Modified natural polymers as additives in high-temperature drilling fluids: A review.

Drilling fluids are often referred to as the "blood" of the drilling process, as they play a crucial role in determining both the efficiency and safety of drilling operations. Natural polymers, derived from renewable sources, such as cellulose, lignin, chitosan, xanthan gum, and starch, offer inherent advantages such as sustainability, biodegradability, and environmentally-friendliness when used as additives in drilling fluids. However, the inherent properties of natural polymers are adversely affected by thermal degradation due to their low heat resistance under harsh drilling conditions, where temperatures can exceed 150 °C.

Experimental evaluation of the influence of combined particle size pretreatment and FeO additive on fuel yields of shells.

A smart energy recovery process can achieve maximum energy recovery from organic wastes. Pretreatment of feedstock is essential to biogas and methane yields during the anaerobic digestion process. This work combined particle size reduction with FeO nanoparticles to investigate their influence on biogas and methane yields from anaerobic digestion of shells.

Modelling the effects of particle size pretreatment method on biogas yield of groundnut shells.

Optimising biogas yields from anaerobic digestion of organic wastes is significant to maximum energy recovery in the biodigestion process and has become an important topic of interest. Substrate particle size is an important process parameter in biogas production, and it precedes other pretreatments methods for the majority of the lignocellulose materials. Optimisation of biogas yield using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was done, and temperature, hydraulic retention time and particle size were considered variables to develop the predictive models.

Challenges Faced by Lady Surgeons during Professional Progress in Pakistan.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the professional challenges faced by lady surgeons in Pakistan. This qualitative exploratory phenomenological study was conducted from April 2019 to June 2019. Four lady surgeons participated in in-depth interviews, based on four questions: challenges during training; perceptions of gender-based professional treatment; perceptions of relationships with peers; and perception of gender on the quality of training.

Structured Long Interview and Clinical Examination (SLICE) as Formative Assessment Tool in Clinical Clerkship: Medical Students Perspective.

Objective: To evaluate medical students' views about undertaking structured long interview and clinical examination as a formative assessment.

Methods: The qualitative, exploratory study was conducted from February to July 2019 at the Islamic International Medical College, Riphah International University, Islamabad, Pakistan, and comprised final year medical students having undertaken formative assessment through structured long interview and clinical examination during their clerkship rotation in Paediatrics, General Medicine, General Surgery and Gynaecology and Obstetrics. Four sets of focus group discussions were conducted according to the relevant clerkship module.

Optimization of biogas yield from lignocellulosic materials with different pretreatment methods: a review.

Population increase and industrialization has resulted in high energy demand and consumptions, and presently, fossil fuels are the major source of staple energy, supplying 80% of the entire consumption. This has contributed immensely to the greenhouse gas emission and leading to global warming, and as a result of this, there is a tremendous urgency to investigate and improve fresh and renewable energy sources worldwide. One of such renewable energy sources is biogas that is generated by anaerobic fermentation that uses different wastes such as agricultural residues, animal manure, and other organic wastes.

Chlorine inhalation induces acute chest syndrome in humanized sickle cell mouse model and ameliorated by postexposure hemopexin.

Triggering factors of Acute Chest Syndrome (ACS) is a leading cause of death in patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and targeted therapies are limited. Chlorine (Cl) inhalation happens frequently, but its role as a potential trigger of ACS has not been determined. In this study, we hypothesized that Cl exposure resembling that in the vicinity of industrial accidents induces acute hemolysis with acute lung injury, reminiscent of ACS in humanized SCD mice.

Electrochemical corrosion behavior of copper in graphene-based thermal fluid with different surfactants.

This study investigates the effect of different surfactant-dispersed graphene nanofluid on the electrochemical behavior of copper. This study was achieved by measuring the open circuit potential and potentiodynamic polarization of copper in the nanofluids at room temperature. The test media includes surfactant-free graphene nanofluid and graphene nanofluid dispersed using four different surfactants, which are sodium dodecyl sulfate, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, Gum Arabic, and Tween 80.

A balanced scorecard for health services in Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) in Afghanistan has developed a balanced scorecard (BSC) to regularly monitor the progress of its strategy to deliver a basic package of health services. Although frequently used in other health-care settings, this represents the first time that the BSC has been employed in a developing country. The BSC was designed via a collaborative process focusing on translating the vision and mission of the MOPH into 29 core indicators and benchmarks representing six different domains of health services, together with two composite measures of performance.