| 1. |
- Khattak, S, et al.
(författare)
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Knowledge, Attitude, and Perception of Cancer Patients towards COVID-19 in Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Study
- 2022
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Ingår i: International journal of environmental research and public health. - : MDPI AG. - 1660-4601. ; 19:13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Cancer patients, being immunocompromised, are at higher risk of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The current study determines cancer patients’ knowledge, attitude, perception, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in Pakistan from 1 April 2020 to 1 May 2020. The study respondents were cancer patients with ages equal to or greater than 18 years. Following a request for participation, the URL for the survey was distributed on numerous channels. Other social media platforms, including WeChat, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Messenger, and LinkedIn, were used to increase cancer patient interaction. The questionnaire comprised five different sections such as: (1) sociodemographic information, (2) knowledge, (3) attitude, (4) perception, and (5) impact of COVID-19 on cancer patients. Descriptive medical statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used to illustrate the demographic characteristics of the study participants. To compare mean knowledge scores with selected demographic variables, independent sample t-tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used, which are also practical methods in epidemiological, public health and medical research. The cut-off point for statistical significance was set at a p-value of 0.05. Results: More than 300 cancer patients were invited, of which 208 agreed to take part. The response rate was 69.33% (208/300). Gender, marital status, and employment status had a significant association with knowledge scores. Of the total recruited participants, 96% (n = 200) (p < 0.01) knew about COVID-19, and 90% were aware of general symptoms of COVID-19 disease, such as route of transmission and preventive measurements. In total, 94.5% (n = 197) (p < 0.01) were willing to accept isolation if they were infected with COVID-19, and 98% (n = 204) (p < 0.01) had reduced their use of public transportation. More than 90% (n = 188) (p < 0.01) of cancer patients were found to be practicing preventative measures such as using a face mask, keeping social distance, and avoiding handshaking and hugging. Around 94.4% (n = 196) (p < 0.01) of cancer patients had been impacted by, stopped or had changed cancer treatment during this pandemic, resulting in COVID-related anxiety and depression. Conclusion: The included cancer patients exhibited a good level of COVID-19 knowledge, awareness, positive attitude, and perception. Large-scale studies and efforts are needed to raise COVID-19 awareness among less educated and high-risk populations. The present survey indicates that mass-level effective health education initiatives are required for developing countries to improve and reduce the gap between KAP and COVID-19.
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| 2. |
- Khan, Owais, et al.
(författare)
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A Novel Densely Packed 4 × 4 MIMO Antenna Design for UWB Wireless Applications
- 2023
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Ingår i: Sensors. - : MDPI AG. - 1424-8220. ; 23:21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article, a compact 4-port UWB (Ultra-Wide Band) MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna is proposed. A low profile FR-4 substrate is used as a dielectric material with the dimensions of 58 × 58 mm2 (0.52λ × 0.52λ) at 2.8 GHz and a standard thickness of 1.6 mm. The proposed design characterizes an impedance bandwidth starting from 2.8 to 12.1 GHz (124.1%). Each of the four elements of the proposed MIMO antenna configuration consists of a monopole antenna with PG (partial ground) that has a slot at its center. The corner of each patch (radiator) and ground slot are rounded for impedance matching. Each unit cell is in an orthogonal orientation, forming a quad-port MIMO antenna system. For reference, the partial ground of each unit cell is connected meticulously with the others. The simulated results of the proposed quad-port MIMO antenna design were configured and validated by fabrication and testing. The proposed Quad-port MIMO design has a 6.57 dBi peak gain and 97% radiation efficiency. The proposed design has good isolation below 15 dB in the lower frequency range and below 20 dB in the higher frequency range. The design has a measured ECC (Envelop Correlation Co-efficient) of 0.03 and DG (Diversity Gain) of 10 dB. The value of TARC (Total Active Reflection Coefficient) over the entire operating band is less than 10 dB. Moreover, the design maintained CCL (Channel Capacity Loss) < 0.4 bits/sec/Hz and MEG (Mean Effective Gain) < 3 dB. Based on the obtained results, the proposed design is suitable for the intended high data rate UWB wireless communication portable devices.
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| 3. |
- Mushtaq, Iram, et al.
