Spinal cord injury without radiological abnormality is a rare entity and has not been reported to occur secondary to active neck stretching. The case report highlights the possible mechanisms of injury and functional outcomes of multidisciplinary rehabilitation.

This study inspects the empirical association between inflation instability, GDP growth volatility, and the environmental quality in Pakistan, covering the period 1975-2018 by using an asymmetric autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodological approach. The asymmetric ARDL results document that positive and negative shocks of inflation instability have different effects on environmental quality. Negative shocks of inflation instability have a positive influence on carbon dioxide emissions (CO) and nitrous oxide emissions (NO), while positive shocks of inflation instability have insignificant effects in the long run. Asymmetric findings also suggest that positive and negative fluctuations in GDP growth volatility affect CO and NO emissions differently, while they have insignificant results on methane emissions (CH) in the long run. Additionally, in the short run, positive and negative shocks of inflation instability and GDP growth volatility behave differently in terms of their impact on pollution emissions. Based on these findings, the study opens up innovative intuitions for policymakers to support a robust role of economic stability in attaining targets relevant to pollution reduction.

In this work, amorphous Fe-Co-P films prepared by electrodeposition are found to exhibit dense microstructures with amorphous grains. Through a pulse electrodeposition synthesis route, complex microstructures containing nano-sized grains are obtained in the amorphous alloy films. The nanostructured Fe-Co-P amorphous alloys show superior soft magnetic and magnetocaloric properties as compared with those of other iron-based soft magnetic amorphous alloys reported to date. The coercive field of samples can be as small as 1.6 Oe at room temperature. The magnetocaloric effect of the ternary amorphous alloys has been investigated by evaluating the magnetic entropy changes, |ΔSM|, from their temperature-dependent magnetization behaviors. The |ΔSM| values are as high as 1.846 J kg-1 K-1 with an applied magnetic field of 10 kOe. With a temperature span of 90 K, the refrigerant capacity of samples can be as high as 118.64 J kg-1. The nanostructure enabled giant magnetocaloric effect in Fe-Co-P amorphous alloys are discussed.

To determine diagnostic accuracy of NMP 22 and urine cytology in the detection of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) urinary bladder taking cystoscopy as a gold standard in patients having provisional diagnosis of bladder cancer (BC).

The purpose of this study is to observe the effects of stock markets and exchange rate volatility on environmental pollution in Pakistan during the period 1985-2018. A nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is applied to get this objective. In general, the short-term results revealed that the positive and negative shocks in stock markets reducing the carbon emissions. In adverse, positive shocks in exchange rate volatility reduces the carbon emissions while negative shocks in exchange rate volatility have a positive significant effect on carbon emissions in Pakistan. Moreover, the positive and negative shocks in the stock market have a positive significant effect on Pakistan's carbon emissions but positive and negative shocks in exchange rate volatility negative influence on carbon emissions in the long run. The findings further show that positive and negative shocks of the stock markets and exchange rate volatility have the same effects in sign but different in magnitude in the long run. Based on these findings, some policy recommendations proposed in the context of Pakistan as well as for other developing countries.

Mirror self-recognition (MSR) is considered a crucial step in the emergence of self-cognition. The MSR paradigm has become a standard method for evaluating self-cognition in several species. For example, Eurasian magpies and Indian house crows have passed the mark test for self-cognition, whereas efforts to find MSR in other corvid species have failed. However, no literature has conducted MSR tests on azure-winged magpies, a species of corvids. Therefore, the current research aimed to investigate the MSR behaviours of azure-winged magpies upon looking into a mirror for the first time. The study included four tests: (1) mirror preference and standardised mirror exploration, (2) single vertical mirror test, (3) mark test and (4) mirror-triggered search test. The azure-winged magpies displayed immense curiosity towards the mirror and their images in the mirror in Test 1&2. In the subsequent mark tests, they failed to recognise themselves in the mirror and regarded their images as conspecifics. Behaviour analysis showed no significant difference between marked and unmarked behaviours. Finally they seemed to infer the presence of bait from the image in the mirror, but were found to fail to understand that the location of the bait in the mirror was the same as that in the real world. For a better insight into the MSR behaviour of azure-winged magpies, research studies involving prolonged mirror exposure and training are recommended.

Polarization converters play an important role in modern communication systems, but their wide and multiple band operation to facilitate volume and size reduction is quite challenging. In this paper, a triple-band Linear Polarization to Circular Polarization (LP-to-CP) converter is presented using a novel design procedure based on geometric parameters optimization of a metasheet. The proposed converter is ultrathin, wideband, stable over a wide range of incident angles, and polarization diverse. The conductor layer of metasheet is patterned with a square ring and five square-patches diagonally intersecting each other. To validate the proposed method, an LP-to-CP convertor in X-band (7.3~9.6 GHz) and dual Ka-bands (25.4~31.4 GHz, 35.4~42.2 GHz) is presented. The performance is quite stable in wide range of frequencies and against the variation of incident angles from -25° to 25°. After performing model-based theoretical paradigm analysis, and full-wave simulation and optimization, the converter is fabricated and the measurements are performed inside the anechoic chamber. The measured results, close to simulation results, depict the validity and reliability of the proposed design.

