M. Waqas

Various organic contaminants like dyes, antibiotics and fungicides in water from industrial castoffs considered as fundamental global issue and attract concern of researchers. Herein, 1-D carbon coated tungsten oxides ([email protected]3) were fabricated by simple hydrothermal synthetic approach. Nanocomposites of synthesized 1-D nanowires with g-C3N4 (g-C3N4/[email protected]3) were prepared by ultrasonication approach. The crystal structure, morphology and optical properties were investigated by physiochemical characterizations. XRD results revealed orthorhombic crystal structure of WO3 with crystallite size 22.43 nm which decreased to 21.24 nm by the addition of g-C3N4. SEM micrographs exposed successful synthesis of 1-D nanowires of WO3 and [email protected]3 with average diameter 98.955 nm and 130.79 nm respectively. Photocatalytic performance was investigated under visible light through colored effluents methylene blue (MB) and crystal violet (CV) and colorless wastes benzimidazole (fungicide) and benzoic acid. Growth inhibition was studied against gram positive (S.aureus) and gram negative (E.coli) bacteria. In evaluation with pristine WO3 nanowires and g-C3N4, photocatalytic and antibacterial performances of g-C3N4/[email protected]3 nanocomposites were significantly high. Trapping agents for holes, electrons and hydroxyl radicals were also used to study mechanism of photocatalysis. It was concluded by the results that hydroxyl radicals generated in g-C3N4/[email protected]3 nanophotocatalyst play main part during complete experiment.

The measured charged particle [Formula: see text] spectra in proton-proton collisions obtained by the CMS experiment at CERN is compared with the simulation results of EPOS-LHC and Pythia8.24 models at 7 TeV center-of-mass energy. The Pythia8.24 model describes the experimental data very well, particularly in the high [Formula: see text] region. The model also predicts the [Formula: see text] spectra for [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] < 2.4 at 0 [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] 6 [Formula: see text]. The EPOS-LHC model underpredicts the [Formula: see text] spectra from 0.1 to 2 [Formula: see text] in all [Formula: see text] bins for about 20% and the [Formula: see text] spectrum from 0.1 to 4.2 [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] < 2.4 by about 15% while reasonably predicts well for [Formula: see text] > 4.2 [Formula: see text] within the experimental errors. Furthermore, to get information about collective properties of the hadronic matter, modified Hagedorn function with embedded transverse flow velocity and thermodynamically consistent Tsallis distribution functions are used to fit the experimental data and simulated results. The values of [Formula: see text] show that the functions fit the data and simulation results well. The parameter extracted by the functions: [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] decreases with increasing [Formula: see text]. The decrease in [Formula: see text] with increasing [Formula: see text] is due to the large energy deposition in lower rapidity bins producing rapid expansion due to large pressure gradient resulting quick expansion of the fireball. Similarly, large energy transfer in the lower pseudo-rapidity bin results in higher degree of excitation of the system which results larger values of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. The values of the fit constant [Formula: see text] increase with [Formula: see text] where the values of [Formula: see text] extracted from Pythia8.24 are closer to the data than the EPOS-LHC model. The Pythia8.24 model has better prediction than the EPOS-LHC model which might be connected to its flow-like features and color re-connections resulting from different Parton interactions in the initial and final state.

Analysis of the spectra of unidentified charged particles obtained by the CMS experiment in proton–proton collisions is reported in comparison with the simulation results of PYTHIA8.24 and EPOS-LHC models. The spectra obtained by the experiment were normalized to all non-single-diffractive (NSD) events using corrections for trigger and selection efficiency, acceptance, and branching ratios. The transverse-momentum (pT) spectra of the charged particles are measured in twelve equal bins of pseudorapidity (η) from 0.0 to 2.4 for pT from 0.1 to 2 GeV/c. The PYTHIA model reproduces the experimental data well in all bins of η especially in the region of high pT while the EPOS model predicts well in the intermediate pT regions. The intermediate regions where the EPOS model predicts well, broadens with increasing η. We used the Blast-wave model with Boltzmann–Gibbs statistics to study collective properties of the hadronic matter and for better comparison of the models’ prediction with the experimental data while determining the values of kinetic freeze-out temperature (T0) and transverse flow velocity (βT) for data and models. The values of T0 decrease with increasing η for data as well as for both the models. The transverse flow velocity has no clear trend with increasing η but a run through shows an increasing trend in the case of the data and the PYTHIA model but a decreasing trend in the case of the EPOS model. The multiplicity parameter N0 increases with increasing η and its values obtained by the fit function for the PYTHIA are closer to the ones obtained for data than the EPOS. It is concluded that none of the models completely describes the data in all bins of η over the entire pT range but the PYTHIA has better prediction than the EPOS model because the former has implied flow-like effects and formation of color string resulting from multiple hard sub-collisions between final and initial partons (color reconnection) from independent hard scatterings due to which the model predicts the data well.

As a supercapacitor material, transition metal selenide (TMS) can be synthesised in a cost-effective and simple manner. However, it suffers from low-rate capacities and poor cyclic stability due to their easy aggregation and structural instability during charge and discharge cycles. Herein, we report the synthesis of aluminum selenide (Al2Se3) nanorods over reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets as a novel material using the solvothermal method. The successful formation of Al2Se3/rGO nanocomposite was confirmed via XRD (X-ray diffraction), SEM (scanning electron microscopy), and XPS (X-ray photoelectric spectroscopy) and was also investigated for its optical characteristics and electrochemical performance. The optimised Al2Se3/rGO sample with 5 wt% and 10 wt% rGO exhibited high specific capacitances of 701.83 Fg−1 and 1138.1 Fg−1, respectively. Moreover, Al2Se3/10%rGO nanocomposite as a positive electrode achieves energy densities of 39.57 Wh/kg and power densities of 0.006 kW/kg at current densities 2.5 A/g along with stability up to 2000 cycles, suggesting it to be a significant technological candidate in the future. This work highlights an effective and feasible approach to engineer or construct TMS/rGO nanocomposites for charge storage applications.

The transverse momentum spectra of charged particles produced in proton(deuteron)–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus collisions at high energies are analyzed by the Hagedorn thermal model and the standard distribution in terms of multi-component. The experimental data measured in central and peripheral gold–gold (Au–Au) and deuteron–gold (d–Au) collisions by the PHENIX Collaboration at the relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC), as well as in central and peripheral lead–lead (Pb–Pb) and proton–lead (p–Pb) collisions by the ALICE Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), are fitted by the two models. The initial, effective, and kinetic freeze-out temperatures are then extracted from the fitting to the transverse momentum spectra. It is shown that the initial temperature is larger than the effective temperature, and the effective temperature is larger than the kinetic freeze-out temperature. The three types of temperatures in central collisions are comparable with those in peripheral collisions, and those at the LHC are comparable with those at the RHIC.

The transverse momentum spectra of different types of particles produced in central and peripheral gold-gold (Au-Au) and (inelastic) proton-proton ($pp$) collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), as well as in central and peripheral lead-lead (Pb-Pb) and $pp$ collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are analyzed by the standard distribution in terms of multi-component. The obtained results from the standard distribution give an approximate agreement with the measured experimental data by the STAR, PHENIX and ALICE Collaborations. The methodical behavior of the effective (kinetic freeze-out) temperature, transverse flow velocity and kinetic freeze-out volume with the mass dependence for different particles is obtained, which observes the early kinetic freeze-out of heavier particles as compared to the lighter particles. The parameters for emissions of different particles are observed to be different, which reveals a direct signature of the mass dependent differential kinetic freeze-out. It is also observed that the peripheral nucleus-nucleus ($AA$) and $pp$ collisions at the same center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair are close in terms of the extracted parameters.

The simulation of transverse momentum (PT) spectra of inclusive charged hadrons computed with absolute pseudorapidity below 0.8 (|η|<0.8) in different centrality bins in Pb−Pb interactions at SNN=2.76TeV are reported. The results obtained from Monte Carlo models including QGSJETII-03, QGSJET-04, EPOS1.99, and EPOS-LHC are compared with the ALICE experimental data in the PT range 0.15<PT<50 GeV/c, for total of nine centrality classes from (0-5%) to (70-80%). The EPOS-LHC model reproduced the PT spectra in all the centrality classes except at 20-30 and 30-40% where the model underestimated the data at high PT only. The QGSJET models overestimated the data over the entire PT range and in all the centrality classes up to about 10%. Fit with the Tsallis–Pareto-like function of the pT spectra shows that the effective temperature depends on the centrality which increases from central to peripheral collisions as in the case of central collisions the fireball is longer lived as compared to the peripheral one. The Pb−Pb spectra are further oriented on the scale of the nuclear modification factor RAA using a P−P collision spectrum calculated for the same center of mass energy. Although the models could not reproduce the data but showed similar behavior only, that shows that particle suppression has a significant effect on the centrality at high PT. The suppression is maximum in the most central collisions above which there is a remarkable escalation in the nuclear modification factor. In the case of most peripheral interactions, the suppression is smaller as compared to the most central one and is nearly independent of PT. The EPOS model’s calculation exhibit suppression for all class intervals, having the robust effect for the most central interval (0-5%) due to the relative parton energy loss and reveals a least repression effect in most peripheral cases (70-80%). Results of the QGSJETII models are not included for the RAA as the models failed to predict the data. The reason is that QGSJETII is not a Glauber–based model but a model based on soft pomeron dynamics. The model does not provide the number of binary sub-collisions we need to scale down the RAA.

Non-galenic pial arteriovenous fistulas (NGPAVFs) are rare cerebrovascular pathologies accounting for only 1.6%-4.8% of all brain vascular malformations. We performed a comprehensive review of NGPAVF cases reported in the literature to further characterize their clinical patterns of presentation, angiographic features, management, clinical outcomes, and complications.We searched PubMed, Google Scholar, and Embase from each database's earliest records to April 2022 for all relevant English language articles. A total of 3280 articles were screened to identify those that met prespecified inclusion criteria. Differences in clinical outcomes between children (≤18 years old) and adults (>18 years old) and those articles in which NGPAVFs were associated with the presence of a varix or a hemorrhage were statistically examined.A total of 242 patients in 86 articles were included. The mean patient age was 18.51 ± 18.80 years. The male-to-female ratio was 1.44:1. Headache was the most common initial presentation (42.6%) in the study cohort. Hemorrhage occurred at a significantly higher frequency in adults (P = 0.004), whereas more children presented with congestive heart failure (P < 0.001). Surgical, endovascular, and combination therapy led to comparable rates of complete NGPAVF obliteration (86.8%, 85.2%, and 88.5%, respectively). Fifty-nine patients (24.4%) experienced a complication, ranging from minor neurological deficit to severe hemorrhage. The mortality rate for the overall cohort was 3.3%, and all deceased patients had a varix associated with their fistulas.To our knowledge, we report the largest literature review describing the clinical course and characteristics of NGPAVFs. All treatment approaches resulted in favorable obliteration rates and overall patient outcomes.

The transverse momentum (mass) spectra of the multi-strange and non-multi-strange (i.e. other identified) particles in central gold–gold (Au–Au), lead–lead (Pb–Pb), argon–muriate (Ar–KCl) and nickel–nickel (Ni–Ni) collisions over a wide energy range have been studied in this work. The experimental data measured by various collaborations have been analyzed. The blast-wave fit with Tsallis statistics is used to extract the kinetic freeze-out temperature and transverse flow velocity from the experimental data of transverse momentum (mass) spectra. The extracted parameters increase with the increase of collision energy and show the trend of saturation at the Beam Energy Scan (BES) energies at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). This saturation implies that the onset energy of the phase transition of partial deconfinement is 7.7 GeV and that of whole deconfinement is 39 GeV. Furthermore, the energy scan/dependence of kinetic freeze-out scenarios are observed for the multi-strange and other identified particles, though the multiple freeze-out scenarios are also observed for various particles.

Composites are a promising material for high-specific strength applications; specifically, fiber-reinforced polymer composites (FRPCs) are in the limelight for their extraordinary mechanical properties. Amongst all FRPCs, carbon fiber reinforcements are dominant in the aerospace and automotive industry; however, their high cost poses a great obstacle in commercial-scale manufacturing. To this end, we explored alternate low-cost inorganic fibers such as basalt and rockwool as potential replacements for carbon fiber composites. In addition to fibrous inclusions to polymers, composites were also fabricated with inclusions of their respective particulates formed using ball milling of fibers. Considering automotive applications, composites' mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties were compared for all samples. Regarding mechanical properties, rockwool fiber and basalt fiber composites showed 30.95% and 20.77% higher impact strength than carbon fiber, respectively. In addition, rockwool and basalt fiber composites are less stiff than carbon and can be used in low-end applications in the automotive industry. Moreover, rockwool and basalt fiber composites are more thermally stable than carbon fiber. Thermogravimetric analysis of carbon fiber composites showed 10.10 % and 9.98 % higher weight loss than basalt and rockwool fiber composites, respectively. Apart from better impact and thermal properties, the low cost of rockwool and basalt fibers provides a key advantage to these alternate fibers at the commercial scale.

