Fatty acid analysis of the five types of locally consumed edible oils (n = 22) was carried out using a Gas Chromatograph (G.C) equipped with a Flame Ionization Detector (FID) and stainless steel packed column. The results showed that sunflower oil contained the highest percentage of long chain mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids (91.49 ± 1.91 %) compared to soybean oil (81.14 ± 1.49 %), mustard oil (86.80 ± 3.07 %), palm oil (53.30 ± 0.36 %) and coconut oil (7.12 ± 0.51 %). Two varieties of mustard oil, low erucic (= 5 %, n=3) and high erucic acid ( >14 %, n=2) and two varieties of sunflower oil, high linoleic-low oleic (61-66 % & 22-27 %, n=2) and low linoleic-high oleic (29-38 % and 53-63 %, n =3) were found. Sunflower oil with the highest percentage of mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids especially the high linoleic-low oleic variety appeared to be superior and most suitable edible oil for mass consumption.

Leachate will be treated by using coagulation-flocculation. Coagulation and flocculation are essential processes in a number of diverse disciplines, including biochemistry, cheese manufacturing, rubber manufacturing, and in water and waste water treatment. It is effective for removing high concentration organic pollutant and heavy metals in wastewater. However, coagulationflocculation examined the effectiveness of alum, ferric chloride and polyaluminum chloride (PAC1) as well as the use of synthetic polymers on the removal of suspended solid (SS), color, COD and ammoniacal nitrogen (NH 3 N) from leachate. The coagulant dosage has typically been determined through jar test, which requires a long experiment time in a field water treatment plant.

Background Hospital waste management (HWM) practices are the core need to run a proper health care facility. This study encompasses the HWM practices in teaching hospitals of Peshawar, Pakistan and examine the enforcement of Pak HWM (2005) rules and risks through transmission of pathogens via blood fluids, air pollution during waste incineration and injuries occurring in conjunction with open burning and dumping. Methods A questionnaire based on World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations was used to survey the selected private and public teaching hospital (n = 16). Site visits and personnel observations were also included in the data. It was spatio-statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics, Krushkal-wallis and Fisher’s exact tests. Results The findings revealed that the lack of HWM practices in all surveyed hospitals (p > 0.05), besides statistical difference (p < 0.017) in waste generation/day. No proper segregation of waste from generation point to final disposal was practiced. However, the performance of private teaching hospitals (50%) was found better in terms of HWM personnel and practices. In surveyed hospitals, only nine hospitals (56.3%) were found with the incinerator facility while rest of the hospitals (43.7%) practiced open dumping. Moreover, operational parameters of the incinerators were not found satisfactory and located in densely populated areas and emitting hazardous gases. Conclusion Proper HWM practices are not being followed in the light of WHO guidelines. Hospital waste impose serious menace to healthcare workers and to nearby population. WHO issued documents for improving HWM practices but triggered no change in Pakistan. To improve the situation, insights in this context is need for enforcement of rules.

<span>This study examines consumer attitude and empirically test the factors that differentiate between successful and unsuccessful brand extensions, on the basis of parent brand attributes and characteristics, in reference to variables such as brand similarity, brand reputation, multiple brand extension, parent brand characteristics and brand concept consistency using actual extensions of two brands i.e. Olpers Cream (extension of Olpers Milk) and Lipton tea bag (extension of Lipton tea). A sample of 430 consumers of Bahawalpur District (Pakistan) was selected for the survey. Stratified proportionate sampling (in proportion to the population of each Union Council) was used for drawing these samples. The study suggests a more prominent role of parent brand attributes and characteristics than brand extension that had been acknowledged in the literature. Further, the study documents the importance of an extensions fit with the parent brands image while at the same time suggesting that similarity between the brand extension and its core brand has positive effect on extension evaluation. It also shows that as perceived appropriateness between the extension and the core brand decreases, attitude toward the core brand on brand-extension evaluation decreases.</span>

Background Nurses and paramedics by being the frontline workers of the healthcare profession need to be equipped with the relevant knowledge, skills and protective gears against different forms of infection, including COVID-19. Though the governments and concerned stakeholders have provided P.P.E.s, training and information to protect the healthcare professionals, however until now the scientific literature has virtually not reported the impact of P.P.Es availability, training and practices on the COVID-19 sero-prevalence among the nurses and paramedics. Objective This study aimed to assess the Impact of P.P.Es availability, training and practices on COVID-19 sero-prevalence among nurses and paramedics in teaching hospitals of Peshawar, Pakistan. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a total of 133 nurses and paramedics as subjects of the study. Results A univariate analysis was done for four variables. The findings indicate that the healthcare professionals (nurses & paramedics) who have received P.P.Es on time at the start of COVID-19 emergence has fewer chances of contracting the COVID-19 infection (O.R = 0.96); while the odds for P.P.Es supplies was 0.73, and the odds of hand hygiene training was 0.95. Conclusion The study concluded that the availability of the P.P.E.s, COVID-19 related training and compliance with W.H.O recommended practices against COVID-19 were instrumental in protection against the infection and its spread.