MyMedR

Displaying all 11 publications

Abstract:

Sort:

Fulltext A cross-cultural comparison of work engagement in the relationships between trust climate - Job performance and turnover intention: Focusing China and Pakistan

Aman A, Rafiq M, Dastane O

Heliyon, 2023 Sep;9(9):e19534.
PMID: 37809562 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19534

While the significance of cross-cultural research has been acknowledged over time, there remains a gap in understanding its relationship with employee outcomes. This study delves into the associations between organizational trust climate (TC) and job performance (JP), as well as turnover intention (TI), seeking to ascertain if work engagement (WE) plays a mediating role. Additionally, the research investigates potential differences in the mediating effect between China and Pakistan. Data gathered from 270 participants in China and 242 in Pakistan were subjected to structural equation modeling (SEM) for analysis. Findings indicated that perceptions of individual WE serve as a bridge between organizational TC and JP, with the effect on JP being notably stronger among the Chinese participants. Moreover, the mediating role of WE in the link between organizational TC and TI was more pronounced for the Pakistani participants. On a practical front, such insights can equip managers with a nuanced understanding of the ripple effect that a trust-infused environment can have on employee engagement, subsequently influencing performance and retention rates.
Fulltext Infrared study of Er(3+)/Yb(3+) Co-Doped GeO(2)-PbO-Bi(2)O(3) glass

Bahari HR, Sidek HA, Adikan FR, Yunus WM, Halimah MK

Int J Mol Sci, 2012;13(7):8609-14.
PMID: 22942723 DOI: 10.3390/ijms13078609

Heavy metal oxide glasses, containing bismuth and/or lead in their glass structure are new alternatives for rare eart (RE) doped hosts. Hence, the study of the structure of these vitreous systems is of great interest for science and technology. In this research work, GeO(2)-PbO-Bi(2)O(3) glass host doped with Er(3+)/Yb(3+) ions was synthesized by a conventional melt quenching method. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) results showed that PbO and Bi(2)O(3) participate with PbO(4) tetragonal pyramids and strongly distort BiO(6) octahedral units in the glass network, which subsequently act as modifiers in glass structure. These results also confirmed the existence of both four and six coordination of germanium oxide in glass matrix.
Fulltext An analysis of a nonlinear susceptible-exposed-infected-quarantine-recovered pandemic model of a novel coronavirus with delay effect

Raza A, Ahmadian A, Rafiq M, Salahshour S, Ferrara M

Results Phys, 2021 Feb;21:103771.
PMID: 33391985 DOI: 10.1016/j.rinp.2020.103771

In the present study, a nonlinear delayed coronavirus pandemic model is investigated in the human population. For study, we find the equilibria of susceptible-exposed-infected-quarantine-recovered model with delay term. The stability of the model is investigated using well-posedness, Routh Hurwitz criterion, Volterra Lyapunov function, and Lasalle invariance principle. The effect of the reproduction number on dynamics of disease is analyzed. If the reproduction number is less than one then the disease has been controlled. On the other hand, if the reproduction number is greater than one then the disease has become endemic in the population. The effect of the quarantine component on the reproduction number is also investigated. In the delayed analysis of the model, we investigated that transmission dynamics of the disease is dependent on delay terms which is also reflected in basic reproduction number. At the end, to depict the strength of the theoretical analysis of the model, computer simulations are presented.
Interconnecting sustainable development goals 7 and 13: the role of renewable energy innovations towards combating the climate change

Kamran HW, Rafiq M, Abudaqa A, Amin A

Environ Technol, 2023 Jun 11.
PMID: 37204776 DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2023.2216903

ABSTRACTThis research examines the trends in environmental footprints through energy innovations, digital trade, economic freedom, and environmental regulation from the context of G7 economies. Quarterly observations from 1998-2020 have been utilized for the advanced-panel model entitled Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR). The initial findings confirm slope heterogeneity, interdependence between the cross-sectional units, stationarity properties, and panel cointegration. The results through FM-OLS, D-OLS, and FE-OLS justify that energy innovations, digital trade, and environmental regulations control ecological damages. In contrast, economic freedom and growth are causing more damage to nature, like ecological footprints (EFP). Similarly, the results through MMQR confirm that the impact of energy innovations, digital trade, and environmental regulations is accepted as a panacea to control environmental degradation in G7. However, the magnitude of the coefficient varies across different quantiles. More specifically, the findings show that the impact of energy innovations is highly significant at 0.50th quantile. In contrast, through digital trade, the impact on EFP is only significant under medium and higher order quantiles (i.e. 0.50th, 0.75th-1.0th). Contrarily, economic freedom is causing more EFP across all the quantiles, where the findings are highly significant at 0.75th quantile. Besides, a few other policy implications are also discussed.
21st anniversary of job embeddedness: A retrospection and future research agenda