Abstract This work focuses on the study of identified ( <?CDATA ${\pi}^{\pm}$ ?> , <?CDATA $\text{k}^{\pm}$ ?> , p, and <?CDATA $\overline{\text{p}}$ ?> ), strange hadrons ( <?CDATA $\text{k}_{s}^{0}$ ?> , Λ, <?CDATA $\overline{\Lambda },\Xi^{+},\Xi^{-}$ ?> ), recorded by CMS, and light nuclei and their anti-nuclei (d, <?CDATA $\overline{\text{d}}$ ?> , t, <?CDATA $\overline{\text{t}}$ ?> , 3 He and <?CDATA $^{3}{\overline{\mathrm{He}}}$ ?> ), recorded by ALICE, at <?CDATA $\sqrt{s} = 0.9\,\text{TeV}$ ?> , 2.76 TeV, 7 TeV and 13 TeV in pp collision at mid rapidities. The p T distributions of these particles are analyzed using the Tsallis model, which fits the experimental data very well. Several important parameters for studying the characteristics of the medium produced during such collisions are extracted. The effective temperature ( T ) increases monotonically with increasing particle mass and also with increasing collision energy. The non-extensivity parameter ( q ) decreases with the mass of the particle. For heavier particles, greater T and smaller q mean that they decouple early from the system and attain equilibrium quickly compared to lighter ones. Furthermore, with an increase in collision energy, the multiplicity parameter N 0 increases.

The development of cost effective and efficient non-noble metal catalysts is extremely desirable in recent years for reduction of toxic nitrobenzene and azo compounds. In this work, highly reactive Cu nanoparticles (NPs) were constructed in mesoporous silica (MZ) synthesized using ZSM-5 (Si/Al = 28) via hydrothermal crystallization strategy and then tested as catalyst in the catalytic hydrogenation of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and methylene blue (MB) degradation to reduce their hazardous effect on environment. In comparison with ZSM-5, MZ with hierarchical pore structure effectively controls the size and dispersion extent of Cu NPs when fabricated with 5-15 wt%Cu via IWI with ultrasonic aid. Cu10/MZ displayed complete reduction of 4-NP to 4-aminopheneol (4-AP) and MB dye to LMB in 10 min with K (rate constant) value of 0.298 min and 0.65 min−1, respectively. Both catalytic conversions follow pseudo-first order kinetics. The high catalytic activity is evidently related with highly dispersive smaller sized Cu NPs and excellent physiochemical characteristics of MZ as demonstrated by various characterization techniques. Besides, the Cu/MZ catalyst displayed excellent stability and can be applied for 5 consecutive reduction cycles without any minimal loss in catalytic capabilities.

Abstract Emotion identification from text data has recently gained focus of the research community. This has multiple utilities in an assortment of domains. Many times, the original text is written in a different language and the end-user translates it to her native language using online utilities. Therefore, this paper presents a framework to detect emotions on translated text data in four different languages. The source language is English, whereas the four target languages include Chinese, French, German, and Spanish. Computational intelligence (CI) techniques are applied to extract features, dimensionality reduction, and classification of data into five basic classes of emotions. Results show that when English text is translated to French, classification accuracy is higher than others, i.e., 99.04%. Whereas, when the same is translated to Chinese language, its detection rate is lowest among target languages. It is concluded that emotions remain preserved after translation to some extent. Framework consists of TFIDF features. PCA and Discriminant Analysis perform good to detect emotions from translated data.

Abstract The transverse momentum spectra of light nuclei (deuteron, triton and helion) produced in various centrality intervals in Gold–Gold (Au–Au), Lead–Lead (Pb–Pb) and proton–Lead (p–Pb) collisions, as well as in inelastic (INEL) proton–proton (p–p) collisions are analyzed by the blast wave model with Boltzmann Gibbs statistics. The model results are nearly in agreement with the experimental data measured by STAR and ALICE Collaborations in special transverse momentum ranges. We extracted the bulk properties in terms of kinetic freezeout temperature, transverse flow velocity and freezeout volume. It is observed that deuteron and anti-deuteron freezeout later than triton and helion as well as their anti-particles due to its smaller mass, while helion and triton, and anti-helion and anti-triton freezeout at the same time due to isospin symmetry at higher energies. It is also observed that light nuclei freezeout earlier than their anti-nuclei due to the large coalescence of nucleons for light nuclei compared to their anti-nuclei. The kinetic freezeout temperature, transverse flow velocity and kinetic freezeout volume decrease from central to peripheral collisions. Furthermore, the transverse flow velocity depends on mass of the particle which decreases with increasing the mass of the particle.

Centrality-dependent double-differential transverse momentum spectra of charged pions, kaons, and (anti)protons produced in mid-pseudorapidity interval in $$\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$$ GeV gold-gold and deuteron-gold collisions with different centralities are analyzed by the blast-wave model with Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics. Meanwhile, the mentioned spectra in mid-rapidity interval in $$\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$$ TeV lead-lead and $$\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$$ TeV proton-lead collisions with different centralities are analyzed by the same model. The model results are approximately in agreement with the experimental data in special transverse momentum ranges. It is shown that with the increase of event centrality and energy, the kinetic freeze-out temperature of the emission source and the transverse flow velocity of the produced particles slightly increase in some cases but they do not give an obvious change in other cases. Meanwhile, the kinetic freeze-out temperature (transverse flow velocity) increases (decreases) with the increase of particle mass. The average transverse momentum and initial temperature increase with the increase of event centrality, collision energy, and particle mass. This work also confirms the maximum size dependent effect, which states that the main parameters such as the kinetic freeze-out temperature and transverse flow velocity are mainly determined by the heaviest nucleus from proton-nucleus to nucleus-nucleus collisions.

Transverse momentum spectra of proton, deuteron, and triton in gold-gold (Au-Au) collisions at 54.4 GeV are analyzed in different centrality bins by the blast wave model with Tsallis statistics. The model results are approximately in agreement with the experimental data measured by STAR Collaboration in special transverse momentum ranges. We extracted the kinetic freeze-out temperature, transverse flow velocity, and freeze-out volume from the transverse momentum spectra of the particles. It is observed that the kinetic freeze-out temperature is increasing from the central to peripheral collisions. However, the transverse flow velocity and freeze-out volume decrease from the central to peripheral collisions. The present work reveals the mass dependent kinetic freeze-out scenario and volume differential freeze-out scenario in collisions at STAR Collaboration. In addition, parameter <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"> <mi>q</mi> </math> characterizes the degree of nonequilibrium of the produced system, and it increases from the central to peripheral collisions and increases with mass .

Transverse momentum spectra of the non-strange, strange and multi-strange particles in central and peripheral Copper-Copper, Gold-Gold and Lead-Lead collisions are analyzed by the blast wave model with Boltzmann Gibbs statistics. The model results are approximately in agreement with the experimental data measured by BRAHMS, STAR, SPS, NA 49 and WA 97 Collaborations in special transverse momentum ranges. Bulk properties in terms of kinetic freeze out temperature, transverse flow velocity and freezeout volume are extracted from the transverse momentum spectra of the particles. Separate freeze out temperatures are observed for the non-strange, strange and multi-strange particles which maybe due to different reaction cross-sections of the interacting particles and it reveals the triple kinetic freezeout scenario in collisions at BRAHMS, STAR, SPS, NA 49 and WA 97 Collaborations, however the transverse flow velocity and freezeout volume are mass dependent and they decrease with the increasing the rest mass of the particles. Furthermore, the kinetic freezeout temperature, transverse flow velocity and kinetic freezeout volume in central nucleus-nucleus collisions are larger than those in peripheral collisions. Besides, the larger kinetic freezeout temperature and freezeout volume are observed in the most heaviest nuclei collisions, indicating their dependence on the size of interacting system

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is one of the most sustainable approaches for converting solar energy into hydrogen fuel. Affordable and robust photoelectrodes are crucial for the commercialization of PEC technologies. Recently, transition metal-based co-catalysts, especially Ni- and Fe-based catalysts, have attracted much interest owing to their exceptional OER characteristics. Given this, we here proposed the decoration of a Fe-Ni-based cocatalyst on the surface of the TiO2 photoanode for PEC water splitting. The TiO2 photoanode was hydrothermally synthesized and then decorated by Fe-Ni hydroxide catalyst using photo-assisted electrodeposition. The optimized TiO2/FeNiOOH photoanode exhibited the maximum photocurrent density value of 1.36 mA cm−2, which is almost twice the value obtained for bare TiO2, at 1.23 V vs RHE under the AM 1.5 G illumination. Due to the enhanced light absorption in the UV region, the optimized photoanode exhibited remarkable IPCE and photoconversion efficiency of 87.8% and 0.93%, respectively. Furthermore, excellent faradaic efficiencies of ∼90% for H2 and ∼70% for O2 generations were obtained. Predominantly, the enhancement in the photocurrent potentials was explained in detail. Our study shows the roles and benefits of using bimetallic catalysts with TiO2 photoanodes for sustainable water-splitting applications.

Lowering the overpotentials to drive the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) during the water-splitting process is the bottleneck process and holds the key to achieving cost-effective and efficient electrolysis infrastructure systems. Given this, here we report the first demonstration of utilizing a catalyst derived from lead vanadate (PVO) for alkaline electrolysis systems with record low overpotentials. The synthesis route was regulated to yield a two-dimensional (2-D) PVO structure with uniform coatings on the Ni electrode. The optimized PVO demonstrated impressively low overpotentials of 146 mV vs RHE for OER at a current density of 10 mAcm−2. The excellent OER performance was attributed to the 3D structures assembled from porous 2D PVO that promotes a facile ionic transport and accelerates electron transfer in OER electrochemical process. Importantly, the proposed approach will open a new window for possible exploitation and practical utilization of ternary vanadium oxides in alkaline electrolysis in the future.

The Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of an article that has already been published in Materials Chemistry and Physics Volume 296, 15 February 2023, 127356, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2023.127356. The duplicate article has therefore been withdrawn. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal.

Formally verified automatic longitudinal control (ALC) of road vehicles in complex driving scenarios, including traffic light and road geometry constraints and adverse weather conditions, with or without vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, remains a challenge. The safety conditions for an ALC system are often time-varying with potential discontinuities, and correct-by-construction approaches, e.g., based on control barrier functions (CBFs), often require smooth approximations of these time-varying specifications. This paper introduces piecewise continuously differentiable CBFs (PCD-CBFs) and presents a systematic and provably correct design methodology for ALC based on PCD-CBFs to address this challenge. Specifications capturing safety, comfort, and traffic rules are represented in terms of forward-invariance conditions on safe sets characterized by PCD-CBFs. A provably safe controller is then synthesized from the specifications via quadratic programming. The methodology is illustrated for a vehicle on a road with complex road geometry and multiple traffic signals. Simulation results show its effectiveness under a broad range of driving environments.

We conducted a detailed analysis of charged particle transverse momentum distributions using multiple Monte Carlo models—Pythia, HIJING, and QGSJET—compared against experimental data from the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at s=0.9TeV. Pythia emerged as the best among the models under study in representing most of the distributions due to its comprehensive modeling of parton showers, multiparton interactions, and underlying event dynamics, while QGSJET showed good results with the data in some of the distributions only. HIJING, however, was only able to replicate reduced phase-space distributions only. To further explore the collision medium and to extract important information about collective properties, we used the Tsallis-Pareto (TP) type function and the modified Hagedorn (MH) function. The Tsallis function enabled determination of the effective temperature (Teff) and the non-extensivity parameter (n1) while the MH function provided the kinetic freeze-out temperature (T0), transverse flow velocity (<βT>), and a secondary non-extensivity parameter (n2). Our investigation revealed changes in the effective freeze-out parameters based on event conditions. The Teff and <βT> derived from the TP and MH functions respectively exhibited higher values with a tighter pT cut of >500MeV compared to a more inclusive pT cut of >100MeV. Interestingly, the values of the non-extensivity parameters—n1 for the Tsallis function and n2 for the MH function were almost identical across both the experimental data and all three Monte Carlo models. These findings offer invaluable perspectives on the dynamics of charged particles in pp collisions at s=0.9TeV.

