Abstract The current study aimed at the quinoa-wheat composite flour's characterization (including total phenolics, total flavonoids, and antioxidant activity) as well as its effect on dry cake sensory quality. Findings revealed a rise in ash content, fat, protein, and crude fiber of composite-flour (0.56-1.23%, 1.13-1.76%, 10.14-11.02%, and 0.23-1.04%, respectively) with an increase of quinoa flour (5-20%). The addition of quinoa flour to the composite flour enhanced cake texture (0.26-.70 kg), but it also decreased L-value of cake crumb (55.29-50.73). Total flavonoids (56.44-59.48 mg QE/100 g) and antioxidant activity (4.66-9.76%) increased as quinoa flour was increased, whereas total phenolics (8.68-5.46 mgGAE/g) decreased. By mixing wheat flour with quinoa flour, the nutritional value of wheat flour was increased. During sensory evaluation, the cake made from composite-flour containing 10% quinoa-flour scored the highest overall acceptability. Sensory quality of last two treatments, which included 15% and 20% quinoa flour, was lower. Quinoa seeds had a better nutritional profile than wheat, with higher levels of amino acids, minerals, dietary fibers, and oil. Since wheat is a staple food in Pakistan, adding quinoa-flour would help to reduce malnutrition in Pakistan. Furthermore, no previous research on the suitability of quinoa-wheat flour for dry cake has been conducted on Pakistani wheat flour.

Abstract The present study was designed to evaluate functional potential of Aloe vera juice against (CCl4 induced) hepatotoxicity using animal model. Biochemical analyses including liver, renal enzymes, bone biomarkers and lipid profile were conducted after 4 weeks of oral Aloe vera juice administration. Liver enzymes, AST, ALP and total bilirubin were reduced up to 15-7%, 60-32.52% and 29-48%, respectively in Aloe vera juice treated rats i.e., 10 mL/kg and 20 mL/kg doses. Reduction in serum cholesterol (8%), LDL (12%) and triglycerides (15%) were observed. Urea was significantly reduced up to 11% which further reduced up to 30% at higher dose. Increased content of serum proteins (23-50%) and albumin (40-116%) were found at the different doses. Vitamin D was found maximum in G4 i.e., 38.63 mg/dL as compared to lowest i.e., 5.12 mg/dL in G2, similarly improvement in calcium i.e., 11-22% was observed in G3 and G4. The serum oxidative stress markers indicated raised superoxide dismutase (9%), glutathione (15%), catalase (9%) and reduced lipid peroxidation 78% at higher concentration of Aloe vera juice consumption. In addition, histological evaluation also depicted positive impact on hepatic and renal portfolio in all treated rats. All of the findings enlighten the potential of Aloe vera juice as a functional beverage.

Abstract: Effect of compression casting technique on the water absorption characteristics of low grade 100% Recycled Aggregate Concrete (RAC) of target strength range 11 to 15 MPa to be used in the manufacturing of masonry units is investigated. Water absorption characteristics were determined by performing sorptivity test. Recycled aggregates were produced by crushing laboratory-tested concrete samples of strength ranging from 21 MPa to 28 MPa. Two different ratios of recycled coarse aggregate and recycled fine aggregates were investigated using two different cement contents. For comparison, natural aggregate concrete mixes were also tested. The study parameter included effect of aggregates type, casting pressure, casting technique and cement content on the water absorption properties of RAC. Further, depth of penetration of salt was observed using silver nitrate solution after 3-month immersion in 10% NaCl solution. The results of sorptivity test showed positive impact of compression casting technique on water absorption properties of low grade 100% RAC. Further, results showed that RAC mixes exhibited inferior water absorption properties compared to natural aggregates concrete mixes. Various equations were proposed to predict water absorption of 100% RAC under different conditions of casting pressure and cement content based on initial and secondary rate of water absorption.

Abstract An investigation was conducted to extract polyphenols from moringa leaf, tamarind seed, mint and lemongrass for the development of functional date bars. Solvent methanol, ethanol and acetone at 50% and 75% concentration was employed for polyphenols extraction through ultrasound assisted extraction technique.Higher polyphenols and flavonoids were extracted from moringa leaf with comparatively more antioxidant activity than other herbs studied. Date bars fortified with different levels of moringa leaf and tamarind seedpolyphenolic extracts had optimum quality attributes and antioxidant activity as well assensory acceptable. Overall, 2% moringa leaf extract fortified date bars scored highest and were appreciated most by sensory panelists whereas 3% tamarind seed extract fortified date bars scored lowest and were disliked most. It was concluded that moringa leaf and tamarind seed extract being a potential source of polyphenols could be developed as ingredient for the preparation of functional foods.

