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Fulltext Cost implication analysis of concrete and Masonry waste in construction project

Kasvar, K.K., Nagapan, S., Abdullah, A.H., Ullah, K., Deraman, R., Yunus, R., et al.

Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology, 2017;25(105):177-184.
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Concrete and masonry waste are the main types of waste typically generated at a construction project. There is a lack of studies in the country regarding the cost implication of managing these types of construction waste To address this need in Malaysia, the study is carried out to measure the disposal cost of concrete and masonry waste. The study was carried out by a site visit method using an indirect measurement approach to quantify the quantity of waste generated at the project. Based on the recorded number of trips for waste collection, the total expenditure to dispose the waste were derived in three construction stages. Data was collected four times a week for the period July 2014 to July 2015. The total waste generated at the study site was 762.51 m3 and the cost incurred for the 187 truck trips required to dispose the waste generated from the project site to the nearby landfill was RM22,440.00. The findings will be useful to both researchers and policy makers concerned with construction waste.
Fulltext T-spherical fuzzy power aggregation operators and their applications in multi-attribute decision making

Garg H, Ullah K, Mahmood T, Hassan N, Jan N

J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput, 2021;12(10):9067-9080.
PMID: 33500740 DOI: 10.1007/s12652-020-02600-z

The paper aims to present the concept of power aggregation operators for the T-spherical fuzzy sets (T-SFSs). T-SFS is a powerful concept, with four membership functions denoting membership, abstinence, non-membership and refusal degree, to deal with the uncertain information as compared to other existing fuzzy sets. On the other hand, the relationship between the different pairs of the attributes are well recorded in terms of power operators. Thus, keeping these advantages of T-SFSs and power operator, the objective of this work is to define several weighted averaging and geometric power aggregation operators. The stated operators named as T-spherical fuzzy weighted, ordered weighted, hybrid averaging and geometric operators for the collection of the T-SFSs. The various properties and the special cases of them are also derived. Further, the consequences of proposed new power aggregation operators are studied in view of some constraints. Finally, a multiple attribute decision making algorithm, based on the proposed operators, is established to solve the problems with uncertain information and illustrate with numerical examples. A comparative study, superiority analysis and discussion of the proposed approach are furnished to confirm the approach.
Proteomic map of the differentially expressed proteins in the skin of Ctenopharyngodon idella against Aeromonas hydrophila infection

Ali S, Dawar FU, Ullah W, Hassan M, Ullah K, Zhao Z

Fish Shellfish Immunol Rep, 2023 Dec 15;5:100122.
PMID: 38023345 DOI: 10.1016/j.fsirep.2023.100122

The skin mucus of fish is an important part of the innate immune system, which is poorly understood at the proteomic level. The study established a complete map of the proteins in the skin mucus of Ctenopharangdon idella (C. idella) and discussed the Differentially Expressed Proteins (DEPs) after Aeromonas hydrophila (A. hydrophila) infection. Using Label Free Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis, a total of 126 proteins were identified as differentially expressed, 89 proteins of which were upregulated, and 37 proteins were downregulated. Functional annotations of DEPs showed that the upregulated proteins in the skin mucus of the treated group were mostly associated with complement system and cytoskeleton proteins, whereas downregulated proteins were associated with metabolism. The key upregulated immune proteins were transferrin variant C, lysozyme g, annexin A11, 26S proteasome non-ATPase regulatory subunit 8, hypothetical protein ROHU_000884, 60S ribosomal L7a, calpain-2 catalytic subunit-like protein, calpain-9-like protein, complement component C9, complement C3, cathepsin S, cathepsin Z, 14 kDa apolipo, heat shock protein and intelectin, whereas, leukocyte elastase inhibitor, annexin A11, C-factor-like protein, biotinidase isoform X1 and epidermal growth factor receptor substrate 15-like were the downregulated proteins. Moreover, we for the first-time report proteins such as coactosin, lamin-B2 and kelch 12, which were never reported in fish. Our study directly pointing out the possible immunological biomarkers in the skin mucus of C. idella after A. hydrophila treatment. Each of the protein we report in this study could be used as base to establish their mechanism of action during bacterial infection that may contribute to the strategies against bacterial prevention and control in fishes.
Natural and synthetic polymer-based smart biomaterials for management of ulcerative colitis: a review of recent developments and future prospects

Sohail M, Mudassir, Minhas MU, Khan S, Hussain Z, de Matas M, et al.

