Publications by authors named "Abdul Ghafoor"

Chronic osteomyelitis of the skull base is a commonly reported pathology in existing scientific literature, but chronic osteomyelitis of the skull vault (COSV) is a rarely documented disease. We report the case of a 38 years old Afghan male with a presenting complaint of irregular swelling on the skull vault for six months. The patient had a history of head trauma one year back with a compound depressed fracture which had been surgically managed then.

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Brain abscess (BA) formation that may be due to due to Gram-positive bacteria commonly and less commonly due Gram-negative bacteria affects pediatric population. Most cases are secondary to the involvement of ear, nose, throat and sinuses (ENTS). We describe a rare case of a 14 year old patient presenting with generalized tonic clonic seizures for the last six months associated with fever, vomiting and headache.

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The MDM2-p53 pathway plays a pivotal role in regulating cell cycle and apoptosis, with its dysfunction contributing to approximately 50% of human malignancies. MDM2, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, targets the tumour suppressor p53 for degradation, thereby promoting uncontrolled cell growth in cancers. Inhibiting the MDM2-p53 interaction represents a promising therapeutic strategy for reactivating p53's tumour-suppressive functions.

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Based upon an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study aims to investigate the impact of financial services knowledge, familiarity with the use of artificial intelligence, government support, and user innovativeness on Fintech adoption from the perspective of university students. Furthermore, the study also aims to investigate the mediating role of user innovativeness in this relationship. A cross-sectional, survey-based method was used to collect data from 410 university students.

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Background And Aims: Continuous vegetable production under plastic tunnels faces challenges like soil degradation, increased soil-borne pathogens, and diminished eggplant yield. These factors collectively threaten the long-term sustainability of food security by diminishing the productivity and resilience of agricultural soils. This research examined the use of raw garlic stalk (RGS) waste and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) as a sustainable solution for these issues in eggplant monoculture.

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Background: Patients suffering from multidrug/rifampicin resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB) are treated for prolonged periods with a complex regimen comprised of relatively less effective and more toxic anti-TB drugs, consequently resulting in high incidence of adverse events (AEs).

Study Aim: The current study evaluates the incidence, types, management and predictors of AEs, and their impact on treatment outcomes in MDR/RR-TB patients receiving all oral treatment regimens.

Study Design: A total of 242 eligible MDR/RR-TB patients treated at two different study sites from June 2019 to December 2021 were included in this study.

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Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most significant crops and the backbone of food security worldwide. However, low wheat production remains a substantial concern in global agricultural systems.

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Article Synopsis
  • Pakistan has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis (TB) in the world, and a study was conducted to assess the prevalence of TB in adults and the risk of M. tuberculosis infection in children in Karachi, focusing on areas with and without prior active case-finding (ACF) activities.
  • The research involved surveys between March 2018 and May 2019, with almost 35,000 adults and over 1,500 children participating, revealing a higher prevalence of TB in areas with no prior ACF (421 cases per 100,000) compared to areas with prior ACF (279 cases per 100,000).
  • The findings indicated that ACF efforts in Korangi district likely reduced TB prevalence and transmission,
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Background: Despite the introduction of bedaquiline (Bdq) containing all-oral regimens for treating patients with rifampicin resistant/multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB) in 2019, data on its effectiveness in Pakistan, which has the fifth highest MDR-TB burden, is lacking. This study evaluates treatment outcomes and identifies factors associated with unsuccessful outcomes among MDR/RR-TB patients treated with an all-oral longer treatment regimen (LTR).

Methods: This retrospective record review included all microbiologically confirmed pulmonary MDR/RR-TB patients treated with an all-oral LTR between August 2019 and February 2021 across nine PMDT centres in Pakistan.

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This paper demonstrates, a numerical method to solve the one and two dimensional Burgers' equation involving time fractional Atangana-Baleanu Caputo derivative with a non-singular kernel. The numerical stratagem consists of a quadrature rule for time fractional derivative along with Haar wavelet (HW) approximations of one and two dimensional problems. The key feature of the scheme is to reduce fractional problems to the set of linear equations via collocation procedure.

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This paper aims to demonstrate a numerical strategy via finite difference formulations for time fractional reaction-diffusion models which are ubiquitous in chemical and biological phenomena. The time-fractional derivative is considered in the Caputo sense for both linear and nonlinear problems. First, the Caputo derivative is replaced with a quadrature formula, then an implicit method is used for the remaining part.

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Buckwheat is a globally recognized, nutritionally rich crop with robust adaptability, serving as a multi-purpose plant for its health benefits. Achieving precise and mechanized plot seed harvesting is a critical step in obtaining accurate results in breeding experiments. However, plot breeding requires no seed retention, no mixing, and ensures no accumulation of seed in the threshing unit.

