The Lighthouse Journal of Natural Sciences

Contamination Levels of Some Heavy Metals in Selected Vegetables Grown in Urmar Bala of District Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Arif Ullah Shah — 2022-12-30

The levels of Cr, Pb, Fe, Ni and Cd have been assessed in edible part of selected vegetables: Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), Aubergine (Solanum melongena), Lady Finger (Abelmoschus esculentus) and Regde gourd (Luffa acutangula). The range of heavy metals in samples are as: Chromium (Cr) is 0.00 mg/kg in all vegetable samples: Lead (Pb) is from 6.4 mg/kg to 1.35 mg/kg, Iron (Fe) is from 56.45 mg/kg to 31.15 mg/kg, Nickel (Ni) concentration (19.5mg/kg) found only in lady finger (Abelmoschus esculentus), Cadmium (Cd) in the range of 0.75 to 0.6mg/kg. Heavy metals concentration in selected vegetables is in the order of: Aubergine (Solanum melongena) (Pb > Fe > Cd), Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) (Fe > Cd), Lady Finger (Abelmoschus esculentus) (Fe > Ni > Pb) and Regde gourd (Luffa acutangula) (Fe > Pb). The trend revealed that concentrations of Fe were found maximum in all vegetables except Aubergine (Solanum melongena). When compared with standards, the levels of iron and nickel were found below, but lead and cadmium above their maximum permissible limits according to guidelines set by FAO/WHO.

Efficacy of Sovaldi and Rabavirin Combine Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients in District Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Muhammad Arshad Khan — 2022-12-25

The efficacy of Sovaldi and Rabivirin Combine therapy in chronic Hepatitis C patients were determined and also find out factors such as gender and age that can influence response to antiviral therapy. A quasi–experimental Study were carried out in Gastroenterology and Pathology department, Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), Peshawar, from February 2016 to July 2016. Patients were given 400 mg oral Sovaldi and 800- 1200 mg oral Rabavirin two doses in a day for a period of 180 days. At the end of treatment the response of the combine therapy was depicted from the negative RNA of HCV by PCR after 24 weeks of treatment. Factors like age, gender and serum ALT were examined of the patients and determined the relations of these factors with the efficacy of Sovaldi combine with Ribavirin. Total 113 patients age up to 60 years, were given combine treatment that full filled the inclusion criteria. Sovaldi and Ribavirin in combination therapy showed better response compare to other drugs. Females and young age patients were favorable responders.

Study of Mass Transfer Resistant Effect during Syn Gas and Hydrogen Production through CO2/CH4 Dry Reforming on La/Mg Supported Co-Ni/MSU-S Zeolite

Roohul Amin — 2022-12-30

In this study five different catalysts xLa/MgyCo-7Ni /MSU-S are synthesized through sol-gel procedure and further tested for XRD, HRTEM, FT-IR, H₂-TPR, CO₂-TPD, and O₂-TPO skills. The mass transfer resistant effect, stability and activity of the catalytic samples were observed for syn gas and H₂gas synthesis at different reaction temperatures and various space velocities (GHSV) at atmospheric pressure. Space velocities of 2.4- 3.2 × 10⁴ mL/g^-1h^-1 were used for the determination of mass transfer resistant effect, catalytic performance and composition of the catalyst at different reaction temperatures (700-800 ^oC) retaining constant atmospheric pressure during CO₂/CH₄ dry reforming reaction. The reaction outcomes showed that nanoparticles of nickel are highly discreted upon the promotion of Mg, La & Co oxides over MSU-S (mesoporous zeolite) through firmly contact of metal ions with HO-Si-groups of zeolite. Oxides of La (La₂O₃) in 1-3LayCozNi/MSU-S, which showed greater catalytic activity than 1-3Mg supported such catalysts. Among all five catalysts the N-/MSU-S doped with 3%La and 2%Co confirmed the best active catalyst in all respects with stability up to 75 h at of 750 ^oC. The catalyst also showed less mass transfer resistant effect at (GHSV) of 24000 mL/g^-1h^-1 than 32000 mL/g^-1h^-1

Water Analysis Collected from Different Areas of Charsadda District Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) for Microbial Risk Assessment and Different Constituents in Water Bodies

Roohul Amin — 2022-12-30

In this research work five water samples are collected from different places of district Charsadda (KP), Naguman River, Sardaryab, Arat area Prang, charasadda bazar, and one sample is collected form district malakand. The purpose of research is the study of different organic and inorganic impurities present in these water samples. Initially pH, conductance, alkalinity, sulphate and chloride contents are determined in all samples and it is found that sample S4 collected from Charsadda bazaar has the worst results than other. The same sample S4 along with other samples were analyzed for the presence of biological impurities and sample S4 was declared as the worst once again. In the result of our finding, we conclude that sample S4 is the worst one which may be due to the anthropogenic activity such as entry of municipal waste in water bodies below earth surface.

In Silico Elucidating the Common Gene-Regulatory-Network(S) Of Accelerated Cell Death (Acd11) from Arabidopsis Thaliana and Its Orthologs

Shahid `Ali — 2022-12-30

The Arabidopsis accelerated cell death 11 (acd11) is a genetic model for studying immune response activation and localized cellular suicide that prevent pathogen spread during plant infection. In this research article we predicted the common gene-regulatory-network of accelerated cell death (acd11) from Arabidopsis thaliana and its orthologs with the help of well-known bioinformatics tools. The most common orthologs were extracted from Phytzome and PLAZA on the basis of protein sequence similarity using BLASTp. Developmental expression analysis from Genevestigator concluded the acd11 is highly expressed at last developmental stage and co-expressed with Autophagy related and Disease resistant genes. PPI from STRING network confirm that its interacting partners are EDS1 and LAZ1 both of which play an important role in disease resistant and programmed cell death respectively. Protein disorder from DisEMBL confirm its diverse functioning properties and non-stable structure. Ligand binding study from RaptorX predicted that residues in the Active site pocket Asparagine and Histidine.