AI in Assisting the Elderly and People with Disabilities

The focus of this research is to magnify those technologies that have been developed and that need more modification in their make. We will disclose some machines that have a great impact on the lives elderly and people with disabilities. As we know that artificial intelligence has advanced our life and now we can take advantage of it by using machines though that is related to defense or related to our daily life goods buying robots. These machines are not very common to everybody but we need to do it as these assist more than a human being to elder or disable persons. We also need to invest in these kinds of projects that can be fruitful to human beings. As it is clear that there is no sufficient human resources exist that can assist the elderly and people with disabilities. So ICTs are expected to play its part in assisting those people. In this age, 3D printers making better and better prosthetic for those in need. In the future we will reach a level that will make regular body parts inferior and before we know it the cyborg age will be upon us by this 3D technology. Also in the labs around the world bioengineering have begun to print prototype body parts like ears, noses, artificial bones and skin, even an entire face

Photocatalysis Applications: Photoreforming of Biomass Derivatives and Organic Drugs Removal. Preparation and Characterization of Nanocomposites Materials

To meet the energy needs of the world, most of the energy is still being obtained from fossil fuels including coal, oil and natural gas. Fossil fuels are not considered environmentally friendly because their combustion releases greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. There are several potential advantages to using more renewable energy, such as lowering emissions that contribute to global warming, diversifying energy sources, and reducing reliance on the fossil fuel energy market. Biomass includes all organic material that is derived from plants. The total carbon footprint associated with energy generation can be decreased by combining the use of solar light and fuels obtained from biomass. Hydrogen gas (H2) is considered as a very efficient, clean and promising energy source. It can be generated from water and renewable energy resources. The importance of using H2 as a fuel derives from the fact that it has an energy efficiency of 122 kJ·mol-1, which is higher than that of gasoline or of any other fossil fuel. It is a big challenge to develop sustainable options for green H2 production. In this context, photocatalysis is considered an environmentally friendly process used in photoreforming of organic compounds and pollutant removal to produce contemporary H2 and high added value compounds. The use of photocatalysis has several advantages for the environment, including mild operating conditions (i.e. room temperature and ambient pressure), the absence of harmful chemical solvents, utilization of solar light as irradiation source, the easy integration with other physical and chemical technologies, e.g. membrane separation. The main focus of this Ph.D. thesis is to synthesize different TiO2 based and alternative photocatalysts and investigate their applications towards production of high value chemicals, H2 production and organic drugs removal. The prepared photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, Raman, BET, EPR, PL, DRS, DRIFTS, TPD, FTIR, XPS and EDS. Biomass derivatives including glucose, fructose, glycerol, furfuryl alcohol, ethanol, methanol, formic acid and triethanolamine have been used to produce H2 and high valuable chemicals, for instance, arabinose, erythrose, gluconic acid, formic acid, furfural, glyceraldehyde, dihydroxyacetone and glycolic acid, are of particular interest for further applications. The results obtained in laboratory scale were extended to pilot plant scale in the Plataforma Solar de Almería (Spain). Notably, the prepared photocatalysts were used for H2 production in a 25L photoreactor through photoreforming of glycerol (waste generated in biodiesel industries) and other organic compounds under direct sunlight in environmentally green conditions.ZnIn2S4, synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method in which the carcinogen thioacetamide, universally used as a precursor, for the first time, replaced successfully the harmless thiourea, was synthetized as alternative TiO2 photocatalyst and was activated by solar light irradiation. Its photocatalytic efficiency was investigated for the selective oxidation of aromatic alcohols to their corresponding aldehyde, of the lignocellulose derivative 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF) in water solution, and photoreforming of furfuryl alcohol under green conditions. The high value HMF derivatives were 2,5-diformylfuran (FDC), 5-formyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (FCA) and 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furan carboxylic acid (HMFCA), that are of particular interest for the polymer industry; H2 was produced from triethanolamine, methanol and furfuryl alcohol.With the growth of population and industrialization, almost all water sources are contaminated mainly by agricultural and industrial waste. Molecules of pharmacological importance present in drugs are widespread in the environment. Their concentrations have been found to range between ng and μg per liter in seawater, lakes, rivers, surface waters, urban wastewater and drinking water. A part of this thesis has been also focused on the photocatalytic degradation of most used organic drugs such as tetracycline, oxytetracycline and lincomycin in the presence of different photocatalysts

Optimization of DNA extraction from human urinary samples for mycobiome community profiling.

