Chemical

Electromyography (EMG) of respiratory muscles is a reliable method of assessing the ventilatory muscle function, but still its use has not been fully utilized to determine the occupational and environmental hazards on respiratory muscles. Therefore, EMG of intercostal muscles was performed to determine the dose response effect of cement dust on respiratory muscles competence. Matched cross-sectional study of EMG in 50 non-smoking cement mill workers with an age range of 20 -60 years, who worked without the benefit of cement dust control ventilation or respiratory protective devices. EMG was performed by using surface electrodes and chart recorder. Significant reduction was observed in number of peaks ( p 5 0.0005), maximum peak amplitude ( p 5 0.0005), peak-to-peak amplitude ( p 5 0.0005) and duration of response ( p 5 0.0005) in cement mill workers compared to their matched control. Cement dust impairs the intercostal muscle competence and stratification of results shows a dose-effect of years of exposure in cement mill.

In this study, Tragopogon L. Lactuceae (Asteraceae) collected from Pakistan has been investigated for its morphology, leaf epidermal anatomical feature and pollen grain characteristics. It is a perennial herb. In this project 2 species i.e. Tragopogon dubius & Tragopogon gracilis are described. It was found that the basal leaves were sessile, whilst the basal, middle and upper leaf blade was linearlanceolate. Furthermore, the phyllaries were in one row in all. The middle and inner phyllaries were absent. The leaves were bifacial and stomata cells were anomotetracytic. The pollen type of the species was trizonocolporate and tetrazonocolporate. All morphological, palynological and anatomical studies are illustrated for the first time.

The separation and determination of 19 amino acids were examined using two stages derivatization with trifluoroacetylacetone and ethyl chloroformate from the column HP-5 (30 m × 0.32 mm id) with film thickness 0.25 μm at an initial column temperature 100 °C for 2 min with ramping of 20 °C min−1 up to 250 °C with nitrogen flow rate of 3 mL min−1. The detection was performed by flame ionization detector. Total separation time was 10 min. The separation was repeatable with relative standard deviation (RSD) (n = 5) within 1.5–1.9 and 1.3–1.7% in terms of retention time and peak height/peak area, respectively. The method was applied for the determination of amino acids from skin samples of psoriatic patients (n = 6), arsenicosis patients (n = 5) and normal subjects (n = 9) and variation in the contents of the amino acids was noted. The RSDs for the determination were obtained within 3%.

The purpose of this study was to identify superior parental combinations based upon general and specific combining abilities in order to exploit their potential for increasing seed cotton yield. Five cotton lines ( NIAB 111, NIAB 999, CIM 448, MNH 93 & FH 901) and three testers (LRA Blight, CP 15/21 & 289 F-1) were crossed according to line × tester mating system. Data on 23 genotypes were recorded on monopodial and sympodial branches, number of bolls, boll weight, seed index and seed cotton yield. The variation due to general combining ability of the parents and specific combining ability of the hybrids for plant yield and its components were estimated by line × tester analysis. Result showed that MNH 93 was the best combiner for most of the traits studied. Variance components analysis indicated that except boll weight, all other characters were predominantly influenced by dominance properties of genes. Three varietal combinations NIAB 999 × CP 15/21, CIM 448 × LRA Blight and MNH 93 × 289 F-1 expressed high specific combining abilities for all characters. Results suggest that the parents may be used in the hybridization program aiming to develop hybrid cotton.