Synthesis, Characterization and Antimicrobial Properties of Silver Nanocomposites

Nanoparticles and polymers in their respective fields have contributed greatly in the form of science and hence in daily life application products. But due to lack in emerging technologies for developing silver nanocomposites with polymers and other materials, the nanoparticle-based products have conquered little less attention. Hereby, an effort is made to put a light on already developed functional materials containing silver nanoparticles and also to look forward their scope in daily life applications. A little more insight into antimicrobial properties of such materials will also be elaborated. Finally, the optimal amounts of silver that cannot be health hazardous to living being especially human and overall environmental impacts of Nanocomposites are presented

Risk Mitigation and Monitoring Challenges in Software Organizations: A Morphological Analysis

Context: The present body of research on risk mitigation focuses mostly on sparse and dispersed research using various approaches during project development. Objectives: This paper's goals are to conceptualize and construct a morphological analysis (MA) framework, examine the literature that has already been published on these risks and how to mitigate them in software development, and identify research gaps that suggest areas for further study. Methods: Based on a survey of 102 works, we provide an MA framework. The MA framework, which is composed of five dimensions and 17 variants, identifies 33 distinct research gaps as the maximum number of potential areas for future study. The implications for future research are covered in the paper's conclusion. Risk reduction during the project development process is extremely beneficial for project managers at an organization in delivering high-quality goods on time and within budget. Results:  Based on a review of the literature, it was discovered that the development of software projects used a very low percentage of official risk mitigation and elimination methods. Research also revealed the significance of people-related risks in the risk mitigation process for the benefit of the organization. Some key research demonstrated experimentation, case studies, and empirical approaches for evaluation. Future work may include examining project managers' perceptions and knowledge of risk management. Managers of software development teams require greater risk-mitigation strategies. Conclusion: Scholars and researchers need to put more effort into developing quantitative and intelligent risk models. It is crucial to identify major risks so that they won't compromise the project's future success. In our future work, we can employ more models that are helpful for combining quantitative and intelligent risk models using various AI strategies to reduce hazards

Fator Total de Produtividade e seus Componentes: Evidência nos Setores de Cimento e Energia do Paquistão

This study employs “Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)” method to calculate the “Total Factor Productivity (TFP)” growth and its components of 19 non-financial firms from Cement and Energy sectors of Pakistan listed on ISE-100 Index during the time period 20052011. The research focuses on to identify the factors like, technical change and technical efficiency change tends to influence the TFP of cement -and energy sectors of Pakistan. We use hand collected data from the annual reports of these non-financial firms included in our sample. Results show that cement sector has an overall positive TFP growth of 9.7%, and energy sector has an overall TFP growth of 1.5% during the study period. The study may assist us to recognize the extent to which these components can affect the TFP of a sector, and will further help us to explore new ways to boost up the productivity of these sectors which in turn may be beneficial to move country towards a sustainable path.Este estudo emprega o método “Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)” para calcular o crescimento da “Produtividade Total dos Fatores (PTF)” e seus componentes em 19 empresas não financeiras dos setores de Cimento e Energia do Paquistão listados no ISE-100 Index durante o período de tempo 2005-2011. A pesquisa se concentra em identificar os fatores como mudança técnica e mudança de eficiência técnica que tendem a influenciar a TFP dos setores de cimento e energia do Paquistão. Usamos dados coletados manualmente dos relatórios anuais dessas empresas não financeiras incluídas em nossa amostra. Os resultados mostram que o Setor de Cimento tem um crescimento positivo geral da PTF de 9,7%, e o Setor de Energia tem um crescimento global da PTF de 1,5% durante o período do estudo. O estudo pode nos ajudar a reconhecer até que ponto esses componentes podem afetar a PTF de um setor e nos ajudará a explorar novas maneiras de aumentar a produtividade desses setores, o que, por sua vez, pode ser benéfico para mover o país rumo a um caminho sustentável

Motor-vehicle crash patient injury patterns from a level one trauma center in a metropolitan city: A cross-sectional study

