Noor Islam

The human skeleton is living tissue that is either growing or being renewed. Our understanding of the pathogenesis of bone disorders has progressed considerably over the past 37 years. A large number of genetic and developmental disorders affect the skeleton. Rare bone diseases account for 5% of all birth defects. The skeletal dysplasias are inherited in an autosomal recessive, autosomal dominant, X-linked recessive, and X-linked dominant, and Y-linked manner.

To evaluate the acaricidal effects of some plant oils and tobacco extract on Varroa destructor mites, a study was conducted in laboratory as well as in bee hives at Honeybee Research Institute, NARC, Islamabad. In the lab experiments, clove oil and tobacco extract both proved to be equally effective against mites. The treatments were significantly effective when applied in 5% as compared to 10 and 15% concentrations. The most effective combination was clove oil and tobacco extract when used in 5% concentration for 24 h. In the field experiment all the oils/extract individually and in combinations confirmed clove oil + tobacco extract (T14) the best combination with 96.48±0.52 efficacy. The honey produced in kg was found maximum 20.5±0.29 in treatment T14. The highest number of fallen Varroa mites 381.67±24.31 was also occurred in T14 treatment and difference between the treatments was highly significant. No queens were lost and there was no adult honeybee mortality in any of the col...

Four essential oils of Thyme (Thymus linearis), Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), Mint (Mentha longifolia) and Formic Acid (65%) used at three concentrations (25, 50 and 100%) against Varroa destructor damaging honey bee Apis mellifera colonies in Honeybee Research Institute, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad, Pakistan. The percentage of infestation by V. destructor on worker brood and adult workers, number of dead fallen Varroa on the sheet, per cent mite mortality and their honey yield (kg) was determined before and after the treatments in the experimental colonies. The results revealed that formic acid and the highest concentrations (100%) of tested essential oils caused effective control of Varroa mites, whereas the infestation reduction percentage with formic acid, lemon grass, thyme, mint and rosemary oils was recorded more than 96% after the end of treatments on both worker brood and adult workers. The highest total number of...

Viruses mutate all the time, and the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is no exception. As new variants of the COVID-19 emerge, a slew of new studies suggest that some may be able to evade immune responses triggered by a previous infection or by a vaccine. The novel variants of SARS-CoV-2 including those seen in the UK (2OI/5O1Y.V1/B.1.1.7), South Africa (2OH/5O1Y.V2/B.1.351), Brazil (P.1/2OJ/5O1Y.V3/B.1.1.248) have emerged with the concern of increased infectivity and virulence. Scientists are working to learn more about the characteristics of these strains whether they could cause more severe illness, and whether currently authorized vaccines will protect people against them. All viruses naturally mutate and evolve over time. For example, flu virus change often, which is why doctors recommend that you get a flu shot every year. Various mRNA vaccine platforms have been developed in recent years and validated in studies of immunogenicity and efficacy.

Over years, the voting system has been a democratic way to make a collective decision to express an opinion or selecting a leader. In organizations, voting can occur to elect members of the committee or to choose the roles of candidates. At present, in this era of technological advancement, the voting process became a major issue in order to avoid vulnerabilities like missing votes, multiple voting, and miscount in an election. The manual or semi-automated systems of voting are quite a time consuming, inefficient and unfortunately lack security. Moreover, for COVID-19, physical manual vote taking has become colossal. In this paper, a secure android based mobile voting system named ’mVote’ is developed for conducting vote at different institutes and organizations during and post-pandemic situation. The usability and usefulness of the ’mVote’ mobile application were evaluated through the System Usability Scale (SUS) which was replicated with 75 participants. The findings of the evaluation study showed that the developed ’mVote’ application is usable and will help different organizations and institutes to improve the voting experience during and post-pandemic situation.

Abstract. We have numerically examined the advantages of thickness- and composition-grading of the electron blocking layer (EBL) in InGaN multiquantum well light-emitting diodes. We have enhanced the hole confinement inside the active region, which is critical in GaN-based devices. Low hole injection is more severe when conventional wide bandgap AlGaN EBL is inserted between the last GaN quantum barrier and the p-GaN layer. The results obtained show reduced valence band offset leading to improved hole injection and enhanced device performance.

