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1.
  • Ademuyiwa, Adesoji O., et al. (author)
  • Determinants of morbidity and mortality following emergency abdominal surgery in children in low-income and middle-income countries
  • 2016
  • In: BMJ Global Health. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2059-7908. ; 1:4
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Background: Child health is a key priority on the global health agenda, yet the provision of essential and emergency surgery in children is patchy in resource-poor regions. This study was aimed to determine the mortality risk for emergency abdominal paediatric surgery in low-income countries globally.Methods: Multicentre, international, prospective, cohort study. Self-selected surgical units performing emergency abdominal surgery submitted prespecified data for consecutive children aged <16 years during a 2-week period between July and December 2014. The United Nation's Human Development Index (HDI) was used to stratify countries. The main outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality, analysed by multilevel logistic regression.Results: This study included 1409 patients from 253 centres in 43 countries; 282 children were under 2 years of age. Among them, 265 (18.8%) were from low-HDI, 450 (31.9%) from middle-HDI and 694 (49.3%) from high-HDI countries. The most common operations performed were appendectomy, small bowel resection, pyloromyotomy and correction of intussusception. After adjustment for patient and hospital risk factors, child mortality at 30 days was significantly higher in low-HDI (adjusted OR 7.14 (95% CI 2.52 to 20.23), p<0.001) and middle-HDI (4.42 (1.44 to 13.56), p=0.009) countries compared with high-HDI countries, translating to 40 excess deaths per 1000 procedures performed.Conclusions: Adjusted mortality in children following emergency abdominal surgery may be as high as 7 times greater in low-HDI and middle-HDI countries compared with high-HDI countries. Effective provision of emergency essential surgery should be a key priority for global child health agendas.
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2.
  • Lozano, Rafael, et al. (author)
  • Measuring progress from 1990 to 2017 and projecting attainment to 2030 of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals for 195 countries and territories: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
  • 2018
  • In: The Lancet. - : Elsevier. - 1474-547X .- 0140-6736. ; 392:10159, s. 2091-2138
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Background: Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for and threats to improving health by 2030. To fully deliver on the SDG aim of “leaving no one behind”, it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017), we measured progress on 41 of 52 health-related SDG indicators and estimated the health-related SDG index for 195 countries and territories for the period 1990–2017, projected indicators to 2030, and analysed global attainment. Methods: We measured progress on 41 health-related SDG indicators from 1990 to 2017, an increase of four indicators since GBD 2016 (new indicators were health worker density, sexual violence by non-intimate partners, population census status, and prevalence of physical and sexual violence [reported separately]). We also improved the measurement of several previously reported indicators. We constructed national-level estimates and, for a subset of health-related SDGs, examined indicator-level differences by sex and Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile. We also did subnational assessments of performance for selected countries. To construct the health-related SDG index, we transformed the value for each indicator on a scale of 0–100, with 0 as the 2·5th percentile and 100 as the 97·5th percentile of 1000 draws calculated from 1990 to 2030, and took the geometric mean of the scaled indicators by target. To generate projections through 2030, we used a forecasting framework that drew estimates from the broader GBD study and used weighted averages of indicator-specific and country-specific annualised rates of change from 1990 to 2017 to inform future estimates. We assessed attainment of indicators with defined targets in two ways: first, using mean values projected for 2030, and then using the probability of attainment in 2030 calculated from 1000 draws. We also did a global attainment analysis of the feasibility of attaining SDG targets on the basis of past trends. Using 2015 global averages of indicators with defined SDG targets, we calculated the global annualised rates of change required from 2015 to 2030 to meet these targets, and then identified in what percentiles the required global annualised rates of change fell in the distribution of country-level rates of change from 1990 to 2015. We took the mean of these global percentile values across indicators and applied the past rate of change at this mean global percentile to all health-related SDG indicators, irrespective of target definition, to estimate the equivalent 2030 global average value and percentage change from 2015 to 2030 for each indicator. Findings: The global median health-related SDG index in 2017 was 59·4 (IQR 35·4–67·3), ranging from a low of 11·6 (95% uncertainty interval 9·6–14·0) to a high of 84·9 (83·1–86·7). SDG index values in countries assessed at the subnational level varied substantially, particularly in China and India, although scores in Japan and the UK were more homogeneous. Indicators also varied by SDI quintile and sex, with males having worse outcomes than females for non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality, alcohol use, and smoking, among others. Most countries were projected to have a higher health-related SDG index in 2030 than in 2017, while country-level probabilities of attainment by 2030 varied widely by indicator. Under-5 mortality, neonatal mortality, maternal mortality ratio, and malaria indicators had the most countries with at least 95% probability of target attainment. Other indicators, including NCD mortality and suicide mortality, had no countries projected to meet corresponding SDG targets on the basis of projected mean values for 2030 but showed some probability of attainment by 2030. For some indicators, including child malnutrition, several infectious diseases, and most violence measures, the annualised rates of change required to meet SDG targets far exceeded the pace of progress achieved by any country in the recent past. We found that applying the mean global annualised rate of change to indicators without defined targets would equate to about 19% and 22% reductions in global smoking and alcohol consumption, respectively; a 47% decline in adolescent birth rates; and a more than 85% increase in health worker density per 1000 population by 2030. Interpretation: The GBD study offers a unique, robust platform for monitoring the health-related SDGs across demographic and geographic dimensions. Our findings underscore the importance of increased collection and analysis of disaggregated data and highlight where more deliberate design or targeting of interventions could accelerate progress in attaining the SDGs. Current projections show that many health-related SDG indicators, NCDs, NCD-related risks, and violence-related indicators will require a concerted shift away from what might have driven past gains—curative interventions in the case of NCDs—towards multisectoral, prevention-oriented policy action and investments to achieve SDG aims. Notably, several targets, if they are to be met by 2030, demand a pace of progress that no country has achieved in the recent past. The future is fundamentally uncertain, and no model can fully predict what breakthroughs or events might alter the course of the SDGs. What is clear is that our actions—or inaction—today will ultimately dictate how close the world, collectively, can get to leaving no one behind by 2030.
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3.
  • Murray, Christopher J. L., et al. (author)
  • Population and fertility by age and sex for 195 countries and territories, 1950–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
  • 2018
  • In: The Lancet. - 1474-547X .- 0140-6736. ; 392:10159, s. 1995-2051
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Background: Population estimates underpin demographic and epidemiological research and are used to track progress on numerous international indicators of health and development. To date, internationally available estimates of population and fertility, although useful, have not been produced with transparent and replicable methods and do not use standardised estimates of mortality. We present single-calendar year and single-year of age estimates of fertility and population by sex with standardised and replicable methods. Methods: We estimated population in 195 locations by single year of age and single calendar year from 1950 to 2017 with standardised and replicable methods. We based the estimates on the demographic balancing equation, with inputs of fertility, mortality, population, and migration data. Fertility data came from 7817 location-years of vital registration data, 429 surveys reporting complete birth histories, and 977 surveys and censuses reporting summary birth histories. We estimated age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs; the annual number of livebirths to women of a specified age group per 1000 women in that age group) by use of spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression and used the ASFRs to estimate total fertility rates (TFRs; the average number of children a woman would bear if she survived through the end of the reproductive age span [age 10–54 years] and experienced at each age a particular set of ASFRs observed in the year of interest). Because of sparse data, fertility at ages 10–14 years and 50–54 years was estimated from data on fertility in women aged 15–19 years and 45–49 years, through use of linear regression. Age-specific mortality data came from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 estimates. Data on population came from 1257 censuses and 761 population registry location-years and were adjusted for underenumeration and age misreporting with standard demographic methods. Migration was estimated with the GBD Bayesian demographic balancing model, after incorporating information about refugee migration into the model prior. Final population estimates used the cohort-component method of population projection, with inputs of fertility, mortality, and migration data. Population uncertainty was estimated by use of out-of-sample predictive validity testing. With these data, we estimated the trends in population by age and sex and in fertility by age between 1950 and 2017 in 195 countries and territories. Findings: From 1950 to 2017, TFRs decreased by 49·4% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 46·4–52·0). The TFR decreased from 4·7 livebirths (4·5–4·9) to 2·4 livebirths (2·2–2·5), and the ASFR of mothers aged 10–19 years decreased from 37 livebirths (34–40) to 22 livebirths (19–24) per 1000 women. Despite reductions in the TFR, the global population has been increasing by an average of 83·8 million people per year since 1985. The global population increased by 197·2% (193·3–200·8) since 1950, from 2·6 billion (2·5–2·6) to 7·6 billion (7·4–7·9) people in 2017; much of this increase was in the proportion of the global population in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The global annual rate of population growth increased between 1950 and 1964, when it peaked at 2·0%; this rate then remained nearly constant until 1970 and then decreased to 1·1% in 2017. Population growth rates in the southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania GBD super-region decreased from 2·5% in 1963 to 0·7% in 2017, whereas in sub-Saharan Africa, population growth rates were almost at the highest reported levels ever in 2017, when they were at 2·7%. The global average age increased from 26·6 years in 1950 to 32·1 years in 2017, and the proportion of the population that is of working age (age 15–64 years) increased from 59·9% to 65·3%. At the national level, the TFR decreased in all countries and territories between 1950 and 2017; in 2017, TFRs ranged from a low of 1·0 livebirths (95% UI 0·9–1·2) in Cyprus to a high of 7·1 livebirths (6·8–7·4) in Niger. The TFR under age 25 years (TFU25; number of livebirths expected by age 25 years for a hypothetical woman who survived the age group and was exposed to current ASFRs) in 2017 ranged from 0·08 livebirths (0·07–0·09) in South Korea to 2·4 livebirths (2·2–2·6) in Niger, and the TFR over age 30 years (TFO30; number of livebirths expected for a hypothetical woman ageing from 30 to 54 years who survived the age group and was exposed to current ASFRs) ranged from a low of 0·3 livebirths (0·3–0·4) in Puerto Rico to a high of 3·1 livebirths (3·0–3·2) in Niger. TFO30 was higher than TFU25 in 145 countries and territories in 2017. 33 countries had a negative population growth rate from 2010 to 2017, most of which were located in central, eastern, and western Europe, whereas population growth rates of more than 2·0% were seen in 33 of 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2017, less than 65% of the national population was of working age in 12 of 34 high-income countries, and less than 50% of the national population was of working age in Mali, Chad, and Niger. Interpretation: Population trends create demographic dividends and headwinds (ie, economic benefits and detriments) that affect national economies and determine national planning needs. Although TFRs are decreasing, the global population continues to grow as mortality declines, with diverse patterns at the national level and across age groups. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide transparent and replicable estimates of population and fertility, which can be used to inform decision making and to monitor progress. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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4.
