Estimation of genetic components, heterosis and combining ability of elite Pakistani wheat varieties for yield attributing traits and stripe rust response.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a staple food and major source of dietary calories in Pakistan. Improving wheat varieties with higher grain yield and disease resistance is a prime objective. The knowledge of genetic behaviour of germplasm is key. To achieve this objective, elite wheat varieties were crossed in 4 by 3, line × tester design, and tested in 2019 in a triplicate yield trial to estimate genetic variance, general and specific combining ability, mid-parent heterosis and stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis L.). High grain 3358 kg·ha-1 was recorded in F1 hybrid (ZRG-79 × PAK-13). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant genotypic variance in grain yield. Broad sense heritability (H2) was recorded in the range of 28 to 100 %. General combining ability (GCA) significant for grain yield in parents except FSD-08 and PS-05 was recorded, while specific combining ability (SCA) was recorded to be highly significant for grain yield only in two crosses (ZRG-79 × NR-09 and ZRG-79 × PAK-13). Mid-parent heterosis was estimated in the range of -28 to 62.6 %. Cross combinations ZRG-79 × PAK-13 depicted highly significant mid-parent heterosis (62.6 %). Highly significant correlation was observed among spike length, spikelets per spike, plant height and 1000-grain weight. Rust resistance index was recorded in the range of 0 to 8.5. These findings suggest exploitation of GCA for higher grain yield is important due to the presence of additive gene action and selection in the filial generations will be effective with improved rust resistance, while cross combinations ZRG-79 × PAK-13 high GCA are best suited for hybrid development.

Adherence with standard guidelines among doctors involved in aerosol generating procedures to control COVID-19 transmission.

Objectives: To review the strategies for controlling COVID-19 transmission among doctors involved in aerosol generating procedures. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad from September to November 2020, using a 21-itemed initially piloted self-administered questionnaire designed on Google forms. It was shared with doctors involved in Aerosol generating medical procedures (AGMPs) by using social media applications. After the data was collected, it was analyzed using SPSS version 21. Results: A total of 136 doctors participated in the study that included 59 female and 77 male participants. Our 67 (49.3%) participants screened their patients for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 before a routine checkup. The most common disinfectant used for reusable medical equipment by 62 (45.6%) respondents was alcohol swab, 57 (41.9%) did not disinfect reusable equipment and 17 (12.5%) used Dettol water spray. Conclusion: Majority of the doctors involved in AGMPS are not following the guidelines provided by international and national bodies. As such adherence to guidelines can help prevent COVID19 transmission in frontline doctors especially those involved in aerosol generating procedures.

An Exploration of Recent Intelligent Image Analysis Techniques for Visual Pavement Surface Condition Assessment.

Road pavement condition assessment is essential for maintenance, asset management, and budgeting for pavement infrastructure. Countries allocate a substantial annual budget to maintain and improve local, regional, and national highways. Pavement condition is assessed by measuring several pavement characteristics such as roughness, surface skid resistance, pavement strength, deflection, and visual surface distresses. Visual inspection identifies and quantifies surface distresses, and the condition is assessed using standard rating scales. This paper critically analyzes the research trends in the academic literature, professional practices and current commercial solutions for surface condition ratings by civil authorities. We observe that various surface condition rating systems exist, and each uses its own defined subset of pavement characteristics to evaluate pavement conditions. It is noted that automated visual sensing systems using intelligent algorithms can help reduce the cost and time required for assessing the condition of pavement infrastructure, especially for local and regional road networks. However, environmental factors, pavement types, and image collection devices are significant in this domain and lead to challenging variations. Commercial solutions for automatic pavement assessment with certain limitations exist. The topic is also a focus of academic research. More recently, academic research has pivoted toward deep learning, given that image data is now available in some form. However, research to automate pavement distress assessment often focuses on the regional pavement condition assessment standard that a country or state follows. We observe that the criteria a region adopts to make the evaluation depends on factors such as pavement construction type, type of road network in the area, flow and traffic, environmental conditions, and region's economic situation. We summarized a list of publicly available datasets for distress detection and pavement condition assessment. We listed approaches focusing on crack segmentation and methods concentrating on distress detection and identification using object detection and classification. We segregated the recent academic literature in terms of the camera's view and the dataset used, the year and country in which the work was published, the F1 score, and the architecture type. It is observed that the literature tends to focus more on distress identification ("presence/absence" detection) but less on distress quantification, which is essential for developing approaches for automated pavement rating.

The rise of 3D Printing entangled with smart computer aided design during COVID-19 era.

