Status and Magnitude of Grey Wolf Conflict with Pastoral Communities in the Foothills of the Hindu Kush Region of Pakistan.

Pastoralist-wolf conflict over livestock depredation is the main factor affecting conservation of grey wolf worldwide. Very limited research has been carried out to evaluate the pattern and nature of livestock depredation by wolf. This study aims to determine the status and nature of human-wolf conflict across different villages in the Hind Kush region of Pakistan during the period January 2016-December 2016.

Immunoinformatics and structural vaccinology driven prediction of multi-epitope vaccine against Mayaro virus and validation through in-silico expression.

The Mayaro virus (MAYV) belongs to genus "Alphavirus" and family "Togaviridae". MAYV has distribution in the Amazonia, Central and Northeastern regions of Brazil. The abundance of mosquito vector Haemagogus janthinomys has major role in the outbreaks of arthralgia disease in Brazil.

Constructing Desired Vertical Component Distribution Within a PBDB-T:ITIC-M Photoactive Layer via Fine-Tuning the Surface Free Energy of a Titanium Chelate Cathode Buffer Layer.

Rationally controlling the vertical component distribution within a photoactive layer is crucial for efficient polymer solar cells (PSCs). Herein, fine-tuning the surface free energy (SFE) of the titanium(IV) oxide bis(2,4-pentanedionate) (TOPD) cathode buffer layer is proposed to achieve a desired perpendicular component distribution for the PBDB-T:ITIC-M photoactive layer. The Owens-Wendt method is adopted to precisely calculate the SFE of TOPD film jointly based on the water contact angle and the diiodomethane contact angle.

Metabolic Impact on the Hypothalamic Kisspeptin-Kiss1r Signaling Pathway.

A large body of data has established the hypothalamic kisspeptin (KP) and its receptor, KISS1R, as major players in the activation of the neuroendocrine reproductive axis at the time of puberty and maintenance of reproductive capacity in the adult. Due to its strategic location, this ligand-receptor pair acts as an integrator of cues from gonadal steroids as well as of circadian and seasonal variation-related information on the reproductive axis. Besides these cues, the activity of the hypothalamic KP signaling is very sensitive to the current metabolic status of the body.

Broadening the Photoresponse to Near-Infrared Region by Cooperating Fullerene and Nonfullerene Acceptors for High Performance Ternary Polymer Solar Cells.

Ternary polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on multiple materials with level matching and complementary absorptions are regarded as an efficient way to overcome the light-harvesting restriction to surpass high-performance binary PSCs. This study introduces the third component, nonfullerene acceptor IEICO, into binary PSC-based PBDTBDD:PC BM to fabricate ternary PSC with one donor and two acceptors. By carefully tuning the third component ratio and cathode engineering, the resulting ternary PSC shows a power conversion efficiency of 10.

Incorporating an Electrode Modification Layer with a Vertical Phase Separated Photoactive Layer for Efficient and Stable Inverted Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells.

For bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells (PSCs), the donors and acceptors featuring specific phase separation and concentration distribution within the electron donor/acceptor blends crucially affect the exciton dissociation and charge transportation. Herein, efficient and stable nonfullerene inverted PSCs incorporating a phase separated photoactive layer and a titanium chelate electrode modification layer are demonstrated. Water contact angle (WCA), scanning kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques are implemented to characterize the morphology of photoactive layers.

Efficient Planar Structured Perovskite Solar Cells with Enhanced Open-Circuit Voltage and Suppressed Charge Recombination Based on a Slow Grown Perovskite Layer from Lead Acetate Precursor.

For planar structured organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PerSCs) with the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:polystyrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) hole transport layer, the open-circuit voltage (V) of the device is limited to be about 1.0 V, resulting in inferior performance in comparison with TiO-based planar counterparts. Therefore, increasing V of the PEDOT:PSS-based planar device is an important way to enhance the efficiency of the PerSCs.

The Effect of Donor and Nonfullerene Acceptor Inhomogeneous Distribution within the Photoactive Layer on the Performance of Polymer Solar Cells with Different Device Structures.

Due to the inhomogeneous distribution of donor and acceptor materials within the photoactive layer of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (OSCs), proper selection of a conventional or an inverted device structure is crucial for effective exciton dissociation and charge transportation. Herein, we investigate the donor and acceptor distribution within the non-fullerene photoactive layer based on PBDTTT-ET:IEICO by time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectroscopy (TOF-SIMS) and scanning Kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM), indicating that more IEICO enriches on the surface of the photoactive layer while PBDTTT-ET distributes homogeneously within the photoactive layer. To further understand the effect of the inhomogeneous component distribution on the photovoltaic performance, both conventional and inverted OSCs were fabricated.

