Limb abnormalities are the second most frequent birth defects seen in infants, after congenital heart disease. Over the past 150 years, more than 50 classifications for limb malformations based on morphology and osseous anatomy have been presented. The goal of the current study is to investigate the genetic basis of congenital limb abnormalities in the Pakistani population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cone dystrophy is a heterogeneous hereditary retinal disorder with disease symptoms appearing in the late first or early second decades of life.
Methods: A consanguineous Pakistani family with three affected individuals underwent detailed clinical and genetic investigation.
Results: The proband, a 63-years old male, showed severely reduced day vision, a visual acuity of counting fingers (CF), color vision deficiency, high myopia and photophobia.
Purpose: This study aims to renew the management of viral epidemic conjunctivitis by introducing a one-time, low-concentration ocular surface povidone-iodine (LOS-pI) wash.
Methods: Among the 3,002 patients screened, 1,328 with acute conjunctivitis were categorized into two groups. Group A (664 patients) underwent a 1% betadine wash in addition to the standard treatment protocol (Eye Lubricant + Moxifloxacin 0.
Glaciers, which form due to the accumulation of snow, play a crucial role in providing freshwater resources, supporting river systems, and maintaining ecosystem stability. Pakistan is habitat to over 5000 glaciers, primarily located in the Hindukash, Himalaya, and Karakoram mountain ranges. Understanding the microbial communities thriving in these extreme environments becomes of utmost importance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Chromium (Cr) toxicity significantly threatens agricultural ecosystems worldwide, adversely affecting plant growth and development and reducing crop productivity. Trehalose, a non-reducing sugar has been identified as a mitigator of toxic effects induced by abiotic stressors such as drought, salinity, and heavy metals. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the influence of exogenously applied trehalose on maize plants exposed to Cr stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenus Thermus is the main focus of researcher among the thermophiles. Members of this genus are the inhabitants of both natural and artificial thermal environments. We performed phylogenomic analyses and comparative genomic studies to unravel the genomic diversity among the strains belonging to the genus Thermus in geographically different thermal springs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSkeletal dysplasias are a heterogeneous group of disorders presenting mild to lethal defects. Several factors, such as genetic, prenatal, and postnatal environmental may contribute to reduced growth. Fourteen families of Pakistani origin, presenting the syndromic form of short stature either in the autosomal recessive or autosomal dominant manner were clinically and genetically investigated to uncover the underlying genetic etiology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Pollut Res Int
March 2024
Electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) is a hazardous by-product of steel production. As global steel output increases, substantial amounts of EAFD are produced, which causes significant environmental issues. EAFD contains quantities of Fe and Zn, which could be reused as raw materials in the steelmaking process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaterials (Basel)
January 2024
A large alpine meadow in a seasonal permafrost zone exists in the west of Sichuan, which belongs to a part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. Due to the extreme climates and repeated freeze-thaw cycling, resulting in a diminishment in soil shear strength, disasters occur frequently. Plant roots increase the complexity of the soil freeze-thaw strength problem.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Advancements in nanoscience have led to a profound paradigm shift in the therapeutic applications of medicinally important natural drugs. The goal of this research is to develop a nano-natural product for efficient cancer treatment.
Methods And Results: For this purpose, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) were formulated, characterized, and loaded with caffeine to develop a targeted drug delivery system, i.