This study explores the synthesis of silver-doped nickel sulfide nano-cubes (Ni1-xAgxS: x= 0.00, 0.04, and 0.08) through a cost-effective hydrothermal process. X-ray diffraction analysis assured the presence of hexagonal NiS nanoparticles with fine crystallinity, with an estimated crystallite size of Ag-doped NiS ranges from 21.19 to 15.69 nm. A reduction in crystallite size was observed while including Ag ions along with enhancement in lattice constants for 'a' and 'b' from 3.416 Å to 3.424 Å and 'c' from 5.280 to 5.286 Å. The scanning electron microscopic images displayed cubic shaped agglomerated particles, that seemed quite suitable for antibacterial activity. The materials exhibit semiconducting behavior, as evidenced by increased direct current electrical conductivity with the rise in temperature. With increased silver content, the direct current electrical conductivity rises, and activation energy decreases from 0.246 to 0.213 eV. Dielectric characteristics, including dielectric constant, dielectric loss, and AC electrical conductivity, show a positive correlation with temperature, and all the aforementioned values elevates with systematic variation in Ag doping. The Agar well-diffusion method evaluates the antibacterial activity of un-doped and Ag-doped NiS nano-cubes against various pathogens, such as Gram-positive bacteria (M. luteus and S. aureus) and Gram-negative bacteria (E. coli and S. enterica), and significant inhibitory zones against all tested microbes, confirming the potential antibacterial efficacy. The Ag-doped NiS exhibited enhanced antibacterial efficiency. This research highlights Ag-doped NiS nano-cubes attributed with multifaceted functionalities, making them promising candidates for particular usage such as targeted drug delivery systems, antibacterial powder, wastewater treatment and pharmaceutical applications.

Family businesses, owing to their unique blend of family dynamics and business operations, often face distinctive hurdles that can significantly impact their sustainability and growth. This qualitative study delves into the multifaceted challenges that confront family business leaders, as seen through the eyes of family business owners, which is a missing aspect in the extant literature database. Through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis, this study aims to shed light on the key challenges family business leaders encounter. The findings of the study reveal that the family business leaders have challenges related to the succession planning, financial management, conflict resolution, communication breakdown, governance, HRM, and the evolving business environment in the day-to-day business operation. These findings further echoed the need for a personalized approach and support systems to face the challenges and to be successful in the long run. These results not only contribute to the existing literature related to the management of family business, but also provide a very practical use to the practitioners in increasing the strength of both the family and business while operating within the context with such complexity.

Abstract: Background: Due to ease of access and affordability, globally 4.95 billion people are using the internet for multiple purposes. However, this use has resulted in the emergence of some novel problems. Objective: Our objectives were to find the frequency and distribution of internet addiction by gender and type (public/private sector medical students) in medical student of KPK. Methodology: This was an analytical cross-sectional study. A sample size of 365 was calculated using the Raosoft SPSS calculator. The sampling procedure was conducted through the non-probability consecutive technique. The data collection was carried out by using Young IAT scoring criteria. Demographic variables were sex and the type of medical student of KPK. The Chi-square test was used to find an association between variables. Result: Out of total 365 participants, 205(56%) were male and 160(43.8%) were female. According to the Young’s IAT form, 172(47.1%) were normal users 173(47.4%)were problematic and 20 (5.8%) were internet addicts. There was no statistically significant association between internet addiction with sex and the type of students with a p-value of 0.589 and 0.654. Conclusion: In our study, there was no significant association between internet addiction with gender and the type of medical student.

Transverse momentum spectra of different types of identified charged particles in central Gold–Gold (Au–Au) collisions and inelastic (INEL) or nonsingle diffractive (NSD) proton–proton (pp) collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), as well as in central and peripheral Lead–Lead (Pb–Pb) collisions, and INEL or NSD pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are analyzed by the blast-wave model with Tsallis statistics. The model results are approximately in agreement with the experimental data measured by STAR, PHENIX and ALICE Collaborations in special transverse momentum ranges. Kinetic freeze-out (KFO) temperature and transverse flow velocity are extracted from the transverse momentum spectra of the particles. It is shown that KFO temperature of the emission source depends on mass of the particles, which reveals the mass-dependent KFO scenario in collisions at RHIC and LHC. Furthermore, the KFO temperature and transverse flow velocity in central nucleus–nucleus (AA) collisions are larger than in peripheral collisions, and both of them are slightly larger in peripheral nucleus–nucleus collisions or almost equivalent to that in proton–proton collisions at the same center-of-mass energy which shows their similar thermodynamic nature.

The conventional quark mass is not continuous at thresholds. In this paper, we derive matching-invariant quark masses which are continuous everywhere. They are generally expanded as an obvious function of the logarithmic [Formula: see text] scaled energy. The expansion coefficients are related to the gamma and beta functions, with concretization to four-loop level. Due to the maximal elimination of their direct dependence on the coupling with large uncertainties, the new expressions for quark masses converge much fast and accurate.

Integral transformation plays important rule in science and engineering fields. Integral renovate method is expedient tool for particular calculations in mathematical and many other fields of sciences, as it transforms intricate problematical situations into a modest one. It is quiet easy to distinct the things of a stated function from the maternal function, after arrangement has been consigned. In this article, we are going to explained the effective behavior of Kamal’s Transform in field of Mechanical, Chemical and many others type of engineering, which is applied to find solution of ordinary linear differential equations with coefficients of the variable value and its presentations in different era of engineering, Heat and temperature problems take place in chemical and many types of engineering are illustrated by a mathematical tool, called Kamal Transformation in this article. Descriptive properties and examples appear to show the efficiency of its suitability in solving differential equations.

We study the space-time evolution of electric E and magnetic B fields along with the electromagnetic anomaly $(\mathbf{E}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\mathbf{B})$ in the presence of electric ($\ensuremath{\sigma}$) and chiral magnetic (${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\chi}}$) conductivities in $\text{Au}+\text{Au}$ collisions at $\sqrt{{s}_{\mathrm{NN}}}=200$ GeV. By comparing with the Lienard-Wiechert solutions with zero conductivities, we observe a symmetry breaking of the electromagnetic field in a conducting medium with respect to the reaction plane. The decay of the field is also significantly decelerated after the conductivities are introduced. Similar effects are also found for the dipole structure of $\mathbf{E}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\mathbf{B}$ as well as the quadrupole structure of $(\mathbf{E}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\mathbf{B})\mathbf{B}$, which may finally affect the charge separation of the elliptic flow coefficient of hadrons observed in high-energy nuclear collisions.

Capsaicin is a valuable compound found in Capsicum annuum. The present study aimed to explore the efficiency of different solvents and surfactants on its extraction by maceration. Ethyl acetate was found to be the best solvent followed by dichloromethane and acetone, respectively. Overall order of efficiency of the solvents used was this: ethyl acetate > dichloromethane > acetone > glycerol > acetonitrile > methanol > acetic acid > toluene. Extractability of ethyl acetate for capsaicin remained unaffected by the surfactants. Tween-80 had very positive effect on the extraction efficiency of dichloromethane (DCM) and acetone. Kinetics of the extraction with the most efficient solvent ethyl acetate showed extraction of capsaicin to follow a pseudo-second order kinetic model. In conclusion, for extraction of capsaicin from green chili, ethyl acetate was the most powerful amongst the solvents used in the present work and tween-80 had a notable positive effect on the efficiency of DCM and acetone.

Cosmic rays with high energies can be studied only by measuring the extensive air showers of particles produced in the upper atmosphere. A complete simulation is required to know the primary particle properties, which is possible by studying the modeling of hadronic particle production at the generator level. In this connection, we report the yield ratios π−/π+, K−/K+, p̄/p (same particles ratio), p/π, p/K, and K/π (different particles ratio) with pseudorapidity (η) in pp collisions at s = 0.9 and 7 TeV using models being used for extensive air shower simulation. The ratios were measured at the following transverse momentum (pT) regions; low pT; 0 < pT < 0.8 GeV/c, intermediate pT; 0.8 < pT < 1.2 GeV/c and high pT; pT > 1.2 GeV/c and at different pseudorapidity (η) range of 3.0 < η < 4.5 and 2.5 < η < 4.5. These results are then compared with the data from the LHCb experiment. The ratio of π−/π+ from various model predictions agrees with the measurements at both energies at almost all pT and η regions. There is a reasonable agreement in K−/K+ and p̄/p ratios of model and experimental data at s = 900 GeV except few pT and η regions, in which the models do not describe the experimental data adequately. However, almost all the models fully describe the K−/K+ and p̄/p ratios at s = 7 TeV except few pT and η regions. Moreover, none of the models completely reproduce the different particle ratios at s = 900 GeV, with Pythia and EPOS producing better results. On the other hand, in most cases, the models’ predictions for the different particle ratios are consistent with experimental data s = 7 TeV. These kinds of studies will certainly help tune the Monte-Carlo generators being used for the studies of the hadron productions at various energies.

The bullet head plays a principal role in the modern enlargement of an efficient bullet. A bullet’s main design parameters depend upon the lift and drag forces acting on the head. The factors in a bullet’s shape design that affect bullets’ lift and drag forces are essential in aerodynamics, especially in ballistics. Therefore, the effect of wind on the lift and drag forces acting on the bullet, and the role of the bullet head to allow the bullet to travel efficiently through the wind, need to be investigated. This work discusses the parameters that affect the lift and drag force on the bullet. Simulations are performed in Ansys Fluent by varying the key parameters of the bullet head, i.e., the length and angle of attack, while keeping the air velocity at 5.2 m/s. The simulation outcome shows that the size of the bullet and the angle of attack are important factors related to the drag force. Therefore, this work predicts the inspection of a bullet under distinct wind conditions. An evaluation is performed to scrutinize the effect of design factors on the system execution of the bullet and its constructive flight path. It is concluded that when increasing the length of the bullet and its angle of attack (AOA), the drag force and lift forces increase drastically, contributing to the inefficiency of the bullet’s accuracy and penetrating power. A new design is also proposed in which the drag forces are reduced to the minimum.

Abstract Use of depth imaging is increasing day by day in green as well as in brown fields. Velocity model is constructed by integration of multiple available datasets and techniques. Depth imaging based on a high-resolution velocity model constrained by wells resulted in improved image of the overburden as well as carbonate reservoirs to the deep salt using 3D OBC seismic, borehole seismic and Gravity-Magnetic data from two adjacent offshore fields in Abu Dhabi. Multi-Wave Inversion (MWI) utilizing direct arrivals, surface waves and two-way time surfaces was applied to obtain high-resolution velocity model in the near surface validated by checkshots and sonic logs. Near surface velocity inversions were detected by MWI which improved overall gather flatness in the near surface. The current stress regime as well as the network of faults resulted in HTI anisotropy in the dome area, which is visible on the multi-azimuthal Walkaway VSP travel-time residuals from the observed and modelled data. HTI is also visible on azimuthal move-out in Common Offset Common Azimuth (COCA) gathers. HTI tomography was tested, giving equally flat gathers achieved by azimuthal move-out correction. A Gravity-Magnetic survey covering the area was inverted and integrated for the deep salt and basement model. The basement was constrained by the results from magnetic depth estimation. Density model of deep salt sediments and basement was enhanced by Gravity-Magnetic inversion. The resulting density model was converted to velocity which was then incorporated in the final velocity model followed by tomographic update. Final imaging provided a better stacking response and improved gather flatness on the salt dome. High-resolution velocity model provided improved imaging, well ties and depth conversion. Improved AVO/AVA response helped patrial angles stacks for improved reservoir characterization. Improved imaging in the deep section was also achieved.