Abstract The present study conducted to assess nutritional, safety parameters (aflatoxin M1/AFM1 and heavy metals; copper, cadmium and zinc) and fatty-acid composition of tea-whiteners (TWs). Accordingly, TW’s samples composition (moisture, ash, protein, fat and nitrogen free extract) determined using AOAC methods, minerals including Na, K and Ca heavy metals including Cu, Cd and Zn determined via atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The AFM1 measured using thin layer chromatography (TLC) whereas, fatty acids and trans-fat contents were determined using gas chromatography. ANOVA and independent sample t test applied to assess the significant difference. Results indicated that protein and fat contents (%) of liquid TWs were 2.7-5.4 and 4.28-6.48, respectively. Powdered TWs protein and fat (%) were 13.4-17, and 23.06-29.03, respectively. AFM1 was not found in any TW. Cu/Cd and Zn levels (ppm) of liquid TWs were 0.296-2.075, ND-1.206 and 0.009-0.026 respectively. For powdered TWs the readings (ppm) were 0.515-0.632, 0.003-0.005 and 0.010-0.013 respectively. Trans-fats (%) in liquid TWs were 2.90-7.51 and in powdered TWs were 1.29-1.83. In nutshell, TWs had traces of trans fats ranged 1.29-7.51% whereas, liquid TWs contain more trans-fats than powdered TWs. Major fatty acids among liquid and powdered TWs were palmitic acid, heptadecanoic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid.

Resealed erythrocytes have been explored in various dimensions of drug delivery, owing to their high biocompatibility and inability to initiate immune response. The present research was designed to evaluate the drug delivery potential of erythrocytes by loading a hydrophobic anti-malarial drug, Artemether. Three different loading techniques were applied to achieve maximum optimized drug loading. A HPLC method was validated for drug quantification in erythrocytes. The relatively high loading was achieved using hypotonic treatment was 31.39% as compared to other two methods. These, drug loaded erythrocytes were characterized for membrane integrity via ESR showing higher ESR values for drug loaded cells as compared to normal cells. Moreover, microscopic evaluation was done to observe morphological changes in erythrocytes after successful loading which showed swollen cells with slight rough surface as compared to smooth surface of normal cells. Drug release was studied for 8 h which showed more than 80% release within 3-7 h from erythrocytes treated with different hypotonic methods. Overall, the study revealed a potential application of erythrocytes in delivery of hydrophobic drugs using hypotonic treatment as compared to other methods.

Este estudio trata con cartas de control acumuladas basadas en distribuciones Rayleigh y en mixturas de estas mismas. Las cartas se denominan SRCQC y MRCQC, respectivamente. Estas se fundamentan en cartas existentes como la carta de control de cantidades acumuladas (CQC), basada en modelos exponencial y Weibull en la carta de control de conteos acumulados (CCC), soportada en un modelo geométrico. Otra propuesta del estudio es la carta de control de mixtura de conteos acumulados (MCCC). Esta última es muy atractiva en procesos de monitoreo. La estructura de diseño de las cartas propuestas se deriva usando la función de distribución acumulada simple y la mixtura de dos distribuciones acumuladas. Se observa que las cartas propuestas son eficientes para detectar cambios en los parámetros del proceso. La aplicación del esquema propuesto es ilustrada usando un conjunto de datos reales.

This study deals with the cumulative charting technique based on a simple and a mixture of Rayleigh models. The respective charting schemes are referred as the SRCQC-chart and the MRCQC-chart. These are stimulated from existing statistical control charts in this direction i.e. the cumulative quantity control (CQC) chart, based on exponential and Weibull models, and the cumulative count control (CCC) chart, based on the simple geometric model. Another motivation for this study is the mixture cumulative count control (MCCC) chart based on the two component geometric model. The use of mixture cumulative quantity is an attractive approach for process monitoring. The design structure of the proposed control chart is derived by using the cumulative distribution function of simple, and two components of mixture distribution(s). We observed that the proposed charting structure is efficient in detecting the changes in process parameters. The application of the proposed scheme is illustrated using a real dataset.

En el seguimiento de los parámetros del proceso, asumimos normalidad de la característica de calidad de interés que es un supuesto ideal. En muchas situaciones prácticas, no podemos conocer el comportamiento de distribución de los datos y por lo tanto, surge la necesidad de técnicas no paramétricas. En este estudio, un gráfico de control EWMA doble paramétrico, a saber, la carta NPDEWMA, se propone para una vigilancia eficaz en el parámetro de localización. El rendimiento del gráfico propuesto se evalúa en términos de propiedades diferentes de longitud de ejecución, como promedio, desviación estándar y percentiles. El esquema propuesto se compara con sus homólogos de los últimos existentes, a saber, la EWMA no paramétrico y los esquemas de CUSUM no paramétricas. Las medidas de desempeño utilizadas son la longitud promedio de carreras (ARL), la desviación estándar de la longitud de ejecución (SDRL) y pérdida cuadrática extra (EQL). Se observa que el gráfico propuesto supera a dichos regímenes existentes para detectar cambios en el proceso de nivel medio. También se proporciona un ejemplo ilustrativo para consideraciones prácticas.

