Abstract The current study aimed to assess broccoli's phytochemical profile and determine its antioxidant activity. Fresh broccoli was procured from a local farm and divided into two major treatment groups (cooked and dried). There were five sub-treatments in the cooking group (conventional, microwave, boiling, blanching, and steaming) and three treatments in the drying group (sun drying, freeze drying, and hot air drying). Ascorbic acid content, total carotenoids, TPC, TFC, and antioxidant activity were evaluated for every sub-treatment. The results depicted that the antioxidant constituent of cooked broccoli was complementary to dried broccoli samples. The maximum amount of ascorbic acid content (10.80 mg/100 g), total carotenoids (3.976 mg/g), total phenolic contents (225.80 mg/g), and the total flavonoid contents (42.92 mg/g) were found in freeze-dried broccoli. Freeze-dried broccoli also showed the highest antioxidant activity for DPPH free radical scavenging assay (62.45%), hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging assay (53.67%), and ABTS radical scavenging assay (65.84%).

Abstract Food safety with maintained fruit quality is an important challenge for postharvest industry of citrus fruits. The present study was designed to check the effects of gamma irradiation on postharvest fruit quality of ‘Kinnow’ mandarin stored at 5 ± 1 °C and 90 ± 5% Relative Humidity. In the first experiment, fruits were exposed to different doses of gamma radiation (100-500 Gy), while after analyzing the results of first experiment, in the second experiment fruits were treated with 500, 600, 800 and 1000 Gy of gamma radiation. It was observed that higher doses of gamma irradiation exhibited lower weight loss and disease incidence as well as inhibiting the increase of soluble solid content (SSC) and retained higher titratable acidity (TA) and lower SSC: TA ratio. After 90 days of storage, maximum levels ascorbic acid, total phenolic contents and total antioxidants along with catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were recorded higher in fruits treated with 800 Gy. These fruit also exhibited higher score of taste, aroma and texture during storage. Overall results suggest that pre-storage treatment of 800 Gy is the most effective treatment and have potential application for quality management of ‘Kinnow’ mandarin under long term cold storage.

Abstract Nanoemulsions are nanoscale self-assembled entities which are manufactured for improving the delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Nanoemulsion technology is one of the best ways to encapsulate the functional components as it enhances the stability and bioavailability of the compound. In the present study, nanoemulsions were prepared by ultrasonic homogenization of dispersed phase (10-22%) and surfactants (3-9%) with vitamin A (0.25-2.5%). Nanoemulsions were characterized through various optical techniques and stability was assessed using thermal shock and freeze-thaw cycle. The results revealed that nanoemulsions with high percentage of surfactants were more stable and retained smaller particle size as compared to nanoemulsions with low surfactants percentage and high dispersed phase, contributed to phase separation and colour change. These emulsions can be further tested for any toxic/allergic effect on the biological model and may be incorporated into food products.

ABSTRACT This study is in line with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to evaluate the post-Paris Agreement (COP21) through technological innovations and carbon pricing in a panel of 39 R&D economies from 1995 to 2018. The results show that sustainable technological innovations and smart applications of insurance and financial services help decrease GHG emissions in the lowest to highest quantile distribution. In contrast, air transportation freight, air freight pricing, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows escalate GHG emissions due to unsustainable logistics activities, inefficient freight pricing, and dirty production, which confirmed the ‘pollution haven’ hypothesis across countries. The impact of air freight revenues has a differential impact on GHG emissions in the different quantiles’ distribution, as in the lowest quantiles (i.e., τ0.2 to τ0.4), air freight revenues increase GHG, whereas, at the highest quantiles’ distribution (i.e., τ0.9) emissions decrease. Thus, the viability of air freight revenues is further assessed using Panel Granger causality and panel innovation matrix. The results show the bidirectional causality between i) air freight pricing and GHG emissions, ii) air transportation freight (and freight pricing, freight revenues, FDI) and technology innovations, iii) FDI and air freight revenues, while there is a unidirectional causality running from i) insurance and financial services to GHG emissions, ii) GHG emissions to technological innovations and FDI inflows, and iii) air transportation freight to FDI inflows.

