Effects of Virtual Reality with Motor Imagery Techniques in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common neurological disorders, of insidious onset, with major motor symptomatology including bradykinesia, rest tremor, rigidity, and postural disturbances. Virtual reality (VR) and motor imagery (MI) are among the more innovative techniques for the rehabilitation of patients with PD which promote motor learning both through explicit and implicit processes. This study is unique in that it will examine the combined effects of VR and MI on motor function, balance and activities of daily living (ADLs) in patients with PD.

Effect of COVID-19 on the Working of a Tertiary Care Hospital.

Objective:  To evaluate the effect of COVID-19 on the working of a tertiary care hospital.

Study Design: Audit study.

Place And Duration Of Study:  Services Hospital, Lahore from 1st March to 30th June 2020.

Corrigendum: Mediated Biogenic Synthesis of Ag-Cu Nanocomposites: Potential Against Inhibition of Drug-Resistant Microbes.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2020.

Impact of COVID-19 on polio vaccination in Pakistan: a concise overview.

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted immunization programs around the globe, potentially increasing life-threatening vaccine-preventable diseases. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries, which are still struggling to eradicate wild poliovirus. All vaccination campaigns in Pakistan were suspended in April due to the COVID-19 outbreak, leading 40 million children to miss out on polio vaccination.

Assessment and prevalence of concomitant chemo-radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Background/aim: Quantification of oral mucositis that progresses during concomitant chemo-radiotherapy (CCRT) is essential for its management. It is important to determine the methods that are simple, reliable and beneficial in foreseeing mucositis at earlier stages of treatment.

Materials And Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 100 oral cancer patients receiving CCRT following the inclusion criteria.

A comprehensive integrated transcriptome and metabolome analyses to reveal key genes and essential metabolic pathways involved in CMS in kenaf.

Numbers of critical genes and pathways were found from the levels of transcriptome and metabolome, which were useful information for understanding of kenaf CMS mechanism. Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is a maternally inherited trait in higher plants that leads to the inability to produce or release functional pollen. However, there is lack of comprehensive studies to reveal the molecular basis of CMS occurrence in kenaf.

An initial examination of the psychometric properties of the Diagnostic Instrument for Social and Communication Disorders (DISCO-11) in a clinical sample of children with a diagnosis of Autism spectrum disorder.

Introduction: The diagnostic interview for social and communication disorders (DISCO - 11; Wing 2006), is a semi-structured, interview-based instrument used in the diagnosis of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This paper explores the psychometric properties of the DISCO-11 used in a specialist Paediatric clinical setting. Two key research questions were examined; (1) Does the factor structure of the DISCO-11 reflect the diagnostic and statistical manual 5th edition (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) dyad of impairment in ASD? (2) Is there evidence of diagnostic stability over time using the DISCO?

Methods: Review assessments of 65 children with ASD were carried out using standardised measures including the DISCO-11 and the autism diagnostic observation schedule.

Influence of Sputtering Temperature of TiO Deposited onto Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanosheet as Efficient Photoanodes in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

Renewable solar energy is the key target to reduce fossil fuel consumption, minimize global warming issues, and indirectly minimizes erratic weather patterns. Herein, the authors synthesized an ultrathin reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheet with ~47 nm via an improved Hummer's method. The TiO was deposited by RF sputtering onto an rGO nanosheet with a variation of temperature to enhance the photogenerated electron or charge carrier mobility transport for the photoanode component.

Erratum regarding missing Declaration of Competing Interest statements in previously published articles.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.jcot.

Prevalence of salt rich fast food consumption: A focus on physical activity and incidence of hypertension among female students of Saudi Arabia.

Young generations of Saudi Arabia have adapted a culture of eating fast food items, which are rich in salt. Excess salt intake is a threat to cardiovascular functioning and risk for various cardiovascular diseases. The study, therefore, determines the prevalence and consumption of fast food, the level of physical activity, and the occurrence of hypertension among female students.

Multistage antiplasmodial activity of hydroxyethylamine compounds, and evaluations.

Malaria, a global threat to the human population, remains a challenge partly due to the fast-growing drug-resistant strains of species. New therapeutics acting against the pathogenic asexual and sexual stages, including liver-stage malarial infection, have now attained more attention in achieving malaria eradication efforts. In this paper, two previously identified potent antiplasmodial hydroxyethylamine (HEA) compounds were investigated for their activity against the malaria parasite's multiple life stages.

Corona pandemic: awareness of health care providers in Pakistan.

Introduction: Corona pandemic has resulted in a high mortality rate among health care professionals. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and practices of health care providers during this pandemic in Punjab, Pakistan.

Methods: A web based cross sectional survey was conducted during 2 of April to 20 April 2020 targeting health care professionals working in Punjab, Pakistan.

Elevated expression of RUNX3 co-expressing with EZH2 in esophageal cancer patients from India.

Background: Runt related transcription factor3 (RUNX3) is considered as a tumor suppressor gene (TSG) that functions through the TGF-β dependent apoptosis. Promoter methylation of the CpG islands of RUNX3 and overexpression of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) has been suggested to downregulate RUNX3 in cancer.

