HITEC University

Special cavities like Figure-8 and Figure-9 are exploited in lasers to enable self-starting passive mode-locking using nonlinear amplifying loop mirrors (NALMs) or nonlinear optical loop mirrors (NOLMs). Their significance lies in enhanced nonlinearity and intracavity feedback, enabling stable, self-sustained mode-locked pulses suitable for ultrafast fiber lasers. In this paper, we propose the design of femtosecond pulse width passively mode-locked Holmium-doped fiber laser (HDFL) operating at 2090 nm and 12.5 MHz repetition rate based on Figure-9 (F9) cavity. The F9 cavity is implemented utilizing three different reflectors, including saturable absorber (SA), simple mirror (SM), and fiber loop mirror (FLM). The performance of the proposed laser is compared for different reflectors considering characteristics of slope efficiency (SE), pulse width, optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR), peak power, and pulse energy. SA, SM, and FLM configurations yield mode-locked pulses with SEs of 35.6%, 8%, and 8.8%, pulse widths of 357.2 fs, 294 fs, and 231 fs, OSNRs of 36.4 dB, 46 dB, and 50 dB, peak powers of 13.53 kW, 6.12 kW, and 9 kW, and pulse energies of 4.83 nJ, 2 nJ, and 2.1 nJ, respectively. The analysis reveals that the FLM-based reflector achieves the shortest pulse width and highest OSNR, while the SA-based reflector delivers the highest peak power and pulse energy, highlighting trade-offs between pulse quality and energy performance in the proposed laser design.

This study explores co-creation practices in a Pakistani dental college to foster quality learner-teacher relationships and promote student empowerment. Co-creation emphasizes shared decision-making between students and faculty, aiming to create a more inclusive and equitable learning environment. This study aims to identify the challenges, merits, and demerits faced during the co-creation process in a dental college, and how these factors influence learner-teacher relationships and student empowerment. Thematic analysis was carried out using NVivo software. Using a qualitative interventional phenomenological research design, interviews were conducted with eleven participants, including six dental undergraduate students and five dental college faculty members who actively participated in the co-creation process. The findings reveal that both teachers and students valued the cocreation process, recognizing its potential to enhance student engagement and motivation. However, challenges such as balancing creativity with academic rigor and managing power dynamics were identified. These findings highlight the importance of carefully managing co-creation initiatives to ensure their effectiveness in hierarchical educational settings like those found in Pakistan. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on co-creation in higher education by offering insights specific to the Pakistani context. It also provides a framework for new researchers to explore co-creation in similar cultural settings, emphasizing the need for contextual adaptation. By understanding the unique challenges and opportunities presented in this study, new researchers can design more effective co-creation initiatives that are culturally sensitive and pedagogically sound.

Background: Thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA) are life-threatening conditions that often remain asymptomatic until rupture, resulting in >90% mortality. Despite their clinical significance, comprehensive epidemiologic data on TAA mortality trends and demographic disparities remain limited. Objective: To investigate mortality trends and demographic disparities in TAA-related deaths among adults aged 75 or older from 1999 to 2023. Method: In this retrospective study death certificate data were retrieved from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database. Mortality for TAA using ICD-10 codes I71.1 and I71.2 from 1999-2023. Age-adjusted mortality rate (AAMR) per 100,000 were calculated. The data was stratified by sex, race, ethnicity and geographic locations. Using Joinpoint regression analysis, annual percentage changes (APC) in AAMR were calculated. Results: From 1999-2023, TAA accounted for 36,502 deaths with an overall declining trend (AAPC: -2.08%), with AAMR decreasing from 11.5 to 6.9 in 2023. However, mortality trends showed a significant inflection point, rates declined substantially from till 2016 (APC: -4.27%) but increase from 2016-2023 (APC: 3.42%, 95% CI: 1.08-5.82). Men demonstrated higher overall mortality than women (AAMR: 7.93 vs 7.16) despite both sexes showing declining trends (men: AAPC -1.93%, women: AAPC -2.57%, both p<0.001). Patients ≥85 years consistently had the highest mortality rates and mirrored the overall trend with declining mortality from 1999-2015 (APC: -3.16%) followed by increasing rates from 2015-2023 (APC: 3.17%). Racial disparities were evident, with Asians having the highest AAMR (7.91), followed by Whites (7.72), Blacks (7.26), and Hispanics (4.08). Non-Hispanic Blacks showed the greatest improvement (AAPC: -2.85%, p<0.001). Regionally, the Midwest had the highest mortality rates (8.22), followed by Northeast (7.76), West (7.51), and South (6.73). Most deaths occurred in medical facilities (59.1%, predominantly inpatient 44.6%), followed by home (26.9%) and nursing facilities (12.8%). Conclusion: While TAA mortality rates declined overall, the significant trend reversal after 2016 represents critical public health concern. Persistent demographic and geographic disparities, combined with recent mortality increases, highlight the urgent need for targeted interventions and improved clinical management strategies.