  • Stanaway, Jeffrey D., et al. (author)
  • Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
  • 2018
  • In: The Lancet. - 1474-547X .- 0140-6736. ; 392:10159, s. 1923-1994
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Background The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 comparative risk assessment (CRA) is a comprehensive approach to risk factor quantification that offers a useful tool for synthesising evidence on risks and risk-outcome associations. With each annual GBD study, we update the GBD CRA to incorporate improved methods, new risks and risk-outcome pairs, and new data on risk exposure levels and risk- outcome associations. Methods We used the CRA framework developed for previous iterations of GBD to estimate levels and trends in exposure, attributable deaths, and attributable disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), by age group, sex, year, and location for 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or groups of risks from 1990 to 2017. This study included 476 risk-outcome pairs that met the GBD study criteria for convincing or probable evidence of causation. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from 46 749 randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk exposure level (TMREL), we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We explored the relationship between development and risk exposure by modelling the relationship between the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and risk-weighted exposure prevalence and estimated expected levels of exposure and risk-attributable burden by SDI. Finally, we explored temporal changes in risk-attributable DALYs by decomposing those changes into six main component drivers of change as follows: (1) population growth; (2) changes in population age structures; (3) changes in exposure to environmental and occupational risks; (4) changes in exposure to behavioural risks; (5) changes in exposure to metabolic risks; and (6) changes due to all other factors, approximated as the risk-deleted death and DALY rates, where the risk-deleted rate is the rate that would be observed had we reduced the exposure levels to the TMREL for all risk factors included in GBD 2017.
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5.
  • Adnan, Muhammad, et al. (author)
  • Fine Tuning the Optoelectronic Properties of Triphenylamine Based Donor Molecules for Organic Solar Cells
  • 2017
  • In: Zeitschrift fur physikalische Chemie (Munchen. 1991). - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 0942-9352 .- 2196-7156. ; 231:6, s. 1127-1139
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Geometrical parameters, electronic structures and photophysical properties of three new triphenylamine (TPA) and diphenylamine (DPA) based electron donor materials M1-M3 (for organic solar cells) have been investigated through density functional theory (DFT) methods at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level of the theory. TPA and DPA are used as donor moieties due to their electron donating ability while benzothiazole, cyanide and cyanomethylacetate (CMA) moieties have been taken as acceptor moieties. The time dependent-DFT (TD-DFT) method has been employed [TD-B3LYP/6-31G (d)] for the computation of excited state properties in the gas phase and in solvent (chloroform). The polarization continuum model is applied for calculations in the solvent phase. The designed molecules exhibited broad absorption in the visible and near infra-red region of spectrum with respect to a reference molecule "R" of a similar class of compounds. Based on reorganization energies calculations, these materials could act as excellent hole transport materials.
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6.
  • Ans, Muhammad, et al. (author)
  • Designing of non-fullerene 3D star-shaped acceptors for organic solar cells
  • 2019
  • In: Journal of Molecular Modeling. - : Springer. - 1610-2940 .- 0948-5023. ; 25:5
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • The design and fabrication of solar cells have recently witnessed the exploration of non-fullerene-based acceptor molecules for higher efficiency. In this study, the optical and electronic properties of four new three-dimensional (3D) star-shaped acceptor molecules (M1, M2, M3, and M4) are evaluated for use as acceptor molecules in organic solar cells. These molecules contain a triphenylamine donor core with diketopyrrolopyrrole acceptor arms linked via a thiophene bridge unit. Molecules M1–M4 are characterized by different end-capped acceptor moieties, including 2-(5-methylene-6-oxo-5,6-dihydrocyclopenta-b-thiophen-4-ylidene)malononitrile (M1), 2-(2-methylene-3-oxo-2,3-dihydroinden-1-ylidene)malononitrile (M2), 2-(5-methyl-2-methylene-3-oxo-2,3-dihydroinden-1-ylidene)malononitrile (M3), and 3-methyl-5-methylnene-thioxothiazolidin-4-one (M4). The properties of the newly designed molecules were compared with a well-known reference compound R, which was recently reported as an excellent acceptor molecule for organic solar cells. Molecules M1–M4 exhibit suitable frontier molecular orbital patterns for charge mobility. M2 shows maximum absorption (λmax) at 846.8 nm in dichloromethane solvent, which is ideal for the design of transparent solar cells. A strong electron withdrawing end-capped acceptor causes a red shift in absorption spectra. All molecules are excellent for hole mobility due to a lower value of λh compared to the reference R.
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7.
  • Azeem, Muhammad, et al. (author)
  • Chemical composition and repellent activity of native plants essential against dengue mosquito, Aedes aegypti
  • 2019
  • In: Industrial crops and products (Print). - : Elsevier BV. - 0926-6690 .- 1872-633X. ; 140
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Aedes aegypti L. (Diptera: Culicidae) mosquito is an important vector of chikungunya, dengue and yellow fever. Plant based essential oils may serve as good alternatives to commercially available mosquito repellent, DEET. Steam distillation was used for the extraction of essential oils from fresh collected aerial parts of plants viz Chenopodium ambrosioides, Conyza sumatrensis, Erigeron canadensis, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Mentha spicata, Parthenium hysterophorus, and Tagetes minuta. The essential oils were tested for mosquito repellent activity against laboratory reared female Ae. aegypti by human bait technique. Identification of chemical constituents of essential oils was carried out by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The essential oil of M. spicata, E. canadensis, P. hysterophorus, C. sumatrensis, T. minuta, C. ambrosioides, and E. camaldulensis exhibited 100%, 80%, 63.9%, 51.4%, 50.2%, 39.7%, and 13.7% mosquito repellent activity respectively, at the tested dose of 30 mu g/cm(2). The most abundant constituents of M. spicata, E. canadensis, P. hysterophorus, C. sumatrensis and T. minuta essential oils were piperitenone oxide (47.1%), limonene (41.3%), germacrene D (36.6%), cis-lachnophyllum ester (33.3%) and dihydrotagetone (20.9%) respectively. M. spicata essential oil completely inhibited the attractiveness of human hands toward female mosquitoes for more than 45 min thus showed bioactivity comparable to that of commercially used mosquito repellent, DEET. This study suggests that the dilute solution of M. spicata essential oil could be used as potent mosquito repellent against Ae. aegypti alternative to commercially available synthetic mosquito repellents.
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8.
  • Khan, Muhammad Saad, et al. (author)
  • Physicochemical and FTIR Study of Diesel-Hydrogen Peroxide Fuel Blend
  • 2018
  • In: 3RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH (IC-STAR). - : Institute of Physics (IOP).
  • Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Physicochemical properties of combustion fuels play a key role in determining the qualitative and quantitative characteristics, reliability and health effects associated with emissions. This paper reports the preparation of polysaccharide (PS) based emulsifier for stable blending of petroleum diesel-hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and investigated the influence of H2O2 as diesel fuel blends on the physicochemical properties and characteristics. The quantity of PS-emulsifier was kept at 5 volume % (vol. %) and the volume ratio of H2O2 were varied 5-15 vol. % to reference diesel (RD), respectively. The blended diesel/H2O2 fuel were prepared under inert oxygen (O2) gas closed heating system; afterthought, physiochemical properties of diesel/H2O2 blend were evaluated at standard ASTM D-975 testing method. The kinetic properties show the interaction of RD and H2O2 blend at presence of PS emulsifier which exhibit the phenomenon to diminish the interfacial tension among the two different phases to form a homogenized stable solution. Results revealed that H2O2 is capable of enhancing the diesel fuel properties and showed that the addition of H2O2 in a diesel fuel blend are lied within the ranges of standard ASTM D-975. Due to further oxygen atom present in H2O2, it can facilitate the combustion process which ultimately effect on exhaust emission.
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9.
  • Wang, Haidong, et al. (author)
  • Estimates of global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and mortality of HIV, 1980-2015 : the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015.
