Antioxidant Properties of Methanolic Extracts from Leaves of Rhazya stricta

Shahid Iqbal,M.I. Bhanger,Mubeena Akhtar,Farooq Anwar,Khawaja Raees Ahmed,Tabraz Anwer 한국식품영양과학회 2006 Journal of medicinal food Vol.9 No.2

Because of increased safety concerns about synthetic antioxidants, exploitation of cheaper and safer sourcesof antioxidants based on natural origin is the focus of research nowadays. Rhazya stricta is a medicinally important plant na-tive to South Asia. Extraction of antioxidants was carried out in different solvent systems, i.e., water, 80% methanol, 70%ethanol, and diethyl ether. The methanolic extract exhibited the highest total phenolic content among the extracts; thereforefor further studies the methanolic extract was employed. Antioxidant activity measurement in the linoleic acid system, metalchelating activity, reducing power, scavenging effect on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical, and superoxide anion rad-ical scavenging activity were taken as the parameters for assessment of antioxidant potential of methanolic extracts. Resultswere compared with .-tocopherol and the synthetic antioxidant butylated hydroxyanisole. The antioxidant potential of methano-lic extracts of R. strictaleaves was comparable with previously exploited potent antioxidants and is strongly concentrationdependent.

Plastic mulching improves the water use efficiency and productivity of direct seeded and transplanted fine rice

Mubshar Hussain,Shahid Farooq,Safdar Ale 단국대학교 국제농업협력연구소 2012 단국대학교 국제농업협력연구소 학술대회 Vol.2012 No.1

Water scarcity around the globe and climate change challenges has forced the researchers to develop alternative production systems with higher water use efficiency. Direct seeded rice is the emerging water saving rice production system having higher water use efficiency. Field experiment was conducted to assess the role of different mulch systems in improving water use efficiency and productivity in direct seeded and transplanted rice. Three different rice production systems viz., transplanted rice with continuous flooding, two weeks continuous flooding after transplanting and direct seeding with supplemental irrigation only were evaluated under two ground cover systems i.e., plastic and straw mulching with no mulch taken as control. Super Basmati was used as experimental material. Continuously flooded transplanted rice with plastic mulching resulted in higher paddy yield (4.04 t ha- 1 ); while performance of no mulch direct seeding remained poor in this regard. Two weeks flooded transplanted rice with plastic mulching followed continuous flooding in paddy yield (3.94 t ha- 1 ). Continuously flooded transplanted rice with plastic mulching observed substantial improvement in yield related attributes such as panicle length, number of grains per panicle and 1000 grain weight. Plastic mulching improved the productivity and water use efficiency of transplanted as well as direct seeded rice. Higher water use efficiency was observed in direct seeded rice with plastic mulching as it was grown on supplemental irrigations. In crux productivity and water use efficiency of transplanted and especially direct seeded rice can be improved by using plastic film as mulch in current scenarios of water shortage. Key Words: mulching, rice production systems, water use efficiency, productivity

Seismic Performance of Masonry Strengthened with Steel Strips

S. H. Farooq,I. Shahid,M. Ilyas 대한토목학회 2014 KSCE JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Vol.18 No.7

Strengthening of unreinforced masonry structures to improve their seismic performance is getting attention of civil engineers across the world. In this study, laboratory tests were carried out to investigate the seismic performance of unreinforced burnt clay masonry wall panels strengthened with externally anchored steel strips. Six masonry panels having an aspect ratio of 0.7 were constructed. First masonry panel was unreinforced reference specimen and remaining specimens were strengthened with steel strips using different steel ratios and mesh patterns. Three specimens were strengthened with steel strips on one face and two specimens were strengthened with steel strips on both sides. All the specimens were tested under lateral cyclic loading at constant axial pressure to determine seismic performance. The test results revealed a significant improvement in energy dissipation, ductility and lateral strength of strengthened masonry wall panels. The main contributing factors in performance improvement were 1) amount of steel reinforcement, 2) mesh pattern and 3) single or double side application of steel strips. The proposed steel strips strengthening technique is quite simple and economical which involves external application of steel strips and does not alter the mass significantly. The simplicity, cost effectiveness and efficacy of the technique can help the local designers and engineers to enhance seismic performance of existing masonry structures.