Xue X, Rafiq M, Meng F, Peerzadah SA

Work, 2023;76(3):991-1005.
PMID: 37355920 DOI: 10.3233/WOR-220240

BACKGROUND: Since the previous decade, researchers and academics have paid close attention to studying job embeddedness (JE), but the bibliometric examination of JE has not yet been explored.
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to provide general information on the trends of the studies on JE as well as an overall perspective on the development of this topic by utilising a bibliometric analytic approach.
METHOD: A bibliometric evaluation was conducted in the JE field since the first publication was documented in the Scopus database. The information retrieved examines 1572 JE papers from a variety of perspectives, including citation and publishing metrics.
RESULTS: The research results pinpoint the most productive countries, universities, journals, authors, and JE articles. The study also classified the most important themes and offered some recommendations for further research.
CONCLUSION: The study provided a snapshot of JE patterns and trajectories from 1993 to 2020, which can help academics and practitioners figure out the pattern and direction of future research. To the best of our knowledge, no other study examines the bibliographic data on JE and thus this work is one of the first contributions to the literature.
Linking job crafting, innovation performance, and career satisfaction: The mediating role of work engagement

Rafiq M, Farrukh M, Attiq S, Shahzad F, Khan I

Work, 2023;75(3):877-886.
PMID: 36683474 DOI: 10.3233/WOR-211363

BACKGROUND: The demand for innovation and satisfaction is increasing rapidly due to technological advancement and the fast-changing business environment.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to investigate how job crafting augments work outputs (i.e., innovation performance and career satisfaction) through work engagement.
METHODS: Data were collected from 477 workers working in the Pakistan manufacturing sector. A structural equation modeling technique was used to investigate the mediation model.
RESULTS: Job crafting has a direct and indirect association with innovation performance and career satisfaction - via employees' work engagement. Additionally, the mediating impact was stronger for innovation performance than for career satisfaction. The findings advocate that managers should pay attention to employees' job crafting to improve employees' work engagement in manufacturing organizations. To improve employees' innovation performance and career satisfaction via work engagement, it is important to improve organization-wide job crafting in traditional manufacturing organizations. Strategic and managerial actions related to job crafting might boost employees' engagement in the organization that environments provide incessantly better outcomes.
CONCLUSION: By linking job crafting and work engagement to their attitude towards career satisfaction and innovation performance in Pakistani manufacturing firms, this study adds a new dimension to the study of Pakistani manufacturing employees and typically to the best practices in career debates. This knowledge is important and unique because it accentuates that in addition to work engagement, which focuses primarily on employee growth in the organization, job crafting should also be given equal importance to advance manufacturing employees' outcomes.
Fulltext Modeling the effect of delay strategy on transmission dynamics of HIV/AIDS disease

Raza A, Ahmadian A, Rafiq M, Salahshour S, Naveed M, Ferrara M, et al.

Adv Differ Equ, 2020;2020(1):663.
PMID: 33250928 DOI: 10.1186/s13662-020-03116-8

In this manuscript, we investigate a nonlinear delayed model to study the dynamics of human-immunodeficiency-virus in the population. For analysis, we find the equilibria of a susceptible-infectious-immune system with a delay term. The well-established tools such as the Routh-Hurwitz criterion, Volterra-Lyapunov function, and Lasalle invariance principle are presented to investigate the stability of the model. The reproduction number and sensitivity of parameters are investigated. If the delay tactics are decreased, then the disease is endemic. On the other hand, if the delay tactics are increased then the disease is controlled in the population. The effect of the delay tactics with subpopulations is investigated. More precisely, all parameters are dependent on delay terms. In the end, to give the strength to a theoretical analysis of the model, a computer simulation is presented.
Fulltext Carvacrol derivatives as mushroom tyrosinase inhibitors; synthesis, kinetics mechanism and molecular docking studies

Ashraf Z, Rafiq M, Nadeem H, Hassan M, Afzal S, Waseem M, et al.

PLoS One, 2017;12(5):e0178069.
PMID: 28542395 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178069

The present work describesthe development of highly potent mushroom tyrosinase inhibitor better than the standard kojic acid. Carvacrol derivatives 4a-f and 6a-d having substituted benzoic acid and cinnamic acidresidues were synthesized with the aim to possess potent tyrosinase inhibitory activity.The structures of the synthesized compounds were ascertained by their spectroscopic data (FTIR, 1HNMR, 13CNMR and Mass Spectroscopy).Mushroom tyrosinase inhibitory activity of synthesized compounds was determined and it was found that one of the derivative 6c possess higher activity (IC50 0.0167μM) than standard kojic acid (IC50 16.69μM). The derivatives 4c and 6b also showed good tyrosinase inhibitory activity with (IC50 16.69μM) and (IC50 16.69μM) respectively.Lineweaver-Burk and Dixon plots were used for the determination of kinetic mechanism of the compounds 4c and 6b and 6c. The kinetic analysis revealed that compounds 4c and 6b showed mixed-type inhibition while 6c is a non-competitive inhibitor having Ki values19 μM, 10 μM, and 0.05 μMrespectively. The enzyme inhibitory kinetics further showed thatcompounds 6b and 6c formed irreversible enzyme inhibitor complex while 4c bind reversibly with mushroom tyrosinase.The docking studies showed that compound 6c have maximum binding affinity against mushroom tyrosinase (PDBID: 2Y9X) with binding energy value (-7.90 kcal/mol) as compared to others.The 2-hydroxy group in compound 6c interacts with amino acid HIS85 which is present in active binding site. The wet lab results are in good agreement with the dry lab findings.Based upon our investigation we may propose that the compound 6c is promising candidate for the development of safe cosmetic agent.
Xanthenone-based hydrazones as potent α-glucosidase inhibitors: Synthesis, solid state self-assembly and in silico studies

Tariq QU, Malik S, Khan A, Naseer MM, Khan SU, Ashraf A, et al.