Abstract The need to understand field-scale reservoir heterogeneity using seismic data requires implementing advanced solutions such as stochastic seismic inversion to go beyond the resolution of seismic data. Conventional seismic inversion techniques provide relatively low-resolution reservoir properties but do not provide quantitative estimates of the subsurface uncertainties. The objective of this study was to carry out a facies dependent geostatistical seismic inversion to generate multi-realization reservoir properties to improve the geological understanding of the two adjacent offshore fields in Abu Dhabi. An integrated approach of rock physics modelling and geostatistical inversion followed by porosity co-simulation was undertaken to characterize the spatially varying lithofacies and porosity of the complex carbonate reservoirs. Necessary checks to ensure highest quality data input included: 1) Rock physics modelling and shear sonic prediction 2) Invasion correction and production effect correction of elastic logs 3) Seismic feasibility analysis to define seismic facies and 4) Six angle stacks optimally defined to preserve AVO/AVA signature followed by AVO/AVA compliant post-stack processing. Subsequently, the joint facies driven geostatistical inversion was conducted to invert for multiple realizations high-resolution lithofacies and elastic rock properties. Finally, porosity was co-simulated and later ranked to map important geological variations. Based on the rock physics analysis, a 4 facies classification scheme (Porous Calcite, Porous Dolomite, Tight Calcite-Dolomite and Anhydrite) was adopted and used as input in the joint facies-elastic inversion. Before the geostatistical inversion, a deterministic inversion was performed that helped in refining the horizon interpretation of the surfaces used as a framework for the inversion. In geostatistical inversion, results are guided by variograms, facies, prior probability density functions, wells, inversion grid and seismic data quality. At start of the joint inversion, the parameters for inversion are defined in an unconstrained fashion aiming to obtain unbiased parameters which are blind to well control. Finally, using elastic properties constrained at the well locations, the joint geostatistical inversion was run to obtain multiple realizations of P-impedance, S-impedance, density and lithofacies. The cross-correlation between seismic and inverted synthetics was high across the whole area for all the partial angle stacks, with the lowest cross-correlation observed in the far angle stack. Lithofacies and elastic properties were used to co-simulate for porosity. The porosity results were then ranked to provide the P10, P50 and P90 models to be used for reservoir property model building. This study is an example of stochastically generating geologically consistent reservoir properties through high-resolution seismically constrained inversion results at 1ms vertical sampling. Lithofacies and elastic properties were jointly inverted, and co-simulated porosity results provided insights into high-resolution reservoir heterogeneity analysis through the ranking of equiprobable multiple realizations.

INTRODUCTION: Vessel tortuosity is a major factor in successful first pass outcomes for mechanical thrombectomy (MT), but previous methods to quantify tortuosity are not accurate enough to predict outcome. We investigated a new method for vessel characterization and outcome prediction based on geometric morphometrics (GMM). METHODS: Vessels and clots were manually segmented and reconstructed from pre-treatment CTA and nCCT images (n=5 cases). The vasculature corresponding to the ICA and MCA from the affected hemisphere was isolated, and centerlines were engineered as curved landmarks. MorphoJ, a GMM software, was used to complete generalized Procrustes and principal component (PC) Analysis that included registration of patient geometries, calculation of average morphology and landmark variation, and identification of anatomical landmarks differentiating MT outcomes. Morphometrics were compared against local and overall tortuosity by measuring the separability of and cohesion within outcome classes. RESULTS: GMM produced two PCs, which described local variation in M1 (PC1) and the ICA (PC2). When compared against vessel tortuosity features, GMM PCs increased the distance between outcome classes (first pass effect vs. no first pass effect), improving separability by 23.6%. Further, GMM PCs increased the compactness/cohesion of outcome classes, reducing cumulative distance between failures by 50% and successes by 9.4%. CONCLUSIONS: GMM analysis of pre-treatment vessel characteristic highlights regional variation in M1 as a strong indicator of MT failure, and suggests that GMM has the potential to better predict MT outcome than ICA tortuosity alone. Investigation of more complex vessel morphometry through feature engineering is needed.

The current study aims to examine the economically viable biomass feedstocks for bioenergy generation and their export potential. The Product Space Model (PSM) is the primary tool used to achieve the aim by accomplishing certain objectives. The study’s findings show that Pakistan has abundant biomass resources for energy production. Canola oil, leather flesh wastes, and poultry fattening show the highest PRODY values, 46,735, 44,438, and 41,791, respectively. These have high-income potential and are considered feasible for export after meeting local energy demand. While goat manure, cashew nutshell, and cotton stalk show lower income potential having values of 3,641, 4,225, and 4,421, respectively. The biowastes having low-income potential are more beneficial to utilize in energy generation plants within the country. The United States is observed to make the most sophisticated products, indicated by an EXPY value of 36296.89. While the minimum level of sophistication is observed for Indonesia, as revealed by its EXPY value of 22235.41 among all considered countries. The PSM policy map analysis of the current study shows that Pakistan and Argentina are located in the Parsimonious Policy quadrant, suggesting shifting toward unexploited products closely related to the existing export baskets. Although the United States, China, India, Indonesia, and Brazil are found in the most desired Let-it-be Policy quadrant. They have more room to diversify their industries and enhance their export potential. The study has practical applications in economic, social, and environmental perspectives, focusing on economic, clean, and sufficient energy. Furthermore, exportable biomass feedstocks are identified to strengthen the economy. Further research must be conducted to evaluate other indicators of the PSM to explore the proximity aspect of PSM, as it would provide a clearer picture of bioenergy and biomass export prospects.

Numbing the area of oral mucosa with cold application prior to administration of regional anesthesia has been widely used by various dentists in alleviating pain caused by needle prick. Cryoanesthesia using Endo-ice as topical anesthesia has been studied as a replacement to prevail the fallibility of topical anaesthetics. This study aimed to evaluate and compare effectiveness of ethyl chloride spray with 5% lidocaine gel in alleviating buccal anesthesia injection pain.Total of 90 outpatients were randomly divided into 3 groups as follows: Group 1 - cryotherapy with ethyl chloride at the anesthetic site preceding before administration of local anesthesia; Group 2 - topical application of 5% LIDOCAINE GEL preceding before administration of local anesthesia; and group 3 - control that did not receive any topical agent preceding before administration of local anesthesia. Visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to document pain immediately after injection prick.About comparison of pain scores, significant difference was found between group 1 (ethyl chloride) and group 2 (topical lidocaine) patients (P=0.001). For group 1, about 15 (50%) patients suffered from mild pain, followed by 14 (46.67%) patients suffering from moderate pain. However, majority of the 21 (70%) patients in group 2 suffered from moderate pain. All the patients in group 3 suffered from severe pain.Importance of alleviating fear of needle injection phobia amongst patients is of paramount importance. Ethyl chloride was found to be more effective than topical lidocaine in alleviating needle injection pain before administration of local anesthetic injection.

We report the synthesis of five proton-conducting ionic liquids (PCILs) by a neutralization reaction. The proton transfer from the corresponding Brønsted acid to the respective base was confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy. The Karl-Fischer titration was used to measure the water contents of the PCILs exposed to air for different time intervals at a relative humidity of 36 ± 5% and 31 ± 5 °C. The rate of moisture uptake by the PCILs increased with the increase of their time of exposure to air and follows pseudo-first-order kinetics. The conductivity analysis reveals that the PCILs’ ionic conductivities further rise with increasing water contents and temperature. The conductivity data were fitted with the Arrhenius equation and activation energies (E a ) were deduced. The electrochemical analysis of the triethylammonium dihydrogen phosphate, TEADHP shows that the liquid has a wide (2.8 V) electrochemical window (EW) at the Pt electrode at 60 °C and 5% water. The EW becomes narrower as the temperature and water content of the TEADHP increase due to the increase in the rate of the water electrolysis. The data showed that during positive-going scans, Pt-oxides were formed due to the oxidation of water in the PCIL which plays an electrocatalytic role during formic acid oxidation in the medium.

Different medicinal plants have been used for treating the large number of inflammatory diseases. Among them, most of the diseases are causing the lethal effects on human body and there is need for controlling the infectious diseases due to their amazing effects. Medicinal plants contain phytoconstituents such as flavonoids, steroids, glycosides, saponins, tannins, epigallocatechin (EGC), essential oils, hematoxylins, phenolic glycosides, saponins, carbohydrates, and proteins. It also reportedly has a variety of pharmacological effects, including those that are anti-diabetic, CNS- depressant, cardioprotective, anti-bacterial, anti-menorrhagic, anti-hyperglycemic, and anti-cancer. Saraca indica is revered as a potent antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties help to keep bacteria out of the urinary tract, which also lessens pain and inflammation. To fully explore the therapeutic potential of this plant and develop it into a standard drug, more in-depth clinical research does, however, seem worthwhile.

Infectious bronchitis caused by infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is an acute, highly contagious and economically important disease of poultry.The disease has remained a serious threat to the world poultry industry since its discovery in 1931.The virus mainly affects the respiratory, renal, and reproductive systems.Multiple serotypes of IBV have emerged due to the high rate of mutation and genetic recombination, which has made it difficult to control the disease.Certain serotypes have disappeared because of the availability and use of vaccines but new serotypes have emerged.A regular watch on the disease including virus variation, prevalence, pathogenesis and development of diagnostic tools are important for t h e formulation of effective prevention and control programs.This review deals with the global prevalence of IBV along with its pathogenesis, diagnosis, and control.In summary, we have discovered that measures to combat infectious bronchitis is not fully effective and the continued attention of the scientific community and funding agencies can help protect the global poultry industry from this challenge.

Abstract Time-lapse seismic plays a vital role in monitoring the dynamic behavior of reservoirs during carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR). However, its application to carbonate fields onshore Abu Dhabi presents several challenges, necessitating appropriate datasets and analysis tools. For proper understanding of fluid behaviors in a carbonate field onshore Abu Dhabi, the time-lapse vertical seismic profiling (VSP) datasets were acquired with an optimum signal-to-noise ratio. Firstly, pre-processing was performed on baseline and monitoring surveys, resulting in improvement of data quality and repeatability in a quantitative manner. We then applied full waveform inversion (FWI) to estimate time-lapse velocity changes induced by CO2-EOR. After the parameter optimization, the inverted velocity showed updates in the correct direction while minimizing the data residual. To stabilize and optimize the time-lapse FWI application, three different approaches were performed: a parallel approach, a common model approach, and a target-oriented approach. As a result, the time-lapse velocity changes near the injection well were clearly recognizable in the reservoir of interest. This has suggested that time-lapse property changes associated with CO2-EOR operation can be captured through time-lapse FWI. Therefore, time-lapse borehole seismic imaging in conjunction with the applied FWI scheme can be an effective tool for precise monitoring of fluid behavior in a carbonate reservoir during CO2-EOR operations.

Abstract When implementing CO2 WAG EOR, fluid distribution and pore pressure in the reservoir vary. The interpretation of seismic reservoir monitoring for WAG-EOR often includes uncertainty in the changes obtained by time-lapse seismic surveys because these changes are the integration of effects by several factors. The objective of this study is to estimate the impact of each factor on elastic property and investigate a dominant factor through a rock physics study at a CO2 WAG site in Abu Dhabi. To estimate the effect of pore-pressure change on elastic velocity, an empirical relation between elastic velocity and confining pressure was used. Sonic velocity using core plug samples of the reservoir was measured under multiple confining pressures to construct empirical relations. As for the effect of fluid saturation changes on elastic velocity, we estimated it through Gassmann's equation. Realistic changes in pore pressure and saturations during the WAG operations were based on reservoir simulation results. Finally, based on the input petrophysical data and the relations from rock physics analyses, elastic property changes in WAG-EOR are estimated. Density and P-wave velocity (Vp) changes caused by the fluid substitution from oil to water are more significant than those by the substitution from oil to CO2. Pore pressure changes have less of an impact on Vp variations than does fluid substitution. Based on the estimation of elastic property changes associated with WAG operations, density changes are affected mainly by the increase in water saturation because of the density difference between water, oil and CO2. Vp changes seem to be consistent with the increase of gas (CO2) saturation. Even in the upper zone of the reservoir where oil is swept by both injected water and CO2, the effect of CO2 is prominent as well-known low gas saturation effects. Vp is significantly affected by the small amount of CO2 which was observed in the comparison of Vp with and without 10% of CO2 saturation in the rock. P-impedance changes are consistent with Vp changes because of the larger changes of Vp than the density changes. From these observations, the changes obtained by seismic reservoir monitoring would mainly represent the effect of CO2 saturation changes. We quantitatively looked into the impact that changes in pore pressure and saturation had changes on elastic properties such as density and elastic velocity. Furthermore, it was determined which elements predominately control changes in elastic properties when these changes occur simultaneously in WAG-EOR operations. These findings play an important role in the interpretation of seismic reservoir monitoring for WAG-EOR in Abu Dhabi.