Background: Bacterial leaf blight (BLB) caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is a major disease and a threat to rice production worldwide. Several biological, chemical and genetic control approaches has resulted the improved management of BLB of rice. Recently, biological control using plant growth-promoting bacteria is emerging as potential alternative to chemicals. Therefore, identification and evaluation of new PGP bacteria from native sources is an essential step to determine their plant growth promoting activities. Objectives The aim of this work was to isolate and identify the plant growth promoting bacteria from rice phylloplane and rhizosphere that antagonistic to X. oryzae pv.oryzae, the causal agent of BLB of rice for eco-friendly management of the disease. Methodology Rice phylloplane and rhizosphere bacteria were isolated from the surface of rice leaves and stem as well as from the soil attached to the roots of rice plants, respectively, by dilution plate technique. The antagonistic activity of these isolated bacteria was determined by dual culture method. The antagonistic bacterial isolates were identified by sequencing of 16SrDNA.Plant growth promoting activities were determined by the production of indole acetic Acid (IAA), siderophore and phosphate solubilization assay. Plant growth promotion was assessed by the determination of root length, shoot length and vigor index. Key findings Sixteen bacterial isolates were identified as antagonist to X. oryzae pv. oryzae out of 300 bacterial isolates by dual culture method. The results revealed that the maximum growth inhibition of X. oryzae pv.oryzae was recorded in plate inoculated with BDISOB05P while the minimum growth inhibition was recorded by BDISOB98P and BDISOB272R. The moderate growth inhibition was recorded in BDISOB241P, BDISOB16P, BDISOB306R, BDISOB242P, BDISOB220R, BDISOB04P, BDISOB258R, BDISOB219R, BDISOB221R, BDISOB275R, BDISOB283R and BDISOB61R. The antagonistic bacterial isolates were identified by sequencing of 16SrDNA. The bacterial isolates were identified BDISOB04P as Pseudomonas putida, BDISOB05P as Pseudomonas putida, BDISOB16P as Bacillus sp., BDISOB98P as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, BDISOB241P as Burkholderia sp., BDISOB242P as Burkholderia gladioli, BDISOB219R as Pseudomonas taiwanensis, BDISOB220R as Serratia sp., BDISOB221R as Pseudomonas sp., BDISOB222R as Pseudomonas plecoglossicida, BDISOB258R as Pseudomonas putida, BDISOB272R as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, BDISOB275R as Pseudomonas putida , BDISOB283R as Pseudomonas fluorescens and BDISOB306R as Pseudomonas putida. The results of growth promoting determinants revealed that eight antagonistic bacterial isolates were observed to produce Indole acetic acid (IAA), sixteen bacterial isolates were able to produce siderophore and nine bacterial isolates were found to show phosphate solubilizing capability. The results of plant growth promotion showed that these bacterial isolates can increase the root growth, shoot growth and vigor index. Conclusion The results conceded some of the PGP bacterial isolates seem potential in both growth inhibition of X. oryzae pv. oryzae and growth promotion of rice plants.

With the emergence of the smart grid (SG), real-time interaction is favorable for both residents and power companies in optimal load scheduling to alleviate electricity cost and peaks in demand. In this paper, a modular framework is introduced for efficient load scheduling. The proposed framework is comprised of four modules: power company module, forecaster module, home energy management controller (HEMC) module, and resident module. The forecaster module receives a demand response (DR), information (real-time pricing scheme (RTPS) and critical peak pricing scheme (CPPS)), and load from the power company module to forecast pricing signals and load. The HEMC module is based on our proposed hybrid gray wolf-modified enhanced differential evolutionary (HGWmEDE) algorithm using the output of the forecaster module to schedule the household load. Each appliance of the resident module receives the schedule from the HEMC module. In a smart home, all the appliances operate according to the ...

Drowning is an important cause of mortality among children in rural Bangladesh. Children aged 1–4 year(s) are at a high risk of death from drowning. Although deaths of children due to drowning in Bangladesh are acknowledged as an important cause of death, little effort has been made to address the issue of preventing deaths from this cause. This study has attempted to describe the problem and suggests possible prevention strategies, which may contribute to reducing childhood mortality from drowning. Data presented in this study were collected from Matlab where ICDDR, B has been maintaining a demographic surveillance since 1966. During the study period from 1985 to 2000, 989 deaths from drowning were reported, of which 796 (80.5%) were children in the age-group of 1–4 year(s), 48 (4.8%) were in the age-group of less than one year, and 145 (14.7%) in the age-group of 5–19 years. During 1985–2000, death rate per 1,000 children due to all causes among children of 1–4-year age-group decr...