Background: Citrus is among the cold temperature (freezing) susceptible plants. The performance of storage and breeding of horticultural crops is mainly dependent on the correlation among the traits. Objectives: The present study was conducted to identify the physiological and biochemical traits of some citrus cultivars with the greatest influence on stress tolerance and determine the direct and indirect effects of these traits on the median Lethal Time (LT50) using integrated pathway analysis (i. e., Stepwise Regression and causality coefficient). Methods: Pathway analysis (i. e., Stepwise Regression and causality coefficient) based on additive models, which is among the robust statistical methods to describe the relationship among the traits, was used to investigate the physiological and biochemical charac, teristics of four citrus cultivars (i. e., Japanese mandarin, Thomson orange, Ruby Star grapefruit, and Lisbon lemon) at temperature levels (-8,-4, and +4°, C) in a completely randomized design with three replications in 2021. Results: The results showed that Japanese mandarin and Thomson orange cultivars had the highest stress tolerance (LT50). The results of the correlation coefficient demonstrated that the highest positive and significant correlations belonged to the LT50 with total flavonoid (0. 443**), chlorophyll a with chlorophyll b (0. 613**), carotenoid with chlorophyll a (0. 929**), chlorophyll b (0. 573**), and total chlorophyll (0. 849**), relative moisture content with malondialdehyde (0. 559**), glycine-betaine with catalase (0. 919**), hydrogen peroxide with total flavonoid (0. 405**), and catalase (0. 611**). Conclusions: The results of Stepwise Regression for all traits indicated the importance and critical role of total flavonoid, proline, and LT50 characteristics.

Inclusion of steel fibers to concrete progresses the flexural and tensile capacities of concrete. Consequently the shear capacity of concrete flexural members improve. Predicting the shear capacity of concrete beams containing steel fiber is an important issue not only in structural design but also to retrofitting of existing structures. Since there are several variables to assess the shear capacity of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams, presenting a suitable equation is a complicated task. The aim of the present paper is to evaluate an empirical formulae based Stepwise Regression (SR) method for shear capacity of SFRC beams. A series of reliable experimental data has been provided from literatures for model development. The obtained results based SR model were compared with experimental data in training and testing state. A practical formulae based SR method has been developed for shear capacity assessment of SFRC beams. Besides, several equations based models also presented to compare with the equation based SR model. The comparison showed the SR formulae gives the most exact accuracy than others in terms of shear capacity assessment of SFRC beams.

Hepatitis-related liver diseases are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among people with HIV/ AIDS taking highly active antiretroviral therapy due to shared transmission routes. An estimated 2–4 million HIV-infected persons have chronic HBV co-infection, and 4–5 million have HCV co-infection worldwide and 14,000 new infections each day. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated factors of HBV and HCV co-infection in HIV-positive patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 235 HIV/ AIDS patients seeking medical care at special clinics of two public hospitals in Lahore, Pakistan, from February 2018 to May 2018. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of HIV/ AIDS patients after obtaining their written informed consent. Chi-square, Fisher's exact, and two independent sample t-tests as appropriate were used to find the association between risk factors and HBV, HCV co-infection with HIV. Further, a forward Stepwise logistic Regression model was used to evaluate the predictors of HBV and HCV co-infection with HIV. P-value < 0.05 was regarded as significant. Of 235 HIV-positive patients, 9\% were co-infected with HBV, 41 were HCV co-infected, and 6\% had HBV-HCV triple infection. The highest prevalence of HBV (55\%), HCV co-infection (70\%), and HBV-HCV triple infection (85\%) were observed in intravenous drug users followed by heterosexual routes. Male, hypertensive, alcohol consumers, and smokers were statistically significantly associated with HBV co-infection $(P-value < 0.05)$. The factors include being male, never married, having $< 1$ year of HIV diagnosis, having $< 200$ CD4 counts (cell/mm3), presence of physical disability, having been infected through sexual routes, injecting drug user, alcohol consumer, and smoker were statistically significantly associated with HCV co-infection $(P-value < 0.05)$. Whereas the factors; heterosexual transmission, intravenous drug use, alcohol use, smoking, and presence of physical disability were statistically significantly associated with HBV, HCV triple infection $(P < 0.05)$. The adjusted odds ratio obtained by fitted logistic Regression model showed that HIV transmission routes (both hetero and homo) and never married had lesser odds of HCV co-infection whereas the person with HIV transmission through intravenous drug use, who smoke and aged more than 30 years, had greater odds of HCV co-infection. Co-infection with hepatitis B and C virus is common among this studied sample of HIV-infected patients. The study's finding reaffirms the need for routine baseline screening for this marker and as there is more chance of co-infection with these hepatitis viruses due to enhanced immunodeficiency by HIV and shared routes of transmission. It highlights the need for timely initiation of HAART. Furthermore, those found to be negative should be immunized with HBV and HCV vaccines to improve.

In the current study two methods are evaluated for predicting the compressive strength of concrete containing metakaolin. Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model and Stepwise Regression (SR) model are developed as a reliable modeling method for simulating and predicting the compressive strength of concrete containing metakaolin at the different ages. The required data in training and testing state obtained from a reliable data base. Then, a comparison has been made between proposed ANFIS model and SR model to have an idea about the predictive power of these methods.