Journals
2020 EN
Israa Hussein · Shatha Ahmed · Ameer T. Hameedi
+4 more
Breast cancer is a heterogeneous hormone-dependent disease. Potential prognosis depends on the clinicopathological evaluation and assessment of other prognostic indicators. The detection of the oestrogen Receptor (ER), Progesterone Receptor (PR), Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2/neu) and BRCA1 oncoprotein is pivotal for prognostic evaluation and to choose the appropriate post-surgical adjuvant therapy beside selecting the proper candidate for genetic counselling.
West Asia Organization for Cancer Prevention
Journals
2020 EN
Mark Wen Han Hiew · Ameer Megahed · Luke Horstman
+1 more
An accurate, practical, and low-cost method for predicting parturition is urgently needed in the dairy industry. The objective of this study was to evaluate changes in plasma progesterone concentration ([prog]) and glucose concentration in whole blood ([gluc] b ) and plasma ([gluc] p ) as predictors of parturition within 6, 12, and 24 h in primiparous and multiparous Holstein cows. Blood samples were obtained daily at approximately 0900 h from 34 primiparous and 72 multiparous Holstein cows in late gestation and the time of calving recorded to the nearest hour. Plasma [prog] was measured using an ELISA, and [gluc] b and [gluc] p using a low-cost point-of-care glucose meter. The optimal cut-point for predicting parturition was determined using binomial logistic regression with general estimating equations, because the data set consisted of repeated measures for each cow. Diagnostic test performance was evaluated by comparing the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and calculating the sensitivity, specificity, and κ at the optimal cut-point for predicting parturition. Plasma [prog] was the most accurate predictor of parturition within 24 h (AUC = 0.96) and 12 h (AUC = 0.93), whereas [gluc] b was the most accurate predictor of parturition within 6 h (primiparous, AUC = 0.96; multiparous, AUC = 0.86). We conclude that a decrease in plasma [prog] is currently the most accurate test for predicting calving within 24 h. Measurement of [gluc] b is a promising new test for the cow-side prediction of parturition in dairy cows due to its accuracy, practicality, and low cost.
Journals
2020 EN
Ameer Megahed · Peter D. Constable
Urine ammonium concentration ([NH 4 + ]) provides a clinically useful indicator of the magnitude of nutritionally induced systemic acidification in dairy cattle when urine pH < 6.1. The objective of this study was to evaluate the analytical performance of a low-cost point-of-care colorimetric test in measuring urine [NH 4 + ] in dairy cattle consuming an acidogenic ration. A method comparison study was performed using 154 urine samples from 43 periparturient Holstein-Friesian cows. We compared urine [NH 4 + ] measured by an indophenol blue colorimetric test (MColortest, Merck KGaA, Billerica, MA; test method) with levels measured by formaldehyde titration (reference method). Diagnostic performance was evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficient (r), Passing-Bablok regression, Bland-Altman plot, and binary logistic regression. Urine [NH 4 + ] measured by the colorimetric test was strongly correlated (r = 0.98) with urine [NH 4 + ] measured by formaldehyde titration. Method comparison studies indicated that the colorimetric test provided acceptable test performance when urine [NH 4 + ] < 80 mmol/L. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the colorimetric ammonium test was high at 0.985 when used to identify formaldehyde titration [NH 4 + ] > 10 mmol/L, equivalent to urine pH <6.1. At the optimal cut point ([NH 4 + ] > 11 mmol/L) for the colorimetric test, sensitivity = 0.94, specificity = 0.97, positive likelihood ratio = 27.6, and κ = 0.89, indicating excellent test performance. We conclude that the indophenol blue colorimetric test provided an accurate, low-cost, and practical on-farm test for measuring urine [NH 4 + ] in diluted urine samples from dairy cattle consuming an acidogenic ration.
Journals
2020 EN
Arshad Ali · Athar Rashid · Ameer Sultan
The present work deals with the adjectives used by Charles Dickens to portray the social class in the novel Great Expectations. The study used a corpus linguistics methodology for data preparation, corpus development, and data analysis. The text of the novel was collected from online sources and used in the compilation of the corpus. The corpus was filtered of additional information and tagged using a part-of-speech tagger (POS tagger). The tagged data was analyzed using AntConc software. The findings of the study suggest that the use of adjectives plays a substantial role in the portrayal of the social class in the novel Great Expectations. The findings also show that there was a clear divide between upper and lower classes. The members of the lower class were humiliated and looked down upon by the members of the upper class.