Abstract Seismic anisotropy parametrization has a vital role in seismic imaging as well as in geomechanical applications. The most common form of seismic anisotropy is Transversely Isotropic (TI) caused by fine geological layering such as in shales. TI, if not incorporated can lead to geological miss-positioning of the seismic image. Walkaway VSP data was used to estimate TI parameters for the Nahr Umr shale, which is a highly anisotropic formation and is a regional cap rock. Walkaway VSP was recorded using 16 level 3 Component (3C) downhole receiver array positioned across Nahr Umr formation with 402 surface shot points in an offshore field Abu Dhabi. Walkaway VSP provides direct information of upgoing and downgoing primary and shear waves. 3C data was oriented followed by 3C wavefield separation in order to obtain slowness and polarization of the upgoing and downgoing primary and shear waves. Slowness and polarization information gives insight to in situ wavefield propagation. Slowness and polarization data was inverted to obtain TI anisotropy parameters along receiver array. The inversion of slowness and polarization data does not rely on overburden structural complexities hence providing robust local anisotropy estimates. Strong primary to shear wave mode conversion in the vicinity of Nahr Umr formation helped to obtain good results. The estimated TI anisotropy parameters helped to guide anisotropy parameters in Nahr Umr shale for a nearby field pre-stack depth imaging project (Waqas et al., 2016). The overburden anisotropy needs to be as accurate as possible in order to obtain better seismic imaging and characterization for underlying reservoir. The parameters can also be used in geomechanical applications. This paper provides TI anisotropy parameters estimation for the regional highly anisotropic shale formation. The unique method was proposed for quite some time in the literature however has not been applied or reported to estimate anisotropy for the Nahr Umr shale.

Transverse momentum spectra of $\pi^+$, $K^+$, $p$, $K^0_s$, $\Lambda$, $\Xi$ or $\bar\Xi^+$ and $\Omega$ or $\bar\Omega^+$ or $\Omega+\bar\Omega$ in Copper-Copper (Cu-Cu), Gold-Gold (Au-Au) and Lead-Lead (Pb-Pb) collisions at 200 GeV, 62.4 GeV and 2.76 TeV respectively, are analyzed in different centrality bins by the blast wave model with Tsallis statistics. The model results are approximately in agreement with the experimental data measured by BRAHMS, STAR and ALICE Collaborations in special transverse momentum ranges. Kinetic freeze out temperature, transverse flow velocity and kinetic freezeout volume are extracted from the transverse momentum spectra of the particles. It is observed that $\bar\Xi^+$ and $\Omega$ or $\bar\Omega^+$ or $\Omega+\bar\Omega$ have larger kinetic freezeout temperature followed by $K^+$, $K^0_s$ and $\Lambda$ than $\pi^+$ and $p$ due to smaller reaction cross-sections of multi-strange and strange particles than non-strange particles. The present work reveals the scenario of triple kinetic freezeout in collisions at BRAHMS, STAR and ALICE Collaborations, however the transverse flow velocity and kinetic freezeout volume are mass dependent and they decrease with the increasing rest mass of the particle. In addition, the kinetic freezeout temperature, transverse flow velocity and kinetic freezeout volume are decreasing from central to peripheral collisions while the parameter q increase from central to peripheral collisions, indicating the approach of quick equilibrium in the central collisions. Besides, the kinetic freezeout temperature and kinetic freezeout volume are observed to be larger in larger collision system which shows its dependence on the size of the interacting system, while transverse flow velocity increase with increasing energy.

Background Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea. Rifaximin is an antibiotic that offers marginal resistance to C. difficile bacteria. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of rifaximin in metronidazole non-responsive CDI patients. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed from August 2019 to May 2020 at the Lahore General Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan. A total of 200 cases were included. Patients who developed diarrhea after receiving antibiotics for seven days and a positive C. difficile toxin stool test as detected by the enzyme immunoassay (BioCheck, Inc., CA) were diagnosed with CDI. Only patients who were unresponsive to metronidazole therapy were enrolled in our analysis. Two groups were formed. The intervention group was administered 200 mg tablets of rifaximin three times a day for 10 days. For patients in the control group, no new treatment was started. The efficacy of rifaximin was defined in terms of the resolution of diarrhea after two weeks of therapy and a negative stool test. All data were recorded in a predefined pro forma. Results The mean age of 45.41 ± 8.54 years was found in the intervention group. The majority of the patients were aged 35-50 years. The majority of the patients had watery diarrhea, abdominal cramping, and loss of appetite on presentation. Rifaximin was found to be significantly effective in the resolution of symptoms of CDI, which was previously unresponsive to metronidazole (p<0.00001). it was found that the duration of diarrhea of more than three weeks was significantly associated with failure of therapy (p=0.03). Conclusion We concluded that rifaximin therapy is effective for patients of CDI non-responsive to metronidazole in more than 65% of the cases. Even though several new developments are made to address the concerned subject, such as microbiota transplantation, antibiotics, and immunotherapy, rifaximin can be considered for patients with metronidazole non-responsive CDI.

A series of 1H-1,2,3-triazole analogs (7a-7d and 9a-9s) were synthesized via "click" chemistry and evaluated for in vitro carbonic anhydrase-II (bovine and human) inhibitory activity. The synthesis of intermediates, 7a and 7c, was achieved by using (S)-(-)ethyl lactate as a starting material. These compounds (7a and 7c) underwent Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction with different arylboronic acids in 1,4-dioxane, reflux at 90-120°C for 8 h using Pd(PPh3)4 as a catalyst (5 mol%), and K2CO3 (3.0 equiv)/K2PO4 (3.0 equiv) as a base to produce target 1H-1,2,3-triazole molecules (9a-9s) for a good yield of 67-86%. All the synthesized compounds were characterized through NMR spectroscopic techniques. Furthermore, all those compounds have shown significant inhibitory potential for both sources of carbonic anhydrase-II (CA-II). In the case of bCA-II, compounds 9i, 7d, 9h, 9o, 9g, and 9e showed potent activity with IC50 values in the range of 11.1-17.8 µM. Whereas for hCA-II, compounds 9i, 9c, 9o, and 9j showed great potential with IC50 values in the range of 10.9-18.5 µM. The preliminary structure-activity relationship indicates that the presence of the 1H-1,2,3-triazole moiety in those synthesized 1H-1,2,3-triazole analogs (7a-7d and 9a-9s) significantly contributes to the overall activity. However, several substitutions on this scaffold affect the activity to several folds. The selectivity index showed that compounds 9c, 9k, and 9p are selective inhibitors of hCA-II. Kinetics studies showed that these compounds inhibited both enzymes (bCA-II and hCA-II) in a competitive manner. Molecular docking indicates that all the active compounds fit well in the active site of CA-II. This study has explored the role of 1H-1,2,3-triazole-containing compounds in the inhibition of CA-II to combat CA-II-related disorders.

Abstract The transverse momentum spectra of light nuclei (deuteron, triton and helion) produced in various centrality intervals in Gold-Gold (Au-Au), Lead-Lead (Pb-Pb) and proton-Lead (p-Pb) collisions, as well as in inelastic (INEL) proton-proton (pp) collisions are analyzed by the blast wave model with Boltzmann Gibbs statistics. The model results are nearly in agreement with the experimental data measured by STAR and ALICE Collaborations in special transverse momentum ranges. We extracted the bulk properties in terms of kinetic freeze-out temperature, transverse flow velocity and freezeout volume. It is observed that deuteron and anti-deuteron freezeout later than triton and helion as well as their anti-particles due to its smaller mass, while helion and tri-ton, and anti-helion and anti-triton freezeout at the same time due to isospin symmetry at higher energies. It is also observed that light nuclei freezeout earlier than their anti-nuclei due to the large coalescence of nucleons for light nuclei compared to their anti-nuclei. The kinetic freezeout temperature, transverse flow velocity and kinetic freezeout volume decrease from central to peripheral collisions. Furthermore, the transverse flow velocity depends on mass of the particle which decreases with increasing the mass of the particle.PACS: 12.40.Ee, 13.85.Hd, 25.75.Ag, 25.75.Dw, 24.10.Pa

Abstract Overburden (shallow) anomalies such as channels, sink holes, or karst features pose challenges for seismic time imaging, resulting in an obscured image below the anomalies i.e. pull-ups or push-downs. These anomalies can propagate down to the reservoir masking the image and create structural uncertainties. These relatively small scale (&amp;lt; 1 – 2 km) overburden anomalies cannot be resolved with conventional depth imaging usually, based on migration velocity analysis and residual move out (RMO) minimization only. This paper proposes the application of dip-constrained tomography, in combination with RMO tomography to help resolve these shallow anomalies. Although the method has been widely used elsewhere e.g. in offshore Brazil and North Sea (Chen et al., 2012, Guillaume et al., 2013, Carotti et al., 2015 and Hollingworth et al., 2015), this is the first time it has been applied in a carbonate oilfield in offshore Abu Dhabi. An accurate velocity model is required for seismic depth imaging. The velocity model is optimized using a tomographic technique which is a non-linear optimization process with relevant constraints imposed. The data are migrated using an initial velocity model and common image gathers are obtained. RMO is defined in a cost function and non-linear tomography finds a velocity model minimizing the cost function. An additional structural constraint in the form of an offset-dependent dip constraint is introduced in the cost function for minimizing the misfit between the offset-dependent dip of the events and the expected dip. Dip-constrained tomography was able to obtain a high resolution velocity model in the overburden and provided a robust seismic image essentially free of pull-up and push-down effects in the reservoir. The structural uncertainty in the reservoir was subsequently reduced. Inverting the dip term together with RMO term can potentially correct image distortions e.g. pull-ups and push-downs and focus the image simultaneously. The refined subsurface image can help optimize the reservoir model with less structure uncertainty and can enhance the production profile by providing more flexibility in well design and planning. The methodology was applied on a pilot area which gave quite encouraging results and leads to extend the pre-stack depth imaging to a full-field application.

Abstract Repeated time-lapse Walkaway VSP (vertical seismic profile) were acquired as part of CO2 WAG EOR pilot monitoring in an onshore carbonate field in the UAE. The Baseline survey followed by two monitors were acquired, one after 6 months of water injection and another after 3 years of CO2/Water injection cycles. Objectives were to monitor CO2 and Water fronts between injector and producer, in addition to assess source and receiver repeatability. Feasibility study was performed to estimate 4D effects due to petrophysical changes in the reservoir, resulting from Water and/or Gas injection. After performing the survey design for receiver and source positions, 36 level 3C receivers at 7.6 m spacing array were deployed few hundred meters above the reservoir. Baseline and Monitor-1 survey were acquired with 186 source points at 25 m spacing, with maximum offset of 3000 m from wellhead in both directions along NW-SE line, however, Monitor-2 had 10 source points less in NW direction due to surface restrictions. Excellent data quality with good repeatability was achieved. Final images around reservoir showed no visible seismic 4D changes along Walkaway VSP orientation post injection during period between Baseline and Monitor-1, possibly due to fluid transmission not proceeding along this orientation, or it was too early to detect anomalies in the vicinity. This paper presents Baseline/Monitor-2 processing results. 3C VSP processing was performed while taking into consideration Baseline and Monitor-2 data NRMS (normalized root mean square) and predictability at major processing steps. Customized processing workflow was applied for wavefield separation and deconvolution. VSP geometry is lacking high angle first arrivals to directly estimate overburden shales anisotropy parameters, which was addressed by incorporating the values from literature. Cross-equalization was performed pre-migration i.e. scalars computed on downgoing wavefield and applied on upgoing wavefield. Time-lapse analysis was performed pre-migration i.e. on NMO (normal move out) corrected data after flattening at overburden shales to remove any time shift effects from the overburden. Time shifts were noticed across receivers in the overburden shales in Walkaway VSP and validated by Zero-Offset VSP extracted from the Walkaway VSP. The observed time shifts were small with no amplitude differences on NMO corrected data at the reservoir. In the migrated images, amplitude difference observed were possibly due to these time shifts, these slight time changes are stacked in the migration process and hence compounded with the 4D amplitude signature of the images. Time-lapse feasibility studies are available in the literature however; actual time-lapse seismic surveys are very limited in the UAE. This study will help the operators to deploy borehole seismic technology for time-lapse monitoring in the Middle East carbonate reservoirs. Processing workflow was optimized, highlighting challenges and limitations posed by the survey geometry with future recommendations.