Robust Adaptive Lasso method for parameter's estimation and variable selection in high-dimensional sparse models.

High dimensional data are commonly encountered in various scientific fields and pose great challenges to modern statistical analysis. To address this issue different penalized regression procedures have been introduced in the litrature, but these methods cannot cope with the problem of outliers and leverage points in the heavy tailed high dimensional data. For this purppose, a new Robust Adaptive Lasso (RAL) method is proposed which is based on pearson residuals weighting scheme.

Going west - A subtropical lineage (Vincetoxicum, Apocynaceae: Asclepiadoideae) expanding into Europe.

Vincetoxicum sensu lato is a tropical lineage comprising two clades that have reached high northern latitudes. Of the temperate clades, one is restricted to the Far East, the other one (Vincetoxicum s. str.

The involvement of gonadotropin inhibitory hormone and kisspeptin in the metabolic regulation of reproduction.

Recently, kisspeptin (KP) and gonadotropin inhibitory hormone (GnIH), two counteracting neuropeptides, have been acknowledged as significant regulators of reproductive function. KP stimulates reproduction while GnIH inhibits it. These two neuropeptides seem to be pivotal for the modulation of reproductive activity in response to internal and external cues.

Ethnopharmacological importance of medicinal flora from the district of Vehari, Punjab province, Pakistan.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Ethnopharmacological studies are important for the discovery of new drugs from reported indigenous flora. The current study was aimed to document medicinal flora and its therapeutic actions along with the relative importance in local health care system of the district of Vehari, Punjab province, Pakistan.

Materials And Method: Rapid appraisal approach (RAA) and semi structured interviews were used along with the group meetings with herbalists, local inhabitants and landowners to collect the relevant data.

Levels and profile of several classes of organic contaminants in matched indoor dust and serum samples from occupational settings of Pakistan.

Dust ingestion is an important route of human exposure to organic contaminants, especially for flame retardants (FRs) in occupational settings. Several classes of organic contaminants were analyzed in matched dust and serum samples from academics and workers in electronics and clothing stores of Faisalabad, Pakistan. The concentrations of contaminants varied in dust as follow: organophosphate FRs (∑PFRs) > novel brominated FRs (∑NBFRs) > polybrominated diphenyl ethers (∑PBDEs) > organochlorine pesticides (∑OCPs) > polychlorinated biphenyls (∑PCBs), while, in serum, concentration varied: ∑OCPs > bromophenols (∑BPs) > ∑PCBs > ∑HO-PCBs ≈ ∑PBDEs.

Ethnomedicinal knowledge and relative importance of indigenous medicinal plants of Cholistan desert, Punjab Province, Pakistan.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Ethnomedicinal studies are significant for the discovery of new crude drugs from indigenous reported medicinal plants. The current study aimed to report the indigenous medicinal knowledge of plants and herbal remedies used as folk medicines in Cholistan desert, Punjab Province, Pakistan.

Material And Methods: Rapid appraisal approach (RAA), semi-structured interviews, group meetings with herbalists, landowners and local people having awareness about the medicinal action of plants were employed to collect the data.

Relative importance of indigenous medicinal plants from Layyah district, Punjab Province, Pakistan.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Ethnomedicinal reports are important for the discovery of new crude drugs from reported medicinal plants with high use value. The current study aimed to document the medicinal flora as well as medicinal knowledge of indigenous plants of local communities from Layyah district, Punjab Province, Pakistan.

Material And Methods: Rapid appraisal approach (RAA), semi-structured interviews, group meetings with herbalists, landowners and local people having awareness about the medicinal action of plants were employed to collect the data.

Apoptotic Effect of Wortmannolone on Cancer Cells through Potent ROS Induction.

Nuclear factor κappa-B inhibitors isolated from natural sources that induce apoptosis are promising new agents with anticancer properties. Wortmannin and wortmannolone were isolated from endophytic fungus () and showed NF-κB inhibitory effects with inhibitory concentration (IC) of 0.47 μM and 2.

Plasma lipid profile in gynecologic cancers.

Background: Lipids are associated with cancer because they play a key role in the maintenance of cell integrity. We studied the relationship of plasma lipids with gynecologic cancer.

Methods: A total of 196 female individuals were included in the study.