Blastomycosis is a systemic fungal infection which primarily involves the lungs but can disseminate to involve extrapulmonary sites. Current testing that exists includes sputum, urine, serum, and pathological tissue analysis. Radiological testing is often non-specific and highly variable. Here we present five cases of pulmonary blastomycosis with challenging radiographic presentations.

The basic purpose of this study is to scrutinize the asymmetric effect of oil price changes on environmental pollution in Canada, China, India, Iran, Germany, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and the USA. The study uses time series annual data of selected courtiers from 1981 to 2018 and applies non-linear ARDL (NARDL) model to examine the long- and short-run asymmetries. The results show that positive shocks in diesel prices in the USA, India, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Iran, and Canada, while negative shocks in China and India reduce carbon emissions in the long run. However, an increase in gasoline prices in Russia and Iran while the decrease in gasoline prices in the USA, Russia, Japan, and Canada decreases in carbon emissions in the long run. Asymmetric findings also suggest that positive and negative changes in oil prices affect carbon emissions differently in China, the USA, India, Russia, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Canada in the short and long run. However, sign and magnitude of positive and negative shocks of oil prices are more important in environmental economics polices. Therefore, based on sign and magnitude, more taxation of fossil fuel and clean energy subsidies are recommended for the top carbon-emitting economies.

For 60-GHz band communications, both the mutual coupling and transmission distance restrict the performance of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna array. Several studies presented different types of meta-materials and electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures to improve the performance of a MIMO antenna array at the 60-GHz band. In this paper, we presented the four-element MIMO patch antenna with different types of EBG structures for the millimeter wave (mmW)communications at the 60-GHz unlicensed industrial, scientific, and medical band. The single element of the MIMO antenna array covered the mmW band from 57 GHz to 63 GHz having the dimensions of 1.3 mm × 1.8 mm × 0.1 mm. We developed a set of square-shaped, cross-shaped, and complex-slotted EBG ground planes between the antenna elements for the performance improvement. All the three EBG ground planes provided significant coupling reduction between the mmW MIMO antenna elements. The proposed EBG structures exhibited wide bandgap characteristics and improved scattering parameters in the desired frequency band. In contrast with the cross- and complex-slotted, the square-shaped EBG structure substantially improved the overall gain of MIMO antenna array. In addition, the square-shaped EBG reformed the maximum beam and enhanced the far-field gain pattern in the desired direction. Experimental results conducted with the fabricated prototypes showed a good agreement with the simulation results and adequately covered the 60-GHz band. The low-profile and salient features of the proposed MIMO antenna array shows the potential for on-chip applications at 60 GHz.

PV (Photovoltaic) cells have nonlinear current-voltage (I - V) and power-voltage (P - V) characteristics with a distinct maximum power point (MPP) that entirely depends on the ambient meteorological conditions (i.e. solar irradiance and temperature). Hence, to continuously extract and deliver the maximum possible power from the PV system, under given meteorological conditions, the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control strategy needs to be formulated that continuously operates the PV system at its MPP. To achieve this goal, a hybrid nonlinear, very fast and efficient MPPT control strategy, based on the robust integral backstepping (RIB) control, is formulated in this research article. The simulation testbed comprises a standalone PV array, a non-inverting buck-boost (NIBB) DC-DC power converter, a purely resistive and a dynamic load (sound system). The proposed MPPT control scheme consists of two loops, where the first loop generates the real-time offline reference peak power voltage through an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) network, which is then utilized in the second loop as a set-point value for generating a control signal and then forcing the PV system to be operated at this set-point by continuously adjusting the duty ratio of the power converter. This control strategy exhibits no overshoot, fast convergence, good transient response, fast rising and settling times and minimum output tracking error. The MATLAB/Simulink platform is used to test the performance of the proposed MPPT strategy against varying meteorological conditions, plant current and voltage faults and plant parametric uncertainties. To validate the superiority of the proposed control strategy, a comparative analysis of the proposed control strategy is presented with the nonlinear backstepping (B), integral backstepping controller (IB) and conventional PID and P&O based MPPT controllers.

In December 2019, a number of pneumonia cases associated with 2019 novel coronavirus occurred in Wuhan, China. Later taxonomist name the virus SARS-CoV-2 and disease called COVID-19. No approved vaccine or treatment are available for this virus. Current technical guide is related to address therapeutic option for SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 is great challenge for scientist across the globe. Bioactive compound present in Artemisia annua against, hepatitis B virus, bovine viral diarrhea virus, and Epstein-Barr virus. A. annua have shown significant activity against SARS coronavirus that occur in 2002. This agent is cheap and easily available and will be of great value if they have efficacy against SARS-CoV-2. Scientific attention is needed toward this agent to address for the treatment of COVID-19.

