Progress in coarse rice improvement for Pakistan's northern belt has been slowed by the narrow genetic base of adapted materials and by a habit of evaluating candidate lines one trait at a time. The present study takes a multivariate view: eight advanced coarse rice lines (Line-11, Line-20, Line-23, Line-24, Line-25, Line-26, Line-27 and Line-28) were grown in a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Agricultural Research Station, Baffa, during the 2024 kharif season, and eleven agronomic and yield attributes were recorded. Analysis of variance detected highly significant differences among genotypes for every trait (p < 0.01). Broad-sense heritability was high (≥ 0.80) for ten of the eleven traits, and genetic advance as a percentage of the mean exceeded 25% for plant height, flag leaf area, panicle length, tillers per plant, primary branches, secondary branches and 1000-grain weight indicating that additive gene action predominates and that direct phenotypic selection would be effective. Pearson correlation revealed that grain yield was most strongly associated with stem diameter (r = 0.72) and 1000-grain weight (r = 0.55), while tiller number carried a negative correlation (r = –0.61), consistent with the sink-limited nature of coarse rice under the site's cool nights. The first two principal components together explained 62.3% of the total variation; PC1 separated architecture from earliness, while PC2 separated grain-weight-driven yield from vegetative bulk. Ward's hierarchical clustering grouped the eight lines into three well-defined clusters. A weighted selection index that combined yield, grain weight, tiller number, branching and (as a penalty) stem-borer incidence ranked Line-23, Line-20 and Line-26 as the three best-adapted candidates for Hazara Division. Line-11 is retained as a donor for earliness and Line-25 as a donor for secondary-branch density. The results support a shift toward index-based, multi-trait selection in the on-going coarse rice programme for the region.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae remains an important bacterial cause of lower respiratory tract infection. Although molecular methods are becoming more available, many hospital microbiology laboratories in Iraq still depend on conventional phenotypic identification. So, this workflow is still not old practice only; it is part of the daily diagnostic work. Objective: To assess the practical diagnostic value of conventional phenotypic methods for identifying S. pneumoniae from respiratory specimens in a routine clinical microbiology laboratory in Baghdad, Iraq. Methods: This prospective, single-center, laboratory-based observational study was performed at the Microbiology Laboratories of Baghdad Medical City from February to May 2026. Seventy-four adult patients with suspected lower respiratory tract infection were enrolled. Respiratory specimens were assessed by direct Gram stain, cultured on 5% sheep blood agar under CO₂-enriched incubation, and screened for alpha-hemolytic colonies. Presumptive isolates were further examined by Gram stain from culture, optochin susceptibility, bile solubility, capsule staining, biochemical identification, and slide agglutination serotyping. Results: Of 74 respiratory specimens, 52 (70.3%) showed neutrophil-predominant inflammatory smears, and 34 (45.9%) showed Gram-positive diplococci on direct microscopy. Bacterial growth was obtained from 58 specimens (78.4%). Thirty-six isolates showed presumptive alpha-hemolytic streptococcal morphology, and 30 were finally identified as S. pneumoniae. The pneumococcal identification rate was 40.5% among all specimens and 83.3% among presumptive alpha-hemolytic isolates. Optochin susceptibility and bile solubility provided the clearest separation between confirmed pneumococci and non-confirmed alpha-hemolytic isolates (p < 0.001 for both), with perfect internal agreement (kappa = 1.00). Serotype 6 was the most frequent serotype, detected in 11 isolates (36.7%), followed by serotype 3 in 4 isolates (13.3%). Conclusion: Conventional phenotypic methods can still provide useful identification of S. pneumoniae in routine Iraqi microbiology laboratories when applied as a combined systematic workflow, not as isolated single tests. Still, because no molecular reference method was used, the findings should be interpreted as pragmatic diagnostic utility rather than full analytical diagnostic accuracy.

Food products sold on public streets may be contaminated and cause foodborne illnesses, posing a serious challenge to food safety and public health. To assess the microbiological quality of artisanal sausages sold on the streets of Kisangani, twenty sausage samples ten samples per vendor type were collected from two types of vendors: street vendors and food stalls. Total aerobic mesophilic flora (TAMF), fecal coliforms (FC), Staphylococcus aureus, and Salmonella spp. were the primary microorganisms tested for. The microbiological quality of the samples was assessed based on quality standards. Antibiotic susceptibility testing of potentially pathogenic strains to commonly used antibiotics in Kisangani was conducted to study antibiotic resistance. Microbiological analyses revealed that the sausages were contaminated with spoilage flora (FMAT), indicators of fecal contamination (fecal coliforms), as well as bacteria responsible for foodborne illnesses that are potentially pathogenic (S. aureus and Salmonella sp.). This contamination depends on processing hygiene and is likely the result of the meat-to-sausage processing stage, prior to sale during the packaging of the sausages into bags, during sale while the product is on display, and due to improper storage conditions. Staff handling and selling the sausages, the equipment used, and the environment could likely be sources of contamination due to poor hygiene. It was found that sausages collected from street vendors were more contaminated than those collected from grocery stores (p=0.02). In accordance with quality standards, 100% of the samples collected from street vendors were classified as unfit for consumption, compared to 33.3% of the samples from grocery stores that were classified as unfit. With the exception of their susceptibility to ceftriaxone, the S. aureus and Salmonella sp. strains isolated from sausages were all found to be resistant to the other antibiotics tested. Finally, strict hygiene measures must be reinforced in the sector to improve food safety and public health for the population that consumes these sausages.

