Comparative analysis of the equilibrium, kinetics, and characterization of the mechanism of rapid adsorption of Congo red on nano-biosorbents based on agricultural waste in industrial effluents.

This study aims to remove Congo red dye from industrial effluent using economical agriculturally-based nano-biosorbents like magnetic orange peel, peanut shells, and tea waste. The nano-biosorbents were characterized by various analytical techniques like SEM, FT-IR, BET and XRD. The highest adsorption capacity was obtained under the following ideal conditions: pH = 6 (orange peel and peanut shells), pH = 3 (tea waste), and dosages of nano-biosorbents with varying timeframes of 50 min for tea waste and peanut shells and 30 min for orange peel. The study found that tea waste had the highest removal rate of 94% due to its high porosity and responsible functional groups, followed by peanut shells at 83% and orange peel at 68%. The Langmuir isotherm model was found to be the most suitable, with R2 values of 0.99 for tea waste, 0.92 for orange peel, and 0.71 for peanut shells. On the other hand, a pseudo-second-order kinetic model was very feasible, showing an R2 value of 0.99 for tea waste, 0.98 for peanut shells and 0.97 for orange peel. The significance of the current study lies in its practical application, enabling efficient waste management and water purification, thereby preserving a clean and safe environment.

Economic burden of tobacco use in Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: The lack of reliable tobacco healthcare and economic cost estimates leaves the tobacco industry undertaxed and thriving in Pakistan and makes the country as one of the top tobacco-consuming nations. To facilitate effective tobacco tax policymaking, this study estimates the economic cost of smoking-attributable diseases and deaths in Pakistan. METHODS: A nationally representative sample survey of 13 000 households was administered to gather the data required to estimate different cost components of smoking-attributable diseases through the prevalence-based approach. FINDINGS: The total smoking-attributable economic cost of all diseases and deaths in Pakistan in the year 2018-2019 for persons aged 35 years or older is 615.07 billion ($3.85 billion). Similarly, three major diseases, namely cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease, along with associated deaths, cost the nation PKR437.8 billion ($2.7 billion) of which 77% is the indirect cost. The three major diseases make 71% of the total estimated cost, nearly two-thirds of which is borne by rural residents, nine-tenth by males and more than four-fifths by the citizens in the 35-64 years age group. CONCLUSION: The total annual economic costs of all smoking-attributable diseases and deaths and those of the three major diseases equal 1.6% and 1.15% of Pakistan's gross domestic product, respectively. The tax contribution of tobacco sector is merely 20% of the total estimated cost. The finding of huge economic and health costs of smoking makes a convincing case for policymakers to realise the true value of the industry's contribution and raise tobacco taxes to the level of full cost recovery.

Estimating the price elasticity for cigarette and chewed tobacco in Pakistan: evidence from microlevel data.

BACKGROUND: While there is a large literature on the magnitude of price elasticity of cigarette demand, less is known about the same for chewed tobacco. Moreover, the studies on cigarette demand in Pakistan tend to ignore the heterogeneity in the smoking behaviour. This study estimates price elasticity for cigarette and chewed tobacco demand across different income groups, provinces and regions; and use these coefficients for simulating Pakistan's tax policy and its impact on revenue and health outcomes. METHOD: Deaton model was applied on the 2015-2016 Household Integrated Income and Consumption Survey dataset to estimate price elasticities of different tobacco products. RESULTS: The demand for cigarettes is unitary elastic (-1.06), suggesting that a 1% increase in cigarette price would reduce its consumption by 1.06%. On the other hand, the demand for chewed tobacco is relatively inelastic (-0.55). Provincially, the own-price elasticity of cigarettes is negative and significant for all but Kyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province; whereas that of the chewed tobacco is negative and significant only for KP and Balochistan. Besides, the price elasticity of demand for both tobacco products is negative and significant only for lower income group and the rural region. The tax simulations favour a two-tiered tax system over the existing three-tiered system as the former will bring significantly better tax revenue and health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: While confirming the effectiveness of tax policies in curbing tobacco use, this study concludes that higher tobacco taxes could increase tax revenue and improve public health in Pakistan.

Advances and Trends in Real Time Visual Crowd Analysis.

Real time crowd analysis represents an active area of research within the computer vision community in general and scene analysis in particular. Over the last 10 years, various methods for crowd management in real time scenario have received immense attention due to large scale applications in people counting, public events management, disaster management, safety monitoring an so on. Although many sophisticated algorithms have been developed to address the task; crowd management in real time conditions is still a challenging problem being completely solved, particularly in wild and unconstrained conditions. In the proposed paper, we present a detailed review of crowd analysis and management, focusing on state-of-the-art methods for both controlled and unconstrained conditions. The paper illustrates both the advantages and disadvantages of state-of-the-art methods. The methods presented comprise the seminal research works on crowd management, and monitoring and then culminating state-of-the-art methods of the newly introduced deep learning methods. Comparison of the previous methods is presented, with a detailed discussion of the direction for future research work. We believe this review article will contribute to various application domains and will also augment the knowledge of the crowd analysis within the research community.

