Seasonal Variations in Potable Water Quality of Bahawalpur City: A Comprehensive Assessment of Major Ions, Organic Matter, and Disinfection Byproducts.

Industrialization and population explosion are ultimately affecting freshwater resources. Bahawalpur is a rapidly growing city in Pakistan where groundwater is the major source of drinking water. However, groundwater is also being contaminated due to various anthropogenic sources.

Applications of reflectance confocal microscopy in photoaging and aesthetic conditions: skin characterization and treatment monitoring.

Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is an in-vivo, non-invasive imaging modality that provides a high-resolution image of the epidermis and upper dermis. RCM has been utilized as a diagnostic aid for several inflammatory, infectious, and malignant skin conditions; however, its use for clinical and aesthetic skin purposes has not been well established. The purpose of this review is to describe the landscape of RCM utilization for the application of aesthetic skin conditions.

Improved Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Date Palm Microfiber-Reinforced PCL Biocomposites for Rigid Packaging.

To increase the use of agricultural residues, such as date palm fibers, for the sustainable reinforcement of biocomposites, this study investigated the incorporation of varying weight percentages of date palm microfibers (DPMF) ranging from 0 wt.% to 10 wt.% into polycaprolactone (PCL) matrix.

Growing Pains: Lessons Learned From Scaling Up an mSAT Programme.

Background: Medical Students as Teachers (mSAT) programmes are valuable for developing teaching skills among senior medical student teachers. As these programmes grow in scale, logistical and instructional challenges can arise. At Wayne State University School of Medicine, an mSAT programme expanded from a small elective to a compulsory course for all fourth-year medical student teachers (M4s).

Micro-vibration assisted dual-layer spiral microneedles to rapidly extract dermal interstitial fluid for minimally invasive detection of glucose.

Various hydrogels have been explored to create minimally invasive microneedles (MNs) to extract interstitial fluid (ISF). However, current methods are time-consuming and typically require 10-15 min to extract 3-5 mg of ISF. This study introduces two spiral-shaped swellable MN arrays: one made of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and the other incorporating a combination of PVA, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and hyaluronic acid (HA) for fast ISF extraction.

Cardioprotective Potential of d-limonene against Isoproterenol induced Myocardial Infarction in Rats.

d-limonene is a type of colorless liquid hydrocarbon that falls under the category of cyclic monoterpene. It is the component found in the oil extracted from fruit peels. Isoproterenol, a synthetic β-adrenergic agonist, was administered to rats to induce myocardial injury by increasing heart rate and myocardial oxygen demand, leading to ischemia and oxidative stress.

Targeting Tiam1 Enhances Hippocampal-Dependent Learning and Memory in the Adult Brain and Promotes NMDA Receptor-Mediated Synaptic Plasticity and Function.

Excitatory synapses and the actin-rich dendritic spines on which they reside are indispensable for information processing and storage in the brain. In the adult hippocampus, excitatory synapses must balance plasticity and stability to support learning and memory. However, the mechanisms governing this balance remain poorly understood.

Early Neonatal Epilepsy Caused by Homozygous Mutation in the SLC13A5 Gene: A Case Report From India.

Early neonatal seizures have myriad causes and variable prognoses. While acute symptomatic seizures are the most common events, a significant number of cases have a genetic background for such seizures, and a timely diagnosis can help in appropriate management and prognostication. We present a case of a neonate referred to our center with multi-focal clonic seizure starting from the first day of life.

Discovery of myosin light chain kinase gene variant in a patient with tetralogy of Fallot suffering aortic dissection: Implications for pathogenesis and the role of family and population screening.

Background: Thoracic aortic dissection (TAD) is an uncommon complication in patients with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). Information concerning risk factors for TAD in patients with TOF is very limited.

Methods: We report a case of Stanford type A TAD in a female patient with previously repaired TOF.

Family physician service quality and sustainability: a roadmap for Pakistan's healthcare sector.

Introduction: The number of family medicine consultants has increased during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, research on family medicine services specific to Pakistan remains limited. Therefore, this study aimed to explore family physician services in Pakistan.

Antibiotic resistance and serotype distribution of strains in Bangladesh over the period of 2014-2022: evidence from a nationwide hospital-based surveillance for cholera and other diarrheal diseases.

Unlabelled: The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence, antimicrobial resistance patterns, and risk factors linked to infections through a nationwide hospital-based diarrheal disease surveillance in Bangladesh. From May 2014 to May 2022, from a systematic sentinel surveillance of infections in over 10 hospitals across Bangladesh, stool specimens were collected from patients with acute watery diarrhea and tested for species by microbiological culture. The susceptibility to antibiotics was tested using the disk diffusion method.

Dementia knowledge of family caregivers in Indonesia: A cross-sectional survey study.

Background: As the population ages, the prevalence of dementia in Indonesia is rapidly increasing. In Indonesia, dementia care is primarily provided by informal or family caregivers. However, there is limited information about these caregivers' understanding of dementia and the factors that may influence their knowledge.