RESUMEN Este estudio está en línea con la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC) para evaluar el Acuerdo post-París (COP21) a través de innovaciones tecnológicas y fijación de precios del carbono en un panel de 39 economías de I + D desde 1995 hasta 2018. Los resultados muestran que las innovaciones tecnológicas y las aplicaciones inteligentes de los servicios financieros y de seguros ayudan a reducir las emisiones de GEI en la distribución de cuantiles desde más bajos a más altos. Por el contrario, el transporte aéreo de mercancías, los precios del transporte aéreo y el flujo de inversión extranjera directa (IED) aumentan las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero debido a actividades logísticas no sostenibles, precios de transporte ineficientes y producción sucia, confirmando la hipótesis del ‘paraíso de contaminación’ en todos los países. Los ingresos por flete aéreo tienen un impacto diferencial en las emisiones de GEI en la distribución de cuantiles, ya que en los cuantiles más bajos (τ0.2 a τ0.4) los ingresos por flete aéreo aumentan emisiones de GEI, mientras que en los cuantiles más altos (τ0.9), las disminuyen. Por lo tanto, la viabilidad de los ingresos por transporte aéreo se evalúa a mayor profundidad utilizando la matriz de innovación de panel y causalidad de Panel Granger. Los resultados muestran causalidad bidireccional entre i) los precios del flete aéreo y las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, ii) el flete del transporte aéreo (y el precio del flete, los ingresos por flete, la IED) y las innovaciones tecnológicas, iii) la IED y los ingresos del flete aéreo, mientras que existe una causalidad unidireccional desde i) seguros y servicios financieros a emisiones de GEI, ii) emisiones de GEI a innovaciones tecnológicas y flujos de IED, y iii) fletes de transporte aéreo a flujos de IED.

ABSTRACT Cereal-legumes intercropping is among the most economical and effective agronomic strategies to boost forage biomass production, nutritional quality and monetary returns. This review synthesizes the research findings on how intercropping affects productivity, quality, competitiveness and economic viability of sorghum-legumes mixed, row and strip intercropping systems under varied pedo-climatic conditions. Though component crops show yield reductions in row (additive and row-replacement series), mixed (seed blended crops) and strip intercropping systems, in general overall productivity per unit land area increases to a great extent. The significantly higher resource capturing with better utilization efficacy by intercrops in temporal and spatial dimensions helps explain their greater productivity. In addition, forage intercrops result in improved nutritional quality as legumes contain protein in double quantity than cereals. Cereal-legumes intercropping systems yield higher quantities of lush green forage with improved quality traits, which ultimately increase monetary benefits. Furthermore, legumes inclusion as an intercrop with cereals has the potential to serve as a nitrogen-saving strategy due to the biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) process. Moreover, cereal-legume intercropping systems are effective in reducing weed infestations and soil erosion by providing extended soil cover, as well as in increasing water use efficiency and improving soil fertility. However, despite a significant increase in overall productivity, component crops suffer yield losses in intercropping systems owing to competition for the finite divisible pool of growth resources. Thus, there is a dire need to optimize spatial and temporal arrangements in sorghum-legumes intercropping systems to achieve maximum productivity and economic returns.

ABSTRACT GeneXpert is one of the recent technological instruments used to diagnose tuberculosis in a short span of time. In this study, the performance of GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay for the diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) was compared with light-emitting diode Fluorescent Microscopy (LED-FM) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A total of 737 EPTB samples were collected from tuberculosis (TB) suspected patients. Out of these samples, male to female ratio was 53% (n = 390) to 47% (n = 347) respectively. The sensitivity and specificity was 73% and 100% for GeneXpert, while 40% and 100% for LED-FM microscopy. This shows that the sensitivity of GeneXpert is 40–50%, higher than LED-FM microscopy. GeneXpert also detected low number of bacilli as compared to LED-FM microscopy.