In monitoring process parameters, we assume normality of the quality characteristic of interest, which is an ideal assumption. In many practical situations, we may not know the distributional behavior of the data, and hence, the need arises use nonparametric techniques. In this study, a nonparametric double EWMA control chart, namely the NPDEWMA chart, is proposed to ensure efficient monitoring of the location parameter. The performance of the proposed chart is evaluated in terms of different run length properties, such as average, standard deviation and percentiles. The proposed scheme is compared with its recent existing counterparts, namely the nonparametric EWMA and the nonparametric CUSUM schemes. The performance measures used are the average run length (ARL), standard deviation of the run length (SDRL) and extra quadratic loss (EQL). We observed that the proposed chart outperforms the said existing schemes to detect shifts in the process mean level. We also provide an illustrative example for practical considerations.

The relationship between drying and hygroscopic ability of Crateva adansonii and Populus deltoides woods to resist feeding by Odontotermes obesus was studied. Woods were dried under the sun and in the oven for a range of 5-25 days and then these were exposed to termites for 25 days in underground pits in Randomized Complete Block Design pattern with five replications. Results showed that lowest moisture gain was observed at a short time for drying with each method. Weight loss after termites' exposure was more in less dried sap and heartwood of either plant species. The practical implication of these results is discussed.

RESUMO O potencial do extrato de curcuma e suas frações químicas foram avaliados para controlar a infestação da mosca do pêssego, Bactrocera zonata em um ensaio biológico à base de mortalidade. O extrato de cúrcuma (EC) foi obtido por aparelho de extração de Soxhelt e quimicamente fracionado em seis frações (F1 ... F6) por cromatografia em camada fina e cromatografia em coluna. Cinquenta pares de moscas acondicionadas em gaiolas foram alimentadas com 250 e 500 ppm de EC e suas frações, em separado, durante 20 dias, juntamente com moscas não alimentadas com a dieta para servir de controle. A toxicidade de EC e cada uma das suas fracções foi avaliada calculando a porcentagem de mortalidade de cada população de moscas, a cada 5 dias, em 4 intervalos consecutivos. A mortalidade de população de moscas foi, positivamente, correlacionada com as concentrações de EC e suas frações na dieta. A mortalidade das moscas alimentados em 250 e 500 ppm de EC foi, significativamente, maior em 44,17 e 66,33% em comparação com 28,88% no controle. A mortalidade foi maior no caso de moscas alimentadas com as frações F1, F3 e F6, ou seja, 72,22%, 50,00% e 48,76% respectivamente. O aumento máximo da mortalidade foi observado no final do terceiro intervalo; no caso de moscas alimentadas a 500 ppm de EC, 52,45% de mortalidade foi observada no final do terceiro intervalo. A maior mortalidade foi causada pelas frações F1, 51,39% no caso das moscas alimentadas com 250 ppm e 70,37%, no caso daqueles alimentadas com 500 ppm.

ABSTRACT Potential of turmeric extract and its chemical fractions were evaluated to control the infestation of Bactrocera zonata peach fruit fly in a mortality-based bioassay. The turmeric extract (TE) was taken on Soxhelt's extraction apparatus and chemically fractioned by thin layer followed by column chromatography into 6 fractions (F1 ...F6). Fifty pairs of the flies were fed in cages with 250 and 500 ppm TE and its fractions separately for 20 days along with flies fed on untreated diet to serve as control. The toxicity of TE and each of its fractions was evaluated by calculating percent mortality of fly population after every 5th day in 4 consecutive intervals. Mortality of fly population was observed to be positively correlated with increasing concentrations of TE and its fractions in diet. The mortality of flies fed at 250 and 500 ppm TE was significantly higher at 44.17 and 66.33% compared to 28.88% in control. Percent mortality was much higher in case of flies fed with fractions F1, F3 and F6 i.e. 72.22, 50.00 and 48.76 respectively. Maximum rise of mortality was observed at the end of 3rd interval; in case of flies fed at 500 ppm TE, 52.45 percent mortality was observed at the end of 3rd interval; highest mortality was caused by fraction F1, 51.39% in case of flies fed at 250 ppm and 70.37% in case of those fed at 500 ppm.