  • 2016
  • In: The lancet. HIV. - : Elsevier. - 2352-3018. ; 3:8, s. e361-e387
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • BACKGROUND: Timely assessment of the burden of HIV/AIDS is essential for policy setting and programme evaluation. In this report from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 (GBD 2015), we provide national estimates of levels and trends of HIV/AIDS incidence, prevalence, coverage of antiretroviral therapy (ART), and mortality for 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2015.METHODS: For countries without high-quality vital registration data, we estimated prevalence and incidence with data from antenatal care clinics and population-based seroprevalence surveys, and with assumptions by age and sex on initial CD4 distribution at infection, CD4 progression rates (probability of progression from higher to lower CD4 cell-count category), on and off antiretroviral therapy (ART) mortality, and mortality from all other causes. Our estimation strategy links the GBD 2015 assessment of all-cause mortality and estimation of incidence and prevalence so that for each draw from the uncertainty distribution all assumptions used in each step are internally consistent. We estimated incidence, prevalence, and death with GBD versions of the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP) and Spectrum software originally developed by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). We used an open-source version of EPP and recoded Spectrum for speed, and used updated assumptions from systematic reviews of the literature and GBD demographic data. For countries with high-quality vital registration data, we developed the cohort incidence bias adjustment model to estimate HIV incidence and prevalence largely from the number of deaths caused by HIV recorded in cause-of-death statistics. We corrected these statistics for garbage coding and HIV misclassification.FINDINGS: Global HIV incidence reached its peak in 1997, at 3·3 million new infections (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 3·1-3·4 million). Annual incidence has stayed relatively constant at about 2·6 million per year (range 2·5-2·8 million) since 2005, after a period of fast decline between 1997 and 2005. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS has been steadily increasing and reached 38·8 million (95% UI 37·6-40·4 million) in 2015. At the same time, HIV/AIDS mortality has been declining at a steady pace, from a peak of 1·8 million deaths (95% UI 1·7-1·9 million) in 2005, to 1·2 million deaths (1·1-1·3 million) in 2015. We recorded substantial heterogeneity in the levels and trends of HIV/AIDS across countries. Although many countries have experienced decreases in HIV/AIDS mortality and in annual new infections, other countries have had slowdowns or increases in rates of change in annual new infections.INTERPRETATION: Scale-up of ART and prevention of mother-to-child transmission has been one of the great successes of global health in the past two decades. However, in the past decade, progress in reducing new infections has been slow, development assistance for health devoted to HIV has stagnated, and resources for health in low-income countries have grown slowly. Achievement of the new ambitious goals for HIV enshrined in Sustainable Development Goal 3 and the 90-90-90 UNAIDS targets will be challenging, and will need continued efforts from governments and international agencies in the next 15 years to end AIDS by 2030.
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10.
  • Wang, Haidong, et al. (author)
  • Global, regional, and national life expectancy, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes of death, 1980-2015 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015
  • 2016
  • In: The Lancet. - 0140-6736 .- 1474-547X. ; 388:10053, s. 1459-1544
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • BACKGROUND: Improving survival and extending the longevity of life for all populations requires timely, robust evidence on local mortality levels and trends. The Global Burden of Disease 2015 Study (GBD 2015) provides a comprehensive assessment of all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2015. These results informed an in-depth investigation of observed and expected mortality patterns based on sociodemographic measures.METHODS: We estimated all-cause mortality by age, sex, geography, and year using an improved analytical approach originally developed for GBD 2013 and GBD 2010. Improvements included refinements to the estimation of child and adult mortality and corresponding uncertainty, parameter selection for under-5 mortality synthesis by spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression, and sibling history data processing. We also expanded the database of vital registration, survey, and census data to 14 294 geography-year datapoints. For GBD 2015, eight causes, including Ebola virus disease, were added to the previous GBD cause list for mortality. We used six modelling approaches to assess cause-specific mortality, with the Cause of Death Ensemble Model (CODEm) generating estimates for most causes. We used a series of novel analyses to systematically quantify the drivers of trends in mortality across geographies. First, we assessed observed and expected levels and trends of cause-specific mortality as they relate to the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a summary indicator derived from measures of income per capita, educational attainment, and fertility. Second, we examined factors affecting total mortality patterns through a series of counterfactual scenarios, testing the magnitude by which population growth, population age structures, and epidemiological changes contributed to shifts in mortality. Finally, we attributed changes in life expectancy to changes in cause of death. We documented each step of the GBD 2015 estimation processes, as well as data sources, in accordance with Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting (GATHER).FINDINGS: Globally, life expectancy from birth increased from 61·7 years (95% uncertainty interval 61·4-61·9) in 1980 to 71·8 years (71·5-72·2) in 2015. Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa had very large gains in life expectancy from 2005 to 2015, rebounding from an era of exceedingly high loss of life due to HIV/AIDS. At the same time, many geographies saw life expectancy stagnate or decline, particularly for men and in countries with rising mortality from war or interpersonal violence. From 2005 to 2015, male life expectancy in Syria dropped by 11·3 years (3·7-17·4), to 62·6 years (56·5-70·2). Total deaths increased by 4·1% (2·6-5·6) from 2005 to 2015, rising to 55·8 million (54·9 million to 56·6 million) in 2015, but age-standardised death rates fell by 17·0% (15·8-18·1) during this time, underscoring changes in population growth and shifts in global age structures. The result was similar for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with total deaths from these causes increasing by 14·1% (12·6-16·0) to 39·8 million (39·2 million to 40·5 million) in 2015, whereas age-standardised rates decreased by 13·1% (11·9-14·3). Globally, this mortality pattern emerged for several NCDs, including several types of cancer, ischaemic heart disease, cirrhosis, and Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. By contrast, both total deaths and age-standardised death rates due to communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional conditions significantly declined from 2005 to 2015, gains largely attributable to decreases in mortality rates due to HIV/AIDS (42·1%, 39·1-44·6), malaria (43·1%, 34·7-51·8), neonatal preterm birth complications (29·8%, 24·8-34·9), and maternal disorders (29·1%, 19·3-37·1). Progress was slower for several causes, such as lower respiratory infections and nutritional deficiencies, whereas deaths increased for others, including dengue and drug use disorders. Age-standardised death rates due to injuries significantly declined from 2005 to 2015, yet interpersonal violence and war claimed increasingly more lives in some regions, particularly in the Middle East. In 2015, rotaviral enteritis (rotavirus) was the leading cause of under-5 deaths due to diarrhoea (146 000 deaths, 118 000-183 000) and pneumococcal pneumonia was the leading cause of under-5 deaths due to lower respiratory infections (393 000 deaths, 228 000-532 000), although pathogen-specific mortality varied by region. Globally, the effects of population growth, ageing, and changes in age-standardised death rates substantially differed by cause. Our analyses on the expected associations between cause-specific mortality and SDI show the regular shifts in cause of death composition and population age structure with rising SDI. Country patterns of premature mortality (measured as years of life lost [YLLs]) and how they differ from the level expected on the basis of SDI alone revealed distinct but highly heterogeneous patterns by region and country or territory. Ischaemic heart disease, stroke, and diabetes were among the leading causes of YLLs in most regions, but in many cases, intraregional results sharply diverged for ratios of observed and expected YLLs based on SDI. Communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases caused the most YLLs throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with observed YLLs far exceeding expected YLLs for countries in which malaria or HIV/AIDS remained the leading causes of early death.INTERPRETATION: At the global scale, age-specific mortality has steadily improved over the past 35 years; this pattern of general progress continued in the past decade. Progress has been faster in most countries than expected on the basis of development measured by the SDI. Against this background of progress, some countries have seen falls in life expectancy, and age-standardised death rates for some causes are increasing. Despite progress in reducing age-standardised death rates, population growth and ageing mean that the number of deaths from most non-communicable causes are increasing in most countries, putting increased demands on health systems.
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11.
  • Ali, Qasim, et al. (author)
  • Drought tolerance potential of Vigna mungo L. lines as deciphered by modulated growth, antioxidant defense, and nutrient acquisition patterns
  • 2016
  • In: Revista Brasileira de Botânica. - : Springer. - 0100-8404 .- 1806-9959. ; 39:3, s. 801-812
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Water shortage is one of the major environmental constraints that hamper the crop productivity worldwide. The present study was aimed to examine the drought tolerance potential of seven cultivars/lines of Vigna mungo L. depending upon their germination behavior, seedling growth, antioxidative defense mechanism, and nutrient acquisition. An experiment was conducted in the growth chamber using petri-plates and laid out in a completely randomized design (CRD). Hoagland's nutrient solution supplemented with 12 % PEG-8000 (drought treatment) or without PEG-800 (control) was used. Drought stress significantly altered the germination attributes as well as biomass production of all the studied cultivars/lines. Least adversative effects of drought stress were recorded in lines M-01001-1 and M-6036-21, respectively. The studied cultivars/lines exhibited differential response for various biochemical attributes under drought stress. The maximum increase in MDA and SOD activities and protein content was recorded in line M-603621, while the maximum AsA was recorded in line M-01001-1. Drought stress resulted in a significant reduction of plant N, P, K, Ca, and Mg contents, while the plant iron (Fe) contents remained unaffected. Results revealed that cultivars/lines M-01001-1 and M-6036-21 exhibited enhanced performance in terms of nutrient acquisition when stressed by drought. Based upon seed germination behavior, plant biomass production, biochemical attributes and mineral elements, the cultivars/lines M-01001-1 and M-6036-21 were identified as drought tolerant, while M-97 and Arroj-II were identified as drought sensitive.
