jbas

journal-basic-applied-scien

Surface Functionalization of Gold Nanoparticles for Antiviral Medicines by Simulating the Surface Structure of Host Cells
Pages 572-576
Yujiro Naruse

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1927-5129.2015.11.76

Published: 10 November 2015

Open Access

Abstract: Surface functionalized gold nanoparticles that mimic the surfaces of host cells are proposed for antiviral medicines and the strategic design is theoretically described. As for the interaction between the gold nanoparticles and the viruses, the former acts as the adhesive balls for viruses. This will lead to gathering viruses and forming clusters or chains of them, bringing about four-stage antiviral mechanisms. The mechanisms are the interference against budding, reduction of diffusion velocity, inhibition of entry into host cells and the damage to RNA/DNA by X-ray exposure.

Keywords: Influenza, virus, NANA (N-Acetylneuraminic acid), endocytosis, HA (hemagglutinin), NA (neuraminidase).
Download Full Article

Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences

To Assess the Quality of Life in Patients Suffering from Allergic Rhinitis
Pages 501-506
Nikhil Sharma, Prithpal S. Matreja, Monika Gupta, Vipan Gupta,Manish Gupta and Ashwani K. Gupta

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1927-5129.2015.11.67

Published: 01 September 2015

Open Access

Abstract:Background: Allergic Rhinitis (AR) associated with impairments in patients day-to-day functioning at home and work is a global health problem. It’s associated with sleep disorders, emotional problems, impairment in activities, and social functioning. However, it’s not known to what extent quality of life (QOL) scores, work impairment, or sleep is altered in Indian setup hence, this study was designed to assess the quality of life of patients suffering from allergic rhinitis.

Methodology: This prospective, observational, cross sectional study was conducted on patients suffering from allergic rhinitis visiting the out patients department. The patients who gave written informed consent were divided into two groups based on gender, Group 1 was males and Group 2 was females. A detailed history was taken and participants underwent thorough medical examination, followed by assessment on Rhino conjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ) and WHOQOL – Bref scores.

Results: A total of 87 patients were screened of which 40 patients were enrolled in study. The average age of patients in the study was 28.08±10.01, a total of 26 males and 14 females completed the study. There were significantly worse non nose/eyes symptoms scores, practical problems, and emotional scores in patients in Group 2 as compared to Group 1. Group 1 had better aspect of sleep, nasal symptoms, and eyes symptoms as compared to Group 2. Whereas, Group2 had better aspect of activities score as compared to Group 1.

Conclusion: To conclude both groups had compromised quality of life, with females being more affected as compared to males

Keywords: Allergic rhinitis, quality of life, social, emotional, psychological.

Download Full Article

Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences

Microwave Assisted Reduction for Screening Banned Aromatic Amines in Azo Dyes - Pages 638-646
Rajkumar Dewani, Farman Ahmed, Munawwer Rasheed, Muhammad Kashif Pervez, Kehkashan Khan and Sarwat Jahan Mahboob

https://doi.org/10.6000/1927-5129.2017.13.103

Published: 22 December 2017

Open Access

Abstract:  The study proposes a simple, novel and green alternative for the efficient reduction of azo dyes by the standard method, EN 14362-1:2012 (Annex. F) for detection of harmful aromatic amines in colorants, by incorporating microwave heating in place of convective heating. Basic dye response to reduction methods was explored by UV-visible spectroscopy and the results were confirmed through GC-MS and HPLC-DAD. Four azo dyes namely Acid red 1 (AR-1), Direct blue 15 (DB-15), Direct red 28 (DR-28) and Direct red 7 (DR-7) were reduced with sodium dithionite at 70 °C for 30 min in a buffered solution at pH 6.0, serving as a reference method. The decline in dye absorbance after their reduction was explored by UV-visible spectroscopy with carefully chosen bands of maximum absorbance from 300 to 700 nm. The alternative method exposed dye solutions to short microwave heating (10 s) and immediate cooling, in cycles till the desired duration of microwave heating was achieved. Results obtained from reference method were used for comparison with MAR (experimental method 1). Most prominent results of MAR were observed in the case of DR-28 dye. Hence DR-28 was further subjected to the conditions of experimental method 2, which was simply EN 14362-1:2012 (F) method modified with MAR. For standard method and experimental method 2, amines were analysed by GC-MS and HPLC-DAD. MAR methods were compared with reference and standard reduction methods for efficiencies. The total saving with MAR in terms of time and energy was ~70% and ~92% respectively.

Keywords: Green Chemistry, Azo dyes, Microwave assisted reduction (MAR), Flash microwave, Banned aromatic amines.

Download Full Article

Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences

Exploratory Assessment of the Factors of Personality Trait of Mathematics Teacher’s that Effects on the Academic Achievements: A Statistical Surveyed Approach - Pages 674-680
Shila Devi1, Zaira Wahab1 and Afaq Ahmed Siddiqui2

1Iqra University Karachi, Pakistan; 2University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan
https://doi.org/10.6000/1927-5129.2017.13.107

Published: 1 January 2018

Open Access

Abstract:  The interaction between teachers and students is one of the aspect that helps the students in their career grooming because teacher's personality and their behavior is responsible for his/her effectiveness in the teaching and plays an important role in learning process in terms of achievement and success in the classroom as well as in their entire life. It has been proved that the personality factors such as extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, neuroticism and agreeableness are the key characteristics of teachers’ personality and behavior. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of teachers’ personality on students’ academic achievement particularly in mathematics subject. In order to pursue the objectives of the study, researcher used quantitative paradigm. Researcher adopted the survey research design for collection of quantitative data. In this way, Big Five Inventory (BFI) is used to identify the teacher’s personality type. This inventory comprised of forty statements about big five personality traits (eight statements about each personality trait). Moreover, the quantitative data is also collected from students’ midterm examination results from the chosen schools. A total of fifty seven public schools and forty five private schools were selected through stratified random sampling technique. The participants of the study comprised of public and private sector elementary 6th -8thgrade school teachers of Karachi, Pakistan. The reliability of the data is found to be around 0.7 of each construct in both sets of data. An independent t test was used to analyze the difference in responses of public and private school teachers. The significance value (P-value) of this indicates that there is statistically significant difference among responses of public and private school teacher’s responses regarding their personality styles that affect the academic achievement of the students. Furthermore, for an inside study a multivariate statistical tool “Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)” was used to explore and identify the most important factor in the data. Finally, four factors emerged in the data. The factors emerged in both of sets of data indicates that combination of Agreeable and Conscientious are the most important personality style of teachers that may affect the academic achievement of students.

Keywords: Extraversion, Agreeable Conscientious, Factor analysis, Independent t-test.

Download Full Article