Objective: To assess the recession following Scaling and Root Planning (SRP), and to compare the efficacy of Metronidazole (MTZ), Minocycline (MC) gels, and their combination in terms of recession for the management of diabetic periodontitis patients. Study Design: Randomized Single Blind Clinical Study. (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT06027151) Place and Duration of the Study: Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Periodontology Department, Dental College, HITEC-IMS HIT Taxila Cantt, Pakistan, from Sep 22 to Aug 23. Methodology: In this clinical study, 380 diabetic chronic periodontitis patients were randomly grouped into 4 categories: scaling and root planing (SRP) alone (Group-I), SRP plus Metronidazole Gel (Group-II), SRP plus Minocycline Gel (Group-III), and SRP plus both Metronidazole and Minocycline Gels (Group-IV). The effectiveness of four treatment regimens was assessed by checking the difference in periodontal measurements, i.e., recession at baseline, after 15 days, and 45 days of the treatment, and the percentage was measured. Results: There was a notable reduction in recession after the treatment. The overall efficacy was most pronounced in Group-IV patients managed with the combination regimen, demonstrating an Improvement rate of 19%. Groups I, II, and III achieved similar efficacy rates of approximately 3.12%, 4.21%, and 4.40% respectively. Conclusion: Metronidazole gel has similar effectiveness to Minocycline gel, and their combination has exhibited synergistic effects in treating diabetic periodontitis patients and should be used as an adjunct to SRP for enhanced clinical outcomes.

The simulation, control and analysis of the systems based on Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) demand a precise model with accurately defined parameters. This study introduces a modified swarm intelligence optimization approach, the Modified Particle Swarm Optimization (MPSO) algorithm, to estimate the parameters of the fuel cell model. The MPSO algorithm is an enhanced version of the standard particle swarm optimization (SPSO) technique, designed to improve performance by incorporating stagnation and aggressive mutation strategies, supplementing in avoiding premature convergence and amplifying the exploitation. In this method, a mathematical framework is established to guide the parameter optimization process. An objective function, based on the sum of squared errors (SSE) between the experimental and estimated voltage values, is constructed to facilitate optimal parameter estimation. The MPSO algorithm is then employed to determine the parameters for Nedstack PS6 fuel cell stack. The results are compared with several well-known optimization algorithms from the literature and the standard PSO. The comparative analysis demonstrates that the proposed MPSO algorithm outperforms others in terms of accuracy, search efficiency, and convergence speed. The MPSO has achieved an SSE of 2.0655 with a lower standard deviation of 0.6137 for the thirty runs, comparatively.

BackgroundAntibiotic self-medication is an emerging global health challenge, contributing significantly to antimicrobial resistance development. Healthcare students' knowledge and practices are particularly crucial, given their future roles as medical professionals.ObjectivesThis investigation sought to assess antibiotic self-medication patterns among Pakistani healthcare students by examining their knowledge, attitudes, and practices, while identifying contributing factors and prevalence rates.MethodsA cross-sectional analysis was implemented at two Pakistani universities, involving 1340 undergraduate healthcare students selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected using a structured, validated questionnaire that evaluated sociodemographic factors as well as participants' understanding, perspectives, and behaviors regarding antibiotic self-medication. Knowledge and attitude measurements were classified as poor/negative or good/positive. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.ResultsThe study revealed that 68.8% of respondents practiced antibiotic self-medication. Despite 63.3% demonstrating adequate antibiotic knowledge, 53.4% exhibited negative self-medication attitudes. Knowledge distribution varied according to academic program and year of study. DPT students showed the highest self-medication frequency at 77.3%. Amoxicillin (56%) and Azithromycin (31.3%) emerged as predominant choices, primarily selected for convenience (77.5%) and respiratory symptoms (50.4%). Previous prescriptions significantly affected antibiotic selection. Analysis revealed a substantial correlation between knowledge levels and attitudes toward antibiotic usage (p < 0.001).ConclusionDespite adequate knowledge levels among participants, a concerning trend of negative attitudes toward antibiotic self-medication practices was observed. These findings emphasize the critical need for comprehensive educational interventions and strengthened regulatory frameworks to minimize inappropriate antibiotic use among healthcare students, which is essential for addressing the growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance, and to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use ensuring both patient safety and future professional performance.