Bioorg Chem, 2019 03;84:372-383.
PMID: 30530108 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2018.11.053

Xanthenone based hydrazone derivatives (5a-n) have been synthesized as potential α-glucosidase inhibitors. All synthesized compounds (5a-n) are characterized by their FTIR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and HRMS, and in case of 5g also by X-ray crystallographic technique. The compounds unveiled a varying degree of α-glucosidase inhibitory activity when compared with standard acarbose (IC50 = 375.38 ± 0.12 µM). Amongst the series, compound 5l (IC50 = 62.25 ± 0.11 µM) bearing a trifluoromethyl phenyl group is found to be the most active compound. Molecular modelling is performed to establish the binding pattern of the more active compound 5l, which revealed the significance of substitution pattern. The pharmacological properties of molecules are also calculated by MedChem Designer which determines the ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion) properties of molecules. The solid state self-assembly of compound 5g is discussed to show the conformation and role of iminoamide moiety in the molecular packing.
Synthesis, Kinetics and Computational Explorations of 4-Phenylpiperazine Bearing N-(Aryl)-3-substituted-benzamides as Auspicious Tyrosinase Inhibitors

Zeb A, Abbasi MA, Aziz-Ur-Rehman, Siddiqui SZ, Hassan M, Javed Q, et al.

Chem Biodivers, 2024 Apr;21(4):e202400133.
PMID: 38363553 DOI: 10.1002/cbdv.202400133

In the aimed research study, a new series of N-(aryl)-3-[(4-phenyl-1-piperazinyl)methyl]benzamides was synthesized, which was envisaged as tyrosinase inhibitor. The structures of these newly designed molecules were verified by IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, EI-MS and CHN analysis data. These molecules were screened against tyrosinase and their inhibitory activity explored that these 3-substituted-benzamides exhibit good to excellent potential, comparative to the standard. The Kinetics mechanism was investigated through Lineweaver-Burk plots which depicted that molecules inhibited this enzyme in a competitive mode. Moreover, molecular docking was also performed to determine the binding interaction of all synthesized molecules (ligands) with the active site of tyrosinase enzyme and the results showed that most of the ligands exhibited efficient binding energy values. Therefore, it is anticipated that these molecules might serve as auspicious therapeutic scaffolds for treatment of the tyrosinase associated skin disorders.
Fulltext Diversity of fungal pathogens associated with loquat and development of novel virulence scales

Fahim Abbas M, Batool S, Khaliq S, Mubeen S, Azziz-Ud-Din, Ullah N, et al.

PLoS One, 2021;16(10):e0257951.
PMID: 34648523 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257951

Loquat [Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl.] is an important fruit crop in Pakistan; however, a constant decline in its production is noted due biotic and abiotic stresses, particularly disease infestation. Fungal pathogens are the major disease-causing agents; therefore, their identification is necessary for devising management options. This study explored Taxila, Wah-Cantt, Tret, Chatar, Murree, Kalar-Kahar, Choa-Saidan-Shah and Khan-Pur districts in the Punjab and Khyber Paktoon Khawa (KPK) provinces of Pakistan to explore the diversity of fungal pathogens associated with loquat. The samples were collected from these districts and their microscopic characterizations were accomplished for reliable identification. Alternaria alternata, Curvularia lunata, Lasiodiplodia theobromae, Aspergilus flavis, Botrytis cinerea, Chaetomium globosum, Pestalotiopsis mangiferae and Phomopsis sp. were the fungal pathogens infesting loquat in the study area. The isolates of A. alternata and C. lunata were isolated from leaf spots and fruit rot, while the isolates of L. theobromae were associated with twig dieback. The remaining pathogens were allied with fruit rot. The nucleotide evidence of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions (ITS1, 5.8S, and ITS2) were computed from all the pathogens and submitted in the database of National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). For multigene analysis, beta-tubulin (BT) gene and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) regions were explored for A. alternata and C. lunata isolates, respectively. The virulence scales of leaf spots, fruit rot, and twig dieback diseases of loquat were developed for the first time through this study. It is the first comprehensive study with morpho-molecular identification, and newly developed virulence scales of the fungal pathogens associated with loquat, which improves the understanding of these destructive diseases.

Filters

Please provide feedback to Administrator (afdal@afpm.org.my)

External Links