Methods: Here, we studied the expression of RUNX3 and EZH2 in 58 esophageal tumors along with paired adjacent normal tissue.

Targeting RAS-converting enzyme 1 overcomes senescence and improves progeria-like phenotypes of ZMPSTE24 deficiency.

Several progeroid disorders are caused by deficiency in the endoprotease ZMPSTE24 which leads to accumulation of prelamin A at the nuclear envelope. ZMPSTE24 cleaves prelamin A twice: at the third carboxyl-terminal amino acid following farnesylation of a -CSIM motif; and 15 residues upstream to produce mature lamin A. The carboxyl-terminal cleavage can also be performed by RAS-converting enzyme 1 (RCE1) but little is known about the importance of this cleavage for the ability of prelamin A to cause disease.

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of the medicinal plant Sophora tonkinensis.

Sophora tonkinensis belongs to genus Sophora of the Fabaceae family. It is mainly distributed in the ridge and peak regions of limestone areas in western China and has high medicinal value and important ecological functions. Wild populations of S.

Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy of the serum samples for the diagnosis of Hepatitis C and prediction of the viral loads.

In this study, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) was used for the characterization of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in blood serum samples. For this purpose silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were used as substrates and SERS spectra were acquired from different clinically diagnosed HCV positive serum samples as well as from healthy individuals. Notably, same set of samples were also evaluated with Raman spectroscopy and SERS was found to be more helpful for the identification of the spectral features associated with the development of HCV infection.

TrustWalker: An Efficient Trust Assessment in Vehicular Internet of Things (VIoT) with Security Consideration.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a world of connected networks and modern technology devices, among them vehicular networks considered more challenging due to high speed and network dynamics. Future trends in IoT allow these inter networks to share information. Also, the previous security solutions to vehicular IoT (VIoT) much emphasize on privacy protection and security related issues using public keys infrastructure.

High transmission from 2D periodic plasmonic finite arrays with sub-20 nm gaps realized with Ga focused ion beam milling.

Fabricating plasmonic nanostructures with good optical performances often requires lengthy and challenging patterning processes that can hardly be transferred to unconventional substrates, such as optical fiber tips or curved surfaces. Here we investigate the use of a single Ga focused ion beam process to fabricate 2D arrays of gold nanoplatelets for nanophotonic applications. While observing that focused ion beam milling of crossing tapered grooves inherently produces gaps below 20 nm, we provide experimental and theoretical evidence for the spectral features of grooves terminating with a sharp air gap.

Valve-in-Valve for Degenerated Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Versus Valve-in-Valve for Degenerated Surgical Aortic Bioprostheses: A 3-Center Comparison of Hemodynamic and 1-Year Outcome.

Background As transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is expected to progress into younger patient populations, valve-in-TAVR (ViTAVR) may become a frequent consideration. Data on ViTAVR, however, are limited. This study investigated the outcome of ViTAVR in comparison to valve in surgical aortic valve replacement (ViSAVR), because ViSAVR is an established procedure for higher-risk patients requiring repeated aortic valve intervention.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Forecast of an Emerging Urgency in Pakistan.

Background/Aims Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global challenge due to little available knowledge and treatment protocols. Thus, there is a great need for collecting data related to COVID-19 from all around the world. Hence, we conducted this study, collecting daily data on COVID-19, to map the epidemiology outbreak and forecast its trajectory for May 2020.

Quantitative analysis of solid dosage forms of cefixime using Raman spectroscopy.

Quantification of antibiotics is of significant importance because of their use in the prevention and treatment of different diseases. Cefixime (CEF) is a cephalosporin antibiotic that is used against bacterial infections. In the present study, Raman spectroscopy has been applied for the identification and quantification of Raman spectral features of cefixime with different concentrations of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and excipients in solid dosage forms.

pH and alcohol induced structural transition in Ntf2 a nuclear transport factor of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Ntf2 is a nuclear envelope protein, which play a pivotal role in nucleocytoplasmic transport and mediates the nuclear import of RanGDP. It interacts with various nucleoporins along with Ran-GDP and part of a multicomponent system that assembles at the nuclear pore complex (NCP) during nuclear import. Here, we have described the biophysical characterization of Ntf2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

An Efficient Content-Based Image Retrieval System for the Diagnosis of Lung Diseases.

The main problem in content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems is the semantic gap which needs to be reduced for efficient retrieval. The common imaging signs (CISs) which appear in the patient's lung CT scan play a significant role in the identification of cancerous lung nodules and many other lung diseases. In this paper, we propose a new combination of descriptors for the effective retrieval of these imaging signs.

Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of different exo-polysaccharides produced by bacteria.

In this study, Raman spectroscopy is employed for the characterization and comparison of two different classes of exo-polysaccharides including glucans and fructans which are produced by different bacteria. For this purpose, nine samples are used including five samples of glucans and four of fructans. Raman spectral results of all these polysaccharides show clear differences among various glucans as well as fructans showing the potential of this technique to identify the differences within the same class of the compounds.