In this study, gas-fired kitchens of 54 bungalows and 25 apartments were studied using stationary indoor carbon monoxide (CO) monitoring. The levels of CO were measured in each kitchen for a period of 24 h with a 1 min resolution using data logger EL-USB-CO300. Hourly, 8 h and 24 h, CO means for all the kitchens were calculated. Hourly and 24 h CO means of kitchens for bungalows were 3.72±6.26 ppm and 3.72±3.16 ppm, respectively, while those apartments have 3.74±6.96 ppm and 3.74±2.17 ppm, respectively. 8 h CO means of night, day and evening in the kitchens of bungalows were 2.62±3.22 ppm, 4.85±4.66 ppm and 3.53±3.30 ppm, respectively, while in apartments 2.13±2.02 ppm, 3.79±3.86 ppm and 5.29±4.17 ppm. The mean difference between the 8 h CO concentrations during the evening in bungalows and apartments was 1.76±0.87 ppm (P&lt;0.01). 20% of kitchens apartment and 16.67% of bungalows which exceeded the WHO guidelines for daily exposure limit.

In this paper, we present here a detailed study of several observables as a function of pseudorapidity from several hadron production models commonly used for extended air shower simulations and compare these predictions with [Formula: see text] collisions measured by the CMS experiment at [Formula: see text] TeV. To facilitate the model/data comparisons, the pseudorapidity binning used in the energy density spectra data was also applied to the Monte Carlo analysis ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]). Given that no model currently describes the full breadth of available hadronic collision data, four independent models were used in the comparison study, each with differences in the handling of soft quantum chromodynamics processes, in particular. The analysis results show that predictions from EPOS-LHC provide good agreement with the data, in contrast with the other models used in the study (QGSJETII-04, DPMJET-3.19, Sibyll2.3d). Significant modifications may be required in the rest of the model-based generators for them to provide a better description of the experimental observations.

Large number of hypericum species have been found around the globe. One of which is the Hypericin, that is extracted from the Hypericum perforatum. This review focuses on the brief history of the hypericin, its various natural and semisynthetic sources, the precise pharmacokinetics of the hypericin as well as describes the detailed actions of hypericin as an antidepressant, antiviral and as a phytotoxic agent. In chemical synthesis, Emodin had been found to be the ultimate likely hypericin precursor. Hypericin is not a newly discovered agent to the community of research, nonetheless it has been accomplishing an innovative and a promising position as a very effective agent in the medical diagnostics as well as in the therapeutic applications. Hypericin had been investigated as a good candidate for the treatment of depression, cancer and also had an efficacy against various viral agents as well. Depression is treated by voltage dependent Ca2+ influx reduction. Photosensitizing property is due to hemoglobin absorption. Antiviral activity is through the deactivation of enveloped viruses in life cycle of virus. With relatively fewer side effects this agent can be utilized as an alternate of various semisynthetic medications.

Yogurt is a nutrient-rich food product obtain by bacterial fermentation of milk. Recently, numerous studies have been reported its tremendous health effects through fortification and addition of different fruits provides several nutrients which may help to upgradation of health of vulnerable groups. Fruits yogurt is excellent source of essential amino acids, calcium, vitamin D, riboflavin, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12. It promotes gut microbial population as carrier of probiotics which control intestinal infections reduce the serum cholesterol levels and lactose intolerance and reduce the chance of cancer. Yogurt is a functional food, preventive medicine, and residence treatment in the new times requires persistent and transparent public education. This review paper highlighted the importance of fortification of indigenous fruits to makes fruits yogurt.

Abstract Analysis of single-well sonic measurements to determine formation TI elastic parameters has traditionally been done using deterministic models with multiple, simplistic assumptions using only vertical or horizontal wells with flat structural dip. Here a probabilistic Bayesian-type inversion method is shown, which provides a flexible solution for any wellbore orientation solving for all five TI (transversely isotropic) parameters. This inversion is guided by prior information, which may be; core tests, borehole seismic survey results, offset well data or a public database. The approach demonstrated here uses prior information of TI elastic properties to determine a consistent model at each depth. The inversion uses all sonic slownesses, compressional, fast and slow shear, as well as Stoneley shear and density to provide a continuous output of Thomsen's parameters and anisotropic mechanical properties at each depth. The results are consistent with offset well data as well as walk-above VSP velocities obtained in the same well. This technique was applied on a prominent and thick shale formation, which is present throughout UAE. Most of the wells drilled in UAE penetrate through this shale formation which is locally unstable for drilling, and is a prominent seismic reflector which directly overlies the reservoir. Accurate geomechanical characterization of this shale formation is critical as more wells are drilled at high angles with the application of full 3D finite-element modeling. Similarily the velocity models used for pre-stack depth migration (PSDM) and seismic well tie require accurate anisotropic TI parameters. This workflow is new and applicable to any well orientation or structural dip and yields results that are consistent with offset sonic and borehole seismic measurements. Application of this method will have a profound impact on geophysical velocity and geomechanical model building methods and results.

Abstract One of the proven technologies for reservoir monitoring is 4D (time-lapse) seismic. It allows tracking the fluid front for water &amp; gas and detecting pressure &amp; density changes. Although 4D seismic monitoring is challenging in the Middle Eastern carbonate reservoirs, dealing with non-repeated acquisition geometries pose additional challenges. This paper will present how the 4D seismic processing methods and techniques were applied to overcome the following challenges from an offshore Jurassic carbonate oil and gas field: Seismic acquisition geometry differences between the two surveys leading to strong 4D noise related to repeatability issuesMultiple contamination especially in shallow water environment (water depth ranges from 15 to 25m) Cascaded application of denoise and demultiple procedures were performed. Different types of migration were conducted too. In order to overcome specifically acquisition geometry differences between legacy and monitor surveys, Least-Squares Migration algorithm was applied to 4D datasets. 4D Least-Squares migration showed better 4D inversion results compared with the ones from Kirchhoff migration. As 4D inversion signal has the same order of magnitude as 4D noise, additional information such as geology and well production data were required to discriminate 4D signal from noise. Nevertheless, some areas still suffer from residual multiples that generate strong and low frequency noise in 4D inversion results. However, many 4D seismic anomalies were validated as 4D signal mainly corresponding to 4D P-impedance increase which were nicely matched with water cut observed at wells and with water saturation from reservoir simulation. As a general observation, the water rise observed in 4D seismic inversion results was higher (shallower) than dynamic model water rise. In addition, 4D water rise showed heterogeneous water paths compared to the uniform one in the dynamic model. 4D interpretation results were integrated in the reservoir model.

Background: Intracranial aneurysm (IA) rupture is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. Identifying unstable, growing IAs can enable critical treatment before rupture. Hypothesis: RNA expression profiles in whole blood are different among cases of growing vs. stable IA, and thus may be candidate risk assessment biomarkers. Methods: We performed RNA sequencing on 69 blood samples from IA patients. To assess if IAs would grow or not, we calculated the published Predicted Aneurysm Trajectory (PAT) score. We dichotomized samples into stable and growing IAs by median PAT. Combat-seq removed potential batch effects and counts were normalized to TPMs. After randomly dividing the dataset into a training and testing cohort, differentially expressed (protein-coding) genes (DEGs) in the training dataset were defined as those with an FDR-corrected F-test ( q -value)&lt;0.05, an absolute fold-change≥2, and expression (TPM&gt;0) in at least 50% of the samples. A Gaussian Naïve Bayes (GNB) model using the DEGs was trained and independently tested. To understand the pathobiology associated with the DEGs we performed gene ontology term enrichment analysis. Results: The PAT score predicted 34 IAs to be stable and 35 to be growing. Between these groups, we identified 36 DEGs that discriminated growing from stable IAs (Figure, A and B). Our GNB model using the DEGs achieved 86% accuracy in training (Figure, C). In the testing cohort, the DEGs also delineated growing from stable IAs (Figure, D), and the model had 70% accuracy (Figure, E). DEGs with increased expression in growing IAs were enriched for biological process (BP) terms including neutrophil activation and degranulation, while DEGs decreased in growing IAs were enriched for BP that included NK-cell immunity and cytotoxicity (Figure, F). Conclusion: Circulating transcriptomes can delineate IA growth based on the PAT score. Our biomarker model must be validated in larger cohorts and evaluated in longitudinal datasets.

Background: Radiomics features (RFs) extracted from CT images have the potential to provide valuable biological and structural information about ischemic stroke blood clots, which may inform mechanical thrombectomy (MT) outcome. Hypothesis: We aimed to identify RFs that predict MT outcome and interpret these findings using paired histological data. Methods: We extracted 293 RFs from co-registered non-contrast CT (nCCT) and CT angiography (CTA) images. RFs predictive of revascularization outcome (defined by first pass effect [FPE], which is near complete removal of occlusive clot in one pass of MT) were selected. We then trained and cross-validated (5-fold) a balanced logistic regression model to assess the RFs’ ability in FPE prediction. In a subset of cases, we performed digital histology on clots retrieved during MT. We computed 227 engineered clot histomic features from whole slide histopathology that represented clot structure and texture. Results: Following univariate feature selection and multi-variate feature ranking, we identified 6 RFs significantly associated with FPE (Figure, top rows). Continuity in lower pixel intensities, scattered higher intensities, and intensities with abrupt changes in texture were associated with successful revascularization outcome. The multi-variate model trained using the 6 RFs could predict FPE well, with AUC=0.832±0.031 and accuracy=0.760±0.059 in training and AUC=0.787±0.115 and accuracy=0.787±0.127 in cross-validation. Each of the 6 RFs were related to clot component organization in terms of red blood cell (RBC) and fibrin/platelet (FP) distribution. Clots with more diversity of components and with varying sizes of RBC and FP regions in the clot section were positively associated with RFs predictive of FPE. Conclusion: Clot RFs are potential structurally- and biologically-interpretable candidate biomarkers for accurate FPE prediction.

Desmoid tumors are the type of tumors that are infrequent. However, Desmoid tumors can invade in nearby areas and can re-appear even after excision. They can reach the abdominal areas and can result in pain and swelling. The author presents a case of Desmoid tumors in a 24 years old female involving the rectus sheath. Case Summary: We present a case of 24-year-old woman initially diagnosed with fibroadenoma of the right breast. After a month of the procedure, the patient complained of nausea, pain and cramping in the left abdominal area. She was referred to us for further evaluation of the growing mass in the left abdominal area. A Trucut Biopsy revealed an abdominal mass in the left upper quadrant about 5x5cm hard in consistency. A desmoid tumor was revealed in the diagnosis. She underwent wide local excision. Conclusions: Desmoid tumors are a rare type of tumor. These types of tumors arise most commonly in the upper limb, lower limb and in the popliteal region. Our case presents a representation of the tumor in the abdominal region particularly rectus sheet. MRI and CT scan can be helpful in diagnosis of these tumors but histological findings are necessary. Our case outlines the importance of identification of desmoid tumors in a timely manner and also the symptoms that it presents with. These tumors are to be treated with surgical excision with follow up every two to four weeks.

INTRODUCTION: A larger than normal clot burden accounts for worse presentation and poorer thrombectomy outcomes in tandem stroke cases. METHODS: A prospectively maintained database was retrospectively searched for patients who presented with a tandem stroke. Patients were dichotomized into two groups; those treated with BGCs and those treated without BGCs. A one-to-one matched propensity score analysis was performed to adjust for treatment selection bias using the nearest-neighbor matching technique for covariates (baseline comorbidities and stroke severity). Patient demographics, presentation characteristics, and procedural details were recorded. Outcomes were assessed as periprocedural sICH, in-hospital mortality, and 90-day mRS. Mann-whitney U test, and multivariate logistic regression was performed to compare the procedural parameters and the clinical outcomes between groups. RESULTS: We included 125 patients (BGC: 85 [40 after PSM]; No BGC: 40 [40 after PSM]). Concomitant carotid revascularization (stenting or angioplasty) was performed in all cases. After PSM, no difference was seen between the two groups in terms of comorbidities, and initial stroke severity. BGC group had significantly lower procedure duration (61.5% vs. 77.9% (OR = 0.996; P = 0.006)), lower NIHSS at discharge (8.0% vs. 11.0% (OR = 0.987; P = 0.042)), and higher odds of good outcomes (mRS 0-2 at 90-day) (52.3% vs. 27.5% (OR = 0.34; P = 0.040)). On multivariate regression analysis, BGC group had significantly higher rate of first-pass effect (mTICI 2B-3) (OR = 0.660, 95% CI = 0.480-0.908;P = 0.013), and a lower periprocedural sICH rate (OR = 0.615, 95% CI = 0.406-0.932; P = 0.025). No difference in in-hospital mortality was observed (OR = 1.591; 95% CI = 0.976-2.593; P = 0.067). CONCLUSIONS: Use of BGCs for concomitant mechanical thrombectomy and carotid revascularization with flow-arrest is safe and results in superior clinical and angiographic outcomes in tandem stroke patients.