Genome-Wide Supported Risk Variants in MIR137, CACNA1C, CSMD1, DRD2, and GRM3 Contribute to Schizophrenia Susceptibility in Pakistani Population

Ambrin Fatima,Muhammad Farooq,Uzma Abdullah,Muhammad Tariq,Tanveer Mustafa,Muhammad Iqbal,Niels Tommerup,Shahid Mahmood Baig 대한신경정신의학회 2017 PSYCHIATRY INVESTIGATION Vol.14 No.5

Objective: Schizophrenia is a chronic neuropsychiatric disease afflicting around 1.1% of the population worldwide. Recently, MIR137, CACNA1C, CSMD1, DRD2, and GRM3 have been reported as the most robustly emerging candidates involved in the etiology of schizophrenia. In this case control study, we performed an association analysis of rs1625579 (MIR137), rs1006737, rs4765905 (CACNA1C), rs10503253 (CSMD1), rs1076560 (DRD2), rs12704290, rs6465084, and rs148754219 (GRM3) in Pakistani population. Methods: Schizophrenia was diagnosed on the basis of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th ed (DSM-IV). Detailed clinical information, family history of all patients and healthy controls were collected. RFLP based case control association study was performed in a Pakistani cohort of 508 schizophrenia patients and 300 healthy control subjects. Alleles and genotype frequencies were calculated using SPSS. Results: A significant difference in the genotype and allele frequencies for rs4765905, rs1076560 and rs6465084 were found between the patients and controls (p=0.000). Conclusion: This study provides substantial evidence supporting the role of CACNA1C, GRM3 and DRD2 as schizophrenia susceptibility genes in Pakistani population.

RNAi-mediated silencing of endogenous Vlnv gene confers stable reduction of cold-induced sweetening in potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Désirée)

Amir Hameed,Rakhshanda Bilal,Farooq Latif,Joyce Van Eck,Georg Jander,Shahid Mansoor 한국식물생명공학회 2018 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.12 No.3

Potato tubers must be cold-stored to extend their shelf life and maintain an uninterrupted supply chain for food processors. However, a side-effect of low-temperature storage is manifested in terms of cold-induced sweetening (CIS) of potato tubers, which reduces the processing quality and the commercial value of the end-products. RNA interference (RNAi) technology, whereby transgene-derived small interfering RNAs can trigger the homology-based knockdown of cognate host genes and can initiate gene silencing, has been successfully applied in crop improvement through targeted gene knockout in host plants. In the current study, transgenic potato plants (Solanum tuberosum cv. Désirée) were generated, expressing a 300 bp hairpin loop nucleotide sequence targeting the potato vacuolar invertase gene (VInv), under the constitutive Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. Tubers collected from transgenic lines showed a significant reduction in reducing sugar content after 180 days of cold storage, without showing any measurable off-target effects on plant morphology and tuberization compared to nontransformed control plants. The cold-stored tubers were further assayed for chip color, which showed a fairly light colored quality in the samples originating from RNAi lines. Together with similar effects seen in previously published experiments involving other potato varieties, the Désirée results described here establish the efficacy of using RNAi for the successful reduction of CIS in potato tubers.

Structural and Electromechanical Behavior Evaluation of Polymer-Copper Nanocomposites

Gulfam Nasar,Muhammad Azhar Khan,Muhammad Farooq Warsi,Muhammad Shahid,Uzma Khalil,Muhammad Saleem Khan 한국고분자학회 2016 Macromolecular Research Vol.24 No.4

Copper nanoparticles were prepared by chemical reduction of copper nitrate by sodium borohydride as a reducing agent in de-ionized water/acetonitrile mixture. The prepared nanoparticles were incorporated in poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) by physical dispersion method to obtain PVA/copper nanocomposites. Various compositions of nanocomposites were obtained by changing the w/w ratio of nanoparticles with the polymeric material. The prepared nanocomposites cast into films of uniform thickness. The composite films were subjected to the electrical, mechanical and surface morphology characterization. AC Impedance was figured out by AC Impedance analyser. The results illustrated that copper nanoparticles impart electrical conductivity in poly(vinyl alcohol). Moreover, electrical conductivity of the composites exhibited an increase with an increase of w/w% of the copper nanoparticles in poly(vinyl alcohol). Tensile properties were studied in terms of tensile strength, elongation at break and Young’s modulus. Elongation at break and Young’s modulus values demonstrated an increase while tensile strength displayed a decrease at higher concentration of the copper nanoparticles in the composites. AFM results unfolded the surface morphology of the composites illustrating a smooth surface with evenly distributed copper nanoparticles in the polymer matrix. The dimensions of the uneven surface is attributed to the copper nanoparticles were estimated to be of a range less than 100 nm. The prepared nanocomposites are suggested as potential candidates in charge storing devices.