During the current Pandemic, seven and a half million flights worldwide were canceled which disrupted the supply chain of all types of goods such as, personal protective gears, medical health devices, raw materials, food, and other essential equipments. The demand for health and medical related goods increased during this period globally, while the production using classical manufacturing techniques were effected because of the lockdowns and disruption in the transporation system. This created the need of geo scattered, small, and rapid manufacturing units along with a smart computer aided design (CAD) facility. The availability of 3D printing technologies and open source CAD design made it possible to overcome this need. In this article, we present an extensive review on the utilization of 3D printing technology in the days of pandamic. We observe that 3D printing together with smart CAD design show promise to overcome the disruption caused by the lockdown of classical manufacturing units specially for medical and testing equipment, and protective gears. We observe that there are several short communications, commentaries, correspondences, editorials and mini reviews compiled and published; however, a systematic state-of-the-art review is required to identify the significance of 3D printing, design for additive manufacturing (AM), and digital supply chain for handling emergency situations and in the post-COVID era. We present a review of various benefits of 3DP particularly in emergency situations such as a pandemic. Furthermore, some relevant iterative design and 3DP case studies are discussed systematically. Finally, this article highlights the areas that can help to control the emergency situation such as a pandemic, and critically discusses the research gaps that need further research in order to exploit the full potential of 3DP in pandemic and post-pandemic future era.

Seeking motivation for selecting Medical Profession as a Career Choice.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the motivational factors of medical students for selecting medical career as a profession. METHODS: This was a survey based cross-sectional study. Medical students of first and second year from private and public medical colleges of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were recruited via convenient sampling and a self-based questionnaire was distributed to them. Besides demographics, questions were based on factors influencing medical students to pursue medical career. Data was collected and descriptive analysis was done using SPSS 21. RESULTS: A total of 300 medical students participated in the study; 129 (43%) of them were males and 171 (57%) were females with mean age of 19.35 years. Among Humanitarian based questions; Serving Humanity gained highest percentage, followed by sympathies for mankind and health for everyone sequentially. In Societal factors, Prestigious Profession and in Scientific factors based questions Challenging Field ranked first. Amongst all the questions Prestigious Profession takes the lead. CONCLUSION: Major motivation behind selecting medical field was prestigious profession followed by altruism. By understanding medical students' motivational factors for pursuing medical field we would be able to analyze the future trend of professionals.

Role of Plexin B1 in a Breast Cancer Cohort of Pakistani Patients and its Contribution Towards Cancer Metastasis as Indicated by an In Vitro Model.

BACKGROUND/AIM: In the current study, the role of plexin B1 in breast cancer metastasis was explored. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Freshly-excised tumours along with background tissues of affected patients (n=121) were collected from Pakistani hospitals and processed for RNA isolation and cDNA synthesis. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, expression of plexin B1 was evaluated and correlated with clinicopathological parameters. Furthermore, involvement of plexin B1 in metastasis was explored by generating gene knockdown in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cells. RESULTS: Poorly-differentiated tumours showed low plexin B1 expression in comparison to well-differentiated ones. Similarly, reduced plexin B1 expression correlated positively with advanced tumour stage and metastasis. Loss of plexin B1 significantly reduced cell adhesion in comparison with respective control cell lines (p<0.05). Knockdown of plexin B1 in MDA-MB-231 cells led to a remarkable increase in cell motility in contrast to the respective control. CONCLUSION: Loss of plexin B1 expression might play a pivotal role in enhancing the metastatic potential of breast cancer cells.

Mucocele of appendix with an elevated carcinoembryonic antigen: A case report.

Mucocele of the appendix is an uncommon disease in which there is cystic dilatation of the appendix caused by mucus secretion and usually associated with benign or malignant causes. Preoperative diagnosis is difficult as the patient presents with non-specific clinical symptoms. We report a case of mucocele of the appendix with elevated serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) - a condition sparsely reported in literature. Patient presented with pain in the right iliac fossa for 7 months. On exploration, a cystic mass of the appendix without perforation was found in right iliac fossa. There was no lymph nodes enlargement. Appendicectomy was performed with subsequent normalization of CEA level and histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of mucinous neoplasm of the appendix. Patient is feeling well after one year of follow up.

Ewing's Sarcoma in Scapular Region.

Ewing's sarcoma (ES) primarily affects bones and commonly presents in adolescents and young adults. This paper reports a rare case of extra osseous ES of the scapular region in a 9 years old girl. She was treated by a multidisciplinary approach including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She was followed up for two years and remained well.

Huge sub-mandibular gland tumour.

Salivary gland neoplasms are a diverse group of tumours and appropriate treatment depends on adequate understanding of the pathophysiologic behaviour of each tumour type. Most (95%) salivary glands occur in adults. Benign tumours are slow growing tumours and attain a considerable size before presenting to surgeon. We report a case of huge tumour of left submandibular gland that presented in our surgical outpatient department, and had developed over last twenty years. It was diagnosed as a benign mixed tumour of salivary gland and was successfully excised. Histopathology confirmed it to be a benign pleomorphic adenoma.

Bilateral pneumothoraces treated with a single chest drain.

Resolution of bilateral pneumothoraces with a single chest drain is seldom seen in clinical practice. A 76-year-old man underwent coronary artery bypass grafting following which he developed bilateral pneumothoraces.