(författare)
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N-acetyl cysteine, selenium, and ascorbic acid rescue diabetic cardiac hypertrophy via mitochondrial-associated redox regulators
- 2021
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Ingår i: Molecules. - : MDPI AG. - 1420-3049. ; 26:23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Metabolic disorders often lead to cardiac complications. Metabolic deregulations during diabetic conditions are linked to mitochondrial dysfunctions, which are the key contributing factors in cardiac hypertrophy. However, the underlying mechanisms involved in diabetes-induced cardiac hypertrophy are poorly understood. In the current study, we initially established a diabetic rat model by alloxan-administration, which was validated by peripheral glucose measurement. Diabetic rats displayed myocardial stiffness and fibrosis, changes in heart weight/body weight, heart weight/tibia length ratios, and enhanced size of myocytes, which altogether demonstrated the establishment of diabetic cardiac hypertrophy (DCH). Furthermore, we examined the expression of genes associated with mitochondrial signaling impairment. Our data show that the expression of PGC-1α, cytochrome c, MFN-2, and Drp-1 was deregulated. Mitochondrial-signaling impairment was further validated by redox-system dysregulation, which showed a significant increase in ROS and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, both in serum and heart tissue, whereas the superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione levels were decreased. Additionally, the expression levels of pro-apoptotic gene PUMA and stress marker GATA-4 genes were elevated, whereas ARC, PPARα, and Bcl-2 expression levels were decreased in the heart tissues of diabetic rats. Importantly, these alloxan-induced impairments were rescued by N-acetyl cysteine, ascorbic acid, and selenium treatment. This was demonstrated by the amelioration of myocardial stiffness, fibrosis, mitochondrial gene expression, lipid profile, restoration of myocyte size, reduced oxidative stress, and the activation of enzymes associated with antioxidant activities. Altogether, these data indicate that the improvement of mitochondrial dysfunction by protective agents such as N-acetyl cysteine, selenium, and ascorbic acid could rescue diabetes-associated cardiac complications, including DCH.
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| 4. |
- Alyami, Mana, et al.
(författare)
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Estimating compressive strength of concrete containing rice husk ash using interpretable machine learning-based models
- 2024
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Ingår i: Case Studies in Construction Materials. - : Elsevier. - 2214-5095. ; 20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The construction sector is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. Using recycled and waste materials in concrete is a practical solution to address environmental challenges. Currently, agricultural waste is widely used as a substitute for cement in the production of eco-friendly concrete. However, traditional methods for assessing the strength of such materials are both expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, this study uses machine learning techniques to develop prediction models for the compressive strength (CS) of rice husk ash (RHA) concrete. The ML techniques used in the present study include random forest (RF), light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM), ridge regression, and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost). A total of 348 values of CS were collected from the experimental studies, and five characteristics of RHA concrete were taken as input variables. For the performance assessment of the models, multiple statistical metrics were used. During the training phase, the correlation coefficients (R) obtained for ridge regression, RF, XGBoost, and LightGBM were 0.943, 0.981, 0.985, and 0.996, respectively. In the testing set, the developed models demonstrated even higher performance, with correlation coefficients of 0.971, 0.993, 0.992, and 0.998 for ridge regression, RF, XGBoost, and LightGBM, respectively. The statistical analysis revealed that the LightGBM model outperformed other models, whereas the ridge regression model exhibited comparatively lower accuracy. SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) method was employed for the interpretability of the developed model. The SHAP analysis revealed that water-to-cement is a controlling parameter in estimating the CS of RHA concrete. In conclusion, this study provides valuable guidance for builders and researchers to estimate the CS of RHA concrete. However, it is suggested that more input variables be incorporated and hybrid models utilized to further enhance the reliability and precision of the models.
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| 5. |
- Alyami, Mana, et al.
(författare)
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Predictive modeling for compressive strength of 3D printed fiber-reinforced concrete using machine learning algorithms
- 2024
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Ingår i: Case Studies in Construction Materials. - : Elsevier. - 2214-5095. ; 20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Three-dimensional (3D) printing in the construction industry is growing rapidly due to its inherent advantages, including intricate geometries, reduced waste, accelerated construction, cost-effectiveness, eco-friendliness, and improved safety. However, optimizing the mixture composition for 3D-printed concrete remains a formidable task, encompassing multiple variables and requiring a comprehensive trial-and-error experimentation process. Accordingly, this study used seven machine learning (ML) algorithms, including support vector regression (SVR), decision tree (DT), SVR-Bagging, SVR-Boosting, random forest (RF), gradient boosting (GB), and gene expression programming (GEP) for forecasting the compressive strength (CS) of 3D printed fiber-reinforced concrete (3DP-FRC). For model development, 299 data points were collected from experimental studies and split into two portions: 70% for model training and 30% for model validation. Various statistical metrics were employed to examine the accuracy and generalizability of the established models. The DT, RF, GB, and GEP models demonstrated higher accuracy in the validation set, achieving correlation (R) values of 0.987, 0.986, 0.986, and 0.98, respectively. The DT, RF, GB, and GEP models exhibited mean absolute error (MAE) scores of 4.644, 3.989, 3.90, and 5.691, respectively. Furthermore, the combination of SVR with boosting and bagging techniques slightly improved the accuracy compared to the individual SVR model. Additionally, the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) approach unveils the proportional significance of parameters in influencing the CS of 3DP-FRC. The SHAP technique revealed that water, silica fume, superplasticizer, sand content, and loading directions are the dominant parameters in estimating the CS of 3DP-FRC. The SHAP local interpretability unveils the intrinsic relationship between diverse input variables and their impacts on the strength of 3DP-FRC. The SHAP interpretability offers significant insights into the optimum mix proportion of 3DP-FRC.
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| 6. |
- Jacobsson, Susanne, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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High in vitro activity of DIS-73285, a novel antimicrobial with a new mechanism of action, against MDR and XDR Neisseria gonorrhoeae
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. - : Oxford University Press. - 0305-7453 .- 1460-2091. ; 75:11, s. 3244-3247
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The rising incidence of antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae may result in untreatable gonorrhoea in certain circumstances and development of novel antimicrobials is urgently needed.OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the in vitro activity of a novel small-molecule antimicrobial with a new mechanism of action, DIS-73285, against a large geographically, temporally and genetically diverse collection of clinical N. gonorrhoeae isolates and reference strains, including various types of high-level resistant, MDR and XDR gonococcal isolates (n = 262).METHODS: MICs (mg/L) of DIS-73285 were determined by agar dilution and by Etest for ceftriaxone, cefixime, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, ampicillin, spectinomycin and tetracycline.RESULTS: DIS-73285 was substantially more potent than any of the currently or previously used therapeutic antimicrobials, with MICs ranging from ≤0.001 to 0.004 mg/L, and the MIC50, MIC90 and modal MIC all ≤0.001 mg/L (lowest MIC tested). No correlation with the MICs of DIS-73285 and the MICs of any of the currently or previously used antimicrobials was observed.CONCLUSIONS: The novel chemotype, small-molecule antimicrobial DIS-73285, demonstrated high in vitro potency against all tested N. gonorrhoeae isolates. Further in vitro and in vivo studies, evaluating efficacy, resistance emergence, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic parameters, toxicity and safety, should be conducted to evaluate DIS-73285 as a therapy specifically for urogenital and extra-genital gonorrhoea.
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| 7. |
- Khan, Shah Nawaz, et al.
(författare)
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Numerical Investigation of Thermo-Mechanical Behaviour of an Aluminum-Silicon Alloy Piston in an IC Engine
- 2022
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Ingår i: 2022 13th International Conference on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (ICMAE). - : IEEE. ; , s. 210-216
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increasing the power to volume density of an engine has been a significant research concern. A turbocharger is usually utilized to boost volumetric efficiency, but it also increases the in-cylinder temperature and pressure, compromising piston life. Thermal barrier coatings have emerged as a potential solution to minimize heat flow toward the piston skirt. Moreover, recent developments in ceramic-based coated pistons have shown promising outcomes. Zirconia, for instance, enables high-temperature operations of the machine component by reducing heat loss and protecting the engine parts from high thermo-mechanical stresses. In this study, actual engine-like thermal and structural loads are considered in a Finite Element Method-based numerical model to evaluate the structural behavior in an IC engine. Temperature distributions and thermo-mechanical stresses are determined. Thus, this article aims to develop a numerically model to observe the thermo-mechanical response. Results show thermal load as the primary contributor toward structural deformations compared with the structural loads. Such a model can effectively evaluate the thermo-mechanical response of a coated piston. Encouraging thermo-mechanical trends were also observed for a coated piston utilizing the developed model.
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| 8. |
- Khan, Shah Nawaz, et al.
(författare)
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Numerical investigation of thermomechanical behavior of Yttrium barium zirconate-coated aluminum alloy piston in an internal combustion engine
- 2024
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Ingår i: Applied Thermal Engineering. - : Elsevier. - 1359-4311 .- 1873-5606. ; 236:part B
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increasing engine power to volume density is under investigation and being analysed extensively. Turbocharger, which is used to boost volumetric efficiency, also raises cylinder temperature and pressure, thus resulting in thermal distortions and reducing clearances in tribo-contacts, thereby compromising engine life. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have shown potential to provide remedies to reduce heat losses, hazardous emissions, and heat flow toward the piston skirt in an internal combustion engine. In this study, a detailed thermo-mechanical analysis was performed for a diesel engine piston with a novel yttrium barium zirconate (YBZ) coating and then compared with other TBCs with varying thicknesses. The results revealed a notable decrease in piston substrate surface temperature when coated with various TBCs, with YBZ coating demonstrating superior performance over others. The 0.2 mm coating of YBZ-coated piston exhibited significant reductions of 15% and 10.3% in temperature and thermal stress respectively, thus enhancing piston durability. The better performance of the novel YBZ coating could be attributed to its stable thermal and elastic properties and lower thermal conductivity than other TBC materials. YBZ coating provides a promising solution to improve engine efficiency while extending engine life, making it an attractive option for the automotive industry.
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| 9. |
- Nawaz, Muhammad Ul Saqlain, et al.
(författare)
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Efficient resource prediction framework for software-defined heterogeneous radio environmental infrastructures
- 2023
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Ingår i: Advanced Engineering Informatics. - : Elsevier Ltd.. - 1474-0346. ; 56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defining the future of next-generation infrastructures as proactive and data-driven systems. AI-empowered radio systems are replacing the existing command and control radio networks due to their intelligence and capabilities to adapt to the radio environmental infrastructures that include intelligent networks, smart cities and AV/VR enabled factory premises or localities. An efficient resource prediction framework (ERPF) is proposed to provide proactive knowledge about the availability of radio resources in such software-defined heterogeneous radio environmental infrastructures (SD-HREIs). That prior information enables the coexistence of radio users in SD-HREIs. In a proposed framework, the radio activity is measured in both the unlicensed bands that include 2.4 and 5 GHz, respectively. The clustering algorithms k- means and DBSCAN are implemented to segregate the already measured radioactivity as signal (radio occupancy) and noise (radio opportunity). Machine learning techniques CNN and LRN are then trained and tested using the segregated data to predict the radio occupancy and radio opportunity in SD-HREIs. Finally, the performance of CNN and LRN is validated using the cross-validation metrics.
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| 10. |
- Nawaz, Saima, et al.
(författare)
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Polyaniline inside the pores of high surface area mesoporous silicon as composite electrode material for supercapacitors
- 2022
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Ingår i: RSC Advances. - : ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY. - 2046-2069. ; 12:27, s. 17228-17236
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mesoporous silicon (mSi) obtained by the magnesiothermic reduction of mesoporous silica was used to deposit polyaniline (PANI) in its pores, the composite was tested for its charge storage application for high performance supercapacitor electrodes. The mesoporous silica as confirmed by Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) has a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 724 m(2)g(-1) and mean pore size of 5 nm. After magnesiothermic reduction to mSi, the BET surface area is reduced to 348 m(2)g(-1) but the mesoporousity is retained with a mean pore size of 10 nm. The BET surface area of mesoporous silicon is among the highest for porous silicon prepared/reduced from silica. In situ polymerization of PANI inside the pores of mSi was achieved by controlling the polymerization conditions. As a supercapacitor electrode, the mSi-PANI composite exhibits better charge storage performance as compared to pure PANI and mesoporous silica-PANI composite electrodes. Enhanced electrochemical performance of the mSi-PANI composite is attributed to the high surface mesoporous morphology of mSi with a network structure containing abundant mesopores enwrapped by an electrochemically permeable polyaniline matrix.
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