IntroductionRecent data suggest the urinary tract hosts a microbial community of varying composition, even in the absence of infection. Culture-independent methodologies, such as next-generation sequencing of conserved ribosomal DNA sequences, provide an expansive look at these communities, identifying both common commensals and fastidious organisms. A fundamental challenge has been the isolation of DNA representative of the entire resident microbial community, including fungi.Materials and methodsWe evaluated multiple modifications of commonly-used DNA extraction procedures using standardized male and female urine samples, comparing resulting overall, fungal and bacterial DNA yields by quantitative PCR. After identifying protocol modifications that increased DNA yields (lyticase/lysozyme digestion, bead beating, boil/freeze cycles, proteinase K treatment, and carrier DNA use), all modifications were combined for systematic confirmation of optimal protocol conditions. This optimized protocol was tested against commercially available methodologies to compare overall and microbial DNA yields, community representation and diversity by next-generation sequencing (NGS).ResultsOverall and fungal-specific DNA yields from standardized urine samples demonstrated that microbial abundances differed significantly among the eight methods used. Methodologies that included multiple disruption steps, including enzymatic, mechanical, and thermal disruption and proteinase digestion, particularly in combination with small volume processing and pooling steps, provided more comprehensive representation of the range of bacterial and fungal species. Concentration of larger volume urine specimens at low speed centrifugation proved highly effective, increasing resulting DNA levels and providing greater microbial representation and diversity.ConclusionsAlterations in the methodology of urine storage, preparation, and DNA processing improve microbial community profiling using culture-independent sequencing methods. Our optimized protocol for DNA extraction from urine samples provided improved fungal community representation. Use of this technique resulted in equivalent representation of the bacterial populations as well, making this a useful technique for the concurrent evaluation of bacterial and fungal populations by NGS

Impact of Capital Structure on Firm’s Financial Performance: Textile, Automobiles, Sugar, Petroleum & Engineering Industry of Pakistan

The purpose of this study to measure the impact of capital structure (leverage) on the financial performance of listed companies in the sector of Textile, Automobiles, Sugar, Petroleum and engineering industry of Pakistan. The data was collected for the period of four years from 2012-2015. The data was extracted from the 21 firms for study. The Ordinary least squares models and Correlation are used for analysis the proxies. The results display that leverage measured by Debt to Assets has a statistically significant negative effect on firms’ financial performance measured by Return on Assets at 99.9% confidence interval. Keywords: Financial leverage, Capital Structure, Firms’ performance.

Analysis of Tetanus Immunization During Pregnancy Among Married Women of Childbearing Age Attending Gynecology and Pediatrics GDP of Nishtar Hospital, Nishtar Medical University, Multan

Background: Neonatal tetanus is one of the major causes of neonatal deaths in developing countries including Pakistan. This can be combated by clean, sterile method of delivery and risk can be significantly reduced by 94%1 if two shots of tetanus toxoid vaccination are administered to women during gestation.Objective: The study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of married women of age 16-50 years regarding tetanus toxoid immunization during pregnancy.Material and method: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Gynecology and Pediatrics out-patient department of Nishtar medical college and hospital for twelve days. 150 married women of child bearing age were included in the survey. The women were personally interviewed to fill the questionnaire Performa. Moreover, the data was analyzed by using SPSS 10.Results: It was found that 23 women (15.3%) had received one shot of tetanus toxoid vaccine during pregnancy.69 women (46%) had received two shots and 58 women (38.7%) had never been vaccinated against tetanus during pregnancy. 53 out of 106 urban women (49.5%) were aware of tetanus and its risk. On the other hand, only 21 out of 44 rural women (46.8%) had the awareness.48 out of 68 women of higher socio-economic status (70.6%) were well- informed while 19 out of 82 women belonging to low socio-economic status (23%) were well-informed. 51 of 76 literate women (67.1%) had awareness. In contrast, 24 of 74 illiterate women (32.4%) were well aware.45 out of 95 housewives (47%) were well acquainted with knowledge of tetanus while 17 out of 55 working women (31.3%) were familiar with the diseases and risks.Conclusion: The awareness about tetanus and benefits of tetanus toxoid vaccination during gestation is fairly low. Hence, tetanus toxoid immunization coverage is below satisfactory as well. Efforts need to be made to increases awareness and campaigns should be arranged for mass immunization of women of child-bearing age. (Key words: tetanus, married women, tetanus toxoid vaccination, pregnancy. Keywords: Tetanus, Tetanus toxoid vaccination, neonatal deaths, immunization. Type of study: Original Research Article