A new and advantageous extraction procedure was developed for extraction of cerium (IV) from nitric acid with di-n-butylsulfoxide (DBSO) in perchloric acid. The extracted Ce (IV) was determined spectrophotometrically using 0.01 % solution of arsenazo-III in 3 M per-chloric acid. Various parameters such as equilibration time, metal ion concentration, effect of temperature and diverse ions on the extraction of the Ce (IV) were established. U (VI), Th (IV) and Pb (II) interfere whereas only phosphate and fluoride suppress the extraction among anions. The stoichiometric composition of the cerium complex with DBSO was determined by slope analysis and found to be 1:4. The process of extraction was found to be exothermic. Deionized water was the most appropriate solvent for back extraction of cerium. This method is easier and more sensitive than many of the reported procedures.

En este articulo el objetivo es evaluar el desempeño de diferentes medidas de asociación para pruebas de hipótesis. Se consideran diferentes medidas, algunas paramétricas y otras no paramétricas, así como tres modificaciones propuestas por los autores. El desempeño de estas pruebas se evalúa considerando distribuciones simétricas, sesgadas y contaminadas incluyendo la distribución normal, Cauchy, uniforme, Laplace, lognormal, exponencial, Weibull, Gamma, t, Chi-cuadrado, medio normal, Weibull mezclada y normal mezclada. El desempeño se evalúa en términos de la potencia de los tests. Se sugieren tests apropiados que tienen un mejor desempeño bajo diferentes niveles de eficiencia. Se espera que los investigadores encuentren estos resultados útiles en la toma de decisiones.

In this article our objective is to evaluate the performance of different measures of associations for hypothesis testing purposes. We have considered different measures of association (including some commonly used) in this study, one of which is parametric and others are non-parametric including three proposed modifications. Performance of these tests are compared under different symmetric, skewed and contaminated probability distributions that include Normal, Cauchy, Uniform, Laplace, Lognormal, Exponential, Weibull, Gamma, t, Chi-square, Half Normal, Mixed Weibull and Mixed Normal. Performances of these tests are measured in terms of power. We have suggested appropriate tests which may perform better under different situations based on their efficiency grading(s). It is expected that researchers will find these results useful in decision making.

La técnica de conteo de ítems (ICT, por sus siglas en inglés) es útil para estimar la proporción de personas que poseen atributos que pueden tener algún grado de estigmatización mediante el uso de un método de preguntas indirectas. Una ICT mejorada ha sido propuesta recientemente en la literatura bajo la inferencia clásica (la cual no requiere dos submuestras y libre de la necesidad de encontrartamaños de muestra óptimos para cada una de ellas como sucede en la ICT usual). Esta ICT mejorada se desempeña mejor que la ICT usual y que el método de Respuesta Aleatorizada (RR, por sus siglas en inglés) de Warner. Este artículo extiende su estudio bajo una visión Bayesiana usando diferentes a priori con el fin de derivar distribuciones, medias y varianzas a posteriori.Las medias y varianzas a posteriori son comparadas con el fin de estudiar cuál a priori es más útil en mejorar la técnica de conteo de ítems. Se observa que a priori simples y Beta elicitadas son las mejores escogencias (en términos dela varianza mínima) dependiendo del tamaño de muestra, el número de ítems y la suma de la respuesta. También, la estimación bayesiana proporciona estimadores relativamente más precisas que la estimación ML.

Item Count Technique (ICT) serves the purpose of estimating the proportion of the people with stigmatizing attributes using the indirect questioning method. An improved ICT has been recently proposed in the literature (not requiring two subsamples and hence free from finding optimum subsample sizes unlike the usual ICT) in a classical framework that performs better than the usual ICT and the Warner method of Randomized Response (RR) technique. This study extends the scope of this recently proposed ICT in a Bayesian framework using different priors in order to derive posterior distributions, posterior means and posterior variances. The posterior means and variances are compared in order to study which prior is more helpful in updating the item count technique. Moreover, we have compared the Proposed Bayesian estimation with Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation. We have observed that simple and elicited Beta priors are superior choices (in terms of minimum variance), depending on the sample size, number of items and the sum of responses. Also, the Bayesian estimation provides relatively more precise estimators than the ML Estimation.

Verbascum thapsus L. [Khardhag or Common mullein], a member of the family Scrophulariaceae, is a famous herb that is found all over Europe, in temperate Asia, in North America and is well-reputed due to its medicinal properties. This medicinal herb contains various chemical constituents like saponins, iridoid and phenylethanoid glycosides, flavonoids, vitamin C and minerals. It is famous in various communities worldwide for the treatment of various disorders of both humans and animals aliments. A number of pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, antiviral, antihepatotoxic and anti-hyperlipidemic activity have been ascribed to this plant. The plant is used to treat tuberculosis also, earache and bronchitis. In the present paper botanical and ethnomedicinal description, pharmacological profile and phytochemistry of this herb is being discussed.