Background: Endophytic bacteria are ubiquitous in all plant species contributing in host plant's nutrient uptake and helping the host to improve its growth. Moringa peregrina which is a medicinal plant, growing in arid region of Arabia, was assessed for the presence of endophytic bacterial strains. Results: PCR amplification and sequencing of 16S rRNA of bacterial endophytes revealed the 5 endophytic bacteria, in which 2 strains were from Sphingomonas sp.; 2 strains from Bacillus sp. and 1 from Methylobacterium genus. Among the endophytic bacterial strains, a strain of Bacillus subtilis LK14 has shown significant prospects in phosphate solubilization (clearing zone of 56.71 mm after 5 d), ACC deaminase (448.3 ± 2.91 nM α-ketobutyrate mg-1 h-1) and acid phosphatase activity (8.4 ± 1.2 nM mg-1 min-1). The endophytic bacteria were also assessed for their potential to produce indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Among isolated strains, the initial spectrophotometry analysis showed significantly higher IAA production by Bacillus subtilis LK14. The diurnal production of IAA was quantified using multiple reactions monitoring method in UPLC/MS-MS. The analysis showed that LK14 produced the highest (8.7 uM) IAA on 14th d of growth. Looking at LK14 potentials, it was applied to Solanum lycopersicum, where it significantly increased the shoot and root biomass and chlorophyll (a and b) contents as compared to control plants. Conclusion: The study concludes that using endophytic bacterial strains can be bio-prospective for plant growth promotion, which might be an ideal strategy for improving growth of crops in marginal lands.

New Analytical method has been developed for the determination of Cefuroxime in pharmaceutical formulations. The method involves the application of high performance Liquid chromatography (HPLC) for the quantitative analysis of cefuroxime. HPLC method has a shorter analysis time of 10 min. The developed method obeyed the Beer's law in the range of 5- 300 μg mL-1. Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) of the developed method was found to be 0.538 and 1.63, μg mL-1 respectively.

Kinetic method has been developed for the quantitative analysis of streptomycin. The method is based on the oxidation of the drug with the mixture of potassium iodide and potassium iodate to form a yellow colored product. Two methods are adopted for the determination process, the initial rate method and fixed time, absorbance difference method. Both the method followed Beer's law in the range of 4 μg ml-1- 72 μg ml-1. The linear regression equation of initial rate and fixed time (absorbance difference) method was evaluated to be Rate (U) = -1.026 x 10-6 + 5.93 x 10-4 C and ΔA = -1.63x10-3 + 8.0x10-3C. The limit of detection of initial rate method and fixed time method was obtained to be 0.011 and 0.50, respectively while limit of quantitation upon calculation came out to be 0.032 and 1.5 for initial rate and fixed time absorbance difference methods, respectively. Another important study in the proposed method is the activation parameter study which was done at four different temperatures i.e 298 K, 303 K, 308 K and 313 K. Using the elevated temperature various activation parameters such as change in enthalpy (Ä H), change in entropy (Δ S) and Gibbs free energy (Δ G) was calculated and obtained to be -34.41 kJ mol-1, -143.16 and -77.0 5 9 x 10³ kJ, respectively Probable mechanism of the reaction has been mentioned in the text.

A kinetic spectrophotometric method based on the initial rate measurement has been developed for the determination of N-acetyl L-cysteine. The developed method is based on the oxidation of N-acetyl L-cysteine with iodate. The reaction product was studied and characterized using the mass spectrometry and the structure of the product was proposed. From the mass spectrometric studies it was concluded that the oxidation of the drug resulted in the formation of a disulfide. The developed method was validated as per the guidelines of international conference on harmonization. The developed initial rate method was found to be linear in the concentration range of 1.25 - 30 µg ml-1. The detection and quantitation limits were found to be 0.018 and 0.056 µg ml-1. In the current study, the degradation product of N-acetyl L cysteine was also prepared and identified using mass spectrometry.

OBJECTIVE:To determine the incidence of pneumonia and severe pneumonia among children living at high altitudes in Pakistan. METHODS: A longitudinal cohort study was conducted in which 99 female government health workers in Punial and Ishkoman valleys (Ghizer district, Northern Areas of Pakistan) enrolled children at home, conducted home visits every 2 weeks and actively referred sick children to 15 health centres. Health centre staff used Integrated Management of Childhood Illness criteria to screen all sick children aged 2-35 months and identify those with pneumonia or severe pneumonia. FINDINGS: Community health workers enrolled 5204 eligible children at home and followed them over a 14-month period, ending on 31 December 2002. Health centre staff identified 1397 cases of pneumonia and 377 of severe pneumonia in enrolled children aged 2-35 months. Among children reported with pneumonia, 28% had multiple episodes. Incidence rates per 100 child-years of observation were 29.9 for pneumonia and 8.1 for severe pneumonia. Factors associated with a high incidence of pneumonia were younger age, male gender and living at high altitude. CONCLUSION: Pneumonia incidence rates in the Northern Areas of Pakistan are much higher than rates reported at lower altitudes in the country and are similar to those in high-altitude settings in other developing countries. More studies are needed to determine the causes of pneumonia in these high-mountain communities. However, early introduction of the vaccines that are known to prevent pneumonia should be considered.