Green synthesized silver nanoparticles from eucalyptus leaves can enhance shelf life of banana without penetrating in pulp.

Bananas are exposed to serious post-harvest problems resulting in agricultural and economic losses across the world. The severity of problem is linked with the process of rapid ripening and pathogens attack. Such problems have led to economic losses as well as a lower yield of nutritionally rich bananas. The global demand to increase the life span of bananas and their protection from pathogens-borne diseases urged the use of antimicrobial edible coatings of nanoparticles. The present experiment has explored the innovative development of green synthesized nanoparticles from Eucalyptus leaf extract (ELE) to increase the shelf life of bananas up to 32 days from the day of collection. Statistically significant results were recorded (P = 0.05) by applying five different concentrations of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in ranges of 0.01-0.05%. Various morphological and physiological parameters such as color, decay, firmness, weight loss, pulp to peel ratio, pH, titrable acidity (TA), phenolic contents, protein estimation, ethylene production, starch content and total soluble sugars were measured in Cavendish banana (Basrai). Bananas treated with 0.01% AgNPs showed maximum control on its ripeness over morphological and physiological changes. The increase in shelf life was in order 0.01%>0.02%>0.03%>0.04%>0.05%> control. Further, AgNPs reduced the process of ripening by controlling ethylene production. The result has also proved the safety of banana consumption by simple removal of banana peel as penetration of AgNPs from the peel to the pulp was not detected. It is recommended to use 0.01% AgNPs to enhance the shelf life of banana without effecting its nutritive value.

Production of Glucoamylase from Novel Strain of Alternaria Alternata under Solid State Fermentation.

Glucoamylase has an essential role as biocatalyst in various important industries of Pakistan. It is synthesized by using various fungal and bacterial strains, and different ecocultural conditions are applied under solid substrate fermentation method (SSF) to get the highest yield of glucoamylase. Alternaria alternata is an important fungus that can grow on industrial raw material like wheat bran, dried potato powder, tea leaves, rice husk, and sugar cane peel which are used as substrate. Among all, dried potato powder (10g) proved the best fermentation media for growth of fungal strain as well as maximum glucoamylase producer. Moreover, several chemical and physical states were also explored through solid substrate fermentation technique on glucoamylase yield. The highest glucoamylase production was recorded after 72 hours incubation in incubation chamber with 10g raw substrate, 1ml inoculum spore solution, 30°C temperature, and 5 pH. Further, phosphate buffer (5 pH) as moistening agent, 5% starch concentration and media additive as nitrogen (yeast extract), and carbon source (maltose) were screened for maximum glucoamylase titer (17.3 ± 0.05a°U/ml/min) and the highest specific activity (39.2U/mg). These cultural conditions were most appropriate for growth of A. alternata on solid media and production of highest glucoamylase under solid state fermentation procedure that could be utilized for commercial synthesis of glucoamylase.

Factors Impeding Health-Care Professionals to Effectively Treat Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients in Pakistan: A Qualitative Investigation.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, first reported in late December 2019, is regarded as the most significant public health emergency of the century. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the current outbreak of COVID-19 has affected millions of people and killed hundreds of thousands in more than 200 countries, including Pakistan. Health-care professionals (HCPs) cannot minimize human interactions or isolate themselves from patients due to their jobs and moral duties. Hence, the outbreak needed HCPs to work in adverse and challenging conditions with possible mental health problems. In light of the stated background, this study aims to explore and understand the factors that impede HCPs to effectively treat COVID-19 patients in Karachi, Pakistan. Based on qualitative methods, a phenomenological approach was considered to record the true experiences of HCPs. Twelve doctors and nurses were recruited from five COVID-19 designated hospitals in Karachi, Sindh Province, using purposive and snowball sampling. Semi-structured in-depth telephone interviews were conducted from April 6 to 14, 2020, and analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings suggest that there were two types of constraints, institutional and personal, which were impeding HCPs to treat COVID-19 patients effectively. Institutional constraints include the poor condition of isolation wards, inadequate availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), excessive and uneven workload, and absence of emotional and psychological support in hospitals. Besides, personal constraints include nervousness due to the novel virus, a constant fear of becoming infected, fear of taking virus to family, extreme isolation and loneliness, and feeling of powerlessness. The study found that HCPs in Pakistan have been dealing with a high risk of infection, causing mental health problems such as stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. These mental health problems not only affect attention, understanding, and decision-making capacity of HCPs, which could hinder the fight against COVID-19, but they could also have a continuous effect on their overall well-being on a long-term basis. Therefore, the present study outlines important clinical and policy strategies that are needed to support HCPs as the pandemic continues.