INTRODUCTION: The use of modern transfemoral balloon guide catheters (BGC) for flow reversal during carotid artery stenting (CAS) is scarcely described in literature but represents a promising and efficient technique for embolic protection. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of patients ≥ 18-year-old who underwent elective CAS with the use of flow-reversal through the Walrus BGC. The BGC is positioned in the common carotid artery and inflated, followed by opening of the stop-cock for passive reversal of flow. We utilized a robotic transcranial Doppler monitoring during this technique for proof of concept. Patients’ characteristics, procedural details and clinical follow-up were evaluated. RESULTS: One-hundred and ten patients were included. Mean age was 69.1 years ± SD 9.6 and 30 (27.3%) were female. Most common comorbidities were hyperlipidemia (81.8%) and hypertension (73.6%). 54 (49.1%) patients were symptomatic. 102 (92.7%) patients had stenosis ≥70%. Contralateral stenosis ≥50% was present in 54 (49.1%) patients. Distal filters were used in 91 (82.7%) cases. Angioplasty was performed in 86 (78.2%) patients. Stenting was successful in 100% of cases. There were no periprocedural TIA or stroke. Stroke or TIA and mortality were both observed in only two (1.8%) patients during 30-days follow-up, of which one was due to non-compliance with antiplatelet regimen. CONCLUSIONS: In our institution’s experience, this technique was safe, feasible and efficient, with 100% technical success and no periprocedural thromboembolic complications. More extensive studies are needed to establish the role of proximal protection with flow-reversal using modern BGCs.

INTRODUCTION: Literature comparing surgery and middle meningeal artery embolization (MMAE) for chronic subdural hematomas (cSDH) is limited by patient selection bias. Furthermore, most studies do not perform volumetric measurements over time when comparing these two modalities. METHODS: Retrospective search of our database to include cSDH patients managed with either SEA or standalone MMAE. Propensity-score-matching was performed for axial and coronal lengths, maximum diameter and midline shift. Volumes of cSDH were measured at 24 h post-procedure, 3-12-weeks, 12-24-weeks, 24-36-weeks, 36-48-weeks and 48-60-weeks. RESULTS: Forty-eight matched hematoma pairs were obtained. The groups were also similar in demographics, comorbidities, medications and symptoms. Median volume was significantly lower at 24 h in the SEA group (SEA, 12.6 mL vs MMAE, 52.7 mL, P &lt; 0.001). Median volume reduction was significantly greater in the SEA group at 24 h (SEA, 39.1 mL vs MMAE, 8.8 mL, P &lt; 0.001) and in the 3-12 weeks interval (SEA, 50.8 mL vs MMAE, 23.7 mL, P &lt; 0.001). The SEA group had significantly greater median resolution rate at 24 h (39.1 mL/day vs 8.8 mL/day, P &lt; 0.001) and in the 3 to 12 weeks interval (1 mL/day vs 0.4 mL/day, P &lt; 0.001) but not in remaining intervals. Near complete resolution at the 3 to 12 interval (SEA, 26.1% vs MMAE, 28%, P = 1) and 12 to 60 weeks interval (SEA, 78.3% vs MMAE, 80%, P = 1) was not significantly different between the groups. Overall, the recurrence was significantly higher in the SEA group than in the MMAE group (22.9% vs 4.2%, P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In comparable cSDH patients, surgical evacuation resulted in better volumetric outcomes in the immediate and early follow-up periods but in extended follow-up intervals. Furthermore, surgical patients experienced a significantly higher rate of recurrence.

INTRODUCTION: Real-time intraoperative neuromonitoring is crucial to account for cerebral blood flow and embolic protection offered by proximal and distal cerebral protection devices during carotid revascularization procedures. METHODS: All patients diagnosed with high-grade carotid stenosis were prospectively enrolled between October 2021 thru February 2022. The TCD Robot head-brace system was used to secure the patients head, and the robot calibrated to automatically identify ipsilateral MCA or the terminal ICA. Patient demographics and procedural characteristics relevant to the robotic system such as signal strength, time to find signal, intracranial depth of the relevant vessel, cerebral waveform, and emboli count were recorded for the 4 critical phases: i- Access to crossing the lesion, ii- Filter and balloon deployment, iii- Stent placement and implantation, and iv- Removal of delivery system. RESULTS: Eight patients were included in our study (6 males [75%]; mean age 71.5 ± 3.9). Six out of 8 patients were symptomatic with a mean diameter stenosis of 83.5 ± 4.1. Average time taken to find a stable signal was 62 seconds (Range: 10-122). Terminal ICA was the vessel identified in all cases with a mean depth of 64mm (Range: 59-71). Flow arrest was demonstrated in all cases with flow reversal demonstrated in 2. Mean duration for the TCD Robotic surveillance was 23.6 ± 0.9 minutes with an average of 117 distal emboli (Range: 45-143) recorded by the device. Linear regression model identified stent placement and implantation as statistically significant (P = 0.0419) contributor to the final emboli count. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first case series of real-time comprehensive neuromonitoring using a Robotic Transcranial Doppler system with Artificial Intelligence demonstrating various cerebral blood flow parameters including flow arrest and distal embolic incidence intra-operatively.

Objective: The aim of the study was to find prevalence of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), compare its prevalence among male and female students and find association of IBS with anxiety among medical students of Rawalpindi.&#x0D; Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study&#x0D; Place and Duration of Study: It was conducted among the Medical Students of Army Medical College and Rawalpindi Medical University, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Mar to May 2021.&#x0D; Methodology: A structured, self-administered questionnaire was distributed after obtaining consent. Systematic Random Sampling was done. Sample size was 363. Questionnaire consisted of two parts; IBS Questionnaire for healthcare professionals and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire. Data analysis was done using SPSS 26.&#x0D; Results: All the questionnaires were inquired from the age group of 15 to 30 years. A total of 243 responses were collected from females and 120 from males. Analysis of the data revealed that 84 out of 363 respondents (23.1%) had probable IBS. There was a preponderance of females with IBS (26.7%) over males (15.8%). There was significant association of IBS with Gender. Out of 243 females, 37 had severe anxiety, 46 had moderate anxiety, 96 had mild anxiety and 64 had no anxiety. Six males had severe anxiety, 20 had moderate anxiety, 29 had mild anxiety and 65 had no anxiety. Overall prevalence of severe anxiety was 11.845%. 20.2% individuals with probable IBS had severe anxiety. Data analysis revealed (p&lt;0.05) implying that the association of IBS with anxiety is highly significant.&#x0D; Conclusions: The overall prevalence of Probable IBS was found to be 23.1%. A significant association was found between IBS and gender as well as IBS and anxiety levels. The problem can be addressed by managing the stress levels among medical students.

Hydrocephalus is a common complication after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). This study aimed to evaluate novel preoperative and postoperative risk factors for shunt-dependent hydrocephalus (SDHC) after aSAH via a systematic review and meta-analysis. A systematic search was conducted using PubMed and Embase databases for studies pertaining to aSAH and SDHC. Articles were assessed by meta-analysis if the number of risk factors for SDHC was reported by >4 studies and could be extracted separately for patients who did or did not develop SDHC. Thirty-seven studies were included, comprising 12,667 patients with aSAH (SDHC 2214 vs. non-SDHC 10,453). In a primary analysis of 15 novel potential risk factors, 8 were identified to be significantly associated with increased prevalence of SDHC after aSAH, including high World Federation of Neurological Surgeons grades (odds ratio [OR], 2.43), hypertension (OR, 1.33), anterior cerebral artery (OR, 1.36), middle cerebral artery (OR, 0.65), and vertebrobasilar artery (2.21) involvement, decompressive craniectomy (OR, 3.27), delayed cerebral ischemia (OR, 1.65), and intracerebral hematoma (OR, 3.91). Several new factors associated with increased odds of developing SDHC after aSAH were found to be significant. By providing evidence-based risk factors for shunt dependency, we describe an identifiable list of preoperative and postoperative prognosticators that may influence how surgeons recognize, treat, and manage patients with aSAH at high risk for developing SDHC.

The incidence of mental health problems is increasing in the United Kingdom (UK) and may be associated with lower dietary quality. Food expenditure is an indicator of economic deprivation and a marker of dietary quality with implications for mental health. This analysis considers data collected as part of the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS), also known as ‘Understanding Society’ (2009-2021) (N=388,944) to determine the extent to which food expenditure, both within and outside the household, is associated with mental health, whist controlling for demographic factors. Mental health was measured using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) with household food expenditure and food expenditure outside the home as outcomes. Controlling for socioeconomic and demographic factors, fixed-effects models indicated that better mental health was associated with greater household food expenditure and with greater food expenditure outside the home and that this association persisted post-lockdown. Among those on lower incomes better mental health was associated with lower food expenditure. When people who identified as white and non-white were modelled separately, better mental health was associated with lower food expenditure within and beyond the household only in those who identified as white. Together these findings imply that the mental health of people residing in the UK, particularly those on lower incomes and those who identify as white, may benefit from spending less of the household budget on food. In promoting mental health, policies are needed to render healthy food more affordable and to reduce other aspects of expenditure that impact upon food budgeting.

Summary The time-lapse 4D seismic method has been proven an effective tool for monitoring reservoir dynamics, especially in turbidite environments, but this technology faces many challenges in Middle East carbonate fields. There were three main difficulties: i) Acquisition repeatability: The monitor seismic survey was not initially designed for 4D; its objective was a full azimuth 3D survey for reservoir characterization. Thus, its acquisition geometries were different to the baseline survey; ii) Environment: The water depth of the field is less than 20 m, which generates severe shallow water multiple noises; and iii) Signal strength: The 4D signals were relatively weak due to the nature of the rigid carbonate rock frame. To overcome these challenges, we applied several methods: i) Least-squares migration to minimize the 4D acquisition differences; ii) Iterative cascading demultiple filtering; and iii) 4D signal interpretation with the integration of well production profiles and reservoir dynamic simulation. Ultimately, we identified meaningful 4D signals from 4D inversion that are coherent with our reservoir simulation and well production. In general, water rise from the aquifer was higher than observed in the dynamic model and the model showed heterogeneous water sweep. We also observed an unswept area based on 4D inversion. Whilst results are coherent with production data, they are far from challenging the production data as the noise level remains high. However, these results are favorable and have positively impacted the decision for future 4D, with better acquisition designs to meet the future reservoir management and development needs.

Modulation classification is an essential step of signal processing and has been regularly applied in the field of tele-communication. Since variations of frequency with respect to time remains a vital distinction among radio signals having different modulation formats, these variations can be used for feature extraction by converting 1-D radio signals into frequency domain. In this paper, we propose a scheme for Automatic Modulation Classification (AMC) using modern architectures of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), through generating spectrum images of eleven different modulation types. Additionally, we perform resolution transformation of spectrograms that results up to 99.61% of computational load reduction and 8x faster conversion from the received I/Q data. This proposed AMC is implemented on CPU and GPU, to recognize digital as well as analogue signal modulation schemes on signals. The performance is evaluated on existing CNN models including SqueezeNet, Resnet-50, InceptionResnet-V2, Inception-V3, VGG-16 and Densenet-201. Best results of 91.2% are achieved in presence of AWGN and other noise impairments in the signals, stating that the transformed spectrogram-based AMC has good classification accuracy as the spectral features are highly discriminant, and CNN based models have capability to extract these high-dimensional features. The spectrograms were created under different SNRs ranging from 5 to 30db with a step size of 5db to observe the experimental results at various SNR levels. The proposed methodology is efficient to be applied in wireless communication networks for real-time applications.

The tomato is one of the most important fruits on earth. It plays an important and useful role in the agricultural production of any country. This research propose a novel smart technique for early detection of late blight diseases in tomatoes. This work improve the dataset with an increase in images from the field (the Plant Village dataset) and proposed a hybrid algorithm composed of support vector machines (SVM) and histogram-oriented gradients (HOG) for real-time detection of late blight tomato disease. To propose a HOG-based SVM model for early detection of late blight tomato leaf disease. To check the performance of the proposed model in terms of MSE, accuracy, precision, and recall as compared to Decision Tree and KNN. The integration of advanced technology in agriculture has the potential to revolutionize the industry, making it more efficient, sustainable, and profitable. This research work on the early detection of tomato diseases contributes to the growing importance of smart farming, the need for climate-smart agriculture, the rising need to more efficiently utilize natural resources, and the demand for higher crop yields. The proposed hybrid algorithm of SVM and HOG has significant potential for the early detection of late blight disease in tomato plants. The performance of the proposed model against decision tree and KNN algorithms and the results may assist in selecting the best algorithm for future applications. The research work can help farmers make data-driven decisions to optimize crop yield and quality while also reducing the environmental impact of farming practices.