OBJETIVO: Determinar la incidencia de neumonía y neumonía grave entre los niños de zonas situadas a gran altitud en el Pakistán. MÉTODOS: En los valles de Punial e Ishkoman (distrito de Ghizer, en el norte del país) se llevó a cabo un estudio longitudinal de cohortes en el que 99 funcionarias de salud reclutaron a niños visitados en sus hogares, realizaron visitas a domicilio cada 2 semanas y derivaron activamente a los niños enfermos a 15 centros de salud. El personal de esos centros utilizó los criterios de la Atención Integrada a las Enfermedades Prevalentes de la Infancia para someter a tamizaje a todos los niños enfermos de 2 a 35 meses de edad e identificar a los que sufrían neumonía o neumonía grave. RESULTADOS: Las trabajadoras sanitarias de la comunidad incluyeron en el estudio a 5204 niños elegibles identificados en sus hogares a lo largo de un periodo de 14 meses que concluyó el 31 de diciembre de 2002. El personal de los centros de salud detectó 1397 casos de neumonía y 377 casos de neumonía grave entre los niños participantes de 2 a 35 meses. Entre los niños a los que se diagnosticó neumonía, el 28% presentaron varios episodios. Las tasas de incidencia por 100 niños-año de observación fueron de 29,9 para la neumonía y 8,1 para la neumonía grave. Los factores asociados a una elevada incidencia de neumonía fueron una más corta edad, el sexo masculino y el hecho de vivir a gran altura. CONCLUSION: Las tasas de incidencia de neumonía en las zonas del norte del Pakistán son mucho mayores que las observadas a más baja altitud en el país, y similares a las habituales a grandes alturas en otros países en desarrollo. Es necesario realizar más estudios para determinar las causas de la neumonía en esas comunidades de alta montaña. Sin embargo, debe estudiarse la posibilidad de introducir tempranamente las vacunas que se sabe que previenen dicha enfermedad.

OBJECTIF: Déterminer l'incidence de la pneumonie et de la pneumonie sévère chez les enfants vivant à haute altitude au Pakistan. MÉTHODES: On a mené une étude longitudinale de cohorte dans laquelle 99 agents de santé féminins de l'Etat, exerçant dans les vallées de Punial et d'Ishkoman (District de Ghizer, zones septentrionales du Pakistan), ont recruté des enfants à domicile, effectué des visites domiciliaires toutes les 2 semaines et orienté activement les enfants malades vers 15 centres de santé. Le personnel des centres de santé a utilisé les critères de gestion intégrée des maladies infantiles pour dépister l'ensemble des enfants malades de 2 à 35 mois et identifier ceux atteints de pneumonie ou de pneumonie sévère. RÉSULTATS: Les agents de santé communautaires ont recruté à leur domicile 5204 enfants susceptibles de participer à l'étude et les ont suivis sur une période de 14 mois, qui s'est achevée le 31 décembre 2002. Le personnel des centres de santé a identifié 1397 cas de pneumonie et 377 cas de pneumonie sévère parmi les enfants recrutés de 2 à 35 mois. Parmi les enfants signalés comme atteints de pneumonie, 28 % ont présenté plusieurs épisodes de cette maladie. Le taux d'incidence pour 100 années-enfants d'observation était de 29,9 pour la pneumonie et de 8,1 pour la pneumonie sévère. Les facteurs associés à une forte incidence de la pneumonie étaient le jeune âge, le sexe masculin et la vie à haute altitude. CONCLUSION: Les taux d'incidence de la pneumonie dans les zones septentrionales du Pakistan sont bien plus élevés que ceux signalés dans ce pays à plus faible altitude et sont similaires à ceux relevés dans les régions de haute altitude d'autres pays en développement. Il faudrait entreprendre d'autres études pour déterminer les causes de la pneumonie dans ces communautés de haute montagne. Il faudrait néanmoins aussi envisager l'introduction d'une vaccination à un âge précoce par des vaccins connus pour prévenir cette maladie.