Journals
2020 EN
Arshad Ali · Athar Rashid · Ameer Sultan
This paper deals with a corpus-based analysis of patriarchy in The Pakistani Bride, a novel written by Bapsi Sidhwa. The primary concern of the study is the adjectives used for the sketching of the Pakistani patriarchal society. Computer technology is widely used these days for the corpus analysis of literary texts such as novels, plays, poetry, etc. For this study, the text of the novel was collected from the internet and used for the corpus compilation. The corpus was analyzed using a corpus tool, AntConc. All the adjectives used in the text were analyzed and explained, highlighting the theme of patriarchy in the novel. The findings of the study suggest that patriarchy is a major theme of this novel, and adjectives play a crucial role in the description of gender discrimination, social constraints, and oppression of women.
Journals
2020 EN
Noor Fatima · Muhammad Imran Ashraf · Ameer Abdullah
Economic development is always linked with systematic changes in human behavior, its basic value and cultural change are paths dependent on it. The study illustrates the culture value that converges the EU into a single European value landscape. Current economic growth theories do not take into account cultural variables at national levels and economic life happens in asocial context and it affects economic development. This paper gives an overview of earlier relevant studies on cultural and economic growth and established linkage between cultural norms and its economic outcome from the EU perspective. The paper concludes that culture is ought to play a central role in devising the plan for the future of Europe. The paper suggests some recommendations that a new approach may be allowed with a change of mindset which should not practice the notion that what is not allowed is forbidden to what is not forbidden is allowed.
Journals
2020 EN
Arshad Ali · Athar Rashid · Ameer Sultan
The goal of this study is to use corpus-based methods for the critical discourse analysis of election manifestos. Five election manifestos from five political parties of Pakistan namely PPP, PMLN, PTI, JUI, and JI were used in the corpus compilation. These five Pakistani political parties are selected based on the popularity of these political parties in Pakistan. The election manifestos of the political parties were combined into a complete text file. The corpus was analyzed using ANTCONC 3.5.8 software. Van Dijk's Socio-Cognitive Model (1998) was used as a theoretical framework for this study. The results of the study indicate that the political parties use language to exert cognitive control on the public. The use of nouns, pronouns, and modal verbs allows these political parties to transform peoples' ideologies, create identities, and gain control over them.
Journals
2020 EN
Arshad Ali · Athar Rashid · Ameer Sultan
A bs tr ac t Pragmatics informs us about the relationship between the use of language and its context. This relationship is identified through person deixis. This research interprets the reference meaning of personal deixis and looks at the most frequent personal deixis used in the lyrics of male and female English singers. This research uses a corpus method for the analysis. The data was collected from online sources to compile corpora of songs sung by male and female singers. The research has adopted both qualitative and quantitative approaches for the analysis of corpora. The corpus was tagged using parts-ofspeech tagger (POS Tagger) and analyzed using AntConc software. The findings suggest that personal deixis are frequently used by both male and female singers.
Journals
2020 EN
Athar Rashid · Arshad Ali · Ameer Sultan
This work deals with the use of adjectives in the depiction of Kashmir in Pakistani and Indian Newspapers. This study investigates the differences between Pakistani and Indian media with reference to the representation of the issue of Kashmir. For this purpose, a corpus of newspaper editorial articles from both Pakistani and Indian newspapers was compiled. The data was tagged with help of AntTag and was analyzed using AntConc software to see the differences between Pakistani and Indian newspapers with reference to the representation of Kashmir. The findings suggest that there is a lot of differences between Pakistani and Indian media with reference to the use of adjectives for the depiction of Kashmir. The findings also suggest that the depiction of Kashmir in both newspapers is biased and subjective.
Journals
2020 EN
Ante Lončarić · Antun Jozinović · Tihomir Kovač
+3 more
Plant phenolics are organic compounds found abundantly in plants with potential health benefi ts. According to the Transparency Market Research, global demand for phenolics in 2018 was estimated at USD 873.7 million [Ameer et al., 2017]. One way of meeting the high market requirements is exploitation of fruit by-products to extract and isolate phenolic compounds. During the production of wine, grape jams and juices, huge amounts of the grape pomace (GP) are obtained as the by-product. In Europe, one way of exploiting grape pomace is for obtaining the enocyanins, i.e. food colorants E-163, which are anthocyanins isolated from red wine pomace. Current data on phenolics profi le of GP vary greatly between different studies [Teixeira et al., 2014]. It is found that GP contains fl avan-3-ols, fl avonols, anthocyanins, and phenolic acids [Yang et al., 2009]. Grape pomace consists mainly of grape skin which in red grape varieties is rich with anthocyanins, including malvidin, cyanidin, delphinidin, peonidin, petunidin, and their glucosides. So far, most of the researches on the utilization of grape pomace have been made with the pomace produced from processing of conventional grape varieties. However, the data on the phenolics profi le of varieties of fungus-resistant grapes (FRG) showed that FRG are rich in phenolic acids, dihydrochalcones, stilbenes,