Drug Deliv Transl Res, 2019 04;9(2):595-614.
PMID: 29611113 DOI: 10.1007/s13346-018-0512-x

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory disease of the colon that severely affects the quality of life of patients and usually responds well to anti-inflammatory agents for symptomatic relief; however, many patients need colectomy, a surgical procedure to remove whole or part of the colon. Though various types of pharmacological agents have been employed for the management of UC, the lack of effectiveness is usually predisposed to various reasons including lack of target-specific delivery of drugs and insufficient drug accumulation at the target site. To overcome these glitches, many researchers have designed and characterized various types of versatile polymeric biomaterials to achieve target-specific delivery of drugs via oral route to optimize their targeting efficiency to the colon, to improve drug accumulation at the target site, as well as to ameliorate off-target effects of chemotherapy. Therefore, the aim of this review was to summarize and critically discuss the pharmaceutical significance and therapeutic feasibility of a wide range of natural and synthetic biomaterials for efficient drug targeting to colon and rationalized treatment of UC. Among various types of biomaterials, natural and synthetic polymer-based hydrogels have shown promising targeting potential due to their innate pH responsiveness, sustained and controlled release characteristics, and microbial degradation in the colon to release the encapsulated drug moieties. These characteristic features make natural and synthetic polymer-based hydrogels superior to conventional pharmacological strategies for the management of UC.
Triazinoindole analogs as potent inhibitors of α-glucosidase: synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular docking studies

Rahim F, Ullah K, Ullah H, Wadood A, Taha M, Ur Rehman A, et al.

Bioorg Chem, 2015 Feb;58:81-7.
PMID: 25528720 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2014.12.001

A new series of triazinoindole analogs 1-11 were synthesized, characterized by EI-MS and (1)H NMR, evaluated for α-glucosidase inhibitory potential. All eleven (11) analogs showed different range of α-glucosidase inhibitory potential with IC50 value ranging between 2.46±0.008 and 312.79±0.06 μM when compared with the standard acarbose (IC50, 38.25±0.12 μM). Among the series, compounds 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 11 showed excellent inhibitory potential with IC50 values 2.46±0.008, 37.78±0.05, 28.91±0.0, 38.12±0.04, 37.43±0.03, 36.89±0.06 and 37.11±0.05 μM respectively. All other compounds also showed good enzyme inhibition. The binding modes of these analogs were confirmed through molecular docking.
Fulltext Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the general population of Pakistan regarding typhoid conjugate vaccine: findings of a cross-sectional study

Tahir MJ, Zaman M, Saffi J, Asghar MS, Tariq W, Ahmed F, et al.

Front Public Health, 2023;11:1151936.
PMID: 37333546 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1151936

Typhoid fever, a common enteric disease in Pakistan, caused by Salmonella typhi, is becoming an extended drug-resistant organism and is preventable through the typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV). Public adherence to preventive measures is influenced by knowledge and attitude toward the vaccine. This study investigates the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the general population of Pakistan toward TCV. The differences in mean scores and factors associated with typhoid conjugate vaccine knowledge, attitudes, and practices were investigated. A total of 918 responses were received with a mean age of 25.9 ± 9.6, 51% were women, and 59.6% had graduation-level education. The majority of them responded that vaccines prevent illness (85.3%) and decrease mortality and disability (92.6%), and typhoid could be prevented by vaccination (86.7%). In total, 77.7 and 80.8% considered TCV safe and effective, respectively. Of 389 participants with children, 53.47% had vaccinated children, according to the extended program on immunization (EPI). Higher family income has a higher odds ratio (OR) for willingness toward booster dose of TCV [crude odds ratio (COR) = 4.920, p-value <0.01; adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 2.853, value of p <0.001], and negative attitude regarding the protective effect of TCV has less willingness toward the booster dose with statistical significance (COR = 0.388, value of p = 0.017; aOR = 0.198, value of p = 0.011). The general population of Pakistan had a good level of knowledge about the benefits of TCV, and attitude and practices are in favor of the usage of TCV. However, a few religious misconceptions are prevalent in public requiring the efforts to overcome them to promote the usage of vaccines to prevent the disease and antibiotic resistance.
Fulltext Impact of Cobalt Doping on the Structural, Optical, and Dielectric Properties of MgAl2O4 Spinel Material

Ullah K, Khan SA, Zaman A, Sarker MR, Ali A, Tirth V, et al.