Ground state opto-electronic and thermoelectric response of cubic XSnO3 (X = Ba, Sr) compounds

M. Bilal Saddique,Muhammad Rashid,Adnan Afzal,Shahid M. Ramay,Farooq Aziz,Asif Mahmood 한국물리학회 2017 Current Applied Physics Vol.17 No.8

The density functional has been implemented to deliberate the cubic perovskite XSnO3 (X ¼ Ba, Sr) for their elastic, electronic, optical as well as thermoelectric characteristic. The XSnO3 (X ¼ Ba, Sr) illustrates good pact of lattice parameter for these iso-structural compounds having cubic perovskite structure. The generalized gradient approximation based on the exchange-correlation functional is applied for computing structural and mechanical characteristic, whereas the electronic, optical and thermoelectric properties have been studied by the functional suggested by Tran and Blaha that is termed as of modified Becke-Johnson (mBJ) functional. The thermodynamics stability is recognized through the expression of enthalpies of formation, which is further verified from the calculated structural properties of cubic perovskite XSnO3 (X ¼ Ba, Sr). Moreover, various elastic parameters such has bulk modules B, Cij, shear modulus G, Young's modulus Y, anisotropy factor, B/G ratio and Poisson's ratio n have also been reported. It has been observed by band structure computation that the studied compounds exhibit an indirect band gap between the unoccupied Ba/Sr 6s/5s and the occupied O 2p orbitals. Detailed study of optical properties is presented under the incident photon energy upto 28 eV. Our computed static dielectric constant ε2(0) and refractive index n(0) are comparable with other theoretical and experimental values. Thermoelectric properties are presented in terms of computed Seebeck coefficient, electrical and thermal conductivities and their variation with the rise in temperature suggest that the studied compounds may find applications in the construction of various thermo-electric devices.

Nitrogen Ions Implantation in W‑Based Quad Alloy: Structure, Electrical Resistivity, Surface Roughness and Vickers Hardness as a Function of Ion Dose

Muhammad Zakria Butt,Dilawar Ali,Muzamil Aftab,Farooq Bashir,M. Shahid Pervaiz,M. Usman Tanveer,M. Waqas Khaliq 대한금속·재료학회 2021 METALS AND MATERIALS International Vol.27 No.9

Five W-alloy specimens, containing 8.57% Ni, 6.34% Cu, and 1.34% Mo, were bombarded with 5.2 MeV singly chargednitrogen ions. The ions dose range was 5 × 1014–1 × 1016 ions/cm2. XRD patterns portrayed diffraction peaks of pure W aswell as of Cu0.4W0.6,MoNi4,and Ni4Wphases. Harris analysis showed that the preferentially oriented planes depend on thenitrogen ions dose. The structural parameters, namely lattice strain and crystallite size, vary with nitrogen ions dose alike. Same pattern is followed by surface hardness and electrical resistivity. The increase in the values of all the parameters withions dose is rapid in the range 0–1 × 1015 ions/cm2 and later on slow till the maximum ions dose 1 × 1016 ions/cm2. However,the interdependence of each parameter on the other ones was linear. Surface roughness of the specimens was found todecrease on increasing ions dose. On the other hand, surface hardness registers a rise as crystallite size increases, and hencefollows Inverse Hall–Petch relation.

New Oral Anticoagulants versus Warfarin for Cerebral Venous Thrombosis: A Multi-Center, Observational Study

Mohammad Wasay,Maria Khan,Haris Majid Rajput,Salman Farooq,Mohammed Ibrahim Memon,Suhail Abdulla AlRukn,Abdul Malik,Foad Abd-Allah,Raja Farhat Shoaib,Rizwana Shahid,Sadia Nishat,Safia Awan 대한뇌졸중학회 2019 Journal of stroke Vol.21 No.2

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Modeling and Analysis of Magnetized Nanomaterial Williamson Towards a Variable Thicked Surface Subject to Joule Heating and Activation Energy

Wei-Miao Qian,Fazal Haq,M. Ijaz Khan,Sohail A. Khan,Shahid Farooq 한국자기학회 2021 Journal of Magnetics Vol.26 No.2