Olive (Olea europaea L.) is an oil fruit crop with the physiological potential to survive and produce in rain-fed areas. In Pakistan, it is grown in upper Punjab and Baluchistan due to their climate suitability for better production. Due to the increasing trend of olive oil, peoples show more interest in planting disease-free plants for better oil production. The successful nursery of olives mainly depends on growth substrates with rooting hormones like Indole butyric acid. A recent study was conducted to observe the influence of growing substrate and combination of IBA with zinc sulphate during the vegetative stage of two cultivars of olive. Semi-hardwood olive cuttings were treated with indole butyric acid (IBA) at a level of 3000 ppm with zinc sulphate at 2000 ppm and 3000 ppm and cultured on various types of soil in pots under plastic tunnel conditions under completely randomized design with three factors and each treatment replicated thrice. Both varieties with all treatments significantly affect all traits. The maximum number of shoots were recorded in the media that contain sugarcane press mud with 3000ppm IBA and 3000ppm zinc sulphate that showed the maximum number of shoots (5. 66), branches (6. 66), shoot length (17. 01), number of roots (5. 33), root diameter (0. 23), plant survival percentage (73. 66) and root length (16. 86). In contrast, the minimum number of shoots (1. 0), branches (1. 00), shoot length (3. 77), number of roots (1. 00) root diameter (0. 01), plant survival percentage (44. 33), root length (4. 92) were observed in control media in cultivar Ottobrattica with the treatment of IBA at 3000 ppm+ zinc sulphate 2000 ppm. Results from all treatments revealed a favorable correlation between medium and IBA when combined with zinc sulphate for all measured growth parameters. The 50% sugarcane press mud, 50% silt soil with IBA 3000 ppm+ zinc sulphate 2000 ppm proved to be the best approach for better germination of olive cuttings in pots. The resulting outcomes play a significant role in the better germination percentage under dry climatic conditions. Analysis of variance was used to examine the data obtained (Statistix 8.1). The least significant test (LSD) was used to compare significant means at a 5% probability level.

Epilepsy is a serious neurological disorder on the juncture of psychiatry and neurology. It is characterized by recurrent and episodic seizures which are due to excessive discharge by the brain neurons. The therapeutic response failure of more than one or two antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) is the benchmark of refractory or intractable epilepsy. The aim of the study was to determine new approaches which lead towards the treatment of epilepsy. In order to treat focal mesial temporal lobe epilepsy or neocortical epilepsy in adults and any malformation of cortical development such as focal dysplasia surgical resection remains the gold standard treatment. Disconnection procedures such as corpus callosotomy and multiple subpial transections are the best alternative treatment for that patient whose seizure origin is in eloquent cortex or having generalized epilepsy syndromes. Palliative neuromodulation procedures such as Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), Responsive neurostimulation (RNS) and Deep brain stimulation (DBS) are best approach to treat intractable epileptic patients who are not suitable candidates of surgery. As the search of better management of epilepsy continues gene therapy and optogenetics gain a momentum in neuroscience.

The rise of e-commerce caused by the growing popularity of the world wide web, electronic gadgets, and social media, has led to a constant upward trend in online shopping in Pakistan. Home delivery is crucial to online shoppers because if the product does not reach their desired destination, the purchase made will be conceived as inconvenient by the buyer. This study aims to identify how five kinds of conveniences, i.e., decision convenience, access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, and post benefit convenience, impact how satisfied customers are by the services provided by online retailers during home delivery. 110 individuals who availed a home delivery service over the past year took part in the study, and customer experience was observed as they were offered different conveniences at the various stages of home delivery. After performing a regression analysis, results show that four independent variables have a positive and significant impact on the dependent variable, while the impact of benefit convenience, the fifth variable, is insignificant. These results show us that the timely and correct delivery of products does not impact satisfaction as long as the provider offers a convenient post purchase return policy. They also show that decision convenience, post benefit, and transaction convenience have the greatest impacts on customer satisfaction. Access convenience and benefit convenience are also shown to have a high impact on the dependent variable. Based on these findings, we recommend that online retailers pay more attention to offering convenience services to their customers to improve satisfaction.

Abstract The subsurface of offshore Abu Dhabi is characterized by shallow waters followed by a complex near-surface and shallow salt diapirs with associated faulting. We focus on the objective of imaging the near-surface above a salt structure in order to reduce drilling hazards and to assess if the faults reach the surface. Before acquiring a new high-resolution seismic site survey, an analysis of existing data focused on the near-field hydrophones (NFHs) from a recent ocean-bottom node (OBN) survey. Legacy data, which included an old marine streamer survey and a recent OBN survey, were not designed to image the near-surface and could not be used for shallow imaging. NFH data were acquired as part of the OBN survey, chiefly to QC the performance of the airgun source arrays. These data included near-surface reflections, and since the source grid for the OBN survey was dense enough (25 × 50 m), we considered their use for a high-resolution 3D image of the near-surface. One challenge was strong near-field source energy that overwhelmed the recorded seismic signals. We focus on a 100 km2 area located in the overlap zone of two zippers. Shot coverage overlap, combined with off-end shooting geometry, meant that the area was covered four times by the source carpet, which helped improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Aggressive noise attenuation was still required to attenuate the high-energy near-field source direct arrival in the active NFHs, which could only be used for the very shallow imaging. For the deeper image, we relied on the passive NFH recordings. Since NFHs are zero-offset (the hydrophones are located just above the guns), the velocity field had to be built using available wells. In the end, we obtained a high-resolution 3D image that met our objectives and helped confirm that the faults were not reaching the surface. This allowed us to forego the planned high-resolution site survey. Since the overlapping sources were shot four months apart, we also assessed the repeatability of these NFH surveys. The resulting 3D high-resolution images were better than those from 2D high-resolution site surveys and at a fraction of the cost since no new acquisition was needed.

Abstract This article focuses on the study of strange hadrons ( <?CDATA ${K}_{S}^{0},$?> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>K</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> </mml:math> <?CDATA ${\rm{\Lambda }},$?> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> </mml:math> <?CDATA $\mathop{{\rm{\Lambda }}}\limits^{\unicode{x00305}},$?> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo>̅</mml:mo> </mml:mover> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> </mml:math> <?CDATA ${{\rm{\Xi }}}^{+}{,{\rm{\Xi }}}^{-}$?> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Ξ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Ξ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> ) at <?CDATA $\sqrt{s}=$?> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msqrt> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> </mml:math> 0.2 TeV, recorded by STAR at RHIC, and at <?CDATA $\sqrt{s}=$?> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msqrt> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> </mml:math> 0.9 TeV, 5.02 TeV and 7 TeV, recorded by CMS at LHC, in pp collision in the rapidity range from 0 to 2. The p T distributions of these strange particles have been processed using two statistical models, the Tsallis and the modified Hagedorn model. Both models fit the experimental data well. We extracted different freezeout parameters from the fit procedure using the abovementioned functions. We found that with increasing the collision energy, the effective temperature (T), in the case of the Tsallis model, and kinetic/thermal freeze-out temperature ( T0 ) and transverse flow velocity ( β T ), in the case of the modified Hagedorn model, increase because of greater energy transfer among the participants at higher colliding energies. Both T and T 0 are observed to increase with the increase in the rest masses of the outgoing particles revealing the multi-freeze-out scenario. Furthermore, the multiplicity parameter (N 0 ) decreases with the increase in the particle mass, confirming the mass differential freeze-out scenario. An inverse relationship between the non-extensivity parameter (q) and the masses of the produced particles has been noticed. Similarly, an inverse correlation between q and T has been found. For lighter particles, smaller T and greater q mean that they decouple from the system later and attain equilibrium slowly compared to heavier ones. In addition, a positive correlation between β T and T 0 is noticed, which agrees with the literature.

This study explores the synthesis of silver-doped nickel sulfide nanocubes (Ni1-xAgxS: x = 0.00, 0.04, and 0.08) through a cost-effective hydrothermal process, capitalizing on the opportunities of nanoscale materials engineering. X-ray diffraction analysis affirms the presence of hexagonal NiS nanocrystals with fine crystallinity, while the estimated crystallite size of Ag-doped NiS ranges from 21.19 to 15.69 nm. Ag doping reduces crystallite size and increases lattice constants 'a' and 'b,' as revealed by scanning electron microscopy displaying cubic agglomerated particles. The materials exhibit semiconducting behavior, as evidenced by increased direct current conductivity with temperature. With increased silver content, direct current electrical conductivity rises, and activation energy decreases from 0.246 to 0.213 eV. Dielectric characteristics, including ε', D, and σac, show a positive correlation with temperature, and elevated values of ε,' D, and σac are observed with Ag2+ doping. The Agar well diffusion method evaluates the antibacterial activity of undoped and Ag-doped NiS nanocubes against various pathogens. The materials exhibit significant inhibitory zones against all tested microbes, suggesting potential antibacterial efficacy. This research underscores Ag-doped NiS nanocubes attributed with multifaceted functionalities and promising applications in advanced materials engineering.

Abstract A small-sized quasi-stepped impedance resonator (SIR) based single-band to dual-band reconfigurable bandpass filter is presented in this work. The proposed quasi-SIR filter is modular in nature and can be easily scaled to higher- or lower-frequency bands. To this end, a single- to dual-band reconfigurable modified SIR is designed. The designed reconfigurable resonator was then used to develop a single-band to dual-band reconfigurable filter. The proposed filter structure comprises two resonators loaded with PIN diodes to provide the switching. The filter allows switching between single and dual-band frequencies. In the OFF state, PIN diodes provide single-band resonance with a resonant frequency of 3.8 GHz. While the ON state of PIN diodes provides dual-band resonance of 3.35 GHz and 4.3 GHz. The structure of the filter is modular and is designed, analysed, and fabricated on a low-cost FR4 dielectric substrate with a 4.3 dielectric constant and 0.78 mm thickness. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulation results. The filter is designed to operate in the sub-6 GHz band, a designated band for 5G communication, and is thus suitable for incorporation in 5G devices with reconfigurability applications.

Abstract Low‐head turbines are becoming an agricultural imperative due to their high efficiency, low cost, ability to operate at low flow rates and minimal environmental impact. Therefore, the Archimedes screw turbine (AST) can play a leading role for producing electric power, especially in Pakistan's rural areas where most of the places have less than 1 m head. In this research work, performance evaluation of AST was carried out at different flow velocities in terms of power coefficient and torque generated. Design parameters such as blade width, blade pitches, and blade rotational angles are also used for performance evaluation. For this purpose, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analyses of AST blades were conducted at different water flow velocities (e.g., 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, and 3.5 m/s). ANSYS FLUENT was used for AST blade simulations using three different design parameters such as blade width, blade pitch, and blade rotational angles. Additionally, CFD simulations have inherent errors and uncertainties that may lead to findings and deviations from their exact or real values. To prevent these uncertainties and errors, an experimental study was also conducted to provide validation for the CFD simulation results. The results revealed from CFD simulations for optimized design parameters were then compared with experimental data. From the results, it was examined that the numerical findings were in good agreement with the experiment data. The highest power coefficient and power output values were obtained under optimized design parameters such as inner and outer diameter, blade pitch, blade width, blade rotation angles and shaft length (e.g., 40 mm, 120 mm, 130 mm, 2 mm, 60°, and 850 mm respectively). The findings can be useful to implement the AST unit for those places where the available water head is ranging from 1 to 6.5 m and a flow rate of 0.2–6.5 m 3 /s, especially for rural areas of Pakistan.

This research considers complex dynamics of life under ideal conditions in the context of development projects. Using a multidimensional analytical approach, this study explores other areas of interaction of social, economic, and environmental factors that seek an inclusive evaluation of aspirations and realities of communities undergoing change, including quantitative methods, of ideal phenomena of life. Understanding is about unraveling the complexities associated with understanding. The results are expected to contribute valuable insights into areas of development studies, urban planning, and community well-being, leading to excellent development of the variety of types of ideal living conditions in the context of aspirational development initiatives. That make a comprehensive assessment of desires and realities of communities in change through comprehensive evaluation of ideal phenomena of life, including qualitative &amp; quantitative methods. Results are likely to contribute valuable insights in areas of development studies, urban planning, and social welfare, which will provide excellent overview of various ideal situations in context of aspirational development initiatives.