  •  
12.
  • Ans, Muhammad, et al. (author)
  • Designing Three‐dimensional (3D) Non‐Fullerene Small Molecule Acceptors with Efficient Photovoltaic Parameters
  • 2018
  • In: ChemistrySelect. - : WILEY-VCH VERLAG GMBH. - 2365-6549. ; 3:45, s. 12797-12804
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Three dimensional (3D) acceptor‐donor‐acceptor (A−D‐A) type small molecules (M1, M2, M3 and M4) are theoretically investigated for optoelectronic properties. The designed molecules contain spirobifluorene as core unit linked with end capped acceptors through four four thieno‐[3,2‐b]Thiophene (TT) units. The end capped acceptors are (3‐methyl‐2‐thioxothiazolidin‐4‐one) (M1), 2‐(2‐ethylidene‐5,6‐difluoro‐3‐oxo‐2,3‐dihydroinden‐1‐ylidene)malononitrile (M2), 2‐(3‐ethyl‐4‐oxothiazolidin‐2‐ylidine)malononitrile (M3) and 2‐(2‐ethylidene‐5,6‐dicyano‐3‐oxo‐2,3‐dihydroinden‐1‐ylidene)malononitrile (M4). The photovoltaic parameters of the designed molecules are compared with the recently reported reference compound R. Among all designed molecules, M4 is a low energy gap material (2.28 eV), broad absorption which is attributed to excellent communication between strong electron withdrawing end capped acceptors through extended conjugation. All newly designed molecules have lower binding energy as compared to reference molecule R which results in higher exciton dissociation in excited state. The reorganization energy calculations indicate good charge transfer ability of the designed molecules. M4 shows the lowest λe (0.0022) value with respect to the reference molecule R (0.034) which signifies its enhanced electronic transport behavior. The calculated open circuit voltages (Voc) ranges from 1.97 to 2.36 eV, 2.11 to 2.49 eV and 1.9 eV to 2.28 eV with respect to three different well known donor materials PTB7‐Th, PBDB−T and P3HT, respectively.
  •  
13.
  • Ans, Muhammad, et al. (author)
  • Opto-electronic properties of non-fullerene fused-undecacyclic electron acceptors for organic solar cells
  • 2019
  • In: Computational materials science. - : Elsevier. - 0927-0256 .- 1879-0801. ; 159, s. 150-159
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Due to limitations of fullerene based acceptor molecules for solar cell applications, research is recently diverted to explore non-fullerene acceptor molecules. In this regard, four new A-D-A type fused ring electron acceptor molecules (M1, M2, M3 and M4) are evaluated for their opto-electronic properties for transparent organic solar cells. These molecules contain strong electron donor undecacyclic linked with four different acceptor moieties, 2-(3-ethly-5-methylene-4-oxothiazolidin-2-yluidene)malononitrile (M1), 2-(5,6-dicyano-2-methylene-3-oxo -2,3-dihydroindene-1-ylidene)malononitrile (M2), 2-(5-methylene-6-oxo-tetrahydro-1H-cyclopenta-thiophene-4(5H)-ylidene)malononitrile (M3), and 3-ethyl-5-methylene-2-thioxothiazolidin-4-one (M4). The electronic and optical properties of these molecules are compared with the reference molecule R, which is recently reported as excellent non-fullerene based acceptor molecule. Among all molecules, M2 exhibits the maximum red shift where absorption appears 893.5 nm with B3LYP/6-31 + + G(d,p) level of theory due to highly extended conjugation between electron withdrawing end-capped acceptor moieties. The calculated Open circuit voltage (V-oc) of reference molecule R is 1.78 eV with donor polymer PTB7-Th while molecule M2 exhibits the V-oc value of 1.86 eV.
  •  
14.
  • Bentham, James, et al. (author)
  • A century of trends in adult human height
  • 2016
  • In: eLIFE. - 2050-084X. ; 5
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.522.7) and 16.5 cm (13.319.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.
  •  
15.
  • Bentham, James, et al. (author)
  • A century of trends in adult human height
  • 2016
  • In: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 5
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5–22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3– 19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8– 144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.
  •  
16.
  •  
17.
  • Irfan, Muhammad, et al. (author)
  • Tuning the Optoelectronic Properties of Naphtho-Dithiophene-Based A-D-A Type Small Donor Molecules for Bulk Hetero-Junction Organic Solar Cells
  • 2018
  • In: ChemistrySelect. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2365-6549. ; 3:8, s. 2352-2358
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Four acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) type small molecules using naphtho-dithiophene as central building block, trithiophene as -bridges, malononitrile and 2-Thioxo-thiazolidin-4-one as end acceptor groups were designed by using density functional theory (DFT) and investigated as donor materials for organic solar cells (OSCs). The effects of end acceptor groups on absorption, charge transport, morphology, energy level and photovoltaic properties of the molecules were investigated and compared with reference molecule (R1= NDTP-CNCOO). These designed molecules showed relatively low HOMO levels of -5.46 to -5.56eV, strong absorption between 440-650nm by using chloroform as solvent. The designed donor molecules have an excellent electron mobility from 0.0161 to 0.0201V, hole mobility from 0.0275 to 0.0307V and open circuit voltage (Voc) from 1.76 to 1.86V. This study revealed that the designed donor materials are suitable and recommended for high performance organic solar cell devices.
  •  
18.
  • Jabeen, Sobia, et al. (author)
  • Tuning Optoelectronic Properties of Dithienopyrrole Donor Molecules for Organic Solar Cells
  • 2019
  • In: Russian Journal of Physical Chemistry. - : Maik Nauka/Interperiodica. - 0036-0244 .- 1531-863X. ; 93:11, s. 2233-2243
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Theoretical analysis of physical properties of organic solar cells (OSCs) are important in order to reveal the correlation between power conversion efficiencies (PCE), structure and properties. Five new A-D-A type small molecules M-1, M-2, M-3, M-4, and M-5 were designed by using dithienopyrrole (DTP) as electron rich donor unit with different types of pi-spacers and end capped acceptor units. Functional MPW1PW91/6-31G(d,p) level of theory was used to optimize the geometry of all molecules. For excited state calculation TD-MPW1PW91/6-31G(d,p) level of theory was used. The geometries, electronic structures, dipole moment, open circuit voltage, reorganization energies and charge transport properties of designed molecules M-5) have been scrutinized comparing with the reported compound R. The results revealed that the HOMO energy levels of molecules M-1, M-2, M-3, and M-5 were lower while M-4 was of high energy level thus facilitate the donation of electron as compared to references molecule R. While LUMO energy level of all the molecules were slightly high energy due electron withdrawing effects of spacer and acceptor moiety. Highest energy gap of HOMO-LUMO was observed in M-1 which was 2.48 eV and M-3 showed low energy gap (2.11 eV) as compared to other designed molecules. All molecules showed low values for lambda(e), so they have high rate of electron transfer as compared to R. All designed molecules exhibited higher value of dipole moment as compared to reference molecule R except M-1. Higher value of dipole moment of donor molecules contrary to reference means good solubility towards organic solvents which is beneficial for further solar cell device fabrication. All designed molecules show higher V-oc values except M-4 which has comparable V-oc with respect to reference molecule R. In short, choice of appropriate electron withdrawing and donating groups is very important for improving power conversion efficiencies of OSCs.
  •  
19.
  • Javed, Iqbal, et al. (author)
  • Quinacridone-Based Small Acceptor Molecule for Obtaining High Open Circuit Voltage in Solution Processed Organic Solar Cells
  • 2015
  • In: Journal of the Chemical Society of Pakistan. - : Chemical Society of Pakistan. - 0253-5106. ; 37:3, s. 418-425
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Dioctylquinacridone di(cyanoimine) CN-DOQA was synthesized according to previously reported method. CN-DOQA having suitable HOMO-LUMO energy levels due to -CN groups as electron withdrawing groups was used in organic solar cells as an acceptor in a blend with poly (3-hexyl thiophene) (P3HT) as donor. The photovoltaic devices have shown reasonable high open circuit voltage (Voc) although solar cells have not been fully optimized. Photovoltaic study was supported by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic scanning calorimetry (DSC) of CN-DOQA and morphological study of the blend films by atomic force microscopy (AFM).
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20.
  • Nizami, Abdul-Sattar, et al. (author)
  • Energy, economic and environmental savings by waste recycling : A case study of Madinah City
  • 2017
  • In: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLIED ENERGY. - : Elsevier. ; 142, s. 910-915
  • Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), millions of worshippers come from across the globe to perform religious rituals of Pilgrimage (Hajj) and Umrah. Madinah-tul-Munawara is one of the holiest city, where pilgrims come after performing rituals in Makkah. In this city, most of the collected municipal solid waste (MSW) is disposed of in the landfills after a partial recycling of paper, cardboard, and metals (similar to 10-20% of total MSW). The Saudi's government has recently launched a new policy of Vision 2030, which outlined the safeguard of local environment through increased efficiency of waste recycling and management, pollution prevention strategies and generating renewable energy from indigenous sources, including the waste. Currently, the recycling practices in KSA are mainly regulated by an informal sector through waste pickers or waste scavengers. This has led to the need of recycling schemes, especially in the holiest cities of Makkah and Madinah through a public-private partnership (PPP). Huge amounts of energy can be conserved, that would otherwise be spent on raw material extraction, transportation, and manufacturing of materials, through recycling into the same materials. Around 10,009 TJ of energy can be saved through recycling of 24.21% of MSW in Madinah city, including glass, metals, aluminum, cardboard, and paper. It is estimated that around 10,200 tons of methane (CH4) emissions and 254,600 Mt center dot CO2 eq. of global warming potential (GWP) can also be saved. In addition, carbon credit revenue of US $5.92 million, and landfill diversion worth of US $32.78 million can be achieved with a net revenue of US $49.01 million every year only by recycling 24.21% of MSW in Madinah city. The waste recycling doesn't require high technical skills and labor, and complicated technologies for large-scale implementation, and therefore, can be implemented easily in the holiest cities of Makkah and Madinah to achieve multiple economic and environmental benefits. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
  •  
21.