Computed tomography (CT) is used in a wide range of medical imaging diagnoses. However, the reconstruction of CT images from raw projection data is inherently complex and is subject to artifacts and noise, which compromises image quality and accuracy. In order to address these challenges, deep learning developments have the potential to improve the reconstruction of computed tomography images.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCOVID-19, pneumonia, and tuberculosis have had a significant effect on recent global health. Since 2019, COVID-19 has been a major factor underlying the increase in respiratory-related terminal illness. Early-stage interpretation and identification of these diseases from X-ray images is essential to aid medical specialists in diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Internet of Things (IoT) and network-enabled smart devices are crucial to the digitally interconnected society of the present day. However, the increased reliance on IoT devices increases their susceptibility to malicious activities within network traffic, posing significant challenges to cybersecurity. As a result, both system administrators and end users are negatively affected by these malevolent behaviours.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate change and shifts in land use/land cover (LULC) are critical factors affecting the environmental, societal, and health landscapes, notably influencing the spread of infectious diseases. This study delves into the intricate relationships between climate change, LULC alterations, and the prevalence of vector-borne and waterborne diseases in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, India, between 1985 and 2015. The research utilised Landsat-4, Landsat-5, and Landsat-8 data to generate LULC maps, applying the maximum likelihood algorithm to highlight significant transitions over the years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Bio Mater
August 2023
This paper reports on the production of electro-spun nanofibers from softwood Kraft lignin without the need for polymer blending and/or chemical modification. Commercially available softwood Kraft lignin was fractionated using acetone. The acetone-soluble lignin (AcSL) had an ash content of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiabetic retinopathy (DR) is the foremost cause of blindness in people with diabetes worldwide, and early diagnosis is essential for effective treatment. Unfortunately, the present DR screening method requires the skill of ophthalmologists and is time-consuming. In this study, we present an automated system for DR severity classification employing the fine-tuned Compact Convolutional Transformer (CCT) model to overcome these issues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancerous tumor cells divide uncontrollably, which results in either tumor or harm to the immune system of the body. Due to the destructive effects of chemotherapy, optimal medications are needed. Therefore, possible treatment methods should be controlled to maintain the constant/continuous dose for affecting the spreading of cancerous tumor cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurrently, the energy crisis is a hot topic for researchers because we are facing serious problems due to overpopulation and natural energy sources are vanishing day-by-day. To overcome the energy crisis, biofuel production from non-edible plant seeds is the best solution for the present era. In the present study, we select the non-edible seeds of for biofuel production from different areas of Pakistan with better oil production results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolymer based nanoparticles for drug delivery is an alternative approach to overcome drug resistance and drug toxicity especially for cutaneous leishmaniasis treatment. The present study shows synthesis and characterization of Miltefosine loaded chitosan nanoparticles (MFS-CNPs). The synthesized MFS-CNPs were experimented to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxicity and efficacy of the synthesized drug loaded nanoparticles by hemolysis assay and 3-(4, 5- dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyletetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Device-associated infections (DAIs) such as ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP), central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI), and catheter-related urinary tract infection (CAUTI) are principal contributors to health hazard and a major preventable threat to patient safety. Robust surveillance of DAI delineates infections, pathogens, resistograms, and facilitates antimicrobial therapy, infection-control, antimicrobial stewardship, and improvement in quality of care.
Methods: This prospective outcome surveillance study was conducted amongst 2067 ICU patients in a 1000-bedded teaching hospital.
The thermal stability and structural, microstructural and magnetic properties of (40 + x) Fe-28Cr-(26 - x) Co-3Mo-1Ti-2V magnets with x = 0, 2, 4 addition in cobalt content were investigated and presented. The magnetic alloys were synthesized by vacuum arc melting and casting technique in a controlled argon atmosphere. Magnetic properties in the alloys were convinced by single-step isothermal field treatment and subsequent aging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStrain NCCP-691 was isolated from a soil sample collected from an arid soil in Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Phenotypically, the cells were Gram-stain-negative, aerobic and motile rods. The organism was able to grow between 20-40 °C (optimum at 30-37 °C), at pH 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has put the world on lockdown for the first time in decades. This has wreaked havoc on the global economy, put additional burden on local and global public health resources, and, most importantly, jeopardised human health. CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, and the CRISPR associated (Cas) protein (CRISPR/Cas) was identified to have structures in E.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn general, the electro-spinning of lignin requires it to be functionalised and/or blended with synthetic or natural polymers. This paper reports on the use of solvent fractionated lignin-lignin blend to electro-spin BioChoice softwood Kraft lignin. The blend consisted of acetone-soluble and ethanol-soluble lignin in a binary solvent of acetone and DMSO.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF