieties, CIM-496 and CIM-499. The different treatments resulted in significant differences in the number of monopodial branches, sympodial branches, plant population, plant height, days until the first flower appeared, number of bolls per plant, boll weight, and seed cotton yield per plant. Sowing in the third week of April typically led to better outcomes in comparison to sowing later in May and June, particularly in terms of branch development, plant population, plant height, and yield characteristics. In the same way, increased plant spacing, especially at 39 cm, appeared to support improved growth and yield characteristics when compared to tighter spacing. CIM-499 displayed slightly superior performance compared to CIM-496 across different treatments. The significance of considering both the timing of sowing and the distance between plants in maximizing cotton growth and yield is illustrated by these results, providing valuable knowledge for implementing crop management techniques to improve productivity and quality. © 2023 The Author(s