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People commonly and increasingly rely on the internet to search for health information, including those related to endometriosis-associated dyspareunia. Yet the content of such websites may be of variable accuracy and quality. This review aims to evaluate the quality, readability, and suitability of web-based resources on endometriosis-associated dyspareunia for patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Glycolytic metabolites, like 3-phosphoglycerate (3-PGA), are not just for energy but can regulate cell fate by influencing p53 activity related to apoptosis.
  • - Low 3-PGA levels shift phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) function from serine synthesis to activating p53, promoting apoptosis through interactions with proteins like AXIN and HIPK2.
  • - PHGDH mutations can either hinder or enhance p53 activation and apoptosis in liver cancer cells, with caloric restriction providing a potential method to control cancer growth by lowering glucose levels and affecting PHGDH activity.
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Low-resource languages are gaining much-needed attention with the advent of deep learning models and pre-trained word embedding. Though spoken by more than 230 million people worldwide, Urdu is one such low-resource language that has recently gained popularity online and is attracting a lot of attention and support from the research community. One challenge faced by such resource-constrained languages is the scarcity of publicly available large-scale datasets for conducting any meaningful study.

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Increasing population and augmented demand for food have put burden on water resources, crops, and livestock for future sustainability. Pakistan is facing difficulties of water shortage, low crops and livestock productivity, meagre livelihood, and intensive food insecurity. Hence, this study was conducted in Pakistan to explore the nexus of climate change, irrigation water, agriculture, rural livelihoods, and food security.

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Financial inclusion enhances economic growth by facilitating businesses and individuals to access financial resources. Financial inclusion also contributes to environmental sustainability; however, very few studies have explored the link between financial inclusion and the environment. Also, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on environmental performance remains unexplored.

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This paper investigates the dynamic relationships between four key instruments related to clean and dirty energy assets: WTI futures, United States Oil Fund (USO), EnergySelect Sector SPDR Fund (XLE), and iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN). Econometric tests confirm a long-term relationship between all variables, with causality tests showing that clean energy ETF has a causal influence on most instruments. However, the causal patterns are not definitively interpretable in an economic framework.

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Obstructive sleep apnoea is a substantial clinical and public health problem because it contributes to harmful effects on quality of life, daytime symptoms, road traffic incidents, and cardiometabolic disease. Increasingly, obstructive sleep apnoea is recognised as a heterogeneous disease, and patients have varied susceptibility to long term complications and different responses to treatment. This narrative review summarises the current knowledge of precision medicine in obstructive sleep apnoea, particularly the role of symptom clusters, polysomnogram phenotypes, physiological endotypes, and circulating biomarkers in defining subtypes.

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Giloy (Tinospora cordifolia) is an important Ayurvedic medication. Numerous illnesses, including general senility, fever, diabetes, dyspepsia, urinary infections, jaundice and skin conditions are treated with it. The biological description and chemical components of cordifolia are critically reviewed in this essay, with a focus on its ayurvedic properties and pharmaceutical applications.

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Acyl-amide is extensively used as functional group and is a superior contender for the design of MOFs with the guest accessible functional organic sites. A novel acyl-amide-containing tetracarboxylate ligand, bis(3,5-dicarboxy-pheny1)terephthalamide, has been successfully synthesized. The HL linker has some fascinating attributes as follows: (i) four carboxylate moieties as the coordination sites confirm affluent coordination approaches to figure a diversity of structure; (ii) two acyl-amide groups as the guest interaction sites can engender guest molecules integrated into the MOF networks through H-bonding interfaces and have a possibility to act as functional organic sites for the condensation reaction.

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The global orange industry constantly faces new technical challenges to meet consumer demands for quality fruits. Instead of traditional subjective fruit quality assessment methods, the interest in the horticulture industry has increased in objective, quantitative, and non-destructive assessment methods. Oranges have a thick peel which makes their non-destructive quality assessment challenging.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study reveals that low glucose levels activate a specific version of AMPK, a protein that helps regulate energy metabolism, through the enzyme aldolase, which isn't bound to fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP).
  • Researchers identified a small molecule called aldometanib that blocks FBP from binding to aldolase, leading to the activation of lysosomal AMPK and inducing beneficial metabolic effects in rodents.
  • Aldometanib demonstrated the ability to lower glucose levels without causing hypoglycemia, improve conditions like fatty liver disease, and even extend lifespan and healthspan in laboratory models, suggesting its potential as a treatment for metabolic disorders in humans.
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To compare the effectiveness of second line injectables containing shorter (duration 9-12 months) and longer treatment regimens (LTR, duration ≥ 20 months) among multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients with no documented resistance and history of treatment with any second-line anti-TB drug (SLD) for ≥ 1 month. This was an observational cohort study of MDR-TB patients treated at eight PMDT units in Pakistan. Patients' data from baseline until treatment outcomes were collected from Electronic Nominal Recording and Reporting System.

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This study aims to examine the asymmetric impact of financial institutions and information and communication technologies (ICT) trade on renewable energy demand in BRICS economies by using the cross-sectionally augmented nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model. The asymmetric estimates of the financial institutions index confirm that a positive shock increases renewable energy consumption, and a negative shock reduces renewable energy consumption in BRICS economies. Similarly, the long-run asymmetric estimates attached to ICT trade are positively significant, confirming that a positive shock increases renewable energy consumption and a negative shock hurts renewable energy consumption.

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