Introduction: Motorcycles are an inexpensive and popular mode of transportation in Karachi, Pakistan, despite the increasing number of motor vehicle injuries. Although motorcycle-related injuries have been studied previously, to our knowledge, there are no published reports on the orthopedic injuries associated with motorcycles crashes. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of medical records of patients with motorcycle-related injuries in 2015, at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. We reviewed the patient demographic and medical data, helmet use, the Glasgow coma score, the spectrum of injuries, length of stay, specific injury diagnosis, and final disposition of patients. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results: We identified 450 motorcycle crash injuries. Ninety percent of these victims were males, and 81% were driving at the time of the crash. More than 50% of crashes involved patients age under 29 years, and most crashes (35%) involved patients in the third decade of life. We observed that 6.8% of accidents involved patients younger than 10 years of age. For all the motorcycle-related injuries, 45% occurred during the weekend (Saturday and Sunday). Helmets were worn by only 7% of patients. The most common types of collisions were motorcycle versus car followed by lone motorcycle fall. Of the injuries sustained, the cumulative frequency of orthopedic injuries was the highest (63%), of which 34% were lower limb injuries and 29% were upper limb injuries. The second highest frequency of injuries were head injuries (46%). We also found that 85% motorcycle injury victims sustained fractures. Conclusion: The frequency of motorcycle-related injuries was high among young adults, and closed fractures of the lower limbs were the most common orthopedic injuries related to motorcycle crashes. Use of helmets among motorcyclists needs to be reinforced to prevent head injuries. We suggest motorcyclists to use protective clothes and motorcycle sidebars to prevent fractures of the lower limb. Further research is needed to determine the type of fractures, type of head injuries, surgical interventions required, and morbidity and mortality in motorcycle-related injuries and whether designing separate lanes for motorcycles will reduce the burden of these injuries on the healthcare system

Security and imperceptibility improving of image steganography using pixel allocation and random function techniques

Information security is one of the main aspects of processes and methodologies in the technical age of information and communication. The security of information should be a key priority in the secret exchange of information between two parties. In order to ensure the security of information, there are some strategies that are used, and they include steganography and cryptography. An effective digital image-steganographic method based on odd/even pixel allocation and random function to increase the security and imperceptibility has been improved. This lately developed outline has been verified for increasing the security and imperceptibility to determine the existent problems. Huffman coding has been used to modify secret data prior embedding stage; this modified equivalent secret data that prevent the secret data from attackers to increase the secret data capacities. The main objective of our scheme is to boost the peak-signal-to-noise-ratio (PSNR) of the stego cover and stop against any attack. The size of the secret data also increases. The results confirm good PSNR values in addition of these findings confirmed the proposed method eligibility

Unraveling Burden of Isocitrate Dehydrogenase Mutations in AcuteMyeloid Leukemia; Clinico-Hematological Correlation and PrognosticRelevance

Objective: Mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenases 1 and 2 (IDH1/2) genes are among the frequent epigenetic alterations of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Despite being known as the first hit in tumorogenesis and contributing significantly to the pathogenesis of AML, their clinico-hematological features and prognostic significance are not entirely understood. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of IDH1/2 mutations in AML, their clinical-hematological characteristics, and their impact on survival. Methods: The study included seventy-three (73) newly diagnosed AML cases. Bone marrow samples were collected for Cytogenetics and DNA extraction. The hotspots in codons IDH1 (R132) and IDH2 (R172 and R140) were examined via Sanger sequencing. Results: IDH1 mutation was detected in 3 out of 73 (4.1 %) cases at codon 132, while IDH2 mutation was not detected in any of the 73 cases. All three AML Cases harboring IDH1 mutations showed normal cytogenetics (CN-AML) and, hence, lie in an intermediate risk category. Conclusions: IDH1 mutation was seen in 4.1% of patients. Conversely, IDH2 mutation was not observed in any of the patients. IDH1 mutated cases have high white blood cell (WBC) count, younger age, and high blast cell count; however, there was no effect on overall survival