  • Nizami, Abdul-Sattar, et al. (author)
  • Waste biorefineries : enabling circular economies in developing countries
  • 2017
  • In: Bioresource Technology. - : Elsevier. - 0960-8524 .- 1873-2976. ; 241, s. 1101-1117
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • This paper aims to examine the potential of waste biorefineries in developing countries as a solution to current waste disposal problems and as facilities to produce fuels, power, heat, and value-added products. The waste in developing countries represents a significant source of biomass, recycled materials, chemicals, energy, and revenue if wisely managed and used as a potential feedstock in various biorefinery technologies such as fermentation, anaerobic digestion (AD), pyrolysis, incineration, and gasification. However, the selection or integration of biorefinery technologies in any developing country should be based on its waste characterization. Waste biorefineries if developed in developing countries could provide energy generation, land savings, new businesses and consequent job creation, savings of landfills costs, GHG emissions reduction, and savings of natural resources of land, soil, and groundwater. The challenges in route to successful implementation of biorefinery concept in the developing countries are also presented using life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
  •  
22.
  • Rauf, Shahid, et al. (author)
  • Triangular loop resonator based compact chipless RFID tag
  • 2017
  • In: IEICE Electronics Express. - : IEICE-INST ELECTRONICS INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS ENG. - 1349-2543. ; 14:4
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • A novel, frequency selective surface (FSS) inspired, fully passive, chipless data encoding circuit capable of being operated as a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is presented. The tag is composed of finite repetitions of the unit cell realized on a grounded FR4 substrate having an overall size of 27.5 x 30mm(2). The unit cell is made up of several triangle-shaped resonators patterned in a looped fashion. Variation in the geometric structure of the tag, achieved by addition or removal of nested loops, corresponds to a specific bit sequence. Each sequence is represented in the spectral domain as a unique frequency signature of the resonators. The proposed 10-bit tag covers the spectral range from 4 to 11 GHz. The tag is compact, robust, and exhibits a stable response to impinging signals at different angles of incidence.
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23.
  • Ul Haq, Faraz, et al. (author)
  • Metabolite Profiling and Quantitation of Cucurbitacins in Cucurbitaceae Plants by Liquid Chromatography coupled to Tandem Mass Spectrometry
  • 2019
  • In: Scientific Reports. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2045-2322. ; 9
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Cucurbitaceae is an important plant family because many of its species are consumed as food, and used in herbal medicines, cosmetics, etc. It comprises annual vines and is rich in various bioactive principles which include the cucurbitacins. These steroidal natural products, derived from the triterpene cucurbitane, are mainly the bitter principles of the family Cucurbitaceae. Their biological activities include anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and anti-cancer activities. A total of 10 species belonging to 6 genera of the Cucurbitaceae family along with Cissampelos pareira (Menispermaceae) were included in this study. A comprehensive profiling of certain natural products was developed using HPLC-QTOF-MS/MS analysis and a distribution profile of several major natural products in this family was obtained. A total of 51 natural products were detected in both positive and negative ionization modes, based on accurate masses and fragmentation patterns. Along with this, quantitation of four bioactive cucurbitacins, found in various important plants of the Cucurbitaceae family, was carried out using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) approach on an ion trap mass spectrometer. Cucurbitacin Q was found to be the most abundant in C. pareira, while Citrullus colocynthis contained all four cucurbitacins in abundant quantities. The developed quantitation method is simple, rapid, and reproducible.
  •  
24.
  • Virk, Shafqat, 1979, et al. (author)
  • Exploiting frame semantics and frame-semantic parsing for automatic extraction of typological information from descriptive grammars of natural languages
  • 2019
  • In: International Conference Recent Advances in Natural Language Processing, RANLP. - Shoumen : Incoma Ltd. - 1313-8502. - 9789544520557 - 9789544520564 ; 2019-September, s. 1247-1256
  • Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • We describe a novel system for automatic extraction of typological linguistic information from descriptive grammars of natural languages, applying the theory of frame semantics in the form of frame-semantic parsing. The current proof-of-concept system covers a few selected linguistic features, but the methodology is general and can be extended not only to other typological features but also to descriptive grammars written in languages other than English. Such a system is expected to be a useful assistance for automatic curation of typological databases which otherwise are built manually, a very labor and time consuming as well as cognitively taxing enterprise.
  •  
25.
  • Ans, Muhammad, et al. (author)
  • Spirobifluorene based small molecules as an alternative to traditional fullerene acceptors for organic solar cells
  • 2019
  • In: Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing. - : Elsevier. - 1369-8001 .- 1873-4081. ; 94, s. 97-106
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Four new three-dimensional (3D) acceptor-acceptor-donor (A-A-D) type of small molecule acceptors (Ml, M2, M3 and M4) were designed for better optoelectronic properties in organic solar cells. These molecules contain spirobifluorene as a 3D core unit, flanked with 2,1,3- benzothiadiazole (BT) units linked with the end-capped acceptor groups 2-(4-oxo-4,5-dihydrocyclopenta-b-thiophene-6-ylidene)malononitrile (M1), 2-(3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indene-1-indene-1-ylidene)malononitrile (M2), 2-(5,6-difluoro-3-oxo-2,3-dihydroindene-1-ylidene) malononitrile (M3) and 2-(5,6-dimethyl-3-oxo-2,3-dihydroindene-1-ylidene)malononitrile (M4). The optoelectronic properties of M1 -M4 were compared with the well-known reference molecule R, which has the same central BT-spirobifluorene-BT structure as Ml-M4 but is end-capped with the 2-(2-dicyanomethylene)-3-ethyl-4-oxo-thiazolidin-5-ylidenemethyl group. Among these molecules, M3 has the most appropriate frontier molecular orbital diagram for optoelectronic properties as deduced from MPW1PW91 calculations and also shows the maximum absorption peak at longest wavelength (569 nm) by TD-MPW1PW91 calculations with a polarizable continuum model for chloroform solution. These properties are due to the strong electron-withdrawing end-capped acceptor group which causes a red shift in the absorption spectrum. Computed reorganization energies indicate that the electron mobilities for M1-M4 are higher compared to that of reference R.
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26.
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27.
  • Benchmark study of bond dissociation energy of Si-X (X=F, Cl, Br, N, O, H and C) bond using density functional theory (DFT)
  • 2017
  • In: Journal of Molecular Structure. - : Elsevier. - 0022-2860 .- 1872-8014. ; 1143, s. 8-19
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • A benchmark study of Bond Dissociation Energies (BDEs) of various chemical bonds is carried out by Density Functional theory (DFT) method. The aim of the present research study was to find out the best suited functional and basis set to calculate BDEs of selected bonds of silicon with halogens (F, Cl, Br), N, H, C and O. Six different functionals (CAM/B3LYP, B3LYP, B3PW91, PBEPBE, TPSSTPSS) were applied on 36 molecules of different nature. Furthermore, six different basis sets 3-21G, aug-cc-pVTZ, 6-31G, aug-cc-pVDZ, DGDZVP and DGDZVP2 were also applied on these molecules with the best suited functional CAM/B3LYP. After rigorous effort it can be safely said that the best basis set for calculating BDEs for Si H, Si-C, Si-N bonds using CAM-B3LYP functional is 3-21G and for Si-halogens,aug-cc-pVTZ was found to be best basis set.
  •  
28.
  • Cravcenco, Alexei, et al. (author)
  • Multiplicity conversion based on intramolecular triplet-to-singlet energy transfer
  • 2019
  • In: Science Advances. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 2375-2548. ; 5:9
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Copyright © 2019 The Authors. The ability to convert between molecular spin states is of utmost importance in materials chemistry. Förster-type energy transfer is based on dipole-dipole interactions and can therefore theoretically be used to convert between molecular spin states. Here, a molecular dyad that is capable of transferring energy from an excited triplet state to an excited singlet state is presented. The rate of conversion between these states was shown to be 36 times faster than the rate of emission from the isolated triplet state. This dyad provides the first solid proof that Förster-type triplet-to-singlet energy transfer is possible, revealing a method to increase the rate of light extraction from excited triplet states.
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29.
  • Fakhar-E-Alam, Muhammad, et al. (author)
  • RETRACTED: Empirical Modeling of Physiochemical Immune Response of Multilayer Zinc Oxide Nanomaterials under UV Exposure to Melanoma and Foreskin Fibroblasts
  • 2017
  • In: Scientific Reports. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2045-2322. ; 7
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Carcinogenesis is a complex molecular process starting with genetic and epigenetic alterations, mutation stimulation, and DNA modification, which leads to proteomic adaptation ending with an uncontrolled proliferation mechanism. The current research focused on the empirical modelling of the physiological response of human melanoma cells (FM55P) and human foreskin fibroblasts cells (AG01518) to the multilayer zinc oxide (ZnO) nanomaterials under UV-A exposure. To validate this experimental scheme, multilayer ZnO nanomaterials were grown on a femtotip silver capillary and conjugated with protoporphyrin IX (PpIX). Furthermore, PpIX-conjugated ZnO nanomaterials grown on the probe were inserted into human melanoma (FM55P) and foreskin fibroblasts cells (AG01518) under UV-A light exposure. Interestingly, significant cell necrosis was observed because of a loss in mitochondrial membrane potential just after insertion of the femtotip tool. Intense reactive oxygen species (ROS) fluorescence was observed after exposure to the ZnO NWs conjugated with PpIX femtotip model under UV exposure. Results were verified by applying several experimental techniques, e.g., ROS detection, MTT assay, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The present work reports experimental modelling of cell necrosis in normal human skin as well as a cancerous tissue. These obtained results pave the way for a more rational strategy for biomedical and clinical applications.
  •  
30.
  • Ibrahem, Ismail, et al. (author)
  • Copper Nanoparticles on Controlled Pore Glass and TEMPO for the Aerobic Oxidation of Alcohols
  • 2018
  • In: ChemNanoMat. - : Wiley. - 2199-692X. ; 4:1, s. 71-75
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Herein, we report on the facile synthesis of a heterogeneous copper nanocatalyst and its combination with 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy (TEMPO) for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols to their corresponding carbonyl compounds. This low cost copper nanocatalyst was found to exhibit excellent recyclability, making it a highly attractive catalytic system from an economical and environmental point of view. Extensive characterization of the catalyst by a number of techniques revealed that it was comprised of well-dispersed Cu(I/II) nanoparticles with an average size of around 6nm.
  •  
31.
  • Iqbal, Hassan, et al. (author)
  • Poster Abstract: Taming Link-layer Heterogeneity in IoT through Interleaving Multiple Link-Layers over a Single Radio
  • 2017
  • In: SenSys 2017 - Proceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems. - New York, NY, USA : ACM. - 9781450354592 ; 2017-January
  • Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • We propose dynamic reconfiguration of the radio interface in IoT platforms to support multiple link layers simultaneously. This allows us to tackle the increasing link layer heterogeneity in IoT devices, thus bringing a multitude of benefits: extensible and vender agnostic multihop deployments, rapid integration of the new “things” into an existing network, as well as seamless integration of the IoT with the traditional wireless Internet.
  •  
32.
  • Iqbal, Muhammad Imran, et al. (author)
  • Error sensitivity analysis of DMB transport streams
  • 2019
  • In: IEEE Access. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. - 2169-3536. ; 7, s. 154424-154434
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • In this paper, we examine the sensitivity of the digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) MPEG-2 transport stream (TS) format to transmission errors. To find the sensitivity of different parts of TS packets to transmission errors, each TS packet is divided into four cells, i.e., the first three cells comprising 48 bytes each and the last cell is of 44 bytes length. Bit errors are then introduced into these different parts of the TS packets. The sensitivity of DMB videos to transmission errors and their locations is assessed in terms of the following measures: 1) Number of decoder crashes; 2) Number of decodable videos; 3) Total number of decodable frames; and 4) Objective perceptual video quality of the decoded videos. The structural similarity index and visual information fidelity criterion are used as objective perceptual quality metrics. Simulations are performed on seven different DMB videos using various bit error rates. The results show that the first cell of the TS packets is highly sensitive to bit errors compared to the subsequent three cells, both in terms of spatial and temporal video quality. Further, the sensitivity decreases from Cell 1 to Cell 4 of a DMB TS packet. The error sensitivity analysis reported in this paper may guide the development of more reliable transmission systems for future DMB systems and services. Specifically, the insights gained from this study may support designing better error control schemes that take the sensitivity of different parts of DMB TS packets into consideration.
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33.
  •  
34.
  • Irfan, Muhammad, et al. (author)
  • Benchmark study of UV/Visible spectra of coumarin derivatives by computational approach
  • 2017
  • In: Journal of Molecular Structure. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2860 .- 1872-8014. ; 1130, s. 603-616
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • A benchmark study of UV/Visible spectra of Simple coumarins and Furanocoumarins derivatives was conducted by employing the Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Time Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) approaches. In this study the geometries of ground and excited states, excitation energy and absorption spectra were estimated by using the DFT functional CAM-B3LYP, WB97XD, HSEH1PBE, MPW1PW91 and TD-B3LYP with 6-31 + G (d,p) basis set. CAM-B3LYP functional was found to have close agreement with the experimental values of Furranocoumarin class of coumarins while MPW1PW91 gave close results for simple coumarins. This study provided an insight about the electronic characteristics of the selected compounds and provided an effective tool for developing and designing the better UV absorber compounds.
  •  
35.
  • Irfan, Muhammad, et al. (author)
  • Design of donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) type small molecule donor materials with efficient photovoltaic parameters
  • 2017
  • In: International Journal of Quantum Chemistry. - : WILEY. - 0020-7608 .- 1097-461X. ; 117:10
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Four Donor-Acceptor-Donor (D-A-D) type of donor molecules (M1-M4) with triphenylamine (TPA) as donor moiety, thiophene as bridge, and thiazolothiazole as acceptor unit were designed and its photovoltaic parameters were equated with reference molecule R. DFT functional CAM-B3LYP/6-31G (d,p) was found best for geometry optimization and TD-CAM-B3LYP/6-31G (d,p) was found suitable for excited state calculations. Among designed donor molecules, M4 manifests suitable lowest band gap of 4.73 eV, frontier molecular orbital energy levels as well as distinctive broad absorption of 455.3 nm due to the stronger electron withdrawing group. The electron-withdrawing substituents contribute to red shifts of absorption spectra and better stabilities for designed molecules. The theoretically determined reorganization energies of designed donor molecules suggested excellent charge mobility property. The lower (e) values in comparison with (h) illustrated that these four donor materials would be ideal for electron transfer and M4 would be best amongst the investigated molecules with lowest (e) of 0.0177. Furthermore, the calculated Voc of M4 is 2.04 V with respect to PC60BM (phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester). This study revealed that the designed donor materials are suitable and recommended for high performance organic solar cell devices.
  •  
36.
  • Javaid, Nadeem, et al. (author)
  • An Enhanced Energy Balanced Data Transmission Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
  • 2016
  • In: Sensors. - : MDPI AG. - 1424-8220. ; 16:4
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • This paper presents two new energy balanced routing protocols for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs); Efficient and Balanced Energy consumption Technique (EBET) and Enhanced EBET (EEBET). The first proposed protocol avoids direct transmission over long distance to save sufficient amount of energy consumed in the routing process. The second protocol overcomes the deficiencies in both Balanced Transmission Mechanism (BTM) and EBET techniques. EBET selects relay node on the basis of optimal distance threshold which leads to network lifetime prolongation. The initial energy of each sensor node is divided into energy levels for balanced energy consumption. Selection of high energy level node within transmission range avoids long distance direct data transmission. The EEBET incorporates depth threshold to minimize the number of hops between source node and sink while eradicating backward data transmissions. The EBET technique balances energy consumption within successive ring sectors, while, EEBET balances energy consumption of the entire network. In EEBET, optimum number of energy levels are also calculated to further enhance the network lifetime. Effectiveness of the proposed schemes is validated through simulations where these are compared with two existing routing protocols in terms of network lifetime, transmission loss, and throughput. The simulations are conducted under different network radii and varied number of nodes.
  •  
37.
  • Javed, Muhammad Sufyan, et al. (author)
  • The energy crisis in Pakistan : A possible solution via biomass-based waste
  • 2016
  • In: Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 1941-7012. ; 8:4
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Developing countries like Pakistan need a continuous supply of clean and cheap energy. It is a very common fear in today's world that the fossil fuels will be depleted soon and the cost of energy is increasing day-by-day. Renewable energy sources and technologies have the potential to provide solutions to long-standing energy problems faced by developing countries. Currently, Pakistan is experiencing a critical energy crisis and renewable energy resources can be the best alternatives for quickly terminating the need for fossil fuels. The renewable energy sources such as solar energy, wind energy, and biomass energy combined with fuel cell technology can be used to overcome the energy shortage in Pakistan. Biomass is a promising renewable energy source and is gaining more interest because it produces a similar type of fuel like crude oil and natural gas. Energy from biomass only depends upon the availability of raw materials; therefore, biomass can play an important role to fulfill the energy requirements of the modern age. The use of energy has increased greatly since the last century and almost all human activities have become more dependent on energy. Biomass, being a potential and indigenous candidate, could be a good solution to meet the energy needs of Pakistan. In this review paper, the detailed current energy requirements and solutions from available energy resources and the scope, potential, and implementation of biomass conversion to energy in Pakistan are explored with a special focus on the major province of Punjab and the advantages of biomass for energy purposes.
  •  
38.
  • Kassebaum, Nicholas J., et al. (author)
  • Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 315 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE), 1990-2015 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015
  • 2016
  • In: The Lancet. - 0140-6736 .- 1474-547X. ; 388:10053, s. 1603-1658
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Background Healthy life expectancy (HALE) and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) provide summary measures of health across geographies and time that can inform assessments of epidemiological patterns and health system performance, help to prioritise investments in research and development, and monitor progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We aimed to provide updated HALE and DALYs for geographies worldwide and evaluate how disease burden changes with development. Methods We used results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 (GBD 2015) for all-cause mortality, cause-specific mortality, and non-fatal disease burden to derive HALE and DALYs by sex for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015. We calculated DALYs by summing years of life lost (YLLs) and years of life lived with disability (YLDs) for each geography, age group, sex, and year. We estimated HALE using the Sullivan method, which draws from age-specific death rates and YLDs per capita. We then assessed how observed levels of DALYs and HALE differed from expected trends calculated with the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator constructed from measures of income per capita, average years of schooling, and total fertility rate. Findings Total global DALYs remained largely unchanged from 1990 to 2015, with decreases in communicable, neonatal, maternal, and nutritional (Group 1) disease DALYs off set by increased DALYs due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Much of this epidemiological transition was caused by changes in population growth and ageing, but it was accelerated by widespread improvements in SDI that also correlated strongly with the increasing importance of NCDs. Both total DALYs and age-standardised DALY rates due to most Group 1 causes significantly decreased by 2015, and although total burden climbed for the majority of NCDs, age-standardised DALY rates due to NCDs declined. Nonetheless, age-standardised DALY rates due to several high-burden NCDs (including osteoarthritis, drug use disorders, depression, diabetes, congenital birth defects, and skin, oral, and sense organ diseases) either increased or remained unchanged, leading to increases in their relative ranking in many geographies. From 2005 to 2015, HALE at birth increased by an average of 2.9 years (95% uncertainty interval 2.9-3.0) for men and 3.5 years (3.4-3.7) for women, while HALE at age 65 years improved by 0.85 years (0.78-0.92) and 1.2 years (1.1-1.3), respectively. Rising SDI was associated with consistently higher HALE and a somewhat smaller proportion of life spent with functional health loss; however, rising SDI was related to increases in total disability. Many countries and territories in central America and eastern sub-Saharan Africa had increasingly lower rates of disease burden than expected given their SDI. At the same time, a subset of geographies recorded a growing gap between observed and expected levels of DALYs, a trend driven mainly by rising burden due to war, interpersonal violence, and various NCDs. Interpretation Health is improving globally, but this means more populations are spending more time with functional health loss, an absolute expansion of morbidity. The proportion of life spent in ill health decreases somewhat with increasing SDI, a relative compression of morbidity, which supports continued efforts to elevate personal income, improve education, and limit fertility. Our analysis of DALYs and HALE and their relationship to SDI represents a robust framework on which to benchmark geography-specific health performance and SDG progress. Country-specific drivers of disease burden, particularly for causes with higher-than-expected DALYs, should inform financial and research investments, prevention efforts, health policies, and health system improvement initiatives for all countries along the development continuum.
  •  
39.
  • Khatibi, Siamak, et al. (author)
  • Device and method for processing a stream of video data
  • 2018
  • Patent (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
    • A device for processing a stream of video data which comprises a sequence of frames comprises an interface configured to receive the stream of video data. A processing device is configured to create a three-dimensional environment from a frame of the sequence of frames when a freeze condition is detected. The processing device is configured to generate a series of frames from the three-dimensional environment. The series of frames represents the three-dimensional environment from a plurality of points of view. The processing device is configured to insert the generated series of frames into the sequence of frames to generate a modified sequence of frames to conceal a freeze.
  •  
40.
  • Klar, Joakim, 1974-, et al. (author)
  • A missense variant in ITPR1 provides evidence for autosomal recessive SCA29 with asymptomatic cerebellar hypoplasia in carriers.
  • 2017
  • In: European Journal of Human Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1018-4813 .- 1476-5438. ; 25:7, s. 848-853
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCA) comprise a heterogeneous group of inherited neurological disorders characterized by a range of symptoms from both cerebellar and extra cerebellar structures. We investigated the cause of autosomal recessive, congenital SCA in six affected family members from a large consanguineous family. Using whole-exome sequencing, we identified a homozygous ITPR1 missense variant [c.5360T>C; p.(L1787P)] segregating in all affected individuals. Heterozygous carriers were asymptomatic despite cerebellar hypoplasia. Variants in the ITPTR1 gene have previously been associated exclusively with autosomal dominant SCA15 and SCA29 with slow or no progression. The L1787 residue is highly conserved and the leucine to proline substitution has a predicted destabilizing effect on the protein structure. Additionally, the L1787P variant is located in a domain separated from previously described and dominant-acting missense variants consistent with a distinct effect on IP3R1 tetramer structure and function. Taken together, we show for the first time that a biallelic ITPR1 missense variant may cause an autosomal recessive and infantile onset SCA29, albeit with subclinical cerebellar hypoplasia in carriers. Our findings add to the genetic complexity of SCA29 and broaden the correlations between ITPR1 variants and their clinical expression.
  •  
41.
  • Kushwaha, Khushbu, et al. (author)
  • A Record Chromophore Density in High-Entropy Liquids of Two Low-Melting Perylenes: A New Strategy for Liquid Chromophores
  • 2019
  • In: Advanced Science. - : Wiley. - 2198-3844. ; 6:4
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Liquid chromophores constitute a rare but intriguing class of molecules that are in high demand for the design of luminescent inks, liquid semiconductors, and solar energy storage materials. The most common way to achieve liquid chromophores involves the introduction of long alkyl chains, which, however, significantly reduces the chromophore density. Here, strategy is presented that allows for the preparation of liquid chromophores with a minimal increase in molecular weight, using the important class of perylenes as an example. Two synergistic effects are harnessed: (1) the judicious positioning of short alkyl substituents, and (2) equimolar mixing, which in unison results in a liquid material. A series of 1-alkyl perylene derivatives is synthesized and it is found that short ethyl or butyl chains reduce the melting temperature from 278 degrees C to as little as 70 degrees C. Then, two low-melting derivatives are mixed, which results in materials that do not crystallize due to the increased configurational entropy of the system. As a result, liquid chromophores with the lowest reported molecular weight increase compared to the neat chromophore are obtained. The mixing strategy is readily applicable to other pi-conjugated systems and, hence, promises to yield a wide range of low molecular weight liquid chromophores.
  •  
42.
  • Lati, Monireh Pourghasemi, et al. (author)
  • Palladium Nanoparticles Immobilized on an Aminopropyl-functionalized Silica-Magnetite Composite as a Recyclable Catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura Reactions
  • 2018
  • In: Chemistryselect. - : Wiley. - 2365-6549. ; 3:27, s. 7970-7975
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Herein, we describe the straightforward synthesis and thorough characterization of a magnetically-separable heterogeneous catalyst comprised of 1-3nm-sized Pd nanoparticles immobilized on a mesoporous silica-magnetite composite (Pd-0-AmP-SMC). Catalytic evaluations were conducted using Suzuki-Miyaura cross-couplings as the model reactions, for which this Pd nanocatalyst exhibited high performance in an environmentally-friendly solvent mixture. Additionally, this Pd nanocatalyst could be re-used up to five cycles without any observable loss of activity, and separation of the catalyst could be conveniently done by a magnet.
  •  
43.
  • Manzoor, Farah, et al. (author)
  • Theoretical Calculations of the Optical and Electronic Properties of Dithienosilole- and Dithiophene-Based Donor Materials for Organic Solar Cells
  • 2018
  • In: ChemistrySelect. - : Wiley - V C H Verlag GmbH. - 2365-6549. ; 3:5, s. 1593-1601
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Six Acceptor-Donor-Acceptor (A-D-A) types molecules with dimethyl dithieno[3, 2-b:2',3'-d]silole) -2,6-diyl (DTS) (M-1-M-3) and dimethyl cyclopenta [2, 1-b;3,4-b]-dithiophene (CPDT) (M-4-M-6) core flanged by different acceptor units through methylthiophene bridge are evaluated as donor materials for photovoltaic applications. The photovoltaic properties of M-1-M-3 and M-4-M-6 are compared with standard RaRc and R-b,R-d respectively. Geometry optimization was performed with CAM-B3LYP/6-31G (d) level of theory. TD-CAM-B3LYP has been employed for the estimation of excited state properties of the molecules. M-1, M-2, M-3 and M-4, M-5, M-6 symbolized suitable frontier molecular orbital's (FMO's) energy levels with broad absorption spectra. The electron withdrawing substituents impart red shift in absorption spectra along with good consistancy of designed donor molecules. Reorganization energies of donor molecules (M-1-M-6) showed ideal properties of charge mobility. M-1 and M-4 illustrated lowest le values as compared to lambda(h), thus dictated that designed donor molecules are of good choice for their electron donating ability. Furthermore, M-2 and M-6 demonstrated shortest Eg of 3.7 and 3.72 eV among HOMO and LUMO energy levels.
  •  
44.
  • Naqvi, Salman Raza, et al. (author)
  • Catalytic Pyrolysis Of Botryococcus Braunii (microalgae) Over Layered and Delaminated Zeolites For Aromatic Hydrocarbon Production
  • 2017
  • In: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLIED ENERGY. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. ; , s. 381-385
  • Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Botryococcus braunii (B. Braunii) is considered as due to its high capability of large aromatic contents, prominent green microalgae as a renewable energy resource. The aim and novelty of this work is to exploit the pyrolysis characteristics of microalgae with layered and delaminated zeolites using Py-GC/MS. No catalyst and catalytic pyrolysis was compared to evaluate product components formed. Further, the catalytic pyrolysis of botryococcus braunii was carried out in the presence of two zeolites with different pore topology and acidity. The results from non-catalytic microalgae pyrolysis were compared to catalytic pyrolysis together with different catalysts to biomass ratios for aromatic hydrocarbons production. Py-GC/MS results showed the aromatic hydrocarbon production (area%) was significantly improved from zeolite catalytic pyrolysis than non-catalytic pyrolysis. The increase in catalyst to biomass ratio (3:1 and 5:1) resulted in higher aromatic hydrocarbon production. As the catalyst to biomass ratio increased, it is observed that aromatic hydrocarbon content increased as compared to low catalyst to biomass ratio. In addition, ITQ-2 zeolite generated higher aromatic hydrocarbons. This might be due to better pore structure and acidity of delaminated structure as compared to layered structure. This delaminated topology enhances the reactant diffusion and reduces the secondary cracking.
  •  
45.
  • Noshad, Asma, et al. (author)
  • Antibacterial Effect of Silver Nanoparticles (AgNPs) Synthesized from Trichoderma Harzianum Against Clavibacter Michiganensis
  • 2019
  • In: Journal of Nano Research. - 1662-5250 .- 1661-9897. ; 58, s. 10-19
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • In nanotechnology, fungal mediated green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has tremendous application in the development of antimicrobial systems but the mechanism behind the synthesis is yet to be understood. This study aims to synthesize the silver nanoparticles via a green chemistry route using mycellial aqueous extract of agriculturally beneficial fungi Trichoderma harzianum. Two different concentrations (1 mM and 2.5 Mm) of aqueous silver salt (AgNO3) were used and mixed as 1:1 ratio with aqueous extract of T. harzianum at room temperature and the pH of the reaction mixture was monitored until it stabilized. Formation of AgNPs was confirmed by using UV-Vis spectroscopic analysis. For further insight, AgNPs were characterized by using HR-TEM and XRD, which clearly showed appearance of crystalline, monodispersed round-shaped particles of 3-20 nm in size. The synthesised NPs were subjected to antimicrobial assay against gram +ve and gram –ve bacteria using the disk diffusion method. The focused species was Clavibacter michiganensis subsp michiganensis, which is the causitive pathogen of Tomato canker disease and we hypothesised that the synthesised AgNPs might be useful to control this pathogen. Appreciable antibiotic activity was monitored even at a low concentration of 1mM level, while the zone of inhibition was positively increased at 2.5 mM. Our results clearly indicate that the present process is an excellent candidate for industrial scale production of AgNPs, and has the potential to control the bacterial pathogen cmm.
  •  
46.
  • Qureshi, Shahnawaz, et al. (author)
  • Evaluation of Classifiers for Emotion Detection while Performing Physical and Visual Tasks : Tower of Hanoi and IAPS
  • 2018
  • In: Intelligent Systems and Applications. IntelliSys 2018. - Cham : Springer. - 9783030010539 - 9783030010546 ; , s. 347-363
  • Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • With the advancement in robot technology, smart human-robot interaction is of increasing importance for allowing the more excellent use of robots integrated into human environments and activities. If a robot can identify emotions and intentions of a human interacting with it, interactions with humans can potentially become more natural and effective. However, mechanisms of perception and empathy used by humans to achieve this understanding may not be suitable or adequate for use within robots. Electroencephalography (EEG) can be used for recording signals revealing emotions and motivations from a human brain. This study aimed to evaluate different machine learning techniques to classify EEG data associated with specific affective/emotional states. For experimental purposes, we used visual (IAPS) and physical (Tower of Hanoi) tasks to record human emotional states in the form of EEG data. The obtained EEG data processed, formatted and evaluated using various machine learning techniques to find out which method can most accurately classify EEG data according to associated affective/emotional states. The experiment confirms the choice of a method for improving the accuracy of results. According to the results, Support Vector Machine was the first, and Regression Tree was the second best method for classifying EEG data associated with specific affective/emotional states with accuracies up to 70.00% and 60.00%, respectively. In both tasks, SVM was better in performance than RT. 
  •  
47.
  • Rehan, Mohammad, et al. (author)
  • Waste to Energy : A Case Study of Madinah City
  • 2017
  • In: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLIED ENERGY. - Amsterdam : Elsevier. ; 142, s. 688-693
  • Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • The concept of energy from waste is getting popular nowadays across the globe, as being capable of producing multi fuels and value-added products from different fractions of municipal solid waste (MSW). The energy recovery technologies under this concept are anaerobic digestion (AD), pyrolysis, transesterification, refuse derived fuel (RDF) and incineration. This concept is very relevant to implementation in countries like Saudi Arabia, who wants to cut their dependence on oil. Moreover, the waste to energy becomes the imperative need of the time because of new governmental policy 'Vision 2030' that firmly said to produce renewable energy from indigenous sources of waste, wind and solar and due to given situations of Hajj and Umrah with massive amounts of waste generation in a short period. This study focused on two waste to energy technologies, AD and pyrolysis for food (40% of MSW) and plastic (20% of MSW) waste streams respectively. The energy potential of 1409.63 and 5619.80 TJ can be produced if all of the food and plastic waste of the Madinah city are processed through AD and pyrolysis respectively. This is equivalent to 15.64 and 58.81 MW from biogas and pyrolytic oil respectively or total 74.45 MW of continuous electricity supply in Madinah city throughout the whole year. It has been estimated that the development of AD and pyrolysis technologies will also benefit the economy with net savings of around US $63.51 and US $53.45 million respectively, totaling to an annual benefit of US $116.96 million Therefore, in Saudi Arabia and particularly in Holiest cities of Makkah and Madinah the benefits of waste to energy are several, including the development of renewable-energy, solving MSW problems, new businesses, and job creation and improving environmental and public health.
  •  
48.
  • Sahar, Anum, et al. (author)
  • UV absorbers for cellulosic apparels : A computational and experimental study
  • 2018
  • In: Spectrochimica Acta Part A - Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy. - : Elsevier. - 1386-1425 .- 1873-3557. ; 188, s. 355-361
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Two triazine based Ultra Violet (UV) absorbers Sulfuric acid mono-(2-{4-[4-chloro-6-(4-{4-chloro-6-[4-(2-sulfooxy-ethanesulfonyl)-phenylamino]-[1,3,5] triazin-2-ylamino-phenylamino)-[1,3,5]triazin-2-ylamino]-benzenesulfonyl}-ethyl) ester (1a) and 4-{4-chloro-6-[4-(2-sulfooxy-ethanesulfonyl)-phenylamino]-[1,3,5] triazin-2-ylamino}-2-[4-chloro-6-(2-sulfooxy-ethanesulfonyl)-[1,3,5]triazin-2-ylamino]-benzenesulfonic acid (2a) with different substituents were designed computationally. The influence of different substituents on the electrochemical properties and UV spectra of the absorbers was investigated. The presence of electron deficient unit in 1a to the molecular core significantly reduces the LUMO levels and energy gap. The designed absorbers were synthesized via condensation reaction and characterized by UV–Vis, FT-IR, MS studies. The performance of synthesized compounds as UV absorbers and their fastness properties were assessed by finishing the cotton fabric through exhaust method at different concentration and results appeared in good range.
  •  
49.
  • Sarwar, Farah, et al. (author)
  • Linear and Nonlinear Electrical Models of Neurons for Hopfield Neural Network
  • 2016
  • In: Zeitschrift fur Naturforschung A-A Journal of Physical Sciences. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 0932-0784 .- 1865-7109. ; 71:11, s. 995-1002
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • A novel electrical model of neuron is proposed in this presentation. The suggested neural network model has linear/nonlinear input-output characteristics. This new deterministic model has joint biological properties in excellent agreement with the earlier deterministic neuron model of Hopfield and Tank and to the stochastic neuron model of McCulloch and Pitts. It is an accurate portrayal of differential equation presented by Hopfield and Tank to mimic neurons. Operational amplifiers, resistances, capacitor, and diodes are used to design this system. The presented biological model of neurons remains to be advantageous for simulations. Impulse response is studied and conferred to certify the stability and strength of this innovative model. A simple illustration is mapped to demonstrate the exactness of the intended system. Precisely mapped illustration exhibits 100 % accurate results.
  •  
50.
  • Shahzadi, Iram, et al. (author)
  • Estimation of optical rotation of gamma-alkylidenebutenolide, cyclopropylamine, cyclopropyl-methanol and cyclopropenone based compounds by a Density Functional Theory (DFT) approach
  • 2017
  • In: Chirality. - : Wiley Periodicals. - 0899-0042 .- 1520-636X. ; 29:10, s. 634-647
  • Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
    • Computing the optical rotation of organic molecules can be a real challenge, and various theoretical approaches have been developed in this regard. A benchmark study of optical rotation of various classes of compounds was carried out by Density Functional Theory (DFT) methods. The aim of the present research study was to find out the best-suited functional and basis set to estimate the optical rotations of selected compounds with respect to experimental literature values. Six DFT functional LSDA, BVP86, CAM-B3LYP, B3PW91, and PBE were applied on 22 different compounds. Furthermore, six different basis sets, i.e., 3-21G, 6-31G, aug-cc-pVDZ, aug-cc-pVTZ, DGDZVP, and DGDZVP2 were also applied with the best-suited functional B3LYP. After rigorous effort, it can be safely said that the best combination of functional and basis set is B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ for the estimation of optical rotation for selected compounds.
  •  
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