Key considerations when developing academic writing support for nursing and midwifery doctoral students: A scoping review.

Background And Aim: Academic writing is essential to achieve success for doctoral students and is often linked to their academic identity, which could provoke negative emotions leading to the risk of burnout and dropping out of their studies. Although academic writing is a substantial part of doctoral students' learning journey, there are no existing recommendations to guide the provision of effective support addressing nursing and midwifery doctoral students' needs in academic writing. This review aims to identify the key considerations that could facilitate education facilities and educators to provide effective support for academic writing among nursing and midwifery doctoral students, fostering a supportive environment for guidance and development.

Novel regimens and treatment strategies in neoadjuvant therapy for colorectal cancer: A systematic review.

Objective: The objective of this systematic review was to describe novel regimens and treatment strategies in neoadjuvant therapy for colorectal cancer (CRC). The aim was to summarize the current advancements in neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) for CRC, including the use of cytotoxic drugs, targeted treatments, and immunotherapy. The analysis aimed to provide insights into the potential benefits and drawbacks of these novel approaches and highlight the need for further research to optimize NACT use in CRC and improve patient outcomes.

Polarization insensitive non-interleaved frequency multiplexed dual-band Terahertz coding metasurface for independent control of reflected waves.

Independent control of electromagnetic (EM) waves by metasurfaces for multiple tasks are highly desired and is the recent hot topic of research. In this work we contribute a polarization insensitive frequency multiplexed 2-bit coding metasurface to control the Terahertz (THz) waves in the two operating bands independently. In this regard, as a first step a cascaded meta-atom composed of square rings and/or square metallic patches separated by two polyimide substrates is designed and optimized that provides sixteen independent distinct discrete phases in the reflection geometry.

Approaching Angstrom-Scale Resolution in Lithography Using Low-Molecular-Mass Resists (<500 Da).

Resists that enable high-throughput and high-resolution patterning are essential in driving the semiconductor technology forward. The ultimate patterning performance of a resist in lithography is limited because of the trade-off between resolution, line-width roughness, and sensitivity; improving one or two of these parameters typically leads to a loss in the third. As the patterned feature sizes approach angstrom scale, the trade-off between these three metrics becomes increasingly hard to resolve and calls for a fundamental rethinking of the resist chemistry.

Epidemiological studies of (Digenea: Trematoda) infecting freshwater catfish in the Aligarh region of Uttar Pradesh.

Fisheries and aquaculture are crucial for ensuring food security and are significant sources of income and social advancement in developing nations. Parasitic infections among fish in natural and artificial culture systems are detrimental to their health and growth. Epidemiological studies are a prerequisite to understanding the dynamics of the disease in a fish population.

Distributed Broadcast Control of Multi-Agent Systems Using Hierarchical Coordination.

Broadcast control (BC) is a bio-inspired coordination technique for a swarm of agents in which a single coordinator broadcasts an identical scalar signal to all performing agents without discrimination, and the agents make appropriate moves towards the agents' collective optimal state without communicating with one another. The BC technique aims to accomplish a globally assigned task for which BC utilizes a stochastic optimization algorithm to coordinate a group of agents. However, the challenge intensifies as the system becomes larger: it requires a larger number of agents, which protracts the converging time for a single coordinator-based BC model.

Enhancing telehealth services development in Pakistani healthcare sectors through examining various medical service quality characteristics.

Introduction: The telehealth service increased attention both during and after the Covid-19 outbreak. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of research in developing countries, including Pakistan. Hence, the objective of this study was to examine telehealth service quality dimensions to promote the telehealth behavior intention and sustainable growth of telehealth in Pakistan.

The privacy-explainability trade-off: unraveling the impacts of differential privacy and federated learning on attribution methods.

Since the advent of deep learning (DL), the field has witnessed a continuous stream of innovations. However, the translation of these advancements into practical applications has not kept pace, particularly in safety-critical domains where artificial intelligence (AI) must meet stringent regulatory and ethical standards. This is underscored by the ongoing research in eXplainable AI (XAI) and privacy-preserving machine learning (PPML), which seek to address some limitations associated with these opaque and data-intensive models.

A comprehensive scenario of heavy metals pollution in the rivers of Bangladesh during the last two decades.

For decades, rivers have been used for transporting pollutants loaded with heavy metals (HMs) causing severe pollution in downstream. The current study aimed to review the levels and sources of 10 HMs, viz. As, Pb, Cd, Cr, Fe, Mn, Cu, Co, Ni, and Zn in the surface water of the rivers in Bangladesh.

Impacts of designed vanillic acid-polymer-magnetic iron oxide nanocomposite on breast cancer cells.

The engineered nano-vehicle was constructed using magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIONs) and chitosan (CTS) to stabilize anticancer agent vanillic acid (VNA) which was loaded on CTS-coated MIONs nanocarrier, and more importantly, to achieve sustained VNA release and subsequent proper anticancer activity. The new thermally stable VNA-CTS- MIONs nanocomposite was spherical with a middle diameter of 6 nm and had a high drug loading of about 11.8 %.