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is becoming increasingly vulnerable to zero-day (ZD) cyberattacks, which often bypass conventional intrusion detection systems. To mitigate this challenge, this study proposes Zero-Day Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers approach (ZDBERTa), a zero-shot learning (ZSL)-based framework for ZD attack detection, evaluated on the CICIoV2024 dataset. Unlike conventional AI models, ZSL enables the classification of attack types not previously encountered during the training phase. Two dataset variants are formed: Variant 1, created through synthetic traffic generation using a mixture of pattern-based, crossover, and mutation techniques, and Variant 2, augmented with a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). To replicate realistic zero-day conditions, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks were omitted during training and introduced only at testing. The proposed ZDBERTa incorporates a Byte-Pair Encoding (BPE) tokenizer, a multi-layer transformer encoder, and a classification head for prediction, enabling the model to capture semantic patterns and identify previously unseen threats. The experimental results demonstrate that ZDBERTa achieves 86.677% accuracy on Variant 1, highlighting the complexity of zero-day detection, while performance significantly improves to 99.315% on Variant 2, underscoring the effectiveness of GAN-based augmentation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research to explore ZD detection within CICIoV2024, contributing a novel direction toward resilient IoV cybersecurity.

Abstract Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), formed by rolling graphene sheets into cylindrical shapes, are widely used in the development of next-generation lithium-ion batteries due to their outstanding thermal conductivity and large surface area, which enhance electrode performance, enable faster charging, and improve energy capacity. Inspired by such a fascinating application of CNTs, the present investigation examines the flow behavior of an aqueous-based nanofluid containing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), utilizing the well-established Yamada–Ota thermal conductivity model to assess the influence of nanoparticle radius and length. The proposed flow model novelty lies in incorporating Marangoni convection and temperature-dependent thermophysical properties. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into ordinary differential equations through appropriate similarity transformations. Numerical solutions are obtained using the boundary value problem solver bvp4c, with results illustrated through graphs and tables. The findings indicate that thermal conductivity reaches its peak at specific nanoparticle length L = 25 × 10 − 6 L=25\times {10}^{-6} and radius values R = 150 × 10 − 9 R=150\times {10}^{-9} . Optimizing the length-to-radius ratio of MWCNTs in nanofluids can greatly improve thermal conductivity in high-performance electronic cooling systems as extended nanotube lengths enhance heat transfer, while increased radii tend to reduce it. Additionally, Marangoni convection leads to a reduction in temperature distribution while enhancing the heat transfer rate. An increase in the variable temperature parameter results in a corresponding rise in the temperature profile. Validation of the proposed model is also included in this study.

The primary objective of this research is to study the entrepreneurial intentions of university students in Pakistan, focusing on the moderating role of entrepreneurial education within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). It is a comparative study of the public and private sector universities, namely Quaid-e-Azam University and Iqra University, to explore how attitudes toward behavior, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and entrepreneurial education influence their intentions to pursue entrepreneurship. It a quantitative research study, and the data were collected through surveys questionnaire from 245 final-year students, with a response rate of 62.43%. The hypothesis testing and empirical analysis were performed by SMART PLS and SPSS data analysis software. The findings reveal that attitudes and subjective norms significantly predict entrepreneurial intentions in both institutions, aligning with the TPB. However, entrepreneurial education and perceived behavioral control do not show a direct significant impact on entrepreneurial intentions. Interestingly, the interaction between entrepreneurial education and perceived behavioral control significantly influences entrepreneurial intentions at Quaid-e-Azam University but not at Iqra University, suggesting contextual differences in how education enhances perceived control. The study concludes that while entrepreneurial education alone may not be sufficient to foster entrepreneurial intentions, it can play a crucial role when combined with other factors, particularly in public sector universities. These insights provide valuable implications for policymakers and educators aiming to promote entrepreneurship among university students in developing countries.