ACS Omega, 2023 Aug 22;8(33):29959-29965.
PMID: 37636967 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c00541

Nanomaterials (NMs) with structural, optical, and dielectric properties are called functional or smart materials and have favorable applications in various fields of material science and nanotechnology. Pure and Co-doped MgAl2O4 were synthesized by using the sol-gel combustion method. A systematic investigation was carried out to understand the effects of the Co concentration on the crystalline phase, morphology, and optical and dielectric properties of Co-doped MgAl2O4. X-ray diffraction confirmed the cubic spinel structure with the Fd3̅m space group, and there was no impurity phase, while the surface morphology of the samples was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. The dielectric properties of the synthesized material are investigated using an LCR meter with respect to the variation in frequency (1-2 GHz), and their elemental composition has been examined through the energy-dispersive X-ray technique. The existence of the metal-oxygen Mg-Al-O bond has been confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The value of the dielectric constant decreases with the increasing frequency and Co concentration. The optical behaviors of the Co2+-doped MgAl2O4 reveal that the optical properties were enhanced by increasing the cobalt concentration, which ultimately led to a narrower band gap, which make them exquisite and suitable for energy storage applications, especially for super capacitors. This work aims to focus on the effect of cobalt ions in different concentrations on structural, optical, and dielectric properties.
Fulltext Socio-demographic determinants of Monkeypox virus preventive behavior: A cross-sectional study in Pakistan

Jamil H, Idrees M, Idrees K, Tariq W, Sayyeda Q, Asghar MS, et al.

PLoS One, 2023;18(8):e0279952.
PMID: 37561764 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279952

BACKGROUND: Monkeypox (mpox), re-emerging zoonotic infectious disease, is striking the world with serious public health concerns, especially in non-endemic countries. The public's knowledge and attitude towards the monkeypox virus (MPXV) influence their adherence to preventive strategies. Therefore, we aimed to assess the public's knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions (KAP) of MPXV in Pakistan.
METHODS: We collected data for this cross-sectional study from 1040 participants via online self-reported questionnaire from July 5th, 2022, to August 1st, 2022. The questionnaire consisted of a total of 29 items in four sections, assessing socio-demographics, knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding MPXV. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS V.25, and factors associated with MPXV knowledge, attitude, and practices were identified by using logistic regression analyses.
RESULTS: A total of 1040 participants were included. 61.4% were male, and 57.2% had graduation level education. Only 34.4% had good knowledge about MPXV, and 30% knew the effectiveness of the smallpox vaccine against MPXV. 41.7% had a positive attitude, 48.6% agreed that it is a fatal disease, and 44.6% were in favour of banning travel from endemic to non-endemic regions. 57.7% had good practices, and 69.9% would use protective measures if MPXV became an epidemic. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that gender and education significantly impacted knowledge (p<0.05). While monthly income status had a significant impact on attitudes (p<0.05). The practices were positively correlated with gender and education (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION: The majority of study participants had inadequate levels of knowledge, and attitudes regarding MPXV. To prevent the emergence and spread of MPXV in Pakistan, a comprehensive strategic framework for public health education must be established and implemented.
Fulltext Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on knowledge, perceptions, and effects of telemedicine among the general population of Pakistan: A national survey

Tariq W, Asar MAT, Tahir MJ, Ullah I, Ahmad Q, Raza A, et al.

Front Public Health, 2022;10:1036800.
PMID: 36684982 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1036800

BACKGROUND: Telemedicine is the provision of healthcare services through information and communication technology with the potential to mobilize all facets of the health sector to prevent the spread of COVID-19, provide quality healthcare, protect patients, doctors, and the public from exposure to disease, and reduce the burden on the healthcare system. This study aims to identify knowledge, perceptions, willingness to use, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on telemedicine awareness.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from 27 May 2020 to 17 June 2020 using the convenient sampling technique in the general population of Pakistan. Data were collected by designing an online questionnaire consisting of demographic information, knowledge, attitude perceptions, barriers, utilization, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on telemedicine.
RESULTS: Of the 602 participants included in the study, 70.1% had heard about telemedicine, 54.3% had a good understanding of the definition of "telemedicine," 81.4% had not used telemedicine in the past, 29.9% did not know that telemedicine was available before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 70.4% responded that the COVID-19 pandemic had changed their attitudes toward telemedicine. Gender (p = 0.017) and family income (p = 0.027) had a significant association with the perception of the benefits of telemedicine.
CONCLUSION: The knowledge and usage of telemedicine are lacking due to inadequate awareness and technology. The need of the hour is to maximize the application of telemedicine to overcome the deficiencies of the healthcare system. Hence, it is essential to increase awareness through various means and develop an appropriate infrastructure to attain maximum benefits from telehealth services.