English is becoming an increasingly important communication language. In terms of language learning, children in Indian government schools acquire English as a second language in addition to their mother tongue. The issues teachers encounter when teaching English as a second language are the subject of the research conducted in West Bengal. In this instance, the survey was conducted among West Bengal government school students who speak Bengali. This study’s main goal is to pinpoint the issues English language instructors encounter when instructing Bengali-speaking pupils. A questionnaire was used to collect data for this investigation. According to research, the most common barriers to English learning include students’ fear of speaking English, overwhelming impact of their mother tongue, a lack of confidence, and curricular constraints. In most situations, students are unable to practise English because their social and cultural backgrounds, as well as their home environment, are unsuitable for utilising the English language, causing them to lose interest in learning English. This study recommends modifying the curriculum to allow kids to read with pleasure and utilising technology to teach English through peer groups and narrative. According to the study, when teachers treat students like friends and help them use the language, students find it more acceptable and their anxiety levels decrease. It also shows that language labs and audio-visual instruction greatly improve students’ comprehension in rural schools.

Objective: To evaluate the association and discriminatory performance of diffusion MRI-derived apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values for ¹⁸F-FDOPA PET-defined metabolic activity in newly diagnosed glioma. Methods: This was a retrospective study of 87 treatment-naïve adults, who were initially evaluated for newly diagnosed or radiologically suspected glioma at Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Medical City, Baghdad from January 2026 to July 2026. Pretreatment diffusion MRI and ¹⁸F-FDOPA PET/CT results were evaluated. PET activity was determined a priori as TBRmax ≥1.60 as an approximated operational application of PET RANO 1.0. The mean ADC was compared across PET groups, associated with SUVmax and TBRmax and assessed by ROC analysis. WHO grade analyses were done in 80 individuals with histological confirmation. Results: Forty-six tumors were PET-active and 41 were PET-inactive. Mean ADC was lower in PET-active tumors (1.04 ± 0.24 vs 1.16 ± 0.23 ×10⁻³ mm²/s; p=0.029), whereas SUVmax was higher (3.73 ± 0.98 vs 2.06 ± 0.45; p<0.001). ADC correlated inversely with TBRmax (Spearman rho=−0.32; p=0.003) and SUVmax (rho=−0.29; p=0.006). The AUC was 0.62 (95% CI, 0.50–0.74). At ADC ≤1.20 ×10⁻³ mm²/s, sensitivity was 84.8%, specificity 41.5%, and accuracy 64.4%. Conclusion: ADC was moderately inversely correlated with 18F-FDOPA uptake but was poor in discriminative ability alone. The lower bound of the AUC confidence interval was near chance performance. The cutoff from this cohort is experimental and should not be used for guiding clinical choices without external confirmation.

Public infrastructure projects frequently experience schedule delays, cost escalation, rework, coordination failures, and performance uncertainty caused by fragmented construction planning, changing environmental conditions, and incomplete geotechnical information. This study proposes a risk-informed construction delivery model that integrates construction risk prediction, lifecycle performance governance, environmental exposure assessment, and subsurface uncertainty evaluation to improve the resilience of public infrastructure projects. The framework organizes project risk into four connected dimensions: construction execution risk, lifecycle infrastructure performance risk, environmental and drainage-related exposure risk, and geotechnical reliability risk. A weighted decision matrix evaluates project vulnerability using measurable indicators, including delay probability, coordination complexity, design revision frequency, soil variability, and environmental exposure. The study also introduces a Project Resilience Index to evaluate infrastructure delivery performance under changing environmental and geotechnical conditions during planning, design, and construction. The framework is suitable for conceptual, analytical, and simulation-based evaluation without requiring proprietary project datasets. Scenario-based evaluation indicates that increasing environmental exposure and subsurface uncertainty increase project vulnerability while reducing resilience throughout construction delivery. The proposed framework provides a unified project delivery approach connecting BIM-oriented coordination, engineering management, urban environmental systems, and foundation reliability for resilient public infrastructure management.

The aim of the study was to assess morbidity and mortality among low birth weight newborns in the Markala Health District. Patients and Methods : This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and quantitative study conducted in the Markala Health District. Inclusion Criteria: Newborns with a birth weight of less than 2,500 g who were born and/or received care at a healthcare facility in the Markala Health District during the data collection period were included. Exclusion Criteria: Newborns with a birth weight of less than 2,500 g who came from another health district were excluded. Results: The average weight of low birth weight newborns was 1,964.58 grammes, with a mode of 2,000. The standard deviation was 402.972. The sex ratio favoured females, at 1.07. Factors associated with morbidity and mortality included, amongst others: Infection (60 per cent), respiratory distress (30 per cent) and hypothermia (10 per cent). It should also be noted that 90 per cent of deaths among low birth weight (LBW) infants occurred in pregnancies with a CPN rate of less than three (03). One third (70 per cent) of these LBW infants were delivered vaginally. The mortality rate was 8.8 per cent. Conclusion: This study identified the factors associated with morbidity and mortality in low birth weight newborns, with the main determinants identified including infections, respiratory distress, low birth weight, low rates of antenatal care, and obstetric history (e.g. hypertension).