Reduced graphene oxide/poly(pyrrol--thiophene) (RGO/COP), prepared by facile in-situ oxidative copolymerization, is reported as a new hybrid composite material with improved supercapacitance performance as compared to the respective homopolymers and their composites with RGO. The as-prepared hybrid materials were characterized with ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. The electrochemical behavior and energy storage properties of the materials were tested by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge/discharge (GCD), and electrostatic impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques in 0.5 M HSO. The specific capacitance (Csp) for RGO/COP calculated from the CV curve was 467 F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s. While the Csp calculated from the GCD was 417 F/g at a current density of 0.81 A/g. The energy density calculated was 86.4 Wh/kg with a power density of 630 W/kg. The hybrid composite exhibits good cyclic stability with 65% capacitance retention after 1000 cycles at a scan rate of 100 mV/s. The present work brings a significance development of RGO/COP composites to the electrode materials for pseudocapacitive application.

The state-of-charge (SoC) of an energy storage system (ESS) should be kept in a certain safe range for ensuring its state-of-health (SoH) as well as higher efficiency. This procedure maximizes the power capacity of the ESSs all the times. Furthermore, economic load dispatch (ELD) is implemented to allocate power among various ESSs, with the aim of fully meeting the load demand and reducing the total operating cost. In this research article, a distributed multi-agent consensus based control algorithm is proposed for multiple battery energy storage systems (BESSs), operating in a microgrid (MG), for fulfilling several objectives, including: SoC trajectories tracking control, economic load dispatch, active and reactive power sharing control, and voltage and frequency regulation (using the leader-follower consensus approach). The proposed algorithm considers the hierarchical control structure of the BESSs and the frequency/voltage droop controllers with limited information exchange among the BESSs. It embodies both self and communication time-delays, and achieves its objectives along with offering plug-and-play capability and robustness against communication link failure. Matlab/Simulink platform is used to test and validate the performance of the proposed algorithm under load disturbances through extensive simulations carried out on a modified IEEE 57-bus system. A detailed comparative analysis of the proposed distributed control strategy is carried out with the distributed PI-based conventional control strategy for demonstrating its superior performance.

The asymmetrical impacts of globalization and tourism on pollution emissions of 5 South Asian countries for the period from 1980 to 2018 are examined through a non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) technique, which shows that both short and long-run coefficients are asymmetric. The findings suggest that positive and negative shocks in globalization affect carbon emissions differently in the case of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, while similar results are found in the case of Nepal and Sri Lanka in the long run. Furthermore, positive tourism shock, in the long run, ameliorates the environmental quality by reducing carbon emissions in Nepal and Sri Lanka, however, increases the carbon emissions in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. While negative tourism shock has an adverse effect on positive shock on carbon emissions in South Asia. The phenomena of globalization and tourism can exert a severe impact in aggravating the pollution emissions that policymakers should forecast and oppose. Based on these findings, some policy suggestions are proposed for South Asian economies.

The current review focuses on the new development of adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) patients in the areas of imaging, percutaneous interventions, ventricular assist devices and transplantation.

In the current study, we have designed and synthesized a series of novel histone deacetylase1/2 (HDAC1/2) and cyclin-dependent kinase2 (CDK2) dual inhibitors by integrating purine-based pharmacophore into the recognition cap group of CS055. The representative compound 14d with excellent antiproliferative activities towards five solid cancer cells, showed potent inhibitory activities against HDAC1, HDAC2 and CDK2 with IC values of 70.7 nM, 23.1 nM and 0.80 μM, respectively. Besides, compound 14d could effectively block the cell cycle in the G2/M phase and induce apoptosis, which might be related to increasing intracellular ROS levels. Importantly, compound 14d exhibited desirable pharmacokinetic (PK) properties with the intraperitoneal bioavailability of 50.8% in ICR mice, and potent in vivo antitumor activity in the HCT116 xenograft model. Therefore, compound 14d could be considered as a promising lead compound for the development of multitargeting anticancer agents.

To observe the temporal shifts of the intestinal microbial community structure and diversity in rats for 30 days after death. Rectal swabs were collected from rats before death (BD) and on day 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 after death (AD). Bacteria genomic DNA was extracted and V3 + V4 regions of 16S rRNA gene were amplified by PCR. The amplicons were sequenced at Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform. The bacterial diversity and richness showed similar results from day 1 to 5 and day 10 to 25 all presenting downtrend, while from day 5 to 10 showed slightly increased. The relative abundance of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria displayed inverse variation in day 1, 5, 10 and that was the former decreased, the latter increased. Bacteroidetes, Spirochaete and TM7 in day 15, 20, 25, 30 was significantly decline comparing with BD. Enterococcus and Proteus displayed reduced trend over day 1, 5, 10 and day 10, 15, 20, 25, respectively, while Sporosarcina showed obvious elevation during day 15, 20, 25. Accordingly, there was a certain correlation between intestinal flora succession and the time of death. The results suggested that intestinal flora may be potential indicator to aid estimation of post-mortem interval (PMI).